“No.”
“Never been to a zoo?”
“Never been to the surface.” She balled her hands again.
Ohhhhh. That’s why she was nervous. It was just like me going down to her city. She must not have known what to expect.
“You’re going to love it,” I said.
She huffed, almost a laugh, but there was no humor in it.
“I’ll show you all the good stuff, promise.”
She looked at me, and there was something there in her gorgeous purple eyes, something I hadn’t seen before—vulnerability.
The little sub surfaced in the same harbor where this whole adventure began. But this time I wasn’t fighting anyone. And this time, I had a partner.
As the craft came to a stop, the hatch popped open. The sky was dark, which was completely disorienting. When I’d seen the lighter water on the way up, I’d assumed it was still day, but it had just been moonlight. The scents of salt water and pollution filled the air. Land—home sweet home.
With a few clicks, I used my phone to order a cab.
I hopped out of the pod, and the whole thing swayed. Water splashed up and inside.
Selene shot me a pointed look but said nothing.
She stood slowly and looked around.
“Your land’s air smells like garbage.”
“That it does.” I smiled at her.
“You find it pleasant?” she asked.
“No. But it’s still nice to feel the air around me instead of worrying that one of those big glass walls in your tower is going to burst and flood.”
“It’s not glass. And you’re perfectly safe in the towers.”
I shrugged. “You climbing out of that thing?”
“I will.” She bent down and pushed some buttons, then sucked in a deep breath and stepped over the side of the sub into the knee-high water.
The hatch closed and the sub moved away on its own, out into the ocean and below the surface.
“So that thing is going to be hidden in the water when we’re done,” I said. “Clever.”
“No,” Selene said.
“No what?”
“We’ll be forced to wait twelve hours for the return of the pod. It’s protocol to avoid detection.”
“What if it only takes us an hour at Waffles’s place?” I asked.
“Then we must wait.”
We were marooned, stranded, cast ashore—sweet. While I wanted to find Waffles and clear his name, I wasn’t disappointed to take a break from the water city, or to spend the night with Selene.
“Well okay, then,” I said. “Let’s get started.”
I headed up the concrete slope, and I turned when I didn’t hear Selene’s footsteps following me.
She had her staff drawn, not with the stabby points, but still long and ready to bash heads. And she wasn’t moving.
“Come on,” I said.
“The monsters will know my kind by scent. I won’t be caught unprepared for battle.”
“Monsters? There aren’t any monsters. And no one will know who you are,” I said.
“That’s not what I’ve been told.”
“Well,” I said, “then you’ve been told wrong.”
Selene studied my face, then nodded. “I will trust you. But I will defend myself if you are wrong.”
“Fair enough.” I waited for her, and then we walked side-by-side up into the alleyways where I’d first laid eyes on the siren.
We passed by the cardboard shanties, through the dark paths, toward the city center.
“Are these flimsy cubes meant to be residences?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you all live this way?”
“No,” I said.
“It is as you said then, an entire world of inequality.”
“It really is.”
Selene frowned, but kept walking.
The closer we walked to the rest of the city, the louder the night became. It didn’t take long before we reached the busy intersection of Oak and Twenty-third, the place where our cab was supposed to pick us up.
Selene watched the cars go past, a slight scowl on her face.
I wanted to ask her what she was thinking, but then the cab pulled up to the curb.
I opened the door, and gestured for Selene to climb in. She retracted her staff and slid into the back seat. I followed and shut the door.
“Where to?” The driver looked into the rearview at the two of us. She was middle-aged, short, with thick glasses, and by scent—human.
I gave her Waffles’s address, and she started driving.
“What sort of beast are you?” Selene asked the driver. “And are you trustworthy?”
The driver’s gaze shot up to the mirror as the car turned onto an adjacent street.
“You can check my score on the app you hired me from,” the woman said.
“And your beast type?” Selene asked.
“Some kind of weird, kinky, sex role playing you two have going on? That’s cool, just leave me out of it,” the driver said, and returned her gaze to the road ahead.
“Selene,” I whispered, quiet enough that I knew the driver wouldn’t hear.
Selene looked at me with those big, gorgeous purple eyes, and tilted her head slightly.
“She’s human. She doesn’t know about shifters.”
Selene’s expression didn’t change, and she didn’t say anything, so I clarified, “She doesn’t know about those of us who change into animals...into beasts.”
Selene nodded. “That is the way here? Secrets?”
“Yes.”
“Secrets are dangerous.”
“Sometimes,” I said. “But they can also protect.”
Selene stared out the window as we rode out to the edge of the city, to where the houses were ginormous and the yards were fields. And me—I couldn’t help but stare at Selene.
Chapter Seven
Selene
While the land pod glided away, Keating spoke to a box on a big, slatted metal wall.
I followed the wall to what appeared to be trimmed kelp along the ground. It was all the same height, and when I reached down to touch it, it was soft and dry.
“Selene,” Keating called. “We’re in.”
I headed back along the pressed stone. The wall opened before Keating—a gateway.
We walked in together, toward a structure that was large and squat, a three-story building that rivaled our towers in width.
“How many reside in a building such as this?” I asked.
Keating smiled. It made my insides somehow both tight and mushy, every single time he did that.
“I don’t really know Waffles all that well, but I’d guess maybe four. His parents, his butler, and Waffles.”
“Only four?” And I thought the towers were wasteful with their extravagant lofts.
Keating shrugged.
I kept my hand over my weapon and followed Keating’s lead on the way up to the building.
A short man opened the door as we approached. He wore a uniform of black and white, composed of many pieces—pants, shirt, jacket. It was much like the clothing Keating wore, only there was more of it, and more buttons. The man held himself straight and with dignity.
“Mr. Keating, please come in,” he said.
We stepped past the greeting man into a huge open room with a ceiling that reached up toward the sky. There were details along the walls, plants in bowls, and illustrations of small men riding on the backs of long-legged animals.
“Thanks,” Keating said.
“Can I get you any refreshments?” the man asked. “The young master has told me so much about you. You must be the closest of friends.”
“We uh...we just need to check out Joey’s room. Looking for something he forgot to bring with him. Then we’ll be heading back out. But thanks,” Keating said.
“Very well,” the small man said. “Help yourself. First room on the right.”
He pointed down a hall with gla
ss on one side, doors on the other.
“Thanks.” Keating looked to me and then started walking.
I followed, wondering what exactly the relationship was between these men. It had been my impression that Keating and Waffles Lick did not know each other particularly well, yet the suited man spoke as if they were closer. Would Keating truly be able to investigate his companion without bias?
I waited until we were inside the room before questioning him.
But the decor within redirected my attention.
On the walls there were illustrations of scantily clad women...all of them mermaids wearing clam shells over their breasts. For what purpose?
There was a ring on a second door, with netting dangling around it. Perhaps he was trying to catch a land fish of some sort.
And the bed was shaped like the land pod we’d ridden in on the way here, only it was red instead of yellow. Lying above the bedding was a long pillow, painted like a mermaid.
The warrior Waffles Lick appeared to have an obsession before entering the ocean.
Perhaps Keating did not know of our kind, but Waffles Lick did, without question.
I looked to Keating to gauge his reaction.
He picked up a ball from the floor and threw it into the circle net. It fell right through. Perhaps there were no land fish here after all.
Keating sat down on the edge of the bed. He did not seem disturbed by our surroundings.
“Do you still believe your friend is innocent?” I asked.
His brows furrowed and he reached his hand under the bed. “We’re not friends.”
“The suited man seems to believe otherwise.”
“Well that’s on Waffles, not me,” Keating said. “One time I picked him up to drop him off for a mission, because I was told to. Then I didn’t see him again until the sub ride down to meet you.”
He looked up at me, and I sensed no deception. I wanted to believe him.
It was the way I’d felt riding up in the pod beside him—nervous that our hands would touch or that he’d smile at me. I hardly knew this man, but I liked him, and I wanted to be able to trust him.
Even if he was from the surface.
I watched his arm flex as he reached around under the bed. He made a silly face with one eye squinted. I liked him.
“I found something.” Keating pulled a folder out and set it beside him.
I stepped closer, overly aware of the distance between us.
He opened the folder and flipped through some of the papers held within.
There were reports and photographs of mermen I didn’t recognize, and one of my sister—the Defense Ministry’s agent of the surface—walking through the streets, talking with people. She didn’t know they were watching her.
My stomach knotted. Why did Waffles Lick have these photographs?
“Seems like a Tribunal file all about Thalassapolis,” Keating said.
I knelt by the edge of the bed and flipped through the papers.
There was page after page about our technology, our defenses, about my family, my father. Two adopted daughters...I kept flipping. And there was a map. One hand-drawn with the layout of the entire city, with the towers around the outer circle. With the katopolis...the dwellings and the colosseum and the temple district. The map was black and white except for blue lines drawn from the center outward like the spines of a sea urchin.
The map was dated twenty-four years ago, from when I was just one year old. And in the bottom right corner was a signature—Hugo Rose.
The Tribunal had been spying on us for decades, and it seemed Keating’s boss was central to all of it. I wanted to trust Keating. I did trust Keating. Still, I had to ask.
“Did you know?” My voice was soft, and I knew my sadness showed.
“About the file? I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know there was a city in the ocean.” He placed his palm on my hand.
My breath caught, and I didn’t pull away.
“Selene,” he said. “I’m sure the Tribunal has intelligence on everyone. And I swear, the two of us are in this together. Tell me you believe me.”
I did believe him, even if it made me a fool. “Agent Keating, I…”
“Call me Vaughn.” He smiled with that grin that melted me.
“Vaughn,” I said. “It looks bad.”
“I get that,” he said. “But even if Waffles knew everything in here by heart, it doesn’t change our mission. Or anything between the two of us.”
I stared into his kind brown eyes, and I wanted to ask what exactly he meant about the two of us. Forever wasn’t a part of our customs, but somehow when he looked at me that way, that’s what I saw. Not one night of pleasure soon forgotten, but the bonds of family. It was crazy. I couldn’t say the words, I just stared. Finally, I looked away and rose to my feet, clutching the folder and its secrets.
“We need to get back,” I said.
“Sure,” Vaughn agreed, and stood as well. “Except for the whole stranded for twelve hours thing.”
“Right.” What were we supposed to do now? I wanted to read every page, and I wanted to forget the whole thing, and I wanted to see what it would be like to taste his lips.
“It’s late,” Vaughn said. “How about we find a hotel and something to eat. Tomorrow’s a brand new day, and we’ll be heading back before you know it.”
This time when he smiled, it was a little sad. Did he not look forward to continuing our case?
“Come on.” Vaughn turned and headed out the door.
We thanked the man who had let us in, and I followed Vaughn out, into the dark night. We walked a few blocks to where the buildings grew closer together, and taller rather than wide, yet they were no less enormous than the home of Waffles Lick.
Vaughn stopped in front of one of the buildings and gestured for me to enter as two men in stiff stances and plain black uniforms opened the huge glass doors.
Inside was a lobby of many chairs gathered in small clusters, and a fire in one of the walls. No one seemed to be alarmed, so I assumed the fire was meant to be there.
“Do you have hotels in Thalassapolis?” Vaughn asked.
“I don’t know the word.”
“It’s a place to rent a room for a night.”
I nodded. “Yes, we have those.”
As we approached a tall desk with a man behind it, I noticed many of the people around allowed their attention to linger a little longer on me than they did on Vaughn or anyone else. It wasn’t an unusual feeling, even at home. No one looked like me, no one but the assailants I’d faced at the colosseum.
“Good evening,” the thin man behind the desk said.
“Hi,” Vaughn said. “We’d like two rooms for the night.”
“One.” I wasn’t going to be alone in the surface world if I could help it.
Vaughn’s brows shot up and he looked at me.
“With two beds.” I could feel the heat rise in my cheeks. “Is that not reasonable?”
“All I have is a king,” the desk man said.
“We’ll take it,” Vaughn replied.
He handed the desk man a card, and received two in return. More words were exchanged about the location of the room and some other numbers. Then I followed Vaughn to our room.
Inside there didn’t seem to be anything pertaining to royalty, and there was only one bed.
“What did he mean about a king?” I asked, as Vaughn shut clicked the door shut behind us.
“It’s the size of the bed. It’s the biggest.”
“There is only one.” How was I supposed to rest if he meant to share the bed with me? I’d spend the entire time hyper-aware of how close we were to touching. Part of me was thrilled by the idea, though I shouldn’t be.
“I’ll sleep on the sofa,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
“All right.” I nodded.
He took a seat on the sofa at the far end of the room and pulled a rectangular device from his pocket. “Any preference on what we eat?”
“Nothing living. Beyond that, I have no preference.” I’d tried eel rolls once. The movement in my throat had made me gag as I’d tried to swallow.
“Got it.” He tapped his device a few more times, then slid it back into his pocket.
Then he slipped off his shoes and his jacket.
He spread his arms over the back of the furniture, and the fabric of his shirt tightened over his defined muscles.
“Don’t be afraid to get comfy,” he said. “You can’t sleep in shoes.”
I supposed that was true. I climbed onto the bed and removed my boots and set the folder of Waffles Lick’s papers down beside me. It was possible that there was a trove of secrets inside, intelligence on my people that even I didn’t know. I wanted to look, but also...I couldn’t seem to peel my gaze away from Vaughn.
“Tell me something about you.” He smiled with a warmth that filled me to the brim. I wasn’t used to feeling this way. My life was cold, sterile. It was comfortable and familiar. Even my courtships in the past had been cold. Everyone else my age, merpeople and sirens alike, had connected deeply with multiple partners. I’d tried, but it had never felt right.
“What would you like to know?” I asked.
“Anything,” he said. “Everything.”
I laughed. He was sweet and genuine.
“Okay,” I said. “I was adopted by my father as a small child.”
“You don’t look much like your father,” he said. “Or your sister, so I’m not surprised.”
“Ligeia was adopted, too. She is of siren descent, and was older when our father found her. She was alone and fighting for survival in the katopolis.”
“I’m glad Aegaeon found her. Is that what happened to you, too?”
“I’m told my birth parents both died when I was only one year of age, but I have no memories of that time. And I have no other details.”
“That must be hard,” he said.
“I would like to know about them.” I nodded. “How about you? What’s your family like?”
“I don’t have one.” There was no sadness in his tone or in his expression. “Most of us in the Tribunal are like that—soldiers without a home or a family.”
“That sounds more difficult than it’s been for me. I have Balthasar and Ligeia. Do you truly have no one?” The thought saddened me, even if it didn’t seem to bother him. Everyone deserved a family, one given or one chosen.
The Ocean's Roar: A Tiger Shifter and Mermaid Romance (The Protectors Quick Bites Book 3) Page 6