“I’m going after her.” Carl tugs his shirt over his head while toeing off his boots.
I growl in frustration that he’s about to start a hunt I can’t join. My doggy paddling through the water isn’t going to find anything.
“You stay here in case she comes back.”
“I can’t just fucking wait,” I snarl.
Carl glares at me as he strips off his pants. “Yes, you can. You just don’t want to.”
His boxers are last, and then he’s sitting on the edge of the dock, butt-ass naked until his body shivers and changes. Blue scales shimmer on his skin, and his legs fuse into a thick tail that drapes down into the water. Fins unfold along his forearms, and sharp talons lengthen from the edge of his fingers.
He shoves himself off the dock, slipping below the surface, disappearing into the dark water.
I drag my fingers through my hair, my agitated heart vibrating in my chest.
Except … that’s not my heart. Scooping up Carl’s pants, I tug out his phone, realizing the device is vibrating, desperately hoping to see Clem’s name on the caller ID, but knowing I won’t since her phone is in her pile of clothes at my feet.
Levi.
The monster council member is probably calling Carl about some town government thing that I couldn’t care less about. Still, I pick up because what the fuck else am I doing with my time?
“This is Griffith,” I answer the call. “Carl is in the lake, looking for Clem.”
The monster on the other end of the line sighs, sounding like a man who knows he’s going to have a mess to clean up.
“Can you call him back? I know where she is.”
26
CLEMENTINE
“Pretty sure drinkingwill make me bleed more.”
“You just turned down a five-hundred-dollar whiskey.” Sev pours the amber liquid from the glass he held out to me into the one he’s already filled for himself. He sips the double with a contented sigh while relaxing into his Adirondack chair.
Meanwhile, I try to sit as still as possible, worried one wrong move will upset the bandage my savior tied around my reopened wound. Sev, he said his name was. One more person from town I don’t remember, but I would hazard he wasn’t here when I was. The guy stands out. More likely, he moved here in the time I was gone.
I washed up on his property, apparently having swum all the way to monster territory. Turns out, I’ve been away from Lake Galen long enough to lose all sense of direction.
“Why are you bleeding on my shoreline?” he asked when he came upon my prone body, not seeming too concerned about my wretched state.
“Seemed like,” I gasped out on ragged breaths, “a fun … Saturday night.”
He snorted, then leaned in closer, his focus on my wound. I would swear from the way his nostrils flared that he was sniffing me, but I doubted I smelled like anything other than lake water and blood. Still, after his cursory inspection, he scooped me up like I was some fucking damsel and carried me to his mansion. Here, he deposited my limp body in this chair, where I’ve stayed. Sev seemed unconcerned by my nakedness when he returned from inside, using a silk scarf as a bandage for my side, then helping me into a gaudy purple robe with tassels on the sleeves and shimmering thread depicting swimming fish.
Not my normal style, but I appreciated the rescue and told him so.
“You know, I don’t normally assist others,” he confessed, standing over me. “I find charity tiresome.”
“Why did you help me?” I asked, immediately regretting the question because it sounded like I would understand if he reconsidered.
“I’m bored.” He tilted his head, studying me. “Who are you?”
“Clementine Divos. You?”
“Sev.” And that was all he gave me before heading back into his house and returning with the alcohol.
“There’s an Officer Divos,” Sev says, voice only mildly curious.
