Page 67 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Stratton nodded. “Yes, but it was canceled. I booked another. It was delayed before being canceled. This continued. I decided to drive here only to have nothing but car issues on a vehicle that was brand new.”

Brett’s brow creased. “That sounds a lot like something didn’t want you back here.”

“I caught on to that,” said Stratton, his thoughts going to the woman with the green eyes. “There was someone here that I was worried about. Someone I’d only just met and hadn’t even caught her name. None of that mattered. Ihadto know if she was all right.”

“And was she?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” returned Stratton, his heart aching for her. “For weeks I tried to get back here. No matter what I did, nothing worked. Something always seemed to go wrong. By that time Drest was back in Chicago and tried to get here as well. Same thing happened to him. Bodies started dropping around the city. The murders were like what’s happening here now. The same type of killings for which we’d originally left Chicago on the trail of the assailants. That had to take precedence.”

Brett stared at him for a few long moments. “If you can give me any details about the woman from then, I can try to help you piece it together. Maybe together we can figure out who she was and if she’s all right.”

Stratton almost took the man up on the offer but paused, his thoughts going quickly to his upcoming lunch date with Astria. “This is going to sound very strange considering just how long I spent trying to get back here all those years ago, but I don’t feel compelled to hunt for her anymore.”

“Because deep down you think she didn’t survive whatever happened?” asked Brett, his voice tight.

Was that it?

Stratton focused on the feeling and shook his head. “No. I just…I don’t know. No longer feel like I have to try to figure out who she is and where she’s at.”

Brett snorted. “Maybe you’ve already found her.”

“I think I’d know if I had,” supplied Stratton with a grin, his thoughts returning once again to Astria. He couldn’t shake the memory of how his body had responded to her in the coffee shop. Of how his brain had basically shut off and handed control off to his groin. He thought of the fierce need he’d felt to protect her when something of Dark Fae origin had ripped his hands from hers. The last time he could recall feeling anything that guttural had been eighteen years ago—when he’d met the purple-haired woman with the dog and the big green eyes.

Eyes that were a hell of a lot like Astria’s.

He tensed.

No.

She couldn’t be the same woman, could she?

It took him a second to realize Brett was speaking to him. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I asked, what, exactly, happened when you were here eighteen years ago?” asked Brett.

Stratton took a deep breath. “The better question would be, what didn’t happen?”

“I’m not following,” returned Brett.

“Trust me when I say, even I don’t know what happened back then,” said Stratton, meaning every word of it. “One second I’m on campus with my cousin, whom I normally work with on Nightshade matters, on the trail of what we’d been hunting and the next I know, I’m at that old funeral home on Gallows Lane as all hell was literally breaking loose.”

Brett’s brows met. “That place is creepy for sure, but it’s never had anything major happen at it.”

Stratton could help but laugh. “If that were only true.”

Brett grunted. “What went down?”

“I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know what happened. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Stratton. “There were so many different things happening at once. Things that would never normally be together. Demons, crazed zealots who were anything but human, monsters, shadow people, vampires, gargoyles, Fae, and I’m pretty sure I caught sight of a shifter or two in the mix. Not to mention I’m sure I sensed Dark Fae in the area too.”

“And which of those were you hunting to start with?” asked Brett. “Any?”

With a hesitant nod, Stratton continued. “Yes. The monsters. Drest, my cousin, and I were hunting them.”

“What kind of monsters?” asked Brett.

Stratton leveled his gaze on the man. “You know the story of Frankenstein, right?”

Brett snorted. “Everyone does. Do you expect me to believe a giant green monster was wandering around Grimm Cove and no one remembers seeing it?”

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