Page 5 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
“Hey, Meri. How’s summer vacation treating you?” I dipped my head, trying to see under the edge of her hood.
Her shoulder twitched before she picked up books from my cart to shelve.
“Meri?” I kept my voice low.
She paused, her back to me.
“Is everything okay?” I went around the counter and stood beside her.
She didn’t turn around.
“You and I are the only ones here right now with excellent hearing. The ones in the bar are wicches. They won’t hear us. I can see that everything isn’t okay.” I stepped closer. “You can talk to me.”
She finally turned and lifted her head. Her luminous purple eyes were filled with tears. “I wanted to walk today. My mom is working. Fyr always offers to drive me, but I know he doesn’t start work for a few more hours. I didn’t want to ask him to chauffeur me around.” She slammed the books in her hands on a shelf to her left. “I have a license. I’m working here to save money for a car. I just didn’t want to beg for a ride today, so I decided to walk.”
“How far of a walk is it?” I was pretty sure I knew where this was going.
“Only about a mile,” she said. “My mom and I live in the Outer Richmond District.”
I nodded. She was right. That wasn’t too far.
“This man started following me.” She shivered. “I just felt these goose bumps on the back of my neck. When I turned, there was this man who’s been watching me.” She yanked her hood down. The braid of her thick blonde hair uncoiled and fell over her shoulder. “You know how I love gardening?”
I nodded. Meri had a gift for growing things. She’d created a display in the gardening section of the bookstore that was overtaking the bookshelves around it. We had a lush English tea garden along the back wall.
“I can’t work in my front yard anymore. Whenever I go out, he shows up to stand on the sidewalk, stare at me, and try to start conversations.” The anger from a moment ago was dissipating, leaving only despair. “My plants are dying.”
“I’m sorry. Does your mom know?” Although as a human, I’m not sure what she could do.
She nodded. “Yeah. There’s this detective we’ve worked with on other stuff.” She meant other stalking cases. Meri’s had to change schools countless times. “Mom called her to talk to her about this man. The detective said she’d ask patrol cars to regularly drive down our street but that means they drive by once a day. I mean, I appreciate it but that won’t stop him.
“Anyway, I started walking to work and there he was, following me. It’s a really beautiful day. I just wanted to walk to work. That’s all.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s not fair that you can’t go for a walk without someone bothering you, but I need you to remember that you have friends here. You could have called me, and I’d have jogged to you and scared the hell out of that guy.” I let my eyes lighten to wolf gold and my claws slide from my fingertips. “I would have enjoyed making him wet himself.”
Meri almost smiled.
“Owen could have driven over to get you and hit the guy with a go-away spell. Heck, Fyr could have breathed fire on him. No more problem.”
Her eyes glittered, considering that one.
FOUR
The Fear of Sam
“I can’t take my sweatshirt off without having to explain to people what happened.” Meri pulled up her right sleeve. She already had a dark bruise forming in the shape of a handprint. Rage overtook me. Leaning down, I sniffed her sleeve, caught his scent, and raced up the stairs. I knew she shouted something after me, but I couldn’t hear it. My head was filled with a roaring white noise.
I was done. This on top of the woman this morning? I was at a breaking point. This shit had to stop.
When I hit the upper parking lot, I spun, trying to catch his sent on the wind. She’d said Outer Richmond, a mile. I went to the main road but couldn’t find him. I did, however, get her scent, so I followed that back. She’d clearly lost him somewhere along the way.
As I was running down a very steep hill and wondering why she’d taken this far more vertical route, it occurred to me that she’d done it to lose him. Sure enough, at the bottom of the hill, I caught his scent. Turning to the right, I passed apartment houses and single-family homes. My head was on a swivel, trying to find the asshole who laid his hand on her.
Where the hell had he gone? There was no way he’d left the area, not after getting close enough to grab her. He was waiting somewhere. At the end of the block, I lost it. The stink of a passing bus’s exhaust was in my nose, overlaying his trail. I retraced my steps, blowing air out of my nose, before I pulled up my hood and shifted my snout.
Head down, I went back to the corner, found the trail, and started running again. I shifted my nose back. No need to scare the little old lady walking down the sidewalk. I didn’t need the boost anymore. I had him now.
I passed a bodega and skidded to a stop. Senses on alert, I scanned the area. A moment later, a man walked out of the bodega holding a bottle of water. He looked to be in his fifties, with sallow skin and sagging jowls. His hair was thin and an unnatural black that looked like it came from a spray can. His narrow eyes darted up and down the street. He unscrewed the bottle cap, took a sip, and then walked a few paces back to the intersection so he could keep watch and spot Meri on her return route.
