I towel-dried the dished. “Help yourself.”
She repeated, “May I see the rest?”
“The rest?”
“With you?”
My gaze narrowed, trained on her slightly opened lips. Hearing those two words dried my throat more than weeks at sea. Dragging my focus to her face, I waited. As a starved man, I waited.
The corners of her mouth tipped up. She raised an eyebrow. Her lips puckered, and she shifted in her seat. She straightened her shoulders and ran her fingertips along her mouth. She looked every inch a shark on the prowl.
“I think it’s been long enough,” she said. “For both of us.”
“What?” The question slipped out before I could stop it.
“Because I’m lonely, Lev, and you are, too. We could be lonely together.” The sparkle in her eyes nearly pulled me in.
“I don’t know you.” We weren’t engaged. We weren’t even promised.
Love aside, there had been a proper, 1849 courtship with Anne, and there were too many questions about Mara’s loyalties. Whale shifters didn’t have a community of expectations, no community hierarchy. I adopted the mortal idea of marriage for Anne.
I didn’t even know if I could abandon what I knew.
Then I had to take the Keepers into account.
All my daydreaming notwithstanding, I couldn’t risk my objectivity by jumping into bed with Mara. I couldn’t.
“Lev?” Hurt filled that one syllable and overflowed, and Mara sniffed.
“I can’t right now.” As much as I wanted her, I wanted to be sure of her, of who she was, and her loyalties.
Because I wanted more from any relationship than one time.
I needed more from any woman I let into my life.
Her face fell. “Don’t you want to?”
“I’m afraid you’ll disappear. Like a dream.”
“I don’t know what that means.” Her eyebrows lowered, and her mouth pinched. “Why don’t you want me?”
I stepped closer. Carefully. Cautiously. “I want you, Mara, but I can’t.”
“Why?”
Because I am broken. And barely hanging on to life.
Because I cannot shift. No mermaid could love a whale shifter who could not change.
Because we don’t know why the Boss chose you. Many secrets remained hidden.
Because we don’t know whose side you’re on. As much as I wanted to wrap her in my arms and carry her to my bed, I couldn’t risk my friends on Mara’s ulterior motives.
She needed to hear all the things I wanted to say and then some. Nothing came out.
Her eyes widened. A tremble rolled through her. “Have I completely misread you?”
“Mara, you are an attractive woman, but—”
“Don’t say it. Whatever it is, do not say what comes next.”
“Mara,” I begged. The situation circled the drain, and I didn’t know how to recover it. “Please don’t think this has anything to do with you.”
At that, she bolted toward the door. “Forget I asked, Lev. Just forget it. I need to… ah…” She studied the ceiling. “I need to ask Jason something. I’ll be back later.”
Then she scooped up her clothes and ran out without a backward glance.
25
Sulking
Jason
In the Athenaeum
Glowering at an empty room.
That’s what I’d been reduced to. The Librarian hadn’t even had the courage to re-appear. I didn’t have any place to focus my irritation. Except at me.
The whir of the servos signaled the impending arrival of the Librarian. He started speaking before he had fully formed. “Sir, we have a problem.”
“A problem?”
He consolidated next to my desk, already tugging on his mustache. “You’re going to pull that holographic hair off your holographic face.”
He crossed his arms. “We have a situation.” He enunciated each syllable perfectly.
“What is it?”
“I’ve taken the liberty of scouring the local news outlets, and there’s something worth looking into.”
A hologram replica of the New Haven News appeared in the space above my desk. The front-page banner headline declared something about an unexplained energy crisis and the implementation of an energy audit.
As if of its own accord, it opened to the Community News section. Beneath the fold, the Librarian pointed to a black and white blurry image next to the words New Haven Gossip.
I couldn’t make out the face of the figure in the picture, but I didn’t have to.
The black wings and long hair gave her away. Woe had been flying.
Again.
But, this time, in broad daylight.
The day kept getting better and better.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. I miss Frank.
He had a quiet way of making these things go away. Police reports didn’t leak to the papers. Helicopters with psy-shifters on them became adrenaline junkies hunting for a place to base jump off of high-rises. He’d been an amazing friend.
“What do you know about the reporter?”
“Her name is Miss Goe Sipp.”
“Nom de plume?”
“Naturally.”
“I assume you tracked her down.”
The Librarian waved a hand, and a face appeared next to the paper. “Meet Miss Goe Sipp. Her real name is Tonya Reynolds. According to her online dating profile, she likes long walks on the beach and her pet Corgi, named Harumi. She also enjoys the art of paper folding.”
“Origami?” It was probably a useful hobby for an entertainment writer.
“Perhaps any excitement caused by the publication of this image will have died down by the time they return.”
I grimaced. Tonya was probably a gossip columnist trying to break into reporting. I had enough contacts, I could come up with some hard-hitting news to point her toward. “Print out the particulars, and I’ll pay her a visit.”
I had no idea what to say. I probably couldn’t convince her it was a secret government project. Frank, at least, had a badge he could flash and threaten obstruction of justice. That kept most things out of the public eye.
The Librarian winked out.
I shuffled through papers on my desk. It wasn’t the first image printed in the newspaper. It was the third one.
Enough for the curious to start asking more pointed questions.
Several online fan groups existed for the New Haven City paranormal groups, but they’d stayed small.
Since Woe had shown up, she hadn’t been nearly so careful about flying around the city, and her pictures wound up in the groups more often than not.
The Keepers had survived for hundreds of years by staying hidden.
We were phantoms that tracked rumors and ghost stories.
And we were going to get caught.
The sound of the knob jiggling brought my head up. The door swung opened, and Mara stepped inside, adjusting her clothes.
“Mara.”
Her chin came up slowly. “Jason.”
“What’s wrong? Is Lev okay?” That would fit right into the day like the last card of a royal flush: have Lev “amorous” himself into a heart attack.
“He’s fine,” she said.
I tilted my head.
Mara came closer. Her eyelashes were stuck together, and her eyes were red-rimmed. She wrung her hands in front of her.
“Do you need something?”
“I can’t go home.” She lifted her leg and the anklet she wore glinted in the lamp light. “If I leave, I’ll get electrocuted, and then I’ll be of no use to anyone.” Her chin quivered, and I thought I heard her sigh something about a Shannah.
I came around the desk. “Don’t leave then.”
“I don’t have a place to stay here.”
“You’re not bunking with—”
Her expression turned icy. “I am not.”
Another surprise.
“I don’t k
now what else to do.” She resembled a wilted flower.
“You can’t go back to Unseen Street.”
She yawned again and shook her head. “It’s not actually my apartment.”
“What do you mean—”
“Ask Lev.”
“You can stay here, and we’ll have Vic disable your jewelry.”
“Can you really do that?” Her eyebrows pinched together, and she flipped her braid over her shoulder.
“I’ll get her to try.”
“Here, though?” She gestured to the room. “Are you sure?”
“We have six rooms in the Cavern. Only two of those are being used, so those are the only two that have been furnished.” I didn’t mention Woe’s unused room. We really needed to get more people.
“You don’t stay down here?”
“I stay on the church level. It’s better if I don’t have to come up out of the depths every time some parishioner needs something.”
“Does that happen? It’s pretty dead around here.”
“Occasionally. Though, we like the way things are.”
“How has nobody figured out what you do?”
“Lev used to stay home. Vic frolics in the Himalayas. When I go out, I look like a priest. In general, paranormals don’t associate with mortals, and they like to mind their own business. Unseen Street keeps to itself, and Frank used to keep tabs on anything else that might pop up. Who else would know?”
“But smartphones and the internet?” She had a point. She did.
“We haven’t been caught yet, but there are rumors.” And a few pictures in the gossip columns.
“What will you do when they figure out you exist?”
I didn’t have an answer, so I didn’t give one. “Are you packed to go?”
“Go where?”
“Raishana, the Octupine City, under the Hurricane Sea.” I tossed the words out like a grenade.
She blanched. “We’re going there?”
“We are.”
“I can’t go there. You have to, Mara. We need your help.”
Lev bellowed something in the Cavern.
I glanced at Mara. “He sounds frustrated. Is that your fault?”
Mara bolted to the corkscrew staircase and shot up it. She tucked herself in a shadowed corner of the second level. If I hadn’t known where to look, I wouldn’t have been able to see her at all. I’d have to get the Librarian to reprogram the lights. It wasn’t safe to have blind corners.
The door clanged open, and Lev strode in. “Have you seen Mara?”
I glanced up toward the place Mara hid. She eased forward and put a finger to her lips. Why did she think I’d cover for her? I didn’t even like her. The feeling had to be mutual. She slipped back into the dark.
“No.” My answer surprised both of us, but Lev didn’t question it. “Did you lose her?”
Lev’s mouth twisted, and he lumbered across the room as though he dragged a million pounds behind him. “I haven’t seen her since after dinner.”
“How’d that go?”
He flushed, and then he grimaced as his gaze left mine to study something on the floor.
I snorted. “That well?”
“About as well as earlier. With you and Woe.”
Well. That stung.
He scanned the room. “Is the Librarian around?”
“I think he put himself up for the night.”
Servos whirred, and light sparkles danced around the room like falling stars. Heh. He wanted to make an entrance. I rolled my eyes. His melodramatic personality algorithms certainly had a mind of their own.
He coalesced in the center of the room and bowed to Lev. “At your service.”
“Please work up an itinerary for a trip Raishana, the Octupine City, under the Hurricane Sea.”
The Librarian glanced at me and back to Lev. “Ah. The cephalopod city. I’ll have something drawn up immediately.” He winked out.
I’d been right to send Arún away, and I wanted to crow about it. But Woe wasn’t here, so it didn’t do much good.
“You’re not going, Jason.”
I leapt to my feet, and the tops of my thighs hit the desk so hard liquid splashed out of old glasses. I didn’t bother cleaning it up. “I will.”
“No, I’m taking Woe. She can’t stand around waiting for Arún to get back. She’s not me. She can’t handle it. She’s going stir crazy. She needs something to do. Something that matters.”
I straightened my shoulders and crossed my arms, trying to look as menacing as possible. “I forbid it.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“I forbid you to jeopardize her like that.”
“And yet, I’ll ask her anyway, and she’ll probably say yes.”
Then he laughed.
He laughed at me. Long and hard.
I stood there, waiting for it to stop, fuming.
Lev shook his head. “Stop, Jason. I’m going to ask Woe if she would like to help. Between she and I, we can take whatever Mara might dish out.”
I glanced up again, but I couldn’t make Mara out. “I won’t let you—”
“I’ll get Vic to help me tie you to the chair. Or make you a special drink. Maybe a laxative.” He grinned. “It might make you feel more like yourself.”
Uncrossing my arms, I sighed. “What if she won’t talk to you?”
He slapped my back. “Vic’s already gone to talk to her, and I’m headed over there now.”
Woe wouldn’t turn down a request for help from her friends. She’d go. My shoulders drooped.
I turned to Lev and offered my hand. When he took it, I pulled him close. “Don’t let anything happen to her. You take care of her with kid gloves.”
“And bring a moody priest and a Fae king-to-be down on me?” He shook my hand. “Hardly.”
He yanked me into a hug, and I let him. The old sea dog had gotten in touch with his emotions lately or something.
The Librarian reappeared. “Nice to see you two make up.” He nodded first at Lev and then at me. “I have compiled the appropriate information on an information pad. You can collect it in the alcove on your way out.”
“I guess that means the tide on its way out, and so am I.” He moved to the alcove near the exit and retrieved two palm-sized data pads from the top of the stack. “These two?”
“Indeed,” the Librarian said.
Lev tucked them into his pocket and hurried off. Once I heard Lev’s steps on the staircase at the other end of the Cavern, I asked, “Is Mara here?”
The Librarian turned to me. “She left early in your conversation with Lev.” He tugged his mustache. “Sir, I must say, it’s fortuitous that Miss Woe is leaving the city with Lev.” He preened as though he’d come up with idea himself.
I decided to glower at him without answering. I didn’t need somebody else to tell I’d make a wrong decision about Woe.
The Librarian bowed slightly. “If there’s nothing else, sir?”
I waved him away, and the Librarian winked out, leaving me with an empty room, staring the way Lev had gone.
Hmph. Mara slipped out while we weren’t looking. The woman knew how to sneak. That was for sure.
Somehow, that fact didn’t settle my unease.
26
Forgiveness
Lev
Arún’s Apartment, New Haven City
The twenty-something doorman let me into Arún’s building without hassle.
“Mrs. Woe called down earlier and said a man of your description should be sent right up.” He flashed a grin. “She said you looked like a young Winston Churchill with a fedora instead of a top hat, but don’t tell her.” He bumped his cell phone and cupped his hand around his mouth. “I had to Google it.”
I chuckled at his joke, struck by how the passage of time changed so many things. Not that long ago, Mr. Churchill had been something of a celebrity… in certain circles.
I tipped the fedora, thinking he’d get a kick out of the lost art of ha
t-speak. “Thank you.”
The doorman directed me to the elevator and gave instructions to exit at the Penthouse level. At the top floor, the elevator dinged and the doors opened directly in front of the only door in the hall.
“Come in. It’s unlocked,” Woe’s voice called from inside.
When I tried the handle, the door opened easily, swinging silently on its hinges—about as different as could be from the Cavern.
Woe waited just on the other side of the door, holding a bat. Lines creased her face as though she’d just woken from a nap, and she held a defensive stance like she expected to be attacked. When she recognized me, her shoulders sagged.
“Has the Boss been bothering you?” I asked.
“Not really.”
“Then why the bat?”
“I guess pregnancy makes me combative. I’ve read that it can be a side effect.” She shrugged, set the weapon aside, and offered a sheepish grin. “Glad you’re here.”
Then she held out her arms. This was the Woe Vic and I knew. The one Jason rarely got to see.
I scooped her into a bear hug. “Am I forgiven?”
“Of course.”
I released her and turned to the room. It was a penthouse. “I have to be honest with you, Woe.”
She frowned, and her expression turned wary. “What’s that?”
“I wouldn’t have moved into the Cavern either.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Not if I’d had this to come home to.”
Her face fell. “It gets lonely, though. I’m ready for Arún to be back. I haven’t talked to him much at all. It’s only been a few weeks, but it feels like months.”
I patted her arm. “I know Jason went over that letter and the reports with a fine-toothed comb. We don’t usually hear about paranormal goings-on on the west coast. It was worth a look.”
Woe tipped her head. Not wholly agreeing but not disagreeing either. Something around her eyes softened. It made her look younger, more vulnerable somehow. She’d had a hard time of it. Whether Jason had meant to or not, he had put that girl through the wringer. He shouldn’t have sent Arún off to check on lost mermen.
“Come in,” she said. “I have coffee I can make, but I’m not much good at anything else.”
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