Sea Storm
Children of the Waves
(Book 2)
By
LaVerne Thompson
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, or other status is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2014 by LaVerne Thompson
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever known, not known or hereafter invented, or stored in any storage or retrieval system, is forbidden and punishable by the fullest extent of the law without written permission of the author. LaVerne Thompson. [email protected]
First e-book edition 2014 Isisindc Publishing, LLC
Lavernethompson.com
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Editor- Lara Parker
Beta Reader- Wicked Muse Productions
Cover Illustration by Fiona Jayde
http://fionajaydemedia.com
Cover Model- Shannon Robinson
https://www.facebook.com/shannon.m.robinson.5
Photographer- Rob Bampton
http://www.robbampton.com.au
ISBN- 978-0-9859646-6-5 e-print
Dedication
To all of my fans, thank you for all of your support and encouragement. It is truly appreciated. I might write because I must but I thank you for reading my work.
Acknowledgement
Thank you Shannon for letting me use the description of parts of your beautiful tattoos. I changed a little the meaning behind one of them, but I kept the essence that shows your big heart. By the way I love tattoos, have one myself. *grins*
Prologue
The explosion rocked the waves with a force strong enough to knock Ezekiel onto his ass, even miles under the ocean. Agitated dolphins swarmed around him. He wished for his eldest brother’s affinity. Being able to talk to the sea creatures would come in handy. But he didn’t need to understand them to know danger existed on the surface. Flames danced above their heads. Zek followed the dolphins to the top.
The water grew warmer from the fire fueled by oil and humans thrashed around in the sea. Zek shot straight for the burning yacht. His muscles strained, fighting against the strength of yet another explosion, pushing him in the opposite direction and farther from the people struggling to escape the fire.
He cursed the fact his body physically resembled a fifteen-year-old human boy, even though he’d lived for almost two hundred years. His people, the Children of the Waves, aged but remained in this state of puberty until they came into contact with their mates or brides. Then the hormones kicked in and they aged again, until they reached their prime. He might not have the muscle but he sure as Hades had determination to help the survivors.
When he neared the surface, he counted four people in the water. While he saw three sets of legs kicking, trying to remain afloat, one appeared to hardly move and lay on the far side of the burning yacht.
The dolphins circled the three larger bodies helping to keep them afloat and guiding them to shore.
Zek headed for the slightly smaller figure separated from the others. Perhaps a teenager, but the blood in the water around the body concerned him most. He swam directly beneath the person just as the body curled into itself and sank down toward him. He grabbed the slender frame under the armpits and carried it back to the top, in time to see dark fins heading straight for him.
Chapter One
Xavior breathed a sigh of relief. He’d gotten through to Aaron by phone, his friend and prime guard, who’d remained on the cruise ship. “Cori’s been worried about Des,” Xavior said.
“I’m glad you called, so they could talk.” Aaron replied.
Xavior understood, Aaron could not tell Des, Cori was all right. He’d have to explain how he knew that. Aaron couldn’t tell Des his father was with him and Cori, hundreds of miles beneath the ocean and a strong telepath, and father and son were linked. While Aaron wasn’t a true telepath he could receive his father’s projected thoughts and his father could read his son’s.
Aaron continued to reply, “Des has been a wreck, worried about Cori too.”
“Yeah, not surprised, since they are best friends. It’s good Cori could reassure her. Now hopefully, they can both relax.”
“I think so. When Des got off the phone a minute ago, she was smiling.”
“Is she still in the room with you?” Xav asked.
“No, she went to her cabin to pack up her and Cori’s things.”
“Good, Cori just stepped out for a minute too. So, we’ll meet you day after tomorrow on Ezekiel’s island.”
“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed. “We’ll fly over this evening on a chartered plane from port when the cruise stops. By the way, congrats on finding your bride, man. I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. You’re next.” Xav chuckled. Aaron would be aware he’d taken a bride, and ruled the seas as king now. All the Children knew it, whether they were in the sea or not. Those too far inland might feel a punch to the gut, an inner burning. Those nearer to the water would hear the song of the dolphins announcing far and wide to anyone who wanted to listen. Xavior found his bride and ruled as king beneath the seas.
Aaron couldn’t communicate with the sea creatures, but he understood well enough. “Yeah, kinda figured it out when a hundred dolphins ringed the cruise ship earlier,” Aaron laughed. “Pretty cool.”
“I bet.” Xav’s grin remained even after he hung up the phone. He glanced up just in time to meet the loving gaze of his bride, Cori. His breath hitched in his throat at the sight of her. He’d brought her to land, to one of the offices his people maintained on shore in St. Croix. Since he couldn’t send a message to her friend on the cruise line, the way he normally would through the dolphins, he required a phone. Also, Cori needed to talk to her friend. He couldn’t take his eyes off his mate.
The way her slender curvy frame glided across the floor and then she moved around the desk to him. She sat on his lap.
He opened his arms and encircled her.
“Thank you, Xav,” she whispered and her lips pressed against his. She opened her mouth.
He needed no further coaxing before he slid his tongue into her warmth to tangle with hers. “Mmm,” he moaned.
She pulled away from him slightly and tensed but didn’t try to get up. Nor did he intend to release her. “What is it?” When she lowered her head and would not look him in the eyes, his heart paused. “What’s wrong?”
While by the laws of Poseidon they were mated, until the day they both ceased to draw breath, but she’d also once been human. He still feared perhaps, she hadn’t come to terms with the way her life suddenly changed.
When she sat upon the King’s Chair and the chair accepted her as his mate, her body had been genetically altered. She could now live underwater. That act also finished binding them, mated them for all eternity. However, it didn’t mean the same thing in her world…To her.
Which got him thinking about the other reason they were on land. Xav planned on marrying Cori in a tradition she would understand. He wanted no doubt in her mind. She belonged to him and he to her. Besides, he l
oved her and she loved him.
“I just—I don’t know this happened way too fast. How am I going to explain this to Des, to my family, my friends? It’s all so sudden.”
He smirked. “Yes, for you perhaps, but I have searched for you for the last ten years, and waited for you hundreds. And under our laws, we are mated. For life.”
“Were we?” She rested her hand on his arm and tightened her fingers around him. “How do you know for sure? How can I?”
He frowned, trying to put himself in her place. Understanding not being one of the Children made the concept of a predetermined mate since birth a strange and scary idea for her. But the Children believed it. It had been proven time and time again, for their race, this view of destiny. He had no doubt Cori loved him. “The chair accepted you. You swam at my side, underwater from great depths to get here and without the aid of the medallion, I might add.”
The talisman belonged to his family and each of his siblings had one. It granted the wearer the ability to breathe and see underwater at the depths the Children dwelled. But Cori no longer needed it.
“The sea has claimed you as its own. Like any of its Children, you only have to return to its waters to renew the connection and stay near water always.”
“Just because a chair—”
“Not just that, Cori.” He took both of her hands in his and held them over his heart. “You were made to complete me, as I you. You know this is true. Search your heart. The truth is there.”
She finally looked up at him but tears pooled in her beautiful eyes.
It momentarily stunned him and he feared she’d changed her mind. “I know what I feel for you. As a child, I went to the beach everyday waiting for you. When you didn’t return I cried, even after we left the beach house. The next year we went back to the same place and everyday, I waited for you to come, but I never saw you again. After that, whenever we went to the beach, I always insisted we stay at the same place. I’d throw a real fit if my folks wanted to stay anywhere else.” She smiled. “It only lasted until high school, then we went elsewhere. Eventually, I let my memory of you go. I’ve known you for less than three days but I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Her words calmed his racing heart once more. He ran his hand over her soft hair. “As I you. And I am sorry. I did not understand what you were to me then. Otherwise, I would have come back. I would have been there for you each time you came. But back then, a lot of fighting occurred over borders and my right to rule the sea. It took awhile before I could venture onto shore again. I am here for you now.” He gently lifted her off his lap and once she stood, he dropped to one knee before her, and took both of her hands again.
Her hands trembled in his, and she gasped.
“Among the Children we are already mated, but you are also a landwalker.” He kissed her knuckles. “Cori Daniels, I love you. Let me spend a lifetime proving this. Marry me.”
Laughing, Cori dropped to her knees before him. “Yes, yes I’ll marry you. I do love you. Crazy, but true. But no crazier than being able to live and breath underwater.”
Once more, he joined their mouths, then pulled back remembering the item he kept in his pocket. He’d taken it from his mother’s chest. She’d died during a senseless accident and his sire followed not long after into the depths. But the items in the chest now belonged to him. Before they’d left for the surface, he decided to ask Cori to marry him in the manner of the landwalkers. Xav understood she would need familiar rituals, too. He removed from his pocket a ring with a pearl, the size of a three-karat diamond, surrounded by smaller diamonds.
“Oh, God!” Cori cried.
He kissed her left hand before placing his ring upon it. Where it would stay for all time. “Now, how’s a week sound?”
She bolted upright. “What!”
He stood up with her and kissed her again. When he drew back he said, “Yeah, a week’s about as long as we can be gone from the depths.”
“Oh, lordy. You have no idea what you ask.”
He grinned. “By the way, that is a week total. I’d like us married in two days.”
“What!” She shook her head. “Again, you have no idea…”
“Yes, I think I do. And I have a brother who can help. He’s got the resources. Ezekiel lives on a small private island in the Caymans. He owns and runs the cruise ship line you were on from there and maintains his home permanently on land. He will have access to everything we’ll need.” Xavior sat down and pulled Cori back on his lap as he reached for the phone again, and called his brother. “When I’m done, then you can call your folks.”
She groaned.
Chapter Two
The fluttering sensation coursing through his soul had Ezekiel swinging his chair around and standing up. He took two steps and stood in front of the bay windows, covering the entire back wall of his office. His view from his Cayman Island office home looked out over the blue green waters of the Caribbean. He watched several dolphins leap out of the water and he heard their song above the roar of the waves in his head. While he couldn’t exactly talk to the pod or they to him, this message all the Children would understand.
They brought him tidings. His brother Xavior had found his bride.
“Lucky bastard,” he mumbled. Then, he chuckled. At least one of them had mated. Zek ran his blunt fingers through dark shoulder-length hair. While he loved his brother, he disagreed with him. He didn’t believe just because Xav now sat as a king on Poseidon’s throne, the unrest in their world would stop. Xav didn’t really understand, or factor in, even the Children needed to evolve and they couldn’t do it while isolated beneath the seas.
The world on land had changed and they must, too. They were the children of gods, but not gods themselves. Oh, they held certain powers but the days of the almighty were over. A new age drove them out. Zek believed the immortals came to understand this long ago and it explained why their father and the others left. Abandoning their descendants to fend for themselves. And while a king might put a stop to some of the warring factions of their race, Xav still couldn’t completely halt the exodus of their people to the land. Nor, would he try to stop them. However, others saw that as a betrayal of the ancient ways. Their enemy the white witch for one. Even though there might be quiet for a while, Zek had no doubt she and her followers would continue to fight against the tides of time.
The good news, though, without having to journey through hostile territories it would make it easier for the Children to travel back and forth from the depths to land. Although, Zek missed the celebration of Xav’s mating, he would have to venture to the depths soon to congratulate his brother. Xav, the eldest in this line of Poseidon’s sons had waited the longest to claim his bride.
Zek essentially left the depths and made the land his home, but he hadn’t abandoned his people. He would face his brother and let him know he wished him nothing but good things. If any shit started while he visited down under, then he’d stand at his brother’s side. Zek frowned, he would have to make plans to be away for a few days but he needed to return soon to continue his own search.
He heard his office door open and spun around, a smile already on his face. “Hey, man,” Zek greeted.
The male framed in the doorway could be his twin but opposite in coloring. Six four, broad shouldered and all lean muscle, built for cutting through the depths with great speed. While he and his brother Xav had dark hair, Cyrus’s pale hair glistened almost like silver in the sun. Otherwise, he looked the spitting image of Poseidon’s sons. They were after all, his line.
As far as Zek knew, Cyrus was also the youngest of their father’s sons, but birthed by a human mother. They still weren’t sure how their father could have impregnated another woman, but given Cyrus’ age, it happened after the death of Zek’s mother. His father didn’t exactly follow his mate directly into the depths, for a while he walked the land.
His half-brother returned his smile. “Hey, man.” Like him, Cyrus loved being near t
he water more than anything else. As with all the Children of the Waves, it called to him, too. Cyrus’s grin grew wider and he narrowed blue-green eyes like his own at his half-brother, just before he threw himself into the chair in front of his desk.
Good thing Zek liked solid well-built chairs capable of holding a large frame without protest.
“There are about twenty dolphins near the dock, even I know something is going on,” Cyrus noted by way of further greeting.
“Looks like Xavior’s found his bride.”
“Good for him.” Cyrus chuckled. “Better him than me getting shackled.”
Cyrus had met their older brother, of course, and they’d spent time together, whenever he ventured onto land. He’d even visited the King’s City a few times. So, he knew of Xav’s search for a bride. Strangely, unlike the Children, Cyrus appeared to be in no hurry to find his. With no interest in even going on a hunt for his mate.
“You know I can’t wait to see you when you find your bride. I think it just might be epic,” Zek smirked.
Cyrus snorted. “Hardly. There are too many women in this world and we live very, very long lives. I’ll leave the settling down to you and Xav. Hey, we didn’t get an invitation?”
“You might not have a choice, bro.”
Cyrus raised a brow at his sibling. “I could be different from you guys that way. When we first met five years ago, I might’ve been unaware of my heritage but it still doesn’t mean I’m exactly the same as you. I’ve always been different from everyone else.” He laughed. “When I stopped aging around twenty-five, kinda confirmed it.”
“You’re what now?”
He shrugged. “A little past hundred.”
“It’s too bad your mom died before she could answer your questions.”
Sea Storm: Children of the Waves Page 1
