Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three (12 page)

I
shoved
the charger into the phone once Grey and I were upstairs in my apartment. I pulled out my usual uniform of jeans, shirt and one of my older jackets. Not leather, but denim. I had to take a shower, just because I needed to not smell like sex when I met up with Bastien.

Do you have any clothes like that in your closet?

I looked over at Grey where she'd sprawled on my bed. "I have some things. You know…stuff I bought during my Stevie Nicks phase, which is a phase I tend to go in and out of. I've also got this killer club dress in here, white, but there's nowhere in New Orleans to wear it. Why?"

Because Crwys liked you in that skirt. And you look pretty in it.

I stared at the wolf. "I do?"

Honey, I know this isn't the time for this conversation, but we really need to have a talk about your wardrobe. And don't give me that look. At least you can still wear clothes.

I couldn't help but smile as I jumped on the bed beside her and gave her a big hug. "I love having you with me."

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Now, get cleaned up so we can bring the boys home.

The water in my apartment runs either really hot or really cold. There is no middle ground, and there's no rhyme or reason as to which temperature is chosen for any particular shower. Or when the shower is taken. It never failed that when Crwys took a shower he always got the extreme cold. I swear I thought I saw steam coming out of the bathroom when that happened.

What I normally did to combat this inconvenience was to summon my Undine to balance the temperature. She was always happy to do it as long as I stopped up the sink and filled it with water so she could hang out while I showered. She would splash and sing, most likely a siren's song, which didn't affect me. But since the warlocking that wasn't possible. I'd been taking my showers in silence and alone.

But I was still in the habit of filling the sink. When I realized what I'd done, I just left it there.

My phone pinged in the other room with a text message. I debated going back in to see, but if it was Ivan telling me they found the house, he could send me one of his floaty glowing text boxes.

When I got in the shower this time, the water was scalding hot. I figured if I left the window open it would balance the heat. It wasn't going to stop my skin from turning red, but I could soothe it afterward with cooling lotion. Stepping in, I was shivering at the cold and thought of ritual baths and how it might be a good idea if I brought the three of us back into the Old Ways a little at time. Having the full moon ritual had been a good idea. It wasn't my fault a pack of Lycans showed up and sort of changed everything.

It was during that scalding shower, with me going from shivering to sticking my head out of the shower to escape the water that I thought I heard a commotion nearby. At first, I assumed it was something outside. I lived on Bourbon Street, after all. And the noise to drunk ratio was pretty high. I took another few minutes to rinse off as the water started evening out to something very nice, much like my Undine would keep it.

When I shut the water off, I heard Grey barking, snarling and banging on the bathroom door. But she wasn't talking to me.

"Mom?" I said aloud, wondering if she could hear me.

That's when my ears popped in a very familiar way. The only time my ears popped like that was when a cap had been placed. But only Clerics did caps. Oh crap—was the Hive here? Downstairs? Was that why Grey was trying to get my attention?

I grabbed the towel hanging over the curtain rod and wrapped myself in it. When I pulled the curtain away, I found myself face to face with the barrel of a gun with a silencer. Holding that gun was the robed and angry looking Fred. And I was holding nothing but a towel.

"Go on, Samantha. Step out of the shower."

I'd been in a lot of sticky situations, but never anything like this. I was unprepared and silently panicking. Grey continued to run at the door, snarling and barking and I was still curious as to why she wasn't talking to me. Was it the cap? No…it couldn't be that. But then…how would I know since I'd only had one visit from the Hive since learning Grey was my mom and could talk to me?

Pulling the towel tight around me, I stepped down and moved into the corner at the foot of the tub. It wasn't a very large bathroom. Just enough space for a tub, sink and toilet. The tile was like ice under my feet and I was dripping all over it. "Hi Fred."

"Shut the hell up." Fred's tone was so full of hatred it hurt to hear. This guy hated me.

"What are you doing here?" There. I think I sounded pretty good, considering I was a blithering idiot on the inside.

He held that gun steady as he pointed it at my head. "I want to know why you're not going crazy. I want to know why you're not falling apart like my dad did. His warlocking destroyed him, it tore him apart from the inside out until he cut his own throat at the dinner table one night."

Was he serious? Oh damn. I had no idea. And I assumed this was something Fred had seen which, of course, had emotionally scarred him. How in the hell had Cromwell approved this man to be a freak'n Cleric with this kind of emotional trauma?

He pushed the gun at me and I backed up. The wall stopped me and I knocked over a few hair products. "Answer me!"

"I don't know!" I used one hand to hold up the towel and held the other up in defense. "Maybe Cromwell did something different?"

"It's all the same. And it's not right. You were supposed to suffer the same way!"

I felt warmth grow in my chest and I knew this was not going to end well if I didn't calm Fred down. "I didn't do anything to your dad, Fred. That was my mom. That was another time."

"Your mom is dead, so that leaves you. You're the only one I have left to punish."

"Why—why do you have to punish me? It's not going to bring your dad back, and it's sure as hell not going to make you feel better."

"See? You don't get it, do you? You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. I have to punish you because she says that's the only way."

She? I caught that. But it was getting hard to hear him over Grey's insistent slamming against the door. She was really freaking out and I could tell it was wearing on Fred as well.
Mom! Stop! He's crazy!

But there was no answer other than the angry wolf noises on the other side of the bathroom door.

"Shut that damn mutt up!" Yeah, Fred was losing it.

"Grey! Be quiet!" I hoped she would hear me and stop when I glanced past him to the door that vibrated every time she threw herself against it. That's when I saw something moving at the sink.

Undines are interesting things. Elementals in general are. Mostly because they don't really have form, other than what we give them. Sort of like the Destructor in
Ghostbusters
. That particular character let someone else choose what form to take. Elementals were the same. Once they bonded with their Witch, the two agreed on a shape that would always be recognizable. Most of them came in the usual commercial packages because as a group we'd all watched the same movies and read the same books.

My Undine was a mermaid. But not just any sort. She was blue, green and mother of pearl and she looked like me in the face. That was her idea. A little joke, I'm sure. But her tail was that of a betta fish, with beautiful hues of blues and greens. It undulated beautifully behind her as she moved through air and water.

I would know her anywhere.

So what I didn't understand was why or how she was sitting on the edge of my sink with her tail in the water I'd left there, watching us. Miss Water of the Clerics had my Undine. That's what Cromwell had done when he'd sealed them away from me. The seal apparently prevented me from immediately knowing she was there. I wasn't in control of her.

Fred turned to see what I was staring at but it was obvious he didn't see her. "What? You look freaked out."

"Nothing. I mean, I'm naked in my bathroom and you're holding a gun on me. I
am
little freaked out."

That made him smile. "Good. I want you to be freaked out, and you'll be more freaked out when you find out what's in store for you."

"In store for me?"

"Oh, we're not done with you yet."

Uh…what? We? "Fred, who's we?"

He moved the gun again and pressed the silencer to my forehead, ignoring my question. "And since you're not this Elemental Witch anymore and just a plain old Cowen, I can make you dance like a puppet," he smiled at me. "Drop the towel."

Grey charged at the door again and barked.

"No."

"No? You think I'm kidding here?"

You know…I was getting irritated now. One of the things we're taught from an early age is not to use our power against the Cowens. We were born to protect this world, not fuck it up. One of my biggest pet peeves was dickheads like this guy thinking just because they were born with the right kind of blood in their veins they had the right to use it for their personal gain. I straightened my shoulders as I narrowed my eyes.

-
He's going to shoot us.-

Us?

My phone rang.

He shoved the gun against my head this time and it hurt. "Drop the damn towel!"

I glared at him. "No." Don't get me wrong. I was scared as hell and shaking like a vibrator with new batteries.

Grey charged the door again.

Fred swore. "Shut that dog up!"

-
We should get rid of him. He's never going to leave us alone.-

"God damn it!" Fred swung the gun around to point it at the door. He was going to shoot through the wood at Grey.

-
All you have to do is put it all together.-

The voice was soothing against the turmoil in my head. The next few minutes were like a John Woo slow motion capture for me as I lunged at him. My intent was to grab the gun from him so he wouldn't shoot Grey. Beyond that—I hadn't given it much thought. But the voice in my head had.

I saw my hand shoot out as I lunged at Fred. My chest burned as if someone pressed a soldering iron into it and I screamed out as I wrapped my hand around his hand holding the gun. Many things went through my mind at that moment. One of them was wishing this son of a bitch would just disappear. The thought was tinged with the same red hue as my wish to survive last night had been, when that thing had lunged at me from across the street and then disappeared.

I smelled something burning, something acrid, something electrical as I stumbled forward and slammed into the door. The door opened outward as it gave with my weight and I did an excellent spill on the floor. Grey was immediately in my face licking me and then dashing into the bathroom.

But Fred wasn't there.

And I was holding the gun.

"Oh no…" I said aloud and I immediately looked at the sink, just visible past the door where it stuck out from the white tile. My Undine was there, watching me, before she vanished in a bubble pop.

—Believe you can't hear me! Come on, Sam. Listen to me! Where is that bastard? Where did he go? And was that an Undine I just saw—

"Mom!" I dropped the gun and put my hands to my ears. My towel was little more than a limp bundle by that time but I didn't care. It was just us women now, because Fred was nowhere to be seen.

Oh thank the Lord and Lady! I've been screaming at you ever since you got in there. I heard that bastard on the fire escape. Where is he?
She turned around in the bathroom and looked at me. Then she looked at the gun on the hall's hardwood floor and went to sniff it.
This is his. Did he jump out the window?

"No…no…" I put my hands to my face and then put them over my chest. The spot where the mark was felt hot and when I looked down, the scar was more pronounced. It was a big disk of puckering, pinkish skin.

Sam?

I looked at Grey and felt my eyes ache as emotion overwhelmed me. I'd come a hair's breath away from a plethora of things. Of possibly being raped, of being beaten, of being murdered…and my Undine had seen me destroy another human being with Arcane. The smell permeated the bathroom. It clung to my skin. It lived in my hair. It was awful.

Grey moved in beside me and crouched down, inching her snout under my hands to my face.
Sam-Sam? What is it?

I wiped at my face as the emotion came and went in waves. I was good one minute and then bad the next. And then good again and stayed that way for a few minutes. "I…Mom I think I just destroyed that man."

You did?

"Yeah…the way I destroyed the thing that attacked me outside Circe's. Fred was there one minute and then gone the next. Mom…my Undine saw!"

So that was your Undine. How was she here?

"Mom…don't you get it? She saw what I did. She'll report it to Miss Water of the Clerics and then Cromwell will know I'm using Arcane…I'm being consumed by Arcane and they'll make a vote to kill me."

Mom did a good wolf impression of a snort.
They'll have to get through me.

My phone rang again. Grey pushed herself up and retrieved it from the desk, pulling the charger out of the wall and dragging it along with the phone to me. I smiled at her and wiped her saliva off of it. It was Ivan. "Hey, I figured you'd send a text message."

"I tried but you weren't receiving. It was like you were offline."

Huh. I'd been so offline even my mom couldn't talk to me. "I was taking a shower. What's up?" I thought I sounded pretty good considering what had just happened. But then, what did that say about me? I had just killed someone. That made two people. The bodies were stacking up.

"The Aces found the house. It's a mansion about ten miles inside the marker between Arden's property and Mr. Blackwood's. Arden swears she's been all over that property and never saw it. She's got her coven in the area coordinating getting the Circle cut. You coming?"

"I'll be there."

"Oh, bring the water out of your sink."

I froze. "Wh-what?"

"Bring the water out of your sink."

"Where did you get that?"

"I don't know. It was on a piece of paper a member of the coven gave me. I assume it's a request from Arden. See you in a bit."