Tamani studied the rough sketch again, though he'd had it all but memorized for days. Whatever the girl's talents, she wasn't much of an artist. The figure she'd drawn appeared to be an asexual humanoid of indeterminate age, with hair falling past its waist. Her waist? Maybe. It was draped in something that might have been a dress or a long tunic, but also had some kind of ribbons hanging off of its arms.
Something about its face was ... inhuman. Not bestial, like a troll, but wrong, somehow. Of course that could just be the Oracle's artistic failing. Still, whoever—or whatever—this was, they didn't look like the sort of person human law enforcement would handle well. If it did turn out to be some kind of deranged cultist cosplay, Tamani could pacify the perpetrator without resorting to violence. And if it was something else, well, all the more reason for Tamani to be the one to deal with it.
So it was that at 9:25PM on Friday night, he was waiting exactly where he'd been told to wait by a human girl who somehow managed to know far too much and far too little at the same time. He had dressed in his usual blacks and was tucked deep into the shadows of the rocky cove, where he could see a vast expanse of the shoreline while remaining essentially invisible to others.
And he was pretty sure he'd identified the victim already. Between the darkness and distance, he couldn't see very many details, but there was a human down by the shore, wandering around alone. She was definitely a woman, on the younger end of her twenties, stomping back and forth with her head down while kicking up arcs of sand. Probably out looking for solitude to vent some sort of frustration.
A decision she was going to pay for with her life, if Charlotte was to be believed. It was a devilish trap—if the Oracle was some kind of fraud, then there was no reason to pester the woman. But if she was right, Tamani's urge to interfere, to run out and Entice the woman away from the beach, could cost the lives of everyone in San Francisco.
And of course there was always the slim possibility that this was a trap of some kind, though he couldn't imagine how anyone would even know enough to set a trap for him. Was that why the human authorities sometimes ignored his anonymous tips until he'd called them in a few times—or Enticed others to do so? Fear of being manipulated by others with an information advantage? Because, Tamani realized, if he had any other leads to follow, likely he wouldn't have bothered, in spite of how certain the Oracle has seemed.
But of course he had no other leads.
A soft sound caught his ear and he jerked to attention—as did the woman. But it was just a snippet of song, an a capella number likely carried on the breeze from a nearby beach party, or passing traffic. It was kind of relaxing, actually. Beautiful, if a bit haunting, and Tamani had never heard anything quite like it. It suited his mood and, thinking Laurel might enjoy it as well, he made a mental note to look for it online.
The human woman, meanwhile, was gazing out into the ocean, her sand-kicking utterly forgotten. Did she see something, out there in the waves? Something Tamani couldn't? That seemed unlikely, but it wasn't impossible, so Tamani crept a few feet toward shoreline.
As he did, he realized that the singing was getting louder—and wasn't coming from anywhere on land. It was coming from the ocean. As the waves withdrew, they revealed the source. There were shadows emerging from the waves at a slow glide, and they were singing.
Tamani worked his way around the large rocks scattered along the cove, his feet soundless on the slick surface. But the closest rock big enough to conceal him was still a hundred feet from the shoreline, and it was dark. Tamani shoved a hand under his hoodie and grabbed a dropper bottle from his belt. "Thank you, Laurel," he whispered, and tilted back his head, putting a drop of the dark solution into each eye. Two blinks, three, and the darkness receded; to Tamani's eyes, the beach appeared much as it might just after dawn.
As he looked back toward the singing shadows, he realized that he'd actually been kind of hoping that somehow, this string of grisly murders was the work of trolls. An enemy he knew—a creature he'd faced before. But the pale green faces of the figures emerging from the water were mesmerizingly lovely and perfectly symmetrical. There was no way they were trolls.
The creatures emerged from the water, revealing thin swaths of fabric that hung from one shoulder and wrapped around their torsos and hips, not unlike a Greek toga. Even so, with his vision enhanced, Tamani could easily make out indications of gender tracking, those of humans, fae, and trolls alike.
These creatures, however, were plainly none of those things. These people, Tamani realized. At least probably. Some of them were singing; their arms were outstretched, swaying back and forth, and long strands of what looked like lacy seaweed hung down into the lapping water—the ribbons in Charlotte's drawing, presumably. They all wore their hair long and unbound. It exhibited an odd texture that made it hang in thick, swirly tresses down their back or in front of their shoulders, instead of being flat and lank like his own hair was when wet.
He almost fell off the rock when a piece of one of the creatures' hair moved, wriggling like a tentacle—or a snake. Combined with their togas, the animated hair reminded Tamani of nothing so much as the Greek Medusa—but this hair definitely wasn't snakes. In fact, the longer he watched, the less he was convinced that the creatures had any control over the slight motion of their hair at all. It writhed gently, sometimes lifting tentatively from their body, as though searching for something in the air. Almost like the fronds of a sea anemone.
A rock dug into Tamani's knee, making him realize he'd been bending closer, trying to get a better look. Whatever these things were, they were fascinating! Which would be great if they weren't also likely hostile intruders bent on murdering a human woman. His eyes snapped back to the woman on the shore. She was stumbling awkwardly forward, as if dragged by unseen hands—but not unwillingly. Her shoulder bag had fallen from her hands and laid on the sand a few steps away, and her shoes, which had been dangling from her fingers, were also lost.
The lead creature—one of the few not singing—was only a few yards away, knee-deep in the waves. As Tamani watched, the creature's form began to shift. Not suddenly, like the appearance of a Sparkler's illusion; instead, it warped like unfired clay being molded by a master sculptor's hands. The creature stretched a few inches taller and his shoulder widened; his roiling hair gentled and shortened until he looked more like a regular human with dreads than a sea creature with hair that had a mind of its own. His face lost its green pallor and the bits hanging off of his arms curled upward to join to his skin, taking on the appearance of a decoration—a three dimensional tattoo—rather than an appendage.
He looked human. Mostly. Not quite, but the differences had become subtle enough that anyone walking by in the darkness would see only an attractive human man, reaching out one hand to a woman.
While a cadre of undersea nightmares serenaded them both.
Abruptly Tamani realized that, in his shock, he'd let the woman get close enough for the creatures to drag her beneath the waves—but they didn't. Instead, the human-looking one stepped closer and smiled. Started to speak. Tamani couldn't make out what was said, but it didn't seem to matter as the woman started shaking her head. She didn't understand him, either.
The man made slow gestures, as one might when trying to communicate with a frightened child, pointing at the sea, then himself, and her. The woman looked confused, but didn't back away, or try to run. She started making gestures back, but it was clear to Tamani that the effort was fruitless. Still the woman didn't take so much as a single step backward.
Was it possible that she wasn't in danger at all? Perhaps these creatures were merely connected with the murders, and the Oracle had misunderstood? Or perhaps they would murder the woman in a blind panic, but only if Tamani surprised them? Just the idea the someone could actually see the future had apparently twisted his brain into knots. He was going to have to get over that. He could almost hear Shar reminding him, caution will save you a thousand times, but hesitation only has to kill you once. The trouble was knowing the difference.
The creature seemed to give up its attempts to communicate and went back to smiling and charming the woman. He gestured to the other creatures something that needed no translation; come, join me.
They all walked out of the water and the singing started up again, louder than ever. Tamani expected them to start changing shape, as their leader had done, but they didn't. Nor did the woman appear at all afraid of the odd-looking creatures. They smiled, showing sharp, triangular teeth, but they were still singing, and the woman seemed completely at ease. There were half a dozen of the singing creatures along with the human-looking one and, having mentally labeled them, Tamani realized they seemed to have two different roles: singers, and the one that changed. Was the singing a lure of sorts? Whatever the process, the woman was helpless against it.
Tamani wanted to go to her. Save her! But the Oracle had at least been right about the time and place, so he had to assume she was right about the peril San Francisco faced. It had been many long years since Tamani was forced to weigh the needs of the many against the needs of the few, but some lessons could never be forgotten. He clamped his teeth so hard he was a little afraid he was going to break a tooth. Standing by went against everything within him—it made him warm with anger. Hot with anger.
No.
He literally felt warm. Tamani narrowed his eyes and watched as the other creatures joined the transformed one on the beach and made a circle around the girl, continuing to sing. They weren't attacking, but there was a very distinct warm feeling in Tamani's chest as they moved in a slow, undulating circle around her that looked almost like the choreography Rowen lived to study and perform. Now that they were nearer, the warmth in his chest was stronger—and undeniable.
"Earth and sky," Tamani breathed as he watched the girl join the creatures and walk toward the ocean entirely under her own power, her hand in the handsome male's. He knew what he was feeling; he'd felt it a thousand times. This was Enticement. Those weren't trolls out there, leading a human girl to her death in the sea—they were, somehow, impossibly, fae.
The woman was up to her knees in the surf, her jeans soaked, probably shivering, but she didn't protest.
"Screw this," Tamani grumbled, and started to step out from behind the rock.
But one look out to sea stopped him in his tracks. He wouldn't have seen them without Laurel's night vision potion, but there were dark mounds out in the ocean that he had thought were choppy waves, beyond the breakers.
They weren't waves at all. They were the strange sea fae, their heads poked up just above the water. Dozens. Maybe a hundred. His eyes darted desperately between the woman and the hordes of sea faeries awaiting her.
The woman was up to her neck, her progress utterly peaceful, and Tamani fought the urge to close his eyes. To turn away. Charlotte was right. Saving this one human tonight would cost them everything. At best, all of those creatures would swarm Tamani, kill him—kill the woman anyway—and go right on abducting humans.
At best.
At worst, they'd run away, regroup, and go to another shoreline city. Maybe Tamani would find them before they attacked en masse, but hundreds of lives could be lost before he even knew it was happening. Thousands. More, if Charlotte were to be believed. And after what he'd just seen, Tamani was very inclined to believe the cryptic Oracle.
But if there was one standard Tamani stood by, had had pounded into him by Shar, it was facing the consequences of one's actions. So with his fists clenched, and one sugary tear tracing its way down his cheek, he watched as the water closed over the woman's head, and the creatures dragged her out to sea.
******
Thank you for reading and voting!!! And thanks for your patience as I finish revisions on my GLITTER sequel. (Want to read the first three chapters?? Check them out here!!!!! : http://www.aprilynnepike.com/glitter-preview ) Once I've finished revisions I'll start posting double chapters!! The goal is for the book to be all wrapped up by the time GLITTER releases at the end of October!
Thank you again for reading!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!