by Renee Field
You forget, brother, that I am not so weak that I can’t best you at your own game, said Seth’s voice.
Darius knew his brother was trying to reassure him that all would be well. Sadly, he didn’t think that would be the case for him and Kassandra.
Kassandra’s hands kept reaching out to touch the fish as they darted between them. It was almost comical.
“What’s the matter?” Kassandra demanded sharply.
“Seth. He thinks I should...” Darius paused. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I should try wooing her for a change. When? First, I’ve got to finish this quest, and then I’ll deal with Kassandra. Family had to come first. That was priority number one.
“You’re able to talk to your brother. Can you talk with anyone else?”
“Yes, I can talk with my immediate family but it’s always been easier with Seth because we’re twins. We’re connected on a different level. He thinks that I should finish this mission so we can all get on with our lives.” The lie slid slickly off his lips. He knew his tone was clipped, but if she wanted distance from him, he’d give her that.
Together they darted over a large coral reef teeming with a cluster of male sea horses.
“Oh my god, they are so beautiful. I didn’t know they stayed together in a group,” said Kassandra, stopping to admire the perky fish.
Sea horses? The woman—no, Siren—his brain screamed, was awed by sea horses. He all but laughed at that. “That’s nothing. Wait until I show you the continental reefs, they have clusters of fish that humans have never discovered and then there’s the ....” He paused, realizing that she had stopped moving.
“Thank you,” she said.
The simplicity of the words crushed him.
Realizing they still weren’t safe until they reached the first outer barrier of his kingdom he pulled her along, “For what?”
“For trying.”
Her voice was strained. Pulling her closer to him, he replied, “Look, Kassandra, I didn’t have a choice. Would you have wanted me to let you drown? Is that what you wanted? To die? I did what had to be done. We’re almost there.”
“That doesn’t make it right, Darius, and you know it. I never asked for this, and you’ve gone ahead and bound us together when I swear you don’t even like me.” She stopped abruptly again with a downward swish of her tail.
Not like her? By all that was created from the dust of times. She’s mad. How could she think that? I’ve had to fight against my nature not to claim her as a mere human, and now, he groaned...I’m doomed.
Pulling her to him, he had to stifle another groan as the weight of her breasts came into intimate contact with his chest. More than anything he wanted to taste her, feel her, and make her lush, Siren body scream in climax. He could give her pleasures the likes of which she’d never imagined. A vivid image of him claiming her caused his heart to speed up and his erection to jump to life. Blast it! He wished he could assert control over that piece of his enlarged anatomy.
“Darius, I thought you said it wasn’t safe here,” she said, pushing her arms in between them to break his hold.
“It isn’t, sweetlips, and I’ve got news for you... you aren’t safe from me, either.” He all but growled the words, once again yanking on her arm to speed them away.
Saad was tired of having to deal with his half-brother, Rajheb. They had never seen eye-to-eye before, and things certainly hadn’t improved over the centuries.
“Why don’t you send the sharks after them?” Rajheb asked for the fifth time.
Saad stalked away from the cave’s platform. Eyeing the three sharks that were kept in the large holding tank, he had to fight the urge not to throw his brother into the waters to give him a taste of his own medicine.
“You are not listening, Rajheb. Father wants us to get the ancient book, not Darius. If we let these things out,” he pointed down to the sharks with an exasperated sigh, “then no one is safe. Once Master Odeon finds a cure for the enhancement, which I’m sure he will with a bit more persuasion, then we will have the upper hand.”
“What are you talking about? I want Darius’ head on a platter, and I want that female and no one is going to stop me. You can tell Father to go to Hell,” said Rajheb, shedding his clothes as he got ready to rapture.
“You are not going. Do you understand me?”
“Try to stop me Saad...if you can?” taunted Rajheb, diving headfirst into the open underwater compartment that was an outlet to the Atlantic.
Saad simply sighed. He yearned to stop Rajheb but knew it would be futile.
“You should have stopped him,” said a soft, melancholy voice that caused shivers to travel down his spine.
Spinning around, he tried to pinpoint the voice.
“Why don’t you use your powers Saad?”
“Who’s there? What do you want?” He tried once again to find the source of the voice, which echoed off the walls of the cave.
Then the person behind the voice materialized, and he felt the full force of her power.
The word was a mere whisper but he couldn’t help it. “Mother?”
“Is that how you know me?”
Saad bowed low in reverence to the entity he’d been told over the centuries was his mother.
“Father said someday you would find me.” His voice sounded strained to his own ears.
“Yes, he would know that.” There was an audible sadness in her voice when she spoke of her mate, his father.
“Your father thinks to outwit me in this game, but I am sad to say it is not a game of chance. I will not deny you are of my essence.”
A smile lit up her face, causing goose bumps to form all over Saad’s sensitive skin. “They call me the Sister of the Future. I was named by the Creator. I am Sesta.”
Saad tried hard to blink, but in her presence it was all but impossible. Looking into her eyes was like looking into a pool of shimmering clear water that mirrored the surroundings. Lithe and tall, she stood in regal grace. Her hair was as dark as ebony. Her body was unearthly pale. Beautiful and frightening all at once, the force of her power vibrated like a static aura all around her.
“I need you to help me, Saad. Will you do that?” Again, the voice echoed off the walls of the cave to resonate deep within his being. He had to fight the urge not to reach out and touch her.
As if she read his thoughts, she stretched out a hand and her fingers caressed his cheek. His skin prickled in acute awareness of her ancestry, her power and her awe of him. Him, her one and only true son. The knowledge hit him hard.
“You are of my essence, but I am sorry to say the Creator has taken my memory of you away from me. The time has not come for me to know...no do not think that, the Creator does know what is best for us. When the time is right, which is ironic for an entity such as myself to say, all will be revealed. But, Saad, I need you to help Darius, not fight against him. Rajheb seeks to destroy him, as do many others, including your father, but if they succeed, then all will be lost for all of you. Trust your instincts when it comes to Darius. You can help him.”
Saad was about to ask how and why he should do what she’d asked when he’d never known even the memory of her loving embrace, but she vanished as quickly as she had materialized. A feeling of loss and loneliness overwhelmed him. He had many questions he yearned to ask his mother, but once again she was gone.
Turning around, he looked at what he’d created over the last decade. For once, he saw it through another’s eyes. This is not something to be proud of. He eyed the menacing-looking sharks, swimming in their crazed circle in the holding tank. He had enhanced them without thought to their own natural killing instinct.
Moving to a locked door at the back of the cave he opened it and spoke in the tongue of the ancients.
“Master Odeon, I need your help if we are going to save Darius,” he said, helping the old Titan to his unsteady, wobbly feet.
An hour later they were making progress.
Just when he finally thought
all was going well, a buzz in his head was the only warning before he was blinded by the yellow haze of power.
“She was here. I felt her,” said a sing-song voice.
In his head he heard Master Odeon clearly tell him not to move or say anything. The warning should have been enough for him, but it wasn’t.
“Who is here?” he asked, his voice sounding loud to his own ears.
“Ahh, we materialized in real time. I told you before not to do that, Bella,” said the voice, coming from his immediate left.
Saad tried to turn his head but he couldn’t. His body felt like lead. “What have you done?” he asked, thankful he could speak.
“I told you not to move or say anything, freshling,” grumbled Master Odeon, clearly feeling the same sensations as Saad was.
“You could have told me why,” snapped Saad, frustrated beyond measure.
“Is that Odeon...ooh he’s changed so much, still handsome in his Titan way, but he’s aged.”
“Well, you would too, Ava if you were still a Siren,” mumbled Master Odeon.
The haze dissipated as quickly as it had come. Standing to Saad’s immediate left was a creature very much like his mother. Power and beauty resonated around her. He felt the pull of her deep within his cells.
“Saad, meet Ava, the Sister of the Past, and Bella, the Sister of Today. They are your mother’s loving siblings,” sarcasm laced Master Odeon’s words.
“Saad....the son,” said the creature named Ava. Her face was unearthly pale. Long, blonde hair cascaded to her shoulders.
“We could use him,” replied Bella, reaching out to touch him.
“I wouldn’t be doing that, girls,” said Master Odeon. There was an odd twinkle in his eyes that Saad didn’t like.
“Did that Titan...that pleb...that creature, warn us to stay away from Saad?” said Bella haughtily
“We will take him. We can use him as bait.”
Bait? What did they want with him? Saad eyed the two women now hovering above the floor while they discussed him like he wasn’t there.
Simultaneously they reached to touch his arms, which were still frozen. Panic welled tight within his chest. He had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to like where they took him.
However the minute they touched him, they backed away. Fear had jumped to life in their eyes before they could mask it and they both had reacted like their fingers had been burned.
“He is....”
“Do not say it. I can’t believe this. Why does this always happen to us?” whined Ava, her celestial face contorting in anger.
“Did you know, Bella?
“No, but let’s review the past and find out how this could have happened.”
Then the two of them were gone as quickly as they had materialized. Relief pooled into Saad’s limbs. He sank onto the cold concrete floor. With the help of Master Odeon, he gathered his strength to stand, hating that he’d let fear of the unknown mark him.
“What just happened?” he asked, not quite believing the two powerful beings were gone.
“History has finally happened,” replied Odeon, walking away to check on the latest batch of vaccines they’d been working on to reverse the heightened effects of what he’d done to the sharks.
Saad rubbed his weary eyes. Something wasn’t right. First he got a visit from his mother and now her sisters. Things weren’t making sense. Why would he be…bait? Bait for what? His mother certainly wouldn’t come after him to save him.
“Don’t be so sure about that,” replied Master Odeon, reminding Saad he’d forgotten to form a shield to protect his thoughts. Feeling more like a freshling than he had in a long time, he raised his shields.
“What happened here?” he asked, walking over to where Odeon stood.
“This vaccine should do it,” replied Odeon, as if he hadn’t heard the question. Then he sighed and turned to face Saad. “Did you never wonder why you were different?”
The intensity of the knowledge contained in Odeon’s ancient eyes momentarily startled Saad. He blinked. Sure he had wondered. Who wouldn’t? It wasn’t as if the mystery around his birth was a secret. But what did that have to do with who he was now?
“It might be time for you to ask your father some really personal questions about how you came to be,” said Odeon, turning his back to Saad.
The old Titan picked up a vaccine. He calmly walked over to the holding tank and, without flinching, jabbed the needle deep into the first shark that scented him.
“Now we wait,” said Master Odeon.
Saad had a sinking feeling that Odeon’s words weren’t referring to the shark. He didn’t like that one bit.
Chapter Seventeen
Kassandra admitted being a Siren was cool. After swimming away from the deadly Tartahounds, Darius had taken her into the deeper realms of his kingdom. A tingle deep within her soul overtook her as they breached the outer barrier. Darius told her how the barrier worked to keep humans out of their world – a realm which she now had to make her home.
She noted his brief surge of fear when she asked about the use of technology and its impact on his world. He assured her the warrior guards...the same guards she had shyly passed in awe, were vigilant for any attempts from human technology to breach their barriers. He even admitted they had had to destroy a few human probes that had made it through the barrier.
Kassandra sighed in exasperation. Vigilance was great, but not when she was determined to find a way home to the land.
“You mean to tell me that not once in the past century have humans ventured into your kingdom?”
“No, what I’m telling you is that those who have were either claimed by the sea or they were killed. It’s that simple,” he replied.
There had been a wealth of information in that one simplistic statement. “Was that what happened to me? Was someone trying to kill me because I...I saved you and took you to that other undersea kingdom?”
“Yes,” he replied, matter-of-factly.
“Who?”
“My father.”
That stopped Kassandra cold. Darius’ father was the one who had tried to kill her?
“Your father tried to kill me, but you saved me,” she said slowly. “Why?”
“Leave it,” he grumbled.
“Ahh, we’re back to the beginning. You saved me because of your honor,” countered Kassandra, as she glided over to a large red flower that resembled a tulip. “What do you call these?” she asked, wanting to change the tone of the conversation back to a more neutral one.
His shout, “Don’t touch that!” froze her.
“Humans call it a red-gilled nudibranch, while we call it the eye-flower, and this one is breeding,” he said, gliding closer.
She eyed him, hating the intense longing she felt when she was with him. She never tired of seeing him in his natural form. His hand reached out to rest on the small of her back, and it did more to warm her than she would have thought possible. It took unimaginable willpower to force herself to pay attention to his words.
“When this plant breeds, it can release prickles that dig deep under the flesh and cause the person to hallucinate for days. And trust me, you don’t want to hallucinate the life of this plant.”
She giggled. “You mean you actually hallucinate the plant’s life?”
“That’s it. The prickles are memories from the plant of its growth, change and anything that happened around its surroundings. Take my word on this, it is not fun. I like to view it as being bored to death.”
Kassandra could explore this side of Darius for days. He took pride in his kingdom and never tired of explaining how things worked in the seas.
“Darius is that you?”
The shrill voice caused Kassandra to shiver.
“Who is that?” she asked, barely able to discern the fast approaching shape zooming their way.
“Brace yourself. That’s my baby sister, Mercka,” he said, pulling Kassandra in tight for a hug.
It seemed
Darius couldn’t keep his hands off her. At every opportunity he either reached out to stroke her backside, arm or, heaven forbid, her very sensitive tail. She would never have taken him for the touchy-feely type, but she had to admit it felt damned good.
“It is you. I knew it had to be you. I told Mother you would come back and not to worry, but did she once listen to me? No, of course not. But Father came by to check on her, and he told me you had returned. Darius, it is so good to see you and I know you’ve got a good reason for being away for so long,” babbled Mercka, embracing her brother in an unusual manner.
First she kissed him over both eyelids and then in the middle of his forehead. Vaguely, Kassandra heard Darius’ voice inside her head telling her that this was the formal greeting.
As if she’d just noticed Kassandra, the vivacious Siren turned to smile sweetly at her. Kassandra noted she had the loveliest hue of orange hair she had ever seen.
“Oh... sorry about that. You are? No let me guess. Give me your hand,” said Mercka.
“That’s not necessary, Mercka. This is...”
“No, it’s all right,” interrupted Kassandra, holding out her hand. She caught the guarded look from Darius and wondered what could be so wrong about letting his sister touch her.
Mercka didn’t hesitate. She practically pounced at her outstretched palm. The contact of her warm hand on Kassandra’s caused a shiver to pass through Kassandra.
“You were human. And a Seeker. That’s great. Darius, you’ve finally found your Sokhan,” said Mercka, pulling Kassandra in for the formal embrace.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Darius moving further away from her. His eyes had narrowed to slits. She could tell by his no-nonsense stance and the tick in his jaw that something was troubling him. Before she could even begin to ask questions, Mercka once again took the lead.
“So, Kassandra Delong, welcome to our family. This is just great. First, Seth finds Jamie, and you are going to looove her. She’s a sensitive Siren and of course of royal blood, not that you need that, and now Darius’ has found you – a Seeker. You know the only other Seeker I have ever met was...” here she paused finally taking a breath.
