by Brandon Witt
“You’re not even going to ask how he is, are you. All you’re worried about are your precious mers. Not a thought about Finn. Or even Cynthia.”
I looked at her, uncertain how to answer. Actually, to my shame, Finn had been on my mind just as much as the mers. The mers should have blocked out any emotions about my ex-boyfriend. Their lives were much more important than how I’d left things with Finn.
Unable to suppress my emotions, I was filled with both excitement and terror over the thought of seeing him again. So much so that the idea of taking on the Royals sounded less daunting than coming face-to-face with Finn. The thought of him nearby was too much to take in. I’d made peace with never seeing him again.
Or at least I thought I had. Every time I tried to think of what I’d say if I saw him—when I saw him—my mind went totally blank. Nothing but white noise and terror.
Newton’s drawl had returned to slow and bored. “Get some perspective, Caitlin. The man’s got the fate of an entire species on his shoulders. Finn’s nice and all, but let’s have some priorities here.”
Caitlin started to retort, but Shane spoke up from where he sat on the edge of the chair by the window, outside our little circle. Both of his hands rubbed at his temples. “Again, I think the part we need to figure out first is this vampire. I don’t believe it’s going to be as simple to capture him as the plan you laid out, Newton. No offense.”
“None taken. And typically, I’d agree with you. There aren’t any other species that are more dangerous than vampires. Other than full-fledged demons.” He gave a dismissive wave toward me. “Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we don’t have one of those among us. Still, as strong as they are, I think with our combined skills, we have more than a good chance of containing him.”
Again my skin tingled with anticipation. I’d waited so long to rip the fucker to pieces, and here the chance was, right in front of me. “It would be easier to kill him.”
He nodded. “That’s true, Brett. Keeping him alive for information is taking much more of a risk. And we’re depending on you being able to control your fire to pull that off, instead of just burning him to ash. I still say we should get Finn and Schwint to help us.”
“No!” Caitlin and I both shouted at the same time. She shook her head. “For the last time, no. If this goes badly, one of us needs to be able to stay and help Cynthia. And if Finn knows about our plan or knows that Brett is here, he’s not going to stand by and not try to help.”
I sluffed off the desire to ask who Schwint was. The first time he’d been mentioned, I nearly did, but the expression on Caitlin’s face kept me from it. I didn’t think I wanted to know. “I agree. There’s no reason to risk him. Or Cynthia. Besides, let’s say things do go badly here. Finn would never let anything bad happen to the mers either.”
The fairy gave me a knowing glance. “You might be surprised.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
To my astonishment, Caitlin didn’t jump on me for referencing my relationship with her brother.
Shane brought us back on topic. “It’s obvious the vampire knows you’re following him. He led you around the town twice in the short time Brett and I were eating. That’s going to make it harder to catch him. However, we might be able to set a trap.”
Newton started to interject, but Shane cut him off.
“I mean a real trap. This all just seems like child’s play. I can’t believe you two weren’t more careful. You should have realized he knew you were following him.”
Though firm, Caitlin’s tone wasn’t demeaning or sarcastic. Maybe she was saving all that for me. “You don’t have to join us, werewolf. If you don’t like the plan, no one is making you stay. And of course we knew he was aware of us.”
“Then why do it?”
She shrugged, as if the risk was nothing more than buying a lotto ticket. “In case the opportunity to capture him showed itself. When the time came, he’d already be used to us following him. And look, the opportunity has been presented.” She gestured around the room.
Shane shook his head, still unconvinced. “I don’t get why he’s been allowing you to follow him. What’s the point?”
“Like all vampires, this one seems to like games. Maybe more than most. And as you said, it’s just me and the fairy. Why would he concern himself with us? He’s biding his time. Plus, Finn is certain the vampire king has demanded we remain unharmed.”
“For now.”
“Yes, wolf. For now. So we take advantage of that fact. Now.”
We would attempt the plan when the sun went down, when it was late enough that most of the tourists would be out of the way. Despite the fact that the redhead could now be out in full sunlight, it simply felt right to get him at night. Both Shane and Newton had great night vision. Caitlin had her spells, and I had fire.
Fire. I kept picturing him above me in that alley—remembering both the pleasure he forced me to feel and the genuine terror that seeped through. If only I’d managed to end it then, but I’d been as surprised as him when I lit him up. Or even if I’d found a way to kill him the night he led me to the house where Sonia had killed that family. To think I would have that chance, and I had the control I needed to finally get the job done, and I still couldn’t kill him!
Whatever. When it was over, when Finn, Cynthia, and the mers were safe, I’d end him. And if I could figure out a way to make the fire consume him slowly, I’d do that.
Caitlin and Newton had left Shane and I alone in the hotel while they went to some cave they had lived in for a while. I couldn’t say I hated the idea of Caitlin stuck in a cave. Seemed fitting. They needed to check on something to make sure it was ready if things went as planned. They seemed confident the vampire would show and let them follow him around like he had the past many nights.
I felt like I understood him better than the rest. Having him nearly kill me twice, not to mention kill my best friend, gave me a deeper level of connection to him, for lack of a better word. I think Caitlin understood that a little more than Newton seemed to. Probably since she’d been a victim of him firsthand as well, when she’d watched him nearly kill her nephew. The vampire wasn’t going to be content to simply play an obvious game of cat and mouse with a witch and a fairy and not have an alternative plan up his sleeve. Maybe I was giving him too much credit. I might feel differently if I’d met the vampire king, but I couldn’t see the redhead kowtowing to anyone when there was misery to spread. Even if it was an edict from the king. I was certain that the only reason Caitlin and Newton hadn’t been slaughtered yet was because the vampire was biding his time and relishing the anticipation.
“Wow. You really are a million miles away. Not that I blame you, I guess.”
I glanced over at Shane, who was reclining on the opposite bed. I’d forgotten he was there.
He smiled. “It’s okay. You don’t have to entertain me or anything.”
“No, I’m sorry. I was lost in thought. It’s been a crazy year or so.” I shook my head. “It seems like it’s been centuries. I can’t believe it hasn’t been longer.”
Shane rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at me. “Yeah, I’d say so. Learning you’re a demon, then finding out you’re part mermaid or whatever. That would take a lot out of a guy.”
I nodded, uncertain what to say.
“So earlier, when you said something about returning to the ocean, you meant that literally, didn’t you? Like stay in it. Live under the water.”
I nodded again.
He thought about it, then let out a shudder. “Shit! That sounds horrible!”
I couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Yeah, you didn’t even wanna get your feet wet in the waves.”
“Exactly! It sounds horrible!” Though he wasn’t exactly kidding, he grinned at me playfully.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the mer thing. I wasn’t sure how to handle that.” I glanced down at the floor. “Or th
e Finn thing either.”
Shane pushed himself into a sitting position so he was leaning out over the open space between the beds. “Hey, none of that. We only met yesterday, remember? One good fuck, or a few, doesn’t commit you to share your life story or anything.”
“Yeah, but I should have told you when you decided to come along.”
He shrugged. “Why? Wouldn’t have made any difference. You told me you had to rescue somebody from the Vampire Cathedral. You do. The only thing that telling me you had to rescue mermaids would have done was make me even more excited to come. Didn’t even know those things still existed, or even if they had. Wouldn’t have passed that up for the world.”
“And Finn?”
He let out a loud laugh, for some reason bringing Wrell to my mind once more. I’d never heard the merman laugh and doubted he ever had, but I was certain this is what he would have sounded like if he did. “Why the fuck would I care about an ex-boyfriend? It’s not like you even knew he was here.”
“Well, still—”
“Dude, you gotta knock it off. You did no wrong by me, okay? Hell, even if you had known the guy was here, and even if he had still been your boyfriend, I probably would have still signed up. I hadn’t had sex like that in a long time. Not gonna pass that up. What you choose to tell your boy is your business. But that isn’t even the case. So who cares?”
I couldn’t say I liked the insinuation that he wouldn’t have minded if I was cheating on someone with him, but like he said, I hadn’t been, so it was all beside the point.
I sat up, mimicking his position so we were on eye level with each other. “Well, either way, this whole thing got a lot more complicated. I wasn’t even sure why you were coming with me before. You sure don’t have to now.”
“Are you kidding? This thing got easier. Like the fairy said, the more power we have, the better. Granted, I would choose about any other power over witch and fairy. Some more wolves or demons. Even a rogue vampire or something, but power’s power, and now we have more of it. And if we can get your warlocky ex-boyfriend and the other fairy to team up with us, maybe even the sister, if we can get her out… well, I’d say we nearly got ourselves an army.”
I considered his words. He was right. Kinda. Maybe not an army, at least not one that should take on the Vampire Cathedral, but still. It would be a lot better than the two of us. Or just myself, like I’d thought it would be.
He grinned at me, the smile on his handsome face making him look boyish and highlighting the lines that were beginning to deepen around his eyes and mouth. If I hadn’t known Finn was nearby, I would have wanted to take the last few minutes of privacy and put them to good use.
“Why are you doing this?”
He flinched back slightly. Not much, but enough that I noticed the uncomfortable expression that crossed his face. “Why not? I told you it was time for an adventure.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, inspecting. “Nah, there’s more. You’re not just doing this for adventure. Why risk so much? You barely know me, and you don’t know any of the others at all. Plus, you don’t like water. I don’t believe you’re that interested in mermaids.”
Again, he tensed for a moment, then shrugged and let his shoulders relax. “Like I told you, you didn’t need to tell me everything. You don’t owe me that. You said you needed to help someone, and you do. That sounded like a good thing to me. Yeah, it’s an adventure, and that’s something I’m always up for.”
He paused again, searching for words.
I leaned back, trying to give him space but still hoping to understand.
He raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, then let them fall to his lap. “Let’s say I’ve got a past and there’s plenty to make up for. Helping you out seemed like a good way to start putting some of that right. The fact you’re hot as fuck and can fuck as hot as you look was a bonus. Now that I know there’s even more at risk than I realized… that there’s an entire species needing help…. Well, can’t it be enough that I’m trying to put some things right for once?”
Coming off of his claim that it wouldn’t have bothered him if he’d been screwing around with someone else’s boyfriend, I was a little taken aback by his declaration of atonement of sorts. He seemed genuine. More than.
Thirty-Five
Brett Wright
“Do you really expect me to fall for this?”
I didn’t answer, only stared at him as he stood on the edge of the surf, the bright moonlight illuminating his body from the darkness of the forest at his back. More than ever before, I was astounded that such a weak-looking man could have been the cause of so much pain and death. His thin frame was better suited to a computer geek than a creature of such destruction.
His volume rose as he took another step closer to me, his foot submerging. “And naked? This is your plan, to seduce me into this trap?”
My gaze flicked to the blackness of the trees, to where the others were hiding. Waiting. The vegetation seemed to creep forward. Not a threat to the vampire, but to me. Its vines snaking from the trees, darting into the water, and wrapping around me, pulling me into its dense darkness. Taking me forever from the safety of the sea.
With the water lapping below my waist, the leering jungle seemed to hold more threat than the vampire. It was foreign. Sinister. How much more so for the countless mers who had been taken from the sea and dragged into this alien world?
Despite my proclaimed control and knowing he was no real danger to me any longer, fear shot through me. The water bubbled around my naked hips, steam wafting over the skin of my stomach.
“Is your body supposed to lure me out into the sea, demon? Like it did to that boy? Are you going to boil me? Is that the new way to kill a vampire?”
A low chuckle wafted to me over the water, refocusing my fear to where it should have been. I’d forgotten for a moment. It didn’t matter what he looked like. He was the monster who killed Sonia, who’d nearly killed Peter. He started everything that night in the alley. The boiling water began to surge in earnest, in fury.
The vampire cocked his chin to one side, angling his head to project his voice over his shoulder. “Did he tell you that, witch? Did you know your brother was fucking a demon who boiled a boy to death on the beach? He just left him there, dying. A melted mass of flesh.” He brought his attention back to me, his emerald eyes bright as sunshine, cutting through the distance. Then in an instant, the vampire closed the space between us, not making a single ungraceful move as he stepped through the water. I flinched but held my ground, reminding myself that he couldn’t hurt me. Not really. “And they call me a monster.”
The handsome face of that stranger started to form in my mind, but it faded before any aspect of him became distinguishable. His face had long ago vanished from my mind, but the agonized terror in his screams threatened to drown out everything around me. I’d never told anyone but Finn. It seemed impossible the vamp could even know about the boy.
His hand clutching my chin brought me back to the present, shattering the past. The emeralds held my gaze, not requiring any compulsion to keep me from looking away.
“You like to pretend you’re the victim in all this, don’t you? That you’re the key to everything. The reason it all happened. That if only I hadn’t found you that night, hadn’t taken you in that alley, it all could have been different?”
The vampire’s voice lowered to a whisper. “The only thing you were was a blood bag. And a piece of ass. I’ve taken better. Your little fortune cookie of a roommate, for instance. Now, she put up a much more believable fight than you.” He pulled my chin forward and twisted, bringing my ear to his lips. “Funny that she’s our queen now. The stupid cunt. She was something. You were worth nothing more than the mer blood in your veins. I’ll give you that. Because of you, I uncovered the key to what I’d been searching for my entire existence, but I claimed it elsewhere. I didn’t even really need you.”
Yanking my face back to be even with his, he bare
d his fangs. “None of this has been about you. You were nothing compared to those around you. The human bitch outshined you. Even the sniveling witch boyfriend was important. But you?” Another laugh. “Even now the more interesting are hiding behind me in the trees.”
We hadn’t dreamed he’d actually join me in the water. Hadn’t really thought he’d be lured by my body. It had all simply been an invitation to play the game.
He’d accepted, and here he was, exactly where I needed him and where we’d not begun to hope he’d allow himself to be without a fight. With just the two of us secluded in the water, I could light him up without an ounce of effort on anyone else’s part. All I needed to do was let myself.
One thought. One instant of truly letting go, and we’d be engulfed in flames. And yet, as with every other time I’d been in his presence, I did what he wanted. I bowed to his desires. This time was no different. He didn’t even have to use his coercion. Even as I spoke, I cursed myself for rising to the bait.
“If that’s so true, why are you out here in the water with me? Why play the game? Leave the country. You can walk in the sun now. You could be free, but you’re waiting to see what I’ll do, like always.”
His free hand came up and began to caress my chest, letting his fingers twist through the hair before his fingernails sliced through my skin. “The cost of the sun was not cheap. I have a century of debt to pay to our king. My second assignment? Report the goings and comings of the witch and fairy. Boring.”
