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“I’m not touchy about anything.” She shrugged, but the higher pitch in her voice told him otherwise. “I’m tired, and the sun will be up soon. I’ll help you down to the basement. I don’t want you falling in your weakened state.” Aerin headed for the basement, and he used the wall to support himself as he followed her.

“May I?” Gideon asked, not meeting her gaze. He wasn’t used to asking for help.

Without hesitation, Aerin wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Supporting his weight, despite their height difference, didn’t seem to bother her. His abdomen clenched when she steadied him halfway down the stairs, placing her hand on his stomach and letting him catch his breath. Helping him sit in the coffin, he slipped his arm from her shoulder, and he couldn’t believe how tired he was until he rested his back against the cushioned base. He expected her to leave immediately. Instead, she grabbed a blood bag and the hanger to secure it to the nail sticking out from a wooden beam supporting the roof.

Curiously, Gideon watched as she carefully reconnected him to the IV. She held his hand gently as she worked. She was far gentler than he expected, even though the tiny needle wouldn’t hurt. Her gaze was laser-focused on the veins in his hand. Starvation made them easier to find.

“Keep this in while you sleep; it’ll help with the thirst. By the time you wake up, my poison should be out of your system. The stronger you get, the faster I’ll be able to get answers for you. Just focus on getting better for now.”

Chapter Eight

Aerin

At sunrise, before Aerin left to sing the ships safely into port to stop them from becoming Kennie, the Kraken’s morning snack, she checked on Gideon, sleeping soundly in his coffin. His pale skin looked less green as the poison left his system.

I’ll have to pick up some more blood from the blood bank at the rate he was going through it, she thought. He didn’t even flinch when she changed his empty blood bag.

Deep beneath the water’s surface, Aerin lingered outside Kennie’s den, while he slumbered after a good feeding. She sang his favorite lullaby so he wouldn’t be awakened by the ship’s vibrations coming into the marina. Only a few times a year did she worry about such a high volume of ships making port, and Autumn was the busiest season, when the cove stocked up for the Autumn Festival.

Once the ships were guided away from his den and had docked safely, Aerin spent the rest of the day trying to find any trace of Gideon’s ship in Kennie’s cave of ship remnants, anything he might have stolen from the wreck and kept in his den. He loved shiny things, almost like trophies from his wreckages, but there was nothing she hadn’t seen a hundred times over the years from countless other wreckages. His ship must have sunk further out.

After some much-needed lunch, the thrift shop caught her eye. She’d already spent so much on blood, but what she spent now she’d make back when she auctioned his coffin. Besides, she couldn’t let Gideon live in her brother’s outdated clothes and certainly not what her ex had left behind when he made port. She looked through the racks for his size; the feedings had bulked out his build, and the coffin was at least seven feet long, so he must be around six feet tall. Searching the crowded racks for some basics, she sized up since she couldn’t return them. A few T-shirts, jeans, sweats, boxers, socks, and boots, since he had complained about his lack of footwear. This should be plenty; he’s not going to be staying long, and I can teach him how to use the washing machine.

“Not exactly your usual style,” said Gorin, the ogre behind the counter, packing up the clothes she dumped on the counter.

She usually came by the shop once a season. She didn’t need much since she didn’t feel the cold. When she was young, her mum made her clothes by hand, so she never got used to the excess of the modern day. She still repaired clothes with her grandmother’s hand-cranked sewing machine.

“It’s for a friend,” Aerin told him, flipping through the cassette tapes on the counter for only a quarter each.

He paused packing, raising his thick eyebrows.

“Does everyone in town think I don’t have any friends?” Aerin asked, filling in his silent question.

“Do you?” he teased, tallying up the total.

She hesitated. “I have friends.”

“You have people who try to be friends with you, who you tolerate,” he said, stuffing the boots into the bag.

“I do more than tolerate people. Keep the change,” Aerin snapped playfully, grabbing the bag from his wart-covered hand.

“Thank you! See you next season,” he quipped, putting the money in the till.

Aerin flipped him off as she left, colliding with Calipsa on the street. Her sudden grin troubled Aerin to her core; she was never happy to see her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you,” Aerin said.

“Just the person I wanted to see,” Calipsa said, taking her arm as they continued down the street. “I tried to catch you at the marina, but you were already gone by the time I arrived.”

“The ships came in at dawn, so I wanted to make sure Kennie was settled. It is easier to keep him asleep than it is to put him asleep. Once he senses the vibrations, it’s like someone ringing the dinner bell,” Aerin said, curious what Calipsa was after. She already agreed to turn her house into the Haunted Manor for the festival; she didn’t have much else to offer.

“No one else can lull Kennie or keep the ships away as you can. A few of us have tried, but he tends to snap at everyone else.” Calipsa sighed. The compliments threw Aerin off; it wasn’t like Calipsa to talk her up in favor of those in her choir.

“I bribe him with sweet jellies when he hasn’t fed in a while to stifle his desire to hunt down passing ships. He doesn’t want to kill; he just gets hangry,” Aerin said, knowing how the town used Kennie as a mascot. It was easy to forget how destructive the apex predator could be if she didn’t care for him.

“I was going to stop by Clifton Manor to take some measurements for the Haunted Manor decorations. We’ll need to start ordering some props, and the university theatre department is going to make some decorations to up the spooky factor, but I told them your house shouldn’t need too much work,” Calipsa said, and Aerin didn’t know whether to feel insulted or praised.

“Now isn’t a good time; I haven’t had time to clean up. I was going to put some things away and come up with a plan as to what spaces can be used and what areas will be off limits,” Aerin said, not wanting her to visit with Gideon at home. Given its current state and how it sat alone on the edge of the cliff, it was no wonder there were already rumors it was haunted. She owned the land around the house so that no one could build on it, and the wild faeries in the surrounding nature kept people from getting too close. She liked being alone; she didn’t want to divide the land that had been in her family for years or share the secret tunnels that led to her own private beach. Once she had money to do up the place, or at least fix the roof, it wouldn’t be so frightening.