Danea (21 page)

She didn’t have to look to know both men were behind her. She was pretty sure they were searing holes in the seat of the thin scrubs she was wearing and damn, if the concrete wasn’t cold!

“She’s stubborn,” Noah commented, the sound of jingling keys through the mid-morning.

“But those scrubs and her ass…” Wade bit back the laugh when she spun to face them both. He was feeling too lightheaded just knowing she was alright to do more than relax.

“This is going to be one of those times where I end up apologizing later…” she began and felt herself already cracking. Then her knees gave out and she crumpled against Wade, her hands on her face.

“Get her inside the vehicle,” Noah ordered, opening the door quickly and sliding behind the wheel. The SUV responded to the key turning and he began driving the instant
he heard the sound of the other door closing.

Wade cradled her against him, one arm firm and secure while the other hand stroked over her head.

Neither of them spoke on the drive to the house
. Noah reached over the back seat and pulled a thick blanket to the front, slowing at the light and helping Wade tuck it securely around her. She was shivering and crying with a silence that worried them.

“Maybe she shouldn’t have left the hospital,” Noah ran a heavy hand over the back of his neck. “We don’t know if
Camelia…”

“N-no,” Danea stammered out the word
, swiping angrily at the streaks of tears on her cheeks. “I’ll be fine. My mother knows what she’s doing. I’m hungry and I don’t want to be in the hospital.”

“Why
were you afraid to talk to us, Danea? Did we do something…” Wade barely got his chin out of the way of the suddenly lifted head.

Danea sniffled and pulled the blanket a little closer.

“Lame or not, this isn’t about you. Believe me, if I thought it would scare you away, I would have blurted it out the first time Noah stood staring at me after a swim,” she said with another sniffle that shivered through her body. “I’m okay. My toes were cold…concrete is so much colder than water.”

“And obviously being carried isn’t permissible,” Wade teased, refusing to open his arms when the SUV pulled before the stairs to the house.

“Too bad on that one,” Noah tossed out, slamming the door and striding around to the passenger side of the SUV. “Hand her over. She’s going into a hot tub while we work on breakfast. I make a mean omelet.”

“You guys…I can walk…
and I don’t need a bath. Just my own clothes and some food,” she tried squirming and was rewarded with a set of arms tighter than anything she’d ever felt around her. But not squishing her or hurting. She sighed and let her head fall on Noah’s shoulder. “I wanted to go shopping…and get some things from my apartment.”

“Hate to tell you, babe, but you need a shower, at least,” Noah ignored the scowl until Danea looked down at her skin and winced.

“It’s barely eleven in the morning, Danea,” Wade held the door wide, following behind them. “We have a pretty empty day. So we’ll fit in shopping and moving things.”

“Fine…but I have to go outside for a few minutes,” Danea no more than felt the floor beneath her feet and she ducked under Noah’s arm and pulled the door open. She went onto the porch and waited in the fall sunshine. She knew the men came out behind her but was glad they were smart enough to stay back.

Noah ran a heavy hand over his neck
. Instinct had the wolf in him too close to the surface when the gulls began circling the driveway, the largest one landing and ambling up to their mate. She dropped to her heels and held out both hands, hugging the bird and he swore the thing looked just a little put out by the display.

He glanced over at Wade but received only the barest shake of his head.

“Of course it’s important…have them search…whoever was at the beach, make sure you thank them for me,” Danea sighed, her head shaking. “I don’t know why. Thank you…” she stood up and the gulls began flying off toward town.

“What’d he say?” Noah only felt a little bit stupid asking.

“That whoever it was tried to drag me to a waiting van. It was white with darkly tinted windows. The ones who were on the beach are scouring parking lots and streets for me,” Danea looked from one to the other, her palm up and wiping the stream of tears from her cheeks. “Thank you, too. Both of you,” she hugged each one for a long minute before going into the house. “There were two humans…but not humans…”

“And that means?”

“Gulls have a keen sense of smell,” she said, hitching up onto one of the brunch stools. “They appeared human…and again, keep in mind, to them we all look the same. Yes, a cliché, but oh so true. But…Galileo is positive they weren’t humans. Completely. But he’s not familiar enough to know what else they might be. This is the first time he’s really come into…close contact…with people not all the way human. He’s still not sure it’s a good idea.”

“Your bird thinks we’re bad for you?” Noah asked through a swallow of coffee, long overdue.

“He has his opinion,” she returned cryptically and hopped to the floor. “I need a quick shower and my own clothing. Be back in a few.”

They watched her go toward the stairs.

“The bird has a vote?” Wade asked with a wink at Noah as they worked together to prepare eggs and toast.

“The bird does not have a vote!” She shouted from upstairs, ignoring their laughter as she dug out jeans and a t-shirt that she hadn’t gotten around to finding places for the day before.

Chapter Eighteen

After a quick shower, s
he stood before the mirror in the very large master bath, her fingers up and touching the spot that had been torn open. She’d looked over her shoulder, glimpsed the small steel spear. The tip jagged and horrid looking as it jutted out of her skin, covered with her blood.

Danea slipped to the cushioned bench and worked to breathe. She could feel it all over again; she could smell the salt air and the blood. She heard the onerous squawking, the frantic flutter of wings that were battling something away from her. She saw pieces of denim, legs and heard shouting, swearing. Galileo had stayed at her head, keeping them away while the others battled and drove them away. Then it had gone dark.

Blissfully, pain free and blank.

Until she woke in the hospital.

She crossed her arms on the counter and laid her face in the center, hair falling over her eyes. She didn’t see them. She closed her eyes and tried visualizing the morning on the beach but there was nothing. Whoever shot at her was hiding off to the side and didn’t come out until she was down and couldn’t see. Tears had immediately clouded her vision, the memory of the thud and almost instant pain making her shoulder ache.

It was the why part that continued to baffle her. No one knew what she was. Well, almost no one. She knew of several cold water swim clubs and even spoke to several online. So she wasn’t an anomaly by any means. But her grandmother’s words continued to echo, continued to ring inside her with tiny fears that had kept her from telling Noah and Wade.

“You’re a rare breed, Danea,” the older woman said as she brushed through the long silver-gold hair of the six year old sitting on the floor between her grandmother’s knees. “They’ll want to hurt you and take you captive. Keep your heritage a tightly guarded secret.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” Danea had answered. Always she answered the same because she’d seen some of the mermaids and mermen who had been harmed by humans. Only once in her life did the secret get free and she’d regretted it and felt it inside her to this very day.

The urge to run melded with the fresh tears burning behind her lashes.

But it wasn’t her she was worried about. She didn’t have the skills to keep them safe. If someone was after her, they would step in. She couldn’t protect them. If anything happened to either of them because of her, she knew it would hurt too badly to want to breathe again.

How did she let that happen?

She was still working on that question when the light tap struck the door.

“Come in,” she said just barely loud enough to be heard. No point in being rude since she’d expected one of them to show up when she didn’t return right away. She didn’t lift her head, blinking past the moisture and recognizing the shoes. “You lose the coin toss?”

“Eh…actually the bird lost, but I bribed him with tuna and he let me take his place,” Wade answered.

A shiver raced through her when his palm stroked over her head and she worked to control the tears at the same time.

“Knowing Galileo, I’d believe that,” she said with a weak laugh. A watery sigh broke between her lips, the sensation of his palm stroking over her hair helping soothe her nerves. She could see him right next to her side, leaning his behind on the counter.

“Can you talk to all the birds?”

“No…just him…grandmother told me we all get one and we never know what it’ll be until it happens. Mom has a sea lion…she named him
Tigger,” she said, drawing in a shaky breath. “Most are…sea animals of some kind. Now and then…because the person isn’t near the sea when they fall into the right age, it’s a different creature. But they don’t ever part until one of them dies.”

“The seagull suggested you might be considering running away,” Wade said softly.

“The seagull talks too much,” she said in a smothered whisper, her head shaking. “Wade, if someone is after me, I can’t stop them. I don’t have magic or…or claws or skills…I couldn’t stop them from hurting you or Noah! And I know you’d both…” she stopped and inhaled raggedly.

Wade sighed.

“It’s a fair bet that Noah will be offended…and I’m still working on my reaction…”

She lifted her head from her arms, thick lashes
only half raised and dark eyes peering through the strands of pale brown. She couldn’t see anything but his side and the neatly tucked in shirt he was now wearing. She’d seen his shirt in the emergency room, covered with her blood and lying on the floor.

“I’ve replayed it in my mind, Wade,” she said softly. “I never saw them. The birds…never alerted me. Who can get under that kind of radar? If they can get past Galileo and his troupe…” her head shook slightly.
“This isn’t about what you’re capable of…how did I miss it? I never saw anything!”

“And you’re blaming yourself because some idiot shot you?” Wade placed a hand on each shoulder and turned her toward him before dropping to his heels in front of her. “Noah sent the bolt arrow to the lab. They’re running tests and working to track it. You said the gulls are on the lookout…”

“But if they hid before, they can easily hide again. How will either of you see them or…or sense them or whatever,” she shoved a deep breath out of her lungs. “I’m sorry…”

“Come downstairs and have some breakfast with us, Danea,” he took her hands and urged her to her feet. “We’re a team. The three of us,” he raised one finger to her lips when she opened them to speak. He didn’t move his finger when she rolled her eyes. “Maybe we haven’t been clear about that. It’s not about sex. It’s not about heirs. It’s about you, me and Noah.
”

“Heirs?” She choked out the word, her head tipped back to meet his gaze.

“It’s the professor in me,” he chuckled, slipping to the side and urging her in front of him. “Downstairs and food, Danea.”

“How is being bossy part of the deal?” She heard Noah chuckling below them, her bare feet dragging over the hardwood stairs.

“I warned you, Wade,” Noah laughed, sliding a plate of eggs and toast over to Danea. “Eat. And don’t even think about running from us. I think your mom likes us…she’d squeal on you in a heartbeat.”

“So bossy
is part of the deal,” she said with a sigh, the rough rumbling from her stomach said it was hungry and not interested in the argument.

“Yep,” Noah pulled two pieces of toast from the toaster, swearing and dropping them on the plate he had waiting before sliding it over to Wade. “I suck at breakfast.
Just so you’re warned ahead of time. To be honest, I suck in the kitchen without clear cut instructions.”

Danea slipped from the chair and went to him. She led him to one of the stools and pressed until he was sitting.

“Don’t be things you aren’t, please. Either of you. I’m okay. I don’t think this thing can work if we…if we aren’t honest,” she handed him his cup and added two slices of bread to the toaster. “I like cooking and so does Wade. So you’re off the hook. You help with clean up and it’ll work out.”

“Who was it commenting about bossy?” Wade teased, joining them at the breakfast bar. “I put a call into Seth. I want information about like crimes against hybrids.”

Danea sat and ate quietly, barely tasting the buttery eggs or thick, fruity juice she drank.

“What did she tell you?” She finally asked when most of the eggs were gone. She held the once cold glass between both hands. Mostly to keep them from shaking.

“What you should have felt safe enough to talk to us about,” Wade answered.

“About your heritage, Danea,” Noah said as he collected plates and slipped things into the dishwasher. “Your parents and grandparents.”