Mike beamed.
Calder frowned. He studied Dan’s face, seeing no depth behind the older eyes. The older man’s facial expressions seemed mechanical somehow.
Fear danced along Calder’s skin. What has she done to them? Had she possessed them all? He had to figure out how to get Venora by herself, away from the others.
Calder engaged in the continuing small talk about wedding plans but looked over to Mrs. Love. She pantomimed emotions.
Calder turned again, back to studying Mike. A smile began at Mike’s mouth and filled his eyes with a twinkle. A laugh followed quickly. His friend’s behavior was erratic, but at least he didn’t seem deadened.
Venora eased into the crook of her boyfriend’s arm, slipping easily against Mike’s welcoming side. Calder let the conversation circulate around him. He grinned, laughed, and added what he could, but did not spend his thoughts on ideas for planning a now-pressing wedding. Calder found Mike scrutinizing him. His friend wore a thoughtful look on his sun-browned face.
The chit-chat lulled. He’d have to make his move now.
“Your birthday.” Calder’s announcement wedged awkwardly in the conversation. Calder cleared his throat to cover the abrupt change. He turned to his right, “You have a birthday, Mike. It’s only a few weeks away. Since Venora has been so newly inducted into our little group, she and I should plan something.” He pointed in her direction. “If she’s going to be your wife, she should learn how to throw a Mike-party, shouldn’t she?”
Mike chuckled, the muscles around his mouth relaxed, and the pinch around his eyes slackened. “That you should.”
Venora glared.
Mike squeezed the brunette still hugged against him.
Venora’s irises glowed bright red as rage rolled across her face in waves, her expression changing from pleased when Mike’s eyes were on her, to bathing Calder in hatefully icy stares when Mike looked away.
Calder grinned once more and gleefully took a small sip from the celebratory champagne Mike offered him.
From behind the bubbles, Calder preened as Venora’s eyes flash with rage. Determination grew in the pit of his stomach.
Let the hunt begin.
Chapter 9
Later that night, Calder dialed the number on his cell phone. 4 a.m. He expected a recorded voice and instructions for leaving a message.
However, she answered at the first ring. “Hello?”
Adrenaline surged in his veins, and he cleared his throat. “Good morning, Venora.”
“Yes?”
He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror. Don’t you look smug. Moisture collected on his top lip. “This is Cal.”
“Oh.” She gave a haughty sniff. “What do you want?” Her voice dripped with irritation.
“That birthday party…” Calder paused, hearing only the thundering of his pulse. When she did not respond, he added, “Mike’s birthday party? You know… your boyfriend?”
“Why go through the pretense? What do you really want?”
Calder bluffed nonchalance. “Suits me.” He turned to make another lap around his apartment. “I want to talk to you without Mike and without the parents. Where should we meet? It has to be tonight.”
“Tonight?” Venora repeated. “As in this morning? In a few hours?”
“Absolutely,” Calder said.
“Absolutely not.”
“Are you scared of me?”
“You’re an insignificant fly.”
“Then meet me.” He took a breath, offering his ace in the hole. “It’s about Gaire.”
At first, no sound came from her.
“Don’t you want to know where she’s hiding?”
“Fine, we can meet on the beach – there, near your studio, just after the sun bends low to kiss the horizon.”
“I’ll be there.” He paused for effect. “And Venora?” Calder waited for her answer before he continued. “Keep your both your tongues to yourself. I’d hate to have to rip them from your throat.”
Before she could say anything else, Calder pressed the red circle on his phone and ended the call. He sat down on the futon to wait for the dawn.
Just before the sun crested, Calder stood on the mostly empty beach. He spent two hours working in a craze, trying to keep his mind off the meeting with Venora.
The slam of a car door brought him around. A car engine shut off, and the headlights winked out. Calder’s skin tingled, and the breeze chilled him. He turned back toward the ocean and waited until the steps came near, hearing the sand shift.
“Hello, Venora,” he said.
She did not answer.
Calder turned toward her and flinched. His stomach churned in his middle.
Venora’s skin had paled to gray, sickly, and her eyes glowed red. Blue veins branched across the right and the left of her chest, curling, circling in odd designs, reaching down to wrap in circles around her long fingers, ending in the nailbeds of long metallic azure. With each slow beat of the barely visible heart, the veins throbbed in the translucent scaled skin. Cobalt tendrils reached up from the tops of her ears, swaying in the breeze, brightly visible against her now-white hair. Tentacles sprouted from above her shoulders and draped over her.
“Calder,” she growled.
Whatever he had expected, he hadn’t expected that. Calder’s doubts fled. He counted ten tentacles, two arms, two legs.
She crossed thin-skinned arms. “It seemed only fair to show you what you’re up against.”
“What are you?” Calder yelled.
Her tongues brushed across the pointed teeth and the dark gray lips. “Gaire is my enemy and that makes you my enemy.”
Calder frowned. Unease ticked through him. They had to wrap finish before the beach officially opened. Beach visitors would arrive soon. Collateral deaths weren’t a part of Calder’s plan.
“Why do you care about Gaire?” he asked.
Venora tossed her thin hair, put her hands on her hips, and flushed purple. “She’ll never rule, Cold Water. She is not worthy. I have been waiting for her to show herself to you.”
Calder’s eye twitched. Somehow, Venora didn’t know Gaire had been visiting him. “What could she rule?”
Venora continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “The best way to end her is to end you. Mike is my puppet while waiting for Gaire to claim you.” She cackled. “It’s been easy to tangle him in my nets. It’s been most…” Her tongues twisted together, then across her teeth, slowly, sensuously. “Satisfying.”
Calder’s anger boiled over. His heart pounded, pushing blood throughout, his limbs trembling with energy. The sound thudded in his eardrums. “You will not hurt him,” he warned. “If you leave now – today, I won’t kill you, Venora.”
She shook her head, a condescending smile on her face. “I can look like anyone, fool, everyone, and you think you scare me? Who would believe you? You can’t hurt me,” she scoffed.
“Don’t be so sure.”
She lifted an eyebrow and a moonbeam face stared at Calder from a cloud of black hair. In that beloved voice, the imposter called, “Calder… Calder… I need you,” the imitation voice mocked him.
He raised his hands. “I can and I will.” His assurance dwindled, but it made no difference. He had to complete his task. Time for a bluff. “Gaire told me how I can kill you.” He hoped she could.
She stepped backward, and fear flickered in her eyes. “Just try it, Cold Water.”
She spit the last two words like a curse, as her appearance shifted and dark, inky black tentacles spread out from her lower half. A rolling sound of suction cups grabbing and releasing, ten arms writhing together. She pushed herself upward until she towered over Calder.
He craned his neck to meet her gaze. “Bitch,” he muttered. “I’ll kill you and dance on your grave.”
Her voice grew deeper, more menacing, “Mike will be dead before you can kill me,” a smug smirk grew on her face, “even if she helps you. And then, I will make her watch me
peel you limb from limb.”
The rumble of a vehicle engine hummed in the distance.
In an instant, she returned to her gray and pale self, each tongue running along the sharp teeth. Not quite human, but less menacing than she’d been. She blew Calder a kiss.
A vehicle pulled into the parking area farther down the beach and behind them. “Vee. Cal,” Mike called, waving to them both.
Calder turned back, thinking to send Mike away from them, but the treacherous storms brewing in Venora’s eyes cautioned him. What might she do at that distance? He wouldn’t risk Mike, and she had to have a weakness. Calder schooled his features to betray nothing.
Mike jogged down the beach from his Jeep. When Calder glanced at Venora, her translucent gray skin was replaced by the sun-kissed, honeyed form. Gone were the red irises, replaced by brown, and her hair was once more mahogany tresses.
Perfectly human white teeth were surrounded by coral lips upturned in a beaming smile. “Hi, honey.”
Calder managed weak joy, ignoring the questions swimming in his friend’s eyes.
Realization crossed Mike’s face, and he stopped short. “Oh! This is about my party, isn’t it?” Mike’s grin stretched farther. “I’ll get out of here.” His hand found its way to Venora’s loose-flowing hair. “You shouldn’t have left me that note, Vee, even if a beachy sunset sounds great.” He turned to Calder. “Need me to leave her here?”
Calder’s heart soared. It’s my chance. “Yes, I need her.” Triumphant at the consternation blooming on Venora’s face, Calder continued, “We weren’t finished planning yet.”
Venora shook her head. “Oh, I don’t thi–”
“Don’t be silly, Vee,” Mike interrupted. “You’ve been talking about it for days and what’s more serious than planning a party for me?” He looked from one to the other.
Venora shook her head again, putting her hands up to stop the decision, her mouth open to continue her protest. “I should come with you. We’ve worked out everything we can.”
Calder stepped forward. “No, Mike’s right.” Intently, he met her gaze, adding in a low voice. “We’re going to do this, and we’re going to finish it. Now.”
Venora’s mouth snapped shut.
“There.” Mike interrupted the standoff. “It’s settled. Vee, you spend the evening planning with Cal.” He grabbed Venora’s hand and drew her to him.
She squirmed against him, and all Calder could see was an octopus-squid wrapping itself around his best friend. He fought back a gag.
Mike stared into Venora’s face. He squeezed her thin frame in a large hug. “I’ll head home and see what sort of trouble I can stir up for my parents. They haven’t answered my calls all morning, and they didn’t text me when they got home last night. I need to take them out to dinner anyway to discuss our future living arrangements.”
Calder leaned toward them. “Can’t wait. Tell your parents I say hello.”
Mike hugged her again, threw a wave at Calder, and headed back to the parking area and his running Jeep.
When Mike had gone, Calder said, “Smart move, leaving him a note.”
Venora’s human façade disappeared. “I didn’t come all this way to fail.” She came nearer, and Calder took two steps back. His sandals filled with sand, and the shifting granules nearly tripped him.
“Come on,” her eyes fluoresced. “Surely you’ve wondered why Mike finds me so alluring. You might enjoy finding out.”
The glow enticed Calder, drawing him nearer. An alarm blared in the nearby house. Terror snapped Calder from the hypnosis. His eyes focused on the creature in front of him. “Is that Mike’s house?”
Venora grinned wickedly, her mouth jerked into a snarl, exposing each white dagger hidden behind her full lips. She snickered. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Calder advanced, his blood heated. “Mike’s house?” He asked again, his voice low and threatening.
She tossed her head, shrugged, flippant. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But only if you answer a question for me.”
Sirens sounded, drawing closer, the shrill house alarm still breaking the calm of the empty beach. Calder pursed his lips, his gaze drawn to the houses, but unable to discern anything. He had to know.
Calder raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, one for one.”
She smiled wickedly. “It is Mike’s house. Businessman Dan Love had too much to drink and stabbed his heiress wife multiple times before turning his favorite hunting rifle on himself. The police are at the scene right now.”
Calder gasped. Spots danced in front of his eyes. “Why?”
Her eyes took on a glow once more. “Once I implanted the idea, it was only a matter of time.”
The weight of her admission punched Calder in the stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs. His knees buckled.
“Oh, Mike,” he breathed.
“Poor wittle Mike,” Venora whined. “Lost his parents.” Her eyes widened. “Now he’s like you!”
“No,” Calder bellowed. “Why?” He managed the question, pushing it out from within him, pouring anguish into the one syllable.
Venora shrugged. “Ah. But one for one, and I answered yours, now you must answer mine.” She stepped small half-strides closer with each word. “Where is your whore from Cathair Uisce? Where is Gaire?”
Calder shook his head. “I won’t tell you.”
“Give me the mermaid,” Venora demanded. “You made a deal.”
“Why did you kill them?” Calder yelled the question. “They didn’t matter.”
Venora snickered once more. “If you don’t know where she is, then she has not come to claim you, and I can still capture her here in San Francisco. I will make her watch me kill you.”
After her admission, she turned and raced up the hill, arrayed in her human façade. Calder gave chase, cursing as he bolted across the sand. She had less sand to traverse and managed a wide lead.
The brunette threw herself behind the wheel of a small sports car that Calder recognized as Mrs. Love’s. Her favorite. The engine roared to life.
“Do you like it?” she yelled out the driver’s window. “Dan taught me to drive it before he died.”
Calder pushed aside the emotional tumult, threatening to overtake him. His legs felt shaky from the shock. Yet he ran after Venora. He halted in front of the stolen vehicle, his arms stretched wide. She gripped the steering wheel. He pushed one hand forward, palm toward the windshield.
“No!” he bellowed.
The tendrils above Venora’s ears quivered. She did not accelerate, but her lips pulled back into another snarl, her words hissing through clenched teeth. “You should be dead.” She punched the dashboard. “But I cannot kill you… yet, Cold Water.”
Calder flinched, but he didn’t dive out of the way. His pulse pounded in his ear. Adrenaline surged through him.
She jammed the accelerator, and the car surged toward Calder. Crazed, she stomped the brake at the last second, and the forward motion halted, the inertia shaking the little convertible back and forth.
She did it again, a crazed cackle escaping her throat. “I will have what I want. Gaire will lose.”
The car lurched forward and ground to a stop once more. “Move,” Vee screeched through the open window. She gripped and re-gripped the white leather until her knuckles turned white.
Calder launched himself toward the passenger side of the vehicle, catapulting into the window. Venora grasped the wood grain head of the gearshift and slammed it into gear.
She accelerated toward him, tires squealing. She yanked the steering wheel to her left, trying to dislodge him. But Calder shimmied farther into the car. He grasped the soft leather of the passenger seat, hauling himself through the passenger window and toward the center of the vehicle. Upside down, he kicked the convertible top, ripping through the cream canvas. He tucked himself into the too-small passenger seat of the racing car.
Venora cursed and gouged and scratched at his scalp with sharp finge
rnails. She sped away from the beach, careening into oncoming traffic. He dodged the slicing fingers from the driver’s seat. As he righted himself, he realized the sun rose above the horizon, and they were already miles from the beach, on a deserted road.
A bridge over an ocean inlet loomed ahead. Calder considered the creature bent over the steering wheel, a crazed expression blazing on her face. He closed his eyes, listening to the quick pace of his heartbeat, willing it to slow. He pictured Gaire.
I have to save Mike! I’m sorry. Gaire!
With a mighty roar, he made a fist with his left hand and punched her gray face. He reached for the steering wheel with his right. A high-pitched screech filled the vehicle. Sharp teeth scratched his knuckles. Blood smattered on the glass to the left. Calder wrestled against Venora, contending for control of the car.
The car veered sharply as she struggled, fighting Calder’s strength. The road had miraculously emptied. She crammed her foot down, the engine rpms revved. Tires screamed against the pavement.
Calder wrenched the wheel back to avoid the far edge of the bridge. The creature cackled, her smile turning wicked. She grunted and pulled hard against him. The convertible careened the other way.
He yelled Gaire’s name, the impact unavoidable. The front of the car caught the edge of the bridge It launched into the air and over the barricades.
Weightlessness lifted them both from their seats. Calder closed his eyes, throwing a prayer to the heavens. He reached for Venora and placed the crook of his arm around the neck of the hissing creature. Grabbing his wrist, he pulled tight, his enemy caught in his strangle hold.
The menacing rumble of a promise stirred between the blue tendrils, “If I have to die, I’m taking you with me.”
He squeezed tighter, sinking his forearm deep against her neck.
With a mighty crash, they hit the water. Pain exploded in the middle of Calder’s back, and black spots danced in his view. The sensations disappeared from his toes, and he could not feel the water pouring into the seats. He gritted his teeth, determined to kill before he died. Fuzzy thoughts filled his mind as her body twitched in his arms.
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