Page 21 of Insidious Monsters
She bristled. “I don’t know. It was dark. He was big and shadowy.”
I sighed. “Look, guys, I understand that you have a job to do, but so do I, and I’ve been working all morning. I’ve got about enough time to grab some food before I have to go on an eldritch hunt. I don’t have time for this. If you need to sniff me, or search me for amonster, then go ahead, but I have no idea what she’s talking about.”
“She’s lying,” Janice said. “I’ve seen it since. It’s been here since. Without her.”
The enforcer gave me an apologetic smile. “You understand we had to follow up.”
I nodded.
“You’re free to take your ward home, Winslow,” the other one said.
“Thank you.” Quentin steered me away from the enforcers and the old lady who was screaming at them to listen to her, just listen.
My gut twisted with guilt, because I’d just played on the stereotype of elderly people being scatty. I felt sick.
You did what you had to.
Then why did it feel so bad?
* * *
We drovein silence for several minutes.
“You should have told me Telarion feeds there,” Quentin said.
“What difference would it have made? We still have to work there.”
“I’m assuming you didn’t know about the rift the first time you allowed him to feed.”
I don’t need permission to feed.
“Telarion doesn’t need permission to feed.”
“What I don’t understand is why you went with him,” Quentin asked.
“To show him where it was. Silent Hill is filled with bad people. It’s the perfect place for him to hunt.”
“People who’ll be missed if they get eaten.” Quentin bit out the words. “Those shifters he ate work for the Black Knights, and Wentworth doesn’t like losing muscle.”
“What do you want me to do, huh? He has to eat.”
“Everynight? He has to feedeverynight?”
Telarion vibrated with rage and something else…shame. I felt his embarrassment and anger sweep through me.
“Yes, he has to fucking feed. Do you think it’s fun for him? Don’t you think he wishes he could stop? That he wishes he knew who he was. Do you think he wants to be an aberration?”
Telarion stilled.
I sagged back in my seat. “Frankly, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the crime lords or their muscle. All I care about is Telarion.” The car echoed with silence following my declaration.
I should take back the words but that would be a lie, and so I crossed my arms and fixed my gaze out the window, doing my best to ignore the turmoil of emotions inside me.
Emotions that weren’t entirely my own.
I took a deep breath. “Besides, we have bigger things to worry about.”
Quentin glanced my way. “Something happened on the eldritch plane, didn’t it?”
