Chapter Six

 

Zeke

 

From the bushes by the edge of the yard, I watched as a man and woman loaded the girl into a car and then sped away like they were fleeing a tidal wave. Whipping around the turn of the drive, they barely slowed as they reached the main road, and in only a few heartbeats, they were gone.

And on my list of bizarre things in the past day, that ranked pretty high.

Not that it mattered.

I muttered a curse. Weirdness upon weirdness, and now she was gone. I didn’t know how to follow or where to search for her next, either. I’d managed to find her here only because it seemed a safe bet the humans would return to the place they’d been the day before, and because she’d gone on a walk with that blond guy and another girl in the park. She’d never left their company though, meaning I’d had no chance to ask her what was going on.

I looked to the house, but the humans hadn’t come back outside. And it wasn’t like it’d do any good to ask them about her. She’d been hiding what she was from them, and I was a stranger. I didn’t even know the girl’s name.

There was no way they’d volunteer her whereabouts or have answers about what happened today.

Frowning, I left the bushes and walked back the way I’d come. I should have just interrupted her. Gone over and asked to speak to her privately or something. But when she’d spotted me on the far side of the park, fear had come into her eyes, as if the sheer sight of me terrified her. It’d gotten better after I moved to another location where I couldn’t be spotted as easily, but still, she’d looked really shaken.

And as with everything else, that made no sense, and left me with even more questions than before.

I scowled. There was nothing for it. Mystery or not, she was gone.

And I’d put off looking for Ina long enough.

I headed into the park. People shot past me, wheels on their feet that it took me a minute to remember the name for, and others walked along, being led on ropes by dogs. The sun was bright overhead, and hot too, and it cooked against the t-shirt and shorts I’d retrieved from my stash of supplies farther up the coast.

“Hey!”

I turned to see Ina jogging toward me. Her long, black ponytail bobbed and flashed in the sunlight and she wore denim shorts below a scale-formed imitation of a bikini top.

“Be right back!” she called over her shoulder to a group of guys standing by a small cluster of trees.

“Where the hell have you been?” I demanded as she came closer.

“Whoa, take it easy,” she laughed. “Dad have you out looking for me?”

“Since yesterday.”

She winced. “Eesh.”

“Ina…”

“What? Look, I’m sorry, okay? It’s just… Egan and I had a fight and–”

I groaned. Her boyfriend again. The latest one, in any case. I should have known.

“I needed some time away,” she protested. “And honestly, I don’t get the big deal. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

Grimacing, I looked to the coast. She and I both knew that where Dad was concerned, that wasn’t the point.

She shifted around uncomfortably. “Did you at least get to do anything fun while you were out looking for me?” she asked, clearly trying for a peace offering. “Meet some surfer girls or…”

She trailed off hopefully.

I gave her a dry look. “Not exactly.”

Her eyebrow rose. My mouth tightened.

“Were you out oceanwise last night? Maybe two hours after sunset?”

She nodded. “Luke and I both were.” She glanced to one of the muscle-bound surfers standing near the trees and then grinned at me. “For a human, he’s pretty decent in the water.”

I ignored the comment. I knew she was smart enough not to lose control and take things too far with a human, no matter how much Dad worried she would. “You feel anything strange happen around that time?”

Her brow furrowed. “You know, now that you mention it, there was something that felt kind of odd. It went away pretty quick though.”

“I found what it was.”

She waited.

“There was a girl. Dehaian, but staying with a bunch of humans in that white mansion by the park. I saw her on the beach last night and when she touched her feet to the water…”

Ina looked at me like I was joking. “No way.”

“Seriously.”

“It had to be a coincidence.”

“It stopped the minute she went back to shore.”

Ina’s brow rose.

“There’s something weird about this girl. You hear someone screaming earlier today? Dehaian, I mean.”

She shook her head. “We were in a surf shop downtown.”

“The waves attacked her, Ina. I was there. I saw it. The latter part, at least. It was creepy as hell, and when I came closer, it just went away.”

“She see you?”

“Yeah. She seems afraid of me, though. She spotted me just a little bit ago and looked terrified.”

“And you’re sure–” Ina glanced back at the guys under the tree and lowered her voice, “you’re sure she’s dehaian?”

I nodded.

“Huh.” She thought for a second. “You want me to try talking to her? Maybe she’s just scared of guys or something.”

“A man and woman just came to the house where she’d been staying and took her away in a car.”

“A car.”

I nodded again.

“She was staying in a house and they took her away in a car,” Ina repeated.

“Yep.”

“Okay, yeah, that is weird. I mean, weirder. Or…” She shook her head.

Silence fell between us for a moment.

“You going to head home now?” she asked me.

I hesitated.

A grin twitched her lip. “You want to figure this out, don’t you?”

“The girl electrocuted the ocean by stepping into it, Ina.”

Her grin broadened. “So what are you going to do?”

“What can I do? She’s gone, and from the way those people drove out of here, I doubt they’re thinking of coming back.”

“You don’t know that.”

I looked away. This was true.

“Hang around a few days,” Ina suggested. “See if she shows up somewhere nearby. If she’s really dehaian, it’s not like she’ll be able to stay out of the ocean forever, and if she does stuff like that every time she’s in the water…”

I grimaced.

“Oh, come on,” she teased, “you know you want to.”

I didn’t answer.

“Zeke…”

I sighed. “A few days. And what’re you going to do?”

She grinned.

“Ina…”

“Okay, fine. I’ll go home. Just let me say goodbye to Luke.”

I glared as her expression took on an impish tinge.

“I’ll be back in Nyciena by morning,” she assured me, still grinning.

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Yes, tomorrow morning.”

I shook my head, but I couldn’t stop my mouth from twitching as well.

“So this girl…” Ina prompted. “She cute?”

I made an exasperated noise. This wasn’t about that. The girl electrocuted the ocean. Yes, she was attractive. She was damn near gorgeous when she wasn’t staring at me like I was a two-headed shark. But she was also a total unknown and, again, she electrocuted the ocean. I needed to find answers to that before I let myself get caught up in anything else.

“Oh, come on!” Ina protested at my silence. “Since when are you so uptight?”

My grimace returned. “Yes, she’s cute,” I admitted. “Cream-scaled, by the look of it. Reddish hair. Green eyes.”

“Sexy.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Damn straight.”

I chuckled, shaking my head again.

She smiled and took my hand. “Take care of yourself and I’ll see you when you get home, okay?”

“Okay.”

She gave my hand a squeeze and then turned, jogging back to the surfers. Muscle-bound Luke slid an arm around her the moment she came close, and tossed me a warning look for good measure.

I tried not to scoff. He really had no idea how much trouble he’d be in if he tried to push things with Ina. And that was just from her.

Giving them a wide berth, I walked back toward the water. Hanging around a few days wouldn’t be hard. I just hoped the girl would come back soon, because Ina was right.

I’d hate to leave with this still a mystery.