

# Dirty Little Mermaids

#

# J. D. Rogers

# ***

# Smashwords Edition

#

# 

# Copyright 2016 J. D. Rogers

# All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for quotations in printed reviews, without the written permission of the author.

# All characters are fictional. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

# Cover Photos: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

#

# Smashword Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

### CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

BOOKS BY JD ROGERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

# Chapter 1

Like most mermaids, I've got very good eyes, eyes that can see clearly in the ocean's dark depths. That's why I saw him before he saw me. He rode up on a motorcycle. A red Ducati. He was long and lean with shoulder length black hair that he wore in a ponytail. His clothes were simple, jeans and a black tee shirt topped by a black leather jacket. His skin was pale and dry, the kind of skin you find on a vampire that hasn't fed in awhile. If he had been human, I would've put him in his late twenties. Being a vamp, one had no way of knowing how long he had been around.

I was sitting in Felicity's BMW, which sat under a carport next to her house. The vamp didn't see me inside the car, didn't even look in my direction. He just walked up to the front door of Felicity's house, pulled out a key, and let himself inside.

He could've been a friend of Felicity's, the girl I had been hired to find. More likely, he worked for the Order of the Pearl. The organization that took her. If that was the case, then he was here for one of two reasons, to pick up some of Felicity's things, or to get rid of any clues telling people what happened to her, clues like the invitation her father found and passed on to me. Either way, he was a lead, a lead I needed to take advantage of, and the only way I could do that was by confronting him.

Like myself, the vamp didn't bother to turn on the lights inside the house. But then he didn't need to, vamps have excellent vision. Not as good as mine, but close. I found him moving around the living room looking for something. He wore black leather gloves, perhaps because he drove a motorcycle, more likely because he didn't want to leave prints.

"You looking for this?"

I pulled a card out of my pocket and held it up. Felicity's father found it. It was the size of a wedding invitation. On its black front was a picture of a pearl. It was the only clue we had regarding the disappearance of his twenty-five year old daughter.

The vamp wheeled around and glared at me. His eyes glowed red in the dark room, telling me two things. He needed to feed, and he was thinking that I would make an excellent meal.

"Who are you?" the vamp said. He had a gaunt face, dry skin stretched over sharp bones.

"That depends upon what happens next."

"You speak in riddles. I don't like riddles."

"If you answer my questions honestly. Then I'm your newest friend."

"And if I don't answer them honestly?" The vamp smiled when he said that, telling me that he wasn't in the habit of answering questions honestly.

"Then I'm your worst nightmare."

Yeah, I know. It's a bit of a cliché. But I'm a mermaid with red hair, which sort of makes me a walking cliché.

The vamp laughed. "I'll say one thing, girlie. You got balls."

"First question," I said. "Does your boss own a car wash or a nightclub? Or maybe he owns both."

"If you give me that card your holding, I'll let you live after I feed off you. If you don't give it to me, I'll drain you dry."

I slid the invitation back inside my jacket pocket. At the same time, I reached out with my mind, until I felt the water inside the vamp's body. There wasn't a lot inside his body, about half that of a well fed vamp, but he was walking and talking, which meant that there was enough for what I needed to do.

The vamp shrugged his shoulders. "Have it your way."

He moved toward me, in a kind of cocky swagger. Then he leaped, jumping over a sofa as if it wasn't even there. While he did that, I ordered the water inside his body to freeze. Flash freeze. At the same time, I stepped back.

Vamps are fast, extremely fast. But mermaids aren't exactly slow. Instead of landing on me, as he had planned, the vamp's body froze in midair and he crashed to the blue ceramic floor, landing on his stomach with a hard thud. Then he just lay there, frozen solid with his arms above his head, like a flying superhero.

I pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, then I rolled him over, so he was lying on his back. His eyes were open, but he didn't blink. Not that he could. His eyelids were as frozen as the rest of his body.

Like all mermaids, I have the power to control water. Any water. Even the water that makes up a person's body. I can make it freeze. I can make it boil. I can even make it burst through a person's veins, arteries, and skin. That's why the vamps, werewolves, and other supernaturals refer to my kind as dirty little mermaids. Not to our faces, mind you. They're not that stupid. Well, most of them aren't that stupid.

I sat on the vamp's chest and rooted through his wallet, checking to see who he was, who he worked for. Sitting on his chest served no purpose other than it gave me a chance to humiliate him. Vamps are extremely arrogant, so whenever I have an opportunity to humiliate one, I take advantage of it. What can I say, I'm a mermaid, and like most mermaids I like to tease and taunt. Living among humans has forced me to suppress those urges, most of the time, but when an opportunity arises, why not take advantage of it?

"Your driver's license says your name is Gavin Eckels. Gavin's not exactly a common name, which tells me that you've been around a few decades, probably born in the nineteen thirties or forties. You look to be in your twenties, which means you were probably turned, what, back in the nineteen fifties? Not a new vamp, but not an old one either, that makes you sort of important, but not all that important. Kind of a mid level gofer. The question is, who do you work for?"

I looked through the rest of the stuff in his wallet, there was the usual crap, plus a membership card for a vamp blood bank. Vamps had to eat, just like everyone else. It was against the law to feed off humans without their permission, which meant you either found a human that enjoyed being bitten by a vampire, or you bought your blood from a vamp blood bank, and that required money.

The fact that Gavin Eckels was willing to drain me dry didn't mean much. I was a supernatural and supernaturals weren't protected by human laws. He could kill me and not have to worry about the authorities coming after him. The government was run by humans and existed to protect humans. Supernaturals were on their own.

I tossed his wallet aside and dug through his pockets a second time. Eventually, I found what I was looking for. His phone.

"I'm guessing this has your employer's number on it, so I'll just keep it." I tucked his phone inside my jacket, slipping it in the pocket where I kept the invitation he came here to retrieve. Then I turned my attention back to him. "Tell your employer that if he knows what's good for him, he'll let Felicity Bernard go home."

Not that I expected Gavin Eckels's employer to do that. Anyone that kidnapped human women wasn't likely to let them go because some mermaid threatened one of his flunkies. But then I didn't expect Gavin Eckels to pass on my threat.

I stood and headed out the door. I didn't bother to tell the vamp who I was or what I did to him. He would figure it out eventually. If he didn't, then he wasn't very bright.

I was on my way back to my place when the phone rang. Not my phone, Gavin Eckels's phone. Naturally, I couldn't resist answering it.

"Yeah," I said. I didn't try to disguise my voice. I got a deep smoky voice, especially over the phone. If it's a bad connection and I don't talk too much, I can pass myself off as a man.

"Did you get the invitation?" The person on the other end of the line was a woman. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did.

"I've got it."

The woman on the other end of the line breathed a sigh of relief. "Throw it away. And not in her garbage."

"I ain't stupid," I said, saying what I thought Gavin might say in that situation.

"That remains to be seen," the woman said.

The line went dead. There was a number listed, but no name with the number. But that was okay. At least now I had his employer's private number. When I got home, I could call in a few favors at the police department where I used to work, find out who the number belonged to.

Before I did that, I was going to have to deal with the vamp roaring up behind me, the one on the red Ducati. Apparently, Gavin Eckels was even lower on blood than I realized, since he thawed out way faster than normal. What's more, he was even dumber than his employer realized, coming after a mermaid. Then again, maybe he really really loved his phone.

I didn't try to outrun Gavin. A Honda Del Sol isn't going to outrun a 1000cc Ducati, not even if it has a little extra horsepower under the hood. Not to mention cars just aren't as maneuverable as motorcycles.

Since we were still on the coast highway, I pulled my car over. If Gavin Eckels wanted another confrontation we would have another confrontation, but it would be on my turf, next to the ocean.

I got out of my car and ran to the beach. When the ocean was right behind me, I spun around and held out both hands. "Please don't hurt me, Mr. Big Bad Vampire."

Yeah, I know, I was being a smart ass. But I'm a mermaid and it's part of my nature.

"I want that invitation," Gavin Eckles said. He climbed off his bike and moved toward me. "Along with my phone."

I lowered my hands and dropped all pretense of being afraid. "And I want the name of your employer. So how about if we make a deal. You tell me your employer's name and I'll give you the card and your phone."

"I'm not telling you nothing."

The vamp's fangs appeared and his eyes began to glow red, warning me that he was about to feed. I responded by reaching out to the water behind me, commanding it to rise up, until a twenty foot wall of water appeared directly behind me.

When Gavin Eckels rushed me, I commanded that wall of water to crash down on us. More accurately, I commanded it to crash down on him. The suit and blouse I was wearing cost several hundred dollars, no way I was going to get them wet.

The water hit the vamp with enough force to knock him off his feet. When it rolled back into the ocean, Gavin Eckels was left lying on his back on the wet sand, spitting water out of his mouth. While he took a moment to recover, I commanded the water to rise up again, so another twenty foot wall of water backed me up.

"You're a mermaid," he said, spitting more water out of his mouth.

"Most vamps would've figured that out when I froze the water inside their body, which tells me that you're not the brightest bulb in the marquee. I gotta admit. I like that in an opponent."

I sent a second wave of water crashing down upon Gavin. Once again, the wave split in two, so I remained dry. It washed over the vamp and pushed him further up the beach, still on his back.

"I can do this all day," I said, forming another wall of water behind me.

Gavin Eckels spit more water out of his mouth, pushed himself to his feet, and headed back toward his bike, mumbling to himself, "Dirty little mermaids."

Mermaids like to tease and taunt, but we don't kill indiscriminately. Perhaps if we did, they'd refer to us as deadly little mermaids, instead of dirty little mermaids. "Tell your boss that I want to talk to Felicity Bernard."

Gavin didn't acknowledge that he heard me, but I knew he did. Vamps have very good hearing. I remained on the beach until I saw and heard his bike roar away. I listened until I couldn't hear its distinctive whine. When I was sure that he was gone, I climbed back in my car and headed home.

I reached my condo to find another man on a motorcycle waiting for me. Dr. John Cook. He wasn't a real doctor. He was a marine biologist. We became friends when he needed a mermaid to help him with some research. Our relationship evolved after that. You couldn't call us a couple, like a lot of supernaturals, I have commitment issues. But we were more than friends. I guess you could say that we were friends with benefits.

"You're out late," I said, climbing out of my car.

John was sitting on his bike, a shiny black Buel. Like his bike, John was dressed in black, black motorcycle boots, black jeans, and a black leather jacket. Even his helmet was black.

"I was just about to leave," he said, pulling his helmet off. It mussed his short blond hair, but it was a delicious look. "Figured you were working."

"I was. Still am."

John was human, but he was big. Six three, two hundred and thirty pounds, all of it muscle. He played football in college, linebacker to be exact. He didn't have the foot speed to play pro ball, but was smart enough to realize that. Unlike a lot of college football players, he used his scholarship to study.

He went on to get his masters, and eventually, his doctorate. Now, he worked for something called the Kragen Institute for Marine Biology. They were conducting some kind of study on human fishing. That's why he tried to hire me. He wanted me to go down there and count fish. Naturally, I turned him down. No way was I going to swim around the ocean counting fish for some human, no matter how delicious he was.

"Interesting case?"

"Some vamp snatched some rich guy's daughter. At least I think it was a vamp."

"She could've went with him willingly," John said. "You know how humans can get addicted to vampire bites."

"Maybe, but I doubt it."

"What makes you say that?"

"A vamp was trying to erase all traces of what happened to her. That tells me she didn't go willingly. So is this a business call?" I paused to smile. "Or more personal in nature."

"A little of both," John said.

I felt the smile fade from my face. "What does that mean?"

John hesitated. "I've met someone."

"So?"

"We're sort of engaged."

"Sort of engaged? How can one be sort of engaged?"

"Fine. We're engaged."

"And?"

"I can't see you anymore."

I wasn't happy to hear this, although I couldn't explain why I was upset. Perhaps because John was one of my shiny things and I didn't like it when someone took my shiny things from me. Then again, maybe I was just worried about him. John was big and strong and smart, but he was too trusting, especially when it came to women. Someone had to look out for him, protect him from the devious women that were out there, it looked like that someone was me.

"Is she human?"

John hesitated, which told me all I needed to know. His fiancée was a supernatural. "What difference does it make? We're in love, that's all that matters."

He might be in love, but I wasn't so sure about her. Supernaturals weren't capable of feelings like love. They were driven by their baser instincts, like lust and hunger. Love, compassion, empathy, didn't seem to be a part of their makeup. Our makeup.

"This vamp have a name?"

"Crystal Kragen. And I didn't say she was a vampire."

"As in the Kragen Institute? The place that employs you?"

"The same."

"You never told me your boss was a supernatural."

John shrugged his broad shoulders. "Guess it never came up."

"Why would a supernatural be interested in marine biology? I'm a mermaid and even I'm not interested in marine biology."

"Crystal is trying to change the way the world views her people. The Kragen Institute is her way of showing the world that she cares as much about the planet as the rest of us."

I didn't believe that for a minute, but John obviously did. Most likely, the Kragen Institute was a front for something more nefarious. Either that or it existed to give Crystal Kragen and her people some much needed positive publicity. Whoever her people were.

"Did she tell you that she loved you?"

"Yes."

"She was lying."

"You don't even know her."

"She's a supernatural and one thing I know about supernaturals is they're not capable of love."

"Does that include you?"

"Have you ever heard me talk about being in love?"

"No."

"Supernaturals lack the capacity to love. If a supernatural tells you they love you, he or she is lying. Me included."

"Maybe Crystal is different than you."

"You don't mind if I investigate Crystal do you? See for myself if she's all you claim she is."

"I'd prefer you didn't," John said.

"Then what do you want from me? Besides not calling you in the middle of the night and telling you that I have an itch that needs scratching."

"I want you to be happy for me." John slipped his helmet on, fired his bike up, and roared off. If he thought I was going to let him walk out of my life, or in this case, ride out of my life, then he didn't know me very well. Like I said, nobody takes my shiny things from me.

# Chapter 2

My search for Felicity Bernard began that morning. I had just returned from my morning swim in the ocean when I got a call from a friend at the police station. He told me that he was sending a potential client my way.

I had just enough time to shower and change into a black pantsuit and green silk blouse when there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find a man standing there. He was tall and thin, with long legs and long arms and a long nose. He was bald on top with a ring of neatly trimmed white hair on the sides and back. Small wire-rimmed glasses sat on his long narrow nose. He wore a gray suit, one that was tailored to fit his long body. He reminded me of a stork. A well-dressed stork. A well-dressed stork with money.

"The police sent me here," the man said. "They said there was someone here who could help me. A private detective."

"That would be me." I opened the door and stepped aside. "Come on in."

The man hesitated before stepping through the door. "I think maybe they sent me to the wrong place. I'm looking for someone that can deal with supernaturals."

"Still me."

"You're kind of young, not to mention awful pretty. I think I need someone older, someone tougher, someone more . . . ."

"Male?" I said, finishing the sentence for him.

The man shrugged his shoulders and flashed a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I wasted your time."

"I never caught your name," I said, slipping out of my jacket.

"Hiram," the man said. "Hiram Bernard."

I pulled my green silk blouse out of the waistband of my pants and unbuttoned it. "Before you go, I want you to punch me in the stomach."

Hiram Bernard shook his head and retreated a step. "I don't hit women."

"I'm not a woman. I'm a mermaid. The only way you're going to trust me to handle your case is if you understand the difference. If you punch me in the stomach, you'll understand the difference."

I slipped out of my silk blouse, revealing my six pack abs and the green satin bra that matched my shirt and eyes. I tossed my blouse and jacket on the back of the recliner to my left and placed my hands on my hips.

"Don't be afraid," I said. "You can't hurt me."

"I really don't want to hit you," Hiram said, staring at my abs. "Can I just touch you?"

I nodded and he pressed his right hand against my stomach. As soon as he did, his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my God! You're as hard as steel." He caressed my stomach for a few seconds, when his hand drifted toward my breast, he realized what he was doing and stepped back. Blushing. "Sorry, it's just that your skin is so smooth. I don't think I've ever felt skin that smooth."

"No need to apologize," I said, as I slipped into my blouse and buttoned it back up. I had made my point. He understood that I wasn't your average girl.

"Do those muscles come from working out?"

"Mermaids have extremely dense muscle tissue, probably the densest in the world. It enables us to withstand the intense water pressure at the bottom of the ocean. It also makes us extremely strong."

"How strong?"

"Strong enough to hold our own against any supernatural out there."

Mermaids have a mixed reputation. Humans like us. We're one of the few supernatural species they don't fear, mostly due to the way we've been portrayed in the movies. The downside to all those movies is they don't give you an accurate picture of our capabilities.

Supernaturals don't like us. They fear us. As well they should. We're the only non-human species with the power to control water. We can move it around. We can freeze it. We can make it boil. Without ever touching it. Keep in mind we live on a planet that's seventy percent water and inhabit bodies that are over sixty percent water. Vampires, werewolves, elves, etc., refer to us as dirty little mermaids, not to our faces mind you, just behind our backs. It's kind of ironic since we're the cleanest of all non-human species.

A few other things you should know about mermaids. If you throw water on our legs, they won't turn into a tail. That's a Hollywood myth. We have the power to change back and forth at will.

We are attracted to shiny things, that isn't a myth. For mermaids, collecting shiny things is a compulsion. The way gambling is a compulsion for some humans. Staring at them gives us a high, kind of the way drugs and alcohol give humans a high. If we don't have a treasure to stare at, we can go into a deep depression.

We don't have gills, which means we can't breathe under water. That's another myth. What we can do is hold our breath, hold it for a long time, much like whales and dolphins. Eventually, we have to come up for air, just like whales and dolphins. We're not fish. We're mammals. When we're born, we look like any human baby. We have to learn how to change form, just like we have to learn how to control water.

We also have exceptional eyesight. Mostly because our eyes are designed to see in the dark depths of the ocean. No one on this planet comes close to matching the eyesight of a mermaid.

My name's Low. No, it's not a common name for a mermaid, or anyone else for that matter. Blame my mother, who insisted upon the name. My father wanted to name me after his grandmother, Camelia, so I consider Low to be the lesser of two evils. In the end, my parents compromised, naming me, Low Camelia Campbell.

I should mention that my father is human, which isn't uncommon. For some reason, mermaids tend to give birth to girls, nature's way of ensuring the survival of the species, I guess. If you're a mermaid, and you want to have a baby, the father probably won't be a merman. Mermen are extremely rare.

How did I become a private investigator? That's easy. My father was a cop. I tried following in his footsteps, but like most mermaids, I'm not very good at taking orders. I received a lot of commendations for saving the lives of fellow officers, but I also received a lot of reprimands for not obeying orders.

I don't live in a coral castle at the bottom of the sea. That's another myth. You may not be aware of this, but it's cold and dark down there. While my body can handle the water pressure, and even the cold, there's not a lot happening down there. Just some creepy looking fish swimming around.

The fact is, I live in a condo, although it does have an ocean view. Okay, it sort of has an ocean view. If you stick your head out of my bedroom window and lean to the right, you can almost see around the building across the street. The one that actually does have an ocean view.

I was in said condo when a friend at the police station called and told me that he was sending me a potential client. Hence the pantsuit and silk blouse. Simple. Elegant. Professional. My hair, which is long and thick and red--mermaids are either blonds or redheads, although I can't tell you why--was tied back in a ponytail.

My condo was located on the building's third floor. The top floor. On the right was a sofa, a coffee table, a recliner, and a big screen television. Against the left hand wall was a desk. On the wall above it were some certificates, awards, and photos, all from my ten years on the city police force. What I called my wall of respectability. At the back of the room was a dining table. To the right was a kitchenette and a short hallway leading to the bathroom and a couple of bedrooms. I slept in one bedroom. The other contained a walk-in vault. It was where I kept my shiny things. My treasure. Gold. Silver. Rubies. Emeralds. Pearls.

Hiram noticed my wall of respectability and drifted over to look at it. "Your name is Low Campbell?"

"Most people just call me Low."

"Is Low a common name for mermaids?"

"It's a common name for this mermaid. Can I ask why you're here, Mr. Bernard?"

"Call me Hiram."

"What can I do for you, Hiram?"

"My daughter, Felicity, is missing."

"How old is your daughter?"

"Twenty-five."

"How long has she been missing?"

"I haven't heard from her in over a month."

"Is that unusual?"

"She calls me weekly. Without fail."

"Does she live here in the city?"

"She does."

"Have you stopped by her place?"

"Several times."

"And she hasn't been there?"

"No."

"What about work?"

"She's an artist. A painter. She works out of her home."

"You've already filed a missing person report with the police?"

Hiram nodded. "They suggested I come here."

"Do you have any ideas as to where I should start looking?"

Hiram reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a card. "I found this at her house."

I took the card from him and studied it. It was the size of a wedding invitation except that it was black on the outside. On the front of the card was a picture of a lone pearl. Inside were the words: You have been selected as an initiate in the Order of the Pearl.

"It's the word, initiate, that I don't like," Hiram said. "It sounds . . . ominous."

I couldn't argue with him on that point. It did sound ominous. "Did you show this card to the police?"

Hiram nodded. "I did."

"What did they say?"

"They suggested I contact you."

"Because?"

"They thought the card might have a non-human connection. You being a mermaid, and the organization being called the Order of the Pearl, I guess they thought you might know something."

I didn't know if the Order of the Pearl had a non-human connection or not, but I could ask my non-human acquaintances, see if they had heard of the Order of the Pearl. "I'll ask around, see if anybody has heard of this organization. Mind if I keep the card?"

"Be my guest." Hiram reached into his suit and pulled out a roll of money, which he handed to me. "Here's two thousand dollars, a retainer against your fees. If you need more, let me know. Money's no object."

"I'll need a number where I can reach you."

Hiram reached into his jacket a third time, pulled out a business card and a key, and handed both to me. "That's my private number. You can call me any time, day or night. The key is to my daughter's house. I wrote her address on the back of my card. In case you want to look for clues."

I slipped the key, the card, and his money into my jacket pocket. Then I offered him my hand.

"I'll be in touch as soon as I have some news."

Hiram took my hand. His fingers were long and slim. His grip gentle. His skin felt dry, although not as dry as a vampire. Vampire skin felt as dry as sand, even a well fed vampire. "Do you have any powers? Besides being as strong as steel?"

I smiled, slipped my hand out of his, and pointed to the cup of coffee I left sitting on the table at the back of the room. "Watch."

I focused on the coffee inside the cup, then I used my ability to control water to draw it out of the cup, until it formed a spinning waterspout above the cup. I let it spin for a few seconds, then I froze it in midair, literally, turning it into an icy black waterspout.

"You can control water?"

"All mermaids and mermen can control water. To a greater or lesser degree."

"Is your control over water greater or lesser?"

"I haven't met that many mermaids, so I can't answer that question. I can tell you that I'm every bit as good at controlling water as my mother."

Hiram nodded and headed toward the door. "You'll be in touch?"

I fell in alongside of him and opened the door. "As soon as I have some information."

"I'd like daily updates, even if you haven't learned anything."

"Is a phone call okay?"

"Phone, text, email. Whatever is easiest for you."

"There's a chance that your daughter is okay. Perhaps she's busy. Or perhaps she just doesn't want to talk to you."

"I hope that's true," Hiram said. "Either way, I need to know."

"Because you love her."

"Yes. Certainly you can understand that."

"Of course," I lied.

I wanted to understand love, wanted to experience it, even if I wasn't capable of returning that love. That's why I could never turn down a case like this. Truth be told, I'm fascinated by humans. I'm fascinated by their ability to fall in love, by their ability to sacrifice themselves for someone or something they love. I don't possess any of those abilities. Supernaturals may be stronger and faster than humans. We may have longer lifespans than humans. But nature gave them something we never got. Nature gave them the ability to love.

As soon as Hiram left, I did an internet search on the Order of the Pearl. I came up with nothing. No big surprise. This didn't sound like the type of organization that would promote itself on the net, certainly not on the internet. If they were on the net, it would be the darknet. Especially if it was a non-human organization. Most non-human activity took place on the darknet.

The darknet wasn't as big as the internet, and you couldn't just log onto it. You had to know someone that engaged in illegal activity, someone that had the right software and was wired into the darknet. As a non-human, and an ex-cop, I was lucky, if you wanted to call knowing people that sold illegal goods and services on the darknet as being lucky.

The person I knew who dealt with the darknet was a gnome named Nicholas Wormby. He owned a pawnshop not far from where I lived, but that wasn't how he made his money. He made his money finding and recovering sunken treasures. He located the treasures. His partner retrieved them. They split the profits. I know that because I was his partner.

He was short and ugly, which is how gnomes look. His head was completely bald. He had a bulbous nose with a wart on the end. He had giant cauliflower ears, even though he had never been a boxer. His right eye bulged out, while his left eye always seemed to be squinting. He had a large mouth with huge lips that dominated his face. His hands were unusually large, especially for someone that barely came to my waist.

Like all gnomes, Wormby liked to wear brightly colored clothes. Today, he had on pink high top sneakers, lime green knee socks, yellow Bermuda shorts, and an orange and red Hawaiian shirt.

"If it isn't my favorite mermaid," he said, when I entered his shop. He held his giant mitts in front of him. He had four fingers, actually three fingers and a thumb. All gnomes did. "You do know these aren't the only things on me that are abnormally large."

Oh, yeah. One other thing I failed to mention about gnomes. They're horny little creeps. I tolerated Wormby because of our business relationship. One which made both of us a lot of money. Well, it made him a lot of money. Our relationship allowed me to expand my collection of shiny things.

Like most mermaids, I would tolerate almost anyone if it meant expanding my collection of shiny things.

There was an open fifth of vodka on top of the counter, just in front of Wormby, so I used my powers to send the vodka rushing out of the bottle and at his face. Wormby moved his giant mitts in front of his face with surprising speed, causing the vodka to splash off them and onto the counter.

"That was a perfectly good bottle of vodka you just wasted."

Wormby, I called him that because he just didn't remind me of a Nicholas, bent over the counter and used his giant lips to suck up the spilled vodka. Something else you should know about gnomes, they don't have a lot of manners.

I pulled the invitation Hiram gave me out of my jacket pocket and waited for Wormby to finish sucking up the vodka.

"What can I do for you?" Wormby said, when he finished. He had a gravely voice, which matched his face, hands, and body.

"You know what this is?" I said, offering him the invitation.

Wormby took it from me. He didn't read it. He sniffed it. "It's supernatural. Although I can't tell what species."

Gnomes have the best noses in the world. They can sniff out anything you want. Wormby could probably sniff out Hiram's missing daughter for me, if I gave him a piece of her clothing. Problem is he'd want something in return, something I wasn't prepared to give him. Like my body. Or even worse, my half of our next treasure. I'd give up my body before I'd give up my shiny things.

"I thought it might be vampire. They do love the color black."

"I don't know if it's vamp, but it's definitely supernatural. Where'd you get it?" Wormby handed the card back to me.

"A client. He's looking for his missing daughter."

"Human?"

I nodded. "Human."

"If a vamp took her, she might not be alive anymore." Wormby looked into my eyes and seemed to lose his train of thought. Not an uncommon occurrence when you looked into the eyes of a mermaid, people claimed it was like falling into the ocean, although gnomes, for some unknown reason, were more susceptible than others. "You know your eyes are the same green as the kelp and plankton in the sea. The same exact green. Same deep deep emerald green."

I pulled my sunglasses out of my shoulder bag and slipped them on. Then I snapped my fingers in front of Wormby's face. He shook his head and came out of his trance. "I need you to do a darknet search for me. Find out if the Order of the Pearl has a web sight."

Wormby squared his shoulders. "What's in it for me?"

"What do you want?" Wormby smiled, a wicked smile. I glared at him. "Besides that."

"Besides that, nothing. Doing it with a mermaid is at the top of my bucket list."

"And doing it with a gnome is at the bottom of my bucket list." I switched to the one subject guaranteed to get Wormby's mind off sex. "Any new treasures that need to be checked out?"

"Our old friends on the Siren's Delight are off on another adventure. Although I don't know what they've found."

"Maybe they've found another sunken treasure."

Wormby shrugged his small shoulders. "Maybe. Won't know for sure until you check it out."

"Which way did they head?"

"South." Wormby moved out from behind the counter and headed for the back of his shop. "Come into my office and we'll see what we can find out about this Order of the Pearl."

# Chapter 3

I followed Wormby into an office that was barely big enough for a desk. Truth be told, it looked like a closet that had been converted into an office. If you were Wormby's size, it probably seemed spacious. If you were my size, well, it was a closet with enough room for a gnome and a gnome-sized desk.

Wormby sat at his desk and flipped open his laptop. The desk was the kind used by school kids, probably first or second graders, judging by its size. That meant it was perfect for Wormby.

"Nothing," Wormby said, after doing a search for the Order of the Pearl. "There's nothing on the darknet about this Order of the Pearl."

I leaned over Wormby's shoulder and studied the computer screen. "Nothing at all?"

"Whoever is behind this isn't actively recruiting new members. At least they're not doing it over the darknet." Wormby turned off the computer and looked at me. "So what ya going to do?"

"Talk to some vamps I know. Maybe they've heard of this Order of the Pearl." I turned and headed out of Wormby's office.

"Don't forget," Wormby yelled. "The Siren's Delight is somewhere south of the city. Check it out. See what they're up to."

I hadn't forgotten about the Siren's Delight. My next stop in searching for Hiram's daughter involved swinging by a vampire club called O Positive. Since vamp clubs don't open until after sunset, I had the rest of the day to myself.

Might as well head to the beach and go for a swim, see what the folk on the Siren's Delight were exploring. Maybe they found a sunken Spanish galleon, or a wrecked pirate ship, one loaded with gold doubloons. Shiny gold doubloons. A chest full of shiny gold pieces would look good in my treasure room. And I had the perfect spot for it, on a shelf between a couple of other chests. One loaded with emeralds and the other loaded with rubies.

Yeah, I know, stuff like that would be safer in a bank vault, but the room I kept it in had been converted into a vault, complete with a steel door and reinforced steel walls. Besides, if I kept that stuff in a bank, I wouldn't be able to look at it, wouldn't be able to enjoy the way it glimmered and shimmered and shined. And who in their right mind would risk the reprisal that comes from stealing a mermaid's treasure?

Alcohol and the other drugs that humans love don't affect me the way they affect humans. If I want a high, I just go into my treasure room, turn on the spotlights, and stare at my treasures, my shiny glittery treasures. My bling, as the humans have taken to calling it. Spending time with my bling always makes me feel better, although I can't explain why, other than to say that it's a mermaid thing.

That's why I went back to my condo, changed into my bikini, and headed to the beach. It was a warm summer morning, a perfect day for a swim if you were human. If you're a mermaid, any day is a perfect day for a swim.

Not surprisingly, the beach was crowded. It's always crowded in the summer, when the high school and college kids are out of school. I got a few glances from the boys when I strolled by in my green two piece. It had a cotton lining with a shiny green plastic exterior, the same green as my eyes. None of the boys tried to talk to me. Maybe they were intimidated. I am fairly tall, coming in at five feet nine in my bare feet. Plus, I have an athletic build, broad shoulders, narrow hips, breasts that look bigger than they are, probably because mermaids aren't affected by gravity the way human women are, and a lot of long lean muscles. Anytime I pass a beach volleyball game, I'm invited to join. I usually decline. I learned a long time ago that volleyball isn't my game. I'm a swimmer.

I walked into the water until it was up to my shoulders, slipped off my bikini bottom, and wrapped it around my left wrist like a bracelet. If I didn't take the bottom half off before changing, it would be ruined. Just because I could change my appearance didn't mean my clothing could.

As I concentrated on changing my appearance, I could feel the change sweep over, around, and through me. Just like that, my legs became a tail, an emerald green tail with gold flecks, the same green as my eyes, the same as green as my bikini top, the same green as the kelp and plankton that filled the ocean.

Contrary to popular belief, our tails don't have scales like fish, probably because we're mammals. It's just skin, kind of like a dolphin, except for the color, which is either blue with gold flecks, or green with gold flecks, depending upon the color of one's hair and eyes. I untied the silk ribbon that held my hair in a ponytail, wrapped it around my other wrist, and took a deep breath. Then I dove under the water and headed out to the open sea.

I picked up speed as I went, until I was moving at the same speed your average water skier moves. I could go faster, but I had all day, so I wasn't pressed for time. It took a couple of hours, but I eventually found the Siren's Delight. It had dropped anchor about fifty miles off shore. I moved to the ship's stern and poked my head above the water, confirming that it was in fact the Siren's Delight.

I didn't see anybody on aft deck and figured somebody was poking around the ocean floor. I took a deep breath and dove straight down. Sure enough, I found a couple of divers. They were both men, dressed in yellow diving suits with yellow air tanks on their backs. Their suits came with yellow helmets that had lights built into the sides, allowing them to see what they were doing.

What they were doing was working their way into a wrecked ship. The ship was metal, with a large hole in its side. The ripped metal was bent inward, indicating the ship had been sunk by a torpedo or a mine or something similar. Judging by the condition of the wreck, my guess was it went down during World War II. It was definitely military. American military.

The two divers were working their way through the hole in the side of the ship, moving slowly as all humans do when they're in the water. They were carrying an underwater cutting torch, a torch that used two large metal tanks loaded with combustible chemicals. The kind of chemicals that burned even in the water.

I circled the wreck, moving fast enough so the divers couldn't see me. Then I swam to the top of the ship and went in through an open hatch, moving through the rusted hulk's corridors, sticking my head in various rooms in search of something of value. Eventually, I found what the divers had come for, what they planned on using the cutting torch on, a large safe. It was still in one piece. Still locked. I grabbed the door and used my supernatural strength to rip it from its hinges.

Inside the safe was a large bundle of paper money. It was wrapped in clear plastic, which meant the money was still dry, probably the pay for some American soldiers back in World War II.

I didn't find anything else of value, certainly nothing I could add to my treasure room, so I grabbed the bundle of money and swam out of the ship, exiting the same way I entered, so the divers wouldn't know I had been there.

Working as a private detective didn't pay all that well, so I needed to supplement my income, hence my relationship with Wormby. He kept his eyes and ears open for stories of sunken treasure. When he learned about any possible treasures, he told me and I investigated. If I found something, we split the profits. Most of the time, we split the profits. If the treasure was shiny and glittery and something I just had to have, I put it in my treasure room and told Wormby I didn't find anything of value. When it wasn't something I just had to have, I gave it to Wormby and let him figure out what to do with it. I suspect Wormby short changed me when I did that, but that was okay, it balanced out the times when I short changed him.

I broke the surface of the water near the bow of the Siren's Delight, which turned out to be a mistake on my part. A couple of men were on the ship's deck, what's more, they saw me, saw the bundle of money in my hands.

"That's our treasure," one of them yelled.

"Not anymore," I yelled back.

The second man grabbed a rifle. It looked like an AK-47, the Russian army rifle that could be found anywhere and everywhere in the world.

I reached out with my mind. To the water inside the body of the man pointing the gun at me. It took less then a second for me to feel the water inside the man's body, the water inside the blood that coursed through his veins. Then I commanded that water to cool.

By the time the man raised the gun and fired it at me, he was shivering. Not surprisingly, his shot missed. His body temperature dropped too fast for him to get off a second shot. He couldn't even hang onto the gun, which fell out of his hands, clattering onto the ship's deck.

I released the water inside the man's body, having no desire to kill him. It would take awhile for him to warm up, maybe a couple of hours, but he'd be okay. I turned my tail toward the yacht, and took off toward shore, moving at full speed, which took me out of rifle range in a matter of seconds. When I reached waist deep water, I changed my tail back into legs. A feat that required nothing more than a few seconds of concentration. I unwrapped my bikini bottom from around my wrist and slipped it back on. Then I walked out of the water, the wrapped bundle of money still in my arms.

My car was parked in the parking lot that bordered the public beach. I tossed the bundle of money in the trunk of my car, a 1997 Honda Del Sol. A two door coup. Ninety-seven was the last year they made the car. Even then they only made 5600, which is one of the reasons I drive the car. What's the fun of owning a car, owning anything for that matter, that anybody can go out and buy. It's more fun to own things that are hard to find.

I had mine painted emerald green, so it matched my eyes. I also pulled the 1.6 liter engine that came with the car and wedged a turbocharged 2.3 liter engine into the car. Well, I didn't do it, my mechanic did it. He specializes in that kind of thing. When you work as a private detective, it pays to have a little extra horsepower under the hood.

I slipped my feet into a pair of flip-flops, wrapped a piece of green silk that fell to mid thigh around my waist, and headed back to Wormby's pawnshop. I took a roundabout route, in case someone was following me. Wormby insisted I do that anytime I brought in treasure.

"I don't want no trouble walking through my door," Wormby once told me. "You make sure no one's following you when you're bringing back treasure."

I didn't mind taking a roundabout route. Although why Wormby worried about trouble walking through his door was beyond my understanding. Like all gnomes, Wormby could pop in and out whenever he wanted. One second, he was there, the next, he was gone. Poof. I have no idea how he disappeared. Did he pop into another dimension? Or did he just teleport himself from one spot to another? Wormby didn't share his secrets. No big surprise, gnomes are extremely secretive.

I reached Wormby's shop, grabbed the bundle of money out of my trunk, and headed inside. There was no one inside the shop but Wormby, so I flipped the open sign to closed and locked the door behind me.

"Your treasure," I said, as I set the wrapped bundle of money on the counter in front of Wormby. We were almost at eye level because the floor behind the counter was raised.

"You run into any trouble?" Wormby asked me. He pulled out a Swiss Army Knife and cut the plastic wrapped around the money.

"Not really. A guy on the Siren's Delight tried to shoot me but he only got off one shot."

"Did you kill him?" Wormby finished cutting the plastic and smiled when he saw that the money was in pristine condition. Then again, maybe he was smiling over the fact the money was all fifties. No ones, fives, tens, or twenties.

"Is this stuff still good?" I asked, nodding at the money.

Wormby smiled. "Of course it's good. Money don't have no expiration date."

"How much would you say is here?"

Wormby counted the bundles. "One hundred thousand dollars." He divided the money in half with one of his giant hands. "That's fifty grand for you. Fifty grand for me."

"You ever find out who owns the Siren's Delight?"

"Some human. Certainly nobody you or I need to worry about." Wormby put half the money in a white plastic bag and handed it to me. "Your half of the treasure."

"Have you been spying on him?"

Wormby chuckled. "It's pretty easy. He conducts most of his business in his backyard, by his swimming pool."

"How does that make spying on him easy?"

"His backyard is full of plaster lawn gnomes. I just pop in and pretend to be another lawn gnome."

"And he's never noticed?"

"He's got about a hundred of them. Actually, they belong to his wife. He hates them, but she loves them, so he puts up with them."

"Must be a good-looking wife."

Wormby focused on my breasts, which were still encased in the green plastic bikini top. "She's no mermaid, but she ain't bad for a human."

I grabbed my bag of money and headed out the door. I had just enough time to drop my loot in a safety deposit box at the bank. I didn't keep money in my vault at home. That was for my shiny things, my bling. Then I would head home, grab a bite to eat, and change into something more appropriate for a vampire club.

# Chapter 4

Vamp clubs like O Positive tend to be upscale. They're upscale for a couple of reasons. The first is most vamps have been around for hundreds of years and have a lot of money to invest. The second is that upscale clubs attract more humans than dark, dirty clubs.

There are vamp blood banks, legal blood banks owned and established by vamps. Humans, or anyone else for that matter, can go there and give a pint of blood. They make a little money and some vamp doesn't have to worry about where his next meal is coming from. Problem is, there are vamps that don't like drinking their blood from a plastic bag. They like their blood fresh, right from the neck, or wrist, or thigh. To find that fresh blood, they open clubs like O Positive. Plenty of humans around that enjoy the high that comes from being bitten by a vampire.

Vamps are like snakes. When they bite you, they release a chemical into your blood, but unlike snakes, that chemical isn't poisonous. It's more like a drug, the kind that causes a high. Some humans enjoy that high so much they become addicted to it.

Mermaids don't get the same high humans get when bitten by a vamp. Like a lot of supernaturals, we have an extremely fast metabolism, one that's able to neutralize the drug the vamps inject into you. To us a vamp bite is just, well, a bite. Not that vamps like mermaid blood. They don't. They claim that it's too salty.

O Positive was a big club. It occupied two stories in the heart of the city's business district. What's more, it was at the top of a thirty story steel and glass tower. The first floor of the club was for dancing. It consisted of a chrome dance floor. Colored lights directly over the chrome changed the floor's color from red to blue to green and back again.

The second floor was a balcony that circled the first floor. A chrome and smoked glass rail circled the inside of the balcony. Chrome and smoked glass tables rested against the rail. A chrome and smoked glass bar circled the outside of the balcony. A dozen bartenders worked the bar, with four behind each of the bar's three sides. Behind the bar, floor to ceiling windows provided a spectacular view of the city. Waitresses in black leather skirts, white silk halter tops, and red bowties ferried drinks to and from the smoked glass tables that looked down on the dance floor.

There was no bar on the fourth side of the balcony, just a chrome staircase leading up to the third floor. That was where the club's owner presided and that was who I had come to see. Assuming I could get by the two bouncers that stood at the bottom of the staircase.

One was big, with muscles on top of muscles. Muscles that came from lifting heavy weights and taking hormones that came in little bottles. He wore black slacks and a tight black tee shirt that showed off all those muscles. O Positive was printed across the front of the tee shirt in red letters that dripped blood.

The second bouncer was shorter and thinner. He wore the same outfit but didn't fill it out like his partner, but then he didn't need to. He was a vamp, unlike his partner, who was human.

"I need to see your boss," I said, stopping in front of the two men.

"We got orders not to let you up," the human said. He had a shaved head, a bushy black mustache that hid his upper lip, and a large silver hoop hanging from his right ear. He reminded me of a pirate, but then a lot of humans reminded me of pirates, which is probably a mermaid thing.

"You going to try and stop me, Darko?"

We had run into each other before, which is why I knew his name. And why he held up both hands and stepped aside. "Not me."

His smaller partner stepped in front of me. He had thick black hair with matching sideburns. He reminded me of a young Elvis Presley. "Boss doesn't want you up there. You ain't going up there."

I had never seen this vamp before, which meant that he was new around here. Since he was working as a bouncer, he probably hadn't been a vamp very long, most likely just a few years. Maybe less. Like most new vamps, his enhanced speed and strength made him overconfident, made him think that there was nothing in the world that could hurt him except direct sunlight, a wooden stake through the heart, or a vamp that was older and more powerful than himself. As he was about to find out, the world was full of beings that were infinitely more dangerous than he was.

The vamp had a ring on his right hand. A gold ring with a big square emerald. The gold looked real. The emerald looked real. I liked the way they shined and couldn't help but think the ring would look much better on my hand.

"I'll bet you that ring on your finger that you can't stop me from going up there."

Elvis vamp glanced at his ring. "Huh?"

"If I get by you. I get your ring."

"What do I get if you can't get by me?"

"Anything you want."

Elvis vamp focused on the artery in my neck. "Anything?"

"Anything."

Elvis vamp smiled, a smug smile. "You got a deal."

I reached out with my mind, until I felt the water inside his body, inside the blood that coursed through his veins, blood that wasn't even his. There was less water in his body than there was in a living being, no big surprise. A vamp's body has about half the water of a living creature, which is why they always look so pale, and why their skin always feels so dry. That being said, there was enough for what I needed.

I ordered the water inside Elvis vamp's body to freeze. Like all water, it obeyed my command. I could feel the water that made up Elvis vamp's body grow colder and colder.

"What's . . . happening . . . to . . . me?" Elvis vamp said, as his body froze from the inside out.

What I was doing would've killed a living being, but vamps aren't exactly living beings. All this would do was incapacitate him for a couple of hours, until the water inside his body thawed out.

Not that I couldn't kill him. I could've ordered the water inside his body to boil, which would've cooked him from the inside out. It was an extremely effective way of killing a vamp, almost as effective as staking their heart.

I waited for Elvis vamp to freeze, then I walked up to him and pushed him in the chest. He fell backward onto the stairs, stiff as a board. Or in this case, a frozen board.

I believe this is mine," I said, yanking the emerald ring off his finger. It was too big for my ring finger, but fit perfectly on the middle finger of my left hand. I took a few seconds to admire the way it shined, then stepped over Elvis vamp's frozen body and headed up the stairs.

"Is he dead?" Darko asked, staring down at Elvis vamp.

"You can't kill a vamp by freezing the water inside his body. He'll be fine once he thaws out."

"How long will that take?"

"An hour. Vamps have less water in their bodies than you or I, so they thaw out pretty quick."

I climbed the stairs and stepped onto the top floor, which was nothing more than a small mezzanine that looked down upon the first and second floors. A vamp by the name of Titus Hawthorn occupied the mezzanine. He owned the club and looked just like you'd expect a guy named Titus Hawthorn to look, tall with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and blond hair that just covered his ears. He appeared to be in his late twenties and wore a dark gray suit made out of a material that shined. His shirt was light gray and made out of silk. The top two buttons were open. He wore no tie.

The look, hip, young, successful entrepreneur, was just that, a carefully cultivated look. Titus Hawthorn was hundreds of years old, maybe thousands. I don't know what name he had been born with, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Titus Hawthorn.

O Positive was his dining room. It existed to provide Titus with his next meal. He preferred his meals fresh, from the inside of a young woman's thigh. That's what he was doing when I found him, eating his dinner.

He was sitting at a table that looked down upon the club's first and second floors. A long legged blond in a glittery blue dress that left nothing to the imagination was standing in front of him. Her right leg rested on his left shoulder, her right hand rested on the smoked glass table. Her eyes were closed and there was a look of rapture on her face. No big surprise since Titus was sucking blood from the inside of her tanned thigh.

I grabbed the chair across from Titus and sat. Then I reached out with my mind, until I felt the water within the girl's blood. Then I ordered the water within her blood to cool. Just a couple of degrees. Which it did. It was the easiest way to get Titus's attention. Titus hated drinking his blood cold. He liked it body temperature, ninety-eight point six degrees, no more, no less.

It didn't take Titus long to realize that something was wrong. He realized it even when the girl didn't. No big surprise. The girl was riding a vampire induced high.

Titus opened his eyes and looked up, even as he continued to suck blood from the blond's thigh. His eyes glowed bright red, something that happened to all vamps when they were feeding. When he drew his mouth away from the girl's leg, the red glow began to fade.

"Why is it nobody interrupts my dinner but you?" Titus's speech was a bit slurred, probably because his fangs were still protruding. He lowered the girl's ridiculously long leg from his shoulder and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. By the time he finished, his red eyes were back to their natural blue and the vamp fangs were no long protruding, making him look more human than most vamps. He pulled the girl onto his lap and fondled her through her glittery blue dress. She didn't notice, nor did she care, she was still riding her vampire induced high.

"What do you think of these?" Titus said, cupping the girl's breasts.

They were high and round and perfect. Kind of like my breasts, but she wasn't a mermaid, which meant hers weren't natural.

"Did you pay for them?"

Titus smiled and went back to fondling the girl. "I did."

"Why?"

"Call it a business arrangement. She wanted some plastic surgery. I wanted a ready and willing meal. Why are you here?"

I was wearing the same outfit I put on that morning, black pantsuit, green silk blouse, and sensible shoes. I reached into my suit jacket, pulled out the invitation Felicity received from the Order of the Pearl, and slid it across the smoked glass table. "What can you tell me about this?"

Titus glanced at the invitation, but didn't bother to pick it up. "May I ask where you got it?"

"A client's daughter received it. Then she disappeared."

"And you're looking for her?"

I nodded. "You know who's behind this?"

"Perhaps."

"Where can I find them?"

Titus smiled. "I'm a businessman. If I give you something of value. I'll expect something in return."

I sighed. "Like what?"

"I own another club. A gentleman's club. I want you to work there."

"When you say a gentleman's club, you mean a strip joint."

"The word joint implies cheap, dingy, and dirty. My establishment is not cheap, nor is it dingy and dirty."

"What do you want me to do there?"

"There's a mermaid tank behind the bar. Right now, humans in costumes occupy that tank. I can't help but think that it would look much better with a real mermaid in it."

"You want me to swim around in a tank in mermaid form?"

Titus smiled. "Topless."

I shook my head. Swimming around a tank in mermaid form was too demeaning. It was tantamount to being an animal in a zoo, or a freak in a sideshow. "Forget it."

"You want information, you're going to have to give me something in return."

"I'll work as a waitress, or even an exotic dancer, but I'm not swimming around a tank in mermaid form just so your customers can gawk at me."

"Having a real mermaid in her natural environment would be a big draw."

"How would you like it if I opened a bar, had you lie on stage in a coffin, then put up a sign saying come see the vampire in his natural environment?"

Titus chuckled. "Point taken."

"So have we got a deal or not?"

"How long do I get you?"

"One day. I'll put in the same shift as your other girls."

"You'll dance?"

"I'll dance." I wasn't shy about taking my clothes off in front of others, shyness, modesty, whatever you wanted to call it, was a human trait. My father was human, but I was all mermaid, which meant I didn't share his human sensibilities. Two things everybody agrees upon when it comes to mermaids, there's no such thing as an ugly mermaid, and there's no such thing as a shy mermaid. We have a long history of being notorious teases.

"Make it a weekend and we have a deal," Titus said.

"Fine, but only if your information is useful."

"Who decides if it's useful?"

I smiled. "I do."

"You drive a hard bargain," Titus said.

"So what do you know about this Order of the Pearl?"

"The people behind it use several businesses here in the city to recruit their initiates."

I pulled out my phone and slid it across the table. "List all the businesses that are used to recruit humans into the Order of the Pearl."

Titus grabbed my phone and began to type. When he finished, he set the phone on the table and slid it back to me. I picked it up and looked at what he typed. There were four businesses listed. One was a nightclub. One was a gym. The third was a secretarial service, and the fourth was, believe it or not, a car wash.

"These four businesses are owned by the vamps behind the Order of the Pearl?"

"I didn't say they were vampires."

"If they're not vamps then what are they?"

Titus smiled. "You want the answer to that question, you're going to have to work at my club a second weekend."

"Forget it," I said. "I'll find out what they are when I meet them."

"Classic mermaid response," Titus said. "Jumping into the middle of something without having any idea what you're up against."

"You telling me the people behind this Order of the Pearl are more dangerous than you?"

Titus smiled. "I'm just a businessman, no more dangerous than the guy that owns your favorite shoe store."

"Yeah, right." I picked up the invitation and slipped both it and my phone into my jacket pocket. While I did that, Titus went back to fondling the blond on his lap. "Didn't your mother teach you not to play with your food?"

"I like playing with my food. Almost as much as she likes being played with."

"Thanks for your help." I turned and headed off.

"Don't forget, you owe me a weekend. If I don't get it, you don't get anymore information. Ever."

I didn't bother to respond. He would get his weekend. Mostly because he knew that I would need his help on some future case. Of course, when he got that weekend remained to be seen. Probably not until I needed his help again.

My next step was to find out which of these four businesses Felicity Bernard used. Which is why I paid a visit to her house. During my search, I discovered a flyer for a nightclub called the Glass Box, and a ticket for one free car wash at a place called the Heavenly Shine Car Wash. I found both inside her car. That's when Gavin Eckels arrived.

# Chapter 5

A friend at the police department told me the number that belonged to Gavin Eckels's boss was from a burner phone, which meant he couldn't tell me who Gavin's boss was. All he could tell me was that Gavin Eckels had a history of working as hired muscle. He wasn't fussy about who he worked for as long as they paid him up front.

As soon as I finished talking to him, I got another call. It was Wormby. "We've got trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Turns out the human we've been stealing treasures from isn't the man in charge. He's working for a someone else. A supernatural."

"How do you know that?"

"He had a garden party this evening so I popped in, to see if I could pick up any new tips."

"Posing as one of his lawn gnomes?"

"Yeah."

"And instead of learning about a new treasure, you discovered that he works for a supernatural."

"Which means we've been stealing treasures from a supernatural. Probably a vamp."

"We didn't steal those treasures," I said. "They were just sitting on the ocean floor waiting to be recovered. And you don't know if this supernatural is a vampire."

Having a healthy fear of vampires was one thing, but Wormby's fear of vamps bordered on paranoia. It could've been a gnome thing. It could've been a Wormby thing. I wasn't really sure.

"It's not a him, it's a her."

A supernatural female that hires humans to search for sunken treasure? I couldn't help but wonder if it was the same female that owned the Kragen Institute for Marine Research. The same female that stole Dr. John Cook from me. Had to be. How many supernatural females could there be in this town with an interest in the ocean? I mean besides me. My guess was one.

"Does this female have a name?"

"Crystal."

Definitely the same female. "Next time you eavesdrop on her people make sure you don't get caught."

"I ain't eavesdropping on them again," Wormby said. "I don't want some vamp coming for me in the middle of the night."

"You don't know if she's a vampire."

"I know how my luck runs. She's probably a vampire."

"You're a gnome. You can always pop out."

"Vampires got long memories. Sooner or later this Crystal would find me. Unlike vamps, I gotta sleep."

"Why are you calling?"

"I need you to protect me from Crystal."

"That would involve following you around twenty-four seven."

"I got no problem with that."

"Goodbye, Wormby."

I hung up. Wormby was always worried about somebody coming after him and he always assumed that somebody was a vampire. Like most gnomes, he was a natural worrier. I wasn't the least bit concerned about Wormby abandoning our partnership. His lust for riches always overcame his fear of being hunted down by somebody he had screwed over.

I went back to checking the numbers on Gavin Eckels's phone. Both the Heavenly Shine Car Wash and the Glass Box were listed, which meant one of them was probably the place where the Order of the Pearl found Felicity. I checked the time. It was almost two in the morning, too late to visit the nightclub, let alone the car wash.

There wasn't much more I could do for Felicity tonight, so I turned my attention to my other problem. Crystal, the supernatural that was trying to steal John from me. The easiest way to learn about her would be to call John and invite the two of them out to dinner. I made a mental note to do that in the morning.

I should point out that mermaids don't sleep for long stretches like humans. We take short naps, five minutes here, ten minutes there. If we're really exhausted maybe an hour, certainly no more.

***

I began the next day with my usual routine. A sunrise swim in the ocean followed by a shower and breakfast. Then I called John.

"What's up?" he said.

"I wasn't very nice to you last night, when you told me that you were engaged, so I want to make it up to you."

"By?"

"Taking you and Crystal out to dinner."

"When?"

"How about tonight?"

"I'll have to check with Crystal. She's an extremely busy woman."

"The Kragen Institute keeps her that busy?"

"The Kragen Institute is just one of her businesses. She's acquired a lot of assets over her life."

"Just how old is she?"

"How old are you?" John countered.

"You know how old I am. You were there when I celebrated my thirtieth birthday."

"I've heard mermaids live unusually long lives."

"Two to three hundred years. At the most. We certainly don't hang around for thousands of years like vamps do."

"I'm not sure Crystal is that old. And I never said she was a vampire."

"You don't know how old she is?"

"It never came up."

"Has she been married before?"

"Not that I know of."

"Did you ask?"

"It never came up."

"How long have you known her?"

"Since I went to work at the institute a couple of years ago."

"When did the relationship start getting serious?"

"A few months ago."

I had more questions but most of them were for Crystal. Of course, I needed to get John to agree to dinner before I could ask her any questions. "Tell her one of your friends would like to take the two of you out to dinner. Let me know if and when she can make it."

"I will," John said. "And thank you."

"For what?"

"Making an effort."

"I try not to judge people based on what they are. If you think Crystal is good people, then the least I can do is give her a chance."

"I'll tell her about your offer and get back to you."

"You do that."

I hung up the phone and turned my attention back to my case. I couldn't check out the nightclub Felicity visited since it wasn't open during the day, but I could run the Del Sol through her car wash, set myself up as bait, see if anybody bit.

The question was why did this Order of the Pearl grab Felicity, why did they make her one of their initiates? Did they like the way she looked, and if so, how did she look? Sweet? Innocent? Sexy? Classy? I could do sexy, maybe even classy. No way could I do sweet and innocent.

Felicity's house was between my place and the car wash, so I figured I'd make a quick stop, see what kind of clothes were in her closet, which is what I did.

She was young, and she was an artist, so her closet contained two types of clothes, comfortable, and sexy. She had a couple of expensive suits, but they had plastic covers on them, plastic covers coated with dust, which told me that she didn't wear them very much, probably when her father insisted that she join him for some kind of a business meeting.

She did have a lot of bikinis, which was expected considering she lived in a beach house. I checked the pictures on her computer, mainly the ones of her. She was a tall girl, no big surprise considering her father was tall. She had shoulder length blond hair that she wore in a ponytail, bright blue eyes, and full red lips. She was athletic and sexy, kind of like me. She wore shorts, tank tops, and bikini tops in most of the pictures, so that's what I went with, pulling my green plastic bikini out of my shoulder bag, then adding a pair of dark blue short shorts. I slipped on a pair of sandals with wedge heels, tied my red hair back in a ponytail, then donned my sunglasses to hide my eyes.

It was my eyes that always gave me away, told people that I wasn't human. They were bigger, brighter, greener, than human eyes. Granted, humans weren't born with red hair the color of mine, but they could dye it that color. Mermaid red was the second most popular hair color available, right behind mermaid blond.

Dressed in a style similar to Felicity, I climbed in the Del Sol and headed for the Heavenly Shine Car Wash. It wasn't one of those automated car washes manned by a bunch of young men. It was one of those do-it-yourself car washes. The kind where you pull your car in one of the bays, drop some quarters into a machine, then spray your car down. There was an attendant on duty. He sat in a glass booth in the middle of the car wash and made change, but he was just a high school kid, certainly no one that would be involved in a supernatural kidnapping ring.

I was about to leave, figuring this wasn't the place they noticed Felicity, when I saw the cameras. Inside each bay, placed nice and high, were security cameras. They were small enough so you wouldn't even notice them, unless you were looking for them, which I was.

Felicity could've caught the eye of whoever was on the other end of those video feeds. As such, I figured I'd stick around for awhile, see if I couldn't attract their attention. There was no way the people on the other end of those cameras could tell that I was a mermaid. To them I was just another long legged, big breasted girl that wore very little clothing.

To make sure I got noticed, I squirmed out my shorts and washed the Del Sol in my bikini. I took my time and made sure I did a lot of bouncing and bending over. I even washed my license plates, ensuring the cameras got a good look at those, figuring if this was the place the Order of the Pearl used to find their initiates, as they called them, then they probably used their license plates to track them down. I wasn't being subtle, but I'm a mermaid and we're not known for our subtlety.

I don't know what they were doing with Felicity, or anybody else they grabbed, using them for food or sex, or both, I suspect. Most supernaturals were driven by their baser instincts, hunger, lust, greed, fear. They didn't seem to possess the ability to empathize with others, let alone love someone.

That brought me back to John and his fiancée, Crystal. I couldn't help but wonder why she would pretend to be in love with him. What was in it for her? He wasn't rich, and from what he said, it sounded like she was.

Maybe she was in love, but I doubted it. The only supernaturals I had ever met that seemed to possess the ability to love were werewolves. Like real wolves, they mated for life. I wasn't even sure about myself, or my species. Was I capable of love? My father was human so I liked to think I inherited the ability to love from him. Then again, I was thirty years old and had never been in love, so I wasn't sure.

I finished cleaning my car and headed back to my place. Tonight, I would hit the club Felicity frequented. The one called the Glass Box, where I would set myself up as bait.

Before that I had a dinner date with John and Crystal. John left me a text saying he talked to Crystal and she told him that she'd love to meet one of his friends. I sent him a text saying how about tonight. He responded with an eight o'clock, at a restaurant called Prices. I wasn't familiar with the place, but a little research informed me that it was one of those establishments that catered to everybody, humans and supernaturals.

I wasn't sure how to dress so I went with the basic little black dress. It had short sleeves, a low cut neckline, and came to mid thigh. The material was a stretchy but snug jersey. Since I planned on visiting the Glass Box after dinner, I added a pair of six inch stilettos, bright red pumps that matched my lipstick. My hair looked like it always did when I didn't tie it back, long and thick and just a little on the wild side.

The restaurant divided itself into a series of private rooms, which sort of made sense when you catered to everybody, including vampires and werewolves and who knows what else. They asked if I had a reservation. I told them I was meeting Crystal Kragen for dinner, suspecting her name carried more weight at a place like this than John's name. Turns out it did.

I was escorted to a room in the back. The floor was oak, the walls red brick. The walls contained paintings that you could purchase, paintings done by local artists. The paintings hanging on the walls of this room were all beach scenes. A round table with a white linen tablecloth sat in the middle of the room. A lit candle in an empty wine bottle sat in the middle of the table.

The woman with John wasn't what I expected. She was petite and blond. She looked more like a high school cheerleader than a powerful supernatural. She wore a gray suit, tailored of course. It consisted of a jacket with no blouse beneath it, and a skirt that stopped just short of her knees. Her black heels were only a couple of inches high, which surprised me. I figured someone as small as her would want the extra height. Perhaps at one point in time she did. Now, it appeared that she was confident enough that she didn't feel she needed it.

In my six inch stilettos, I was over six feet tall, which meant I towered over her. I know that because John and her were standing up, studying the paintings on the walls.

"You must be Low," Crystal said, when I entered the room.

Her back had been toward me, but as soon as I entered, she wheeled around to face me.

"You must be Crystal," I said, giving her a smile that was as fake as the one she gave me. "John has told me all about you." Except of course your species. Not that I said that, after all, I was trying to be polite.

"He's told me very little about you," Crystal said. "I didn't even know you existed until last night."

Why didn't I believe that? Must have been something in her ice blue eyes.

"How about we sit down and order some dinner," John said. "I don't know about the two of you, but I'm hungry."

He was wearing blue jeans and a black tee shirt topped by a gray sport coat. John's idea of dressing up. He moved to the table and opened a menu covered in red velvet. Crystal and I joined him, with Crystal on his right and me on his left.

"They have a very good seafood selection," Crystal said, opening the menu in front of her.

"And you know this how?" I opened the menu in front of me. There were no prices on it, a bit odd for a place named Prices. Then again, maybe it was named after a man named Price.

"I had some last week."

I lowered my menu and looked at Crystal. "I thought vampires couldn't eat regular food. Thought your systems couldn't digest it."

"I'm not a vampire."

"What are you?"

"I'm a siren."

That explained her interest in the ocean. Sirens lived near the sea. They gained their fame by sitting on rocks and singing. Their hypnotic voices were said to lure sailors to them, causing their ships to crash upon the rocks. Did the sirens do it on purpose? Probably. They liked shiny things as much as mermaids, which is why our species had been in competition with each other for centuries. Now, it looked like I had a siren in my life.

"Are you really in love with John?" I asked Crystal. "Or did you get involved with him to get back at me?"

"I don't know about you guys," John said, trying to change the topic. "But I'm ready to order. I'm thinking a nice T-bone steak. Medium rare. With a baked potato smothered in sour cream."

Crystal ignored John and looked at me. "Why would I want to get back at somebody I just met?"

"Because I'm a mermaid and your kind and my kind have never gotten along."

A waitress arrived, dressed in black and white. John ordered his steak and baked potato. I ordered a bacon double cheeseburger with fries. My favorite meal. Crystal ordered the shrimp platter.

"I really do like shrimp," she said, when the waitress brought us our food. "I didn't order it because you're a mermaid and I'm trying to make fun of you."

"Doesn't matter," I said. "I've got a thick skin."

"I'm glad to hear that," Crystal said.

"So how old are you?" I said, changing topics.

Crystal smiled. "How old are you?"

"Just turned thirty."

"I've heard mermaids live for several hundred years."

"We do, but I really am thirty."

"I'm a bit older than that," Crystal said. "Although I'm told I don't look it."

"She looks like a college girl," a smiling John said.

"One he used to date," Crystal added. "He was madly in love with her but she dumped him."

"My first love," John said. "They say we never get over our first love. In my case, I guess it's true."

Maybe that's why she was involved with John. Maybe she wanted to experience being in love just like I did. Supernaturals were fascinated with the concept of love, even if we weren't capable of returning it. "Does that bother you?" I asked Crystal.

"Does what bother me?"

"The fact that John is attracted to you because you remind him of someone else."

"We all have a certain type that we're attracted to, tall, short, blond, brunette. Which brings us back to you. What's your type?"

"Tall, handsome, and reluctant to commit to anything more than casual sex."

Crystal laughed. "You're definitely a mermaid."

Instead of sitting around trading barbs with a siren, I decided to see if I couldn't get something accomplished. "You've got a lot of business connections. Can you tell me who owns the Heavenly Shine Car Wash? Not to mention a nightclub called the Glass Box?"

"Why do you ask?"

"They might be connected to a case I'm working on."

"They're owned by a man named Theodore Wexell."

"You know him?"

"I've heard of him."

"He's a supernatural?"

"He is."

"A blood vampire?"

Crystal shook her head. "He's a bogeyman."

"He's the bogeyman?" John said.

"Not THE bogeyman, darling. A bogeyman. They're a species, like sirens, werewolves, or mermaids."

John turned his attention back to his dinner so I picked up the conversation. "You ever heard of the Order of the Pearl?"

Crystal shook her head. "I'm afraid I haven't."

If she knew anything about the Order of the Pearl, it was clear that she wasn't going to share it, so I decided to go back to trading barbs. "Is the Kragen Marine Institute a front for treasure hunting, or are you really interested in preserving the oceans?"

"My father was a fisherman. We grew up on the ocean. Of course there were a lot more fish in the ocean back then."

"Was your father ever recruited to be a fisher of men?"

Crystal chuckled. "I'm not that old."

"I don't get it," John said, as he chewed on his steak.

Crystal looked at him. "Some of Christ's disciples were fishermen. He told them to follow him and he would make them fishers of men."

John glared at me. "That's why you invited us to dinner, so you could ask Crystal if she's been around since the time of Christ?"

"I came here intending to be nice, but that was before I knew your fiancée was a siren. The only reason this one is taking an interest in you is because she found out you were friends with a mermaid. Once she ruins our relationship, she'll dump you."

John sighed. "I tell you that I'm engaged and somehow you manage to make it about you."

"Maybe we should leave." Crystal wiped her face with her napkin, pushed her chair back, and stood. She seemed extremely pleased with herself, but then why wouldn't she? John and I were fighting.

"I think that's a good idea," John said. He pushed himself to his feet, pulled out his wallet, and set some money on the table.

"My treat," I said. "Remember."

John scowled at me. "We'll pay for our own meal."

"I've heard a lot of things about mermaids," Crystal said to me. "It would seem that most of them are true. Unfortunately."

She slipped her arm through John's and they headed for the exit.

"Ask her if she knows where Noah's ark is," I said to John's back. "I'm betting she hitched a ride on it."

# Chapter 6

I learned a couple of things from my meeting with John and Crystal. I learned that Crystal was the person that Wormby and I were competing with for sunken treasures. I didn't know if her marine research institute was a front for her treasure hunting or if she used the treasure hunting to fund the institute. Nor did I care. The fact that I snatched that payroll from her gave me a supreme sense of satisfaction. It almost made up for her stealing John from me. Almost.

I also learned the name of the person behind the Order of the Pearl. Theodore Wexell.

That's why my next stop was Wexell's club, the Glass Box. I didn't know anything about bogeymen, other than that line from childhood, don't let the bogeyman get you. I didn't know why people feared the bogeyman, but there was one way to find out, stop by Wexell's club and see what made him tick.

Wexell's club was made out of glass, no big surprise considering the club's name. The exterior walls were red glass. The ceiling was red glass. Booths with red glass walls on three sides and red velvet sofas lined three of the walls. The fourth side of each booth was open, looking out upon a red enamel dance floor. A red glass bar ran the length of the fourth wall. Red lights lit the place, giving everything, including the people that filled the dance floor a red glow. Despite the fact that it was a weeknight, the place was packed.

I moved to the bar and grabbed a red vinyl bar stool. One of the few seats available. I couldn't help but wonder if Theodore Wexell was here. And if so, what he looked like.

"You're new," the bartender said, coming up to me.

He was young, with short black hair, pale blue eyes, a square chin, and a clean-cut look. He wore black pants and a buttoned down red shirt topped by a black tie. The name tag on his shirt identified him as Ian.

"I just had dinner with a friend and his fiancée. She mentioned this place, said she even knew the guy that owned it. Figured I better check it out."

Ian nodded and pointed to one of the glass booths. "Teddy. Great guy."

Lounging on a red sofa in one of the glass booths was a man with a shaved head and a three day beard. On some men it wouldn't have been a good look, but on him it was a very good look. He was long and lean and dressed in a black tuxedo. His bowtie was undone, as was the top button on his silk shirt. He looked to be in his early thirties.

He would focus on someone on the dance floor, close his eyes, and take a deep breath, almost as if he was breathing in their essence.

"He doesn't look like a Teddy," I said.

Ian chuckled. "His real name is Theodore Wexell. Great guy. Always willing to listen to your problems, no matter what they are."

"He around much?"

"When he's in town. He owns several clubs in several cities. Flies to and from them on his private jet. What can I get you?"

"Beer."

"Any particular brand?"

"Surprise me."

Ian returned with a glass of whatever was on tap. I paid him, took a sip of the beer, then headed out onto the dance floor. I needed to see if I could get Teddy's attention.

I found a couple dancing in front of Teddy's booth. A man and a woman. They were young, somewhere in their twenties. They were both blond and attractive. They were either drunk or high, perhaps both. I couldn't help but notice that in several of the red glass booths, people were snorting lines of who knows what off the top of the red glass coffee tables that fronted the velvet sofas.

I squeezed myself between the man and the woman. Then I kissed the man. At the same time, I reached behind me and placed the woman's hands on my waist. The man grabbed my head between his hands and pushed his tongue into my mouth. The woman tightened her grip on my waist and began to grind her crotch against my bottom.

While the man explored my mouth with his tongue, the woman's hands explored my body, moving from my waist to my breasts. Overhead speakers blared music with a pounding beat.

When the man got tired of kissing me, and the woman got tired of fondling me, they spun me around. The woman grabbed my head between her hands and shoved her tongue into my mouth. At the same time, the man's hands began to explore my body, caressing me through my snug jersey dress.

That was when I felt it. A lightheaded high washed over me. A high that made me feel euphoric. A high that made me feel like I was floating. All my cares, all my concerns, vanished. I couldn't remember where I was, let alone why I was there, what's more, I didn't care.

When the music blaring out of the overhead speakers ended, so did my high. The euphoria faded, allowing me to think clearly. I remembered where I was, what's more, I remembered why I was there. I squeezed out from between the couple that was grinding against me and headed back to the bar. I felt exhausted, like someone had just drained the energy right out of me. I wasn't sure what kind of power bogeymen possessed, but I was pretty sure one of them, namely Theodore Wexell, had just used his power on me.

I reached the bar and grabbed a stool. I hadn't been there a minute when the couple I had been dancing with drifted over.

"We're heading back to my place," the girl said, "if you'd like to join us."

"Thanks, but I'm going to have to pass. I'm working."

"Oh my god!" the girl said, slurring her words. Definitely drunk. And high. "You're a professional."

"Maybe we can hire you," the guy said. "How much do you charge?"

"More than you can afford."

"I doubt that. I can afford a lot." The guy pulled out his wallet and produced five crisp one hundred dollar bills. "What will this get us?"

I grabbed the five one hundreds, folded them in half, and slipped them into my cleavage. "Any thing you want, honey."

I slid off the bar stool and headed for the exit with the couple, each of which had a hand on my ass. When we reached the doorway, I stopped under a bright light and faced them. "I want the two of you to look into my eyes."

The young couple did as I asked. It took them even less time to get lost in my eyes then it did Wormby. "Go home. When you wake up tomorrow, you'll be convinced that you had the best time of your lives and that the five hundred dollars you gave me was money well spent. And just to be safe, take a cab."

The couple turned and headed out the door, all but forgetting that I was there. One of the advantages of being able to mesmerize people with your eyes is that you can make them forget things. Like the fact they gave me five hundred dollars and got nothing for it. I turned and headed back inside, grabbing my stool at the end of the bar.

"What happened to your friends?" Ian the bartender said, drifting back over to my end of the bar.

"They decided to call it a night. Something about having to get up early for work."

"Seeing how they left you here, all alone, perhaps you'd like to meet Teddy."

"The owner?"

"He noticed you dancing with your friends. He finds you intriguing."

"Why not." I slid off the bar stool and drifted over to Theodore Wexell's booth. He was alone, no bodyguards or gofers or girlfriends. I slid into the booth, and sat next to him on the red velvet sofa. "Ian said that you find me intriguing."

"I do," Teddy said. He looked me up and down then turned his attention back to the crowd on the dance floor. "But then, it's a slow night."

He was trying to be cool, trying to make me think that he wasn't as interested in me as he was. Then again, maybe he wasn't that interested in me. One of the problems with being a mermaid is we're all convinced that we're the most beautiful, most interesting woman in the room, no matter how crowded the room.

"I guess I'll just have to try harder." I slid my right leg over my left, a move which caused my already short dress to ride up even higher.

"You got a name?" Teddy asked me. He was still watching the crowd, still pretending that I wasn't the most intriguing woman that he had ever met.

"Low."

"I've never seen you here before."

"That because I've never been here before."

"I take it you're single."

"I am."

"Got a boyfriend?"

"Not at the moment."

"Any family in town?"

"Not anymore."

"Where'd they go?"

"Moved to the Florida Keys. Marathon Island to be precise."

"That's the other end of the country."

"Yes it is."

"What do you do for a living, Low?"

"I'm a personal trainer."

Teddy looked me over. This time, he smiled. "You are in great shape."

"Ian, the bartender, says you own this place."

"I own a lot of places." Teddy nodded at a pair of women dancing together. "I want to see you dance with those two."

I didn't bother to ask the obvious question, why? I already knew why. Teddy wanted to use his power on me. He was feeding when he used his power, I knew that much. I knew what it felt like to be fed upon by another supernatural. I just didn't know what exactly he was feeding upon. Whatever it was, I felt euphoric when he was feeding, and weak and tired when he finished.

Why he wanted me to dance with two women wasn't hard to figure out. He was a man, and men liked watching women. If those women just happened to be bumping and grinding against each other, so much the better.

I pushed myself to my feet, tugged my dress down, and headed out onto the dance floor. I smiled when I reached the two women, and said, "Got room for a third?"

They returned my smile and separated just enough to let me between them. Both were brunettes. Both were shorter than me. Both were young, early twenties.

The one behind me placed her hands on my hips and pressed her crotch against my bottom. The one in front of me placed her hands on my waist, then she forced one of her legs between mine, until my crotch was rubbing against her thigh. After that we moved to the music. The girl behind me ground against my bottom, forcing me to grind against her friend's thigh.

Not long after that, I could feel Teddy feeding upon me. I knew he was feeding because I became lightheaded, like when you hyperventilate, a sort of natural high. Except this high was far from natural. Once again, it became hard to focus, hard to think, hard to do anything but ride the wave of euphoria that was washing over me.

If this was what Felicity experienced then I had little doubt that she joined the Order of the Pearl willingly. If a drug addict could do anything willingly. There were people out there that were addicted to the bite of blood vamps, to the high that came with the bite. Why not people that were addicted to the high that came from a bogeyman feeding on you.

The music blaring out of the overhead speakers ended. I pulled myself out from between the two women and staggered back to Teddy's booth. Once again, I felt drained, like someone had sapped the energy right out of me.

"Did you enjoy that?" I said, sitting on Teddy's sofa.

Teddy looked at me and smiled. "More than you know. You show promise."

"What's that mean?"

"It means that I believe you're a woman open to new experiences."

"What kind of experiences?"

"The kind where you get to experience the high you were feeling out there on the dance floor. Over and over and over. Does that appeal to you?"

I didn't mind the wave of euphoria that washed over me, although it bothered me that when I was riding it, I forgot where I was, let alone why I was there. Nor did I enjoy feeling drained, but whether it appealed to me or not, I had to say yes. Finding Felicity meant joining the Order of the Pearl and that meant telling Teddy what he wanted to hear. Then again, I didn't want to appear too anxious, which might raise Teddy's suspicions.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with my life. I do have a career you know."

"Yes. You said you were a personal trainer."

"And I've got a healthy list of clients. Clients that keep me very busy."

"I belong to an organization called the Order of the Pearl. We look for young women like yourself. Adventuresome, with great stamina."

"I don't believe I've proven that I have great stamina."

"No. You haven't. But you did show me that you're adventuresome."

"Tell me about the Order of the Pearl."

"It's an organization of individuals like myself. Individuals that possess the power to help others feel good."

"People don't do things unless there's something in it for them. What does making me feel good do for you? Is that how you get your rocks off?"

Teddy smiled. "Not in the way you think. My kind feeds on the energy you give off when you're feeling good. It gives us a high, not unlike the one you were experiencing out there on the dance floor."

"So you're not human."

"Hardly."

"What are you?"

"I'm what's known as an emo vamp. Instead of feeding on blood, we feed on the energy created by the emotions of others."

"I didn't know feeling good was an emotion."

Teddy chuckled. "Perhaps it isn't to you. But to me, and others like me, the energy you create when you're high is deliciously sweet. Can you come back tomorrow night?"

"Why?"

"I'd like to introduce you to some of my friends."

"More emo vamps?"

"Yes."

"Why would I want to meet them?"

"If they approve of you. We'll initiate you into the Order of the Pearl."

"What's that mean?"

"You'll spend time at the Ranch, enjoying the high you experienced out there on the dance floor."

I pushed myself to my feet and straightened my little black dress. "I'll have to think about it."

I turned and headed for the exit. Before coming back here, I needed to get in touch with Hiram Bernard. Let him know what I had learned. Then I would talk to a few friends, non-human friends. Find out what they knew about bogeymen.

# Chapter 7

My first stop the next morning was Wormby's shop. I wasn't sure how old Wormby was. I knew he was older than me, by several hundred years. Gnomes didn't talk about how long they lived, let alone how old they were, but the rumors that circulated around the supernatural world said that gnomes could live to be one thousand years old. When you combined Wormby's age with his connections, I figured if anybody knew about bogeymen it would be him.

I found Wormby dusting the junk in his shop. As usual, he wore the brightest clothes that he could find. A bright yellow tee shirt, green shorts that didn't quite cover his bony knees, red and white striped knee socks, with high topped purple sneakers, all topped by a pink cowboy hat. Somebody once said that gnomes were colorblind, although I'm not sure I believed that. Wormby had no trouble distinguishing gold from silver or rubies from emeralds.

"I haven't changed my mind," Wormby said, when he saw me. "I ain't stealing treasure from no vamp."

"Crystal isn't a vamp. She's a siren."

Wormby smiled. "I'll blow up the wading pool and fill it with Jello. Any time the two of you want to duke it out just come on over. And make sure you wear what you got on."

I had just finished my morning swim in the ocean, so I was wearing my green plastic bikini, along with a green silk wraparound that hung from my waist. Sandals covered my feet. My hair was dry, even though I just got out of the ocean. Mermaid hair isn't like human hair, which absorbs water. Mermaid hair repels water, so our hair is always dry, even after a swim.

"What do you know about emo vamps?"

"They're not vamps," Wormby said. "Although they do feed on others."

"On their emotions?"

Wormby laughed. "Is that what they told you?"

"I'm not sure what to make of them. I know they have the power to make you feel euphoric. And I know that when they stop using their power, you feel drained."

"That's because they are draining you."

"Of?"

"Your life force."

"I don't understand."

"The reason you feel drained when they finish feeding upon you is because they're literally draining the life right out of you. It's how they keep young."

"What's their life span?"

"Longer than mine."

I smiled. "What's your life span?"

Wormby returned my smile. His giant lips covering half of his face. "Longer than yours, darlin."

"How fast can they drain the life out of you?"

"They can't turn you into an old lady in a day, but if you hang out with them for a couple of months, you will age prematurely, especially if several of them are feeding upon you at once."

I nodded. "And because of that high you're feeling, you won't even know it's happening until it's too late."

"That's why if you're smart, you'll stay away from them."

"Do they have enhanced powers like blood vamps? Increased speed and strength?"

"Not that I know of."

"Crystal referred to them as bogeymen."

"Along time ago, before electronic alarms and motion sensors and infrared cameras, they used to peek in the windows of cottages in the middle of the night and feed upon people while they slept. Why do you think people used to shutter their windows? It was to keep the bogeymen from feeding upon them. Where do you think the phrase--don't let the bogeyman get you--came from?"

"So if they can't see you, they can't feed upon you?"

"They need a line of sight connection to use their powers upon you. Which is why smart people stay away from them. But then mermaids have never been accused of being smart." Wormby focused on my breasts. "Stacked and beautiful, but not smart."

I learned across the counter, until my cleavage was inches from Wormby's face. "Did you know I agreed to spend a weekend working as an exotic dancer at a club owned by a vamp?"

I was teasing Wormby. He was obsessed with my breasts. Not that I could blame him. They were spectacular. The only thing he was more obsessed with was avoiding any and all things having to do with vampires. It would drive him crazy, knowing that I would be working topless in a place he wouldn't get near in a million years.

"You really must hate me," Wormby said.

I laughed, straightened up, and got back to more important matters. "What's the best way to kill a bogeyman?" I wasn't planning on killing one, but it wouldn't hurt to know how. Just in case.

"Shoot em. Rip out their heart. Cut off their head. Blow em up. Same way you'd kill anybody."

"How about boiling or freezing the water inside their body, inside the cells that make up their body?"

Wormby chuckled. "I suspect that would work."

"Thanks for the info." I turned and headed for the exit.

"If you're going to get involved with these creatures, don't forget their real name. Bogeymen. Emo vamp sounds like something some Madison Avenue publicist came up with to improve their image."

I headed back to my place, showered, changed, and called John, to see if he wanted to meet me for lunch.

"I don't think that's a good idea," John said.

"Why not?"

"You weren't very nice to Crystal. You accused her of being thousands of years old."

"She's a siren. She might be thousands of years old. And don't forget, her people shot at me."

"You stole her treasure. She spent years looking for that sunken supply ship. How did you find out about it anyway?"

"The ocean is my backyard. I keep track of what's going on in my backyard just like you keep track of what's going on in your backyard. And why is she so obsessed with finding sunken treasure? I thought she wanted to save the fish that live in the ocean."

"Those treasures help fund the Institute's research. My research."

"That's where she gets the money to pay you to count fish?"

"Marine research doesn't pay for itself. The money has to come from somewhere. And we don't just count fish, we measure temperature changes to the water, not to mention the kinds of chemicals that are being dumped into the ocean."

"Why don't we meet for lunch. Maybe you can convince me to let Crystal have her sunken treasure."

John agreed to meet me for lunch at a joint that bordered the beach. A place called the Crab Shack. A place that was within walking distance from my condo as well as the place where John worked. It had big round windows that faced the beach, booths with polished pine tables, and benches covered in blue vinyl. It wasn't fancy, but it did have the best crab cakes and onion rings in the city. I ordered a basket of each at the counter and joined John at a booth that looked out one of the big round windows.

He dressed like he always did when he was working, boat shoes, shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt. Today's shirt was green with big blue orchids printed on it. I was wearing a bikini made out of metal, little triangular pieces of silver joined together to create three larger triangles. It was the kind of bikini that was designed for show, not swimming, the kind that mashed my breasts together so I was showing maximum cleavage. A white silk wrap that reached to mid thigh was tied around my waist.

If I was going to keep John as a friend with benefits, one of my shiny things, as I preferred to think of him, I was going to have to give him a reason to choose our relationship over his relationship with Crystal. The best way to do that was to let him see what he would be missing if he chose Crystal over me. Sirens are cute, and have extremely long lives, but they're a little on the scrawny side.

"Forget your clothes?" John said, when I slid into the booth across from him.

"Haven't bothered to change since my morning swim," I said, lying. "I'm surprised you agreed to meet me."

"Why are you surprised?"

"I figured Crystal would've ordered you to stay away from me."

"Crystal doesn't order me to do anything," John said. "We don't have that kind of a relationship."

"You do know she's just doing this to get back at me."

"Doing what?" John said, before biting into a crab cake.

"Getting involved with you."

"Why is it mermaids think the world revolves around them?"

"Think about it. Crystal spends all this money looking for sunken treasure, only to have the treasure snatched out from beneath her nose by a mermaid. Not just once, but over and over again. Somewhere along the way, you either told her that you were friends with a mermaid, or somebody else told her. Considering how few mermaids there are in the world, it wouldn't take much to figure out that your mermaid is probably the same one that's been snatching up all of the sunken treasures. And being the vindictive little siren she is, Crystal decides to get back at me by taking something from me. Namely you."

"By falling in love with me?"

"By pretending to be in love with you. I've told you time and time again that supernaturals lack the ability to feel love, let alone fall in love. With the possible exception of werewolves. And just for the record, not all mermaids think the world revolves around them."

John grinned. "Just you?"

I returned his grin and shrugged my shoulders. A move which made my breasts bounce. John noticed and licked his lips. Maybe he was cleaning off the grease from the crab cakes and onion rings, but I doubted it.

"That's something you'll have to do without if you marry Crystal."

"What's something I'll have to do without?"

"Enjoying breasts that are young enough to bounce."

John pointed to the counter. "Your order is up."

I hustled over to the counter, to collect my crab cakes and onion rings, along with a bottle of vitamin enhanced water. I returned to our booth and set about ravaging my lunch.

"How can you eat as much as you do and not gain weight?"

"I did a twenty mile swim this morning, at speeds exceeding sixty knots."

John nodded. "Sometimes I forget that you're not human."

"Just like your fiancée isn't human. Although there is one difference between us."

John turned his attention to his food. "Which is?"

"I look my age."

"Today you look your age, but what about one hundred years from now?"

"One hundred years from now you won't care what I look like. You'll be dead."

John checked the watch on his wrist, stuffed a couple of onion rings in his mouth, and slid out of the booth. "I gotta get back to work."

"You realize that she's not the kind of girl you bring home to mom. Be kind of hard to explain how your fiancée is old enough to be your mother's great great grandmother."

"You're not exactly the kind of girl you bring home to mom," a grinning John said.

"Moms love me. Especially when they learn I spent ten years as a cop." John surprised me by leaning down and kissing me on the cheek. "What was that for?"

"That was for caring about my welfare. And for being jealous."

"I'm not jealous. Only people that are in love get jealous. I just don't like it when people take my shiny things from me. She can have you in twenty years. When you're old and wrinkled and not so shiny. Of course, she won't want you then, anymore than I will."

John laughed and headed for the exit. I polished off what was left of my crab cakes and onion rings, then I finished off John's half eaten lunch, figuring I'd need my strength for tonight's meeting with Theodore Wexell and his bogeyman buddies.

Before I headed back to the Glass Box, I needed to get in touch with my client, let him know what I learned, so I changed into my black pantsuit and stopped by his downtown office, Bernard Investments Limited.

The office was on the twentieth floor of a steel and glass high rise. One that came with its own courtyard and fountain. Hiram Bernard had a corner office on the top floor, giving him a spectacular view of the city and the ocean.

He looked the same as the first time I saw him, tall and skinny with long arms and a beak for a nose. He wore an expensive gray suit and sat at a desk that looked like a cockpit, with a computer screen in front of him, a second on his right, and a third on his left. As soon as he saw me he moved out from behind his desk.

"You've found my daughter?" he asked me.

"Not yet. But I know who's behind the Order of the Pearl."

"Who?"

"A man by the name of Theodore Wexell."

"Never heard of him."

"He's not human. He's what's known as a bogeyman."

"Bogeyman? As in don't let the bogeyman get you?"

"The one and the same."

"What can you tell me about this species?"

"They feed upon the life force of others."

"And you think they took my daughter so they could feed upon her life force? Whatever that is."

"She may have gone with them willingly. When they feed upon a person, that person experiences a euphoric high where it's hard to think, hard to know what you're doing. What they don't realize is their youth is being stolen from them."

"Sounds like you need to get her back as quickly as possible."

"I've set myself up as bait. If I can become an initiate in the Order, they'll send me to the same place they sent her. Hopefully, I'll be able to find her once I'm on the inside."

"Do you know where this place is?"

I shook my head. "Not yet."

"If you go there, how do you know you won't end up like my daughter? Either an addict or a prisoner?"

"I'm a mermaid. No one can hold me prisoner if I don't want them to."

"Not even the bogeyman?"

"Not even the bogeyman."

"And if you can't find her this way?"

"Then I'll do it the old fashioned way."

"Which is?"

"I'll start threatening people."

"Will that work?"

"There's a reason the other supernaturals refer to us as dirty little mermaids." Hiram thanked me for stopping by, then escorted me to the door. When we reached it, I stopped and looked at him. "If your daughter is with these bogeymen of her own free will, I can't force her to come with me, that would be kidnapping."

"I just need to know if she's okay," Hiram said. "Maybe you could ask her to call me."

"That I can do," I said.

# Chapter 8

I wasn't sure what to wear to the Glass Box. So I donned an outfit that made me feel sexy. It consisted of six inch ankle strap stilettos, a black leather skirt, which just happened to be the shortest, tightest skirt I had, and a green satin tank top that was a size too small. Oh, and no bra. Not that I needed one. One of the advantages of having such dense muscle tissue.

Despite the fact that it was a weeknight, the club was packed. I found Teddy in his booth. Two other people were with him. A man and a woman. The man had short brown hair and a neatly trimmed brown beard. Like Teddy, he appeared to be in his thirties. Unlike Teddy, who once again, looked like he had just come from the opera, his friend was casually dressed, as if he had just got off the golf course.

The woman also appeared to be in her thirties. She was long and lean with platinum hair cut short, like a man's hair. She reminded me of a model, or an ex-model. She wore a conservative black pantsuit with a white silk blouse, similar to what I wore earlier in the day when I visited Hiram Bernard, although her pantsuit looked way more expensive than mine.

Teddy saw me and waved, so I teetered on over. I say teetered because I wasn't used to wearing six inch heels. Yes, I had a few in my closet, but I rarely wore them. When you're five nine, six inch heels put you up in the stratosphere, so you don't wear them too often.

"This is the young woman I was telling you about," Teddy said, when I reached his booth.

The man with the neatly trimmed beard looked me up and down. "She's a big one."

"She's not human," the woman with the platinum hair said.

Teddy looked at me. Surprised. "That true?"

I nodded. "It's true."

"What are you?" the man with the beard said.

"I'm a mermaid."

The woman tossed her drink on my legs. Fortunately, I wasn't wearing stockings.

"It doesn't work that way," I said, watching the liquid trickle down my thighs. The fact that she thought my legs would turn into a tail if she threw some liquid on them told me how little they knew about mermaids. I took that as a good thing because if they knew what I was capable of, they would run the other way. Then again, maybe they wouldn't. Supernaturals are extremely arrogant. They believe that no one can match their power, whatever that power is.

Teddy handed me the handkerchief out of his tuxedo pocket. I used it to dry my legs, then set it on the red glass coffee table that sat in front of the sofa.

"How does it work?" the woman said.

"I change when I want to change."

"Do you have gills?"

"I'm a mammal. Mammals don't have gills. Fish have gills."

"How do you stay under water for so long?"

I didn't want them asking too many questions about my being a mermaid, so I decided to redirect the conversation. "I have very good lung capacity."

The bearded man stared at my breasts and smiled. "I bet you do."

"I vote no," the woman said.

"You haven't even fed on her yet," Teddy said.

"I don't care. I don't think it's a good idea to involve other supernaturals in the Order."

"Why not?" the bearded man asked.

"They're dangerous. I say we stick with humans. They're easy to control."

Teddy laughed. "How dangerous can a mermaid be?"

"We've survived for as long as we have by not getting involved with other supernaturals," the woman said. "I don't think now is the time to change that rule."

"Why don't we find out how she tastes," the bearded man said. "Before we decide whether to bring her into the Order."

"That's all I'm asking," Teddy said.

The woman folded her arms across her chest and grunted. Clearly, she didn't want anything to do with me. Meanwhile, Teddy turned his attention to the other people in the club. I got the impression that he wasn't just looking at the people, but was feeling them as well. Eventually, he found what he was looking for.

"You see those two guys in the booth on the other side of the dance floor, directly across from us?"

I looked past the people on the dance floor, to the two men in the booth. Both were young and reasonably handsome. One was a blond. The other had brown hair. "What about them?"

I want you to go over there and tell them that you're compliments of the owner."

"Why?"

"Doris here doesn't trust you. I want you to show her that you can follow orders."

"And then?"

"You'll get to experience the high you experienced last night. Times three."

"Times two," Doris said. "I've already voted no."

Teddy smiled. "That doesn't mean you can't help our not-so-little mermaid here experience all that we have to offer her."

"Fine," Doris said. "But I'm still voting no."

Teddy waved me off. I worked my way across the dance floor and into the red glass booth that contained the two men. "You boys waiting for someone?"

The blond smiled at me. "Just you, darlin."

I returned his smile. "Then let's dance."

The blond pushed himself to his feet, when his buddy didn't, I looked at him, said, "I can handle two at once."

The three of us moved onto the dance floor. I faced the guy with the brown hair and pressed up against him, mostly because his buddy expected that he would be the one I was pressed up against. Not that he was offended. He pressed his groin against my bottom, allowing me to feel his arousal. At the same time, his hands slid up my waist, cupping my breasts.

I grabbed the brown haired guy's head and kissed him, pushing my tongue into his mouth. He responded by grabbing a fistful of my hair, and engaging in a battle of dueling tongues. At the same time, he placed his hands on my hips and pulled me toward him, so I could feel his arousal. After that, the three of us moved to the music, bumping and grinding.

A short while later, I experienced the euphoric high that went with being fed upon by the bogeymen. Only this time, it was twice as intense, probably because Teddy's buddy and Doris were also feeding upon me. If I hadn't been sandwiched between the two men, if they hadn't been holding me, I'm not sure my legs would've supported me. Once again, it became hard to think, hard to focus, hard to do anything but ride the high.

When the music ended, I pulled out from between the two men and worked my way back to Teddy's booth. The two men didn't protest, probably because they were as dizzy and as lightheaded as I was, riding the same unnatural high.

"Impressive," Doris said. "She's still standing."

"That's something a human wouldn't be able to do," Teddy said. "Not after being fed upon by three of us at the same time."

"I bet she could go again," the bearded man said.

"Why don't we let her catch her breath before we see how far we can push her," a chuckling Teddy said. He slid away from the bearded man, then patted the cushion between them. "Come. Sit."

I willed my rubbery legs to move and joined them on the red velvet sofa. I slumped back, grateful for the chance to regain my strength. I had never experienced anything like that before. It was an incredible high. It was also incredibly exhausting.

"What do you think of her?" Teddy asked his friends. He was stroking my left thigh with his right hand, from the knee to the top of my short skirt.

"Incredible," the bearded man said. "I feel a decade younger."

His left hand found my right thigh and began stroking it. I was too exhausted to protest, let alone remove their hands.

"What about you?" Teddy asked Doris.

"I'll admit, it was a great feed."

"But?" Teddy said.

"I still don't think it's a good idea to bring another supernatural into the Order."

"So, you're still voting no," the bearded man said.

"I'm still voting no."

"Well, I'm voting yes. The energy she gives off is sublime."

Doris turned to Teddy. "Then it's up to you. Since you found her, I'm assuming that you're voting yes."

"Perhaps we should ask her if she's still interested in becoming an initiate in the Order."

Teddy's hand was still stroking my left thigh while the bearded man's hand continued to stroke my right thigh. Normally, I would've pushed their hands away, sat up straight, and pulled my skirt down, but I just didn't have the energy. So I remained as I was, slumped back on the sofa, legs spread, my body responding to the teasing touch of the two men I was sitting between.

"Did you enjoy the experience?" the bearded man asked me.

I forced my eyes open and looked at Teddy. "What happens if I say yes?"

"You'll move to the Ranch, where you'll live and serve as an initiate in the Order."

"What about my current job?"

"You said you were a personal trainer."

"And I've got a healthy list of clients."

"You'll have to give them up," the bearded man said. "As an initiate, your sole job will be to serve the Order."

"Which means I'll spend my all my time being high."

Teddy looked at me. "Are you telling us that you didn't enjoy the experience?"

"I enjoyed it as much as the next person, but experiencing that day after day could get a little exhausting." I forced myself to sit up. I grabbed the men's hands and removed them from my thighs. Then I closed my legs and tugged my skirt down.

"Why don't you come out to the Ranch," the bearded man said. "Spend a little time there. If you don't like it you can always leave."

I'm not sure I believed that. I was pretty sure that once you went to the Ranch, you were stuck there. Not that I was going to turn them down. After all, I was in this to find Felicity, who I had little doubt was at their so called Ranch. I just didn't want to appear too eager. If I did that, they might get suspicious.

"I won't have to milk any cows will I?"

Teddy chuckled. "It's not that kind of a ranch. It's more like a resort."

"For emo vamps like you guys?"

"It's a place where our kind can safely feed," the bearded man said. "On individuals that enjoy the experience we provide."

"So, what's your decision?" Teddy said.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check out this place. If I don't like it, I can always leave." I might have to kill every bogeyman in the place to do it, but I had no problem with that. When a supernatural killed a human, the law treated it as murder. When a supernatural killed another supernatural, the law treated it as self-defense. Of course, humans wrote the laws, so it wasn't surprising that they weren't troubled by supernaturals killing other supernaturals.

"Excellent," Teddy said. "Give us your address and we'll send a car to pick you up, take you to the Ranch."

I gave them my address. Why not? There was nothing about my building that would tell them I was a private detective. "How will I know you sent the car?"

"The driver will hand you an invitation, saying that you've been invited to become an initiate in the Order of the Pearl."

"Where'd you get that name from anyway? The Order of the Pearl?"

"A nineteenth century publication dedicated to pleasure."

"When can I expect your driver?"

"We'll give you a couple of days to take care of your affairs," Teddy said. "Inform your clients that you've found a new job."

"You haven't told me what this job pays." Not that I expected them to actually pay me, but I figured I had to ask, less they suspect something.

"What's your current monthly income?" I made up a figure and Teddy responded. "We'll pay you double."

"You'll pay me twice what I'm already making just to get high?"

Teddy chuckled. "We'll pay you to allow our members to feed upon your emotions. Your getting high is what you might call a job perk."

Since I wasn't a personal trainer, I didn't actually have any clients to call. But it might not hurt to contact a few friends, let them know where I was headed, just in case I got in over my head. Although when you've explored the ocean depths and swam with great whites, you rarely worry about getting in over your head.

I decided to tell three people. Wormby, Hiram Bernard, and my ex-partner, a cop by the name of Ed Macintosh. As a gnome, Wormby had the power to rescue me. He could pop in, grab me, and pop out. Hiram Bernard was my client and wanted to be apprised of the situation, so I had to tell him. My ex-partner knew Wormby and could pressure him, force him to rescue me when Wormby balked. And Wormby would balk. Wormby always balked when it was time to do something dangerous.

Ed Macintosh was human, and he was still on the force. He was also the one that referred Hiram Bernard to me. Anytime someone came to Ed with a case that involved supernaturals, or might involve supernaturals, Ed referred them to me. Like a lot of humans, he preferred to not get involved with supernaturals. Not if he could help it. He also worked the night shift, which meant I was able to look him up after leaving the Glass Box.

Ed worked in missing persons, which is how Hiram Bernard ended up at his desk. When I worked with him, he was still in uniform. He was also my training officer. Now he wore a coat and tie and spent most of his time searching for runaway teens. In the police department, that was considered a cushy job, one you had to earn after years on the streets. Ed earned it the hard way, surviving two shootings and three vampire bites.

He wouldn't have survived the vamp bites if I hadn't been his partner. When the vamps went after him, I used my powers to boil the water inside their bodies, literally cooking them alive. Ed repaid me by tossing a few cases my way. Cases that involved supernaturals. In his younger days, he wasn't afraid to confront supernaturals, but the closer he got to retirement, the more he tended to avoid them. I was one of the few supernaturals he didn't avoid.

As I walked through the station, cops I had worked with razzed me. "Hey, Low, the private detective business not going very well?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Based on that outfit you're wearing, it looks like you're working the streets."

"These are my Sunday go-to-church clothes," I shot back. "You should see what I wear when I go out on Saturday nights."

I was used to being teased by the guys on the force. When I first joined, I got a lot of fish jokes, including raw fish left in my locker. After they got to know me, the jokes became more sexual in nature. Neither type of joke bothered me, mermaids are professional teases and we can take as good as we give.

I think all the teasing I got bothered Ed more than it bothered me. Then again, maybe he was just worried that I'd get mad and boil the water inside someone's body. I scared him when I killed those vamps. Up until then, he didn't really understand what I was capable of doing.

Like most people, the only thing he knew about mermaids was what he saw in the movies. Once he realized that I didn't mind the teasing, he relaxed. Although he never forgot what I was able to do to the vamps that tried to kill him. His response was a simple one. "Now I know why the vamps refer to your kind as dirty little mermaids."

I found Ed at his desk. He was wearing a jacket and tie, sitting at the computer typing, probably filling out another missing person form. He looked the same as the last time I saw him, big and thick with massive biceps and salt and pepper hair that he wore in a crew cut. When I asked him why he didn't try a more modern hair style he always said the same thing. "It was good enough for my father. It's good enough for me."

"How's your dad?" Ed asked me.

"He bought a fishing boat, spends most of his time chartering it out to tourists that visit the Keys." I sat down on the edge of Ed's desk, right next to his computer, so I was facing him. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm not wearing panties." It was a lie, but Ed didn't know that. He responded by blushing, turning as red as his tie. I let my legs fall open. "You can check if you want."

"You're incorrigible. You know that don't you?"

I crossed my right leg over my left. "I believe you've told me that a few thousand times."

"What would your father think if he knew how you behaved?"

"I think he has a pretty good idea how I behave. After all, he married my mother."

"And you're just like her?"

I laughed. "I'm an angel compared to her."

"How does she find the Atlantic compared to the Pacific?"

"To mermaids, it's just one big ocean. Humans are the ones that named this part the Pacific and that part the Atlantic."

"So what brings you here in the middle of the night, dressed like that?"

"I'm on a case, for that guy you sent my way."

"I've sent a lot of guys your way."

"I'm talking about the last guy you sent my way. Hiram Bernard."

Ed nodded. "Missing daughter. Felicity. Only clue was an invitation to become an initiate in something called the Order of the Pearl."

"Turns out the Order of the Pearl is an organization run by beings that call themselves emo vamps."

"Never heard of them," Ed said. "And to be perfectly honest, I don't want to hear about them. I'm too close to retirement. Once my pension vests, I'm out of here. Maybe I'll buy a cabin in the mountains somewhere. Right next to a trout stream."

"They used to be known by a different name. Bogeymen."

"As in THE bogeyman?"

I nodded. "They have the power to drain the life right out of you. It's how they keep young."

"And you're telling me this because?"

"I've been invited to join the Order of the Pearl."

"I'm assuming you did this so you can find Felicity Bernard."

"She's at a place they call the Ranch. I figured I better let a few people know I'm heading there, just in case."

"In case you can't get yourself out?"

"I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem, but better to be safe than sorry."

"I'm assuming you know where the Ranch is."

"Haven't a clue. I do know it's within driving distance of the city. I also know one of the people behind the Order is a bogeyman that goes by the name of Theodore Wexell."

Ed wrote the name on a Post-It then stuck it on the side of his monitor. "If you get stuck in this place, I hope you don't expect me to come and rescue you."

"You remember a gnome by the name of Nicholas Wormby?"

"Greedy little turd with no sense of style. Runs a pawnshop."

I nodded. "He has the power to pop in and rescue me, but he'll need a little encouragement."

"And you want me to lean on him, convince him to pop in a rescue you?"

"Only if you don't hear from me in the next week."

Ed wrote Wormby's name underneath Wexell's followed by the words, one week. "I can do that."

I was still sitting on the edge of Ed's desk, facing him, so I uncrossed my legs and let them fall open. "Sure you don't want to check? See if I told the truth about not wearing any underwear?"

"Get out of here," Ed said. "I've got work to do."

I slid off his desk. "Your loss."

"Be careful," Ed said, as I headed for the exit.

I smiled at him over my shoulder. "It's the bogeymen you should be worrying about. They don't call us dirty little mermaids for nothing."

# Chapter 9

After my morning swim, I stopped by Wormby's shop, but not before changing into my dress bikini. The one made out of tiny silver triangles linked together to form three larger triangles. The one that pushed my breasts together, so I was displaying maximum cleavage. I didn't bother to wrap a silk scarf around my hips, and instead of wearing sandals or flip-flops, I donned a pair of ankle strap stilettos.

When I needed a favor from Wormby, I found it best to dress appropriately. Fortunately, Wormby's shop wasn't that far from the beach, so it wasn't unusual to see people in swimsuits wandering the streets, although most weren't wearing six inch stilettos. Not that I minded the attention I got when I climbed out of the Del Sol and teetered toward Wormby's shop. Mermaids might be the only supernaturals that don't try to keep a low profile.

"The answer is no," Wormby said, when I entered his shop.

"I haven't asked for anything," I said, moving toward the counter at the back of the shop.

"I recognize that outfit," Wormby said. "That's your--I need a favor--outfit."

"This is a favor you probably won't have to fulfill."

"Every time you use the word probably, someone always tries to kill me. So the answer is no, I ain't gonna do it."

I reached the counter Wormby was standing behind. The one with the raised floor that made him look taller than he actually was. Today's outfit was a powder blue tuxedo, which he wore over a lavender golf shirt. A cherry red beret rested at a jaunty angle on his head. I leaned over the counter, to check what he had on his feet. Those turned out to be alligator skin cowboy boots, with the pants of his powder blue tux tucked into the tops of the shiny green boots. My leaning over the counter served another purpose, putting my cleavage inches from his bulbous nose.

"I like your boots," I said, holding the pose.

Wormby sighed and leaned so close that I could feel his breath on my breasts. "What do you want?" He was talking to my cleavage but I had no problem with that, not if it got me what I wanted.

"The bogeymen have a place called the Ranch. I'm going to be heading up there in a day or so, as one of their initiates."

"I'm not even going to ask how you got that invitation."

I found myself smiling. "You know as well as I do that nobody can resist a mermaid. Not even the bogeyman."

"What do you want from me?" Wormby said.

He was still talking to my cleavage, which he seemed to find as mesmerizing as my eyes. Of course that meant I was talking to the cherry beret on top of his head.

"If you don't hear from me within a week, I need you to pop in and rescue me."

"Rescue you from where?"

"That's just it. I don't know where the place is. Other than it's within driving distance of the city."

"You got to give me more than that."

"One of the bogeymen that owns it goes by the name Theodore Wexell. He also owns a club called the Glass Box."

"You're sure he owns this so called ranch?"

"Pretty sure. And if he doesn't, you can probably connect him to the owners. Especially if you have access to the darknet."

"Which I do."

"If you don't hear from me within a week, I need you to promise me that you'll find this place, pop in, and get me out of there."

Wormby pulled his nose away from my cleavage, so he could look me in the eyes. "What makes you think you'll need my help?"

"I'm hoping I won't, but I had a chance to experience their power last night and it's quite impressive."

"What was it like?"

"Euphoric. And exhausting."

"You let them feed upon you too long and you could find yourself old before your time."

"Hopefully, I won't be there that long. My goal is to find my client's daughter and get her out of there."

"And if you can't, you want me to pop in and save you?"

"I want you to promise that you'll pop in and save me." One thing about gnomes. When they made someone a promise, they were duty bound to keep it. I'm not sure why it worked that way, I only know it did. Maybe someone put a curse on them centuries ago. I didn't know, nor did I care, not as long as Wormby gave me his promise.

"If I give you my word, you'll owe me," Wormby said. "Big time."

"You can have one hundred percent of our next treasure. Unless it's bright and shiny and I just absolutely positively have to have it. Then you can have one hundred percent of the treasure after that."

"What makes you think there's going to be another treasure?"

"There's always another treasure to be found. The sea is full of them."

Wormby grinned. "And nobody's better at getting to them than us."

"So, do I have your promise?"

Wormby hesitated. "You have it."

After leaving Wormby's, I headed back to my place, changed into a businesslike gray pantsuit, then headed downtown, to Hiram Bernard's office. As before, I was escorted in without having to wait.

"You have something to report?" he said, moving out from behind his desk. I'm not sure what was on his computer screens. Considering what he did for a living, I suspected financial reports or stock market updates from around the world.

"I've received an invitation to go to the Ranch, where I believe they're keeping your daughter. They'll be picking me up in a day or so."

"You'll be able to get Felicity out of there?"

"I'm going to try."

"But?" Hiram said, sensing there was more.

"I had a chance to experience their power last night, and it's quite . . . draining. So if you don't hear from me within a week, I want you to go to the police, to the same detective that sent you to me."

"And when I get there?"

"Remind him that I need his help. I've already talked to him, so he'll know what to do."

"I can do that."

Just like that, I was set. If I couldn't get myself out of the Ranch, Hiram would get on Ed's case, forcing Ed to get on Wormby's case, and reminding Wormby of his promise. A triple redundancy that I hoped I wouldn't need.

Two days later, a man arrived at my condo carrying an invitation. The same invitation Hiram found at Felicity's place. He was tall, with broad shoulders, and neatly trimmed black hair. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and a narrow black tie. Sunglasses hid his eyes. He handed me the invitation without saying anything.

"Let me grab some clothes," I said.

"Not necessary," the man said. He spoke in an Eastern European accent and carried a gun beneath his suit jacket. "Your wardrobe will be provided for you when you reach the Ranch."

I nodded, set the invitation aside, and followed the man downstairs, to the building's parking lot, where a black limo waited. The man opened the limo's back door and stepped aside. I slid into the car and the man shut the door. The first thing I noticed was the windows were all blackened, so I couldn't see out of them. Plus there was a privacy screen separating the back of the limo from the front. A screen that was as black as the windows behind and beside me. I also noticed that there were no handles on the car doors, nothing I could use to open the doors from the inside. Not that I was trapped. I was more than capable of kicking the doors off their hinges.

When the car pull out of the parking lot, I checked my watch, deciding to see just how long it took us to reach the Ranch. That would give me an idea how far out of the city this ranch was.

We were on the road for forty-eight minutes, which told me the Ranch wasn't that far outside the city. We were climbing, which meant we were headed east, into the mountains. I was wearing a black pantsuit, a white silk blouse, and black walking shoes. Something simple and practical. I carried no weapons, not that I needed one.

Eventually the car rolled to a stop. The back door opened and I climbed out. Just as I suspected, we were in the mountains, somewhere east of the city. From the outside the place looked more like a resort or spa than a working ranch. There was a big sandstone building, four stories high, that resembled a castle turned into a hotel, with a big round turret on each end, and lots of windows in the middle.

A red brick driveway circled the front of the building, running underneath a portico and reconnecting with the road that brought us here. There were tennis courts to the left of the building and a golf course to the right. I couldn't see it, but I knew there was a swimming pool behind the building. I knew it because I could feel, sense, and smell the water. I also noticed the security cameras watching the driveway and the front doors.

Another man in a black suit stepped out of the building. Like my driver, he was human, with short hair, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. Probably ex-military. And why not? They knew how to take orders without asking too many questions, especially if they were well paid, and I suspect these guys were extremely well paid.

"New initiate," my driver said.

The man that stepped out of the building nodded. "I'll take her in for processing."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door. I responded by ripping my arm out of his grip, surprising him with my strength. "I came here of my own free will. I don't need to be forced."

The man opened one of the double doors and stepped aside. I headed into the building, into what looked like the lobby of an upscale hotel. Scattered throw rugs covered the polished oak floor. Sofas and easy chairs sat on the throw rugs. End tables and coffee tables, all oak, rested next to the sofas and chairs. Everything was earth tones, all browns and tans.

A bar and restaurant were to the left. A long hallway with offices on both sides was to the right. A pair of elevators and a stairway were at the rear of the lobby. There was even a reception desk at the rear, manned by another man in a black suit.

The only clue that this wasn't a normal hotel or spa were the scantly clad young women. Interestingly enough, they all wore the same outfit. A dark blue blazer with a red crest over the left breast pocket. The crest was a red shield with a white WN in the middle. I assumed the W stood for Wexell, as in Theodore Wexell. I'm not sure what the N stood for. The blazers were all buttoned, but the girls wore nothing beneath them. From the waist down, they wore considerably less. Black panties, black lace garter belts, black thigh high stockings, and black ankle strap stilettos.

The girls weren't doing anything, just sitting. They all had glassy eyes and rapturous smiles. Probably because they were being fed on by the bogeymen lounging about. The bogeymen were a little more aware of their surroundings than the girls were, but not much more. I saw no female bogeymen. Nor did I see Felicity.

The man escorting me pointed to the right. "That way."

I turned right, crossed the lobby, and headed down a hallway with offices on both sides.

"In there," the man said, pointing to a door with the word, Manager, printed on it.

I opened the door and stepped into a spacious office. A large walnut desk sat at the back of the room. Behind that desk sat the platinum haired woman I met the other night. The one that didn't want me here. The nameplate on top of the desk identified her as Doris Burke.

"You run this place?" I said.

"I do," she said, turning her attention from the computer to me.

"That's why you didn't want me here."

Doris Burke rose to her feet and circled her desk. "Unfortunately, I was outvoted. Teddy and Byron wanted you here, so you're here. The question is, what am I going to do with you?"

"I understand why you got a vote. How come Teddy and Byron got votes?"

"They own this place."

"Teddy seems to own a lot of places."

"As does Byron."

"How come you don't own a lot of places?"

"I haven't been around as long as they have."

"And how long is that?"

The woman flashed a smile that let me know she wasn't going to answer that question. Instead, she asked me a question. "Why are you here?"

I could've told her that I was a private detective. I could've told her that I had been hired to find a girl. Maybe she'd let me take Felicity home. It would be the easiest way to get me out of her hair. Problem was, she had a couple of people to answer to, one of them being Teddy. I was pretty sure that Teddy didn't want me to leave this place, let alone take someone with me.

"I'm a mermaid," I said. "We're naturally curious."

"About what?"

"Everything."

"I still think you're trouble."

Little did she realize. "I noticed a few initiates in your lobby, wearing about half a uniform."

"We like to dress them up. It gives our members something to look at while they feed."

"You have members?"

"Some of our people like to feed on their own. Others are too busy to be bothered. Those are the ones that come here. We provide the girls, ready and willing, for a small fee of course." Doris Burke smiled, which made me think the fee wasn't that small. "Which brings me back to my current dilemma. What am I going to do with you?"

Doris Burke was going to be a pain in my backside. That much was obvious. I could boil the water inside her body here and now, get her out of my hair, but I didn't kill indiscriminately. I only killed when someone's life was at stake. And right now, that wasn't the case. Besides, she couldn't keep an eye on me twenty-four seven.

"First off, we need to get you to wardrobe, find you a uniform."

Doris Burke headed for the door and I followed. She took me further down the hall and into a room that contained racks and racks of clothing. She grabbed a dark blue blazer and handed it to me.

"I assume the W on the crest stands for Wexell," I said, looking at the blazer. "But what's the N stand for?"

"Newman," Doris Burke said. "It's Byron's last name. WN is a holding company, Wexell-Newman Limited. They own this place."

She moved to a chest of drawers and pulled out a brand new pair of stockings, along with a pair of panties, and a black lace garter belt. When that was done we moved to the shoes and found a pair of stilettos in my size.

"I called a blood vamp," Doris Burke said, as she handed everything to me. "I asked him what he knew about mermaids."

"What did he tell you?"

"He told me they refer to your kind as dirty little mermaids."

"Did he say why they call us that?"

"I asked him, but all he did was laugh."

"I don't think Teddy and Byron would be too happy if you chased me away," I said. "They seem to want me here."

"Which is why I'm not chasing you away." Doris Burke turned and headed for the door. "I'll take you to your room. Then we'll see if we can't find someplace to put you. Someplace where you can't cause trouble."

# Chapter 10

Doris Burke led me to a room on the third floor. She was sleek, sophisticated, and cynical. She reminded me of a ex-model, one that carried a streak of bitterness because her career never quite took off like she hoped it would, which is why I couldn't just think of her as plain old Doris.

I figured this place must have been a resort once upon a time. A real resort, which explained the golf course, tennis courts, and swimming pool. Teddy and Byron must have bought it the last time it went on sale, thinking it would be a good place for their kind to feed upon naive humans.

The room Doris Burke took me to looked like your average hotel room, with a pair of double beds, a table and chairs, a dresser, and a bathroom. It even had the bland generic art work you find on hotel room walls. The only thing missing was the television, but I guess nobody came here to watch television. Not anymore.

"Is this my room?" I asked.

"For now," Doris Burke said.

"Do I get a key?"

"Not necessary. There are no locks on the doors." Of course not. If there were locks on the doors the bogeymen wouldn't be able to get into your room and feed upon you when you were sleeping. "Now, what do you say we get you out of that expensive suit and into something a little less comfortable. Unless of course, you've changed your mind about staying here."

Doris Burke gave me a hopeful look. She really did want me to leave. No chance of that happening, not until I talked to Felicity Bernard. I slipped my jacket off and tossed it on the nearest bed. "I'm a woman. I'm used to wearing uncomfortable clothing."

I stripped and donned the uniform Doris Burke gave me, starting with the panties and garter belt, both of which still had the price tags on them. Something I appreciated. I had no desire to wear used underwear. If Doris Burke wanted to get rid of me, she should've just given me some used underwear.

Once I had those two items on, I sat on the bed closest to the door, opened the package containing the black thigh highs, and rolled them up my legs. I attached the garter belt to the stockings and slipped into the heels, six inch black stilettos. Then I stood up and slipped into the dark blue blazer.

When I finished buttoning the blazer, Doris Burke closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeding upon my life force. A familiar lightheaded high washed over me, making it hard to think, hard to concentrate, hard to do anything but ride the euphoric high.

"Maybe having you here won't be so bad after all," Doris Burke said, when she finished stealing some of my youth. "You have a stamina that humans seem to lack."

I was still coming down from that lightheaded high, so I didn't respond. Instead, I glanced at myself in the mirror. The blazer reached to the middle of my bottom, which meant I was flashing a lot of leg.

"From now on, you'll follow me around and do what I tell you. Is that understood?"

I nodded. "Understood."

I was hoping to be able to move around the place unimpeded, which would allow me to look for Felicity. Unfortunately, Doris Burke was having none of that. She obviously didn't trust me, which was why she intended to keep me by her side. Somehow, I was going to have to put her out of commission.

Doris Burke closed her eyes and took another deep breath, feeding on my life force. Once again, I became lightheaded. Once again, a wave of euphoria washed over me, making it hard to think and impossible to concentrate. All I could do was feel, feel the euphoric high that was making my head spin. The next thing I knew, Doris Burke was standing in the open doorway looking back at me. "Are you coming?"

I shook my head, trying to clear it, and headed for the door.

"You'll get used to the high," Doris Burke said, as I followed her down the hallway. "In fact, it will come to seem normal."

The last thing I wanted was for that unnatural high to feel normal. I toyed with the idea of giving myself one day to find Felicity, but decided to play it by ear.

I was afraid Doris Burke was going to take the stairs, which wouldn't have been a good idea considering I was wearing six inch stilettos and was still lightheaded. Luckily, she didn't. She stepped into the elevator, then waited for me to catch up.

On the way down, she fed on me, keeping me lightheaded and euphoric. I was having a hard time remembering where I was, a hard time caring why I was there. I didn't even notice the elevator doors open until Doris Burke stopped feeding upon me.

"Let's go," she said. "I've got things to do."

We stopped in the middle of the lobby, where she paused to talk to one of the bogeymen. He was wearing khakis and a lime green polo shirt, making it look like he just stepped off the golf course. Although I doubted that. From the brief glimpse I had of the golf course, it didn't look like anybody had used it in quite awhile. But then the bogeymen didn't come here to play golf or tennis. They came here to steal the youth of the young women dressed like me.

"What have we here?" the man said, looking at me. "A new addition to our little club?"

"Her name's Low," Doris Burke said.

"Do you mind if I taste her?"

"By all means. That's why she's here."

The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeding upon my life force. Another wave of lightheaded euphoria enveloped me, making my head spin, forcing me to remind myself where I was and what I was doing there.

"Delicious," the man said. Even though he was right next to me, he sounded far away. Then again, maybe it was just my mind, just my concentration that was far away.

Doris Burke smacked my ass, bringing me out of my lightheaded high. "Move it slut. Back to my office."

I teetered off in the direction of Doris Burke's office, all the while, the man we had been talking to fed upon me, making my head spin. It didn't stop spinning until we disappeared down the hallway, out of the man's view.

"I don't know why I was so worried about you," Doris Burke said, as we stepped into her office. "You're as susceptible to our powers as the humans, maybe more so."

As much as I wanted to argue with her, I couldn't. The heightened awareness that was part of being a supernatural did seem to enhance their power when they used it on me. I wasn't just susceptible to their power, I was extremely susceptible to it. When they were feeding on me, stealing my life force, my youth, I could barely think, let alone focus enough to use my powers.

Fortunately, being a supernatural enabled me to recover quicker than humans, way quicker. A couple minutes after they stopped feeding upon me, I was back to normal. And as luck would have it, it had been a couple of minutes since the man in the lobby had used his power on me, which meant it was time for me to turn the tables, time for Doris Burke to feel my power.

While she walked over to her desk, I focused on the water that made up her body, touching it with my mind. Then I ordered it to heat up a couple of degrees, just enough to make her feel flushed and lightheaded, just enough to give her a fever.

"Is it just me or is it warm in here?" Doris Burke asked, as she plopped down in her desk chair.

"Maybe you need a drink of water," I said. "I know I could use one."

Doris Burke nodded. "Go to the bar and fetch a couple of bottles of water."

Doris Burke folded her arms on her desk and rested her head on her arms, clearly not feeling very well, which she wouldn't, not after what I had just done.

I turned and teetered out of her office. When I reached the lobby, I grew lightheaded as the bogeymen lounging about, and there must have been a dozen of them, began to feed upon me, in multiple numbers.

Time seemed to slow down, as if I was walking in molasses. Not that I cared, I felt too good to care. It took all of my concentration just to remember where I was headed. Part of me wanted to find a chair, sit back, and ride the high. Knowing the price that high came with was the only thing that kept me moving. Knowing that they were stealing my youth, my life, sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins, counteracting the high, not completely, but enough to keep me moving.

When I reached the bar, my lightheaded high faded, but only for a few seconds. When the bogeymen in the bar saw me, they began to feed upon me in multiple numbers, causing the euphoric rush to return.

I grabbed a stool at the bar, sitting next to an initiate with long blond hair. Like all the other initiates, she wasn't doing anything, just sitting there all glassy-eyed with a drunken smile on her face. I had to wait for the bartender, another man in a black suit, to get to me. While I did, I rode the euphoric high that came with being fed upon by numerous bogeymen. The place reminded me of an opium den, with myself as one of the addicts.

"Two bottles of water," I said, when the bartender came up to me. I slurred my words, but I think he understood what I said.

While he grabbed a couple of bottles of water, I focused on the blond sitting next to me. She was young, somewhere in her twenties, with wavy blond hair that reached to her shoulders. She wore the same outfit I wore, the same outfit all the initiates wore. It wasn't until the bartender returned with two bottles of water that I realized who she was, Felicity Bernard, the girl I had come there to find. It was so hard to concentrate when the bogeymen were feeding upon me that I almost walked away without realizing that I had found her.

Of course, finding Felicity and talking to her were two different things. I wanted to say something to her, but it wasn't the right time. I was too lightheaded to think clearly, let alone carry on a conversation. Secondly, there were too many bogeymen watching us. Thirdly, she seemed even more out of it than I did. Instead of talking to her, I grabbed the two bottles of water and headed back to Doris Burke's office.

I don't know how long I was gone. Minutes? Hours? I only know that it was long enough for Doris Burke to recover from what I did to her. I entered her office to find her typing away on her computer. Clearly, she was feeling fine, so I reached out with my mind, until I could feel the water that made up her body. Then I ordered that water to heat back up, not just a couple of degrees, but a full four degrees.

"Your water," I said, setting one of the bottles on Doris Burke's desk.

"I think I'm coming down with something." She placed her palm on her forehead. "At first I thought it was the air-conditioner going out, but now I'm not so sure."

"Maybe you should lay down or something."

"That's not a bad idea." Doris Burke opened her bottle of water and took a drink. Then she pushed herself to her feet and staggered to the door. "I think I'm going to have one of the limos take me home."

"What do you want me to do?"

Doris Burke paused in the open doorway and looked back at me. While she did that I reached out with my mind, to the water that made up her body, then I ordered it to continue heating up, until her body temperature reached one hundred and two degrees.

Doris Burke felt the effects immediately. I know she felt it because she moaned and pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. I wasn't trying to kill her. If I wanted to do that, she would've already been dead. I just wanted her out of my hair.

"Stay in the public areas, where people can see you," she said. "And enjoy the high. That is why you're here."

Doris Burke turned and left, leaving me alone in her office. Once I was sure she had left the building, I headed back to the bar. I got halfway across the lobby without being fed upon by the lounging bogeymen. Just when I thought I might get all the way across, a man in a beige wing chair grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his lap. He turned me sideways, wrapped his left arm around my waist, and placed his right hand on my knee.

"You're a long legged beauty," he said. "You got a name?"

"Low." I tried to pull away, but he tightened the arm around my waist. I forced myself to relax and glared at him. "Teddy and Byron never said I'd be working as a prostitute."

The man chuckled and stroked my right thigh, from my knee to the top of my stocking. Then he used his power on me, making me forget all about the hand on my leg, making me forget where I was, let alone care.

Somewhere in the back of my muddled mind, I realized his power, their power, was twice as strong when they were touching you. If that was true, then he was stealing my youth, my vitality, my life force, at an accelerated rate. While part of me didn't care, felt too good to care, another part did care. It was that part that reached out with my right hand, to the man's neck, to the artery that fed the blood to his brain. I pressed my thumb against that artery. Hard. Cutting off the flow of blood to his brain.

The bogeyman must have been riding a high of his own, because he didn't try to remove my hand. The unnatural high I was experiencing ended abruptly, when the bogeyman's head fell back against the chair and he slipped into unconsciousness.

I took a minute to collect myself, then pushed myself to my feet and teetered toward the bar, walking on legs that felt like rubber. I could see why none of the initiates were walking around, why they were all slumped back in chairs. If I felt this weak after being fed upon, how weak must the humans feel?

When I reached the bar, I grabbed Felicity, yanked her off her stool, and dragged her out of the bar. I used my supernatural strength to force her to come with me. She didn't ask where I was taking her, nor did she seem to care. She was too busy trying to walk without falling flat on her face.

We got lucky. No one fed upon us. No one bothered us. No one asked us where we were heading. But then why would they? The bogeymen were happy as long as there was someone to feed upon, and there were plenty of initiates around, about one girl for every two bogeymen. As far as the men in the black suits went, well, they didn't seem to care what we did as long as we didn't try to leave the building.

I took Felicity to the elevators at the back of the lobby and pressed the up button. There was no point in trying to take her home until I had a chance to talk to her, find out if she wanted to go home. I couldn't talk to her until her head cleared, which meant I had to get her away from the bogeymen. I figured the best place to do that was the third floor, there were no bogeymen up there, just a few sleeping initiates.

When we reached the third floor, I took Felicity to the room Doris Burke assigned me. I shut the door behind us, wishing there was a lock, and sat Felicity on the end of the bed closest to the door. Then I sat down next to her and waited for her to come down from her high.

# Chapter 11

It took a good half hour, but eventually Felicity came down from her unnatural high. She looked at me, and said, "Do I know you?"

"We need to talk."

"About what?" She looked exhausted, more exhausted than I felt. No big surprise the way the bogeymen drained you. After several days, it had to take a toll on you.

"Your father sent me."

The word father seemed to stir her to life. Her pale blue eyes opened wide. "Not here. In the lounge."

She turned and headed out of the room, motioning for me to follow. There were dark circles under her eyes, making her look ten years older than she did in the pictures I found in her house. For all I knew, the bogeymen had already stolen ten years of her life.

I didn't know where the lounge was so I let her lead the way. She took me to the end of the hall, to a room full of vending machines, tables, and chairs. A hotel room had been converted into a lounge for initiates that weren't on duty, a place where they could get something to eat.

"You're new here," she said.

"I'm a private detective. Your father hired me to find you, see if you're okay."

"Is anybody okay in a place like this?" She noticed me looking at the food in the vending machines. "Help yourself. The machines work without money."

"The food isn't drugged?"

Felicity laughed. "The emos don't need to use drugs to control us."

"Is that what you call them?"

"That's what they liked to be called. What do you call them?"

"I use the name they were called hundreds of years ago. Bogeymen. Why didn't you want to talk in my room?"

"Our rooms are monitored. There's a hidden camera behind the ventilation grate. Could be microphones for all I know." Felicity moved to one of the vending machines and got herself a cup of coffee. Then she moved to another machine and grabbed a turkey sandwich and a bag of potato chips.

There was a radio on top of one of the vending machines. She turned it on, found a station that played rap music, then cranked it up, so that even if the room was miked, they wouldn't be able to hear anything but the music.

I moved to the vending machines, got a bottle of water, a ham sandwich, and a bag of potato chips, then I joined Felicity at one of the tables. "You look tired."

Felicity laughed. "One of the side effects of being here."

I opened the package my sandwich came in and sniffed the food. If the food was drugged, I couldn't detect it. I took a small bite. It tasted fine.

"The food really is okay," Felicity said, digging into her sandwich without testing it.

"You want out of here?" I said.

"Of course I want out of here, but in case you haven't noticed. The men in the black suits are armed."

"Ex-military," I said. "Judging by their accents, I'd say Eastern European."

"They do what they're told and they don't ask questions," Felicity said. "You got a way out of this place?"

"The front door. The back door. The side door. Take your pick."

"How do you plan on getting past the guards?"

"I'm not human."

"What are you?"

"A mermaid."

Felicity laughed. So hard that coffee flew out of her nose. "Only my father would send a mermaid to rescue me from the bogeyman."

"Don't confuse me with the mermaids you see in the movies. I'm not nearly as sweet. And I'm a lot more dangerous. So, are you ready to leave?"

"You really can get me out of this place?"

"I really can get you out of this place. If you're ready to leave."

"Not yet," Felicity said. "I came here to find someone. A friend."

"Wait a minute. I came here to rescue somebody who came here to rescue somebody?"

Felicity chuckled and stuffed the last of her sandwich into her mouth. "Looks like it."

"Who did you come here to rescue?"

"A friend. Monica Breen."

"Where's she at?"

"I don't know. Probably on the fourth floor."

"You haven't seen her?"

"Not since I got here."

"How do you know she's here?"

"She told me about visiting the Glass Box, meeting Teddy, being invited to become an initiate in the Order of the Pearl. I never saw or heard from her again."

"How long ago was that?"

"Three months. The longer I didn't see her, the more I began to worry about what happened to her. When I finally decided to investigate, it took me awhile to get Teddy to notice me."

"You have any idea what happened to her?"

"She's probably up on the fourth floor."

"What's on the fourth floor?"

Felicity shrugged her shoulders and finished off her bag of chips. "I don't know. The elevators only take you up there if you have a key, and the stairwell doors are locked."

I finished my sandwich and turned my attention to my chips. "What have you heard?"

"Rumors."

"What kind of rumors?"

"When they grow bored with a girl they take her up to the fourth floor and drug her, so she spends all her time sleeping." Felicity gulped down the last of her coffee. She went to the vending machine and returned with a second cup. "We need to get to the fourth floor. See if Monica is up there."

"And if she isn't?"

"Then I'll leave with you."

"I'll find a way onto the fourth floor," I said. "You just try to keep out of trouble."

"You're not going to let them take you up there?"

"No chance of that happening."

"Can you get onto the fourth floor? The stairwell door is steel and it has an electronic lock."

"I can get onto the fourth floor." Being able to control water had advantages. Water was one of the few substances that expanded when frozen. Send some of it into the lock that kept the stairwell door sealed, order it to freeze, and the lock would break. Or I could order the water to seep into the electronic lock and short it out. Both methods worked.

"You going to do it now?"

"First you need to tell me what Monica looks like."

There was a stairwell at each end of the hallway. I moved to the one that was closest to my room and headed up the stairs. The metal door that led to the fourth floor was locked. What's more, there was an electronic keypad above the lock. If you wanted to get onto the fourth floor, you needed to know the right code. Or you needed to be able to control water.

I unscrewed the top from the water bottle in my hand then reached out with my mind, letting it touch the water, feel the water. I commanded the water to rise out of the bottle and into the electronic lock. My command to the water was simple. Flow into the lock. Saturate it. Short it out. The water did just that, rising out of the bottle and into the electronic lock, seeping through the cracks. The lock popped and sputtered, then clicked. I commanded the water to flow back into the bottle, then I put the cap back on the bottle and pulled on the door. It opened.

The fourth floor looked like the third, a long hallway with numbered doors on each side. Your basic hotel hallway. Except there was no light. The hallway was dark. A problem for humans but not for someone whose eyes are designed to see in the ocean's dark depths. It was also quiet, too quiet. It made me think the floor wasn't being used. A quick check of a few rooms confirmed that. Nobody was sleeping in the beds. The beds didn't even have any linen on them. They were just frames and springs and mattresses. A couple of the rooms were stacked with extra televisions, which explained where the televisions from the third floor went.

Felicity was wrong, Her friend, Monica, wasn't being kept on the fourth floor. Which raised the question, what happened to her? If they did take her upstairs, as Felicity insisted, then there was only one other place they could have taken her, to the roof.

I headed back to the stairwell and followed it to the roof. There was another electronic lock, but the water bottle in my hand took care of that. There wasn't much on the roof, a large air-conditioning unit, a couple of vents, and a big white circle painted in the middle of the roof with a big red H painted in the middle of the circle. A heliport.

***

"What do you mean Monica's not on the fourth floor?" That was Felicity, responding to my news.

"Nobody's there. The entire floor is deserted. It's not used for anything but storage."

"She has to be there. Some of the girls told me that's where they took her."

"There's a heliport on the roof of the building. I'm betting they put her in a helicopter and flew her somewhere."

"Flew her where?"

"I don't know. And I doubt if we're going to figure that out hanging around here."

"You think we should leave?"

"Monica's not here. There's no point in hanging around."

Felicity thought for a second then nodded. "You're right. Let's book."

Felicity pulled a couple of skirts out of the dresser in her room. Both were made out of a blue and gold plaid and were so short they left the tops of our stockings uncovered. Since someone had taken the clothes we arrived in, they were the best we could do. We slipped them on and headed down the stairs, taking the stairwell at the end of the hall. The one closest to our rooms.

"I don't suppose you have a car," Felicity said.

"There must be a limo around. One they used to bring us here. If not, we'll borrow one of the bogeymen's cars."

"I doubt if those guys in the black suits are going to let us borrow a car. I don't know if you noticed, but they're carrying guns beneath their jackets."

"I noticed," I said.

We reached the ground floor. There were two doors at the bottom of the stairwell. The one to the left led to the outside. The one to the right led to the hallway that included the costume room and Doris Burke's office. The door that led to the outside had an electronic lock, another one that wouldn't open without the correct code. I couldn't help but wonder if that violated some sort of fire ordinance. Not that the bogeymen impressed me as a group that cared about violating laws. Most supernaturals believed that human laws were for humans. I doubted if they were any different.

"You need the correct code to open this door," Felicity said, checking the stairwell's outside door.

"I really don't." Instead of using a bottle of water to short out the lock, I just grabbed the handle and ripped the metal door off its hinges. What was the point of having supernatural strength if you didn't use it.

We found ourselves on one side of the building, the same side as the tennis courts. There were half a dozen of them and they were lit, but they weren't being used. No big surprise. The bogeymen didn't come here to play golf or tennis. They came here to feed on the initiates, to steal their life force, their youth, their vitality.

"You're pretty strong," Felicity said.

"Dense muscle tissue," I said.

"Where do you suppose the limos are?"

"Tennis courts are on this side of the building. Golf course is on the other side. I'm guessing the parking lot must be somewhere in the back."

We headed to the back of the building and past the swimming pool, which had a high stone fence around it. That's where we found the parking lot. In the middle of that parking lot sat three black limos. Leaning against the one in the middle was a guard. He looked like all the guards, broad at the shoulders, narrow at the waist, with a short military style haircut. There was a bulge under the front of his jacket, most likely a shoulder holster and a gun.

He was busy smoking a cigarette, but when he saw us, he tossed it on the pavement and headed toward us, working his way between the other parked cars. When he spoke, it was with an Eastern European accent. Polish? Bulgarian? Hungarian? I wasn't sure. "How did you get out here? You're not supposed to be here."

"We need a ride back into the city," I said.

"By who's authorization?"

"Doris Burke."

"I haven't heard anything about taking a couple of girls into the city."

"When did you go on duty?"

"Sunset."

"That's probably why you haven't heard anything. By the time you got here, Doris Burke had already headed home."

"She would've told my supervisor." He pointed toward the building. "You need to get back inside. Both of you."

"We're headed to the city," I said. "You can either drive us or we'll drive ourselves."

The man reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun, a nine millimeter Glock. As an ex-cop, I noticed guns, noticed their size, their make, their model.

"Back inside. Or I shoot both of you."

I reached out with my mind, touching the water inside the man's body, the water in his bladder, in his stomach, in his blood, in each of the cells that made up his body. Then I ordered that water to cool, not freeze just cool, about four or five degrees, just enough to make the man shiver, so much so that his body began to shake in an effort to keep warm.

"What's . . . happening . . . to . . . me?" he said, through chattering teeth. He wrapped his arms around his body in an effort to keep warm, all but forgetting about the gun in his hand.

"Hypothermia," I said. "A sudden drop in body temperature."

"I . . . don't . . . understand."

"I'm a mermaid and like all mermaids, I can control water, including the water that makes up most of your body." I walked up to him and looked him in the eye. "I ordered that water to cool. And I will keep ordering it to cool until you freeze to death. Unless you give me your gun as well as the keys to one of these limos."

He handed me his gun and his keys, his hands shaking with cold.

"Which car are those for?" Felicity asked.

"The . . . middle . . . one," the man said, his teeth chattering.

I tossed the keys to Felicity. "You drive."

She nodded and climbed behind the steering wheel. Once she had the car running, I released the water inside the man's body, allowing it to return to its normal body temperature. "If I were you, I'd head inside, find a blanket and wrap it around myself."

The man nodded and headed off, his body shaking with cold, his teeth still chattering. I climbed in the passenger's side of the limo. The man's gun was still in my hand.

"Time to book?" Felicity said.

"Time to book," I said.

Felicity put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. We circled around to the front of the building and followed a tree lined driveway down to the highway.

"Which way back to the city?" Felicity asked.

"That way," I said, pointing west.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"You memorized the route on the way up?"

"No, but I can feel the ocean."

"So my dad hired you," Felicity said, as we headed out of the mountains and back toward the city.

"He did."

"Can I hire you?"

I knew what she was going to say, but I had to ask. "To do what?"

"Find my friend, Monica."

"It'll cost you," I said.

"Money's no object."

I smiled at Felicity. "My favorite kind of client."

# Chapter 12

"Where do you want me to drop you?" Felicity asked, when we reached the city.

"We need to stop by your father's place. He hired me to find you. I need to show him that I did."

"Daddy's place it is," Felicity said. "Although I'm thinking that maybe we should change clothes before paying him a visit."

"We can stop by your place so you can change," I said. "For my part. I'm comfortable with what I got on."

"I thought mermaids were supposed to be shy."

"Something else the movies got wrong. Mermaids have never been known for their shyness."

We stopped at Felicity's place, where she changed into jeans and a tee shirt. Snug, expensive, designer jeans, and an equally snug, equally expensive, designer tee shirt.

"What do we do with the limo?" Felicity asked, as we headed out of her house.

"I'll drive the limo. You follow me in your BMW. We'll dump it in one of the city's more unsavory sections."

"Where it will be stolen and stripped for parts?"

"I'm sure Teddy and his partners can afford it."

I took the limo to one of the city's seedier sections and parked it, making sure to leave the keys inside and the tinted windows down, so those that passed by would be sure to notice. Then I climbed in the passenger seat of Felicity's BMW. She slipped the car in gear and we roared off.

It was three o'clock in the morning and the city's streets were deserted, so we made good time. Most of the stoplights had sensors which meant they saw us coming and switched to green seconds before we reached the intersection, allowing us to cruise through town with no stopping.

Felicity drove to a suburb north of the city, to a gated community. The guard at the gate recognized her and waved us on through without bothering to check her identification. A sandstone wall with a wrought iron gate that swung open separated Hiram Bernard's estate from the rest of the community. You know you're rich when your estate is gated off from the gated community.

Felicity paused in front of the gate and punched a code into an electronic box that bordered the driveway. The big wrought iron gate swung inward and we headed up the estate's driveway, to a large Tudor style house with leaded glass windows and heavy stone chimneys. The place was well lit and more lights came on as sensors detected our approaching car.

"You might want to stay here for awhile, take advantage of all the security," I said, as the car rolled to a stop on a driveway made out of crushed seashells. "In case the bogeymen come looking for you."

Felicity nodded and turned the car off. "What if they come looking for you? I'm guessing they know where you live just like they know where I live."

"I can take care of myself," I said.

Felicity grinned. "Because real mermaids aren't nearly as sweet as the ones you see in the movies?"

"You got it."

We got out of the car and headed inside. The house was locked, but Felicity had a key. A silent alarm must have alerted Hiram Bernard of our arrival because he appeared at the top of a winding staircase dressed in black silk pajamas and a red velvet smoking jacket, pretty much what you'd expect a man of Hiram Bernard's stature to wear at home in the middle of the night. The snub nosed thirty-eight in his hand wasn't something you expected to see. At least it wasn't what I expected to see. I expected to see him smoking a pipe.

"You found her," Hiram Bernard said, when he saw us. He slipped the revolver in the pocket of his smoking jacket and hurried down the stairs. He hugged Felicity, then looked at me. Then he noticed what I was wearing. "I'm not even going to ask."

"She should probably stay here for awhile," I said. "In case the people she got involved with come looking for her."

"You need to tell her that," Hiram said. "She's got a mind of her own."

"I already did."

"And I still want to hire you," Felicity said to me. "To find Monica."

"It would help if I had a picture of her."

"Figured that." Felicity reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a photo of herself and another girl. The other girl was shorter and slighter, with black hair cut short, pixie style. She was cute with mixed heritage, European and Asian.

"That's what this was about?" Hiram said to his daughter. "You got involved with these creatures because they took Monica?"

"They don't take anybody," I said. "Girls go with them willingly. It's just that once the girls are there, they don't let them leave."

"How do they convince the girls to go with them?"

"They offer them a high they can't get elsewhere," Felicity said.

"You know young people," I said. "They're always looking for the next big kick. No matter how dangerous it is."

"Yet my daughter left with you willingly."

"Like most highs, this one came with some unpleasant side effects." Felicity turned to me. "Where will you start looking for Monica?"

"I think I'll pay Doris Burke a visit. See what kind of information I can squeeze out of her."

***

After leaving the Bernard's house, I caught a cab to the police station, paid for by Hiram Bernard. Ed Macintosh was still on duty, finishing up the night shift. The night shift was always more dangerous than the day shift, unless of course you spent most of your time filing paperwork like Ed.

"I thought you were going undercover?" he said, when he saw me approaching his desk.

"I just got back."

"Is that your undercover outfit?"

"One of them." I did a quick pirouette. "You like it?"

Ed ignored me. "Did you find the person you were looking for?"

"She's back with daddy. Safe and sound." I sat on the edge of Ed's desk, facing him.

"So what do you need now?"

"The address of a woman, goes by the name Doris Burke."

"Did you check the phone book?"

"She's not listed."

Ed turned his attention to his computer. Then he called up the DMV information on Doris Burke. He wrote her address on a Post-It and handed it to me. "DMV records list her as an emo vamp, whatever that is."

"You don't want to know."

"Is she dangerous?"

"All supernaturals are dangerous." I snatched the Post-It out of his hand and sauntered off. The cab Hiram Bernard paid for was waiting to take me home. Once there, I would grab a few minutes of sleep, take a swim in the ocean, then grab some breakfast. While Doris Burke was at the Ranch, trying to figure out what happened to me, I would check out her residence, find out what I could learn about her.

"Don't you ever wear clothes?" Wormby said, when I entered his pawnshop the next morning.

I was back in my green plastic bikini, with a blue silk wrap tied around my waist. I just finished my morning swim and figured I better let Wormby know that I made it back. For his part, Wormby wore orange and lime green striped socks, lime green shorts, and an orange tee shirt with the name of his pawnshop on it.

"You prefer I wear more when I stop by?"

Wormby looked me up and down. His giant lips twisting into a broad grin. "No."

I returned his smile. "That's what I thought."

"I see you made it back okay."

I nodded and leaned on the counter. "Any new treasures we need to go after?"

"The siren's flunky barbecues almost every night. Suppose I could pop in tonight, see what's up."

"Sounds like a good idea," I said. "Now if you'll excuse me. I've got a bogeywoman to look into."

"This bogeywoman got a name?"

"Why?"

"If I know who all the bogeymen are, then I'll know who to avoid."

"She calls herself Doris Burke."

I changed into jeans, sneakers, and a tee shirt before heading for Doris Burke's place. My jeans weren't expensive designer jeans like Felicity's, but they were just as tight. The tee shirt was the same green as my eyes, It also matched my high top sneakers. I didn't bring a gun with me, but I did carry a bottle of water, which in my hands was just as dangerous as a gun.

Doris Burke lived in an unassuming middle class suburb. Her house was like every other house in the neighborhood, a split-level ranch with an attached garage. It was white with blue trim, about as unassuming as you could get. I suspect that was by design. Most supernaturals liked to keep a low profile, they rarely occupied the most expensive house in the neighborhood, even if they could afford it.

I rang the doorbell but nobody answered, not that I expected anyone to answer. Doris Burke was up at the Ranch, probably wondering what happened to me, maybe celebrating the fact that I was out of her hair.

When nobody answered the door, I circled around to the back of the house. There was no swing set in the backyard, no kids toys of any kind. If Doris Burke had kids, then they were probably adults, maybe even hundreds of years old.

A six foot high redwood fence surrounded the backyard, which was handy for me because it meant nobody would see me breaking into Doris Burke's house. Before breaking the lock on the back door, I checked to see if it was unlocked, which it was. That didn't surprise me. Supernaturals often left their places unlocked, thinking no human would be foolish enough to trespass into their territory, while secretly hoping one did. The law did give supernaturals the right to defend their homes, even against humans.

Inside, the house was clean but sparse. I don't know if that was because she had just moved in or just didn't like clutter. Based on how clean she kept her desk and office, I figured that she was a neat freak. I did a quick search of the house to make sure the place was empty, then I headed into her home office.

I rifled through her mail, but found nothing interesting. Just the usual, credit card bills, utility bills, and so on. I fired up her computer, which wasn't password protected. No big surprise. Most people didn't password protect their home computer.

I checked her emails and found a number of them from a place called the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. They all confirmed the arrival of various patients. Patients that were identified by numbers rather than names.

Doris Burke wasn't a doctor, or a social worker, which raised the obvious question. Why would she be sending patients to a long term care center? I could only think of one reason. The Center was the place they sent people like Felicity's friend, Monica. People that had their youth stolen from them. Part of Doris Burke's job must have been disposing of initiates that were used up.

I left Doris Burke's place the way I found it, climbed back in the Del Sol, and headed home. No neighbors asked me who I was or what I was doing there. No big surprise. Most supernaturals didn't have a lot of human friends. Mostly because it was hard for them to hang out with humans and not use their powers on them. That was certainly the case with vampires, and from what I had seen, bogeymen weren't a whole lot different from vamps. They both saw mankind as a giant buffet just waiting to be fed upon.

When I got home, I did an internet search on the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, but nothing came up. Wherever the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center was, it was keeping a low profile. If I wanted to find out where it was, I was going to have to force Doris Burke to tell me.

***

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to making Doris Burke tell me about the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. Which is why I was waiting for her in her living room when she got home that evening.

I was still dressed in jeans, tee shirt, and sneakers, sitting on the sofa in her living room, mostly because it faced the front door and she'd be able to see me as soon as she entered.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Doris Burke said, when she stepped into her house.

I rose to my feet and moved toward her. "Where's the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center located?"

"How did you get in here?"

"You left the door unlocked. Where's the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center?"

"Why do you care?"

"There's a girl there by the name of Monica Breen. I want her released."

Before Doris Burke could use her power on me, I reached out with my mind, to the water that made up her body. Then I ordered that water to cool and to keep cooling.

"What's . . . happening . . . to . . . me?" Doris Burke said, as her body began to shiver and her teeth began to chatter.

"I ordered the water that makes up your body to cool. And I'll keep ordering it to cool until you die from hypothermia. Unless you tell me what I want to know."

"I . . . can't," she said, through chattering teeth.

"Why not?"

"I . . . don't . . . know . . . where . . . it . . . is."

I marched up to Doris Burke and stuck my face in hers. "I don't believe you."

Doris Burke wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to keep warm. She was still shivering. "It's . . . true."

"You telling me that you've never been there?"

Doris Burke shook her head.

"Why not?"

"No reason . . . to go. The girls . . .are all . . . used up."

She was shivering uncontrollably. Her skin had turned as pale as a fresh dusting of snow and her lips were turning blue. Personally, I thought it was a good look on her.

"Who does know where the Center is?"

"T . . . Teddy."

"If I find out you're lying to me, I'll come back and finish what I started." Doris Burke nodded. At least I think she nodded. She was shivering so bad that it was kind of hard to tell. I started to release the water inside her body, so it could return to its normal temperature, then stopped. "One more thing?"

"W . . . what?"

"Whose bitch are you?"

Doris Burke hesitated for a few seconds, then realized that she had no choice. She could either say the words I wanted to hear, or she could freeze to death. "I . . . I'm . . . your bitch."

I smiled. A wicked smile. "And don't you forget it."

# Chapter 13

After leaving Doris Burke's house, I headed for the Glass Box. It was early evening and if Teddy wasn't already there, he soon would be. When I got there, the bouncer manning the front door didn't want to let me in.

"I'm a friend of Teddy's," I told him.

The bouncer looked me over and laughed. "I doubt it."

"Because?"

"Teddy's girls dress up."

I sighed and headed back to my car, where I peeled off my jeans and sneakers. I tugged my emerald green tee shirt down, turning it into an extremely short dress, and pulled a pair of stilettos out of the trunk. After slipping into the heels, I reached underneath my tee shirt and removed my bra. Then I mussed my hair up and applied some cherry red lip gloss.

"Better?" I said, when I reached the bouncer.

"Much." The bouncer stepped aside so I could enter the club.

Once inside, I circled the dance floor, checking all the booths to see if Teddy was around. He wasn't. No big surprise. It was still early, with the sun just beginning to set. I did find John and Crystal sitting on a sofa in one of the red glass booths, so I slid in and joined them. Crystal was sitting on John's right, so I sat on his left.

"What are you doing here?" John asked me.

"Working."

Crystal looked at how I was dressed. "As what? An over-aged raver?"

"At least I'm not trying to pass myself off as someone that hasn't been around for hundreds of years."

Crystal glared at me for a second, then forced a smile. "I took your advice."

"You've decided to date someone closer to your own age? I bet the geezers in the nursing homes are happy about that."

Crystal ignored my snide comment. "I hired a mermaid to help me recover any sunken treasures that I discover."

She surprised me with that one. I didn't know there were any other mermaids in town. We weren't the most plentiful species on the planet. Mostly because we couldn't expand our numbers with a well placed bite like vamps and werewolves could. We had to do it the old fashioned way, with sex, pregnancy, and a baby.

"In fact, I believe that's her."

Crystal stood and waved. A woman waved back and worked her way on over. She was taller than me by an inch. Her long thick hair was blond instead of red. Her eyes were blue instead of green. She was younger than me, by about ten years, too young to be involved with someone as old and as dangerous as Crystal. I couldn't help but wonder if she had even mastered her powers. I was well into my twenties before I mastered my ability to control water.

"You didn't tell me there was another mermaid in town," the blond said, when she reached our glass booth. She was talking to Crystal, but looking at me. She wore an orange tank top, blue jeans, and black sneakers. Like all mermaids, she had thick hair, flawless skin, big eyes, and gravity defying breasts.

"Is that a problem?" Crystal asked.

"I've just never met another mermaid." She offered me her hand. "Savanna Green."

"Low Campbell," I said, shaking her hand. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

"How did you hook up with a siren?"

Savanna wrinkled her brow. "A siren?"

"She's referring to me," Crystal said.

"You're a siren?"

"Is that a problem?" Crystal asked.

"No. I guess not." Savanna looked at me and answered my previous question. "I saw an ad on the internet, looking for a mermaid to help recover sunken treasures. That's how I ended up here."

I didn't need to ask why Savanna answered the ad. She was a mermaid, which meant she was in the business of collecting shiny things. Just like me. Just like all mermaids. "What kind of a split has she offered you?"

"Ten percent of everything I help her recover."

I turned to Crystal. "And how many treasures have you recovered in the past year?"

"None, but that's because you've been stealing them from me."

I ignored Crystal and turned back to Savanna. "You do realize that ten percent of nothing is nothing."

"Perhaps now that Savanna has joined my team nothing will become something."

"Yeah, I wouldn't count on it." I pushed myself to my feet and looked at Savanna. "Have you mastered your powers yet?"

Savanna wrinkled her brow. "My powers?"

"Your ability to control water."

"We can control water?" a surprised Savanna said.

"Didn't your mother teach you that?"

"My mother died when I was little. I was raised by my father. He owns a ranch up in Montana. That's where I grew up."

"You were raised by humans?"

"Raised by my dad. Who is human."

It sounded to me like Savanna didn't know half of what a mermaid her age should know. "How many mermaids have you met since your mother died?"

"Counting you?" I nodded. Savanna smiled. A friendly innocent smile. "One."

"You need to find another mermaid," I said to Crystal.

Crystal grinned, finding my comment more than a bit amusing. "And why is that?"

"Because this girl doesn't know what she's doing."

"I can change," Savanna said. "Our ranch bordered a lake. That's where I learned how to change form."

"There's more to being a mermaid than being able to change form and hold your breath."

"Like the ability to control water?"

"That and other things."

"Maybe you could teach me these other things," Savanna said.

"Under one condition?"

"Which is?"

"You tell Crystal that you can't work for her."

"If I don't work for her I can't afford to stay in the city. I didn't bring that much money with me."

"You can stay at my place," I said.

Crystal glared at me. "I paid for her trip out here. She owes me."

"I'll reimburse you," John said.

Crystal gave John a puzzled look. "Why would you do that?"

"It's obvious there are things the girl needs to learn, things you can't teach her, things nobody but another mermaid can teach her. I think it's more important that she spend time with Low then help you hunt for treasure."

"Why can't I do both?" Savanna said.

"Crystal's a siren. Her kind and ours don't exactly get along." I was talking to Savanna but looking at John.

"Why's that?" Savanna asked.

"Historically, we've found ourselves in competition for the same things," Crystal said. "Sunken treasures, the attention of sailors."

"The attention of marine biologists," I added.

Crystal grabbed John's hand. "It would seem some of us are better at holding their attention than others."

"John's just one of several men that I share benefits with. You going to marry all of them?"

Crystal chuckled. "Might be worth it just to tick you off."

John looked at Crystal. "You make it sound like our relationship is more about her than us."

"Sounds like you two need to talk," I said.

I grabbed Savanna's arm and steered her away from John and Crystal's booth, prompting Savanna to ask the obvious question. "Where we going?"

"Where have you been staying?"

"No where. I just got into town. Called Crystal from the airport and caught a cab down here."

"How did you know Crystal would be here?"

"I sent her a text letting her know I was in town. She sent me one back, saying that I could find her at a club called the Glass Box." Savanna looked around. "We don't have anything like this back home."

"You also don't have bogeymen back home."

"What's a bogeyman?"

"The guy that owns this place."

"They dangerous?"

"They can steal your youth."

"What's that mean?"

"It means they can turn you into a wrinkled old lady decades early."

We reached the club's front doors and headed outside. As much as I wanted to confront Teddy, ask him about Monica Breen and the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, it would have to wait.

The bouncer who wouldn't let me in was still on duty, so I stopped and faced him. "I have a question."

"Am I going to want to hear it?"

I pointed to Savanna. "She's wearing jeans. How come you let her into the club?"

"I was told to."

"By?"

"Crystal."

"You know Crystal?"

"Of course I know her. She's one of the club's minority owners."

That shouldn't have surprised me. The supernatural community is pretty small. When you've been around for centuries, like Crystal and Teddy, you're bound to run into other supernaturals, even go into business with them.

That also meant that Crystal lied to me. When I asked her if she knew Teddy, she told me that she had heard of him, but didn't know who he was. Can't say I was surprised that she lied. She was a siren.

"Why do I get the feeling I stepped into the middle of a feud?" Savanna said, as we headed for my car.

"Probably because you did."

"You don't like Crystal?"

"No."

"Because she's a siren?"

"And because she took John from me. And because she's a professional liar."

"He was your boyfriend?"

"He wasn't my boyfriend. He was just a friend. With benefits."

"Oh."

I looked at Savanna. "Am I really the first mermaid you've ever met?"

Savanna nodded. "Not counting my mother."

"How old were you when your mother died?"

"Three."

"Mind if I ask how she died?"

"Car crash on an icy road."

"I'm sorry." She should've been able to control that ice, should've used her power to make it melt. Then again, maybe she wasn't that good at controlling water. Some mermaids were better at it than others. My mother had been an expert at it and she made sure that my skills equaled, if not surpassed, hers.

"Dad said she loved to go fast, but that she wasn't a very good driver."

"Going fast is sort of a mermaid thing."

"What else is a mermaid thing?"

We reached my Del Sol. I opened the driver's door and turned to Savanna. "Why did you answer Crystal's ad?"

Savanna shrugged her shoulders. "I liked the idea of finding treasure."

"What kind of treasure are you hoping to find?"

"Gold. Diamonds, emeralds, rubies. Anything that sparkles."

"What do you plan on doing with that treasure?"

"Enjoy it."

"You don't plan on spending it?"

A wistful smile crossed Savanna's face. "I just want to look at it."

"That's a mermaid thing." I climb in the Del Sol. Savanna joined me. I fired the car up and we headed off.

"Looking at treasure?"

"Collecting shiny things."

Savanna breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad you said that. I thought I was some kind of a freak. When I was little I used to collect agates. I even made my dad buy me a rock polisher so I could shine them up. When I got older, I started a silver dollar collection. Every time I got one I would pull out the silver polish and clean it until it shined. My friends all thought I was weird."

"You weren't weird. You were just being a mermaid."

"What else is a mermaid thing?"

"The ability to sense water. The ability to control water. The ability to mesmerize people with our eyes."

"Mesmerize people with our eyes?"

"Sometimes we can get people to do what we want by having them look into our eyes, then telling them what we want them to do. It kind of depends upon the individual. Some people are more susceptible than others. Humans are susceptible when they're drunk or high. Gnomes are extremely susceptible. Male gnomes anyway."

"Gnomes? You mean they really exit?"

"They exist. They're also easy to spot. They're small and ugly and have terrible taste in clothes."

"Gnomes, sirens, bogeymen, how many kinds of creatures are there?"

"We refer to ourselves as supernaturals and it's hard to say. Most like to keep a low profile. I didn't know bogeymen existed until a few days ago."

"Tell me about this power we're suppose to have, the ability to control water."

"Not only can we sense water, we can touch it with our minds, even control it."

"Control it how?"

"However we want. We can move it, make it freeze, make it boil."

"You're kidding."

"Hardly."

"Should I have learned this when I was younger?"

"I didn't learn how to do it until I was around your age. So you're not behind schedule."

"Who taught you how to do it?"

"My mother."

"Your mother was a mermaid?"

"All mermaids mothers are mermaids."

"And our fathers?"

"Mostly human."

"Why is that?"

"Mermaids rarely give birth to boys. I'm not sure why. Something in our genetics."

"Can a mermaid with a human husband give birth to a girl that isn't a mermaid?"

"If it's happened, I've never heard about it."

"So if I marry a human and we have a baby, odds are it'll be a girl and she'll be a mermaid."

I nodded. "That seems to be the way it works. I guess it's nature's way of ensuring the survival of our species."

"Are there mermen out there?"

"A few, but they're very rare. My mother said she met one once, when she was a kid, but I never have."

"Will you teach me how to control water?"

I glanced at Savanna. "If you promise to stay away from Crystal."

"I promise," a smiling Savanna said.

# Chapter 14

"You'll have to sleep on the couch," I said, as we entered my condo. "I don't have an extra bed."

The couch is fine," Savanna said.

She didn't have much luggage. Just the shoulder bag she had been packing when I first saw her in the club.

"Make yourself at home. I have to go back out."

Savanna drifted over to my wall of respectability and checked out the various awards I had won in my ten years on the force.

"You used to be a cop?"

"I did."

"You sure got a lot of commendations here. I count twelve."

"One of the advantages of being a mermaid. We can do things humans can't."

"You're working as a private detective now?"

"I am. Which is why I have to go out. I'm on a case."

"What kind of case?"

"Missing person. Help yourself to what's in the fridge, just don't try to break into my vault." Not that she could. It was a steel box with a steel door that contained a waterproof lock. Something I insisted upon. The steel door was hidden behind a regular wooden door, so when you walked down the hallway it looked like another bedroom, which it had been once upon a time. "You try to get in there when I'm not here and I won't help you with anything."

"Everybody needs their privacy," Savanna said. "I won't violate yours."

"There are some hangers in the hall closet. If you want to hang up your clothes, you can keep them there."

"Not a problem," Savanna said. "All I got is a couple of tee shirts, an extra pair of jeans, and a change of underwear."

"That's all you brought with you?" Granted she only had one bag, but it was a good-sized bag.

Savanna blushed, looking more than a bit embarrassed. "It's not all I brought with me."

I nodded. "You brought your treasures with you."

"Couldn't leave them behind."

"No, I guess not."

"You don't think that's weird?"

"Not at all."

Savanna did something unexpected right them. She hugged me. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Letting me stay with you. And not thinking I'm weird."

"Make yourself at home. I've got a missing girl to find."

"Does it involve Crystal?"

"No. It involves some bogeymen."

"Why would a person let someone steal their youth?"

"While they're doing it, you experience this euphoric high, one that's so intense you don't care what's happening to you."

I left Savanna at my place and headed back to the Glass Box still dressed in a tee shirt, heels, and little else. When I got there, John and Crystal were gone, but Teddy was there. He was alone in his red glass booth, feeding on the dancers out on the floor.

I slid into his booth and joined him on the red velvet sofa. "We need to talk."

Teddy stopped feeding and opened his eyes. "You should be at the Ranch."

"I was, but I got what I came for, so I left."

"Left how?"

"Borrowed one of your limos."

Teddy grunted and I could see what he was thinking. The gun toting Eastern Europeans were supposed to prevent the girls from walking out. "So what are you doing back here? And what did you do with my limo?"

I smiled. "I left your limo in the worst part of town, with the windows down and the keys still in it. By now, it's probably been stripped and sold for parts."

"I could report you to the police."

I laughed. "I wish you would. But we both know the last thing you're going to do is invite the police to poke their nose into your business."

"Why are you here?"

"You have something I want."

"What?"

"A girl by the name of Monica Breen. She was at the Ranch, but you moved her. To the Center."

"The Center?" Teddy said, playing dumb.

"The Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. You bring girls to the Ranch, then they disappear. As far as I can tell, you're moving them to the Center. You moved Monica Breen there and I want her back."

"Why would we be moving these girls?"

"My guess is your kind has fed on them to the point that they're all used up. Rather than letting them go free and risk having them report you to the authorities, you're locking them up in some sort of nursing home, passing them off as people that are older than they really are."

Teddy chuckled. "I don't know where you heard about this Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, but rest assured, if it exists, we're not moving girls there."

He was lying. I knew he was lying because I had seen the emails on Doris Burke's computer, confirming the arrival of various patients to the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center.

"Where's Monica Breen?" I asked.

"I have no idea who Monica Breen is," Teddy said. "If you want to know where she is, perhaps you should ask her friends or family."

"Release Monica Breen and I'll leave you alone. You'll never see me again."

Teddy smiled. "Never seeing you again would be a pity."

A lightheaded high washed over me. Teddy was using his power on me, trying to make me forget about Monica. Before I lost the ability to concentrate, I reached out, until I could feel the water inside his body, inside the individual cells that made up his body. Then I ordered that water to cool.

"You're a beautiful girl," Teddy said. "Even more beautiful when you're . . . . is it cold in here or is it just me?"

"It's you," I said, doing my best to focus on the water inside his body. Using my powers seemed to weaken the effect his power had on me. I was still high, but not so high that I couldn't think, couldn't concentrate. "Well, actually it's me. You see, you're not the only one with powers."

Teddy began to shiver. He wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to keep warm. At the same time, the lightheaded high he was trying to force on me faded, making it easier to concentrate on what I was doing. "What . . . are . . . you . . . doing . . . to . . . me?"

"I ordered the water that makes up your body to cool. That in turn is causing your body temperature to drop. It will continue to drop until you freeze to death."

"That . . . would . . . be . . . murder."

"Killing a human is murder. When a supernatural kills another supernatural, well, that's self-defense. At least that's how the law sees it. I know because I used to be a cop."

"What . . . do . . . you . . . want?"

"Monica Breen."

"Can't . . . give . . . her . . . to . . . you."

"Why not?"

"She's . . . she's . . . dead."

I released my hold over the water inside Teddy's body, allowing it to return to its normal temperature. He had his arms wrapped around his torso and he was still shivering. No surprise. It would take awhile for his body temperature to return to normal.

"What do you mean, she's dead?"

"Some . . . some of our members got carried away . . . when . . . when they were feeding."

"What do you mean by carried away?"

"They gorged, until they sapped most of the life force from the girl."

"You're telling me that Monica Breen is dead?"

"If she's been moved to the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, she's close to it."

"If she's dead then whoever killed her is guilty of murder."

"In the eyes of the humans," Teddy said. He still had his arms wrapped around his torso, although his shivering had subsided.

"They're the dominant species on the planet, which means they make the laws, which means they're the only ones that matter."

"Just because they're the most numerous species on the planet doesn't mean that they're the dominant species."

"They build the cities. They control the armies. They got the numbers to wipe the rest of us out any time they want. That makes them the dominant species. And if they find out what you and your people are doing to them, they may decide to wipe out your kind. And personally, I wouldn't blame them."

"Of course a mermaid would side with the humans. They like mermaids. Think you're cute and adorable."

"We are cute and adorable." Teddy grunted, apparently he didn't think I was all that cute and adorable. But then what did he know. "You need to return Monica Breen to her family."

"If we do that, there could be an investigation. We can't allow that."

"So you stash humans like Monica at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center."

Teddy shrugged his shoulders. A little too nonchalantly in my opinion. "Got to put them somewhere."

"You're worse than the vamps."

"Every species has individuals that can't control their appetites. Blood vamps, werewolves, us."

"I want to see Monica."

"Why?"

"To confirm what you just told me."

"If I let you see her, you got to promise me that the human authorities won't get involved."

"I can't control what her friends and family do. Especially if they want revenge."

"If they want revenge, we'll take care of the individuals that hurt their daughter."

"And how will they know that?"

"They can watch them die."

"I'll relay your offer to them. After I've seen Monica."

"Come back tomorrow night. I'll arrange for someone to take you to her."

I pushed myself to my feet. "Make sure your man at the door knows I'm expected. Trying to get by him is getting to be a hassle."

"He's just doing his job." Teddy looked at me and smiled. His body temperature having returned to normal. A second later, another euphoric high washed over me.

"Stop it," I said.

Teddy smiled. "Thought you might enjoy another hit."

"Stop it," I repeated. "Now!"

Teddy sighed and stopped using his power on me. The lightheaded high faded almost as quickly as it had flared up. "I thought mermaids were supposed to be fun. You've certainly proved that's not true."

Teddy turned his attention back to the people on the dance floor, no longer interested in me.

"I'll be back tomorrow," I said. There was a glass of wine on the table in front of Teddy, so I reached out with my mind and ordered it to rise out of the glass and splash Teddy in the face.

"What the . . ." Teddy said, when the wine hit him in the face.

When I reached my car, I sent Felicity a text, telling her I was on the case, but that I hadn't found Monica yet. I was going to head home, but I got a call from John.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I hope you're happy," John said.

"Should I be?"

"My engagement to Crystal is off. Thanks to you."

"What did I do?"

"You goaded her into saying that maybe she'd marry your other friends with benefits, which led to an argument, which led to me saying that maybe we're rushing into marriage, which led to her calling off our engagement."

"I got to be honest. I think you're better off without her."

"I may have to look for a new job."

"Which is why most people don't date their boss, let alone get engaged to her."

"You want to come over?"

I paused for a second. Was this a booty call? It sure sounded like it. "You need cheering up?"

"I don't feel like sleeping and I know you don't sleep that much, so I just thought."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes." I turned off the phone, fired up the car, and headed for John's place.

John lived south of me, in a building that had once been a fish cannery. Tuna to be precise. It was a long building with sixteen apartments, eight on each side of a hallway that ran down the middle of the building. It was located next to the docks where the tuna boats moored. Not the most ideal place to live unless you were a tuna fisherman or a marine biologist.

The floor was covered with that stuff that looks like wood but is supposed to be more durable. Whoever owned the building must have decided that fishermen were hard on floors. The exterior walls were whitewashed brick. The interior walls were just walls.

John's apartment was in the middle of the building. It didn't have any windows, none of the apartments did, but it did have a large skylight in the middle of the living room. It also had a high ceiling with exposed beams. The high ceilings made the place seem spacious, although it probably didn't have any more floor space than my condo.

"Where's the rest of your clothes?" John asked, when he opened the door and let me into his place.

I was still wearing the green tee shirt, high heels, and little else. "The last time you invited me over you told me that clothes were optional."

"I'd offer you a beer," John said, turning and heading toward the sofa. "But I know alcohol doesn't affect you."

"You want to make me feel good, you could take off your shirt, let me admire all those muscles you worked so hard to build up."

John ignored me, plopped down on the sofa, and took a swig from a bottle of Corona sitting on the coffee table. Okay, so maybe this wasn't a booty call. More likely, he wanted to complain, tell me how I ruined his life. If he needed to vent, I would let him vent, just as long as he was back in my life.

John wasn't my first friend with benefits, or my only friend with benefits, but he was my favorite. Not just because he was tall and muscular and handsome, which he was. I liked him because he wasn't a player. He didn't have pickup lines that he used on women. He didn't troll the clubs trying to meet women. Not that he needed too, the blond hair, blue eyes, and chiseled jaw ensured that the women found him. Problem was most of the women that found him were women like Crystal and myself. Women that were best avoided.

I slid into one of the brown easy chairs that faced the sofa, crossed my right leg over my left, and waited for John to vent. Much to my surprise, he didn't. He just finished his beer, set the empty bottle on the table, and looked at me.

"You really think Crystal was using me to get even with you?"

"I do," I said. "But my kind and her kind have been feuding for centuries, so I may be biased."

"At least you're honest enough to admit it. That's more than Crystal was willing to do."

"She insisted she had nothing against me?"

"You and mermaids in general."

"She was lying to you."

John nodded. "I did a little research on the internet before you came over. It says that mermaids and sirens are natural rivals."

"Well, if it's on the internet, you know it's true."

John chuckled and looked at my legs. "What happened to your pants?"

"You know me, always misplacing my clothes."

"So . . . am I back on your list of friends with benefits?"

I smiled. "You were never off it."

John returned my smile. "Prove it."

I rose out of my chair, walked around the coffee table, and slid onto John's lap. He wrapped his hands around my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. I then proceeded to prove that he was in fact a friend with benefits.

***

It was morning before I got back to my place. I stepped into my condo to discover that it had been ransacked. The sofa and chairs in my living room were overturned, as if someone was looking for something, or as if there had been a fight.

The first thing I did after seeing the place was check my treasure room. Much to my relief, it hadn't been touched. No surprise, it wasn't easy to get into. The television was still in the living room, as was anything else of value. Which raised the question, if they didn't steal something, why did they break in? That's when it hit me, they did take something, they took Savanna. The question was why?

She was new in town, which meant nobody knew who she was except Crystal, and I was pretty sure Crystal didn't take her, she had been busy breaking up with John. Teddy had no reason to take her. He didn't even know who Savanna was. Nor would he care. Although if he sent people here, with orders to grab the mermaid, they might have taken Savanna by mistake.

I had to assume Teddy's men kidnapped Savanna, thinking that she was me. Which raised the question. What would Teddy do with her when he discovered it wasn't me?

# Chapter 15

I straightened up my apartment, then I changed clothes, slipping into jeans, sneakers, and a black tee shirt. I also donned my shoulder holster, as well as the gun that went in it. A nine millimeter Glock. Then I hid it beneath a gray tweed sport coat and slipped a couple of extra clips into my pockets.

Eventually, Teddy's men would realize they kidnapped the wrong girl. What happened after that, I could only guess. Either they would contact me and try to make some kind of a deal, or they would come back and try to grab me.

There wasn't much I could do, except wait. I couldn't confront Doris Burke, find out what she knew. She would be up at the Ranch, which had way too many hired guns around. The Glass Box would be closed until this evening, so I couldn't confront Teddy.

It wouldn't do any good to go to the police. They tended to stay out of disputes between supernaturals. Since Savanna was a mermaid, and Teddy and his people were bogeymen, the human authorities wouldn't get involved.

I was still thinking about that when there was a knock on my door. I buttoned my jacket, so whoever was there wouldn't be able to see my gun, and answered the door. It was Teddy. And he was alone.

"Good help is so hard to find," he said, stepping into my apartment. He had changed out of the black tux he wore at his club and into khakis and a pink polo shirt.

"Takes a confident man to wear pink," I said.

"I told my men to grab a redhead and what do they bring me? A blond. Still, they did find her at your place, which means, she's a friend of yours, which means, she's useful."

"Actually, I just met her last night."

"She claims she's a mermaid, but doesn't seem to be able to control water. At least not the water that makes up a person's body. Not like you can."

"She's young and is still learning."

"If you just met her, why was she at your place?"

"I've been competing with a siren for sunken treasures. Because I'm a mermaid, I've been able to get to them before she could."

Teddy nodded. "So she brought in another mermaid to even up the odds."

"I convinced the little fool that working for a siren wasn't a good idea. Plus, I promised to teach her a few things."

"So you don't care what happens to her."

"Like I said, I just met her last night."

Teddy smiled. "You'll understand if I don't believe you. Mermaids do have a reputation for being, how shall I put this, softhearted."

I reached into my coat, pulled out my gun, and pointed it at Teddy. "I could always take you hostage, exchange you for her."

The smile on Teddy's face widened. "I thought you might try that, which is why I told my men that if I don't return, or they don't hear from me in the next hour, they should kill the girl. I believe she said her name was Savanna."

I slid my gun back into its holster. "What do you want?"

Teddy moved to the sofa, sat, and stretched his arms on the back. "First I'd like you to go into your bedroom and change into the outfit you wore to my club last night. Or something similar."

"Why should I do that?"

"To prove to me that you know how to cooperate." I hesitated, prompting Teddy to say, "I wouldn't take too long to decide. The clock is ticking and your little friend does have two guns pointed at her pretty blond head."

I headed into my bedroom, stripped down to my panties, and pulled on my emerald green tee shirt, wearing it as an extremely short dress. I donned a pair of emerald green stilettos, stuffed my gun in the back of my panties, and headed back into the living room.

"Better?" I said, stopping in front of Teddy.

Teddy looked me up and down and smiled. "Much better."

"Call your men and tell them to release Savanna."

"Not until you tell whoever hired you that you couldn't find Monica Breen. Once you do that, I'll tell my men to release the girl."

"And we go our separate ways?"

"You're always welcome to visit my club. I'll even make sure whoever is working the front door lets you in without a hassle."

I grabbed my phone off the dinner table and called Felicity. She answered after a couple of rings. "Hey Low, what's up?"

"I've hit a bit of a snag."

"What kind of a snag?"

"The people that took you have taken someone I know. I have to drop the case to get her back."

"Is one of them with you right now?"

"Yes."

"Is it Teddy?"

"Yes."

"Understood," Felicity said. "Call me when you get your friend back."

"You can count on it." I hung up and looked at Teddy. "I did everything you wanted. Now it's time for you to call your men and tell them to let Savanna go."

"You didn't say what I told you to say."

"If I told her I couldn't find Monica, she'd just tell me to keep looking."

"Your client is the girl you took from the Ranch?"

"She went there to find her friend, Monica Breen."

"She needs to forget about her friend." Teddy pulled his phone out of his pocket and placed a call. "You can let the girl go."

Teddy put his phone away. While he did that, I pulled out my gun and leveled it at him. "Don't bother getting up."

"If you want me to stay," a grinning Teddy said. "All you have to do is ask."

"You'll stay until Savanna is back."

"That shouldn't be too long." Teddy pointed to the picture window next to the dinner table. I walked over to the window and glanced out. Three floors down, parked in front of the building, was a black limo. Savanna climbed out of the limo and headed inside.

"Fine," I said, lowering my gun. "You can leave."

Teddy rose to his feet and bowed. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Teddy left. A minute later, Savanna slipped into the room, still wearing the outfit she had been in last night.

"What was that about?" Savanna asked me.

"Guy wanted me to drop this case I'm working on."

"So he decided to strong arm you?"

"He sent those men here to threaten me. You got in the way."

"What's this about?"

"A missing girl."

"They took her?"

I nodded. "They did."

"And they are?"

"The guy in charge is a bogeyman. The hired muscle is human."

"What did you have to do to get them to release me?"

"I had to call my client and tell her that I couldn't help her anymore."

"I'm sorry," Savanna said. "I didn't mean to screw up your case."

"It's not your fault. And I have no intention of dropping the case."

"What should I do the next time somebody tries to grab me?"

"Until you learn to control water, you should flee to the ocean. You'll be safe there. Speaking of being safe, I need to call my client."

I set my gun on the table, grabbed my phone, and called Felicity. "It's me," I said, when she answered.

"Did you get your friend back?"

"I did."

"So you'll continue your search for Monica?"

"Teddy claims she's either dead or near death. He told me that sometimes his people go overboard when feeding upon humans."

"I have to know for sure," Felicity said.

"I'll keep looking. But it may take awhile. I've got some other things that I have to deal with."

"You'll call me when you have some new information?"

"I will. Be it good or bad."

Felicity hung up, as did I. I set my phone on the table and turned to Savanna. "You need to learn how to control water. Until you do, you're going to be vulnerable."

"I didn't even know we had the power to control water."

"Your mother would've taught you that had she lived long enough."

Savanna nodded and rubbed her hands together. "So, how do we control water?"

"You feel the water with your mind, until it becomes a part of you."

Savanna wrinkled her brow. "Feel the water with my mind?"

I thought about setting a glass of water on the table and working with that, but the less water there was, the harder it was to sense and feel. I decided it would be better to start with something bigger than a glass of water, something like the Pacific Ocean.

"Don't suppose you brought your swimsuit with you," I said.

Savanna grinned. "I'm a mermaid. I travel with two things. My swimsuits and my treasures."

We changed into our bikinis. Me into my green plastic bikini with gold flecks, well, plastic with a cotton lining. Savanna into a nearly identical blue one.

"You got a top that matches your tail," Savanna said. "Just like me. Is that a mermaid thing?"

"Kind of looks like it."

I wrapped a green silk scarf around my waist, slipped into my sandals, and donned my shades. I dropped my phone into my bag, and draped the bag over my shoulder.

Savanna borrowed a blue scarf, wrapped it around her waist, and donned her sneakers. Then we headed for the beach, hoofing it since my place was only a couple of blocks away.

"We going for a swim?" Savanna asked, as we stepped outside.

"We're going to teach you how to control water."

"So I can defend myself?"

"Yes."

"How will controlling water enable me to protect myself?"

"Our bodies are about sixty percent water. Once you learn to control the water that makes up an individual's body you can control them."

"Control the water how?"

"You can order it to cool, even freeze. You can order it to warm up, even boil. You can even order it to burst through their skin."

"Wouldn't all of that kill a person?"

"Ordering it to freeze would. Ordering it to boil would."

"And ordering it to burst through their skin?"

"Would cause a person to explode. Of course, you're a long way from being able to do any of that. That's what you might call advanced studies."

"So what's basic studies?"

"Learning to feel the water."

"How do I learn to do that?"

I stopped on the sidewalk in front of my building, reached into my shoulder bag, and pulled out a small scarf, which I proceeded to tie around Savanna's eyes.

"What are you doing?" Savanna asked me.

"Teaching you to feel the water."

I grabbed Savanna's shoulders and spun her around half a dozen times, so she wouldn't know which direction led to the beach.

"Now I'm dizzy," she said.

"I want you to take us to the ocean."

"I don't even know which direction I'm facing."

"You don't need to see the ocean. You should be able to sense it, feel it."

We were only a couple of blocks away, but there was enough traffic cruising up and down the street to prevent her from hearing the waves washing up on the beach, not to mention smelling the water.

Savanna paused for a second, listening, then she sniffed the air. "The cars on the street make it impossible to hear the waves, not to mention smell the water. All I can smell is the exhaust of a diesel truck."

"Don't smell the water. Don't hear it. Anybody can do that. I want you to feel it."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Picture the ocean in your mind. The waves rolling up on the sandy beach, over and over."

"It's not helping."

"Now feel the water washing around your feet and ankles, soothing your dry skin."

Savanna hesitated for a few seconds then grinned. "I can feel it! I can feel the water. It's like it's calling to me."

I took Savanna's arm in mine. "So take us to it."

She did, stopping only when I told her there was traffic, a curb, or someone in front of us. When we reached the beach, I removed the scarf from around her eyes and stuffed it back in my bag.

"Nicely done," I said.

Savanna grinned. "That was amazing! I could feel the ocean calling to me. Like it was a part of me."

"The more you use that power the more it will develop. Eventually, you'll be able to feel smaller and smaller bodies of water."

"How small are we talking about?"

"As small as a single drop of rain in the desert."

"You can do that?"

"If I had to." Once upon a time, I did have to. My mother actually took me out to the desert and made me find water beneath the dry sand.

"How do you make water cool down, or heat up, or move?"

"Pretty much the same way. You feel the water with your mind, then you feel it cooling down or heating up or moving. Here, watch this."

I reached out with my mind, until I could feel the ocean in front of me, then I felt the water rising up, forming the shape of a man with broad shoulders, a long beard, a trident in his right hand, and a crown on his head. My version of Poseidon, god of the sea. I made him about twenty feet tall.

It was still early, so the beach wasn't too crowded, but my Poseidon did manage to get the attention of the people that were on the beach. A girl from my condo, named Sophia, squealed and ran to her mother. Her mother said something to her and pointed to me. The little girl grinned and waved. Then she turned and waved to Poseidon. I had Poseidon raise his left hand and wave back. Then he collapsed, once again becoming part of the ocean.

"How long will it be before I can do that?" Savanna asked.

"Depends upon how fast you learn."

"How long did it take you?"

I laughed. "Quite awhile. But according to my mother, I'm a slow learner."

"Is she still around?"

"My father used to be a cop. When he retired, they moved to the Florida Keys. He runs a charter boat for people that want to go deep sea fishing."

"And your mother?"

"She finds the bigger schools of fish for my dad."

"So his customers are satisfied?"

"You got it."

"You have any brothers or sisters?"

I shook my head. "Very few mermaids have more than one child. And very few of those children are males."

"How did you make the water do that?"

"You feel the water with your mind, then you picture it forming whatever shape you want it to form. Give it a try."

"What shape should I try to make?"

"Start with something simple, like a waterspout."

Savanna closed her eyes and concentrated on the ocean. I waited to see if a waterspout would appear, but none did. After a couple of minutes, Savanna sighed and opened her eyes.

"Did anything happen?"

"No."

"So, what am I doing wrong?"

"Nothing. Learning to control and manipulate water takes time. Like everything else, if you want to get better, you've got to practice. Practice feeling the water with your mind. Once you master that, controlling it will become easier."

"So, no shortcuts."

I laughed. "I'm afraid not. But don't get discouraged. You're a mermaid, the ability to find water, the ability to feel water, the ability to manipulate water, is built into your DNA. If you work at it long enough, you can't not succeed."

"How do you manipulate something without touching it?"

"A human scientist claims we are touching the water. He thinks we're manipulating the humidity in the air, which in turn is manipulating the water."

"If that's true, wouldn't it be easier for me to manipulate the water if I really was touching it?"

"One way to find out."

I tossed my sunglasses in my bag, set it and everything else next to Sophia's mother, and headed for the water. Once in the water, I removed my bikini bottom, wrapped it around my wrist like a bracelet, and changed shape. Savanna joined me, revealing a tail that matched her eyes, blue with gold flecks.

We swam out to deep water and I had to give the girl credit, she was fast. She had no trouble keeping up with me, no matter how fast I went.

"You want to try manipulating the water?"

"Might as well."

She swam a few feet away from me, then she turned around to face me. A second later, the water between us rose up, until it formed a giant fist. I had just enough time to realize that Savanna wasn't as inexperienced as she pretended. Then the watery fist smashed into me, knocking me unconscious.

# Chapter 16

Waking was a slow and painful process. My head was pounding, making me think that someone was using it for a drum. I opened my eyes just enough to see. As far as I could tell, I was alone, which meant nobody was using my head as a drum.

I didn't try to sit up. Why bother? I was in bed and it was comfortable. Well, as comfortable as could be expected considering my current condition. I might have stayed there all day if someone hadn't kicked the bed.

"Wake up, sleepyhead. You need to get to work." I raised my head enough to see a man staring down at me. A man I recognized as a famous actor. "Sun's setting. You need to get to the club."

"Are you who I think you are?"

"Funny," the guy said, yanking the comforter off me. He had shoulder length black hair and a three day beard. He looked like he was dressed for a movie role, clad in black leather pants, a black tee shirt, and motorcycle boots.

"Where am I?"

The man chuckled. "When you and your girlfriends party. You really do party. You better get moving. You show up late for work one more time and you could get fired."

He disappeared and when I say disappeared, I mean disappeared. One second, he was in the room, the next, he was gone. Poof. Okay, that was weird, but it wasn't like I hadn't seen it before. Wormby popped in and out all the time. Of course, this guy didn't look like a gnome. He was too tall and too handsome.

I ignored my pounding head and sat up. I needed to find out what he was doing in my condo. Assuming I could find him.

I headed out of my bedroom and into the main part of the apartment. That's when I noticed something wasn't right. The place was too clean, too neat.

That prompted the obvious question? What the hell was going on?

That's when I remembered being in the ocean with Savanna. I remembered her forming a wall of water into a giant fist then striking me with that fist, knocking me unconscious. Was I still unconscious? Like all mermaids, I didn't sleep for long periods of time, nor did I dream, which raised the question, was I dreaming now?

Savanna clearly wasn't the naive young mermaid she pretended to be. The way she hit me with that watery fist made it obvious that she had more control over her powers than she was willing to admit, which meant she had been lying to me. The question was why?

The only answer I could come up with was that she was working for someone, Crystal maybe, or more likely, Teddy. Maybe he bought her off. She knocks me out, delivers me to Teddy, who then drugs me and ships me to where? Probably the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. Most likely, I was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to some IV that kept me in a semiconscious state.

The question was: how did I get out of this semiconscious state? How did I wake myself up? Before I could come up with an answer to that question the dream version of the famous actor reappeared, literally popping out of thin air.

"You want me to give you a ride to the club?"

"The club?" I said.

"Where you dance?"

"I'm a dancer?"

The dream version of the famous actor smiled. "You can't exactly call yourself a stripper since you don't actually take anything off."

"You'll give me a ride on your bike?" I didn't know what else to do other than to play along, until I could figure a way out of this mess.

"Sure," the dream version of the famous actor said. He looked me up and down and smiled. "But first you need to get dressed."

I looked at what I had on, nothing, nada, zilch. Since this was a dream, I figured why go through the trouble of getting dressed, so I imagined myself wearing a black tank top, jeans, and sneakers. Only it didn't work, which meant I was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

"Give me a minute." I slipped into my bedroom and donned blue jeans, a black tank top, and sneakers. I brushed my hair, tied it into a ponytail, and headed back into the living room. "All set."

We took the stairs rather than just popping out of the apartment. Mostly because I couldn't pop. Not that I had a problem with walking since I got to check out the famous actor turned boyfriend's backside. Oh yeah. This was definitely a dream. I didn't know any guys that wore skintight black leather pants in real life.

His bike was a Harley, black with red and yellow flames painted on the gas tank. I'm not sure if that idea was mine or somebody else's.

He climbed on the front of the bike. I climbed on the back and wrapped my arms around him. He started the bike and we headed off. The dream version of the famous actor was probably bigger than the real version. Well over six feet. In reality, I had read that he was quite short, well under six feet. Short actresses, short actors, and careful camera angles made him look bigger than he was.

It was a picturesque sunset. Red, orange, and pink waves filled the sky. The streets were all but deserted. As far as dreams went, this wasn't so bad. I wouldn't mind being stuck here as long as I could control everything that happened. Problem was, I wasn't in control. The fact that I was working as an exotic dancer proved that somebody else was controlling this dream. While I wasn't shy about nudity. It wasn't my fantasy to spend my evenings dancing naked for people I didn't know.

Eventually my fantasy boyfriend roared to a stop in front of a club with a glowing blue neon sign. A club called Teddy's. I guess that answered the question of who paid Savanna to knock me out. Not to mention who was controlling this dream.

"I'll pick you up at two," my fantasy boyfriend said as I slid off his bike. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulled me to him, and kissed me, a long slow lingering kind of kiss. Then he released me and roared away.

I didn't know what else to do, so I turned and headed into Teddy's. I figured if he could put thoughts into my head, control what I was dreaming, then he could probably place himself into my head, into my dream. Which meant I might be able to negotiate with him, convince him to release me.

The inside of the club was done in cool blues. Blue table cloths covered round tables that surrounded a long narrow stage. Straight backed chairs with blue vinyl cushions surrounded the tables. Blue light bulbs in seashell shaped wall sconces made the walls glow blue.

The stage was the only brightly lit thing in the room. The end of the stage was round. In the middle of that round section, rising to the ceiling, was a brass pole.

There was nobody in the club. If this had been the real world, it would be because the place hadn't opened. But this wasn't the real world. The was a dream. Teddy's dream. And I was trapped in it.

"All right. I'm here," I said to the empty room. "Let's talk."

Teddy materialized in front of me. One second, he wasn't there, the next second, he was. He was wearing a black tux, much like he did in real life.

"Do you like the place?" he said. "I made it just for you."

"My color is green, not blue."

"Not a problem." The club's color scheme changed from blue to green. Green table cloths. Green cushions on the chairs. Green light bulbs in the wall sconces. "Better?"

"Much."

"I assume you know where you are," Teddy said.

"In a dream. Your dream."

"You think of it as a dream. We think of it as an alternate world. Do you remember how you got here?"

"Turns out Savanna wasn't as innocent as she pretended."

"I convinced her to deliver you to me. She has a weakness for jewels that sparkle. From what I've been able to learn, all mermaids do."

"Can I assume I'm at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center?"

"You can."

"Being pumped full of drugs?"

"When they operate on you, they give you two types of drugs, drugs that numb the body, and drugs that render you unconscious. You're being given the drugs that numb the body."

"Why bring me here?"

"Because you've become a nuisance. Poking your nose into things you have no business looking into."

"Why not just kill me?"

"And waste three hundred years of your life force? Now that would be a true crime."

"How come you don't kill the humans once you've drained them of their youth?"

"We used to, but forensic medicine has come a long way. Eventually someone would find their bodies and figure out who they were."

"And that would lead to questions."

Teddy nodded. "Better to stick them in a nursing home and let them die a natural death."

"So what do you want from me?"

Teddy answered the question by changing my clothes. One second, I was standing there in jeans, sneakers, and a tank top, the next, I was wearing emerald green boots, elbow length green leather gloves, and a green leather thong.

"Not bad," a smiling Teddy said, "but I think a couple of changes are in order."

Before I knew what changes he was planning, he faded away. One second, he was there, the next, he was gone. A second later, his club faded away. Then the city faded away. Then the world faded away. I found myself back in bed, but it wasn't my bed, wasn't my apartment. The person standing over me wasn't a famous actor, it was Savanna. That's when I realized I was no longer dreaming. I was back in the real world.

"We got to get out of here," Savanna said.

She grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me to the edge of the bed, forcing me to sit up. That's when I noticed my surroundings. I was in a hospital room, complete with a pair of hospital beds. Just as I suspected, an IV hung next to my bed, one that had been hooked up to my arm. I was also wearing a hospital gown, one of those pale blue ones with tiny flowers on them, the kind that tie in the back but leave your ass hanging out. It looked like I had been hooked up to a catheter, but it had already been removed.

"I took that out," Savanna said. "Thought it would be more comfortable if I did it while you were still unconscious."

"You're the one that put me here," I said.

I didn't seem to be feeling any side effects from the drugs, kind of odd, but I wasn't going to complain.

"And now I'm getting you out." Savanna handed me a pair of jeans, a tee shirt, and sneakers. "I brought some of your clothes."

I stood, peeled off the hospital gown, and slipped into the clothes. "Why turn me over to them then help me escape?"

"Teddy made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"What kind of an offer?"

"A ruby and diamond necklace. You wouldn't believe how it sparkled."

"He showed it to you?"

Savanna nodded. "He said it was mine if I delivered you to him."

"So why are you here now?"

"I told him that I would deliver you to him. Which I did. I never said that I wouldn't help you escape once I brought you to him."

"Why are you helping me escape?" If that's what she was doing. For all I knew this was some elaborate scam set up by her and Teddy.

"Because you're the first mermaid I've ever met. Besides my mother."

"So your mother didn't die in a car wreck?"

"I made that part up."

"Let me guess. You're still working for Crystal."

"She paid me to befriend you, find out how you learned about all those treasures."

I tucked my tee shirt, which was orange with a picture of a surfer on the front, into my jeans, then sat on the bed and donned the sneakers. I didn't remember having an orange tee shirt with a surfer on the front, let alone matching orange sneakers. "We're at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center?"

Savanna nodded. "After I turned you over to Teddy, I followed him, pretty easy to do since he took the coast highway."

"You swam?"

"Figured he might be watching to see if another car was tailing him."

"He's obviously been studying up on mermaids. The fact that he offered you the necklace proves that. How far are we from the city?"

"About fifty miles north, just off the coast highway. In a small town named Mead."

"Any guards with guns?"

"Naw. Just a few nurses. Humans mostly. Don't think they really know what's going on here. No one even paid attention to me when I walked in."

"Is Teddy still here?"

"Why?"

"I was talking to him when you pulled my IV. Which means he has to be around somewhere."

"What makes you say that?"

"Bogeymen need to be able to see someone to use their powers on them."

"His limo's still here. So I suspect he's around. Somewhere."

"How far are we from the ocean?"

"About a mile."

"Then that's where we'll head."

"You're not mad at me for turning you over to Teddy?"

"He took advantage of you, played on one of our weaknesses. And you are rescuing me."

"Ready?" Savanna asked.

I nodded. "Ready."

Savanna slipped into the hallway, checking to see if the coast was clear. A second later, she stuck her head in the doorway and motioned for me to follow.

I followed her into the hallway, only it wasn't a hallway. I was back in Teddy's fake club, standing on stage wearing the boots, gloves, and thong. Teddy was sitting at the table directly in front of me, laughing and applauding.

What I thought was real, what had felt real, wasn't. I was still trapped, still hooked up to an IV at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. Teddy had been screwing with my head.

# Chapter 17

How do you respond when you discover you're trapped in a dream, when you discover the guy that trapped you there is screwing with your head? It wouldn't do any good to lash out and use my powers. Not that I had any powers in this world. Nothing was real. Nobody was actually here. This was just a dream. It just wasn't my dream, which meant I wasn't in control.

I've been told that when you dream, you don't know it's a dream. You think everything is real. I knew this world wasn't real, which meant I wasn't actually sleeping. If I wasn't sleeping, maybe I could use my powers on the IV that was keeping me drugged, keeping me in the paralyzed state that I was in. Of course, I couldn't do it now, while Teddy was sitting next to my bed, watching me. I would have to wait until I was alone, wait for him to get bored with me. Maybe I could even help him get bored.

Instead of lashing out at Teddy, I bowed. Then I jumped off the stage, sat on his lap, and wrapped my arms around his neck. "So what do you get out of this?"

Teddy wrinkled his brow. "I'm not sure I understand the question."

"I understand why you drain people of their youth. It keeps you young and heals your body, but what do you get out of entering people's dreams, or in this case, pulling them into your dream?"

"I guess you could call it a rush. Same kind of rush humans get when they drive fast or sky dive or swim with sharks." Teddy smiled. "Same kind of rush mermaids get when they see something that glitters."

"So it's how your people get high."

The smile faded from Teddy's face. "Unfortunately, the rush isn't quite the same when the person who's dreaming knows it's a dream. Which brings us back to you. How is it you know this is a dream? Most people don't know they're dreaming until they wake."

"Mermaids don't dream."

"Ever?"

"We don't sleep for extended periods of time. We take short naps. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. We fall into a deep sleep very quickly and wake up just as quickly."

Teddy pulled my hands off his shoulders and pushed me away. Then he stood. "I'd love to stick around, but unlike you, I have to get back to the real world."

Teddy disappeared, as did his dream world. The green lights glowing on the walls faded away, then the walls faded away, then the city faded away. I was alone, in the dark. I could see nothing. I could feel nothing.

Teddy said they were using drugs on me that numb the body, which explained why I couldn't feel anything. That being said, my mind was still working. As such, I reached out with my mind, to the closest water I could find. I couldn't move, couldn't open my eyes, couldn't even feel my body, but I could still touch water with my mind.

I didn't feel any people near me, which meant that Teddy had left. I did feel two small containers of liquid. One near my head, the other near my feet. I ignored the one near my feet, figuring it was hooked up to the catheter I was probably wearing, which meant it was nothing more than a bag of urine.

I focused on the container of liquid near my head, the IV drip that was keeping me paralyzed. I reached out to that liquid, then I ordered it to burst out of the bag that contained it. A second later, I could feel the liquid burst out of the bag and fall onto the floor.

Now, I just had to hope the effects of the drugs wore off before a nurse discovered what happened and replaced the IV with another one. To make sure that didn't happen, I reached out with my mind, focusing on any water that suddenly appeared next to me, figuring that water would be a nurse.

Time ticked by, second by plodding second. No one came into my room, no one stopped next to my bed. Slowly, I began to come out of the paralyzed state that I was in. I regained the feeling in my body, allowing me to feel the mattress beneath me, feel the sheet and blanket covering me. Shortly after that I regained my ability to move. At first I could only wiggle my toes and fingers, then I could move my arms, then I could move my legs. Then I was able to open my eyes.

It was dark in my room, dark outside. There was a light in the hallway, seeping underneath the door to my room. I took a moment to sniff the air, beyond the bleach and ammonia and other antiseptics, I could smell the sea, smell the moisture, smell the salt. I wasn't far from the ocean, far from safety. Maybe a mile. It made me think there was some truth to what the imaginary Savanna told me. That the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center was only a mile from the ocean, located in a small town fifty miles north of the city, a town called Mead.

I knew I wasn't dreaming, not this time. The smell of bleach, the smell of the sea, the feel of the starched sheet covering me, the feel of the IV in my arm, the feel of the catheter draining my bladder, told me that this was the real world. Those things had been missing the last time I woke, or thought I woke. Why hadn't I noticed?

I removed the catheter and the IV, before pushing the blankets off me and sitting up. I got so dizzy that I had to lay back down. I don't know what was in that cocktail they had been pumping into me, but it sure was powerful.

I gave myself another minute, then forced myself to sit back up. I was still dizzy, but not so dizzy that I couldn't sit. Now, I just had to see if I could stand and walk.

I slid off the bed and forced myself to stand. Then I tried walking. My legs felt like lead, but they worked. I noticed that I was wearing a hospital gown. I also noticed the room looked exactly like the one in my dream. Teddy's dream if you prefer.

I was still testing my legs when a nurse entered the room. She looked at me and her mouth fell open. "Oh my god! You're awake!"

Fortunately for me, she was tall, which meant I could wear her clothes. She wore what all nurses wear today, blue scrub pants, an oversized white and pink flowered shirt, and white walking shoes.

While she stood there with her mouth open, I reach out to the blood flowing through her veins, to the water within that blood. I ordered the water, the blood flowing to her brain to slow down. Within seconds, the nurse became lightheaded.

"I feel so dizzy," she said. "Must be the excitement of seeing you up and around. They told me that you were brain dead, that you wouldn't come out of your coma."

"Maybe you should sit down." I patted the bed.

"Good idea," she said.

She moved to the bed and sat. Then she passed out, collapsing backward onto the bed. I grabbed her feet and picked them up, placing them on the bed. Then I borrowed her clothes, her pants, her top, her shoes. I covered her with the blankets, then I ordered the blood to resume its regular flow to her brain. She would wake up in a short while, no worse for wear.

Dressed like a nurse, I headed out of my room. The place looked like any nursing home. A single story brick building with wide hallways and wide doorways, not to mention lots of glass. An architect's attempt to make a depressing place feel more cheery. It was night, so there was no sun. Because it was night, there was only a skeleton staff on duty. I saw one other nurse and she was at the nurse's station working on the computer, too busy to notice me.

I didn't see Teddy. Most likely, he was heading back to the city in one of his limos. I would've looked for Felicity's friend, Monica, if I was up to full strength, but I wasn't. I was still feeling the effects of the drugs they pumped into me. I felt slow and heavy and weak. I couldn't afford to sit around and wait for Monica to wake up from a drug induced coma. I would have to come back, when I was stronger.

I didn't head for the front door, since that would mean walking past the nurse's station and the other nurse that was on duty. Instead, I headed in the opposite direction, toward the back. Fire codes required places like this to have multiple exits. Plus, the ocean was in this direction. I could feel it calling to me.

It was a long hallway with rooms on both sides. All the rooms contained people, all of them women, all of them old and gray, making it look like any other nursing home. The only thing that set it apart from other nursing homes was the lack of personal effects in the rooms, the kind family members bring when they want to brighten up a cold impersonal space. No big surprise. The people that cared about these women had no clue they were here, no clue what had happened to them.

I reached an exit at the end of the hall, pushed the door open, and stepped into a parking lot with just two cars in it. No alarms went off, alerting the nurse at the computer that somebody was escaping. No big surprise. Most of the people in this place were too weak to get up and run away.

I took a moment to take a deep breath. I could smell the ocean, smell the salt in the air. This was definitely the real world. There were no smells in that other world. No smells of any kind. I hadn't noticed that when I was there, hadn't noticed it until I found myself back in the real world.

It was a short walk to the ocean and I made it without incident. The Sunnyside Long Term Care Center really was in a town called Mead, located about fifty miles north of the city. I learned that on my walk to the beach, talking to the people I passed. It was just after ten in the evening. The same day that Savanna knocked me unconscious.

I reached the beach, dumped the nurse's uniform, and headed out into the ocean. When I reached deep water, I changed my legs into a tail and headed south, moving at a comfortable pace. A fifty mile swim should be just long enough to flush whatever toxins remained in my system.

It took me about an hour and a half to swim the fifty miles south. I could've made it in under an hour, but there was no hurry. Eventually, the beaches bordering the ocean became familiar. Then I recognized my beach. Okay, it wasn't my beach. But it was the one closest to my condo, the one I used every morning.

I changed my tail to legs, swam to shallow water, and walked out of the ocean. It was a little before midnight, so the beach was all but deserted. The few people that were there were too busy making out to notice the naked redheaded walking across the sand. There was a light jacket lying next to one couple. They didn't even notice me borrow it. It was dark blue and just long enough to cover everything that needed to be covered.

When I got back to my place, I discovered the lights were on. They weren't on when I left this morning, which meant one thing. Somebody was there and I had a pretty good idea who it was. Savanna was probably stealing all of my treasures, my shiny things. We'd see about that.

I headed upstairs. The door to my condo was unlocked, no big surprise. Thieves didn't worry about other thieves breaking in and stealing what they were already in the process of stealing.

I found Savanna at the reinforced steel door to my treasure room, tinkering with the waterproof lock. I reached out to the water in her body, in her blood. I ordered the blood flowing to her brain to stop, not just slow down, but stop.

Before she even knew that I was there, she passed out, collapsing to the carpeted floor. As soon as she hit the floor, I ordered the blood to flow normally. I didn't want to kill her. I wanted her to suffer. I wanted her to rue the day she rejected my friendship.

She was lying on her stomach, so I grabbed her by her thick blond locks and dragged her into the living room. I left her on her stomach, pulled some nylon cord out of a drawer, and hog-tied her. I tied her wrists behind her back, then I tied her ankles together, then I tied her wrists to her ankles, using one end of the yellow cord.

The other end of the cord I looped through a heavy metal hook in the ceiling. The hook had been screwed into one of the beams that supported the ceiling so it could take a lot of weight. I don't know who put the hook in the ceiling or why, it was there when I moved in, but it did come in handy when I needed to secure someone.

I grabbed the loose end of the cord and pulled, lifting Savanna off the floor and suspending her in midair. She was hanging by her wrists and ankles, still hog-tied. The position would put a lot of stress on her shoulder and hip joints, which would make hanging like that extremely uncomfortable, but then I didn't want her to be comfortable.

I tied the cord I was holding to a closet doorknob, then I got a glass of water and threw it in her face, saying, "Wakey, wakey."

Savanna woke up, coughing and sputtering.

"Oh crap," she said, when she saw me. She tried to move, only to discover that she wasn't in a position to move. "How did you get here?"

"I swam."

"Teddy told me that I'd never see you again. He said if I helped him, I could have your treasures."

"How do you know my treasures are worth having?"

"Crystal told me that you've stolen a lot of treasures from her, silver, gold, jewels."

"Those treasures were sitting at the bottom of the ocean. They belonged to whoever got to them first. I got to them first which means they're rightfully mine, not the siren's."

"What are you going to do with me?"

"Now that's the million dollar question, isn't it."

"If you let me go, I'll leave town. I promise you'll never see me again. You have my word."

"Your word means nothing to me." I found my phone and pretended to call the police. "I want to report a break in . . . no, she's still here. I managed to sneak up on her and tie her up. She's a mermaid so you'll want to bring the supernatural squad." I mentioned my name and address then pretended to hang up.

"You're turning me over to the police?"

"You're a thief. Which means you're going to spend some time in jail. Actually, you're a thief and a kidnapper, which means you're going to spend a lot of time in jail. Years. Decades even."

Savanna struggled in her bonds. Not that it did any good. She wasn't going anywhere. I don't know if she was acting or genuinely worried. She certainly looked worried. "You got to let me go. I don't do well in confined spaces."

"Did you know this state has a special jail just for supernaturals? It's in the desert, no water around, just a lot of sand and hot blistering sunshine. The guards are all supernaturals, so if you try to use your powers on them, they'll use theirs on you."

Savanna struggled harder. "You got to let me go. Please. I really don't do well in confined spaces."

"You participated in a kidnapping. For all I know, you were the mastermind behind my kidnapping. Teddy is going down and you're going down with him."

Savanna was too young, too innocent to know that the human authorities didn't involve themselves in the affairs of supernaturals. If she helped kidnap a human, then they would send her to that prison in the desert. But kidnapping another mermaid? No way would the humans involve themselves in something like that. Not that I was going to tell Savanna that. I wanted to scare her. What's more, it seemed to be working.

She started crying. Not fake crying, but genuine tears running down her cheeks crying. She started mumbling while she blubbered, something about being blinded by the idea of treasure.

"Stop crying," I finally said. "You're not going to jail."

"What?" Savanna said between blubbers.

"I said you're not going to jail." I untied the rope from the doorknob and lowered her to the floor, so she was lying on her stomach. "Human authorities don't involve themselves in disputes between supernaturals. If you helped Teddy kidnap and hold a human against her will, that would be different."

"What about the breaking and entering?"

"Technically, you didn't break in. I invited you." I set about untying her. First I untied her wrists from her ankles, then I untied her ankles, lastly I untied her hands. As she pulled herself to a sitting position, I handed her a box of tissues. "How much of what you told me about yourself is true?"

"Pretty much all of it. Except the part about my mother dying when I was young."

"Your mother's alive?" Savanna nodded and used a tissue to wipe her face. "And she taught you how to control water?"

Savanna nodded again. "Although she didn't tell me that we can control the water that makes up a person's body. That's a new one."

"And you came here to build your treasure?"

"There was an ad online, looking for a mermaid."

"Crystal's ad?"

"When I talked to her, she told me what she wanted. She also promised to give me ten percent of the next treasure she recovered."

"What did she want?"

"She wanted me to befriend you, to find out how you were learning about her treasures."

"They're not her treasures. They belong to whoever gets to them first."

"She thinks they're hers."

"What did Teddy offer you if you delivered me to him?"

"A necklace."

"Did he give it to you?"

Savanna nodded.

"Can I see it?" Savanna went to her bag and pulled out a choker made out of rubies and diamonds set in silver. It was worth six figures easily. "He showed that to you and said you could have it if you delivered me to him?"

"He said you were a dirty cop and that I'd be doing the world a favor."

I couldn't blame her for turning on me, not after seeing that choker, seeing all the diamonds and rubies on it, seeing the way they sparkled. Everybody has a weakness, even mermaids. Promise us something shiny and we're pretty much yours. Promise us something extra shiny, like that choker, and we're definitely yours.

"Teddy is kidnapping young women," I said. "And he's stealing their youth. He wanted you to deliver me to him because I've been poking my nose into his business."

"He says that you're evil. You claim that he's evil. How am I supposed to know who's telling the truth?"

"What does your gut tell you?"

"That you're telling the truth."

"Smart girl."

"So what are you going to do with me?"

That was the million dollar question. I couldn't turn her over to the police. They were only interested in supernaturals that hurt humans. As far as I knew, Savanna had never harmed a human.

I could run her out of town, but odds were, she would just get into trouble elsewhere. Like all mermaids, she was obsessed with shiny things, obsessed with building a treasure trove full of shiny things. Somebody had to show her how to do that without getting into trouble.

"I'll make a deal with you," I said.

"What kind of deal?"

"You promise to stay out of trouble and I'll teach you how to find treasure."

"What do you mean when you say, stay out of trouble?"

"I mean stay away from bogeymen like Teddy, and sirens like Crystal. Above all, don't make any deals with them. They're bad people."

"I can do that," Savanna said.

"Mermaid's promise?"

"Mermaid's promise."

"Tomorrow morning, we'll go pearl diving. And you can keep all the pearls that we find."

Savanna hugged me. "I'm sorry I double crossed you."

"Don't worry about it. If I were offered that necklace, I might have done the same thing." Teddy had obviously learned the way to a mermaid's heart.

Speaking of which, I still had to deal with him. I thought about calling the police, but I had no proof that the women at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center were there against their will. Telling the cops that I had been kidnapped wouldn't make a difference. I wasn't human so I didn't count. I was going to have to get proof that those women weren't as old as they looked. And that they were there against their will. The only way to do that was to free one of the women.

# Chapter 18

Once Teddy learned of my escape from the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, he would have a problem. I now knew where he was keeping the girls that lost their youth. Girls that were living evidence of just how dangerous bogeymen were to humans. As far as I could see, he had three options. He could move the girls to a new location. He could put armed guards around the Center. Or he could send someone to kill me.

Moving the girls to a new location wasn't a viable option. Finding a new place, moving all of that equipment, all of those women, would take time. A lot of time. It would be easier to surround the place with armed guards, with orders to shoot anyone that tried to break in. And it would be easier to send a professional assassin after me. Teddy could certainly afford one.

I was sitting at the kitchen counter sipping my morning coffee when Savanna popped out of the bathroom dressed in her blue bikini. "I'm ready to go pearl diving."

She was excited, hopeful. Anxious to build her treasure trove. Not that I could blame her. What she had was pretty sad. A few silver dollars. A few gold nuggets she found while panning for gold. And some agates that she found and tossed into a rock polisher. I had been so busy thinking about Teddy's next move that I forgot about my promise to take Savanna pearl diving.

I downed the last of my coffee, moved into the kitchen, and opened a drawer. I pulled out a hunting knife in a plastic scabbard and handed it to Savanna. "Buckle this around your arm."

"What's it for?" Savanna asked, as she buckled the big knife's sheath around her left bicep.

"To pry open the oysters so you can check for pearls."

"How do we find the oysters?"

"You don't want just any old oysters. You want what are called pearl oysters."

"How do we find pearl oysters?"

"I'll show you where they are. I know of a couple dozen beds. Once you know where they are, you can go there any time you want. You'll also need this." I handed her a small plastic box attached to a nylon wristband.

"This is to put the pearls in?"

I nodded. "After today, you'll be able to do this on your own."

"Won't I be taking your pearls?"

"I've got plenty of pearls. Been collecting them since I was six." Sitting in the middle of my treasure room was a fifty gallon Plexiglas barrel full of pearls, some of the biggest, shiniest, smoothest pearls in the world. Three floor lamps surrounded the barrel, lighting it from the bottom up. A fourth lamp hung directly overhead, shining down upon the pearls. Not that I was going to show my treasures to Savanna. If she saw what I had inside the fireproof vault that made up my spare bedroom, she would feel bad about her own collection.

I wasn't worried about Savanna turning on me again. She was a mermaid and I knew what drove her. If I could help her build her treasure, I would be one of her favorite people, and to be honest, I needed a friend more than I needed another enemy.

I pulled a second knife and a second box out of the drawer and attached them to my left arm. "Let me find a swimsuit and we'll be ready to go. I suspect the one I had on yesterday got thrown away."

Savanna blushed, then flashed a sheepish grin. "I really am sorry about that, but you know what it's like when somebody offers you something that shines and sparkles."

"I know what it's like. Why do you think I didn't kill you last night?" I turned and headed for my bedroom. My green and gold plastic bikini with the cotton lining was gone so I donned an emerald green two piece made out of a cotton-poly blend. I slipped on a pair of flip flops and tied a silk scarf with a beach scene around my waist. I kept my keys on a chain, which I hung around my neck.

"Let's go find you some pearls," I said, heading for the door.

"You really are nice," Savanna said, falling in alongside me. "Especially after what I did."

"If you weren't a mermaid, I would've killed you last night. No hesitation. Lucky for you, I understand mermaids, understand our weakness for shiny things."

Dangling something shiny in front of a mermaid was a lot like dangling a bottle of booze in front of an alcoholic, especially if that mermaid was young and didn't have much of a collection. I could always go into my vault and look at my bright shiny treasures, get my high that way, and make no mistake about it, for a mermaid, it was a high. Savanna couldn't do that, which made her more susceptible to outside influences. The quicker we could build up her treasure the less susceptible she would be to those outside forces.

We stepped out the front door of my building. That's when I heard it, the cocking of a bolt action rifle.

"Back inside," I yelled, pushing Savanna inside the building's lobby.

I dove in after her, even as I heard a gun fire and then felt a bullet whoosh by, passing through the space where my head had been. If it hadn't been for my enhanced hearing and reflexes, I would be dead.

The fact that the assassin hadn't accounted for my supernatural hearing and speed told me that Teddy had hired a human assassin rather than a supernatural assassin. The fact that he used a gun told me that he was human. Most supernaturals didn't use guns. They preferred to use their powers, whatever those powers might be. Of course, supernatural assassins cost more than human assassins. They were also harder to find.

I wasn't surprised that Teddy hired a human. It was pretty clear that his people preferred to keep to themselves. They didn't like associating with vamps, or werewolves, or gnomes, or elves, or any other supernaturals.

"What was that?" Savanna asked, as we lay on the lobby floor to the right of the front door.

"I think Teddy sent an assassin after me."

"I thought that was a gun."

"Bolt action, probably a hunting rifle." Most likely, the guy was one of Teddy's Eastern European mercenaries. He didn't have enough time to bring in a professional assassin, the kind that used bullets that couldn't be traced and a gun that broke down and tucked into a briefcase. It would take a few days to fly in a guy like that. Plus, a guy like that cost more.

"Am I responsible for this?"

"No. This is just part of being a private detective. Teddy would've come after me whether you showed up or not."

"Should we call the police?"

"Somebody already has." I could hear an approaching siren. A few seconds later, the flashing lights of a police car stopped in front of my building. I pushed myself to my feet and wiped the dirt off my stomach and chest. "I think it's safe to get up."

I headed outside to talk to the two uniforms. I recognized the older of the two. A man named John Simkins. I didn't know his younger partner. Not that I would've minded knowing him. He was cute.

"I should've known you were involved," Simkins said, when he saw me step out of my building. "Can I assume you've been sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?"

"That's what I'm paid to do," I said.

"Any humans involved in whatever you're working on?"

The reason he asked me that was simple. If humans were involved, he would have to file a report, which meant a lot of paperwork. If the dispute was strictly between supernaturals, the paperwork would be a lot shorter, just a couple of sentences. Gun shot heard. Dispute appears to be between supernaturals.

"I think the person that shot at me was human."

"How do you know that?"

"Because a supernatural wouldn't have missed."

"Can you prove a human shot at you?"

"No."

"Do you know who hired him?"

"A bogeyman named Theodore Wexell."

"What the hell is a bogeyman?"

"They feed on the life force of others, drain people of their youth. They also have the power to enter your dreams, or to draw you into their dreams. They refer to themselves as emo vamps, but their historic name is bogeymen."

"As in don't let the bogeyman get you?"

I nodded. "As in don't let the bogeyman get you."

"Do these bogeymen have enhanced speed, strength, hearing, eyesight?"

"Not that I know of."

"Then one of them could've taken a shot at you and missed."

"Anything's possible."

Simkins looked at his younger partner. "Sounds like this is a dispute between supernaturals. Bogeymen verses mermaids. Which means we don't get involved."

"The bogeyman that wants me dead employs a bunch of Eastern European mercenaries. They're human. I suspect it was one of them that took a shot at me. Used a bolt action rifle. Fired from the roof of the building across the street, if you'd care to go up there and check for a shell casing."

"His employer is a supernatural," Simkins said. "Which means this is a dispute between supernaturals. Which means we don't get involved."

"The bogeyman has kidnapped and stolen the youth of a bunch of women. Human women. He's keeping them in a long term care facility fifty miles north of here. In a town called Mead."

Simkins turned and headed back to his cruiser. "Mead ain't my jurisdiction. You want the police to check out that place, you need to file a report with the police up there."

"I'm not sure the City of Mead even has a police department."

"Not my problem." Simkins climbed behind the wheel of his cruiser. A brand new Dodge Charger.

"Sorry we couldn't help," his young partner said to me.

"She spent ten years in the department," Simkins yelled out the car window. "She knows how things work. Now get in the car."

His young partner just stood there, not quite ready to abandon Savanna and myself. He was about my height, but with broader shoulders and way bigger arms. His sandy blond hair was cut short, regulation short. He had a square jaw and pale blue eyes. Like Simkins, he was in uniform.

"She ain't gonna sleep with you," Simkins yelled. "She's a mermaid. All she'll do is tease and flirt and frustrate you."

"You I tease and flirt and frustrate," I yelled at Simkins. "This one I'd actually sleep with."

His partner pulled his business card out of his pocket and handed it to me. "If you need anything, anything at all, call me."

I checked his card. His name was Douglas Wert. Doug. It was a good name. One that fit him.

"I'm a mermaid. Which means I have trouble with long term commitments." I gave Doug my best smile. "But I do casual well."

Doug returned my smile, while backing toward his cruiser. "Casual works for me."

I watched Doug climb in the passenger side of the cruiser, watched Simkins peel out and roar off. He wasn't showing off, he was trying to make me jealous. When I had been in uniform, I was stuck behind the wheel of an old Crown Vic.

"I think I just found a new booty buddy," I said to Savanna. I hustled back inside and dropped Doug's card in my mailbox. Didn't want to lose it when we were pearl diving.

"Someone just tried to kill you," Savanna said, when I stepped back onto the street. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"It bothered me the first time somebody tried to kill me, and the second, and the third, and the fourth. If he had managed to hit me, it would certainly bother me. But he missed. So no, it doesn't bother me. Not anymore. Now, let's go find you some pearls."

Something else you should know about mermaids. We're very good at narrowing our focus and I was focused on teaching Savanna how to find pearls. Once I did that, once I taught her how to build up her treasures, I would ensure her friendship, which meant I wouldn't have to worry about her betraying me again.

Savanna grinned. "Let's go find me some pearls."

We hiked to the beach, which was fairly quiet this early in the morning, left our flip flops on the sand, then swam out to deep water. We removed our bikini bottoms, wrapped them around our wrists, and changed our legs into tails.

"Now what?" Savanna asked.

"Now we hit the oyster beds, find you some pearls." I led Savanna south, to my favorite oyster bed. "There are a variety of oysters, but we're looking for pearl oysters. And one of the best beds of pearl oysters is right below us. Best of all the humans don't even know about it."

We each took a deep breath and headed straight down to the ocean floor. One of the advantages of being a mermaid is our eyes are designed to see in the dark depths of the ocean. Unlike humans, we didn't need to bring lights with us. I showed Savanna how to pry the oysters open with the knife so she could collect the pearls. We had gone through about a third of the bed before our boxes were full. I pointed upward and we headed up. We broke the surface and took a moment to catch our breaths.

I spent the rest of the day showing Savanna my oyster beds. I didn't worry about her finding them again. She was a mermaid, she could use the coastline, the ocean floor, and the subtle differences in water currents and temperature to identify where she was. We didn't need to check the stars or use GPS. This was our domain and we knew it like a farmer knows the land he works.

Eventually, we headed back to shore, back to the world of man and bogeyman, back to the people that were trying to kill me. Teddy knew where I lived, had people watching my place, which meant I couldn't go back there, not until our dispute was over. Savanna and I needed someplace else to stay. Wormby's place was out of the question. The furniture in his apartment was too small. John's place was out of the question. It was barely big enough for one person, let alone three.

"We going back to your place?" Savanna said, as we walked out of the water.

"Just to pick up a few things."

"We're not staying?"

"It's not safe. Not as long as Teddy has people out there trying to kill me."

"So where we going?"

"I was thinking Doug's place."

"The cop you met this morning?"

I smiled. "He did say I should call him if there was anything he could do."

# Chapter 19

Doug lived in the suburbs. In a house. It was a two story in need of a new roof and a paint job. The good new was he had plenty of room, four bedrooms, all on the second floor. Although only one had a bed in it. I explained why we needed a place to stay and he was more than happy to accommodate us.

"You two can have the bed," he said, after showing us the place. "I'll take the couch."

"You can keep your bed," I said. "Mermaids don't keep the same hours humans do, not when it comes to sleeping."

"We catnap," Savanna said. "Five minutes here. Ten minutes there."

"Never more than an hour at a time," I added.

"So how do we work this?" Doug asked.

"I may join you on your bed," I said. "But you won't even notice me. You'll be asleep before I join you and I'll be gone before you wake up."

"I don't know about that," a grinning Doug said. "I'm a pretty light sleeper."

I returned his smile with one of my own. "If I do wake you up, feel free to take advantage of me."

The smile faded from Doug's face as he changed topics. "Who's trying to kill you? I believe you said he was the bogeyman."

"Not THE bogeyman. A bogeyman. They're a race, like werewolves and mermaids."

"Why is he trying to kill you?"

"He kidnaps young woman, steals their youth, then shoves them in a nursing home. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I now know where that nursing home is, which is why he wants to kill me."

"How many young women are we talking about?"

"Around fifty."

"And he's keeping them in Mead?"

I nodded. "At a place called the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center."

"What did you mean when you said he steals their youth?"

"It's how his people extend their life spans. They literally take your youth from you."

"What kind of a life span are we talking about?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Hundreds of years. Maybe thousands."

"How long do mermaids live?"

"Couple hundred years, rarely more than three."

Doug looked at me. "So how old are you?"

"Thirty."

"Just thirty?"

"Just thirty."

He turned to Savanna, who smiled, said, "Just turned twenty-one last month."

"So, you two are babies by mermaid standards."

I nodded. "Pretty much."

"I have a friend up in Mead, works for their police department, actually he is the police department. I can call him if you want, tell him what's going on up there."

"Police don't like to get involved in the affairs of supernaturals," I said. "You know that."

"If these bogeymen are kidnapping human girls like you claim, then the police have a duty to get involved."

"The bogeymen have been around a long time, which means they have a lot of money, probably a lot of lawyers. I suspect their paperwork is all in order."

"Which means the police won't find anything," Doug said.

I nodded. "Besides, I wasn't hired to rescue all those girls, just one."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'm going to go in and take her."

"If they know you're coming, they'll probably try to stop you."

"Probably."

"And that doesn't worry you?"

"You don't know much about mermaids do you?"

"Just what I've seen in the movies." I laughed. So did Savanna. Which prompted Doug to ask the obvious. "What's so funny?"

"We're a little more dangerous than the mermaids you see in the movies," Savanna said.

"And not nearly as sweet," I said.

Savanna looked at me. "Speak for yourself. I'm very sweet."

I laughed. "Which is why you sold me out to Teddy."

"For a very nice necklace."

"Do I want to know what this is about?" Doug asked.

"No," Savanna and I said in unison.

"What makes you guys so dangerous?"

Savanna pointed at me. "She's way more dangerous than I am."

"Don't kid yourself," I said. "This one's extremely dangerous. I learned that the hard way."

"And neither of you have answered my question."

"We have the power to control water," Savanna said.

"Control how?"

"Pretty much any way we want," I said.

"She's a little better at it than I am," Savanna said. "Low can do things I didn't know were possible."

"Like?"

"Like make the water inside your body freeze. Or boil. Depending upon how angry I am."

"Wouldn't that kill somebody?"

"If I did it long enough."

"You ever killed that way?"

"Humans no. Supernaturals yes."

"Why?"

"Because they were trying to kill my partner. Like you, he was human. He didn't stand much of a chance against a supernatural."

"You were a cop when you killed?"

"Yes."

"What kind of supernaturals have you killed?" That question came from Savanna.

"Vampires. A troll. A pair of banshees."

"What's a banshee?" That question was from Doug.

"Ugly creatures that look like death warmed over. They got ice blue eyes, fingernails that look like claws, actually, they are claws, and a scream that's so loud and raw it can break your eardrums. Of course that's only when they shift to attack mode, otherwise they look like you and me."

"So what are you going to do about Teddy?" Savanna asked me.

"I was thinking that I might pay him a visit at his club. See if I can't make a deal with him."

"Teddy didn't impress me as the kind of person that likes to deal."

"Everybody will deal," I said. "If you give them a reason."

"What kind of reason can you give Teddy?"

"I'm going to show him why the other supernaturals refer to us as dirty little mermaids."

Doug looked at me. "You need backup?"

I could always use backup, but Doug was human and it wasn't a good idea to involve humans with supernaturals. Humans were fragile, even the strongest and toughest of them. "Thanks but it's easier if I go alone. That way I don't have to worry about someone else."

"I can be your backup," Savanna said.

I glared at Savanna. "Sorry kid, but I don't trust you enough to let you watch my back. Not after our last encounter with Teddy."

"So you're going alone?"

"It's a public place, plus it's crowded. I'll be safe enough."

"What about when you go up to Mead?" Doug said. "To rescue that girl?"

"He's right," Savanna said. "They'll be expecting you. Without backup, you might not succeed."

"If I can make a deal with Teddy, I won't have to go up there."

"You said they were holding a lot of girls." Doug looked at me. "Who's going to help the rest of them?"

"I'm just one person. I can't rescue everybody that needs rescuing. Now if you two will excuse me, I need to get ready for my meeting with the bogeyman."

I grabbed my bag from where I set it by the front door and headed upstairs, to the second bathroom. I needed to wear something that would get me past the guy that manned the front door of Teddy's club. Unfortunately, I didn't bring much with me, just the emergency bag I kept in the trunk of my car. It consisted of a black pantsuit for business, a pair of jeans, a couple pairs of shorts, a couple of tee shirts and tank tops, and a bikini. The shoes in the bag consisted of a pair of black stilettos, a pair of sneakers, and a pair of flip flops. The rest of the bag consisted of underwear, a toothbrush, a Glock with a couple of extra clips, and a roll of cash. When you were in my line of work, you always kept an emergency bag in your car. Just in case.

I peeled off the tan cargo shorts I was wearing and donned the other shorts from my bag, which were white and tight. Then I removed my tank top and bra and slipped into the black jacket that went with the pantsuit. The jacket and its plunging neckline, when combined with the white short shorts and the black stilettos in my bag, made a reasonably sexy outfit. Probably good enough to get me past Teddy's doorman.

I undid my ponytail, slapped on some makeup to draw attention to my lips and eyes, and headed downstairs.

"You sure you don't need backup?" Doug asked, when I told him and Savanna that I was off.

"I'm sure," I said. "But thanks."

Savanna joined Doug and me by the front door, where I noticed that she had changed into a blue sundress that matched her eyes. Doug had also changed, adding a black leather jacket to his jeans and orange tee shirt, and judging by the bulge under the jacket, a shoulder holster and gun.

"You don't mind if we go out for a few hours?" a smiling Savanna said. "Hit the town."

I looked at Doug. "You always carry a gun when you go out on the town?"

"It's a dangerous town."

"I can't stop the two of you from following me to the Glass Box, or from going inside, just keep your distance." I looked at Doug and pointed at Savanna. "And you keep an eye on her. Last time I encountered Teddy, she betrayed me."

"It won't happen again," a blushing Savanna said. "I promise."

"I want to believe you, kid. But that's going to take time."

Savanna nodded. "I understand. I've gotta prove myself."

I looked at Doug. "What makes you think you can get in this place? They don't let just anybody in."

Doug smiled and opened his jacket. Clipped to the front of his belt was his badge. "I've got an all access pass. Good for any club in town."

I wasn't thrilled about those two following me to the Glass Box. Doug was doing it because he was a cop and had been trained to watch his partner's back. I wasn't his partner, but he still felt it was necessary to watch my back. I understood that. I wasn't sure what Savanna was up to. Was she planning on betraying me again? Was she trying to make amends for betraying me earlier? I couldn't be sure. I only knew one thing. If she followed me to the Glass Box, I would have to keep an eye on her.

I didn't offer either of them a ride, nor did they ask. I hopped in my overpowered Del Sol and roared off. They climbed in Doug's truck and tried to keep up. Somewhere between Doug's house and the club, I lost them, which gives you an idea of how fast I drive. Not that it mattered. Savanna knew where the place was. She had been there before.

I parked the Del Sol in the lot across from the club, crossed the street, and got in line. It was early in the evening but there were already a couple dozen people in line, waiting and hoping to pass inspection, so they could get inside. The arbiter of who deserved to get inside didn't waste much time with the guys. He either let them in or he didn't.

He spent more time with the girls, especially the good looking ones. They had to pass inspection. The really hot ones had to pass inspection, then they had to earn their way in. Flash the arbiter. Flash the crowd. In the club business you wanted a crowd in front of your place to make people think that it was the hottest club in town. What better way to attract a crowd than by making the hot chicks standing in line put on a show.

"You must really like this place," the arbiter said, when he reached me.

"Maybe I just can't live without your approval."

"You're wearing shorts."

"So?"

"This is an upscale nightclub. Not a beach hut."

"Which is why I added the jacket."

"Which you obviously borrowed from your grandmother. What's beneath the jacket?" I unbuttoned the jacket's two buttons and held it open, showing the arbiter what I wasn't wearing beneath it. He took a good long look, then nodded at my breasts. "Those things real?"

"One hundred percent."

"If those shorts were any tighter, you'd have to paint them on."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Definitely good."

"Does that mean I can go inside?"

"You can go inside."

I buttoned my jacket and pushed past the rejects. "Is Teddy here?"

"Teddy's always here."

It was a Friday night, so the club was crowded. Teddy was in his usual spot, sitting on a red velvet sofa surrounded by red glass walls on three sides. He looked as dapper as ever dressed in his black tux, sporting his shaved head and his three day beard. His eyes were closed. Whether he was haunting someone's dreams or feeding on the people on the dance floor, I couldn't say. On the plus side, he was alone.

I crossed the dance floor, pushing away people that wanted to dance with me. As I neared Teddy, I reached out with my mind, until I could feel the water that made up his body. Then I ordered that water to warm up. Not boil. Just warm up a few degrees.

Teddy began to feel the effects right away. He undid his bowtie and opened the top couple of buttons on his shirt. Then he began to perspire. Beads of sweat appeared on his brow and cheeks and neck. He took a swig from the glass of beer that sat in front of him, trying to cool himself off. It didn't work. He pulled the handkerchief out of his tux pocket and wiped his brow, but more beads of sweat took their place.

"You can wipe your brow all you want," I said. "But it won't do you any good. I'm in control of the water that makes up your body."

"What do you want?" Teddy said, stuffing his handkerchief in his tuxedo pocket. He didn't smile and for the first time since I had met him, he looked uncomfortable, even worried. As well he should be.

"You know the biggest difference between you and me?"

"What?"

"You hire people to do your killing for you, while I do my own killing." I sat next to Teddy, crossed my right leg over my left, and turned to face him. Then I ordered the water that made up his body to boil.

# Chapter 20

Watching a man boil to death isn't pretty, especially when he boils from the inside out. His skin turns bright red, then it bubbles, then steam seeps out of his pores. Then there's the smell, although that's not so bad since it smells liked cooked meat. Not that I let Teddy die. I just cooked him a little, enough to turn his face bright red, enough to leave him in pain, enough to wipe the smug grin off his face.

"That's for trying to kill me," I said. "Next time you send a gunman after me, I'll boil him alive. Then I'll come back here and boil you alive, just like I did now. Only I won't stop until you're dead. Understand?"

Teddy nodded, although it looked like it hurt to do so.

"How did you escape the Center?" He was slumped against the back of the sofa. His face and hands bright red, his tux drenched in sweat. He would have to use his powers to heal himself, feed upon the people on the dance floor.

"You can't hold a mermaid prisoner on a planet that's seventy percent water. Humans, vampires, werewolves, trolls, and banshees learned that the hard way. Now it's your turn."

"What do you want?" Teddy reached out and touched one of the legs on the glass table in front of the sofa. He was acting like he was using it to pull himself upright, but my supernatural hearing heard a clicking sound, letting me know that he had pressed a button, alerting security that he needed help.

"I want to make a deal."

"What kind of a deal?"

"You give me Monica Breen and I'll leave you alone."

"All you want is one girl?"

"She's the only person I've been hired to find."

"And if I don't give you Monica Breen?"

"I'll kill you. And maybe I'll kill the security guards that are headed our way. The ones you signaled when you pressed the alert button built into the table leg."

"Those guards are human. If you kill them you'll be guilty of murder."

"Fine. I won't kill them. I'll just kill you."

"And they'll kill you."

Three security guards arrived at our booth. All three were human. All three were big and wore identical outfits, gray slacks, navy blue blazers, and red turtlenecks. All three pulled guns out of their blazers and leveled them at me.

Even though I didn't want to involve humans in our little dispute, Teddy had no such qualms. Involving humans changed the equation. If something happened to one of them, the police, and the law, would get involved.

That explained why Teddy employed so many human guards. It wasn't because they were good at what they did. It wasn't because they were cheap or easy to find. He used them as a shield, placing them between himself and his supernatural enemies, in this case me. Supernaturals that harmed humans were hunted down and executed.

I stood up and the three guards kept their guns on me, all three pointed at my heart. "I'm just going to show you that I'm unarmed."

I unbuttoned my blazer and held it open, showing the three guards that the only thing I had on beneath it were the short shorts. While the guards stared, I reached out with my mind, to the blood that was flowing through the arteries that fed their brains. I slowed that blood down, not enough to kill them, just enough to make them lightheaded, just enough to make them pass out. One by one their guns fell to the floor and they joined them, unconscious.

I buttoned my blazer, sat, and turned back to Teddy. His eyes were closed and the redness that covered his face was fading. Fast. He was feeding, which meant it didn't take him long to return to peak health.

I waited for Teddy to open his eyes. Then I spoke. "Now where were we? Oh, yeah. I proposed we make a deal. You give me Monica Breen and I'll get out of your life. The other forty-nine girls you've stashed at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center are your business. Well, yours and their families. Once their families find them."

Teddy chuckled. "I've been doing this a long time."

"So?"

"So most of those girls don't even have families. Although calling them girls seems a bit inappropriate. Considering."

"I have a family and you put me in that place. Same for Felicity."

"You're a special case. And Felicity lied, claimed she didn't have a family."

"You're lucky I escaped. Cause I'm a kitten compared to my mother. If she found out what you did to me, she'd not only boil you alive, she'd boil every member of your species. By the time she was done, you'd cease to exist as a race."

Teddy dismissed my words with a grunt. His mistake. My mother was way more powerful and way more dangerous than I was. Lucky for him, she was on the other side of the country. "If I give you Monica Breen, you promise to leave me alone?"

"I'm a private detective, I've been hired to find Monica Breen, nobody else."

"And if somebody hires you to find one of the other girls at the Center?"

"I don't know who you've got at the Center. But if I'm hired to find someone else and I discover that you've got them, I'll tell the people that hired me where they can find their loved one and let you deal with them."

"You won't tell them who I am?"

"I'll tell them the truth. I trust you don't have a problem with that?"

Teddy sighed. "If I let Monica Breen go, she might talk. Tell people what happened to her. Maybe even go to the authorities."

"And if she did, you could get into a lot of trouble."

Teddy shrugged his shoulders.

"I could go to the authorities."

"You're a supernatural. The human authorities aren't going to involve themselves in a dispute between two supernaturals. You know that."

"Maybe you should kidnap supernaturals instead of humans."

"Tried that with you. As you proved, supernaturals are harder to control than humans, a lot harder."

"So you don't want to deal?"

"I can't let these girls go. There's no guarantee they won't bring the authorities after me and my people."

"Mind if I ask how you justify robbing these girls of their youth?" A couple of the guards I put to sleep were starting to wake up. I reached out to the blood flowing through the arteries that led to their brains, to the water within that blood, and cut off the flow, just long enough to cause both of them to blackout a second time.

"Feeding upon the life force of others heals us and extends our lives."

The third guard started to wake up. I put him back to sleep.

"We're not evil," Teddy said. "Well, not anymore than anyone else. We're just trying to survive and feeding upon the life force of others is necessary for our survival."

"Monica Breen is trying to survive too."

Teddy sighed. "Clearly we're never going to see eye to eye on this."

"No, I guess we aren't."

"Before you try anything, I should warn you, there's a gun pointed at you."

Teddy indicated my chest. A small red spot made by a laser sight was right over my heart. I looked around, but I couldn't see the gunman. A fourth security guard had remained hidden, with a rifle. That explained why Teddy was so relaxed, why my taking out the other three guards hadn't concerned him. I wasn't sure where the guard was, somewhere up high. Probably in a hidden room with a sniper nest and a clean line of sight on Teddy's booth. Apparently the man thought of everything.

"You going to kill me?" I said. "You already tried once."

"You offered me a deal, so I'm going to offer you one."

"I'm listening."

"Tell whoever hired you that you couldn't find Monica Breen, forget about me, forget about my people, forget about this club. You agree to do all of that and I'll call off my man."

"And if I don't?"

"No one has even noticed the three security guards lying on the floor in front of us. You think they'll notice when you slump over in your seat?"

"Probably not."

"So, have we got a deal?"

"It would seem I don't have a choice. If I say no, you'll kill me."

Teddy smiled. "It will take less than a second for that bullet to penetrate your heart."

I couldn't agree to Teddy's proposal, couldn't give him my word, so I reached out with my mind, to the sprinkler system in the ceiling, to the water that filled the pipes. Then I ordered that water to burst through the pipes and to drench the entire club. A second later, the sprinkler system came on, drenching the dancers on the crowded floor, and more importantly, obscuring the vision of the sniper with the rifle pointed at my heart.

I made my move, bolting out of my seat and into the crowd of people scurrying for the exit. I heard the crack of the rifle, saw the bullet smash into the back of the sofa where I had been sitting. A human probably wouldn't have been quick enough to get away, but then I wasn't human. I only needed a second. The sprinkler system coming on had given me that second. It distracted the sniper just long enough, allowing me to slip into the crowd.

Mashed into a crowd of humans scurrying for the exit, I was safe enough. The sniper couldn't risk firing into the crowd. If he killed a human that would bring in the police. The last thing Teddy wanted was the police poking their noses into his affairs. He couldn't risk them discovering that he had stolen the youth of fifty young women, human women.

The crowd reached the door and poured out into the street, me right in the middle. Like everyone else, I was soaking wet. But unlike everyone else, that was a problem I could easily solve. I ordered the water that was on me to run off my skin and clothes. The water obeyed and a few seconds later, I was dry.

Amid the chaos of people, most wet, a few dry, I found Doug and Savanna. They were standing in line, still trying to get into the club. Apparently Doug's all access pass didn't work as well as he thought it would. No big surprise. The last thing Teddy wanted was a human cop poking around his club. Doug would've had a better chance of getting in if he hadn't flashed his badge.

"That was quick," Savanna said, as I approached them.

"I offered Teddy a deal. He rejected it. He offered me a deal. I rejected it." I looked at Doug. "What happened to your all access pass?"

"He refused to let me in unless I could produce a warrant. How come you're not wet?"

"Because I don't wish to be."

I headed for my car. Doug and Savanna fell in beside me. Doug on my right. Savanna on my left. Savanna spoke first. "So, what's your next move?"

"I can't just go up to Mead. Teddy's men will be there, waiting for a chance to kill me."

"I can help you take them out," Savanna said.

"Without hurting them?"

"Does that matter?"

"Yes."

"Because?"

"Teddy's men are human."

Savanna nodded. "And supernaturals that harm humans risk reprisal from the human authorities."

"Big time."

"So what are you going to do?" That came from Doug.

"Teddy's the one that decided to involve the humans in this, so I guess I have no choice."

"You want me to call my friend in Mead, the one that works for the police department up there? Actually, he is the police department up there."

"Might as well."

"What do you want me to tell him?"

"That some supernaturals are holding human women hostage in his town."

"He'll want to know how I learned this."

"Tell him that you have a witness. Someone who can show him where the women are being kept."

"He'll want to talk to you."

I nodded. "Not a problem."

# Chapter 21

Doug called his buddy in Mead the next morning, told him that he had a friend with some information. If she stopped by his office, would he listen to what she had to say? His friend agreed to listen.

I took the coast highway up to Mead. Alone. Doug had to go to work and Savanna went pearl diving. She wanted to hit the beds she didn't get a chance to hit yesterday. Like most young mermaids, she was obsessed with building her treasure collection.

I arrived just before lunch and found the police station, which was located on Mead's main drag. The building was a single story red brick building. Once upon a time, it had been a bank. I knew that because it still had a drive-up window. How many police stations have drive-up windows?

I parked the Del Sol in the building's parking lot, next to the only other car in the lot, a black pickup with the words MEAD SHERIFF painted on its doors in white letters.

Inside, the place still looked like a bank. There was a table to write on just inside the door, a counter behind that, and a vault behind that. The vault had been converted into a cell. The heavy vault door was still there, but a second door with steel bars had been added. To the left were a pair of offices with glass walls. One office was empty, the second was occupied by a man in blue jeans and a tan shirt with a sheriff's badge on the front.

I moved into the doorway of the man's office and waited for him to notice me. It took a few seconds, but eventually he did.

"Can I help you?" he said, pushing his chair back and standing up.

He was tall, six four, six five, broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hips, kind of like a basketball player. His thick hair was cut short, like most cops. It was as black as a squid's ink. His eyes were brown. His beard was a three day stubble, something you didn't expect to see on a cop. He was a good looking young man, but not unusually so. He looked to be a couple of years older than Doug, probably in his late twenties, but I could tell that he wasn't human, which meant he could be a lot older than he looked. The name on his office door identified him as Sheriff Alex Clayworth.

"I'm Low Campbell," I said. "Doug called you this morning, told you I'd be stopping by."

"Alex Clayworth." He pulled out the chair in front of his desk then stepped aside. I sat. I was wearing the black pantsuit from my emergency bag. The black ankle strap stilettos were on my feet, but the red sneakers were in the Del Sol.

Alex moved behind his desk and sat back down. "He said you had some information for me, about some illegal activity going on in my town."

"You're not human," I said.

Alex smiled. "Neither are you."

"Can I ask what you are?"

"You first."

"I'm a mermaid. You?"

"Werewolf."

"How did a werewolf get the job of town sheriff?"

"I grew up here. Doug said you used to be a cop."

"Ten years. Six in uniform. The last four as a detective."

"Why did you quit?"

"Kept getting in trouble with the brass."

"For?"

I smiled. "Being a mermaid."

Alex returned my smile. "Meaning they didn't like the way you dressed when you weren't on duty."

"Sounds like I'm not the first mermaid you've ever met."

"Spent some time in the navy. A lot of time actually. That's where I met Doug." Alex shifted directions. "So what's going on in my town that I should know about?"

"The patients at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center are being held there against their will."

"By?"

"A bogeyman."

Most people would've laughed at the word bogeyman, but Alex wasn't most people, he was a werewolf that had been around awhile, long enough to have learned about bogeymen.

"You telling me the people in that place are younger than they look?"

"You've been in that place?"

Alex nodded. "Couple of times. The nurses that work there are locals."

"There's a girl there that I've been hired to rescue."

"And?" Alex said, realizing there was more.

"They know I'm coming for her. Which means the place will have armed guards. Eastern European mercenaries, judging by their accents and the way they carry themselves."

"And you need my help to get this girl out of there."

"The guy that owns the place decided to involve humans in our little dispute, so I figured I'd play by his rules and involve the local sheriff. Except you're not human."

"I also don't have any authority over what goes on at the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center. That place is located just outside the city limits."

"Just beyond your jurisdiction?"

Alex shrugged his broad shoulders. "I'm afraid so."

"Can't say I'm surprised. Teddy did say he's been doing this a long time."

"Teddy?"

"The bogeyman behind the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center." I looked at Alex. "So if you hear gunfire up there, you can't respond."

"I'd have to call the county sheriff. It's his jurisdiction."

"Where's the county sheriff's office?"

"About sixty miles up the highway in Bale."

Teddy probably did that on purpose, putting the place close to the cop that couldn't respond and far away from those that could, so it would take the authorities as long as possible to respond to anything that occurred there.

"So if I go over there and get shot at, you can't come to my aid?"

"Not officially."

"How about unofficially?"

Alex smiled. "One advantage to being a werewolf is you don't get too hung up on human rules and regulations. If supernaturals are kidnapping humans and hiding them in pack territory, then it's my duty as the pack's enforcer to investigate."

That didn't surprise me, like real wolves, werewolves were big on having their own territory. The Sunnyside Long Term Care Center might be outside the sheriff's territory, but it obviously wasn't outside the werewolf's territory. Which was good for me.

Alex pulled a pair of binoculars out of his desk and rose to his feet. "You ever seen the town from the top of our water tank?"

"I haven't."

"You should. It's a great view. You can even see the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center from there."

We drove to the water tank in the sheriff's black pickup. A Ford F150 with all the bells and whistles. Like most cop cars there was a metal screen separating the front seat from the back. Not to mention a shotgun in the front seat.

The water tank sat in the middle of town. It was metal, round, and painted sky blue. It sat on four legs, at least one hundred feet high, making it the tallest structure in town by a good eighty feet. Mead was painted on the side of the tank in big black letters. A metal ladder ran up one of the legs, connecting to a catwalk that circled the middle of the tank.

After Alex suggested we climb the water tank, I replaced the black stilettos with the sneakers, figuring it would be easier to climb a one hundred foot ladder in sneakers, which it was. Once on the catwalk, we circled the tank until we were facing north, the direction of the Center.

"Not too often you see a nursing home with armed guards patrolling the grounds," Alex said, while using the binoculars.

He handed them to me then pointed to where he had been looking. I took the binoculars and focused on the Center. Men in black were patrolling the Center's spacious grounds, moving in pairs. There weren't any guns in their hands but the bulges under their leather jackets made it pretty clear that they were armed.

"It's like I said, this isn't your average nursing home." There were eight men in all. Circling the grounds counterclockwise. They were walking in pairs, with each pair moving at about the same pace. I noticed each of them had a radio clipped to the front of his jacket, the way cops had one clipped to the front of their uniforms.

"It's almost like they're waiting for someone," Alex said, when I handed the binoculars back to him.

I nodded. "Someone with red hair."

Alex went back to studying the Center's grounds through the binoculars. "Probably more men inside, guarding the building's four entrances."

"Not to mention Monica Breen's room."

"That the girl you were hired to rescue?"

"It is. Although she's probably not a girl anymore."

"And you're still going to rescue her?"

"I was hired to find and help her, regardless of her condition."

"You got eight guys outside, probably another four to eight inside." Alex paused for a second, still studying the guards. "Every time the guards circle a corner, they use their radios to check in with the other guards patrolling the grounds." Alex lowered the binoculars and looked at me. "They're human. Which means you can't kill them."

"Eastern European mercenaries to be exact."

"Being human gives them an advantage. They can kill us without fear of reprisal, but if we harm them, we'll be hunted down and executed."

"I can take them out without hurting them," I said. "Problem is they've got a big advantage in numbers."

"Sounds like you're going to need help, more help than I can provide."

I looked at Alex. "Don't suppose you have a pack that you can call on?"

"Actually, I do. Whether they're going to want to help is a different matter. Some of them will probably argue that this isn't pack business."

"Bogeymen are feeding on human women and keeping them in your territory. How can that not be pack business?"

"That's the way I see it." Alex moved to the ladder and started down. "Let's go talk to the pack leader."

I wasn't surprised that Alex wasn't the pack leader. The pack leader would be older. Turned out he was. He looked to be about fifty, with ink black hair like Alex's. The only difference was his had grayed at the temples. He was shorter than Alex but huskier, way huskier. He looked like someone that spent a lot of time in the weight room, years even. He hid the muscle beneath a black suit, a black shirt, and a red tie. His name was Judson Baron, but he preferred Jud. He was the Mayor of Mead.

"Mead is a pack town," I said, after Alex introduced me to Jud, the town's mayor and the pack's leader.

"It is," Jud said.

We were sitting in his office, which was located in the back of city hall, a single story sandstone structure that was at least one hundred years old. Once upon a time, the sheriff's office had probably been in the building, but for whatever reason, they moved it into the abandoned bank.

"So what's this about?" Jud said.

He addressed the question to Alex, so I remained quiet.

"Apparently some supernaturals are kidnapping human women and hiding them in our territory," Alex said.

"What species?"

"Bogeymen."

"Let me guess," Jud said. "We're talking about that place just outside of town. The Sunnyside Long Term Care Center."

"That's it."

"Always thought it was weird that nobody ever stopped by that place. No spouses. No children. No grandchildren." Jud looked at me. "How many girls they keeping there?"

"About fifty."

"All of them human?"

I nodded. "All of them human."

"How did you learn about the place?"

"They put me in it."

"How long did it take you to escape?"

"A few hours."

Jud looked me over. "Based on the color of your hair and eyes, I'm guessing that you're a mermaid."

"I am."

"Why you interested in this place? Aside from the fact that they put you there."

"I'm a private detective. I've been hire to help one of the girls they're keeping there."

"Why do you need the pack's help? If memory serves correct, mermaids are one of the more dangerous species on this planet. I suspect you could get this girl out without our help."

"They've got humans patrolling the place," Alex said. "Armed mercenaries who are expecting her."

Jud nodded like he understood. "No doubt with orders to kill."

"No doubt," I said.

"Can't say I'm surprised. Bogeymen have a history of involving humans in their affairs." Jud leaned back in his extra large office chair. "This presents a problem. I don't want to get the pack into a war with the bogeymen, but I can't allow them to engage in illegal activity on pack territory."

"Why are you afraid to get us into a war with them?" Alex asked.

"Couple of reasons. They've been around a lot longer than we have, which means they have more money than we do."

I nodded in agreement. "Teddy does seem to have a lot of money."

"My other reason for not wanting to get into a war with them is because they have a bad habit of hiring humans to fight for them. Supernaturals can't go up against humans. We may be stronger and faster than them, but they outnumber us a million to one. They can wipe us out anytime they want." Jud looked at me. "Unlike mermaids, we don't have an ocean to hide in. Plus the humans aren't as enamored with us they way they are with your species. Every time they make a movie about us, we're the bad guy. Every time they make a movie about you, you're the good guy."

"I take that to mean you don't want to help me."

"I didn't say that."

Alex looked at Jud. "So what do you want to do?"

"We can't allow them to operate in pack territory without our permission. That will make us seem weak."

"We also need to think about the human authorities," Alex said. "If they find out those women are being kept in pack territory, they might conclude we're as guilty as the bogeymen."

"I agree," Jud said. "Round up as many people as you think you need, disarm the guards, and take control of the Center. Then you tell the people working there to inform their boss that this is pack territory and nobody operates inside pack territory without our approval."

"Thank you," I said, rising to my feet.

Jud stood, leaned across his desk, and offered me his hand. "Thank you. I've always wondered about that place. Why they built it just outside the city limits. Now I know."

"Now what?" I said as we left city hall.

"Now I make a few calls," Alex said. "Round up some help. Then we make our move."

I smiled. "Works for me."

# Chapter 22

Alex rounded up ten werewolves that he trusted. All of them male. I don't know what that meant about the roles of males and females in werewolf society, or if it meant anything at all, nor did I care. I was just glad to have help.

"Here's what's going on," Alex said, once everyone had gathered in the bank-turned-police-station. "We're going to break into that nursing home on the edge of town, the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center."

"Why so many of us to break into a nursing home?" someone asked.

"Because this nursing home is being patrolled by armed guards. There are eight of them patrolling the grounds, and probably more inside. We'll know how many more are inside once Wanda gets off duty. I asked her to stop by the station."

Wanda was one of the nurses that worked at the Center, the only one that was a werewolf. She worked the day shift, which meant she wasn't the nurse I rendered unconscious when I made my escape. She had talked to several people, including Alex, about things that made the place seem odd. Like the fact that none of the patients seemed to have families. No one ever came to visit, no one called to see how they were doing, no one ever showed up to pay for the nursing home's services. She also mentioned that the two guys in charge of the place, the administrator and the doctor, weren't human. She couldn't identify their species, she could only confirm that they weren't human.

"The guys guarding this place are human," Alex said. "Which means you just want to neutralize them. Knock them out, take away their guns, tie them up. Whatever you do, don't kill them. We need to hit the eight guards patrolling the grounds at the same time, so they can't alert their partners inside the building. Once we've done that we'll head inside. There are four entrances so we'll enter them in four teams of three."

A short husky man with a bushy black beard pointed at me. "Who's she?"

"Her name's Low and she's an ex-cop. That's all you need to know."

"She ain't one of us."

"I'm a mermaid," I said, focusing on bushy beard. "And yes, everything you've heard about us is true."

Learning that I was a mermaid silenced bushy beard. He knew the stories, heard how dangerous we were. It was clear that he had no desire to find out if those stories were true.

Alex began passing out plastic zip ties to bind the guard's hands and feet. He was finishing up when Wanda arrived. She bore a strong resemblance to the rest of the pack, not so much in her face but she did have the same ink black hair as every other person in the room, save for myself. Her hair was long and she wore it in a ponytail. She was tall, but small breasted and slight of frame. She was also young, somewhere in her twenties. She wore white sneakers, skin tight blue jeans, and a black tank top with the words Harley Davidson printed on the front.

"I'm here," Wanda said to Alex. "What do you need to know?"

"We need to know how many armed guards are inside the building where you work."

Wanda looked around the room. That's when she noticed me. "I know you. You were one of our patients. The one that disappeared." She turned back to Alex. "What's going on here?"

"Your employers are supernaturals and your patients are being held against their will."

Wanda nodded in my direction. "She tell you that?"

I answered for myself. "I did."

"They kidnapped you?"

"They did."

"Drugged you against your will?"

"Yes."

"Who are they?"

"Bogeymen."

"I've never even heard of bogeymen."

"Your pack leader has."

"So have I," Alex said.

"Today they call themselves emo vamps. If that helps."

Wanda shook her head. "Not really."

"We need to know how many guards are inside the building," Alex said.

"I like my job," Wanda said. "It pays well and it's easy. The patients are all comatose, so all I have to do is turn them every couple of hours, so they don't get bedsores."

"The bogeymen are engaging in illegal activity," Alex said. "What's more, they're doing it in pack territory without pack approval. Jud wants us to send them a message."

Wanda glared at Alex. "If this costs me my job, you and Jud better be prepared to cover my losses. I've got a kid to support."

"The pack watches out for its own," Alex said. "How many guards are inside the building?"

"Eight. Two at each entrance."

"Armed?"

Wanda stuffed her hands in her jean pockets and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, probably."

"Thank you," Alex said.

"Am I going to have a job tomorrow?"

"You know the rules. Supernaturals don't operate in pack territory without permission."

Wanda moved in front of me. "What are you? You're not human and you're certainly not a werewolf."

"I'm a mermaid."

"I hear your kind is supposed to be tough. What is it they call you? Dirty little mermaids?"

"Not so little," I said. Even in sneakers I was taller than Wanda.

Wanda stuck her nose up to mine. "You don't look so tough."

Classic werewolf reaction, challenging a perceived rival. While Wanda waited for my response, I reached out to the blood flowing through her body, to the water within that blood. Once I touched it with my mind, I ordered the blood flowing to her brain to slow down, just long enough for Wanda to pass out and drop to the green carpeted floor.

"I am that tough," I said, not so much to Wanda, who was lying on the floor unconscious, but to the other werewolves, the ones watching the confrontation with great interest.

"What did you do to her?" Alex asked.

"Cut off the flow of blood to her brain. Just long enough to make her pass out. She'll be okay in a few minutes."

"Mermaids can do that?"

"I can do that."

"What else can you do?"

"Freeze the water that makes up your body. Boil the water that makes up your body. Among other things."

"Wouldn't that kill a person?"

"It I did it long enough."

"You ever killed a person that way?" That question came from bushy beard.

"Yes."

"Ever killed a werewolf?" someone else asked.

I looked at the man that asked the question and flashed him my sexiest smile. "No, but I've left a few so exhausted they couldn't get out of bed."

Everyone laughed. Alex looked out the window. It was dark out. "Time to get moving."

We climbed into Alex's pickup. All twelve of us. Alex and bushy beard climbed into the front seat with me sandwiched between them. Everybody else climbed into the box. Alex drove to the edge of town, parking a safe distance from the Center. Then he divided us into four teams of three, with him, bushy beard, and myself making up one team. Each team got one of the building's four sides with our team getting the front of the building.

"These guys are armed so when you move in to take them out, move quickly. Once you've taken your guys out move to the doors and signal us. We'll move into the building at the same time so wait for my signal."

The teams split up. Alex, bushy beard, and myself took up a position behind a waist high brick wall. When our guards were close enough for me to touch with my mind, I reached out, to the water that made up their bodies. I slowed down the flow of blood to their brains, touching both men at once, just enough to cause them to grow lightheaded and pass out. They dropped to the freshly trimmed grass simultaneously. I released my hold on the blood flowing to their brains and turned to Alex.

"Did you do that?" Alex asked me.

"Yes."

"Are they dead?" That came from bushy beard.

"Just unconscious. Like Wanda."

"For how long?" That came from Alex.

"Ten minutes."

"That should be enough time. Let's move out." Alex jumped the wall. Bushy beard and I did the same. Alex and bushy beard tied the hands and feet of the two guards, then pocketed their weapons.

We moved to the building's front door, which was a metal double door with pebbled glass on both sides. After taking up positions directly behind the doors, I reached out with my mind, until I could feel the two guards stationed on the other side of the doors.

Doors and walls didn't inhibit my ability to touch water with my mind, only distance did. Even then the distances varied, depending upon how big the body of water was. I could feel the ocean miles away, but could only feel people for about fifty yards. About half the length of a football field, unless of course there were several of them together.

After a short period of time, we heard a howl, followed by a second, then a third. It sounded like dogs howling to each other in the night. Of course it wasn't. It was our other werewolf teams, letting us know that they had taken down their guards and were ready to breach the interior of the building.

Alex howled back then nodded to me. I reached out with my mind, to the blood flowing to the brains of the two guards on the other side of the door, I ordered that blood to slow down, just enough to cause them to grow lightheaded and pass out. As soon as we heard their bodies plop onto the tile floor, we pulled the doors open and slipped into the building.

At the far end of the building, we could see one of the other teams disabling the guards at the back door. They applied choke holds around their necks then cut off the blood supply to the guard's brains, rendering them unconscious. The guards tried to fight, but they were human and humans were no match for werewolves. They lacked the speed and the strength.

It wasn't long before all the guards were disabled and the teams had rendezvoused in the building's front lobby. There were a pair of nurses on duty, local girls, both human.

"This one ain't human," one of the teams said, pushing a short fat bald man in front of them. I didn't recognize him, but they were right, he wasn't human. That meant he was either the doctor in charge of drugging the girls, or the administrator in charge of making sure everything appeared to be legal. He wore a rumpled gray suit, a white dress shirt that looked like it had way too much starch in it, and a blue tie that was too wide for current fashions.

He saw the badge that Alex was wearing and pulled himself to his full height, which was about three inches shorter than me. "What's the meaning of this sheriff?"

Alex looked at his badge, unpinned it from his shirt, and dropped it into his shirt pocket. "This isn't police business. This is pack business. You see, we don't like other supernaturals operating in pack territory without our permission, and the fact is, you and your people didn't get permission to operate this facility in pack territory."

"I don't own this place," the bald man said. "I'm just in charge of the paperwork, paying the bills and stuff like that."

He was looking more than a bit nervous, no big surprise considering he was surrounded by eleven werewolves.

"But you know who does own it," Alex said.

The bald man nodded yes and tugged on the collar of his starched shirt. "I do."

"We want you to deliver him a message."

"Okay."

"We don't have a problem with legal commerce inside pack territory, but we have a big problem with illegal activity inside pack territory." Alex grabbed the bald man by his lapels and lifted him off his feet. "We know who your people are and we know what's going on here."

The bald man kicked his feet in a vain effort to free himself from Alex's grasp. "Nothing's going on here. This is a long term care facility for the elderly and comatose."

"The women you've got here aren't elderly," I said. "At least they weren't until you and your kind stole their youth."

Alex shook the bald man to get his attention. "Tell your people that we want the illegal activity that's taking place here to stop. If the humans find out what's going on they won't just come after your people, they'll come after the pack. We're not going to allow that. You understand?"

The bald man nodded vigorously. "I understand."

Alex started to put the bald man down, but I stopped him. "One more question. Which room is Monica Breen in?"

"She . . . she was in room twenty-three."

"What do you mean was?"

"She was moved."

"When?"

"A couple of hours ago."

"Where was she moved to?"

The bald man shook his head. "I don't know."

Alex raised the man higher in the air. "You wouldn't be lying would you?"

"No! I'm not lying! I swear it. A helicopter came in and took her away."

I wasn't surprised they moved Monica. Teddy knew I wanted her, knew I would be coming for her. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to let me have her. The question was, what was my next move? I could only think of one thing. If Teddy wouldn't give me Monica, then I would destroy everything he had built, starting with this place.

"Fine," I said to the bald man. "If Teddy won't give me Monica, then I'm going to take every other girl in this place. What's more, I'm going to keep taking Teddy's girls until he gives me Monica. You tell him that."

Alex used a couple of plastic ties to bind the bald man. He laid him out on the floor then turned to the other werewolves. "I can handle things from here on. You guys can go home."

"We came here in your pickup," bushy beard said.

"You can run back to the station. It'll do you good." Alex patted bushy beard's not-so-insubstantial stomach. "Some of you need the exercise."

The others laughed and headed for the front door, leaving Alex and me with the bald man and the guards, all of which were lying on the floor, bound hand and foot.

"I think it's time for me to do my job," Alex said. He pulled his badge out of his pocket and pinned it on the front of his shirt.

A phone rang. It was the bald man's phone. I pulled it out of the inside pocket of the bald man's jacket and answered it.

"Give me a status update," Teddy said, his voice coming over the phone.

"I want Monica Breen," I said. "Until I get her, I'm going to destroy everything you've built. Starting with this place."

I hit the off button on the phone and tossed it on the bald man's belly. If Teddy wanted a war, I would give him a war. Sooner or later, he would realize that he had a lot more to lose than I did.

# Chapter 23

Because the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center was out of his jurisdiction, Alex had to call the county sheriff for assistance. Granted it was just a few hundred feet, but it was still out of his jurisdiction.

"You might as well head home," Alex said, after contacting the sheriff's office. "There are forty-nine witnesses here, all claiming they're being held against their will. Your testimony won't be needed."

"Plus they're human," I said. "Which means their testimony will carry more weight than mine."

Alex nodded. "Sad but true."

"How are you going to explain your being here? You are out of your jurisdiction."

"I'll tell them the truth. That someone came to me claiming the girls in this place were victims of supernaturals. I did a drive by, saw the armed guards, realized that something was up, decided to investigate."

"And when they tell you that this isn't your jurisdiction?"

"I'll remind them that this is pack territory and when supernaturals are engaged in illegal activity on pack territory, I've got a right to investigate. You know how humans don't like to involve themselves in disputes between supernaturals. They'll just write it down as a territorial dispute between supernaturals, then add an addendum, humans victims discovered. It'll help the pack's reputation with the humans. They'll see us as the good guys for a change."

"And when they ask how you managed to disable sixteen armed guards by yourself?"

Alex grinned. "It'll enhance my reputation as the world's toughest werewolf."

Like everybody else, I had to walk back to town. Fortunately, it was small town, so it was a short walk, just over a mile. When I reached the edge of town, a Harley Davidson roared to a stop in front of me. A big werewolf with a bushy mustache that hid his upper lip drove the bike, Wanda rode on the back. Like Wanda, he wore jeans and a black tank top with the words Harley Davidson printed on the front. His bike had a growling wolf painted on the gas tank.

Wanda jumped off the bike and stepped in front of me. The big werewolf swung his leg over the bike and moved behind Wanda. When I say he was big, I mean he was big. About six feet six and somewhere around three hundred pounds, most of it in the arms and shoulders.

"You and I have unfinished business," Wanda said, sticking her nose up to mine. "You humiliated me in front of my pack."

"I'm pretty sure that you're more than capable of humiliating yourself without any help from me." Even as I said that I reached out with my mind, to the water that made up the big werewolf's body. Then I ordered that water to boil, not just warm up, but boil.

Before Wanda could respond to my comment, the big werewolf began jumping around, shouting, "What the hell is happening to me?"

"The water that makes up most of your body is beginning to boil," I said. "You'll be dead in minutes."

The big werewolf was turning red. It wouldn't be long until his skin began to bubble and steam started seeping out of his pores.

Wanda looked at her partner, lover, whatever he was, then looked at me. The anger that had been in her eyes was gone, replaced by fear. "Stop it!"

I folded my arms across my chest. "When you apologize for bothering me."

Wanda glanced at her big partner a second time, then gritted her teeth, and said, "I apologize for bothering you."

I ordered the water that made up the big werewolf's body to return to its normal temperature. His skin would be red for awhile, but like most supernaturals, he would heal quickly. Way quicker than your average human.

While Wanda checked the condition of her partner, I climbed on the Harley, which was still running. "Thanks for letting me use your bike. You can pick it up at the police station." I put the bike in gear and did a U-turn in the middle of the road.

As I roared away, I could hear Wanda mumble, "Dirty little mermaids."

I left the bike in the police station's parking lot, climbed in the Del Sol, and headed back to the city. I didn't go back to my place, figuring Teddy would still have people watching it. If he didn't have a reason to kill me before my trip to Mead, he certainly did now.

I didn't know what would happen now that there were forty-nine humans claiming they were kidnapped and held prisoner by Teddy and his people, claiming they had their youth stolen from them. It depended upon whether Teddy had enough people in place to put a lid on what was happening up in Mead. People that could keep the story from reaching the media and the feds. They didn't have to be bogeymen. They could be humans that were addicted to the high the bogeymen could provide them, or humans that would do anything for money.

It was after midnight when I got back to the city. Since it wasn't safe to go back to my place, I headed to Doug's house. Savanna was still there, sleeping on the sofa. But then where else would she be? She didn't have a place of her own and she had cut ties with Teddy and Crystal. Doug was upstairs. He was in bed, watching television. He turned it off when I slipped into the room.

"You've been a busy girl," he said.

"How so?"

"Heard it on the radio. County sheriff's uncovered a major crime ring up in Mead. Mass kidnapping of humans by supernaturals. Rumor is their calling in the feds. You know what that means."

"Federal task force." Apparently Teddy didn't have enough people in place to keep a lid on this. Either that or they got scared and backed out of their deal with him. That happened with humans all the time. They just weren't reliable partners, especially when you were engaged in questionable activities.

Doug patted the bed. "Care to join me?"

"Now that the you-know-what has hit the fan, I think I'll pay a visit to Teddy. I got a feeling that he might be in a mood to deal."

"You think it's a good idea to show up at his club tonight? He's got to be pretty mad."

"You're right. Maybe I should just call him."

I pulled out my phone and called Teddy's cell, having gotten his number from the bald man's phone. He answered on the first ring.

"Yeah," Teddy growled. I could hear the music playing in the background, which meant he was still at the Glass Box.

"The you-know-what has hit the fan," I said. "Feds are calling in a task force to investigate what's going on up in Mead."

"So?"

"So, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to let Monica Breen go. The last thing you need is to get caught with another human victim."

"That's already been taken care of," Teddy said. "My people are dropping her off at your place even as we speak."

"If that's true then our business is concluded."

Teddy laughed, but it wasn't a friendly or happy laugh. "Our business is far from concluded."

He ended our call, I didn't have to wonder what he meant when he said our business was far from concluded. I already knew. He blamed me for bringing the feds into this, for making his life a mess, and he wanted revenge. Not that I was going to worry about what he was planning. Mermaids rarely worry about tomorrow.

"So?" Doug said, as I slipped my phone back in my pocket.

"Teddy said his people are dropping Monica off at my apartment. I need to get over there."

"It could be a setup. There might be another sniper sitting on the roof across the street waiting to pick you off."

"That has occurred to me."

Doug jumped out of bed. He was wearing black boxer-briefs and nothing else. He was lean at the waist with a lot of muscle in the arms, shoulders, and thighs. "I'll come with you."

I didn't argue. It's always nice to have backup.

I waited while Doug dressed, donning jeans, a tee shirt, and sneakers. He slipped a forty-five automatic into the waistband of his jeans, then covered it with his shirt, a dark blue tee shirt with white lettering that said POLICE REC LEAGUE.

"That's not your service revolver," I said.

"Personal firearm. My service revolver is in my locker at the station. How come you don't have a gun?"

"I got one. A couple actually. Don't use them very much so I rarely have them on me."

"Where do you keep them?"

"One is in my apartment. The other is in a locked box in the trunk of my car."

"Did you carry a gun when you were in the department?"

"Had to. You know the regs."

"Ever fire it?"

"Not on duty."

"But you did kill while on duty."

"I used my powers, which aren't affected by walls." I turned and headed out the door. Doug followed behind me.

"If Monica Breen is at your place, she could be dead."

"That thought has occurred to me."

"If Teddy is erasing his trail it would make sense to kill her. Eliminate a witness."

"I'm aware of that." I was hired to find Monica Breen. I couldn't control what condition she was in when I found her.

We reached the bottom of the stairs. Savanna was awake, no big surprise. Mermaids don't sleep for extended periods of time. We take short naps and wake at the slightest sound.

"Where are you two headed?"

"My place."

"Why?"

"Teddy said Monica Breen is there, waiting for me."

"Dead or alive?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Can I come?"

I stopped and looked at Savanna. "It could be a setup. Teddy could have a sniper there waiting to pick me off. Me and anyone else that shows up."

Savanna flashed a sheepish grin. "Maybe I'll just stay here."

We took Doug's truck and parked a couple of blocks away.

"I say we check the roof of the building across the street," Doug said, as we climbed out of his truck. "Just to be safe."

I nodded. "Fine with me."

We slipped into the back door of the apartment building directly across from mine and took the stairs to the roof. There was a garden on the roof of the five story brick building, complete with potted palms, potted ferns, and benches to sit on, but there was nobody on the roof. Nobody studying the stars. Nobody making out. Nobody with a sniper rifle waiting to pick me off when I entered my building. Since this was the tallest building on the block, it gave me a good view of all the other roofs on the block.

"The other roofs are all empty," I said.

"You sure?" Doug said. "It's too dark for me to tell."

"I'm a mermaid," I said. "My eyes are designed to see in the dark depths of the ocean."

Doug looked at me. "Should we head over to your place?"

I nodded. "Might as well."

We headed downstairs. When we stepped out of the building, I paused, listening for the sound of a sniper rifle being cocked. I didn't hear anything. If Teddy was planning on killing me, he wasn't planning on using a sniper, at least not tonight.

"No guns being cocked," I whispered to Doug, who was right behind me, guarding my back.

"Maybe Teddy's decided that he doesn't want anything to do with you."

"That's not the impression I got when I talked to him on the phone. He definitely wants me dead."

We crossed the street, still keeping our eyes and ears open for a hidden sniper. I saw no one, heard nothing. Doug didn't either. Even so, he kept his gun in his hand and his head on a swivel.

We entered my building without incident, reached the top floor without incident, reached my front door without incident. That's when we noticed the lock on the door was broken. No big surprise if Teddy's men did drop off Monica.

"Better let me go first," Doug said, raising his gun and stepping in front of me.

"Give me a minute," I said. "I can tell how many people are inside."

I reached out with my mind, searching for any water inside my place, water in the form of a body. I found one person, sitting in my living room, right where my sofa was located. I assumed that it was Monica Breen, but I couldn't tell if she was dead or alive. It takes several hours for a dead body to dry out.

I looked at Doug, held up a single finger, and said, "One person. On the sofa."

"Monica?"

I shrugged my shoulders, pushed past Doug, and headed inside. Doug followed right behind me, his gun in his hands, the barrel pointed straight up.

We found Monica sitting on my sofa. She was alive. For now. I say for now because she wore a vest, a vest made out of plastic explosive. In the middle of that vest a digital clock was counting down, 5:00, 4:59, 4:58, 4:57 . . . and so on.

"Crap!" Doug said, lowering his gun.

"My sentiments exactly."

Monica was awake and scared. You could see it on her face. A face that had aged from the one in the pictures I had seen. She wasn't a wrinkled old lady, but there were age lines on her face and streaks of gray in her hair. She looked closer to fifty than twenty-five. She wasn't tied down or anything, but it was clear that she was afraid to move.

"We need to call the bomb squad," Doug said.

"I don't think we have enough time to wait for the bomb squad." The bomb was using an electric trigger and anything that was electric could be shorted out and what better way to short something out than with water.

I reached out with my mind, to the battery powering the timer, to the moisture inside that battery. I know they're called dry cells, but like everything else on this planet, they contain moisture. I ordered the water within the battery to freeze. Within seconds the timer went dead. No big surprise. Nothing kills a battery faster than freezing cold.

Just to be safe, I grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and ordered the water to saturate the timer. As the water surrounded the timer, I ordered it to freeze. Encasing the timer in a block of ice.

"You can take that off her," I told Doug.

"You're sure it's safe?"

"Nothing kills a battery faster than cold."

Doug went up to Monica and began to disconnect the timer from the plastic explosive. He threw the timer across the room then took the plastic explosive packed vest off Monica and set it carefully on the floor. Once that was done, he pulled out his phone. "I need to call this in."

I nodded and sat next to Monica, who I noticed was still wearing the hospital gown they dressed her in when she was at the Center. "You all right?"

She nodded and wiped the tears off her face. "Who are you and why did they bring me here?"

"My name is Low Campbell. I'm a private detective. Your friend, Felicity Bernard, hired me to find you. That's why they put the bomb on you and left you here."

"They were trying to kill you?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "They were trying to get rid of a couple of problems. Me and you."

"Bomb squad is on its way," Doug said, slipping his phone back in his pocket.

The bomb squad and other officers arrived. They disposed of the plastic explosive and took statements from Monica, Doug, and myself. When that was done, I called Felicity and told her that I had Monica and she could come and get her. She arrived just as the cops were leaving.

"She's aged," Felicity said, when she saw Monica.

"That's what happens when you let the bogeyman feed upon you for an extended period of time."

"I guess all drugs have side effects." Felicity sighed. "At least it's over."

"Your part in this is over," I said. The bomb was a message from Teddy, letting me know that our war was far from over.

# Chapter 24

After Felicity took Monica home, I headed to the local sheriff's office. The Ranch was located in the same county as the city, which meant the county sheriff had jurisdiction over what was happening up there. I wanted to free the girls that were being held there before Teddy had a chance to move them. When I told Teddy I was going to destroy everything he built, I meant it.

The people in the sheriff's office knew who I was from my ten years on the city police force. They also knew I left the force to open my own detective agency. Despite that, when I told them what was going on at the Ranch, they didn't agree to investigate until Monica and Felicity came down and gave signed statements. Even then, the sheriff's department only sent one guy. He was young, fresh out of the academy. He said his name was Jeff, that's all I knew about him.

Doug insisted on coming with me, so we took his pickup. Since I was the only one of us that knew where the Ranch was, I drove. Jeff the deputy followed in his cruiser.

The Eastern Europeans in the black suits were still on duty when we pulled up in front of the big stone building. I took that as a good sign, if the girls had already been moved, Teddy's mercenaries wouldn't be standing around guarding the doors. They would be hustling the girls to parts unknown.

As soon as the two men guarding the front door saw the police cruiser, one of them moved to confront us while the other hurried inside.

"This is private property," the mercenary said, as we climbed out of our cars. "You'll have to leave."

I reached out with my mind, to the water in his body, specifically the water in the blood flowing into his brain. I ordered that water to slow down, just long enough for the mercenary to lose consciousness and collapse to the ground.

"What's the matter with him?" Jeff the deputy asked.

"You know how a man in uniform makes some people weak in the knees," I said. "I guess he's one of them."

We stepped over the unconscious mercenary and headed inside. The lobby was busier than the last time I was there. There were twice as many bogeymen lounging about, not to mention twice as many initiates. I'm not sure why it was busier, perhaps because it was nighttime. With the possible exception of mermaids, supernaturals seemed to prefer the night. The initiates were dressed as naughty school girls and had the usual spaced-out looks on their faces.

The bogeymen paid no attention to Doug or myself when we stepped through the doors, but they did take notice when Jeff the deputy entered. Probably because he was in uniform. Not that they got up and left. They just glanced at him and went back to their feeding.

"Are these prostitutes?" Jeff said. He was looking at the girls and the costumes they wore.

"Not exactly. The costumes give the bogeymen something to look at when they're feeding."

"Feeding?"

"Bogeymen have the power to steal your youth. They refer to the act as feeding. It's how they heal themselves and remain young."

"How come they only feed upon women?" Doug asked. He was standing on my left. Jeff was on my right.

"Probably because women are easier to control. Bogeymen don't have supernatural speed or strength, which means they're not any stronger than human men."

Doug nodded. "If the humans are high all the time would it really matter if they're men or women?"

"The high only lasts when they're feeding on you. Once they stop feeding, you return to normal."

"How long does that take?" Jeff asked.

"With me it was only a minute or two. With humans it takes a bit longer."

"I need to talk to a couple of these girls," Jeff said. "Find out if they're being held against their will."

"You're not going to get anything out of them when they're being fed upon. You're going to have to take them outside. Better yet, just go up to the third floor, talk to the girls that aren't working. They'll be coherent enough to answer your questions."

The mercenary that went inside when he saw us coming was headed our way, leading a woman. A woman that wasn't Doris Burke. Not that I expected to see Doris Burke this time of night. She worked the day shift. Most likely, this was her assistant.

"This is a private club," Doris Burke's assistant said. "Unless you have a search warrant, you'll have to leave."

She was small, barely five feet tall and one hundred pounds dripping wet. She was cute and looked no more than twenty-five. But she wasn't human, so who knows how old she was. Her hair was cut short, not as short as Doris Burke's hair, but almost. It was the same red as my hair, but she had brown eyes, which meant it came from a bottle.

I couldn't help but wonder if she had already called Doris Burke and told her that something was up. Not that I expected Doris Burke to come to the rescue. She was probably busy deleting evidence off her home computer, evidence like the emails that connected her to the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center.

"I'd like to talk to some of the girls," Jeff said.

"About what?" Doris Burke's assistant said.

"A couple of women, human women, told us that they were held here against their will. I'd like to talk to some of these girls, find out what they have to say."

"You have a warrant?"

"Don't need one. Law says I can investigate any supernatural establishment as long as I have probable cause. The signed statements those two women gave me are all the probable cause I need."

I looked at the girl. "When humans are being threatened by supernaturals the law eliminates a lot of the red tape, like waking up a judge in the middle of the night and getting him to sign a warrant. As long as they have probable cause, the authorities can investigate. Probable cause being a signed statement from a human."

Doris Burke's assistant looked at me. "Who are you?"

I smiled. "Your boss is my bitch."

"I just want to talk to some of these girls," Jeff said. "If they tell me they're here of their own free will. I'll leave."

Someone must have signaled for reinforcements because half a dozen black suited guards were headed our way. Two from the bar. Two from the dining room. One from behind the desk at the back of the room. And the last one from the elevators. All six had their hands inside their coats, ready to pull out the guns they carried beneath them.

"We got trouble," Doug whispered to me.

"I see them." I waited for the men to bunch up into a nice tight military formation. When they did, I reached out with my mind, until I felt the water in their bodies, inside the blood that was flowing through the arteries that fed their brains, then I ordered that water, that blood, to slow down, just long enough for the men to grow dizzy and pass out. Which they did, collapsing to the floor in unison, kind of like an all male Eastern European synchronized swim team. Okay, they probably wouldn't have won gold. One guy was a few seconds behind the others. But silver was well within their reach.

You might think it's hard to take down six men at once. In truth, it's easier than taking down a single man. Especially when they're bunched close together. A large body of water is easier to feel, easier to touch, easier to control, than a small body of water.

I turned back to Doris Burke's assistant and the mercenary standing next to her. I reached out to the blood flowing to his brain, and cut it off, just long enough to render him unconscious. That got rid of the last of the men with guns, but it didn't mean that we were in the clear. The bogeymen lounging about, feeding upon the initiates, took notice of the six mercenaries on the floor. There was over a dozen of them in the lobby and if they decided to use their power on us, we could be in big trouble.

They were too spread out for me to take out as a group. If I wanted to render them unconscious, I would have to do it one at a time. I quickly rejected that idea. By the time I finished, the mercenaries would be waking up. Then again, there might be an easier way to get rid of the bogeymen.

The place had an overhead sprinkler system so I reached out with my mind, to the water contained in that system. I ordered the water to burst through the sprinkler heads and drench the entire lobby. A second later, the sprinkler system came on, creating rain inside the lobby. The only sprinkler head that didn't come on was the one directly over Doug, Jeff, and myself.

My unexpected rainstorm had its desired effect. The bogeymen scrambled out of their seats and headed elsewhere. Some disappeared out the front door. Some disappeared into the bar. Others scurried into the elevators. It also sobered up the half dozen initiates in the room, which would make it easier for Jeff to talk to them.

Doris Burke's assistant was soaking wet. She was also looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. Before she could reach any conclusions, I ordered the water soaking her clothes to turn into ice.

"Oh god!" she squealed. "It's getting cold in here."

She wrapped her arms around herself and scurried back toward her office, all but forgetting about Jeff and his probable cause. As soon as she was gone, I ordered the water to stop flowing out of the sprinklers, which it did.

"I think the girls are sober enough to talk to you now," I said to Jeff.

Jeff nodded and headed for the nearest girl. A dripping wet naughty school girl with big breasts and long blond hair.

"Did you do all of this?" Doug said, surveying the unconscious mercenaries and the soaking wet room.

"We were outnumbered. I had to do something to even up the odds."

"I didn't know a mermaid could reek such havoc."

"Reeking havoc is my specialty."

While Jeff went around questioning the girls, I kept an eye on the unconscious mercs. Every time one started to wake up, I put him back to sleep.

After talking to three girls, Jeff drifted back over to Doug and myself. "One of the girls was so spaced-out she didn't seem to know where she was."

"And the other two?"

"Are definitely being held here against their will."

"Which means?"

"I need to go out to the cruiser, call in some backup. Lots of backup."

"I'll stay here," I said. "Make sure the guards don't wake up."

Jeff nodded and headed out the front doors.

"I'm going to collect their guns," Doug said.

I made sure the Eastern Europeans remained unconscious while Doug collected the guns they carried beneath their coats. Occasionally, a bogeyman would drift into the lobby. When one did, I turned on the sprinkler directly above him, which sent him scurrying back to wherever he had taken cover.

After a few minutes, Jeff stepped back into the room. "Tactical squad is on its way. They should be here in about a half hour."

"I collected their guns." Doug pointed to the pile of guns he had dropped on a nearby chair. "You might want to lock them in your trunk, where nobody can get at them."

Jeff nodded, put the guns in his cowboy hat, and carried them out to his cruiser. I remained where I was, making sure the guards remained unconscious, making sure the bogeymen stayed out of the lobby. Doug drifted over to the girls and started escorting them outside.

While all of this was going on, Doris Burke's assistant reappeared. She had changed clothes, slipping out of her wet pantsuit and into a naughty school girl costume. She was so small and young looking, she looked more like a real school girl. She walked over to the nearest fire alarm and pulled it.

Bells started ringing throughout the building, which caused the bogeymen to scatter. They poured out of the bar, out of the dining room, and out of the stairwells. To a man, they hurried out the nearest exit, reminding me of scattering cockroaches.

Doris Burke's assistant watched the bogeymen scatter then marched over to me. She was so small and young looking, it was hard to feel threatened by her. Although she did manage to muster a pretty good glare.

"I've got a message for you," she said.

"From my bitch?"

The girl shook her head. "From Teddy."

"My other bitch," I said. "What's the message?"

The girl grinned at me. Actually, it was more of a sneer. "You're dead."

# Chapter 25

I didn't go back to my place, figuring it still wasn't safe. Not that Doug minded taking me back to his place, maybe he was concerned about my safety, maybe he was hoping that I would have sex with him. While I am a tease, I like to get to know a guy before I have sex with him. I'm a flirt, but I'm not promiscuous.

The problem with humans is all they do is sleep, for hours on end. Doug went upstairs, to his bedroom, to get his eight hours, I took a shower, slipped into shorts and a tee shirt and stretched out on the sofa. I watched a little television then took a short nap. When I woke, I headed into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Supernaturals have a higher metabolism than humans and eat twice as much food. My diet is similar to that of a three hundred pound football player on a seven thousand calorie a day diet.

I found Savanna in the kitchen, cooking spaghetti. She was dropping the spaghetti in a pot of boiling water. The sauce was in another pot, bubbling away. Humans would've found it odd, cooking spaghetti at three in the morning. Being a mermaid, I thought it was great. I hadn't lived with another mermaid since I moved out of my parent's house. I forgot how nice it was to have someone around that kept the same hours that I did.

"You want some?" Savanna asked.

"Please." I set the small table in Doug's kitchen, poured a couple of glasses of milk, and grabbed a seat. "Been awhile since I lived with another mermaid, kind of forgot what it's like."

"My dad never did understand the hours my mother and I used to keep. He was always asking us how we could operate with so little sleep. We would ask him how he could just lie there and do nothing for hours on end."

"Human metabolisms are so slow, you can't help but wonder why they need to sleep at all."

Savanna grabbed the plates and took them to the stove. She put half the spaghetti on my plate and half on hers. She poured the sauce on top, half for her, half for me, carried the plates to the table, and grabbed the seat across from me.

"Did you find Monica Breen?" she asked as she shoveled spaghetti into her mouth.

"I did."

"And she's okay?"

"She had a bomb strapped to her chest when I found her, but she's okay now. Although she looks like she's lost twenty-five years of her life."

"You disarmed the bomb?"

I nodded and shoveled some spaghetti into my mouth. "Froze the battery."

"Sounds like Teddy is getting serious."

"The county sheriff up in Mead called in the feds, that means Teddy and his people are going to be investigated by a federal task force."

"And that's bad because?"

"If the task force decides that they're a threat to humanity, their race will be hunted down and eliminated. To the last man, woman, and child."

"The humans will do that?"

"They've done it before. Ever heard of a bezerker?" Savanna shook her head and shoveled more spaghetti into her mouth. "They used to be a supernatural species. Once a month, they would go on mass killing sprees. One day, the humans decided their contributions to the world were outweighed by their threat to humanity. So the humans hunted them down and killed them. As far as anybody knows, there are no bezerkers left alive. Anywhere."

"Humans have that kind of power?"

"There are seven billion humans on the planet. Maybe a million supernaturals. You do the math."

"Why didn't Teddy and his people just drain the life out of the girls and then get rid of their bodies? Why leave them alive and hide them in a nursing home?"

"I don't think they can actually kill a person with their power. Just steal their youth. If their power could kill, Teddy wouldn't be coming after me with guns and bombs."

"You think the humans will eliminate all of the bogeymen?"

"The bogeymen may have people in the government that can throw a roadblock in front of the task force's investigation."

"Has that ever happened before?"

"Vamps do it all the time. Every time a young vamp goes on a killing spree a federal task force investigates. The investigations always end the same way. Vampires contribute to the betterment of the world and the acts of one lone vampire shouldn't reflect on the species as a whole. Rumor is the vamps just buy off the people on task force."

"So you don't think anything will come of this federal task force's investigation?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," I said.

I figured Teddy would do whatever he had to, spend whatever he had to, to make sure the investigation began and ended with the two bogeymen that ran the Sunnyside Long Term Care Center, the bald, fat administrator that paid the bills, and the doctor that kept the girls sedated.

Savanna shoveled some more spaghetti into her mouth and changed topics. "Can you introduce me to a vampire?"

"Why?"

"I've never met one. I want to see what they're like."

Hanging out at a vamp club wasn't a bad idea. The clubs had a lot of security, which meant it would be hard for Teddy's hired gunmen to take a shot at me. Plus, the bogeymen tended to avoid other supernaturals. With Teddy out for my blood, a vamp club would be a good place to lay low. Well, as low as a mermaid is likely to lay. Truth be told, we're not very good at keeping a low profile.

"After our morning swim, I'll take you around, introduce you to some of the supernatural players here in the city."

Savanna grinned and turned her attention back to what was left of her spaghetti. While she did that, Doug staggered into the room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What are you guys doing?"

"Eating spaghetti," Savanna said.

"At three in the morning?"

"We're mermaids," I said.

"So?"

"We don't keep the same hours humans do. Not when it comes to sleeping."

"We catch a few minutes here, a few minutes there," Savanna said. "Never more than an hour at a time."

"Plus we eat twice as much as your average human male," I said.

"Higher metabolisms," Savanna added.

"You two are going to eat me out of house and home," Doug said.

I have to admit that he looked pretty good. Standing there in his black boxer-briefs, his short blond hair mussed up. The muscles in his arms, shoulders, and quads on full display. That being said, I wasn't ready to hook up with him, not yet.

"As soon as I finish eating, I'll run out and pick up some groceries," Savanna said. "Most markets are open all night."

"You got money?" I asked Savanna.

Savanna flashed a sheepish smile. "Not really."

"There's a wad of cash in my bag, take what you need."

"Appreciate it," Doug said. He turned and staggered out of the room.

"You headed back to bed?" I asked.

"It's three in the morning," Doug said. "You figure it out."

Savanna and I watched him go then looked at each other and laughed. "Humans," we said in unison.

***

After our morning swim, I took Savanna to Wormby's shop. I promised to introduce her to some of the other supernaturals in the city and Wormby was as good a person to start with as any. Plus, I wanted to warn him about Teddy. He was a business partner of sorts and if Teddy couldn't get to me, he might decide to go after my friends. Not that Wormby was an easy target. His ability to pop in and out made him a hard target to hit. Even so, I owed him a warning.

"You need to get out," Wormby said, when I entered his shop with Savanna in tow. "The bogeymen have placed a hit on you."

"I already had a human try to kill me. A sniper."

Wormby waddled to the front door, flipped the open sign to closed, and locked the door. He drew the blinds over the shop's picture window and waddled to the counter at the back of the shop. He was wearing a red baseball uniform with lime green trim. Printed on the front of his shirt were the words, Wormby's Pawnshop. On the back of the shirt was the number one. His red baseball cap had Wormby's printed across it in lime green. His twisted jumbo ears rose up over the sides of his baseball cap.

I was in a new green and gold bikini. A green silk scarf with a beach scene was wrapped around my hips. Savanna wore an identical blue outfit.

"Human assassins are easy to avoid," Wormby said. "Supernatural assassins. That's a different matter entirely."

Wormby slid behind the counter at the back of the store, its raised floor putting him closer to my height. I leaned on the counter and looked him in the eyes. "I didn't know there was such a thing as a supernatural assassin."

"You're young," Wormby said. "There are a lot of things you don't know."

"What kind of assassins are we talking about? Vamps? Werewolves?"

"Vamps and werewolves don't engage in that kind of work. Supernatural assassins come from the more obscure species of the supernatural kingdom. Now you need to get out of here. I don't want to end up as collateral damage."

"You ever met a supernatural assassin?"

"I'm a thousand years old," Wormby said. "I've met everyone and everything."

"Tell me about these assassins. What species are they? What are their powers?"

"The best of them are wisps."

"What's a wisp?"

"They're mostly female. They're tall, thin, elegant. A lot of them work in the human world as models."

"What kind of powers do they have?"

"They can turn into a cloud of smoke and float through the air. That's where the phrase a wisp of smoke comes from."

"I've never heard the phrase, a wisp of smoke," Savanna said.

Wormby glanced at Savanna then turned back to me. "I take it she's a friend of yours."

"Her name's Savanna. She's a mermaid. Obviously. She just moved here."

"You're young," Wormby said to Savanna. "There's a lot of things you haven't heard about."

I leaned across the counter, so my cleavage was a foot from Wormby's face. I had learned from experience that it was the easiest way to get his attention. "Can wisps move through walls?"

"No, but like regular smoke, they can slip through cracks in walls. Or come down your chimney."

"How do they kill? I'm assuming they can't turn a gun into smoke."

"You know how most people die in fires? It's not from the flames. It's from smoke inhalation. That's how they kill, by filling your lungs with smoke until you can't breathe."

Savanna made a sour face. "That's kind of gross, traveling up someone's nose and into their lungs."

"Gross but effective," Wormby said. "Wisps have a reputation for not failing."

"We have a membrane in our nasal passages," Savanna said. "That we can open and close at will. That's how we keep water out of our lungs when we're swimming."

"Which would make it hard for a wisp to kill a mermaid," I said. "What other kind of assassins do I need to look out for?"

"Some gnomes work as assassins. Our ability to pop in and out makes us extremely dangerous."

Savanna chuckled. "You don't look that dangerous to me."

Wormby vanished. One second, he was behind the counter, the next, he was standing behind Savanna. He yanked off the blue silk scarf that she wore around her waist then grabbed her bikini bottom and yanked it down to her knees.

Savanna squealed, grabbed her bikini bottom, and pulled it back up. She turned around to glare at Wormby but he popped out, reappearing a second later behind the counter with her blue scarf in his giant four fingered mitt. "Unlike wisps, we can take stuff with us." He tossed Savanna her scarf. She grabbed it out of the air and wrapped it around her hips.

"Gnomes are cautious by nature," I said. "Professional assassin isn't what you would call a cautious profession."

"Plus you're easy to distract," Savanna said. She leaned across the counter, so Wormby had a good view of her cleavage.

Wormby took a few seconds to enjoy the distraction, then shook his head and turned back to me. "Where were we?"

"I said that gnomes are cautious by nature. Savanna said you're easy to distract."

"Male gnomes are cautious by nature." Wormby glanced at my cleavage, then at Savanna's. "And easy to distract, but female gnomes are different. They're much more aggressive than male gnomes."

"That raises an interesting question," Savanna said. "How come garden gnomes are always male?"

Wormby glared at Savanna. "You'll have to ask the humans that one. They're the ones that make those silly things."

"So if a gnome tries to assassinate me, it'll probably be a female."

Wormby nodded. "Most definitely."

"How do they like to kill?"

"Whatever is the easiest. These days it would be a gun."

"Any other assassins I need to be aware of?"

"Speed demons."

"Speed demons are real?" That question came from Savanna.

Wormby nodded. "And they live up to their name. They're fast."

"You mean like a vamp or werewolf?" That question came from me.

"Vamps are slow compared to speed demons. Werewolves are like tortoises. One second, they're on the other side of the street. The next thing you know, they're standing in front of you plunging a knife into your chest."

"They prefer knifes?"

"They do, but don't ask me why."

"Anything distinctive about them? Other than their speed?"

"Their eyes are silver. Very distinctive. Makes them easy to spot, unless of course they're wearing sunglasses."

"So basically, she needs to watch out for skinny models that can turn into smoke, female gnomes with guns, and people with silver eyes."

Wormby nodded. "That's pretty much it."

I thought for a minute, then said, "Can a female gnome get lost in a mermaid's eyes as easily as a male gnome?"

"That's a good question."

"And you don't know the answer to it?"

Wormby shrugged his shoulders and flashed a sheepish smile. "I try to avoid female gnomes. They're loud, pushy, and not nearly as good looking as us males."

"What color is their hair?" Savanna asked. "Black, brown, blond, red?"

Wormby removed his baseball cap, revealing his bald head. "Female gnomes don't have hair. They're as bald as I am."

I thanked Wormby for his time. He responded by nodding at Savanna. "Can I trust this one?"

I looked at my blond counterpart and gave Wormby the most honest answer I could. "I don't know."

# Chapter 26

We climbed in the Del Sol and drove to my place, which was just a couple of blocks from Wormby's shop. Instead of parking in front of the building, or in the small lot beside the building, I parked in the alley behind the building. In case the place was being watched by one of Teddy's assassins. The alley was long and narrow and difficult to watch unless you stood in it.

"We moving back here?" Savanna asked.

"Not yet. I just need to grab some clothes."

"You think the place is being watched?"

"I don't know. If Teddy has hired more assassins it would make sense they'd be watching my place. It's where I live and work."

"You want me to come in with you? Two sets of eyes are better than one. And I'd like a chance to prove to you that you can trust me."

"You can come if you want," I said, climbing out of the car.

Savanna scrambled out of the car and followed me through the building's back door. When it had been an apartment building, the lobby doors were left unlocked, so anybody could enter. Once the building went condo, locks were added to the lobby doors so the only way you could get in was if you had a key or someone opened the door from the inside. Not that a couple of locks would stop a supernatural assassin, or even a human assassin.

We reached the top floor without incident, reached my condo door without incident. We paused and I reached out with my mind, checking for water where you normally don't find water, like on a sofa, or a chair, or standing by the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony. The same amount of water that made up a living person. The good news was I didn't find any. If there was an assassin in my place, he or she wasn't in human form.

"You sense anyone in there?" I asked Savanna.

Savanna shook her head. "Feels clear to me."

"Me too."

I unlocked the door, pushed it open, and stepped out of the way. No guns fired. No bombs exploded. If there was an assassin inside, waiting for a chance to kill me, they didn't use human weapons.

I stepped into the living room. Savanna followed close behind me. I noticed the sliding glass door that led to the balcony was open. That wasn't uncommon. I was on the third floor so I often left it open.

"Seems clear," Savanna said.

I pointed to the sliding glass door. "Close and lock that door, I'm going to grab some clothes from my bedroom."

I went to my bedroom and stuffed some clothes into an overnight bag. I was zipping the bag closed when Savanna started yelling. "You might want to come in here. Like now."

I grabbed the overnight bag and hustled back into the living room. There was a man standing in the open doorway. He was dressed in a black suit, a white shirt, and a red tie. He wore sunglasses and was playing with a large knife, flipping it into the air, then catching it by the handle.

"You're a speed demon," I said, saying what I was thinking.

"I am," the speed demon said. He looked to be about my age. He was about six feet tall, with average looks, except for the Maui Jim sunglasses and the knife, there was nothing to make him stand out from the crowd.

The speed demon moved to the middle of the room, still flipping the big knife. I got the impression he spent a lot of time playing with that thing. A lot of time. I nodded to Savanna. She returned my nod and moved to the sliding glass door, which she closed and locked. Then she stood in front of it, blocking that escape route. I shut the front door and locked it. Then I stood in front of it, blocking that escape route. It was a move that brought a smile to the speed demon's face.

"I've heard stories about mermaids," he said, still flipping the knife. "Crazy stories. My mentor even told me not to take this job. He claimed that mermaids were extremely dangerous. Maybe the most dangerous species I'd ever face."

"You should have listened to your mentor," I said. Even as I spoke I reached out with my mind, to the water that made up the bulk of the speed demon's body. I ordered that water to cool. What better way to slow down a speed demon than by freezing him. The speed demon didn't seem to notice. Perhaps because he was too busy gloating. He would notice. And soon.

The speed demon smiled, the kind of smug smile you find on the faces of the young and overconfident. "My mentor is getting old. Old and slow. He can barely outrun a vamp, which from my perspective is pretty sad."

"And you don't believe what he told you about us?" I could feel his body temperature dropping, degree by degree. A few more seconds and it would be low enough where I would be able to freeze him solid in a fraction of a second.

"I'm sure you're fast when you're in the water, but we're not in the water right now."

"From your perspective we're not in the water. From my perspective, anyone that's alive is in the water, and the water is our domain."

The smile on the speed demon's face widened, all the while, he continued to flip the big knife. I noticed there were notches in the handle, a lot of notches.

"Do those notches in your knife's handle represent past kills?"

"You got good eyes." His voice was starting to change, it was a change I recognized, it was the voice of a man that was freezing to death and didn't even know it.

"The bottom of the ocean is dark. Our eyes are designed to see in those dark depths."

The speed demon stopped flipping his knife and looked around. "Is it just me or is it cold in here?"

"Air-conditioner is broken," Savanna said. "We can't seem to turn it off."

"Yet the two of you are in bikinis and don't look the least bit cold." The speed demon's teeth were chattering now. He was finally figuring out that something was wrong.

"It's cold at the bottom of the ocean," I said. "Our muscle tissue is thicker and denser than yours. It keeps us warm when we're down there. It also keeps the water pressure from crushing us."

"Kind of like the steel shell of a submarine," Savanna said.

The speed demon looked around the room a second time. "That's a hell of an air-conditioner you got. Where is it anyway?"

"Up on the roof. It's an industrial model. Made for a building twice the size of this one. That's why it works so well."

The speed demon stopped flipping the knife and gripped the handle, preparing to make his move. His teeth chattered when he talked. "I want you to know this isn't personal. It's . . . just . . . business."

"Right back at you," I said. Even as I spoke I ordered the cooling water that made up his body to flash freeze.

While I did that, the speed demon made his move. He was ridiculously fast, so fast that I didn't even see him move. If he hadn't already been a blink away from death, he would've killed me and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

He stopped moving right in front of me, his knife raised high, poised to strike in the middle of my chest. The tip of the big knife stopped less than half an inch from my skin.

"Wow!" Savanna said. "I've never seen anyone move that fast."

She moved from her position by the patio doors and began to circle the man standing in front of me. I backed away from the knife that had almost plunged into my chest.

"Fast but dumb," I said. "He was so busy peacocking he didn't even realize that he was dying."

"Is he dead?" Savanna poked him with a finger. He rocked a little, but didn't move. Probably because he was frozen solid.

"As a statue."

"You have so got to teach me that."

"When I trust you."

"Fair enough." Savanna nodded at the frozen man standing in the middle of the room. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Help me move him into the bathroom and I'll show you." I picked up one end of the speed demon turned statue and Savanna picked up the other end. We carried him into the bathroom and set him in the bathtub, still standing up, still holding the knife in front of him, ready to plunge it into my chest.

I retrieved a shovel and a sledge hammer from the hall closet and brought them into the bathroom. I handed the shovel to Savanna and stepped into the tub with the sledge hammer, closing the shower door behind me. Then I smacked the man with the sledge hammer several times. The first time I hit him he broke into a hundred frozen pieces. One of the advantages of freezing somebody from the inside out is they become as brittle as an ice cube.

I smashed all the big pieces into little pieces and stepped out of the tub. I handed the sledge hammer to Savanna and took the shovel from her. I dropped a shovel full of frozen speed demon into the toilet and flushed. Then I repeated that process until nothing remained in the bathtub except the knife. I rinsed the tub out, along with the shovel, and gave the toilet an extra flush. I returned the sledge hammer and shovel to the hall closet and tossed the knife in the trash.

"Nice trick," Savanna said, following me into the kitchen.

"When you freeze somebody from the inside out, they become as brittle as an ice cube. And as easy to dispose of."

"You've obviously done this before."

"One of the hazards of being a supernatural detective. You run into other supernaturals that want to kill you. Sometimes they even come looking for you. Having a convenient way to dispose of their bodies comes in handy."

"How cold did you make him?"

"Cold enough to freeze every cell in his body."

"You can do that?"

"I couldn't when I first learned the trick, but I can now."

I grabbed the overnight bag I packed and headed out the door. Savanna's bags were all at Doug's so she had nothing left at my place.

We reached my emerald green Del Sol without any more trouble. I threw my bag in the trunk and climbed behind the steering wheel. Savanna jumped in beside me and we headed off.

"Where to next?" Savanna asked.

"I promised to introduce you to the local supernaturals, so I thought we go back to Doug's and change clothes. Then we'll go see what the biggest werewolf pack in town is up to."

I took a circuitous route back to Doug's house, in case someone was tailing me. If someone was following, I'm pretty sure I lost them.

When we reached Doug's house we changed into blue jeans, tee shirts, and sneakers, then we climbed back in the Del Sol and roared off. I took Savanna to a bar on the southern edge of town, a place called the Iron Horse. It was a single story stand alone brick building with a gravel parking lot. As usual, the lot was full of motorcycles, choppers, to be exact.

"A biker bar?" Savanna said, as we climbed out of the car.

"These bikers are all werewolves, members of the MacKenzie pack, the biggest pack in the city."

"You friends with them?"

"Not exactly friends. Let's just say we have a mutual understanding."

"And that understanding is?"

"That I'm the most dangerous person they'll ever meet."

We entered the bar, which even at ten in the morning was crowded and noisy. Although once we entered, the noise quieted down.

"You're not welcome here," a big man with a bushy gray beard and a gray ponytail said.

"And here I thought we were friends."

"There's a speed demon looking for you. A professional assassin."

"And you know this how?"

"He stopped by the other night, trying to find you. Said you weren't staying at your condo, wondered if we knew where you might be."

"And you said?"

"Told him that I don't chart the comings and goings of mermaids."

"He found me this morning," I said.

"And?" the big werewolf said.

"We flushed him down the toilet," Savanna said.

The big werewolf didn't ask how we accomplished that. He was well aware of what I could and couldn't do. Instead, he looked at Savanna and shook his head. "Just what we need in this town, another damn mermaid."

"We're starting a club," I said. "We're thinking about getting matching jackets and bikes and everything, just like you guys."

"What do you want?" the big werewolf said.

"Just taking Savanna around, introducing her to all the players in town."

The big man bowed to Savanna. "Walter Mackenzie, leader of the Mackenzie pack."

Savanna returned his bow. "Savanna Green."

"You two aren't related?"

"All mermaids are related," Savanna said. "Albeit distantly."

"Anybody else stop by looking for me?" I asked. "Besides the speed demon?"

"Naw."

"No vamps, gnomes, bogeymen?"

"Nobody that identified themselves."

"If somebody does stop by call me. You got my number."

"And if I don't?"

I smiled. "Then my friend and I may decide to turn this bar into our clubhouse."

We turned and left.

"They weren't very friendly," Savanna said, as we crossed the gravel parking lot toward the Del Sol.

"Some supernaturals immerse themselves in human society, others prefer to remain on the fringe. The Mackenzie pack prefers to remain on the fringe."

We were halfway to the car when a gnome appeared in front of us, popping out of thin air. She wore a knit cap with red and yellow stripes, horizontal stripes, and a matching sweater. Her pants were red. Her sneakers were yellow high tops. I assumed it was a her because there was a gun in her hand, a chrome-plated revolver. It looked like a thirty-two.

I barely had time to push Savanna behind one motorcycle and dive behind another before the gnome fired her gun. She got off three shots before I pulled out my gun, which I was carrying in the back of my pants, and returned fire.

The gnome's shots bounced off the motorcycles. Missing us. She popped out before I returned fire, so all I ended up doing was shooting my car. All three of my shots ended up in the passenger's door. Damn. Fixing that would cost me.

"You okay?" I asked Savanna.

"Fine," Savanna said. I stood up. She did the same. "How did she find us?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Most likely, she just focused on me."

I headed for the Del Sol, my gun still in my hand. Savanna stayed close behind me.

"Gnomes can do that? Picture you in their mind then just appear wherever you are?"

"They picture you in their mind. Then they see where you are. Then they pop in."

"So, what are you going to do now? Now that you know a gnome assassin is out there, trying to kill you."

"Now, we pay another visit to Wormby, find out who this assassin is."

"You think he'll know?"

"He'll know."

"Because?"

"Gnomes are like mermaids, few and far between. Someone that's been around as long as Wormby will know who she is."

"You sure it's a she?"

"No, I'm just assuming."

"Because she had a gun?"

I nodded. "Because she had a gun."

# Chapter 27

Wormby wasn't at his shop or his house, nor could I get him on the phone, which meant I couldn't ask him about the female gnome that tried to kill me. I couldn't go after her until I knew who she was, which meant I had to try and avoid her.

"How do you hide from someone that can just pop in and out?" Savanna asked.

"I'm thinking the ocean. No assassin can follow us there."

"Unless she's a mermaid."

"I've never heard of a mermaid that works as an assassin."

" I wonder why?"

"Assassins have to keep a low profile."

Savanna grinned. "And that ain't exactly our style."

"It certainly isn't."

"We can't stay in the ocean forever."

"I'll take you to a vamp club when they open. Gnomes have this abnormal fear of vamps and avoid them like the plague. They're convinced every vamp on the planet wants to suck them dry. Even if she knows I'm there, she won't dare pop in."

"How will she know we're at a vamp club?"

"Gnomes picture you in their mind. Then they can see where you are. If the place looks reasonably safe, they pop in."

"So she pictured you in her mind and saw us in that parking lot."

I nodded. "At which point she popped in and tried to shoot me."

"How come she doesn't just pop into this car?"

"Hard to pop in and out of a moving vehicle."

"And when she sees you're at a vamp club, she'll be too afraid to pop in."

"You got it."

"Where do most vamps get their blood?"

"Blood banks. You can go to one of them and sell your blood for money. Vamps can then go there and buy a pint or two."

"Do all vamps get their blood from these blood banks?"

I shook my head. "Some prefer their blood to be body temperature."

So what do they do?"

"Find humans that enjoy the high that comes from a vamp bite."

"You get high when a vamp bites you?"

"Mermaids don't but humans do."

"I don't understand."

"Vamps release a chemical into your system when they bite you. It doesn't affect mermaids but it affects humans, dulling the pain of the bite and giving them a high. Some humans come to crave it so much they become addicts, what are commonly known as blood addicts."

"Why doesn't it affect us?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Faster metabolisms? Your guess is as good as mine."

"So when these humans want a high they go to a vamp club?"

"You got it."

We drove to the beach, changed into our bikinis, and went for a swim in the ocean. When sunset came we headed back to Doug's house to change for a night out on the town.

"What does one wear to a vamp club?" Savanna asked.

"Same thing you'd wear to any club."

Savanna grinned. "Designer jeans and cowboy boots?"

"I'd go with a skirt. Tough to get through the front door if you're not flashing some skin."

"Is that a good idea? Flashing skin at a vamp club?"

"It is if you're a blood addict and want to get bitten."

"You ever been bitten by a vamp?"

"Only during sex."

"And?"

"It hurt. Fortunately it didn't last very long because the vamp spit out my blood, claimed it was the saltiest blood he had ever tasted."

"I suppose if you're used to human blood anything else would taste different, kind of like a beef eater trying venison and not liking the taste."

"I suppose." I changed into a green leather mini-skirt, a long sleeved green silk blouse, and a pair of calf high green leather boots. Savanna donned a pale blue dress that matched her eyes. She added a pair of sandals with four inch wedge heels.

"Is Doug going to join us?" Savanna asked, as we headed out the front door.

I shook my head. "He's working an extra shift, covering for a buddy whose wife is having a baby."

"He called you?"

"Sent me a text."

"So, it's just us."

"I guess so."

Savanna grinned. "Maybe we can have some fun."

"I could use some fun," I said.

We climbed in the Del Sol and headed off.

"So where we going?" Savanna asked.

"A club called O Positive. It's owned by a vamp named Titus Hawthorn."

"Lot of vamps at this club?"

"Most of the customers are human, but some of the club's employees are vamps."

"Is it easy to recognize a vampire?"

"Pretty easy. They're skinny, have extremely pale skin, and extremely slow heart rates. Their bodies have about half the water of a living person, so they always look and feel a little dried out."

"I'm guessing they don't glow in the sun."

I laughed. "Movie vampires are about as realistic as the mermaids you see in movies. Fact is direct sunlight burns their skin."

"Does it kill them?"

"I suppose it could if they got caught out in it too long. Most vamps tend to avoid direct sunlight. When they do get caught in it, they don't stay in it very long."

"And they have to drink blood to heal?"

"They do."

We reached O Positive, left the car in the parking lot across the street, and headed for the club. The man at the front door was an ex-football player called Caesar. He wore black pants and a tight fitting black tee shirt that showed off his broad shoulders and narrow waist. O Positive was printed on the front of the tee shirt in red letters that dripped blood.

"I'm not suppose to let you in," Caesar said, when we reached him. "Order comes direct from Titus."

"That's an old order," I said. "Last time I was here we came to an understanding. I even agreed to work for him."

"He mentioned that, said if you stopped by, I was to tell you to go to his other club, get up on stage, and fulfill your end of the deal."

I pointed to Savanna. "I came with a friend. She's never met a vamp, so I thought I'd stop by, introduce her to Titus."

"She a mermaid?"

"She is."

Caesar looked at Savanna. "I don't think Titus wants another mermaid hanging around his club. He claims you always find a way to ruin his dinner."

"She's never met a vampire. I just figured if I was going to introduce her to one, I might as well introduce her to the best."

Caesar sighed, pulled out his phone, and made a call. He talked for a few seconds, then put the phone away, and stepped aside. "You can go in, but only because Titus hasn't started his dinner yet. And because he doesn't want to deprive your friend of the opportunity to meet the most memorable vampire around."

"Sounds like this guy has an ego," Savanna said, as we stepped into the glass elevator that would take us to the top of the building. The elevator was on the outside of the building and was used exclusively by Titus's club. If you wanted to visit another floor on the building, you had to use the inside elevators. Titus owned the building which is why his club had its own elevator.

"He's a vamp. All vamps have big egos. I think it has something to do with never growing old."

The elevator reached the top of the building. The inside doors opened and we stepped into O Positive.

Colored lights kept changing the color of the chrome dance floor, from green to red to blue and back to green. We headed up the chrome stairs to the club's second floor. Elvis vamp was there, guarding the stairs that led to Titus's private domain on the third floor. This time he let me pass without saying anything. I was wearing the emerald ring I took from him the last time I was there and couldn't resist waving it under his nose.

"Rumor is there's a contract out on your head," Titus said, when we reached his table.

"The rumor is true," I said. "Already had three attempts."

"By?"

"A human sniper. A speed demon. And a female gnome."

"And how are they doing?"

"The human and the gnome got away. The speed demon is dead."

"Can I ask how you killed the speed demon?"

"Turned him into an ice cube, smashed him into a million pieces, and flushed him down the toilet."

"Classy," Titus said. "You do know some vampires work as assassins."

"I can handle vamps. Not that another vamp would try something on your turf."

"How do you know I won't turn you in for the reward?"

"Because you don't need the money."

Titus rose to his feet and turned his attention to Savanna. "I understand you've never had the pleasure of meeting a vampire."

"Grew up on a farm in Montana," Savanna said. "Never had the pleasure of meeting a lot of folk."

Titus bowed, took Savanna's hand in his, and kissed the back of it. "Titus Hawthorn, vampire, businessman, and lover of women, at your service."

"Savanna Green," Savanna said. "Mermaid."

"If I may say so, you're much prettier than your redheaded counterpart."

"Thank you, but I think we both know that's not true."

Titus pulled out the chair opposite his. Savanna accepted it with a smile and sat. Titus returned to his chair, the only other one at the table, leaving me standing.

"Vampire, businessman, lover of women, but clearly not a gentleman," I said.

Titus grabbed my arm and yanked me onto his lap. I ended up sitting sideways, but he wrapped his hands around my waist and positioned me so I was facing the same direction that he was.

"You still owe me two days work," Titus said. "Or have you forgotten?"

"I've been a little busy."

"I've got a good mind to collect on that debt right now."

"You don't like mermaid blood. Remember?"

"That's not the kind of collecting I had in mind."

"What kind of collecting did you have in mind?"

"You agreed to dance for me. I'm thinking of making you dance right here."

"Topless?"

"Topless and bottomless."

"If that's what you want," I said. "But after tonight, we're square."

Savanna pushed her chair away from the table and stood. "While the two of you settle your little debt, I'm going to go down to the first floor and do a little dancing of my own."

She disappeared down the stairs, leaving me alone with Titus. I was still sitting on his lap and he still had his hands around my waist.

"Well?" I said. "What's it going to be? You want to collect tonight or some other time?"

Titus's hands slid up my waist and onto my breasts, which he proceeded to caress through my silk blouse. "Definitely tonight."

Vamps have excellent hearing, so I had little doubt that he could hear my heart accelerate, hear my breath quicken.

"One thing I like about mermaids," Titus's hot breath whispered in my ear. "Is you're easy to arouse."

He continued to play with my breasts, raising my level of arousal. He was still doing that when the blond he had fed upon the last time I was there appeared. As before, she was wearing a glittery blue dress that left little to the imagination.

"I thought I was tonight's dinner," she said, focusing on me.

"You are. This one is just paying off a debt."

The blond fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She reminded me of an addict in need of a fix, which is pretty much what she was. "Are you going to feed or what? If not, I can always find someone else who's hungry."

"Humans are so impatient." Titus pushed me off his lap. "I want you to dance."

I stepped back, laced my hands behind my head, and rolled my hips. Titus watched me for a minute, then said, "Lose the clothes."

I smiled, turned my back on him, and reached behind me. I unzipped my skirt, locked my knees, and bent at the waist. Then I squirmed out of my skirt, lowering it to my ankles as slowly and as sensuously as I could. When the skirt was around my ankles, I straightened up and spun around, only to discover I no longer had an audience.

Titus was busy eating his dinner. The blond was standing in front of him, her right leg was on his shoulder and he was biting into her thigh. The blond's eyes were closed and a look of pure rapture was on her face.

While the blond soared on her vamp induced high, my level of arousal began to decline. What was the point of dancing naked if nobody was watching? I thought about pulling my skirt back up but I owed Titus and tonight was as good a night as any to pay him off, so I stepped out of the skirt and kicked it at him. It landed right on top of his head, forcing him to stop eating long enough to remove it. He set it on the table, right on top of my purse. Then he glared at me with his red eyes and went back to his meal.

Before I could resume my dancing a small cloud of smoke appeared, having floated up from the club's first floor. If someone had been sneaking a cigarette, the smoke would've continued straight up to the ceiling. But it didn't continue straight up, it headed in my direction, like it had a mind of its own.

I backed up. The smoke continued to move toward me. I slid to my left. The smoke followed. I slid to my right. The smoke moved with me, matching my movements. Clearly this cloud of smoke didn't come from someone grabbing a few puffs on a joint or a cigarette.

I took a deep breath and closed the membranes in my nose, the ones that kept water out of my lungs. I figured any cloud of smoke that moved like it had a mind of its own probably did have a mind of its own. It had to be a wisp, another one of Teddy's assassins come to kill me.

She obviously wanted to get into my lungs and suffocate me. But that wasn't going to happen. Not as long as I kept the membranes in my nose closed, not to mention keeping my big fat mouth shut. My problem was how did I get rid of a pesky cloud of smoke. I could only think of one solution. Drench her with water.

As the cloud of smoke enveloped my head, I reached out with my mind, to the water in the pipes that made up the club's sprinkler system. I ordered that water to shoot out of the sprinkler heads and drench the third floor of the club. A second later water sprayed out of the sprinkler heads, soaking Titus, the blond, and myself.

The cloud of smoke disappeared. A second later, a girl landed on the floor at my feet. She seemed to come out of nowhere and hit the wet chrome floor with a loud thud.

I would've grabbed her by the collar and hauled her to her feet, except she didn't have a collar. Fact is, she was naked. No big surprise. Just because she could change into a cloud of smoke didn't mean her clothes could. What she did with her clothes I have no idea, probably left them in her car and floated into the club as a cloud of smoke. That's how I would've done it had I been in her shoes.

Since she didn't have a collar, I grabbed her by her arms and hauled her to her feet. Actually, I lifted her off her feet. Pretty easy to do since she was so skinny. She was my height but waif thin, she probably didn't weigh over ninety-eight pounds. Her hair was long and platinum blond. She looked like a teenager, but that didn't mean much. She was a supernatural, which meant she could be a teenager, or she could be hundreds if not thousands of years old.

"What have you got there?" Titus asked me. He must have finished eating because his fangs were no longer protruding and his eyes were no longer red. "Looks like a wisp."

"It is a wisp. Another assassin come to kill me."

"She obviously doesn't know much about mermaids if she thought she could suffocate you." Titus looked at his shiny gray suit, which was soaked. "Do you mind."

"Sorry." I ordered the water to roll off of Titus and onto the floor. A few seconds later, he was dry. His blond dinner was standing next to the table, riding the high that came from a vampire bite and not caring whether she was wet or dry.

Drenching the wisp when she was in smoke form had rendered her unconscious, but only briefly. She opened her eyes, which were the same pale silver as her hair, and hissed at me, like an angry cat. Since I had never met a wisp before, I didn't know if that was normal wisp behavior or not.

"I don't think she likes you," Titus said, as she squirmed to get away from me. Not that it did any good. I was too strong. "The question is, what are you going to do with her?"

"I'm open to suggestions?"

"You could turn her over your knee and spank her."

"I don't mind receiving the occasional spanking, but I'm not really into dishing them out."

"Then why don't you give her to me. I've never drank wisp blood. Kind of curious as to what it tastes like."

I wondered why the wisp didn't turn into a cloud of smoke and float away, then figured it probably had something to do with being wet. The water soaking her hair and skin must have prevented her from turning. Smoke and water just don't mix.

I handed the wet and squirming wisp to Titus, setting her on his lap. She started talking in French. He ignored her, grabbed a fistful of her hair, tilted her head back, and bit into her neck. While Titus sampled her blood, I ordered the water soaking my clothes to run off them and onto the floor. A few seconds later, my clothes were dry.

Mermaids might not be affected by vampire bites, but it was pretty clear that wisps were. The same dreamy look that was on the blond's face spread across the wisp's delicate features.

"Don't take too much," I told Titus. "She's kind of scrawny."

Titus looked at me with his blood red eyes and pulled his fangs out of the wisp's neck. As he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes returned to their original color and his fangs retracted.

"I take it wisp blood tastes better than mermaid blood."

"Nectar of the gods," Titus said.

"Maybe you should keep her."

"My very own pet wisp. Now there's something the other vampires don't have."

"Consider her my gift to you."

"You are as gracious as you are beautiful. You may also consider your debt to me fulfilled."

"If you don't want her to turn into smoke and disappear, you'll have to keep her wet."

Titus looked at the wisp's face and smiled. "I don't think keeping her here will be a problem. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to have a little more desert."

Titus tilted the wisp's head back and bit her neck a second time. Watching a vampire dine wasn't my idea of fun so I grabbed my skirt and slipped it back on. Then I grabbed my purse and headed downstairs. It was dark out which meant I was safe from my gnome assassin. At least until morning. Gnomes rarely went out after dark due to their abnormal fear of vampires.

# Chapter 28

Savanna and I drove straight to Wormby's shop early the next morning. He was behind the counter at the back, studying some jewelry a young woman was trying to pawn. She looked like a teenage runaway, which made me think the jewelry was stolen. I waited for him to finish his business with her. He paid her for the jewelry, but not nearly as much as she wanted. Not that she argued much. If the jewelry was stolen then whatever she got was pure profit.

That's how I first met Wormby. When I was in uniform, we used to stop by the pawnshops on our beat, check their records to make sure they weren't dealing in stolen merchandise. Wormby had the sketchiest records of any shop in town. He realized that I was a mermaid and convinced me that we should go into business together, not the pawn business, the sunken treasure business.

"A gnome tried to shoot me," I said, as soon as the runaway left his shop. "She wore a knit cap with red and yellow stripes, a matching sweater, red pants, and high top yellow sneakers. Her gun was a chrome-plated thirty-two revolver."

"I did warn you," Wormby said.

"I want to know who she is and where I can find her."

"You want me to betray my own people?"

"I want you to help your business partner."

"What are you going to do to her?"

"Just scare her a little, convince her that trying to assassinate a mermaid isn't a good idea."

"You won't kill her?"

"I won't kill her." I wasn't sure I could even if I wanted to. A gnome's ability to pop in and out made them extremely hard to kill. One second they were there, the next they were gone.

"Her name's Ida," Wormby said. "Ida Wormby. She's my sister."

"You have a sister?" I don't know why that surprised me, but it did. Maybe because Wormby never mentioned having a sister.

"Yeah."

"And she's an assassin?"

Wormby shrugged his shoulders. "When you've been around as long as we have you try a lot of different things. Odds were pretty good that sooner or later she'd get around to trying her luck as an assassin."

"How do you know it's your sister?" Savanna asked.

"Red and yellow are my sister's favorite colors. And I happen to know she owns an outfit exactly like the one you just described."

"And?" I said, sensing there was more.

Wormby hesitated before responding. "And I sold her a chrome-plated thirty-two revolver."

I looked at Savanna. "That explains how she knows what I look like. This idiot probably gave her a complete dossier on me."

Wormby blushed. "I might have told her a few things about you."

I put my hands on my hips and glared at Wormby. "Like?"

"Like where you live, who you associate with, and of course, what you look like."

Savanna glared at Wormby. "When did she buy the gun and ask you all these questions?"

Wormby blushed harder, turning as red as the baseball uniform he wore. "Same day I heard the rumor that there was a contract out on Low."

"And you never put two and two together?" I said.

"Math was never my strong suit."

"Where can I find your sister?"

Wormby told me where his sister lived.

"Remember," Wormby said, as I headed for the door. "You promised you wouldn't hurt her."

"I'm not going to hurt her," I said. "I'm just going to convince her that she needs to find a new line of work."

Wormby's sister lived, believe it or not, on a boat. One docked on the southern end of town. Good news for me, bad news for Ida Wormby. There were a couple hundred boats there. Ida Wormby's boat was a forty foot cabin cruiser named Ida's Desire. It was a nice boat, new and plush, probably worth a quarter of a million dollars. No big surprise. Wormby and Ida were over one thousand years old. When you've been around that long, you collect things. If Ida was anything like her brother, then a lot of the stuff she had collected was money.

"Nice boat," Savanna said. "I wonder if she's home?"

Savanna's question was answered by the crack of a gun. Ida Wormby was shooting at us. Again.

Savanna and I dove for cover behind a sailboat. It rose high in the water and sat between Ida's cabin cruiser and us.

"Ida, put down the gun," I yelled. "I just want to talk."

"That weasel of a brother of mine told you where to find me." Crack. Another shot fired in our direction.

"He's worried about you. Worried that you're not cut out to be a professional assassin."

I straightened up, peeked over the sailboat. Ida was at the top of her cabin cruiser, standing on the chair used to pilot the boat. As soon as I raised my head, she fired another shot at me. Fortunately, she wasn't a good shot.

"Here's your chance to help," I said to Savanna. "Hit her with a fist of water just like you did me."

Savanna closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, to the water on the far side of Ida's boat. I peeked over the edge of the sailboat to see a spool of water rise up behind Ida. It formed into the shape of a giant fist then crashed down upon Ida, hitting her from behind. She flew off the pilot's chair and tumbled to the stern, coming to rest upon the boat's main deck, flat on her back and out cold.

"Very nice," I said.

"It's my specialty," a grinning Savanna said.

We stood up, circled the sailboat, and climbed aboard Ida's cabin cruiser. I grabbed Ida by her red and yellow stripped sweater, pulled her to her feet, and shook her awake. She looked a lot like her brother, giant cauliflower ears, a big bulbous nose, one large bulging eye, one small squinting eye, thick wide lips, and large hands with four fingers.

"How do we keep her from popping out?" Savanna said, as she snatched Ida's gun from the deck.

"I hang onto her. If she pops out, I'll go with her."

Ida regained consciousness. She realized I was holding onto her and panicked, squirming to get away. "Let me go! I didn't do nothing to you! Let me go!"

"You tried to shoot me."

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."

Ida stopped squirming and looked at me. "You're not?"

"I just want to talk."

"Let me go and we'll talk."

"Only if you promise not to pop out."

Ida hesitated. "I promise."

I let Ida go. She backed out of my reach and looked at her clothes. "Look what you did to my favorite outfit. It's ruined."

"Actually I did that," Savanna said. "But I can fix it."

She focused on Ida. A few seconds later the water that was drenching Ida's clothes flew off her clothes and back into the bay.

"Neat trick," Ida said, patting her dry clothes. She looked at Savanna. "Can I have my gun back?"

Savanna looked at me. I shook my head.

"Sorry," Savanna said.

I crouched down, so I could look Ida in her bulging eye. "If you weren't Wormby's sister, I'd kill you."

"Just like she killed that speed demon the other day."

Ida looked at Savanna, then at me. "You killed a speed demon?"

"Because he tried to kill me."

"Guess I should have picked an easier target in my first try as a hit woman."

"How did you learn there was a contract out on me?"

"Where else, the darknet."

Savanna wrinkled her brow. "What's the darknet?"

Ida looked at Savanna. "It's the part of the internet that deals in illegal activity."

"How do you log onto it?"

"Darknet software. It scrambles and unscrambles web sights that deal in illegal goods and services."

"How do you get this software?"

"You gotta know the right people."

"How big is the bounty on my head?" I asked.

"One million dollars," Ida said.

"Do you know who posted it?"

Ida shook her head. "Web sight doesn't say."

"How are you suppose to collect?"

"If someone succeeds in killing you they're suppose to cut off your hair and bring it to a place called the Glass Box." That made sense. Everybody knew that mermaid hair repelled water. All Teddy needed to do to find out if the hair brought to him was mermaid hair was pour some water on it. If it repelled the water, it was mermaid hair. If it absorbed it, it wasn't.

"Teddy," Savanna said.

"Who's Teddy?" Ida asked.

"Guy that placed the bounty on my head."

Ida looked at me. "As long as that bounty is out there, people are going to keep coming after you."

"I'm aware of that."

"If I were you, I'd get rid of this Teddy guy, either that or get him to remove the bounty."

"Easier said then done. Teddy knows what I look like. As do his people. It's going to be hard for me to get into his club."

Savanna's face lit up. "Change your looks."

"You could cut your hair," Ida said. "Then you could color it. I could even take your cut hair to this Teddy guy as proof that I killed you. Not only would that get him off your back, we could screw him out of a million dollars."

Oh yeah. Ida was definitely a gnome. Figuring out how to screw somebody out of money was what gnomes did best.

Savanna looked at Ida. "And when he discovers you lied to him, he'll add you to his hit list."

Ida looked at me. "Not if she kills him. Which is the only way she can get him off her back."

"She's right. He's turned this into a me or him issue." I looked at Ida. "I'm going to cut my hair and change its color. You can bring my cut hair to Teddy, tell him that you shot me. He'll think I'm dead and let his guard down, which will make it easier for me to get to him."

Ida rubbed her giant mitts together. "And I get to keep the million dollars?"

"You get five hundred thousand. I get the other five."

Ida glared at me. "Why?"

"It's my hair."

Ida folded her arms across her chest and thrust her lower lip out in a pout. "Fine. I'll cut you in for half. But only because it's your hair."

Savanna looked at me. "Now all you need to do is find someone that can cut mermaid hair."

"I can do it," Ida said. "I used to cut hair for a living."

"What century?" Savanna asked.

"Sixteenth."

"Back when Elizabeth the First sat on the throne of England? I've seen the movies about her, she had some weird hairdos." Savanna looked at me. "If I were you I'd find someone who learned how to cut hair in this century."

"I think I will." I looked at Ida. "No offense."

Ida held up her giant four fingered hands. How she could hold a pair of scissors with those things, let alone cut someone's hair in a style they liked, I had no idea. "None taken. Just remember to bring your hair back here."

We left Ida on her cabin cruiser, taking her gun with us. She didn't apologize for trying to shoot me, not that I expected an apology. Gnomes weren't very good at apologizing. If I waited for an apology, Ida would spend the hour trying to justify her actions.

"You know someone that cuts mermaid hair?" Savanna asked, as we climbed in the Del Sol.

"I do."

"Probably not a human." Humans weren't very good at cutting mermaid hair. They liked to get your hair wet before cutting it, since mermaid hair repelled water, they didn't seem to know what to do with it. Better to go to a supernatural. One that was used to cutting supernatural hair.

"She's a werewolf. Not a member of the Mackenzie pack mind you. She belongs to a much smaller pack, a more peaceful pack." I looked at Savanna and smiled. "Plus, she's a redhead."

The woman I was talking about went by the name Carly Griffin. She belonged to the Griffin pack, a small pack of red werewolves that lived quiet peaceful lives. She owned a beauty shop in the northern suburbs, in a small shopping center that included a drugstore, a real estate office, a fitness center, and an ice cream parlor, which of course was located right next to the fitness center. She named her business--Supernatural Hair Styles.

I called ahead, told her that it was an emergency. She didn't ask why I needed an emergency haircut. She just rearranged a couple of appointments so she had time for me.

"I'm guessing this isn't your usual just trim the ends," Carly said, as I climbed into the barber's chair.

"I want you to cut it short," I said. "Then I want you to change the color."

"To?"

"Anything but red."

"Don't forget that we need the hair that she cuts off you," Savanna said, peeking over the magazine that she was reading.

I nodded and looked at Carly. "What she said."

Carly went to work, cutting my hair short, extremely short. Savanna collected my long red locks as they fell to the floor and stuffed them into a plastic bag. When Carly finished cutting my hair, she dyed it jet black. When she finished, she spun my chair around and showed me my new look.

I looked so different that I barely recognized myself. If it wasn't for the large green eyes, you wouldn't even know that I was a mermaid. But then that was exactly what I wanted.

"So?" Carly said.

"I don't look like me."

"That was what you wanted. Wasn't it?"

"That's what I wanted." It would take me awhile to get used to this new look, not that I spent a lot of time staring at myself in mirrors. When I wanted to stare at something I went into my vault, turned on the spotlights, and stared at my shiny treasures.

"What do you think?" I asked Savanna, as we climbed into the Del Sol.

"You look . . . different."

"Different enough to get into Teddy's club?"

"I think so."

We drove back to the docks, back to Ida's cabin cruiser.

"If the blond wasn't with you, I wouldn't have known who you were," Ida said, as we climbed aboard her boat.

I handed Ida the plastic bag containing my hair. "Take this to the Glass Box and give it to a guy named Teddy. He's easy to spot. He wears a black tux and acts like he owns the place."

"Which he does," Savanna said.

"He'll ask how I killed you."

"And you'll tell him you shot me."

"What if he doesn't believe me?"

"Pop out and pop back in. With this pointed at his chest." I handed Ida her chrome-plated revolver, minus the bullets of course. Now that she had my hair, she had no reason to shoot me, but why take the chance. I trusted Wormby, but I didn't trust Ida, not enough to hand her a loaded gun.

"What time does this Glass Box place open?"

"Six o'clock in the evening."

"And this Teddy guy will be there?"

"He usually is. Sitting on a red sofa, feeding on the people out on the dance floor."

"He won't try to feed off me will he? I don't want no bogeyman poking around my head."

I suspect Ida Wormby was probably the last person on the planet that Teddy would want to feed off. Not that I said that.

"Teddy likes his women young, the kind that look like they're fresh out of college." I nodded at Savanna. "Like her."

Ida looked at Savanna. "She's practically a baby. Hell, you're practically a baby."

"Which is what Teddy likes."

Ida shuddered. "Always did think bogeymen were creepy. Will he have bodyguards?"

"A few Eastern Europeans. But they're usually where you can't see them."

"Eastern Europeans I can deal with. I was born in that part of the world. Back when it was known as Christendom."

"Just how old are you?" Savanna asked.

Ida started counting her fingers, when she was holding up all eight, she smiled. "Don't have enough fingers to remember."

"I'll stop back here before I head to the Glass Box," I said. "See how your meeting with Teddy went."

"And to collect your fifty percent," Ida grumbled.

I grinned. "And to collect my fifty percent."

# Chapter 29

I stopped by Ida's cabin cruiser around nine o'clock, to see how her meeting with Teddy went. I found her inside, sitting at her kitchen table counting a stack of money.

"Looks like you got your payment," I said.

Ida grinned, her large lips taking up a full third of her face. "It went just like you said it would. I gave him the hair, he tested it to see if it was waterproof, then he asked how I managed to kill you. I popped out, then I popped back in with my gun pointed at his chest. He handed me a briefcase full of cash. I popped out." She pushed some of the cash across the table, toward me. "Here's your half."

I stuffed the bundles of cash into the black leather purse slung over my right shoulder. "Do you know if he called off the hit on me?"

"I can check," Ida said. She opened a laptop computer that sat next to the pile of money and began typing on the keys. I noticed it was a big laptop with big keys, big enough for her large fingers. "Looks like he called off the hit. You're in the clear."

"Glad to hear it."

Ida closed her laptop and looked at me. "You going to pay this bogeyman a visit?"

"I am."

"Tonight?"

"No time like the present."

"How are you going to kill him?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Boil him. Freeze him. Drowned him. Make him explode. We'll see what strikes my fancy."

"Just make sure he's dead. I don't want him coming after me."

"I'll make sure." I turned and headed for the door.

Ida slid off her seat and waddled after me. "Next time someone puts a hit out on you let me know, no reason we can't run this scam again."

I laughed. "Hopefully that won't be any time soon. At least not until my hair grows out."

I climbed back in the Del Sol and headed north, toward the downtown section of the city. Doug and Savanna wanted to come with me, but I squashed that idea. I told Savanna that Teddy might recognize her. I told Doug that it was easier for unattached females to get into the club.

"Don't you want someone to watch your back?" Doug asked me.

"If things go as planned Teddy won't even know I'm there."

I didn't need to confront Teddy to kill him. I could do that from the middle of the dance floor, or from one of the booths on the far side of the dance floor. Of course, the first thing I had to do was get past the guy that manned the club's front door, but I figured my outfit would solve that problem.

I was wearing a red latex dress. It was short, fit like a second skin, and contrasted nicely with my short black hair. Getting into it hadn't been easy, I had to cover myself in talcum powder and squirm into it. Even then it took some time. Its squared neckline was cut low, leaving plenty of cleavage on display. Red ankle strap stilettos covered my feet. Glasses with red tinted lens hid my mermaid green eyes

I parked the Del Sol a block away, just in case Teddy's people recognized my car, and walked the rest of the way to the club. There was a line of people waiting to get inside. No big surprise. People loved the Glass Box. Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the drinks. Maybe it was the privacy offered by the red glass booths that circled the dance floor. Most likely, it was the high they got when Teddy and the other bogeymen fed upon them. Little did they know that high came at a price.

I fell into line and waited for the guy that decided who would get inside to reach me. When he did, he looked me up and down. "Haven't seen you here before."

"I'm in town on business," I said, faking a Southern accent. "Heard this was the best club in town."

"Most popular club in town, which means not just anybody gets in. You want to get past those doors, you're going to have to earn your way in."

"Earn my way in how?" I said, playing innocent.

"You could show us what you got on beneath that dress."

The men in line cheered, especially those that were there to watch the shows the girls that got into the club had to put on.

I smiled at the man and did a slow turn. "Sugar, if you can't tell what I'm wearing beneath this here little frock then your eyes must be bad."

"Doesn't look like you're wearing anything beneath it."

I flashed the man another smile. "Seems your eyes aren't so bad after all, honey child."

"Okay," the man said. "You can go in."

I pushed past the other people in line and headed inside. The club was crowded. As usual. No big surprise considering the high you got when the bogeymen fed upon you. The glass booths with the red sofas were full, so I grabbed a stool at the bar. I didn't even have time to order a drink before a guy grabbed the stool next to me and struck up a conversation.

"That's quiet a dress," he said.

"Red and shiny," I said, still using my fake accent. "Kind of matches this here club."

"This club doesn't look nearly as good as you." The man flashed me his best aren't-I-handsome smile, and truth be told, he was. Well over six feet, broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hips. Neatly trimmed sandy blond hair, gray eyes that matched his thousand dollar suit, and a square chin that exuded strength. I figured he was either a lawyer, an investment banker, or a stockbroker.

"Well aren't you sweet," I said. "Buy me a drink and I just might dance with you."

The guy turned to the bartender and ordered two Canadian Mists, straight up. "Best whiskey around, goes down smoother than the others."

I smiled at him. "I'll take your word for it."

"Name's Tony," the man said, offering me his hand.

"Wanda," I said, shaking his hand. He held my hand for more than a second, long enough to let me know that he wanted me.

The bartender set the drinks in front of the man. He paid for them and slid one in front of me. We toasted and downed our drinks in one quick gulp. Like most supernaturals, I have an accelerated metabolism. If the man was hoping to get me drunk, and why else would he be buying me whiskey straight up, he was going to be disappointed.

"I'm ready to dance," I said.

I slid off the bar stool and worked my way toward the middle of the dance floor, leading handsome Tony by the hand. I stopped close enough to Teddy's booth so I'd be able to see him through the gyrating crowd, but far enough away so he wouldn't notice me. And even if he did, I doubt if he'd recognize me, not with my new look. Even the guy at the door didn't recognize me.

The music blaring out of the overhead speakers was up tempo with a driving beat. Even so, Tony wrapped one hand around my waist and pulled me close to him. As we moved, the hand wrapped around my waist slid down, cupping my bottom.

When I became lightheaded, I realized that Teddy, or one of his bogeyman buddies, was feeding upon me. Feeding upon us. All I could do was hang onto Tony and ride the high. When the music ended, Tony whispered in my ear. "What do you say we get out of this place."

"Good idea."

Tony steered me toward the exit, his arm wrapped around my waist. I came here intending to kill Teddy, but I couldn't do that when the bogeymen kept feeding upon me. It left me too lightheaded to use my powers. If I wanted to kill Teddy, I would have to come back, do it when I was less noticeable. The red latex dress had been a mistake. It attracted more attention than I wanted. I just couldn't resist wearing it because it contrasted so nicely with my black hair.

Tony and I left the club, stepping out into the warm night. The unnatural high I was experiencing finally began to fade.

"What is it about that place?" Tony said, as he loosened his tie and took a deep breath. "It's almost like they're pumping some kind of drug into the air."

"They kind of are," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"The place is owned by supernaturals. They call themselves emo vamps."

"What kind of powers do they have?"

"They feed upon the life force of others. When they feed upon you, you experience a euphoric high."

"What does that mean? Feed upon the life force?"

"It means they're stealing your youth. Draining it right out of you."

"That explains why I feel so tired when I leave. And it explains the club's popularity." Tony looked at me. "How come you know so much about these people?"

"I've had some run-ins with the club's owner."

"What kind of run-ins?"

"Does it matter?"

Tony reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his wallet, and flipped it open, revealing his FBI credentials. "Yeah, it does. I'm heading up a government task force charged with investigating the activities of these emo vamps. What do you say we go somewhere and talk."

"And if I refuse?"

Tony grinned. "I may just have to arrest you, which of course will require a thorough frisking to make sure you're not hiding any weapons beneath that dress."

"A thorough frisking sounds quite enjoyable."

"How about we talk first, then I frisk you."

I grinned. "Works for me."

Tony led me to a dark blue sedan parked in the lot across the street. He opened the passenger door and I slid inside. Tony shut the door, climbed behind the steering wheel, and pulled out of the parking lot. "How do you know the guy that owns the Glass Box?"

"I'm a private detective. I was hired to find a missing girl. My search for the girl led me to the Glass Box and the guy that owns the club."

"Did you ever find the girl?"

"I did."

"She's alive?"

"She's alive."

"Did the emo vamps take her?"

"She wasn't taken. She went willingly."

"Why did she do that?"

"Same reason people go to the Glass Box, to experience something they can't get elsewhere."

"Sounds like the emo vamps are providing a service. That's a good thing isn't it?"

"People that sell heroin provide a service, but that doesn't make it a good thing."

"No, I suppose not."

"Can I ask where we're going?"

"A house on the north end of town, it's where my task force has set up its base."

I slumped back in my seat, closed my eyes, and relaxed. Eventually, Tony pulled into the driveway of a large house, one that sat well back from the street. A red brick fence surrounded the property. Several large weeping willows covered the grounds. A gravel driveway circled around the trees, stopping in front of the house, a two story red brick structure with a steep sloping roof covered by red clay tiles.

We rolled to a stop in front of the house. Tony pulled out his phone and fiddled around with it until a photo appeared on the screen. Then he handed the phone to me. "Take a look at this."

I took his phone and looked at the photo. It was John and there was a gun pressed against the side of his head. "What the hell is this?"

"It's your friend," Tony said. "I believe his name is John. If you promise to be a good girl, we'll let him go. If you try anything, and I do mean anything, we'll kill him."

"Who's we?"

Instead of answering that question, Tony nodded toward the house. Standing in the open doorway with a smug grin on her face was Doris Burke.

# Chapter 30

Tony and I climbed out of his car.

"Here she is," Tony said. "Just as you requested."

Doris Burke closed her eyes and took a deep breath, using her powers to feed upon me. I felt myself grow lightheaded as a wave of euphoria washed over me. My cares, my concerns, my worries, seemed to melt away. I wondered if this was what humans felt like when they were snorting their various drugs.

Eventually, Doris Burke opened her eyes and smiled. The lightheaded euphoria faded, allowing my head to clear enough to ask the obvious question. "How did you know I was alive?"

The smile faded from Doris Burke's face. "Because I'm not a fool like Teddy."

She fed upon me a second time, forcing another wave of lightheaded euphoria to wash over me.

"I do love feeding on this big slut," Doris Burke said. "You should try it."

"Already did," Tony said. "Back at the club."

That explained who had been feeding upon me. I couldn't help but wonder why I hadn't realized that Tony was a bogeyman. My senses told me that he was human. He felt human. He smelled human. His heart beat at the same speed as a human heart.

I repeated my earlier question. "How did you know I wasn't dead?"

"Teddy believes what he wants to believe, it's his greatest weakness." Doris Burke smiled. "I'm not that stupid. When the gnome claimed she killed you, Teddy believed her because he wanted to believe her. I assumed the opposite. That you had colluded with the gnome and changed your appearance. Since Teddy had a contract out on you, it made sense that you'd go after him."

"She sent me to the club with a description of what you look like," Tony said.

"Long legs, big tits, fat ass," Doris Burke said.

Tony's hand found my bottom and began fondling it. "In all fairness, Doris. Her ass isn't fat. Fact is she's got a great ass."

He fed upon me even as he fondled me. For my part, I just stood there. My head was spinning, like I had way too much to drink. It was hard to think and impossible to concentrate, which meant I couldn't use my powers. Not that I intended to do that until I knew John was safe. So I just stood there, riding the high that Tony was forcing upon me.

"Let's get her inside," Doris Burke said.

Tony's hand left my bottom. A second later it returned as he gave me a sharp swat. "You heard her."

I followed Doris Burke inside. They weren't feeding upon me, so the lightheaded high began to fade. It was kind of like riding a roller-coaster. When they fed upon you, a lightheaded high overwhelmed you, making it hard to think and almost impossible to concentrate. When they stopped feeding, the lightheaded high faded, although in my case it took a minute or two before I felt normal again.

We stepped into the foyer of a house with white walls and oak floors. To the right was a set of double doors leading to a sitting room. I could see John inside the room. He was resting in a high backed blue chair. A mercenary in a black suit stood beside him, pointing a gun at his head.

To the left of the foyer was a dining room and beyond that a kitchen. At the back was an oak staircase leading to the second floor. To the left of the staircase was a set of double doors leading to a room that contained a pool table.

"We going to kill her?" Tony asked.

"Mermaids live for two to three hundred years. Be a shame to waste all that life force." Doris Burke pointed to the sitting room. "That way, slut."

I headed into the sitting room. Tony and Doris Burke followed behind me.

"You okay?" I asked John, as I entered the room.

"A little confused," John said. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"Just a case I'm working on."

"How did I get dragged into it?"

"That's a good question." I looked at Doris Burke, to see what she had to say.

Doris Burke smiled. "Teddy has a minority partner in his club, the Glass Box. A siren by the name of Crystal Kragen. After your little visit to my home, I called her up, asked her how one controls a mermaid. When I told her which mermaid I was having a problem with, she suggested I threaten the life of someone you care about. She even gave me a name. Dr. John Cook."

I looked at John. "I told you she didn't love you. Supernaturals just aren't capable of love." I turned back to Doris Burke. "Let him go."

"First you get on your knees."

I got down on my knees. The floor in the living room was covered with a plush blue carpet, so at least it was comfortable. Doris Burke produced a length of yellow nylon rope, knelt behind me and began to tie me up. She tied one end of the rope around my right ankle, wrapped the rope around my left ankle, then wrapped it around both ankles several times.

"Hands behind your back," she said.

I glanced at John, who still had a gun pressed against the back of his head, and moved my arms behind my back. Doris Burke ran the rope up from my ankles and wrapped it around my wrists several times. When she finished, there was no slack between my ankles and my wrists. I was stuck on my knees with my arms pulled tight behind me.

"You have me now," I said to Doris Burke. "Let John go."

Doris Burke nodded. The mercenary responded by sliding his gun back in the shoulder holster hidden beneath his suit jacket.

"You can go," Doris Burke said to John.

John pulled himself to his feet and headed for the door. He stopped when he passed me, like he wanted to say something, but didn't know quite what to say. I nodded in the direction of the door. "Get out of here."

John continued toward the double doors that led to the foyer.

"You can call the cops if you want," Doris Burke said to him. "Tell them that we've taken a mermaid prisoner. Not that it will do any good. This is a dispute between supernaturals and the human authorities aren't going to involve themselves in disputes between supernaturals."

John paused in the doorway and glanced back at me. I nodded, urging him to keep moving. Which he did, disappearing into the foyer. I didn't relax until I heard the front door open and close.

"Put her on the coffee table," Doris Burke said.

She nodded toward a square oak coffee table surrounded on three sides by a dark blue sectional sofa. Tony grabbed one of my arms while the mercenary grabbed the other. They picked me up and set me on the coffee table. I was still on my knees, still tightly bound by the yellow nylon cord.

"Now that's what I call a work of art," Doris Burke said. She took the red tinted glasses off me and tossed them in the unlit fireplace at the far end of the room. "We both know you don't need those."

Doris Burke started feeding upon me. Once again a lightheaded euphoria enveloped me, making it hard to think, hard to concentrate, hard to care about what was happening. At the same time, Tony joined the feed, doubling the lightheaded high I was feeling.

When they stopped feeding, Doris Burke grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look into her eyes. "I own you now."

"What do you want to do with her?" Tony asked.

Doris Burke released my hair and turned to Tony. "I'm going to leave her right where she is. Where we can feed upon her at our leisure."

"And when she's all used up?"

"We'll dump her wrinkled old carcass in the ocean where the sharks can have her. A fitting end for a mermaid. Don't you think?"

Tony nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Tony and Doris Burke headed out of the sitting room, leaving me alone with the mercenary. I tried squirming, hoping to free myself. It didn't work. The rope was too tight to squirm out of and too thick to break.

"One final touch," Doris Burke said, stepping back into the sitting room. In her hand was a ball gag. I couldn't help but wonder what Doris Burke did in her spare time that required a ball gag. "Open wide, slut."

When I refused to open, Doris Burke pinched my nose, trying to deprive me of air, trying to force me to open my mouth to breathe. The trick might have worked on a human, but it wouldn't work on a mermaid. I could hold my breath for hours. A fact which Tony pointed out.

"I don't think that's going to work," he said, stepping back into the room. "She's a mermaid, she's used to holding her breath."

Doris Burke let out a frustrated grunt and released my nose. "Slut's going to wear this gag whether she likes it or not."

She reached down the front of my dress, pinched my right nipple, and twisted. Hard enough that it brought tears to my eyes and made me cry out. That's when she stuffed the plastic ball into my mouth. Before I could spit it out, she grabbed the leather straps attached to it and buckled them behind my head.

"Much better," Doris Burke said, studying her handiwork. "Now we don't have to listen to her talk."

"Don't go anywhere," a grinning Tony said. "We'll be back in awhile."

Doris Burke looked at the mercenary. "If she tries anything, shoot her in the head."

The mercenary nodded, pulled out his gun, and glared at me. A second later, I heard the front door open and close.

Tony and Doris Burke left me alone, with a human. Big mistake. Granted, he was armed, while I was bound and gagged. But if they thought he would still be armed, and I would still be bound and gagged when they got back, then they were in for a surprise.

There was no way I could free myself by squirming. I was tied too tight. Fortunately, I had another way of freeing myself. A way of loosening the ropes that bound me. Most people thought mermaids only changed form when we were in the water, or at least drenched by it. Which of course, wasn't true. I could change form anytime I wanted.

Before I did that, I needed to take care of the mercenary glaring at me. While he glared at me, I reached out with my mind, connecting to the water that kept his body alive. Once I had that connection, I ordered the blood flowing to his brain to slow down, just long enough to make him pass out. I knew he was out cold when he crashed face first onto the thick blue carpeting.

Once the mercenary was unconscious, I changed form. Just like that, my legs changed into my beautiful green tail, which was thicker and wider than my legs. I only stayed like that for a second, just long enough for my tail to stretch and loosen the ropes that bound my ankles. Once it accomplished that, I changed back, so I was once again on my knees.

The rope that bound my ankles together had loosened quite a bit. I was able to use my bound hands to untie my ankles, climb off the coffee table, and stand up.

With the lower half of the rope not attached to anything, the half that bound my hands had also loosened, with a little squirming, I was able to free my hands. Once my hands were free, I removed the gag and tossed it and the yellow nylon rope on top of the coffee table. Then I turned my attention to the still unconscious mercenary.

He wore a red tie with his black suit, so I removed it from around his neck and used it to bind his hands behind his back. Then I took his gun. I didn't need the gun to kill Tony or Doris Burke, but I knew Tony was carrying, so grabbing the human's gun evened up the odds. Assuming I intended to stick around and have it out with them when they returned. Which I damn well did.

# Chapter 31

I was standing behind the front door when Tony and Doris Burke returned. Teddy was with them, which explained where they went. They must have brought him back to show him that I was still alive. When they stepped into the foyer, I slipped behind them, gun drawn.

"Shall we see how our slut is doing?" Doris Burke said.

"She's doing just fine," I said.

Tony, Teddy, and Doris Burke spun around. Tony immediately reached for the gun inside his suit coat.

"How did you . . ." a stunned Doris Burke said, her voice trailing off.

"Two fingers," I said, pointing my gun at Tony's chest. "And don't think you're quicker than me because you're not. There are only a few supernaturals that are as fast as mermaids and you're not one of them."

Tony reached into his jacket with two fingers and pulled out his gun.

"Toss it to me," I said.

He tossed the gun toward me. I caught it with my left hand while keeping the gun in my right hand pointed at his chest. Then I dropped Tony's gun in the purse which hung over my left shoulder.

"You realize you're pointing a gun at an FBI agent," Tony said.

"You realize it's against the law for a supernatural to pose as a human?"

"How did you get free?" Doris Burke sputtered.

"Shoot an FBI agent and you'll get arrested," Tony said.

I ignored Doris Burke and kept my gun leveled at Tony, who I had little doubt was the more dangerous of the three. "The humans execute supernaturals that try to pass themselves off as human. If I shoot you, I'll be arrested, right up until your autopsy. The DNA test will prove you're not human and as we both know, humans don't care if supernaturals kill other supernaturals. Most likely, they'll give me a medal for exposing a supernatural that was posing as a human FBI agent."

"You seem to know a lot about the law."

"I spent ten years as a cop, one that didn't try to pass herself off as human. I know the law as well as you do."

Doris Burke repeated her question. "How did you get free?"

"I changed form. Just for a second. My tail is considerably thicker than my legs, so when I changed, it loosened your rope."

"I thought mermaids could only change form when they were in the water."

"You thought wrong."

"You cut your hair," Teddy said. "And gave it to the gnome, who then convinced me that she succeeded in killing you."

"You wanted to believe I was dead. We just helped you down that road." I pulled my phone out of my purse and called Savanna. She answered on the first ring. "You and Doug here yet?"

I called them after freeing myself, to let them know I might need their help.

"Right outside," Savanna said. "You want us to come in?"

"I want you to come in. Doug can stay where he is."

"He won't like that."

"Tell him it's a mermaid thing."

"I'll be there in a minute," Savanna said.

I dropped my phone back in my purse.

"What are you going to do with us?" Doris Burke said.

"Your buddy here has been posing as a human. He needs to be exposed."

"And me?"

I smiled. "You're going to do what you do best, serve as my bitch."

The doorbell rang. I backed up, all the while keeping my gun leveled at Tony. I opened the door and stepped aside, letting Savanna into the house's spacious foyer.

"Gun play," Savanna said, noticing the gun in my hand. "It's like being back in Montana."

I pointed the gun at Doris Burke, just long enough to get her attention. "Into the sitting room."

Doris Burke headed for the sitting room. Teddy followed. Tony brought up the rear. I followed behind them, my gun pointed at Tony's back. Savanna followed behind me.

"Why don't the two of you have a seat," I said to Teddy and Tony. They moved to one end of the blue sofa and sat. I turned my attention back to Doris Burke. "Time for you to strip."

"Why?" Doris Burke asked.

I fired a shot at her feet. The crack of the gun made Doris Burke jump. "Because I'm holding the gun."

Doris Burke removed her sharp gray pantsuit. First the jacket, then the heels, then the pants, lastly the long sleeved white blouse.

"Now the underwear." Doris Burke removed her underwear, albeit with a couple of hesitations. When she was naked I indicated the square oak coffee table framed by the dark blue sofa. "Now get on the coffee table. And don't forget to kneel."

Doris Burke shook her head. "You might as well shoot me because I'm not going to let you tie me up."

"If that's the way you want it."

I fired my gun at Doris Burke's head. The bullet whizzed by her ear, just missing it by a couple of inches. Doris Burke jumped and squealed. "All right! All right! I'm moving."

A naked Doris Burke hurried to the coffee table and knelt on it. I turned to Savanna. "I want you to take that yellow rope and tie her up."

Savanna picked up the rope. I explained to her how I wanted Doris Burke tied. Eventually, Savanna had a naked Doris Burke tied exactly like I had been tied. "Now the gag."

I pointed to the gag with my gun. Savanna grabbed it and tried to stuff it into Doris Burke's mouth. Doris Burke clamped her mouth shut, refusing to open. Big surprise.

"Pinch her nose," I said. "Unlike you and me, I'm betting she can't hold her breath very long."

Savanna pinched Doris Burke's nose. A couple of minutes later, Doris Burke opened her mouth and gasped in some air. When she did, Savanna stuffed the plastic ball into her mouth, pushing it onto her tongue. Then she buckled the straps that kept the gag in place, effectively silencing Doris Burke.

Savanna looked at me. "What now?"

"You go out to the car and ask Doug to come in."

"Do you want me to stay in the car or come back inside?"

"You'll probably want to stay in the car."

"Because?"

"We're going to involve the police and if you're here when they arrive, you'll be questioned, which will take up the rest of your night. There's no reason you should have to hang around here all night talking to the police."

"Got it." Savanna headed out of the room.

"Mind if I ask what you're planning?" Tony said.

"I'm going to tell the police that I met an FBI agent who turned out to be a supernatural. A supernatural assigned to a task force charged with investigating his very own people."

"You might as well just shoot me."

I fired the gun at him. The bullet went into the sofa, right between his thighs, about an inch below his man parts. Like most supernaturals, my enhanced sight and reflexes made me an extremely accurate shot. When target shooting, I could put the first bullet in the middle of the bull's-eye, and the second and third bullets in the hole created by the first bullet.

"On second thought, maybe we can make a deal."

I cocked a curious eyebrow. "What kind of a deal?"

"What do you want?"

"What I want, you can't give me."

"Try me," Tony said. "Just tell me what you want. I'm sure we can deal."

"I want you and your people to leave me alone, but we both know that isn't going to happen. Teddy already put a contract out on me." I nodded at the bound and gagged Doris Burke. "She's not too fond of me either."

"You've been destroying everything I've built," Teddy said. "How did you expect me to react?"

"If you had just turned Monica Breen over to me when I asked, I wouldn't have had to break into the Center, let alone involve the human authorities. Everything that's happened since then is on you."

Doug stepped through the doorway. "Savanna said you needed . . ."

His voice trailed off as his attention turned to the bound and gagged Doris Burke.

"I want to report a crime," I said.

"Binding and gagging someone is only a crime if it's done without their consent," Doug said.

"That's not the crime I want to report." I nodded at Tony. "I want to report a supernatural who's been posing as a human."

"That's a serious crime. Can you prove it?"

"His identification is inside his jacket pocket. It identifies him as an FBI agent. A human FBI agent."

"Could be fake," Doug said.

"Still a crime."

"How do you know he's a supernatural?"

"He used his power on me."

"FBI applicants are required to get DNA tests to prove they're human, how do you suppose he circumvented that?"

I looked at Tony. "How did you pass that test?"

"I don't know what she's taking about," Tony said to Doug. "I'm as human as you."

I could feel a wave of energy float past me, traveling from Tony to Doug. Tony was using his power on Doug, although I wasn't sure how that could help him. Making Doug feel euphoric wasn't going to get me to lower my gun. Then again, maybe feeding upon someone enhanced his speed and strength. Not that I was going to wait to find out.

"You've got three seconds to stop using your power on him."

"And if I don't stop?" Tony said, sounding a little too sure of himself.

I raised my gun and aimed it at his right ear. "Then I shoot your ear off and for the rest of your life, you'll be known as Tony One Ear."

The wave of energy that was floating past me stopped. I glanced at Doug. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just had a moment of, I don't know how to describe it."

"An unnatural high?"

Doug nodded. "That's as good a description as any."

"Call the station," I said. "Report what I told you."

Doug pulled out his phone and called the station. He identified himself, then said, "I have an individual here that wants to report a crime. Says she's encountered a supernatural posing as a human FBI agent."

Doug listened for awhile, gave them our address, then hung up. "They said this is a federal crime, not state or local. They said they'll pass on the information to the feds, but what the feds do with it is their business."

Tony laughed. "What do you do when you have a crime to report but nobody cares?"

His laughing was pissing me off, so I reached out to the water that made up the bulk of his body, then I ordered that water to cool.

Tony stopped laughing. "Did someone crank up the air-conditioning or something?"

"Or something." I turned to Doug. "Call the feds and tell them that we want to report a supernatural that's been posing as a human FBI agent."

Doug turned his attention back to his phone and began scrolling for a number to call.

"Could somebody turn the air-conditioner off," Tony said. "I'm cold."

"It's not the air-conditioner," I said. "It's me. I ordered the water that makes up your body to cool."

"You can do that?"

"I can do that."

"Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because you pissed me off."

Tony wrapped his arms around himself. "Would it make a difference if I apologized?"

"No." Even as I said it, I released my control over the water that made up his body, allowing his body temperature to return to normal.

"They're finally putting me through to someone," Doug said, still holding his phone to his ear.

A second later the phone inside Tony's jacket pocket began to ring.

"I should probably get this," Tony said. "Could be important."

"Two fingers," I said, keeping my gun pointed at Tony's chest. I let him answer the phone because I wanted to see if the call was what I thought it was.

Tony reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out his phone. He pressed a button and held the phone to his ear. "FBI, Supernatural Task Force, Tony speaking."

I heard his voice in stereo. Not only did I hear it coming out of Tony's mouth. I heard it coming out of Doug's phone. The humans had a supernatural serving in one of the last positions where they'd want a supernatural and didn't even know it. Well, they would know it soon.

A grinning Tony lowered his phone. "Guess they hung up."

The smug grin on his face was the last straw. I reconnected with the water that made up most of his body. Then I ordered that water to freeze. Not cool but freeze. Flash freeze to be precise.

In a matter of seconds, Tony's skin color went from pink to blue. He was still sitting on the sofa, grinning, with his phone in his right hand, held out in front of him. Even from where I stood I could feel the cold radiating off him. No big surprise considering I had just turned him into a two hundred pound ice cube.

"What just happened?" Doug said.

"I froze him, from the inside out."

Doug walked over the the sofa and touched Tony with his index finger. "Good God! He's frozen solid."

"That's what happens when you freeze something from the inside out."

"Is he dead?"

"Most likely. The only supernaturals I've met that you can freeze without killing are vampires. You want to kill them, you have to boil em."

"You can do that?"

"I'm a mermaid. I can do anything I want with water."

I felt a wave of euphoria wash over me. Teddy was using his power on me, hitting me with everything he had. No big surprise. He wasn't going to just sit there and let me do to him what I did to Tony. I tried to use my power on him, but I was too lightheaded to focus on the water that made up the bulk of his body. Fortunately, I had another weapon.

The gun was still in my right hand, so I pointed it at Teddy and fired. A second later, the wave of euphoria I was feeling faded. I shook my head to clear it and looked at Teddy. He was slumped against the back of the sofa. There was a bullet hole between the eyes and a small trickle of blood running down the bridge of his nose.

"What the hell!" Doug said. "You shot him!"

"He was using his power on me. If I didn't shoot him, he would've taken the gun out of my hand and shot me."

I walked over to Doris Burke, who was still naked, still bound and gagged on the coffee table. She was facing both Teddy and Tony, so she could see what I did to them. I grabbed a fistful of her short platinum hair and tilted her head up, so she was looking into my eyes.

"I can freeze you from the inside out, like I did Tony there, or I can shoot you between the eyes, like I did Teddy. The choice is yours." Doris Burke's eyes went wide with fear. She mumbled something, but with the gag in her mouth, I had no idea what she was saying. "Why don't I simplify this. Do you want me to freeze you?"

Doris Burke shook her head no, quite vigorously. Not an easy thing to do considering I still had a fistful of her hair.

"So you'd prefer a bullet between the eyes." Doris Burke shook her head no a second time. Once again ignoring the fact that I still had a fistful of her hair. I released her hair and stepped back. "I suppose I could drowned you. All I need is a glass of water."

Doris Burke gave her head another vigorous shake. She mumbled something, but once again, I couldn't understand a word she said.

"I think you're going to have to take the gag out of her mouth," Savanna said. She was standing in the doorway. "I got bored sitting in the car all by myself."

"I hate to remove the gag. She's much more pleasant to be around when she's wearing it." Even as I spoke, I moved behind Doris Burke, unbuckled the gag, and pulled it out of her mouth.

Doris Burke flexed her jaw a couple of times then looked at me. "If you let me go. I'll leave town tonight. You'll never see or hear from me again. I promise."

"I'd like to believe you. Problem is, your kind just isn't very trustworthy."

"I give you my word," Doris Burke said. "As a supernatural. I'll leave town tonight and you'll never see or hear from me again."

I studied Doris Burke's face, to see if she was scared enough to keep her word. The way she was shivering told me that she was. No big surprise. She watched me freeze Tony from the inside out and follow that up by putting a bullet between Teddy's eyes. I looked at Savanna and sighed. "Turn her loose."

Savanna moved to the coffee table and untied Doris Burke. As soon as she was free, Doris Burke scrambled off the coffee table and ran out the front door, not even bothering to grab her clothes.

I watched her go, then I looked at Savanna. "I think she finally understands why the other supernaturals refer to us as dirty little mermaids."

"What next?" Doug said.

"You saw me kill two people, which means you do your duty and arrest me."

# Chapter 32

I was in a holding cell at the police station when my ex-partner, Ed Macintosh, and a stocky brunette in a gray suit appeared. I had been there for several hours, wearing my red latex dress and looking like a hooker that got caught propositioning the wrong person.

"Good news," Ed said. "Coroner finished her autopsies. Turns out the two men you killed weren't human. Although their species DNA wasn't in our data bank. Wasn't in the FBI's data bank either."

I rose off the bunk I was sitting on and moved toward the cell door. "Can't say I'm surprised, bogeymen do like to keep a low profile."

"How did you know Tony wasn't human?" the stocky brunette, an FBI agent named Karen Moore, asked me.

"Because he used his power on me."

"We screen for supernaturals. I don't suppose you can tell us how he managed to slip through our screens."

"My guess is he used his power on whoever was screening him. The high you experience when they're feeding on you makes it hard to focus."

"He wasn't in the lab when they ran the DNA tests. How did he beat those?"

"Anybody can be bought," I said. "Even your lab techs."

Karen Moore nodded. "You'll get no argument from me."

The guard unlocked the holding cell door and pulled it open.

"You're free to go," Ed said. "As you well know, it's not against the law for a supernatural to kill another supernatural. The law treats it as an act of self-defense."

I straightened my dress, not that it needed straightening, latex doesn't exactly wrinkle. "It was self-defense. Teddy hired several people to kill me. And Tony was planning on doing the same thing."

"I've known Tony for years," Karen said. "Didn't have the faintest idea he was a supernatural."

"Probably because he wanted it that way. My guess is any time you got suspicious, he used his power on you, just enough to make you lose your train of thought."

"You said you didn't know he was a supernatural until he used his power on you."

"I didn't." I headed toward the door that separated the holding cells from the rest of the station. Ed and Karen fell in alongside of me. The guard led the way.

"But you also said you can tell if someone's a supernatural as soon as you meet them."

"I can. Usually."

"How can you tell?"

"Sounds. Smells. The amount of water in their body."

Karen wrinkled her brow. "I don't understand."

"Supernaturals have different heart rates than humans. Some have accelerated heart rates like cats. Others have extremely slow heart rates."

"Your hearing is that good?"

"It is."

"What's the resting heart rate of a bogeyman?"

"About half that of an average human. Thirty to forty beats per minute. Somehow, Tony learned to control his heart rate, so that it sounded like a human heart. He also smelled human."

"Supernaturals don't smell like humans?"

"Not really. Vamps have a dry musty smell to them. Werewolves always seem to smell like wet fur. Gnomes smell like sugar. Bogeymen smell tangy."

Karen wrinkled her brow. "Tangy?"

"Like citrus."

"Why is that?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Probably just some chemical their bodies release."

What do mermaids smell like?" Ed asked me.

"Sea salt. At least that's what I've been told."

We reached the door that led to the main part of the station. The guard unlocked it and I stepped through it. Ed and Karen followed.

"Did Tony distract you with his power?" Karen asked.

"He did. I just didn't know that he was the one doing it." I looked at Karen. "Who's in charge of the task force now that Tony is out of the picture?"

"I was second in command," Karen said. "Unless they assign somebody else, I'll be in charge."

"Good."

"Why is that good?"

"Because you're human, which means you won't try to steer the task force into a ruling that favors bogeymen."

"You think that's what Tony was hoping to do?"

"Why else would they have placed him in the FBI, placed him on this task force?"

"I suspect our ruling will hinge upon what we find in Mead. If the women in that nursing home really have had their youth stolen from them . . . well, let's just say I wouldn't want to be a bogeyman right about now."

I stopped and looked at Karen. "You need me for anything else?"

Karen shook her head. "We got your statement. We got the coroner's finding confirming what you said."

"Then I'm out of here."

"You going to be safe?" Karen asked me. "From what you said there are still plenty of bogeymen out there."

"I didn't let Doris Burke go just because I don't like killing. I let her go because she was the only one of the three that was afraid of me."

Karen smiled. "And now she's free to tell every bogeyman she knows what happens when you mess with a mermaid."

I returned Karen's smile. "Sometimes word of mouth is the best form of advertising, especially when it comes out of the mouth of your enemy."

"She may not be free for long, not if she was as involved in this kidnapping ring as you say."

"Supernaturals that have been around for hundreds of years are used to disappearing, used to changing their name, their identity. She might not be as easy to find as you think."

The sun was rising in the east by the time I stepped out of the police station, promising another warm summer day. Doug was back at work, patrolling the streets with his partner, and Savanna was pearl diving. The Del Sol was still at the Glass Box, so I figured I'd have to grab a cab. Turns out I didn't. John was sitting on his bike in front of the station. Waiting.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, walking up to him.

"Just wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"Turning yourself over to the bad guys to save me."

"I wasn't trying to save you. I was setting the bogeymen up, so I could take them out at once."

"You seemed awful concerned about me."

"I wasn't."

John smiled and ran his hand through his short blond locks. "You just can't admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That you care for me. Maybe even love me, just a little bit."

"I'm a supernatural. We're not capable of love, or empathy, or anything like that."

"You're also half human."

"You're one of my shiny things. I told you before, I don't like it when people take my shiny things from me." The grin on John's face widened, clearly he didn't believe me. "Besides, somebody has to watch out for you. You fall in love way too easily, and you're way too trusting. Especially when it comes to women."

John caught me off-guard with his next question. "Do you want to be exclusive?"

"You mean be a couple? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Like regular people?"

The smile returned to John's face. And I have to admit, he had a great smile. A little crooked, but that's what made it great. "That's exactly what I mean."

"I'm a mermaid. I'm not sure I'm capable of being exclusive."

"Do you want to try?"

"I've never had a boyfriend."

"Ever?"

"Ever."

I had friends with benefits, not to mention guys like Doug, guys that were hoping to become a friend with benefits. But in my thirty years, no man had ever asked me to be his girlfriend. No man had ever called me up and asked if I wanted to go to a movie. No man had ever opened a car door for me. No man had ever held my hand while walking the beach. The kind of stuff people in love do.

But then I wasn't raised like other girls. I didn't attended high school. I was home schooled, by my mother. While other girls were getting ready for prom, I was learning how to sense, feel, and find water. I was learning how to control water. I was learning how to be a mermaid. Once I accomplished that, I enrolled in the police academy and learned how to be a cop.

"You've never had a boyfriend?" a surprised John said.

"Guys want girlfriends that can love them back."

"And you don't love me?"

"I told you before, supernaturals aren't capable of love."

"Yet you always seem to be looking out for me. You warned me about Crystal, and when the bogeymen grabbed me, there you were, ready and willing to take my place. Sounds a lot like love to me."

I sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

A big grin spread across John's face. "Nope."

"Fine. I'll pretend to be your girlfriend. Just keep in mind, I'm only pretending." I can't explain why, but I felt a delicious tingle right then, not sexual, but something . . . different.

John fired his bike up. "Does my girlfriend want a ride home?"

"I need to pick up my car. I left it downtown."

"Hop on."

I climbed on the back of John's bike and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Is this little ride going to lead to sex?"

John laughed. "Most definitely. I trust you don't have a problem with that."

"Not at all." And I didn't. But then what did you expect from a dirty little mermaid.

BOOKS BY J. D. ROGERS

Love in the Rough

Low Campbell Adventures

Dirty Little Mermaids

Deadly Little Mermaids

Deranged Little Mermaids

The Princess Wars Series

Princess Wars

Destiny's Queen

Lost in Time

The Competition

# ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. D. grew up in a house where women were in charge of everything, which may explain his preference for strong female characters. He studied history and law in college and uses that knowledge to help build the worlds he creates. J. D. makes his home in Montana.

You can check out all his books, including what will be released next at:

<http://www.jdrogersfiction.simplesite.com/> or <http://www.jdrogersnovels.simplesite.com/>
