by Starla Night
“I can sense you on it somehow.” She turned the palm-filling pearl over and over. “I saw Faier’s once. Yours is more…I don’t know. Sustaining, and capable, and yet also dark…”
“It is yours.”
She closed her fingers around the gemstone tight and held it to her chest. Her soul brightened with fierce heat. “I can have this?”
“It already belongs to you.”
She returned her gaze to the Sea Opal. Warriors had been gifting them to sacred brides for generations. When a bride accepted her warrior’s offering, she accepted their marriage.
Wicked light reflected in her green eyes. “Mine…”
The rush of hunger crashed over him and dragged at him, urging him forward. To take her into his arms. To own her. To unite their bodies and souls.
He set his feet, resisting.
Her calculating gaze flicked to him once more. “Would you give me anything?”
“Yes.”
“Even things you don’t own?”
“Those are easiest for me to give.”
A real smile lifted her lips. “You’re so different from Faier.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment. Faier bore heroic scars with greater honor.
Balim’s scars existed only in his mind. Hidden inside, he was fractured by torture, splintered by revenge, filled with seeds of deadly evil.
Most days, he healed his warriors and supported the rise of his race. But on any day, he could flip and end them. Mer and humans.
Bella knew. She sensed it even when he spoke no words. Her amusement wavered.
The metal behind her ears vibrated.
“You wear the earrings once more,” he commented.
Discomfort flashed across her face. “Oops. Caught again. How do you do that?”
“Hearing such high-pitched sound is a trait of the mer.”
“That seems likely.” She twirled around the room, glanced into his office, and peeked out the hall doors to the labs and conference rooms. “I came to peruse your new lab… There…and to invite you on a road trip.”
“Road trip?”
“Upstate. I’ve got family I want you to meet.”
He noted the hesitation. “Why?”
“If we’re serious, it’s important you know who I am.”
“Serious?”
“About me becoming your bride.” She clicked her boots together. “Going to Atlantis. Joining in front of the Life Tree.”
He stopped.
Fear and anger showed in her expression along with resolve. Complex emotions beyond simple lies.
She intended to join with him as his bride?
The tide crashed over him again. He needed her. He wanted her.
He would destroy her.
Warrior Pelan needed him. He must speak with Dannika. Doctor Kowalski. Wait for the call of the data company. Figure out how to secure the incoming warriors from the Sons of Hercules.
“Just say yes,” she pushed. “Live a little.”
“I am dangerous to you.”
Her brows smoothed with assurance and another touch of amusement. “I’ll keep us safe. I promise.”
He didn’t believe her.
She reached over and took his hand.
His fingers closed around hers of their own accord. She was warm, vital, a lifeline of strength and light. With her, he could be redeemed. He could become honorable.
No. His past was too black.
“Come on.” Bella pulled him, prancing backward through the lab. “I promise you’ll have a…a time.”
On that promise, he followed her to her matte-red car. The offer wasn’t real. He felt dazed. Bespelled.
She tried to put his offering into her jeans pocket, but it was too small to contain the gemstone.
Instead, she secured it inside her purse, folded him into the passenger’s seat, waved at the guard at the gate, and drove onto the highway.
He patted his pockets. He’d left everything important in the lab. His cell phone. The identification cards Hazel and Dannika asked him to take.
“I never drive,” she confessed, weaving between cars and jerking hard on the wheel. “We have to make a quick stop.”
He concentrated on the sounds of the engines of these strange land boats. Bella clicked on the radio. Her nail lacquer was fresher this time, as if she’d put it on when she was more composed. They exited the blaring road and pulled up in front of the metropolitan hospital.
Anger and disappointment rushed through him. He’d thought she would accept his Sea Opal. But no. She rejected him still.
“Wait right here,” she said. “I just have to do something real fast.”
“You give the gemstone to Jonah.”
Her mouth opened and closed. She tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. “Is that a problem?”
Only her jettisoning his offering moments after she received it.
But he was unfair. This surprise contact, this “road trip,” was more than he thought he’d receive from her again. No matter the reason, she had gifted him with contact.
He folded his arms and focused on the empty cars surrounding them. “I await your return.”
Chapter Eleven
The implacable warrior turned his dark, thoughtful gaze on Bella. The red threads in his eyes gleamed. He knew she was messing with him. Lying. She couldn’t help it. Even to save his life, she couldn’t be honest.
She tapped the car door. “I’ll be right back.”
He tipped his head back and gazed over the vacant lot.
She strode in, hurried up to the children’s ward, and skipped her usual pleasantries with the nurses. They knew what had happened; everyone kindly worried on her behalf and on Jonah’s.
But now, thanks to Balim, she again held a small token. And she had to give it to him, even interrupting the road trip.
She changed in the locker room and raced to Jonah’s room, pushed through the strong fan, zipped the door closed again, and walked through the second door. Nothing must penetrate Jonah’s safe, sterile chamber.
Jonah was asleep again.
She’d only seen him awake a few minutes this month. He’d finished his most recent regimen of chemo after they weren’t sure he could handle any more. Now, in the recovery phase, she was praying.
This might help.
She took out her contraband.
The Sea Opal.
She’d washed it and sanitized it as best she could, even though the hospital did more to purify cards, birthday presents, and the supplies intended to enter his room. There wasn’t time.
Bella tucked it into his hand, but the stone was so big and he was lax in sleep. Just like when he’d been a toddler.
Speaking of which…
She dug out his ragged bear—he was sleeping on it for comfort—and opened the back. The bear, made with her own shirt she’d sent in to a custom shop in Omaha, played her heartbeat, but the battery had worn out long ago. She pulled out the dead heartbeat mechanism and put in the Sea Opal instead, Velcroing it shut. She placed it in the crook of his arm.
He tightened on it, hugging it to his chest.
She rested on her heels.
Another hope. Probably a dead end. Please, please let this help Jonah heal.
Exiting, she hurried to the locker room and found her way blocked by the grandmotherly nurse.
“I’m so sorry to hear about what happened last weekend.” The gentle nurse squeezed Bella’s fabric-clad forearm. “Jonah’s a sweetheart. We’re rooting for him.”
“Thank you so much.” She patted the nurse and edged around her.
The longer Balim was outside, the more chance the Sons of Hercules would discover him.
The nurse held her ground. “Have you found a support group for when the time comes?”
“Yes, I’ve met support groups for family battling long-term illnesses, but I haven’t quite had the time—”
“Grief support,” the nurse corrected. “For letting go. When the time comes
.”
Fire crackled in her heart and acid sizzled on her tongue.
Jonah was not terminal. There was still hope. Hope was tiny and fragile and slipping away, but it was all she had, and Bella would not relinquish it for anyone, not a megalomaniacal sociopath and not a well-meaning nurse either.
Bella took a deep breath and squeezed her hands. “Thank you so much for checking in with me. I can’t emphasize enough how…much…your concern makes me feel. I am seeking support systems during this trying time. Thank you.”
She studied Bella but accepted the answer, patted her hand, and stepped aside. Bella thanked her once more and escaped into the locker room.
Perhaps Balim was rubbing off on her.
Bella rested her forehead against the cold metal.
She had to face Balim. The weekend together. This road trip.
Starr had taken every protective measure to safeguard the warriors from whatever the Sons of Hercules were scheming—without revealing her existence. But Bella had forgotten something. In only a few days, she’d pushed away from the memory of how Balim mesmerized her. Made her forget herself. Made her crave a life she could never live. Made her want him.
Bella had to see this through.
She dragged on her jeans and a warm purple sweater, gave herself a touch-up in the mirror, and strode out.
Balim waited for her in the rental coupe alone.
A worry behind her chest eased.
She avoided his gaze and forced her smile, unable to stop herself even though she knew that he knew what she was doing. She buckled in and started the engine.
“Jonah is unchanged,” he guessed.
“Yes.” She composed herself. “Thank you for your patience.”
He did not respond.
She drove out of the hospital.
The drive out of the burroughs was quiet as the Sunday afternoon should be. In a short time, she’d pushed out of the dense population. Once past Yonkers, the whole state opened up to scenic greenery—well, it was fall, so the green had turned to rustic reds, coppery oranges, and golds. Soon the trees would die back and reveal peeks of the nearby mountains.
Her shoulders relaxed.
New York State was such a strange mix. Inside the city, in the burroughs, the concrete and glass seemed infinite against the gray of canals, sea, and cloudy sky, but only a short distance out of town nestled the rural underpinnings of apple orchards, mountain villages, and the tip of the Great Lakes. Buffalo was six hours’ drive from Manhattan, but it felt about six states away, instead of being within the same state.
Bella fiddled with the radio, alternating between NPR and old jazz. Perhaps they could reach their destination without her ever having to tell Balim anything.
“It cannot help,” he said.
She rested her hand on the parking brake. “What wouldn’t?”
“The Sea Opal. You already gave him elixir. Ingesting micro particles is much more effective for humans than skin contact with the resin stone.”
Her heart crumpled into a ball of hollow tinfoil. “I’m sorry. I have to try.”
“There are many gaps. Many types of illnesses humans suffer that mer do not. You received the elixir from Mitch and Faier?”
“Before you surfaced, yes.”
“How much?”
“Ten gallons.” Doctors had tested it for sterility and inserted it via his IV. Because there were no side-effects found with Sea Opal elixir, her doctors were fine with trying it. Her son had even drunk it. The therapy had taken weeks.
“And your son did not improve?”
She shook her head. “The myeloblast count didn’t change.”
“And that is bad?”
“Are you familiar with AML?”
“No.”
“Leukemia?”
“Not at all.”
“Your bone marrow produces three types of blood: red cells, which carry oxygen, platelets, which clot and prevent bleeding, and white cells, which fight disease. Right?”
He studied her as though he was learning this information for the first time.
“Right,” she affirmed, for herself. “Well, a mutation can cause white cells to stop maturing. Stunted cells crowd the bone marrow. Healthy blood cells can’t get made, which leads to problems.”
“Such as?”
“Your kid gets anemia from low red cells and strange bruising from low platelets. Stomach aches from the buildup of immature myeloblasts in the liver and kidneys. Every single cold and flu overwhelms the few mature white cells. And just when you’re on a deadline and out of sick leave, the doctors call you in for the…bad news.”
She couldn’t say death sentence.
Jonah had already fought the blood cancer into remission twice. Less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with AML survived five years. He’d been through chemo. He’d been through transfusions.
“I used to blame Chaz. No one in my family ever had leukemia. But all those stunted cells, like toxic hoarders, have a lot more in common with my upbringing.”
He remained silent.
The long fuzzy silence of the intermittent radio got to her. She flipped channels seeking something good. “Well, there’s personal history you don’t want to know.”
“I do want to know you, Bella.”
“You’ll regret it.” She sighed and rubbed her mouth. “When I grew up, I was going to take care of myself. I was going to have an amazing job and tons of money. I’d never have to use underhanded means to get away with breaking rules or taking advantage of trustworthy people. And instead, I’ve turned into the very person I hate most. Manipulative, money-hungry, poor, helpless. Lying. I hate it. I hate…leukemia.”
Another long silence filled the car.
He broke it. “I do not know leukemia. Mer do not have this illness.”
“You’re half human.”
“It is not one of the one hundred seven illnesses. You called it a blood cancer? We have no cancers.”
“Must be nice to be immortal.”
“We are not. We have no machines to see inside a warrior or to perceive creatures smaller than the eye. Perhaps the technology of humans could ease the suffering of warriors afflicted with invisible illnesses.”
“Our technology hasn’t done Jonah much good.” She tasted the bitterness on her tongue. “If I’m a bride, why doesn’t he respond to Sea Opals? He carries half my genes. Why isn’t that good enough?”
“Many brides have cried over the accidental drowning of their human children.”
Her heart felt heavy.
“I understand that many humans have been resuscitated after drowning,” Balim said. “So you must rely on human medicine now.”
And she was.
To take her mind off their destination, she turned the radio to background level. “What’s it like where you’re from?”
“Wet.”
She laughed, surprising herself. “Tell me something that isn’t obvious.”
“Beneath the ocean, the water is air. Floating is hovering. Swimming is flying. And coming onto land again is unsettling because the ground flies at you, always, with no safe cushion.”
“The ground flies at you?”
“That is the feeling of losing your balance.” He gestured with his hands flat. “The horizon does not remain fixed. You are caught by surprise. Experience betrays you.”
“So the same way sailors have sea legs, mer have ground legs? Cool.”
“It is a normal temperature, I think.”
She snorted again, and they passed several pleasant hours snacking on old packages of goldfish crackers and gummy bunnies and diet cola. They reached the final turnoff into the suburb as the sun descended. Dying leaves clustered beneath large oaks and crunched beneath her tires. She parked and shut off the engine.
Chaz lived on a nice, sidewalk-lined street filled with picket fences, raked-over garden beds, and kids’ trikes. Lights inside his house reflected the cold.
“Okay.” She got out of the c
ar and tightened her warm sweater around her. “Go along with me.”
Balim also exited the car. “Go along?”
“This is my last hope to get a human cure. I’ll play a desperate, grieving mother. You play a rich merman with buckets of Sea Opals.”
He opened his empty hands. “I could have brought these if you had asked me.”
It hadn’t occurred to her. And she’d put hers in Jonah’s bear. “It’s fine. Just follow along.”
“I will not lie.”
“You won’t have to.” She climbed the steps and clanked the big knocker. “I’ll do all the talking.”
Chapter Twelve
Balim had no idea what to expect.
Only the dread filling Bella’s heart, which looked like darkness on her chest, punctuated by bright spots of anger. He tensed for an emotionally devastating fight.
She clacked the metal clapper.
Someone thudded inside the house, and light glowed out the window.
Bella straightened, smoothed her purple sweater, and fixed on her widest fake smile.
Balim braced for combat.
The door opened on a slim, short female with disheveled blonde hair scooped into a messy heap on the top of her head. She wore thick glasses. She squinted through them. “Yes?”
“Caro.” Bella smiled broadly, her lips closed over the tooth gap. “Good evening. Is Chaz in?”
“It’s dinnertime.”
“I’m so sorry. This will only take a few minutes. I’ll be gone before you know it.”
She peered at Balim, but her gaze veered away. “You should really call.”
“I did call. You know how he is about calls. And voice messages. And email.” She maintained her false smile the entire time. “Please. I’ve driven this entire way. It will only take a few moments. It’s about Jonah.”
Caro reluctantly let them in. She walked in socks down the hardwood floor and left them in the subdued living room. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Of course not.” Bella linked her fingers.
Caro eyed her suspiciously and padded deeper into the house.
Small plastic cars and miniature human clothing spread over the room furnishings. On the wall hung photos of two boys posed on human bicycles.
Balim set his feet. “Are the items fragile or booby-trapped?”
