“Maybe. Doubt it though.”
“He definitely has the body of one. Check out those muscles. Maori, maybe? No? Doesn’t matter. Whatever he is, he’s hot. And enormous. What do you think? Six foot five maybe?”
“Maybe.” Kai shook her head again while silently agreeing with her sister’s lecherous observations. Looking at him made her knees weak. And that was not acceptable. She tore her gaze away, faced the bar, and slammed her drink, only to mourn that she was the designated driver sipping virgin cocktails.
“He’s hot. Seriously. If you want to go hit that, we’ll grab another ride.”
“I don’t,” she lied between her teeth.
“Is this any way for a Queen to behave?”
Kai snorted. Their mother had been born with the unfortunate, yet legitimate and legal, name of Sunshine Queen, which meant when the two girls were adopted, the ambitious surname became theirs as well. Sunshine always joked that her parents had been born into the hippie lifestyle a few decades too early.
When she stole another look behind her, the sexy Pacific Islander-looking guy had vanished into the throng of dancers. Regret swirled through her stomach for many reasons, none of them having anything to do with her dire need to get laid for the first time in almost a decade. The longer she thought about it, the worse it seemed.
Kai belonged to a culture she didn’t know, didn’t remember her parents, and certainly hadn’t ever made friends with another person who resembled her in appearance. While Sunshine had done an admirable job of teaching her about the many different island cultures of the Pacific, none had ever resonated with her as being the people with whom she belonged. This guy was the first, and she’d foolishly allowed him to slip away.
An hour later, it was a little after two in the morning, with her sister safe in bed but doomed to awaken to a massive, skull-splitting hangover. Kai finally had what remained of the night to herself. By then, neither her bed nor the intriguing romance novel she’d looked forward to called to her. The ocean did, though, so she headed outside barefoot onto the sand and stood beneath the silver moon shining above her.
The silent beach should have brought her peace, visiting it prior to bed part of her nighttime ritual and more relaxing than a few milligrams of melatonin. Her skin crawled instead, and a creeping sensation tickled the back of her neck, not unlike the feeling of being watched. Kai glanced at her surroundings but saw nothing out of place. The private strip of beach belonged to her mother, and tourists rarely passed by.
A little voice told her to run. Flee.
And because she wasn’t the heroine of a teenage slasher flick, she obeyed that tiny voice urging her to haul ass toward the house. Kai bolted, but it was much too late to get away from the danger, because the danger had surrounded her. Huge crabs larger than Labradors burst from the sand and advanced on her, boxing her in toward the ocean. Something that could have been a cross between a lobster and a scorpion scuttled toward her from the left. To her right, a new nightmarish creature surfed in on a foamy wave, glossy black and clicking its pincers, while venom dripped from a barbed tail dragging behind it.
No matter which direction she turned, a monster closed in on her. Some wore thick shells that glistened beneath the night sky and others scuttled on multiple appendages, though they resembled nothing she’d ever studied. The ebony waves shimmering off them appeared to suck in the moonlight, darkening their surroundings and casting the beach in semi-shadow.
Kailani dashed across the sand toward a small opening, unable to believe what was in front of her. These creatures didn’t exist. They couldn’t exist, yet everything she’d ever learned over the duration of earning her degree in marine biology—and the years of research that followed—told her there were vast places beneath the ocean scientists hadn’t explored. Anything could technically exist, even sea monsters belonging in a cheesy B-movie.
They were both a scientific miracle and a nightmare.
Scuttling crabs raced along the shore behind her, closing in with surprising speed. Before she made it to the grass, a grayish-pink tentacle shot out and caught her in the midsection. Successfully clotheslined, she lost all the air from her lungs at once and would have crumpled if the slimy limb didn’t spiral around her body.
Screams left her in soft wheezes. The tentacle was like rubber. She’d never seen an octopus of this size in all of her life, though she’d cared for several at the aquarium and many more while with Clear Shores. This thing was the Godzilla of cephalopods, a beast that immobilized her entire body with one arm.
She’d thought she was staring down death when the Cristóbal rammed them. This was death in the flesh, rotten and foul-smelling like the stench of an abandoned fish market left steaming beneath a noon sun.
The monster secured her legs together and held both arms against her sides. A suction cup covered her entire face, smothering her with its foulness. Death, decay, and illness.
It shrieked, and the unbearable force constricting her torso let go. Something shiny flashed in the night beneath the starlit sky, and her attacker retreated toward the ocean, streaming dark blue blood. A crab jumped on her and knocked her down, then the swarm flooded over her body, tearing her clothes and pinching her.
Screaming out in pain, Kai grabbed a rock and desperately bashed the largest crab until its shell split open and cool goo spilled over her hands. Bludgeoning the second labracrab bruised her fingernails and her knuckles, but it freed her bleeding arm from the stunned creature. Not missing her chance, she jumped to her feet and sprinted away, shaking off the smallest crustaceans.
Kai didn’t make it far. Less than a yard from the grass, something struck her from behind and she tumbled face first into the sand.
Someone had tried to crack Kai’s head open with a chisel. A low, methodical sort of whirring noise filled her hearing, and she was lying in a bucket seat lined with soft ash-gray leather. When she tilted her head left, she saw the profile of the sexiest man alive—the hot guy from the beachside bar who had undressed her with his eyes.
What a hell of a dream she’d had. Sea monsters on Galveston beach. Ha!
“Who the fuck are you? Where am I?” The blues and gorgeous silvers of the ocean bottom passed her by in a blur, with the occasional flash of a silver fish.
“I am Manu of Clan Ghostfin, Myrmidon Commander of the Royal Army’s Artillery Forces. I am taking you back to Atlantis where you belong.”
Kailani waited a beat for the laughter. If Sadie was behind this prank, she’d gone through some serious trouble to set it up. Professional lengths maybe, like that show Candid Camera or one of those videos always circulating around Facebook where people were chased by a guy in a clown outfit or a dog in a spider costume. There was probably a green screen or a projector involved and a film crew videoing the entire thing, waiting for her to freak.
“Atlantis, huh? Like…the mythical city of Atlantis?”
“It isn’t mythical.”
“Right. Okay, this is hilarious and all, but how do I get out of this thing? Sadie? Are you out there?”
He didn’t laugh. His solemn features remained unchanged, stern gaze fixed on her face.
“This isn’t funny anymore. Let me out of this thing.”
The stranger shook his head. “We won’t reach our destination for several hours. Perhaps another day. It would be unwise to stop now when the Gloombeasts have already gained your scent.”
“The Gloombeasts,” she repeated, staring at the hot guy piloting the craft. What little bit of amusement he’d given her dried up.
“Yes. The creatures that assaulted you on the shore. Did you forget?” The man’s mouth flattened into a thin line, and dark eyes darted to her. “Are you okay?”
No. But she wanted to forget. She clawed at the seatbelt and twisted in the seat, desperate to release herself from the contraption. Kai just knew the moment the phony submersible vessel opened, she’d see theatrical lighting, a director, maybe even a show host beside her laughing sister
. The guy beside her? He had to be a model or an actor. He was too good-looking, both rugged and pretty at the same time. “No, I’m not fucking okay. Those…things—they’re real?”
“Those were Gloombeasts, monsters born from the dark gods of the sea.”
Right. This dude was an amazing actor. She wondered why she didn’t recognize his face from any Hollywood blockbusters, because his current performance blew the summer hits she’d recently seen with her friends out of the water.
And he was hot.
“We have several hours before we reach Atlantis.”
Another lapse into awkward silence. The man just kept driving, steering them through coral reefs and rock formations of indescribable beauty. Sea life skittered out of their way.
It felt real. She felt the turns, the micro-adjustments as he steered, and yet she couldn’t possibly be in an underwater vehicle traveling the ocean floor, because that was impossible.
It had to be some sort of 3-D ride, like one of the attractions she’d enjoyed in Universal Studios one summer with her mother and sister. Either the viewing window in the front of the phony vehicle hid the theater screen or it was an LCD panel.
Kai leaned forward and touched it, stroking cool glass with her fingers. “Ha ha ha. Okay, you’re an amazing actor, and I really respect your ability to keep a straight face. Seriously, though. Can you let me out? I kind of need to pee.” She was a damn liar, but she figured that would bring an end to the charade.
“No. I’ve spoken only the truth to you. I came seeking Princess Zephyrine, lost scion of Atlantis, and you are she.”
“I’ll humor you for a second. Let’s pretend I believe a word about this shit. What makes you think I’m this lost princess?”
Manu glanced at her. “You’re the image of your mother. In fact, you could be her, if I didn’t know better.”
“I look nothing like my mother. My mother is a tiny little blonde hippie named Sunshine who lives in Galveston. I’m six foot one and dark-haired.”
He snorted. “I don’t mean that woman. I speak of your true mother.”
And then anything that could have been funny about this predicament disintegrated. Both hands fisted on her lap, nails biting into her palms hard enough to not only leave crescent indentations but also draw blood. “All right. Fuck this joke. Let. Me. Out.”
“Though it was the resemblance that identified you for certain, the bloodstone carrying your uncle’s blood led me to you.” While she stared at him, he removed a pendant from around his neck and held it out to her. In the pale lights dotting the interior of the underwater cruiser, she saw a translucent stone with a blood-red pulsing center that picked up speed the closer it came to her until it rested on her palm.
If it was a prank—if this dude was still fucking with her—it was the most elaborate and sick prank in the history of practical jokes.
It was not a prank.
It couldn’t be a prank, because no one in their right mind would have taken a joke this far when she was clearly losing it.
“Oh gods. You’re not fucking crazy.”
“I’m not.”
“We’re really… We are really underwater.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “And now you’re beginning to understand.”
Her pulse beat harder, faster. The thundering of it echoed between her ears and drowned out the gentle whooshing noise accompanying their underwater excursion. She wanted to panic and scream.
She also wanted to punch this asshole in his nose for stealing her off a beach, but common sense told her not to lay hands on the man piloting a mysterious underwater craft at the bottom of the ocean. Certain choices were hazardous for a girl’s health and not worth the consequences. “What about my family?”
He glanced at her again, brown eyes warm with unconcealed compassion. “Queen Ianthe and King Neptune died years ago, Your Highness.”
“No. My mother and my little sister live in the house not far from where those…things came from the water. Are they safe?”
He snorted and glanced away from her, out the viewing window. “Ah, the mortals. They were of no interest to the Gloombeasts, as they don’t carry your royal blood. I drove them off and doubt they’ll return. You’re fortunate I arrived when I did to rescue you.”
“Fortunate?” Her voice raised an octave and cracked on the last syllable. “You abducted me!”
“Saved your life.”
Her heart slammed harder until she thought it would burst through her ribcage, dooming her to death by cardiac eruption. This was real, and there was nothing she could do to escape the craft if she didn’t want to be crushed by the immense pressure of the ocean. Or drown. “My family will worry. They’ll call the police.”
“What?” This time he huffed out a hard laugh. “Your mortal law enforcement has an aquatics division now? An underwater sea force?”
He had her there. “What part of ‘my family will be worried’ don’t you get?”
“Not my problem. I was tasked with two things: find our princess and return to Atlantis with her. I’ve accomplished the first. At our current speed, the other will happen by tomorrow evening.”
“You’re a dick,” she spit out, hating him.
He shrugged. “I’ve heard that before.”
She slumped against the curved wall to her left and sank down in the leather seat again. Losing her shit and attacking the driver wasn’t going to get her to the surface because hell if she knew how to pilot the thing. Or their current position at the bottom of the ocean.
Shit. The longer she let her rational brain comb over the current evidence, the more apparent it became that she wouldn’t be returning to Galveston any time soon.
This fucker had taken her to the bottom of the ocean.
The bottom of the ocean.
Kai pinched her thigh. Instead of awakening from one hell of a ridiculous nightmare, she left a red mark below the hem of her shredded cover-up.
Manu glanced at her, cocking one dark brow. “What in the name of Tartarus are you doing?”
“Trying to wake up,” she muttered.
Silence fell between them again. She let it remain and stared out the viewing window.
Crying wasn’t in her nature. Neither was giving up.
Instead, she’d plot and find a way back home.
Lacking any sense of passing time without the sun overhead or a watch on her arm, Kai drifted in and out of sleep, because snoozing was better than having claustrophobic panic attacks every few minutes. She always woke to the same surroundings and somber mood, endless ocean and a solemn companion.
Manu of Few Words, as she’d dubbed him in her head, said nothing unprompted, remaining so silent she wondered if speaking hurt the bastard. Or maybe he avoided speaking because of her smell. The octopus stench had soaked into her skin and clothes. She could taste the nastiness when she opened her mouth. No wonder Manu had nothing to say to her.
It seemed they traveled for hours before they reached an unusual rock formation jutting from the ocean floor, its bleak mass barely visible in the light emitted by the vehicle’s lamps. It blocked the path ahead of them, but that wouldn’t have disturbed her if they weren’t hurtling toward it.
“Manu?”
In lieu of a verbal response, he shifted his gaze toward her.
“There’s a wall.”
He didn’t veer from their course. “I’m aware.”
“You’re taking us toward a wall—Manu, there’s a wall!”
She screamed and yanked her belt, pushing with her feet against the craft’s floorboard, though nothing, no amount of wiggling, could save her from the impact.
Torn between diving for the wheel, or whatever one would call the steering column he clutched in his hand, she watched in horror as he sailed toward the obstacle…until the moment they melded into the rock formation and appeared on the other side.
Kai stared at her surroundings. They had broken the surface beside a dock despite being thousands of feet
underwater. A pair of sentries stood guard, each one armed with a spear longer than they were tall. Their armor shone dark blue and green, resembling a crustacean’s algae-covered shell.
“I know what I’m doing. A little patience, please.”
Sweat beaded against her brow. They’d survived somehow, but all it did was make her want to throttle him more. “What…? Is this Atlantis?”
“No. An outpost. We’ve traveled for several hours and require a new energy cell for the coral glider. There are many cities across the oceans, way stations for travelers and homes for our soldiers. Without them, we could not stand against the Gloom or protect the surface from the spreading evil.”
At last. Answers. Though her heart was still in her throat.
The hatch opened and fresh, warm air scented by salt rushed inside. Manu stepped onto the dock with ease then turned and offered her a hand. As he helped her out, another man came striding toward them, dressed like the others but with glossy symbols across his armored chest she couldn’t read. They tickled her memory with familiarity, like a dream she’d had long ago and forgotten upon waking.
Part of her still expected to awaken at any moment. The rational part of her, however, realized she’d slept for quite some time and this was no figment of her imagination.
The decorated soldier stepped forward between his two sentries and spoke in a robust, booming voice that echoed against the dome above them. “Welcome to Port Bermuda, Princess Zephyrine.” In unison, her greeter and the other two crossed their forearms across their chests in an X pattern and dipped forward into deep bows. “I am Lieutenant Noro, and my men are at your service. Whatever you need, we’ll provide.”
They knew her name, and the moment struck her as so surreal she fought back tears. She’d spent her entire life answering to the name Kailani, but Zephyrine didn’t feel wrong. Not like she’d thought it would. Instead, it stirred something in her chest, like a key fitting into an old lock rusted from years of disuse, its mechanisms finally oiled and loosened again.
The place had the look and feel of an underwater research center out of a science fiction movie. No matter which direction she turned, everything was sleek metal, glass, or rock, the three materials merging to create a work of beauty beneath the ocean. A larger replica of their coral glider bobbed on the gentle current on the other side of the pier, and it was joined by at least a hundred more of varying sizes.
Return to Atlantis: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 1) Page 3