“I’m supposed to be at work at two,” Grayson said. “But I could call in.”
“You should,” his mother said. “What will Tabitha do? Fire you?”
It was true that Grayson didn’t need his job at Curiosity Books. But he liked working there. There was something about the cramped rows and precariously perched stacks that comforted him. And it wasn’t like spending his afternoons in a used bookstore was a hard job. Usually he spent it reading behind the register and saying hello to the customers who meandered in.
Every hour or so, there might be a purchase or two, but overall it was quiet.
The most exciting part of the gig was the ghost upstairs who liked to move around Ms. Monroe’s dining room furniture when she was away. And sometimes, if the ghost was particularly restless, she would pull a book from the shelves just to hear it hit the dusty carpet.
“Are you guys going to be here?” Grayson asked, forcing down a bite of his bagel. Thinking of Landon was making his throat tight again, but if he didn’t eat his mother would only come down harder on him. She was militant about self-care.
“No, I have to go into the lab for a few hours, but I’ll be home in the afternoon,” his father said.
“And I have office hours and two meetings,” his mother said. “But I’d be happy to cancel those if you want me to stay with you.”
“No,” he said and hoped he didn’t sound too eager. “I want to be alone.”
“Okay,” his mother said, but her face was contradicting her. It was clear she didn’t really think it was okay. “There’s still Chinese in the fridge, and I also made a salad.”
“Thanks.”
“You’ll let us know where you’re going to be though,” his mother said. It wasn’t a question, even if it did tilt up at the end. “Work or here?”
Grayson Choice 14
Go to work
Stay home
Author’s Choice – Night Tide (ES)
Reese
Reese’s feet hurt and the muscles between her shoulder blades were beginning to knot into a single, dull throb. The bar room around her was in full roar as patrons laughed with their friends. Balls clanked along the surface of the pool tables before bouncing into soft pockets. The bitter tang of alcohol was softened by the smell of fresh popcorn, oil slicked and salty, blooming behind her. The latest batch was almost ready. And a good thing because they were running low.
Despite her sore feet and aching back, Reese had to keep an eye on the room. Her best friend, and the owner of Alpha’s bar, Kristine, was counting on her.
Tonight was the full moon. That meant Kristine and all members of her pack were in the Wayward Woods tonight. On nights like this when the moon held her sway, they would run the forests until dawn.
That meant that tonight the bar was full of humans. Vulnerable as they were, it was up to Reese and Nick to keep them safe. Nick—the bouncer guarding the door—was a shifter, like she was. They were physically stronger than humans and impervious to magic of all kinds. That meant that demons and witches weren’t much competition. The oldest creatures in town obeyed the treaty set forth by Ethan Benedict. Benedict, whatever corner of hell he crawled out of, was the peacekeeper, mayor, and co-founder of Castle Cove. It was rumored that he served Vendetta herself as her direct attendant.
Reese wasn’t sure how true all of that was. But she’d felt the magic rolling off Ethan herself, and it had been enough to let her know that she had no desire to see how deep his power trenches were.
Once in a while, something truly ancient and terrible would roll through town and Ethan would handle it. Everything else was usually some low-level menace too stupid to play by the rules. So while there were a handful of demons in the bar and even a couple of living vamps and a table of shifters, Reese wasn’t worried. There wasn’t anything here she couldn’t handle.
Except maybe her ex.
A woman with bright purple eyeshadow and dark red lips stumbled up to the bar and placed her empty martini glass on the bar top. The clatter broke Reese’s concentration, pulling her out of the overheard conversation.
“Can I have another dirty martini, please?” the woman hiccupped.
“You sure?” Reese asked, taking the empty glass and putting it in the plastic bin out of sight. It was about time for Bethany to come up and do a round of bussing.
Reese watched the drunk girl’s gaze shift to a couple in the corner, on the wall behind the nearest pool table. A man and woman were kissing like there wouldn’t be another sunrise for either of them. The girl’s face pulled into a sneer.
“Actually,” she began. “Can I add two shots of Cuervo to my order?”
She slapped a twenty on the bar top.
With a sympathetic smile, Reese poured three shots, including one for herself. The woman kissing her face off was her ex, Violet. That merited a drink.
Reese clinked glasses with the girl and threw back the shot. “Cheers.”
Reese made the martini and slid it toward the customer. Then, with a sigh, she stepped out from behind the bar and moved toward the couple on the wall.
There was no protecting humans from humans, but she had to do something about the demon.
“Oh god, no.” The girl with the martini grabbed Reese’s arm in a panic. “Don’t say anything.”
“I have to,” Reese said, gently removing the red lacquered nails from her flesh. They left a ring of tiny crescent moons in their wake, but Reese didn’t mind. “Nothing will happen to you. Don’t worry.”
She wasn’t sure if the message was getting through those glassy eyes and slack jaw, but the girl let Reese go without further protest.
The pool players, all of whom knew Reese, parted for her like water. Several gave friendly smiles. No doubt, they thought it couldn’t hurt being friends with the bartender. They weren’t wrong.
Reese stopped in front of the couple on the wall. “Violet.”
The girl pulled back. For a moment, hellfire danced in her eyes before they softened to a sweet, caramel brown. “Reese. What is it? Want some kisses too?”
The demon named Violet sounded almost hopeful.
“You know the rules,” Reese said, slapping away the flirtation. She had a lot of practice as bartender—and with Violet in particular. “No feeding on pack grounds.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Violet batted her eyes as the guy moved from Violet’s mouth to her neck without pause. He hadn’t even registered Reese’s arrival.
Violet raised her chin to accommodate him.
“You absolutely know,” Reese said and grabbed her arm. “Stop it or I’ll stop you.”
The hellfire returned to Violet’s eyes. She pinned Reese with that menacing gaze. But her magic had no effect. Shifters were immune to demonic guile.
“Last time I’m saying this. Let him go, or I’ll walk you outside,” Reese said calmly. And she would have to. She couldn’t let a demon enthrall humans without consequence. If rumor got around that Alpha’s was lax on the full moon while the pack was out running the woods, then it would only invite more trouble. And to be clear, Violet was just being greedy. Not only had she enthralled the guy and fed on his lust, but she was milking the girl’s jealousy as well. Reese could feel it.
“You’re no fun anymore, Reese,” Violet said with a deep eyeroll.
Reese felt the magic shift around them and the man stumbled back as if shoved. He stared at them, frowning.
“Go see your friends,” Violet commanded.
The man stumbled away, on unsteady legs.
“Now what am I supposed to do with the rest of my night?” Violet crossed her leather boots and then her arms, leaning against the wall. She pouted up at Reese. “Were you even jealous? I was trying to make you jealous.”
Reese wasn’t and Violet knew it. Violet couldn’t drink a shifter’s jealousy as well as she could a human’s anyway.
“Because if you were jealous,” Violet said, leaning forward with a devil’s smile. �
�You know I can kiss that and make it better.”
She flicked her eyes down Reese’s body suggestively.
Reese turned back toward the bar.
“Ouch.” Violet laughed behind her back. “Rejected.”
“You better cut it out,” one of the demon boys said, giving Reese a wink as she passed him. “Or she’ll stop making your Jager bombs.”
“Hey,” Violet said. Her smile was sweet again. “You going to tell your precious Kristine about this?”
Here Reese heard the tone of bitterness loud and clear.
“Behave and I won’t have to,” Reese said with an equally sweet smile before stepping back behind the bar.
The demons had a reason to be scared of Kristine. It wasn’t just that she had more power and magic than Reese had seen in an alpha in a long time, nor that she was fiercely loved by her pack members in a way that made her seem untouchable. It was also Cole.
Cole was the oldest demon that Reese had ever met and he considered Kristine a dear friend. If he found out that the demons were giving her a hard time, they would be very, very sorry.
The rest of the night passed without further incidents. Reese threw a few furtive looks in Violet’s direction, but from what she could tell, the demon had turned her attention to her friends and their pool game. Then they left thirty minutes before close.
“Good night, Reese.” Violet had winked on her way out. Minutes later, Reese heard the chorus of motorcycle engines rev to life outside.
Only then did the rope of muscle in her back relax.
They closed quickly. All the tabs were settled. The drawer was counted out and bagged. Bethany—a single-mother and witch with the local coven—bussed the room and Nick locked up.
Reese bid her coworkers good night and stepped out onto the cobblestone sidewalk.
She considered going home, putting on the television and taking a long, hot bath before falling into bed.
But despite her aching feet and back, her mind was too restless.
“A swim,” she said to no one in particular. “That would be perfect right now.”
It would do wonders for unfurling the tight coil of her mind too, which kept circling back to her demon ex-girlfriend and the drunken hellfire in her eyes when she’d been kissing that guy.
If she swam for a couple hours now, by the time she fell into her bed at four or five in the morning, she would sleep like the dead.
Reese walked three blocks to her red pickup parked in front of the closed froyo station. The truck still had some of the evening heat inside it as she climbed in and turned the key.
It rattled to life, grumbling like an old man who’d been awakened from a deep slumber.
She drove east until it connected with the main strip outlining Castle Cove University campus. Then she turned right, heading south. She’d drive out of town and take Canyon Road. There she could pull off and walk down to the water.
Following the ridge, Reese enjoyed the view of the white, frothy waves and luminous moon. It hung in the sky, bright with milk-white light. The waves crashing against the shore seemed violent. Then she remembered the scrap of conversation she’d heard from the booth in Alpha’s.
“A guy died, Trace. Fuck.” She’d tracked the voice to a booth against the far wall. Two guys and two girls had sat in it, nursing the long-necked bottles between them.
“I’m just saying it’s weird. Why wouldn’t they announce it? Why do they have to act like it’s a secret?”
“Maybe they don’t want to freak people out,” the woman had said. She’d turned her beer in her hands, her thumbnail picking at the label.
“If sirens were killing people, I’d want to know,” the other guy had agreed.
A guy died.
She hadn’t heard about anyone drowning or getting hurt in the water. Could they have been mistaken? Or had something happened that Ethan or the others were keeping quiet for the time being? Usually if true danger cropped up in Castle Cove, the police would issue a city-wide alert. There were too many humans living in Castle Cove not to put them on their guard. It was easy for drifters or new arrivals to miss these important updates, simply because they didn’t know where to look. However, long-time residents were savvy. They knew what dwelled within the city limits—let alone the ocean and woods bordering on all sides.
Reese pulled off Canyon Road and parked her car on the gravel shoulder.
Looking both ways, and seeing only moonlit pavement as far as the eye could see, she crossed the street to the beach. Carefully, she slid down the sandy dune to the wet-packed sand below.
The sharp smell of salt overtook her. Her skin prickled in anticipation. Each crashing wave against the shore seemed to call her magic to the surface of her skin. It danced as if alive.
Ocean spray misted against her skin.
“Just a minute,” she told herself as she shed her clothes. She folded them up neatly and put them on a jagged boulder at the base of the dune. They should stay dry there until she returned.
She waded naked into the surf. Cool water slapped against her calves and then her thighs. She shivered.
A trill of laughter caught her ears and she turned toward the sound of it. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and the distance. Even so, she could just make out three kids sitting on Heart’s Rock. They were playing chicken with the sirens no doubt.
Reese thought the rite of passage—the tradition of swimming from Hunter’s Beach to Heart’s Rock—was too dangerous. But who was she to say?
The water rose to her chest and she almost couldn’t contain it anymore. She gave herself over to the magic thrashing beneath her skin. Slipping beneath the wave, she transformed.
Her body softened and elongated. Her limbs merged with her torso, becoming a single lithe form of muscle. Two blinks and her eyes adjusted to the watery depths. Sensations radiated along her skin, taken in by her flesh in a way that her human skin could never manage.
Reese was a black-tipped reef shark.
She was a fixed shifter, meaning she took only one form, unlike the doorman Nick who was a chimera.
And in moments like this, when she was in her shark form and one with the water, she wondered if she’d ever really been human at all. Her life on the land slipped away, becoming little more than a dream in her mind.
She felt powerful here. Strong not only in body and speed but in spirit. She often wondered if there may come a day when she simply wouldn’t want to change back. What if she stayed in the ocean and lived here forever? She knew she could.
But that decision was for another day.
Reef sharks like herself preferred to trace the drop off, patrolling the place where the life-rich shallows met the deep expanse of sea. That had been her original aim when she’d driven to this stretch of beach after the exhausting night tending bar.
But now that she was here, she also had the option of swimming through the cove toward the kids. That was deeper water, and held some danger. But maybe the kids needed someone looking after them. After what the patrons had said about the sirens, maybe the kids were in danger.
Reese decided to stick with her original plan. She longed to patrol the moonlit waters along the drop.
So she swam south through the reef. She swam in a hypnotic rhythm as she slid along the ocean floor. Her body enjoyed the slow steady drag of the water over her skin. She felt weightless, becoming one with the currents.
The tips of her fins registered the moment the reef dropped away and only an expanse of ocean stretched out before her. She hooked right around the reef, tracing the outline of its slumbering form. Ethereal moonlight cut through the surface, ghostly beams illuminating the coral. Nighttime feeders darted into available nooks and crannies as she passed. No one wanted to be the evening meal for a reef shark.
She might be a predator in these waters, but reef sharks were small, comparatively. She was a little large for a reef shark, reaching six feet. But that was nothing for a tiger or bull shark that might come toward shore.<
br />
Castle Cove waters had the usual flora and fauna of a shallow reef ecosystem—and then also creatures that did not exist in other parts of the world. Apart from the shapeshifting sirens they also had a resident Bake-kujira, a skeletal ghost whale. Reese felt it in her electromagnetic field and could hear its long, mournful song. But she had not seen it with her own eyes. It was far out in the deep blue sea. Reese wasn’t interested in becoming someone’s meal just to satisfy her curiosity.
Apart from sirens and Bake-kujira, there were also undines who swam these waters. Undines were tricky little water demons. Playfully luring a human into a riptide, causing them to drown, was their idea of a good time.
But the ocean was quiet tonight. Reese saw nothing out of the ordinary as she swam the reef.
Until magic rippled across the water, and her sensors shifted into high alert.
A massive burst of magic ejected from somewhere overhead. She darted west, tracing the reef until it opened up, giving her a path to the shore.
Thunder rolled across the sky, intensifying the strange electric feelings cascading over Reese’s skin. The pressure in the ocean changed.
As inconspicuously as possible, she transformed from shark to human in the warm shallows.
Slowly, she stood up in the water, dripping. There, crouched beside a large boulder, was a dark-haired woman. Reese kept low, using another boulder to hide her position as she inspected the scene. Despite the heat, she wore black gloves, boots, and equestrian pants. She looked ready to ride a horse, not go for a swim.
Open on the sand in front of her was an enormous book. Something glinted, sparking with reflected moonlight.
A knife, Reese thought.
The storm raged stronger. A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the woman’s pale face and black eyes. She was whispering something to the dark, waiting.
Except nothing happened.
The woman cursed and threw the blade into the sand.
She stood and kicked the earth, sending a spray of sand arcing into the water. She gathered up her book, shook the sand from it and started to march away.
Night Tide Page 31