“Is there a problem?” Chelsea’s tone was non-committal, bordering on complete disinterest.
The wolf threw his chin up, releasing a howl that stopped my blood. Breath slowed in my chest, the faintest passing of air in a motionless body.
Wolves achieved full shift, and the potent surge of power that aligned with that, on the full moon, but they were shifters all the time. My eyes never left the wolf’s morphing, and Chelsea’s hands rested on the bar, ready.
A heavy front paw slashed the bartop, and a chuck clattered to the decking. Super strength. Like me. Shit!
“Chel…”
The snarling wolf leapt over the bartop, lunging at my throat, as Chelsea snapped the spell. The sense of falling. Pain, and… carpet?
As he moved on me, Chelsea dropped the hatch, a space on The Boogey’s floor that had a permanent spell. If a Keeper stood on it, as I did at the sight of his lack of control, any witch or god could activate the spell, sending the Keeper through the pier to a holding space, which can be anywhere. Until the new moon, that space was wherever Poseidon happens to be.
So, one minute I faced annihilation by a wolf, and the next I dropped onto the floor of a past-its-prime motel next to a god banging the hell out of a formerly bikinied beauty. Her mind was gone, and he had a grip on her hips that was turning them gold.
“Oh, hey Patra,” Poseidon grinned and kept humping. “This is Rachel. Sweetie, say hey to Cleopatra,”
Rachel, eyes rolled back in her head, moaned in ecstasy.
“Close enough,” Poseidon chuckled, pulling out and dropping the drooling Rachel on the bed on her side, throwing one leg over his shoulder, straddling the other and entering sideways.
My leg was screaming from the drop into the room, but that’s muted by my fear for Chelsea. A Vapor possessed that wolf; I knew it in my guts, but I never gave that info to Chelsea. Now a Vapor is in The Boogey, and she’s alone.
“Poseidon! There’s a wolf at The Boogey that’s possessed by a Vapor. Chelsea dropped me through the hatch, and she doesn’t know!”
Poseidon shot his load, smacked Rachel’s ass, and picked up his speedo. A huge hand grabbed me by the neck like I was a puppy, a shot of joy blasted through me, then we shimmered and vanished.
The Boogey was bloody. A wooden box stood in the corner shaking with violence thuds and howling with skin crawling regularity. Chelsea sat on the floor, trying to mend her wounds.
“Possessed?” Poseidon’s voice quaked my guts. Angry god will make you piss yourself every time. It’s not for the timid.
“Yes.”
“The Keeper knew it.”
“She was talking when I sent her. The timing sucked. Don’t punish her.”
Poseidon grunted, sliding a side eye in my direction, then crooked his finger at Chelsea. “Come here.”
With a drawn-out groan, Chelsea pulled herself off the floor. One of her legs, was mangled and twisted the wrong way. I gasped as she hopped toward the god.
Poseidon lay a hand on the damage, shaking his head. Tiny gold ribbons threaded around and through her leg as Chelsea screamed through gritted teeth.
“I have to get rid of the wolf’s toxin, and you’ve got part of a Vapor in here too.”
A greenish dust lifted from the leg, followed by the familiar black. I shuddered.
Poseidon used his other hand to capture the Vapor, continuing to concentrate on Chelsea’s leg. Gold knitted the skin, lifted the bruises, and filled in the missing chunks of muscle. With a crunch, the leg spun and straightened. Chelsea blanched but managed to stay silent.
“There. Restored.”
“Thank you,” Chelsea smoothed her hand over her repaired leg as the wounds on her arms and hands closed. “It’s perfect. Amazing.”
The wolf in the box shrieked in uncontrolled fury. I wanted to howl with him in terror. This was worse, way worse than I imagined. The light of understanding blew through, knitting the bits together as color left my face.
The situation wasn’t a simple matter of eliminating seven Vapors, of which four remained. Nor was it a question of them attacking humans, not anymore. Vapors figured out how to possess magicals, and once within, use the host to assimilate power. I sucked in air.
“They can divide and survive in multiple hosts.” Unaware I’d spoken aloud, I felt two pairs of eyes boring into me.
“It’s not four, it’s however many they want to be,” I continued. “So, they think they will prevail, because we are finite and they are infinite.”
“Not infinite, but yeah,” Poseidon grunted.
“I’m convening the covens,” Chelsea announced. “I’ll return in 24 hours. Who will guard the Keeper?”
Poseidon ran an eye over me and my shocked eyebrows. “That would be me, Madam.”
Oh crap, not a great idea!
“Chel…”
She snapped and vanished, leaving me with a boxed and pissed off wolf, a trapped partial Vapor, and an indulgent sex god. Human men needed time to recover before their next erection. Poseidon walked around, blast ready, all day long. That’s the main reason he exudes joy.
I came out from behind the bar, heading to my office. “I need to write in the record.”
This was the single activity I did that was respected by all the magicals. For the next few minutes, at least, molesting was off limits.
The scritch of quill tip to paper was the only sound, besides the damn wolf, so who knew what trouble ole red britches was concocting. I’m not peeking, that’s guaranteed. All the information on Vapors that Chelsea shared flowed onto the page, followed by a careful account of their manifested ability to possess, gain power, and split into multiple magical hosts. I added a note that three full Vapors remained, the potential of partials still floating around, and included Chelsea’s convening of the covens. I don’t know their number, but to call them all is a huge deal.
This event, recorded by another Keeper, was worth re-reading, so after my pages dried, the book shifted and located the entry.
A change in the magical world alarms witch Helen, who heads forth to convene all the covens. This occurs by setting a specific mixture into the caldron which connects to the next in the chain. The witches of that caldron add the same mixture to theirs and it calls the next one, and onward. Once connected, all the conversation records for every coven. There is a break for decision making, and a reconvening to choose a path. The entire process takes an earth day to complete.
Poseidon on full blast for twenty-four hours? I was so screwed.
“Keeper, I’m thirsty.”
Here we go.
Chapter 12
Not having privacy of thought was a frustrating existence. While I tried to keep my mind clear and Poseidon out of it, since humans were wired for internal conversation, it’s difficult. Lucky for me, I’ve got a reasonable crowd tonight. A big group of bear shifters, over from the Ocala National Forest, a pair of warlocks, drawn, I’m guessing, by the darkness of the Vapors mobbing the line, and a few fairies. They were so light and quick; it made the night fun to work. By pre-dawn, they even had the warlocks chuckling, no small feat.
Pook and Bingo stayed and partied, maintaining space from the bears, and rolling the jokes. Bingo kept an eye on me, and I realized they were hanging in to help me by not heading over to the island, which was kind. Color me grateful.
Poseidon eyed me and tapped his drink. Tonight he was pacing his consumption, and while flirting with the fairies, not playing his A-game.
Huh.
The bears convinced the fairies to visit them in the forest, and the group paid their tab, trooping out the door in an unlikely pairing, an hour before dawn. I wiped the bartop and gave Pook a grin.
Cash slid across my bar with an outrageous tip. I glanced at the warlock.
“Nice place you’re running here,” he nodded, dark eyes gleaming.
“Yes, we’ll return,” his friend confirmed, and the warlocks skedaddled with a faint pop.
“A good night?�
�� Poseidon asked, as I cleared the last of the tabs and pulled the tally.
“Best since the full,” I responded. “Better, since that night was a train wreck, and I lost a ton of tabs on both sides of the bar.”
“Money is fleeting,” Poseidon rejoined.
“True, but remember, in the human world, it’s the base construct.”
“Beyond your needs, you accumulate wealth. Why?”
“So I can push it towards people and places that need help. And, money makes it easier to maintain the line. I can’t be waiting on banks to approve loans for repairs. Vendors enjoy being paid on time. Cash flow keeps us off everyone’s radars. We are a solid customer and corporate citizen.”
“Sounds tedious.”
He’s not mistaken. “It’s the human way, Poseidon. They crave accountability in everything.”
“Humans only want to hang each other with failure and feed their need for superiority.”
Harsh.
Cerulean eyes met mine. “I’m not wrong, Cleopatra. I’ve watched this unfold for all time.”
Tabs tallied and inventory marked, I finished the accounting. Tonight was simple in terms of magic and Keeper interaction, so there’s nothing to record.
“Time to lock up.” My blue eyes turned steel grey.
Do not push me.
“I’m guarding you, Keeper. Remember?”
Crap.
“Besides, you can’t go to Ballsy’s. He shut the door.”
Involuntary tears prickled along with a growing lump in my throat. By staying busy, I’d kept Ballard out of my thoughts, but, in the quiet he was here, shredding my heart.
Poseidon stared, then smacked his hand on the bartop.
“Breakfast?”
“Okay,” I managed, grabbing my stick and thudding around from behind the bar. “But, you won’t get served in a speedo at 6:30 in the morning, even beach side.”
Poseidon shrugged and the speedo wavered into 70s era super-short cutoffs and a cropped tee shirt.
“Very summer of love,” I assured him and we headed to the door.
Waffle House is my jam, and I waded into a big pile of eggs, sausage, and hash browns while Poseidon ate six pecan waffles and six orders of bacon.
“A suitable repast,” he offered, and I paid the tab.
Calories in my mix, I felt better too. “Want to hit the beach?”
“Don’t you need to sleep?”
“Oh, I can sleep on the beach.” Besides, it’s safer.
Poseidon grinned, grabbing my elbow as we stepped to the parking lot, jolting me with his gold stuff. It’s damn hard, but I pulled away, taking in his arched eyebrows, laugh filling the car as I cranked the key.
“Oh, little Patra, you are so determined, loyal to the one who ceded his interest.”
“A pause, not an ending, Poseidon. I don’t expect you to understand.”
His glance toward me, eyes narrowed, clenched my gut and I drove. My comment bordered on judging the god, which was a huge no-no.
That didn’t change the fact it’s true. Poseidon couldn’t attach the way humans could. We sucked at love for the most part, falling together and apart, but when we clicked, found the person who stopped us cold, we chose to step further into vulnerability, willing to embrace potential pain for the experience of deep abiding affection. Humans craved a soul connection. At least, the undamaged ones did. The world complicates.
The pool of gods was small and short-lived humanity replenished with many distractions. It had to be depressing to meander from fuck to fuck with no depth. Pointless pleasure was fun, but when that’s the sum of everything, you were reading the same book every single day. Yikes.
“Patra, I am capable of great love. You only see one piece.”
“If I offended you, I am sorry. Being lesser has limits.”
“Fair enough,” he grunted, climbing out of the car, but I could tell I’d rankled him.
With a sigh, I reached into my backseat for the beach bag kept there, and snagged two waters from the case I kept in the trunk. I read somewhere that the plastic leaches into the water with the heat, but I was confident that dying of cancer wasn’t in my cards. Parked on a section of the drive-on beach, we settled in next to the car. I loved this, because you packed your ride at the beginning of the season and went when the mood struck.
After spreading the blanket, I curled up, belly full and sleepy. Poseidon flopped down, back in his red speedo, eyes on me. He bent across, kissed my forehead, and I was gone, zonked and dreaming.
The breeze was hot when I woke; at some point he’d magicked up an umbrella, keeping me from adding sunburn to my list of woes. I pushed up and drank the water in a single long pull before flopping onto my belly and squinting into the western sun. Maybe 3 o’clock. Not bad. I rolled back to face the waves.
Poseidon was not on the blanket, but I saw him rising out of the water, sluicing sexy with every step. A young woman came to a dead stop, staring, and I grinned. Connection was so easy for him.
He chatted her up and touched her shoulder before walking up the beach toward me. She shook her head to clear it and walked on, turning back to look twice.
“Ready to head to work?”
Poseidon held a hand out but I clambered up, awkward in the walking boot, without taking it. He knew as well as I did that it was two hours before The Boogey opened, and I didn’t intend to create opportunities for him to unleash any mojo.
Filthy, I needed a shower which was problematic, but I decided I could scrub the important bits in the restaurant’s bathrooms, designed for human use and more private. I always kept clothes there since unpredictability was my life’s baseline.
After stowing stuff in the car, we climbed in, inching along the beach lanes before turning by the lifeguard tower.
“Hungry?” I knew I should eat, and with a closed kitchen, that required planning.
“Fish Sandwich at the River Deck?”
“Works for me.” The Deck was under the sky bridge, so I turned the car toward the huge concrete pilings and parked. Poseidon exited, and as I stepped out, he slid in behind me, hands on my hips and his mouth on my neck.
And, that’s it. That was all he had to do and every human woman was all in, ready to rock, stripping in public, you name it.
I came to, gripping the top of my car’s door frame, shivering.
“You stopped?” My tone was incredulous, but to my surprise, there was no desire adding to the undertones.
“Exactly,” Poseidon said, a little miffed. “You didn’t flow into it. I must be losing my touch.”
“No, it’s just that my heart is elsewhere, all the way. There’s no space for another.”
He gave me a look of consideration, wavered into his 70s love era clothes, and stepped away.
“After you, dear Cleopatra.”
There were a few unoccupied stools so we settled at the bar and ordered a couple beers and sandwiches. Poseidon was in a mood.
“Where are you from, my friend?” This to a day drinking tourist who’s losing the battle with sobriety.
“Cleveland, and damn glad to be here. Winter wants to come early this year.”
“Good football weather,” Poseidon rejoined, and the man’s face drooped.
“Well, I’m a lifelong Browns fan.”
Poseidon wore the little smirk he got when he was screwing with humans, and tapped the man on the shoulder.
“This is their year,” Poseidon raised his beer. “To the Browns!”
(I’ll interject to add that the Browns went on to wildcard into the playoffs, after an abysmal start, securing a spot in Clevelander’s hearts and sportscaster’s spiels.)
A woman eased into the empty seat next to Poseidon. 70ish and she was as Brooklyn as they come.
“My God, you’re fuckin’ cute,” she grinned with blinding dentures framed by vibrant lipstick and short, expensively cut hair.
Poseidon ordered a beer for her, which meant I bought her one, because gods.
<
br /> The food came and I tucked in, listening, grateful for her distraction.
“Have you ever tried an older woman? We know stuff.”
“Oh, I love all women,” Poseidon attested. “Women are my favorite thing on Earth.”
A flirtatious hand landed on his arm and she started sliding off the bar stool. I snorted. Poseidon disconnected her grip and grabbed his sandwich. She shook, then pulled about 70% of her beer down in one pull.
“Another!” Poseidon boomed, pointing at her glass. I rolled my eyes at my coleslaw and kept chewing.
Three beers later, they were slow dancing to a Bon Jovi rocker; her face a mess of bliss, and I signaled for the check. The twenty-four hours of Poseidon were waning, I made it through my first Ballard-less night, and I ate well. A win. But now, it’s Boogey time.
“Hey, I gotta get to work. Are you good?” The Deck was a mile from The Boogey; a doable walk if he felt so inclined.
“Oh, I’ll ride along,” Poseidon finished the song and led the woman to her seat. Her face looked twenty years younger and glowed.
“Dearest, thank you for this lovely afternoon,” he kissed her hand and released it. “Perhaps we’ll meet again.”
A smile bloomed across her face and I saw the girl she once was, a stunner, before life did what life does to women, pulled it away until we overwork, overthink and over drink ourselves to menopause. Won’t be my problem. I’m in the ‘die young and leave a beautiful corpse’ club.
The car rumbled to life and we motored back toward the sea.
“This was a good day,” I grinned, ready for a quick sailor bath and a change of clothes.
“I can help,” Poseidon offered.
I laughed. He laughed. When we got there, I clicked the useless bathroom lock and hustled. It might have been a joke. Maybe.
Chapter 13
The bears and fairies returned, and it’s rocking at The Boogey. We’re a week from the new moon, so the influx waited on the other side, which meant I wasn’t buried in business. The space between the new and full was less hectic, and helping newcomers want to be regulars was a fun part of the job. The woodsy ones never came out of the forest, but this little group took to the beach and The Boogey like old pros.
Boogie Beach Page 7
