Page 22 of Guarded By a Monster

He put his hand on my knee. “She will.”

“Thank you, but I’m not entirely confident.”

We sat in silence and listened to the sound of the chain and the birds. He shot to his feet and off the porch, turning when he reached the lawn.

“She will.” His tongue swiped at his muzzle. “You’re a protector, Thurl. She would be a fool to turn away from you.”

My heart clenched in my chest as I watched him walk away.

I knew Quin wouldn’t come to me to chase his demons at night anymore. I made a mental note to ask Roul to look in on him.

Roul was difficult and became more so with each day that passed without Victoria. The witch who helped us escape had followed BioSynth after our last encounter with them and took another piece of his soul with her. I didn’t think she knew the anguish he felt, not knowing where she was or how she fared.

I couldn’t imagine being separated from Jade. I had a greater appreciation for his pain, and my heart broke for him. We would find them. We would get her back. It needed to be soon, before we lost him to madness forever.

I went inside and checked my phone before heading to bed. Kragen had sent me a text.

Bull found out who Jade’s attacker was and who he worked for. He’ll come to the commons at noon.

It was barely eight in the morning, but I couldn’t risk falling asleep and not waking to an alarm. I bypassed my stairs and went out the front, following the path to the structure we used as a gathering place. I settled on the floor, just beyond the door.

There was little chance I’d sleep through my brothers tripping over me when they arrived.

fifteen

Sophia had returned tobeing a lump in the corner. It hurt my heart. Something was clearly going on with her, but she didn’t trust me enough to talk to me about it. She even went to the cafeteria for lunch with the rest of the kids rather than stay with me.

I sighed as I stared at the lunch I’d packed for a hurting kid. If I ate it by myself, I’d be a raging, sugar fueled pterodactyl by the last bell. I needed protein, but the idea of trudging to the cafeteria and screaming my choices to the lunch ladies over the cacophony of more than one hundred elementary school children was unappealing.

I rummaged through my desk drawers, hoping for something halfway decent, but all I found was Halloween candy I’d confiscated the year before and a granola bar that rattled in its package like it had end-stage emphysema.

I eyed my options and tried to decide what was the least of the evils spread in a sad banquet before me. My phone buzzed and I dove for it. It probably wasn’t a notification that I’d won a surprise lunch from my favorite deli, delivered to the office, but a girl could hope.

It wasn’t, but it was something almost as good. Detective Chambers requested I visit the station to look through mugshots. He said I could come in anytime, but for the first time in forever, the thought of teaching the second half of the day dragged me down like a kraken.

I idly wondered if kraken were real. Maybe I’d ask Thurl later.

I gathered my things and booked it to the front office, where the secretary didn’t bother to hide her wince when I told her I needed to leave for the day. She brightened when I said that I’d arranged a last-minute substitute to take my kids for the afternoon.

The latest Heaving Bosoms podcast blasted through the speakers when I cranked my car. I leaned my head against the headrest and inhaled until my lungs hurt before I steeled my spine and hit the gas. I smiled along as Melody and Sabrina cackled their way through recapping their latest read.

I must not have paused it fast enough when I pulled through Big Muddy’s for a burger, since the checkout girl smirked at me. It wasn’t the first time the Heaving Bosom’s ladies had educated a random stranger about some aspect of smut courtesy of my car audio.

They were sharing their lady loves when I pulled into the police station parking lot. I grabbed my bag and made my way inside. I would have felt better with Thurl holding my hand. I smiled, thinking about the different reactions I would get walking into the police station with a seven foot, heavily muscled monster that looked straight out of an original Grimm fairy tale.

I bet that tough-looking policeman behind the reception desk would pee himself.

I found detective Chambers after being directed to the third floor. He smiled and shook my hand.

“Thank you for coming in, Ms. Massey. This shouldn’t take long.”

He waved me into a conference room chair and handed me a tablet with six criminals’ worst portraits ever displayed on the screen.

“If you tap the pictures, they’ll enlarge. Just tap again to go back to the grid. You can swipe left and right to go through more. I’ve narrowed the field a bit, so if you reach the end and don’t recognize anyone, let me know.”

“Okay.”

“There’s coffee that I can’t recommend unless you need to remove paint from something, and a vending machine down the hall. I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

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