by Magan Vernon
“Call me when you find something?” I asked.
“I will, Calder. Keep your phone on you and I’ll ping it as well as Maya’s to see what kind of signal I can get.”
“Thanks, Tex. Always appreciated.”
“No problem, Calder. Anything for a friend.”
I disconnected the call and ran as fast as I could down the hill to my car and peeled out of the parking lot.
Tex may have been on the case, but he didn’t know all of the details. I knew I had to get to Luz, no matter if she wanted to see me or not.
***
I drove to the same spot where I parked before when Maya and I came to meet Luz. She said they were leaving, but I had to hope they’d still be there.
The same men were camped out and before they could even say anything, I threw a fist full of bills at them and didn’t look behind me as I trudged toward the bordello.
I knocked hard on the knocker and a different girl answered, but was in the same half-dressed get-up as the other.
“I need to see, Luz,”
“You have to have an—”
“She knows what I’m here for,” I growled, cutting her off.
Good. She hadn’t left yet.
My eyes went to the small security camera above the door. “Open up, Luz. I’m here about Maya.”
The woman in front of me nodded, holding her finger to her ear, much as Glorianna had done the day before. “She said she’ll see you.”
I didn’t even bother waiting for the woman to guide me upstairs. I took the steps two at a time, going as fast as my prosthetics could carry me until I was at the intricately carved wooden door.
Before I could bring my hand up to knock, it was thrown open.
Luz’s eyes narrowed. Her hair was pulled back into a bun that looked so tight it had to be cutting off circulation. Instead of the pant-suit, she was in a rainbow colored robe.
“Didn’t I tell you not to come back here?” she demanded.
“I wouldn’t have if Maya wasn’t missing.”
Luz’s face fell. “Maya’s missing?”
I nodded.
She ushered me inside and shut the door behind us. There were boxes packed up and even though the place was sparse before, now it was practically barren.
Instead of looking at me, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked out one of the large windows. “Since when? Do you know anything about her capture?”
“Whoa, I didn’t say anything about someone capturing her.”
Luz sighed, her whole body shaking. “You didn’t have to. I knew as soon as you two showed up here yesterday that it was only a matter of time before Garavan found her. I thought, you’d be able to protect her. But I guess I was wrong.”
My fists clenched. “She left to get some brochures in the lobby of the resort we’re staying at. She wasn’t gone that long. I thought she’d be safe.”
Luz spun around toward me, her dark eyes now completely black. “Well, you were wrong, weren’t you?”
I sighed. “I really didn’t expect anything to happen when she was just going to the lobby. I guess I was stupid to let her go and I have to live with that regret. I’m a trained Undersea Medical Officer. I may have lost my legs, but I can still do whatever I need to do to save her. Just tell me what that is.”
Luz’s shoulders slumped. “I wish we could. Last time Garavan took someone I loved, he was killed before the rook could even get together a search party. I assume that Garavan sold my brother’s pelt on the black market. Shifter pelts go for higher than normal. Some people who believe in folklore think we have some kind of magic that mortals don’t. They’re partially right, but we need to be alive.”
“So if Maya has magic, she can save herself?”
Luz pressed her lips together. “Not spells or special powers, darling. We can shift. We can protect each other, but this isn’t some fantasy movie. The only saving grace she may have is if she can read the map for Garavan, but if she does that…then none of the rook is safe.”
I shook my head. “She can’t read the map. Neither of us could.”
“She had so much more training to do…” Luz whispered sadly.
“Then what do we do?” I demanded.
Luz tightened her robe. “We will not be doing anything. I am leaving. I have to keep my rook safe.”
She tried to push past me but I grabbed onto her shoulder, spinning her around. “That’s it? You’re not going to help me? Not going to help Maya?”
Luz sighed. “Darling, I wish I could. I do. I’ve been waiting a long time to see Maya. To finally meet my brother’s half-human daughter, but I also need to preserve my rook and this is the only way I know how.”
“By running and hiding?” Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I’d been a soldier for so long I couldn’t even think about running. I’d always fought.
“It’s the only way I can protect the rook.”
I nodded, letting go of her shoulder. I thought that Luz would have the answers, just like Maya did when we walked in here. Now I had to hope that Tex could help me save Maya. “Then tell me where to find this Garavan.”
Luz widened her eyes. “You think you, a mere mortal, can defeat this poacher that has been taking out shifters for decades?”
I didn’t know what the hell I was dealing with, but I knew that I had to protect Maya.
“Ma’am, I may be a mortal, but that’s not going to stop me from saving her.”
Chapter 15
Maya
Men wearing masks had come in intermittently to give me loaves of stale bread and water.
I wouldn’t touch any of it.
I didn’t know how long I’d been stuck there or when someone would find me. If they ever would.
Falling in and out of sleep, I was constantly woken up by the man, who I determined was the leader, but never gave me his name.
“Are you going to talk to me now, Maya?” He dangled my necklace in front of my eyes. The single light bulb cast a glow on it and I kept praying I’d be able to read something other than the mess of letters that swirled around the room.
But I couldn’t. It still all looked the same.
“I told you. I can’t read it,” I said through gritted teeth.
He grabbed the back of my neck and slammed my face against the glass. A searing pain ran through my nose and the warm trickle of blood ran onto my lips. I wanted to scream. To cry. To do something. But I couldn’t let him see my weakness.
“Why do you keep lying to me, Maya? Just give me what I want and I’ll let you go back to your legless man.”
I didn’t even dignify him with an answer. I just narrowed my eyes and locked his gaze.
We stood there in a stalemate for a long time before the man shook his head and muttered something under his breath. He turned to leave but before he did, he threw my necklace against a post.
I closed my eyes, bracing for the sound of it shattering.
Instead I just heard the clanking on the cement floor and opened my eyes to see it unbroken, sitting on the floor.
“Useless piece of shit,” he muttered, before turning and opening the door, slamming it behind him, leaving me alone in the dark. Again.
I didn’t know how long he was gone. People were coming in and out of the room, whispering. Delivering food that I didn’t eat.
Finally they left me alone.
Maybe I slept. I couldn’t tell but a burning sensation stung my eyes.
I wanted to keep my eyes closed and succumb to nothingness, but the light was too bright so I finally gave in and opened them.
The tiny window in the corner was filled with the early rising sunlight. A bright orange hue streamed down to the floor.
But that wasn’t what was causing the blinding light.
The necklace on the ground was glowing. All of the swirls and letters that used to not make sense now pulled together to reveal a full map with gold letters labeling different places around the world.
&nb
sp; “The map,” I whispered.
There were stars on different parts of the coast of the United States, Mexico, and even as far north as Antarctica. Arno. Bay. Brook. Cordelia. Caspian. Misty. Marina. Rainey. Waide. I’d never seen any of these named before, but somehow felt a connection deep within my heart.
“My brothers and sisters,” I whispered.
I’d never known my father or anything about myself, but I felt the greater connection. I knew I had to keep this map safe. That I couldn’t let this poacher get to my family.
For the first time, I tried to stand up straighter, but my tail hit at my side.
I never paid much attention to my tail. I wanted to pretend it wasn’t there.
But it was a part of me. It was like Calder said, it was what defined me. Now I just had to use it.
Flapping my tail around the tank, I beat against the glass. It shook slightly but nothing happened.
Sucking in a deep breath, I moved with more force and the tank actually tilted to the side.
If I couldn’t break it, I could knock it over.
With all of the strength that I had, I lashed my tail around and rocked my whole body. The tank shook and swayed until finally it fell over, the glass cracking loudly underneath me until the water whooshed out.
I coughed hard, flailing on the cement floor until I pulled my head out of the top of the tank and rolled over, tiny cuts pricking my body as I slid over the broken glass.
My tail was still there, from being submerged in water, so I couldn’t run. Rolling onto my stomach, I used my tail to flap against the cement floor and then pushed onto my upper body to crawl across the floor.
There had to be a quicker way, but since this was working, I kept moving until I was finally at the door.
Balancing on my back fin, I grabbed on to the side of the door and slowly pulled up until I could jiggle on the handle.
“Shit,” I muttered when it didn’t open.
I tried again, yanking as hard as I could then heard the door click open. I thought I was free.
Then the door crashed against the cement wall. The main man was standing right there with two other guys on his side. All holding giant knives and smirking.
“Well, it looks like someone has figured out how to use her powers. That’s good. It’ll make that pelt even more valuable,” the man said, stepping forward.
Crawling back on my arms and flapping my tail, I tried to will my body to change back to normal. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.
My life flashed before my eyes.
Gran falling to the ground when she found out my mother died
My first shift.
And finally Calder.
The moment I saw him walk into the ocean, I knew that I had to save him. That there was more to him. I was afraid that the kiss this morning would be our final kiss goodbye.
I couldn’t die like this.
The man crept closer, a giant blade in his hand with a smile on his face. “Oh, sweetheart, don’t be afraid. This will only hurt for a moment.”
I kept trying to push back but he just kept inching closer until I was against the back wall.
Breathing heavily, I looked around. There was a small window above me. The same window that the light shown in and revealed the map to my siblings. He wanted that necklace and if he saw the light shine on it, he’d see the map and find my brothers and sisters. I couldn’t let the man get the necklace.
The more I moved with my tail, the easier it became. Quickly I darted in the other direction and moved toward the center of the room, grabbing the necklace before my tail was seized and I was yanked backward.
The man sneered, his face just inches from mine. “So that necklace does mean something to you. I knew you were a liar.”
I didn’t even respond. I just gripped tightly onto the necklace. If he was going to kill me, he was going to have to pry it from my lifeless hands.
A large crash came from behind the man and then the ‘oof’ of two men groaning before the cracking of heads hitting cement.
The man spun around and there stood the silhouette of a man in the shadows. The guy in the shadows was massive, but once he stepped into the light and I saw his smile, I somehow knew he was a good guy.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting a fight, but I’ll take it,” the shadow guy said.
I began to speak, but the air whooshed from my lungs when the man with the knife came behind me and pressed the blade to my neck. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll cut her.”
“Garavan, you don’t want to do that,” the man in the shadows said, putting his hands out, keeping his voice calm and even.
“Don’t test me,” Garavan spat.
The man in the shadows sighed. “Garavan, you know if you kill her it’s not going to end well for you.”
“I’m the one holding the knife,” Garavan growled.
The cold blade pressed against my neck and a trickle of blood fell down my cleavage. I willed my body to shift back to human form. But I couldn’t. All I could do was flap my damn tail around. I thought I would have shifted back by now, but I was still sopping wet and half a seal.
While the man in the shadows talked, I slowly glanced back at Garavan. He wasn’t looking at me, but instead his eyes focused on the man in the shadows.
Slowly I lifted my tail, making sure he wasn’t looking. He was in some kind of verbal spat with the man in the shadows, his knife still pressed tightly to my neck. I knew it was only a matter of time before he killed me and I had to move fast. Tail or no tail, I had to save myself.
I thrust my hips forward and pushed my tail out, arching my back so that my fin came in direct contact with Garavan’s arm. The force of my heavy tail knocked his arm to the side and I heard the clank of the metal knife on the hard ground.
In one fell swoop, the shadow guy came forward and grabbed me just as my body shifted back to normal form.
This was it. I was finally going to be free. I was protected. Calder had to have called his buddies. He had to be nearby. A smile lit up my face, knowing I would be free and to see him again.
But then a searing pain hit my leg. I looked down at my calf where a knife stuck out of it. Garavan looked up from the ground with a smile as he twisted the knife deeper into my leg.
Garavan’s bloodcurdling laugh and the sound of a gunshot was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.
Chapter 16
Calder
As soon as I got back to the hotel, I had a message from Tex that he was sending backup.
I didn’t expect the back up to be Wolf, Abe, Cookie, Dude, Mozart, & Benny.
The minutes ticked down while we sat in the helicopter at the extraction point.
Cookie had gone alone to the site where Tex had tracked Garavan to. I didn’t know how he did it exactly, but I just hoped he wasn’t wrong.
“Cookie’s taking too damn long in there,” I grumbled.
“Relax, Doc, he knows what he’s doing. This isn’t his first rodeo,” Benny said, patting my shoulder.
These six guys had been a team for so long that they knew each other’s movements and how they operated.
But it wasn’t their girlfriend who was captured.
I was about to say something again, but the trees started to clear ahead.
“Where is he? What’s taking him so long to move?” I asked.
“Shhh,” Dude ordered, staring at the scene ahead.
Finally Cookie emerged, carrying a passed out Maya. He was shirtless with his shirt tied around her leg and a jacket around her waist, covering up her lower body.
I jumped out of the helicopter and ran toward him as fast as I could. “What the hell happened?”
Cookie shook his head. “I had her, Doc, then Garavan got one last gash in her before I could knock him out. We have to hurry. I don’t know how long it’ll take the other guys to find us.”
“Maya, baby, can you hear me?” I whispered, holding onto her hand. Helping Cookie, I watched a
s he laid Maya on the floor of the helicopter and I went to her side.
No response from her.
“How long has she been out?”
“About the hour it took us to get here at least,” Cookie said as Abe started up the helicopter and we slowly lifted from the ground.
“Mozart, I’m going to need you to assist me. We have to get her stitched up. No telling how much blood she lost. I’m also going to need an IV set up and the bag of O negative in the cooler.”
Mozart nodded, grabbing the supplies without saying a word.
“You’re going to be fine, baby. It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, smoothing a strand of hair behind Maya’s ear.
I removed the jacket from around her waist then grabbed a blanket from the back of one of the seats and put it over her.
The whirring of the helicopter blades surrounded us and Mozart moved quickly, sticking in the IV and getting me the supplies.
I pried her hand open and saw her necklace there in her palm. Without thinking, I put it in my pocket then stuck the IV into her arm.
“So, are we going to talk about what I saw?” Cookie asked as I got the alcohol out to clean the wound.
“That my girlfriend shifts into a seal and this is the last we’re ever going to discuss it?”
Cookie nodded. All the Navy knew was that there was a kidnapping in Mexico. They didn’t know it had anything to do with poachers or shifters, and that’s how it was going to stay when the guys talked to their commanding officer.
Wolf put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Your secret is safe with us, Doc.”
***
We flew back to the hospital in San Diego. Maya was given pain medication once we got to the hospital and was now resting comfortably.
Luckily, the knife had missed her major veins and arteries but she still had lost a lot of blood and needed to rest.
I wasn’t going to leave her side until she was well again.
I wasn’t going to leave her side ever.
