Initiation

by Paula Millhouse

  I curled my fingers, calling Atlantis home. When my trident bolted toward me, I gripped the staff firmly.

  The only issue now was, Moriah’s accidental death meant my vampire handler Shade wouldn’t have anyone to question. He was a furious taskmaster. As founding leader and co-commander of the HWB, Shade made every monster hunt his business. Unlike me, he prided himself on understanding the reasons behind bad supernatural behavior. Sometimes I wondered if he wasn’t a little obsessive-compulsive about conspiracy theories. Crap. He was gonna be mad as hell. He liked to interrogate bad supernaturals, and he hated it when I killed them.

  I snagged what was left of the Mayhem Mermaid, one lone green tail fin, and ascended toward the surface with Max in my arms.

  A second later, we bobbed our heads above the waves.

  Max held on to me tight, gasping for air, his sharp claws caught in the top of my pink bikini. With a furious kick of my long legs, I leapt out of the ocean onto the deck of the sleek black HWB speedboat.

  Max

  MAX GASPED IN A deep lungful of air when Sam plopped him on the deck of the HWB speedboat. The Hunters’ Watch guys had moored the two boats together, and Captain Tom stared over from the Fish & Get ’Em with sharp eyes, and a confused expression. Sam tossed the mermaid’s green tail down beside him. Max wiggled his nose, and fought to breathe. The damn thing stank to high heaven.

  Three supernatural agents stared at them, their mouths agape, making them look like fish out of water. When Max realized they were leering at Sam’s bikini with rapt appreciation, he growled. Sam tapped the deck of the boat three times with the butt end of Atlantis. “Don’t even start, boys,” she warned.

  “Somebody get her a towel. Now,” Max demanded. If it had been up to him, she’d be dressed from neck to toes in a black neoprene wetsuit.

  The HWB attracted alpha males of every persuasion. Some of them were human, but most of them weren’t. Today, Shade had sent two white-blond Nordic elf twins who stood at least seven feet tall, taller if you measured their jutty pointed ears.

  The other soldier looked like a musclebound, almost-naked lifeguard from Baywatch. He even wore tight little red swimming trunks, and he smelled like coconut rum, his tanned skin shiny from suntan oil. Max looked back at Sam. Was she staring at the lifeguard?

  “We’re here for the pickup.” One of the elf twins approached Sam, and offered her his full-length purple cloak. She wrapped it around her shoulders. “Where’s the suspect, Silverton? And what the hell was that explosion we heard?”

  Sam motioned to the mermaid’s tail fin, then shrugged. “She touched my weapon. That’s all that’s left of her.”

  All three of them backed away from her a couple of steps. She grinned. “Gotta respect the trident, right?”

  “You killed the suspect?” Nordic Elf Twin Two said, his lips twisting into a grimace. “What are we supposed to tell Shade?”

  Max didn’t exactly care for the elf’s condescending tone. “Sam never touched her. The suspect tried to kill her. I saw the whole thing.” Max gestured to the mermaid’s tail fin with an outstretched paw, then coughed up seawater.

  The lifeguard leaned down, and pounded Max’s back to help him expel the part of the ocean he’d swallowed. He twisted away from him, and hissed.

  Sam knelt beside them. “What’s wrong with you, Max? I told you to stay on the boat.”

  He wheezed, and sneezed up seawater, spraying their faces. “She was coming straight for you.” After three more retches, he sat back and looked at her. His fur was itchy, already drying in the hot ocean sun. Sam wrung the seawater out of his usually spectacular tail. “I couldn’t let her get to you,” he said.

  “You have no business putting yourself in the line of fire like that. I’m the monster-hunter, you’re the sidekick.” She stroked back his soaking-wet whiskers with her fingertips. “If anything ever happened to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

  “Same here,” he said, and started to fire up his purr. The effort threw him into a coughing fit, and Baywatch Boy leaned away from him.

  “So your cat interfered with your mission, Silverton?” Elf Twin Number One asked. “Shade will likely be furious. You realize we’ll have to file that in our report.”

  Sam stood up to face him. “He did no such thing. Max saw I was compromised, and like any good team member, he attempted to protect me.” She turned and rubbed Max’s chin in a show of thanks, and smiled at him. “You should commend him in your report.”

  Max was practically giddy with her attention, with the way she defended him. But who was he kidding? In his cat form, he couldn’t possibly have helped her down there against a creature like Moriah.

  What the hell good was a talking cat anyway when supernaturals pulled stunts like that? He narrowed his eyes at the HWB agents, jealous of their human-like form, and angry that he didn’t look like them. “The mermaid was reckless. At least now we don’t have to worry about her sinking any more damn boats. Job well done.”

  “Sure, kitty. We’ll let you explain that to the vampire,” Baywatch Boy said.

  Max sighed. Regret gripped him. All he could do was admire Sam from afar.

  Captain Tom coughed, took two steps back, his eyes pinched tight, and suddenly clutched his chest. Elf Twin Number One hopped over to the charter boat to help him.

  Max frowned. It had to be pretty weird for Captain Tom to see all this. He hoped the man wasn’t having a heart attack. “Is he gonna be all right?”

  Sam cast Captain Tom a weary glance, and Max followed her gaze. The last thing she needed right now was to try to explain why she and her familiar were having an outright conversation regarding mermaid hunting, or for that matter, the presence of the HWB guys. She stood up and faced the captain.

  Captain Tom gestured at the tail on the deck, and his face turned sort of whitish green. “That . . . the, uh . . . was that a mermaid?” He looked like the words tasted odd on his tongue.

  Max stood and switched his tail. Sam nodded. Humans weren’t supposed to see things like Moriah, and other monsters the Hunters’ Watch Brigade dealt with, things they protected them from.

  “She near ’bout sank my damn boat, girl,” Captain Tom said.

  “She’s gone,” Sam said. “Remember our agreement, though. You promised your silence about what you saw out here in trade for that handsome sum of cash we paid you.”

  “Damn, girl. No one would ever believe me anyway,” he said, and gestured to Max. “Thanks to you and your talking cat for saving my boat.”

  “I’m under strict orders to wipe his memory,” Elf Twin Number One said, holding Captain Tom’s arm, steadying the old salt. He pulled a sparking green amulet on a golden chain out of his tunic. “Look at this for a minute, Captain.”

  Max cringed and looked away.

  “Oh, hell,” Sam said, and looked away as well. “Not this again.”

  Messes like this called for extreme measures, but Max hated it as much as Sam did. They still weren’t sure what a memory wipe did to a human brain, and if Captain Tom suffered any long-term consequences, Sam would blame herself. Humans and supernaturals didn’t mix. It was what it was.

  Max sighed, and walked over to her, weaving in and out around her ankles. Sam was a woman without a country, it seemed, unable to mix with humans for obvious reasons, and smart enough to keep most supernaturals at trident’s length.

  Still, stopping the boat-sinking mermaid was the least they could do for their fellow man. Sam had been amazing down there. Her mission scorecard was filling up with confirmed kills. So what if Shade didn’t have anyone to interrogate? His loss. If the paranoid bloodsucker wanted to be angry at anyone, he’d gladly take the heat for Sam. That was what sidekicks did.

  Max put his paws up on her long legs, drawing her attention, making sure to put claw marks in the elf’s purple ro
be. “Now the humans here are safe, for the time being. And so are you.” That was all that mattered in his book.

  A brilliant green flash of magic from the Elf’s amulet stole Captain Tom’s memories of hunting mermaids off the coast of Key West.

  “Great,” Sam said, her tone morose. “Now I have to deal with explaining myself, and what went wrong with our mission, to a seven-foot vampire.”

  Chapter 2

  Sam

  OKAY. FINE. SO WE had a less than spectacular finish to the day.

  Max eyed me as we got back onto the Fish & Get ’Em, and Captain Tom turned the charter boat back toward Key West and the marina. The sun was sinking low on the horizon, and off in the distance, a hint of storm clouds was building. The sky was streaked with pinks and oranges above the blue-green waters.

  I wish I could have relaxed and enjoyed it, all this natural beauty, but as I shrugged on my white crocheted swimsuit cover over my bikini, all I could do was frown.

  Had we failed in the true sense of the word?

  The Hunters’ Watch Brigade boys escorted us back to Garrison Bight Marina, cruising along with us in their sleek black powerboat, but keeping their distance across the water.

  Yes, I should have been smart enough to bring the mermaid in for Shade to interrogate, but hey, it was what it was. Who would have thought she’d have gone for the trident?

  Nobody had accused Moriah of being smart.

  She was just someone I was obligated to stop, a girl who’d gotten caught up in a lie with a human, then turned rogue.

  I couldn’t blame Max for what he’d done either. Not really. Yes, he’d disobeyed a direct order, but his heart had been in the right place. Man, he’d really gotten his whiskers out of joint when the elves and the lifeguard argued about how we’d screwed up. He always stood up for me, and my decisions. He was the best sidekick any monster-hunter could ever want in their corner.

  Who cared what those other guys said about him? I didn’t.

  At least they’d taken the mermaid tail back to Shade as evidence of the kill. When I talked to him later, and filled out my official mission report, he’d just have to take my word for what went down out there.

  Even though we’d failed by Shade’s standards, the day wasn’t a total loss. I’d stopped the mermaid from sinking any more boats, and protected Captain Tom and his charter-boat buddies from any future harm.

  What was Shade’s obsession with questioning rogue supernaturals anyway? Yes, he had the organization to worry about, but still, I didn’t get it. He’d always been like this. I’d just have to tell him the truth. Moriah went nuts because a sailor betrayed her, and in the end, I stopped her. Simple as that. End of story.

  Mission accomplished.

  Man, love really was a super-complicated thing.

  Thank the gods I didn’t have to deal with any of that sort of crap in my life.

  I looked over at my cat who watched me with wide, observant eyes as the charter boat cut through the sea on our way back home toward the marina.

  Max

  MAX EYED SAM as she covered her bright pink bikini. She slipped her perfect suntanned feet into her green Chaco’s, and he almost lost it. He sighed, turned away, and glanced off into the ocean. She was so goddamned pretty. “You’re mad because I disobeyed your order not to come into the water, right?”

  “We’ll discuss that later.” She looked away from him and firmed her lips, staring out the back of the boat, her brilliant blue eyes watching the churning wake of the sea behind them. She was thinking about the mission. He set to work trying to dry his fur. He wondered what it would be like if he was the one giving Sam orders.

  The Elf Twins and Baywatch Boy escorted them back to Charter Boat Row, and then disappeared. Max had seriously tried to suppress the urge to scratch the elves’ eyes out when they’d called her down back there. The way they’d ogled Sam’s half-naked body had enraged him, the asshats.

  If only he were human, or something close, they’d never have gotten away with their leering.

  Max fully intended to file a sexual harassment complaint against the Nordic Elf Brothers with Shade by voice text as soon as he got back on dry land. It drove him insane when other guys looked at her like that.

  Sam was a monster-hunter, and one of the finest in the HWB. She shouldn’t have to put up with shit like that. Max should have been more forward, more man-like, but who was he kidding? No one took him seriously in this form. He was just a damn housecat.

  He looked out over Garrison Bight Marina as Captain Tom eased the Fish & Get ’Em into his slot on Charter Boat Row.

  Sam stood up, and searched the marina. He followed her gaze, searching for their vampire handler, but Shade Vermillion was nowhere to be found.

  “Where the hell is he?” she asked.

  “Bloodsucker probably couldn’t come out in the sun, even if it was for disciplinary action,” Max said. The HWB agents were right about one thing, though. They’d had too many casualties in their unit. They all knew Shade was adamant about interrogating supernaturals who went rogue. He liked to find out who was pulling strings and financing uprisings. He might well be paranoid about HWB enemies, but he was a company man, and the brigade always came first. “Shade is going to be pissed about losing the chance to question the mermaid.”

  Max sneezed, and Sam reached down and stroked his head. She’d covered him with a beach towel earlier so he’d dry out on the trip back to the marina. His fur still itched from all the salt water.

  “You okay, my little man? Can cats catch pneumonia?”

  “I’m fine,” he said. “And no, diseases like pneumonia don’t affect me. I’m not an ordinary cat, you know.”

  He nuzzled her hand, reveling in the touch of her fingers on his body. The salt water had dried his long fur into sharp stiff peaks.

  “You look like a punk-rock kitty,” she said, and giggled. “I’m sorry your fur dried like that.”

  “You can wash my fur in the shower when we get home,” he replied, perking up with her attention. He adored it when she smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  Having her mad at him wasn’t exactly how he’d planned to celebrate his heroic actions. When the mermaid went for her, a compelling urge to protect her drove him into the deep to intervene. Hell, he still wasn’t even sure what he’d intended to do once he got down there, but the impulse was strong, so he’d followed it. He’d pictured her hugging him, stroking his fur with her fingertips, maybe even giving him extra cat treats.

  But all he’d done was make her mad and compromised her mission.

  Who was he kidding? As long as he stayed trapped in this current form, there wasn’t anything he could really do to help Sam. And God forbid he shift—then he’d never be able to help her. He’d be drafted into the service, and likely reassigned to a different division of the HWB, in addition to facing some ancient family curse even he didn’t quite understand.

  Sam stroked underneath his chin with her fingertips. “I’m glad you’re safe too, because I wouldn’t know what I’d do without you. How could I explain losing you to your mother, Max?”

  “When I can’t see you, it drives me mad.” He sighed, sad at the hand fate had dealt them. They’d gotten along as thick as thieves together for the past seven years, but when it came down to it, what the hell good was a talking cat to a monster-hunter anyway?

  At least he’d helped her study for her credentialing with the HWB. She’d taught him to read when he was a kitten, and he’d helped her ace her written exams. Truth be told, he probably knew more about the inner workings and rules of the Supernatural Police Force than her supervisors did.

  He prided himself on the voice texts he sent to Shade Vermillion, pointing out errors in the manual, and suggesting quality-control measures to help the organization. The Hunters’ Watch Brigad
e would do well to give Samantha Silverton her due.

  They’d been best buddies since her mother gave him to her, and the thought of that mermaid hurting Sam drew his claws to sharp, deadly points.

  What would his life even look like if they were separated? Not happening. That wasn’t something Max ever wanted to think about.

  He’d managed to control his emotions, to avoid the shift, because once he crossed that line, he’d have no choice but to join the HWB. But if he remained in his current form, he’d get to stay with her, right by her side, curled up at her feet, in her bed, every single night.

  “What’s wrong, Max?”

  “You were too far away from me down there.” Compromised, even in her own element where he shouldn’t have had to worry about her. But who knew what treachery mermaids could resort to? “Monster-hunting gets hairy, you know.”

  His unusual instinct to protect her was strong. It drove him crazy when she was out on assignment without him. This bone-deep need to guard her consumed him.

  “Geez, Max, come on. It’s what we do. Don’t go getting all possessive on me, okay? I can take care of myself.”

  Yeah. Right.

  From what he’d seen down there, that creature had been about to beat her to death with her tail. A deep, rumbling growl built up in his throat. If he ever got the chance to meet Poseidon, he’d have to thank him for giving her Atlantis. “Whatever, Sam.”

  She ignored him, collected their things, and said goodbye to Captain Tom. “My boss will meet you at the bar tonight to settle the rest of your fee. Thanks for a great day out on the water.”

  Max ran up the gangplank behind her, drawing more than a few stares from the Key West tourists because of his new spiky kitty-do. They crossed the parking lot to her Jeep, and he leapt up into the vehicle beside her.

  Sam

  I COULDN’T HELP but smile as Max strutted across the parking lot. He settled himself down in the passenger’s seat and started cleaning his fur. Just before I started my Jeep, my phone rang.