Page 3 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

I joined Sidnee, who looked pale and solemn; any smile about Fluffy’s antics had long since faded. ‘What happened?’ I asked quietly as I pulled her in for a hug.

She took a shaky breath in the crook of my neck before squeezing me and stepping back. ‘The usual,’ she sighed. ‘I talked to him about the call and when I told him I’d have to take him in for questioning, he started in on the whole half-breed stuff. He’s said it to me a million times, but I just… ’ Her voice broke. ‘I lost it, Bunny. I finally lost my temper.’ Her eyes were wide with panic and remorse. ‘I–I think I really would have killed him if Gunnar hadn’t pulled me off.’

Gunnar and I exchanged glances. Sidnee hadn’t been coping in Thomas’s absence, and I wasn’t surprised. When the MIB had kidnapped Connor I’d been in pieces – and that was only for a few hours. I don’t think I’d have functioned at all if he’d been takenfrom me for any longer and I hadn’t known if he was dead or alive. Two weeks was a long time to wait and worry.

Sidnee had insisted on coming in to work, but now…? It was fast becoming clear that she was a liability that we couldn’t afford.

She was hanging on by her fingernails and all we could do was pretend we couldn’t see the blood.

Chapter 2

Sidnee went home and I started my shift a little early. I didn’t mind in the slightest; I just wanted life to get easier for her. I wanted to find Thomas before she imploded, but we had absolutely nothing to go on. Gunnar had already reached out to his MIB contact but waiting for them to find out something felt like torture. I wasn’t good at waiting; I was good atdoing.

As I collapsed on my desk chair, Fluffy laid his head on my lap and gave me puppy eyes. Sidnee wasn’t the only one I was concerned about. I’d sent Fluffy to his first counselling appointment and since then he’d steadfastly refused to shift back to Reggie. I was at a complete loss. The counsellor had told me to be patient; while my boy was working out his shit, he just needed my unconditional love.

I wasn’t all that good at expressing my feelings – a leftover from a cold childhood – but I did my best. ‘I love you,’ I said and gave him an ear scruffle. ‘You know that, right?’ He licked my hand. ‘You know you can talk to me anytime? About anything.’

He huffed a breath and lay down on his bed with his back to me. Oh-kay. He didn’t want to talk. ‘Sorry,’ I murmured. ‘I don’t mean to push. I just want to help.’

Histail wagged once, though he didn’t turn to face me. I felt very much likeIwas in the doghouse.

I checked my messages and took a couple of calls, neither of them urgent. Before I could start on the paperwork for today’s fiasco, Gunnar bellowed from his office, ‘Bunny, come back here!’

‘Yes, boss,’ I called and pushed away from my desk.

I knocked on the doorjamb then let myself in. Gunnar was leaning back in his chair, scrubbing his hands over his face and scratching his beard. He was worried – and he wasn’t the only one.

‘Is this about Sidnee?’ I asked as I sat down opposite him.

He shook his head. ‘Kind of. Patkotak.’

Excitement stiffened my spine. ‘Did you hear something?’ I asked a little breathlessly.

‘No – and that’s the point.’ He sighed. ‘After that FUBAR situation with Sidnee, I reached out to my contacts again. They’ve still got nothing.’ His chair creaked ominously as he leaned forward. As he stared at me, his blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast to the dark circles of worry around them. ‘Nothingusefulanyway.’

He paused, weighing up how much to tell me and I saw the ‘screw it’ thought cross his face as he decided to divulge all. ‘Apparently there was a sighting of Thomas a few days ago, but when they arrived there was no sign of him. I’m not going to tell Sidnee. I don’t want to get her hopes up. Even if it was him, they’ll have moved him on by now.’

‘But if itwashim that means he’s still alive.’ I bit my lip. ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t tell Sidnee that much at least?’

‘Tell her what? That Thomas was sighted locally but he was gone before we could do anything about it? No.’ He sighed. ‘And what if it wasn’t him? False sightings and reports happen all the time, you know that.’

Annoyingly, I did. I focused on one aspect of what he’d said. ‘How locally?’ I demanded.

He grimaced. ‘Anchorage.’

My heart leapt. ‘We could go—’

‘No,’ he interrupted me. ‘The Knight Stalkers are using MIB bases and MIB resources, so we have to wait for my connections to do their thing. Some of them are fairly senior and they’re passing on top-secret information because they think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to compromise them. If we go to the wrong site, guns blazing, we could make an enemy of the MIB. And Portlock can’t afford to have any more heat – we’re already the last-chance saloon.’

My shoulders slumped. Logically I knew he was right, but my heart wasn’t logical and I wanted Thomas home safe. If he hadn’t tried to help us that day in the mine, he’d be snuggling with Sidnee and whispering sweet nothings in her ear; instead, he was who knew where.

Thomas had once been an MIB agent, so perhaps someone was working to protect him and pulling strings? I didn’t care how or why they did it if they kept him safe because so far the Knight Stalkers had shown no hesitation in killing supernats. I wondered if it was only Thomas’s status as a human that kept him breathing. For now.

Gunnar continued, ‘If we don’t get him back soon, I don’t know what’ll happen to Sidnee. This is as bad as it was when she joined us after her parents had died. She was volatile then but now she has a badge, too. It’s a bad combination.’

We both knew that he was thinking about benching her but doing that would probably break her even more and there was only so much she could take. ‘I’m worried too,’ I said. ‘When you called I was afraid that Sidnee was going to do something stupid.’

His grizzled expression softened and he reached across the desk to pat my hand. ‘Sorry to have scared you, kiddo.’

---