Deaths Excellent Vacation

Queens they’d seen making discreet exits after private visits with Pirate Dave. I’d been prepared to Change and make a dash for freedom if need be, but as it was, I just strolled back to the park’s public areas and out to the parking lot. The fireworks started as I got into my car, and I hoped Pirate Dave was going to go to bed hungry.
    I considered getting in touch with somebody in one of the packs when I got back to my cabin, just to check out Pirate Dave’s powers and the whole vampire/werewolf dynamic, but then I saw the messages shoved under my door. Two more fruit baskets and a balloon bouquet were waiting for me at the front desk. I decided that was enough pack attention for one night. As long as I stayed away from Adventure Cove for the next couple of days, I shouldn’t have to worry about Pirate Dave again.
    I might have been able to stick with it, too, had it not been for three things. One, when I read the local newspaper over breakfast the next day, I learned that two children had been hurt in the breakdown of the Kraken the night before. Though neither injury had been serious, one was bad enough to keep a little girl out of a softball tournament she’d been practicing for all year. There was also an article about the park’s recent troubles, complete with speculation about the number of people who’d be out of work should the park shut down.
    Two, there were more pack offerings waiting for me when I went by the front desk to get the deliveries from the previous night: fruit, cookies, and a spa basket.
    Three, and possibly the reason that would have convinced me all by itself, I’d spent all night having extremely vivid dreams about a red-haired pirate.
    That’s why I was the first person in line when Pirate Dave’s Adventure Cove opened, and I spent the day looking—and sniffing—for signs of sabotage. I wasn’t exactly subtle, but nobody noticed. The news about the park’s problems had spread, so there were even fewer guests than there had been the day before, and the employees were clearly demoralized by impending unemployment. I paid particular attention to the area around the Kraken but got nothing.
    I’m not sure exactly what I expected to find. Pirate Dave had been sure the threat was supernatural, and unfortunately my experience with the supernatural world was next to nil. At least I could be fairly sure that the saboteur wasn’t another werewolf—I knew what we smelled like.
    The park was so empty that I wasn’t sure if they’d bother with the evening parade, but when night fell, I was at Shiver-Me-Timbers, waiting for the Brazen Mermaid to arrive. As soon as the float stopped, I joined the scant half dozen candidates for Sea Queen.
    Pirate Dave’s reaction upon seeing me was priceless. His face flushed, and he glared at me as he gave his usual invitation in a harsh tone that scared off two teenage girls. When it came time to throw the doubloon, he didn’t even pretend to fling it to anybody but me. I walked past the same flunky as before to climb the rope ladder and wasn’t a bit surprised when Dave grabbed me before I was halfway up and yanked me the rest of the way.
    “All hail Sea Queen Joyce!” he thundered, and motioned for the float to start moving.
    “Miss me?” I asked as we waved mechanically to the pitiful excuse for a crowd.
    “What the devil is your game, wolfling?”
    “Shouldn’t that be Queen Wolfling?”
    “You should be keelhauled after what you did to those children last night.”
    “I had nothing to do with that,” I snapped. “Which should be clear even to you by now.”
    “What’s clear is that you’re playing some kind of game with people’s lives.”
    “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m just here on vacation? I don’t want the park to close. Why else would I spend the entire freaking day sniffing around for whoever it is who’s trying to ruin you?”
    He waved in silence for a moment. “You’re telling the truth? You really did that?”
    “Can’t vampires sense lies?”
    “That’s witches,” he said. “All I can do is glamour humans into telling the truth.”
    “Oh. Sorry.”
    “But I do read body language, and yours . . . I believe you.”
    “Finally!”
    “Please accept my apologies for abducting you,” he said awkwardly.
    “And for hitting me over the head?”
    “Yes.”
    “All right, then,” I said magnanimously. “Apology accepted.”
    We waved more amiably for a minute, and then he said,