The Ocean's Roar: A Tiger Shifter and Mermaid Romance (The Protectors Quick Bites Book 3)

by Keira Blackwood

  The kelp blades to my left shifted, and I caught sight of a hand.

  I pulled my weapon from my belt and clicked the small button.

  The hilt extended from top and bottom into a long golden rod. Tiny lines of electric blue spread across the weapon’s surface. The kinetic enhancers embedded in the staff would allow me to swing harder than I could unassisted while underwater.

  Half-extended was enough. I wouldn’t kill him unless I had no other option.

  Maybe this trip hadn’t been for nothing. Perhaps the assailants could offer me answers.

  “Over here,” the merman called to his friends.

  He reached out for me, but before his fingers made contact, I swiped the end of the pole into his jaw.

  The impact cracked as his teeth shattered.

  He cupped his face and made a sound, somewhere between speech and whimper, and backed a few feet away.

  Why wasn’t he fighting back?

  My fingers were numb around the cold rod in my palm, my grip tight, my focus controlled.

  There were only three. I could handle three.

  The water behind me rushed. I could hear his attack before I turned.

  I leaned to the side, narrowly dodging the tip of the wide tail that swiped where my head had been. That was more like it.

  The merman’s face remained stoic as he whipped his tail toward my stomach. I blocked with my staff, taking the brunt of the force with my weapon. But his tail cut where it lashed my hands.

  Adrenaline surged through me, and I felt no pain.

  The other two rushed forward.

  I moved back and raised my arm to block the left hook aimed at my head. I blocked another jab to the face with my palm and swam back further, bumping into the side of my pod.

  Nowhere left to go.

  “There’s no use in fighting. Submit.” The merman threw a hard punch toward my stomach.

  Before it could land, I grabbed his wrist and held on tight. With my other hand, I struck at his face, staff held tight in my fist.

  He grabbed my wrist and tilted his head back, dampening the impact.

  Their combat prowess affirmed my first impression—these were not common thugs. They were well-trained.

  Perhaps I wasn’t going to have the option of holding back this time.

  I spun my arm and broke his hold on my wrist, giving me the chance to land that jab to his face. His nose crunched as I drove my fist to its target.

  I wasted no time reveling in my little victory, and swam quickly to the side a couple meters, unpinning myself from the pod.

  The trio watched but didn’t close in immediately.

  Their stunned stares told me they hadn’t expected a real fight.

  The leader snarled and charged toward me. Anger had gotten the better of him, and I easily sidestepped his attack. I struck him across the back with my staff, sending him careening into the sand floor.

  His friends closed in on either side.

  The one to my right attempted to capture my wrist. I leaned backward and dodged, then drove one end of the staff into his stomach. He doubled over in pain and I hit him on top of the head with the other end. As he collapsed, I spun to face his friend, sweeping my staff along the ground.

  He was right where I had expected, and I knocked him flat on his back.

  They’d been well-trained, but perhaps not as well-trained as me.

  I turned back to where their leader had been. Sure enough, he was rising from the seafloor. I expected a look of hatred plastered on his face, I expected something. He reached into his coat and drew a stun gun.

  I was too far to disarm him before he could pull the trigger.

  His hand was steady as he aimed at me.

  I tensed, waiting for the shot. Waiting for him to miss so I could charge him, or waiting for the shock.

  Darkness fell.

  The mermen looked up.

  A great black arrowhead, larger than any whale, silently crested the wall of the colosseum. A Defense Ministry Destroyer. A sharp beam of blinding light cast down from the ship and caught the three of us in its glow.

  A voice boomed through the still water. “This is the Defense Ministry. Remain still. Agents will arrive soon to escort you to rehabilitation.”

  The shot fired, sending a jolt through my body.

  Two of the mermen grabbed onto my arms.

  “Hurry,” one of them said.

  The mermen darted away, into the darkness outside the spotlight, taking me along with them. They swam like their lives depended on it, because they did.

  I was pulled deeper into the kelp forest before I could react, before I could fight. My body was limp as they dragged me away to meet an uncertain fate.

  But right there was my salvation...so close.

  I twisted and grabbed hold of the stun gun on the merman’s side. I pulled the trigger, and one of the mermen went limp.

  I looked into his eyes as the other continued to pull me, ripping the gun from my hands. But their eyes…they were violet just like mine.

  If an announcement was being given, the agents were already here.

  They wouldn’t make it far, not with one of them down. Not with the Ministry hunting them.

  Two women propelled by seajets whizzed by above. Light gleamed off the golden tridents they carried.

  Protocol didn’t allow staves to be carried in lethal mode upon initial engagement, but in the katopolis, protocols were often ignored.

  It was over, the mermen just didn’t know it yet. One of them lifted his fallen comrade.

  I twisted and fought, slowing down the other.

  “Let me go.” I whipped my tail into his back.

  Finally he let go. The two mermen shared a look began to swim away into the kelp.

  “You don’t belong—”

  Lights shown down from above. The mermaids with the seajets would soon find them.

  “Come,” said the other, pulling his companion’s wrist.

  It was over.

  And for a moment, I regretted fighting them. For a moment I wondered if I should have gone willingly. Perhaps I would have learned something of my past.

  Before I could consider making another choice, I caught a glimpse of a large shape descending from the destroyer, gracefully falling to the seafloor between me and the fleeing mermen.

  Dressed in full Ministry regalia was the director—Balthasar Aegaeon.

  I looked back into the kelp for sign of the mermen, but they were gone. Not for long, I was sure. Now that the Ministry had arrived, their lives were forfeit. As were my answers.

  I stood at attention, knowing full well I would be reprimanded for my transgression. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to have taken the pod.

  “Sir,” I saluted.

  “Officer,” he said. His voice was smooth and dark, his cadence measured as he spoke. “Are you aware that unauthorized requisition of a Defense Ministry pod is a class one offense?”

  “I am, sir.”

  “Then why?” He looked more disappointed than angry, and I knew that was worse.

  “I was searching for information.”

  “Your clearance allows you unfettered access to anything you could need to know. What could you possibly be looking for here?”

  I hesitated, knowing how it would hurt him, but I knew he would find the truth whether I told him or not. And I’d never lied to him. Not once. “My parents, sir.”

  “Oh, Selene,” he said, and his shoulders softened. He stepped forward and placed his hand on my arm. In that moment, he wasn’t my commander. He was my father.

  I relaxed, too, just a little.

  “I didn’t want to hurt you,” I said. “I just...I just need to know what happened to them, who they are. I need to know who I was in order to know who I am.”

  “I know who you are. You’re an officer for the Defense Ministry, and you’re my daughter.”

  I nodded.

  “There was a thorough investigation when
you were found. If there was any more information, we would have it. You certainly won’t get answers here.” He gave a dismissive wave at the low city.

  He was probably right. The contact was probably just another scam artist, and he was dead now, anyway. There was nothing here for me, and there never had been.

  Except for those in the armor. I hadn’t asked them a single thing, and now they were gone, or soon would be. I couldn’t shake the need to know about my past. And I knew I never would.

  The mermaids who had chased the fleeing mermen swam back to us, their seajets off and strapped to their backs.

  Balthasar returned to attention.

  “Report.”

  “There’s no sign of the suspects.”

  “Strange,” I said.

  Both mermaids glanced at me.

  Balthasar said, “Return to the ship, turn in your staves, and file your reports.”

  “Sir,” the mermaids said in unison, and then swam upward toward the destroyer.

  I wondered what Balthasar thought of the mermen’s escape. No one ever escaped. But it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. It always was.

  He turned back to me.

  “Selene, there’s something else.” His tone was firm.

  I stood up straighter, ready to receive whatever punishment was coming.

  “I’ve received word from High Command. I am to receive a delegation from the surface to meet with leading members of the Therion Tribunal. You will be part of the security detail.”

  “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

  “Granted.”

  “Why? You were the one who taught me that the Therion Tribunal isn’t to be trusted. No one from the surface is. Only Ligeia—”

  “You know I share your sentiment, but there’s been a murder. One of the Tribunal’s Directors is dead.”

  “I still don’t see why Thalassapolis should be involved. The Tribunal treats us as if we don’t exist.”

  “Because, Selene, they think we killed him.”

  Chapter Three

  Vaughn

  Tigers love to swim.

  Give me a lake, a river, a hot tub filled with beautiful women, and I’ll purr with delight.

  But there was something about the ocean that gave me the heebie jeebies. It was salty. It was deep. And I knew for a fact that there was at least one creepy-ass monster hiding in the dark depths.

  The tiger inside of me was even less happy about being trapped hundreds of feet below water in a metal box than he was about meeting a whole race just like Fish Face. Even if it was a big box, big enough for a kitchen and sleeping quarters. But even with as much as I hated being trapped, I couldn’t seem to keep myself from the portholes as the sub descended beneath the waves.

  Outside was endless blue.

  Inside, Tribunal enforcers walked to and fro down the long open tube, military types rather than free-thinking agents like me. There were a bunch of them, a show of strength for Rose as we dove into enemy territory.

  Why Rose had chosen to bring me along, I wasn’t entirely sure. Maybe he found me more amusing than he let on, or maybe he was looking for a few good insults to throw around in the fight if this delegation went south. From my experience, neither was likely.

  He’d said it was because I was a witness, but I’d already given my account, so that should have been enough. It always had been. File a report, move on to the next case.

  I was ready to move on, but here I was sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

  After only a few meters down, the soldiers stopped pacing. It was just me alone, watching the water darken, watching the world disappear.

  There was some talking at first, but after a while the sub settled in a strange, eerie silence.

  A strange silence, and a strange smell.

  What was that? Some kind of odor the engines were emitting?

  No.

  I closed my eyes and separated the scents. Beef, cheese, and wolf.

  A small hand clapped me on the back.

  “Agent Keating, buddy!”

  I turned. Facing me was the rookie I’d delivered to Agent Reid a few months back. It seemed the pup had survived his mission and being partnered with the Springport Slayer.

  Maybe the rookie wasn’t as incompetent as he looked.

  He was short and scrawny, with brown hair that hung down over his eyes. He looked more like he belonged in high school than on a mission.

  I couldn’t remember his name—something to do with breakfast.

  “Long time no see, am I right?” He smiled.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but he kept on talking.

  “Oh man, you wouldn’t believe what happened to me and Deck after you dropped me off at his place.” He paused and took a massive bite out of the greasy hoagie he was holding with both hands. “But now...we’re back together...again.”

  Tiny pieces of sandwich fell from his mouth and littered the floor of the sub.

  Maybe his name was Sandwich...no. Pancake?

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to have that away from the kitchen area,” I said. I didn’t care, really. But I also didn’t want Rose blaming me if Pancakes attracted rats.

  “Hey, don’t worry, old man Rose didn’t see me. And I’ve got enough to share. A whole duffel full under my bunk. Subs for the sub, get it? You get it. Can you believe the Tribunal has a sub like this? We’re so lucky to be a part of her maiden voyage!”

  Sandwiches in a bag under his bunk? Sounded like a good way to end up with food poisoning. In the confines of this metal box...

  I realized Pancakes was waiting for me to say something.

  “The sub? I asked.

  He nodded.

  “It’s a bit much,” I said, “but I expect there’s a lot of projects like that we just don’t hear about.”

  Rose had given me the tour yesterday. He talked about nanotech steel and enchanted something or anothers. I distinctly remembered him using the word railguns. Other than that, I didn’t understand a damned thing, but it sounded expensive.

  “Rose had this sub commissioned himself last year. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t even have it,” Pancakes said. “He calls it the Harpoon.”

  Now that was something I hadn’t heard.

  “How do you know that?” I asked.

  “My dad is a Tribunal Strategist. Tolstoy Wafflick.”

  Not Pancakes—Waffles—Joey Waffles. And the whole dad’s-a-bigwig thing, that explained how a kid like Joey was an agent—reckless nepotism. Ask me, it’s stupid. The bigwig could get his kid killed by pushing him through the ranks by favor instead of merit.

  Missions in the real world were dangerous, and no way was this kid prepared.

  “Rose had to convince Dad to give him the money for this thing,” Waffles said. “It took a while, but after Dad heard about how dangerous the merpeople could be, he finally gave in.”

  Dangerous. The fish guy I’d encountered on the yacht was certainly no joke, but we wouldn't need the magical guns of this sci-fi monstrosity to deal with it.

  “You said Merpeople. Are there really a bunch of them? And they’re all really that bad?”

  “I’ve never seen one in real life, but I’m excited about it, even if they are dangerous. Rose said they’ve got some kind of power, and it lets them have lots of cool tech that I guess we don’t. I guess the Tribunal wants to be the strongest,” Waffles shrugged. “But I only hear bits and pieces.”

  Tech, huh? I had pictured seaweed huts on the ocean floor. I wondered what we were diving into. Magic gun-wielding sea monsters, I guessed. Something big if the Tribunal felt threatened.

  Maybe Waffles could tell me more. “Do you—”

  The lights in the corridor pulsed red and a voice came over the intercom. Essential personnel, report to the bridge.

  Well that sounded important, and not in a good way.

  I followed the people who ran by, and watched from the hall.

  Enforcers crowded around, clutching
their weapons like a fish monster would materialize from thin air at any moment. Others mashed buttons on huge tech panels. It seemed like the Harpoon was equipped with an extensive array of computer equipment and way too much security.

  We were just meeting a couple of fish-people. From what I’d seen last time, they were pretty damn ugly, but ran away from a fair fight. What kind of tech could make these guys nervous? What was I missing?

  I kept an eye on Rose as he moved around the room, checking various monitors and gauges. Who knew what he was expecting to find. I was more interested in his reaction, but he didn’t seem to have much of one. Same grump, different day.

  “We are approaching Thalassapolis.” Rose pointed to some flashy green line on one of the monitors. Then he tapped a series of buttons and a huge viewscreen popped up where there had been only a steel wall.

  It looked like a window—a window into a make-believe, sci-fi future city.

  Little silver submarines swarmed around tall silver skyscrapers. Everything looked like it was made of glass, all shiny and space-like.

  Fish Face’s friends might look like monsters, but they had tech like aliens from the future. Well, like I imagined aliens would if aliens were real.

  Suddenly all that magic nano weapon nonsense didn’t sound so unreasonable.

  Now my nerves weren’t just about drowning. What the hell were we walking into?

  The sub stopped, and a group of enforcers marched down the sub to the exit hatch.

  “You think they’re going to make us hold our breath out there?”

  I glanced beside me. I hadn’t even realized Waffles was standing there.

  “Probably not,” I said. Though it was a good question—how were we going to breathe? Were there dive suits for us? That’d slow us down in a fight, for sure. Magic, maybe? I hadn’t seen any witches on board. Magic tech seemed the most likely.

  Rose spared me a glance as he walked past. “Let’s go.”

  I filed in beside him and waited with the others as the door opened.

  I considered asking questions, but thought better of it, and instead prepared myself to hold my breath. If Rose didn’t need a suit, I didn’t either...probably. Hopefully.

  I changed my mind and decided to ask. “Do I need—”