Chapter 17
I’m not sure which was worse. Getting shot in the stomach at point blank range. Getting struck down by a fireball. Or being called a fish. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, mermaids aren’t fish. Fish have gills. Mermaids don’t. We’re mammals, like dolphins and whales. Anyone that can’t understand that is an idiot.
And no, I didn’t think Gladrielle was an idiot. She was just trying to come to grips with the fact that she had taken a life. She believed, all elves believed, that taking a life made you evil, even if you did it to protect someone else. Even if you hadn’t meant to do it.
Somehow, I had to convince her that she wasn’t evil, I had to convince her that trying to protect someone she cared about didn’t make her evil. I had to convince her that what happened was an accident, that the Count, and his refusal to let Titus eat, was as much to blame for what happened as anything she did.
But that was kind of hard to do when she was throwing fireballs at me, cackling about a fish fry.
The first thing I did after hitting the ground was to roll on my back and use the sand to put out my burning shirt. Then I reached out with my mind, to the ocean behind me. I ordered the water to rise up, until it formed a twenty foot wall of water. Then I ordered it to crash down on me and Gladrielle, who was marching toward me with another fireball in her hand.
The water hit Gladrielle hard, knocking her off her feet and drenching her. It also put out the fireball.
As the water retreated back into the ocean, I ordered it to take me with it, which it did. The retreating water surrounded me and swept me into the ocean, away from Gladrielle and her fireballs.
I pulled off what was left of my tee shirt. The front was okay, but the back was burned. I was also burned, but unlike Doug and Simkins, I would heal quickly. One of the advantages of having an accelerated metabolism. By tomorrow morning, the bullet wound and the burns on my back would be gone.
My problem was convincing Gladrielle that she didn’t want to kill me, and that she wasn’t evil, and doing it before Stringbean and Frat Boy found her.
I’m pretty sure she didn’t have much to fear from Frat Boy, but Stringbean was a different matter. We attended the police academy together, graduated together. Stringbean was smart, tough, and when he needed to be, ruthless. When he was given an assignment, he carried it out.
That meant I was working on a deadline. I had to turn Gladrielle from the dark side and get her out of town before Stringbean found her and put her down.
While the water carried me deeper and deeper into the ocean, Gladrielle walked to the edge of the water. Her hair was soaked as was her slinky black negligee, not that she noticed or cared.
“You can’t stay in there forever,” she yelled.
Was she serious? I couldn’t stay in here forever? I’m a mermaid, of course I could stay in the ocean forever. Assuming I was willing to exchange my diet of pancakes, cheeseburgers, and pizzas for one of sushi and seaweed. Which I wasn’t. I liked my carbs. I needed my carbs.
“Actually, I can stay in here forever. I’m a mermaid. The question is, do you want to spend the next three hundred years waiting for me to come out?”
“Three hundred years is nothing to me.”
“You realize you’re mad at me for killing a vampire you spent the last five thousand years ignoring? Does that make sense to you?”
“He loved me.”
“Vampires aren’t capable of love. Supernaturals aren’t capable of love. He may have wanted you, but he didn’t love you.”
“I think I’m going to go find that guy you were having breakfast with,” Gladrielle said. “I don’t know who he was, but I'm guessing he means something to you.”
“I have breakfast with a lot of people,” I shot back. “Clients, witnesses, enemies. I’m a private detective. Meeting with people, talking to people, is part of the job.”
“Nice try,” Gladrielle said, turning and heading away from the ocean. “But I saw the way he looked at you. He likes you, cares about you. I’m guessing you care about him.”
“I’m a supernatural. I don’t care about anybody but myself.”
Gladrielle laughed and disappeared between the cars in the parking lot that bordered the beach. I peeled my pants and briefs off, changed my legs into my tail, and headed south at a high rate of speed.
Gladrielle might be able to use her nose to track John, but I knew where he lived. And as luck would have it, he lived right next to the ocean, next to the docks where the tuna boats moored. In a building that had originally been a canning factory.
It only took me a couple of minutes to reach John’s place. That’s when I remembered that he had a ten o’clock class.
I changed my tail back into my legs, ordered the water that was soaking my clothes to run off them, and got dressed. Well, except for my tee shirt, which was ruined. Luckily, I had a key to John place, which I wore on a chain around my neck, along with all of my keys. When you spend as much time in the water as I do, you learn to carry whatever you need around your neck, wrists, or waist.
I let myself into John’s place, found another tee shirt, and headed for the campus where John taught. The school was next to the ocean, about halfway between where I was and where Gladrielle had been.
Gladrielle had a bit of a head start on me, but I had the advantage of knowing where I was going. Plus, she would have to go back to the Dennys, pick up John’s scent, and follow him that way. Not an easy thing to do in a city congested with cars, trucks, people and food, no matter how sharp your nose.
I ran to campus. I’m not as fast out of the water as I am in it, but I'm fast enough, about as fast as your average vampire, which is way faster than your average human. Of course, all this swimming and running meant I would have to replenish my carbs with a big lunch.
I found the building where John’s class was held, found the classroom, only John wasn’t there, neither was his class. I was about to go into a panic when a passing coed said, “I think they’re outside. When the weather’s nice, some of the professors will hold their classes out on the lawn.”
She pointed to the side of the building they were on, which was opposite the side I entered. The building was U shaped. I found John and his class in the middle of the U, sitting on the grass beneath a palm tree.
It was a small class, maybe a dozen students, mostly girls. Had to be an upper level course since his introductory courses had hundreds of students.
John saw me, realized that something was up, and brought his class to an early close, giving them a reading assignment. I stood quietly off to the side until his students headed off elsewhere.
“What’s up?” John said, giving me a quick peck on the lips.
“Gladrielle, the psychotic elf you met at breakfast, is looking for you.”
“Because?”
“Because she wants to ruin my life and she figures the best way to do that is by going after the people I care about.”
John grinned, that big, goofy grin that he specialized in. “You know, I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you admit that you care about me.”
“No no. I didn’t say I cared about you. I said that Gladrielle’s going after people she thinks I care about.”
“That’s not what you said,” a still grinning John said. “You said she’s going after the people you care about. I also know that you have trouble admitting that you care about people, you think it makes you seem weak.”
I never had a chance to respond to John’s comment because Gladrielle appeared. We were at the bottom of the U, she was at the top. She was still barefoot, still wearing the black negligee. Her eyes were still black orbs. Her hair had dried from the soaking I had given it, frizzing in the process, which made her look even wilder and crazier.
“You got here quickly,” Gladrielle said. “But then you had an advantage over me. You knew where he was.”
She held her right hand out, palm up. Almost immediately, a beach ball sized
fireball appeared.
“You really want to do that here?” I said. “On a crowded college campus? Someone could get hurt.”
Even as I spoke, I reached out with my mind, searching for any water that might be nearby. I found it beneath the lawn. The campus had a built-in sprinkler system. It probably wasn’t enough water to discourage Gladrielle, let alone put out the fireball that she was holding, but it was better than nothing.
I ordered the water to burst out of the sprinkler heads and soak that part of the campus. A second later, the sprinkler heads came on, drenching the lawn, and trees, and people in the middle of the U.
The students that were there scattered, which was a good thing since none of them even noticed the crazy elf with the fireball in her hand. For her part, the crazy elf only laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
She heaved the fireball at us. I say us, because John was standing beside me, ignoring the water that was drenching him.
Gladrielle wanted me to do better, so I did better. I ordered the water droplets that were in the air to come together, to form a wall between Gladrielle and us, which they did. It wasn’t a big wall, nor was it a thick wall, but it did reduce the size of Gladrielle’s fireball from a beach ball to that of a soccer ball.
John had played college football. He wasn’t good enough to play in the pros, but he was athletic enough to dodge Gladrielle’s fireball, which exploded harmlessly against the brick wall behind us.
“You’re treading on dangerous ground here,” I said as another fireball formed in Gladrielle’s palm. Even as it did, I ordered the water in the air to come together, putting another thin wall of water between us. “Killing a supernatural is one thing, your own people consider us to be abominations. But you’re trying to kill a human. We both know that if you do that, there’s no coming back. You’ll be a dark elf forever. You’ll never see your bed and breakfast again, you’ll never see your flower garden again, you’ll never see the people that care about you.”
“The only person I cared about was Eradu.”
“Eradu died five thousand years ago. When he became a vampire. You knew that back then, that’s why you walked away from him.”
“He died today, when you killed him.”
Another beach ball sized fireball came flying at us. Once again, my thin wall of water reduced the size of the fireball but didn’t put it out. Once again, John had to jump out of the way. Once again, the fireball exploded against the brick wall behind us.
“Maybe this is why my teachers made us play dodge ball when we were kids,” John said.
He didn’t seem scared or worried. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying himself. Maybe it was the athlete in him. Maybe he missed the competition. Then again, maybe he just trusted me to protect him, which probably wasn’t a good idea. Titus trusted me to protect him and look what happened to him.
I glanced at John and indicated the door directly behind us. “I think you should go inside.”
“She’ll just follow me. Plus that building is full of students. If I go in there somebody will probably get hurt.”
Off in the distance, I could hear sirens. I’m not sure John or any of the other humans could, but I knew Gladrielle could, what with those big pointy ears of hers.
“Cops are coming,” I yelled as Gladrielle created another fireball. “If I were you, I’d leave. They’ve been given the go ahead to execute you.”
Gladrielle heaved the fireball at John. He dove onto the wet grass, landing on his stomach. The fireball sailed harmlessly overhead, bursting against the brick wall like fireworks.
I was trying to be patient, after all, I was the one that dragged Gladrielle into this. If I hadn’t gone to her hometown and asked for help, she wouldn’t be here. She would at home, tending to the ferns in her bed and breakfast, tending to the flowers in her garden.
On the flip side, John was my boyfriend. My first boyfriend. For all I knew, my last. I had gone thirty years without anyone wanting to be my boyfriend. If she killed John, I might not find anyone else that was willing to put up with who I was, not to mention what I did for a living. If she kept this up, I would be forced to retaliate.
Fortunately, she retreated, disappearing out of view. I suspect it wasn’t just me and the water that forced her to retreat. The police sirens were louder now, loud enough for the humans to hear.
I waited to see if Gladrielle was coming back. When I was sure she wasn’t, I ordered the water to stop running out of the sprinklers.
“I think you can get up,” I said to John. “I don’t think she’ll be coming back, not for awhile anyway.”
John pulled himself off the grass and scrambled to his feet. Like me, his clothes were soaked, but I took care of that in a second, ordering the water drenching his clothes to run off them. A second later, he was dry. A second after that, I was dry. A second after that, the cops appeared at the top of the U.
Two cops to be specific. Stringbean and Frat Boy. Both had their guns in their hands, although Frat Boy didn’t look too comfortable with a gun in his hand. Not nearly as comfortable as Stringbean.
When Stringbean saw me, he lowered his gun. “I should’ve known you’d be here.” He slipped his gun back inside its shoulder holster, then noticed Frat Boy’s gun was still drawn and pointed in our direction. “You can put the gun away, kid. The elf is gone.”
Frat Boy looked at the gun in his hands, almost as if he had forgotten that it was there, then he quickly put it away, slipping it back inside the holster attached to his left shoulder.
“We got a call,” Stringbean said. “Crazy women with black hair and black orbs for eyes, walking around in her underwear, hurling fireballs at people. They didn’t say you were one of the people that she was hurling the fireballs at.”
“I guess I’m not that memorable, maybe it’s the haircut.”
Stringbean chuckled, but then he was one of the few people that found me funny. Always did. Then again, maybe he just wanted in my pants, a lot of men did. Problem was, that’s pretty much all they wanted from me. Except for John. He was different. He liked hanging out with me, even liked watching me eat. He was big and strong and smart and handsome, but he did have a weakness. Namely, a highly questionable taste in women.
“Don’t suppose you can tell us where the elf went,” Stringbean said.
“Even if I could I wouldn’t.”
“Because?
“Because you’re trying to kill her and I’m trying to save her.”
“She’s a danger to society. Human society.”
“Only until I can turn her from the dark side.”
“If you can't turn her from the dark side?”
“If I can’t, I’ll put her down myself.”
“Mermaid’s promise?” Stringbean said.
Damn. He boxed me into a corner. I forgot he knew that when a mermaid gave you what we called a mermaid’s promise, we would either keep it or die trying. Why? It’s simple. Everyone holds something sacred. To a mermaid, the most sacred thing there is, is what we call a mermaid’s promise. My grandmother ground that fact into my mother and my mother ground it into me.
“Mermaid’s promise,” I said. “If I can’t turn Gladrielle from the dark side, I’ll put her down myself.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Stringbean said.
He turned and headed back the way he came, with Frat Boy scurrying after him.
“What now?” John said when we were alone.
“Now, I have no choice. I either turn Gladrielle from the dark side, or I kill her.”