The Girl With Ten Claws (The Adventures of Benedict and Blackwell) Read online

  “I don’t mind it,” I snapped, realising then that I had my hand on my side. I forced it into my pocket, praying that my face wasn’t turning red.

  “Then come out with us tomorrow,” Olivia urged, swinging her long legs on the bar stool.

  “Really, it’s ok,” Brynn said, quickly pouring me a glass of rum and coke to shut me up. “It’s going to be freezing tomorrow anyway.”

  I gritted my teeth as he passed me the glass. “I would love to join you tomorrow morning,” I said sweetly to Olivia. “I don’t mind the cold.”

  “You hate the cold,” Ben said to me when I retold the story.

  I rolled my eyes. “I know!” I threw myself onto the bed, wishing I wasn’t such a proud know-it-all. “It’s done now.”

  “You don’t know how to surf,” the ginger cat pointed out, licking a paw. “Sounds absolutely dreadful if you ask me. Getting wet and chilly? Absolutely ridiculous.”

  But I had condoned myself to being ridiculous, despite me agreeing with Ben. I once again felt as though I had a point to make. I couldn’t let Olivia show me up, although there was nothing in her countenance to suggest that she was trying to maliciously. For all I knew, I was overreacting and she simply wanted some female company.

  But I didn’t think so.

  Brynn pulled me to the side when I came back downstairs. “What are you playing at?” he said quietly. “You told me your side-”

  “I know what I said!” I snapped.

  He frowned, searching my face for answers. “You said you didn’t ever want me to teach you how to surf,” he said finally.

  I crossed my arms stubbornly over my chest. “I know.”

  “Said I was too bossy.”

  “I know.”

  “Spoke like a dictator apparently.”

  “Yeah, well-”

  “You said you would rather strap yourself onto a seal and learn that way than being taught by me.”

  I paused. “Ok, I did say that, but I haven’t seen any seals lately-”

  His raised eyebrow stopped me from speaking. “Ellena, you’re like a cat, you’re happy when your warm, fed and well slept. You hate being wet, cold and hungry. You’re going to be hell to be around tomorrow- you’re going to be all three.”

  A scowl covered my face and I held myself back from stamping a foot. “If you don’t want me to come- just say.”

  “No, by all means come. I just don’t want you to whine that I never told you so.”

  Olivia eventually left when the night crowd started coming in, and Brynn and I were free to play hosts. We had a good partnership between us and everyone was still excited about the museum being renovated. The positive apprehension was kept in measure with the sombre mutterings of last night’s occurrence.

  I wondered what happened to the man, whether he had committed suicide or whether it had been a tragic accident. Had it been murder? Had he jumped from a cliff or fell out of his boat? No one knew. A boat hadn’t been found and to my knowledge the body hadn’t been identified as yet.

  I wondered if he had a family.

  Glancing over at Brynn, I could see that he was thinking about it too. He’d seen it all before, and I pondered if he had seen any accidents whilst out surfing. Was that what it was?

  “How many are booked for tomorrow?” I said to him.

  His head snapped up as I dragged him away from dark thoughts. “Huh?”

  “Surfing. How many do you have booked in for tomorrow?”

  “Oh,” he said scratching his neck idly. “Just us three so far. Jack said he might tag along, but if he’s out tonight, I very much doubt he’ll be coming.”

  Ideas started winding in my head. Hangovers meant no surfing.

  Hmmm.

  I poured him a Jack Daniels and coke and slid it over to him. He took it, raising his eyebrows in thanks.

  “You joining me?” he asked, putting it down as he went to empty the glass washer.

  I smiled. “I may have one or two.”

  Five thousand measures of Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan’s later, we tottered off to bed, and soon morning was clawing my eyelids awake. At least, I thought it was morning before I realised that Ben was lying on my face.

  “Ben!” I shoved him free from my airways and scowled. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that? It’s dangerous!”

  “Food,” he simply meowed.

  For a second, I thought I had evaded the hangover, and then another passed and it exploded into my head tenfold. “Sweet lord!” I groaned before lying back down. “Oh God, everything hurts.”

  “Food.”

  “Not now, Ben.”

  He patted my face with his paw impatiently. “Food!”

  I moaned and pulled the covers over my head. Suddenly there was a knocking at my door. “Go away!” I shouted.

  “Ellena, get up- we’re late,” called Brynn’s voice from the other side.

  Growling, I wrapped the cover tighter around my face, but Ben was wriggling his way underneath to make sure I couldn’t escape him.

  Late? Why the hell would he want to surf whilst hungover? My plan was falling around my ears. I hadn’t thought of the possibility of him simply going ahead with the lesson.

  Maybe I didn’t give him enough booze.

  “I’m losing my touch,” I grumbled.

  Ben stuck his claws into me. “Food!” he meowed.

  “Ellena?”

  “Go away, both of you!”

  The door opened. I kept the cover over me, wrapping it under me in a tight cocoon as Ben wrapped himself around my stomach, continuing to pinprick me with his claws as he made himself ‘comfortable’.

  “Ellena, you agreed to come on a surfing lesson,” dictated Brynn’s voice. I could almost picture him with his arms crossed over his chest. “You have officially booked me. You don’t cancel on me- I cancel on you.”

  “Cancel then,” I shot back. “Don’t you feel awful?”

  “Not as awful as you’re going to feel if you don’t get out of bed,” came his gruff grunt.

  I lay there silent and stubborn, sticking my tongue out at him, knowing he couldn’t see.

  “Ellena?” A pause. “Ok, you asked for it.”

  It took me a good eight seconds of wrestling free of screeching cat and cover as I suddenly became drenched in water. I looked down at myself, gasping in shock and then to Brynn’s smug expression.

  “That’s better,” he said, passing me a now empty bucket with a wink. “See you downstairs in ten.”

  I was there in twenty. Sod Miss Prissy Pants- she would just have to wait on the beach. I don’t know why she insisted on meeting us there instead of Craggy’s- we had equipment for people to use of every size and ability. Maybe she had her own pink shiny board with a gorgeous black and pink wetsuit.

  Oh God, was I jealous?

  I shook the thought away as I lifted my chin defiantly at Brynn’s infuriating cat-got-the-cream look and checked my watch.

  “Shall we go?”

  He was already in his wetsuit, ready to go. There were no official huts down by the beach for people to change, so we liked to get everyone ready at Craggy’s to run down. During bad weather- which I could see it was from the dark clouds outside, if it was a small group, we went in Brynn’s truck. People didn’t mind squishing in the back, and would dive into the new hot showers we had built in one of the outbuildings.

  “You got a towel?” Brynn asked. He didn’t wait for an answer, his own flopped over his shoulder. “Didn’t think you would- here.”

  A fluffy pink towel hit me square in the face. “I swear, Brynn- you’re taking the-”

  “Come on, then,” he called, already walking to the door. “We’ll have some bacon when we get back.”

  Scowling, I followed him, my own new unused wetsuit my dad had bought me for my birthday feeling like a second skin. “You know I’m not Ben, right?”

  The truck was freezing when we got in, and Brynn told me to stop complaining before I h
ad even opened my mouth to do so. I wrapped my knees with my arms, teeth chattering as he turned the heat up.

  The drive down to the beach was very short- we only went in the truck because of the hill we usually climbed in the summer being incredibly muddy. The skies were a smudged mixture of dirty greys and yellows, promising thunder. Worry started to set in of actually getting into the sea.

  I no longer felt immortal like I had when I was younger.

  My side was throbbing from the cold already and I forced myself not to try and heat it up in case Brynn saw. I thought the drive was going to be in silence, short as it was, but it seemed that he wanted to start the lecture early.

  “I want to make a few things clear,” he said, turning the heat up even more. “You do as I tell you, ok? You don’t go further than what I say and you don’t even get on the board until I say. Understood?”

  I opened my mouth to protest but he continued.

  “It’s rough today- Olivia’s had a few lessons already in the past- you haven’t.” He peered through the window as it started to spit rain. “Maybe we should cancel…”

  But his comments about Olivia had turned my freezing insides into a coil of fire. “Can you just stop?” I growled. “Stop treating me like a child. I’ll be fine.”

  He carried on without some vital rules of safety, but I clocked off then, preferring to make the right sounds and stare at the rolling waves. Despite everything, the sea didn’t look so bad- but Brynn had said in the past that appearances were deceiving- it was the current you needed to worry about.

  Ahead was the unmistakable five points of rock, nicknamed Pirate’s Peak. They said that was where the pirates hauled in their boats when they waited for night to come into shore. No one would approach that area, not even now- the waters as untrustworthy and murderous as the pirates that once frequented them.

  Brynn had told me that he had once tried to boat over there when he was a child and had nearly drowned. “Never trust a pirate,” he had told me. “And especially not Pirate’s Peak.”

  I had had enough of near-death experiences to even think about sailing off there. Stupidly in the summer, I had decided to jump off a cliff into the sea for a bit of “escapism” into the water. Brynn had jumped in after me when I hit some trouble and pretty much had saved me.

  We never talked about it, but I could tell it was on his mind.

  I hadn’t tried to kill myself that day- I had just found out that my late biological dad had left me Craggy’s with £60k in debt in the same week and discovered that the man who had shot me was now on the run.

  Rino.

  The police still hadn’t caught him, and I would forever lose sleep until they did.

  Brynn had promised my mother that he would look after me- sometimes I think he took it too seriously. I didn’t feel as though I needed babysitting, but Brynn (and Ben on occasions) obviously thought otherwise.

  The beach rolled up, an ashy state on its once former golden glow. We parked just outside a now shut up tourist shop where the tide couldn’t reach and got out.

  “Where is she then?” I hissed through chattering teeth. “I don’t see a car…”

  Brynn frowned as he scanned the beach. “Maybe she’s already out?”

  I jerked up at the thought. “Well that’s a bit rude,” I pointed out.

  Brynn ignored me.

  I jumped from foot to foot as Brynn mulled it over. “I don’t see a car,” I muttered again.

  “She’s probably running late.”

  I shivered miserably as I watched him unhook the boards from the roof of the car. Maybe I should have offered to help, but my arms were desperate to keep the warmth around my middle. Opening my mouth to object when he passed a freezing board to me, I slammed it shut.

  Looks like I’m definitely doing this then, I thought bitterly, wondering which warm place Ben was snuggled in right now.

  “The sooner you get in the better,” Brynn said to me when we neared the shore. “And remember- do as you’re told.”

  Rolling my eyes for the hundredth time, I slammed my board into the sand next to his as he went over the next few safety rules. He wanted me to practise mounting before we got into the water but I was having none of it.

  “I’ve been surfing before,” I told him, digging my feet into the sand to be free of the cold wind surrounding us. “Can we just go for it?”

  Croyde really was a beautiful place at any time of year, but I had never seen it in this stark aggressive beauty before. Everything was sharper in the winter, darker and less forgiving. The sea was a churning mass of foaming teeth, hungry to educate people of their mortality.

  I had learnt that lesson already.

  Holding back a grimace as my old gunshot wound ached in protest; I picked up the board and started walking towards the shallows. “Are you coming?”

  Brynn was staring at the sea, dark eyes awash with a memory I couldn’t see. I wondered whether he was thinking about the man whose body was swept upon the shore, and then saw him snap out of it.

  “Come on then,” he said, pulling his board from the dark sand, as if he was the one who had been waiting for me. “Let’s show you how to surf.”

  I was determined to not look foolish and decided to walk straight into the sea. But as soon as the spray hit me, my breath was dragged out of my lungs from the shock. I swore and forced myself to take another step, teeth gritted against the freezing temperature.

  Ignore it, ignore it. You can’t feel anything. Just get in! I repeated this mantra over and over to myself as the water got to my waist.

  “You all right?” Brynn asked.

  I refused to look at his smug smiling face and was dismayed to see a rather large wave approaching me. If I was trying to put off getting the water to reach the rest of my body, the next wave did the job in covering me.

  I clutched onto my board as I spluttered and turned my head away from the blast. Brynn’s laughter was loud in my ears as I growled and hauled my body onto the board, my fingers painfully numb with cold. Brynn was already on his- a beautiful creation by the local surfboard shop Teardrop Surfboards. I think he had only used it a couple of times as it was new- my own was something he called an ‘old faithful.’ Battered white and yellow, I didn’t mind it too much because it had character, but I couldn’t help but flash his board looks of jealously. Longer than mine, its beauty was in the simplicity of design- blue and white with two black lines that arched outwards.

  I watched with begrudging awe as he pulled himself through the waves, a new glint in his eyes as he allowed the sea foam to cascade around him. Experienced and athletic with a hard grace that comes from years of practise, he paddled ahead to catch an oncoming wave. I clung onto my own, not liking that my foot was attached to the cord on the surfboard. A wave crashed over me and I forced the tip of my board through it, my fingers turning white as I refused to be toppled over.

  Coughing, I turned to see Brynn, now standing as he sliced through the churning black waters. Envy crawled through me and I gritted my teeth as I turned to face the wind.

  I was going to do this. Turning the board around so the waves were at my back, I started paddling towards the shore as an oncoming wave starting tearing the water behind me. My arms were aching with the cold and strain as I forced them through the icy depths, my fingers spread wide with a freezing fire.

  My body was carried for a short distance as the wave took me, but it was pathetic and I lost the distance I had gained.

  “Try again,” Brynn’s voice shouted.

  Hair now black with seawater, I turned back towards the current and fought through the small army of waves to get into the clear stretch of sea; the oncoming swarm of bigger waves building ahead.

  I tried for the next twenty minutes catching small waves whilst Brynn cast a watchful eye over me, grabbing a larger wave as it smashed down, unforgiving against my white skin.

  I was out of my depth with this.

  It was the third wave that broke over my s
kull that made me feel dizzy. I heard Brynn shout my name but I shook my head to say I was ok, despite retching up salt.

  Olivia hadn’t joined us, and my hangover was catching up. Had all this been for nothing?

  No, my voice snarled as my cheek pressed against my freezing board; my chest heaving for more breath. Because you’re not trying to prove anything, are you?

  But I was. My side was now a constant throb of protest, the scar tissue pulling uncomfortably, pleading with me to get into something warm. Seaweed gently caressed my feet, a false carpet upon the seafloor, promising comfort if only I lay down.

  “Ellena, it’s getting really choppy now,” Brynn said, paddling over to me. “We should get back in- it’s not safe.”

  A wave was mounting ahead, black with intent and rabid with foam. Brynn had clocked it too and didn’t look happy. He was worried about me- I could see that. But I hadn’t caught a wave throughout this and I was getting frustrated. His promise to my mother had become our daily curse, as I could sense that it was about to rear its ugly head again. I wasn’t something to be pitied- I could look after myself.

  But I wasn’t stupid.

  “I’m not going to outswim that, Brynn.”

  He was torn. He could do it easily- but me?

  Poor little Ellena.

  A growl started gathering in the back of my throat. “Screw it.” Ignoring the ache in my forearms and biceps, I swung my board and started to swim towards the mountain of water. Where I was it would smash over me. I wasn’t taking another beating by the sea. My muscles screamed in protest as I twisted around, the yellow resin slicing through the water with my clumsy direction.

  Brynn shouted my name but I ignored him. It was done now. I caught sight of him in the corner of my eye as he readied himself to catch the wave, and redirected my attention as I started to feel the pull of the water dragging me backwards- a sign that the inevitable was coming.

  The wind lashed my already painful eardrums as I started paddling frantically, trying to build up momentum.

  “Paddle, Ellie! Paddle!”