by Anne Bourne
“Are you okay?” he asked while unbuttoning his shirt. Even though it wouldn’t do any good for dryness he wanted to cover her.
The woman didn’t speak but nodded at him with intensely wide eyes. Her gaze traced along his jaw and then to his eyes. She then looked down at herself and Gabriel thought she was going to faint when she saw her legs.
“Hey, stay with me.”
The woman tried to speak but all that came out was a gurgle. She cleared her throat and tried again.
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice was hard with anger. She tried to stand and then let out a string of curses that Gabriel wasn’t even sure were English.
“Are you okay?”
The woman glared at him.
“Do I look okay? I’m on land!” she shrieked. “How am I supposed to find a warrior here? I never should have trusted that witch!”
Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at her and waited until she was done fuming.
“So, who should I call for you?” He held out his shirt for her to put over herself and she looked at him as if he were crazy. Gabriel shrugged it over her shoulders anyway.
“My family’s dead and I’m stuck here.” The woman sighed. “What’s your name?”
Gabriel couldn’t help the smile starting on his face. He was used to women who clung to him for help but this one seemed determined not to let him take control.
“Gabriel. And you would be?”
“Ephyra.” Gabriel liked the sound of her name and it was one he’d never heard of.
“Well, Gabriel, if you could show me what to do here I can manage on my own after that,” Ephyra said slowly, regally.
“Show you how to do what?” Gabriel asked, wondering if she was going to go off again.
“Stand,” Ephyra said with a frown as she struggled to gain her footing.
Gabriel swept her up in his arms and set her on her feet. He was surprised it felt so right to have her in his arms for a moment. Before he could explore that emotion, Ephyra’s legs immediately gave out. She pushed his arms away and struggled to get up on her own.
“Can I take you to my car and we can get you some clothes?” he asked and she nodded. They shakily made it to the black car and Gabriel settled her in the passenger seat. He pressed the gas but the next second he slammed on the breaks as Ephyra gave a shriek that nearly shattered his eardrums.
“What!” he cried and looked around for anything unexpected in the road. The only movement was the windshield wipers swishing melodically in the rain.
Ephyra’s hands clutched the seat belt and seat. Her knuckles were white and she glanced around as if the sky were falling, which again made his lips twitch because it was so contrary to her face before. Gabriel looked at her with wide eyes.
“I didn’t expect it to go so fast,” she blurted out.
“It’s a Mazda,” Gabriel joked but at her confused look he continued, “How about I drive slower?” He eased on the gas and the car inched forward.
“Oh, well, this is quite smooth,” Ephyra said and tried to relax her grip.Gabriel drove them in an aimless direction for a few minutes, unsure of where he could take her. The obvious first choice was a Wal-Mart to get her clothes. He stopped at the first one he saw.
“You’re a size … ” he trailed off, hoping she’d finish it for him. Ephyra gave him that wide-eyed, expectant look that was beginning to look frustratingly familiar. She turned in the seat and the shirt slipped to the side, giving him a peek at a perfectly round breast.
“Never mind, I’ll be right back. Please, stay here, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled at him and went back to pressing all the buttons in the car.
In minutes, Gabriel returned with generic shorts and a tank top. He carefully trained his eyes on the road as she pulled the clothes on, only swerving once. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Ephyra’s rapt attention out the rain speckled window. Then, she turned to look at him and the jolt he felt made him look away.
“Would you mind if I took you back to my hotel room? I mean that in a platonic, totally non-kidnapper way. If you don’t have a place to stay … ”
“I do not.” Ephyra considered his offer. The silence was slightly awkward as Gabriel drove them toward the Marquesa.
“So, what do you do on land, are there giant beasts here?” Ephyra asked as she fingered the seams in her shorts again before, running her hands all over their soft material.
“I’m a professor, English and well, I’m not sure about giant beasts.”
“I see. How nice of her to put me in a place with no monsters,” Ephyra muttered to herself.
Gabriel knew there was something off about her but he tried to concentrate on the next step. What was he supposed to do with an amnesia patient?
“Oh,” Ephyra exclaimed as they entered the hotel room. It was a modest one bed, one bath and a small kitchen area. Gabriel had the unreasonable thought he might want to upgrade to a bigger suite if she stayed. He shook his head — she couldn’t stay.
Gabriel watched the woman as she felt his comforter, then wobbled over to the balcony to watch the clouds hover over the ocean. He had to go back to Chicago in a few days. But something was nudging at him as he looked at her.
Chapter Seven
Jake was thrown by the force of pressure into the rock wall and the breath left his lungs. He could barely see but knew Ephyra had disappeared. Muriel was screaming distantly. He struggled to move, his tail caught under a fallen stone.
A large black cloud of eyes slithered toward him. He saw individual creatures that looked like eels swimming in uniform, but all their eyes glowed red amber. Jake cringed as they came closer but their eyes just glanced over him. Instead, they moved toward the sea witch.
Scyllane was laughing and crackles of magic sparked from her tentacles. Her fins shimmered in glitters of green and blue like the electrical pulses of squid. The black cloud of eels curved around her.
“Can’t face me yourself, Erebos, you bastard,” she screamed at the shoal of eels.
The largest eel poked its five-eyed head out of the swarm and leaned in close to the witch’s face. Long, translucent fangs stuck out of the long mouth. Scyllane gazed it with disdain.
“Where is she?” the eel’s disembodied voice hissed.
“Who?” Scyllane felt the blast of the magic and it rocked her backwards. She shielded herself from most of it and sent her own back into the cloud. The eels shrieked as they burned, but the next minute they had reformed.
“You’ve grown stronger.”
“You’ve grown into a coward,” Scyllane growled.
“You know why I cast you out, whore,” Erebos’ voice snarled.
Scyllane’s face creased into an ugly frown.
“You would believe your sniveling, shit eating, waste of a brother over me,” she snarled. She blasted the cloud of eels and they scattered for a moment.
Erebos laughed.
“Bring the princess to me or you will wish I had killed you instead of banishment,” he said with authority.
“I exiled myself. The princess is somewhere you cannot touch her,” Scyllane said, her head held high.
The cloud of eels disappeared into the darkness as the voice faded.
Jake saw Muriel swim over to pry the rock off his fins. A small trail of blood pooled up in the current.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, her luminous eyes concerned.
“I’m fine. Where is Ephyra?”
The sea witch turned to him with almost tired eyes.
“She is not among the merfolk any longer. I’ve put her on land to keep her safe for seven days.” Scyllane went about fixing the parts of the cavern that had fallen in.
“Land?” Jake shrieked. “Why did you put her there? How will she find a champion now?”<
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“She has never even spoken to humans before,” Muriel added.
“Ephyra has a brain; you two will not be needed to coddle her any longer. She will have to find her champion or we all lose,” Scyllane said softly. “Nothing in the ocean has been strong enough before so I put her on land to search there.”
“You lying bi — ”
“Careful, merling. I vowed to protect the princess, not you. She is safe as I said she would be … for seven days at least. You may stay here or I will set you on land to be with her, it’s your choice,” Scyllane threatened. She didn’t want company any more than the merfolk wanted to be with her.
“I’ll go. But how do I get back?” Jake asked with a raised brow. He was skeptical the witch would even bring them back.
“That I cannot promise. I haven’t found the moonstone that will allow a transformation back,” the witch said off-handedly.
Muriel glared at her.
“Fine. I want up then,” Jake snapped. He looked at Muriel. “Maybe you should stay here to help find the stone.”
Muriel closed her eyes for a moment. Jake knew she didn’t want be on land but no one would relish keeping an eye on a sea witch.
“Ok,” she consented. Jake gave her a small smile and a look of respect he knew she understood as her spine straightened and she threw her hair back. “Thank you. Does that suit you, Scyllane?” he asked the witch. She swung around and without warning a mass of purple bubbles flooded his mouth and wrapped his limbs.
“Enjoy your sea legs!” she cried and with a flourish, she cast the spell that shot Jake to the surface.
Chapter Eight
Two hot showers and a room service dinner later, Ephyra calmed down somewhat and was enjoying the taste of steak and green beans. Her curiosity was overcoming her anger as she watched Gabriel use the fork and knife. She thought she was pretty good at catching on quickly. The phrase six days echoed in her head but she was so disoriented it was easy to push back. Especially, when Gabriel was looking at her the way he was now, intent and open.
“So, do you have anyone I can call for you?” Gabriel asked for the second time that day.
“Call?” Ephyra looked up from a green bean. There was no way this man could help her but something was pulling at her to stay with him. She liked the crinkles around his mouth when he smiled.
“I mean, do you have any relatives here that you could notify?” Gabriel asked patiently.
“No,” Ephyra said finally. She averted her gaze, all too aware of the intensity of his. She knew what he was seeking but she didn’t have anything to give him.
“Well, then can I get you a room here for the night?” Gabriel offered.
“No, thank you. I can manage on my own now. You’ve been very helpful,” Ephyra said with a smile and stood. She started to take off the T-shirt he’d loaned her, leaving her dressed in just the tank top.
“Where are you going?” Gabriel stood, too.
“I think I’ll take a walk,” she laughed. “I’ve never been walking. I mean, here, on the beach.” Ephyra smiled and headed for the door, intent on finding a giant monster for her champion. She tripped slightly but steadied herself on the doorframe.
Gabriel followed slowly, clearly torn between civic duty and a need to return to his solitude.
“So, you’ll be okay, then?”
The human had guilt issues dripping from every word. Ephyra nodded. She tried to look confident — it was imperative she move on before she spent the rest of her life finding out everything about Gabriel.
• • •
The sand was far too rough on her skin and she longed to feel the cool slickness of water. Ephyra stooped at the water’s edge, letting it caress her hands and feet. It felt so good that she ached. She waded in thigh deep and then knelt down to let the water cover her head. It was deliciously quiet with only the pounding of surf and under currents. There was no awkwardness like standing on two legs and walking.
A pair of arms suddenly pulled her up. Ephyra came sputtering up above the water to see Gabriel’s angry face staring at her. She was surprised at his fierce expression and irritation burst inside her.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded. “I leave you for ten minutes and you try to drown yourself again?”
“I wasn’t drowning!” Ephyra said hotly. “I don’t need your help.”
“This, coming from someone who can barely walk and apparently can’t swim. I don’t need your body as a headline in tomorrow’s news and me as a suspect. Now come back to my room,” he said firmly and then added a cursory, “Please.”
“No.” Ephyra pulled her arm from his grip and stumbled back. She nearly tumbled but was proud she kept her feet under her. “I told you I’m fine.”
Ephyra saw his gaze slip to where her shirt was plastered against her breasts. She was unashamed of her shape and dared him to comment on it. His blue eyes had gone darker. No merman would ever look at her like that directly. She didn’t want to admit she liked the way Gabriel’s eyes made her feel desired, more than she’d ever felt before.
“Listen, it’s getting dark and you don’t have a place to stay.” His tone was softer and his tall frame shielded her.
Ephyra grudgingly nodded. She shivered slightly in the evening breeze.
“I can get you a room or you can stay in mine but you need to sleep somewhere besides on the streets.”
“The sand looks fine to me,” she said stubbornly.
“The sand might but muggers, drug dealers and rapists are not,” Gabriel snapped. He was clearly nearing the end of his patience.
“What are those?” Ephyra had heard of those bad titles being given to humans but they had no reality in the ocean world.
Gabriel sighed. “I was enjoying the whole innocent, amnesia girl thing but this is getting unsafe now.”
It was almost frightening looking at Gabriel’s tall build and broad shoulders, she could imagine if he really wanted, he could simply force her to do anything. But, there was something about him that told he wouldn’t ever need too.
“I’m not trying to scare you. I just think right now you should be getting out of the water and into dry clothes,” Gabriel said patiently.
Ephyra was annoyed that humans needed to stay so dry. This man seemed to think it was her number one priority. She shrugged.
“Okay. I will take your assistance for tonight, but tomorrow you needn’t look after me,” Ephyra acquiesced. She felt a concern coming from Gabriel that was both the same but different from what she felt from Jake. It burned her like fire and for once she wanted to know more.
Back at the hotel, Ephyra took at least an hour to explore the shower in his room. She was amazed that fresh water came from a metal head. It wasn’t salty or fishy smelling. The soap made her skin soft and she’d never smelled anything like it.
“The bed’s yours,” Gabriel said she came out in a robe. He’d piled extra pillows and a blanket on the floor.
“Thank you,” she said softly. Ephyra sat down on the mattress and instantly loved the surrounding comfort. She lay down and touched the silky pillows. Her head sank into it and she let out a sigh. If this was how humans slept, they definitely had an advantage over seaweed and kelp.
Ephyra glanced at Gabriel in the dim light and saw he was staring up at the ceiling. She could almost hear his jumbled thoughts. The sharp outline of his jaw was covered with light stubble and she wondered how it would feel. Then, she slapped her brain. She had bigger things to think about than facial hair.
Ephyra sighed. How was she supposed to find a champion on land? Loneliness made foreign water well up in her eyes, and Ephyra touched it with her fingers. She wiped it on the sheets, embarrassed. She hoped the sea witch would come to her dreams and tell her why she was here.
Chapter Nine
Marcus motored his sixty-foot sailboat out of the harbor and into the open waters. He hadn’t slept much the night before and the sky was still looking iffy. He’d canceled tours for the day to go out with his partner, Red, and talk. The water was calmer today and the storm’s passing brought fresh debris to float on the surface.
Seagulls circled above, calling to each other. They gazed out over the expanse of cerulean. Marcus had been hearing rumors that Perry Sanchez was after unclassified treasure under the water. He was also a huge collector of marine life. It wasn’t so much a hobby as a black market for him. Marcus had great respect for the ocean but he realized now in order to get out from under Sanchez he’d have to offer up something valuable enough for Sanchez to let him walk away.
“Have you ever seen Architeuthis, Marcus?” Red turned intense brown eyes on him.
“The Giant Squid, no. I have seen things that I never thought were possible,” Marcus snorted. “I thought it was only drunk sailors that saw hallucinations on the water.”
“Sanchez will reward you and me enough if we find something like that. I need to.”
Marcus nodded, although he wanted to just tell his friend to use a condom. Red seemed to get his wife pregnant every two months, they had four children already. They’d both become involved with Sanchez for money and told themselves the lie that they wouldn’t let it drag them down or their loved ones. Marcus sighed and wondered if he should tell Gabriel. His brother was always the responsible one and for once Marcus wanted to get himself out of his own mess.
Chapter Ten
Muriel backed against the wall and tried not to look as frightened as she felt. The sea witch gave her a small smile.
“I envy your youth,” she sighed. “How it must feel to have such option.”
“I don’t really have much option anymore, do I?” Muriel said with a shrug. Her entire world was reduced to hiding in a cavern with a sea witch.
“I won’t hurt you, merling. You should not believe rumors,” Scyllane said and settled herself on a ledge that was covered in lichen moss. The soft glow made her features seem almost normal and Muriel saw circles under her eyes.