Page 32 of The Mermaid’s Bubble Lounge (Sam Quinn #8)

THIRTY-TWO

Dancing (Almost) in Faerie

Pablo nodded through the pain and then relaxed back into his chair on a gasp.

“Why is she even here?” He muttered.

Cadmael opened his mouth to respond but Vlad interrupted, looking at me. “Did you know you have a hole in your sweater?”

Clive was still glaring at Pablo, but I ignored them and responded to Vlad. “Yeah. That sword you’re holding made it.” I looked across the table at Adaeze and then down at my cardigan. “Is it noticeable?”

She tipped her head to the side, weighing her words.

“Yes,” Thi responded.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say I wasn’t asking you, but I held it in.

Adaeze finally nodded, though she looked sorry to do it.

I took the sweater off and folded it, laying it on the table in front of me. “Maybe I can get it repaired.”

Clive kissed the side of my head. “I’ll get you a new one.”

“It’s that stupid elf who should be buying me a new one. Jackass.”

Adaeze grinned. “I like your jewelry very much.”

“Thank you.” I reached up and touched the necklace. “I was so worried I’d lose something tonight—they’re new—but I hadn’t counted on some damn elf trying to hack it off me.” I held up my wrists. “At least he cut the one not wearing a new bracelet.”

The vampires stared at my red, healing wound with an intensity that was off-putting, so I dropped my hands below the table.

Clive slid the chair back and stood, his arm still around me. “I’m going to dance with my wife. We’ll meet you back at the nocturne afterward.”

Cadmael nodded, standing as well. “Yes. They were able to investigate both of the killing spots before you arrived. I think they’ve seen what they wanted to. We’ll go now.” He glanced to his side. “Vlad, take that sword out the back.”

Clive walked me through the tables to the dance floor before spinning me into him. Our slow dancing was at odds with the upbeat music, but I wasn’t complaining.

This is like the first time we danced in that South of Market vampire club. Everyone around us was bouncing and grinding but we were slow dancing in our own little bubble.

I remember.

You were so angry that night.

One of the benefits of no longer being the nocturne Master is that I don’t have to listen to outraged complaints about my spending time with a werewolf. I’m blissfully content only having the voice of my mate up here with me.

I nuzzled into his neck.

It scared me when I smelled your blood, he told me.

I’m okay now. I tucked my arm into his jacket and felt safe and protected.

Clive slid his jacket off and draped it over my bare shoulders. Better?

I slid my arms through and felt more secure. Nodding, I wrapped my arms around him again. Oh, I forgot. What was Joao texting about?

You.

I reared back to look him in the eyes. What? Why me? I barely said hello to him last night.

It was an incomplete text thread, but he was asking what the other person had learned and if they knew why they should be—it doesn’t translate exactly but—wary of you. Then he made a string of vulgar comments about seducing you in order to learn your secrets.

He must have felt me tense up because he began to rub my back.

“Creep,” I muttered.

“He is,” Clive agreed. Now, what do we notice about this corner?

I glanced around this section of the dance floor and saw no tables nearby. A large potted plant sat here instead. As it was the only plant in the nightclub, it seemed odd. Is this the corner?

Clive nodded. I’ve been watching. The servers avoid this area. There’s a storage room back there. He tipped his head past the potted plant to a discreet door in the far wall. The staff are walking behind the stage to get over here, instead of just walking where we’re standing.

I closed my eyes, swaying with Clive but concentrating on what was around us. Are there cameras over here?

Clive looked up around the ceiling. Yes. Far side of the band but pointed in this direction. Nerissa is probably trying to determine if the pooka is sneaking in through her club.

Block me from the camera and any of the humans around here.

He swayed, moving me a few degrees away from the front of the club. That’s as hidden as I can make you.

I shifted my nose into a long wolf’s snout and tilted my head up to sniff.

A chill ran down my spine. I’d recognize that scent anywhere.

In my mind’s eye, I could picture the overblown blowsy flowers bobbing in the wind along the river running through Faerie.

The sun sparkling on the water, long grass in dappled light beneath huge, sheltering trees, rich loamy earth, I could see it all and I felt the pull to visit.

Shifting my nose back, I said, “It’s a doorway. We should go.”

Clive nodded, taking my hand and weaving through the tables toward the bar. Nerissa stood in the back, watching us. Clive went toward the kitchen exit, but I pulled him to a stop beside Nerissa.

“Is there a way to close it?” I asked quietly.

Chin up, eyes scanning the club, she didn’t seem to have heard me. Finally, though, she shook her head.

“Have you seen anything on the camera?” I asked. “Is that how the pooka ended up here?”

She gave a reluctant nod. “I think so. The cameras are new. Inside and out. I didn’t see it arrive, but it only makes sense. I saw the two I warned you about drop through, though,” she murmured before walking away from us.

Clive pulled me along. The kitchen staff gave us dirty looks but then went back to work, ignoring us.

Clive’s phone buzzed. As he read his text and began to text back, I looked through the back door.

The nocturne’s limo was heading around the club to pick up the vampires in front.

Once it had passed, I saw Vlad leaning against our car.

I kept walking, wanting to clear the air. “Listen,” I said as I approached him, “I know it was a joke intended for Clive, and my reaction probably seemed way too much. It hit me wrong, and I had a hard time finding my balance again.”

“Look who I found.” He crouched behind the car parked next to ours and Fergus bolted out from between the cars.

Vlad’s voice had sounded weird, but I was so distracted by my little buddy being here that the loss of his Romanian accent didn’t hit me until later.

“What happened? How did you get here?” As he galloped across the small parking area, I registered his size. He was larger than he was an hour ago. When he lifted his head to look at me, my knees weakened and I tore the axe from under Clive’s jacket, inadvertently shredding his collar.

Knuckles white, I crushed the axe handle as the dog slowed, head low, stalking me, muscles bunching, readying for attack. “This isn’t chaos. This is cruelty and you know it.”

The pooka dog growled, showing teeth far bigger and sharper than a normal wolfhound, even an unusually large one. His long, sharp claws made a horrible scraping sound on the gravel, like nails on a chalkboard.

A moment later, I felt my husband’s presence beside me.

Eyes still on the Fergus-wearing pooka, I said to Clive, “I wrecked your jacket.”

“It wasn’t a good night for our clothing.”

Someone landed on my other side. Vlad, still holding my sword in his gloved hand. “Sorry I’m late. I was on the roof.”

The pooka stared at us, at my axe and Vlad’s sword, deciding Clive must be the weakest of us. The Fergus-looking monster charged and Clive flew at him, wrapping his arms around him and crushing him. The sound of bones breaking was loud in the quiet night.

And then Clive’s arms were empty. The pooka had disappeared, except they couldn’t disappear.

“No slats to drop under here.” I rushed forward, scanning the gravel at our feet. “He shifted to something too small to see easily.” I started slamming the blunt head of my axe on the ground, hoping I’d get him.

Nerissa appeared behind Clive, her hands around his neck yanking his head. Clive did a backflip over the top of her, breaking the hold. Knees on her shoulders, he wrenched her neck and she disappeared, leaving him crouched on the ground.

I pounded the ground beside him again and then we heard a grunt. Vlad went flying by us, but he flipped himself over and landed already running back, sword up, to fight the huge grizzly bear that had appeared in the parking lot.

Clive pushed me behind him. Vlad was mesmerizing with a sword. He was so damn fast, it was like a threshing machine was attacking the bear and then he, too, was standing alone in the parking lot.

A gray-haired man walked down the darkened alley between the nightclub and the property fence.

“Oh, dear,” he said. “Terribly sorry to interrupt. That nice valet said my car had been parked back here. I’m in an awful hurry I’m afraid.

” He tapped his pockets, like he was checking he had his keys and his wallet.

Vlad moved forward, sword raised, but I held up my hand for him to wait.

“Sam, don’t,” Clive said as I moved closer.

The harried man looked up and I saw kind, green eyes. “Oh my,” he said. “Your face is perfectly symmetrical.” He patted his chest, his fingers trembling. “That helps.”

Meri appeared around the corner, brow furrowed. Her gaze jumped from my axe to Vlad’s sword to the strange older man.

“Meri, go in. You can’t be out here.” I rushed forward to move her along, but the older man grabbed my arm.

Clive and Vlad moved as one.

The old man pushed me behind him, unaware of his imminent death. “That’s the pooka, my dear,” he said, fingers twitching at his side.

Shocked, I studied Meri and realized he was right. Her eyes were wrong. Who was this guy? I pulled him back with me, right into a vampire wall. Clive and Vlad separated and then stepped around us to put themselves on the front line.

The older man tried to move up beside Clive, but I held him back.

“Stay here,” I whispered.

He turned to me and paused a moment, just staring. “So very lovely,” he murmured, “just like my grand-niece.”

The Meri thing started crying. “I need help,” it said in an un-Meri-like way.

The old man tapped Clive on the shoulder. “I know what I’m doing. If you’ll allow me…”

Clive took a step to the side just as the Meri-thing grew huge, sharp teeth and leapt. The man dropped into a crouch, the fingers on his empty right hand flicking in the pooka’s direction. The pooka howled in pain, trying to shift.

The old man waved me forward. “Hurry. Hit him with your axe now.”

I raced toward not-Meri and swung the axe, but the pooka disappeared as the axe hit the gravel.

“Damn it!” I checked the blade to make sure I hadn’t bent or dulled it. It was perfect. Fae bladesmiths were just that good.

The old man stood, brushing himself off. “We were hoping that spell would have slowed his shift longer. Disappointing.”