by Devyn Quinn
Commander Hawkins stood beside her. If the man had stood any more rigid and correct, he would have snapped in half. “Demonstration’s over, sir,” he announced.
“I finally got them to let me out of the water,” Addison added with a grin.
Mason allowed a nod. “How did it go?”
She thought a moment. “I tried to answer all their questions as fully as I could. I know there are things they still don’t understand, but unless you experience it for yourself, there’s really no way to explain.”
“Such as?”
“For instance, how a Mer can share her breath with a human in a way that allows the human to breathe under the water.”
That one definitely piqued his interest. “You can do that?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Her answer set the wheels of his mind in motion. “How long can a human breathe underwater, then?”
Addison shrugged. “I’ve never really timed it, but I suppose as long as they’re under the water. The spell breaks once you breathe air again. Most people don’t even remember.”
“I’d like to find out what that’s like,” Hawkins said with a grin. “I’d be the first to volunteer.”
“How would you even do that?” Mason asked. “Share your breath with a human?”
She shrugged. “Well, it’s like a kiss. But it’s not, uh, you know, meant to be an intimate thing.” She cleared her throat. “It’s a lifesaving device.”
Mason had to wonder if it could be intimate, then chased the errant thought away. He hadn’t known Addison even three days; yet already she’d invaded his every waking thought. It didn’t help that she was starting to seep into his dreams. Waking up with a raging erection wasn’t a pleasant way to start the day. Masturbating in the shower was for teenagers, not grown men.
But the picture of her lithe body undulating through the observation tank cut across his mind’s eye. Heavy awareness pulsed through his loins. It was getting harder and harder to put her out of his mind. If anything, in the past couple of hours he’d become even more sensitive to her presence.
Mason turned his attention back to the water. He’d never mixed his work with pleasure—especially when the risk might cost him more than his career. The Mer were still very much part of uncharted territory. Nobody knew how to handle them.
He inwardly sighed, but the insistent longing squeezing his heart couldn’t be denied. There was nothing holding him back from being with her except…
My oath as an officer and a gentleman.
Now that his eyes were off her, Addison took a moment to sneak a peek at the captain. He had a penetrating stare and a presence that made her heart flutter. Even when immersed in water, she’d felt his stare among all the others, burning its way through her with an intensity she’d never encountered.
Something simmered beneath his reserve, and it was all too easy to identify—raw, sexual attraction. The good captain fancied her—no doubt about it.
But for all her bravado, Addison wasn’t as secure in her Mer identity as she would have liked others to believe. Being different from other people had taught her not to trust too easily, especially men who oozed sex appeal. Tessa’s go-round with Jake Massey had shown them all how vulnerable they really were.
She glanced at Mason McKenzie through wary eyes. This is something I shouldn’t be messing with, she warned herself. Pushing him out of her mind might have been easier if he were a total dud instead of a tall, strapping hunk of pure male.
Commander Hawkins chose that moment to break into her thoughts. “Does it feel strange not to be in hiding anymore?”
The commander’s choice of words brought Addison’s brows up.
She shook her head. “We’ve never been in hiding,” she pointed out. “We’ve just kept a low profile. People have known about us for years. They’ve just had the good sense to keep the information to themselves.” She sighed.
“Though I guess it isn’t a secret now that Mer are on the nightly news,” Hawkins commented.
Her brows rose. “Really?”
Mason shook off his mantle of silence. “Yes, it’s true. Word of the Mer has begun to leak out to the general public. Although the identities of you and your sisters are closely guarded, I doubt your anonymity will last.”
Her grip tightened around the rail. “You’re probably right.” Port Rock was a small community, and sooner or later, locals who did know about the Mer would be tempted to blab to the journalists. The chance for fifteen minutes of fame was irresistible to some people. “Guess we’d better get used to being stared at.”
“At least you’re inaccessible as long as you’re aboard ship. And while you’re here, you’re no different than the rest of us.” Mason speared Commander Hawkins with a pointed look. “In fact, I believe some of us are on duty and would be well advised to get back to it.”
“Right away, sir.” The commander made himself scarce.
Addison watched the officer depart. Since she’d come aboard, everyone had treated her well, even though
now and again she’d caught more than one person blatantly staring. Now I know what a sideshow freak feels
like.
She shook off the disquieting notion. “I’m grateful to be here,” she said in reply to Mason’s remark. With Tessa’s life in danger, she doubted she would have been able to stand up under the deluge of security that had most likely enveloped Gwen, Blake, and Kenneth. At least she had a chance to do something.
Mason’s gaze settled on her, intense and focused. He seemed to be following her line of thought. “I understand that mermaids are low-level psychics. Have you been able to sense your sister since we set sail?”
It was eerie how well he read her.
Addison shut her eyes against the tremor of awareness seeping through her body. Mason McKenzie affected her on more than a physical level, and that made the dynamic between them all the more dangerous. “I can, but I can’t.”
Surprise laced with confusion crossed his expressive face. “Which means?”
“It’s as if her vibe has changed,” she said, pausing to find the right words. “Her resonance is no longer clear and identifiable, but muddied. She’s not herself. Maybe it’s because she’s pregnant and the twins are interfering.” She shook her head. “I really don’t know. Our mother never really taught us about our Mercraft, so learning it has been a bit hit-and-miss. More miss, than anything.”
He paused a beat. “So you weren’t formally trained?”
She shrugged. “Not really. Our mother wanted us to be as much like humans as possible. She always warned us to keep our abilities under wraps and our tails tucked away, if you know what I mean. I think if it hadn’t been for our father, we might have never known we were Mer.”
“So your father encouraged you to learn?”
Mention of her father always made her smile. “Dad was cool. He used to say he wished he were a merman, so he could swim, too. We’d laugh because it was so funny to think of men with tails. Can you imagine? I mean, where would the penis go?” Realizing what she’d said, heat crept into her cheeks.
He had the audacity to grin. “Seems it would be a pretty funny sight.”
She couldn’t suppress a giggle. “I think so.”
“Your father sounds like a pretty good guy,” he commented. “Fisherman, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah. Shrimp and lobster, mainly. He loved everything about the sea. After he died, Uncle Jay sold the boats. He had to, I guess.”
“That’s too bad. Seems as though it would have been a good business for mermaids.”
Addison forced a casual shrug. She didn’t like thinking about the past. Along with the memories came the suspicion that she’d somehow been responsible for his death. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Is that why you became an EMT?”
She was startled by the question. “What?”
“Because of your parents, I mean.”
Her throat tightened. “I don’t li
ke to see people in pain. My parents were killed, you know, in a car accident.”
Mason nodded tightly. “I was aware of that.”
She closed her eyes against the sting of tears that had begun to blur her vision. “I’ve always felt it was my fault because I was whining about spending my birthday money at the mall. Some kid ran a red light—”
He lifted his brows in surprise. “You were in the accident?”
Addison swiped at her eyes, refusing to cry. “I was in the backseat. I wasn’t hurt or anything… But my parents were. Both of them were gone in an instant.” She paused, drawing in a steadying breath. “I never forgot the guys who pulled us out of the wreckage. I wanted to be like them when I grew up. I wanted to help make things better.”
“Must have been tough on you and your sisters to lose your parents when you were so young.”
She ran her hands through her damp hair. “Uncle Jay took us on. Not much family on Mom’s side. That Mer extinction thing, you know.” Her stomach coiled into a tight knot. She hated the raw, wounded tone in her voice. He made her think about things she’d rather forget.
But that was the trouble with Mason McKenzie. He bothered her in so many ways, none of them good.
“I suppose it must have been hard, growing up in the human world.”
Addison would have swallowed, but her mouth was suddenly dry. The tension of the last few days began to build behind her eyes, thudding at her temples. Her head throbbed in time to her words. She suddenly couldn’t remember the last good hour of sleep she’d gotten since all this trouble had begun. Every time she tried to rest, her keyed-up nerves defied her.
It was too much, too soon.
She didn’t want to be having this conversation and wished it would end. How had they even come around to discussing her parents, anyway? She studied him, but had a hard time gauging his neutral expression. There were times when she thought she’d piqued his interest, as in his cabin when they’d fallen into a tangled heap. At other times she thought she sensed distance in his attitude, as though he’d rather be anyplace but around her. The signals he sent were confusing. She wanted to like him—hell, she wanted a lot more than that—but if he couldn’t make up his mind about her, then being forced to work together would be pure hell.
She sighed. Once again everything seemed to boil down to the fact that humans were, and would continue to be, afraid of the Mer until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.
She lifted her chin. “No harder than it must be for humans to find out mermaids are real.”
A wary look touched his expression. “Truthfully?”
Addison swallowed hard and moistened her lips. “Sure. I can take it.”
An ironic smile tugged at his lips. “It is tough finding out there’s another species in this world; one that’s not only just as intelligent but even more technologically advanced than anyone could have ever imagined. All of a sudden there’s a threat in our waters, and we have no idea how to deal with that.”
She raised her brows. “I guess it is true that people are afraid of what they don’t understand.”
He spread his hands. “It’s a natural reaction.” He couldn’t help a rueful chuckle. “Human nature, so to speak.”
Addison had to bite her bottom lip to keep from saying something rude. “I just wish Magaera would have some sense. Why can’t we all just get along and share?”
Mason’s gaze caught and held hers. “Maybe because nothing worth having comes easily.”
She was close to launching into her thoughts on that matter when an ensign hurried up to the diver’s platform. He tossed off a quick salute. “Sorry to interrupt you, sir, but Lieutenant Russell is requesting that Ms. Lonike join him to explain Mer weaponry and its use in and out of the water.”
“Tell Russell we will join him shortly,” Mason instructed.
The ensign nodded and hurried off.
The captain quirked a brow. “Guess it’s time to get back to work.” Pushing away from the rail, he ran his hands through his short blond cut. “No rest for the wicked.”
Addison’s jaw tightened. She was exhausted and stiff, but she forced herself to ignore the fatigue. Even though she didn’t feel like giving any more demonstrations, there was no way she was going to refuse the request.
“Let’s go,” she said. “You guys have a lot to learn about Mer.”
Chapter 10
When Tessa had rekeyed the sea-gate to her psychic resonance, she’d accidentally given Queen Magaera an unexpected advantage. The magnetic energy radiating from the wormhole proved to be an effective deterrent to the outside world. Anything electrical shut down, which meant ships unlucky enough to drift into its radius would be immediately disabled—ditto aircraft. It was an effective wall of defense as yet to be breached.
Jake Massey glanced up at the swirling mass of energy awaiting them at the top of a long staircase. When Ishaldi had a presence on the face of the earth, the sea kingdom had originally existed in two parts—that of an island settlement above the surface of the water, and a second below, accessible only to the Mer themselves. The temple on the ocean floor, which guarded the sea-gate that led to this hidden realm, was one of the few places that had remained untouched through the centuries by seismic activity.
Jake stood before it now, protected by a bubble of oxygen that encircled the temple. “The Temple of Thiraisa,” he murmured.
Magaera stood smugly beside him. Tessa’s soul-stone was in place around her neck. “It is time to return my people to their rightful place in these waters.”
Jake nodded. “I always felt it was possible.”
Shackled between two of Magaera’s soldiers, Tessa hissed and spat like an angry cat. “You had no right to meddle with something you didn’t understand. None of us did. We should have left well enough alone.” Since losing her soul-stone, she’d become vicious and hard to handle. For her own safety, she’d had to be restrained. He’d heard that losing a soul-stone was the equivalent of a death sentence for a Mer. Robbed of the ability to manifest energy outside of herself, she was essentially powerless.
Jake didn’t blink. He’d gambled his entire reputation and won. He’d no longer be a laughingstock of the archaeological community; instead, he would be a star, forever known as the man who’d revived an extinct species. “I would think you above all others would want to see the Mer survive and thrive.”
Tessa’s lips curled. “Once they get into the water, it’s over.”
Magaera lifted an annoyed hand. “Shut your mouth now, or I shall have my soldiers toss you through the gate just for the pleasure of watching it spit out your bones.”
Jake grimaced. Ugh. That wouldn’t be a pleasant sight at all. The gate had a way of disposing of those it didn’t see fit to grant passage to. “Stop fighting it, Tess,” he advised. “You’re just wearing yourself out.”
Tessa bared her teeth. “I hope the fucking thing grinds you up and spits you out, asshole.”
He allowed a benign smile. “That’s my girl. I think that’s why I was drawn to you in the first place. You’ve got spunk.”
Tessa’s face twisted with anger. “Bite me!”
“Enough of your natter. It distracts me.” Scepter in hand, Queen Magaera began to mount the stairs leading up to the eye of the sea-gate. “Come,” she said. “It is time.”
Jake felt a little tingle of exaltation as he ascended the stairs behind Magaera. He had defied all the odds, overcome all the derision of his colleagues, to break through the wall of secrecy surrounding the Mer and their disappearance from Earth’s waters.
The closer he got to the sea-gate, the more the magnetic tension deepened. His skin prickled, the fine hairs on his arms and neck rising in response to the energy generated around them. The gate itself resembled the single eye of an angry god; lightning flicked within its sphere, flaming out now and again as if trying to keep them at bay. It throbbed, a vibrant force guarding the entrance between two very different worlds.
Queen Magaera stepped closer. As she did, the core of the sea-gate darkened spasmodically. Tendrils of lightning sped from its center, striking the small crystal pendant hanging around her neck. A tremendous crash of thunder snapped the air apart when it made contact with Tessa’s soul-stone.
Teeth clenched with anxiety, Jake winced. Would the gate recognize and accept Tessa’s psychic imprint and allow them to pass—or would it devour their bodies and spit back bones?
The answer came sooner than expected.
Magaera’s body suddenly arched backward, rigid as a pillar, as the tendrils of lightning unexpectedly wound themselves around her body. Jagged flickers of color darkened, then glowed brightly again. A scream tore from her lips.
A wild thought zinged through his mind. This is what happened when it first took Tessa.
Without thinking, Jake rushed forward. He’d barely taken two steps before a layer of red-hot fire enveloped him, lifting him off his feet and dragging him toward its flaming center. The electric tension grew, throbbing. The eye of the sea-gate glowed, turning almost transparent enough to reveal a hazy glimpse of the world waiting on the other side.
The force suddenly pulled them forward, propelling them like two rocks in a slingshot. Jake barely heard himself scream as the sweep of an otherworldly power bore them toward their destination.
Tumbling through the air, he landed with a thud on a hard stone surface.
Jake shivered, feeling cold, empty, and void. He was sure every molecule in his body had been torn apart and reassembled, perhaps incorrectly. Moaning in delirious agony, he slowly lifted his face off the cold surface beneath his cheek. The movement caused his stomach to roll. Shaken by fine tremors, he was sure he was about to vomit. The sound of scuffling limbs alerted him that another had arrived in his wake.
A moan filtered through the ringing in his ears. “Oh God, I’d forgotten what dimensional travel feels like.” Tessa groaned again. “I can’t believe I’m back here.”
