by S. E. Akers
“Weren’t you a little alarmed by that?”
“Yes,” Tanner laughed. “I thought she was the devil . . . and she still could be,” he added. “But Kamya gave me peace that day. She left me with no doubts that Adean wouldn’t suffer because of my actions.”
“What happened after that?”
“I was taken back to the coliseum first thing in the morning and tethered to a solitary column that stood in the center of the arena.” Tanner pointed to the ancient pillar in front of us. “That one right there.”
My stare focused in on the bottom section of the timeworn column. It wasn’t hard to imagine him strapped there, seeing how I’d been stuck in an iron maiden laying in wait of someone’s torture myself. And I had no doubts regarding the amount of fury that must have been raging inside him that day. Pure… Raw… And knowing him, his heart had fearlessly pounded right along with its roar.
“I figured they were going to send out the lions, but they didn’t,” Tanner continued. “That particular coliseum was built here by the sea to hold naval games. The Senators gathered in their box and vowed that Rome would see its glory over my watery corpse before the sun fell that evening. Then they opened the floodgates and sent the ocean waters rushing into the arena. It took awhile for it to fill up, but steadily the water consumed me. I was hell-bent on proving how brave I was. I didn’t want to give them the slightest satisfaction of a desperate jerk or even a twist of needing air when the waters finally rose over my head. I even held true to my stance when there was nothing but the chill of blueness all around. Then it wasn’t long before I spied what looked like a woman drifting towards me, floating in the water with the grace of an angel. I thought I’d met my end and that the heavens had sent a mermaid to ferry my body to the afterlife. But it was Nerina who’d come to save me. Her touch enlivened my soul. I felt the surge of the ocean’s swell throughout my entire body. Nerina whispered in my ear the way my own mother used to, assuring me that all would be well and that I would see her again when the waters fell. Then she laid an amethyst around my neck and vanished within seconds.” Tanner nodded to the one set into his ring and then gave the stone a few pensive strokes. “I remained under there for an entire week, watching their boats pass over me and seeing soldiers sink to their deaths. And I’ll admit, some of the sea life swimming around was alarming at first.” Tanner leaned closer and whispered in my ear, “I saw more than my fair share of sharks under there as well. But they never bothered me. They feasted on the floating corpses and left me alone. Not one creature touched me while I was under the surface. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t tired. I felt utterly awake, for the first time in my life . . . My new life.”
My mind drifted back to the day I’d claimed my own stone, well aware of what he had felt at the time. It wasn’t just about the abilities or the muscle it granted. The true glory arose from the peace and tranquility it bestowed on your soul. If there was ever a time when I could feel true selfless gratitude radiating from within, that was the moment. It was a blessed feeling that I prayed I would never forget.
“What happened when they drained the coliseum?”
“I pretended to be dead. The men they sent out to collect my body were surprised I was still tied there and in one-piece. Then once they’d cut me loose, I grabbed one of the men by his throat and crushed it in my hands. The power behind my muscles surprised even me, on top of everything else I’d experienced,” Tanner confessed. “All the soldiers rushed to attack me, except for one who stood idly back. And once I’d killed all of my challengers, I lowered the sword I’d collected and walked over to the observer.” The Amethyst Talisman smiled, unabashed. “He dropped to his knees and started bowing at my feet. I ordered him up immediately . . . and that’s when I realized I could sense his emotions. All of his fear was coming at me in waves, and I’ll admit, I found it rather maddening at the time. Then I heard a female’s voice calling to me. I followed it straight to the seashore. That’s where Nerina was waiting for me with her arms stretched wide. I left with her not too long after that so she could train me.” Tanner sighed, “And from that point on I’ve been a Talisman.”
“What happened to your sister?” I asked, despite knowing about the bond Adean and Kamya shared.
Tanner grinned. “Well, she joined me on the beach with Kamya before I left with Nerina. I’d never seen her looking as excited as she did at that moment. It seems that when Kamya had arrived at the Senator’s home where my sister had been taken, Adean didn’t need saving. Kamya burst into the Senator’s room to find Adean on top of him, his throat slit, and holding a knife in one hand and the pride of his manhood dangling in her other like a cluster of grapes.”
“I take it they were instant BFF’s on the spot,” I deduced.
“Yes,” Tanner grinned. “You could say Kamya took an immediate shine to her . . . especially when Adean jumped off him and ran after Kamya thinking she was one of his loyal servants looking to kill her for what she’d done.”
“Is that when Adean became a Talisman?”
“No,” he admitted. “It was a couple of years after that. Kamya took her under her wing, and Helio eventually granted Adean her carnelian. Her death was rough enough on me, but Kamya took it much harder. She locked herself away in the chamber where she guarded Helio’s discus for several years. I didn’t know Ferrol had killed her until I saw her stone lying around his neck in the image you’d sent me. I wasn’t afforded the luck of seeing her totem extinguish in-person. We’d grown apart over the years, each of us living our own lives on opposite sides of the world. But I always wondered why she wouldn’t answer me when I called to her a couple of years ago. I tried reaching out to Kamya, but she never responded either . . . which was quite common when the two of them were together. She told me in Mexico how sorry she was for being so selfish, and the reason she never contacted me about Adean’s passing stemmed from the pain in her own heart. She didn’t want me to suffer with even a fraction of the grief she claimed. Kamya only came out of her solitude when Beatrix called and asked her if she would protect you.”
“Kamya did that for me?” I posed, eyes misty.
Tanner nodded. “The snitch sure did,” he smiled and halted a tear under my eye before it could fall. “And I have no doubts that she would still be grieving her life away if fate hadn’t stepped in.”
“I’m glad you told me that,” I sniffed and took hold of his hand. “I’m glad you told me all of it.”
Tanner rose from the blanket and laid the bouquet of flowers at the base of the column. “I always bring an offering when I come,” he said, “as a token to all the souls who died here.” Then he joined me back on the blanket after a moment of quiet reflection. “I purchased all of this land. I wanted to keep it free and clear of any man’s hands and left as an eternal grave.” Tanner pulled me onto his lap and peered into my eyes. “So now you know why I brought you here . . . and how I was granted my stone.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “I think that lets me off the hook for at least a week’s worth of your questions.”
“But I already have one waiting to ask,” I replied.
“Well, I can’t seem to resist your lips,” he whispered. “So I guess I have to take what comes out of them.” Then he teased my mouth with a mere brush of his. “So go ahead.”
“Well, the name ‘Tanner Grey’ doesn’t sound very ‘in line with the times’,” I submitted artfully.
His stare crashed to his lap and lingered there for a moment. Then after three dread-filled seconds, Tanner lifted his head and homed his gaze on my lips. “And there’s a perfect example of the bad coming out of the good.”
“You have to answer,” I reminded, brow arched. He averted his stare, but I could see his hesitation waning.
“Tannerius,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry . . . What was that?” I probed, not hiding a bit of my on-the-money smile.
He lifted his gaze. “I said, Tannerius,” he repeated. “That’s the name my mother gave me. I
shortened it a few centuries back.”
“And what about the ‘Grey’?”
He grumbled out a sigh. “Some of The Guild tagged me with that.”
“Why?” I inquired, feeling out the displeasure in his tone.
He cupped my face and beamed a serious gaze. “How about I tell you that another day?”
My heart shot into a quiver, which abated my curiosity like the wave of a magic wand. The thought of the two of us entwined together down the road had my entire body trembling with a sweet flutter.
“Definitely,” I replied and sealed his promise with a light kiss.
We headed back to Naples shortly after that, with him snugly behind the wheel — just as I’d planned. Though I thought it was cute when he’d made a point to describe the evening ahead of us on our walk back to the car. Visiting a few touristy spots… An intimate dinner… And then onto what he promised would be one of the most romantic moonlit walks in the world… Oh, I knew he was trying to subtly coax me into a willing surrender. He could have told me we were going to spend the rest of the day picking up trash on the side of the road with our teeth, and I still would have handed him the keys. It didn’t matter what I as doing, as long as we were doing it together. And that was the precise moment I knew how hard I was falling for him.
We had only been cruising down the road for roughly ten or fifteen minutes when I spotted something peeking over the horizon; something that’s halo was downright blinding and lay much lower than the sun. Tanner was adjusting one of the controls on the dash and hadn’t noticed it.
I tapped his shoulder and pointed to the gleaming oddity in the distance. “What’s that?”
Tanner casually peered out the windshield and then shot over the steering wheel not a second later. “Not NOW,” he groaned.
The distress in his tone was alarming. I looked through the windshield again. Whatever it was had picked up a wicked burst of speed and was barreling straight towards us. “WHAT? What is it?” I demanded.
All I heard from him was, “It’s a—” before what turned out to be a glowing orb passed right through the windshield and shrouded me with its light. At least I thought it was light at first. It turned out to be some jelly-like plasma that had actually enveloped me. Then a rattling jolt shot through my entire body. It was only a few seconds later when the glob’s light started to fade. Then the next thing I knew, my body was crashing onto a hard floor covered in a thin film of iridescent blue water.
I trawled my fingers through the peculiar looking fluid, mystified by its glow. It was definitely a light layer of water, though just enough to cover the entire floor without any breaks. It kind of reminded me of how the bathroom would look whenever Chloe accidently let our claw-foot tub run-over. I flipped back my soaking wet locks, needing a clearer view. My foremost thought was figuring out where the heck that mass had dumped me and then onto the whys — specifically the reason why Tanner hadn’t made the trip with me. The only thing worse than not knowing where the heck I’d landed was not having my amethyst to contact Tanner or even talk back to him when he called me. And after getting ripped out of his car like that, I was honestly surprised he hadn’t shouted out the first thing already.
I’d no sooner lifted my head to commence with a visual sweep of the room when a pair of legs suddenly appeared in my direct view. With a slow and steady raise of my head, I followed the female limbs straight up to the woman’s scowl…which looked poised enough to crack a mirror to say the least.
Lorelei.
“My, my . . . Don’t you look like you’ve just had an absolute fright,” the sea-bitch simpered, merely a shady second before she cocked her leg and then booted me slick across the jaw.
CHAPTER 27
I smacked the floor with a “splash” face-first, tasting the metallic tang of blood pooling in my mouth. Ms. Lá Léo’s words drifted through my mind while I lay there in my stupor. Nowhere and everywhere… That’s what the voodooist had revealed about the half-Talisman / half-Leviathan’s whereabouts when she wasn’t kicking up her heels on dry land. And I had honestly thought finding her lair would be an impossible task at the time. Little did I know then that the sea-bitch would end up hijacking me to her hideout one day…like a high-speed shuttle to a wet & watery Hell.
I wrestled myself up quickly and called for my hilt to appear. The grimmest of feelings hollowed out my chest and then my gut bottomed not a second later. It wouldn’t appear, no matter how hard or how many times I pleaded for it to come or swatted my thigh. Shit! Whatever wards she had in place were blocking my calls. Suddenly my magical & convenient holster didn’t seem as shiny as before. Truth be told, I would have much rather been able to physically see my hilt strapped in its old holster there, even if it did prove useless. And you could take it to the bank that just as soon as my weapon showed itself, my old holster was going back on my leg and this one was headed straight for the vault!
If I manage to make it out of here, I grumbled.
Lorelei splashed her bare feet playfully through the water as she circled my panicked frame. “Tsk, tsk, tsk . . . It looks like someone seems to be missing something,” she smirked. Lorelei lifted her gaze towards the lofty span of ceiling. “And no sky above to cast the first bolt of lightning,” she puckered, her head shaking facetiously. “You truly are out of your element.”
I certainly was. I couldn’t even summon a gust to knock that smug smile off her face because the magic blocking my powers was fiercely overriding them.
Lorelei slipped a gleaming, golden rod from out of a belt around her waist, which was roughly the size of a baton and tapered into points on each of its ends. I didn’t need three guesses clueing me in on the fact that it was her trident waiting to snap to attention. The cheeky way she was twirling the device in her hands confirmed my suspicions just fine. Then without further delay, Lorelei stormed towards me, her evil red eyes glaring like a set of blinding taillights. My harried steps ended adversely when I found myself backed into one of the massive columns. With a fervent stance, I readied my hands to block her initial strike as soon as she drew back her arm. My muscles released from their tireless lock when I felt the rod simply bump against my chest. Her trident hadn’t extended the first inch. Even the sharp point on its end couldn’t pierce my skin. My eyes may have been stretching gratefully wide, but Lorelei’s squeezed into a pair of angry slits when she realized I wasn’t standing there skewered like her own personal Shiloh-kebob.
I commenced with a speedy visual sweep of our watery setting, stumped by the bizarre turn of events. Why would Lorelei’s own wards be interfering with her efforts? Though as baffling as that proved, I swept discovering the whys straight to the backburner. She was just as juice-less as I was…and knowing our playing field lay equally level now couldn’t have painted a wider smile on my face.
Amused, I watched her for a moment while she continued shaking her useless trident in a frustrated fit. Now I knew what I must have looked like trying to get my ruby cuff to knock out a flame the other day.
“Looks like someone else is out of their element as well,” I grinned and then slammed my forehead into hers, batting her into one of the stone columns nearby. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight of the sea-bitch rubbing her head as she lay there on the floor in front of the crumbling pillar, shaking off my strike — particularly the top of her head. Seeing her normally flowing red tresses now pulled up and wrapped in a tight bun was a sore reminder of our last encounter. And I seriously doubted her recent hairdo switch was because the late-summer temperatures dictated a much cooler style.
My eyes darted around the room looking for either an exit or anything I could use as a weapon. I didn’t care how pumped my fists were. After racking up three failed attempts to bag & tag my butt this summer, I knew she would be coming at me hot. The chamber was basically an empty shell. My footsteps quickly trailed the run of elaborate columns circling the space. The archways in-between them were gushing sheets of water, making the room look li
ke one big sectioned-off, sparkling waterfall. And though the cascading sheets came to a misty crash on the floor, the water level at our feet held steady, never rising the least bit. It simply disappeared, magically. If I didn’t think I’d been dropped somewhere “special” before, I sure did now.
Feeling my desperation mounting, I turned towards the center of the chamber after noticing Lorelei’s attempt to rise. All that stood in the room was a long table and several chairs made of abalone, shining like liquid metal and swirling with a vast array of colors like they’d been kissed by an iridescent rainbow. So from my assessment, I appeared to be stuck in a chamber that was essentially the equivalent of a supernatural conference room…with a ticked-off sea-bitch that I’d scalped to boot.
Lorelei shoved her useless weapon back into the notch on her belt, practically ripping it off. “I’m going to KILL YOU!” she roared, her crazy-eyes fully engaged. “But not until I snatch out every last hair on your head first! I’m going to enjoy that so much more!”
Suddenly a break in one of the archway’s waterfalls revealed a staircase lying behind it. I checked Lorelei’s proximity and then charged straight for the watery opening. And I would have made it there too if the sea-bitch hadn’t hurled one of the chairs and conked me with it. Down I went, head aching and crashing through the waterfall. I was lying on the floor halfway through it and eyeing the sweeping staircase like a finish line when Lorelei grabbed my legs and then yanked me back into the chamber. I rolled around as soon as she released me, only to have her slam me with another abalone chair.