Blake

There was a body near Navy Pier. It was a hundred feet away, resting in a clump of bushes near the waterfront. Hardly identifiable, the skin was torn and swollen. Large pieces of flesh had been completely ripped off and in some parts solid bone was visible. The eyes had been gouged out completely.

"God, I hate mermaids," Caden muttered. He looked slightly green.

Blake grimaced but said nothing. She had to agree. Mermaids were a pain in the ass. Not difficult to kill compared to some of the creatures she'd dealt with in the past but an annoyance. They preferred to do most of their hunting in darkness, stealing away sailors and drunken idiots who wandered down by the waterfront in the night. They lured them in and drowned their victims before gorging themselves on the flesh. The hardest part was that they rarely left the water, though they were capable of living on land for short periods of time.

"I'm sure they hate you too," Hix responded dryly as he ran his fingers through his chestnut-coloured hair.

Blake had always liked Hix. He was only a few years older than she was but there was something about him that made him seem experienced and wise. Almost everyone listened to his opinions. Hix was a valued, calm voice in the community. And while he was respected, he was also funny and easy to get along with. There was not one person who disliked him.

"What's the plan going to be? This is the fifth kill in the past few weeks. The police have got to be thinking that there's a serial killer on the loose."

Caden was the opposite of Hix in most ways. Edgy, unconfident, younger than her by a year. He was a relatively new addition to the Beare Lake community. He'd arrived only a few months earlier after a run-in with an angry spirit that refused to cross. He had asked for Malachi's help in getting rid of it and Malachi agreed though Caden hadn't left even after the spirit was gone. Blake didn't know why. Perhaps he just had nowhere else to go.

"We should try to take them out tonight if we can." Blake looked out over the water as if she could see the dangers lurking beneath the lightly lapping waves. "I'll get us a boat."

"I'll head back to the motel to start arranging the gear we need," Caden said.

Hix crossed his arms over his chest. "Guess that means I'm canvassing the area. Do my best to talk to some locals and see if anyone has seen something weird. It's a big place. We don't want to be going in blind."

Blake nodded. "Sounds good. I'll join you once I've finished."

"Okay."

They split up, dividing up the workload to get the hunt finished as soon as they possibly could. Though they'd only arrived in Chicago yesterday, Blake was already aching to leave. The werewolf team had arrived in Denver two days earlier and it had been complete radio silence. No word on if the monster she was tracking was there. Not so much as a peep from Malachi.

Nothing.

So, she was focusing on the hunt at hand. One of the local marinas she visited was busy but she managed to rent a motorboat for a two-day period. Blake didn't think that they'd need the vessel past that night but the multiday rental allowed her to have the keys to it overnight. Once she had the keys in her possession, she checked out the boat. It was small but large enough for three people and the weapons they'd need.

Blake met up with Hix on the boardwalk. At some point, he'd picked up lemonade and a pastry from somewhere near the pier. "You've been busy," she commented dryly to him. There were crumbs and icing on the corner of his lip.

He shrugged and bit into the corner of a cherry-cheese Danish. When he spoke, it was with a full mouth. "I work better on a full stomach."

She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she saw the chewed-up mess in his mouth. "Did you find anything useful at least?"

"No."

"Seriously?"

Hix swallowed. "There are no landmarks to guide us on this one and the fuckers are being careful. No one has seen anything – or if they have, they're either dead or not admitting it. The merfolk are somewhere in the deep. We'll have to lure them up."

"Great." Blake glanced out at the lapping waves – towards the children laughing on the sand. There was a brother-sister pair playing together, building castles. Around the age that she and Josh had been when their parents were killed.

"Don't sound so bummed," he muttered. "You know they prefer killing us lovely men."

"You're thinking of sirens. Mermaids don't give a shit. Besides, you know mer-maid is just the general term. They could be mer-men."

Hix rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Doesn't change anything. Either way, they're still monsters and we're still going to kill them."

Of course, we are, she thought but didn't say. Blake didn't need to be told what their job was. She'd been doing it long enough that she knew their goal. Find the threat. Eliminate it. No funny business.

They began walking in the direction of the motel where Caden was sure to be waiting for them. Blake didn't want him to be left alone for too long. He had a habit of getting restless when he was by himself.

"So," Hix drawled as they walked. "You and Malachi, huh?"

She stiffened just slightly but didn't turn to face him. "What?"

"Oh, come on, Blake. I've seen the two of you together. He watches you constantly and not in the way he watches everyone else. It's...predatory almost. Plus I was out for a run and saw you sneaking out of his house through his bedroom window last week."

Shit.

"What's it to you?" she asked slowly. Trying not to let it show how much it unnerved her. She turned in the direction of the motel they were staying at. He followed without debate.

"Isn't he a little old for you?" Hix bit into his pastry again and gestured wildly with the remainder of it. A piece of it flew off and hit her in the cheek. When he spoke again, it was with a full mouth. "Not to mention the fact that he's just a downright unpleasant human being?"

Blake raised an eyebrow and wiped away the speck of pastry. Most people didn't bother to speak ill about Malachi. There was something about him that made you think it was best to stay on his good side. She was surprised at Hix's audacity.

"I'm twenty-three, Hix. Not jailbait."

"You were when he met you though. How old were you again? Eleven—twelve? He would have been twenty-four or twenty-five. You gonna look me in the eye and say that it doesn't weird you out?"

Blake stopped walking and so did Hix. He'd wiped the sugar off of his face and was now staring at her intently. "No," she lied. "It doesn't weird me out. Besides, what are you trying to do? Get me to go out with you instead? You're older than I am too."

"By four years. It's hardly anything. And believe me, Blake, the last thing I want to do is date you. You're not my type."

She snorted. "Then why the hell are we having this conversation?" Hix fell silent and she heard the voice behind his words. "My brother put you up to this, didn't he?"

Hix sighed and Blake knew that she'd guessed right. "He's worried about this thing between you and Malachi. He chatted with me right before we left. Asked if I would talk to you."

"Well, Josh really just needs to mind his owned damned business," Blake muttered as she resumed walking.

"He hates this life. Hunting...It's not for him. You're young, Blake. The two of you could get out of this before you get in too deep."

"So could you."

He frowned. "I'm already in too deep. You and your brother aren't."

"I'm not holding him here, Hix. I've told him numerous times to go to college or see the world. He won't go."

"Not until you do."

Blake shook her head. "I'll stop hunting only after I've killed the monster that murdered my parents. Not a moment before."

Hix was quiet for a moment. "That's why you're with Malachi, isn't it? Because he's promised you information on the wolf. He's promised you the kill."

"It might be in Denver," she said matter-of-factly. "If it is, I'm getting called there when we're done here."

He rolled his eyes. "The chances of that are extremely low. There's thirty-seven major werewolf packs in the country that we know of, not to mention all the small ones we don't bother counting and all the rogue bands we can hardly keep our eyes on. The one that killed your parents was probably off with a few of its friends with no allegiance to any pack."

"Maybe you're right. But maybe the thing is in Denver. And if it is, I'm going to be the one to end it."

Hix stared at her. "Just...Don't lose sight of who you are in the process of this hunt you're on, Blake."

The motel loomed before them two hundred feet away. Blake didn't tear her eyes from it as she said, "I've never asked how you got into this business, Hix."

"Believe me, you don't want to know."

And his voice was so dark that she agreed with him.

*~*

The reflection of the moon was the only light they dared to use as they launched the boat that night. They rowed it out, not wanting to draw attention to themselves by the echoes and vibrations that would be caused by an engine. Lapping against the sides of the boat were inky black waves.

Blake didn't want to know all of the monsters that were concealed beneath the water's surface. Mermaids were hard enough. She didn't even want to think about having to face off with a group of grindylows or a water wraith.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about kappas – they chose to stay only in the waters around Japan – and meeting a selkie seemed equally unlikely. They were often found along the shores of Orkney and Shetland in Scotland.

Weapons were strapped to her body and stowed in the bottom of the boat. Hix had chosen a simple handgun with several wicked-looking knives attached to his arms and hips. Caden had dressed similarly but Blake...She had left out the gun. What she was carrying was a collection of blades and a hatchet, all specially picked for this hunt.

Each weapon they carried had been dipped in or forged from iron. Normal blades wouldn't work against the merfolk, Blake had learned. What most people didn't know, was that the merfolk were a subspecies of Fae. It meant that they were susceptible to iron, the same way that werewolves bowed to silver, and holy water could be used to burn demons.

The boat stopped moving a few hundred feet from shore.

"What now?" Caden asked, looking between Blake and Hix.

She unsheathed a knife with a long curved blade. Her fingers wrapped loosely around the handle. "We wait for them to appear."

"What if they don't?"

"They will."

"How do you know?"

It was Hix who said, "Because they always appear."

They settled in to wait. Hix cast a fishing line from a rod before pulling out a candy bar from his pocket and crossing his long legs over each other. The bobber floated along the top of the water, the red-and-white bright in the light cast by the moon. Caden stared out into the murky water looking anxious. Blake reached for a specially modified hydrophone which she dropped into the water.

"What's that for?" Caden's brows furrowed over his blue eyes.

She hardly spared him a glance. "Listening for the merfolk."

"You can hear them?"

Blake nodded but it was Hix who answered, "It's so we can figure out how many there are. The last thing we want to do is leave in the morning only to find out we didn't get them all. Especially because any of them left behind are sure to be extremely pissed off and will likely go on a rampage."

As Hix explained the hydrophone to Caden, including the modifications that had been made to it by some hunter she didn't know which would allow them to listen for the merfolk in real-time, Blake fiddled with the cord before dropping it into the water. It sank quickly and a moment later, the sounds of marine life echoed up to them through the receiver.

They were silent as they listened and then she heard it. Hix muttered, "Found ya." Caden only paled.

It was not the pretty singing that sirens tended to put out. Many people heard 'mermaid' and immediately thought of long-red hair and a seashell bra. But mermaids were not the lovely creatures that Disney had painted them to be.

Instead of the singing, it was a high-pitched screech. The sound reminded Blake of nails raking down a chalkboard and she had to keep herself from cringing away from the sound. She forced herself to listen, making note of the slight variations in pitch and tone as the monsters below communicated with one another.

"Five," she said to the men a moment later.

Hix nodded. "I counted the same."

Caden just looked between them. "I couldn't hear a difference."

"You'll learn to with time. I couldn't hear anything either the first time Malachi brought me to hunt merfolk," Blake admitted with a flashing grin. "By the third time I went, I was faster at picking it up than he was."

"Do they know we're here?"

She shrugged and looked at the clear water. Hardly a wave in sight save for those just barely brushing against the edge of their little boat. "Probably. It's why Hix cast the fishing line. They know that someone has entered into their territory. They'll come to investigate soon enough, I'm sure."

Caden readjusted his grip on his knife as if a mermaid was going to lunge out of the water towards him right then. "And if they don't?"

"Then we come back tomorrow night and the night after that and the night after that until they do come. And when they do—"

"They die." Hix's voice cut through the night, dark and flat.

It wasn't long before Blake felt the ripple of energy through the air. The temperature dropped so substantially that it looked as if she were blowing smoke as she exhaled. Blake looked down towards the water, stared into the inky depths until a shape began to emerge.

A face. Bobbing just below the surface of the water. Beautiful, if a little otherworldly. The shade of green in the eyes was just a bit too bright and the golden flowing hair seemed to have a life of its own as it swirled against the murky black. Her skin was pale green and she was nude from the waist up but Blake followed her skin down to where it disappeared, replaced by hard iridescent scales that tapered into a tail.

Blake grinned as the mermaid began to raise herself out of the water to lean against the side of the boat. "Hello," she purred.

The mermaid said nothing but Blake heard the soft sounds of moving water and creaking wood as other merfolk gathered around the boat. As the mermaid broke the waterline, the soft green of her face shifted, the lines growing harsher, shimmering scales adorning the skin of her face and neck. Still beautiful but there was something more sinister about her now.

Blake's fingers tightened on the hilt of her knife within her jacket. The mermaid rose up to lean against the edge of the boat. Less than a foot separated the two females. There was a predatory glint in the mermaid's eyes – one that Blake could read. The creature hadn't yet realized that her prey was more than an ordinary human. She thought that she was hunting mundane, uneducated humans. Not hunters that knew exactly what they were and how to kill them.

Small splashes echoed through the calm night. If she cast a look over her shoulder, Blake knew that she would see that the other merfolk had raised themselves into a similar position as the one before her. But she didn't dare remove her attention from the maid in front of her. She wasn't stupid enough to write that death warrant.

"It's a wonderful night for a swim," Blake said.

The mermaid's eyes glittered. "Yesssss."

This was not the shrieking dialogue that could be heard from beneath the water. It was almost a human sound. A little serpentine but understandable. Nothing more than bait to get the prey closer to the water.

"Perhapssss you would care to join usssss?" She bobbed lightly in the water, slightly dipping down beneath the lip of the boat before popping back up. Her hair was matted in thick wet curls around her face – not the flowing mass it had been beneath the waves.

"Or you could join me in the boat? We could find a better way to occupy ourselves other than swimming in senseless circles, I'm sure." Blake readied her knife, slowly sliding it out of her jacket and towards her lap where it would be free.

There were subtle cues about what was to come in just a moment. The slight angling of the body, a small downward curve to the edge of the dainty smile, and a flash of the eyes to something – someone – just behind Blake. One of the other merfolk. A cue.

Blake picked up on it all. Malachi was many things, a leader and a controlling bastard, but he had been an effective teacher. All that he knew he had taught her. The small intricacies that took some hunters decades to learn, she had absorbed within a few short years. It helped that the one thing Malachi couldn't teach she already had.

Survival instincts.

Her intuition for sensing danger had kept her alive so far. She knew when to trust her gut. It was one of the reasons why Malachi liked to listen to her – why he had coveted her. They were two sides of the same coin. The decisions he made were often the ones that she would make too if given the chance. Though they disagreed on where she stood in respect to the revenge she sought, they agreed on almost everything else.

So, she knew what Malachi would have done in that moment. How he would have responded to the merfolk's next move.

Blake smiled. And pandemonium ensued.

The mermaid lunged from the water – faster than most humans could react to. Blake had been anticipating the attack and was in motion before the creature was able to clear the waterline. Her blade slashed through the air, arching upward from its resting spot, to rake across the mermaid's skin. Blake had aimed for the neck but the mermaid saw the blade a moment before the hit could land and twisted in such a way that Blake was only able to connect with its shoulder.

A horrible enraged screeching echoed in her ears. Distantly, she picked up the sounds of hurried splashing and hissing followed by intense swearing and grunting from both Hix and Caden. The hunt was officially on.

The mermaid in front of Blake bared its teeth and slashed out with its fingers that had lengthened to talons. Designed for ripping the skin from human prey. The sharp claws lodged in Blake's forearm as she raised her arm to block her face. She snarled in pain but used it to her advantage. The mermaid's attack had left her open and Blake whirled – angling the blade again for the neck.

This time, her aim was true. The blade sank into the mermaid's throat and Blake pulled it across, opening a wicked and gruesome smile that revealed bright red blood that filtered down to the bottom of the boat. Blake wrenched the knife free and the mermaid fell half into the boat – her tail was dangling half in the water – where she twitched for a moment before growing still.

Not pausing long enough to see the life leave the mermaid's eyes, Blake turned.

There was two merfolk dead in the boat but both Caden and Hix had disappeared. One of Hix's guns had clattered to the wooden floor. Blake rushed to pick it up and peered into the dark water beyond as it lapped against the side of the boat.

She loaded a new clip, waiting for any indication that the other hunters were alive. The hydrophone was silent – no sound of communicating merfolk. She didn't know if they'd gotten them all.

"Come on," she muttered. "You idiots better not be dead."

The air was still. So still. Blake's heart lurched in her chest but the men didn't reappear for so long that she was hesitant to believe they would.

And then, in the span of one blink, two heads broke the waterline thirty feet away.

Blake shuddered a great heaving breath as Hix towed an unconscious Caden towards the boat. She reached over the edge to help pull him up and in. Once he'd collapsed in the boat, she turned back for Hix who grasped her arm gratefully and allowed himself to be pulled in.

Caden was breathing – just knocked out – but there were deep scratches along his arms and neck. Hix panted heavily, his face ashen and pale, as Blake shoved the dead merfolk into the murky depths below.

"What happened?" she asked.

Hix nodded. "The kid...got off...clean shot...but...pulled in...after." Blake passed him a bottle of water which he used to rinse out his mouth. He spat into the water surrounding the boat and he slumped in his seat as he narrowed his eyes. "I hate fish."

She snorted. "Are the other two dead?"

"Yes." He seemed to have an easier time breathing now. "The one he shot...fell into the water...The other I killed...getting him back."

"Good." Blake wiped the blood off of her blade onto her pants and sheathed the knife. "We should head to shore and get back to the motel. Some of Caden's wounds look pretty serious. We'll need to patch him up before we go home."

She retrieved the medical kit from beneath one of the seats and tossed it back at Hix. It landed on his stomach.

Hix groaned but opened it and leaned over Caden as Blake moved for the driver's seat. No longer worried about the vibrations and sound emanating from the motorized vessel, she turned the engine on and began to steer them towards the shoreline.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked Hix over the din of the engine.

"Yeah. Just pissed off. I did not want to go swimming tonight."

She hid her smirk as they approached the docks. "Well, I'm sure Caden appreciates the fact that you did."

"He'd better."

The little boat drifted into the harbour. Blake cut the engine when they were close enough to glide into the dock. When it was close enough, she hopped out and tied the boat up.

"Okay," she said to Hix. "We're clear. Do you need help with Caden?"

He shook his head. "No. You carry our weapons bag and get in front of me so that you can ready the car."

Blake did as he asked, slinging the heavy duffle bag across her shoulder. She retrieved Caden's discarded gun from the bottom of the boat and shoved it into the bag. As Hix hoisted Caden up and out, Blake noticed that spots of blood remained. She did her best to clean it out with the materials they had – which mostly meant that she scooped out puddles of bloody water with an empty coffee cup and used her sweater to wipe spots that couldn't be cleaned easily – and then she led the way back to the car.

Hix sat with Caden in the backseat as they drove to the motel. Once safely back in their room, Blake shuttered the blinds and locked the door. She showered quickly, freeing herself of the grime that came from a hunt, and then went to work fixing up some of Caden's more serious injuries that Hix had only had the time to perform damage control on.

She was in the process of applying a salve to the gashes on his neck when her phone rang. Blake pulled it from her pocket and checked the caller I.D. Malachi's name flashed across the screen.

"Hey," she said as she answered. Before Malachi could speak, she added, "We're just finishing up here. It went fine. Caden got a bit banged up but he's going to be okay. We'll be heading back to Beare Lake in the morning."

"Send Hix to bring Caden back," Malachi replied. "I need you here. In Denver."

Her heart thundered in her chest. "Malachi..."

A deep sigh. "We've been coordinating with a few local guys and are looking to plan a hunt soon. It'll be dangerous but I know that you want to be here so in the morning get your ass on a flight to Denver. I'll meet you at the airport."

"How sure are you?"

"It's here, Blake. The werewolf that killed your parents is in this pack."

***

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