“Alright. What do you look for?” he asked, peeling off the next transparent dot and pressing it between my breasts. He let his gaze linger on what my tiny pale blue bikini top revealed before he moved on to my shoulders.
That’s Ben for you. The prince of subtlety.
“Arched back, cocked tail, lowered pectoral fins, shaking head…Ben, he’s barely a meter long. He’s just a baby.”
“Alyse, that baby got teeth on its skin can rip you open. Forget about the ones in its mouth.”
“We’ve done worse.”
“Yeah, but not when your head was cut off from your common sense.”
Behind Ben, I saw Ryan jerk his gaze away. I carefully breathed out my retort. I wasn’t going to let them rattle me. That wasn’t something I could afford during an enactment. Not only did it taint the sensory data, but most predators had built-in fear detectors and I had no wish to introduce myself as potential prey.
One dot went between my shoulder blades. Then Ben hooked my bikini bottoms with his pinky finger and tugged them down a centimeter. His knuckle accidentally brushed my spine. I shuddered.
“Sorry.”
“Trying to make Steffi jealous?”
“Not if I want this dick the same length when I wake up tomorrow morning.”
Ben gave me a second to settle out before he placed one dot just above my tailbone and one just below my navel. I pulled my rice-stick-straight black hair into a knot and he attached a dot to the crown of my head and one to the sole of each foot. Despite his best efforts, by the time he was done, my whole body was humming. And not in a good way.
I stretched, then let my muscles fall loose, shook it off as best as I could.
“This is going to be a beautiful enactment, Ben. Make you millions of dollars. Now stop wringing your hands like an old lady and let’s get to work.”
Ben stepped back. “Look at me,” he demanded. I obliged, if just to get it over with. “Me and Steffi are still expecting you to come out to the track with us on Friday. You fuck up here and miss that, Steffi’s gonna kill me. She’s got Monique all greased up and ready for you.”
Another retort to choke on. Steffi hates me and I’m not sure I feel much better about her.
But I appreciated his intent and valued his friendship even more. Okay, and maybe I really liked gunning Monique, his vintage 1998 Corvette convertible, through the defensive driving course at the Kalispell Antique Auto Course. You caught me.
“Understood.” I gave him my warmest smile while he stood there with his arms weirdly at his sides. It frustrates Ben to no end that I don’t do hugs—like he has something important to say, but somebody cut out his tongue. Finally, he brushed a hand over my hair and finally, finally let it drop.
It was time.
Steady, so steady, I turned back to Ryan. “Think we’re ready to get started here.”
Ryan opened the case and released the swarm. Each tiny camera rose into the air about a half a meter away from my body and fixed on its target dot. It used to distract me the way each video-camouflaged little globe would mimic my every move, zipping in and out, dodging obstacles, but always staying in line with its focus dot on my body. After nine years I rarely noticed it any more.
What I did notice was the little blue fin, and the smaller tail that followed it, still drawing rippled V’s in the water beneath my feet. I knelt down and peered out between the blue horizontal bars of the railing. Ike rose close to the surface. He peered back up at me with his flat dark eye. Black to black our gazes held.
My dad had been a volunteer nature reserve keeper in Fiji. He used to tell a story about the shark god Dakuwaqa. He said that the shark god lost a fight against the octopus god that guards the island of Kadavu and, to save his own life, Dakuwaqa promised never to harm anyone from Kadavu whenever they went out to fish or to swim.
I reached my hand out over the water. The young shark seemed to hover. My heart, my soul hovered with him.
My dad, he wasn’t from Kadavu....
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The Shades of Venice Series
Faces in the Water
Stealing Lucifer’s Dreams
Portrait in Veronese Green (coming 2018)
Adult Stand Alones
Spectre of Intention
Adult Illustrated Anthology
The Ghost and the Cigarette (coming 2018)
The Gates of Auròna Series
Illustrated Chapter Books
Into the Hare Wood
The Anguàna’s Tale
Spinwatch
Spirits of the Silver Screen
The Curse of the Children (coming 2018)
Picture Books
The Left Behinds (coming 2018)
Nonfiction
Twilight Dance: Recipes for Bath and Body
lives in that space Between—where the crossroads of past and present tease the senses, taunts the almost-memory. Haunted by story, she seeks it in the shadows of the landscapes of history and in the blinding glare of what-may-come, both alone and with her family of children's book authors: Raymond, Damien, & Heléna Macalino.
For adults, Tonya's national award-winning supernatural thrillers, THE SPECTRE OF INTENTION and THE SHADES OF VENICE series, combine the mythic surrealism of Pan's Labyrinth with the thrill ride that is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
For children, Tonya's highly acclaimed urban fantasy adventures, THE GATES OF AURONA series, remind readers of the magical family secrets from Spiderwick Chronicles as well the legendary call to heroism of Chronicles of Narnia and the Dark Is Rising.
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments or events is entirely coincidental.
SPECTRE OF INTENTION
Text:
Copyright © 2011 by Tonya Macalino
Excerpt from FACES IN THE WATER Copyright © 2011 by Tonya Macalino
Cover:
Copyright © 2018 Maya Lilova
All rights reserved.
For information, address Crystal Mosaic Books, PO Box 1276 Hillsboro, OR 97123
Print ISBN: 978-0-9836303-0-2
Printed in the United States of America
Spectre of Intention Page 21