Early the next morning, Snappy observed from the couch as Clue and Winks left. Then, he joined Cosmo in the kitchen. When Cosmo turned and saw him, he jumped in surprise. Confusion, awe, and fear warred within Cosmo for control. A Snappy who now more closely resembled a twelve-year-old boy smiled up at him and then carefully hugged his waist. Cosmo awkwardly patted his back. “Snappy, let’s get you to Dr. Benjamin,” Cosmo said. Snappy released his waist and held his hand.
Winks and I left early the next morning and drove to Dorado. Once we arrived, he drove us into the alley behind Mr. Julian’s shop. Winks grabbed a small bag from the back and then signaled for entry at the back door. I was behind him by the time Mr. Julian opened the door.
“Winks, to what do I owe the honor?” Mr. Julian asked as he led us into a small office that had a big safe in its back left corner.
“I need you to hold onto this.” Winks held the bag out to him. “We’re going to pay Kiyohime a visit. If we haven’t checked in with you in four hours, kindly come and get us.”
The scar that went from Eel’s forehead, along his temple, and down to his throat moved with the furrowing of his brow. “What’s in here?”
My father winked at Mr. Julian. “There’s some lightweight body armor and a visual displacement field device in there so you can sneak inside without fear of being seen or accidentally shot. Just don’t get caught with that tech. It’s militia property.”
Mr. Julian’s expression turned sour. “Colwyn….”
“Just remember, if we haven’t checked in with you in four hours, come and get us.”
Stepping between them, I said, “This is for a good reason. Dad is helping me find my friend’s missing boyfriend.”
“We think the missing man is tied in somehow to the lost and wrecked ships. We’ll be back. Trust me,” Winks said with a grin.
Mr. Julian flipped him off. “Get gone. I need to hide this stuff, and I sure as hell don’t trust you to see where.”
Laughing, Winks led me out the back way. Then, he drove us into the parking garage of Kiyohime’s building. The building had belonged to the former mob boss of Dorado. Kiyohime had taken over the territory of the Yokai possessed mobster, who had held Winks prisoner for a year. Looking over at my father, I could tell I wasn’t the only one in the transport to break out into a cold sweat.
“Being here brings it all back. I can picture the men, who Kiyohime and her men killed, scattered across the garage.” I shivered.
“It’s not too late to leave.”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, my curiosity is stronger than my fear. Let’s do this.”
“You’re a tough little thing, baby girl,” Winks said as he leaned over and kissed my forehead.
Guards had us surrounded as soon as we shut our doors. They frisked us for weapons. Kiyohime’s creepy servant, the one with a fondness for scenting me with his long forked tongue, stood silently in front of us wearing all black. Since Kiyohime seemed to have a penchant for monochromatic fashion, I assumed that both she and her other servant would be sporting similar attire. Winks and I followed the deadly sea serpent posing as a man into the lift. He stared at me with his creepy human eyes.
“So, what’s your name? Are you enjoying Dorado?” Winks asked.
Kiyohime’s servant didn’t respond. I was terrified that Winks’ joviality would get us eaten. My fear had the snake smiling and scenting the air with his tongue by the time the lift doors opened. Kiyohime reclined on a chaise lounge in front of a fireplace. The firelight flickered over her black negligée clad form.
Winks bowed deeply without taking his eyes from hers. “Lady Kiyohime, you are even hotter than that fire.”
Shock froze me in place with the fire’s flames doing little to thaw me. Now, I knew from where Cosmo had learned his terrible pick-up lines. I felt the tongue of Kiyohime’s servant dart out to touch my neck. My fear made me irrationally angry, and I gave a swinging slap that had the offending tongue striking off of my palm. Rather than eating me whole, he smiled at me showing me pointy teeth.
Kiyohime laughed. “My little mouse has such a way with Liam. Have you grown tired of that annoying worm, Elan Tavora, and come to serve me, Little Mouse?”
Before I could marshal myself to respond, Winks said, “Lady Kiyohime, my daughter and I merely wish to give you your Coldest Day gift. We know it is a bit early, but we feared you would be too busy with the festivities if we waited.”
Kiyohime held out her hand. “Give it to me.”
Winks slowly approached Kiyohime, a serpent demon who could swallow a man and his daughter whole. My father was fearless. Kneeling down before her, he opened the velvet box. “I made this for you. I imagined the garnets rolling gently from their drops along the swells of your breasts. May I?” Winks asked.
“You may.”
Winks stood and walked behind Kiyohime’s chaise lounge to fasten the necklace around her throat. Reaching up with her left hand, she grabbed Winks by the front of his jacket and pulled him down to kiss her. The “Please, don’t eat my daddy,” mantra began to play in my mind as I closed my eyes and turned my head. I hoped she wouldn’t choke him with her long serpent’s tongue. While peeping open one eye to see if they were done with the slobber, I caught sight of the spirit box that had been used to imprison Winks. It wasn’t empty.
The Yokai possessed mobster was now the prisoner of the woman he had once scorned. I felt a perverse satisfaction seeing him there. It hadn’t been long ago that he had been ready to skewer me to punish Winks. I wondered when Winks would put his tongue to better use and ask Kiyohime about transporting his stolen device so we could get out of here.
“Clue, stay out of trouble. The Lady Kiyohime and I are going to discuss business in private.”
I gaped at Winks as he followed Kiyohime from the room with his hand on the small of her scantily clad back. I stood rooted to the spot with Liam who stared at me. Several uncomfortable minutes passed. To break the silence, I said, “So, Liam, have you heard about the missing ships? Is that why you met with Mr. Tavora? Did he hire you to transport merchandise for him?”
Liam’s tongue scented the air, but he said nothing.
“He can’t answer you,” the former mob boss of Dorado said from the plasti-prison. Scowling, I turned toward the bastard who had held my father prisoner. “I’ve heard things. I can help you. Come closer,” he motioned with his hand.
With a show of not being afraid of him which wasn’t fooling anyone, I approached the box. “What do you know about the missing sailors?”
Dark circles were under his eyes. Kiyohime seemed to be getting a great deal of satisfaction in making him pay for hurting her. “I’ll help you, if you help me,” he said in a hushed whisper.
“I will never help you. You are getting exactly what you deserve.” Venom dripped from my words. Liam made a chuffing sound resembling laughter from directly behind me. Then, he walked to a small bar area where he began making something.
“I may deserve punishment for my transgressions, but what of the man whose body I possess? First, I took control of him, and now Kiyohime has us both. I could free him from his torment if I were able to leave my own trap. What all I have done motivated by greed shames me. I want to make amends.” The Yokai filled his words with anguish tinged with disgust and regret. I tried to form a sympathetic expression that feigned skeptical belief. “Let me prove myself to you,” he begged.
“Is Kiyohime behind these disappearances?”
He shook his head and said one word, “Umibozu.”
Right before I could ask, Liam touched his tongue to my neck making me jump. Then, he ushered me over to a chair near the fire and placed a cup of coffee in my hand. “Thanks.” I sipped it noticing the addition of some type of alcohol. I knew better than to trust anything out of the mobster’s mouth. Kiyohime had trusted him, and look what it had gotten her. Well, currently, she was the most powerful individual in Dorado and controlled the city, but still. Before I had broken h
er curse, she had been a sea serpent trapped in the spirit realm. Thinking about the name he had given me, I waited for Winks. My impatience, along with the eerie quiet and Liam’s staring, got the better of me. “I’m going to get some air.”
Part of me, a big part, feared Liam wouldn’t allow me to leave. I was wrong. He let me walk out of the building, but he followed me. I tried to give him the slip and thought that I had managed it as I entered the Two Moons, the topless bar frequented by Winks. With the weather being what it was, the temperature inside had been raised enough that patrons didn’t have to worry about having an eye put out by a frozen nipple. At the bar, I ordered a coffee to clear the fog the previous cup had created in my brain.
Before I could decide who to begin questioning first about the Umibozu character, one of the bar’s boisterous patrons sidled up beside me. He had strong body odor and slid his hand across my butt where it touched the barstool. “You are the finest little thing I’ve ever seen. I’m gonna take you someplace where we can be alone.”
I leaned as far to the right as I could go without falling off of the stool. “You aren’t taking me anywhere. What you need to take is a bath. Give yourself a sniff. You’re not getting a girl like that.”
His eyes glittered with amusement. “Maybe you’d be kind enough to help me with that bath.”
Frowning, I said, “I’m not kind.”
He held up his hands in mock surrender, which made the smell worse, and walked to the back of the bar where a loud group of men with similar hygiene teased him about his failure with me.
“You okay, kid?” Today, the bar owner wore a short black leather skirt with suspenders, a hot-pink tube top of a thin transparent fabric, and the thigh-high black boots she had been wearing the first time I had met her.
“Do you think you could help me out with some more information?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well?” she asked.
I gave her a bright smile. “Have you heard of anyone by the name of Umibozu?”
Her expression made it clear that the name meant nothing to her. I began to think the mobster had made it up. Shrugging, she suggested that I check one of the data storage devices or a news feed and walked off to make sure that her topless employees were being treated friendly. Sighing, I sipped my coffee.
“I’d like to see your lips on my cock like you’ve got ‘em on that cup,” a scraggly drunk slurred at me.
“How about you suck your own cock and watch it in a mirror?” I politely suggested.
“No little worthless cunt is gonna talk to me like that,” he said hatefully.
“You’re right. I’m not worthless or a cunt.” I slid off of the stool and away from him in time to avoid his wide grab.
I heard a furious roar of sound as Liam intercepted the drunk’s hand. I stumbled back in abject horror as Liam seemed to expand and lengthen. His mouth began to open wider and wider making popping and cracking sounds as the bones shifted in his jaw. The drunk screamed unable to escape. I stumbled away from Liam, the drunk, and the exit until a group of bodies halted my backing away. In disbelief, I watched Liam rise up and transform into a black sea serpent. With blurring speed, Liam struck downward with his fangs and began swallowing the screaming man whole. Blood dripped down the man’s clothing from the deep puncture wounds Liam made with his fangs. The man’s head and shoulders were no longer visible, but I could see his convulsing fingers. The giant serpent opened its massive jaws, removed its fangs with a sickening suction like sound, and struck them in farther down the drunk’s torso with a crunch. Twin rivers of blood ran down each of the drunk’s pant legs and into the socks that were visible above his shoes. I couldn’t breathe. Liam knocked over barstools with his whipping tail, and his human eyes stared at me from within his black scaled head with seeming pleasure from both his meal and the unmitigated fear permeating the air of the Two Moons.
“Out the back! Go!” A man ordered.
Women wearing thongs and stilettoes were making quiet mewling noises while running along a back hallway that was illuminated with dim lights. I noticed a cracked floor tile. Someone was carrying me around my waist under his arm. I saw natural light a few feet away. People scattered and ran as soon as they made it into the light. I got hauled into a transport that sped down the alley, down roads, and to the docks. I continued to struggle for air. I couldn’t pull in an entire breath which caused my panic to increase. The edges of my vision were as black as the sea serpent had been. The black grew until my vision narrowed to a pinpoint that quickly vanished leaving me in darkness.
From the darkness, the giant serpent came for me. Its black scales glistened as if slick with blood. Its long tongue darted out at me as it slithered closer. Liam’s eyes glittered at me from the massive skull. Then, he struck out catching me in his sharp fangs. I screamed as he shook me from side to side.
“Hey! Hey! Hush, it’s alright. I wouldn’t go so far as to say your safe, but I did rescue you.”
Drawing in unsteady terrified breathes, I continued to feel the shaking of my dream and realized as I gazed up at the stinky man from the Two Moons that I was on a boat. “What have you done? Where am I? You better take me back to Dorado before my dad kills you.”
Stinky looked at me like I was crazy. “Like hell. Do you remember what just happened? You didn’t imagine it. That thing wants you. That’s why it lost it and ate the drunk. If he smelled me on you, I’m next. I’m steering clear of Dorado until that thing calms down.”
“Listen here, Stinky. Take me back to the port, or it will get a lot worse for you. Kiyohime had him watching me. She sees me as her pet. She even calls me her Little Mouse. Do you want her to come looking for me?”
Stinky’s face had shut down becoming unreadable. Before I could swing my legs over the side of the bunk, he was gone. I heard the door locks activate.
“What? You can’t lock me in here!” I was furious.
I looked around at the tiny cabin. There were no windows, and it was cold. I began searching through everything for something with which to pry open the door. Then, slapping myself in the forehead, I concentrated on my need to be on the other side of the cabin door and slipped. I let go of the other reality. I found myself at the end of a small dark corridor. The doors to four other cabins were to either side of me. Steep stairs were at the other end. I climbed them coming out into a small galley and dining area. I could hear the engines going full throttle and the murmur of male voices. I took another set of steps up stopping before I entered the wheelhouse. Stinky was sailing the ship and sat in the captain’s chair.
“We could ransom her to Kiyohime, but then we risk making a powerful enemy,” one of the men was saying.
“Maybe we could squeeze her father for a payout,” suggested another voice.
I started laughing. “I dare you. My father will steal every credit you’ve got and then come back and steal from you again. Amateurs.”
Stinky said, “How’d you get out of my cabin?”
I looked out a window as I stepped forward. Then, I ran past the men and onto the deck. As far as I could see, there was nothing but water. Then, I caught a glimpse of the ship wondering why it looked familiar.
“Shit.”
I was grabbed from behind but managed to break the hold. I turned and backed away. Stinky stood in front of me. The cold wind whirled his dirty-blonde curls around his head. He reached for me, and I blocked him. He made another grab for me, and I punched him. Stinky got mad. He was lanky and strong. I was unable to escape his reach when he made his next grab for me. He ignored my punches and tossed me over his smelly shoulder.
“Put me down!” I kicked as hard as I could before his vice-like grip secured my legs against his chest. I pummeled his back with my fists.
The four crewmen of the pirate ship laughed. “You’ve got yourself a feisty one there, Captain,” one of them said.
I grabbed at the rails as he walked down the steps hoping to yank myself free. Stinky delivered a st
inging slap so forcefully to my butt that it brought tears to my eyes. With both hands and hoping to draw blood, I pinched him at each side of his waist as hard as I could. With even more force, he struck my backside three more times. I sobbed and was embarrassed to see drops from my eyes hitting the flooring on the way past the other cabins.
“How’d you get out? The door is still locked.”
From my position over Stinky’s shoulder, I couldn’t see how he opened the door. My left elbow banged against the door frame as he walked inside of his cabin. I planned to enjoy watching every second of Tadashi kicking Stinky’s ass. He bent and lowered me to my feet. I drew back aiming my fist at his nose with all of my weight behind it. Stinky caught my wrist, swung me around, sat on his bunk, and threw me over his knees. Then, he began spanking me so viciously that I was crying harder than I had ever cried in my life. I couldn’t squirm away from him and the stinging slaps. My backside burned.
I was in complete shock. This wasn’t a fight. No one had ever treated me so cruelly. My parents had never even punished me in such a barbaric manner. Momma had loved me. Anytime that I had ever been bad, it had made her cry. I had hated seeing her cry, so I had done my best to please her. When I hadn’t done what Winks had asked, he had taken my hover board away.
Stinky moved me from his knees to the bunk. “Don’t you ever disrespect me or try to hurt me again. Don’t leave this cabin.”
“I hate you! I hope Kiyohime eats you!” I sniffled at the snot I felt dripping from my nose.
Clue and the Sea Dragon (The Clue Taylor Series Book 2) Page 8