Immersion (Apalala Clan Book 1)

by Dzintra Sullivan

  “Long story, hun.”

  Kylee looked over her shoulder to see the coffee being made. Smiling she said, “Coffee’s on, I have nothing better to do.”

  Payton chortled as she turned to go and finish making the coffees.

  “Have you called the police?” Kylee asked. “They’re still looking for you. I only came home for an hour’s nap then I was heading back.”

  “Crap! Didn’t think of that, I’ll do it right now.” Payton reached for the phone. “Want to finish these? I’ll be a few minutes, I guess.” Kylee nodded, and Payton left the room to make a call.

  Kylee was sitting on the sofa with her legs tucked under her butt when Payton walked back in. Watching her place the phone back in its cradle, she smiled brightly at having her best friend back from the dead, or what she thought was the dead. Payton walked over and sat on the small sitting chair, reached down and scooped up her mug full of caffeinated goodness. Taking a sip, letting the hot liquid flow down her dry throat, it was the best coffee she’d ever tasted.

  “Everything sorted?”

  “With the police?” Kylee nodded to Payton’s question so she continued, “Yes, they said they would call off the search, and that I should expect some officers to come over shortly to confirm that I am, indeed, alive. They also suggested getting checked over by medical staff would be highly recommended.”

  “Makes perfect sense. I’ll drive you to the hospital tomorrow morning,” Kylee said, putting her nearly empty mug down on the coffee table. She centered her eyes on Payton and asked in a serious tone, “So, what the fuck happened?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She laughed.

  “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Kylee’s voice was of a ‘take no shit’ tone. “Let’s start from where I last saw you… top of the cliff, you, me and Mr. Wolf.”

  “I fell,” Payton whispered.

  “No fucking shit, Sherlock,” Kylee snorted. “Why didn’t you hit the rocks? Or did you hit the rocks? But you don’t have injuries like you hit the rocks. Why the fuck didn’t you hit the fucking rocks? You should have hit the fucking rocks!” When Kylee was upset, or confused, she had a habit of asking a gazillion questions, one after another like a machine gun without waiting for answers.

  Payton held up her hand to halt the barrage of sound, Kylee instantly stopped and her breath hitched with unreleased emotion.

  “It’s a bit of a blur actually. Why didn’t I hit the rocks? Pure dumb ass luck I guess. The wind felt like hands that floated me down to the water. I was far from the shore by the time I got wet, not a rock in sight.” Payton’s eyes glazed over as she was taken back to the night’s events. “I thought…” she swallowed hard as she wiped a tear from her eye, “… I thought I was dead.”

  Kylee quickly swiped a tear from her face as she understood, she thought her best friend was dead as well. “Why aren’t you dead?”

  “I was…” Payton leaned forward and placed the mug down, “… I was dead. I did die. I remember taking off my shirt, letting it float to the surface so someone might find my body, as I sunk to the ocean floor, then there was nothing…” she paused a few seconds, “… until—”

  “Until?”

  “He found me,” she whispered.

  “Who found you?” Kylee’s attention was growing in intensity. “Who is he?”

  “Volos, or V as his brothers called him.” Payton shook her head as she saw her friend’s eyebrows shoot up. “And before you ask, he’s the single most arrogant meathead of a male I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. This Neanderthal locked me in a cell and tried to interrogate me. This jackass might have single-handedly saved my life, but he also tried to threaten it.”

  “Volos? Sounds exotic. Was he hot?” Kylee asked with a cheeky wiggle of her eyebrows.

  “Huh?” Payton’s forehead crinkled in an attempt for deflection. “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “He was, wasn’t he?” Kylee leaned back on her chair and laughed. “Trust you to get killed only to be saved by a super-hot guy with an exotic name like Volos, even the way it rolls off my tongue makes me feel like I want to lick him. Volos,” she said it slowly this time and let her tongue swirl to emphasize the sexiness of his name.

  “You can have him,” Payton snapped. “He’s an egotistical bastard with a chip on his shoulder, even if he did have the single most sexiest eyes I’ve ever seen.” Payton suddenly stopped and shook her head. “Fuck! Stop it, Payt…” she spoke to herself out loud. “Yes, he was tall. Extremely muscular. Yes, his eyes were like oceans of heaven, and his voice rumbled through the floor leaving my belly feeling suddenly heated. And his smell, holy shiiit, his smell…” Payton drifted in thought as she relieved the sweetness of his scent.

  “Oh yeah, he sounds like a total barbarian.” Kylee laughed.

  “What?” Payton sat up and shook her head from the thoughts of a certain buffoon. “He was, absolutely. If it wasn’t for his brothers I’d still be trapped, maybe even killed by now.”

  “Were the brothers hot, too?”

  “I guess…” she shrugged, “… I didn’t pay too much attention. Once I got to see the king I was concentrating on going home—”

  “The king?” Kylee’s back shot straight up, rigid in the seat. “You said king, right? As in royalty?”

  Payton shrugged. “I guess, he wasn’t wearing a crown or anything. But his sons called him the king, and his office was lavish and had a lot of gold trimmings. Plus, it was bigger than my entire property.”

  “King of where?” Kylee asked.

  “Don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to ask,” Payton replied.

  “Okay, well… where was this office?”

  “I have no idea, Kylee.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know? Were you awake?” Kylee suddenly sighed dramatically and slumped back into her chair. “This is a fucking dream, right? You’re leading me on with these super sexy royal brothers, and then you’re going to kick me in the proverbial ball sack and tell me it’s all a fucking dream.” She looked at Payton. “I love you, but that’s fucked.”

  Payton laughed. “No dream, Kyls. These boys were very big and very real. Attor was here, less than an hour ago.”

  “Attor?” Kylee sat forward, her interest now spiking again.

  Nodding, Payton spoke, “He was instructed to bring me home safely by his father the king. So he did.” She held up her hand to silence the impending question from Kylee’s lips. “Before you ask… I was blindfolded. I don’t know where they live, or even how to contact them. Sorry.”

  Kylee slumped back. “And here I was worried about what to say at your funeral, and you’re having a secret rendezvous with these deliciously beddable royal brothers and being given a sexy blindfold, then delivered home personally by one of them…” a deep sigh of frustration, “… you have all the fun stuff.”

  “Being held captive isn’t sexy,” Payton’s voice dropped with the level of her chin.

  Kylee took stock of what it might be like from her point of view. “I understand. I’m sorry, Payts, but I still own a heart of thanks to this horribly sexy, delicious barbarian of a man who saved your life.” Getting up, Kylee walked over and flopped down on top of Payton in an awkward single chair hug. “He brought you back to me.”

  Knock. Knock.

  Payton looked up from under the Kylee pancake hug and laughed. “I think that’s the police.”

  Kylee got up and grabbed the mugs. “They’re all yours. You want another coffee? I think this will be an all-nighter.”

  Payton nodded gratefully as she walked to the front door and welcomed the police into her house.

  “Where’s V?” Attor said as he walked into their common room, Ladon was lying on the sofa flicking through television channels, and Wyvern was at the desk in the corner surrounded by a pile of books.

  “He came thumping through here hours ago, last seen heading toward the gym,” Ladon said without any concern for what was goi
ng on.

  “Heavy reading, Wyvern?” Attor walked over to take a look over his shoulder.

  “Boring reading more like it, brother. But in order to conquer one must first truly understand,” Wyvern said. He was the brother who liked to cryptically comment, it was his way of letting the brothers know he wasn’t the little kid they all thought he was anymore.

  Attor raised a single brow.

  Wyvern chuckled softly, careful not to place an insult at his brother’s feet. “This is all the information I could get on C.O.D.E. My thoughts are the more we know about them, the more power we hold.”

  Attor stood taller, nodding his head as he smiled at his baby brother. “Great thinking, kid, knew we had you here for some reason.”

  Those few words sliced deep within Wyvern’s soul, a haphazard comment made by his brother without any malicious intent was causing Wyvern to bleed internally. Watching Attor walk off, headed toward the gym, Wyvern buried his pain deeper inside his belly. He turned toward the desk and went back to his research. One day, he promised himself, one day his brothers would need him, REALLY need him, and then he would be ready, ready for them to see him for the fully-fledged brother that he was. Until then… Wyvern shrugged with a silent sigh, I research.

  Attor could hear the thumping of his brother’s fists as they made contact with the punching bag before he got to the door. Volos was going to town on it, Attor almost felt sorry for the large pigskin covered bag, getting the stuffing beaten out of it by a dragon with woman problems.

  Volos paused for a split second as his head flicked up, registering that Attor had walked into the gym. “Don’t start it, Attor,” he grunted the words out as his clenched fists pounded even harder.

  Attor silently walked over to the store room, appearing back a few minutes later, locking his arms into a large red blocking pad. Attor stayed silent as he walked over to Volos, who had stopped punching the bag, the only sound audible in the room was the air heaving in and out of Volos’ lungs at an abnormal speed.

  Attor could see the sweat sheeting off his brother’s body, he was in obvious distress at the news of his life mate being a human. Attor nodded in understanding at his brother and raised the blocking pad. Volos took a deep breath as he took a stand, ready to attack.

  “Are you sure, brother? I am not in a mood to hold back,” Volos growled.

  “Bring it on, brother.” Attor spaced his legs in readiness for the attack that was inevitable. Even with his awareness of the situation, Volos’ first blow made him stumble back with the impact. Holy crap, he’s one fucked up dragon, Attor thought briefly as he braced himself again behind the blocking pad.

  For the next two hours, Attor blocked every punch, kick, and combination move that Volos could think of. He wouldn’t walk away from his brother even though he hurt, every impact made Attor flinch inwardly with pain as his body took the abuse being hurled to the blocking pad.

  Volos suddenly stopped, dropping his fist from the poised striking position near his shoulder to hang loosely at his side. The mats were strewn across the floor now wet with the sheets of sweat that were being splattered all around. Volos hung his head in defeat and sat down right where his brother had just been standing. The powerful legs that he trusted his entire life were spent and had given him all the energy they had. He sat silently, his chest heaving great gulps of oxygen into his body as tried to cool down from his onslaught of self-persecution.

  Attor joined his brother on the mats, sitting silently as his body screamed abuse at letting it be subjected to such abuse in the name of brotherhood.

  “She smelt me,” Volos spoke after a long stretch of silence had passed, his breathing was beginning to return to normal, and the oxygen levels in his blood were reverting to a safe percentage.

  Attor nodded. “She did.”

  “Fuck!”

  Again, Attor nodded in agreement.

  “Have you told anyone?” Volos asked quietly, his head still lowered avoiding eye contact.

  “Not a soul,” he replied. “I made sure she got home safely, as father told me to. She seems really nice, V.”

  “I don’t give a fuck how nice she is. This must be a mistake. Destiny must have been smoking crack and got all disorientated,” Volos said more for his own justification. “She is a human. A human. What on earth could I ever want with a human? They’re inferior, untrustworthy, they readily kill each other for no apparent reason. They have no tolerance, no true emotional connections with their own species, they still fight over skin color for fuck’s sake.” Volos shuddered. “Most of all they’re breakable. She is breakable.”

  “What if—” Attor went to speak when he was interrupted.

  “It must be a mistake,” Volos stated louder and with far more conviction that he actually felt. “Nothing’s perfect. Not even fate can be one hundred percent correct all the time.” Standing up with a falsely created confidence, he looked down at his brother. “Thank you, brother. Now I think about it, I’m sure it’s a colossal mistake, and nothing more will come of it. I appreciate your support and I’m sure this will be the end of it.” Volos nodded with overconfidence, and walked off toward his room for a shower.

  Attor sat there and listened to his brother state over and over again that it was a mistake. Fate didn’t make mistakes, Volos knew that as much as any of them did. Volos was in for a painful awakening when he finally came to admit that his life mate was, in fact, the very species he hated most in the world. A human.

  Attor ran his hand over his head. Interesting times were headed their way. He got up grabbed the blocking pad and went to the store room. He was going to disinfect it, then head off to his room for a long and well-deserved soak. His body was screaming, but not as much as Volos’ heart would be shortly.

  Payton and Kylee stood outside the hospital having just had Payton checked over at the request of the police last night, and everything appeared to be normal. Not a scratch, not a bruise, not even any indicators of having swallowed or drowned in salt water. The doctor at the ER was even giving them the ‘you’re bullshitting me’ look.

  “You’re a fucking walking miracle, woman.” Kylee laughed as she got into the car, Payton opened up the passenger side and slid into the seat joining in the laughing.

  “A miracle who needs to keep her job,” Payton replied.

  “Yes, off to work we go, because we have bills we owe. Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho,” Kylee sang with a snort, her foot planted and the car revved to life as it sped toward the office.

  Getting her brown leather briefcase from the back seat, Payton had only just shut the car door when her cell went off with a ‘tag you’re it’ chime. Payton looked down at her phone and saw it had come from the boss, clicking the button she read the message.

  Boss: Meeting my office, ten minutes

  Payton looked up at Kylee who held up her phone that showed the same message. “Looks like we’re going up to a meeting,” Kylee grumbled.

  The ding of the elevator signaled having arrived at the top floor, the sliding doors opened to reveal two burly security guards wearing white tailored suits, waiting for their arrival. “The birdcage is full,” the smaller one said into his earpiece. Payton saw both of the men were fully wired with listening devices.

  “This way, ladies,” the taller one said, his voice sounded like black gravel, dark and abrasive to the ear. Payton and Kylee followed him to the main office and sat in the two black chairs that had been placed there specifically for them. “Mr. Embah will be here shortly. You will stay here.” He turned and walked back to the door opening, where he placed his back against the wall, crossed his arms, and settled his face into an unattractive grimace.

  “You will stay here,” Kylee mocked with a laugh at the guard’s overzealous need to show his testicular size. “I am a man, let me club you over the head and drag you back to my cave-like boudoir…” Payton was laughing loudly as she watched Kylee mimic the guard’s behavior.

  Silence fell instantly over the room as th
e door clicked and in walked Mr. Embah, dressed impeccably in his navy-blue suit with an orange pinstripe. He walked over to his large stainless steel desk and took a seat, he was almost dwarfed by the oversized black leather high backed business chair. However, the energy he emitted into the room made the hairs on Payton’s neck raise. He made her nervous, very nervous.

  “Happy you’re alive Ms. Hunter. I hear you had an accident?” Mr. Embah spoke with a melodic rhythm, the dark undercurrents to his tone tugged at Payton’s mind. Something felt wrong about this man. Unfortunately, she needed the paycheck, and this particular paycheck was too large to ignore.

  “Thank you, Mr. Embah, I’m quite fine now. I just left the hospital with a clean bill of health.” Payton willed her voice to be professional and confident. “What I would like to do, is to start the procedure for obtaining the geological rights to drill in the basin.” Payton opened her briefcase and pulled out the paperwork she’d brought with her. A sideways glance over to Kylee, who was busy pretending she was dead, Payton wasn’t sure she was breathing she was sitting so still. Looking back up to her very attentive boss, she flinched inwardly at the intensity in his eyes, they looked like he wanted to burn her alive. Swallowing hard, Payton refused to be intimidated by any man, no matter how rich, powerful or sexy he was. Momentarily her mind drifted to his eyes, the ocean waves crashing in them, and she felt the calmness of the water washing over her.

  Payton shook her head. What the fuck, Payts? Get a grip, for fuck’s sake. Mind on the job, she scolded herself and shuffled the papers on her lap.

  “This is not an easy process, and I’m not able to guarantee a positive outcome, Mr. Embah. Geological rights are rarely given to drilling companies when the desired land is within a short distance of human populations. The ecological risks are mammoth. Are you positive there isn’t a different zone you’d prefer?” Payton stated professionally.