Dark Currents: Elementals, Book 1

by Mima

  “You did it. You both did.” His voice cracked.

  She focused on him. Awed, she struggled to lift one hand up to touch his face. “We did it. Your eyes are purple. You’re free. Do you feel all right?”

  “I’m fine. We’ll talk later. Enough, Xia.” His hand stroking her spine with desperate strength made her soften, sigh. He issued a hard command. “Let me in.”

  The familiar rampart order floated past her exhausted brain, and before she knew it, her mental doors opened. Her brain was full of Adam’s shadow. She ached. From head to toe. Literally.

  “Close your eyes. Sleep. Let go.” His words came softly.

  Finally, she could fight no more. She had her Adam back. Aer, drenched with water, slipped from her hold. Her minotaur’s swarthy warm hands cradled her collapsing body when darkness took her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Her hair hurt. Her ass, neck and thighs especially stung. She felt stiff and battered. Assessing her pain, she took deep, steady breaths, trying to determine why she felt so lax despite being utterly wrecked.

  Cracking her eyes open, she stared up into thatched eaves, assorted baskets hanging from the thick wooden beams. Waves shushed in an urgent rhythm nearby, echoed by the surging hiss of hard rain on the thatch above. A storm then, but the inner cottage was peaceful. The air smelled good. Like cinnamon and wild. With exquisite control, she turned her head.

  Markos sat at an ancient plank table, tapping at a razor-thin silver laptop. His dark curls were wild, standing every-which-way. Adam was in the corner at the tiny stove, spooning something into bowls. He added spoons to each and moved them to the table. His silky golden hair was also disheveled into chunky waves.

  “She’s awake,” he said, his eyes on his bowl as he sat and began to eat.

  It took a few seconds for his quiet words to filter through to Markos’s brain. She watched the process fondly. Finally, his head whipped to the side, the muscles in his thick neck lovely.

  He stood and hurried to sit on the edge of the bed. “Xia.”

  She smiled, even though that made her neck her hurt. “We did it, didn’t we?”

  He nodded, smoothing her hair behind one ear. “You did.”

  Her smile faded. “Absolutely it was all of us. Don’t lay it all on my doorstep.”

  Markos glanced at her throat, wearing his diplomatic face. “You’ve only had one healing session. Your energy was so low, we wanted to wait until you were stronger for another. Are you in pain?”

  “Well, I’m not up for much dancing, that’s for sure.” Her weak chuckle died away as his warm gaze caught hers, weary and sad. The implication of her words hit her. She’d always been Markos’s dancer. “Markos…”

  “Shhhh. We’ll make you comfortable very soon. Can you drink? Eat?”

  Her glance took in Adam, steadily eating, curled over his bowl. She considered her stomach. “Yes, I’d like something small. Can you bring it here, though?”

  “Adam will. I’m going to get the healer.” Markos laid one of his thick hands across her upper chest, fingers spread. A wonderful wash of heat trickled through the blanket, deep into her bones. She relaxed a bit as sore muscles eased.

  He went to turn and stand, but her hand shot up and grabbed him, right through the blankets. “Wait.”

  He did, laying his hand over hers despite the thin quilt between them. “Yes?”

  “Are you all right?”

  He tilted his head, his lips twisting wryly. “Ah, Xia.”

  “What?”

  He squeezed her hand. “The ritual was amazing. Terrifying and horrible. I feel rested as I only do after I’ve gone into Ignis like that, and I’m really sad.”

  Xia fought with the blanket. She freed her hand and gripped Markos’s tight. “I see that. What is it?”

  He looked down at their clasped fingers. His thumb rubbed over her wrist. “It’s always sad to leave a lover.”

  His words stopped her breath as pain speared her heart. Her fingers clenched hard on his. Her own words tumbled through her head. I love you. We’ll always be friends. We weren’t meant to be. “What a way to go.”

  Startled, his brown eyes danced with laughter as he snorted. “Imp.”

  She squeezed him one last time before softening her fingers. A signal she was ready to let go. He was the one to do it, his fingers sliding slowly from hers. “I’ll be right back.” He stood, tossed a glance to Adam, now scraping his bowl. “In a minute,” he amended.

  Striding heavily from the cottage, weak light slashed through the opening then was gone with the thunk of the door. Adam licked his spoon. Standing, he put his dish in a bucket. Then picked one up off the table and turned toward her.

  “Adam?”

  He just stood there, golden hair shining, shoulders tight beneath a tan T-shirt.

  She closed her eyes. “Did Aqua win then? Did she ruin us?”

  Her heart stopped beating waiting for his response. The moment spun out, and it hurt. When he moved toward her, it started again, but thumped heavy and wild, uncertain inside her.

  “I don’t know. Did she? Do you remember your promise?”

  Her eyes flashed open. Silver clashed with purple. “You want to make love to me?” Her belly clenched. “Now?”

  His gaze drifted down her body, seeming to sear right through the quilt. “Yes. But of course I won’t. You’re hurt.” He turned his head, closed his eyes. “I hurt you.” He turned back and his gaze grabbed hers. “I liked it.”

  Her breath strangled for a second before she managed to keep on. “Yeah. I liked it too.” She saw her admission shock him, the flare of his gold lashes flickering, his body’s quickly checked motion toward her.

  “I almost killed you. At the end.”

  She blinked. What? Idiot. “Aqua fucked me, and it was painful at times, but I was already lost in the pleasure you’d both layered over me. I’ll recover from this.”

  With a graceful twirl and glide, he turned, put the bowl on the table and sat in the exact spot Markos had. His hand hovered over hers. “I kept trying to get out. I couldn’t. I was there, Xia, and I couldn’t stop her. Your private touches kept me sane.”

  She lifted her hand into contact and he clutched at her. “How awful for you.”

  “For me?” The backs of his fingers coasted across a cheek. They shook. “I failed you. Aqua tortured you. And at the end, you forgave me. How can you forgive me? How can you stand to honor your promise and touch me again?”

  “You’re the bravest person I know. You’re my man. I’m proud of you.”

  His hand turned, fingertips brushing her lips delicately. “Say that again.”

  “I think you were an amazing warrior to face down the element that owns you, to hold her for capture, sacrificing yourself.”

  “No. The part about you being my woman.” His jewel eyes glowed.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  His jaw clenched.

  “That’s a claim only you can make. I said you’re my man.”

  His hand pulled down, and both of his hands surrounded hers. “I still belong to Aqua. I always will. She’s altered, not gone. She can’t be destroyed.”

  “It’s part of what makes your soul, selkie-mine. Aqua’s state is a conundrum for our children, unfortunately. But not us. We’ve fought our campaign. We won this battle.” Xia grinned with fierce glee to say the words. Joy ripped up inside her. “We’re alive. We’ve picked up some new scars”—not all of them physical—“but we’re still standing.” Her smile twisted. “Well, lying down, maybe.”

  He smiled, a slight upward shift at the edge of his lips. “Morphi, you are my woman.”

  “That sounds good, Adam.” She knew now he honored her when he labeled her by title.

  From a distance came the voices of people stepping on the rocky shore. Markos was bringing a healer. Abruptly, fatigue sapped her, the bed spinning beneath her. She sighed.

  Adam’s face closed up. “The minotaur will not be your advocate for
much longer. He won’t share your bed again.”

  Such proclamations. If he wasn’t so fragile she’d snap at him, but she didn’t want to break his belief in her forgiveness. “I know. But he is a good friend. Even more than a friend.”

  Adam searched her face. “I understand.”

  The cottage door opened and Markos tromped in with the older healer Xia had met before. “I hate walking on cobbles,” he grumped.

  A smile stretched across her face, despite her exhaustion. Admiring the way his shoulders moved as he wiped the moisture from his thick hair felt right. He looked over at them. Adam sat on the bed next to her, and she remembered Markos’s dark gaze on them during the ceremony. If he wasn’t the guy for her, why didn’t her attraction to him fade?

  Later, as Xia was healed, she learned she’d slept a whole day round. Two days later, she and Markos had worked out a systematic way to respond to the deluge of interest in her Terra-ghosting journals. Adam took the hate email “for research”. Three days later, their system held true against a renewed barrage of reporters and academics seeking her comment and reaction to the Chamber’s news that Aqua had woken, but been bound to Aer. She’d been grateful for Adam’s selkie clan. They were excellent guards against determined magical paparazzi.

  Four days later, a summons came from Vienna, asking for all three of them to submit separate reports in person.

  Adam’s response was simply, “No.”

  Because Xia gratefully attached herself to his objection, she now stood in front of Markos’s open limo door. The constant rain had faded out to a drizzle. Tasha stood a few feet away, but Xia didn’t mind. None of them bothered with umbrellas.

  The sound of the surf and the calls of the seabirds no longer made Xia’s stomach knot. The air smelled good, like pine and heather and power. She inhaled deeply, focusing on Markos’s manly warmth, and not on the fact Adam was out of her sight, gone swimming in his fur. Nothing about the ritual had changed her embarrassing need for him. The two men had simply shook hands.

  “I don’t want to shake your hand,” Xia announced suddenly.

  “All right.” Markos grinned.

  She couldn’t grin back. Despite choosing Adam, she felt like something precious was slipping away. “We’re never going to be together again.”

  “Never is a long time. Not while you have Adam, certainly.” That distant look came into his deep brown eyes.

  “Who is she?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “The woman you told me would be hurt, when she learned of the ritual.”

  Markos draped one thick forearm over the open car door. “You sure you want to know?”

  Xia nodded. “I didn’t want a face in my head, when we were together. But now I think I’d like to picture you with someone.”

  Markos scrubbed his hand through his dampening curls. His blue business shirt’s sleeves were rolled to the elbow, and the shift of muscles that had held her so well during passion made her breath catch. It had been like this over the past days. Little moments of memory, of loss, of appreciation she had no business feeling anymore. “I’m not with her yet. If she can get past the ritual, can accept that it’s done, then I’ll let you know.”

  Surprise burst through her. “It’s someone I know.” Xia didn’t pose it as a question. She was suddenly certain.

  Markos nodded, his eyes sliding away. A faint twist took his lips. That was a new look. Part amused, part bitter.

  “She’ll be pissed, on top of hurt. You might hear about it, even if it doesn’t go well.”

  Faces of friends they had in common flashed through her mind, churning her curiosity.

  Markos reached out one wide, warm hand and settled it on her nape, his thumb centered on her pulse. “If I give you a letter, will you read it this time?”

  Her numb hand clasped his wrist. “Markos.” She nodded. “Of course.”

  One eyebrow lifted, but he didn’t answer. He’d been utterly placid for days, totally unlike him. He’d said she’d burned him out. “Xia, take care. Let the selkies watch over you. Try not to let Adam rush you into marriage.”

  “Marriage!”

  But then he was pulling her close, and that special smell made tears jump to her eyes. She melted against his wide shoulders, his deep, hard chest a solid support.

  Markos’s lips seared across her damp forehead. “Call me, anytime, always. Adieu, Xia.”

  He stepped back to fold into the limo, and her hands slid from his body reluctantly, fingertips delighting in the swells of muscle beneath the crisp fabric. She’d see him again, maybe even fairly soon. They’d be in daily touch as they managed the press. He’d never not be her friend. But when he lifted his legs and set his shoe-covered hooves in the car, reaching for the door handle, Xia grabbed onto it.

  He looked up at her. A memory flashed of his face between her legs. She bore his fading burn scars on her hips. Her heart was breaking. Licking her lips, she was at an utter loss to stop this moment, to freeze it, undo it. I love you. Why was it so hard for them to say it to each other?

  He held out an envelope with his other hand, his eyes never leaving hers. “Bye.”

  Swallowing, she let go of his skin, took the envelope. Stepped back. “Talk to you soon.”

  He nodded and closed the limo door. Tasha was at the driver’s door and got in. The motor rumbled on, and Xia took a sudden, sharp breath. The envelope was thick, unmarked but for a flame burned into one corner. The oyster shells crunched as the car rolled off through the pines toward the road.

  Suddenly, she couldn’t bear not knowing. He was still within sight. Ripping the envelope, she opened the creamy paper.

  Dear Morphi Xia,

  In light of your recent role in Chamber affairs, we are pleased to grant your request for dissolution of your oath of service. You are awarded an honorary discharge, along with a certificate of private operations. We wish you well in your new independent endeavors and look forward to working with you again. Please be sure to seek assistance from veteran’s support and benefits…

  She quickly folded it as raindrops plopped across the words. Blinking through her tears, Xia stared blindly at the black car disappearing around the last bend. She hadn’t requested a leave. Hadn’t even thought what her next assignment would be. Or when. The thought of having to sink into the dreamtime to spy on any of the elements sent a spike of anger through her. Another ghosting would probably kill her.

  Thunder rumbled, the same groaning discontent it had been sharing for days. Aer and Aqua were still working out their new bond. It wasn’t going well. Massive hurricanes and typhoons had rocked the world, so early in the normal storm season. Magicals and Chamber soldiers were doing what they could. But Xia hadn’t even thought to approach Markos for information on that front. She’d holed up in Adam’s cottage and slept, and let the awe of crazy-scary sex wash over her. He’d done this for her. Markos had known that her days of obeying orders were fading fast. She still wanted to help, but she might need to work on her own timeframe from now on. And the thought of having her own rampart was very reassuring.

  Moving stiffly back to the cottage, Xia tucked the letter away. She sipped some lukewarm tea and gave in to the wild ache inside. She waited at the window, watching with a frantic heart. Not long after, Adam popped up in the waves. A spray of water fanned in a sweep as he tossed his head. With strong, surging strides, he waded out of the sea, his shoulders shifting in sleek counterpoint to his thighs. He waved to someone on the dunes above the garage and moved that way.

  Gripping the windowsill, Xia concentrated on keeping her breath even. Rain poured harder now, the sky a flat, low gray. He was only in the shower. Just rinsing off. He’d be here any minute. She was an ex-soldier, and she did not need a man in her sight at all times. But he wasn’t any man. He was Adam. Simple, wild, clear-eyed Adam. Her Adam.

  Whirling, she hurried out the door and up the white path to the carport. This whole business of a detached bathroom was going to be revisited. Xi
a hustled into the bathroom, her breath easing at his trim shadow behind the frosted white glass door. She pulled off her top, bra, skirt and panties. Sliding the door open, she sighed in appreciation. The large handprint burned into the exact middle of Adam’s upper back was sexy. It was shiny, and in certain light seemed to glow.

  “Xia?” He turned, his hair darkened and slicked against his head.

  She smiled shyly to see his shock as his eyes rolled down her body with heated intent. “You were expecting someone else?” And the scar from the wendigo’s arrow in his shoulder sent her heart pitter-pat as well. She felt sorry for him. With such a blood-thirsty lover, he wouldn’t get a lot of sympathy for his wounds.

  “I wasn’t expecting anyone. But I’m adaptable.” He reached out and hauled her against him, spinning her under the warm spray. “Did you have a panic attack?”

  “No,” she fibbed. She hadn’t had one, but if she’d forced herself to stay in the cottage, it wouldn’t have gone well. “I just finished an interesting read I wanted to tell you about.” Xia tipped her head back to wet her hair. The bite scar on her throat didn’t hurt at all.

  “Let me guess.” Large, soapy hands settled on her shoulders, fingers sweeping into her muscles, soothing her. “You can get free Viagra mailed to your home without a prescription.”

  Water sprayed as Xia sputtered with a burst of laughter. “No, you oaf. That was yesterday’s interesting read. Today’s was the one where my private consultant license was posted, releasing me from the Chamber’s service.”

  Grabbing Adam’s hands, she dragged them down to her breasts. He froze, his hands cupping her gently. Whenever a touch between them turned passionate, he hesitated, softened. He was afraid.

  “You know what that means?” She smiled at him.

  “Markos is no longer your advocate.” His thumbs drifted too softly over her stiff, stabbing nipples.

  “You are no longer my rampart.” Her breath caught as his fingers jerked on her, but then his touch was gone. He stood with his hands hanging at his sides, just out of the spray. She blinked quickly, wiping the sheeting water away from her face. Lifting one hand, she traced a rivulet of water down over the dips and rises of his muscled, tan torso. Her finger ran over the delight of his body, hollow throat with jumping pulse, swell of pec with thumping heart, steel-ridged abs.