Clue and The Shrine of the Widowed Bride (Clue Taylor Book 1)

by Wendie Nordgren

  I had been released. I cowered while quickly moving along the wall. I turned and saw the face of my attacker. From the salt on his pants and the white creases on his face, I took him to be a fisherman. With a knife in one hand and the other held open and out, he stared through me and turned as though he couldn’t see me.

  “What the fuck?” he said with a touch of fear.

  I turned and ran losing myself in the tunnels. Around a corner, I saw a monstrous creature. My screams were silent. Its human face looked at me in stunned surprise as it lowered the struggling rat from its fanged mouth and released it. The monster spread out its hands in the universal language sign for, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Swallowing bile, I ran in another direction from the thing with the torso of a man and the lower body of a spider. Seeing a grate up ahead, I forced myself to a greater speed and climbed from the tunnel and out into the sheltered darkness of the night feeling as though I had birthed myself from my own nightmare. Leaving the alley, I determined myself to be on Frog Street. Big Bubba’s and the Farm Supply were both closed for the night, but even in the darkening night the sounds and colors of my surroundings were still vanished from the world.

  Needing the serenity it provided, I ran to Wharf Street and then down to the beach. The people I had passed on the way to the beach hadn’t noticed me which increased my panic. Had I died? Had the fisherman killed me? Was I a ghost stuck in some kind of purgatory?

  I ran past some large boulders that appeared black in my color leeched vision. I ran out knee deep into the frigid waves as they began to cover more and more of the sand and splashed water in my face again and again as they rolled in with the tide.

  The man, the knife, and the spider rolled through my mind like the shells tumbling in the waves. Hearing laughter, I looked out at the water. I saw her. Her blue hair and sparkling tan skin were made even more vivid by the lack of color around her. She swam to me showing me a massive flap of a mighty finned tail. As soon as her head cleared the water, her hair began to dry. When more of her became visible, the blue-green shimmering scales at her hips disappeared with the water leaving sparkling flesh in its place. Once she stood from the water, the juncture between her thighs was hidden by the same shade of blue as the hair upon her head which blew backwards and forwards in the wind. Unconcerned with her nudity, she came closer to me. Her feet remained in the water. I noticed a fine blue-green webbing between her fingers and toes.

  “Forgive my trick, but it was time you discovered your abilities. You have been far too useful to me for me to continue to allow you to stumble around blind.” Reaching her hand out to me, she let her fingers slide down my chest and over the blue stone I had found. “Pity. What fun we could have had. The young priest you brought to me desires my flesh, so I will forgive you for your disinterest. Speak.”

  “I can hear you, but nothing else. The world is empty and colorless, but for you.”

  The Ocean Spirit gave me a seductive smile. “With words like that, I might think you desire me after all. Every now and then a mortal is born who can travel between our realities. Humans aren’t the only inhabitants of Cassini. Just as there are crowded cities and sparsely populated areas in your world, so too are there in mine. Scorpius is the big city for my kind. When you cross over, you can see us, but your humans can’t see you.”

  “Is that how he did it? My father? Could he move back and forth between realities?”

  She smiled at me. “My name is Palena. Call upon me when you have need.” She raised her hand to cup my breast rubbing her thumb against the sea glass in my bra. “Keep my token with you,” Palena said as she turned, dove out far into the waves, and vanished.

  Hearing laughter, I searched the waves and found Palena playing with two others of her kind who had hair as white as bleached bone.

  A second whump of sound and air forced my eyes closed and dropped me to my knees. Waves rolled toward me, soaking me to my chest. My strength was replaced with exhaustion. On my hands and knees, I crawled from the water and was about to collapse to the sand when I heard deep loud barks and saw three large dogs running straight for me. Thinking to escape into the water, I began clawing my way back through the sand.

  However, the huge black dog leading the way looked familiar. It was the wolf who had saved me from the mononoke. The brown and white wolf running at his side seemed to shimmer and was replaced by a completely naked Tadashi who churned the sand with his feet as he pounded toward me. He caught my shoulders as I collapsed. I saw the faces of Dorian and Lord Tanaka before my eyes rolled back in my head.

  A hideous pounding in my skull accompanied by my own moans of pain woke me. Pressing the heels of my palms hard against my temples didn’t help it. Strong dry hands took my wrists and crossed them over my stomach replacing them with an ice-filled towel that made a tightly packed crunch of sound as it settled into the sockets surrounding my pain-filled eyes.

  “Like father, like daughter or so it would seem,” I heard Lord Tanaka say.

  My response was, “Ow.”

  Each pulse beat in my temples felt like a knife. I moved my hand and tried to feel my back. I removed the lovely ice and tried to move my head. The men wore jogging shorts instead of fur.

  “I must be crazy. For a second, you resembled a friend of mine, someone with whom I have shared cookies and had over for a visit,” I said as I tiredly pointed at Lord Tanaka with my right index finger.

  Tadashi pushed me back against the pillows covering the floor and replaced the ice over my eyes.

  “Do not act as if I did not return the gesture with breakfast. Rest. We will speak tomorrow,” Lord Tanaka said as the door snicked closed.

  “I would take your pain from you were I able.”

  “How about a pain patch, some cherry vodka, or both?”

  I felt the pillows shift as he stood. Then, I heard water as it began to fill the tub. Tadashi gently lifted each of my ankles in turn and pulled off my wet shoes.

  “There is a hole in the toe,” he murmured.

  “Favorite pair,” I whispered. “I’m even colder with the ice, but it’s helping with the pain.” I felt a tug at my waist as he removed my pants.

  “Sit up.” I groaned. Tadashi took the ice pack setting it aside. Then, he removed my jacket and shirt. The blue sea glass fell to the cushion beside us. “What is so special about this?”

  “Palena gave it to me.”

  “Who is that?” he asked jealously.

  “She is a beautiful ocean spirit, and there is no reason for your jealousy. Anyway, I thought you got all of those feelings out of your system with Cosmo the other day.”

  Tadashi’s arms went around me, and I felt his fingers brushing against my skin as he unsnapped my bra. “I thought it best to make my intentions toward you clear to him. Cosmo Lenox feels loyalty toward the daughter of his mentor. He wishes to protect you. These things were true for him before he met you. However, for me, it was the sound of your voice, the tilt of your head, and your stubbornness that stole my heart.”

  My stomach fluttered as I watched his lips form the words he whispered to me. His words made the ache his kisses had caused return to the place between my legs. However, Tadashi left me to turn off the water. Then, he left me standing alone in his bathroom. I frowned at the door. Through the door, I said, “You don’t behave like any of the men who I have observed around naked women.”

  Once the water had encased me in its warmth and dispelled the chill from the ocean water, I got out and toweled myself dry. Twisting before the mirror, I saw the small puncture wound the fisherman’s knife had made. Tadashi tossed me some clothes when I entered the bedroom, a pair of his shorts and a black T-shirt. I pulled the shorts on under the towel and turned my back to him as I kicked the towel away to put on the shirt.

  Tadashi growled. Then, suddenly, I was over his knees as he sat on the edge of his bed. He prodded the injury from the knife.

  “Damn it! If it looks like it hurts, don’t touch i
t! What is it with you?”

  “Who did this to you?” Tadashi asked in a calm stern voice.

  “The fisherman who was trying to sell an oyster or something to another man in the tunnels. That’s why I got scared, and everything changed but didn’t change. Then, there was the half man and half spider thing eating a rat, and I ran.”

  “Did you hear all of that?” Tadashi asked.

  “No, I was trying to….”

  “He was talking to us,” Dorian said.

  Embarrassed, I wiggled up from where Tadashi had laid me across his knees and pulled the shirt down over my stomach. Tadashi held me by my forearms and stared into my eyes. “You will stay here, in this room, until I return. Is that understood?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Please, Clue.”

  “What if I’m hungry?”

  “I’ll have something sent up.”

  I plopped down on his bed. “Can I have the ice back?” I got the ice along with some first aid for my small puncture wound.

  When they came back, my headache was gone, and I could no longer feel my elbows. A maid had brought me a tray of dinner along with a glass of raspberry tea with I didn’t know how much vodka mixed into it. There was nothing in Tadashi’s room through which I hadn’t snooped.

  Brightly smiling up at him as I returned his shoes to his closet, I said, “I didn’t leave.” Tadashi held his hand out to me. Taking it, I stood, and he led me from his rooms. “I can’t go anywhere like this. I’m not even wearing shoes.”

  “Then, I suppose it is good that we are not leaving the hotel,” he said as he ushered me into the lift. “This level is below the basement level. We also have tunnels. There are occasions when we must flee from mortal constraints and others when we wish to be unobserved.”

  We walked along the empty cement space and to a back room. Lord Tanaka stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and his head slightly down. He turned his head toward me when my bare feet made a faint sound on the cold concrete. Dorian stood inches from the man who had been about to slip a knife under my ribs for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He hadn’t even given me a chance to defend myself. I was trying to be brave, but I felt my pulse speed up.

  In a quiet, deadly voice, Lord Tanaka said, “Is this the man who frightened you earlier, Miss Forester?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and then nervously placed them at my sides rubbing the hems of the shorts between my thumbs and index fingers. “Yes, that’s him.”

  No sooner had the words left my mouth than a fierce black wolf replaced Lord Tanaka in a shimmering blink of the eye. The fisherman screamed as the wolf’s massive snapping jaws came close to tearing out his throat.

  “The Okami wishes to know about the oyster. Will you tell him what he wants to know?” Dorian asked in a calm, bored voice. He wore expensive-looking grey slacks and a form-fitting white short-sleeved shirt that emphasized the bulging muscles of his arms.

  Cowering away from the snarling, angry, spirit wolf, the fisherman screamed, “Yes! Yes! I’ll tell him everything.”

  Tadashi took hold of my arm and led me to the lift. “Why do I have to go? I want to know,” I whispered.

  “It is better that you not remain.”

  “Why? I’m not scared.”

  Tadashi barricaded me into a corner of the lift. “Were you to stay, the Okami might go easier on that man so as not to upset your delicate sensibilities. Is that what either of us wants?”

  “No,” I said slowly. “What is he trying to find out?”

  Tadashi leaned against his hands that touched the walls of the lift to either side of my head. Knowing about all of the muscles hidden by his shirt, I was unable to resist snaking my arms around his warm chest. I stepped up onto his shoes and kissed his chin. He buried his face into the side of my neck nuzzling me. Then, he walked with me to one of the red couches in the penthouse and sat pulling me down onto his lap. I slid my right arm behind his neck. His lids lowered showing me only the faintest hint of his brown eyes.

  “There are men who work specifically on oyster harvesters. During the shucking process, pearls are often found. These men sign contracts swearing to relinquish the pearls to the supervisor on duty. Dishonesty through breach of contract carries stiff penalties, so stiff that a fisherman might prefer to murder a helpless female than to be discovered in his theft. This is especially true of a man under the employ of Lord Tanaka. Even worse for the fisherman, he planned to take the life of my future wife.”

  I pulled back to look at his face. “That’s why you had me wear this?” I said of his shirt and shorts.

  “My lady understands my mind. Should Lord Tanaka allow the fisherman to survive, his terrified whisperings of his experience will spread throughout Scorpius. No one will dare harm you again. In fact, those with any intelligence will go out of their way to protect you in hope of earning Lord Tanaka’s notice.”

  Tadashi stroked my hair away from my neck and ran the tip of his tongue from my clavicle to my earlobe making me shiver on his lap.

  “My lord has work for me. I want you to remain here. You may snoop through every room in the penthouse save those of Lord Tanaka and Dorian.”

  Tadashi held the back of my head in his hand as he brought his lips to mine. Then, he moved me from his lap to sit beside him. “Where are you going?”

  Standing, he gazed down at me and said, “To find the buyer.” He tilted his head as he evaluated me. “Most individuals, in my experience, when confronted with an upset to his or her perception of reality, tend to display an excess of emotion when seeing a man change form to a wolf. In your case, I altered my reality from wolf to man. Why did this not seem to disturb you?”

  Standing, I laced my fingers with Tadashi’s and stared into his brown eyes. “I’ve seen little frightening things feeding from me in Mrs. Stone’s orchard. I’ve seen a water spirit take form and change me somehow and for the better. I’ve been so frightened that I’ve thrown myself from the existence I’ve always known into some other reality that I don’t understand, but remember seeing from when the black wolf saved me in the orchard. In that other place, there is a giant spider with a face, and a beautiful woman with the body of a fish who has blue pubes when she transforms to walk the sandy shore. Seeing nice normal wolves become nice normal men was kind of a relief.”

  Tadashi threw his head back and laughed. Then, he kissed me and left. By the time I had snooped through just about everything in the extensive penthouse, Lord Tanaka and Dorian joined me.

  “Have you worked up an appetite?” Lord Tanaka asked with amusement on his face.

  Dorian gave the air a sniff and growled low in his throat as he tromped over to his door and entered. When he came out, Dorian was less annoyed when he satisfied himself that I hadn’t searched his room.

  “I’m bored, but I could eat.”

  With disapproval all over his face as he eyed my attire from head to bare feet, Lord Tanaka said, “I’ll have something brought up.”

  Smirking at Lord Tanaka, be he a man or a wolf spirit, I hopped up on a red couch and sat cross-legged. “So, Lord Tanaka, when will Tadashi be back?”

  He took a seat across from me and crossed his right ankle over his left knee, gazing out of one of the arched windows. His black hair brushed against the collar of his silver-grey suit. A white shirt off-set the tan flesh of his throat. “Once Tadashi finds the spring of our betrayal, he will return.”

  After a quiet dinner with my two hosts, I found that the recent events had taken their toll on me when the pounding returned to my temples. I excused myself from their company and went to Tadashi’s bedroom.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning, I awoke to Tadashi curled protectively around me. Sliding out from under him, I dressed in the stack of new clothes I found which included jeans, a white T-shirt, and a black leather jacket that hit right at the top of my waist. I secreted my metal knuckles and sea glass into its pockets. I grinned at my still holey, but clean exercise shoes as I
slipped them on.

  “Where are you going?” Tadashi had raised his torso up on his right side to watch me as I dressed.

  “I’m going to check on Mrs. Stone,” I said as I gave him a smile and a wink.

  From the Wisteria, I went to 888 Honjo where I had a muffin and a bottle of tea before grabbing my hover board and helmet. Even though I wore a stupid-ass dolphin helmet, I felt better knowing that there was a small chance that it might appear blurry to anyone watching due to my increased speed.

  Mrs. Stone greeted me with exuberance. “Clue, it’s good to see you. My friends and I are going to the Community Center. Would you like to come?”

  Noting the hopeful look in her eyes, I agreed. After I had placed both my board and my helmet in the back seat of her transport, she drove to a house a few blocks away. I saw the curtains in the front window move, and then a middle-aged man was helping an elderly woman from the house and to the transport. Hopping out, I left the door open and got into the back seat. After brief introductions to Mrs. Stevens and her son, we were on our way.

  The slow drive along with the intense conversation about fruit preserve recipes had me ready to hurl myself from the transport. We arrived at the two-story concrete building that had been painted white just in time. Neatly clipped bushes were to either side of the entrance. Mrs. Stone parked in a front spot. Getting out, I opened the transport door for Mrs. Stevens. She and Mrs. Stone held hands as they slowly walked toward the Community Center.

  The doors slid apart, and I followed behind the two little old ladies worried either of them might easily stumble and fall. A little old bald man sat at a help desk a few feet from the doors. With a delighted smile, he greeted the ladies and escorted them to a small group of little old ladies seated to the left near one of the large picture windows. They were seated around a frame that held a large piece of fabric on which they made small careful stitches. It held no interest for me. As soon as Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Stevens were seated, I excused myself to look around.

  The area behind where the ladies worked contained several displays of arts and crafts ranging from pillows to painted pottery. To the right of the help desk were chairs with older model vid-displays attached to their arms. A couple of old men sat looking at news about the tides and weather. Venturing up the back stairs, I found a small research and study area where a woman oversaw a couple of kids who were working on educational programs. However, next to them was an extensive lending library. I began scanning the shelved titles.