Page 64 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
“It is beholden to me,” drawled Marvin, “to remind you, yet again, that you are not to approach Mr. Bloodworth or any of his delegates when they disembark from the ship. You were given time to acclimate upon your arrival. We ask that you allow the same for them.”
“I definitely see something,” the woman crowed again. “There, to the left a little…”
People slogged into each other, straining to see, and a narrow gap opened in front of me. There, smudged against the foggy horizon, was a ship-shaped shadow.
Jackson squeezed my hip. But, at the same time, a jaw of fear clamped around my heart.
I jolted.
“You…” Thin tendrils of Alistair’s voice brushed against my mind, so laden with shock—withpanic—they zapped me with the same voltage as a cattle prod.
Jackson pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug, maybe mistaking my spasm for anticipation. And I welcomed that hug, and the security it provided, when sorrow flooded my chest. A great, yawning sorrow, the kind that ran so deep it couldn’t be soothed by tears.
“Why are you here?” I closed my eyes, bracing against the onslaught of pain that accompanied Alistair’s voice.
Something was wrong.
I could hear it…feelit.
“That is definitelythem!” Jackson whooped.
I opened my eyes. And jumped when I realized Marvin had meandered through the legs of the tittering onlookers and was sitting near my feet, staring up at me.
He blinked. In that slow, sluggish way cats did. Like they found your presence to be insufferable.
But Isworehe knew what I was feeling. That green gaze was just a little too shrewd.
“I…I…You…”
Marvin’s tail twitched in time with each of my stutters.
“Babe, wha—Oh,shit!”Jackson snatched at my hip, hauling me away from Marvin. “The fuck, man?” he grumbled. “We’re not even near your stupid line.”
Marvin turned, stuck his tiger-striped tail into the air, and wove back through the crowd.
“I don’t think he came over to scold you, Jackson.” I fought to keep my words steady. “He’s probably patrolling.”
“I know. But I’d be spending half the day sneezing if it’d rubbed against my leg or swatted, or did whatever it is that cats do.”
Marvin turned when he reached the front of the group and found a gap to peer at us through.
“Do you think it can hear me?” Jackson hissed.
Marvin gave a slow, purposeful blink.
“Unfortunately, yes,” I said. “But I’m sure he won’t hold your allergies against you.”
Marvin looked, very much, like he would hold them against Jackson.
With a grunt, the smudged shape of the ship ground to a stop at the end of the dock.
Anticipation made the air soupy, so thick and chunky, every breath was a battle to get down. And in between my slurping inhales, I felt Alistair, the pinpricks of his panic puncturing holes into my gut.
I squirmed, battling with the urge to do…something.
If only I could communicate with him the telepathic way he communicated with me.
Ssssssssnnnaaappp.
