Blueisland (Watermagic Series, #4) (22 page)

“Kelpie
s. The Miengu use them as guards and as labor horses. They smuggled them in from the rivers and lochs of Scotland and Ireland.” He looked at my blood drawn face and smiled teasingly. “Don’t be afraid. They only attack mers if they pose a threat or if they catch them on land.”

That didn’t make me feel any better because what if I unintentionally did something that caused them to react.
Maybe I already had. They could devour me.

The ocean seemed like a beautiful, yet uncertain world. I had so much to learn.
I didn’t want to learn the hard way.

“Don’t worry.” He grinned darkly. “They won’t eat all of you. They always leave over the heart and liver.”

My eyebrows knitted together. “Oh, thanks,” I responded sarcastically, hoping we didn’t have to swim back the way we came.

We swam up to the edge of the village before a green tent besi
de a makeshift shell house. Suddenly, a humongous dark man with a green fish tail, long wooly black hair, and gapped teeth jumped out.

Chapter Fourteen

“OOOGOO BOOGOO!” The monstrous dark fish-man yelled, pounding his broad human chest.

I fainted right there in front of the green tent beside the makeshift shell house.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in a big black kettle pot in warm water with the humongous man stirring my body in the liquid. He was staring at me with a big gap toothed smile.

Holy moly! Was this monster cooking me alive? I started screaming at the top of my lungs and trying to climb out of the pot.

He kept pushing me down with his monstrous hands. “Keep put. You almost done.”

Oh,
damn. I was dinner!

Marcel rushed into the dimly lit room. “It’s okay, Jewel,” he tried to reassure me. His gorgeous face was flushed. “This is my friend Jengu Wata. He is a healer and this liquid will help you with the fainting spells you’ve been having.”

My eyes were wide with panic as Jengu Wata held his hand on my head chanting in some foreign language I didn’t understand. He grabbed some sea plants from a burlap type bag on the table beside him and started shaking them on my head while continuing with the chanting.

“I feel better,” I stammered, wanting desperately to get out.

“Okay, you done,” Jengu Wata said in his deep, gravelly voice. “Drink.” He handed me a vile of something.

I looked at Marcel questioningly.

He nodded. “Just drink it, Jewel. It will help you.” His face was a bit pale and still flushed in the cheeks.

I swallowed the
bitter liquid in the vial, choking it down.

“You do good,”
Jengu Wata said flicking his huge tail propelling himself back a few feet so I would have room to climb out of the pot. “The curse is broken.”

Curse? What the hell was he talking about?
“Is this why you brought me here?” I asked Marcel as I tried to get out of the kettle unsuccessfully, slipping down the side and falling back in.

“I had to get you here somehow,” he sighed. “And I didn’t think you would come willingly.” He touched his lower stomach. “Use your suctions.” He lifted the flap of skin below his sexy belly button.

“Those?” I asked with surprise.

He nodded and smirked.
“Press them against the side and grab the edge of the kettle.”

I lifted my flap of skin just above the edge of my bikini and pressed myself up against the
warm kettle grabbing ahold of the outer edge of the black stone rim. “Whoa!” I yelled as the suctions started moving and edging me up the side. Awkwardly I fell out of the kettle. By miracle, I did not burn my webbed feet on the water fire below.

I frowned
because I was still thinking about the curse. But then, I suddenly felt stronger than I ever had. Dang. What did that Jengu Wata do? I looked over at him and he was organizing bottles and vials of various sizes and shapes along one of the walls of the tent, his green fishtail swishing back and forth as he worked.

Man those were some dreadlocks, long and wild. And his arm and shoulder muscles were so big and solid. He had plants tied in his hair making him look even more rugged and crazy.

I was touched and quite surprised that Marcel would try to help me out like that by bringing me to his friend. “Why did Jengu Wata say that the curse is broken?”

Blood rushed to Marcel’s face. He started pacing, looking at the floor and then to me. Jengu Wata kept his back to us, but I noticed his back muscles tighten. They weren’t telling me something.

“Come on,” I insisted. “What is it?”

Marcel came over to me and took my hands causing that electrical current inside of me to go wild again. “When I first met you on the yacht…” He paused,
his breathing kicking in.

“Go on,” I encouraged.

Taking in a deep breath, he looked me in the eyes. “Remember how I fainted?”

I nodded, feeling anxious.

“Well…” His face started to pale now as he seemed to search for the right words. He took a step back, dropping my hands.

Oh, no whatever he was going to tell me wasn’t good.

“My life was a certain way. Everything was just as it should be.” Now he was pacing again.

“I don’t understand,” I said, the fine hairs on my neck standing on end.

“I cursed you—okay?” He said angrily. “I cursed you to faint at the sight of me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.” My voice was faint.

Jengu Mata turned around and looked me in the eyes. “His curse not fully work. Sometimes you faint, sometimes you don’t. You not always faint when you see him—you faint when you see me.” He laughed, rolling his big brown eyes. “You the girl in his dreams. The boy out of control. You stay away. You curse lifted. You okay now.”

My head was whirling.
“So let me get this straight.” I looked at Marcel who had his back to me with his head down and his hands pressed up over his head against the wall. “That’s not it. You put some sort of spell on me to make me faint because you were angry because you fainted when you saw me?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” he mumbled with his head still down. “I told you I’m bad for you Jewel. Listen to Jengu Mata—stay away from me.
You’re better now.”

“No,” I said, emotion lifting in my voice. “
Maybe I don’t want to stay away from you. I’m not afraid of you.”

He turned around and held me firmly by the shoulders. “Jewel, it’s not a choice. You have to. The Ancients will kill you if they figure out what is going on inside of me. This has to stop now before it’s too late.” At that he swam out of the tent at full speed.

Jengu Mata took my shoulder to caution me back, but I brushed him off and took off swimming as fast as I could toward Marcel. Even if he was looking out for my safety, I didn’t want him to leave me. I couldn’t be away from him. This uncontrollable energy inside of me was pulling me to him. I saw him ahead of me. We were approaching the field of the kelpies fast. My heart raced. Those animals could kill us. I was so close to catching up to Marcel that my outreached fingers grazed his toes.

But once
we entered the field, he dove down and jumped onto the sticky back of one of the white horse-like creatures. Oh no! That was a deadly animal. What would it do to him? He didn’t care. All that mattered to Marcel was that he kept away from me. My heart squeezed. He would sacrifice himself just to keep me safe.

But I was out of my mind. At once, I dove down and rushed onto the back of the same kelpie.
My legs stuck firmly to the cold surface. But I grabbed onto Marcel’s hips tightly just above where his knife was fastened in the holster to his pants.

His head twisted around. “
Jewel! You’re crazy.” The huge kelpie reared up and raced onward through the dark ocean, blowing air in bubbles out of its nostrils.

“I don’t care,” I said, breathing heavy.

He took my face into his hands and kissed my lips ever so sensually. “You should care,” he murmured through our kisses. And then, he ran his finger over my lips and shook his head slightly side to side. “Jewel Razzen, what are we doing?” He leaned in and kissed me again, his eyes closing as his lips brushed mine as soft as a feather.

The moment was all that mattered to me now. Just one moment in his embrace was better than eternity without him. He was all I could ever want.

“I don’t know what is going to happen to us once the kelpie reaches the shore,” he said in his liquid voice. “It might devour us on the sand.” He ran his fingers through his hair and looked ahead. The water was lighter and bluer in color now.

I felt the panic growing inside of me as we passed the pink coral reef. We were not far now from the shore. Soon we might die. The kelpie could eat us alive.

Marcel turned back around and ran his hands over my head, brushing down my hair. “Tear your legs off the kelpie—just rip away the skin and run. Ignore your pain.”

My eyes were wide with terror. “I can’t do that,” I whispered.

“Yes, you can, Jewel.” He took my head in his hands. “Do that for me. Promise me you will Jewel.”

I nodded, knowing I had to give him that chance to save me. It would hurt him worse if I stayed and tried to save him. I could tell that Marcel was the type that needed to fight and protect. Without that chance, life would be death for him.

A hint of a smile lit in his eyes. “Good, Jewel,” he whispered. “I will fight the animal off, but you must run like hell for the jungle. Meet me at the waterfalls.”

The ocean floor was rising up. We were coming close.
I grabbed onto his shoulders. “I don’t know where the falls are.”

“North of the tree house.” He leaned in and kissed me long and hard as the kelpie rushed up on
to the bright, sunny shore.

At once, I sucked in a deep breath. Horrified, my body tensed as I tried to jerk myself to the side of the kelpie and rip my skin off of its back. But nothing I did
loosened the sticky grip. Suddenly, I dropped from its back just like it had released me somehow all at once. My skin was intact. From the ground, I looked up at the kelpie and saw it transforming into a woman. Its body was twisting up and forming voluptuous curves. Holy crap!

Marcel jumped on it. “Run, Jew
el—run!” he yelled as he tackled her.

I ran as fast as I could across the
beach, looking back over my shoulder. Marcel and the woman were rolling on top of each other on the sand. He pinned one of her arms back, but she kicked him hard in the groin. It took everything within me not to run back for him and join him in the fight. But I knew I had to let him battle this one. He wasn’t Donny who needed me to take care of him. Marcel HAD to take care of me.

Chapter Fifteen

It was so damn hot out. I felt like a blow dryer was blowing on me, but I trekked onward through the jungle. As I moved deeper in the dense greenery, I heard someone cry out. Shit! The voice sounded like Emily’s.

“
Get off me! Let me go,” she screamed. I heard her twisting on the wet ground in what sounded like a pile of leaves. Someone was attacking her!

“You want it,
girl. You want it.” That was the voice I would never forget. Jake Stevenson’s voice. What the hell was he doing to her?

I knew all too well what he was doing. Rage burned through me. I broke through the trees. Jake was on top of Emily slamming into her as she screamed, “Stop, stop!”

He punched her hard in the face. Blood poured out of her nostrils as she struggled to throw him off of her to no avail.

My body froze, trembling as memories I had been blocking out rushed back to me all at once. I felt powerless, like that same little geeky baton twirler who
blamed herself for her mother’s disinterest, who blamed herself for what Jake had done to her. It was my entire fault, I kept thinking in my head. I asked for it. Jake said I asked for it. But there was Emily getting beat up and screwed like I did. It wasn’t her fault. I shook my head, perspiration trickling down my forehead from my feelings.

Wild emotions came over me. Everything turned red. In a rush, I grabbed onto Jake body and pulled him off of Emily. He was yelling and threatening me, but I couldn’t make out exactly what he was going on about. I started clawing at his face, tearing it apart. Emily sat up and was scooting away into the bushes as she screamed in horror.

I threw Jake down as he squirmed on the ground unable to speak because he was so mauled. Oh, the scent. Fresh blood.

I grabbed Emily and pulled her up against my chest. She was crying and struggling to get away, but I pressed my mouth up against hers and started making out with her. She kept trying to push me away, but I
forced the back of her head with my hand, pressing her lips against mine. I made the kiss last long and hard as Jake twisted in a pool of blood on the ground.

I was set on making sure this kiss lasted long enough to turn her. This kiss wasn’t going to be for nothing. If I didn’t do this now, the Ancients would surely kill Emily. This was her only chance at life even if she didn’t know it.

Finally, Emily passed out. The blood smell was so intense. Jake was gushing all over the place. Then I lost it and started devouring him until only bones were left lifeless on the wet leaves and mud.