Page 8 of Monsters of Midlife

“That begs the question,” Antonio inspected the ring. “Since you are the one chasing the monsters and you are half monster, who is chasing you?”

There was a knock on the front door. We exchanged a look.

“My car is out front,” Antonio pointed out. “It would be weird if I didn’t answer.”

I nodded toward him. My work with the Cougar Creek Coven had been a little more frequent as of late, so it wouldn’t be surprising if I was seen in town.

Antonio looked over his shoulder when he got to the door and looked out the peep hole. “It’s Jane, the psychic lady of the coven.”

My brow knitted in a frown, but who was I to turn Jane away?

“Let her in.” The door opened and Jane’s lithe figure stepped across the threshold, her dark skin was warm in the room, but a shiver went down my spine and a sense of foreboding filled me as she approached me.

“They want the rings,” she said without hesitation.

“The rings?” I asked, trying to keep my face blank. No one was ever supposed to know about the rings at all.

“The ring you were given back by Ratchet.” Jane waved her hand dismissively at my desire to keep the truth from her. “You are lucky the demon owed him such a favor.”

“What do you know about the ring?” I asked.

“I know there are two of them.” Jane smiled, her hands waving down any rising nerve I might be having. “Do not fret. This is Cougar Creek. We know how to keep secrets. However, it is imperative to the protection of the world that you keep those two rings safe.”

I could feel the blood draining from my face. They had gotten ahold of one ring, my ring, the one I thought I was keeping safe. How hard would it be for them to take Caroline’s ring?

“I should never have left it with her,” I murmured.

Antonio and Jane exchanged a look.

“Wherever you left that ring, you need to get it,” Jane said. “It isn’t safe.”

Caroline was in danger. My skin prickled with anxiety and chaos flowed through my muscles.

“Steady,” Antonio cautioned.

Jane stretched out a hand and took my wrist. Her energy flowed soothingly over me, but it wasn’t enough.

I needed to protect Caroline.

“I have to go,” I choked the words out, pulling my hand away from Jane, craving the chaos that would give me the power to face her again. Angst flowed through every particle of my being.

“I think I should go with you,” Antonio offered.

“He has me,” Ratchet burst through the door, sensing the chaos as it flowed through me. He was attuned to me and from wherever he was, when he felt that chaos in me, he appeared.

“You’re not going,” I grumbled, spinning on my heel, and opening a portal in front of me. I stepped through without hesitation and closed it swiftly behind me. If I was going to see Caroline again, I was going to be alone when I did it.

Chapter 6

CAROLINE

“Magnus,” he said with a smile, realizing I didn’t remember his name.

My skin flushed a bright red as he stared at me, his eyes narrowing.

“So seriously you’re a cancer research scientist?”

“That’s what it says on my job title,” I laughed. “Just kidding. It says Associate Director of Discovery, Cell Therapy Innovation.” I had long ago stopped worrying about what my title at work was; I was much more concerned with the value of the data I was delivering. It had seemed like I was a pure scientist until I went into the pharmaceutical field, and we were looking for ways to really improve medicine that real people took. Suddenly I started to care a lot more about that than I did about climbing up a ridiculous corporate ladder. There was a rung above me that had real responsibility on it and then there was my rung where I had a group of people working for me. That I liked. I could help guide them and we got results in bite-size pieces. It was always bite-size pieces. With any luck we’d be able to take those bite size pieces and one day find a cure for cancer. We just had to keep moving from one small research question to the next.

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