Siren’s Desire: A Dark Tides Novel

by Devyn Quinn

  “So get it in here,” Kenneth demanded. “I’d like to get dressed in some real clothes instead of having my rear end hanging out for all to see.”

  Blake stepped in. “Not so fast, Kenneth. I know you’re angry, but I won’t have you ordering my fiancée around like a maid.”

  Nostrils flaring in annoyance, Kenneth cursed mildly and slammed the closet door. “You might feel different if Gwen was the one who’d been taken.” Suddenly furious, he turned and paced to the opposite side of the room. “It’s driving me crazy, doing nothing.”

  Blake cut him a hard look. “I understand where you’re coming from, but you’d be even more of a crazy man to head out now.”

  Kenneth barely spared his future brother-in-law a glance. “It’s none of your business what I do,” he grumbled between clenched teeth. His strong hands flexed with anxiety. “I’ll take care of everything myself.”

  “It’s a difficult situation for all of us,” Blake said. “You need to calm down and think things through.”

  Kenneth stared at them through narrow eyes. “I have. If it were just Tessa… She’s good at taking care of herself. But she’s carrying my children, Blake. She’s alone, she’s scared, and who knows what kind of pressure she’s under. I swear to God, if she’s hurt or loses our babies, there will be hell to pay.”

  Gwen pressed a hand against her stomach. His words felt like a sharp knife being shoved between her ribs. The pain she felt radiating off him was so sharp that she couldn’t take a breath.

  For the first time, the layers of Kenneth’s fury thinned enough for her to see the raw pain lurking beneath, and she knew his concern and love for her sister were genuine. The realization touched her, and she felt her emotions shift.

  She was suddenly overwhelmed with guilt. She’d managed to worm out of the first trip to the Mediterranean, mostly because she’d been afraid of what they might find out. In her heart, she’d hoped nothing would be found and they could continue living their lives in quiet obscurity.

  By the goddess, she thought. How I wish I had never heard of Ishaldi!

  But it hadn’t happened that way, and now they had to deal with the consequences.

  “If you’re going, I’m going, too,” she said firmly.

  Kenneth relaxed. “Good.”

  Blake wasn’t so happy. He stared at her, his expression incredulous and betrayed. “What are you saying?”

  Since they’d gotten together, Blake had stood by Gwen one hundred percent, supporting her fully. He’d never complained that he was the one who’d walked away from his career to be with her. She appreciated it more than he could ever know. But she still needed him to stick by her side. “If Kenneth’s going, I’m going. As sisters, we’ve always hung together, through thick and thin. If I can help in any way, I should.”

  Never taking his eyes off her, Blake nodded. “If that’s the way you feel, I can’t stop you.”

  “There’s plenty of room, Blake,” Kenneth said. “You coming?”

  Gwen couldn’t miss the vague sense of uneasiness rippling through Blake. His fear was palpable, transmitting itself straight to her. The chill in her own heart turned into a block of ice.

  The one thing that scared the hell out of Blake Whittaker was the one thing she relished as a mermaid. Thanks to early abuses in his childhood, Blake was terrified of deep water. He couldn’t even take a bath, always choosing a shower instead.

  Blake’s muscles bunched with tension. “I—I can’t,” he said after a moment’s silence.

  Kenneth didn’t beat around the bush. “No swimming required.”

  Blake shook his head. “There’s enough to take care of here. The hotel, repairs on Little Mer, the media… Someone should hold down the fort.” He had a legitimate argument.

  His refusal didn’t surprise her. “You don’t have to go. Nobody expects you to,” Gwen said.

  He cut her a sharp look. “Jesus, Gwen. You make me sound like a coward.”

  His words chilled her anew, but Gwen didn’t let herself react. The tension of late had set everyone on edge. Although she’d been afraid of exposure all her life, she had begun to realize that she couldn’t continue to live in fear. The Mer were out, and they were known. Too soon she would be identified as one. It was time to hold her head high and let the consequences fall where they might.

  “Kenneth’s right,” she said. “Even if we can’t do anything, we need to be there for Tessa.”

  “Believe me when I say I’m just as concerned for Tessa’s safety as you two are,” Blake replied stonily.

  Kenneth waved a hand. “You’re off the hook, Blake. I know you have a problem with the water.”

  Blake closed his eyes. “I’m going, damn it,” he spat through gritted teeth. “I may be sick and vomit all the way, but I’ll go.”

  Pride and hope melded together into a single wonderful emotion deep inside Gwen’s heart. “Thank you.” She reached for his hand, savoring the warmth of his big fingers curling around hers.

  Blake pulled her to him and kissed her hard on the mouth. It was a kiss born of desperation and the very real fear that he was just as afraid of losing her. “We’re family, honey,” he said after their lips had parted. “If we can’t stick together, we’ll fall apart.”

  Gwen didn’t know how she found the strength to pull away, but she did. Meeting his gaze, she saw the sincerity behind his words. Despite his own fear, he meant everything he said.

  Tears shimmered in her eyes, blurring her vision. Once again it occurred to her how lucky she and Tessa had been to find men who loved them unconditionally.

  She closed her eyes, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Thank you,” she murmured under her breath.

  “I guess it’s settled, then,” Kenneth said from behind. “We’re going.”

  Chapter 14

  From a distance of ten miles, Queen Magaera’s island looked oddly gray and unfocused. Cloaked in a shimmering mist, the strange landmass loomed atop the sparkling sea like a specter of doom. Its size and shape, too, were eerily indistinct, giving no clear indication of its resources and population.

  Addison sighed as she pulled away from the telescope. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected to see once the anchor dropped on the perimeter of the magnetic zone surrounding the strange landmass on all sides.

  She bent toward the lens again, squinting hard. “Is this as close as we can get?”

  Captain McKenzie nodded. “Once a ship starts drifting onto what we call the ‘dead zone,’ everything electrical begins to go haywire. Engines die, radio signals turn to static, nothing electrical works. It’s a total shutdown of all systems. Right now the sea traffic between Crete and Egypt is being rerouted to keep any ships from straying into the area. Fortunately, it’s just a ten-mile stretch in all directions, which isn’t too difficult to contain.”

  “Thank goodness it isn’t the one point five million square miles the Bermuda Triangle encompasses or we would have a real problem,” Addison commented.

  A brief silence followed. Then McKenzie asked, “Do the Mer have anything to do with these phenomena?”

  “As far as I’m aware, no, the Mer haven’t cornered the market on inexplicable sea phenomena,” she said with a slight smirk.

  But Mason’s face was totally serious. “So there’s no chance other sea-gates could exist, perhaps leading to yet more wormholes?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose anything’s possible. If there’s one, there could be dozens, even hundreds more. Who’s to say how many more intelligent species actually inhabit this planet?”

  He frowned. “I don’t think people are ready for many more surprises. From the bits and pieces I’ve caught on the news, political pundits are debating whether or not to grant the Mer recognition as a legitimate nation.”

  Addison blinked to clear her vision. She’d been peering through the telescope for hours on end, trying to make some sense of the island and how to best approach it. So far she was stonewalled by the sheer inaccessibil
ity of the place. She suspected the fog wasn’t a natural phenomenon but rather something Magaera purposely conjured to keep her movements veiled from the eyes of the outside world.

  “I suppose that depends on how Magaera continues to respond to the presence of humans in these waters.” She looked at him levelly. “The Mediterranean is pretty small when you’ve got thousands of mermaids teeming in its depths. She’s going to want to move into wider waters, I’m sure.”

  His eyes widened. “Pretty much a diplomatic nightmare, no matter how you slice it.”

  “Thank the goddess we’re not the diplomats.” She laughed. “Think we could sort out the problems between humans and Mer?”

  A small smile curled up one corner of Mason’s fine mouth. “I’d like to think we could work through our differences,” he said, perfectly aware their conversation wasn’t a private one. But the look he gave her was one laced with longing and intimacy.

  Addison felt heat warming her cheeks. Even though they hadn’t found the time to be alone again, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind. Thinking about him sent waves of desire rolling through her. Her attraction to Mason, as evidenced by the insistent heat boiling in her core, couldn’t be denied.

  “Me, too,” she murmured half audibly. The huskiness that had suddenly overtaken her tone was unmistakable. Such was the power of attraction—raw, unadorned attraction. All she wanted to do was be with this man who made her heart beat wildly against her ribs.

  Mason stepped back, breaking their locked gazes. “So, how are we going to do this?”

  Addison mentally flipped through all the details he’d given her about the last aborted attempt to breach the perimeter and reach the island. “I guess the only answer to that is to hit the water and see how far we get before we encounter resistance from Magaera’s soldiers.”

  He frowned. “This doesn’t sound promising. The last time we barely had a half hour in the water before they closed in. They just came out of nowhere.”

  “I don’t imagine you saw much of them since a Mer can swim up to twenty-five miles per hour.” Her own personal speed had been clocked at just about twenty-two, but that was for a mermaid who didn’t spend all her time in the water.

  From what Tessa had told her, Ishaldi didn’t have many large bodies of water remaining, and their food supply had dwindled from slim to almost none. This was why the Mer had evolved from a species that depended on the intake of food. The Mer now subsisted on crystal energy, which had inadvertently helped hasten the death of their world as the crystals began to burn out and disintegrate.

  Any Mer emerging from the dying city would probably be impatient to hit the water. Sea crystals and other rock-based minerals were plentiful enough in the wider world, and those mermaids would most likely be eager to take advantage of the bounty the sea had to offer.

  “They definitely have the advantage over us,” Mason grumbled. “Being loaded down with clumsy equipment that’s malfunctioning will certainly slow a man down.”

  Addison cocked her head. “Tell me again what happened.”

  “Pretty simple, really. Once we’d penetrated the magnetic zone, maybe half a mile in, our rebreathers began to malfunction. Not getting any air will bring you to the surface pretty fast.”

  “Ah, that electronic problem.” As a search and rescue diver, Addison knew that rebreathers, more complex than sport open-circuit scuba, required special training and maintenance to be safely used. “I suppose it’s the same with single-hose regulators?”

  “Pretty much. All it leaves us to work with are snorkels.” He allowed a bit of bitterness to creep into his smile. “Not very effective when you want to go deep and sneak up on the enemy.”

  Addison’s jaw tightened. “I’m afraid the Mer have you whipped. There are no limitations to the depths we can achieve, and we certainly don’t have a problem breathing underwater. All we have to do is put our tails on and go.”

  Mason snorted. “If only it were that easy for us. Guess we humans do look kind of inferior when compared to mermaids. You can survive on both land and water.”

  She nodded, but her mind was tumbling in a thousand different directions. “What can I say? We’re just that damn wonderful.” The biggest problem they seemed to face was putting the divers in the water, while not crippling the men with useless equipment.

  “Looks as though we’re stuck with the snorkels,” he commented sourly.

  Addison shook her head. “Actually, I think I know a way to get around the little problem of depth and equipment failure.”

  “How?”

  She grinned. “Remember when I told you a Mer can share her breath underwater? I don’t see why it couldn’t be done with a conscious volunteer.”

  “Are you proposing to kiss all thirty divers aboard this ship?” By the tone of his voice, he didn’t care for that idea one little bit.

  Her hands settled on her hips. “I don’t see why not. It’s just a matter of what you’ll be carrying while you’re under. The Mer have their Ri’kahs, which probably function nicely since they’re crystal powered.”

  “We have a new prototype of underwater defense gun, or UDG,” he said.

  “Which is?”

  “Instead of firing bullets, the UDG fires a stiletto-type dart that’s pretty accurate and lethal underwater. The effective range is about a hundred feet. A single clip can carry seventy rounds. It’s still in the development stages, but so far tests have shown it to be our most promising weapon against the Mer in the water, barring mines or torpedoes.”

  The impact behind his words had an unsettling effect on Addison. For the first time she began to realize just how serious humans were about retaining and defending their dominance as the number one species on Earth.

  No wonder the Mer were vicious toward humans. The notion came unbidden. Yet Queen Nyala had chosen humans over the Mer. Would she have made the same choice had she known sealing the wormhole would bring her kind to extinction?

  Right now, there were too many questions and complications for her to consider. The only thing Addison was sure of was that there had to be a way to broker peace between the two. Surely this world was big enough for everyone.

  The weight of his hand on her shoulder jarred her out of her thoughts.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Mason asked. He was looking at her steadily, as if trying to read her thoughts.

  Addison took several quick steps back to put a little distance between them. In a flash he’d reawakened all her cravings. She felt starved for him, and just thinking about the night before caused a knot to form in the pit of her stomach.

  “No. Not at all. I was just thinking there had to be a way to resolve our differences peacefully.”

  “That seems to have been a problem since the beginning of time,” he countered ruefully. “Peace on Earth and good will toward all men would be wonderful.”

  “And Mer.”

  He shrugged. “If only you and I ruled the world,” he murmured beneath his breath.

  She didn’t have a chance to answer. Another voice broke in. “You’d never get anything done because you’re too busy making goo-goo eyes at each other,” Commander Hawkins said.

  Addison and Mason whirled at the same time. The commander looked at them both, his grin growing progressively wider by the second.

  Although they had been nothing but professional around each other since her first night aboard, Addison had the unnerving feeling that everyone on the ship knew about her brief interlude with Mason. It was suddenly as if she had PROPERTY OF CAPTAIN MCKENZIE stamped across her forehead.

  Mason’s gaze narrowed. “Can it, Hawkins. There’s a time for kidding around, and now isn’t it.”

  The captain’s second-in-command shrugged. “I wasn’t being flippant, Cap,” he shot back with an absolutely straight face. “Just stating the facts as I see them.”

  Mason immediately stepped away from her, locking his hands behind his back. “Well, then keep your statements to yourself
, Commander.”

  Hawkins immediately put away his smirk. He glanced across the water. “Any idea how to proceed?”

  “We’re exploring a couple of ideas,” Mason answered. “It seems there may be a way for our men to hit the water without having to worry about their equipment malfunctioning.”

  “That’s been our biggest obstacle so far,” Hawkins said. “The Mer have us outclassed, hands down.”

  “Addison reminded me of the mouth-to-mouth breathing trick she informed us of yesterday.”

  “Really?” Hawkins cut a look toward Addison. “I take it that means you’ll need a volunteer to practice on,” Hawkins said without batting an eye. “In that case, allow me to be the first in line.”

  “If anyone’s going into the water first, it’ll be me,” Mason said gruffly. “I won’t send my divers back into the water until I know they have a fighting chance against the Mer.”

  Hawkins immediately protested. “With all due respect, sir, it seems to me that the captain’s place is aboard, making the tactical decisions. We do have several capable divers. If someone’s going to take a risk, it should be someone who isn’t in the direct line of command.”

  Mason shook his head. “You’re capable enough, Hawkins. I need someone who’s got my back when I go into the water. We’ll do an exploratory dive outside the perimeters of the dead zone. Right now the Mer don’t seem inclined to venture beyond that point. It should be safe enough.”

  Hawkins looked doubtful but made no protest. “If that’s what you think we should do, then I’m behind you all the way.”

  A satisfied glint settled in the depths of Mason’s eyes. “Are you ready to suit up?” he asked Addison.

  Addison nodded. In a way, she was glad Mason had volunteered himself as the first guinea pig. She wasn’t quite sure she could pull off locking lips with another guy who would be fully awake and aware.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Only when he was suited up and ready to dive did Mason feel truly alive. As a boy he’d always been drawn to the sea and its magnificence, as well as intrigued by the mysteries lurking deep beneath its surface.