God of Monsters (Juniper Unraveling #4) - Keri Lake Page 0,172
“She’s in a better place now,” the old timer says, as if he needs to hear and believe it himself.
“She is.”
He comes to a stand beside me and slides his hat back over his balding crown. “Place you’re looking for is a few miles back. Just off the highway. You’ll see the signs.”
Wonderful. Thalia will be thrilled to know she was right.
“Thanks. You take care.”
Another sniffle, and the old man nods. “I will. And who knows, maybe I’ll see you back at Harmony Hills, someday.”
I roll the truck to a stop just before a wall reminiscent of the one back at Szolen, with a black iron gate that offers an obstructed peek of the sprawling fields on the other side of it. Hopefully, those guarding aren’t as discriminating as the mediators back at Szolen.
A figure strides toward us, decked out in camo pants, the barrel of his gun resting against his shoulder, and a cigarette sticking out from his lips. As he nears, I study the blond curls on his head and the youth in his eyes—familiar green eyes that take me back twenty years into the past. A tingling sensation climbs the back of my neck, as the kid, no more than a teenager, could easily be a ghost walking toward us.
“I’ll be damned,” I mutter to myself, reeling with awe.
No way.
“What is it?” In my periphery, Thalia shifts her gaze from the windshield and back. “Do you know him?”
“I don’t want to set this kid off. Give me a minute to talk to him and stay here.”
Weeding through the countless impossibilities clogging my brain, I climb out of the cab of the truck. The moment my boots hit the ground, the kid snaps the barrel forward, training it somewhere in the neighborhood of my skull.
He flicks the cigarette to the side, never once breaking his aim. “Close enough, asshole. I might spare the looker in the truck, but I won’t hesitate to fill your ass with lead.” Bold words that might’ve landed any other guy a punch to the face, but in this case, it only makes me want to chuckle.
The sound of the boy’s voice, riddled with sarcasm, could very well belong to my old friend. “Cadmus?”
The kid’s eyes widen behind the scope, and he lowers the gun just enough to show his frown. “Who are you?”
Still unsure whether I’m dreaming, or not, I glance back to Thalia, if for no other reason than to confirm I’m not hallucinating this shit. “That’s your name?”
“Yeah. So, who the fuck are you?”
“What the hell’s going on?” A feminine voice carries over the crunch of approaching boots against gravel, as a female about the kid’s age comes to a stop alongside him. With long brown curls and bright blue eyes, she, too, carries a certain familiarity about her. A striking beauty that, if he happens to be paying attention to it right now, Asher’s undoubtedly noticed himself.
“I got this, Sarai. Go back to your nail filing.”
“Fuck you.” She jerks her head toward me. “What’s your business here?”
The no-bullshit tone of her voice hits a chord, reinforcing my suspicions. “You’re Wren’s daughter.”
Frowning, she slices her gaze toward the blond and back.
“Don’t feel bad. He knew my name,” Cadmus says, still holding his gun on me.
Everything clicks into place. Cali. Cadmus. Her untimely estrus. A quick mental calculation, and I nod. “You’re Cali’s son. Any chance Valdys is around?” Unfazed by the barrel pointed at my head, I survey the surroundings for more of them.
“You know my dad, too, huh?”
Of course he’d refer to Valdys as his father. And Valdys would’ve doubtlessly accepted him as a son.
“We go way back.”
“Is that right?” Finally lowering his gun, he tugs a walkie-talkie from his hip. “We’ll see about that. Wanna tell me who the fuck you are first?”
“Name’s Titus.”
Something flickers in the kid’s eye, and he exchanges a knowing look with the girl beside him. “You’re Titus.” It’s not a question.
“’S’what I said.”
As if relaxed again, he props the gun back against his shoulder, his eyes scanning over me, maybe just now noticing I might actually pass for an Alpha, instead of some strange old man, here to give him shit. “My parents talk about you, sometimes. For some reason, I was expecting a giant, or something. Your own little entourage of angels following behind you, the way they describe you like some kind of holy man.”
Christ. What the hell kind of stories’ve they been filling this kid’s head with?