by Devyn Quinn
Even as he uttered the words, guilt sliced through him. He wasn’t supposed to care, but somehow he’d gotten sucked into a vortex of events he still couldn’t even begin to comprehend. As much as he wanted to protect her, deep down inside he doubted he could keep the pledge. Though Gwen didn’t know it yet, her life would never be the same once the agency found out about them.
Neither will mine, came his grim thought.
Chapter 7
The morning no longer felt crisp, bright, or promising. There was trouble on Little Mer island. Big trouble.
Jake Massey lowered his binoculars. “Shit! We’ve just been fucked.” He shook his head. And we didn’t even get a kiss for it.
He didn’t have to be on the island to know Magaera’s soldiers had botched the attempt to take Tessa hostage. They’d apparently failed, and magnificently so.
A swarm of boats and aircraft buzzed in from the mainland, some identifiable, others not so much. A small army went into motion, spreading across the landscape like the plague. A coast guard cruiser swept in from nowhere, circling the perimeter of the island like a shark looking for prey.
The thing that bothered him most was the helicopters. A couple were clearly medical craft, used to transport the critically injured. No doubt people had been wounded and needed to be airlifted to the mainland. That made sense.
But those weren’t the only choppers in sight. Two larger helicopters had also landed. Painted stark black, these had no identifiable markings whatsoever. Though not military, there was no doubt in his mind who owned the aircraft.
Sweat popped up across his brow in tiny beads. He wiped them away. This wasn’t how he’d imagined the morning would end. “Damn, they got there fast,” he breathed. But how?
The question nagged like a pesky fly. What the hell were the feds doing on Little Mer Island? Their response had been too immediate to be coincidence, which meant the place must have been under active surveillance.
Are they looking for me?
Whatever the answer might be, one thing was perfectly clear. They needed to leave these waters. And quickly. No reason to tempt the authorities into coming closer. The yacht was flying a Canadian flag. Though he and Niklos had valid passports, the Mer women living aboard the boat did not.
Fury boiled up inside him, but he forced it to simmer. No time to lose his head. Blowing his temper wouldn’t do any good now. They’d only had this single chance, and it was gone. It didn’t matter who had messed up or why.
Standing beside him, Niklos Sarantos laughed softly. “Didn’t go as smoothly as you thought it would.”
Jake shot his partner a dirty look. “We’ve hit a little snag. Doesn’t mean we’re down yet.”
Time to switch to the backup. Trouble was he didn’t know what plan B might be. He hadn’t believed Magaera’s soldiers could fail in such a simple task. There was no way anyone on the island could have known they were coming. No one would have expected an ambush in broad daylight.
As it stood, the entire island was enveloped in chaos.
A flurry of movement snagged Jake’s attention and he refocused his binoculars to check out the action. He couldn’t miss the men whose jackets were clearly marked FBI. “I knew it,” he said angrily. “The fucking feds.”
Niklos also raised his specs. “Correct me if I am wrong, my friend, but it looks like they’ve got a couple of your queen’s soldiers,” he remarked coolly.
Jaw tightening, Jake’s heartbeat sped up. For ten, maybe twenty seconds, he couldn’t move. His body felt paralyzed by what he was witnessing. His own arrogance hadn’t allowed him to consider the consequences of failure.
His gaze zeroed in on the main house. The entire building was smoking, practically in ruins.
The women Magaera had sent to retrieve Tessa weren’t walking on their own two legs. They appeared to be strapped to gurneys, which were quickly being loaded into the medic choppers. The next gurney that came out carried Kenneth Randall, clearly as unconscious as the Mer who’d preceded him. Tessa ran beside the medics, trying to keep up. Another came out carrying a woman. He recognized Gwen. Addison and a man he couldn’t identify followed as she was loaded onto one of the choppers.
He swallowed hard, forcing down regret. Man, too bad Gwen seemed to have gotten caught in the crossfire. He wondered how badly she and Kenneth might be wounded.
The last gurney that came out held a body in a bag.
Since he’d identified the survivors, he knew one of the Mer hadn’t made it.
Jake inwardly braced himself to keep his feelings in check. He’d also seen Lucky get the blast. That was really too bad. He’d always liked the old sea dog. But Magaera had only ordered her soldiers to take Tessa alive. The rest were to be sacrificed, incidentals in the larger objective, which was to regain control over the sea-gate. If people had to die, then so be it.
“What are we going to do now?” Niklos asked. Nervous sweat beaded his upper lip. Involved in a lot of under-the-table dealings, he wasn’t exactly comfortable when the law was around.
Jerking his gaze away from the chaos, Jake tapped his binoculars with the tips of his fingers. “This just upped the ante. Now that the feds are involved, there’s no doubt they’ll find out about Ishaldi and the Mer.” That was something he hadn’t planned to have happen until after he and Magaera had regained control of the sea-gate.
Tessa had just slipped between their fingers like water through a sieve.
Returning to Ishaldi was out of the question.
Jake considered the options. At this point, everyone believed he was dead. That was a blessing. He still needed the cloak being deceased offered in order to get around undetected. But there was no telling how long his new identity would serve him.
He doubted it would serve the Mer. He was certain the government wouldn’t release the discovery of an inhuman species to the general public, but they’d no doubt be combing the waters around the bay and in the Mediterranean for more Mer.
The one place they wouldn’t look for a sea creature was on land.
“Get us out of here before the coast guard starts sniffing around,” he ordered Niklos. There was nothing he could do but take the failure and move on.
“Where are we headed?” his friend drawled. The Mer didn’t really interest him as much as the lure of easy money did. He expected to be compensated handsomely for his services.
Raising a hand to shield his eyes against the glaring light of the sun, Jake considered. “Let’s cruise back up toward Canada and hit Grand Manan. We can drop anchor there and take a little time to let this disaster cool. We’ll be out of American waters, but close enough to cross back into the States if we need to.”
Niklos gave a quick thumbs-up. “I will make it so.” He shuddered. “The sooner we get out of here, the less chance we have of being boarded by the authorities. We’re drifting too close as it is.”
“You worry about getting us out of here,” Jake said. “I’ll figure out what to do next.”
A grim smile wavered around Niklos’s mouth. “Your queen is not going to like the news you’ve got to deliver.”
Jake glanced toward the entry to the suites belowdecks. Magaera had retreated from the blazing morning sun to rest and recenter her strength. In her mind her soldiers could not—and would not fail.
She’s in for a rude awakening.
Without waiting for an answer to his knock, Jake slipped into Queen Magaera’s private quarters. He glanced around the salon, taking in the fifty-two-inch widescreen, tricked-out stereo system, not to mention the king-sized bed-and-bath combination. Her soldiers occupied two smaller rooms down the hall, bunking together in cramped quarters. He’d spent a lot of money to keep her comfortable. Though hardly a palace, the yacht provided a lot of luxury. Still, the money he’d squirreled away wasn’t going to last forever. Not at this rate.
Dressed in nary a stitch of clothing, the reigning queen of the Mer sat cross-legged amid a pile of soft cushions. Her hands rested on her knees
, palms up. Bronze braziers filled with a variety of small crystals were positioned around her. Her eyes were closed.
Jake had to struggle not to stare. It was almost impossible not to look at her. An involuntary shudder rippled through him. To look upon her was to look at perfection.
And he’d love to have a taste of it.
The tips of Magaera’s fingers twitched. She did not open her eyes. “You dare disturb my meditations?”
Jake offered a quick and reverent bow. Magaera expected it from all her subjects. “I have news.” It took every bit of nerve he possessed to keep his tone neutral.
Magaera angled her chin. “My soldiers, have they returned?”
Even though she couldn’t see him, Jake shook his head.
“No, my lady. The news I bear is not what you might have expected.”
Magaera opened her eyes and jerked her gaze toward his face. “What?” Her blue gaze was as intense as a sun gone nova. She seemed not to notice or care she was utterly exposed to his eyes. In her world the Mer accepted their bodies and were comfortable with nudity.
Jake’s lips felt strangely numb. He’d witnessed what happened to people who had incurred her wrath. If Magaera wished to twist him into a thousand tiny little pieces, all she had to do was think about it.
Straightening his spine, he cleared his throat. “Your soldiers have failed to take Tessa.”
Magaera’s countenance immediately lost its tranquil composure. Her eyes narrowed into threatening slits. “Impossible!” She snorted with displeasure. “Send them to me!” The crystals surrounding her snapped and crackled, turning as dark and black as coal. Their energy was being sucked up, consumed by a hungry predator.
Jake shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
Reenergized, she frowned. “Why not?” Her tone was brittle with irritation.
“They have been taken hostage by the humans.” He proceeded to explain the debacle as he’d witnessed it.
Anger flickered across Magaera’s face. “How can that be?”
Jake forced himself not to flinch. “I don’t know. But if Tessa can somehow persuade them to let her return to Ishaldi, she might attempt to rally the support of those who do not support your command of the Mer people. If she gets to the rebels, to the members who seek to restore the Tesch Dynasty to the throne—there is a chance she could seize command.”
Magaera twitched her shoulders; her loose hair moved smoothly against them. She tossed it back with an impatient hand. “The Mer will never accept peace with the humans,” she snapped. “We must have a care, though.” Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Our position in your world is still unstable, at best. We must regain control.”
Jake spread his hands. “I’ve been thinking on that.”
Surprise brought her up cold. “Oh?”
Jake ambled a little closer to where she sat. “Back in Ishaldi you mentioned there was a piece missing from the Jewels of Atargatis.”
Magaera toyed with the pendant hanging around her neck. “You speak of the scepter?”
Jake absently regarded the drained crystals. Touch them now and they’d disintegrate, nothing left of them but ash. Long ago the Mer had learned how to sustain their physical selves by feeding their bodies with energy contained within crystals. Unfortunately the practice had a devastating consequence on their world.
Ishaldi was dying.
The survival of Magaera’s people was at stake. She would listen to him because she had no other choice. “Yes. Didn’t you once say it was the most valuable piece?”
A frown pleated her brow, as if she questioned his motive for making the inquiry. But someone had to blink first in the showdown.
Her mask of determined indifference slipped out of place for a moment. “Yes,” she finally admitted.
Jake had to keep prodding, a careful but insistent bit of maneuvering. A fast thinker, he’d always had a knack for turning things around to his benefit. “What does this piece do, exactly? Why is it so important?”
Her suspicious expression tightened. “It gives the bearer control over land and sea. With the scepter in hand, a queen becomes a goddess.”
“And if you had such empowerment at hand, would you know how to use it?”
Magaera stiffened with offense. “Of course I would!” she snapped, clamping her jaw into a steely ridge. “Were it in my hand now, I would grind your people under my heel.”
Jake smiled inwardly. More than Magaera’s beauty, what intrigued him most about her was that she held nothing back. She had a spine of steel and would not hesitate to take down anyone who might stand in her path.
He gave her another careful nudge. “What if I told you I could put it in your hands?”
Clenching her hands into fists, Magaera’s gaze sharpened. “Do not tease me with false promises,” she warned. “If you know its location on this earth, tell me now.”
The wheels in Jake’s mind were turning a mile a minute. It was a parry and thrust, each of them determined to keep the upper hand. It helped that he had the home-world advantage. Better yet, he believed he had the craftier mind.
“I know Tessa doesn’t have the piece,” he admitted, puckering his lips thoughtfully. “But I know how to find out.”
Comprehension dawned across her face. “If you could indeed deliver to me the Scepter of Atargatis, I would reward you well.” She arched a brow. “Very well.”
Suddenly docile, Magaera rose to her feet. It was difficult not to stare as she undulated toward him, her tall, sleek body radiating female heat. The air around her stirred as she walked, shimmering with electrical sparks that she alone seemed to generate.
Standing before him, she tilted her chin up. Her hair spilled over her shoulders like liquid gold, highlighting the porcelain whiteness of her skin. Though she might have been over seven centuries in age, she showed barely any hint of her true measure of years. Her breasts were firm and round, her belly tautly ridged with muscle. Her nipples were hard little beads, surrounded by flesh that was soft, supple, and lush with promise. The shadowed cleft between her thighs enticed.
Her hand rose, palm pressing to his cheek. She regarded him from beneath a sweep of thick lashes. “I have always found you to be a most pleasing human,” she murmured. “It would be fitting for a queen to have a consort, a prince worthy of standing at her side and not behind.”
Jake considered her words. Though alien to his world, Magaera wasn’t a stupid woman. Of the eight Mer who had accompanied her, only four remained. Her pool of guardians was effectively halved, and Tessa had been snatched out of her reach by a foe she didn’t fully understand. She needed more than a human ambassador.
She needed an alliance with a strong man who shared her goal of returning the Mer to their rightful place on earth.
Raw aggressive ambition moved her.
Check.
And mate, he thought.
Despite their recent defeat, reckless exhilaration sped through his veins. This might work out even better than he’d hoped. In the back of his mind, though, he had no intention of assuming the lowly position of a mere Mer prince.
No, not by a long shot.
His mind schemed, hatching the plot that would put the power of a goddess under his control. By the time he got through with his manipulations, Jake was determined he would be a king.
Jake’s mouth curved upward. As for Magaera . . .
It would be an insult to refuse her.
And Jake Massey wasn’t exactly known for his resistance to a beautiful, naked female.
Especially one he could use.
His ego swelled even as his body heated. The tingle of desire laced with ambition burned all the way through his belly and into his groin. The bold image of two naked bodies writhing together in ecstasy filled his mind. Her moist red lips were but a breath away, easy to conquer if he so desired.
Jake molded his hand around the aching tautness of her left breast. “I am honored you have chosen me,” he murmured, brushing his thumb across t
he tip of her erect nipple. “I will do my best to serve you well.”
A tiny gasp of pleasure rolled past the Mer queen’s lips. Her gaze locked with his. “Do not tell me,” she urged, reaching up to thread her arms around his neck. “Show me.”
Saying no more, Jake drew her forward. His hands skimmed the gleaming litheness of her body. He understood lust. Had countless times succumbed to its throes.
But the magnetic pull between the Mer queen and him was of a different caliber. Something vastly more threatening, suffocating. Something that, no matter how many times he satisfied his needs with her, it would never be enough.
An inexplicable gut feeling that they were already connected tormented him, ate away at his denial like a ravenous demon determined to have its insatiable fill. She was a beautiful woman, but no more so than the countless beauties he’d taken throughout his life. He couldn’t recall ever hesitating to bed them and then leave them when circumstances shifted.
What made Magaera different? Or had he in some way changed?
Did it matter? It seemed they were destined to be together, and that was enough.
For now.
Jake’s mouth swept forcefully, possessively over hers, his tongue delving boldly, hungrily for the sweet reward he’d so eagerly plunder.
Magaera’s submission.
Chapter 8
Trapped in a brain harried by fever and a body strained by exhaustion, Gwen spent a restless night tossing and thrashing. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she was vaguely aware her body ached, throbbing from head to toe. Nausea took her over, even as a series of convulsions twisted and pulled at her limbs.
Before pain and numbness overtook her completely, a flash of absolute clarity warned that great danger was about to befall her. The sense of foreboding grew, haunting the edges of her mind with every passing hour.
Gradually, the gloom and shadows enveloping her mind receded, clarifying into figures and shapes. The world began to take on substance.
Gwen cracked open burning eyes. The first thing she knew was that she wasn’t home, in her own bed. The soft hum of the unfamiliar objects positioned around her clarified as recognition drifted through her fuzzy brain.
