Page 73 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
He must have felt me tense up because he began to rub my back.
“Creep,” I muttered.
“He is,” Clive agreed. Now, what do we notice about this corner?
I glanced around this section of the dance floor and saw no tables nearby. A large potted plant sat here instead. As it was the only plant in the nightclub, it seemed odd. Is this the corner?
Clive nodded. I’ve been watching. The servers avoid this area. There’s a storage room back there. He tipped his head past the potted plant to a discreet door in the far wall. The staff are walking behind the stage to get over here, instead of just walking where we’re standing.
I closed my eyes, swaying with Clive but concentrating on what was around us. Are there cameras over here?
Clive looked up around the ceiling. Yes. Far side of the band but pointed in this direction. Nerissa is probably trying to determine if the pooka is sneaking in through her club.
Block me from the camera and any of the humans around here.
He swayed, moving me a few degrees away from the front of the club. That’s as hidden as I can make you.
I shifted my nose into a long wolf’s snout and tilted my head up to sniff. A chill ran down my spine. I’d recognize that scent anywhere. In my mind’s eye, I could picture the overblown blowsy flowers bobbing in the wind along the river running through Faerie. The sun sparkling on the water, long grass in dappled light beneath huge, sheltering trees, rich loamy earth, I could see it all and I felt the pull to visit.
Shifting my nose back, I said, “It’s a doorway. We should go.”
Clive nodded, taking my hand and weaving through the tables toward the bar. Nerissa stood in the back, watching us. Clive went toward the kitchen exit, but I pulled him to a stop beside Nerissa.
“Is there a way to close it?” I asked quietly.
Chin up, eyes scanning the club, she didn’t seem to have heard me. Finally, though, she shook her head.
“Have you seen anything on the camera?” I asked. “Is that how the pooka ended up here?”
She gave a reluctant nod. “I think so. The cameras are new. Inside and out. I didn’t see it arrive, but it only makes sense. I saw the two I warned you about drop through, though,” she murmured before walking away from us.
Clive pulled me along. The kitchen staff gave us dirty looks but then went back to work, ignoring us. Clive’s phone buzzed. As he read his text and began to text back, I looked through the back door. The nocturne’s limo was heading around the club to pick up the vampires in front. Once it had passed, I saw Vlad leaning against our car.
I kept walking, wanting to clear the air. “Listen,” I said as I approached him, “I know it was a joke intended for Clive, and my reaction probably seemed way too much. It hit me wrong, and I had a hard time finding my balance again.”
“Look who I found.” He crouched behind the car parked next to ours and Fergus bolted out from between the cars.
Vlad’s voice had sounded weird, but I was so distracted by my little buddy being here that the loss of his Romanian accent didn’t hit me until later.
“What happened? How did you get here?” As he galloped across the small parking area, I registered his size. He was larger than he was an hour ago. When he lifted his head to look at me, my knees weakened and I tore the axe from under Clive’s jacket, inadvertently shredding his collar.
Knuckles white, I crushed the axe handle as the dog slowed, head low, stalking me, muscles bunching, readying for attack. “This isn’t chaos. This is cruelty and you know it.”
The pooka dog growled, showing teeth far bigger and sharper than a normal wolfhound, even an unusually large one. His long, sharp claws made a horrible scraping sound on the gravel, like nails on a chalkboard.
A moment later, I felt my husband’s presence beside me.
Eyes still on the Fergus-wearing pooka, I said to Clive, “I wrecked your jacket.”
“It wasn’t a good night for our clothing.”
Someone landed on my other side. Vlad, still holding my sword in his gloved hand. “Sorry I’m late. I was on the roof.”
The pooka stared at us, at my axe and Vlad’s sword, deciding Clive must be the weakest of us. The Fergus-looking monster charged and Clive flew at him, wrapping his arms around him and crushing him. The sound of bones breaking was loud in the quiet night.
And then Clive’s arms were empty. The pooka had disappeared, except they couldn’t disappear.
“No slats to drop under here.” I rushed forward, scanning the gravel at our feet. “He shifted to something too small to see easily.” I started slamming the blunt head of my axe on the ground, hoping I’d get him.
