Whirl (Ondine Quartet Book 1) (3 page)

I felt the power contained behind his grip,
in the muscles of his arms and chest. But the fingers that held my
wrist were gentle, the skin warm against mine.

I stopped. My heart pounded so loudly I
thought it would explode.

The soft light of the moon illuminated his
face. He was as tall and good-looking as I remembered. A strong jaw
and high cheekbones. Brooding espresso-colored eyes under straight
brows. An aquiline nose highlighting the sensuous curve of his
lips. Dark brown hair, streaked with mahogany. A lock of it fell
over his forehead, brushing against his left cheek.

His expression was blank and unreadable.
Tentatively, I reached into him with my Virtue. A solid wall.

An elemental. My curiosity heightened.

His mouth twitched slightly as if he'd sensed
my magic. Dark eyes swept over me with calm interest. It traced the
cheek where the Aquidae's blow had made contact and traveled down
my neck to my right shoulder. With my hair up in a ponytail, the
little lacy tank top I wore exposed the top part of my tattoo. His
eyes lingered on it before coming back up to meet mine.

Whoever he was, he'd protected me from three
Aquidae. He could also kill me in the blink of an eye. I didn't
trust him yet, but I knew going up against him was hopeless.

Resigned, the fight went out of me and I
sagged. When he felt me falter, he let go of my wrist.

I stepped back, trying to put more distance
between us.

And that was when I noticed it.

A gleaming pendant nestled against the golden
skin of his neck. It was barely visible under the button-down white
shirt he wore under his leather coat. A thin, silver border
surrounded the square amber stone hanging from the silver
chain.

A
pedaillon
.

I'd never seen one before, but I knew what it
was from the stories my mother had told me. It held the skin of a
selkie.

"You're a gardinel," I breathed in
disbelief.

He gazed at me wordlessly for another moment
before inclining his head.

"Happy birthday, Kendra."

The same words spoken by the Aquidae and yet
so very different.

His voice was low, with a subtle accent that
sounded almost French. Except it was softer, more lyrical. A
flowing, melodious warmth laced with an undercurrent of steely
strength.

Like the ocean
.

"My name is Tristan Belicoux and I'm here to
take you to Haverleau."

TWO

He
led me out of the alley to his car — a sleek, two-door, black BMW.
Gardinels apparently made enough money to travel in luxury.

We made a quick stop at my foster home. I
packed up clothes and a few books and photos into a large duffel
bag. Leaving Bob and Jan in the middle of the night made me feel
slightly guilty, but I knew it was for the best. They were human
and I didn't want to endanger them any further.

Tristan drove us out of San Aurelio, heading
north on I-5. I watched him closely under half-closed lids. This
gardinel was a contradiction. He fought like a total badass. But
everything else about him screamed graceful refinement. Long,
delicate fingers curled around the steering wheel. Clothes that
looked roughed up, but were designer quality. The classical cello
music playing on the car stereo.

The inability to use my Virtue on him was
frustrating. One of the perks of being an Empath was that I could
use it to my advantage in the human world. Whether I was playing
poker in the back room of a club, dealing with teachers at school,
or figuring out boys, I relied on my magic more than I liked to
admit.

"You fought against them."

I didn't answer and turned my head to look
out the window at the passing landscape.

"Why? You must have known that it would be
—"

"Look," I interrupted. "I'm an ondine. I take
care of myself."

I felt him glance at me, but he didn't
respond.

A velvet silence fell in the car. His speed
and strength against the Aquidae had been unbelievable. He'd taken
three of them out in under a minute. I'd never seen anything close
to that kind of physical ability in any of my training.

"A gardinel, huh?" I asked. "Were you
discussing gardinel business with my mother on the last night she
was alive?"

He'd done some major ass kicking to protect
me. But that didn't change the fact that he'd been one of the last
people to speak to her.

"So you couldn't hear what we were talking
about from the hydrangea bushes," he said dryly. I flushed, but
gave him a defiant stare.

"Naida asked me to meet her." His low voice
reverberated softly. "She wanted to speak to me about your future.
I knew her. Met her right before she left with you and your father.
She was an exceptional ondine."

Maybe he'd been her gardinel. Selkies aged
slowly and lived between one hundred and fifty to one hundred and
eighty years, longer than ondines, who were more similar to humans
with an average lifespan of a hundred.

"She wanted to make sure you'd be safe," he
continued. "And she asked me to bring you to Haverleau once you
turned seventeen."

"That doesn't make sense. Why was she
arranging for me to go with you?"

He hesitated. "I believe she saw a
vision."

I gave him a bewildered look. "But that's not
possible. She only saw glimpses of things a few seconds into the
future."

Tristan's brow furrowed. "Naida was a very
powerful Clairvoyant. Her Virtue provided strong prophecies about
the future of the water elemental world." He glanced at me,
surprise registering on his face. "You didn't know."

I leaned back into the leather seat, feeling
a sharp ache just below my heart. This gardinel knew more about my
mother than I did.

She never told me anything.

Hurt bloomed like a dark stain. She may be
gone, but my mother still made me feel like a stupid kid.

A dark wave of bitter anger rose from the pit
of my stomach and I focused on keeping it in check.

If Tristan was telling the truth, Naida
Irisavie had seen a vision of her own death. That could be the only
explanation for why she'd met with him that night.

All those times she'd come home and said we
had to pack up and leave for another nameless town. Was it because
she'd seen a vision of danger? I'd always attributed it to her
excessive paranoia and whims. But now I wasn't so sure.

Why had she never trusted me?

"I'm sure she had her reasons for protecting
you." Tristan said and it made my frustration burn hotter. I didn't
want sympathy from him, a stranger who'd shown up out of the
blue.

"Thanks for the analysis, Doc," I said
sarcastically.

I felt a glimmer of satisfaction at his
frown. He was not going to get the upper hand.

"How'd you find me tonight?"

Aquidae used an ondine's aura to spot and
target them. Selkies were the only elementals who could also see
the magical energy surrounding an ondine, making them uniquely
qualified to be gardinels.

But Tristan had arrived at the alley a little
too fast to be explained away by my glow.

He didn't answer right away. His expression
was inscrutable. I wondered how long gardinels had to train to have
control over their faces like that.

"You have some special gardinel mojo I don't
know about?" I looked levelly at him. "Something that made you
realize, 'Oh hey, three Aquidae are attacking Kendra. I need to run
into this particular alley and help her.'"

Tristan muttered something under his breath.
It sounded like he was swearing in another language. He shot me an
exasperated look.

"It was five."

"What are you talking about?" I tensed.

"Five Aquidae attempted to attack you
tonight," he paused. "I staked two at the club before they could
act. And then there were the three in the alley."

Holy shit. Five of those nasties had been
after me. An unnerving realization dawned. I hadn't even known they
were there.

And this guy, who looked like a ripped
fashion model, had taken all of them out. Alone.

Then outrage kicked in.

"You've been following me," I snapped.

"Yes."

His response was mild like it wasn't that big
of a deal. I muttered a sound of disgust under my breath.

The corner of his mouth twitched. "I killed
five Aquidae who were after you tonight and that's what bothers
you?"

I refused to look at him. "For how long?"

"Just today. You were turning seventeen and
your energy was likely to attract any Aquidae in the area." He
shook his head and his voice deepened with regret. "After news of
Naida's death reached us, I wanted to bring you in immediately. But
she'd insisted that no matter what happened, I was to wait until
you came of age. So I arrived in San Aurelio this morning."

I shrugged. "Mom was good at not letting
anyone know anything until the moment she wanted them to."

Another silence fell between us, both of lost
in our thoughts.

The soothing sounds of the cello wrapped
around me, and the green light of the dashboard clock winked the
time. Four in the morning.

My eyelids grew heavy and I stifled a yawn.
I'd been sleeping only two to three hours a night. Now that the
adrenaline from the Aquidae fight had dissipated, a wave of
exhaustion washed over me and the bruises on my cheek and knees
throbbed with a dull ache.

Lulled by the smooth, rhythmic motion of the
car and the soft, dulcet flow of music, I finally gave up and
allowed sleep to pull me into blissful oblivion.

***

White fog swirled around me. I was on a
crowded city street at night.

Sounds of laughter and drunken conversations
sporadically trickled in through the fog. Everything was muted and
the bright, vivid colors of flashing neon signs were softened to a
hazy glow.

Pulled by an unseen force, I drifted behind
a small group of young men as they strode purposefully down the
street.

They walked for several blocks, muscles
tightening on their shoulders and backs. They began to run and I
sped up, trailing after them as they made a right turn.

A small group of people stood by an iron
door next to a green dumpster. Their faces and figures were in
shadows, blending into the muted, dark colors of the alley.
Disembodied club music pulsed through the fog. The men ran toward
them at full speed, intent on attack.

Reaching out a hand, I tried to scream a
warning, but no sound came out of my mouth…

I awoke with a start and it took me a few
seconds to realize where I was. What a strange dream.

An involuntary shudder ran through me as I
remembered the final moment in which I'd recognized the danger. It
bothered me that I'd been unable to warn those people through the
fog.

The melancholic sounds of a cello still
played through the car speakers. I uncurled and stretched in my
chair.

"Where are we?"

The sun brightened the cloudless sky and
filtered through the branches of the lush, green trees dominating
the landscape. It was close to noon. Tristan navigated the car down
a narrow road that wound its way through a forest.

"We're almost there."

The water was close and it called out to me.
We must be near the Pacific coastline.

All ondine communities were located near an
ocean. Its nearness was as essential to water elementals as the air
we breathed. The further away from water we got, the weaker our
bodies became. An elemental who lived enough time away from a large
body of water would eventually die.

"Haverleau is in northern Washington,"
Tristan continued. "It's outside the city of Lyondale."

The verdant, emerald landscape was so
different from the drier California scenery I was used to. I rolled
down the window and took a deep breath. The crisp air snapped with
fresh vitality, carrying just the barest trace of the ocean's
saltiness. It cleared my head and the last of my sleepiness went
away.

We made a left turn onto a short road that
led to an imposing black wrought-iron gate. A large letter H was
etched into the center and inscribed under it was a French phrase
in elegant script.

"What does that say?" I squinted.

"Haven of water," Tristan said, slowing down
the car. "Haverleau's name comes from the French,
havre de
l'eau.
"

Guess I should've paid better attention in
French class. But, damn. If Mr. Jensen's voice had been as sexy as
Tristan's, I probably would've made an actual effort to go to class
in the first place.

The car came to a full stop. A tall man came
out of the guard post and approached the driver's side, silver
glinting around his neck. Another gardinel.

Tristan rolled down his window and spoke with
him in a foreign language. It vaguely sounded like the French he'd
just spoken, but different. Older, more ancient. I recognized it as
the language that gave Tristan's voice that subtle accent.

The gardinel peered into the window and gave
me a hard look. After a moment, the gate swung open and the car
moved forward onto a large paved street.

It was like entering Oz.

Haverleau was a wealthy residential town,
much larger than what I'd expected. Rows of immaculate houses and
blooming masses of flowers lined the streets. The buildings were in
a variety of architectural styles, from modern sophisticated
structures to classical Greek-styled columns and marble.

Charming cafes and quaint boutiques bustled
with activity. Ondines, demillirs, and selkies hurried about on the
sidewalk, attending to their errands for the day.

"Doesn't anyone notice it's here?" I couldn't
keep the awestruck tone out of my voice.