After a quick return to my storage unit, I drop off the eye. Next is the mermaid’s tear. It’s a two-hour drive from here to Lake Erie. While I could try to hunt down merfolk in lakes or rivers that are closer, the surer bet would be the Great Lake.
Since it’s a reasonable distance to travel, I opt to drive there. I’d rather save some of the travel dust for another time.
At a stoplight still in Pittsburgh, I spy Vinca walking arm in arm with her fiancé. Her face lights up when she sees me, and she motions for me to pull over.
Reluctantly, I do and roll down my window. It’s not that I don’t want to see or talk to her. It’s much more that I’m worried about being seen by the Blood Moon pack.
“Did you hear what happened?” the fairy asks eagerly without saying a greeting first.
I shake my head.
“An entire pack of werewolves moved away.”
I stare at her sharply. “Which one? Why?”
“Wyatt whatever his name from the Blood Moon pack was killed. His wolves turned on him. I don’t know why. No one does, but they killed him and left.”
“Are you sure?”
Vinca nods. “They just upped and booked it.”
“Why?” I’m too incredulous to be happy.
Aeden laughs. “Didn’t you hear the part about no one knowing why?”
“But…”
“There was blood in the alpha’s backyard. There had been a fight.” Vinca eyes me curiously. “Do you know anything?”
“I know the alpha had been injured,” I say slowly.
“Who or what hurt him?” Vinca asks eagerly.
“A leprechaun,” I mumble.
It’s my fault Wyatt’s dead. My capturing the alpha made him look weak in the eyes of his pack. No wonder they turned on him. They left, so I don’t have to be afraid anymore. Actually, that means I altered—
Vinca sniffs. “Are you wearing a new perfume?”
I shrug, trying to act nonchalantly. “Why do you ask?”
“You smell… different. Not in a bad way,” she hurries to add. “Just like lilacs and cinnamon. Before, you had more of a fruity scent.”
The witch’s potion worked. Wow. Things are starting to look up for me.
“We don’t want to keep you,” Aeden says.
“No.” Vinca kisses his cheek. “Go on ahead and tell the hostess we’re here. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Sure thing. Rebel.” Aeden kisses his fiancée and nods to me before strolling away, hands in his pockets. He’s whistling, his happiness evident.
Vinca watches him walk away and bites her lower lip before turning back to me. “I sneaked over to Wyatt’s house after I heard. Rebel, your scent was there. Well, your old scent. You changed it, didn’t you? Because you were involved somehow.”
She really is too smart for her own good.
I give her a lopsided smile, almost a half-smirk. “All right, yes. I was there. I was hired to bring the werewolf to the leprechaun. They ended up fighting, and the alpha won.”
“So he was already weakened considerably, and one in his pack decided now would be the perfect time to strike. You can rest easy. They’re really long gone. All of their houses are empty and put on the market, but I don’t think they’re too worried about getting their money for them. Just a hunch, but I don’t think you have to fear them coming after you.”
“Good to know. Thank you for telling me.”
She grins. “Do you have to go right this very second? Are you leaving because of the pack?”
“Not because of the pack, no, and why? Do you need something?”
“A reservation for two can easily be changed to one for three.” She beams. “It’s this new restaurant that just opened up this week. You have to come!”
“I sincerely doubt Aeden will be—”
“Please. Buying you dinner is the least we can do.”
I hesitate and then nod. Time’s been getting away from me. I do need to eat, and maybe sleep some, but I can’t wait until the morning to try to track down merfolk. They tend to be more active before the sun’s shining down on us. Oh, and I can’t forget that she specifically asked for a mermaid’s tear. It can’t be from a merman.
“Dinner sounds delicious. Thank you.”
Dinner is phenomenal. According to Vinca, the chef is a witch who uses magic in her cooking. Everyone there is raving about the food, and I don’t doubt it’ll be one of the most successful restaurants in the city.
The company is just as great as the food, and as Aeden helps Vinca into her light jacket, I pause to reflect that this could be my life. Eating. Hanging out with friends. Not having a care in the world.
One day, that will be my life, and because of Morena Moriarty, that day will be so much sooner.
Vinca somehow convinces me to sleep at her place but only after she swears to me that she'll get me up well before sunrise.
“I swear you’re part siren,” I remark as she gives me directions to drive to her place.
“No, I just have a lot of siblings, and I’m the youngest, so I learned from an early age—”
“How to manipulate people?” I tease.
“How to get what I want.”
“Two sides, same coin.”
“Yeah, but my way of saying it makes me seem like a nicer person.”
I lift my eyebrows. "How to get what I want… Yes, that sounds so nice."
She giggles and shrugs sheepishly. “It sounded nicer in my head.”
We laugh, and I smile even though my heart is starting to ache. My brother and I used to tease each other like this all the time. Man, do I miss him. If only things had turned out differently between us. If only Mason hadn’t kept secrets, maybe then I wouldn’t be alone right now.
Vinca begs for me to help her with some early wedding plans, and we drink some kind of sweet nectar and eat chocolate—after I double-check that it's not fairy chocolate. We could easily stay up until the sun rises, but Vinca is the one who urges me to go to sleep so I can get up in the morning, but only "because I want to make sure you don't forget to come back."
So, after a few hours’ sleep, Vinca wakes me. Once I’m ready to go, she hands me a bag.
"All kinds of food that's great for a road trip and some CDs for the drive and…" She smiles and bats her eyes. "A fun, maybe little crazy friend for the trip?"
I hesitate and then shrug. “Fine.”
“No way! Seriously? I thought for sure you would turn me down!”
“Just you and just for this trip.”
“Awesome.” She flutters up and down, the fairy equivalent of jumping in excitement. “Where are we off to? You aren’t going to kill anyone, are you?”
“I wouldn’t take you along for that kind of a mission,” I tell her.
“Oh, you call them missions?”
“Or assignments or quests or jobs.” I wave my hand. “Anyhow, this one is far more simple than bringing someone somewhere or, ah, killing anyone.”
“Well? Are you going to tell me?”
“I’ll give you a hint. We’re going to Lake Erie.”
She considers for only half a second. “Lake Erie before the sun rises. Merfolk! Wait. Do you need a tear?”
I nod. “Yep. A witch asked for one.”
“Oh.” Vinca makes a face.
“What’s wrong?”
“I actually have some I can give you, but I was so looking forward to coming with you for a quest!”
“There are two options. We go to the beach for the day and have fun, and then you give me the tears you have. Or we can go to Lake Erie and find a mermaid and get fresh tears.”
“Hmm. Does it have to be a mermaid’s tear?”
“Yes.”
"I'm not certain mine are from mermaids or mermen, so I guess we'll have to get fresh."
“Sounds like a plan.
The drive out is simple and easy. Vinca insists on paying for gas since she’s tagging along even though I assure her I have the money to pay for it. Although she has a ton of siblings, her parents make enough from their bar in addition to selling their dust to be able to afford to help pay for the wedding. Vinca, who is twenty-one, has been saving up for her wedding for years.
“Aeden and I started to date when we were sixteen. Six months into our relationship, I was sure we would get married. He knew it too. He wants to work more in the human world, though, and he’s just graduated, so he hasn’t started to work yet. All that nonsense about the ring… We don’t need a huge fancy wedding. I mean, we can have the reception at the bar! All I want is to marry him.”
“It’ll be wonderful,” I tell her.
“What about you? Do you think you’ll get married and have kids someday?”
“Only if I ever retire. It won’t be fair to have a kid while I’m in this profession. He or she will just be a target for others to try to hurt me.”
“Oh. I didn’t think about it like that.”
“It’s not a fancy, exotic job. It’s bloody and dangerous.”
“You’re so brave, though.”
“Brave or stupid.”
She grins.
“I know what you’re thinking,” I mutter.
“What am I thinking?” she asks innocently.
I eye her as I park the car. “Two sides, same coin.”
Vinca laughs heartily. “You know me so well already! And if it’s fair for you to say that about me being manipulative, I can so say it about you being brave and stupid. And in actuality, you said it, not me.”
I harrumph.
We head onto the beach. The sky is beautiful, all reds and oranges, looking more like a painter’s canvas than real life. That’s one thing I’ve never even attempted—anything related to the arts. I can carry a tune, but drawing? Writing? Pottery or sewing? That’s just not me. Unless you consider knife throwing a form of art. I wonder if I could maybe make a star out of throwing knives.
Yeah, it's sad when that's the kind of thing you consider. Well, maybe not so much sad as terrifying. My hobbies include weight lifting, martial arts, and weapons. I'm so not a typical twenty-one-year-old.
The sun will be rising soon. The beach is deserted.
Vinca winks at me. “You’re going to be so happy you agreed to let me come along.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She whistles three long notes, followed by two short ones and another long one.
A head bobs in the water. “Vinca? Who’s this?”
Vinca grabs my hand, and we race up to the water’s edge.
“A friend of mine who needs a tear,” Vinca says.
“If you don’t mind,” I say in a rush.
“You need a merfolk’s tear?” she asks. Her hair is a dark blue that fans out around her in the water. Her eyes are the same shade of blue.
“Well, I need it to give to someone else.”
“You brought Rebel here?” the mermaid asks Vinca.
“Rebel’s a friend,” Vinca says. “I already told you that.”
“You’re crazy to befriend the bounty hunter. You know what she’s done.”
“Yes, I do,” Vinca says proudly, holding out her ringless left hand.
The mermaid gasps. “Did he finally—”
“Yes!”
They shriek and giggle and laugh.
“And because of Rebel here,” Vinca adds proudly.
“Hmm.” The mermaid eyes me. “I have a question for you. If Vinca hadn’t come along with you, how would you have gotten your tear?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead. I would’ve planned everything out on the drive over, but my passenger would not stop talking.”
The mermaid giggles. “Vinca never shuts up, does she?”
“Poor Aeden,” I add.
We both laugh, but Vinca puts her hands on her hips.
“You’re going to gang up against me, Rebel, Misty?” Vinca demands, but then she explodes into a fit of giggles herself.
“Did you know that fairies don’t like to get wet?” Misty informs me.
“Is that so.” I glance down and notice that Vinca is fluttering just about the wet sand. “Hmm.”
Misty nods, and I "accidentally" bump into Vinca. She starts to fall, and Misty seizes the fairy's legs. Vinca grabs my hair to try to pull away, and all of us end up under the water. Vinca sputters and slaps the water, shrieking, not drowning but being so overly dramatic that Misty and I just laugh and laugh and laugh.
“I’m crying,” I say as I finally walk back onto the beach.
“I’m going to give you a reason to,” Vinca grumbles as she flies toward me, well above the sandy beach.
Misty follows us onto the beach. The moment she leaves the water behind, her tail turns into two legs. She keeps the black bikini top, but instead of her tail, she has on a black skirt.
“I’m crying too,” Misty says.
Carefully, she plucks one from her cheek and holds it out to me. I grab a vial from my pouch. Yes, I’m in my attire, and considering it’s all leather, it might not have been my smartest idea. I’ll have to let it air dry and then use some Leather Honey to help restore and condition the leather.
The mermaid drops the tear into the vial. “Do you need more than one?”
“My client specifically said tear.”
Misty heaves a comical sigh. “Do you want some?”
“If you’re willing,” I say, amazed. Even I know that merfolk’s tears hold amazing magical properties.
“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t, and crazily enough, any friend of Vinca’s is one of mine.”
“Yeah, because even I know you have to be crazy to be friends with me.” Vinca winks.
“Who knew Rebel would be so cool?” Misty murmurs to herself as she collects her other tears for a second vial. I always carry a few spare ones.
“Who votes for some shopping and fun?” Vinca asks, grabbing our hands and dragging us toward the boardwalk.
“Shopping?” I ask.
"You need to change out of this and just be a girl today. Not a… you know," she says as a group of kids rushes ahead of their parents toward the beach.
I protest, but they rope me in. It’s so not me, so very strange, and so much fun.
Maybe I’ll be able to come back to this after I fulfill my quest and have my revenge. For years, I figured I would be left a broken, shattered shell of myself if I survive my ultimate quest. Recent events, however, are making me have hope again.
It’s too bad that hope combined with my profession can very well get me killed.