“Who knows? It was just some witch and a fairy. Maybe, if they keep it up, they’ll keep distracting the vamp from us. Make it easier for us to keep from being discovered as quickly.”
I didn’t like that he didn’t say keeping us from being discoveredat all. “When you say fairy, do you mean another gay guy?”
“You didn’t know there are fairies?”
“I’m new to this. I only recently learned there were demons, which should tell you something. How did you see a fairy? Aren’t they tiny?”
He laughed. “Not exactly. When this is done, we gotta get you out in the world. If you didn’t know you were a demon, there’s a whole lot more to experience. You’ve been living with your head in the sand. I’ll take you to the Square. There’s one in San Juan. Not my favorite, but it’ll do.”
“And the Square is what?”
“Never mind. You’ll like it. At least judging from how good you were last night. We’ll have a good time. You’ll see a lot more than just fairies. They’re pretty boring, anyway. I guarantee you’ll see more demons.”
I held up my hands. “Okay. You’re making my brain start to blow a fuse. I’m having a hard enough time facing the fact that I have to find the Vampire Cathedral. I can’t think about fairies and demons. Especially demons.”
He grinned. “No problem. I’ll save it for when you’re done. You’ll need the back rooms even more by then, anyway.”
I didn’t ask what the back rooms were. Instead, my gaze drifted off Shane and focused on a huge barge making its way across the horizon of the ocean. As cute as Shane was, as good as the sex had been, as close as I was to hopefully finding out the fate of the captured mers, I would trade everything to simply walk down the beach, drop the stolen cargo shorts, tank top and flip-flops I’d borrowed from Shane, and disappear once more under the waves. Return to the Chromis, to my family. Mourn Wrell. Be with Lelas and help her heal from Nalu, if she could. Never return to land again. Screw needing to have sex. I’d been wrong. I could give it up for the simplicity the ocean offered.
Simplicity. Yeah, right. The ocean was why I was close to the Vampire Cathedral to begin with. Wrell’s and Nalu’s deaths hadn’t been simplistic. Nor had all the captured mers.
I was suddenly more tired than anything else.
“You okay?”
I refocused on Shane, his chiseled face peering at me with concern. “Yeah. Just tired. I would love to run to the ocean and swim away.”
He grimaced. “The swimming away part sounds horrible, but go for a swim if you need to. I was thinking we should probably get a place pretty soon. Then we can check out the town after dark. See if we can find anything useful. I can find a room while you take a dip if you want.”
“Thanks. I’ll be okay.” Unbidden, I stared out once more at the ocean.
Shane stood and clasped me on the shoulder, giving me a strong squeeze. “Go swim. I’ll meet ya back here in half an hour or so.” He gave me a final pat as he walked away.
As if half an hour would begin to cut it. Although, it couldn’t hurt. It might offer enough relief to give me a burst of energy. Swim. Hunt for the night, then go back to whatever room Shane found. Maybe swim again. While we’re at it, since we’d have the room, another round of intense fucking sounded perfect. Might as well get it while I could. Then wake early and swim once more.
Suddenly, Shane’s plan of checking things out for a couple of days sounded perfect. A couple of days of swimming and sex. Not so much that it would detract from figuring out how to find the Royals, but enough to take the edge off. If anything, it would help me focus more. The idea nearly made me giddy. What better way to get ready to face a bunch of vampires?
Shane’s whispered breath against my ear caused me to jump. “Actually, you wanted to see the vampire. I just noticed him as I got to the sidewalk. He’s across the street, heading toward the beach. And he’s still being followed by the witch and fairy brigade.”
I turned my head and searched the busy foot traffic across the road. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for. I’d only seen one vampire. Maybe I wouldn’t even recognize one if I saw it.
If only.
“Oh fuck.”
Shane asked something beside me, but I didn’t bother to try to make sense of it. My body was frozen in place, nearly torn in two. One part of me wanted to fling myself from the table and run screaming in terror. The other wanted to rush out into the street and turn the entire block into an inferno.
I’d never seen him in full sunlight before. His hair was a brighter red than I’d realized.
I watched, dumbfounded, as he walked past where we stared at him from across the street. His scrawny back was to us when he turned and gave a sinister smile over his shoulder to someone behind him.
I followed his gaze, trying to pick out who he might be looking at among the crowd.
“Oh fuck.”
Caitlin de Morisco was walking next to some guy down the sidewalk, clearly following the vampire.
Rising up, I gripped the railing and leaned out, trying to get a better view. Trying to find him.
