Page 62 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

Her smile was like the sun coming up. ‘Follow me wherever you like.’

‘Tothe ends of the earth,’ he promised.

The depth of their love made my eyes fill with tears. There was something so deep and true and honest about it, and they never shied away from letting their feelings for each other show, no matter the company.

It was a contrast to Connor and me because Connor frequently had his ‘leader’ hat on, and I had my ‘officer’ hat on. Two professionals, doing a job, all the while burning for each other but not letting it show. Even now, Connor hadn’t crossed the distance to me. I knew it wasn’t for lack of emotion – if anything it was the opposite. He didn’t trust himself to come close enough to touch me or he wouldn’t stop. He’d drag me away and make sure I knew exactly how loved I was. And because Ididknow, I smiled at him across the room.

I pulled my eyes from him with effort and turned to Kate. ‘What did they want with you?’

She looked confused. ‘I don’t really know but they asked a lot about the beast beyond the barrier.’

‘The beast?’ Connor frowned. ‘Why would they ask you that?’

‘Because we ran beyond,’ she confessed to her leader, eyes on the ground.

‘You…?’ He trailed off and stared at me. ‘You followed her beyond.’ It wasn’t a question but I nodded all the same.

His nostrils flared and his fists clenched. Whoops. Connor’s emotions were firmly dialled to somewhere betweennot happyandvery pissed off.Well, he’d have to deal with it. My job was savingpeople and if that meant going beyond, I’d do it. I raised my chin defiantly.

‘Who did you take with you?’ he asked tightly.

‘Gunnar, Fluffy, Shadow, Stan and Anissa.’

‘Anissa?’ He muttered in surprise. ‘I could have sent others to help.’

‘Without Reams finding out?’ I asked dubiously. ‘I doubt it. And besides, it turned out we had Parker too, we just didn’t know it until he flung me over his shoulder and ran me bodily back through the barrier.’

Connor glared at Parker. ‘And you didn’t mention this because…?’

Parker flushed. ‘Ah…’

‘I told him not to,’ I interceded. ‘I couldn’t risk Reams and his team finding out. I’m sorry, Connor, I really am, but we found the girls and we all got out safely. It’s done now and we have bigger concerns, like why Reams gives two shits about the beast.’

Essie and her mum had calmed down and both women were listening to the conversation.

A sudden inspiration hit me. These girls were local so maybe they knew more than me. Beast legends had to be rife around Portlock. I’d heard stories: some said it was a nantinaq, a kind of Bigfoot; others swore it was a Kushtaka, an otterman. But none of the speculation ever mentioned anything about the big cat I swore that I’d seen. Plus there was the link to Shadow with his smoky – well, shadows.

‘Have you girls heard the term “Sdonalyasna”?’ I asked, carefully repeating Matilda’s term for the beast. Neither of them seemed to recognise the word and they both shook their heads. Damn. Maybe Matilda was losing it, or maybe it was a hag word. Although I didn’t think hags had their own language, anything was possible.

‘Why did you run beyond the barrier?’ Lily asked Essie, horrified. ‘What were you thinking?’

Essie blanched.

‘With all the protests and stuff, we weren’t sure if the beast was real,’ Kate admitted. ‘It seemed like a good idea to risk a possible beast versus a real one.’

‘Who was the real beast?’ Lily asked.

‘My dad,’ Kate admitted and started crying.

Lily bundled her into her arms along with Essie. ‘Oh my lovely girl,’ she murmured to Kate. ‘I’m sorry. Everything will be okay.’

Connor frowned. ‘What am I missing here?’

Aware of Lily’s listening ears, I gave a brief version of the girls’ story. I hit the main points, namely that Robertson had drugged the girls and had definitely been involved in the kidnapping of other girls in the past. He was either involved in a sex trafficking ring or, knowing his arrogance, running the whole thing. Robertson had been working with Donovan and at least one other guy, known as Bob.

We needed to arrest Robertson, find out if Kate’s mum was in on it, then locate and arrest his other accomplice. The problem was that I was operating on a one-hour nap and I could hardly think. Adrenaline had taken it out of me, not just from ourexcursion beyond the barrier but because of getting captured and the subsequent standoff. I was swaying on my feet – and I wasn’t the only one.

‘We need to guard Kate,’ I managed. ‘Then we need to find Bob and move in fast on him and Cobalt, preferably at the same time.’

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