Page 24 of Guarded By a Monster

I felt Chambers’ frown at my back. “If you change your mind about police protection…”

I turned and gave him a smile faker than the Gucci bags being sold on the corner. “You’ll be the first to know.”

sixteen

“Your mates never doanything in half measure, do they?”

Bull, Superhuman Security’s resident tech expert, never looked up from his laptop screen as his fingers flew over the keys.

“What do you mean?” My fists clenched at my sides. I needed to get to her house. To make sure she was safe.

“The dude you sliced and diced works for Silver Fang, one of the crime organizations in the city.”

“There is more than one?” Kragen sat forward and I could see his claws marking the table. I winced. Kendal didn’t like us marking up the furniture.

Bull made a face. “Unfortunately. There are six known groups working in the area. Silver Fang is bad, but it could have been worse. She could’ve stumbled into the Red Syndicate’s viper nest.”

“Why so many? Damruck doesn’t seem large enough to support one crime organization, much less six.”

I dimly registered Kragen’s voice and Bull’s response as I seethed with barely constrained rage.

“It’s the ley lines. Damruck sits on top of the intersection of two ley lines, which gives it more power than its size warrants. It attracts all sorts of rotten apples. Mostly human, but Society too.”

I growled. The idea that Jade was in danger from a papercut made my blood boil. To hear that she might be the target of an entire criminal enterprise made me want to submit to the fog and kill everyone in sight.

Drym punched my bicep. “Look at him. She’s definitely his mate.”

I snapped my teeth and ripped hair from his forearm.

“No need to get violent.” He rubbed his arm and backed away.

Kragen shook his head. “Thurl, go get her. She’ll stay with you until we can ensure her safety.”

Bull whistled, and everyone’s head swung to him. “The police just logged her witness statement. She’s identified the leader himself as the man she saw committing murder.” He glanced up from his screen to pin me with a stare. “Kragen’s right. She’ll be safest with you.”

I wanted to run, but stayed mindful of the floor. I could dig my claws into the dirt outside without upsetting Kendal.

seventeen

The phone rang whileI struggled with my front door key. I sighed and rolled my eyes as Gwen Stefani spelled bananas and swiped the screen.

“Hi Nanna.”

“What’s this I hear about you being caught up in police business? Did you ask for a lawyer? Don’t ever talk to the police without a lawyer.” I heard general noises of agreement from the other ladies in her poker club, along with one shouted “ACAB!” from someone I couldn’t identify.

“I don’t need a lawyer. I witnessed a murder. How do you know about it?”

“Heard it on the police scanner.”

“Of course you did.”

“Don’t sass me! I shouldn’t have had to hear about it on the police scanner. You should have called me.”

Tears welled in my eyes. Hearing her voice triggered the meltdown I’d put off for too long. “I haven’t had time. It’s been kind of crazy.”

She made a sound like air leaking from a balloon. “Crazy is my specialty.”

It actually was. Nanna came of age in the sixties and embraced the free love, commune lifestyle before making a hard left in the eighties and becoming a corporate power broker. In the nineties, she made another U-turn and went new age, talking me into going with her to Rainbow Family gatherings and Spiral ceremonies. She was a five-foot nothing bulldozer and it didn’t matter if she was running you over with love or kicking your ass; you were guaranteed to feel it.

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