Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) (23 page)

And when they came down from the ride? He dried her off with gentle hands, carried her back to bed, and wrapped her in his arms.

If there were tears streaming down her face, he did the only thing he could do…he pretended not to see them.

Chapter Eight

A warm breeze blew over the water and Mari lifted her face to the afternoon sun. Wonderful what a full night’s sleep, a shower and some food could do for a girl’s morale. Waking wrapped in Raiden’s arms hadn’t hurt her mood either, until he’d bolted like a scared rabbit the moment she opened her eyes.

Mari sighed and held on to the windbreak as the thirty-three-foot cruiser headed across the waves with Tim at the helm. The sleek boat was fast, expensive, and big enough to do the job. Sarah sat at the very front in a transom seat with her face to the sky and arms spread wide, while Mari stood next to the captain’s chair, closed her eyes and pointed in the direction she wanted them to go. Tim said nothing, watched over his wife and steered the boat wherever Mari told him to. Mari was following instinct now, a knowing so deep and true she didn’t question it.

They were off the southern tip of Bermuda, only a few miles away from where the remains of her boat probably still floated in the water. She guessed they were near the Argus Bank, close to top-secret naval no-no-land, and in the northern tip of the Devil’s Triangle.

Figured that if an alien spaceship were going to crash, it would do it in the Bermuda Triangle. They were getting close, she could feel it, feel
him
, which made absolutely no sense whatsoever because he was sitting on the white leather bench seat near the rear of the boat, just steps away from her, watching her like a hawk…making her skin yearn to feel his touch again. No matter that it hurt her heart, her body wanted more, more, more.

Freaking more, even if it killed her a little inside.

She wrung her hands in front of her borrowed windbreaker and ignored the growing pit in her stomach. Thinking about the taste of his lips was better than concentrating on the taste of dry cotton in the back of her throat, her racing heartbeat, or her complete lack of focus. No. Nope. Not nervous, absolutely not nervous to get back in the water and find a ship potentially neck deep in nasties. And nope, she wasn’t bothered at all by the fact that Raiden stared at her constantly, his gaze dissecting her like a bug under a microscope.

It would’ve been okay, even flattering if his gaze held lust, or desire, or even interest. But there was nothing for her to read. Those gray eyes were smooth as polished granite, and gave nothing away.

Her body didn’t care what he thought. It lit up like a Christmas tree, every nerve sparkling like a little light and the Mark on her shoulder fired up like a stovetop burner set to High. No freaking off switch. Her body didn’t seem to care that her dream man was an alien with two-toned hair and not much to say. Or that he glared at her constantly, like she’d ruined his birthday party or beaten his new puppy. Or that there was no tenderness to his lust. No love. No room for her in his scarred heart.

Yes, he was definitely both the man from her dreams…and her nightmares.

The silver in his hair and eyes made Raiden look otherworldly. Alien and beautiful, like a true thunder god of old. She’d Googled his name and found it all over the video gamers’ boards. But the name itself came from ancient Japanese mythology. The god of thunder. And he’d awaited her to waken from his death sleep at the bottom of the ocean.

After she’d found him, she’d hoped the dreams would stop, especially the bad ones. But last night had proven that wrong. Even with his arms wrapped around her, the nightmares had found her, his gorgeous face melted and lost as he morphed into one of the enemy. She’d seen his face a hundred times or more before she’d found him imprisoned in that cave, but still wasn’t sure which version of him she’d rescued…angel or demon? Did he even know himself?

His stoic expression didn’t help calm her nerves, especially when she could still
feel
something calling to her below the surface of the water. It
felt
like him, and it didn’t. She wasn’t sure what to think. The fish had told her where to look when she’d floated in the water half dead from Triscani poison. They’d darted under her body, rubbed against her legs and back, hitting her like a dozen little darts of information that made a cohesive whole. They’d come to help her thanks to the great white alpha who’d miraculously followed through on her promise to seek out alien energy so Mari could hunt.

Hunt. Kill. Protect.

So easy to say, so much harder to do. She was a twenty-six-year-old college wipe-out, not a superhero. No, the superhero sat across from her wearing dive gear. Raiden appeared to be both fearless and coldly rational, willing to die for a chance to get back on board his ship.

Raiden, god of thunder. Perhaps he
was
the same Raiden the myths were based on. Celestina had guessed that he was somehow related to the Immortals. Sarah had lightning in her eyes and said she could summon storms. Why not this prince? Had he been to Earth before, perhaps visited Japan a thousand years ago? Could he cast lightning bolts like Sarah…or Zeus? Was Zeus a Timewalker, too?

Was all of Earth’s mythology based on run-ins with aliens or Timewalkers who had powers the primitive peoples couldn’t explain? Just thinking about the possibilities was giving her a headache. What the hell? Her brain couldn’t deal with this shit now.
Could not.

Not nervous. Not nervous. Not nervous.
She had to stop being ridiculous. If he was such a badass, why did he need her, a mere human woman, to save his life? Her very Catholic mother had wanted to name her Mary after the Virgin Mary. Her father had intervened and insisted on Marina. Her mother, of course, had shortened it to Mari, but as of yet, no son of God had sprung from her womb. Perhaps his name was just a name, too. Perhaps.

She pointed again and then walked to the seat behind Tim. Almost there. When it felt right she dug her fingers into Tim’s shoulder and he idled the engine. “Here?”

Mari nodded. “What is Sarah doing?” Mari yelled the question over the swish of waves and the rumble of the engine.

Tim killed the engine and the boat drifted, rising and falling with the water’s swells. “Disrupting their sonar.” He smiled around the words, obviously proud of his wife and her unusual skill set.

“How can she do that?”

Tim laughed. “She redirects the energy of the sound waves, creates false walls miles away from us. She can throw lightning if we need it later, or create a storm so no aircraft can approach.”

Holy freaking wow. Sarah could redirect sound energy and make storms? She did say she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning when she died. Radar and lightning. Cool. Not quite as delicious as mermaidville, but still a nice superpower. And it was nice not to have to worry about military ships trying to wipe them out for trespassing. They weren’t supposed to be here, and she knew it. Tim and Sarah knew as well, and didn’t seem to care in the least.

Mari squared her shoulders and peered into the water. They were indeed on top of one of the southern banks, so the water wouldn’t be more than a couple hundred feet deep. She could handle that, right?

She zipped her dive suit closed and turned to find Sarah and Tim standing behind her, holding hands and looking worried.

“You have about three hours until dark. If we run into trouble, we’ll contact you.” Tim was all business now.

Telepathy. Right. Steep learning curve here, but she was adapting. “Thanks.”

Sarah broke away from Tim and pulled her into a tight hug. “No thanks required. We’re in this together. Now, go!”

Was that glee in Sarah’s voice? Such confidence. Mari couldn’t help but find it infectious. She smiled and pulled away, then stilled as a giant form leapt out of the water next to the boat and splashed water over the group. They had company, very big company. Mari smiled and shrugged into her BCD, fins already on her feet. “The shark clan is here, Sarah. Maybe I’ll introduce you to their alpha when I get back.”

Sarah rushed to the side of the boat, looking for the giant predators. “Nice. How many in her clan?”

“About twenty. She’s the biggest one.”

“Of course.” Sarah smiled and waved to the giant circling the boat. Mari’s “friend” surfaced a few feet away from Sarah. Mari wondered if the shark was big enough to tip the boat over and tumble them all into the water.

“Shit. She’s huge. I’m having
Jaws
flashbacks.” Tim was less than thrilled.

“It’s okay. I think she just wants to talk to me.” Tim didn’t look convinced, so Mari shrugged, ignored the ever-silent Raiden, who was swinging his S.C.U.B.A. gear onto his back. He needed to buckle up and slip his feet into fins. She didn’t wait. She needed to talk to her unexpected friend.

Ignoring Raiden’s demand that she wait for him, she jumped into the water. It took a minute for her lungs to acclimate, but less than a minute for the giant female great white to rub against her side, communicating in a flash of images.

Come. Hunt. They are here.

Okay. So the shark hadn’t followed her, or found her somehow. The sharks were already here, hunting on their own. Mari concentrated until her new super-weapon warmed in her hand. Ready to clear the road for Raiden to get whatever it was that he needed from inside his ship.

Mari grabbed on to the shark’s fin and the alpha dove straight down to the sandy bottom. Mari communicated to her “friend” that the boat was hers, that she needed it. The shark mentally shrugged, completely uninterested in the fiberglass and metal. It smelled bad and was too noisy. Not interested.

Hunt.

Where?
Mari sensed nothing unusual, saw nothing but sand. Her inner sense screamed that she was right on top of something, but not even a rock marred the sandy expanse below her.

Frustrated, the shark sent her more information, opened her mind to Mari so the human could “see” with shark senses.

And there it was. A shape rested on top of the sand, a piece of alien material that did not belong here. It was not visible to the naked eye, but it vibrated with energy that did not harmonize with the great Earth mother. The shark did not like it one bit. Water flowed in and out of an invisible entrance. When the water from inside the ship merged with the open sea it was not quite right…

Hunt.

The shark swam right up to the ship, to the invisible doorway. Mari thanked her and released her fin. The image faded in her mind, the electrical awareness of the ship’s existence with it. But now Mari knew it was there. She swam the remaining distance with her arms in front of her until she bumped into something solid.

His ship! The strange echo of Raiden’s energy still called to her from within. She had to find out what that was.

Mari, no! Wait for me.
Raiden was in the water above her, slowly making his way down. Mari looked up, made sure he was watching as she disappeared inside the ship.

I can’t.
She’d hunt all right, clear the road for her man. Because if there were Triscani waiting for them, he wouldn’t be able to help her anyway. She was the one with the Angel’s Fire weapon. Raiden had no shark taxi. He’d be several minutes behind, and that was fine. She’d worry about him if he were right behind her, both because she needed him to be safe, and because she couldn’t stop the shiver that tapped her spine at the thought of being alone with him in the dark.

If only he could breathe water, too. Then they could do the deed mermaid style, all wet and slippery, floating weightless as she pulled him as close, as deep as she could get him.

Stop.
This kind of distraction was one thing she did not need. Mermaid sex. Hah! That was definitely a new one in her repertoire, but one she was sure she’d be pulling out later to examine in greater detail. The possibilities…

Her mother would be scandalized. Closing her fingers around the edge of the opening, she pulled herself deeper inside the ship. It was dark as a cave within and the hollow feeling reminded her of an empty crypt. She’d take empty over faceless, soul-sucking nasties any day of the week. Mari concentrated until her hand glowed like a small sun. Relief flooded her when the space appeared to be lacking in alien monsters intent on killing her.

Her light cut through the darkness with the precision of a scalpel. The spaceship’s interior lay bare before her, no secrets. The walls were made of a strange metal that was covered with symbols, the language of the Immortals. Cautiously, she swam deeper inside, ready for trouble. An eerie sense of inevitability stole through her, calming her as she followed the path of her dreams. Doors lay open before her. It felt just like another dream. Surreal and fascinating.

Eyes darting to every shadow, Mari prayed she’d not run into any of the Triscani soldiers, but kept her weapon ready in case she did. She encountered a barrier of knocked-down debris. She had to get beyond it.

She squeezed through, ignoring the slicing of pain that lanced through her shoulder. Wreckage. Disarray. Mari pulled with all her might to squeeze her body through the small opening. Raiden would have to remove his tank if he had any hope of following her. Even bare, she wasn’t sure he could squeeze his shoulders and muscular chest through the small ingress. That gorgeous, smoking-hot physique she’d spent the last few hours longing to touch was quite a bit larger than her own. Putting him in a stretch cotton T-shirt hadn’t solved her lust problem. No. It only made him seem more human, more accessible.