Rising

by Kelly, Holly

  “It’s not so bad.” She shrugged.

  Xanthus looked sad as he gathered her in his arms to leave. A moment later, he carried her outside into the warm, Hawaiian air.

  “Hello, Xanthus.” A tall, blonde, voluptuous woman waved from the other side of the dock and sauntered over.

  “Danielle, I haven’t seen you for a while. It’s good to know you’re back,” he said.

  “Yes, well, I’ve had a lot of problems to deal with at work,” she said. Xanthus raised an eyebrow.

  “This must be your sister, right?” Danielle’s eyes were a bit too narrow as they darted down to Sara’s spandex-wrapped stump. This woman was jealous. She hoped Sara was his sister.

  “No, this is Sara. Sara, this is Danielle, a neighbor of mine.”

  “A very close neighbor,” Danielle said. A smile tugged at Danielle’s lips when she laid her hand on Xanthus’s arm. How close a neighbor was she? Sara’s eyes shot over to Xanthus. He was hard to read. He looked a bit bored with the whole exchange, almost too bored. He was hiding something.

  “I’m sorry we can’t stay and chat, Danielle, but I have some men coming to install counters in Sara’s apartment.” Sara wondered why he neglected to tell her he was moving.

  “Oh,” Danielle said with a sigh, obviously relieved. “She’s one of your tenants. It’s so nice of you to help out someone in her condition.”

  Danielle put her hand on Sara’s arm and spoke to her as if she were a small child. “Sara, you’re a beautiful girl. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you won’t find love just because you’re crippled. You have such a pretty face.”

  Sara’s fingers dug into Xanthus’s arm and she had to clench her jaw to keep herself from saying something she would later regret. Sara waited for Xanthus to tell Danielle he cared for her. But he didn’t. He wasn’t going to tell her. There must be something going on between them and he obviously wasn’t willing to end it.

  “I’ll see you later, Xanthus baby,” she called out and strutted away.

  Still holding her in his arms, Xanthus strode over to his SUV and placed her in the passenger seat. He pulled out his cell phone and talked while he walked around and got in the driver’s seat. “Hello, this is Xanthus Dimitriou. You have some men coming to move my things this afternoon. I was wondering if you could have them come tomorrow instead.” He paused. “Yes, I know. Something has come up.” He ended the call and snapped his phone back in its holder.

  Sara felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. Was he breaking up with her? Of course, it couldn’t really be a breakup—they’d never made being together official. Still, it was obvious that he didn’t want to tell Danielle that he was interested in her. Actually, he’d never said he was interested in her. Maybe to him, he was just protecting another Dagonian. After all, that’s what he did, and a few stolen kisses didn’t make him her boyfriend. Sara’s stomach was sick when she realized she’d been reading way too much into their relationship. She pulled the seat belt across her body and blinked back tears.

  Xanthus turned on the SUV. He waited until he pulled out onto the road before he spoke to her. “Sara, I need to explain.”

  “You don’t need to explain anything, I don’t own you.” As the words fell from her lips, she made a realization. She may not own him but he owned her—both heart and soul. Whether or not she wanted it, her heart belonged to him, but broken heart or not, she still had her pride.

  “Sara, please let me explain.”

  “You don’t need to. I understand perfectly.”

  “No you don’t understand. Haven’t you wondered what kind of assignment I’m here for?”

  “Assignment?” She turned, giving him her full attention.

  “Yes, assignment.” Xanthus sighed. “We’ve had two Dagonian colonies destroyed due to humans dumping poison into the waters in the South Pacific. I’ve been tracking down the origin of the poison, and I’ve traced it to a factory here in Hawaii. I’ve brought the guilty to judgment. Thank the gods I was able to stop them before more damage was done. There’s only one loose end I still have to tie up, then hopefully things back home will calm down enough to avoid an open war.”

  “So Danielle is part of this?” Sara wrung her fingers together.

  “She’s right in the middle of it and guilty as sin.”

  “So is she your loose end?”

  “Yes,” he said, to her relief.

  “What are you going to do to her?” She wondered if he would punish her himself.

  “She’ll answer to Triton.”

  “Wow, Triton?” Sara guessed she shouldn’t have felt so jealous of Danielle. She would be terrified to be in her shoes, facing an angry god.

  “Yes, and don’t ask me what he’ll do. I don’t know. I only know it won’t be pleasant.”

  “So if the Dagonians decide to retaliate against the humans, how much damage could they do?”

  Xanthus sighed. “We could do a lot of damage. About half of the human population lives near the ocean. With massive tsunamis strategically triggered, we could wipe out about three billion.”

  “Three billion…” Sara felt dizzy. “Hawaii would be gone, everyone would be killed.”

  “Unless you were lucky enough to be hiking to the top of Mauna Kea. At 13,000 feet, you’d probably survive.”

  “And this is all because we polluted the waters in the South Pacific and killed… how many?”

  “Over three thousand… and for a Dagonian with a lifespan as long as ours, that is astronomical.” Xanthus shook his head. “And it’s not just that. Humans have been polluting so much of the seas in the last few decades, much of it is unlivable.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re not at fault.”

  “No, but my people are.” Sara hoped that Xanthus could stop this war. But how could one man make a difference?

  As Xanthus and Sara pulled into the apartment parking lot, Sara gasped at the sight. It was filled with trucks—Al’s construction, Wall-2-Wall Flooring, Water-Works Plumbing, Pest-Assassin Exterminator Service, Bright-Light Electrical, Kinimaka Brothers Painting Service…

  “I take it my apartment isn’t the only one you’re updating,” Sara said.

  “I’m just doing what any responsible apartment building owner would do. I do have to act the part. Besides, there are small children and old women living in this building!”

  “I’m not complaining. Your tenants are going to love you.”

  “I’m not looking for love from these humans,” Xanthus said.

  “You may not be looking for it, but you’re going to get it.”

  Xanthus didn’t respond, the frown on his face said it all.

  That evening, Sara relaxed in Xanthus’s arms as one of the Star Wars movies played on her little television. She was really too tired to pay much attention to the movie. Watching Xanthus and the other men work was exhausting.

  “You really should have let me help today,” she said.

  “Hm? What?” Xanthus said, distracted by a space battle. Then her words sunk in. “Sara, we went over this. You could get hurt doing manual labor. Besides, that’s what I was paying those men for.”

  Sara rolled her eyes. “You helped.”

  “They needed my help,” he said.

  Sara bit her lip when she was about to say, Yeah, right.

  “Humans have quite the imagination.” Xanthus said absently.

  Sara looked up at him. “George Lucus sure does.”

  She smiled when she noticed he still had a few lipstick smudges on his face. Like it or not, his tenants now adored him.

  “Did you want the last sushi roll?” he asked.

  “You can have it,” she said as she lay her head down against his chest and closed her eyes. “I’m glad you found some human food you could stomach.”

  “Barely stomach,” he said, correcting her.

  Late into the night, Sara awoke in her own bed. She wondered if Xa
nthus had gone.

  She got into her wheelchair, rolled out into her living room, and found him asleep on her couch. At least, half of him was on her couch. His long legs stretched out over the side onto the floor. He didn’t look at all comfortable.

  Sara sighed. He was so adorable, like an angelic, sleeping giant. And he was willing to forgo comfort to make sure she was safe. She returned to her bed and fell asleep smiling.

  Xanthus swam through the darkened hall toward a secret room located deep inside his father’s mansion. He searched for any servants, or worse, his father. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He wasn’t too nervous—it was long after everyone’s bedtime. His father was asleep and wasn’t there to tell him that he couldn’t go in that room. “It’s no place for a child,” his father had said. But Xanthus was tough. His father just didn’t know him well enough.

  Xanthus’s tiny hand pushed the heavy door open. He jumped when the lights turned up. He almost fled back to his room. But warriors don’t flee from danger, and, someday, he’d be the bravest warrior ever.

  When he turned back into the room, his eyes fell on a beautiful sight—the face of a female. Her pale hair haloed her perfect features. Xanthus was about to swim away before she had a chance to see him when he realized something was not right. Her milky white eyes were open, but they couldn’t see a thing. She was dead.

  Her body floated in a tank—a tank similar to those they kept their fish in at dinner time. But this one stood taller, the water tinted green.

  Xanthus wanted to leave, but he had to be brave. What had happened to the beautiful female? He forced his little body to swim closer. His eyes widened when he saw her chest. Right where her heart should have been was a gaping hole. The sight sickened him. He no longer cared about being brave now. He had to get away from here.

  Xanthus turned and swam straight into his father. “Xanthus, what are you doing here?”

  “Father,” he said. “I was just going back to my room.”

  “So you think you can just go and I’ll forget that you disregarded my order?”

  “I’m sorry, Father…”

  “No. You wanted to see it. So here, take a good look.” His father dragged him over to the tank and pressed his face against the hard glass.

  The female’s lifeless eyes stared back at Xanthus. He didn’t want to see it, but he couldn’t resist looking at the gaping, jagged hole rimmed with pale flesh and broken ribs.

  “Do you know what she is, son?” his father asked.

  Xanthus’s brows knitted in confusion. It was obvious she was a female Dagonian. But maybe she wasn’t. Why else would his father ask that question? He shook his head.

  “It’s a pathetic young mermaid. She begged me for her life, but warriors don’t listen to sniveling cowards, son. Before I killed her, I cut out her tongue. Then I tore her beating heart from her chest.”

  Xanthus frowned, his stomach soured. His father was a coward, boasting about killing a weak female. “Why did you kill her?”

  “She’s a mermaid, that’s the best reason,” his father said, with glee in his voice.

  “What about King Triton? Why didn’t he stop you?”

  Xanthus’s father glared at him. “Poseidon ordered that we kill all the Mer. The day the last one was killed was a day of celebration for every Dagonian.”

  Xanthus didn’t understand. He’d thought when he became a warrior, he’d be protecting females. Not killing them.

  His father snarled and dragged him close so they were nose to nose. “You pity them?” The current of his breath brushed Xanthus’s face.

  Xanthus was too scared to answer truthfully, so he shook his head.

  “You’d better not. The Mer were fouler than humans. I only wish my sons could have joined me in their slaughter.”

  “Well? Are you coming, son?” his father asked. Xanthus found himself outside dressed in full battle gear. His father floated nearby. “They’re this way,” his father said. “Be ready. Sirens can be clever. Be sure to put in your earplugs. You don’t want to be caught around a Mer without them.”

  “Yes, Father,” Xanthus’s deep voice answered as he shoved the wax plugs in his ears. He was now a grown warrior following his father into battle.

  Xanthus’s eyes darted toward movement in the kelp fields. A figure hid in stalks. His father took off after it. At that moment, Xanthus saw movement from another section of kelp. He shot through the water, snaking around the great stalks of kelp in pursuit. He could see the figure racing as swiftly as it could. But it wasn’t fast enough. Xanthus easily overtook it. He grabbed the fin, jerked the fugitive to a stop, and then he yanked on the slate black hair to turn the mermaid’s head to face him.

  His heart stopped.

  “Sara?” he whispered in horror as his eyes rested on the terrified face of the woman he loved.

  “Good, you caught her, son.” His father’s muted voice reached his ears as he emerged from the swaying kelp. Blood trailed from his hands, clouding the water. He’d obviously caught his Mer.

  “Now make me proud. Let me see you rip her heart from her chest.”

  Xanthus turned to his father in shock. He couldn’t kill her. This was his Sara. He loved her.

  “You hesitate? You must never hesitate. Don’t forget Poseidon’s decree. You must kill her!”

  Xanthus turned to Sara. She trembled in his grasp, looking on him with abject terror. She opened her mouth to scream. His father moved like lightning, grabbed her tongue, lifted his knife, and sliced.

  Xanthus jolted awake, his heart slamming against his chest wall. What the Hades? He heaved hard breaths as he tried to process what he’d seen.

  It was a strange mixture of memories and false dreams. He’d had that same nightmare many times over throughout the years, with no variation. Until now. This time, instead of capturing a nameless mermaid, he’d caught Sara. He felt sick remembering the terror in her eyes—as if she thought he would kill her. Then his father….

  Xanthus sat up on Sara’s worn couch and dropped his face into his hands. His body shook as he tried to banish the image from his mind.

  Thank the gods he wasn’t alive when Poseidon gave that foul decree. Xanthus had killed plenty of hardened criminals throughout his years as a warrior but he abhorred killing females. He didn’t know what he would have done if he had lived at the time when all Dagonian solders were ordered to kill the Mer. He didn’t want to think about it.

  Still, why would he be dreaming about killing Sara?

  For his peace of mind, Xanthus looked in on her, sleeping peacefully in her room. She was safe. The dream wasn’t real. He walked over to her, pressed a kiss to her warm forehead, and inhaled her unique, intoxicating scent.

  A moment later, he walked back into the living area and spared the clock a glance. It was 1:14 AM, too early to get up. He lay back on the couch and did his best to reclaim his sleep. But the horror of the nightmare wouldn’t leave. He needed to clear his mind. He had planned on waiting until morning to finish his assignment, but now was as good a time as any to tie up the last loose end.

  Xanthus left Sara’s apartment, making sure everything was locked and the alarm was set. His phone was on and fully charged. He’d had the alarm company link his phone to her system. If Sara’s alarm tripped, he’d know immediately.

  Back at his houseboat, he showered—he was surprised to find he enjoyed showering. He loved the spray of the water on his face. Because it was tap water and not seawater, he was able to enjoy it as a human. Being human wasn’t as much of a bother as he’d thought it would be, but dressing in clothes was one of his least favorite things. They were scratchy and uncomfortable. Still, they covered his ugly, hairy legs. Even female legs were grotesque to him, but at least they were generally hairless.

  Danielle had thought to entice him by wearing short skirts and showing off her long legs. But they just sickened him. He had to hone his acting skills with this assignment. Tonight, he needed to woo her.

  Xanthus p
ut on dark swimming trunks, flip-flops, and nothing else. Danielle loved looking at his bare chest. Somehow, tonight, he needed to entice her into taking a late night dip in the ocean. He estimated that would take about two seconds.

  As he walked out onto his deck, he saw a couple of young neighbors lounging on their boat, drinking beer and listening to music. That was unfortunate. He’d have to take Danielle somewhere more secluded. He’d hoped to get back to Sara sooner than later. Leaving her alone was making him anxious.

  In the darkness, Xanthus strolled down the dock to Danielle’s houseboat. He picked up a few pebbles and, one by one, tossed them to her bedroom window, attempting to awaken her.

  The curtains fluttered and then were pulled back. Her glowing face appeared and she opened her window. “I knew you’d come calling.” She smirked.

  “I was just about to take a late night swim and thought you might like to join me.” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Sure, sweet thing. Just give me a moment.” Danielle walked out her door five minutes later, wearing a bikini top, a tiny, wraparound skirt, and stilettos.

  “I know a great place that’s just a short drive from here,” he said as he walked her to his SUV.

  “Babe, with you looking like you do, I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.” She raked her eyes over him.

  He responded with his own hot once-over. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  She smiled and chuckled.

  Their destination was just a few miles down the shoreline. He pulled off. Thick foliage lined the road. He squeezed his SUV as close to the trees as possible. “The shore is just a short walk and I’ve never seen anyone else here. We’ll be completely alone. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

  Danielle laughed, deep and throaty. “Oh, you’re real funny.”

  They’d taken a few short steps into the palm tree line when she stumbled, “Oh, my ankle. I’ve twisted it.”

  Xanthus knelt down and inspected her injury. “It looks all right to me. Do you want to go back?”

  “Oh, no. It just smarts a bit. I’m sure I can swim fine. But walking on it hurts. Do you think you can carry me?” she asked, her big eyes blinking, the corners of her mouth turned down. Pitiful.