“Just get in the tub with me,” I said, as Dana cocked her head to the side, still unaware Jack was really and truly there. “The bubbles cover everything I have—mostly.”
“Hon, by chance did someone spike your sweet potato mask?” she asked. “Did it maybe go weird and now you’re suffering the ill effects?”
I tipped my head back. “Nope. Just trying to persuade Jack to take a bath with me. I really do not get how you people can turn down bubbles.”
Dana shut the door, leaving me alone with Jack once more.
He snorted. “Marcy, you’re a very odd woman.”
I lifted more bubbles and blew them. This time I was positive they formed a blackbird. It morphed into a cross, of all things. “Thanks, but I really don’t understand what I’m doing that’s so odd.”
“You keep asking me to bathe with you, for starters,” he said with a shake of his head. “No offense, but the thought of having sex with you seems very, very wrong.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Being naked in a tub together does not automatically mean sex. It’s possible to be comfortable in your own skin and around others in their own skin and not have it be sexual.”
“I know people swear it’s possible,” he said, reaching down to adjust himself in a rather obvious manner. “But I’m not sure I agree.”
I shrugged. “Your loss. This is very relaxing, and you could totally stand to take a load off. Plus, bubbles.”
He huffed in a playful manner. “So you’ve mentioned once or ten times.”
“I won’t apologize for that. I love bubbles,” I returned as a bat-shaped clump of bubbles floated higher in the bathroom. It dissipated, and another grouping of bubbles lifted from the tub. They formed another bird.
Jack’s back was to me now, so he didn’t see the wings of the bird begin to flap, breaking into two birds and then suddenly three, before dissipating into thin air.
Childlike wonder filled me at the sight, and I reached up, my fingers slicing through the air where the bubble birds had been. It was impossible to keep from smiling. I did it so wide that it was nearly painful.
“Marcy?” asked Jack.
“Yes,” I answered.
“The dreams…I think they’re tied to your upcoming move to Grimm Cove,” said Jack.
I shook my head. “The move feels right. The dreams feel wrong—at least with the turn they’ve taken as of late.”
“Sometimes, you need to take a wrong turn on the right path to get to your intended destination,” he said softly.
“Are you saying I shouldn’t move with Poppy and Dana to Grimm Cove?” I asked.
He expelled a long breath, sounding as tired as I felt when he spoke. “Marcy, you’re a very intelligent woman who sees far more than others do,” he said. “I think you know Grimm Cove is more than just another town.”
I bit my inner cheek. “Will Poppy and Dana be safe there?”
“I don’t know. There are dark forces at work, Marcy. But I think you already know that.”
I sat up more in the tub. “Are you going to be safe if you visit me in Grimm Cove?”
“Why haven’t you asked about yourself?” he questioned, deflecting.
“Because I don’t really matter.”
He tensed, growling softly. “Never let me hear you say that again. You matter. And not just because I think you’re destined for a powerful male.”
I gasped. “I’m what?”
He stiffened. “Bloody hell, I wasn’t supposed to—”
In the next second, he was going to one knee, clutching his chest, snarling as he did. He looked to be struggling against something or someone I couldn’t see.
The same foreboding feeling that came over me in my dreams filled the room.
Gasping and worried for Jack, I stood quickly, unconcerned with my state of undress, and hurried from the tub in his direction.
I was almost to him when a familiar-looking dark mass came out of the wall and wrapped itself around him fully. When I realized that it bore a striking resemblance to the very same dark entity that had begun invading my dreams, panic welled in me.
Jack cried out in pain—and I did the only thing I could think to do. I put my arms around him and tackled him.
We fell to the floor with me holding him tight, totally naked and wet still from my bath.
The dark entity let out a screeching sound that hurt my ears and then vanished into thin air.
Jack wasn’t moving, and I gasped. “Jack? Ohmygod, are you dead? Erm, deader than your normal level of dead? What in the hell was that about?”
He stiffened. “M-Marcy, you’re naked and wet…and hugging me.”
Relieved that he was okay, I smiled as I kept holding him. “I love hugs and you looked like you could use one.”
“Thanks. Uh, do I have sweet potato all over me now?”
I smiled. “Yes. And bubbles.”
Part Two
Now
“The only thing you can ever do is take a person as they are—not as you want them to be. Until you learn to do that, you’ll be met with nothing but disappointment.” —Marcy Dotter
“I call this Tuesday.” —Abraham “Bram” Van Helsing
Chapter Five
Marcy
Grimm Cove, South Carolina, present day…
“I shouldn’t be much longer,” said Dana from the other end of the phone call. “You sure you still want to do this tonight?”
I stood in front of the vintage Roper double-oven stove, carefully monitoring the various pots I had on several of its eight burners. When I’d first seen the stove, I’d had issues containing my excitement. Everything about the green room’s kitchen was old but in working condition. That included the wall phone that I was speaking with Dana on. Modern technology and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
Something about me tended to short it out, leaving me with very expensive paperweights. I’d given up on having a cell phone. I couldn’t even wear a regular watch, let alone a smart one. The phone in the green room was one of the few I could talk on that didn’t fizzle out on me.
Dana wasn’t a fan of it because she couldn’t text it. There was something so very impersonal about receiving a cold text that I couldn’t understand how it had ever caught on as the go-to way of communicating. My hope was something else would take its place, letting people interact with each other rather than computers.
Wrapping my arms around a laptop didn’t fill me with warm, fuzzy feelings like hugging another person did. And I lived for hugs. Apparently, the wall phone knew as much and wanted to be sure I didn’t feel left out, since it was currently squeezing me much like a boa constrictor.
Its cord stretched the entire length of the exceptionally large room, which was nice most of the time. Since I’d been talking with Dana while working on a variety of different tasks, I’d covered my fair share of the green room more than once. That was reflected in how many times the cord was wrapped around me, effectively pinning me to the stove.
For the best, really.