Page 18 of The Mermaid’s Bubble Lounge (Sam Quinn #8)

EIGHTEEN

An Unpleasant Walk Through the Folly

“Let me do a little research,” Bracken said. “I’ll get back to you once I have something helpful.”

“Thank you,” I said and disconnected.

While Dave and Clive discussed the pooka possibility, I went to the dining room window and looked out on the dark, empty road and park beyond.

I didn’t see anything at first. The trees were blowing in the wind off the ocean, but I didn’t see—there it was.

A black cat sitting by the trunk of a huge tree, right between me and the bar entrance. Shit.

“Hey, Clive?”

Not a moment later, he wrapped his arms around my waist. “I see him.”

“Oh. That statue cat over there?” Dave asked, looking out the kitchen window.

“Yep.” It gave me the creeps.

“I know this is a big ask,” Clive began, “but I need you to change how you get to work. No more running across the green and down the stairs. You and Fergus can go through the folly.”

“And no jogging,” Dave added. “It’s too dangerous until we figure out how to kill him.”

“And is there a reason the menfolk think they have a right to tell me what I can and can’t do?” I was trying really hard not to be annoyed.

Clive kissed my ear. “Sorry, darling, but he has clearly taken an interest in you. He spoke to you, planned to kill you, and instead you cut off a hand and stabbed him in the chest.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “You just tried to slice him in half with my axe.”

“Yes, and I missed.” He tightened his arms around me. “I don’t like it when deadly creatures take an interest in you.”

Dave chuffed a laugh. “Pot. Kettle.”

I gave him a dirty look, not that he noticed.

Clive kissed my neck. “That’s my fear. Did my taking an interest in you alter the path of your life to a far more deadly one?”

I turned in his arms. “My sorcerer aunt was trying to kill me long before I met you. Then there was my—what—half cousin who attacked me. My life was messed up B.C. Before Clive.” I went up on my toes and kissed him.

“I’m out of here,” Dave muttered.

I broke away. “Wait. Not the front door. It’s too obvious. If he wasn’t watching when you arrived, there’s no need for him to see you now.” I pointed to the back door. “Go out that way, hop the wall, and then come around the corner, like you’re leaving someone else’s house.”

“Yes,” Clive said. “We’ll watch from here. See if he moves.”

Dave changed directions. “Fine.” He left and a few minutes later jogged around the corner, got into his car, and drove away.

When I looked back at the green area for the cat, my heart stopped. The silhouette of a large, muscular bald man now stood beneath the tree.

Clive pulled me away from the window. “Please, love. Don’t go out there. I’m bloody useless fifteen hours a day in the summer. Until we figure out how to deal with this thing, I need you to stay away from him.”

I rubbed my hands up and down his arms. “Yeah. I can do that.”

He kissed me. “Why don’t you go to bed now. You need sleep. I’ll contact Cadmael and Vlad. There’s no point in them standing around the wharf when we know he’s across the street.”

I nodded and slapped my thigh. “Come on, Fergus. Let’s go to bed.” Unfortunately, it took a long time for me to finally fall asleep and when I did, I was plagued with nightmares about the pooka wearing my likeness to attack others.

I woke to my phone alarm buzzing. I rarely ever needed the alarm; I usually woke early on my own.

Not today, though. I didn’t think I finally slept peacefully until Clive came to bed right before dawn.

Consequently, I was exhausted and pissed off that this damn pooka was having a grand old time being a murderous psycho. Asshole.

After dragging myself out of bed, I got cleaned up and dressed. Half asleep, I held onto the rail and made my way down the stairs. Fergus went to his water bowl and then sat, waiting for his food bowl to be filled.

“You look like hell.”

I jumped, my heart stuttering to a stop before galloping out of control. Vlad sat in the darkest corner of the den, watching us. “What the flip, dude? Unlike some, I actually need my heart to work. Stop scaring the shit out of me.”

I could swear I saw a smirk under that giant mustache. I remembered my dreams and took my axe out of the sheath as I moved toward him. “Tell me something only you and I know.”

Tilting his head to the side, he watched me. “Oh, yes. Of course.” He had Vlad’s Romanian accent. “Clive and I killed every member of the Guild in Budapest.”

I replaced my axe. “Shh. We don’t need that getting out. Next time, pick a less top-secret detail.” On an eye roll, I went back to the kitchen to feed Fergus.

I needed to eat something too, but I wasn’t feeling great. Worrying and nightmares had messed with my appetite. I opened the back door for Fergus and then scanned the refrigerator for anything I thought my stomach could handle. Maybe I should have soup for breakfast.

I closed the fridge and then turned to the kitchen window, pushing up a slat of the closed blinds, letting in a shaft of sunlight. I scanned the front of the house and the green across the road.

There was no cat that I could see, but there was a woman sitting under the tree reading.

A man jogged past, adjusting his headphones.

And older man walked his dog up the road, moving past where I could track him.

Was he any of these people? The dog, perhaps?

I stared at the tree and saw a squirrel facing this direction.

Was that him? Had he killed again last night?

“I thought werewolves needed to eat often,” Vlad said from his corner. “Why aren’t you eating?”

Ignoring his question and the sick feeling in my gut, I said, “He could be anyone. How—how do we kill something that can look like anyone, that can shift to heal whatever we manage to do to him?”

“Will we arrive at the answer to that question faster if you’re tired and weak from hunger?” he asked in reply.

I shook my head, still staring out the window, and remembered why I felt so sick this morning.

I’d had a dream where Clive approached me, but he was a little off.

There was something not quite right. I’d thought he was the pooka and had swung for his head with my axe.

There was a look of pain and shock and then a pile of vampire dust dropped to the floor at my feet.

When I woke, I assured myself Clive was fine. I knew he was sleeping, but I couldn’t shake the horror of what I’d done in my nightmares. “How do I know who the bad guy is?” My stomach twisted, remembering the look of hurt and betrayal on my husband’s face before he turned to dust.

“You should probably get something to eat, and we can discuss it,” Vlad said.

Fergus trotted back in and I closed and locked the back door, closing the curtains so we were plunged into full dark. I went back to the kitchen, deciding Vlad was right. I pulled a few meat sticks out, took a bite, and slapped my thigh.

“Let’s go to work, bud.”

Vlad was suddenly blocking me. “You can’t go out there. As you said, we have no idea which guise he’s currently wearing. It’s not safe for either of you.”

I shook my head. “Real nice. Bring Fergus’ safety into it to get your way. We’re not going out the front,” I told him. “We’re heading in through the folly.”

“Oh,” he said, walking across the room to pop the door for the elevator. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll go with you.”

We took the elevator down to the garage and walked past a showroom of sports cars.

Vlad gestured to all the very expensive vehicles. “Does this concern you?”

I shook my head. “Clive loves cars. He told me that when one is as old as he is, it’s easy to lose interest in everything. He calls these his weakness, but they’re what bring him joy, so why not have as many as he wishes? I want him to be happy.”

Vlad made one of his thoughtful hmms. “Has he purchased one since you moved in?”

I paused to look around the garage. “I don’t think so.

” I pointed to the insanely beautiful and expensive Mercedes-Maybach.

“He bought me that one when we got married. I have yet to drive it.” I shook my head.

“I’m terrified of scraping it up. If I ever got locked out and have to sleep in the garage, though, I’m heading straight for that back seat. It’s so insanely luxurious.”

We went through the heavy metal door into the folly. On this end, it looked as though we were walking into a cave, the walls roughhewn, the ground appearing to be packed dirt. The tunnel twisted and turned before the first of the folly worlds opened up.

The smell of salt air and the roar of the surf filled the tunnel.

Fergus ran onto the island, the ocean hitting the shore in the distance.

He dug in the sand under the tall palm trees before running back to us.

The dragon builders were magical. Did it make any logical sense that there was a huge, mountainous, tree-filled island with a vast ocean under our house?

No, it did not. Was it here anyway? Yes, it was.

I knew that was not in fact a sunny blue sky above us.

I knew I could turn a dial back in the tunnel and this sunny midday sunshine would fade into purple twilight, stars beginning to glitter in the sky.

It was hard to believe it, though, as I stood here, smelling the salt air, feeling the ocean breezes and the sand beneath my feet.

This was where Cadmael stayed, lying on the beach under the sun for the first time in over two thousand years. Cadmael wasn’t a day-walker, like Vlad. He was more like Clive. He was old and powerful enough to get up during the day, if need be, but his natural daytime state was rest.

We continued down the tunnel, eventually coming to the end, leading into Canterbury, England, one thousand years ago. Closest to the tunnel was the village center and the cathedral. Then there was a tavern, some cottages, and eventually fields and Clive’s old family farm.

The builders had lately completed this world.

Clive and I had sneaked in to explore last week when the dragons weren’t looking.

Holding my hand, we had walked to the village, while he told me stories of his childhood.

The folly allowed me to see and feel his life, a life so far removed from mine as to seem like a fairy tale, but now he was able to share it with me.

I’d never be able to thank the dragons enough.

Fergus sniffed at the meat sticks I had in my hand that I’d forgotten all about. I gave him one and Vlad made a tsking sound.

“What is with you and food today?” I asked.

“You don’t take care of yourself,” he said, sounding angry. “You’re a wolf. You should be eating far more than you do. And what were you thinking going jogging in an area where he’d just killed a woman jogging with her dog?” He walked on, fuming. “You know he’s terrified of losing you, don’t you?

“You go on about his cars bringing him joy,” his tirade continued.

“And you don’t even realize that he stopped buying them when he found you.

They were a distraction from endless night.

You are his love, his joy, his reason for upending his undeath so you wouldn’t have to live in a nocturne filled with vampires who make you uncomfortable.

You are his weakness. And you—you race into danger and don’t take care of yourself!

” He was shouting by the end, and I felt it like a punch in the gut.