Chapter 5 Reconnaissance Mission
FIVE
Reconnaissance Mission
“Why don’t we just go there right now?” Arwyn asked. “Let’s go see what we’re dealing with.”
Declan’s arm around her tightened. “You were exhausted before you came here. It’s late and you need sleep.”
“We all need sleep,” Arthur grumbled. “Nick and I are back on roll in a few hours.”
“I don’t,” I said. Glancing between them, I added, “Nocturnal. I can go back and see if I notice something different in full dark.”
Nick looked uncomfortable. “It was scaring you in the sunlight. I don’t like the idea of you going back on your own.”
“She can fly,” Arthur reminded his cousin before turning his attention to me.
“I’m not agreeing you should do this on your own because I don’t think you should.
You about gave us all a heart attack last time, when you went hunting for that damn serial-killing fae on your own.
You’re an adult, though, and one who can fly.
I’m not going to tell you you can’t surveil the bridge, but I will say that I think it would be better if you waited for us.
” He turned to the others. “We should all go together tomorrow night.”
“I’m supposed to be meeting with the pack,” Declan said.
“That’s not until late,” Arwyn reminded him.
“Yeah, but who knows how long this will take. It’s the full moon tomorrow. I can’t reschedule a moon run.” He rubbed his hand over his face in frustration.
“Go,” she said, patting his knee again. “We can handle it without you.”
His hand dropped and he looked at her like she was nuts. “I’m not letting you run off into danger without me.”
“Letting?” she echoed, eyebrows raised.
Arthur growled. “You two bicker on your own time. It’s been a long day and I’m tired.”
Declan sighed. “I’ll figure it out.”
They all stood and began moving toward the back door. Arwyn paused beside me. “Thank you for letting us take over your shop again.” Her hand flew up, barely covering her yawn.
“She’s been killing herself trying to finish a huge commission,” Declan began. “She hasn’t been resting enough.” He nodded to me as he walked her toward the back. “Straight to bed. We need you awake and alert tomorrow.”
Nick hung back, his warm brown eyes filled with concern. “You could still open. Some of your customers might be awake and in need of a book.”
Glancing up at the clock on the wall, I nodded. “That was a quick meeting. They barely stayed thirty minutes.”
He shrugged one beefy shoulder. “We usually get a couple of days’ notice before a meeting. We can adjust our schedules, take naps, whatever. I called for the meeting today, so they were dragging. Me too, if I’m being honest.”
He reached out and brushed a hand down my arm. “If you really want to go back right now, though, I’ll go with you.”
I shook my head. “No. Go home and get some sleep.”
At the back door, he paused, almost leaning in to me before he caught himself. “Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Nodding, I waved him off and then locked the back door.
I picked up the empty plate and water glasses, put them in the dishwasher, then tried to decide what to do.
I could open, as Nick suggested, but I’d already given Jeremy his book.
No one else was expected and most of my customers arrived by midnight if they were coming.
I could start a new book. The fact that I’d finished one last night and still hadn’t started another was unheard of.
I reached for the overhead pendants and then stopped.
I wasn’t in the mood to read—a singular experience in my life.
I worried about other animals like Maisie and all those other bones under that bridge.
I was already mounting my stairs before I’d accepted my decision.
I knew, even if the rationalizing portion of my brain had yet to catch up.
My turret bedroom was dark, and I left it that way. I saw better in the dark than the light. Quickly undressing, I felt a momentary fire sweep through me as I shifted to feather and claw before I was soaring out the window and into the night.
Owls are silent flyers. It was what made us such excellent hunters. They never heard us coming. The cold ocean air rushed over my wings as I scanned the ground below. Senses alive, no sun to burn my eyes, I was in perfect harmony with the world.
I caught movement—a small rabbit—but continued on. I didn’t have the time for a meal. It was a long flight and the closer I got, the more uneasy I felt. I was an apex predator, but I didn’t think that mattered with whatever lived under that bridge.
The woods were quiet, far more quiet than they should have been at this hour.
When I arrived, a chill ran under my feathers.
Circling high in the air, I scanned the rocks and water for the bridge dweller.
I couldn’t see him, so I flew lower. Still nothing.
I did, however, notice a backpack bobbing in the rising tide.
A wave washed it off a rock and dragged it out of the inlet toward the open ocean. Swooping down, I plucked it from the water, flying it up to the clifftop and dropping it beneath a tall pine. This wasn’t a pet collar. A backpack meant human.
Ocean spray from the crashing waves coated my feathers as I flew under the bridge, searching for the invisible outline I’d seen earlier. Nothing. I tried a few more times and then flew to the pine where I’d dropped the backpack, landing on a well-insulated branch to wait and watch.
Perhaps it was out hunting again.
The sound of the roaring ocean settled my nerves.
After a bit, I began noticing other sounds.
The creaking and shushing of branches in the wind surrounded me.
What was missing, though, were the skitters, squeaks, trills, snuffs, growls, and thumps that belonged here.
I knew the sound of a healthy forest. This wasn’t it.
As the sky showed the barest hints of dawn, the lowering tide left the inlet with drying rocks. My mind was wandering through books, with the occasional interruption of Nick’s warm eyes and distracting dimples, when I felt rather than heard something approaching.
Ruffling my feathers, I scanned the ocean and the tree line, not knowing his natural habitat. Headlights appeared in the distance. A pressure was building in my head, but I couldn’t see that telltale hazy outline yet.
As the lone car neared, a shimmer of air appeared in its headlights.
The sound was immediate and deafening. The sedan had to have been driving at least sixty miles an hour when it smashed into nothing and accordioned as though it had hit a wall.
The shimmer of air swirled and the car flew off the side of the cliff, straight down into the water.
I shot up into the air and flew over the shimmer as it made its way up the road to the bridge. The car was nose-first in the water. The rear tires appeared to have been caught on rocks, but the interior of the car was underwater.
I speared through the water and found the driver unconscious in a rapidly filling car. Shifting, I grabbed for the door. It was jammed closed. Shifters are nothing if not strong, so I braced my legs against the side of the car and yanked hard.
I had to do this quickly. I needed air, but I’d already broken the seal on the door and water was rushing in twice as fast. Muscles straining, I pulled until it finally gave with a horrible screeching sound. I tried to haul the man out, but his buckle kept him in place.
I reached across, unlatched the belt, and dragged him up. Kicking hard, I broke the surface and gulped air, doing my best to keep his bloody head above water.
A wave shoved us into the rocks and I twisted, taking the hit. Damn, that hurt. Thankfully, the splash to the face woke him up. Groaning, he started to move his arms and legs, helping to keep himself afloat. I got us closer and then pushed him up onto the rocks.
Eyes glazed, he turned to me in the predawn murk and stared. “What’s happening?”
We were swamped by another wave. “Hold onto the rocks. You need to climb up.”
One of his eyes was so dilated, it looked black. That wasn’t good. “Wait. Why are you naked?” he asked.
“Mermaid.” I shoved him up and out of the water.
The look of confusion and wonder on his face was too much. He climbed a bit higher, wiping blood out of his eye. When he turned his head the other way, he saw his car. “I had an accident?”
I didn’t know what to say. As far as his insurance was concerned, sure. It was an accident. It wasn’t as though I could tell him he’d crashed into an invisible supernatural being. Still in the water, I was trying to decide if I should shift now or wait for him to make it up and back onto the road.
When he was about halfway up the rocks, he looked over his shoulder, squinting in the low light, studying me. “Are you really a mermaid?”
I grinned. “Not really.”
The air swirled and the hazy outline of an outsized arm swung over the ledge, snatching the concussed man off the rocks.
There was a strangled scream and then the top half of his body disappeared.
Blood ran down his severed torso before that too was flipped into the air and disappeared along with the rest of him.
The sounds of crunching bones and smacking lips make my stomach roll.
I pushed up onto a rock, let the fire race through me, and speared into the air.
As I crested the cliff, the air swirled around me and a big, invisible mitt tried to grab me.
Clawing and dipping, I maneuvered away, though he did rip out a couple of my tail feathers.
The sky was pinking at the horizon as I flew back up the coast. I knew more now, and knowledge was good. I had to keep telling myself that as the horrible sounds of that poor man being eaten were echoing through my mind on a loop.