Chapter 2
Following my morning swim in the ocean, I paid a visit to Wormby's Pawnshop. Wormby's was located a couple of blocks from the beach, so I went there straight after my swim. I was wearing a green bikini. A blue silk scarf that fell to mid thigh was wrapped around my waist. Flip flops were on my feet. Sunglasses hid my emerald green eyes.
My red hair was dry even though I just got out of the ocean. Mermaid hair repels water rather than absorbs it, so it always looks dry, even after a swim. Mermaids are either blonds or redheads, there are no brunette mermaids, although I don't know why.
Wormby's was owned and run by a gnome named Nicholas Wormby. Like all gnomes, he was short and ugly, with cauliflower ears, a bulbous nose with a wart on the end, one eye that bulged out, and another one that was always squinting. His lips were huge, taking up a full third of his face. He was completely bald, all gnomes are, even the females, and his taste in clothes was highly questionable.
Today he was wearing pink high top sneakers, a lime green tuxedo, and a pink ruffled shirt that looked more like a woman's blouse. Like all gnomes he was short, barely reaching my bellybutton.
Rumors in the supernatural world said that gnomes lived to be one thousand years old. I don't know exactly how old Wormby was, but I knew that he had been around awhile. As such, I figured if anybody knew about the Count, it would be Wormby. He was my go-to-guy for information on other supernaturals.
We also had a business relationship. Wormby kept his over sized cauliflower ears open for rumors of sunken treasure and then passed that information on to me. I retrieved the treasure and we split the profits. Unless of course the treasure was shiny and glittery and something I just had to have. If it was, I put it in my treasure room and told Wormby that I didn't find anything.
“You still dating that human?” Wormby said when he saw me.
“I am,” I said.
Wormby finished dusting the junk in his shop and popped behind counter. There was a raised floor behind counter and it enabled Wormby to look me in the eyes, or more accurately, the cleavage.
Popping in and out was something only gnomes could do. One second they were here, the next second, they were somewhere else. Poof. I had no idea how they did it, it was a power that was unique to gnomes.
“Did you tell him that supernaturals lack the ability to love, let alone fall in love?”
“Told him that when he got engaged to the siren.”
“And he doesn't care? You must be really something in bed.”
“You ever heard of the Count?” I said, changing topics. But just for the record, I am something in bed.
“Why?”
“Titus Hawthorn has hired me to serve as his personal bodyguard, protect him from the Count.”
A worried look crossed Wormby's face. “The Count's coming to town?”
“So I've been told.”
“Sounds like it's time for me to take a vacation.”
I wasn't surprised that Wormby wanted to skip town. Gnomes had an abnormal fear of vampires. They were convinced that every vamp alive wanted to drain them dry. They refused to go out after dark and never went near a vamp club, not even during the middle of the day.
“What can you tell me about the Count?” I leaned across the counter so my cleavage was inches from Wormby's face. Wormby was obsessed with my breasts. Not that I could blame him. They were spectacular.
Mermaids have extremely dense muscle tissue, not thick, dense. There's a difference. A chunk of lead and a chuck of wood can have the same thickness, but when you pick them up, you can feel the difference. The lead is denser.
Our muscle tissue is designed to withstand the extreme water pressure at the bottom of the ocean, which is why it's so dense. That extreme density means gravity doesn't affect us the way it affects human woman. It also mean we're strong, ridiculously strong. Even if we don't look it.
As I mentioned earlier, I don't have gills, which means I can't breathe under water. What I can do is hold my breath, hold it for a long time, much like whales and dolphins. Eventually, I have to come up for air, just like whales and dolphins.
“The Count is the oldest vampire alive,” Wormby said. “At least that's what the rumor mill says.”
“Is he the first vampire?”
“Probably not. Vampires can be traced all the way back to ancient times, just like all supernaturals.”
I didn't bother to ask what he meant by that. Like all supernaturals, I knew the story of our origin. The Book of Genesis even talks about it, when it mentions the Nephilim, beings created when the sons of God, angels if you prefer, or more accurately, fallen angels, had children with the daughters of men.
It certainly explained our extended life spans and other powers, not to mention our inability to love. We were descended from angels that lack the ability to love the God that created them.
“Why is everybody so afraid of him?”
“Rumor is he's the only vampire alive that can go out in the middle of the day.”
“Direct sunlight doesn't hurt him?”
“They say he's got a tan. How many vamps have you seen with a tan?”
“None,” I admitted.
Vamps are extremely pale, mostly because their bodies contain about half the water of a living being. Living beings are about sixty percent water. A well fed vamp like Titus is about forty percent water, normal vamps, like Elvis vamp, are about thirty percent water.
Like most mermaids, I can control water with my mind, even the water that makes up a person's body. I can order it to freeze. I can order it to boil. I can order it to burst through a person's veins, arteries, and skin. That's why Titus hired me to protect him from the Count.
“Titus said the Count usually sticks to Europe.”
“Usually,” Wormby said.
“I wonder why he coming here?”
“The Count is a dictator, and like all dictators, he wants to expand his empire.”
“But why start here?”
Wormby shrugged his shoulders. “He's got to start somewhere. And we don't know how long he's been in this country. For all we know this could be his last stop before he heads home.”
Wormby was right about that. My knowledge of supernaturals was limited to those that lived in and around this city. I had no idea what they were up to in other parts of the country nor did I care. “So you think the Count wants to take over the city?”
“No idea. I do know it's time for me to close up shop and take an extended vacation. Maybe I'll go to Costa Rica or Panama. No way I'm going to stay in this town, not as long as the Count is here.”
“What makes the Count so dangerous, besides his ability to withstand sunlight?”
“His ability to compel others is second to none. At least that's the rumor.”
“Compel them to do what?”
“Pretty much anything he wants them to do. Rumor has it he amuses himself by compelling younger vampires to walk out in the noonday sun and stay there until they burn to death.”
That explained why Titus was afraid of him. I had seen Titus moving around during day, had even seen him step outside on a dark rainy day, but I had never ever seen him step outside on a bright sunny day.
“Sounds like a bit of a sociopath.”
Wormby grunted. “Aren't all vamps sociopaths?”
“I don't know. I have yet to meet all vamps.”
“You should come south with me,” Wormby said. “Think of all the sunken treasures waiting to be found in the Caribbean, there's got to be a ton of pirate ships sitting on that sea's floor.”
Like most mermaids, I was obsessed with expanding my treasure, my collection of shiny things. As tempting as Wormby's offer was, and make no mistake about it, it was a tempting offer, there was just one problem. My mother was down there and I don't think she'd appreciate my encroaching into her territory.
“You do know my mother's down there.”
“On Marathon Island. Which is north of Cuba. We'll be in Costa
Rica, which is southwest of Cuba.”
“You really have no clue as to how far a mermaid can travel in one day do you?”
“Enlighten me,” Wormby said.
“When I swim, my top speed is in excess of seventy miles an hour.”
“Yeah but it's not like you can maintain that speed for ten straight hours.”
“Seventy miles an hours, no. Fifty miles an hour, definitely.”
“You telling me that it's not uncommon for a mermaid to travel three to five hundred miles in a single day?”
“You forget, the oceans have currents, and we know how to find them and ride them.”
Wormby snapped his fingers. Like all gnomes he had giant hands with four fat fingers. Well, three fingers and a thumb. “I forgot about the currents.”
“And keep in mind, Marathon Island is only ninety miles from Cuba.”
“We could always settle on the Pacific side of the country.”
“This is my territory and I don't plan on giving it up just because another vamp is coming to town.”
“Not just another vamp,” Wormby said. “The most dangerous vamp alive. If I were you, I'd turn down this job. Let Titus Hawthorn find somebody else to protect him.”
“Can't,” I said. “I already accepted payment.”
Wormby sighed, probably because he knew about my weakness for shiny things. “What did he offer you?”
“A crown. A genuine honest-to-god solid gold crown. You should've seen it. It was . . . magnificent.”
Wormby shook his head. “You're hopeless. You know that don't you?”
“Not hopeless. A mermaid.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the door opening. Savanna Green, the only other mermaid in town, sauntered in. Like me, she was wearing a bikini with a scarf wrapped around her waist. She had a knife strapped to her left bicep and a small plastic box strapped to her left wrist. That told me she had been pearl diving. No big surprise. Like all young mermaids, she was obsessed with expanding her treasure, her collection of shiny things.
Like me, she was tall. I'm five nine, which is actually short for a mermaid. Savanna is an inch or so taller. Her hair is long and thick and blond. Her eyes are blue. The same color blue as her tail. She was younger than me. I'm thirty. She's twenty-one.
Our relationship got off to a rocky start. When she first came to town, she lied to me, then sold me out to a bogeyman. I forgave her because she did it for a ruby and diamond choker. A really shiny, really expensive ruby and diamond choker. We're talking six figures.
Giving a young mermaid something shiny and expensive is like giving a bottle of booze to an alcoholic. Something Titus obviously knew when he stuck that gold crown under my nose.
Savanna lived with me for awhile. When the bogeyman sent some assassins after me, we moved in with a young cop named Doug. I moved back to my condo when my run-in with the bogeyman was over, but Savanna didn't. She was still living at Doug's place. I have no idea if they were sleeping together. Savanna didn't volunteer and I didn't ask. My guess was they were. Doug was young, attractive, and single. And Savanna was, well, a mermaid.
“Guess what?” an excited Savanna said.
“What?” I said.
“I found a wreck.”
“Where?”
“About one hundred miles out.”
“What kind of ship is it?”
“Wooden and really old. Problem is its hull is buried, can't tell if there's any treasure until I figure out how to move all the silt that's covering the ship's hull.”
“Use the water that surrounds the ship.”
“Use it how?”
“Order it to wash the silt off the ship's hull.”
“You mean like waves washing up on the beach?”
“Exactly.”
“I can do that.”
Savanna couldn't control small bodies of water, like the water inside a person's body, but she was very good at controlling large bodies of water, like a swimming pool, or a lake, or part of the ocean. You might think it's easier to control a glass of water than a swimming pool full of water but it's not. The bigger the body of water, the easier it is to sense and touch and feel with your mind.
“So what's happening with you?” Savanna asked.
She stopped next to me and leaned across the counter, giving Wormby a good view of her cleavage. Was she doing it on purpose? Definitely. Mermaids are notorious teases.
“Titus hired me to protect him.”
“From who?”
“Another vampire. Some guy known as the Count.”
“Never heard of him,” Savanna said.
“He's supposed to be the oldest vampire on the planet.”
Wormby pulled his eyes away from Savanna's breasts and shook his head, coming out of his cleavage induced trance. “Not just the oldest vampire on the planet. The most powerful. You need to remember that.”
“I'm a little short on cash right now,” Savanna said. “You think Titus would be interested in hiring a second mermaid to protect him?”
Wormby groaned and shook his head. “Why do I even bother.”
Savanna turned to Wormby. “What?”
“I was just trying to convince Low to leave town before the Count gets here. Not only did she refuse, but now you want to get involved with him.”
“I could use the work,” Savanna said. “I'm a little short on cash.”
Wormby pointed to the plastic box on her wrist. “You need cash, sell me those pearls you just found.”
Savanna looked at Wormby like he had just asked her to commit suicide. No surprise there. Asking a mermaid to give up her treasure pretty much was asking her to commit suicide. If a mermaid doesn't have a treasure to look at, she can go into a depression, a deep, dark, depression.
“She's not going to give up her pearls. So don't even ask.” I turned to Savanna. “Why don't you show me that wreck you found. If we work together, we can wash the silt off it pretty quick.”
“What's it going to cost me?” Savanna said.
“Ten percent of everything we find.” Odds were there was no treasure. The vast majority of sunken ships didn't contain a treasure chest, or anything else of value, but then again, you never knew.
“You can have ten percent of anything we find if you convince Titus to hire me as one of his bodyguards.”
“You really want to meet this Count?”
“The oldest vampire in world. Don't you?”
“Wouldn't pass up the opportunity in a million years,” I said.
“This is why your species is so few and far between,” Wormby said. “You're always sticking your noses where you shouldn't.”
That and the fact that we couldn't expand our numbers with a couple of well placed bites the way vampires and werewolves could. We had to do it the old fashioned way, sex, pregnancy, and a baby. When that baby started to grow up, you had to teach her how to shift from human form to mermaid form, and then you had to teach her how to control water. I say her because mermaids rarely give birth to boys. Nature's way of ensuring the survival of our species, I guess.
“Let's go check out that wreck,” Savanna said. “By the time we finish and get back, Titus's club will be opening.”
Savanna and I headed for the exit.
“Don't bother stopping by tomorrow,” Wormby said to our backs. “I won't be here. I'm closing the shop and heading to Panama. Where there ain't no Count.”
“Maybe we should give him a reason to stay,” a grinning Savanna said.
“I got a boyfriend now. I don't think he'd appreciate my flashing people.”
“It's not people. It's Wormby.”
I thought about it for a second, then I smiled. “Maybe one last time.”
Savanna pulled her bikini top up to her chin, exposing her breasts. I did the same, then we spun around, so we were facing Wormby. As soon as we did that, Wormby disappeared. One second he was behind the counter at the far end of the shop, the next second, he was standing right in fr
ont of us.
“I guess I don't have to leave tonight,” Wormby said, staring up at our breasts. “I mean it isn't like the Count is coming today.”
He reach up with his giant mitts, intending to grab one of Savanna's breasts and one of mine. Needless to say, he got his hands slapped. By both of us.
“Uh-uh,” Savanna said. “You can look but you can't touch.”
We pulled our tops back down, turned, and headed out the door. Behind us, I could hear Wormby mumbling to himself. “I hate mermaids.”