Page 69 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

“Yes. I still do,” said Stratton. “He’s not behind what’s happening here, and he wasn’t behind what happened in Grimm Cove eighteen years ago. Henry Frankenstein was.”

“Who the hell is Henry?” asked Brett.

“Distant relative of Victor’s.” Stratton let out a long breath. “Like Victor, he has a small amount of Fae in him. Henry has always been against the rules and restrictions the Nightshade Council put upon the family.”

“Which are what?” asked Brett.

“They’re not allowed to possess technologies that could be used in the making of monsters,” said Stratton. “None of them are allowed to go into the field of science or medicine. There are more sanctions, like having to submit to random searches of their premises and so on, but you get the idea.”

“Seems harsh to do for so many centuries and so many generations of the family,” said Brett, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the desk. He folded his hands and rested his chin on them. “The sins of the father type of thing.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” replied Stratton. “I don’t know the council’s thought process behind it, but I can tell you more than one Frankenstein has tried to dabble in resurrections and the creations of monsters. Nile Frankenstein is one example—that ended horribly. He’s at a facility for the criminally insane. One that caters to supernaturals. Henry is there as well. He’s the newest one to try it all—at least I think he is. Who knows, another may have started. I do know that Henry made a monster army thirty-six years ago and those were the ones that showed up here in Grimm Cove eighteen years back.”

Brett sat up straight. “Are they back again?”

“I thought they were all dead, that my cousin is on a wild-goose chase as he hunts the world for traces of them, hoping they lead him to his mate and child. But seeing those autopsy reports makes me think I was wrong,” said Stratton. “My gut says this has something to do with Frankenstein’s monsters. I don’t understand why they’d be back here in Grimm Cove though. We’d theorized that they were tracking Henry’s sister and his daughter, but when we were here eighteen years back, they weren’t here. Just the monsters and all the other things that came out of the woodwork in the old funeral home.”

“Question.” Brett watched him. “What made you want to come here and work for my department? And did you have issues orchestrating getting here like last time?”

Stratton glanced at the wall, thinking back to three years prior. “I found myself in an alley, facing off against one of the monsters. This one had a lot of werewolf in him, making him extra formidable.”

Brett’s eyes widened.

“He, unlike a lot of the others, had the ability to speak in full sentences and was more cunning, less mindless,” continued Stratton. “He taunted me, telling me that he’d been sent for me. That Henry’s hate of me would never end. That once he was done with me, he’d track what I cared most about. What should not have been allowed to be to start with. He’d end it and then Henry would rejoice. That tipped me off that Henry is able to communicate somehow with his creations even from within the confines of a cell. A fact I didn’t know before. And it caused a visceral reaction in me. I was so angry that I lost my focus, giving it the opportunity to escape. But it left behind a piece of evidence, a tattered and torn old T-shirt. One that had Grimm Cove College’s logo on it. I think it had been using it to track someone’s scent.”

“It’s been a university for close to twenty years now,” said Brett.

“I know,” answered Stratton. “Everything in me said it was headed here. I followed. Fate let me. I killed it just outside the city limits here and had the strongest urge to stay. To remain here. I don’t know why. I just know that I tendered my resignation with Chicago PD that very day, reaching out to my cousin, who was on his own hunt for the creatures, informing him of my choice. He thought I’d lost my mind. Then I told the people I answer to with the Hunter’s Guild that I was going on an extended leave. Oddly enough, they’re who told me of the job opening with this department. I went back to Chicago to handle selling my apartment and getting my things packed for transit and interviewed with you. The rest you know.”

Brett pursed his lips a second. “Stratton, it sounds like the Nightshade folks wanted you here. That maybe they had a heads-up that shit was going to head south for us here before long and that someone with your skill set would be needed.”

Stratton hadn’t really thought about that. As he did, a sinking feeling came over him. “Not to alarm you, but what has happened in the last few months here is nothing compared to what I think is in store for Grimm Cove.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Brett. “I overheard my wife talking to her grandmother, and Ellie-Sue was dropping some cryptic warnings on Poppy.”

Ellie-Sue Proctor resided in the Proctor House with Brett, Poppy, and Poppy’s twins. The only issue was that Ellie-Sue had passed away years ago. So had her husband, Tuck, who also lived in the house. Brett seemed to have gotten used to conversing and living with spirits. Both spirits had been powerful witches in their day and still had more than one trick up their sleeves.

“What’s happening is just the tip of the iceberg, isn’t it?” asked Brett.

Stratton nodded. “I get the feeling we’ve not even scratched the surface yet.”

“And these monsters that you tracked here are the big baddies we fight and then it’s over for at least a bit?” asked Brett, sounding hopeful.

Stratton snorted. “Hardly. It’s just one more thing leading up to whatever is happening here. Honestly, if the pattern of the monsters holds true, just like in the past, you’ll find an uptick in demon infestations. So the more of these that show—the more demons you’re dealing with too.”

Brett tossed his hands in the air. “I give up. How about you just tell me when and where I need to be to help stop this thing.”

“Works for me. But, Brett, there is something else,” said Stratton as he unclasped his hands. “I sensed something that was Dark Fae near the coffee shop this morning. It set off my alarms.”

“That what caused the lights to flicker?” Brett eyed him. “Jeffrey gave me an earful about it when he came by with coffee.”

“I think so,” said Stratton.

“Any idea what kind of Fae we’re dealing with?”

Stratton shook his head. “It didn’t feel like a lesser Fae. It’s a creature of some sort. I don’t know what yet. May or may not have anything to do with the deaths.”

“So we basically know nothing,” Brett said, sounding defeated. “Grimm Cove has been ground zero for supernatural issues in the past. But I don’t remember having this many issues in such a short time frame when my father was chief.”

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