Page 9 of Waste
“Agreed. Drew has his head up his backside for now, but hopefully he’ll be easier than Jase,” Vladimir replied.
“Hey!” Jase growled out.
“You dumped your mate in the middle of an ocean and left her there. And then imprisoned her. Don’t play innocent,” Lily scolded, wagging a finger at him.
“Willow was a pain in my ass,” Jase defended himself.
“And now she probably thinks you’re one in hers. Jase, your courtship was awful, and you had no game. I’m surprised Willow fell for you in the end,” Vladimir said, and Jase spun on him.
“Here we go,” Maeve muttered, and Rhett snorted.
Killian was amused. He was always thoroughly entertained when his siblings started fighting. Unlike humans, who mated and then gave birth to a child, their arrival was shrouded inmystery. Somehow, they understood they had all originated from the same source. But none of them knew how they’d been born or created. His earliest memory was of being in a classroom with two hundred and forty-nine others and being trained to be a Protector of the Jar.
He sat back as Jase verbally went after Vladimir, whose own courtship had been a mess. Emmaline had hated Vladimir at first, and Durant and Shay had nearly ripped Vladimir’s arms off several times.
“Killian. What do you think?” Liadun asked in a soft voice. She was ignoring the bickering going on.
“Honestly? Drew’s found his mate. But we’ve never known Mary’s mirror network to show mates.”
“No, which is why I’m concerned. I’d hate for Drew to have to kill her,” Liadun replied.
“Drew cares for her already, although he’s blind to it. I understand your reticence. If it comes to it, one of us will have to take care of the problem,” Killian said, and his gaze focused on Jase.
Jase carried on arguing with Vladimir while Rhett threw in the odd comment to keep them fighting. It would be Jase who would kill Shelley. He would not risk anything happening to his family. Vladimir wouldn’t either, but Jase was harder. He was as passionate as Vladimir about protecting them all.
Killian shook his head as Jase came out of his chair and tackled Vladimir to the floor, who shifted into a vampire in a blink. And there went the tentacles, Killian sighed as Jase morphed into Poseidon’s Uber-Merman. He helped the ladies up from their chairs, and they headed out and left Vampire and Poseidon trading punches and bites.
Drew/Ghoul
The board had to be wrong. Shelley couldn’t be his mate; he felt nothing for her. He knew from watching Vladimir, Jase, and Lanie claim their mates that there had been a connection. Drew experienced no bond, but could he kill Shelley? No, the thought was unacceptable to him.
Drew headed for the gardens. He needed some fresh air and time to himself. Hopefully, nobody would be there.
His luck was in.
As Drew wandered, he tried to figure out what to do. Shelley had given off vibes of innocence and goodness. It wasn’t fair for her life to be snuffed out to satisfy a whim of fate. He bitterly regretted his statement that Shelley had been saved from death, and the Fates were now trying to get them to right the wrong.
What made killing someone so kind permissible? That made little sense to Drew, and he knew deep down his initial suggestion had been erroneous. Drew sighed as he sat on a bench and tilted his face to the sun. He racked his brains for an answer before stiffening. The Legendary Shifters weren’t the only paranormals around. Drew had a solution; whether the board would listen to him was another thing.
Chapter Three.
Shelley
She frowned at the laptop as she shut it down. Shelley had researched the hell out of ghouls and found nothing else since her breakthrough a week ago. She turned her thoughts back to that fateful night and automatically flinched away from the violence. Shelley rose to her feet and made her way to the kitchen. She was missing a piece; she was sure of it.
As the kettle boiled and she prepared the fixings for a cup of tea, Shelley’s mind raced. There had to be something, some tiny clue. Once she’d poured her drink, she headed toward her living room and curled up in an oversized armchair. Puffing her cheeks out, Shelley began to walk herself back through that night, step by step, because no matter what she told the police, she remembered everything.
Her car had started juddering as she passed through the rich area where she lived. Shelley often dreamed of owning a house like this, but it would never happen. She’d never make enough money to buy one of these. Still, it never hurt to dream.
She pulled over suddenly when her engine cut out and tried to restart it. When it didn’t, Shelley had got out and popped the bonnet.
Her dad had made sure she could do basic maintenance on a vehicle. She ran through a quick checklist and found nothing obviously wrong. Agitated, Shelley had called the RAC and looked up as a car approached. Something inside her had warned Shelley to be on guard, even when she finally recognised John Saville as a customer. It was clear from his appearance that he didn’t live in this area.
Shelley forced herself to run back through the conversation and the violence John had unleashed on her. Tears tracked down her face, but she wiped them away impatiently. She was safe now, and that’s all that mattered. Slowly, she recalled each detail about the ghoul, including how he disappeared.
Shelley sat up straight.
In her terror, pain and confusion, she’d forgotten that the ghoul had just vanished. Like, literally disappeared into thin air. The ghoul looked in the wing mirror of the car, and she remembered his mouth moving, and then he was gone! Shelley couldn’t make out all the words he’d said, but she’d caught two.
