Page 39 of Ghost
To help keep control, Kasai remained out. It was exhausting work, continuously feeding a shikigami’s presence. And I’d been doing it frequently as of late. At the moment, though, there were two reasons why I had no choice.
Shifters were terrified of shikigami. A fact that made it odd they’d even bothered to attack us. But that was past, and now both Titus and Ada were present. As well as Kasai.
So the hyenas had mostly regained their senses.
Then there was the second reason I needed Kasai.
Caleb hadn’t killed himself, which meant this case could get ugly very quickly. I needed to speak to him, to see if there was any reason why he’d been targeted. Generally he kept to himself, but perhaps he had gotten involved with the wrong people. But the difficult part would be asking him to talk. Most of that family tended to avoid me, sans Gregory.
Which made it unlikely, without a medium present, he’d return here. It was more likely that he would follow Bianca. But I couldn’t take that chance, and miss an opportunity to speak to him.
“Don’t worry,” I spoke, only for him. “I’ll be fine.”
He grunted, his shoulders dipping as his body relaxed. And the both of us turned our attention back to the spectacle in front of us.
It was an awe-inspiring sight, Ada lecturing her hyenas.
The tall, sharply-dressed woman was furious—if her words and expression was any indication. Her dark complexion was flushed with anger, and her chest heaved.
I almost felt sorry for Jamie and the others. Almost.
The urge to pound in their faces hadn’t lessened—they had targeted Bianca.
Bianca’s terrified expression kept flashing through my mind, and a part of me didn’t care about their excuses.
But I had to force myself to remain level-headed, because I couldn’t ignore the obvious.
It was rare for shifters to lose control once they grew out of infancy. Only certain life events and stressful conditions caused it to happen.
Generally, Titus could take over Ada in dealing with the situation. But since Ada was his vice-president, and the alpha of the hyenas, Titus preferred to stay out of dealings, if possible.
So I also knew he enjoyed watching Ada reaming Jamie and his pack.
“What in the world were you thinking?” she growled at the group, all of whom were in human form. “Youneverattack someone who can’t fight back. And you don’t ever hunt their type. Are you trying to ruin our treaty?”
The men cowered on their knees as she paced. Even Seth appeared to be completely over his brush with death. They watched her warily as she seethed.
“You’re going to be working the desks for the next ten years.”
“Ms. Satore, please.” Jamie seemed to be afraid for his life. “That’s what I’ve been trying to explain. Wecouldn’tthink. I tried—”
“To not be able to resist, means that you have been neglecting your group exercises,” Ada snapped. “You’ve even caused Titus Ducharme to be involved. Do you know how this looks? I should kill the lot of you.”
“But we haven’t been neglecting our routine. We go through the usual exercises with the pack every morning,” Jamie whimpered.
“Could it have been the poison?” I asked, causing the focus of everyone to shift to me.
Ada looked offended.
“Only that moron got poisoned.” She pointed at Seth, who flinched at being singled out. “So that wouldn’t matter. Our recruits have a regime from school that is supposed to prevent this very thing.”
I frowned. Something was not adding up.
In hyena packs, women outranked men. Especially women like Ada, who were especially strong willed. But Jamie should have been able to control a frenzy that originated from only one. He was a pushover, but I assumed most of his inaction was from laziness. Not ineptitude.
And in the end, he had tried.
“It wasn’t the pork that was poisoned.” It seemed so obvious now. “It was the ice cream, everyone except for Jamie was eating it.”
