Page 45 of Aberrant Monsters
He didn’t answer straight away, forcing me to look up at him. “What?”
“It’s okay to be interested in all of this. To care.”
I straightened my spine. “Look, the only thing I care about is getting my body back and finding out who killed my mother. The stuff you’re telling me will help me do that.”
I sensed Telarion’s approval, which annoyed me because it made me feel validated and I didn’t want to need him to make me feel validated, and damn, that convoluted thought made my brain hurt.
“Location, please.”
He handed me a folded piece of paper, then reached across the table to grab something else. I tracked his movement, frowning at the bladeless hilt he picked up.
“This is your final weapon,” he said.
“A hilt? What do I do with that, bludgeon someone to death?”
He walked away from me and stood in the center of the room. The corner of his mouth tipped up in a crooked smile. He did a cool sweep-and-flick motion with his arm and a neon-blue blade shot out from the hilt.
Oh my God. “Is that a bloody saber?”
He chuckled. “Not exactly. I’m not sure of the science behind it, only that it will maim an eldritch and slow it down. They heal super fast, though, so killing them is hard.”
I was so confused. “I thought you wanted me to bag them, not kill them.”
“Yes, but you might need to maim them to slow them down and to protect yourself. There are a few, who we believe are the sundown breeds, that you may have to kill. They’re super aggressive.”
He began to load everything into the leather backpack. “This is for you. Every rift walker has one. It’s personalized with their rift walker ID.”
I stared at the bag. “Is that how they identified my mother?”
He paused in his packing. “I believe so.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I want to see where she died. I want the location of that rift.”
He held the bag out to me. “Bag this eldritch and then we’ll talk.”
“You’ll tell me?”
“Better. I’ll take you there. You can start your mapping at that rift.”
It would be the first step to finding real answers. “Thank you.”
I was at the door when a thought occurred to me. “How come Telarion doesn’t leave a residue?”
He had his back to me again, attention on the view outside. “Telarion isn’t from the eldritch realm; none of the aberrations are.”
Of course, Genevieve’s lackey had explained that to me and Genevieve knew who he was, so that begged the question…Where did Telarion come from?
thirteen
Iwasn’t sure what I’d expected when Quentin had asked me to meet him for training. I’d naturally assumed he’d want to check if I could fight, maybe show me some special eldritch disabling moves.
But I guess in this job, if you got close enough to an eldritch to have to go hand to hand, you were already dead.
I went back to my room to change out of my sweats and into jeggings, running shoes, and a long-sleeve polo shirt that was warm enough to protect me from the chill but not stifling. I’d probably be chasing down a monster soon.
I quickly pulled my golden hair into a low ponytail and blew my reflection a kiss before grabbing my rift walker backpack and heading down to meet the others.
I’d missed breakfast and my stomach felt empty and hollow. I was carrying an extra entity inside me and staying fueled was essential. My predawn encounter with Telarion filled my mind. The way his hand had pressed to my intimate place, the heat, the losing control.
