Cyn nodded emphatically, and tears welled in her eyes, tears I wanted to wipe away. She clasped my hands hard in solidarity. “Fuck her, and the broom she rode in on.”
“Our mother’s in danger. She needs us, both of us, on the same side if we have any hope of saving her.”
“I’ll do anything, Sam. What do you have in mind?”
I lifted my right shoulder and motioned to the ocean. “Thought I might go out there and ask my father if he’ll lend us a hand.”
She bristled. I tightened my grip on her hands. “I know you don’t like him. You think he’s an asshole, and I get that. Bad for Mom in the worst way. But Poseidon might be our only hope. Those monks were serious as hell today.”
Cyn swallowed hard, then met my gaze. “She loses all her sensibilities when he comes around. He’s the reason Rosencratz hates her. The reason she hates you.”
I shook my head in agreement. “I know, but what if he’s the only way back to her, Cyn?”
She brushed away a tear, smearing her black mascara into a bizarre inkblot on her cheek. “He comes around when the moon is full. While I always hated him, he makes her happy, Sam. If he’s the only way back to her, then what are you waiting for?”
I turned and searched Shade’s face for agreement. He waved me on toward the ocean. “If he can help us find Helmina, go get him, Samantha.”
“Tell Max I said for him to wait for me here.”
I turned toward the bank of French doors, and ran out of the farmhouse. I ran across the wooden deck, down the stairs, and out onto the dunes of Cape Cod.
“Dad,” I screamed into the wind. I pounded out a path across the soft sand to the water’s edge. I had to find my father now, had to find a way to forgive Cyn for all her transgressions, and I had to find a way to find my mother before Rosencratz murdered her.
Chapter 16
Sam
OCTOBER’S COLD WIND slapped me in the face as I ran toward the water. I stopped long enough to bend over, and suck in hard breaths of truth. My sister had turned me over to a monster in order to save our mother. “No!”
Would I have done anything different if I had been in Cyn’s shoes at the tender age of seven? It was weird considering all this from the perspective of an adult, of a monster-hunter. How could Rosencratz have manipulated my sister?
Just last year, we’d run a mission against Internet predators who targeted children on the web with no parental supervision. And while those guys turned out to be demons, plenty of humans had been involved in the HWB case too. The way monsters preyed on kids was atrocious.
Rosencratz had done the same damn thing. Thank goodness Mom had been smart enough to call Shade back then.
Yeah, I probably would have used my magic, the very magic Shade helped me discover and nurture, to find a different solution than my sister had. Then again, Cyn hadn’t had access to that sort of magic. Fury took hold in my heart. I could almost taste the victory of killing that evil bitch, Rosencratz.
The cold afternoon winds whipped across the deserted beach, and beat against me, drawing a shiver. I heaved in deep breaths, and fought for some sort of sanity. Grains of sand covered my blue jeans. I looked toward the waves rushing in from the sea, and ran for the water’s edge. “Dad? Help me, Dad. I need you!”
My father was one of the strongest forces in the universe. He loved my mother, and she loved him. I had to find him, and convince him to come back and help us. “I invoke you, Poseidon!”
My feet met the freezing cold water, but I sloshed deeper through the shallows. I pointed my hands above my head, ready to plunge into the ocean.
“Wait for me! Sam, stop!” I hesitated, and turned back. Max begged me to wait for him. A dark feline streak raced across the white dunes toward me. What the hell . . .?
Love doesn’t come at convenient times, if it ever comes at all, but it was calling for me now. He raced toward me in his cat body, four legs furiously pumping to reach me before I disappeared into the great beyond. The wind tried to steal his voice, but I heard him. “Sam, don’t go! You were supposed to wait for me!”
Waves lapped my shoulders. It would have been so easy to float off into the sea, to disappear forever, to go back home to my dad where things weren’t so complicated.
I grimaced, then looked back at the cat. “No, Max. Go back! You don’t belong here!”
The damn cat plunged into the waves, ignoring me as usual, setting his running legs into swim mode. “No, Sam. Don’t go! I told you to wait for me. I need your help!”
I let myself sink deeper, hoping he’d turn back. Maybe if I got deep enough, he wouldn’t keep on. Would he? I swam deeper into the water.
“Sam, stop! Don’t leave me behind!”
I hesitated. How much farther out would he come? Damn him. I knew I loved him before I met him, and sometimes I think I dreamed him into life. He sputtered as he got too deep to find bottom, and yet still the damn cat swam for me. The farther out I got, the harder he swam. “Sam, stop! Wait——I love you!”
Hearing him shout those three little words altered my view of the universe.
Max disappeared under the green waves, then his head popped up, spitting and wheezing seawater. He thrashed, and his head disappeared beneath the waves. He popped his little pink nose up to heave in a breath of air, then sank again, the ocean currents swallowing him into their depths.
“Oh, hell no.” I went into rescue mode, and dove for him. No way was I gonna let Max drown. Damn hard-headed Maine Coon cat. The very nerve! Chasing me into the ocean, professing his love, then attempting to drown. Not on my watch. I plunged down under the water, and kicked off the bottom toward him, toward my best friend, to save his furry little ass.
That was the fabric he and I were made from. We rescued those in need, and we’d never let a weaker soul suffer.
As I swam toward him, his magic engulfed me. The dark sea lit up with Max’s blue-green aura, and I floated, suspended in the water, watching him. It was an ethereal thing, the way he shifted. The Atlantic sparkled and spun around him in a torrent of turquoise waves.
Once I reached him, he didn’t need my help anymore. His six-foot-seven human body whirled out of the magic, and he grabbed my waist in his left arm, pulling me tight to his chest. I gasped.
We bobbed up to the surface, our heads breaking above the whitecaps. Max’s smile was contagious. “I caught you, Sam.”
“What the hell were you thinking? You could have drowned.”
He captured my lips with his in a warm, wet, kiss. His demanding lips sent shocks of desire through my arms and legs. His tongue touched mine, searching, plundering, and if this was the last time I got to kiss him, then so be it. Damn it, I wanted more.
A ripple broke the surface about a mile out on the ocean, then thundering waves sounded. I turned to look at the commotion.
“What the hell is that?” Max tugged me behind him, searching the water with me.
“Uh oh,” I said, holding him close. A massive emerald-green seahorse’s nose broke the surface, and then his finned head followed. I trembled, and wiped seawater from my eyes. “Looks like we got company.”
A second seahorse reared up out of the water, all green and teal and silver, his hide sparkling in the sunshine, followed by a third. Their equine bodies had four legs as big as pillars from a Greek stone temple. They raced across the surface of the ocean, pulling a gold and silver chariot behind them. “That’s . . . that’s my dad, Max.”
“Those are his horses. I read about them, you know.”
My father held the reins of the powerful steeds in one hand, and his golden trident in the other. They galloped straight for us. “Samantha!” My father’s voice boomed across the water like a fog horn. “I’m coming for you.”
“Whoa,” Max said, glancing at me. “Poseidon. Isn’t he afraid som
eone might see him?”
I shrugged, and stared at the spectacle that was my father. “I don’t think he’s afraid of anything.”
“That’s where you get your courage.” Max planted another quick kiss on my lips.
“Unhand her, you mongrel,” my father yelled. He raced closer, intent on pulling me from the sea.
He aimed his trident at Max’s head, but I called on Atlantis. It zipped to life, vibrating in my hands, and I held it across Max’s body to shield him. “No! Dad, wait. Don’t hurt him. He’s under my protection.”
“Under your protection?” My father reared back in his chariot, tugging the seahorses to a full stop. “We’ll see about that. You’re both coming with me.” He zapped a protective bubble of oxygen around us. Max tested the iridescent bubble with one of his claws, but it didn’t break.
“Hold on to me. Tight,” I warned. Max embraced me from behind, snugging his body next to mine.
One of the giant seahorses broke formation, and swam around behind us. The water steed nosed the iridescent air bubble down under the waves, following my father’s chariot below the Atlantic.
Max
“WHOA. THIS IS damn amazing,” Max said, looking around as they descended under the ocean.
Poseidon’s undersea kingdom had been fantasized by humans for millennia, but none of them had ever gotten it quite right. Sam grinned with pride while the seahorses swam them down to his castle.
Poseidon’s lair was so much more incredible in reality. Ancient temples to Sam’s aunts and uncles and cousins were everywhere. Most of the layout was done in gold and silver, and while Max definitely got the impression they were underwater, people—well, demigods like her—and other creatures moved about the kingdom, kind of in the same way people did on Earth.
“You okay, Max?” she asked, hugging him close.
He nodded, and pulled her tighter in his arms. “Totally okay, Sam.” He looked around, taking in the vast wonders of Poseidon’s world. Soon, a fairy-tale castle came into view. It was built into the edge of a channel that led down to an underwater mountain. Lit from within with a golden warm glow, Poseidon’s palace sparkled like a grand resort.
Orcas swam in formation around them. Sharks cruised close with curious stares, then darted away when the seahorses brayed. A school of mermaids gathered in a forest of green kelp near the castle to stare. Sam pointed to them, and said, “Don’t show them any favor. They’re all dangerous.”
“Definitely not leaving your side,” he replied. “How are we going to breathe down here?”
“The water won’t bother us in the palace, so you won’t need breathing equipment. The space is magic, so it’s suspended in reality.”
Max nodded. He trusted her completely.
Her father guided his chariot into an arched bay, and the seahorse nosed them in behind him. Only when Max glanced out the windows of the palace did he realize they were underwater.
“It’s kinda like being inside one of those massive aquariums up on Earth—but this is real,” Sam explained.
Her dad turned the seahorses back out to the ocean to feed on kelp and chase the mermaids away, while his staff of armed guards took care of his chariot. Poseidon ruptured the magic bubble around them, then he whisked Sam away.
Poseidon twirled Sam in his arms, kissed her on both cheeks, and then her forehead. His black hair hung long, and touched his shoulders. Silvery strands of gray grew in at his temples. Father and daughter shared the same blue eyes.
Max observed the private moment, thinking Sam looked like a younger version of herself—happy, a princess in a fairy castle, safe, protected, and loved. Sam rested her head on Poseidon’s chest, and hugged him hard. “I’m so glad to see you. I missed you, Dad.”
“Are you finally tired of all those humans and their wicked ways? How’s my girl?”
“I’m fine, really, but we ran into some trouble up on the surface. I need to talk to you.”
Two palace guards flanked Max with cuffs they meant to shackle him with. If he shifted back to his cat now, he might get away.
“Stop right there,” Sam warned. She pulled away from her father, and stalked toward them, Atlantis raised. She trained the tines on the guards. “Max is under my protection. Shackles won’t be tolerated. You’ll afford him the same privilege you afford me.”
Poseidon waved his hand in dismissal, and the guards stood down. Max breathed a sigh of relief.
“Keep him under watch at all times, but bring him with us into the palace so we can talk.” Her father took Sam’s hand and whisked her along beside him to the interior.
Max shrugged at the guards with a smile. “I’m with her.” He followed along behind them, staring around the throne room. A pair of golden thrones took up some of the space. Sand-colored marble floors stretched as far as his eyes could see, softened with teal and silvery rugs.
Max raised his brows at the Olympic-sized salt-water swimming pool. So Poseidon liked the water. A lot.
“I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here,” Sam said, interrupting Max’s inspection of silken gray and blue tapestries hanging from the ceiling. They told stories, and he was curious to read them. He looked around, awed by their surroundings. He’d seen palaces in pictures, but experiencing this one firsthand with Sam made him smile.
“You’ve done some renovation down here. When did you put in a pool, Dad?”
“When you’re immortal, you have a lot of time on your hands, and this side of the family has a penchant for decorating. I thought it might lure your mother down here to stay with me at some point.” Poseidon settled into his solid gold throne, on a fluffy red velvet cushion. His attendants settled a golden bejeweled crown on his head, and stood on either side, swords at the ready. “Do sit down, Samantha, and tell me about your friend.”
“Meet Maximillion Ra, Dad. Mom gave him to me when I was younger, when Max was just a kitten. Miss Daisy, her familiar, is his mother.”
“Yes, your mother told me about Max. Miss Daisy told me he has some heritage as a royal guardian in the Egyptian temples. That he was your sidekick. He doesn’t look like any royalty I’ve ever known.”
“He’s been my familiar, in his cat form, up until yesterday when he shifted to his human form,” Sam explained.
A servant offered him a golden chalice of wine, and Poseidon drank deeply. He leaned forward to inspect Max more closely. “Why was he a cat?”
Sam smiled at Max. “Because Miss Daisy is his mother. Mom and Miss Daisy sort of conjure shifters with their magic. Surely they’ve told you about this. We just found out he had the power to take a different form.”
“This human form?”
An instinct of dread hit Max in the gut. Poseidon didn’t exactly look happy to learn he had the power to shift into a man. Was he going to get possessive of Sam? Try to separate them? Maybe drown him?
Sam held up her hand at her father. “Don’t even try to pull the dad card on us. We’ve got work to do, and I can’t do it without him.”
A servant brought her a chalice of wine. She turned toward Max, and offered it to him. “Drink this.” She smiled at him and said, “It’ll make all this seem a little less weird.”
“This is so freaking cool, Sam. I’m not weirded out at all. Were you born here?” He sipped the wine. The taste was like ambrosia, and the drink warmed his gut.
“Nope, I was born on Earth, to my very human mother.”
“But you could live here if you wanted to?” Max gestured to the palace with wide eyes. “Can he give us a tour?”
“My daughter has all my kingdoms at her beck and call, Maximillion Ra. You, however, have yet to be invited.”
“Dad, you should know when Max first shifted into his current form, it was to protect me.” She turned and smiled a full wattage smile of pride on him. Max relaxed a
little.
“Protect you from what, Samantha?” Poseidon leaned forward, his expression hardened.
“From a vampire attack,” Max said.
“Vampires? What the hell are you talking about?”
A servant brought Sam a chalice of wine, and she took a big gulp. Max took another drink too. Damn, her father’s cellars produced the best.
“It was really nothing,” Sam said.
Her father barked out a laugh that was anything but humorous. “Nothing? Right. Like your encounter with Moriah down in the Keys was nothing, I suppose?”
“You heard about that? Oh, hell. Here we go.”
Max searched his face. If he knew about that, did he know about Helmina’s disappearance too?
“I called you because we need your help, Dad, back on Earth.” She pointed a finger up to the surface.
He leaned forward and perched on the edge of his throne, his hand gripped around his mighty golden trident. “You’ve never asked for my help before.”
It was true. She hadn’t. She’d fielded things up there like any normal person would, well, any normal monster-hunter who worked for the HWB, that was. Max wondered if they’d missed out on Poseidon’s awesome resources. He also wondered why she’d never had anything to do with him, and what Sam wasn’t telling him.
“What’s happened, Samantha?” Poseidon asked.
“Mom’s gone missing. She’s been kidnapped.”
“What!” Poseidon reared to standing, and slammed the end of his trident onto the stone floor.
“Easy, Dad.” She looked up toward the surface. “Good gods. You could cause an earthquake with that thing. Tidal waves. Typhoons.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
Sam held up her hands. “I just found out. Francesca Rosencratz abducted her.”
His handsome face, worthy of all the statues the humans had carved in his likeness, turned an ugly shade of purplish red. “That vengeful hag.” He started to pace back and forth in front of his throne. “I’ll go back with you. I’ll find her, and gut her like a fish.”
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