Chapter 36
Kiora
I SMILED AT THE CASHIER , and it was real this time, more real than anything in the last six years. “Thank you.”
I pocketed the price tag of the shirt I was already wearing—a Hello Kitty shirt. My pink, girly outfit was so terrifyingly me that for a moment I could almost believe I was still that girl. But Kiora Davis was dead. No, not dead, Kiora Davis had never existed.
The sealskin bag strapped to my thigh was a silent reminder of who I’d become—the new me, the me who refused to be afraid.
I walked through the empty street. Erie was one of those cities that had few pedestrians. During my time as a truck driver, I had only stopped here a couple of times, but I made it a point to remember where I could blend into the crowd and where I needed to get a car to remain invisible.
My first two stops today had been of the invisible variety, and the tests I had run with the skin had been invisible. Now, it was time to get noticed.
The beach was only a few blocks away. I could walk that distance in no time.
I had always wanted to check out the beach here. It was a lake, so the water wasn’t ideal for me, but the peninsula the beaches were located on was longer than the whole city. That won the city some major points.
The moment I got to the peninsula, I turned into the wooded area. Just beyond it was the first patch of sand and water as far as the eye could see.
There, just beyond the horizon, was Canada. I could swim there to get away. Not that changing countries would help me escape a world-wide criminal organization. No, there was only one way to get away from them.
I walked along the waterline, letting the waves kiss my toes. The water temperature begged me to let my fluke out and go for a swim, but I resisted the urge. The last thing I needed was to freak everyone out by doing it in such a public place.
A gorgeous couple walked a dozen or so feet behind me, chatting quietly. Someday, I might be able to walk like that with Troy, if he decided he wanted me.
He didn’t seem to be upset with me over the whole drugging him incident, but he also hadn’t tried talking to me about anything that had happened between us. The familiar ache settled in my chest as I reminded myself that he wasn’t mine and had never promised to be mine. It had been a fling.
I veered toward the trees again. They went deeper in this area, and there was a smaller, more private road leading to this stretch of the sand. From what I had seen of the peninsula earlier this morning, that’s how the road would be for a long while.
The couple followed me. Was this it? Had they come for me?
But as they reached the road, they hopped into the car parked on the shoulder, and drove away. So, they weren’t really following me, just walking in the same direction. Pity.
How much longer would I have to walk the beach?
The answer came in a form of a blow to the head. I crumpled. Darkness crept in around the edges, but it didn’t claim me, not completely.
I groaned as strong arms lifted me and shoved me into the open door of a nearby van. Waves, let Troy be somewhere near. Let him be watching over me but let him wait.
“What’s this?” a goon who was already in the back seat asked as he inspected the bulge under my pant leg.
He grabbed for my waistband, and I used what little strength I had to kick him in the face. It connected with his nose, and I grinned at the crunch of the tiny bones.
He grabbed my ankle and squeezed. Waves, that wasn’t human strength. What the hell was he?
I tried to wrench my leg free, but he held me tight and pulled my pant leg up to reveal the sealskin bag.
“Well, look at that,” he purred, his disgusting hand still on me but unclasping the bag.
I roared and thrashed until he squeezed the bag tight in his fist, squeezing it like he could strangle me by doing that. Immediately, I fell silent. My heart hammered, and I let out a pitiful whine.
“That’s better.” He held out the bag to show his two buddies in the front seat. “Looks like we got lucky. Her selkie side manifested.”
They laughed at me, at my helplessness, at all the selkies they had exploited.
“Give it here,” The brute who had struck me said, reaching for the bag.
And then he left the car. With the sealskin bag. Why hadn’t I considered they would separate us?
Kitty roared her rage, but there was nothing we could do now, and even if we could, Kitty and I had agreed on this plan.
Mom’s face flashed before my eyes. She had been such a terrified, miserable creature for the first sixteen years of my life only to turn into the happy, brave woman she had become. That’s what taking the sealskin did to her and countless other selkies. That’s what these men wanted to do to me by separating me from my sealskin.