Page 13 of Haunted Tides


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“At least it’d be easy to explain to the Darklings with it resembling seizures. After your past they’d buy it, hook, line, and sinker,” Sully offered.

“Fish jokes aside,” I rolled my eyes at the pun. “That makes me feel a lot better about accidentally letting it happen on live.”

“I’m suddenly very glad that my talent is all emotion,” Ethan said. “My true super power is providing delicious snacks.” He patted his soft stomach with a grin that I easily returned.

“And that’s why I love you,” I said, blowing him a kiss.

“Gross,” Sully teased. “So what about you guys?” He directed that at Ben, Ryker, and Lincoln.

“Nothing for me,” Lincoln said. “I just make sure everyone is safe. These guys can be reckless.”

“So the daddy of the group,” Sully laughed, only cackling harder when Lincoln spewed his coffee at the term.

“Yes,” I confirmed, winking at my friend.

“Brea,” Lincoln groaned in exasperation, but we ignored his protests.

“I’m just the tech guy,” Ryker said.

“And I’m good at digging up research and charming the clients,” Ben added on. “Nothing special.”

“Yet,” Sully said. “Keep up this life long enough and I have a feeling some of that energy will rub off on you.”

“I hope not,” Ryker said with a shudder.

“Not to bring up sore subjects,” Lincoln said. “But is there anything we can do in the field to make it easier for you?”

Sully for once didn’t tense at the reference to his weakness. Instead he looked a bit surprised at Lincoln’s genuine offer. “Thanks, man, that means a lot. I think with the use of equipment I’ll be fine, I just need to man a camera to watch the feed. It’ll give me enough glow to see my feet and not trip.”

“Noted,” Ryker said. “We can sort through cameras so you can change it up, we’ve got a pretty good variety.”

“That’d be amazing,” Sully said. He relaxed even more then, and my chest warmed. My guys were amazing, and so was my friend; it was nice to see everyone getting along.

“Come on, Angel, let’s do the groceries. We’re clearly the best at that,” Ethan said with a grin now that we’d finished eating. “Plus, we’ll still need to use the staff kitchen so we need to stock it so we aren’t sending one of us to the diner every morning.”

“I need to check the equipment if someone wants to join me,” Ryker said.

“My eyes are fucked but I can see up close. If that’s not an issue I can help,” Sully offered. His breathing was almost erratic, bordering on panic though he hid it well. There was that vulnerability I hated, it looked wrong on him. It kept slipping through but it was understandable, he was trying to find his place in the world with his new limitations.

“Sure, I can work with that,” Ryker agreed. “Maybe you’ll have some new ideas on how to get this ground covered in cameras a bit better. I’ve got a few left. Plus we can pick yours for tonight.”

“We have maps, right?” Sully asked.

“I’ll send it to your phone,” Ryker replied as he tapped away at his own, Sully’s answering with a chime a second later.

“I’m going to scope out a map too. This place is huge. We need a better plan,” Lincoln said. We finished up and Lincoln gathered our trash before going our separate ways.

Seeing the town in daylight was nice. It was actually a pretty cute place. I’d expected a place like Serenity Harbor to be a grungy, broken down town. Especially without much tourism to speak of yet. And there were parts of it that fit that description. But overall it seemed they took care of their town. The tiny park that surrounded town hall was nice and clean. The police and fire stations looked almost new. And while the homes had taken a beating from the salty sea air, even they had clean yards. I bet if we came back in a few years of the museum being up and running that it’d be a whole new place.

The grocery store was small enough to be called quaint. Ethan and I behaved to get through the list we’d made up on the way here. But the moment it was done he turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

“Snack time?”

“You know it,” I grinned. The moment we got into the snack aisle we loaded the cart with my favorite licorice and Ethan’s popcorn, then started nabbing snacks for the guys. I vaguely remembered Sully’s old snack choices and did the best I could. “Remind me to find out what Sully likes.”

“I asked him, so I figured you did too, but it looks like you got most of it. Except these.” He reached up and grabbed a big pack of spicy chips. We hit the drinks next before calling it a day.

When we got back we parked in front of the museum and Lincoln came out to meet us before we could even start unloading. It took the three of us four trips to get it all inside but we had everything from the basics, to easy meals, rounded out with the snacks and drinks.

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