CHAPTER 6

“Bloody hell.” Alex had lightning-quick reflexes and was on his feet before the rest of us. “What the hell was that?”

Ralph groaned, rubbing the back of his head, but then he scrambled for the camera. “Oh please, don’t let it be broken!”

Patrick gave me a hand and I accepted, gratefully. I wasn’t hurt, but the startlement of being run down by a ghostly renegade had dazed me slightly. I brushed myself off and shook my head.

“Well, that was fun. Not.” Patrick offered me a chair and then slid into one next to me. “Is that my ghost? Is that Nathan? What does he want? Why is he so pissed at me?”

“All questions that we hope to answer in due time.” Alex picked up the EVP and brought it over to the desk.

Ralph, satisfied the camera was still working, joined us. “I’ve dealt with a few ghosts before but I will tell you right now, whatever that was, I don’t think it was your friend Nathan. In fact, I don’t know if that’s a ghost at all.”

“Demon?” Alex asked. “I know that demons exist. I’ve seen a few of them over the years.”

“No . . . I don’t think it’s a demon, but I’m not sure what the hell it is.” Ralph frowned. “I’m not saying that Nathan isn’t around, but . . . I don’t think that was him. We need to know more about this house, including what was on the land before it was built and who owned it before Nathan.”

“That I can’t help you with.” Patrick frowned. “However, the town has a directory of historical houses. They keep pretty good records on the history of the area. You and Shimmer can go there in the morning. You’ll find it at the Port Townsend Historical League’s offices.”

“Check. We’ll do that first thing. Do you know when they open? We’ll need the address.” I glanced at the clock. It was a modified digital clock, not only giving the time in regular format, but it also had the hours listed in military time. There was a date indicator on it, as well as when to expect the sunrise and sunset. “Did you make that?”

Patrick shook his head. “I’ve got some pretty clever friends. I commissioned it from one of my mechanically minded buddies.” He brought up a browser on the computer. “I’ll look up the info you need.”

As Patrick tapped away at the keys, Alex wandered over beneath the clock and stared up at it, a bemused look on his face. “Ralph, can you make me one of those? Or rather, two? That would be handy to have around the office, as well.”

Ralph shrugged. “Should be a piece of cake. I’ll do it next weekend.”

“Found it.” Patrick scribbled down the address listed on the browser. “The Historical League opens at ten A.M. and they close at four.”

“Is there anything else we need to do before we go to bed?” Ralph glanced over at me. “Besides getting you to a swimming hole?”

I thought for a moment, then shook my head. “Not that I can think of. I’d prefer to get into the water before much longer. It’s already two A.M., and I don’t want to be seen changing into my dragon form. I’ll do that in the water, but it’s much better if I go now. Do you mind, Alex?” I tried to keep the eagerness out of my voice, but it was no use.

Alex smiled softly. “I think we can make time. While Ralph keeps up work here, I’ll take you to the beach. Then I’ll return and help Ralph until it’s time to pick you up.”

“Thank you. I’m going to go get into my swimsuit—I can change form with my regular clothes on, but I would rather not. It’s a quirk I have.” I dashed up the stairs to the main floor, then up to my room. As I entered the bedroom, I paused. The dresser had been mighty unfriendly and I had no clue if whatever it was that had been playing with the drawers was the same thing we’d encountered in the basement.

“If you’re around, just back off while I change, please.” While challenging a ghost—or whatever it was—didn’t seem like the brightest of ideas, I felt like I had to say something to acknowledge that we knew it was there and had gotten its message.

I unzipped my luggage again and pulled out my swimsuit, quickly changing out of my jeans and tank top. As I slid on my suit—a pale violet one-piece meant for swimming more than sunbathing—I kept a close eye on the dresser, but the drawers remained shut. However, the entire time, I felt there was something watching me.

I rigged my hair in a high ponytail and then pulled on my jeans and top again, over my suit. As I grabbed my jacket and tote bag, I glanced back at the room. “I’d really like to know why you’re here and what’s making you so angry. We can’t help you if we don’t understand. And we want to help.”

As I hustled down the stairs, I tried to stay alert. We hadn’t been hurt yet, but we had been attacked, and that was enough reason to keep our eyes open. I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping, either. Not with both Alex and Patrick out for the day. The others were in the living room, waiting for me. Patrick and Ralph were starting to set up cameras as Alex and I headed out to the Range Rover. The moment I stepped out the door, I took a deep breath. It felt safer out here. As I shut the door and fastened my seat belt, it occurred to me that whatever was in there, it wasn’t going to want to leave. Which meant that we were going to have to force it out.

•   •   •

The route from Patrick’s house to the lighthouse at Fort Worden was a simple one. Alex turned the way we had come on W Street, then left when we hit Fort Worden Way. Within a few minutes, we were on Harbor Defense Way, driving between the beach and the park. The thought that I would be back in the water within minutes set my whole body to tingling. I opened the window and stuck my head out, closing my eyes as the tang of the saltwater breeze hit me.

“You really need this, don’t you?” Alex wasn’t making fun of me. In fact, when I looked over at him, I could tell he was stone-cold serious.

“Yes. I do. If someone wanted to torture me, they’d only have to keep me away from the water. It’s part of my nature, Alex. Water dragons aren’t just dragons who like to play in the water—the essence feeds and recharges us. The water calms us down when we’re stressed, and revs us up when we need energy. The waves are part of our nature, part of our . . . soul . . . if you want to get transcendental.”

He gave a little nod. “I’ll make certain you get out as often as you can. Puget Sound isn’t exactly open ocean, but the water comes in from the Pacific, and there are plenty of places deep enough for you to swim. I don’t think I realized how much this means to you. I suppose I never thought about it really.”

Touched by his concern, I let down my guard for once. “Thank you so much. And don’t beat yourself up. There’s no reason why you should have thought about it—it’s not like you’ve hung around with blue dragons a lot. I’m still boggled by the fact that the Wing-Liege is . . .”

“Buddies with a vampire? You know what they say about strange bedfellows. Only take the bed out of the equation. I don’t swing that way.” He laughed, then, lightening the mood. “I met Lord Vine many years ago when I was on safari. I told you I traveled the world. Well, I was high in the Alps. It’s foolhardy for a vampire to go out where he might not find shelter during the day, but I was with a friend who understood my nature. He saw to it that I was protected during the daylight hours.”

“You met the Wing-Liege in the Swiss Alps?” That made sense, in an odd sort of way.

“I did. I’m not sure why he was there—he told me at the time but I can’t remember now, but we were in a remote area and one evening, I happened to see him fly down into a valley and land. We were close enough that I was able to hike it over to where he was before he left. He very politely decided to leave me alive, and we got to talking. After that . . . well . . . we’ve stayed in touch over the years.”

Alex drove to the end of Harbor Defense Way, past several campsites. Two lone RVs were parked in the camping areas, but there were no lights and no one appeared to be up and about. I stepped out of the car, and Alex walked around to stand beside me.

He pointed to the lighthouse. “You’ll have to walk around the lighthouse out to the farthest point—that’s where the deepest water will be. You could try to cut through but if they catch you, you’ll be booted. The lighthouse is off-limits. The good thing is that nobody else seems to be up and wandering around at this time.”

I shimmied out of my jeans and top, tossing them in the back. “I’m leaving my tote bag with you—I don’t dare take it into the water with me, and I don’t trust leaving it on the shore. So, how long do I get?” The wind gusted past, and I shivered—just a touch. I was used to the chill; it didn’t bother me so much as tease my skin.

“Well, considering that sun rises at around seven twenty, and it’s two-thirty now, how about I meet you right here in three and a half hours? I know that’s not long but—”

“I can come back before we leave, and that’s plenty long for a quick dip.” I paused, then darted forward to press my lips to his cheek. “Alex, I really appreciate this.” And then, before he could answer, I headed around the perimeter of the lighthouse fence, toward the beach. Though I didn’t look back, I knew Alex waited until I vanished from sight.

•   •   •

While a lot of people like the water, for a water dragon, it’s like coming home. I crossed the beach quickly—it was a thin spit of sand and pebbles—and stood at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Well, ocean water. The Strait of Juan de Fuca cut a swath between Vancouver Island—British Columbia—and the Olympic Peninsula. It fed into Puget Sound, which filtered down to divide the Seattle-Tacoma area from several towns on the interior of the Peninsula. At some point, going north, the Strait of Juan de Fuca met with the waters from the Strait of Georgia. But it was all ocean water, tried and true, and carried the energy of the Pacific.

Every body of water had its own energy and personality. I had visited many, but mostly up in the Dragon Reaches and—a few times—down in Otherworld. This would be my first time connecting with an Earthside ocean. I’d stood on the edge of the sound a number of times, though, and the water, even in that channel, was primal. Here, I could feel the essence of the Pacific much stronger. She was a wild creature, she was, refusing to be tamed. She was alive and vibrant, and when I reached out, I could sense her song. The Pacific, more than most, had her sirens and her wiles.

With a sudden swish, an icy wave rolled to shore to crash against my feet. I steadied myself, readying for a deep dive. I could hold my breath for a long time, unlike mortals, and once I was in dragon form, I could dive to extremely deep waters for long periods without coming to surface. My night vision was stronger than human vision, and I could see the silvery waters rushing in, illuminated against the fog. The water seemed to blend right into the mist, and the chill prickled my skin. But one thing I generally didn’t have to worry about was hypothermia—not at all in dragon form, and I was far more resistant to it than the normal human would be in human form.

I waded deeper into the foaming waves. They were strong, breaking around my thighs. It would be easy to lose my balance, but that didn’t frighten me. To shift, I had to be out where I could immerse myself completely while in dragon form, but even if the waves did knock me down right now and drag me out to open water, I’d be all right. Really, there wasn’t much chance for me to drown, not unless somebody held my head under water for a long time. And it would take somebody a lot stronger than me to do that.

High tide was coming in, so I sliced cleanly through the water and began to swim. Since I was going against the tide, it took me longer, but within a few minutes I was out far enough to test the depths. I dove beneath the waves and, kicking hard, worked my way out to the point where I knew I could shift. It had been so long since I’d been in my natural form that for a moment I panicked, terrified that everything would go wrong. What if the Wing-Liege had been lying? What if I could never change shape again?

But then the blessed sense of transformation hit. My body began to morph and stretch out in the most sensual manner. Unlike Weres, changing form didn’t hurt in the least for me—in fact, it was luxurious, almost passionate, heightening every sense I had.

And then the dreamy wash of transfiguration slid away and I was in full dragon form, feeling so strong that I wanted to roar, to shoot out of the waters, into the air where I could streak through the sky and then barrel-dive back into the water again. But I held myself back—do that and it would be a quick and harsh shift back to human. Instead, I sank into the sensations around me. It would be so easy to swim out to the ocean from here, swim away and never come back. But the heady rush of endorphins began to settle and I focused on stretching my wings, on exercising my muscles.

Blue dragons had much smaller wings than most others—we mostly stayed in the water and didn’t use them much except to steer with and propel through the water, like oars on a boat. We could fly, but our flight didn’t come through the power of our wings. My forearms were shorter. While water dragons resembled the pictures of Nessie more than regular dragons, we did have the residual wings and we did have legs and arms. We were closer to what people thought Asian dragons looked like, rather than westernized dragons.

With long sweeps, I guided myself through the water, diving deep to settle against the bottom. The water rolled around me as the buoying currents soothed my temper. The waves recharged me, amping me up in a way that I hadn’t felt since before my incarceration in the Dragon Reaches. I could live here, I thought. Camp out on the bottom of the inlet and sleep for months in the rocking cradle of the Ocean Mother.

As my eyes adjusted, I looked around. There were fish. I didn’t know their Earthside names, but they were there, silvery and shimmering in the dim, dusky light. And jellies—luminescent—fluttered by. I loved the jellyfish. They were prickly, though their venom didn’t bother dragons. Their glittering bioluminescence mesmerized me and I could sit for hours watching the great swarms pass on by.

After a while, I began to swim again, spiraling in loops through the water, playing chase with my tail. I plowed through a group of fish, not to hurt them, but for the delight of watching them scatter. Hunger rumbled in my stomach, but I ignored it. Right now, I wanted to just enjoy my time and not focus on hunting. Diving to the bottom again, I pushed off, spiraling till I almost broke the surface. I did a belly roll and occupied myself by playing with a piece of driftwood I found floating in the water. I nosed it along for a while. But somewhere, in the back of my mind, something tugged at my thoughts.

And then, I remembered: Alex. The vampire would be back shortly. My internal sense of timing told me it had been nearly three Earthside hours.

Reluctantly, I began to swim back to shore in the still-darkened morning. As I reached shallow water, I changed to my human form and dove through the last of the waves until I came up on the shore. I was tired. My entire body felt like I’d just run a marathon. But I was happy, if a little melancholy, and my nerves had been cushioned by the water.

Recharged, I started slogging my way back up the beach when I heard something. A song. It was distant, but definitely there. I also heard the sound of a boy laughing. I whirled back to the water to see a teenaged boy heading toward the waves. Nobody else was around. He must have come from one of the RVs at the campground. He wasn’t dressed for swimming, and my guess was that he hadn’t planned on taking an early-morning dive. No, the sirens were singing, and he was caught in their trap.

Here’s the thing about sirens: There are different sirens for every body of water, and they vary in number and form. But the Ocean Mother’s daughters are legion, and they extend into lakes and ponds as well. And they most definitely lure people into the depths.

The boy was at the water’s edge and walking into the waves. I raced over to where he was just as a riptide swirled around his feet and yanked him off balance, swiftly pulling him out toward the open channel. Riptides, a local term for rip currents, were strong, narrow currents that cut through the waves, pushing toward open water. Trying to swim against the rip exhausted swimmers because the force was too strong, and the victims usually ended up unable to keep their momentum, and were swept out to sea.

But I knew how to navigate them. I dove back into the water, letting the current carry me toward the boy. He was gasping, trying to stay above water and turn himself around. I pulled him against my side, holding him with one arm, as I cautiously swam sideways—the only way to escape from the current. I let it carry us a little ways farther down shore until the force began to lessen, and then I put in a concerted effort and managed to skirt around it, heading for the beach. The boy was able to stumble out beside me on his own two feet.

He leaned over, coughing up water as I sat on a driftwood log. After a minute he joined me.

“Thanks . . . just . . . thanks. I thought I was going to drown. I dunno why I headed into the water. Jeez, that was dumb.”

“You would have drowned if I hadn’t been here. Listen to me: Always take someone with you when you go swimming, unless you’re an experienced swimmer. Even then, be careful.” But then, I stopped. The boy hadn’t meant to go in the water. The sirens had lured him in, but I couldn’t very well tell him that. “Just be careful out here, okay? Now, head back to your campsite and dry off.”

“You want to come back with me? My folks are going to freak and I bet they’d like to thank you.” He looked me over, his eyes lingering on my breasts, and then he blushed. Yeah, he was going to be just fine. Typical teenaged boy.

I flashed him a gentle smile. “I’m sorry, a friend is waiting for me. But—what’s your name?”

“Brad. Brad Iverson.”

“Well, Brad Iverson, listen to me. Be careful around here. This town . . . there are a lot of strange things that go on. Just watch yourself around here. Now you go get out of those wet things before you catch a cold.”

I stood, waiting till he was away from the water’s edge. As he headed back up the beach, he turned to glance back at me again. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Shimmer. Just think of me as your guardian . . . well . . . beach bunny. Okay?” I laughed and waved him on, then looked back at the water. “Not today, Mama. Not today.”

I jogged around the perimeter of the lighthouse. Sure enough, Alex and his Range Rover were waiting. As I approached the car, I found him leaning against the door, towel in hand and a grin on his face.

“Enjoyed yourself, then?” It wasn’t really a question.

I accepted the towel. “Alex, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I needed this. It was hard to come back, though. Whenever I get a vacation I’m going out and staying out for a couple of days.”

I slung my tote bag over my shoulder and headed to a nearby bathroom, where I was delighted to find a shower. As I rinsed off under the steaming water, I lathered up my hair and rinsed it out, then quickly braided it back so it wouldn’t drip all over me. As I dried off and slipped into my clothes, I managed to bring my thoughts back to the matters at hand. When I was out in the water, time seemed to cease and nothing else really mattered, but now, I needed to focus on the job.

By the time I climbed back in the Range Rover, I was ready to rock. I wasn’t even very tired—but then again, I still had a good five to six hours before I would start thinking about bed. I didn’t feel like talking about my swim—that was private—but I did tell Alex about the boy.

“Today was his lucky day. Good thing you were there, that’s all I can say.” Alex started the ignition and turned on the heater so I could warm up.

“Yeah, he was lucky. Say, I’m hungry. Patrick have anything good in the house? I could eat a horse.”

Alex glanced at me, grinning. “Have you ever? Eaten a horse?”

I blushed. Truth was, I had. The truth was, in dragon form? I’d eaten a lot of things. “Um, can I reserve the right to answer on the basis that it might embarrass me?”

“No need. That tells me everything I wanted to know. And more. But to answer your question, yes, Patrick has a well-stocked fridge. He went shopping when he knew that you and Ralph were coming with me.” He paused. “Shimmer . . .”

I knew what was coming. I had almost hoped that I could avoid the conversation for now. I was so overwhelmed by my time in the water, the last thing I wanted to deal with were my emotions from the human side of the equation as well, but if Alex wanted to talk . . .

He shifted so he was facing me. “What’s going on with us? I want to know. I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. You work for me, and the Wing-Liege has essentially handed you over to me . . . I would never take advantage of my position.”

I let out a slow breath and met his gaze. “Alex . . . I know you just broke up with Glenda, but it’s been over for a while, right?”

He nodded. “I didn’t want to deal with her temper, so I just let it ride, but yes. Emotionally I pulled out of the relationship some time back. I know I should have just ended it then, but you know how it is—it’s hard to feel like you’re a failure in a relationship. I just wasn’t ready to admit that we couldn’t make it work. And Glenda can get so angry . . .”

“I think I knew that.” I tried to phrase it right—I didn’t want to say something that could be misunderstood. “All right, I’ll just spit it out. I’ve found you attractive since the beginning. But I also hated being shoved over here like the family secret that you hide in the closet. I think I blamed you for that. I know you had nothing to do with it, but you’re involved, you know? And yes, you have power over me with the Wing-Liege, but I’ve come to realize that you won’t abuse it. You didn’t tell him I almost staked you . . .”

Alex ducked his head, smiling. “You were under a charm.”

“Yes, but don’t you see? Back in the Dragon Reaches, that still would have bought me a death sentence. At the least, some time under the Strap.” Frustrated, trying to say something that I had no clue how to say, I leaned forward and cupped his chin in my hands, staring deep into those frost-laden eyes. “Alex, I make my own decisions, as much as I can. And if I want to kiss you, it’s my own choice—not because you’re forcing me to.”

The next moment, his arms were around me and his lips were on mine. They were full, cool as ice, but still they set off a spark in me that began to ricochet through my body. My pulse raced as he crawled across the seat, bearing down on me, and I spread my legs so he could lean against me. He pressed his mouth hard against mine as his tongue darted between my lips. Shifting, I tumbled into the kiss, a deep hunger racing through my body. His chest was against my breasts, and his strength surprised me—it matched my own. He broke away, laughing deeply.

“Oh, woman. You know I want you. Ever since you came to the agency, I’ve thought about you. Every time I touched Glenda, it was you I was kissing . . . touching . . .” He gazed into my eyes, his fingers stroking my cheek. “What do you want to do? We’ll take this at your pace.”

It felt odd that he wasn’t breathing, that his skin was cold as ice. But then again, I was used to sleeping with dragons, not people. Carter had been an entirely different matter. Demons were a breed of their own, and demigods, even more so.

“What I want . . . and what we should do are two different things.” My body was aching for more, but my brain was on overload. The swim, being in my natural form, and now this emotional exchange had me in a whirl. After a moment, I opted for breathing room. “Kiss me again . . . and then I guess we’d better head back to Patrick’s, as much as I’d like to get your clothes off.” Suddenly bold, I pulled him forward and we locked lips again. That was one thing he’d have to get used to: I wasn’t shy.

A moment later, when we came up for air and had untangled ourselves, he fell back in his seat, a goofy grin on his face. “Shimmer, you just made me a very happy vampire.” But then he sobered. “Unfortunately you’re right. We’d better get back to the case, as much as I’d like to take this further. I’m worried, Shimmer.” We pulled out of the parking lot, then zipped down the street out of the park and back onto W Street.

His tone of voice shifted so abruptly that I stopped smiling. “Why? Did something happen while I was in the water?”

Shifting gears, he nodded. “Ralph and I checked the EVP. The voice we heard? Yeah, it’s there, but so are a number of others. That house is riddled with spirits, and none of them sound content. I have no idea of what Patrick’s gotten himself into, but this job? It’s not going to be easy at all. And there’s something else . . .”

“Well, dish.”

“There was a woman’s voice and she was chanting. I have no clue what she was saying, but it sounded magical. When I heard it, I didn’t think about ghosts, if that makes any sense. I think we’re dealing with more than a haunting.”

“I guess Ralph and I’d better go talk to Patrick’s witch friend, then. Because I know squat about magic other than my own.”

“Ralph and I aren’t any more versed in it than you are. Okay, I just wanted to warn you before we got back to the house. I haven’t said anything to Patrick yet, because I want to know more about what we’re dealing with before telling him.”

I nodded. It wasn’t a good idea to disseminate information to clients before we had all the facts, especially when a man’s home and livelihood were in question. “Got it. But we’d better find out something pretty soon, or the High Tide Bed-and-Breakfast is going to close before it even opens.”

“That’s the truth of it.” Alex started the car again and we headed back to Patrick’s.