Dark Currents: Elementals, Book 1

by Mima

  Staring at her tennis sneakers, Xia desperately wanted her feet off the floor. She had to pick them up, prop them on that table, get them out of Terra’s reach. But they wouldn’t move. She was gasping now, her breath sawing in her parched throat. Feet. Up. She couldn’t move them. Did Terra have her? Was she sinking? Did she hear it calling her back?

  Vision shrinking to nothing but her feet on the hand-hooked rug, a keening filled the air, low and grating. Her. That was her making that horrible, wounded, terrified noise. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t breathe. Adam. Adam was gone. He was the only one who could find her, keep her here. Xia folded in on herself, sight going black. The keening swelled, and all she knew was terror. She had to hold. Hold on to Xia. Remember Adam, remember Xia.

  Time left. It did not matter.

  When she was Xia again, she ached through to her very bones. Adam’s tenor hummed against her scalp, his sea-chilled arms tight to her. Salt scented his skin sharply. She shook, her arms and legs flopping with a movement that reminded her of hypothermia. Where was she?

  As she grew interested in her location beyond Adam’s arms, she wondered why she was shaking. It came back. His croft by the sea. Her panic attack. “Y-y-you l-left.”

  “I did. We’ll get through this, Xia. We were hasty to think that Xia-touched-by-Terra was unmarred in her return. You’ve got some psychic trauma, and I didn’t recognize the severity of it earlier, at your house. I won’t leave you like that again.” His hands swept her back, big and steady.

  “W-will too. Ssselkie. S-s-sea.” Xia knew he’d have to go into the sea daily. They’d be in Austria as briefly as possible, and still it would diminish Adam’s spirit to leave the ocean’s range.

  “I’ll find a way. If we can just send Aqua back to her slumber, you can come with me. You will be beautiful in the sea.”

  Xia realized her fingers were sunk like claws into Adam’s shoulders. Her joints ached as she concentrated on releasing him.

  “The Chamber is in Austria? We’ll go there today. I have the answer, Adam. I have Terra’s secret to stopping Aqua, though it isn’t Terra’s role. As soon as I’ve delivered it, we can leave and come back.”

  A long breath eased from him. “Aye.”

  The tremors stopped, and her breathing steadied. She wiped her itchy cheek on his chest and realized the salt there wasn’t from the sea, but her tears. Her face was soaked. Her throat hurt.

  “I’m sorry.” So much for being strong and capable.

  His hand settled on her nape, while the other covered half her ass. “Never be. When I heard you from the strand, my heart stopped. You’re mine to protect, awake and asleep, in body and psyche. I’ll find a way to fight this, Xia. But I have a feeling it will not be quick.”

  Dread unfurled inside her. He felt obligated. She’d been damaged on his watch, and he’d never quit until she was better. He’d stuck by his previous morphi’s side the entire year it had taken the man to learn to speak. By the time she was cured of this dependency, he’d be sick of her. She was weak, and he’d miss his freedom and his own kind.

  “Your breathing is steady, heart rate normal. All right to sit up?”

  Xia despised women who clung to their men as if they had no strength of their own. Now that she felt normal, she didn’t even recognize how she could have gotten to this point.

  “Yes. Lord’s grace, yes.” She pushed away from him, finger combing her hair from her face. She crawled from the cradle of the rope bed’s feather mattress and scrambled to her feet. “So, packing for you and me, and then we’re off.”

  Adam lay on the bed, regarding her with those deep eyes. He was nude, and it made her breasts ache, but she certainly couldn’t express desire after that pathetic display.

  “You’re thinking too much, Xia.”

  She smiled at him, brightly. “How often have you met with the Chamber?”

  “You have no cause to be ashamed.”

  “I’ve heard that two of them are a couple. Boy, wouldn’t it suck to have that pairing as your parents?” She bustled over to look out the small window with the thick warped glass of old.

  “Xia.”

  She braced one hand on the inner stone wall. “This stinks, Adam. It’s no good at all. I’ll talk about it later, all right? I can’t take one more person riding me about the ghosting. It’s too new, too hard.”

  He stood up from the bed with embarrassing grace. “You talked to your sister.”

  “Yeah. She’s upset.”

  “You need to stop worrying about soothing the people in your life and take care of yourself.”

  “It’s not like that, Adam. They love me and support me in many ways.”

  He didn’t answer. Moving to a chest of drawers, he pulled out clothes and dressed in socks, underwear and jeans. She had not a single urge to giggle watching him stand in nothing but socks. When he burrowed to the bottom of a drawer full of raggedy, faded tees and dug out a lovely plum-colored one without a single tear, hole or unraveling edge, she grinned.

  “Oooooo, pulling out the nice duds for the Chamber, huh? They get a new T-shirt.”

  He merely put it on. His abs flexed in a beautiful dance. Picking up the same duffel he’d taken to her house, he packed another nice tee, this one dark red, a pair of underwear and socks, a toothbrush, and unscented shampoo that was made specifically for the magical community. Having animal in your makeup played havoc with using human hygiene products. He made a move toward the fireplace and stopped. Glancing at her, his shoulders stiffened.

  “What is it?”

  His eyes flickered away, then back. One shoulder twitched, in a sort of half shrug. He went to the mantel and lovingly took down a shell. It was the size of his fist, smooth and speckled, a compact spiral. He put it in a sock and wrapped the other sock around that to cushion it, and put it in his bag.

  “It’s beautiful, Adam. Don’t be shy that you want to travel with it.”

  He looked at her with his closed face. “Thank you. I have my own superstitions and comforts.”

  Xia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that duffel is just full of comfort. Are you sure you don’t want to bring an actual pair of pants? How about a sweater? Something to read on the plane?”

  He shrugged. “I thought we’d bring your laptop.”

  For some reason the fact that this selkie was treating her laptop like joint property warmed her heart. She smiled. He blinked, and that tiny curve to his lips was so wonderful she walked up and hugged him. He stood for a moment, then hugged her back. His arms tight and strong.

  “Ready,” she said after a peaceful moment. Not even the steady sound of the close surf could dim her happiness. “Ready.”

  Chapter Eleven

  They arrived in their hotel in downtown Vienna that evening. Xia had taken a bit more time to pack than Adam had, although she was limited in her choices. When she’d come to Scotland she hadn’t known she’d be staying for a month. The only comment Adam had made was when she’d taken her hat down off the wall.

  “Really?” he’d asked, perfectly blank.

  She’d rethought the large and now-tattered hat and hung it up.

  The flight had gone smoothly, with Adam surfing on the web and Xia reading a magical-community gossip magazine. Vienna had kept the airport far away. The drive in to the city center was tiring. Now they were in the pedestrian zone of Wien, with the lovely medieval cathedral St. Stephen’s anchoring the space. Xia had once emailed the angel who lived there a few times regarding a pesky demon, and she hoped to have time to visit since they were so close.

  She washed her face and changed into a nice dress and nicer shoes. She brushed her hair and pinned it back with a beautiful clip she’d bought from Anne’s shop. When she nervously left the bathroom, she was disgusted to find Adam asleep on the deep down comforter. Women had to do so much primping to be respectable, and men didn’t have to fuss at all. She called Markos.

  “Just a moment.” She listened to him talk to someone else distantly
, and then heard a burst of chattering background voices. They quieted and he said, “Xia.”

  They’d had two brief conversations. Once as she was packing, and once during her layover in Heathrow. Yet he still sounded relieved to hear her. “Gröss Gott, Markos. We’re here.”

  “I’m at the morphi office. I just have to settle one more thing and then I’ll come pick you both up. Maybe twenty minutes.”

  “We’re room 354.”

  “I’ll see you soon. Are you hungry?”

  “No, we snacked on the plane and in the airport. I’m too nervous to eat.”

  “I’m not.” Adam announced.

  “Adam’s hungry,” Xia conveyed.

  “Tell him to get something from a street kiosk. They’re good here.” He hung up.

  “Markos said—”

  “I heard him.”

  He had? “I’ll walk down with you.”

  Adam was just finishing his second Austrian version of a hot dog, an aromatic cheese-stuffed wonder, when Markos found them. Xia’s heart did a little flip on seeing him come at them in a direct line, huge and stocky. His gaze switched rapidly between her and her rampart.

  “Adam.”

  The men nodded to each other.

  “Ignis’s minotaur,” Adam responded.

  Markos’s shoulders went back. His brows lowered. “You got a problem with me, Aqua’s selkie?”

  Xia stepped into him, pulling his solid body into a hug.

  He hugged her back, whispering, “Dream dancer. So good to hold you.”

  It was shocking how different Markos felt to her now. After being with Adam for such a brief period of time, his body felt thick and bulky, strangely short. At the same time, he was so familiar. His spicy scent and immense body heat brought back a flood of memories, mostly good. She melted against him, comforted.

  “I have no problem with you, Markos. I merely give people the title they’re due,” Adam interjected. His voice was cold.

  Markos lifted his head.

  Xia sighed. “Let’s go, Markos. Time is important.”

  Walking through the vendors and crowds in the darkening sky, Xia began to feel nervous for the first time. She was going to meet with the powerful magicals who were charged with the planet’s safety. She smoothed her hair, checking for bumps. She hadn’t had to worry about her looks for weeks.

  “You look lovely,” Adam purred in his brogue. “That’s the dress I first saw you in. It matches your hair.”

  It came down to midcalf, bias cut and double layered, darted to let the gauzy maroon fabric flow.

  “I bought it for her.” Markos oozed satisfaction.

  A glance at Adam confirmed that stoic mask was firmly in place. Xia pinched Markos. He grinned at her. Adam went rigid. Surprised, Xia looked at him, to see his gaze riveted on Tasha. The delicate woman stood in her typical black pantsuit, holding the door open. Her white-blonde hair was in its constantly perfect, intricate chignon.

  “To the Chamber, Tasha.” Markos spoke to the sprite who had worked for him as his bodyguard and aide for a hundred years. He slid into the new limousine.

  “Da,” Tasha replied, as usual.

  “Hello, Tasha. Nice to see you. This is Adam, my rampart.”

  Tasha looked at him. How strange Tasha’s opaque demeanor was so similar to Adam’s. She poured a torrent of Russian out at him. Russian was not one of Xia’s languages, but she knew a few phrases. She recognized “go with god” among the words that Tasha spoke.

  Adam moved past Xia to fold the delicate but powerful creature in his arms. Tasha hugged him back, her face buried in his neck. Xia stood in shock, listening to Adam quietly speak back to her.

  Markos called from within the car. “Xia, come. Give them a moment.”

  She blinked a few more times at how Adam curved over the woman, sheltering her. That must have been how he had looked with his first wife two hundred years ago. She moved into the car. Markos flipped his cell shut.

  “You knew they knew each other?”

  “I did.”

  Flicking a glance at the still-embracing couple, she leaned into Markos and hissed, “And?”

  “She’s his first wife’s sister.”

  Xia sat back, relief pouring over her. So, he wasn’t reconnecting with an old lover. She frowned. That she knew of. “Tasha is older than I realized.”

  “Margarethe was old when she died. Tasha is her much older sister.”

  Xia swallowed. All magicals grew more powerful with age. “She doesn’t mind being your driver?”

  Markos laughed a big belly laugh, the one that always made Xia forgive him and soften. She smiled at him.

  When he caught his breath he said, “My driver! She’d kill you for saying so.” He shook his head, chuckling.

  Xia felt the smile freeze and wilt on her face. “Does she have cause to kill often? Have you needed that much defense?”

  He slid her a glance. “All morphi advocates have a bodyguard. If we are taken, the names and secrets of our morphi can be tortured out of us.”

  Xia’s breath froze in her throat. “I prefer to think of you as a harried civil servant, a paper pusher, organizing us like a chess match.”

  “You’re a pawn, my dear, none of us want to sacrifice. I’m your rook.” With a wry twist of his lips, he gestured to Adam. “He’s your knight. And now we must be off to meet with the kings.”

  He leaned across her, taking the excuse to put his massive, burning hand on her knee. He spoke something in Russian out the open car door, and Tasha said, “Da.”

  Sitting back, his hand drifted down her thigh in a caress. Xia shifted, frowning at him. “Stop, Markos. I’m with Adam now.”

  He raised one eyebrow, an irritating habit. “Are you? And is he with you?”

  She gritted her teeth. “I am. He is.”

  He pursed his lips. “Who is the queen on this board, Xia? Do you know?”

  She felt doused by an icy sea. The import of why she was here struck her anew. “I do. But I don’t know if everyone else does.”

  Markos reached out a hand to trace her jaw and she let him. It felt good, sending shivers of warmth down to her belly in memory. “Adam had best enjoy you.” His voice was low, sounding like a threat.

  She knocked his hand away. “I’m not a cookie to be enjoyed. And why would the enjoyment be his to take? I think I’m the one enjoying, thank you very much. He’s a refreshing little raindrop.”

  She watched Markos’s arrested face. He could go either way into anger or nonchalance. His fiery nature was so changeable. To her surprise, he burst out into laughter again, deep and so hard he folded over, slapping his knee. Despite herself, she smiled.

  “Raindrop!” He roared. “Raindrop!”

  Adam sat in the car, murmured to Tasha, who nodded and closed the door. He glanced at Markos, who pointed at him and boomed, “Refreshing little raindrop!”

  Adam’s face remained unmoved. His eyes slid to Xia.

  She held her smile, but felt it crack a bit. “It came out wrong.”

  Sitting between the two large men on the leather seat, she was surprised when Adam reached over and pulled her into his lap. He arranged her facing Markos, and then he gathered her close. “Storm cloud, you can call me whatever you want, if you just let me hold you right now.”

  She let her weight settle on his thighs, her ass nestling into his groin. She slid one arm around his back and laid her head on his chest. Markos kept trying to stop, but the chuckles would burst from him, until he’d start to laugh and wheeze, where it would all start again. Adam leaned his head against the seat, his arms tight around her. The car slid through Vienna’s streets, and Markos amused himself.

  It wasn’t long before they stopped. Tasha opened the door and they all climbed onto an ordinary sidewalk. It was a lovely gray stone townhouse, perhaps from the mid-1800s. She could tell they were still in the city proper. A cheerful window box exploding with colorful flowers decorated the single window, and the door was paint
ed glossy white, which looked lovely beneath a red stained-glass fan window. There was a simple brass nameplate on the door above a mail slot that read Chamber for Historical Studies.

  “Huh,” Xia said, taking it all in. “Who knew.”

  “You won’t. This will probably be taken from you,” Adam warned. “Taken from Markos and Tasha as well.”

  Xia scowled. She hated having her memory fiddled with. It itched. Tasha took the car away, as there was nowhere to park, and Adam didn’t bother with the bell, just put his hand on the brass plate. The door opened by itself.

  Markos stepped in, his grunt warning Xia the door was spelled. She went in. It was like walking through thick cobwebs. The sticky, distasteful feeling made her skin crawl. If she didn’t know it for what it was, she’d have turned and left. As she stepped up next to Markos, the sensation grew worse, like actual spiders crawling over every bit of exposed skin. She couldn’t stop from reaching up to brush her face.

  Adam closed the door and the sensation stopped. Her breath burst from her in relief. Markos stomped his foot. The bull-like mannerism meant he was as bothered as she, although he didn’t show it by wiping his hands down his arms like she did. They were in a lofty, formal foyer, with an intricate white and gray marble floor and lots of glossy white ornate molding.

  “This way.” Adam led them into one of the two side doors on either side of a staircase. The sitting room was small and tastefully decorated in mint green luxury that Jane Austen would have felt at home in. He looked absurd in his jeans, battered hiking boots and plum T-shirt, although Markos in his tailored black suit didn’t look any more appropriate. Adam opened the servants’ door hidden in the back wall’s paneling, and the sound of voices murmuring in typical cocktail chatter could be heard.

  “Ah, here they are,” said a proper, deep English voice. The voices died away. “Welcome, Prince Adam of the Stone Shores. Thank you for bringing your charge to us so promptly. I know it is uncomfortable for you, but I delight in the opportunity to greet you again.”

  Xia stepped up to the door. Prince? The room was full of people. It was a long, large assembly room, filled by a massive, gleaming table decorated with a mosaic wood design.