Page 91 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

Drest sighed. “Sorry. Hi. I’m just worked up because every lead I’ve tried running down in between hunting jobs and work has been a dead end. Your message gave me some hope. I hate saying that I really want it to be monsters, but you know what I mean.”

Obviously, Drest didn’t want any innocents to be harmed, but he’d meant what he’d said when he told Stratton he was hoping Grimm Cove was playing host to some of Henry’s monsters. If it was, there was a slim chance Drest might be able to question one.

“I do,” returned Stratton, no judgment in his voice. “Rachael will turn up. I’m sure of it.”

“I’m not,” confessed Drest, speaking the words out loud for the first time in years. “I’m starting to think she might be…that she might not… Strat, it’s getting harder and harder to find a reason to get up every day.” He choked back a sob as he poured his heart out. “I should have told the higher-ups to screw themselves from the start. I should have just taken Rachael and her niece and ran. The minute I realized why I was so drawn to her—the minute I knew she was my mate—I should have done everything I could to get her far from Henry and from the Nightshade Clan. Hell, I should have ignored the mating energy and the frenzy that comes with it. I should have told you what was happening, and had you get me far from Rachael. She’d have been safe then.”

Silence greeted him for what felt like forever before his cousin finally spoke.

“I’mpositivethe kills happening here are related to the creatures,” said Stratton. “They’re checking every box.”

Drest didn’t miss the hitch in Stratton’s voice. He tried not to let it get to him. “Thishasto be it. I need one of them to lead me to her. I can’t keep doing this.”

“I know,” stressed Stratton. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to take one alive. To question it. I’ll get answers for you. I swear.”

“No,” said Drest sternly. “I’m coming.I’llget the answers.”

“How soon can you get here?” asked Stratton.

“I’m on the road, headed that way now. I’m going to drive straight through,” responded Drest, fully intending to break every speed limit between himself and Grimm Cove.

“All right. You’ve got a key to my place,” said Stratton. “Stay safe.”

“You too, cousin,” said Drest right before he hung up. With a grunt, Drest tossed his phone into the passenger seat again and pressed the accelerator to the floor. He buried the needle in his vintage sports car, never happier to have cared for it all these years.

Drest wasn’t sure why Stratton had been so insistent on moving to Grimm Cove three years back, leaving the Chicago Police Department, where they’d both been working at the time.

The one time they’d been in Grimm Cove prior to Stratton’s midlife crisis was eighteen years ago when they’d, ironically enough, been on the trail of monsters created by Henry.

They’d found a butt load of them, along with a variable cornucopia of other supernatural entities. They’d ended up on the campus of Grimm University and somehow had then ended up at a huge old home just off campus. While there, just about everything Drest could think to name if forced to make a laundry list of bad guys had shown up. The fight that ensued had been nothing short of a melee.

Drest had tried to get answers from a monster then about Rachael and the children, but it hadn’t worked out as planned. Before he’d gotten the opportunity to question another monster, white light had enveloped him, whisking him away like a thief in the night.

He really hoped that didn’t happen again and that his cousin was right. He needed to question a monster and find his family, and he needed Stratton’s help to make that happen.

ChapterThirty-One

Drest

Drest movedthrough Stratton’s house, waiting for his cousin to show. He wasn’t answering his phone, and Drest had no idea where he might be, or if he’d been successful in his mission.

Hopefully, he’d done better tracking and containing a monster than Drest had. Drest had been just outside of Grimm Cove’s city limits when he’d spotted a group of monsters running through the woods. He’d pulled off the road and done the only thing he could do—he went on the offensive.

He’d drawn upon his Fae magik, summoning forth the sword that had been forged specifically for him and presented to him when he’d first become a Hunter hundreds of years ago. The sword had served him well in his life, having more than its fair share of blood on it.

Drest had fully intended to keep one of the monsters he’d encountered alive to question it, but things hadn’t gone as planned. These monsters were a different breed from the ones he and Stratton had last come up against some eighteen years prior—ironically enough, in Grimm Cove. These monsters seemed capable of working together in an organized manner and with certain levels of reasonable thought. That meant they were far deadlier than the ones of old, which weren’t exactly slouches in the hard-to-kill department.

Drest had managed to stop the threat they posed to innocents, but in doing so, none had been left alive to answer questions he might have.

He ran a hand through his hair, agitated at his lack of self-control. Had he just caged the rage that filled him during the fight, he might have been able to get a real lead on his family. Instead, he’d once again let Nile and Henry under his skin.

Drest paced Stratton’s home, a bundle of nerves, unable to sit down and relax when so much was happening. If his cousin didn’t get home or call him back soon, Drest was sure he’d lose his shit. There was so much he needed to fill Stratton in on. New information had come to light after they’d last spoken.

On the way to Grimm Cove, Drest had put calls in to people who owed him some favors, desperately seeking information on the monster surge that had been going on. What he’d learned had floored him.

For years, the only comfort Drest had concerning what Nile and Henry had done was the fact they were both spending life in prison in a facility that had been built to handle supernaturals—particularly the criminally insane ones. Did it give Drest his family back? No. But it had helped him move through each and every day, knowing they were tucked safely away from the general public. That neither of them could ever hurt anyone else again.

Even that small mercy was gone now.

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