by Judi Fennell
"Oh, I'm sure Angel will be along shortly. In the meantime, why don't you wait with me in my castle?"
Like sundial-work, the boy's eyes lit up. Didn't mat ter the race or the species, you offer someone life in a castle, and you got that same reaction.
"Oh, cool! Can I?" He kicked his legs in his excite ment, one foot catching her in the rib.
Uncouth. You'd never see a Mer child doing that. Well, not that they had feet, but she'd never been kicked by a tail. He'd learn. They had lots of time.
"You certainly can." She pulled him close, unable to help herself, and brought her lips to his temple and her fingertips to his mouth, transferring the ability to breathe water into him in a way that wouldn't work with adults.
He smelled like a child. It'd been so long since she'd experienced such softness and scent…
"Where is it? The castle? All I see is water." Michael squirmed in her arms, and Ceto smiled against his hair.
"Close your eyes, Michael, and I'll take you to it."
"Don't do it!" A.C. whipped back and forth at the end of his tether, gnashing his teeth so hard some of them fell out. "You can't touch him! The Human's mine! Mine!"
Ceto flicked her fingers at Concord. He'd know what to do with the troublemaker.
She turned then so Michael wouldn't see Concord subdue the shark for transport to her dungeon. She circled her finger in the water, creating the funnel that would send the shark and the jellyfishes back to her home. They all disappeared with a soft sucking sound.
"Where's Mr. Shark going?" Michael asked, his eyes still closed as an obedient child's should be.
"He'll be joining us in the castle, but we'll go there a different way."
Conscious. Unlike the shark. He'd be lucky to make it to her home alive. Concord's venom could be deadly if not administered properly.
Ceto calmed her whirlpool before lowering them both beneath the surface. Oh, dear. She did so hope A.C. didn't receive an accidental overdose. She chuckled. No loss if he did.
"We'll all visit the castle together. Doesn't that sound lovely?" She patted the child's head, loving the fact that he was comfortable with her, when so many others hadn't been.
That proved it. He was hers.
Michael reached up to twist his hat across his fore head, then back, his lips going in opposite directions, but he still didn't open his eyes, the dear thing. Such a special child.
"I dunno. I'm not apposed to go with strangers."
Oh yes he was supposed to. "But I'm not a stranger, remember? I know Angel. We'll have fun. You'll see." Ceto picked up her speed and set off toward her second favorite palace.
"But how will Angel know where I am? I don't know where she went. I wanna find her."
It'd be a cold day in the tropics before that happened. This one was hers. Let Angel make her own.
But Ceto had to get him to her lair. Then he'd see. She'd give him everything. "I know where she lives. I'll send a message to her. How's that?"
He wrapped his little arms around her neck and squeezed. His hat bumped her chin and drifted off in her wake. "It's cooool! Hey! My hat—wow! We're under the water! And I'm not drowning. Cool!"
It definitely was cool. And a gift—one most defi nitely not from the gods, but, surprisingly, from Harry. She owed him.
"I can breathe?" Michael's little face looked very perplexed.
Ceto soothed a hand over his hair because a mother should soothe her child. "Yes, you can. Because you're a very special boy."
"Rainbow used to say that. Angel, too."
Ceto didn't know who Rainbow was, but Angel wasn't getting him back.
If he was so special to her, she shouldn't have left him the first place.
Chapter 34
SEEING LOGAN'S MIRA-MAR RACING THROUGH THE WATER off to the northwest, Angel adjusted her angle of ap proach accordingly. Boats traveled faster than she could ever hope to swim so she didn't want to undershoot in tercepting him.
"Captain, can you have one of your pod flag Logan down to let him know I'm here and ask him to stop?"
"Are you sure, princess? Having a dolphin break the Rule of Speech is a serious infraction."
As if that mattered with her list of felonies. "I'm sure."
The captain eyed her a bit longer, then whistled the order to the pod. One sleek, gray body dropped low, then sped off as the rest of them continued skimming the waves toward the boat, matching their speed to hers.
Angel was getting tired, but nothing was going to stop her from saving Michael. Why had he gone with a shark? Why had Logan let him? What had any of them been thinking?
A few minutes later, Logan's boat slowed. She hoped Logan was as receptive to her as he had been to the messenger.
He was waiting when she surfaced near the back of the boat. "What in the hell are you doing here, Angel?"
"I heard about Michael."
"Funny thing—so did I. From a talking flamingo. What do you have to say about that?"
"I'd say, thank the gods for Ginger and her nosy, fat beak, or we wouldn't have a clue where Michael was. Now, are you going to let me on board so we can find him, or do you want to waste valuable time arguing?"
"The only reason I'm doing this is so you can fix the mess you've created." He shoved the door open so hard it smashed into the boat behind it.
Angel caught it before it could do more damage on the rebound. There'd been enough destruction going around. She kicked her tail and landed back on the deck where everything had started, then closed the door.
It all looked so familiar.
If only she hadn't decided to stay.
If only she hadn't followed them in the first place.
If only Rod had given her the damn interview.
She hiked herself onto one of the pull-down benches on the side of the boat, willing the stabbing ache in her heart to subside. Would have, could have, should have… nothing would change the fact that Michael was at the mercy of a shark, and his only hope was her and Logan working together.
Logan did his part by heading back onto the bridge and firing up the motors.
Captain Brackmann breached next to her amid the churning water. "I'm trusting you, Princess." The dol phin dove into the water, then kicked out of it again. "Turn yourself in once you've recovered the child."
"I will," Angel called as the dolphin fell back when the boat picked up speed.
"You will what?" Logan turned around to ask, his eyes straying to her tail.
She couldn't blame him, but even though she understood Human curiosity, it just made her feel so… well… studied. A specimen. Not like the woman he'd made love to—
Then again, she wasn't the woman he'd made love to, was she?
And hadn't she been studying him when she first arrived?
She shook her head. "Something I have to do for our ruler."
"You have a ruler?"
"Logan, let's not go into all that right now. I'm here to help with Michael." No matter how much it hurt her heart to see the distaste in his eyes every time he looked at her.
Gods, if only she could go back and re-do everything, she'd—
She'd do it the same way again. She couldn't regret loving him, but she sure as Hades would have spoken to Michael about not coming after her.
Logan stood up from his captain's chair and braced a foot on the box beneath it, his eyes alternating between her and the water in front of them.
"Oh, I don't know, Angel. I think the fact that you have a ruler might have something to do with this. I'm assuming he's a Mer—man, as well?'
Angel nodded.
Logan rubbed a hand across his eyes. "And Michael knew about you, didn't he?"
Angel licked her lip and looked away. "Yes."
"He caught you when we were fishing."
It wasn't a question, but she felt compelled to con firm it. "Yes."
"When I was in the cabin?"
"Yes."
"Your voice. It did something to me."
; Again, not a question. "Yes, but only that time in the kitchen—"
"Why, Angel? Why didn't you just go back in when you got free?"
She looked up at him, standing there, wind whipping the hair she'd woven her fingers through, shirt stretching across the broad shoulders she'd laid her head on, the muscles in his thighs that had flexed around her now counterbalancing the boat's movements.
"Because I saw you," she whispered, knowing he wouldn't want to hear it.
"What?"
She cleared her throat. "There was a hammerhead in the water who threatened to kill me. It seemed like the lesser of two evils."
"For you, maybe. For Michael?" Logan turned back to the wheel and gripped it with both hands, his biceps straining the sleeves of his shirt. "He's out here, Angel. On a shark, so the seagull said—and don't think that's not freaking me out. Do you want to tell me why that is? How could a shark get Michael? Or can they walk on land, too? The folks at SNL would love to hear that, I'm sure."
He exhaled and ran a hand around the back of his neck, kneading the muscles there. "Morbid humor. That's what this is." He looked back at her. "And why? Where's the shark taking Michael? Why not kill him right away?"
She started to offer something comforting, but Logan didn't give her a chance.
"Why did you let Michael know you existed? Why did you have to stay on the boat? Why couldn't you have stayed in the ocean where you belong and where none of us would be the wiser?"
No adult in this world would have believed Michael's story if it had come out. Adults never did. Eventually, Michael would have forgotten about her or have come to think of her as an odd dream he'd had as a child— after all, who didn't believe in mermaids and fairies and unicorns at some point in their lives? It had happened before. That was how the myths had started in the first place. Some Human had written down a child's recol lection and called it a fable.
But this was no fable. And, yes, she was responsible. She admitted that.
She'd had her reasons, though. Good reasons. And no one could have known a shark would come along and disrupt them. No one could have foreseen any of this.
"Logan, look. You're right. I shouldn't have stayed that first night. I'd never planned to come on your boat in the first place, but Harry, well, he didn't give me much choice. He wouldn't leave. And then… well… You and Michael, you made me feel so welcome, and I'm trying to prove to my brother that Mer-Human communication is a good thing for the planet and figured the best way to start is with the children."
"But why my child?"
Because he was there seemed like such a lame an swer, but the fact was, it was the truth.
"I never wanted to hurt you. Either of you."
"You should have thought about that days ago," Logan muttered, ramming a metaphorical harpoon a little harder into her heart. A little deeper.
"Logan, I can help you get him back." And she would. Come Hades or high tide, she would return Michael to his father.
Logan reached up for a metal bar above his head and hung onto it, his eyes focused on the horizon. "Good. And then I want you out of our lives. Forever."
Chapter 35
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, ANGEL SAW A SIGHT THAT MADE her blood run cold.
Floating on the waves, rim side up, was Michael's hat.
Logan saw it a second later.
He cut the motors, leaving one barely idling so he could steer alongside it. Then, leaping off the bridge and clearing her tail, he grabbed a fishing gaff to scoop the hat from the water.
The waves kept it just beyond his reach.
Cursing, Logan tried again—and almost ended up in the ocean.
Which was where she belonged.
Checking first for shark fins, Angel took matters into her own fins and dove over the side. Within seconds she had the hat, and two seconds later, Logan had it.
"Where the hell are they?" His skin blanched beneath his tan as he traced the rim of the hat, such stark pain on his face that Angel couldn't look at him. Not knowing she was responsible.
"I'll see what I can find out."
Ten minutes of searching the ocean floor and finding a fistful of discarded hammerhead teeth gave her a clue—as did the lack of sea life in the water around them.
There were only a few reasons every swimming thing would abandon an area. Environmental issues—which she could personally attest to not being the reason—or predators. There was no shark here. Not now. And even though one had been here, the sea life should have re turned quickly once he left. But there were no fish or urchins or even plankton to be found.
Only one thing—one being—scared sea creatures into hiding like this. One highly disturbing and extremely possible reason, given their latitude and longitude.
Ceto.
It all made sense. The dearth of sea life, the prox imity to Ceto's Bahamian Palace, plus that fact that a Human male, a child, and the opportunity to stick it to The Council were Ceto's trifecta.
It all made too much damn sense.
As did the fact that Harry had to be the one who'd helped her, though why Ginger hadn't recognized him was beyond Angel. Harry had a way of making himself known.
Angel surfaced with Harry's teeth in her fist, hoping the bastard would have to gum his food for the rest of his life—what little there was left of it, if she had any say.
She vowed to ensure she would. Especially when she saw Logan's reaction to her theory.
"A sea monster has my son," he growled in a low, deep, primal rumble, crushing the hat in his hand. He rested his palms on the side of the boat, his head hanging low. "Is he alive? Will she keep him alive?"
Angel swallowed. She didn't want to have to tell him this, but it was too late for regrets. The only way was to go forward. Save Michael. "Ceto won't kill Michael, Logan." Keep him locked in her home for the rest of his life, yes. But she wouldn't kill him. "I'm guessing she has him in her palace."
Logan looked at her then, the first time since she'd gone overboard. His brown eyes were almost black. "So where is this palace?"
"That way." Angel pointed. "Not far."
"Not far? There's nothing but ocean until we hit Bermuda."
She didn't say anything, letting his mind slowly come to grips with what she meant. In its own time. It was a tough concept for a Human to grasp.
"Underwater?" He was quicker than she'd thought he'd be. "Her palace is… She has my son underwater? She drowned him?" He staggered back out of her line of sight.
Angel kicked harder, going into a tailstand so she could grasp the gunwale and pull herself up to rest her arms on the side of the boat. "No, Logan. Ceto would never do that to a child. She loves children. She probably…" This was not going to go over well. It never did.
"She probably what, Angel?" Logan sat up.
"She probably turned him. Into a water-breather."
"She did what?"
Angel wanted to caress that worried look from his face, but only words were going to do it. "She made him capable of breathing water, Logan. It's not painful, and Michael didn't feel a thing. He's actually fine. Ceto won't hurt him."
"How the hell can you be sure of that? She's already done something to him. A water-breather? What? Does he have gills now?"
Angel bit back the sharp reply. He wasn't the only one having a tough time with Michael's disappearance. He didn't have to be insulting.
Mers—mammals—didn't have gills like fish. They— she—were higher on the evolutionary chain. Above Humans, even, but now wasn't the time to go into that.
"No gills. To Michael, it's the same thing as breath ing on land. I doubt he'll even notice." She fluttered her tail flukes to get a better grasp on the boat. "And Ceto loves children."
"Yeah, she's proving that so well." Sarcasm dripped from his words. Sarcasm and bitterness. "Why do you people let her roam the seas, helping herself to children who don't belong to her?"
It wasn't as easy as locking Ceto up, but there was no time to go into Ceto's history now.
Gods and goddesses, Immortals, powers… If he thought a tail was tough to swallow, he'd be blown overboard by the rest of what was in her world.
"Logan, I'm sure we're more frightened than Michael is."
Logan raised his eyebrows but didn't argue. "Fine. Whatever. But I can't sit around here doing nothing." He started pacing. "I'll call the Coast Guard. The Navy. They have heavy artillery." He stopped. "No, I can't. Not without telling them why, and the minute they hear 'sea monster,' they're going to think I'm crazy." He sat on the edge of the boat and looked at her. "What does she want with him, Angel? Why did she take him?"
