Meanwhile, the pier is much too busy for, say, a mermaid to scale one of the pylons and make her way up to the pier. Or even to appear out of the waves anywhere within eyesight. Weren’t mermaids, like, naked? Some wore shells over their top parts—at least, according to Disney.

  I check my watch. It’s ten minutes after 9 a.m. Had there been a storm at sea? Had she gotten lost? How, in fact, did a mermaid know when she reached her destination? It’s not like there are any signs underwater. Of course, she could be wearing an Apple watch. Though surely it would have been destroyed many times over by now, unless she kept near the surface. I knew some were water-resistant, but certainly not mermaid-tested.

  These are my thoughts as I scan the northern waters off the piers. So far, no semi-nude, curvaceous mermaid. I move from a bench to the railing and stare down, down into the blue-green water, fully expecting to see a woman with a tail swimming just below the surface. Truth be told, I’m getting excited to see such a sight. I mean, c’mon... mermaids are cool.

  “Why, thank you,” says a pleasant voice behind me. “Samantha Moon, I presume?”

  I turn to find a striking-looking woman standing behind me on the pier. Her dark hair is pulled back into a wet ponytail. She’s taller than me, but not by much. That she was born over a century ago and is still taller than me suggests that humans may have stopped evolving altogether.

  At this thought, she crinkles her eyes in a way that makes me think she knows she’s lovely and doesn’t try to hide it. I could see why Kingsley was smitten with her. She is endearing in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.

  “It’s my charm,” she says. “That, and my ability to read any mind.”

  I look around, nervous at such talk. “When you say ‘charm’…”

  “I’m not bragging,” she says, smiling, though she looks away in an effort to, weirdly, dial down on said charm. “My kind enchant others, especially those attracted to me. Though you are not attracted to me, my charm can hit people in other ways.”

  “Like finding you endearing,” I say.

  “Yeah. Definitely puts people at ease, in general. And don’t worry, there’s no one close enough to hear us, though we have gotten the attention of a couple of fishermen. Hang on.”

  I spy the two men, casually leaning on the railing and looking our way. A moment later, they turn away and stare off to sea.

  “Not that they had any ill intentions, other than casual male urges, they did find us interesting and would have eventually come over to us.”

  “Fishing in the morning on a weekday,” I say. “Hold me back.”

  Alexis Silver smiles at that, stifling a small laugh. “Hey, they can provide for us. Fish, that is.”

  “That might work for you,” I say. “But unless they’re catching cheeseburgers, I might have to pass.”

  She laughs loud enough to hit my ears sharply. I wince.

  “Sorry,” she says quickly. “A mermaid’s singing—and sometimes laughter—can hit ranges high above what most people are used to. I try to dial down my laughter, but, yeah, that cheeseburger business was funny. And whoa, a vampire who eats cheeseburgers?”

  I smirk. “No nutritional value for me, though. And my taste buds aren’t quite what they used to be, but yeah, I can wolf them down with the best of them. And even enjoy them if I really focus.”

  She cocks her head, studying me. Her pupils flare with a barely there flame, a flame one really has to look for to see. A flame that means, of course, she’s sporting an inner dark master.

  “Tis true, Sam. May I call you Sam?”

  “Sure.”

  “Feel free to call me Alex, by the way. And yeah, I have a dark master. But unlike your own story, mine has been a little more satisfying.”

  “Kingsley says you’re friends with her,” I say.

  “Indeed. The best of friends.”

  “I literally went to war with her,” I say.

  “Kingsley mentioned something about that. Seems a conversation better suited for a different setting.”

  “Or not at all,” I say. “A lot of people died.”

  She nods sympathetically but says nothing.

  “And who knew wolfmen were such gossips?” I add.

  “I think he’s nervous about us meeting,” she says, laughing easily. “And to answer your unasked question... yes, I emerged out of the rocks down by the jetty over there. There, I shifted back to my human self, donned some clothing I brought along for the ride, and walked over here.” She turns and shows me her aerodynamic backpack. Made sense, if she swam underwater, that she wouldn’t want the drag from a bulky backpack.

  “Yes, exactly,” she says, the corners of her mouth crinkling into an endearing smile.

  “There you go again,” I say.

  “I can’t help it, Sam, especially if I genuinely like someone.”

  For some reason, that warms my heart. But the time for introductions is over. We have a missing man to find.

  “I agree,” says Alexis. “Can we sit together first? I’d like to study that image I see in your mind.”

  I blink. “Image? Oh, the dinosaur.”

  “Yes. But it’s not a dinosaur in the traditional sense, if it’s what I think it is. Are you parked nearby?”

  “I am.”

  “Good. Let’s go there for some peace and quiet.”

  Leading the way back along the pier, very few would suspect a vampire and a mermaid might have just become friends.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Roy

  The great creature is picking up speed, I’m sure of it.

  I hold fast to my meat barge, gripping tight to God knows what. Possibly the jawbone of a porpoise.

  Meanwhile, the shark fin is cutting through the sludge. Surprising how much the eye can see, even in low light. Curiously, the fin now appears angled to the side, barely above the stomach acid and seawater.

  The speed I’m sensing is only increasing. That, along with a sharp back-and-forth motion, suggests the creature is really moving, perhaps propelled by a long, thick tail. With the leaning shark fin fast approaching and my watch spinning ever faster backward in time, I send out a small request to whoever’s listening:

  If I’m dreaming, I’d like to wake up now.

  With that still not happening, I inch back on the fleshy flotsam just as something bumps into it. I’m assuming it’s the shark’s nose; indeed, the fin now scrapes along the side of the raft-thing I’ve created.

  As the drooping fin edges ever closer, I see that it is, in fact, shuddering. A moment later, a dark eye looks up at me from the sludge it’s swimming through. The shark rises to the surface, its eye moving crazily, its skin veritably dissolving before my eyes. As the creature sinks back down, I scoot further back onto the raft, pressing my shoulders against the curve of the stomach wall.

  The shark’s fate is likely my fate, too, unless I figure a way out of here.

  But how, dammit? So far, nothing else has come down the meat chute that is its neck. No air, no water, no food. No way out. Meanwhile, my watch seems to be indicating I’m going back in time. Impossible, of course. Then again, this thing does look like something from the past.

  The distant past.

  Think, Roy... think!

  Chapter Twenty

  Back in my minivan, seated in the front seats, we turn and face each other.

  “To see the creature in question, I’m going to slip into your thoughts, if you don’t mind,” says Alexis. “Is it okay if I hold your hands?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Holding hands helps the connection. Fellow immortals aren’t the easiest minds to read.”

  “But you can read them?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Back in the day, I never could.”

  She nods. “Telepathy is my kind’s preferred mode of communication. As such, it’s particularly powerful for us.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “You no longer use telepathy?” she asks.

  “It went away when my dark master got the boot.”

  She nods. “Vampires aren’t known for this particular skill. Mind control, yes.”

  “Can you use mind control?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “But my charm has a similar effect. One who’s under it must do my bidding.” She emphasizes the words, chuckling lightly.

  I get the sense that she, too, rarely controls people unless absolutely necessary.

  “Tis true,” she says, gently taking my hands. “I don’t need to go very far back, right?”

  “Right,” I say. “I had the... I’m not sure what to call it... vision? Psychic hit? About forty-five minutes ago.”

  Boy, I really hope she doesn’t go too far back and find herself in Kingsley’s bedroom last night. The big fella had been particularly passionate. Which meant lots of sweat, matted hair, and grunting.

  “Got it,” says Alexis, winking. “No bedroom scenes.”

  “No one needs to see that,” I say.

  “Agreed,” she says, chuckling.

  When she closes her eyes, I do my best to clear my mind, giving her easier access to the vision I had seen just a few minutes earlier when holding the damaged flipper. Meanwhile, I’m doing my best to ignore her hands holding mine. I definitely don’t have much, if any, attraction to the same sex, though I can appreciate beauty when I see it. That said, I can see how men, women, you name it, would be putty in her hands. Poor Kingsley hadn’t stood a chance.

  A minute later, she releases my hands. I have to admit, I enjoyed her touch. Yeah, her charm is that powerful, even when she’s not trying. “Did you see it?” I ask.

  “I did, yes.”

  “Any clue what it is?”

  “Me, personally, I haven’t a clue. Licinia has some thoughts. She would like to speak to you. Do you mind?”

  “Licinia?”

  “My dark master.”

  “Ah, right. Yeah, sure.”

  I have to admit I’m a bit jealous that she could have such a casual and friendly relationship with she who possesses her. Then again, Elizabeth had used me for a greater purpose... well, a greater purpose for her. I had, after all, been instrumental in the releasing of magic back into this world. It didn’t appear that Licinia had any such designs on Alexis.

  “Okay, here she is, Sam. I will step back for a few minutes.”

  With that, her eyes briefly roll up in her head, then drop back down and level on me. The fire in her pupil is gone. After all, the entity herself is now front and center. No need to hide in the shadows.

  “Hello, Samantha,” says Alex/Licinia in a voice that’s decidedly different than the one I’d just been talking to. It has a trilling quality to it. It sounds both ancient and foreign... mixed with something ethereal. As if I were speaking to something ghostly. Quite the heady combination.

  “Er, hello. Licinia, I presume?”

  “But of course.”

  Kingsley, intimately aware of the dark master within Alexis, had given me a heads-up. Licinia had been an ancient Greek mystic and witch, who sought the dark side to help avenge the murder of her kids. Once the vengeance had been exacted, she had calmed down a bit but not before rising to the level of dark master. It would be another 1,900 years or so before she would come across Alexis. How the two met is probably beyond the scope of the information I needed at this moment, though I was curious.

  “Another time, child,” says Licinia, which nearly gets a giggle from me. Haven’t been called ‘child’ in God knows how long. I doubt she meant it in a demeaning way. She was, after all, two thousand years my senior.

  “Exactly, Samantha Moon. It’s just a gentle term of endearment.”

  I nod, smiling. All good.

  “This creature that you seek,” says Licinia, “is not known to my people.”

  “Your people?”

  “The Greeks and thereabouts. And also, to fellow practitioners.”

  “Dark masters,” I say.

  “Precisely. Though I don’t have what you would call a photographic memory, I do have the ability to search all of my memory. It is a result from having been without corporeal form for so long. I am nothing if not ideas and the ability to access such ideas. If that makes sense.”

  “Sense enough,” I say. “You’ve never seen the thing that I saw in the vision?”

  “Never, Samantha. Nor have I heard it described. I can confirm that other mers have never described such a creature, either.”

  “So, where does this leave us?” I ask.

  “You are determined to find this man?” asks Licinia.

  “I am,” I say.

  “Admirable,” says Licinia.

  “Why did you believe that time wasn’t an issue?” I ask. “You and Alexis swam here, rather than being teleported by me.”

  She cocks her head to one side. “Call it witchy instinct. That said, let me recede again and bring forward Alexis. It is her body, after all. I will provide commentary from the background, when I see fit. The two of you, both crack investigators, should be able to see this problem through to the end, and find your man.”

  I nod as Alexis’s eyes once again roll up into her head. A moment later, she rolls her shoulders, blinks, and steadies her gaze on me. The flame is back in her pupils, albeit still faint. Most people, I think, would see the fire as an odd reflection. Then again, most people would be smitten by the woman herself and hardly pay attention to what’s happening behind her pupils.

  “So, we can rule out any known creatures,” says Alexis.

  “Because the mers of the world would have been aware of it,” I say.

  “Something so big would hardly go unnoticed, especially by those of my kind. Additionally, I wasn’t the first mermaid in Licinia’s experience.”

  I nod. “Someone at some time would have seen a gargantuan dinosaur be-bopping along.”

  Alexis smiles. “Be-bopping and feasting on humankind. And if there is one monster in the sea...”

  “There have to be more, unless this thing appeared spontaneously... which we can’t entirely rule out. I’ve seen other entities do something similar.” I’m looking at you, Jack Frost, a man of sorts who’d been summoned into existence over time, through retelling after retelling, song after song.

  The mer-gal studies me, undoubtedly following my train of thought. “Yes, I’ve heard this is how the world can work, though my own secluded existence has kept me from interacting with such entities, well, so far. I see in your thoughts that the devil himself is a product of such an incarnation.”

  “There’s a new one now, though I haven’t come across him yet. I imagine he’s still finding his footing. Lots of evil out there to oversee and catch up on.”

  “Right,” says Alexis, nodding in a way that suggests her mind just got blown away. For an added effect, and playing off my own thought, she makes an explosion motion at the side of her head. “So, what do we know about this thing?”

  “We know it’s never been seen before,” I say. “Unless it recently emerged from the darkest depths of the ocean...”

  “Something that big has eaten a lot of food,” says Alexis. “Tens of thousands of tons a year.”

  I nod, seeing her point. “It would have been spotted feasting. And likely would be feared and well-known among your kind... and humankind as well.”

  “And other sea creatures, too,” she adds. “We can communicate with most.”

  “Like Aquaman?”

  “Where do you think they got the idea?”

  “Right. Gotcha. So, what are we saying here?” I ask.

  “It’s likely a new creature,” says Alexis.

  “Outside of mass consciousnesses summoning it forth from the ether—which I don’t see having happened—how can it be a previously unknown creature?”

  We both ponder this question. I’m pretty sure our combined investigative training didn’t include classifying or identifying giant aquatic prehistoric creatures. Which makes me wonder...

  “If it’s a time-traveling dinosaur?” asks Alexis, picking up on my thought.

  “Would explain its sudden appearance.”

  “Hmm. And massive size.”

  “And why my friend Allison couldn’t get a very good read on it.”

  “The distance-viewing gal?” asks Alexis.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re saying maybe the creature had already slipped back in time or something?” Alexis rubs her chin.

  “Maybe.”

  “But why show up here, at this time? And where are they presently?”

  “Presently is the operative word,” I say. “This thing could be anywhere in time.”

  “Any clue how it’s doing it, Sam? I see you have experience with time travel.”

  “No, but I’m leaning toward it probably does it unknowingly. Did you see the air around it?” I ask.

  “Air? It was underwater...”

  “Look again at my memory, and focus on the space where its skin and water meet.”

  She does that now, as I also think back to the memory of the creature rising up beneath Roy before nabbing him. Thinking about it brings the image front and center, and brings it into sharper focus for her.

  “Whoa. There is a sort of air pocket around its skin,” reports Alexis, her eyes still closed. “Look at its skin—it has a sort of hexagonal pattern to it.”

  “I see that,” I say, although my own memory of the vision is sort of fading in and out at this point. “Mean anything to you?”

  “Nope, but something other than its skin is pushing the water away. Almost like an anti-gravity device.”

  I nod. “Like a UFO.”

  Her eyes snap open and she scans me—or rather my thoughts, especially the new thought that just popped in. “You were abducted, Sam. You’ve been on such a spaceship.”

  “Kingsley, too.”

  “Yes, I see that. Wow, you’ve lived an interesting life.”

  “I can only imagine you have, too.”

  She cocks her head. “Would you believe I’ve been to hell? Or a version of hell?”