by Joey W. Hill
"What the hell did you let her do to me?"
"She was trying to save your life. The Dark Ones--"
"She is a Dark Spawn. Damn it, I never should have trusted her. Or you, a child stupid enough to think a Dark One can be your friend. I--"
"She may be dead because of you, my lord." Anna thrust hard against him, but of course he didn't budge. "Because of me. Because I brought her into this. She led the Dark Ones away from us."
"Perhaps that's what she wants you to think." He had no patience for her feelings right now. With disgust, he released her and managed to make it to his feet this time, though he had to fight the desire to lie back down. Because his voice was hoarse, he cleared it twice before he got the words out. "What did she do to me?"
"You're human." She flinched at his expression. "It's only temporary. At dusk, your true form will return. Until . . ." She bit it off and looked away. "It will return at dusk."
His eyes narrowed. Gods, his head felt like someone was pounding a mallet against it.
"Until what?"
When she didn't answer, he lunged out and grabbed her arm, this time managing not to topple over. If the little idiot had any sense, she would run. He wanted to break the seawitch's neck, but at the moment anyone's might do. Instead, his little mermaid watched him like a captive in truth, unshed tears in her eyes, those hands still clenched.
Seizing both her wrists, he swayed alarmingly. She braced her feet, her fingers flexing as if she'd like to help steady him. To Hades with that. "Answer me, Anna."
"Until sunrise, my lord," she said at last, looking past his shoulder. "You are human during daylight, angel at night. Mina says the potion will last about a week, to give us time to get inland and confuse the Dark Ones as to your whereabouts. By the time it wears off, we'll be where they don't expect you to be."
"So we are to be wanderers, you and I?" As he gave her a shake, he tried not to care when she flinched again, this time at the brutal grip of his hands. Her forearms were like slender branches. She was so fragile. Even in this form, he could easily overpower her. And yet, she'd still tricked him into this . . . abomination.
"Did you hatch this plan with her?"
"No, my lord." Her jaw took on a stubborn set. "I didn't know of Mina's plan, but yes, I did help her when she told me the Dark Ones would be there any moment."
Jonah snorted. "I don't suppose it would have occurred to either of you to advise me of her plan before she executed it?"
Anna shook her head. "She didn't think you would agree. They were coming," she repeated. Was he mistaken or was she . . . gritting her teeth? Her words were coming out clipped, measured.
Jonah dropped his touch. "It would have been wiser for the two of you to leave. So I could deal with them and you would have been safe. You were utterly foolish."
"You would have been dead." Her gaze shot up to his face and he saw a surprising flash of fire. "I won't allow that. Not while I live. Not while I'm supposed to be taking care of you."
"Anna--"
"I won't allow it."
Her shout reverberated up and down the beach, stunning him into silence. She stood there, quivering with fury, her hands balled into fists, despite the fact he loomed over her like a mountain.
"You won't allow it, little one? Who do you think you're talking to?"
By Hades, she took another step forward, tilting her head to come almost nose to nose with him. "You wanted to die. You want them to kill you. You think I don't see it? That Mina and I don't recognize it? Well, I'm sorry, my lord, but it's your misfortune to have landed in the clutches of the two people in the whole ocean who know what it is to feel that way."
His rage struggled with his astonishment. She was standing fully in the blast zone of his fury, and not backing down a bit. He had captains smart enough to stay out of range when he was in a temper only half this fierce. No one of his own Legion had dared anything but respectful dissension with him for as long as he could remember.
From the shifting of her eyes, he could tell she knew the ground beneath her was quicksand. And yet the little idiot wasn't done yet.
ANNA couldn't stand it. She'd sat there, watching him vomit and struggle, his horror and disorientation when he realized his wings were gone, an intrinsic part of who he was. Knowing she'd done this to him. Even wounded, as an angel, he'd been so fully in command. So perfect. He was an angel, the Prime Legion Commander, and she'd reduced him to this.
She'd known she wasn't in any way prepared to deal with this situation. But that never seemed to stop her from doing what she shouldn't do. Now she found herself well over her head, with only one compass to guide her. Mina's dark vision of what could happen if he fell into the hands of the Dark Ones. She had to do what she could to protect him. And since she had ridiculously little power of her own for such a task, she could only follow Mina's instructions. Trust the one being Jonah thought she was a fool to trust.
"You don't know anything." His jaw was held rigid. "You've lived for barely a blink of my life. You know nothing."
He could destroy her. At sunset, he would return to being an angel who could extinguish a life without a thought. Hades, even as a human he could snap her neck. And he was, as the humans liked to say, tremendously pissed off. But even beyond her self-doubt, she knew she was right about this one thing, and she told herself she wouldn't back away from it, no matter how much her stomach was quaking with nerves.
"Let me die. That was one of the first things you said." Anna took a breath, and reminded herself of how he'd been inside her, overwhelmed her with his mouth alone. She was part of him in her own mind, whether he cared to nurture that illusion himself or not. "I don't know the shape or reason for the darkness you carry in you, my lord, but I do know it's there, and that it's likely a greater danger to you than a Dark One. I won't let you throw your life away. Not if I can do anything to prevent it."
What could she do?
Touch him, make him desire you . . .
She'd never been . . . Well, obviously she had no experience in seducing a male. But she needed to try something different than arguing with an ancient being who would consider her measly twenty years of wisdom inconsequential. Knowing she was risking a humiliating rebuff or worse, with an awkward jerk she rose on her toes, aware the motion dragged the full softness of her breasts against his chest, as well as his knuckles, for his hands came up in reaction, locked on her wrists again.
It was a stretch, but she managed to reach his lips. Not a shy kiss this time. Leaning into him, she opened her mouth and sought the inside of his, tasting his tongue, wishing her hands could be free so she could bring his head down, grip his hair, delve deeper.
He wasn't holding her feet, though. She stepped in between his, her hip bone pressing the front of the snug jeans, her thigh rubbing the inside of his.
His hands slid from her wrists, seized her upper arms and pulled her off him, holding her with a rigid grip. He studied her, unsmiling, his firm mouth moist from hers. At first her stomach plummeted and she thought she'd failed miserably. But then she saw something in his gaze that made her shiver in her lower belly. While he was indeed in a dangerous mood, he was not unaffected by that kiss. The uncertain combination was more exciting than she expected it to be, though she couldn't explain why that was.
"Do you think to distract me, little one?"
"No." She shook her head, though the sea horses in her chest pranced with cautious joy as he used the nickname. "I just . . . I wanted to remind you that there might be a good reason to stay around a few more days, until you go down in a blaze of glory under a hundred Dark Ones."
The comment was unexpected, ridiculous. She was trembling, but her chin was up. Jonah found his wrath simply couldn't hold before the combination of innocent sensuality and determination. Whatever the seawitch's motives, he wasn't so angry he couldn't see that Anna had sincerely meant to help. Faith, she was brave. Beautiful. She had a courage that would impress his toughest legion commander. But she
was so foolish to bait him. He would have to take her to task about that. Eventually.
This abysmal transition was temporary, if the seawitch had told Anna the truth. And if she had, he'd just been granted a week of total invisibility. That was not entirely without appeal--more than he wanted to admit or explain to himself. In fact, the passion Anna had summoned from him, on several different levels, was as alive as he'd felt in a while.
"Where did you get these clothes?"
Anna blinked at the change of topic, then looked over her shoulder, toward a small cottage nestled in the dunes. He noted the next nearest one was about a mile down the beach. "That belongs to me, my lord. It's the place that Neptune set up for the daughters of Ariel."
"That's not what I meant." He indicated himself. "Why do you have a man's clothes, little one?"
The implication and demand in his voice startled her. Surely he wasn't being possessive? When he'd first said, "You belong to me . . . for now," she'd loved the words in a very hard-to-explain way, such that she wouldn't dare to repeat them, for fear the independent Mina would ridicule her. Besides which, she'd known she'd simply woven those words into the elaborate fantasy of being part of him. The words had no enduring meaning. Much like what had brought them together in the cave.
Despite that bleak thought, the look in his eyes suggested he had meant his words of ownership quite literally. Though he had human eyes now, a white sclera around the dark brown iris, it made him no less overwhelming in his stillness when he watched her like he did now. She wet her lips. "The original legend. Ariel rescued the prince from the sea. It's one of our odd family traditions, my lord. We always keep a change of men's clothing in the house, for when the man of our dreams washes ashore. It's a stupid thing, but none of us has ever broken it."
Of course, every man who had spawned Arianne's next generation had been rescued in some fashion from the sea. As she had the thought, she blanched, and barely managed to keep herself from laying a palm over her flat stomach. He'd said he didn't . . . Of course not. He wasn't a human. He was an angel. Anna's tragedy had yet to happen. And yet, she couldn't imagine wanting another man after being with Jonah.
He nodded, apparently satisfied. "And the little beast you call a friend? Will she come here?"
That snapped her back to the present. Despite her attempt to remain calm, tears choked her throat. "I don't know, my lord. I was hoping she would come at least to the water's edge, so I'd know she was all right, but then she never comes to the surface. And I didn't . . . I couldn't leave you." Briefly she relayed how she and Mina had parted.
"I've been sitting here for two hours, watching you, wondering if she's alive or dead, if they've hurt her, and I've no way of helping her. Don't you see how much courage it took for her to come to you? She told me you lead the Dark Legion, and she is Dark Spawn. No one will help her, because I'm the only one . . ." She shook her head, turned away as he dropped his grip. "She's the only person I think of as a friend."
"You are so certain of her loyalty?"
"Yes. First off, it doesn't make any sense for her to betray you this way, my lord. She could have chosen not to warn us down in the caves. Even here, you've been out for two hours. Plenty of time for them to come for us if that was her intent."
"She was indifferent to my well-being, Anna. The mystery is what her feelings are for you." As she glanced back at him, surprised at his intuition, he inclined his head. "It was the only thing I sensed from her that saved her life when she came into the cave. Why does she feel such a strong compulsion to protect you?"
"You don't give her enough credit, my lord. Mina fights the darkness within her. She has had to fight it so hard and . . . It's difficult to explain, but she's the type of person who won't give up what she's worked so hard to earn."
"She refuses to give in to the evil because that's what it wants her to do?"
Anna allowed herself a slight smile. "She has a formidable contrary nature, my lord."
"I won't argue that. But there's more there. Why does she protect you? And why are you making me ask everything twice to get a straight answer? It's irritating."
Jonah arched a brow as Anna shot him a look, but she relented. "It's an ancient history between our two families. Even if she were wholly evil, which she isn't, she can't betray me." She looked toward the cottage. "We should get inside before night falls."
His piercing gaze told her he knew she was being evasive. It made her want to swim away, but of course she was on human legs now. For so long, she'd wanted someone to talk to, but she hadn't imagined having to talk about these types of things.
"Or perhaps we should go ahead and start our journey," she said casually. "Get farther away from the shoreline."
"Journey? A journey has a destination. Where are you supposed to take me?"
When Anna would have drawn away, that long arm outmatched her. He circled her wrist, drew her back to him. His grip this time had a different strategy, though no less capable of keeping her in place. Moving his thumb over her pulse made her gaze drag upward to linger on his mouth. His eyes were still so dark the pupil and iris were almost indistinguishable. She should have felt threatened by their intensity, but what responded inside her couldn't be called fear. Not exactly.
"If you don't tell me, little one, I'm going to prove to you how unpleasant defying an angel can be." When his voice dropped to a silky murmur, her eyes widened as he drew her against his chest with one implacable arm, tipping her chin with the other hand. "Where are we going?"
She jumped when his hand lowered, covered one buttock. His gaze glittered, and she had the astonishing and unlikely thought it was amusement. "You're tempting me to warm this part of you, little mermaid. Speak."
Mina had told her to play the wanton, but when the full force of his dominant sexuality was upon her, it was all she could do to keep her head above water. Especially when drowning in him was so much more appealing.
But was he doing it deliberately? Manipulating her with seduction? Using her, as he had for the Joining Magic? Maybe. He wasn't being deceitful about it, though. He wasn't concealing his intent, his desire for information. This was a serious form of teasing, in a way too damn mesmerizing for her peace of mind.
Who was she to argue with his methods? This was certainly preferable to being shouted at. Which she expected was about to happen again. Briefly, she explained about the shaman, bracing herself for the storm clouds that gathered in his expression.
"A human? A human can drive out the poison?"
"Actually, my lord . . ." She made herself continue to look at him, though the frequent burning in her cheeks was turning them a permanent scarlet, she was sure. "The first tonic she gave you will drive out the poison if it is reinforced daily by . . . some type of energy raising. The shaman . . . His purpose is to heal your spirit."
"My spirit doesn't need any healing. Even if it did, no human would be involved." He eyed her with a sneer in his expression. And distrust was back as well.
No, she decided. He wouldn't use seduction as a tool. He had too much temperament to rely on charm. "You are very highly ranked, are you not, my lord?" She struggled for patience. "Yet you show no interest, no urgency to return to your kind. I'm sure there are those who care for you, and yet you also have no interest in letting them know you are alive. You don't want the Dark Ones to cause me harm, but you have no concern for your own value. Even with my meager skills, I feel the darkness inside you, a desolation. He can help heal it. Mina says so."
"And if I refuse to go? What if I have no interest in this plan your witch has concocted?" His eyes narrowed. "She may not serve the Dark Ones, but it doesn't mean she's not serving her own dark purposes. A prescription of daily Joining Magic," he mimicked. "That certainly motivates a young, attractive sexual innocent to keep me on the witch's quest, doesn't it? You've had a taste and you want more. She knows it. And she knows how distracting that would be."
Shock flooded Anna. Pulling her hand away before he could sto
p her, she stepped back. "That was just mean," she said in a tight voice. The hurt gathered in her throat, a painful lump. "Angels aren't supposed to be mean. I don't care who or what you are. I'm not some kind of . . . I . . . It was, to me, what we did . . . You make it sound dirty. I wasn't . . ." She shook her head, balled her hands into fists. "Here's an alternative plan, my lord. Sit here and brood until the Dark Ones come and make a meal of you."
Spinning on her heel, she prepared to stalk up to the cottage--and cry there.
"Anna."
When he grabbed at her arm, she rounded on him. Maybe she'd intended it, maybe not, but somehow her hand connected to the side of his face with a resounding thwack that left the imprint of her hand. The shock that crossed his face was matched only by the horror on hers.
Holy Goddess. She'd just struck an angel. An angel.
But he'd deserved it. He'd said . . .
"Anna. Stop." She was trying to pull away, and he was gathering her back to him, quelling her struggles without great effort. Why couldn't Mina have transformed him into a spindly, gawky teenager?
"I won't say I'm sorry."
"No, you won't. I will. I'm sorry. I apologize."
She stopped, startled, as his hand cupped her face, lifted her chin so she had to look at those dark eyes. Overwhelming her. "You are a sexual innocent, Anna."
"Oh, you--"
"No." This time he hauled her firmly back to him. When he sighed, the expansion of his broad chest nearly pushed her back a pace. "Be still for two seconds, or I will spank you. Listen to me. You're telling me we're going to seek the counsel of a mere human who thinks he knows what the world is, enough to work magic in it. And this is the plan of a half-breed Dark One who turned me into a human. I am furious, off balance, incredulous. And yes, more than a little confused in my own mind. Because here's the problem."
Taking her hand, he put it down between them, so Anna felt the rigid state of him. Her gaze flew back up to his face, her lips parting.
With relief, Jonah saw some of the hurt die out of her expression, replaced by wary curiosity about where he was going with this. Her heart was beginning to quicken, and he knew the pulse between her legs would synchronize, beating urgently for what he could give to her. He wanted to feel that rhythm of life against his cock, but first he owed her this.
