The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge, page 3
Clive was silent for a moment. None of my cars are appropriate for a teen with a new license. How about if we loan her the money to buy the car she wants.
Oh, I like that. Okay. I’ll talk with her when I get back. Thank you.
Of course. He paused again. You should also talk with your cousin Arwyn. From what Declan told me when we were trying to put out that fire at her gallery, she’s also dealt with stalkers all her life.
I walked across the parking lot and started down the stairs to the lookout. Good idea. And they both have a father who’s water fae. Arwyn’s other half is wicche, so there are spells she can do to protect herself. Meri’s mom is human. Still, though, there’s got to be some fae thing that’ll keep creeps away.
There was another long pause. I’m sorry, darling. If this is sorted now, I really need to go back to sleep. I’m having a hard time focusing.
Sure. I need to talk with you when you wake about something that happened at the wharf.
Hmm?
He was out. The worst part of these longer days was seeing less of Clive. Summer blew.
When I came down the stairs, Meri was waiting at the bottom, looking apprehensive. I patted her shoulder and then waved her back into the bookstore. Brow furrowed, Owen watched us go.
I had Meri follow me to the chairs by the window, motioning for her to sit. “I found him.”
Her eyebrows shot up as she looked me over, her gaze setting on my hand. “You have blood on your finger.”
I held up my hand to check and then let my claw slide out. “No. I have blood on my claw.”
Emotions flashed across her ethereal face: worry, anger, and finally a tentative hope that took the place of the defeat she’d been drowning in earlier.
I told her everything.
She whispered, “You made him pee himself?”
Shrugging a shoulder, I told her, “I’m very scary, Meri. I keep telling you, but you never listen.”
She giggled, as I’d hoped she would, her shoulders finally relaxing. “You really don’t think he’ll be out there when I go home?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. What I want you to do, though, is call me—or Fyr or Dave or Owen—if you even think you might be seeing his shadow around a corner. I guarantee you, all of us would look at it as a treat to go rough that guy up.” I glanced at my claw again. “Now you might be wondering, Sam, why aren’t you cleaning off that blood? Well, I’ll tell you. I want Fyr and Dave to have his scent. I want them to know who our enemy is. Okay?”
She nodded, eyes glassy with tears, and then she popped up and ran into the bar. She came back a moment later, carrying a clear bar towel. “Here. Use this to clean off and then we can put the towel in a baggie to keep it free from other scents.”
“Great idea.”
She left again before returning with a large plastic baggie. I dropped the towel in and she closed it up. “I’m going to go leave this on Dave’s desk. He’s usually the first to arrive. I can explain when he gets here.”
“Good call.” Watching her go, the tightness in my chest relaxed. She was taking control. She knew we were her weapons when she needed us, but she was the one in charge.
When she walked back in, she was grinning. “Fyr is going to be so mad that he wasn’t the one to scare that guy.”
I nodded. “Both Dave and Fyr will be pissed off they missed out. They’ll look forward to that call so they can have their own fun.” I didn’t want her to second-guess calling for help or to worry she’d be bothering any of us.
FIVE
Vlad Really Knows How to Clear a Room
“Okay.” I gestured to the chair beside me. “That takes care of one problem. The other is your need for a car, so you’re not left vulnerable to stalkers.”
Meri nodded. “I’m getting close. I saved the money I made working at the Bubble Lounge too.”
“Clive and I want to help. We’re going to loan you the money you need to buy a good, safe car now and you can pay us back a little every month.”
Meri was already shaking her head. “I couldn’t. I don’t want—”
“So you know,” I interrupted, “I opened The Slaughtered Lamb when I was your age. I’d lost my mom. I’d been attacked and was covered in scars. I had no family and no place to go. I was dumped in this city to stay with a woman I’d never met before but who they told me was a friend of my mom’s. Clive loaned me the money to build this place, giving me a safe space to heal and a life I grew to love. We all need help sometimes. There’s no shame in letting someone lend a hand.”
After a long pause, she nodded, her lavender eyes beginning to sparkle. “I can get my own car soon?”
“Absolutely. You said you were close. How much do you need?”
She scrunched her nose. “Is seven thousand too much? That should cover it and be enough to pay the tax and license stuff they add on.”
I patted her hand. “When Dave comes in, I’ll have him transfer money from my account to yours. He does the payroll around here. He’ll do it faster than me.”
Meri’s grin was so wide, I felt the last dregs of my outrage draining away.
Leaning back in the chair, I watched the ocean swirl against the window. “I know I’m—what—eight years older than you, but I just got my driver’s license too. Clive, of course, bought me some ridiculously expensive vehicle I’m too scared to drive, so instead I use a small, safe sedan that doesn’t make me feel too overwhelmed.”
Meri nodded quickly. “I’ve been researching cars for a while. It needs to be small, so I can find parking. I don’t want a manual. I had to drive one in driver’s training, and I about had a heart attack when I had to stop on Bradford Street and then start again. Even the instructor was white knuckling it.”
I swallowed. “I’ve never driven that one myself, but I was in the car when Clive drove it in one of his manual sports cars.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’ve had nightmares about that one. It’s like a forty-five-degree angle.” I shook my head, not wanting the thought to become lodged in there. I didn’t want another nightmare where the street got steeper and steeper while the car I was in tumbled backward to the bottom.
She held up her hands. “Never again. Anyway, there are car dealerships with used cars in Colma. Maybe my mom can take me this weekend to look.”
“I don’t know how you feel about this,” I began. “You’ve never met Clive, since you usually leave before nightfall, but if hanging with a vampire doesn’t bother you, I can ask him to car shop with you. The man knows everything there is to know about them and he’ll help you find a good one.”
She bit her lip. “Will you be there too?”
“Of course. If that wigs you out at all, Dave could do it too. You’ll just need to brace for snarly cussing.”
She rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t scare me.”
“Nor should he.” My relationship with Dave was complicated, but that had only happened recently. For the last seven and a half years, he’s been my red-skinned, black-eyed, grumpy uncle who hated everyone else but tolerated me. It still hurt to know things I wish I didn’t, but I’d trust him to protect Meri. “If Dave goes with you, you’re going to end up with a very loud muscle car. He can’t help himself.”
She laughed.
“Okay, and the last thing on the Meri agenda is to ask if I can have you speak with my cousin Arwyn. She’s half water fae and half wicche. Like you, she’s gorgeous and has had to deal with predators since she was little. Can I call her and have you talk with her? She might have suggestions that will help.”
Meri sat up straight. “Really? I’ve talked with my Aunt Nerissa and my cousins at the Bubble Lounge.” She stared down at her hands in her lap for a moment. “None of them have the same problem I do. I mean, some humans are interested and hit on them, but it’s not…”
“It’s not obsessive violence masquerading as devotion?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Do you really think your cousin could help me?”
“Only one way to find out.” I pulled out my phone and dialed. Once I’d explained to Arwyn what was going on, I handed Meri my phone and went out to the bar.
Owen slid a cup of tea to me. “Everything all right, boss?”
I took a sip. “Mostly. Meri can tell you why I sprinted out of here, if she wants.”
While he brewed a fresh pot of tea for the wicches, I drew a flagon of mead for Grim, my dwarf regular who’d been sitting on the last stool at the bar since the first day I opened. I heard his very distinctive thump-slide footsteps on the stairs. My human-sized stairs were too tall for dwarfs. Now that I was thinking about it, that might have been why he was always so snarly.
“Good afternoon, Grim. I hope you’re having a good day.” I slid the flagon to the last stool as he stomped across the bar and then hopped up on his seat. He grunted his acknowledgement and took a big swig.
I went back to the kitchen, got the rest of the cookies, and came out to offer him one. His bushy eyebrows crashed down, appearing offended by the question. He ignored me and took another drink. I strolled back to the other end of the bar as Owen was returning and offered one to him.
“Those are delicious,” he said, taking one. “I had one earlier. I have to ask Dave for the recipe. Mom would love them.”
More patrons started down the stairs and Owen and I got back to work. Although I opened at noon, we usually didn’t see an uptick in customers until around two. I left Meri to cover the bookstore while Owen and I served the bar.
Dave arrived at four and Meri ran into the kitchen to let him know what was going on. She’d returned my phone at some point, thanking me for introducing her to Arwyn. Meri looked lighter and happier than I’d ever seen her. A weight had been lifted.
Around five, Dave came out to update the menu board posted outside the kitchen. Chili and cornbread tonight. Dave wore a glamour when he was above where humans could see him. Up there he was a muscular, bald Black man. Down here, he didn’t try to pass for human. He was half-demon and he looked it, with dark red skin and shark-black eyes.
Leaning against the bar sink, he crossed his arms over his chest and quietly asked, “Was that really all that happened?”
The bar was crowded and noisy. As of right now, Dave and I were the only ones here with sensitive hearing, so our murmured conversation was private. “I wanted to kill him.”
He nodded, not looking at me. “I doubt she even knows, but she has a talent, a fae trick, for getting people to care for her.”
I turned to him, brow furrowed.
He moved a beefy shoulder. “She’s a sweet kid. Like I said, I doubt she even knows, but I feel it when she’s around. I haven’t talked to Fyr about it—we’re not close like that—but he is extremely protective of her.” He glanced down at his shoes and then said, “I was watching him. The fact that he constantly volunteers to drive her around was making me uncomfortable. He’s almost thirty and she’s seventeen. I didn’t know if his captivity as a child was screwing with his head and his idea of appropriate relationships, or what.”
“Do you know something?” Fyr would be out of here today if he was preying on a teenager.
Dave shook his head. “Nah. The two of them have a brother-sister thing. I think her fae magic makes him more eager to look out for her. That’s all.”
I blew out a breath.
“I do think that’s why she doesn’t work at the Bubble Lounge anymore. Working for her aunt seems like the obvious place to be and I’d imagine her aunt can pay her better than you can. She talked about her cousins being jerks to her. My guess is they feel her magic, recognize it, and resent her for using it on them. I honestly don’t think she even knows she’s doing it or how to control it.”
He smirked at me. “She tells me you’re loaning her money for a car.”
I dropped my head into my hands and heard him laugh.
Patting my shoulder, he added, “Don’t feel bad. I only know because I offered the same thing, and she told me you’d beat me to it.” He shook his head. “The kid does need a ride. She’s giving off some kind of vibe that makes the weak-minded go nuts. It’s not safe for her to be walking the streets. The issue is we need to find someone who can teach her how to control her magic.”
“I connected her with Arwyn. Maybe she can work with her.”
Dave nodded slowly, watching the waves. “Arwyn knows more about her wicche side than her fae side, but I don’t feel the need to protect her, so if she has the same talent, she’s learned how to hide it. Good plan.” He turned and walked back into the kitchen.
When the sun began to set, Vlad walked out of the back and sat on a stool at the bar. The volume of conversations dropped the minute he walked through the kitchen door. Patrons watched him out of the corners of their eyes.
A table of wicches near the stairs got up, waving nervously at me as they headed up and out. I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“What?” he asked, as though he didn’t know.
Another table quietly skirted around him and disappeared up the stairs.
“You are ruining my business,” I hissed behind gritted teeth.
He raised his eyebrows at me and turned to the side to watch five more people escape. “I have no idea what you mean. I haven’t done anything. I merely sat in your establishment. If your patrons realized it was time to go home, that’s hardly on me.”
“Will you be purchasing anything this time?” I asked.
Expression haughty, he replied, “Unless blood donors have been added to the menu, I think not.”
Dave walked out, carrying a tray with bowls of chili and baskets of cornbread. He stopped, scanned the rapidly emptying bar, and then turned to Vlad. “Couldn’t you have waited until after I served dinner?”
Vlad glanced over his shoulder at the nearly empty bar and then at Dave’s tray. “I could have, but I was bored.”
SIX
Let the Investigation Begin
“Remind me the next time I say I’m bored that spending time with the two of you is not the solution.” Vlad stopped to scratch under Fergus’ chin as he walked in the front door of our house.
“No one invited you,” I reminded him.
“Nonsense,” he said. “I’m welcomed wherever I go.”
Clive closed the door with a huff of amusement. “If you recall, I did warn you that shopping for a teen’s first vehicle would hardly be interesting.” Dressed in charcoal slacks and a snowy white linen shirt—the man had a million white dress shirts—he looked too formal for an evening of wandering around car dealerships. That was my husband, though. He was a heartstopper, with dark blond hair, stormy gray eyes, and a face and body chiseled to perfection. He was also a thousand-year-old vampire who wore suits like a second skin. Vampires were a strangely formal lot.
Vlad leaned into his reputation and wore only black, all day, every day. He had dark shoulder-length hair that was perpetually tied at the nape of his neck and an oversized, rather ridiculous, mustache that somehow worked on him. Black eyes completed his Nosferatu look.
I let Fergus out into the back garden, and the men followed. It was a soft night. “Can I get anyone anything?”
Clive sat on the love seat and shook his head. When I glanced at Vlad, Clive chuckled. “Did you miss that, darling? Vlad kept wandering off to get himself a snack. He’s fine.”
I gave Vlad my squinty suspicious look. “I thought you and Cadmael promised to be good while you visited.”
Vlad, sitting in a chair to the side, brushed dog hair off his trousers. “Don’t be ridiculous. No one was harmed in the making of my meal. And they were as bored as I was, shuffling around with their tired, bloodshot eyes, staring at sticker prices they couldn’t afford, lost in thoughts of mounting bills.”
“He didn’t take much from any donor,” Clive said, “and he even slipped some cash in their pockets.” He grinned at Vlad. “That was almost kind. Very unlike you, old man.”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to.” Vlad glanced around at the outside wall around our backyard. “And you’re certain our voices don’t carry?”
“Yup. We’ve tested it a few times.” I went back in to get myself a soda. When I came out and sat beside Clive, he was explaining to Vlad about all the warding the house had.
“And I happen to know that when Garyn was in the city, she sent people to break in. They couldn’t. Even she—”
Clive, who had his arm around me, squeezed my shoulder to shut me up.
I turned to him. “He knows what I can do.”
“Yes,” Vlad said, “but he doesn’t like it when you remind me.” Fergus dropped his head in Vlad’s lap and Vlad almost smiled as he began stroking the top of my dog’s head. “I’ve told you before. I would never hurt your wife.” Lifting his head to stare at Clive, he finally said, “It was my suggestion to kill everyone in Budapest who could have put her at risk. Surely that affords me a modicum of trust.”
Clive’s hand had gentled on my shoulder, his thumb brushing back and forth. I felt his gaze on me a moment before he said, “I trust no one where Sam is concerned.”
I opened my mouth to argue such an over-the-top comment, but Vlad cut me off. “No. He’s right. We’ve both lived long enough—though he much longer than me—to know how common it is to be betrayed by those we trust.”
“And trusting someone with my own life,” Clive murmured as he leaned in to kiss my temple, “is very different from trusting someone with yours. It’s your decision, though. I shouldn’t have tried to silence you.”
I kissed his jaw. I don’t have to tell him if it worries you.
His hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my head, his fingers digging in and massaging my scalp under my braid. I turned to mush when he did stuff like that. Tell him whatever you’d like, darling.
I turned back to Vlad and then pointed over our back wall. “Garyn was on the roof of the house next door. Fergus and I were sitting back here. I felt her near and went looking. What she saw when she looked into our garden was—I don’t know—like an oil slick in moonlight. And it was up there.” I pointed into the sky. “Like we have a dome over our property, keeping eyes and ears out. Multiple of her vamps tried to jump over our walls. All of them were thrown back. We’re safe,” I ended on a smile.
