“Mrs. Costas?” she huffed, keeping pace beside me.
“Yes,” I answered grimly. “She’s controlling the Talos. We’ve got to stop her if we’re going to stop this.”
The detective didn’t reply. Together, we plunged through the last ring of shifters until we were next to the Stones and facing the Merrow.
She was where I’d left her, still on the ground, more water bottles strewn around. She saw me and smiled lazily, kept singing. She was so extraordinarily beautiful in this state that even I stood there blinking like a dummy for a second while my brain whirled to throw off the spell. I guess the cop’s training kicked in, because she didn’t even hesitate. She whipped out her Glock, pointed it directly at the Merrow and said, “Stop. Right now. Stop the singing, unless you’re going to end the battle like you did before.”
Mrs. Costas only smiled and kept singing.
Detective Ewing held her ground. “I will shoot you,” she said calmly. “Stop. The. Singing.”
I cast the police officer a nervous, sideways glance. I’d come over with the exact same intention: to pull a gun on Ciara and try to force her to stop. Now push had come to shove. Would she actually do it? Would Detective Ewing pull the trigger?
Bam!
A body careened into the officer from the side, knocking her off her feet, sending her into a roll. She cried out in anger. I reacted on instinct, leaping out the way, but felt myself grabbed by the ankle. I looked down. The water puddle in which Ciara lounged to assume her Merrow form had a face. A terrible, ghostly, hideous face that I remembered from my nightmares. And what had captured me was a hand. A hand formed of water, but strong as steel. I froze, terror welling up inside. The same terror I’d felt when the Nakki first attacked me in Carter’s bathroom. It was like I was both reliving the attack and its sheer terror. The Nakki smiled and jerked on my foot, sending me plummeting to my backside. I yelped and tried to scramble away. She didn’t release me.
Meanwhile, from the corner of my eye I could see the detective was still on the ground. Unlike me, she didn’t freeze. In fact, she had rolled, using hip and leg strength to throw off her attacker. Apparently, she’d lost her gun, since she didn’t draw it and shoot. With the darkness and fear it was hard to tell, but I thought her assailant was possibly the Nunda, who controlled the big cats.
Great.
All he had to do was summon a couple lions or tigers and we were both goners.
He probably didn’t have to do that, though. Our odds of getting out of here alive weren’t great. Mine weren’t, anyway. I had to quit paying attention to the detective in order to save my own skin. The Nakki was pulling at me. Pulling at my ankle, dragging me towards the puddle,
like she’d pulled me towards the bathtub in Carter’s apartment, attempting to drown me. Unlike last time, the Talos wouldn’t come save me. He was locked under the Merrow’s spell.
I had to get myself out of this.
The Nakki had my foot in the water by this point. Her ghostly, watery hands were climbing up my leg. Could she drown me in that puddle? Or was she merely enjoying scaring me?
It was someone else’s turn to be scared.
I still had my Beretta. Even as she dragged me over the rough ground, I squirmed to pull it out of my waistband. Fighting her hold, flipping over from stomach to back, I grasped the butt of my gun in both hands and lifted it, held it steady.
“This is your one chance,” I said, speaking through chattering teeth. “Let me go, or I’ll shoot.”
The ghostly face grinned wider…and let go.
I tumbled backwards onto my elbow, retaining my grip on the weapon with one hand, only to feel myself swept up in a tight embrace, and ripped right off the ground. It wasn’t a hug meant to comfort or seduce. The arms were like a vice, crushing. It was the reddish-skinned humanoid with the suckers on its hands, suckers that it now attached to either side of my neck. I felt my skin stinging and swelling, felt my limbs weakening.
Vaguely, through the roar of pressure in my ears, I heard Detective Ewing shout, but I didn’t know if it was because of her own battle or what was happening to me. The creature had pinned my arms to my sides when it picked me up, and I’d dropped my gun. I kicked my legs and wriggled my upper half, but it was as ineffective as a fly struggling in a spider web. The monster squeezed harder, and my body was weakening at an alarming rate. I didn’t know what the suckers on my neck were doing to me, but something horrible was happening. Blackness filled the corners of my vision. My head felt like it would explode. I couldn’t breathe.
So this is how it ends… whispered a sad, small voice in my brain. Everything you’ve survived, and this is how it ends…
Bright light overtook the darkness, even as my head sagged on my neck.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It wasn’t the glow of a golden city, welcoming me home. It wasn’t even the brightness of death separating my soul from my body.
I heard my attacker grunt, felt the pressure around my torso ease. He stumbled backwards, taking me with him, but his grip was loosening. The brightness intensified, even as the pressure
