Ocean's Kiss

by Lani Wendt Young

“What does that even mean?” demanded Daniel.

  Talei shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know. That’s not from me. That’s from somewhere else. Mother’s pronouncements never made sense until they happened.”

  “So what use is that then? Who needs a prophecy that you can only understand when it’s staring you in the face? That’s messed up.”

  “Welcome to most of my life,” said Talei with a grin. “Growing up with an oracle was a nonstop ride of enigmatic statements that came back to bite you in the face when you least expected them to. That’s all I know. If I get any more info I’ll call you.”

  “You’ll be too busy on the road to netball fame and glory in New Zealand to remember us here in little old Samoa,” said Daniel.

  Talei ignored his muttering and took him in a fierce hug. “Be careful my ocean brother. Take care of Leila.”

  Before she left she turned back with one last warning. “Oh, and it should go without saying, that you gotta keep the Bone far away from her. I wouldn’t tell her that you have it.”

  They exchanged a look that needed no words. Daniel loved Leila more than life itself. More than every breath and pulse of his heart. But he knew that he would forever have to keep some things secret from his wife. From the fire that simmered inside her.

  And so he hadn’t told anyone about the Bone. Instead he’d buried it deep underneath the workshop floor, sealing it with steel and concrete. So it couldn’t call to anyone.

  Until now.

  The next day, Daniel invented a reason to work late so they could spend another night at the beachside house. He had a feeling their mysterious visitor would return.

  He was right.

  Again the dogs went wild, but this time Daniel had that centipede crawling up his spine alert that someone was in the house. And she wasn’t alone.

  Two silver women stood in the living room, glistening wet from the ocean in a pool of liquid moonlight. Both wore some kind of armored sheathe with accents of gleaming pearl shell, functional and optimized for fluid movement. Their bodies rippled with muscle and coiled strength. Arms that could summon a tsunami, harness an ocean current, and soothe a giant squid. Legs built for bracing a vaka against a fierce wind, swimming with sharks and riding a whale. They were not the mermaids of Disney fairytales. They were the warriors of the more fearsome legends. The kind that told of women who lured invading vaka to their splintered death on the reef. Who slipped through shadows on moonlit nights as marauding men slept, and choked them with garrotes of wired ocean. Then fed them to sharks and used their useless untouched weapons to adorn seaside caves. Mementoes of the pitiful hubris that made men believe they could ever oppress a warrior woman of the sea.

  Daniel saw the silver women in his house, and fear tiptoed with icy feet into his chest.

  Daniel recognized the leader among them. She who used to be Moanasina. The woman who had saved Leila’s life on a distant shore. She had long dark hair pulled into a thick braid that near reached the floor. She was by the bookshelf, looking at Mama’s framed family photographs, memories of his childhood. In her hand she held a picture of him as a grinning toddler, sitting in a paelo of water at the outside paipa. Mama had put a flower at his ear and Papa was crouched beside him laughing. The happiness preserved forever in that image had emotion tugging at Daniel’s insides.

  At his entrance, the leader looked over at Daniel. “This is you?” She spoke the words with an awkward stiffness, like someone unused to speech.

  Daniel nodded. “Yes. And my Papa.”

  The woman studied the photo again, tracing his smile with her finger. “Happy. You were happy?”

  “I was. It was a good childhood.”

  She returned the frame back to its place on the shelf and turned to face him. She moved with a liquid grace, sinuous and lithe.

  “Where are they? Your parents?” she asked.

  “Gone,” said Daniel. Brusque in a don’t-ask-any-questions kind of way. A deep breath. “Why are you here?”

  The question seemed to jolt her out of her reverie and she snapped brusquely. “It calls us. The Tangaloa Bone. Where is it?” Now she was imperious. Demanding.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Daniel. He hid his incredulity. Could it be possible that these women from the sea could hear the whispering from the staff? Even when buried under layers of concrete and steel? “Why do you want it?”

  The second woman answered. “Answer the Guardian. Where’s the Bone?” She had skin like midnight and her hair was a glorious halo of wildness. Silver tattoos adorned the length of her body.

  But Moanasina again seemed distracted. Pointed out through the glass doors to the black sea in the distance. “You never come home any more. Why?” It was accusatory. A mother angry at a child who doesn’t visit often enough.

  “The sea isn’t my home,” said Daniel. “It never was.”

  She arched a shimmering eyebrow at him. “That’s not what she says.”

  Well I don’t give a fuck what she says…

  Again he asked, “Why do you want the Bone?”

  “Our ocean mother wants it. It’s not safe with men.”

  “It’s not safe with Telesā either,” countered Daniel.

  The second woman interjected. “That’s not your decision to make. And besides, we’re not Telesā.”

  Not Telesā? So what are you?

  Moanasina nodded. “Malie’s right. Now, we can do this the easy way. Or you can make things difficult. It’s your choice.”

  Moanasina carried no weapons, but Daniel knew that Telesā Vasa Loloa had no need of them. Their weapons came from the ocean, a stream, a muddy puddle, a glass of water on a table, even the very moisture in the air they breathed. All could be wielded with unspeakable fury and force. A rare few Telesā could even manipulate the blood running in your veins. With deadly consequences. Daniel’s insides churned with beetles as memories assailed him.

  No, these women had no need to carry weapons.

  “I’m not Telesā anymore,” said Daniel. “It wouldn’t be much of a fight.” It felt foolish to tell a potential attacker that actually, hey, I’m completely useless and zapped right out of any powers…but what else was he supposed to do at this point?

  Moanasina didn’t believe him. She walked over to him. Closer, closer. Too close. Daniel’s unease was in overdrive now. But then she came close enough that he could breathe in her scent. The salt tang of ocean, the burn of sun on a brilliant blue day, mingled with the cool rush of a refreshing trade wind. And just like that, his apprehension melted away. He hardly dared move as she leaned in and gently placed her forehead against his, her eyes closed as she took a deep breath. Her skin felt cool to the touch. Instinctively Daniel shut his eyes. For a moment he could forget that she was an ocean aitu, a mother long gone. For a fragile moment, he was a boy and his mother. Just like any other. He felt at peace. He felt whole. He was home.

  But just as quickly as it had come, the feeling fled. Moanasina’s eyes flew open and she stepped back. Alarm and confusion.

  “You have no Gift. Vasa Loloa is gone.” She was accusing. “Why?”

  “I had to give it up,” said Daniel. “It’s a long story.” And I don’t want to get into it.

  “But why?” she insisted. Strident now. “Who did this to you?”

  “No-one. I made a choice.”

  She didn’t believe him. “Why would anyone make a choice like that? To give up the ocean’s gift? The essence of who you are?” Her eyes flashed like lightning on a troubled sea. “Tell me what happened? Speak!”

  “Why are we wasting time like this?” snapped Malie. “We make him give us the Bone.”

  That’s when Leila joined them, standing at the doorway. “Daniel? What’s going on?”

  Moanasina smiled with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Ah, it’s you. We meet again.”

  “Who are you? And what are you doing in our house?” demanded Leila. She turned to Daniel. “And what’s she talki
ng about, that we’ve met before?”

  Daniel went to stand beside Leila, wishing she were anywhere else but here. How to keep her safe? He lowered his voice to a rumbled whisper. “It’s Moanasina.”

  Leila’s face lit up. “Your mother? How’s that even possible?”

  The two women stared as he thought about how to get Leila to safety. He was near certain that they wouldn’t harm him. Not much anyway. But he had no such assurance for his wife. “I need you to leave. Now. I’m dealing with this. Get the keys, take the truck and go.”

  She looked over his shoulder at where the warriors stood, and then back up at him. “No. I’m not going anywhere. Whatever this is? We’re in it together.”

  Not for the first time, Daniel wanted to pull his hair out at the fiery resolve he heard in Leila’s voice. She was stubborn. Immovable. It’s one of the traits he loved about her. But also the one that most drove him crazy. “Leila, I need you to trust me. These people are here to see me. And I can handle it. But not if you’re here. You need to go.”

  “Enough,” ordered Moanasina as she walked forward. “We came here for one thing only.”

  She stopped suddenly, like she had just gotten a whiff of something bad. Something dangerous. That’s when everything shifted. A look of horror on her face. She snarled. “She’s the one who took your power from you. I see it now.” There was a feral curl to her mouth as she tensed, padding lightly as she circled them, never taking her gaze from Leila for even a blink of an eyelash. She looked like a shark circling its prey. “I warned you of this, didn’t I boy? I said you would regret the healing.”

  Malie’s eyes widened. “She is Aitu?!”

  The tension in the room stretched tight. A storm ready to break.

  Daniel tried easing the situation. “It’s alright. You don’t have to worry. Pele’s gone now. We defeated her.”

  The woman hissed. A for real, straight-up sound of challenge and battle. “Defeated? Pele? You fool. Pele can’t be destroyed. She’s still in there. Inside this girl.” A sneer of disdain at Leila. “She’s no match for the fire. You must kill her while you can. While Pele is vulnerable.”

  “Nobody’s killing anybody. Leila’s my wife. I love her.”

  Moanasina gave him a look of disgust. “How can you say that? She’s the reason why you have no Gift. I see it now. You gave it up so the fire demon could be contained. She must be punished for that!”

  She yanked water from the air, harvesting the dense humidity to form a churning ball that she threw with ferocious impact. The cannonball hit Leila direct in the chest and blasted her off her feet. She flew across the room and crashed into the bookshelf, before crumpling to the ground.

  “No!” shouted Daniel. He ran across the room to take Leila in his arms. Rage and fear at war on his face. Relief as she stirred, moaned and tried to sit up.

  “Babe? I don’t think your mom likes me,” she whispered weakly against Daniel’s chest. “Ouch, my arm. I think it’s broken. Maybe some ribs too.”

  Daniel laid Leila down gently. “Wait here. Don’t move.” He stood and advanced on Moanasina, every particle of his being shouting for vengeance. “You hurt my wife.” He picked up a chair, and threw it at the silver attacker.

  Moanasina swiped the missile away easily, with a flick of her fingers summoning a swirling ball of cobalt water. The chair smashed harmlessly against the kitchen bench. “Stop,” she ordered him. “You’re no match for me. You’ll only hurt yourself.”

  Daniel ignored her command. He charged, rugby style going for a killer tackle.

  Fluid and sinuous, Moanasina weaved out of his path. So fast that she was like a flash of silver fish under the surface of the water. That’s when Malie joined the fray. A haze of dagger-like silver shards materialized seemingly from thin air and with a flick of her wrist, the silver guardian sent them flying towards him. One struck Daniel in the shoulder, another in his right thigh, sending him stumbling backwards, another went through the palm of one hand, pinning it to the wall.

  Leila groaned and tried to stand, “Daniel!”

  Malie stepped in for the kill, a wild look of delight in her eyes. One more shard, razor sharp hurtled towards his throat. Leila screamed. The room froze, poised for the blow that would have forever consequences.

  “NO,” said Moanasina. She didn’t need to lift a finger, or even look in his direction. A mere thought and the shard stopped. Disintegrated. The world released it’s held breath as Moanasina took two steps – and backhanded Malie across the face. The crack snap of the blow cut through the air. Blue blood specks flecked the floor, but otherwise the silver warrior stood strong. Her eyes flashed dangerously, but she was silent. Even as she seethed with fury. A single word.

  “Why?” said Malie.

  “I give the orders. You dare act without my word?” Moanasina trembled with barely contained fury as if she longed to tear the other woman’s still-beating heart from her chest.

  “He’s just a boy,” spat Malie. “He is nothing. A minor obstacle in the way of our mission.”

  Across the room, Daniel reached up with one hand, and yanked the ice shard from his palm, gritting his teeth against the pain. The piece embedded in his thigh was a more difficult task. Leila was pulling herself up now, hanging on to a chair, determined to make her way over to him. To help.

  “Stay there,” he muttered harshly. “I’m coming.”

  He gripped the piece of the shard that stuck out from his thigh, braced himself to pull it out.

  “Don’t,” said Moanasina. “It’s pierced a vital vessel. You pull that out now, you’ll bleed to death. I’ll heal you.”

  Daniel swore savagely. “And you care because?! Get out of my house. And take your shark with you. You did this.” A red stain grew and spread from his shoulder where the other missile had found its target. He stumbled and sank to his knees, with a quiet groan, wavered and fell on his side. Leila went to him then, ignoring the screaming stab of fire in her chest and in her right arm that dangled useless by her side. She knelt, hot tears on her face as under the guise of embracing him, she clenched hold of the shard in his shoulder and pulled. He grimaced.

  Be quiet. Her eyes told him. Be still.

  “Oh Daniel!” she wailed loudly. “My love! He’s dying. Help him!” Her hand gripped the shard tightly, feeling it, learning its edges and weight. The knowledge of it. Imbuing it with purpose and promise. Blood pounded in her heart, her head. Adrenaline rushed. It was so close, she could taste it. The kill. Like a nectar, last consumed long ago.

  Come to me. Closer. I am ready. I am waiting. I am eager.

  Malie was the closest. And so it was her throat that Leila slashed open with the shard blade. One sudden, beautifully perfect arc of her arm. In that moment, she looked to Daniel, like someone else. The wild delight, the little smile when she cut the jugular just so. That wasn’t his Leila. Was it? But he couldn’t think of it now. He wouldn’t.

  A gash. A gurgle. Blue pulsed. A look in Malie’s eyes as her hands went up to her throat, as she staggered back. Surprise. Leila stood over her then, all her own pain forgotten as she watched the silver woman bleed out. “Nobody hurts my husband,” she said with satisfaction. “He’s mine.”

  It was her pause to relish in the kill that was her undoing. With a sound of annoyance, Moanasina snapped, “Enough.” With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a whip flash of silver water that coiled tightly around Leila’s torso, hobbling her knees and ankles so that she tripped and fell to the ground. She screamed as she landed on her broken arm.

  With the immediate threat seen to, Moanasina tended to Malie. Impatient and rough, she swirled a cobalt ball in her hands, a low hum in her throat. The room lit up with more than moonlight as all her tattoos smoldered with blue luminosity, intricate stamps of beauty and power. Malie lay still now on the floor, in a pool of blue blood. It didn’t seem possible there could be any life left in her. But Moanasina sent embered blue energy in a cocoon. It felt like long ages but only took
a bare few minutes, and the healing was done. Malie coughed, turned and spat blood with a grimace of disgust. Moanasina’s healing wasn’t done. She turned to Daniel and channeled the cobalt ball towards him, even as he tried to evade it.

  “No, not me,” he said harshly. “Fix Leila.”

  Moanasina ignored his protests. Cobalt light seared through his shoulder, palm and finally his thigh. The shard dissolved. He was whole again. He stood and went to help free Leila, carefully extricating her from the coiled ropes that bound her. She winced as her arm bumped into his. “No more badass for me tonight,” she whispered up at him. “I think I’m done.”

  He turned to Moanasina. “Now heal her. Please.” The word wrenched from him, dragged out unwillingly over sea urchin spines. But for Leila, he would do anything. Even beg from a woman who he despised.

  “No,” said Moanasina. “She is Aitu. And she took your powers from you.”

  “Leila’s the reason I’m alive. I may have saved her, but she also saved me. It’s not Leila’s fault that I got the ocean zapped out of me. I’m happier without it.”

  “You lie. When Vasa Loloa chooses us, it is a sacred gift. Others sacrificed so you could have that…” Her words trailed away as a mist of confusion descended on her face. “So you could live.”

  Daniel grabbed with both hands to that indecision. “Who? Who sacrificed so I could live?”

  The silver woman shook her head. “I don’t know. No-one.”

  Daniel advanced on both women, iron fury. “Tonight? What you did to my wife? I will never forgive you. Why do you keep following me? Interfering with my life? What kind of mother are you anyway?”

  “I’m not a mother,” said Moanasina. “I’m no-one’s mother.” She took several steps back, lost in uncertainty now. She didn’t look like a warrior set on killing Leila anymore. She looked like a woman who was lost. “Come, we go,” she said to Malie.

  Malie gave her a baffled look. Hissed. “Guardian? Have you forgotten why we came here? What of the prize?”

  Moanasina said no more. Instead she turned and sprinted lightly across the sand, down to the beach. With a bewildered shrug, Malie followed after her. The women disappeared into the ocean night.