I hadn’t realised there were other children in his family, and tears of pity streaked down my cheeks as I listened to him describe the way his family had been. How much they’d loved each other.
We melted into silence, the pictures he’d painted for me with his words still enveloping me in their rich descriptions.
“It’s getting late,” he eventually said. I looked around me, bewildered.
“What’s the time?” I asked him.
“Almost seven.”
“That’s impossible, how long have we been sitting here for?”
He smiled and stretched. “About four hours,” he replied easily.
I had never spoken to anyone for that long, never been listened to by anyone for that long. Time with him didn’t seem to have the same properties, I’d been so absorbed in the conversation it felt like just a few moments. A whisper of guilt wound around me as I realised we hadn’t discussed a single strategy about what we were going to do to help the Oceanids in the entire time we’d been talking, but when I expressed my chargrin he’d brushed it aside, telling me we’d made good progress today already and we could talk about it later that night.
“Wait here for a few minutes,” he asked, kissing the palm of my hand.
A thrill of excitement thrummed through me as his lips touched my skin.
I blushed and nodded.
He returned twenty minutes later with a small deer over his shoulder. Its head lolled sickeningly, death clouding its pretty lash-fringed eyes.
“What is that for?” I asked, disliking that he’d obviously killed it.
He shrugged his shoulders, the deer bobbing up and down as he did so. “I assumed you’d be hungry tonight. We won’t make it back to the main cave tonight.”
“We won’t?” I asked surprised, finding that I really liked the idea of spending the night alone with Merrick.
He shook his head. “No, but there’s another colony of caves about half an hour’s walk from here. It used to be inhabited by Sabine’s tribe many years ago. We’ll sleep there for the night.”
He turned and led me along the riverbed before starting up the side of a valley.
We reached the top of the valley a few moments before the liquid gold ball of the sun shimmered below the mauve and pink horizon.
He began a brisk walk across the spine of the mountain, the dead deer bouncing macabrely on his shoulders. I followed as quickly as I could, occasionally tripping over tussocks of grass I couldn’t quite see in the fading light. After the third time I’d nearly turned my ankle I called a breathy stop to our dusk dash.
Merrick jogged back to me, concern creasing his forehead as he shifted the weight of the deer slightly and took my hand.
“You OK?” he asked worriedly.
“Yeah, I just can’t seem to see where I’m going all that well.”
He released my hand. “Try using your senses,” he suggested.
I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to find the fury that seemed to drive my ability to access the supernatural in me.
After a few moments of dredging up angry thoughts, only to have them whisked away by a memory from the afternoon, I opened my eyes.
“It’s no use,” I told him grinning.
He cocked his head to one side. “Why?”
“I’m too happy,” I told him, grinning again.
He smiled, confusion still playing across his gorgeous features in the twilight.
“What do you mean.”
“I seem to only be able to access my senses and, well, blue fireballs too, when I’m really, really angry. And I’m not now.” I took a step towards him, looking into his face. “I’m too happy.”
He beamed at me. “That is a very interesting observation, which we will definitely have to explore,” he told me, a laugh in his voice as he took my hand.
I was surprised by the clarity of the landscape when his skin touched mine. Dusk took on a brighter glow as if the light emanated from the land rather than the sun.
Enthralled as I was by the sudden strengthening of my sight, the rich, earthy and decidedly dead smell of the deer on Merrick’s shoulders had me gagging, and quickly dropping his hand.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“How can you stomach the smell of that thing?” I asked, fighting the nausea clawing its way up my throat.
He laughed. “It smells delicious,” he replied, trying to take my hand again.
I shook my head. “I’ll walk thanks.”
He sighed and walked beside me, steadying me as I continued to stumble on the grass.
“I’m going to run ahead and drop this off and then I’ll come and get you,” he said after I’d stumbled yet again.
“You’re going to leave me?”
“I won’t be gone long, I promise.” He pulled me briefly into his side, trying not to drop the deer in the process.
Before I had the opportunity to answer him, he’d dashed off.
The gathering dark pressed in on me ominously as I gingerly felt my way forwards with unsure feet.
Each step became a miniature nightmare as I imagined holes in the ground, and rocks I couldn’t see. I stumbled over another tussock of grass, losing my balance and grazing my hands as I hit the ground.
A hissing noise to my right locked every muscle in fear. Luke and Allan’s long-ago warning about snakes twisted through my mind.
“Sssssso pathetic,” came the hissing noise again, this time formed around horrible words.
Perhaps a snake would have been easier to handle, I thought in the moment before an icy grip around the top of my arm pulled me to my feet.
The landscape lit up again, in the same way it had when Merrick held my hand. The scent of the dead deer still lingered faintly in the air, mixed with the unmistakable but indescribable scent of evening.
When it released me I was instantly plunged into darkness again. Realising with a shock that this was another Traduzir, I relaxed a little. This must be Merrick’’s back-up, I thought.
“Where is Merrick?” The voice was hard and slightly gravelled.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
A deep growl from just behind me had me quickly re-evaluating my safety with this creature.
“He went to drop off the deer at the place we’re staying tonight,” I added quickly, in case my response had seemed un-cooperative.
“His youth is obvious in such stupid mistakes.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you found me then,” I said, knowing I sounded naïve and hoping that my trust in the good nature of this Oceanid was not unfounded.
The sinister, almost whispered laugh that followed did nothing to calm my suddenly racing pulse.
I twisted trying to track its movement so that I could at least see the attack when it came, because a deep and dreadful heaviness in my chest told me that it would come – and when it did I didn’t know if I’d be able to stop it.
My desperate brain scrambled to push the fear aside, searching for the fury I knew would help me defend myself.
Languid steps paced around me like a predator toying with its prey, each step bringing it a little bit closer to me, until it was so close that I could hear calm breathing and feel the heat radiating off its skin.
A tiny brush of its skin against mine illuminated my vision enough to realise that it was a he. And he was the most frighteningly powerful looking Oceanid I’d met so far.
“You will make a very tasty addition to my collection,” he told me conversationally, shadows obscuring elements of his features as he continued to circle me.
“What do you mean?” I asked shakily, determined to rein in the stark terror that blossomed inside me as I realised that I wasn’t safe at all, that Merrick had made a terrible error in judgement in leaving me alone.
Very slowly I moved my arms so that my palms faced each other again, willing the blue ball of energy to appear between my palms.
A faint tingle in my palms sparked a moment of hope, I tried to bloc
k out what he was saying. I tried to concentrate, but it was all so new and I didn’t know how to hold onto it. The tingle dissipated up my arms.
“I collect, shall we say, experiences with those I protect,” he continued, running his hands millimetres from my head, and then down my body, shaping his hands to emphasise what he liked the most.
He hadn’t touched me, but his meaning was horrifically clear.
Stark impressions of his features are still burned in terror-induced clarity into my memory. Slightly slanted pitch-black eyes – shadow – a hooked nose – shadow – perfect silhouette – shadow – a long, jagged and out of place scar from temple to throa t– shadow – thick powerful muscles – shadow.
“You don’t protect me,” I told him, forcing myself to face him, “Merrick does.”
He laughed, a cracked dusty sound full of threat. “Believe me, little girl, I’m working on changing that,” he whispered, brushing my hair from my neck and grazing my shoulder with his teeth.
“How can you call yourself a Traduzir if you harm those assigned to you?” I challenged in a wobbly voice that belied the audacity of my words.
He chuckled darkly. “Known terror is often preferable to unknown terror. All of my ‘collection’ willingly chose me over the alternative.”
“What was the alternative?” I whispered, afraid that my voice would give away just how frightened I was.
He’d circled around until he was facing me. He leant into me and breathed deeply, a disgustingly leering smile crawling across his face.
“Capture by their enemies.”
Pushing the fear away from my thoughts I drew myself up to my fullest height, the tingle reappearing in the palms of my hands.
“I don’t have any enemies,” I told him firmly, waiting for the jolt that would produce the ball of energy.
He chuckled darkly. “That’s what you think.”
He leaned in closer to me, his eyes watching my every move as I tried to step away from him.
Long powerful fingers wrapped around my arm, pulling me closer towards him. My heightened senses at his touch were a curse. I could smell and taste the revolting lust that rolled off of him, I could see the glint in his obsidian eyes as they wondered over my body, I could feel the drops of moisture forming on his palm.
And then my senses went into hyperdrive and everything slowed down so that I watched it happen in premeditative slow motion.
Merrick had appeared, snatching my other arm and pulling me protectively into his side, his face an inhuman mask of rage, his voice gravelled in fury as he spat a series of furious phrases at the other Oceanid.
To my shock I recognised each word and understood what he said perfectly, watching in disoriented fascination as a burst of bright orange and deep purple mist was thrown from him to encapsulate the other Oceanid.
I don’t know how I understood it, but I knew Merrick wanted to kill him. Not just take his life, but violently dispose of him. I watched in fascinated horror as each jaw-rattling punch, each bone-breaking kick he planned for the other Oceanid played out in a tumble of movements.
I took a breath and turned to the other Oceanid who hadn’t released his vice-like grip on my arm.
His initial expression of surprise morphed into a vicious cruelty and I knew – again, I don’t know how – that he was going to hurt Merrick, going to make him pay, his initially defensive movements turning into a far more experienced and exceptionally effective annihilation of the man I loved.
It only took about three seconds of both of them holding one of my arms, but in that time I saw their fight and knew that Merrick would lose and I would be the spoils left for the taking by the victor.
I blinked as I slowly turned my head towards Merrick again, wanting to protect him from the violence I’d seen the other Oceanid plan, wanting to run away with him.
And then everything blurred around us and when I took another breath we were half a kilometre away from the other Oceanid.
I crumpled, bile forcing its way up my throat and my ears ringing as I fought for oxygen.
Chapter 32
Tactics
“Alexandra!” He brushed the hair back from my face. “Alexandra, are you all right?”
I shuddered and gulped the cool evening air.
“He was another Traduzir…” I managed to gasp before another wave of nausea had me doubled over again.
“Nereus!” growled Merrick. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you before I got there?”
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of a series of terrifying freeze-frame images that played over and over in my head. Eventually I was able to breathe slow calming breaths into my lungs, the adrenalin leaving me shaky and weak.
Merrick carried me, cradling me like a child, the rest of the way down the mountain, leaping nimbly from boulder to boulder until we reached the mouth of a cave.
A fire crackled cheerfully in one of the corners and the smell of roasting venison filled the air.
He set me down carefully at the entrance where the cool evening air helped my rolling stomach, keeping one arm wrapped around my waist.
“Drink some water,” he instructed me quietly, handing me a gourd stoppered with grass. I obeyed numbly.
I began to shiver. I shut my eyes, willing my body to calm down. Merrick sat down beside me and carefully put an arm around my shoulders.
“Are you sure you’re OK, Alexa?” he asked, shortening my name for the first time since I’d met him. Despite my shock I liked it, liked that he felt he knew me well enough to take that liberty. “If he hurt you in any way, we need to get you help.”
I knew what he was so carefully referring to and shook my head vehemently.
“I-I-I’m sorry.” I shivered. “I d-d-don’t know why I’m reacting like this.” To my embarrassment great shuddering sobs followed this.
Merrick simply pulled me into his lap and held me.
“It’s OK,” he said quietly over and over again, kissing my hair and hugging me.
Eventually the sobs subsided and I sat curled in his lap, my head resting against his chest and listening to his heartbeat.
He ran his hands over my hair, cupping my face and twisting so that he could look me in the eyes.
“I will never let anything like that happen to you again,” he told me, anguish, anger and sadness twisting his face in worry. “You mean everything to me. You’re brave and strong and kind.” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “And exquisitely beautiful.”
I smiled up at him, amazed that he felt any of these things for me at all. After all, he was the godlike one. He was incredible in the extreme, he had saved me so many times.
“I feel as though –” he searched the space around me, looking for an answer “– I feel as though I’ve been only half alive, always watching you, always on the outskirts, looking in on your life. And now I feel like a starving man presented with a feast, and I want to know everything I can about you. The thought of you afraid or hurt…” His eyes burnt with fury.
I reached up and ran my fingers lightly over his cheekbone, tracing the shape of his lips. He kissed my fingertips, the light in his eyes changing from fury to hunger as he searched my face.
Very slowly, so that I could feel the increased pressure of his breath, he moved until our lips were millimetres apart. And then he stopped. I closed my eyes and leaned in to him, as very lightly he dipped his mouth to mine. The kiss was soft and hesitantly sweet.
He moved away from me, looking vulnerable and a little scared. “I wasn’t sure if you felt about me as I do about you,” he murmured as he took my hand, entwining his fingers with mine.
I smiled, stretching my other arm up around his neck and pulling him closer again. His lips were warm and soft as they moulded to mine, unlike the forceful way they’d moved as we’d breathed together. Kissing Merrick was an entirely different experience.
I felt lost in the warmth, and the intense sharpening of my senses as they swirled around me, the vortex bein
g him. The increased warmth of his breath as the kiss turned from softly hesitant to hungrily insistent. I watched in awe as his lash-fringed eyes fluttered open briefly, his hands skimming my neck and tangling in my hair, the blends of blue from deep navy to pale turquoise, backlit with fire.
He pulled away from me shakily, his breath ragged. “I guess that’s a yes then,” he grinned.
“Hmmm, I guess so.” I grinned back at him, trying to calm the pounding of my heart.
He pulled me to my feet, keeping a determined hold of my hand as he led me to the fire. The flames took on a life of their own my eyesight obviously sharpened with the contact with him, the previously pleasant smell of the woodsmoke permeated with cloying undertones I’d never noticed before.
A myriad of new colours danced within the fire. A brilliant sky blue, indigo, white, sunflower yellow, ochre, orange, maroon.
I watched in fascination as the air around the fire curled up and around us, forming a warmer shimmering yellow bubble that dissipated in curling spirals of colour around us, the cooler darker air fleeing before it.
He dipped his mouth to mine again, exploring my bottom lip with his tongue. He grinned when I lost my balance a little, instructing me to sit so that he could provide me with dinner.
I watched him placing portions of meat on cleaned pieces of tree bark.
He chatted easily over the meal, trying a little too hard to avoid the topic that still hung around us. Eventually though I asked him to tell me about the other Traduzir, needing to work out what had happened that had allowed us to escape like that.
He’d pulled me back into the safety of his arms, his bent legs on either side of me, and his arms wrapped securely over my shoulders. We were both watching the flames consume the last of the logs. We’d fallen into silence which was filled with the music of the crackling of the fire and soft peeping of near-by frogs when I broached the topic. “Are you and the other Traduzir” – I shuddered at the thought of him – “a team?” I asked.
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