by Starla Night
“Send warriors!” he shouted.
Send warriors! Send warriors! Send warriors!
The amplification was normal for the second part of his message.
Thank goodness.
Clifford caught up with them. She flew outside the echo point growling and shrieking and spreading her legs in the “happy parasol” twirl.
Okay, ordinary octopi made a parasol. Clifford was more like a parachute. Even with one tentacle missing and a second one cut half off, she was magnificent.
She danced around, sneaking her tentacles into currents and chasing off everything. A school of fish erupted from one current in a shocked mass. A swordfish in a crossing current veered off. A pod of dolphins swooped close, curious, and then darted away.
The echo point wobbled as the cross currents tangled. The vortex pressed against the still water bubble.
Uvim tightened his hold on her. Time to go.
He kicked.
As they left the direct current to Dragao Azul, two final words flew back at them: Guerreiros vem.
She translated Portuguese. Warriors come.
Ominous.
They exited the echo point.
“We’re not waiting?”
“Warriors will swim to the beach.” His jaw set. “I will meet them there.”
On familiar territory. Where he had the advantage.
Hmm.
Uvim kicked free of the currents, navigating the creatures disrupted by the antics of the huge cave guardian, and set a different direction. Still in explanation mode, he pointed out the different tastes.
“Taste?” she repeated. “You ‘taste’ currents?”
He nodded.
They followed the new ‘taste’ of the current on a twisting, turning path over deep water until it reached land. Faial Island. The volcanic beach.
The waves grew shallow. They crashed onto land.
Gravity dragged her down, a million times heavier.
Milly let go of Uvim and fell on her hands and knees in the evening surf. Water drained out of her lungs like she’d swallowed a pool. It burned. Everything hurt. Her lungs spasmed and she choked.
Uvim stroked her back. “Do not fight the shift.”
Milly gasped, tears running off her nose.
She would get through this. She would.
They had met on this beach days ago. Days? As far as she could tell, it had only been one day, but Zara had warned her not to trust time underseas.
Uvim stood watch over her. His outline was … not fuzzy. Oh, no.
He was naked.
She pulled on her swimsuit. Now, at least, she was decent.
She groaned to her feet. The slightest waves at her ankles threatened.
Uvim steadied her.
“I’m dangerous,” she warned.
He pulled her to his powerful chest. “I will protect you.”
She rested her forehead on his rippling shoulder. “Thank you.”
And when she was queen, she would protect him.
He stroked her hair. Silky and wet. Her body thrummed with sudden awareness. His proud member pressed against her fabric-covered hip. Her pussy throbbed.
She wanted him.
If she was brave.
Milly straightened.
She was different now. Everything was different. She was a mermaid! Soon to be a powerful queen.
Probably.
Unless something went wrong.
Rough volcanic gravel scraped her bare feet. She picked her way across the overcast beach, heading to the cell phone. She’d call her boss and ask for a pickup. And everything would be fine.
Half way across the beach, fuzziness returned to her vision, and she stumbled more.
Uh oh. The lockbox hung off-kilter from the base.
“Oh, now what?” she groaned.
Tiny puncture holes — hundreds of them — had assaulted the metal, bending and ripping it into Swiss cheese.
“Well, my trap with the pressure plates wouldn’t have stopped this,” she said.
Uvim cupped his masculinity in one hand for modesty. With his free hand, he touched the punctured metal. “What weapon makes this kind of damage?”
“A gun.” She let out a long sigh. “Which is illegal.”
This problem she’d hoped to solve herself could no longer be just hers. She had to involve Vaw Vaw’s family. And maybe the policía.
Ugh. Her stomach squeezed. Did she have to ask for help?
Yes. Yes, she had to. She was a queen now. Or, she would be soon. Her personal feelings had to die. The mer deserved her total commitment.
He traced the holes. “What is the meaning of this symbol?”
“Symbol?”
He drew it. The bullet holes carved an image into the lockbox. She squinted harder. A triangle. Inside was a sort of … what Greek symbol was the upside-down y? A lambda? With an apostrophe.
She shook her head. “I don’t… Oh, wait. I do know.”
The same marking had accompanied the Merman Repellent. A triangle around a fish head with stick legs. The apostrophe must be the cleaver.
A slow breeze shook the grasses in warning.
Goosebumps stood up on her damp skin.
She wasn’t cold. She just didn’t want to deal with this.
But vandals had broken the cell phone inside. Again.
“Your warriors won’t need to use this tonight, right?”
He nodded.
She turned away. “Come on. We’ve got to hitch a ride and make phone calls.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Hitching a ride” meant walking along the beach and exposing themselves to humans. Most agreed to take Milly to town, and then saw him, and their souls darkened in fear. They changed their minds.
“Why do they fear?” he asked. “They have the advantage on land. I have no weapons and only one free hand.”
“It’s your size. Try looking less intimidating.”
He did not know how to accommodate her request.
She found someone she knew, and they rode in a wheeled metal box — car — to the town, collected Milly’s cell phone, scuba equipment, and the purple wire-rimmed disks she’d been wearing in front of her face the day they’d gone to the island, which she seemed to don with relief. He got his covering from her boss. The females exchanged many shocked words because three days had passed under the water.
They drove to Milly’s house. No foreign cars blocked the entrance. And, Uvim walked under his own power. This was good.
Milly sagged. Dark circles shadowed her eyes.
He felt strong. Revitalized.
They were together. She had transformed and swum to the echo point and returned, with a giant cave guardian in tow, and they had faced no incidents.
The Life Tree smiled on them.
Soon, she would be his.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, setting her scuba equipment inside the kitchen and walking through the house to open the windows and air it out.
He could not eat when she was so exhausted. “No.”
“Me neither.” She took a deep breath and stretched. “I want to sleep.”
His chest warmed.
Their bodies had pressed close during the trip. Hers had fitted to his perfectly as though mer were designed to travel the ocean in pairs rather than the solitary trips he’d made his entire life until now.
He wanted to remain close on land. And sleeping with her would let him touch, stroke, explore, devour her.
“Not sex,” she blurted.
She hadn’t requested sex. She’d requested sleep.
He nodded.
She washed her scuba equipment on the patio and hung it to dry, and then came inside and washed dishes in the sink. She showed him how to dry, and then she took him to her bathing room and showed him how to bathe his teeth and face before bedtime.
These little rituals made her normal life. Not sailing with strangers. He wanted her quiet moments, always.
“I take it you don�
�t do this underseas,” she said, around a frothy mouthful of a cream she called toothpaste. “No brushing your teeth?”
He shook his head.
“You probably don’t eat as much chocolate.”
“What is chocolate?”
She choked.
His heart stopped. He hovered. She was choking? Should he rip the tooth stick out of her mouth?
She spat and turned the toothbrush on him in vehemence. “You don’t have — no, wait.” She held up one palm and turned away, rinsing her toothbrush and washing out her mouth. “I don’t want to know.”
Ah. She was not ill. He relaxed, his own tooth stick — brush — in hand. She had gotten alarmed when wondering about chocolate.
He could answer that question. “We do not have—”
“Stop!” She put a hand to his mouth again. With him towering over her, she had to lift onto her tip toes to pretend to be intimidating. “I told you, I don’t want to know. Let me worry about how to feed my chocolate addiction later.”
He dipped his head and spoke beneath her fingers. “I apologize.”
Her chest flared. She lowered her fingers to his chest and traced the tattoo swirling over his broad collarbone. “You’re so hot when you apologize.”
When she did that, additional heat flooded his cock.
He would apologize more.
“And when you do anything else,” she amended and sought his mouth for her kiss.
Heat flared between them with the brightness of her soul light.
He opened his mouth and she slipped her tongue in, brave and daring. Darting, sparring, meshing, desiring. They had spent the flight in close contact and yet it had not been sexual. Now, it was.
She pulled her mouth away and lowered to flat feet with a decisive, triumphant thump. She faced her fears on land just as she had overcome them in the cave. Their kiss reaffirmed her healing.
Practice. She needed practice to become closer. Grow their resonance. Become one.
He relished this practice.
They finished in the bathroom. She found him a yellow covering she called a “T-shirt” and showed him to the couch. “Make yourself comfortable.”
He rested against the flat, deep beige cushions.
She put one foot behind the other and tucked her hair. “I’ll be right back.”
She pattered upstairs and returned later in a soft lavender covering with buttons up the front. It bared her legs below the knee and her arms below the elbow. Her nipples peaked against the soft fabric. Her hair hung in two braids.
He leaned forward.
She showed her braids. “I didn’t want you to eat my hair. I hope you don’t mind.”
He didn’t mind.
She grabbed a colorful fabric from the opposite couch and stepped closer. “May I?”
He would always allow her whatever she wished.
She pushed him into a lying position against the couch. She seated herself, spread the fabric over his legs, folded the glass-frames on the table and lay beside him so her derriere cozied against his hard cock.
“Sorry,” she murmured, snuggling in closer.
He would accept this torture. “You are very warm when you apologize.”
She laughed. “Thank you.”
Hmm. He had gotten the phrase incorrect.
Speaking had never been his strength. That’s why his actions must be his voice. Strict obedience so others knew he was an honorable, responsible warrior whose devotion to duty was unquestionable.
Now, they would question.
Milly rested her head against his bicep and wrapped his other arm around her waist, cinching their bodies together. The couch was wide, but she intended not to roll off while sleeping and he promised to ensure her safety. He would not close his eyes for the whole night.
He could use this time to decide how to approach the coming warriors.
How many came? For what purpose?
“I will leave tomorrow,” he murmured.
She blinked awake. “Leave? I thought you had to stay with me. To keep the elixir working.”
“Remain on land.”
Where it was safe.
She partially turned. “I have work. We’re taking out a snorkeling and Snuba tour. The first stop is less than a nautical mile from the beach.”
“Remain human.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. Her soul light dimmed. “You know, it’s a long way back to Ilha Sagrada if I need a refill.”
Uvim must greet the warriors. If they intended to separate him from Milly, then he would know how to proceed. But he must at least hear their orders to know how he was in violation.
“If you become unable to shift, I will retrieve a mating gem and blossom for you myself.”
“Even if you get in trouble?”
He nodded.
“Just to be clear, I don’t need another Sea Opal. Not if it makes you go away.”
She rejected his mating jewel?
“Accept.”
“I don’t want you to risk.” Her soul light darkened. “I feel so powerless. How can I be a mermaid already and yet feel even worse than before I had changed?”
“You are sad.”
“No … yes.” She tried to laugh. “I should take comfort. You committed even though we haven’t slept together.”
“We are sleeping together now.”
She laughed and her soul light brightened. “Yes. Sorry. We haven’t had sex.”
His cock pulsed. “I am committed.”
“I know, but… Even if we tried to, and I got scared and changed my mind?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I never conquered my fears?”
“Even if an entire year passed, and you left the sea behind.”
“A year, huh?”
Some matches were not instant. Resonance could grow.
“After a year, if the warrior and his bride still do not resonate, he must return his bride to the surface.”
“She had to hold out for a year if she never loved the warrior, huh?” Milly traced a tattoo.
“I am prepared.”
“Yeah, you’re prepared to wait for a year and I’m stressed out because it’s been … what? Four days?” She laughed again. Such a bright, cheerful, resilient woman. Praise the Life Tree she was his bride.
But the risks remained.
Their union was not sacred until they performed it in front of the Life Tree. Other warriors could woo her. And who would not? A bright, shining woman like Milly? She was the most desirable bride on this island.
Possibly on the surface world.
He mustn’t leave his station at the echo point nearest the Azores beach. His heart urged him to drag her to the city against his queen’s orders.
His heart thudded.
No.
Dark thoughts poisoned his mind. He sucked in a deep breath and released it.
Soft strands of her hair tickled his forearm. Dangerous tendrils of possessiveness curled around his heart.
The mer would not accept his bride. Would they punish him? Or her?
Milly wiggled her rump against his cock, brightening his darker thoughts. “When we’re snuggled like this, I feel like I can trust you. Like you have my back.”
“Have your back?”
“It means you’ll support me.”
She had such faith in him.
“Always,” he murmured.
He would fail all others — his city, his fellow warriors, even his queen — but he would not fail Milly.
No matter the cost.
Chapter Fifteen
Milly had so much to do before work.
That was why she dragged herself awake with a horrified gasp. What time was it? She scrambled for the alarm she hadn’t set. Oh, no. The tour!
She flailed. The couch was empty.
Uvim sat in the kitchen cupping a glass of water.
“I’m sorry I don’t have time to drop you at the beach!” She pounded up the stairs. “Did you need breakfast?
Grab anything in the fridge!”
She put in her contacts and was selecting clothes when, of course, Zara called.
“You’re calling so late!” Milly tugged a dive shop T-shirt on over her bikini and cinched the belt on her capris. “It must be after midnight?”
“I just finished the last interview. We’ve hunted down another bride. Right here in California!”
“Congrats.” Milly jammed on her water socks and ran down the stairs.
“This one’s going to join us. I know I said that about the last three but the next one is different. I can feel it.”
She grabbed her scuba equipment — she kept the phone jammed to her ear — and hauled it outside.
Uvim helped her.
She didn’t want the elixir to expire while she was leading a tour underwater. She didn’t want to wake up on a boat to Brody administering CPR. Those lips were not the ones she wanted sucking her face. Yuck.
They dumped the equipment in her trunk.
She stretched with a groan. “So what’s up?”
“I wanted to check on you,” Zara said. “Ilha Sagrada is a gateway for ordinary women to turn into mermaids.”
Milly laughed hysterically.
Uvim cut to her.
“Elan says I’m being overprotective again. I’m just glad to hear you’re okay.”
“I’m great. Everything’s fine here. Um, how did you know I was at Ilha Sagrada?”
“Your boss answered the phone.”
Uh oh.
“That woman needs to give up,” Zara said. “Because some criminals are passing off dynamite, our warriors need to stand up and paint targets on their chests? How crazy can you get?”
“She’d keep them safe,” Milly said, trying to keep the note of defensiveness out of her voice. “People should know the mer aren’t scary. They’re just like you and me. It would help them find brides.”
“Find brides? That’s what I’m doing. Finding the brides the mer rejected and giving them a chance to come home.”
“Good. I meant find new brides.”
“New? No, Milly.”
“But there’s a line of twenty-eight warriors waiting to—”
“How do you know?”
Double uh oh.
She hemmed. “Ah … lucky guess?”
“That warrior told you. What’s his name?” She pondered for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. Look, just stay away. Do you understand? I don’t want you getting involved with the mer.”
