Jagged Embrace

Chapter 6 - Will

Will pulled into the parking lot of the same diner he'd got their lunch from. Maeve had woken up long enough to eat the soup Ander fed her before she'd passed out again. She'd acknowledged him but didn't talk. Well, not about anything that made sense, anyway. Ander took her to the bathroom and then tucked her in, but she'd insisted he get into bed with her. Will's rage had clawed at him, but he hadn't said a word. The entire situation was on him.

When he left, all he thought about was locating a group of asshole creatures and ending them. He drove around for thirty minutes, fantasizing about finding a hive of bloodsuckers or a pack of fleabags. In his fantasy, he was a badass and could take on an entire pack or hive on his own and survive. The idea of tearing them apart, being covered with their insides, made his heart pound and his blood race. Fuck, he was crazy.

He sat in the parking lot and waited, since he had about ten minutes before the food would be ready. Drowning again, he put his forehead against the steering wheel and tried to keep the rage at bay. To lock up the violent thoughts before they could turn into action. Having Maeve around had made him forget how bad it had been for the past year. How the horrific urges gnawed at him all the time. He smacked his head against the steering wheel.

He was a bastard. He'd always known that, but the past couple of weeks had reminded him how fucking insane he really was. Maeve was like the cure and poison all in one. With her, he'd found peace and the ability to push the rage back for hours at a time. It'd been like all the noise in his brain was turned down. At the same time, she got under his skin and made his rage hit so fast he wasn't sure what he'd do, and that wasn't good.

He was not a murderer, but he was always seeking a reason for violence. It was hard to act like a normal, even for the short periods of time needed during a mission. If she and Ander weren't going to be okaygonna be ok... he wasn't going to be okaygonna be ok, and that meant a lot of death and destruction. There'd be nothing to stop him. He'd devour the world. His head snapped up before he shook it. He was so fucked in the head. Suddenly, his phone vibrated. On the screen, Autumn's Nook, Mason's bookstore, appeared. He connected the call.

"Is it done?" Mason's voice asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, Ander will send the report later."

"You get the tea set?"

"No, things went sideways. It was kinda a shitshow,"

"Why?"

Will was silent. He should've thought things through before he answered or had Ander call. Ander was better at lying.

"Things didn't work out how we planned. You know how it can go," he replied.

"Yeah, I do, but you knew not to engage before getting the tea set. What the fuck did you do? Charged in there?" She snapped.

He rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, we couldn't find it before things started happening."

"Then you didn't do your job and case it properly," she grumbled.

"Stop busting my balls about it. We tried to get it, but the shades attacked us."

"Did your cousin do his research right? Should've had a clue where it was and what the shade was."

"Fucking christ! Yeah, he did the damn research. We couldn't find it. Maybe they fucking sold it!" he yelled into the phone. Why did she want the tea set so much? She hadn't told him it was a high priority, just to grab it if they saw it. Shit, maybe it had been cursed. "There were two shades, not one." He forced his tone back to a conversational tone.

"Two?"

"Yeah, it was the mother and daughter. It'll be in the report. Complicated things. I sorta fucked it up."