Page 1 of Midnight Serenade
Chapter 1
Grace & Sebastian
Istood beside my luggage outside my stateroom on theKamaria,one of Solace Cruise Line’smost elegant cruise ships, wondering if I was dreaming. I reached over and pinched my arm. I flinched minutely from the pain, so, no, I wasn’t dreaming. It couldn’t hurt to check because my current circumstances were beyond bizarre.
A white mountain lion sat next to me like a gentleman while I listened to the Solace Cruise Hospitality Manager, Kiara, explain for the third time that she was very sorry, but my stateroom wouldn’t be available for the entirety of my thirty-day cruise.
I blinked at her in amazement and wondered just how badly the previous occupants haddestroyedthe room in order for them to stillbe scrambling to fix everything. Had a bomb gone off in there? I craned my neck to the side to see how badly it was ruined, but two smiling employees who stood guarding the entrance blocked my way. I wondered if they would need to call in a hazmat team next, because the situation seemed like it was escalating towards that.
None of these things, not the destroyed room, my rampant curiosity, or the smiling employees giving offnothing to see herevibes distracted me from the lion sitting next to me, minding hismanners like a boss. He was sitting so close to me that his white fur felt incredibly soft against my bare legs.
I’d about had a heart attack when he casually came to sit down beside me in the hallway, but theSolaceemployees had all immediately assured me that he was the owner’s cat and that the owner was in residence and let his cat roam freely aboard the ship. Also that I shouldn’t be alarmed because the cat was just large for a Main Coon.
I had to wonder if they all needed eye examinations, because the cat leaning against me was, in fact, alion.I’d seen Main Coons before. They looked nothing like lions.
I pondered, for about the hundredth time, if I might have made a mistake in coming here. But I shut that thought down immediately. My research indicated that this cruise line catered to… people like me, people who were different in a way not found in normal society. However, judging by the employees peeking down the hall to get a good look at me, the customers of the ship gaping at me out of their cracked open doors, and the customer service agent who was staring at me as though I were a really bright and shiny good luck coin she wanted to add to her collection, I guessed that my oddness was beyond the normal of what eventhisship normally carried.
I was a little heartbroken at this observation. For once, I’d wanted to fit in. To be like those around me. It had taken me years to understand that people didn’t react normally to me, and even more years to understand that my not knowing what I was had put me in danger my entire life. I’d heard rumors that the stories told in fantasy books weren’t all that far off from the truth. I’d been given an anonymous tip—a note slid under my door, probably by someone in my town who felt bad for the disaster that was my life—saying that humans were not the only beings that shared our planet. I’d never once thought that I was an alien.
I snorted mentally at that. No, I’d almost instantly known that the note was real and that they were talking about fantasy races: dwarves, harpies, pixies, vampires, shifters. After that I’d dug in big time, searching the internet for everything I could get my hands on, until one day I’d come across a review of Solace Cruise lines.
At first, it had seemed innocent. It was only after I’d stared at it a while, trying to puzzle out why it stood out to me, that I realized it wasn’t what the reviewer was saying. It was what they were carefullynotsaying. That review led to thousands of others, all hinting at otherwordliness without outright saying it, and I knew I’d found something at last. I told Mama what I’d found, and then before I really knew or thought about what I was doing, I’d booked a cruise. So now here I was, about to be booted off the ship because some ingrates had destroyed what was to be my room.
I was tired of people’s eyes following me everywhere I went. Tired of the dates that, in the blink of an eye, literally became obsessed with me. Tired of the jerks that couldn’t and wouldn’t accept no. Tired of men trying to follow me back home, to scope out where I lived. Tired of creepy guys who became crazed around me, and decent guys who begged me to go out with them, even when they were standing right next to their date or their spouse.
It wasawful.
No one prepared me for this stuff. Mama had to pull me out of school because the boys wouldn’t leave me alone, and most of the girls hated me. I couldn’t go to college for the same reason, so I ended up enrolling in online courses. I couldn’t have a job outside my home because I was harassed and propositioned all day long. It was like... like I put everyone under some kind of spell, and they were powerless to resist.
Trust me. I know how that sounds.
I sound like an arrogant twerp. I promise I’m not. What I am is a frightened woman at the end of her tether. I’m thirty-eight and I’m basically stuck inside the home I share with Mama. I seldom go outside because people’s eyes follow me everywhere. Going to the grocery store, the movies, clothes shopping, anything, gives me ridiculous amounts of anxiety.
I’m trapped in a life I didn’t ask for. In a world that I’ve only caught glimpses of, but am mostly ignorant of. I don’t know how to switch what I amoff.Or even if itcanbe switched off.
Shouldn’t there be a paranormal customer service line for situations like this? Like, “Hi, I think I’m one of you guys. Could you please send help A.S.A.P.?”
But there wasn’t. At least I’d never found one.
I was here ostensibly to have some peace and quiet to finish my current novel about a cute avian and cat shifter, but mostly because I was hoping someone would take pity on me and tell me what I am and how to shut off my dazzle, dazzle mojo.
I just wanted a normal life, with a spouse, a few children, a few Saturday barbecues, kids zipping through the sprinklers, toddlers having meltdowns, and my mama loving on her grandchildren. I wanted no part of whatever I was. I wanted someone to take it out of me, or turn it off, and I almost didn’t care if they hideously disfigured me in the process if that was what it called for. At this point, I was desperate. My biological clock was ticking, and I was almost out of time.
The lion shifted beside me, bringing me back to the present. The employees were all looking at me expectantly, and I winced. I must have zoned out for longer than was socially appropriate. Social appropriateness was not something I was well versed in, being a shut-in and all.
Miss Kiara again apologized for the problem with my room, and I nodded because that’s what you did when people looked super embarrassed and very, very apologetic. You nodded sothey didn’t feel worse. “I understand,” I said quietly, utterly depressed at my misfortune. “I’ll just gather my things.” I grabbed hold of my two pieces of luggage, grunting at their weight. It felt like I was carrying bricks in each of them. In reality, it was a little bit of clothes and toiletries and alotof books.
“Should I head to the passenger service desk to ask for my refund?”
Kiara looked horrified at my words, and I mentally went over what I’d just said, making sure I hadn’t made another social gaff. Nope. I’d requested a refund because they were kicking me off the most elegant cruise ship in the world. And I’d asked about it politely, so I was good.
“Madam, you misunderstand,” she said, her Nigerian accent thick with horror. “We will make room for you on another deck. You’re getting an upgrade. As this is Solace Cruise Line’sfault, we will also be crediting your account with three thousand dollars to spend on incidentals.”
I blinked, certain I’d misheard her. “I’m sorry, you’re doing what, now?”
Sebastian
Huntingdown my lion on a ship the size of theKamaria wasno easy feat. Twenty decks, twenty-six restaurants, fourteen lounges, four pools, twenty-five hundred rooms?it amounted to a lot of space. And even though we had cameras in all of our common areas, it was usually faster to track him down by word of mouth. A server saw him at the deck five Tiki Bar heading to the elevator. The elevator bellman said he got off on deck seven,the Dolphin Deck and a few of my porters said they saw him come down this particular hallway.
