7. Beach Day Blues
Chapter seven
Beach Day Blues
Nicodemus
Odysseus was busying himself with setting up an easel and canvas on the glorious beach just outside our hotel, his dark hair whipping in the winds.
He gathered it together and strung it into a low bun at the nape of his neck, then went to work mixing paints on an old and heavily used palette he usually kept in a carrying case with his paint collection.
He held a brush between his lips as he sized up the pier to his right, and once he was sure he had the right angle, he began skillfully sketching out an outline for his next painting.
It was good to see him doing this again.
He had all but neglected painting since we returned to Valyce’s Realm, and I knew how important it was to him, so I wanted him to pick the hobby back up.
Praxis and Griffin were already in the water, bobbing along the surface as they playfully splashed one another.
Griffin kept picking Praxis up and swinging her in circles, eliciting lovely laughs from the future God of Wind that I could have listened to forever.
Her beautiful beach-blonde curls slipped through the wind she controlled, invigorating her as she and her boyfriend teased one another.
Sebastian was massaging suntan lotion into his now fiancé’s shoulders.
Soren was lost in thought as he enjoyed the feeling, his fiery red hair glistening a deep auburn under the radiating sun that blessed us this afternoon.
Sebastian kissed his temple with a giggle before sliding a pair of sunglasses on and lying across his lounge chair so his skin would bronze.
I was in my own chair a few feet from Odysseus, trying to keep my pasty skin from burning by huddling under an umbrella I borrowed from the hotel.
I tended to turn into a lobster when exposed to sunlight for more than thirty minutes, but that didn’t stop me from hanging out in just a swimsuit and sipping a margarita.
My hair brushed against my cheeks from the cool breeze enveloping the beach, and my sunglasses kept the glare from my eyes wonderfully.
We were all in our own slice of paradise, and accompanied by the buzz from my large drink, I couldn’t have asked for a better afternoon.
Akira sniffed at some pineapple slices I cut for him before wrinkling his nose at them, making me laugh and pick one up to bite into it.
“Come on, Akira, try something new! Pineapple is mighty tasty!” I coaxed.
He sniffed the piece I bit again before touching his tongue to the juice.
He gagged so violently that I expected bile to come up, then huffed and squirmed down the chair to sit between my legs again.
I burst into laughter at his reaction before shaking my head and going back to munching on the fruit happily.
After some time passed, and I was nearly asleep in my chair, Odysseus abruptly slammed his paint brush down and wiped some paint from his eyebrow. “That ought to do it!” He pranced over with his canvas and poked my cheek. “What do you think, love?”
I peered through my lashes at the extraordinary painting he had all but conjured in mere minutes. “Wow, you did that in an hour? We need to seriously start selling your work!”
“I had a lot of practice speed painting in France. I think it could use a little more definition, but I didn’t want to overdo it.
” He set the painting down and drew a spell into the air above it.
The piece dissipated, presumably going to our hotel room for safekeeping, before he sat on the edge of my chair and leaned in to kiss me tenderly.
“I think I’m going to join the fish out there in a swim. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
“I don’t like to swim in water that living things dwell in. Last thing I need is to step on a crab or a jellyfish…” I cringed at the memories from childhood, making him chuckle.
“If you say so.” He raced down the shore before diving into the ocean, resurfacing to join the splash war Griffin and Praxis were still in.
Their game continued for a while, full of unbridled screams of victory and the near drowning of Griffin when Praxis and Odysseus teamed up to dunk him under the water and hold him there.
No one was really paying attention to their surroundings or worrying about what was happening beyond their activities, so the slight rumble of the ocean floor didn’t faze anyone.
It was the sudden rush of waves cascading over the group in the water that really took them off guard.
Odysseus was the first to question what was causing them. “Ok, this is getting out of hand now. Nick, you know more about the ocean than we do. Is this normal? These waves are pretty… oof…! Intense!” he called out to me as he bobbed closer to the shore.
I shrugged warily. “Sometimes, I guess. Maybe there’s a small earthquake.”
“I would feel that in a heartbeat. This is… this is something, different.” Sebastian stood to cross the sand and place his hand on the ocean floor just below where the waves were crashing over his feet.
He flashed green eyes and pursed his lips.
“Hmm… no seismic activity that I can feel. Maybe we should have brought Xenobia after all?”
“Whoa! Something just swam by my leg, and it was NOT a fish!” Griffin exclaimed, turning in circles to try and locate what was circling him.
“This is why I don’t swim in the ocean!” I called out to them, pulling my margarita back over so I could take a big sip.
“Har, har, asshole! Seriously, that thing was big. We need to get out of the water, now,” Griffin called.
Praxis let out a scream before being yanked under the water in a flash, making Griffin and Odysseus yelp and scour the ocean around them for signs of her.
Sebastian, obviously terrified for his sister, propelled himself into the water and swam out to the group as fast as possible, in a full panic at this point.
He dove under the surface repeatedly trying to find her, but before he could, a long tentacle-like arm shot from the water and wrapped Odysseus in its grasp.
Sebastian and Griffin screamed like little girls as Odysseus struggled wildly, slamming his hands down on the tentacle that locked around his waist.
“UM, A LITTLE HELP HERE!” Soren yelled as he bolted for the shoreline.
I continued sipping my margarita, fixing my sunglasses on my nose. “You guys can handle an octopus,” I called, unamused.
“That thing has your fiancé, asshole! This is not a regular octopus!” Sebastian bellowed.
The tentacle holding Praxis jutted from the waves. She hacked wildly on air and reached for Griffin, who clawed up the long arm to try and free her.
Claude appeared behind me and smacked the back of my head. “You know damn well you can sense the demonic energy oozing from that thing! Go help them!” he barked like an overbearing parent.
I sighed through my nose. “Give me a minute. I’m almost done with my drink.”
“NICODEMUS!” all five of them screamed simultaneously as another tentacle broke through the water and came rushing for the shoreline.
It hovered above my lounge chair, waiting to choke me in its grasp, but I simply brought my glasses down.
“Guess I can’t ignore this anymore.” I took a long swig of my drink before the tentacle slammed down to the sand.
The demon looking to snatch me was surprised when it was empty-handed and decided to come from the ocean it was hiding within to see where I had gone.
The head of the giant octopus-like demon broke through the water, its glowing red eyes consuming those around it.
It threw its head back and screeched into the sky; the vibrations plumed demonic energy across the beach.
“Holy crap! What is that thing?” Odysseus whimpered, gasping in pain when the tentacle holding him tightened beyond belief. That gasp made my blood boil, and me start to take this a bit more seriously.
I reappeared on the shoreline from the smoke I had materialized as, still in my swimsuit, but holding my scythe in its three-blade form.
I pulled my sunglasses loose and tossed them on the chair, huffing in annoyance.
“I suggest letting go of my man before I get pissed!” I taunted.
The creature screeched in defiance, a signal it wasn’t going down without a fight.
I shrugged lamely, summoning my Shadows.
“Your loss, calamari.” I whistled loudly, the sound echoing through the air, before Akira changed into a magnificent Kelpie and bolted for the waves.
His hooves pounded the ground as he charged the demon, morphing into the ocean fluidly.
He swooped from the waves and snatched a tentacle between his teeth, and once the tentacle contacted his skin, the demon was locked onto him.
Akira tried to drag him back down to an opening in the ocean floor, which led to Gehenna, but the octopus was far from willing to go back.
It broke off its own tentacle just to get Akira off him and sent him flying across the ocean when it hurled the tentacle with all its might.
Akira let out a huff of anger and shook his head out, cutting me a look that read, ‘kill that thing before I kill you’.
I took his warning to heart.
I bolted across the burning sand and sprung upward, whipping my scythe up to position myself over the tentacles.
In one swipe, I cut the two holding Odysseus and Praxis, causing them to free fall into the ocean below.
Sebastian scooped them up and pulled everyone away from the water, rubbing their backs as they caught their breaths from the tight holds they were in.