Rising (22 page)

“You don’t want me to make any changes?” Sara asked
—mostly to see his reaction.

“Oh no, no, no
. It’s perfect. You don’t need to do anymore work.”

Mr. Rowling’s
hand shook as he handed her the check. Wow. He must be really scared. The check was for more than twice the amount she had agreed on. “Wait a minute. This is too much. I can’t accept this.”

“Oh no, keep it
. It’s how much I would have paid someone with more experience for the work you did.” He pulled out a fifty, sat it on the table, and stood.

“I really have to be going, but you and your boyfriend
…” He nearly choked on the word boyfriend. “You have whatever you like. It’s on me. It’s been wonderful doing business with you. Thanks again, Sara. And I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.” Mr. Rowling stumbled out the door.

Xanthus pulled up a chair next to
Sara. “That son of an eel. He’s lucky I didn’t break his legs. I sure wanted to.”

“Xanthus
, my love,” Sara said, using the same wording he’d used earlier. “You were supposed to wait in the SUV. I had everything under control.” She cupped her hand over his cheek.

“You did
, huh?” He smiled. “Then tell me what you’d planned to do about getting your money?”

“I was going to threaten a law
suit.”

“That could have worked if he would have believed you.” He picked up her
water and took a long sip.

“
Oh, he would have believed me. I had a hundred of these business cards made up.” Sara pulled one out of her wallet and handed it to Xanthus.

Elaine Hardcastle, Attorney at Law

1-808-555-6592

No One Messes With My Clients.

Xanthus smiled. “That looks like Gretchen’s number. I didn’t know she’s a lawyer.”

“You know Gretchen’s number?”

Xanthus shrugged. “I know a lot about
everyone
around you.”

Sara
frowned. “Well, she’s not a lawyer yet, but she’s great at tough talking. She’s gotten more of my clients to pay up than you’d believe.”

“You do know it’s against the law to impersonate an attorney.” He smiled and then finished off her water.

“Xanthus, the people that try to weasel out of paying me aren’t looking to draw attention from the police. They pay up. And if they don’t,” she shrugged. “I just have to eat a lot of macaroni and cheese for a while.”

He shook his head. “Sara, you’re one in a million.” He leaned in and kissed her. But it was so quick he’d come and gone before she could really enjoy it.

“Let’s take a swim out to the reef and I’ll treat you to some sea urchin.” Xanthus said. He picked up the fifty and handed it to her.

S
ara slipped the money and her check into her purse. “Are you sure you don’t want to eat here? They have the greasiest food on the island. It’s fried in real beef lard, so I’ve heard.” She propped her chin on her hands and fluttered her eyelids.

Xanthus gagged
. “I think I’ll pass. Human food, especially greasy human food, does bad things to my digestion.”

The dulcet tones of Sirena Enbridge
’s voice floated from Xanthus’s cell phone. Sara smiled at his taste in music. He looked to see who was calling. He was somber when he answered. “Hello, this is Xanthus.”

He listened to the
caller on the other end of the line. “Yes doctor, that’s exactly what I want to know. Can you do it?”

Sara’s eyes widened. Why
was he talking to a doctor?

His face lit up with relief.
“You can? That’s great. How soon can you do it?”

Sara
’s hand shook slightly as she poured more water into her glass. She hated doctors.

“You can’t do it sooner than that?
No, I understand. Okay, yes, we’ll plan on it.” He ended the call.

Sara narrowed her eyes. “What was that about? You aren’t going in for a physical
, are you?”

Xanthus s
miled, his whole face lit up. “I have great news.”

Sara scrunched her brow
s. Great news from a doctor? Right. She stopped herself before she rolled her eyes. “What is this great news?”

“There’s a doctor in California that can perform surgery to change eye color. He is one of the few that
can change from blue to brown. Most others only do brown to blue.”

“So
, you want me to go under the knife to change the color of my eyes?”

Xanthus frowned. “Sara, this
procedure is very safe, and it’s not like I’m asking you to get a nose job. It’s not to satisfy vanity. This procedure can save your life. Don’t you understand? Without this, you’ll be living your life with the threat of execution over your head, never knowing if you’ll get discovered.”

A lump formed in Sara’s throat when she realized he was right. Darn him. It
had been bad enough facing her fear of water, now she had to face her fear of doctors. “You’re right, I know you’re right. I just haven’t had the best experience with doctors.”

Xanthus brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. “S
ara, I’ll be with you every step of the way. You don’t need to do this alone. And I won’t let anything happen to you.”

S
ara nodded. “What would you do if they wanted to cut off my tail?”

Sara jumped at the angry demon that was suddenly looking at her through
Xanthus’s eyes. “Who threatened such a thing?” he growled. She was seeing the same monster that she’d thought killed Slink and his friends. He looked lethal and terrifying.

“It was a long time ago
,” she said, afraid to name the doctors.

Xanthus
didn’t say any more. He didn’t need to. She knew the answer to her question. He would kill them.

She tried to change the subject.
“So how much longer will I be a blue-eyed girl?”

He sighed and began to relax
. “One month. Your appointment is the fifth of next month.”

S
ara nodded. One more month.

Sara was getting the hang of the whole swimming thing. It only took daily lessons along with a very patient teacher. Swimming proved to be a great way of keeping her mind off the impending surgery. Three weeks away. Sara shuttered at the thought.

Today, Xanthus took
her to a large, remote reef several miles out from Kailau Bay. This reef was pocked with holes and tunnels. From a distance, it looked like a giant misshapen block of colorful, fuzzy, Swiss cheese. It presented the perfect place to hone her maneuvering skills. Or so Xanthus said.

Sara
swam through a jagged, three-foot wide tunnel in the coral. She snaked her body through and she didn’t even add to the many scrapes and scratches on her battered fin. Too bad females didn’t have tough grey skin on the lower half of their bodies like the males did. Xanthus said that females didn’t need the added protection—they had males to protect them. He simply smiled when she told him that was chauvinistic.

I
nstead of swimming about in dresses that tended to float up (very embarrassing), Xanthus bought her a whole slew of modified swimsuits that clung to her body. The one she was wearing now shimmered blue. Sara loved how pretty it looked and how wonderfully supportive it felt. It was more comfortable than her normal modified underwear. So she had taken to wearing them under her clothes all the time. It also made it easier when Xanthus decided on impulse that they needed to go for a swim.

Sara
twisted her body around and through another gap in the coral. The tip of her tail brushed the coral again. Ouch. She hoped he hadn’t seen that.

“Perfect
,” Xanthus shouted. Nope, he hadn’t seen it. “Wait a minute.”

S
ara followed his eyes to a small swirl of blood coming from the fresh scrape on her tail. Darn it.

“Well
, almost perfect.” He shrugged.

S
he thought she might be imagining it, but she suspected there was a perimeter of sharks around them, just out of sight. She could almost see their dark shapes in the distance. Xanthus said they could smell a drop of blood from miles away and she had put more than her share of drops of blood in the water lately. But as long as Xanthus swam near her, the sharks stayed away.

He
smiled and pulled her into his arms. “You’re a natural, Sara.”

“Oh
, yeah. That’s like telling a human woman she’s a natural at walking.” She shrugged.

“
Only if she’s been living her life in the water and has just stepped out onto dry land,” he said. “I’d say you’re a fast learner. Did I ever tell you how long it took me to learn to walk?”

“You…
Oh wow. You had to learn to walk?”

“Yes
, and it took me over a month to master it. Just in time to come here. I would still stumble and fall on occasion if I didn’t have my maj bands to help me out.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to tell you. It’s pretty embarrassing. I just don’t want you to feel like you’re not doing well. You’re learning to swim much faster than I learned to walk.”

Sara smiled and
brushed her lips across his. “You sure have a way with words, which is surprising since English isn’t your native tongue. By the way, you don’t speak Atlantian much, could you say a few words to me?”

“You’ve already heard a few words,
Moro Mou.”

“What does
Moro Mou mean?”

“It’s a term of
endearment. Its literal translation means ‘my baby’.”

“So when you call me
Mou, you’re calling me baby?”

“Yes,
Mou.” His lips caressed hers.

“I like that.”
She smiled.

“
Oh, you did? I wasn’t even putting much effort into that kiss. I can do much better.”

Sara’s
smile widened. “I know you can. I was talking about you calling me Mou.”

Xanthus
smiled back. “Sorry. My mistake.”

His
smile soon melted away. He kept his eyes on hers as his body inched close. His hands reached out to cradle her cheeks. He looked as if he held the world in his palms and was afraid of dropping it. Sara’s chest tightened in response.

“
Sagana po parant poli mi landana, patdrép ma?”
The words rolled off his tongue in a foreign question.

“What did you say?”
Her heart thumped against her chest.

He
hesitated before he spoke. “I said… I love you more than my life.” He paused before continuing. “Will you marry me, Sara?”

“Marry you?”
she asked, feeling a bit dizzy. “You want to marry me?”

“Yes,
Moro Mou. More than anything.”

“
I don’t understand why you’d want to. I’m not anything special.”

“
Sara, I don’t understand how you could not know how amazing you are. You’re sweet, beautiful, frustratingly independent, and the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met. I love you more than I can say.”

“But
still… Are you sure you want to be tied to a half-human forever?” she asked.

“I couldn’t think of anything better.”
Xanthus caressed the side of her face.

“But, what if I’m found out?
Would you be punished too?” Sara pulled herself in closer.

Xanthus leaned down toward
her. “Sara, no one will find out. After your surgery, you’ll look just like a full Dagonian. You’ll just need to hide out for a while until you learn to speak Atlantian.”

“Xanthus, can’t we just
stay here in Hawaii?” Sara looked around at the beauty and abundant life.

“I’m sorry
Mou. We can’t. Triton has given me only a year. After that, I have to return to Corin. And Sara, you truly can’t stay here. You know that. Can’t you see how you have isolated yourself from the humans? Deep down, you know you don’t belong with them. You belong here in the sea, with me.”