Ember

The next morning we picked Tyra up from her dance class and were on our way to meet the mermaid. According to Fiona, our mythical sea creature lived in the city like any other human being, but I really hoped she wasn't too human. If she was I didn't think she'd stand much of a chance at killing Light.

"How did your class go?" I asked Tyra, partly out of curiosity and partly in search of a distraction.

"It was lousy." Tyra folded her hands behind her head from where she sat in the front seat. "We spent the whole time jogging, only danced for about twenty minutes and you know what Red said to me at the end?"

"See you tomorrow?" Jett guessed from the seat beside me.

Tyra twisted around to face him, deadpan. "She asked me for your phone number."

"She already has his number," Kane said, stopping the car at a red light and giving Tyra a brief sympathetic look. "He's my second, all the pack members have Jett's number."

Tyra hissed out a breath. "She's toying with me!"

"She is," Kane agreed.

"She has a fiancé," Jett said, leaning towards Tyra with concern furrowing his brow.

Tyra scoffed. "I already know she has a fiancé- that's why I said she's toying with me."

Jett reached out and wrapped a finger around one of her curls. "You won't quit her classes, will you?"

Without looking, she traced the half-moon tattoo on the back of his hand. "Of course I'm not going to quit, no one messes with me and gets a decent night's sleep. I'll learn everything she can teach me and shock her with my mastery."

Lips curling at that, Jett pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck and I looked away, instantly uncomfortable. It reminded me of the public displays of affection I'd awkwardly thrown at Kane the day before.

The kiss I'd initiated had been so robotical, a far cry from the way Helen had kissed him.

And the shock on his face?

Ugh.

At least May had followed through on her promise and let Kane join her group last night. Kane came back in an obvious good mood and didn't even mind when Ian asked him how his Undoing Douchebag Tendencies Club was going.

Trudging through that madness had thankfully paid off.

"Ember?"

I turned from the passing scenery beyond the window. "Yes?"

Tyra was holding a piece of paper out for me. I took it, peering down at the numbers scrawled on it. Was it Tyra's number? It didn't make sense for her to give it to me since I already had it, Jett had stored every single pack member's phone number into my contacts. "What is this?"

"A gift from our dear friend Red," Tyra said, glancing at Kane as he made a turn. "She said she wanted to set you up on a blind date and to call that number if you were interested in six packs and a good tumble in bed."

Screech.

The car veered off the road, a line of foreboding trees rushing towards us at an alarming rate. I opened my mouth to shout...and Kane jerked the car back onto the road.

He cursed, hands gripping the wheel hard.

Tyra laughed. "Looks like she's messing with you too, Alpha."

I lowered the car's window and chucked the piece of paper out.

I didn't need that kind of drama in my life.

***

We met Ian outside a gift card shop located smack dab in the middle of a busy commercial street. It shouldn't come as a surprise, supernaturals have always hidden in plain sight amongst their human counterparts. The early humans were more aware of this than today's generation, it's why they were always trying to kill each other over every little suspicion. A mermaid owning a card shop in the city? No shock there.

What did surprise me was the choice of profession: why not an aquarium? Or a sushi bar?

"Stop judging the woman because of her passion for gift cards, Ember," Ian replied when I shared my thoughts. He held the door open for us, making a goofy face at me as I passed. "Everyone should be allowed a choice."

He walked in last but he still got an uninhibited view of the woman cleaning a gun at the counter.

She glanced up with a scowl but didn't stop wiping at the bulky weapon in her hands. "What do you want?"

"It's alright," Ian gave her a thumbs up, "I still support your choice."

"Buy something or get the hell out," she replied sourly. Then, under her breath, "Stinky werewolves."

"I'm not a werewolf," Tyra said.

"Stinky fae," she replied.

"I'm not a werewolf either," Ian said.

She sneered. "Stinky wizard."

I raised my brows. She appeared to be a normal, pretty young woman- albeit with a bad temper. The only remarkable thing about her was the gun and her shimmering aquamarine eyes.

And the obvious fact that she wasn't afraid of three werewolves, a fae and wizard.

I liked her. I'd like her more if she could kill Light.

"We need you to drown someone for us," Kane said, cutting right to the chase.

Her cloth stopped moving over the weapon. "I don't drown people."

I frowned.

She got up and I almost expected her to flop onto the floor and wiggle her way towards us on a long slimy tail, but she walked around the counter like any other person, leaving her gun on the counter. No tail in sight, sadly. "I'm in the business of murdering the wrong kind of creatures for the right price."

"What makes you the right mermaid for the job?" Ian asked.

She gave him the stink eye. "Mermaids are capable of charming and assassinating every manner of beings. There's no 'right' mermaid for the job, there's only a right price and the job gets done."

Ian flipped through a row of Christmas cards, feigning interest. "Pinch me if I'm wrong, but you don't exactly strike me as charming."

"If you don't trust me to get rid of your mad Autumn Lord you can leave." She turned to Kane. "You're that alpha he's after right? Think carefully before you squander any chances of your survival."

A muscle ticked in Kane's jaw. "How did you know about me?"

"Your impending demise has been the juiciest gossip of the year," Ian replied.

"There are lots of bets being made against you," Tyra told Kane. "Although no one is willing to get involved." She gave the surly mermaid a pointed look.

"How are you going to kill him?" I asked.

Those green-blue eyes snagged on me. Instead of replying though, she started humming a pleasant tune, tapping her foot slowly. Despite this, she didn't shift her gaze so I kept staring back at her, waiting for an answer to my question. The important question I was waiting for her to answer... Her humming was really pleasant...

Were her eyes always that particular shade of blue?

Wait- she? What was I thinking?

It was obviously Kane who was staring back at me and of course he wasn't going to answer my question, the reason we were here to see the mermaid in the first place was because he didn't know how to kill Light. But he'd do whatever it took to find out how, and not solely for his own sake. The amount of sincerity in his eyes even now spoke of his determination, said that he would stop at nothing to ensure the pack's safety and happiness.

I bit my lip, my chest burning with a constricting need I couldn't identify.

Kane held up the gun the mermaid had been cleaning earlier, the barrel staring me down. I wasn't scared though, I was actually relieved. This was what I was missing, what I needed.

I opened my arms wide, started humming along with Kane. He would make it all better.

"That's enough."

It was Kane's voice, but it didn't come from Kane's mouth.

What?

A second Kane stepped between me and the Kane holding the gun. "Name your price."

The first Kane put the gun down on the counter and stopped his catchy melody. His image blurred the moment the song stopped, stretched and distorted before changing- no, righting itself. The mermaid smirked at me. "We mermaids have been hunted down and killed for the danger we cause to those who despise weaknesses. I want pack protection for myself. For life."

My hands were shaking when I grasped Kane's. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, gave me his other hand to clench. Looked at me in question.

I raised my chin, trying to control the shaking my brief brush with death had triggered. "You have a deal," I told the mermaid.

She grinned.

I grimaced at the thought of someone- even Light- at her mercy. There was no room for sympathy though, we'd finally found the right nightmare for the king of nightmares.

It was time to finish him off.