Waterborne (16 page)

Read Waterborne Online

Authors: Katherine Irons

BOOK: Waterborne
7.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
“And your brother the king would overlook the passing of a stepmother?”
“There has never been love between my mother and my brother,” he assured her. “Poseidon would not mourn her passing.”
’Enakai’s expression became inscrutable. “You would trade your mother’s life for your own?”
Caddoc spread his hands, palm up. “For such an honor, that my aging mother might have the honor of carrying your prayers to a supreme being? What loving son could deny his parent such a future?”
The queen chuckled. “You make me remember why I find you so amusing, Atlantean. We think alike in many things. As you say, she is aging, and the best days of her life are behind her.”
“Will she feel pain at the moment of sacrifice?” he asked, as the reality of what he’d agreed to hit home.
“I’m told that the pain is brief. Lava is, by nature.” She grimaced. “It will be quick. Flesh and bones become ash as the spirit rises.”
Caddoc nodded. “She will surely die soon anyway. She’s not been herself since Melqart cursed her.”
“Very well,” ’Enakai agreed. “I’ll give the orders.” She glanced at one of the Amazons, a huge, ugly woman covered with tattoos. “Carry word to the temple to make ready for the sacrifice of an Atlantean queen.”
The guard slammed a meaty fist against her bare breast and hurried off to obey the queen’s command.
Caddoc sighed with relief. “Is it necessary that I be present?”
“Unfortunately,” ’Enakai replied. “Usually, only the initiated, the priesthood, and the sacrificial offering may venture into the holy site, but since Queen Halimeda is taking your place, it’s only fitting ...”
His gut knotted. “I understand. Mother loves me so, and parting will be difficult. She would want me there to see her off.”
“I’m sure.” ’Enakai smiled.
“It is a difficult decision for me.”
“Hopefully, you’ll have a son someday who would do as much for you.”
Caddoc glanced toward the doorway, wanting to get as far away as quickly as he could. “By your leave, Queen ’Enakai,” he said. “I’ll go—”
“We are not finished here,” she said sternly.
“No?” Did she expect him to willingly lie with her again after just threatening to burn him alive in a river of lava? He looked toward the bed. “I thought ...”
“Your mother’s body will substitute for yours and pay for the lives of my soldiers, but I’m still not satisfied. And I find that my evenings’ entertainment is not complete.”
“You need to be serviced again?” he asked, taking his manhood between his hands and beginning to stroke it. “You need more of my—”
“Not that type of entertainment,” she said. “This time, I prefer something more erotic. It shall please me to watch you perform.”
“With who?” he asked.
She smiled, and a frizzen of ice slid down the nape of his neck. “Why, with my guards, of course.” She waved toward the green-skinned women standing on either side of him, and retreated to recline against the cushions on her couch.
“All three of them?” Caddoc asked, staring up at them with distaste.
’Enakai laughed. “Unless you would prefer more.”
Caddoc closed his eyes and began to stroke his phallus harder. He would vomit. He knew he would vomit. “I have one question,” he managed.
“Yes?” The queen was obviously amused.
“One at a time, or all four of us at once?”
 
Alex didn’t know what had just happened. One second, he was on his feet, facing Ree, and shaking her, demanding that she tell him the truth about who she really was. And the next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back, staring up into her face.
“Don’t ever do that again,” Ree admonished before stepping away.
Momentarily speechless, he got to his feet, glancing around to see that Dewi, Anuata, and Bleddyn weren’t standing in the trees laughing at him. He couldn’t believe it. This woman—this little girl—this human had thrown him. “How did you do that?” he demanded, more incredulous than embarrassed. “Is it magic?”
She kept her distance. “No, not magic or illusion. Just skill. I hold an advanced degree black belt in three martial arts. That was
krav maga.
Much simpler than Bando thaing or Aikido.”
Alex eased the kinks out of his spine. He was never as strong on land as in the water, but against a human there should have been no contest. It was impossible that she could have turned the tables on him so completely. “And this is what they teach in culinary arts? This
krav maga
?”
She shook her head. “No, that I learned elsewhere. Take me with you, Alex. If you’re going to kill Varenkov, I can help.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
She threw his words back at him. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“You can’t. But we’re in this too deeply. I have to know who you are.”
“I’m your counterpart. Your people want the Russian dead. So do mine. I was there to do the same job you were. We simply ended up getting in each other’s way.”
He took a step toward her, and she took a step back. “No,” he said. “There’s no need for you to fear me. I was wrong. I wouldn’t have hurt you. I shouldn’t have tried to—”
“No, you shouldn’t have.” She nodded. “I’ve had to accept a lot of things as real in the last few weeks ... weeks or however long it’s been since you appeared on the deck of Varenkov’s yacht. I suppose you’ll have to do some of the same.”
“You’re telling me that you’re an assassin?”
“If you put it that way. I consider myself more of an enforcer. I carry out the sentence that a court delivers. Men like Varenkov, evil men who kill without remorse, war criminals, and drug lords, those who escape justice. The organization I work for puts an end to men and occasionally women who fit that category.”
“So you were not simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
She shook her head. “No more than you were.”
“So you were trained as a warrior.”
“Yes. In weapons and hand-to-hand fighting.”
“And in other ways?” he suggested. “You haven’t explained how you knew the Lemorians were lying in wait for us.”
“Question for question,” Ree answered.
He reached out his hand to her, but she retreated warily. “Why did you bring me on land? Why don’t I remember what happened? I was riding behind you ... and then I was lying here in the sand.”
“Apparently, your transformation isn’t complete. You began to have trouble. Breathing. You passed out.”
“Maybe I feel asleep.”
“No, you were unconscious for ...” He searched for a unit of time that she would understand. “For half the time it takes for the sun to travel from first light to high overhead. Anuata said that it is a sickness that hybrids suffer. Too long under water, and they can no longer function.”
“So I can’t breathe under water anymore? I’m completely human again.”
He shook his head. “Not that simple. Anuata believes that a short time on land, breathing air, and the sickness passes for the time being. But soon, the times you remain under will become less.”
“So, I’m turning back to the way I was before.”
She was so beautiful, standing there with the sun shining on her hair, that he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her mouth, her throat and shoulders ... that he wanted to taste her skin and inhale the scent that was hers alone. He wanted her again. He wanted to possess her completely. He caught himself, remembering that he had no right to make love to her unless she was willing.
“There is more,” he said. “Soon, perhaps in a day or two, maybe more. You will not be able to breathe on land. You will need to return to the sea. You aren’t human anymore, but you aren’t Atlantean either.”
He saw her throat constrict. “I’m sorry, Ree, but there’s no going back. You can’t be human again, and without help, without treatment in our ... our medical facilities, you’ll die.”
“And, if I get this treatment? What then?”
“If you are transformed fully, if you become Atlantean, you will live longer than you could imagine.”
“But I’ll grow scales and webbed feet?”
He smiled at her. “Do you see scales and webbed feet on me?”
She covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know what’s real and what’s illusion.”
“I’m real.” He reached for her again, and this time she let him draw her into his arms. “This is real,” he said, before lowering his head and kissing her.
CHAPTER 16
 
A
lex tasted as good as she remembered. His mouth was sweet and clean, tasting faintly of the sea, and the caress of his tongue against hers made her tremble with excitement. So simple ... a kiss between a man and a woman, yet not simple at all, but complex and mysterious. The firm warmth of his lips, the smooth, cool texture of his teeth, and the virile scent of him filling her head combined with the sensual assault of the tropical island around her.
She pressed against him, her thin boy’s tunic no barrier between them, but he was wearing that damned armor when she wanted to feel his warm skin against hers. He caught her lower lip between his teeth and nipped gently, sending explosions of sweet sensation through her body.
“We haven’t settled anything,” she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. “I want you to take me with you and let me help you kill Varenkov.” She was aware of the heat of the sun dappling through the shade of the palms, and she could hear sea birds above the rhythmic crash of surf, but most of all the man in her arms. She needed him to make love to her, couldn’t wait to pick up where they’d last left off ... but she had to have his word that she was part of his team.
He kissed her again.
Alex was a good kisser, intense and sensual without being greedy. “Can’t you take this off?” she murmured between kisses. She tugged at his cuirass, and together managed it, followed by his tunic and hers. The sand was warm under her knees and she smelled the charring bits of shell from the discarded crabs.
If I can hold this moment ... I’ll treasure it and keep it safe always.
He cupped her breast in his warm hand. “Beautiful,” he whispered.
How could a man’s touch make her feel as if her skin was too tight for her body? As if his fingers left a trail of warm honey over her body ... and she was bathed in liquid heat?
“Promise me,” she said. “I have to go with you.”
“We’ll talk later.” His hands were moving over her, touching, brushing, stroking, sending sweet spirals of vibrating light coursing through her body. She felt her skin soften, felt the flush of warm blood flow up to tint her cheeks, felt her nipples tighten and ache to be licked and suckled.
“Not later.” She put her palms on his broad chest and pushed away. “Now.”
Their gazes met, and she read boyish surprise and hurt in the green depths of his hauntingly beautiful eyes. He reached for her and she darted away, dashing through the trees toward the sound of the breakers. She could hear him behind her, hear the snap of brush and the heavy tread of his feet, but she prided herself on her speed. She leaped over a fallen tree and around a clump of shrubbery, barely missing stepping on a startled sea turtle as she ran toward the beach.
He caught her at the high tide mark where bits of driftwood and empty shells littered the damp sand, swept her up in his arms, and kept running into the surf. She laughed as the waves crashed over their heads and instinctively held her breath as blue-green water filled her vision.
Still holding her, Alex kicked hard, driving them both back to the surface. The water felt wonderful against her skin, and she wanted more. She wanted to dive deep and feel the tug of the current on her body. She needed to go down to the bottom and view the sun through a changing prism of light and shadow.
“I’m all right,” she said. “I can breathe. I’m fine.”
He released her from his arms but held a tight grip on her hand. “Are you sure?”
Strange how the minute she was under water his voice came inside her head, clear and perfect. She inhaled deeply, marveling at the strength she felt flow through her muscles and veins. It was true. In the ocean she was a bionic woman, something different from what she had been before, something superior. She laughed, staring around her like a child on Christmas morning. She’d spent years in search of physical and mental fitness, and now she possessed far more of both than she’d ever imagined.
The colors! Oh, the colors were beyond description: greens, blue, brown, gold, orange, and lavender. Sunlight shimmered, turning fish and grass and shells to precious jewels, and turning the water to a dozen hues of blue. “Look!” she cried to Alex. “Look at it all!” It seemed that she’d been blind before, and that now she saw with brilliant clarity. Sound cascaded around her, soothing and invigorating: the roar and boom of the surf, the lyrical rhythm of the tide, and a hundred sounds she couldn’t identify, all combining to form a symphony of sky and ocean.
He laughed and swam with her out to deeper water where a coral reef rose from the bottom, creating a fanciful and ever-changing kingdom of fish and reptiles, plants and invertebrates. Orange and black clown fish darted recklessly among the tentacles of sea anemones, sponges dotted the floor and towering towers of multicolored coral; and where crabs and scallops thrived in the midst of four-foot giant clams, and eels, and sea snakes, and mantas made their homes.
Ree had scuba-dived the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, as well as smaller coral reefs off the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean. She’d been struck by the majesty of the silent world of turtles, sea urchins, and exotic fish, but she hadn’t really
seen,
not as she did today. It was as if she’d been watching an early twentieth-century black and white film, and suddenly the movie had become 3D and high resolution with surround-sound. For the reef was no more silent than the sea. And far from being frightened by this abrupt change of perception in sight and sound, Ree was delighted with it, embraced it, and stared around her in utter wonder.
Alex swam up beside her and pointed as a giant manta ray glided gracefully over the top of the reef, looking like some great exotic bird. “When I was a boy, my brothers and I used to ride them all the time,” he said. “If you like, I’ll take you some time.”
Ree nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. She couldn’t stop staring at the immense reef. She’d never realized that there were so many coral species or that they grew in such shapes and colors. Each square foot seemed to be the home of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of living things. There were sea cucumbers, worms, octopuses, squid, and snakes—one of which she recognized by its distinct black and white pattern as a harlequin snake. And everywhere were fish, some swimming in schools, others darting in and out of the coral in search of food, and still others sitting motionless waiting for dinner to wander in to their immediate vicinity.
“I never knew that it could be like this,” Ree said, turning to Alex. “So beautiful. So tranquil. This reef is so different from the crowded streets of Tokyo or New York City that it could be on another planet.”
“Beautiful, but fragile,” Alex replied. “The reef has grown over three thousand years, but one of Varenkov’s trawlers could destroy it in hours. Bottom trawling rapes the ocean bottom, wiping out whole species and turning rich feeding grounds to empty desert. Much of the world’s coral reefs are already gone, dead or dying from ocean acidification, overfishing, and pollution.”
“This seems so pristine,” she said. “As if we’re the first to ever lay eyes on it.”
He grimaced. “Even here, you will find the discarded waste of air-breathers’ carelessness. The Atlanteans and the Lemorians do what they can, but I’m afraid we’re losing the battle. And if the oceans die, so does the land.”
“That’s so sad.”
He pulled her into his arms. “But today, I don’t want you to be sad.” He leaned closer still and his lips brushed hers. “This day, let it just be about pleasure.”
Ree laughed and wrapped her legs around his waist. It was an offer that was hard to resist, but she wasn’t about to let him forget that she intended to be in on the finish when he went for the Russian. Kissing ... lovemaking under water had its definite advantages. Not only were they freed from the limitations of gravity, for the most part, but, her senses of touch and smell and sight felt heightened. The delicious sensations flowing through her body were more powerful than she’d ever experienced before.
“Promise me,” she murmured when they’d kissed yet again.
“You never give up, do you?” he teased.
Again, she thought that she saw a faint pattern of bluish scales on his body, but they didn’t repulse her. If anything, they made him all the more beautiful. He seemed as much a part of this reef as the small blacktipped shark that passed overhead.
Ree leaned back in his arms, her long hair floating loose around her, and cupped his face between her hands. “If only life were this simple,” she said. “If we could have a day without thinking of anything else ... of just being.”
A guarded expression flickered through the swirling depths of Alex’s emerald eyes before quickly being replaced by a seductive charm.
“You don’t have to worry,” she assured him. “As you said, we’re very much alike. There’s no room in my life for ties, not to you and not to any man.”
“You understand. I’m not cut from the same mold as my brothers. The career I’ve chosen is—”
“Shhh.” She silenced him with a kiss that blossomed from tender to searing as the heat flowed under her skin and made her hungry for even greater intimacies. Alex didn’t need her to twist his arm, and within minutes, they had discovered a new and delightful variation on familiar but rewarding practices.
And this time the intense waves of release broke over the two of them simultaneously, freeing Ree for long moments of the weight, the tension, and the stress that she’d carried within her for so many years. Tears of joy filled her eyes and mingled with the salt water, and she was aware of a lightness of spirit she hadn’t known since she’d left her parents’ home for the last time. Again, she was content to lay back in Alex’s arms and let the magical world flow around her.
She lost track of time and hovered in that gray space between waking and sleeping, wrapped in the music of the coral reef and absolutely certain that she was safe in this man’s embrace.
. . . Until she opened her eyes and saw two black and white sharks almost within arm’s length. “Alex!” Another circled overhead, more than six feet long with eyes as black as obsidian. Ree stiffened and thought of her weapon.
Where did I leave my sword?
“It’s all right,” Alex said. “They hunt in packs, but they rarely attack humanoids.”
A school of fish, blue with yellow spots panicked and scattered, some darting into crevices in the coral, others rushed in tight formation toward the surface. The blacktip attack was precise and deadly. The sharks herded the remains of the school into a tight ball and tore into them, ripping and tearing, turning the clear water red with blood.
Then, as swiftly as they had appeared, the sharks vanished, and other fish and reptiles ventured out of the reef to partake of the largesse. “Watch,” Alex whispered and pointed.
A rust-colored moray eel with black and white dots on his body, jagged teeth, and orange bands on his head materialized from the swaying ferns, and gorged on the bits of debris before slithering back into his hole. Even the smallest fragment of shredded fish was consumed by other smaller creatures before the current washed the area free of blood so that the water was once again a brilliant blue-green.
“Gross,” Ree said. “I’m glad we weren’t on the menu.”
“Not gross,” Alex said. “Life. Even dragon moray eels must eat to survive. And all the fish didn’t die, just the slower ones, or the stupid.”
“Survival of the fittest.”
Alex nodded. “Unfortunately, Grigori Varenkov has been one of those survivors. But not for long. Not if I can help it.”
“Or me,” Ree said. “But I’m serious, Alex. You have to let me come.”
“You haven’t told me how you saw that ambush. You were never completely human, were you? I suspect you carry the blood of the star race.”
She shook her head. “I told you what I was. I hunt bad guys. And both my parents were Irish, pure Irish, going back as far as anyone knows.”
“Which is what? Five generations? Ten?”
“And you ...” She smiled at him. “I suppose you know more of your genealogy than that.”
“I’m descended from the first high king of Atlantis, father to son, in an unbroken line.”
“How many reigning monarchs?”
He chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He caught a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his finger. “You have the most unusual hair. I’ve rarely seen this color, and never on a woman so beautiful.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Thank you, but yours isn’t so bad either. A little long for fashion.”
“Not my fashion.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You aren’t going to answer my question, are you? You won’t tell me why you know things before they happen, will you?”
“If I did, you wouldn’t know if I was lying or telling the truth, would you?”
“I don’t know. How good of a liar are you?”
He was very close, and she looked directly into his eyes. The intensity of his gaze made it feel as though it was difficult to breathe, as though if she wasn’t careful, she would fall into a bottomless pool of ...
Of what,
she wondered.
And where would I land?
“Take me, Alex. You owe it to me.”

Other books

Initiate and Ignite by Nevea Lane
The Ice Queen by Bruce Macbain
Tabloid Dreams by Robert Olen Butler
Ditched by Robin Mellom
Tokus Numas by D.W. Rigsby
Her Imperfect Life by Sheppard, Maya
His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal