Chapter 7
7
“Y ou’ve got to be shitting me,” I whispered as I jerked back from the window. But I’d seen the clown’s head turn my way, thought he might have seen me.
I doubt you’re new to my story, if you’re here on book eight, but let me remind you about these clowns. They’re not my friends, and they are certainly not funny. Not at all. Underneath all the makeup and wigs there are rat-faced boogeymen of the darkness set upon me to kill me.
Why? Well, there could be any number of reasons. The ones who sent them? The vampires in Europe who wanted me dead. But I’d thought I’d outrun the clowns coming home to Savannah.
Wrong again.
“We need to move,” I whispered. “I don’t have time to fight off a clown right now.”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Kinkly gasped. “Here?”
“Yes. Here.” I moved slowly to the front door and locked it as slowly and quietly as I could.
Damian was back on his feet. “What’s wrong with clowns?”
“They’re boogeymen,” Kinkly said.
He grimaced. “Damn. Someone really wants you dead, huh?”
“Story of my life,” I muttered as I took one last look at the room. There was something more to that message, there had to be. Gran had said that all the ingredients added up to something, even if it wasn’t something she knew about. Which meant the mixture was coming with me. I dropped—no, let’s be real, lowered—to the floor and crawled on hands and knees over to the spelling table. “Stay low.”
“You think that will help?” Damian laughed softly. “If it’s a true boogeyman, he’ll come right through that door if he thinks you’re in here.”
“Trying to slow the inevitable down.” I picked through the mess on the floor until I found one of Penny’s empty mason jars she used for her ingredients, still miraculously intact. Unscrewing the lid, I grabbed the spelling pot and poured the ashy mixture into it. Then I screwed the lid back on tight and tucked it into my bottomless hip bag.
“Why are you taking that with you?” Gran asked.
“Gran, not right now. Into my bag. You too, Robert.” I shook my bag. Gran slid in without too much protesting. Asking her to go in felt better than making her, as I’d done with Alan on more than one occasion. Robert tumbled to a single finger bone, and I scooped him up and tucked him into the bag.
Kinkly fluttered around the upper part of the window. “It’s on the stairs now.”
I grabbed the edge of the table and pulled myself to my feet. I wanted to slow the decision making down and alternately speed everything up. Because my friends were missing and in danger. Crash was in hell. And I was about to go hunting a monster that was apparently indestructible. The two goals worked together, but that didn’t make either one any easier. Not by a long shot.
“We need to find Marge.”
“What?” Kinkly shot up to my face. “Why?”
“Because now that we know what the monster is, we can find it and kill it. Then we can get the information from the demon that Marge said would tell us how to get into hell.”
Kinkly’s wings stuttered in mid-air, the fairy equivalent of stuttering. “I know I’m being repetitive, but what ?”
I could feel Altin’s words under my skin, driving me in a different direction. “The galloo needs to be dealt with, and then I will find Crash, come hell or high water.” Pun fully intended.
Damian’s face was tight. “I agree with the first part. So, let’s go monster hunting.”
He held out his hand and I set mine in it, giving him a firm shake as the door to my left burst open and the clown let out a high-pitched giggle. “Surprise!”
It released the balloon, which immediately floated up over our heads, headed for the high ceiling.
“Run! There are wicked hasps in there!” Kinkly shrieked.
I’ll admit, I was a bit slower on the uptake than Kink and Damian. And I had no idea what a wicked hasp was.
I was staring up at the balloon, seeing the small things moving around and wondering what in the hell a wicked hasp was for long enough that I watched the balloon burst and what looked like an entire nest of super small bees flew out, straight toward me.
Yeah, that wasn’t good.
Damian grabbed me and yanked me along behind him for the second time that day, through the kitchen, out the back door, and into the yard. “Keep running!” he bellowed. I stumbled to keep up at first, but then I got my feet and legs under me and started running as fast as I could. There wasn’t really an option. The spicy sky raisins behind me were giving off a steady angry humming that was certainly not a friendly drone of bees.
“Those hornets and wasps were bred by Karissa and given to someone as a gift!” Kinkly yelled as we fled the house. “They’ve been trained to follow your scent. Like tracking dogs!”
Jaysus, like we needed this.
Wasps that hunted you? Thank you very much, I think I’ll pass.
Only I couldn’t pass. I had to run and think about where the hell to go.
“The river!”
“Good call!” Damian yelled over his shoulder. “All three of us need to dive as deep as we can and swim as far as we can. Your scent will dilute!”
We barreled down the streets, running for all we were worth. I was pretty sure Damian could have outstripped my pace. But he held back so I could keep him in sight.
Sweat drenched my face, blurring my vision. “Kink, how close are they?”
“Twenty feet.” She zoomed along beside me and swept in to grab my ear. “Maybe a bit further, but not too close. When you get to the river’s edge, you need to jump in!”
And pray the tides were in our favor.
Down the cobblestone streets we ran, found a set of the suicide stairs, and I all but fell down them in my haste to get to the bottom, grabbing the side wall at the last moment in order to keep upright. Damian got to the river’s edge before I did and leapt way out, arms windmilling as he fell.
There would be no swan dive for me either. I hit the edge of the paved section of the bank and pushed off with all I had.
A moment of suspension and then I was falling straight down into the murky water.
Something stung me on the side of my neck as I fell, Kinkly shrieked, and then I was under the waves.
I swam, down and then out toward the center of the river. I wasn’t sure how long I could hold my breath, but maybe I could just gulp a bit of air when I needed it and go back under?
I blinked and the world kind of fuzzed. What was it about swimming that was so relaxing? So good for the soul.
I smiled and breathed in deeply, water into my lungs. Part of my brain was deadened by the sting of the wicked hasp, my neck throbbing, and my body floated in the current until a set of hands grabbed hold of me, dragging me along.
The next thing I knew I was being pulled out of the water and all but thrown onto a stone floor, the coolness of it seeping into me even in just the few seconds that I lay there gasping for breath.
I moaned and flapped my hand against my neck. It felt like my eyes were swelling shut. But I wasn’t allergic to stings. At least not that I knew of. Of course, these were no normal wasps. I moaned, barely aware of a voice and two sets of hands. Something pinched at my neck and then a cool compress was set against the spot where the stinger had gone in. I sighed.
“No rest for the wicked.”
Who was that? The voice was familiar, and I almost knew it but didn’t. My mouth was pinched open, and something slid down my gullet.
Whiskey, along with something herbal and sharp.
Fairy honey.
The liquid gold stretched through me, firing all my nerve endings, and striking a match to my adrenaline. It burned through something that had hung at the edges of my mind, like cutting through a tangled spiderweb. The last of the dampening spell, and the sting of the wicked hasp slid away, I lifted my hands, my eyes still closed.
I drew a deep breath, coughed out the last of the water. The space around me was dim, the sound of water washing up on the shore. But not like the other side of the river kind of shore. More like a cave. I blinked. An underwater cave by the looks of the dripping stone. It had to be buried deep into the side bank of the river then.
“Thanks, Damian.” I rubbed at my neck. “That was close.”
A masculine grunt. “New boyfriend?”
I jerked my head up to see Corb crouched beside me. We just stared at each other. Our last back and forth had not gone well, given Corb had abandoned all of us to the mercy of the Dark Council. So, did I thank him for saving me? Probably I should. Even if he was a limp dick. I’ll just take it as dues owed to me for putting up with him and saving his ass more times than he’d saved mine.
I spat out some of the river water and shook my head. “Demon.”
“I thought you said Damian.”
“Damian is a demon.” I shifted so I was sitting, my elbows on my knees. “What are you doing here?”
“Just…trying to make things right.”
I doubted that on every level of my consciousness, in every fiber of my being. But. But…Another voice added, “He promised me to help.”
I whipped around so fast I nearly fell flat on my belly. “Suzy?”
Her blonde hair was as bright and shiny as it had been before she was turned into a Melusine, her blue eyes sparkling. “Is this real? Or am I seeing things?”
She threw herself at me and I caught her in a tight hug. “It’s real. I’m here. I’m back!”
I pulled her even closer and promptly burst into tears. Suzy started crying too, and a moment later we were laughing through our tears as we hung onto each other. I’d truly thought we’d lost her and now…now she was here. When we needed her the most.
I pulled back so I could grab her shoulders, stare at her, and really see her. “I don’t understand how this happened?”
Her grin was sly. “Well. That involves Corb. He really is trying to make things right. He came to France. Being who and what he is, he was able to help me make the transition so I could switch back and forth between forms, just like I did before.”
I didn’t want to point out that he hadn’t come to France for her, but to hide from the Dark Council and their need of his siren’s cave aka his heart. I shot him a look and he shrugged.
“I realized that I could help her. I took that chance. I was mentoring her before, Bree. And I knew her loss was hard on you. All of you.”
I didn’t trust what he was saying, not really. There would be something self-serving under what he’d done, I was sure of it. I just didn’t know what. Not yet at least.
I was short on friends and help. I would accept both in whatever form they took. Even if that form was Corb.
“How else are you making things right?” I lifted both brows and stared up into eyes that I’d once admired.
He was crouched beside me. “Does it matter? I helped Suzy, that should count for something.”
“Kinda, yeah.” I looked around and then shot to my feet. “Oh duck me upside down! Kinkly was with me!”
“She flew off you just as you hit the water,” Suzy said.
“And Damian? Did he make it?”
“Boyfriend?” Corb asked again.
Jaysus. He just wouldn’t let it go, and I did not have the time or energy to make him suffer. “Not mine, no. He’s with Kinkly.”
Corb visibly relaxed. Idiot that he was, did he really think that he’d have any shot with me after everything? I hoped not. But jealousy is a funny thing, especially with some men. If they couldn’t have you, then they didn’t want anyone to have you.
“And the bees flew away,” Corb said. “They circled around where you dove in for a bit, but then they left.”
“They aren’t bees.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, belatedly realizing that it was the same gesture I’d seen Bramble make. It was uncomfortable to think we’d grown up together, and only she remembered it. “Look, things are about as bad as they have ever been here. I need to know whether you’re actually serious about helping.”
Suzy looked affronted, but I shook my head at her. “Not you, Suze. I would never doubt you. I meant the sea god wannabe over here.”
Corb spread his fingers across his chest.
“I’m stuck in a cave, deep under the Savannah River, surviving off crawfish and not much else. It’s not been exactly glamorous for me.”
“Well, that’s your own damn fault.” I didn’t even have it in me to snap at him. He was an ass, but he didn’t seem capable of real self-reflection. Not unlike Alan.
“I know.” He cleared his throat.
Suzy squeezed my hand. “So how bad is it?”
I shrugged. “The Dark Council has apparently brought in my cousin to complete the spell that will raise all the dead. My grandmother says Bramble’s such a powerful witch she makes the first witch look like a child playing games. They stole away all of our friends—including Eric—” Suzy gasped and put her hands to her mouth, “and are holding them hostage so I’ll do what they want. Crash is dead. I can go after him because he’s stuck in some sort of fae limbo—but no one knows the way into hell other than maybe a psychotic demon. And there is a galloo—monster of all monsters—loose in Savannah, and Marge wants me to help her hunt it and kill it. Oh, and those vampires who tried to kill me back in London? They are back, and that was the origin of the wicked hasps.” I took a breath and pursed my lips. “Take a guess which problem I’m starting with.”
Corb drew a breath as if to speak.
“No, it isn’t Crash.” I sighed. Suzy squeezed my hand a little tighter. Because she knew.
We hadn’t gone back for her when the world was on the line. We’d taken care of the world.
“That’s a surprise.” He frowned. “Why not?”
I steeled myself. “Because I have a city to protect and the Dark Council to stop. First the galloo. Then Bramble. Then Crash, because in saving Crash, I save everyone else too.”
Corb stood and held out a hand to me. “Okay, let’s go monster hunting.”
I did not take his hand. “We need to find Damian and Kinkly.”
“You’ll need to hold my hand,” Corb said. “If you hold your breath, Suzy and I can swim you to the top.” He paused and then dipped his head toward me. “I swear I will not try to seduce you.”
I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I suspected that I wouldn’t be able to get to the surface fast enough on my own. I set my other hand in his and he led me to a pool of water. The three of us dove in together, and I kicked as hard as I could to help them get us all to the surface.
Even with their help, my lungs were bitching at me by the time we got to the surface. We broke through, and I gasped in a big breath.
“brEE!” Kinkly’s scream wasn’t exactly music to the ears, but I smiled.
“Look who found me.”
“Freaking Corb,” she growled, followed quickly by, “Oh my goddess. SUZY!”
We swam to the shoreline where Damian waited, a frown on his face. “Who is this?”
Introductions were made all around as he helped me out of the water.
“Okay, so everyone knows everyone now. We need to find Marge,” I said as I tumbled up to the actual street. My ears were all but swiveling as I listened for the return of the hasps. If they were hunting me, I had to assume they might show back up.
“Do we?” Damian asked. “You think she can actually do the galloo any damage?”
“Galloo, where do I know that name from?” Suzy shook her head. “I think one of the other melusine talked about interactions with a galloo.”
“If you think of anything, be sure to fill us in,” Kinkly said. “The only thing we know for sure is that it is confined to the Savannah city border. So if it gets close to us, we need to run for it.”
Suzy nodded. “Corb has a car. Don’t you?”
Corb grimaced, but quickly caught himself. “I do. It’s fast.”
“It won’t matter,” I said. “We need to avoid the galloo until we figure out how to kill it.”
“One monster can’t be that bad,” Suzy offered. “We’ve taken on a lot more than that before.”
It was my turn to grimace. “True. And not true. We have taken on bigger in some respects, but this thing is…it’s not just a single monster, it’s like a Frankenstein of monsters, made up of all sorts of things that are tough and deadly.”
“So, a challenge then.” Suzy grinned. “How do we kill this monster? Where do we start?”