Moontide
Read Along Chapter 31
*It’s been a minute since I was able to post, so here’s a longer scene. Enjoy!
Cindy reached a hand up to her throat, remembering how that creature had torn at her. There was nothing there now though, no jagged ripped flesh, just her own smooth skin. She looked at Ronan, question in her eyes, then a tiny moonlit sparkle caught her attention and she saw the gods’ charm in his hand. She could see he only held the bottom half of it though and when she swallowed, there was a strange new taste on her tongue. Sweet like honey, but different.
Something moved by the trees and she saw the stranger that had helped them in their battle with the demons. He regarded her evenly, his face set in grim lines.
“Did I drink that?” She asked, looking back at Ronan.
“You were dying cara. I knew no other way to heal you…”
He fell silent and held her stare. She nodded, hoping the uneasiness she felt over this news was only residual fear from having been attacked by a supernatural monster.
“What happens now?” She asked, afraid to find out what more the night could possibly hold for them.
“I think we’re about to find out,” the stranger’s deep voice cut through the night.
Cindy and Ronan followed his eyes across the beach and she strained to see a small shape in the water beyond. It stood out against the sky only because it rode along on the swell of a rolling wave that was heading into shore. Her first thought was, what kind of nit-wit would be out surfing at this time of night. But, as the wave crested and crashed against the sand, she saw that the figure was that of a woman, and she wasn’t surfing, she was… shimmering… across the water.
The woman’s long dark hair and diaphanous gown billowed around her, making her an ethereal vision coming in off the surf. Her skin seemed to absorb the colors of the water that held her. She was beautiful and Cindy knew without asking that she stared at another spirit being.
“Oh brother,” she groaned, “these things just keep turning up!”
The stranger barked out a short laugh at this, but Ronan pulled her in and held her all the tighter.
At this rate, she wouldn’t be surprised to see Bigfoot come cruising down the beach on a scooter sporting a Tommy Bahama and a fishing hat. She was starting to get fed up with all these mythical creatures. If her happy-go-lucky Sasquatch, indeed, did decide to put in an appearance, she’d probably flip him the bird just on principle. She cleared away the image of the, now frowning, Bigfoot and tuned back in as the water goddess glided towards them.
At about twenty feet away, the nymph paused and settled. A look of unbridled disgust crossed her exquisite face as her feet touched the ground and Cindy hated that it looked so beautiful on her. The stunning creature took in the carnage on the beach and sneered at the sight of the dead demon creatures. Her eyes passed over Ronan and Cindy then widened as they fell on the other man standing there. Her nostrils flared and her whole complexion seemed to darken. Then she bowed her head and spoke some strange sounding words. They sounded like a greeting, but were said with a grudging reverence that made Cindy wonder, all the more, about the mysterious angel of death leaning against the palm tree.
The man snorted and looked away. The pale nymph flushed at the rebuff, but said nothing more to him. Her focus shifted back to Ronan and Cindy, and her eyes narrowed.
Ronan stood with Cindy in his arms then set her on her feet, moving his body to shield her. The spirit woman threw her head back and laughed. It was a cruel mocking sound and it raised goose bumps on Cindy’s skin.
“What brings you, Nia?” Ronan asked, his voice heavy with contempt.
She sobered, but went on studying them a moment longer. One icy blue finger came up to her mouth and her eyes slanted like a cat’s.
Finally, she spoke.
“You will follow me back through the Tides. Poseidon has no more patience for you and summons you to give an accounting of your failure,” she smirked, then added as an afterthought, “and he wants the elixir returned to him!”
With that, she turned away from them, obviously expecting them to follow.
That was it? He had to do what psycho-nymph said or else? After everything they’d been through in the space of a day, Cindy was going to have to stand there and watch him disappear right that second? That empty ache gnawed at her insides at the thought.
Ronan looked down at her. She’d come out from behind him to stand by his side.
“Heyyy!”
A voice yelled from up the beach.
Nia stopped moving. She turned back and glared at the voice’s owner, then glanced over her shoulder at the two of them.
“Bring the woman with you Captain. You won’t have the strength to pass through the portal on your own.” She spared no thought for Cindy herself.
Cindy’s eyes widened and she felt Ronan’s body tense in anger. She’d known there was a reason she didn’t like this mermaid tramp. She glared at Nia as she started to drift toward the water again, employing that same eerie glide from before. If you asked her, the whole wafting effect had grown a little tired.
“The whole ‘wafting’ thing is way overrated, nymph” the new voice echoed Cindy’s thoughts exactly yet all she could think was ‘what now’?”
Finally, everyone turned to watch as a new addition to their happy little group made it to where they stood. Cindy shook her head then pointed in disbelief before blurting out.
“You’re the gardener!”
The groundskeeper from the lighthouse bowed to her.
“At your service madam.”
“Minus the crappy mustache that is,” Cindy said. “I have got such a bone to pick with you!”
The man’s hand came up to rub in a downward motion at his upper lip.
“Crappy? Really?”
He turned to Ronan who just shrugged, then cleared his throat and looked back at Cindy.
“Sorry about that whole tool shed scenario. That so did not turn out the way I had planned. But the good Captain here was on his A game,” he gestured in Ronan’s direction, “so, no harm no foul, right, little lady?”
Cindy growled. But the fierce stranger with the machete spoke before she could go off on a rant.
“What brings you to Miami Krav?”
“Adam.” Krav, nodded in acknowledgement.
“We really don’t have time to listen to this serpent’s idiocy,” Nia said, piercing Krav with a look.
To this, Krav stuck out his forked tongue, raking it across his teeth at her in what Cindy judged to be some sort of obscene insult by the way the nymph gasped. These people were seriously deranged.
“Well, first,” Krav addressed the rest of them, ignoring Nia’s outrage, “I heard there was a fight and came to help,” Adam snorted, “but it looks like you all did just fine without me, congratulations. Second, I came to let you know that there’s been a burst in the Tides and more of these guys,” he waved his hand around at the headless demons, “could be arriving shortly, and third, the fair Nia,” he rolled his eyes at the nymph who returned his sentiments in kind, “is right. Ronan, you gotta hightail it back to the island pronto because the big guy down there is steamed and fit to blow. And, yes,” he nodded in Cindy’s direction, “take her with you.”
He took a deep breath then and blew it out as if exhausted.
“Hang on,” Cindy chimed in, “do I get a say in any of this?”
“If you don’t go,” Adam said sounding beleaguered, “he’ll die in the Tides before he can make it back.”
“Or he can die here without you,” Nia said, sounding pleased, “which is fine with me. But either way, you’re coming because you have the elixir now and Poseidon wants it back.”
Wow, this story just keeps getting better and better, Cindy thought.
“He can’t mean to take her!” Ronan objected.
Cindy looked alternately between all their faces, trying to understand.
Adam shook his head slowly.
“And here comes the price,” he said.
Krav broke in.
“Hang on everyone. I have it on good authority, i.e. the sea god himself, that both of you are required on the island.”
“I won’t put her in danger…” Ronan started to say.
“You already have, servant,” Nia laughed into the salty wind gathering around them. “Your pity has made you vulnerable. My queen will be so disappointed,” she shook her head, “all her efforts to harden you, to restore you… wasted.”
A sudden flash flew at the nymph as those last words left her mouth, and just like that, the waters where she stood appeared to swallow her whole and she was gone.
All eyes turned to Krav who stood with one red scaled hand stretched out in the direction where Nia had been hovering in the water. He shook some water droplets from his hair and then his hand returned to match the rest of his human form once again.
“Crazy,” Cindy breathed.
“Sorry guys, I couldn’t listen to anymore of her shit,” Krav said.
“Good call demon,” Adam nodded in approval.
“I’m sorry cara,” Ronan said to Cindy, his voice filled with regret, “I never meant for you to get caught up in any of this…”
“Okay kids,” Krav cut off his apology, “we gotta move. Cindy, are you down with taking a little trip with the Captain here?”
She stared up into Ronan’s face and, in one look, she knew him. Knew everything she needed to know about him. He was a fierce protector, strong and selfless. He’d incurred the wrath of a god to save her life for crying out loud!
She turned away to take a brief look around the beach. He’d die if he stayed here on earth. It was just a matter of time, even she could see that. But he couldn’t make it back home without her. That empty place inside her jumped, pushing her closer to him. She couldn’t let him slip away from her now. He had just saved her in epic hero fashion! She let out a short breath.
“Let’s go,” she said taking Ronan’s hand in a decisive grip. His eyes widened.
“Are you certain?” He asked her. “It’s a whole other realm we’re talking about. There are dangers. I don’t know that I’ll be able to bring you back.”
He passed a look to Krav. The serpent demon just shrugged as if he didn’t have an answer for that one.
“It doesn’t matter Ronan,” Cindy said. She knew it would to the people she was about to leave behind, her family, friends, cats, but that part of her that had been missing since forever was calling out for him and she had to go. She looked at Krav and nodded her head once in the affirmative.
“Right,” the serpent said, then turned and spoke to Adam, “we’ll have to use your access. This one closed when I zapped Nia,” he nodded at the water.
“Take them in through the back, my security will let you through. I’ll stay and clean up this mess,” he frowned at the dead Miserians as he pulled a small bag out of his coat.
Krav cleared his throat and lowered his voice.
“There’s also the small matter of your abductee, Anax.”
He tipped his head when he spoke the word that Nia had used to greet Adam with earlier. Adam’s head snapped up at this and he started to say something but Krav cut in.
“I wouldn’t mention it, but it seems that your holding cell wasn’t quite secure enough…” he let his words trail off as he saw his meaning sink in.
Adam pinched the bridge of his nose then cursed.
“Just get them through Krav, like I said, I’m on clean up detail.”
Krav winced and Cindy wondered what they were talking about, but before she could ask questions, her world blurred as she was swept off of her feet. She would have fallen over if it hadn’t been for Ronan’s arms around her. In the next instant, they were all three at the scene where this whole adventure began—the back of Ramone’s Party Cove.
**The adventure continues! Ready for a wild ride, Monsters? 😁