by Black, Tasha
“I clicked,” he told her. “Your love has made me human.”
Oh.
She knew about the click. It meant Wayne was hers now, and he would occupy his human form permanently.
If that was true, why did she feel different?
The bird outside the window cried again, its voice throaty with passion.
“What are you singing about?” she asked it playfully.
The bird went silent.
Then it went off in a cascade of trills and chirps that was entirely different from the repetitive song it had sung before.
“Whoa,” Olivia said. “Is he… talking to me?”
Wayne chuckled.
“Why are you laughing?” she asked.
“I have something to tell you,” he said. “I hope you will like it.”
“The bird is your friend?” she suggested. “Just like that monkey?”
“Well, it’s more complicated than that,” he told her, his brow furrowed.
Intrigued, Olivia sat up and slid her legs into a crisscross.
“I’m listening,” she told him.
He put his hands behind his head, and for a moment she forgot what they were talking about and stared openly at his bulging biceps.
“My brothers and I each seem to have a special… ability,” he said. “We’re not supposed to share this with anyone. Dr. Bhimani told us that the idea would be frightening to humans. But now that you are my mate…”
She placed a hand on his leg. “There’s nothing that you could tell me that would make me feel differently about us.”
“I can talk to animals,” he said.
The room was silent for a moment.
“Did you just say you can talk to animals?” Olivia asked.
He nodded.
“So you were actually talking to that monkey?” she asked. “He could understand you?”
“Yes,” he said.
“And he was talking back to you?”
“Well, I think so,” Wayne said. “But I’m not sure. I can make them understand me, but I can’t understand them.”
“Wow,” Olivia said, nodding.
It was strange. It seemed impossible.
But it also made sense.
She had seen him trade the monkey a cell phone for a banana.
“And I think maybe you can do it too,” he added. “Sometimes during the click, part of the gift is shared.”
She spun around to look at the bird.
“Can you understand me?” she asked.
It crowed.
“If you can understand me, please chirp two times,” she said.
The bird trilled twice, then went off in a cacophony of song.
Olivia’s jaw dropped.
“She can’t understand you, small bird,” Wayne said. “But we admire your song.”
The little bird sang out one last note in reply, then flew from the window in a flash of bright feathers.
“This is amazing,” Olivia breathed.
“Are you happy?” Wayne asked.
She grinned at him. “How could I not be happy?”
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“You know, I kind of am,” she admitted.
“Should we go see if we can find a snack?” he asked.
She nodded and slipped out of bed, grabbing some clothing from her bag and heading to the bathroom.
“Don’t be too long,” he called after her. “I will miss you.”
She smiled as she freshened up and got dressed. He would miss her, and she was missing him, too. How could she have ever been resentful that he was underfoot? It all seemed so silly now.
By the time she came out, he was already dressed and waiting at the door.
“You are hungry,” she laughed.
“We missed the picnic at the top of the falls,” he said with a shrug. “And you have worked up my appetite.”
28
Olivia
Olivia headed from the room, off the porch and into the fragrant night, with Wayne by her side. The pool glistened in the moonlight and the leaves of the big trees rustled in the breeze.
Warm light glowed in the windows of the lodge. Olivia was glad the staff was still awake and hopefully ready to provide a snack. Now that she’d had a minute to think about it, she was awfully hungry herself.
They stepped inside to find Margot, Kent, Ruby and Parker already sitting around a wood plank table, sharing a pitcher of some sort of fruity drink.
“Hello, brother,” Parker called in a friendly way. “Come have sangria. It is named after blood, but do not worry, it is only made from wine and fruit.”
Wayne squeezed Olivia’s hand and they went to join their friends.
“Hola, amigos,” Amalia said, approaching them with a twinkly-eyed smile and two clean glasses on a tray. “Can I bring you anything else?”
“Thank you, Amalia,” Olivia said. “We actually missed dinner, do you have any snacks around?”
“Snacks?” Amalia asked, sounding horrified. “I will bring you a meal.”
“Oh, no, you don’t have to cook,” Olivia said. “A piece of fruit is fine.”
But Amalia was already bustling off to the kitchen, shaking her head the whole way.
“So…?” Margot said, looking pointedly at Olivia.
Olivia, who had never been much of a blusher, felt her cheeks go warm.
She nodded and looked down at her hands, a little horrified that she had as good as admitted to everyone at the table that she had just had sex.
Margot and Ruby laughed as the men exchanged congratulations.
“So we are all a family now,” Kent said contentedly. “This is as it should be.”
Family. It had a nice sound to it.
“But we’re a family with a problem,” Ruby reminded them.
“What problem is that?” Olivia asked.
“Guys,” Ruby whispered, rolling her eyes.
None of them responded.
She leaned in and the others leaned in too.
“What do you notice about the lodge?” Ruby asked.
Olivia looked around. It was clean and quiet, hung with fairy lights that gave it an almost magical feel.
“It’s empty except for us,” Ruby pointed out.
Oh. Olivia had been too busy to notice.
“And it’s empty because of the cadejo,” Ruby continued. “Everyone is convinced that this place is cursed.”
“But that’s not true,” Wayne said.
“Amalia did say that the birds haven’t really come back yet, from when that investor razed the trees,” Olivia said thoughtfully. “If there were more birds back in the trees, she said they would have more tourists here. Bird watchers would love this.”
“Yeah, and if they didn’t have the cadejo, there would be more Costa Ricans here, too,” Ruby added. “The lodge was a popular hang-out for locals until a few days ago. They didn’t rent rooms here, but at least it meant some business for Amalia’s family.”
“Do you really think that was a cadejo?” Olivia asked her friend.
“You were there, Olivia,” Ruby said. “You saw what we saw. You heard what we heard.”
It was true.
She had seen a creature with glowing red eyes, howling like a wolf.
The memory sent a shiver down her spine.
It might not have been a ghostly beast, but it was unlike any animal she had ever seen before.
“Animal,” Oliva murmured.
Her eyes met Wayne’s. He had tried to speak to it. It didn’t listen to him. He would have known…
He shook his head slowly.
So it hadn’t been an animal after all.
“And has everyone forgotten the cards?” Ruby asked.
“So many of the things on the cards could easily be coincidence,” Olivia said gently.
“The poverty card, the moon with the wolf, the hanged man,” Ruby counted off on her fingers. “And what about where we got trapped today?”
“The t
ower…” Margot murmured.
Ruby nodded. “And what happened to Wayne and Olivia today?”
Suddenly Olivia pictured the Fool card. The man was stepping into a pond of crocodiles as a small furry creature tried to tell him something. The fit couldn’t have been better.
“The fool,” Wayne whispered. “That was me.”
Olivia sat back in her chair.
It was all there. Everything the woman had warned them about, laid out perfectly before them…
Ruby was nodding and Parker had his arm around her. Wayne looked upset, and even Margot was looking worriedly up into Kent’s eyes.
“Guys,” Olivia said, “I agree that it’s all there. It’s all perfect - just like the cards.”
“I told you,” Ruby said.
“Too perfect,” Olivia added.
“What do you mean?” Margot asked.
“I mean, assuming there is no such thing as a cursed honeymoon or a haunted resort, what is the next best explanation?” Olivia asked.
There was a moment of silence. Then Margot blinked.
“Oh, Ruby,” she said. “You don’t think someone planned this, do you?”
“How could they?” Ruby asked.
“Would the producers of the show do this to make it more exciting?” Wayne asked.
Olivia thought for a moment. “No,” she said at last. “They haven’t had good cameras on any of the worst of this. And they certainly wouldn’t have wanted the resort to be empty. A built-in live audience is one of their favorite tricks.”
“Sabotage?” Margot asked.
The word hung in the air for a moment.
“Who would do this?” Kent asked.
“I’m not sure,” Margot admitted. “But I know who might be able to help us figure it out.”
29
Wayne
“Are you sure he’s planning to do this today?” Wayne asked Al the next morning.
The kindly cameraman nodded.
“Wow,” Margot said, shaking her head.
Olivia blew air through her pursed lips.
“And it has been Lex the whole time?” Wayne asked.
It was hard to believe that the other cameraman with the thin blond hair had been behind all of the mysterious and frightening goings-on.
Lex Henshaw wasn’t exactly friendly, and he was sometimes a little weird. But he had been with them since the first show. Wayne never would have suspected him of something like this.
“I wondered what happened to the other drone,” Al said, nodding. “But with the live shooting and everything else going on it never occurred to me to check the footage. Until I got your text last night about sabotage.”
“What do you mean by check the footage?” Olivia asked.
“Drones are vulnerable,” Al explained. “Easy to lose. The two we have are set up to constantly beam straight to the main server, so there’s no need to upload footage. That way if the drone is damaged or lost we don’t lose our shots. Which means…”
“Holy cow,” Olivia breathed.
“I’ve got it all on the server,” Al confirmed. “And Lex had help.”
“Who?” Olivia asked.
Wayne saw the hurt in her eyes. The crewmembers were like a family. It was dreadful to think that she had been betrayed by Lex. But that more than one crewmember had betrayed them was a terrible idea.
“I guess Tag Tuckerton was more offended than you thought when he got canned from My Big Fat Alien Wedding,” Al said. “I have him on film, too.”
“He came all the way down here to sabotage us,” Ruby breathed. “To ruin our honeymoon.”
“And the show,” Olivia added.
Al clicked something on his laptop and they all leaned in.
The drone footage popped up and they were watching movement through the trees, mostly in darkness.
It took Wayne half a minute to realize that what he was watching was himself, running with Olivia from what they had feared was the cadejo.
“That was the night we tried to preview the hiking trail,” Olivia said.
“You’re very strong,” Al remarked, as the tiny, grainy Wayne on the screen picked up the even tinier Olivia and bolted with her.
“Enough of watching this,” Olivia said firmly.
Al stopped the video.
Wayne was grateful that she had stopped him from showing the part when he lifted her into the cave. Dr. Bhimani had taught the men from Aerie that humans might be intimidated by their extreme strength.
“Do we have enough here to go after him?” Margot asked.
“He could claim he was looking for background footage,” Al said. “Or that he thought the drama would add to the production. That’s what we’re trained to do. He’s been in the industry a long time, so he’ll know how to cover himself.”
“Why would he do this?” Margot asked.
“We’re going to ask him,” Olivia said in a decided way. “You’ve still got one working drone, right, Al?”
“Yep,” he said.
“Lex wants to scare us one more time,” Olivia said. “Well, we’re going to take the bait.”
“I don’t like this idea,” Wayne said.
“Why not?” she asked.
“If he’s trying to frighten you, how do we know he doesn’t want to do harm?” Wayne asked. “The thing with the boat got pretty serious. I don’t like you being in that kind of situation.”
“You’ll come with me, won’t you?” Olivia asked.
“We will all come with you,” Margot assured her. “Right, Kent?”
“Of course,” Kent said.
“We’re a family now,” Parker said with a smile.
Wayne looked around the small group, feeling suddenly grateful. The six of them together could face anything.
“Okay, let’s do it,” he said.
“I’ll be watching,” Al said. “I won’t let anything happen to you kids. Get him to admit on film that he was trying to sabotage the production and we’re golden.”
Wayne still felt a little nervous, but Olivia squeezed his hand reassuringly. A quick glance at the faces of the others, all looking to her for guidance, reminded him of just how capable she was.
30
Wayne
That evening Wayne and the others walked into the woods as the sun disappeared over the mountain.
Earlier, Lex had told them that the production was lacking in romantic evening activities and he needed more footage to fill things out - just as Al had suspected.
Olivia told him she was convinced they were going to catch him in the act.
Wayne only hoped that they were all correct.
Even if they were right about the cadejo being a hoax, there was still something haunting about these woods at night.
Each of them held a small flashlight that seemed to grow less effective as they made their way deeper into the trees.
Wayne stood close beside Olivia, his heart thundering. He would die to protect her if it came to that, but he didn’t think it would.
Suddenly, two glowing red eyes appeared between the trees just ahead of them. A fearsome howl rose as the eyes stared at them, unblinking.
Wayne wrapped an arm around his mate.
“It’s only Tuckerton,” she whispered to him.
Then the eyes were moving toward them.
“Ruby, Parker, use your gift,” Olivia whispered to her friends.
There was a whir and then the sound of Parker and Ruby crashing through the trees toward those eyes.
“Got it,” Ruby cried excitedly, running back toward them, drone in her hands.
“She snatched it right out of the air,” Parker said approvingly.
So Ruby had shared his brother Parker’s gift of predictive reflexes.
Wayne smiled in delight.
“Now find them,” Olivia said.
They headed into the trees in the direction from which the drone had come. But it was so dark, and the drone could have been controlled from anywhere. It didn
’t take long for them to lose their bearings.
Wayne had an idea.
“Monkey,” he called softly. “Can you hear me? I need your help once more.”
The woods were silent, but for the cries of the night birds and the frogs’ song.
So the six kept searching.
A familiar cry swung toward them at last from above.
“Monkey,” Wayne said happily. “You came.”
The monkey chattered wildly about something.
“We need your help,” Olivia told the monkey.
He stopped his chattering suddenly.
“My mate has learned to speak to our brothers, too,” Wayne told him proudly.
“Can you help us find another man nearby?” Olivia asked. “One who is hiding from us?”
The monkey cried out triumphantly and began swinging through the trees.
“There,” Parker cried.
Sure enough, the monkey had led them to a strange little tent, which blended almost perfectly with the surrounding foliage.
“Is your body camera running?” Wayne whispered to his brother Parker.
They both examined the little thing. A tiny red light pulsed encouragingly.
“Okay, Henshaw, it’s over,” Olivia said.
She walked over and plucked the little tent off his head.
“It was Lex,” Margot murmured.
Lex remained huddled on the ground, squinting his eyes against the flashlight beams, clutching the remote for the drone to his chest.
“Why would you do this?” Olivia asked, sounding disappointed.
“It’s all fake,” Lex spat.
“Yes, we know, the supposed cadejo is only a drone and Tag Tuckerton howling bloody murder behind it,” Olivia said. “I want to know why you did it.”
“No, I mean this show is all fake,” Lex said disdainfully. “There’s no such thing as aliens. They canceled my show when these so-called aliens arrived. It was a good program with great advice to keep people from getting scammed by fortune-tellers and haunted houses. And they canceled it so they could make three fake shows about a bunch of fake aliens.”
“Fake aliens?” Olivia echoed.
“You don’t really expect anyone to believe these guys are from another planet, do you?” Lex laughed bitterly. “Look at them. They’re obviously a bunch of washed-up models and bit players, hired for a scam that took the whole world. You don’t have to keep pretending, blondie, I know the deal.”