“You’re going to get us killed!” the second girl repeated, but Bel barely heard her. The room captivated her attention, leaving her hollowed out and nauseous. It was a giant enclosure with an expansive pool in the center surrounded by a beach and faux-rock caves. A cage enveloped the entire exhibit, the sheer size warning that whatever creature this had been initially designed for must have been massive, yet any intended resident paled in comparison to what it housed now.
Mermaids.
A young woman huddled in one of the rear caves, shrouded by shadows, but Bel didn’t need light to see that her legs were intricately tattooed with scales. This mermaid was complete, a masterpiece ready to swim eternal. Not a single stretch of skin was left unadorned. This was where he’d held them. This waswhere he’d turned innocent girls into fantasies, and the young woman sat curled in on herself to hide her nudity. She’d given up. Bel could read it in the sag of her muscles. She’d surrendered hope a long time ago, and now she simply clung to the idea that if she played along, she wouldn’t die. Bel knew that was fruitless. They all died. They all ended up at the bottom of a lake.
“Oh my god, Detective?” the first girl called, and without the walls separating them, Bel finally recognized her voice.
“Ondine?” She scrambled to the cage, watching with a mixture of relief and terror as the teenager dove into the water and swam furiously for the gate.
“Detective, please!” Ondine shouted, hints of pink and purple coloring the top of her right thigh, and Bel wondered if it was safe for her to be swimming. Tattoos grew infected when submerged, and while infection wasn’t their main priority, Bel didn’t want it to turn life-threatening.
“Get me out of here!” Ondine spat water as she swam.
“Key?” Bel surged into action and grabbed the heavy lock on the door. “Where’s the key?”
“He has it. He wears it on his person.”
Bel cursed, violent and ugly. “Okay, move out of the way.” She aimed her gun at the lock and prayed the ricochet wouldn’t kill anyone. “And cover your ears.”
She missed the first shot, but she managed the second. The lock didn’t break completely, but after the third deafening bullet, it fell to the ground. Bel ripped the chain off the bars and flung open the gate, beckoning Ondine to move faster.
“Let’s go!” She shouted at the woman still huddled in the cave.
“He’ll kill us,” the second girl said, her voice flat and even.
“No, he won’t because I’m getting you out of there.” Bel shoved her Glock back into its holster. “Now swim to me, or I’m coming to get you.”
“He won’t let us leave.”
“I won’t let you stay.” Bel bent her legs to jump into the pool when she noticed fear flicker through Ondine’s eyes.
“Detective, watch?—”
But that was all Bel heard before agony collided with her head, and she toppled into the water.
The world went numb,and disorientation dragged Bel to the bottom of the pool. Through the haze and pain, she watched her blood muddy the water, and her panic warred with the pull toward unconsciousness. She could barely move, her skull ringing and sight blurry, but before her brain registered the terror of her predicament, a broad hand gripped the back of her shirt and yanked her to the surface.
She prayed it was Eamon coming to save her. She knew it wasn’t.
The hand reached for her sidearm, but if her attacker got a hold of her Glock, she and the mermaids were dead. So, in her haze, she fumbled with the holster, dropping the gun to the pool floor a second before the stranger dragged her out of the water.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Detective,” the familiar voice threatened as she coughed the water from her lungs. “My daughter is dead. I have nothing to lose now. I’ll kill you and these girls and disappear before your friends ever find me.” A lock clicked behind her as he secured his mermaids back inside their cage, and Bel’s muddled brain screamed at her to stand up, to not let him kill her lying down. She wiped the blood from her eyes as she tried to push herself to her knees. Her body swayed. Her vision blurred. There were two of everything. Two cages. Two Ondines. Two Tritons stalking toward her.
“Detective!” Ondine screamed, and a second later, something metal crashed to the floor outside the cage. Bel stared at the object, forcing herself to focus on the black shape the girl had thrown. Ondine thought she’d dropped it by accident. She was trying to help, but she’d tipped the odds against them. Bel’s brain was all fog, her muscles like solidifying concrete, and before she could order her hand to reach for her gun, Triton lunged for it.
Fear flooded her unsteady limbs as his massive palms closed around the grip, but as suddenly as he’d appeared, he was gone, Eamon standing in his place.
“Bend your knees, Detective,”his memory said.“Better center of gravity.”
Bel bent her legs, ignoring the blood dripping into her eyes.
“Your body language gives your intentions away,”Eamon continued.“Even if I were human, I would’ve seen that punch coming.”
“He won’t see it coming,” she whispered to his phantom, and then she launched herself at him. His massive image faded away, Mr. Triton taking his place, and unlike her beast, this murderer was human. He wasn’t as fast. He wasn’t as strong. He wasn’t prepared, and Bel collided with his larger size before he could aim the gun.
“Good job,”Eamon’s memory praised in her mind.“That was fast, and fast is good.”
Bel forced herself to ignore the pain, and she faked right before punching left. Triton was a big man, but he wasn’t used to fighting for his life. Not like she was, and her elbow connected with his temple. He stumbled sideways, but Bel did not yield. She hit again and again and again. Faster, harder, stronger, Eamon guiding her every move. She wasn’t attacking a human serial killer. In her mind, she was battling an ancient monster who couldn’t be killed, and Triton’s size stood no chance. He was accustomed to drunk college girls who couldn’t retaliate. Bel was a whole different breed of woman. One raised by the chief of police and refined by the Impaler himself.
