As the last of her magic is pushed back inside her, Undine screeches in anger. Kallen just smiles at her. Yup, I love him even more now.
“I believe I have won all three challenges set before me,” Kallen says with remarkably little triumph in his voice. I would have been jumping up and down and rubbing it in her face that she lost. I’m tempted to do it anyway even if I wasn’t the one who beat her. I refrain with what I think is an impressive show of restraint.
Undine takes a moment to answer him. I don’t think she trusts her voice right now. Finally, she clears her throat and says, “Indeed you have.”
“So, we can go now right? We’re tired and would like to get out of here as quickly as possible.” Yes, there’s some triumphant snark in my voice.
Undine narrows her eyes in my direction. “You are a dreadful little thing. I should have you locked up to teach you more respect.”
I’m about to tell her what she can do with that idea when I feel Zoe’s hand on my shoulder. “I believe the child truly is tired, my Queen. I do not believe she meant to anger you with her inappropriate tone of voice.” Yes I did. But I probably shouldn’t admit that.
Zoe’s right. I should try to be more tactful so I don’t get us into any more trouble. “Sorry, I’m just really tired and would love to go home.”
Zoe moves to Undine and puts her hand on her shoulder now. “Understandable after such an experience. Don’t you agree, Queen?”
Undine looks at Zoe and her face softens slightly. Looking back at me, she says, “Let us part on civil terms. Your trespasses are forgiven, but I am as much in favor of you leaving our realm as you are to go home.”
Wow. I just got kicked out of the Merpeople realm. That’s a blow to the ego. How many people get kicked out of an entire realm? From the way Kallen’s looking at me with that half smirk, I’m thinking not very many.
I nod. “Thank you and I’m sorry for the trouble I caused. I didn’t mean to. I’m just learning a lot of this magical stuff and sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Undine’s face softens a little bit more. She tilts her head and almost smiles. “It takes a brave soul to admit as much. Perhaps someday, in the distant future, we can attempt meeting again.”
In other words, don’t come back any time soon. “Okay, thanks.”
“Coralia, please escort our visitors back to where you found them so they may travel home.” With that, she turns and swims away. I guess we’re dismissed.
Zoe smiles at us. “That went better than I thought it would.”
I nod. “I agree. Are you coming with us?”
I can tell that she wants to say no, but she nods. “Yes. I am curious to discover the reason for my summoning.”
I am so relieved. It would have really sucked to go through all this and then still not bring her home with us. “Thank you.”
Kallen, Zoe and I start to follow Coralia. She and Zoe are swimming way too fast for me. My legs are so tired. Who knew swimming was so much harder than walking? Kallen keeps pace with me and the Mermaids have to keep stopping, waiting for us to catch up. Finally, I can see the underbelly of a Zaratan in the distance. I really hope it’s the one that wanted to eat us. Now, there’s a strange sentence.
Apparently, it’s the right Zaratan because Coralia brings us as close as safety allows, and then she says goodbye. She and Zoe exchange a hug and a few tears and then she swims away. Finally, we get to go home.
Chapter 12
When Coralia is out of sight, Zoe turns to me with a smile. “I assume you have a plan to get us back to the Fairy realm?”
I nod. “It’ll just be a second.” I close my eyes after giving a last look at the Zaratan to make sure we’re really out of eating range. Doing what I always do when I open a realm, I peel back the fabric of each realm creating a gateway. I swish my hand into the gunky stuff so it’s safe.
Zoe is impressed. “You are a wonder,” she says with a smile. With an impressive jump, she goes through the gateway, landing in the ocean in the night of the Fairy realm. I thought it would be mean to open the gateway onto the sand.
This does make it a little harder for me and Kallen, though. We don’t have nice fish tails to help us leap out of the water. Maybe I should have thought this through better. It’s not like we’re going through a window; we can’t hold onto the ledge of the gateway and pull ourselves up. Even Kallen looks a little weary of trying to leap through it.
“Need a little help, cousin?” an amused voice asks. Kegan’s wading into the water. “Nice Mermaid, by the way. Where did you get her?”
“We’re starting a collection,” I say dryly. I’m not in the mood for Kallen and Kegan’s bickering. I’m tired, cold and obviously wet. “Will you please just help us already?”
Kegan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Someone is in a mood. Have you been taking lessons from my cousin? I see many an argument in your futures if you are both going to be grouches.”
He’s right. “Sorry.”
He grins. “Much better. After all, I did not have to wade out into the cold ocean to offer my generous assistance,” he says as he offers me his hand.
I roll my eyes but smile as he easily lifts me out of the water in the Merpeople realm and into the ocean of the Fairy realm. “Oh, my hero, how can I ever repay you?”
“Be careful how you answer that question,” Kallen threatens. Kegan just laughs as he offers his assistance to him now.
To me, Kegan says, “We will have to discuss that in private later.”
“Will you now?” a cool voice says from the shore. Alita has her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed. If I didn’t know her, I would think that she was actually upset, but she has a twinkle in her eyes that can’t be missed. She’s not jealous in the least.
Kegan on the other hand looks a little sheepish now. That makes me laugh. “Careful, silly statements like that mean a lot more now.” He nods as he blows Alita a kiss.
She laughs and shakes her head. “Are you three coming out of the water sometime soon?”
“Definitely,” I say, wading quickly through the water to the shore. When I’m on the sand, I say to Zoe who has been watching us with a smile on her face, “Do you need anything?”
She shakes her head. “I am fine. Please call to me when you have more information.”
“I will.”
“Then please, go warm yourselves before you become ill.” She dives underwater, presumably off to find her own shelter for the evening.
I am with her on that one. As much as I’m sick of the water, I really need a nice hot shower. My skin and clothes are crusted with salt.
Alita puts her arm around me in a half hug. “You are freezing,” she says, rubbing her hand up and down my arm. My teeth are beginning to chatter, so I just nod.
“What in the world?” Tabitha says from the terrace. “You two look like Tasmanian devils someone decided to drown.”
I’ve seen a Tasmanian devil. That’s not a compliment. “We f-feel l-like that, too,” I say through my chattering teeth.
“What happened to the two of you?” Mom says from behind Tabitha. She must have just arrived.
“Merpeople realm,” Kallen says. Tabitha nods in understanding but Mom still looks a little confused. Grandma didn’t fill her in on a lot of this stuff, so it’s new to her too.
“You two get on upstairs. Isla is already in bed and I do not want to wake her. She has been in a foul mood since you two disappeared again. We will meet in the morning to discuss what happened to you,” Tabitha says, shooing us towards the house.
Mom agrees. “She’s right. You two look like you need about ten hours of sleep before you’ll look like yourselves again.” I don’t miss the accentuation on the word sleep. That was subtle.
Kallen and I walk into the house with everyone and then quickly say our good nights. I want to get to our room, strip off these awful clothes and step into my nice warm bath. Kallen must be able to read my mind because as soon as the bedroom door is sh
ut behind us, he replaces my clothes with a big, warm robe. I smile at him as I head to the bathing room and my Olympic size tub.
He hesitates in the doorway and I look up at him with a question in my eyes. “Are you coming?”
“I am debating how safe it is.”
I give him a funny look. “What do you mean?” I think the risk of drowning was a little more significant while we were in Mermaid hell.
“I am imagining you in the bath and I am already having a hard time keeping my hands off from you.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t recall asking you to keep your hands off from me.”
He steps into the room and closes the door. “No, you have not. That does not make it right in our current situation.”
Our current situation? Does he mean recovering from the Merpeople realm, the fact that we’re not really married, or that I might already be pregnant? I think about it for a heartbeat and then I decide that as this moment, I don’t care. After making sure the Angel rock made the transition into my robe pocket, I shrug out of the robe and walk into the tub. I hear him groan loudly right before I put my head underwater to get the salt out of my hair.
Chapter 13
When I bring my head back up above water, Kallen is walking into the bath. I can’t help but admire his naked muscular frame. The way he moves is so graceful and sexy. Okay, so these thoughts are just proving his point. It’s probably not safe to bathe with each other.
I expect him to stay on his side of the tub, but he doesn’t. He comes to me and pulls me close, our bodies meeting as he claims my lips with his. I moan softly as I slide my arms up and around his neck. Suddenly, I don’t mind being back in the water again. As long as his lips are on mine, I don’t care where I am at the moment.
After several long, delicious minutes, Kallen pulls his lips away and leans his forehead on mine. “You are killing me.”
I smile. “I could say the same about you.”
Stepping back, he sinks down into the water and comes back up, dripping water down his smooth, tan skin. “How fast can you wash your hair?” he asks.
I give him a suspicious look. “Why?”
He moves closer to me again and puts his hands on each of my cheeks. There’s an inferno of passion in his eyes that sets my body on fire. “Because I am going to make love to you for the next several hours.”
My heart has started beating so fast I can feel it pounding against my chest wall. “Give me a minute and a half.”
He growls. “Faster.”
And we do make it faster. In a minute flat, both of us have clean hair and skin. Pulling me from the water, Kallen leads me out of the bathing room and to the bed. Crawling in first, I pull him to me and finally, his lips are back on mine. Our hands are going crazy trying to feel every inch of each other.
Rolling him onto his back, I move my body against his causing him to groan deep in his throat. “Are we really doing this?” I ask as I move my body so that we are as close as possible. If I move any lower, we will be joined as one.
Pulling me to him, he captures my lips as he murmurs, “God, yes.”
Those are the words I want to hear. The words I don’t want to hear? “Xandra, your mother told me you were back. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Do dads automatically come with a kill the mood switch, or do you have to pay extra for that?
Simultaneously moaning in frustration, I roll off of Kallen and onto my back while Kallen makes us both pajamas. The long flannel kind. As much as I don’t want to, I say, “Come on in, Dad.”
If he realizes he interrupted anything, he doesn’t let on when he floats through the door. “Sorry if I woke you, I just had to make sure that you’re okay.”
I smile. It is sweet if incredibly bad timing. “We’re both fine.”
Relief washes over him. “You won’t be disappearing again tonight, will you?”
Since the Angel rock is safely on the bathing room floor, not a chance. I shake my head. “No. All we’re going to do tonight is sleep.” Now. Three minutes ago that wasn’t the case.
“Alright, I’ll let you get some rest. Good night.” I can tell that he wants to say something dad-like about our sleeping arrangements, but he refrains. Impressive restraint on his part, actually. I didn’t think he had it in him.
“Good night, Dad.” He and Kallen nod at each other like guys do.
After he’s gone, I look over at Kallen. “Any chance of picking up where we left off?”
“Nope.”
“Afraid my Dad’s coming back to check on us.”
“Yup.”
“Yeah, me too.” With a sigh, I roll over so I’m curled up against him and he tightens his arm around me. “I love you.”
“I love you more than you can imagine.”
I smile because I can definitely imagine it.
Chapter 14
“See, you are always in bed with the Fairy.”
I peel my eyelids apart just far enough to confirm I don’t want to see who’s standing next to the bed. “Go away. I’m too tired to talk to you.”
“Sorry, little one, there’s no time for your petty mortal needs.”
I ponder the wisdom of telling an Angel what he can do with his petty mortal needs comment. Probably not wise. With a sigh, I open my eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you are lounging around in bed when you have one more Fallen Angel to find.”
“Are you even doing your job right now, or are you spending all your time watching me? Am I really that exciting?” I grumble as I force myself to sit up. I rub my eyes with the heels of my palms, trying to get the sleep out of them.
He snorts. “I get no more pleasure from these conversations than you do. You are merely a means to an end.”
Yeah, what kind of end? Am I bringing together old friends or putting together an arsenal. It hasn’t escaped my attention that the two Fallen Angels I have retrieved so far are quite persuasive when they want to be. Ray helped quiet down the fight in the bar and every time Zoe spoke to Undine, the Mermaid became much more agreeable no matter how pissed she was a second before that. What kind of damage could they wreak as a team?
“Do you still have the locator?” Ambriel asks, pulling me from my reverie.
“Yes, it’s in the other room.” I point towards the bathing room.
“You would leave such a valuable artifact lying about? Have you no sense?”
“Hey, back off. It’s a rock. It’s not like anyone’s going to look at it and go ‘oh, cool, I can find Fallen Angels with this.’ You are such a spaz. Relax a little bit. It’s healthier than being so uptight all the time.”
“Your colloquialisms are lost on me. Even if they were not, your opinion of me means nothing.”
“Really? Then why are you getting so defensive?” I ask as I swing my legs off the bed and stand up.
Now he’s all huffy. “You will retrieve the artifact and be on your way. Immediately.”
My turn to snort. “Look, I promised to do you two favors. Neither of us ever agreed to time limits. I can take years to find the next Fallen Angel if I want.”
First he looks mad but then he gets a sly look on his face. “How true, we did not discuss time limits.” He opens his arms in a defeated sweep in front of him. “By all means, take as long as you like. I am more than willing to shirk my responsibilities so that I can constantly be monitoring your progress. We can have tea every morning and discuss your plans for the day. Better yet, I can visit you every time you wish to lie in bed with your Fairy.”
I believe he would do it, too. Who knew Angels could be so evil? “Fine,” I snap. “I’ll find your stupid Angel.”
He grins and it’s dripping self-satisfaction and arrogance onto the floor. I’m going to need a really big mop to clean all of that up. “I knew you would see it my way.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “The longer you stand here talking, the longer it’ll take me to find him.” If it’s a him. I don’t really care at thi
s point. I just want this guy out of my life. With a nod and a smug smile, he’s gone.
I turn around and look at Kallen sleeping so soundly. It seems cruel to wake him. I guess I could go after this Fallen Angel by myself. I purse my lips as I think about it. What are the pros and cons? Pro – Kallen gets to stay in bed and get the sleep we both desperately need. Cons – I come back to an incredibly angry boyfriend, I’ll probably get myself into even more trouble than usual and I’ll miss him terribly. Sorry Kallen, you’re getting up.
I crawl back onto the bed and snuggle up to him. I put my hand softly on his cheek and give him a light kiss on the lips. He must have been more awake than I thought because with a feral growl, he rolls us so I’m on my back underneath him and gives me the best good morning kiss ever.
Blood of Destiny (Witch Fairy #6) Page 11
