by Cynthia Eden
Welcoming me.
And she found herself turning away from Luke and wading deeper into the water. She didn’t want to leave him, but she felt strangely helpless in that moment. The water is calling to me.
“Your mother didn’t go to the water to die, Mina!” His shout followed her as she went out even deeper. “She went because she had no choice. Her kind never does!”
Her kind?
“The fact that she stayed six years with you is amazing. Mermaids aren’t supposed to be able to resist the ocean’s call for that long. The ocean is a mermaid’s true love. Her heart. But when she had a half-mortal daughter, your mother fought the call. She fought it for six long years, and she stayed with you.”
The water was up to Mina’s waist now and her legs…they were feeling so funny.
“But a mermaid can’t stay out of the ocean forever. If she’d kept trying, she would have died. She had to go back. Just as you…have to go.”
Her head turned. She looked over her shoulder at him. He was on the beach, his legs braced apart, his gaze focused totally on her.
“You’re not a siren, love. You’re a mermaid. When Leo healed you, he brought forth all of your dormant powers. Your human side is gone, and the ocean is calling to you.” His arms crossed over his chest.
“I’m scared.” The words slipped from her, so low but…
Luke heard her.
“You don’t need to be.” His gaze became bright, a sign of his power. “You never need to fear. Those scars on your body? Those are just there to help you transform. They actually aren’t scars at all. You’ll get gills. Your legs will become a beautiful mermaid’s tail.”
She could…she could almost see the gleam of scales on her legs, just beneath the waves.
“And when you go beneath the water…” His voice was strong, but rough. “The life you’d known before will be gone, just as it was gone for your mother. The ocean doesn’t come in second place, not to anyone. You will know only it—a mermaid’s obsession. There will be no other life. There will be no other love.”
She stretched out her hands in the water. It just felt…so good. So right. But she kept looking back at Luke.
“You won’t remember me.”
What? Of course, she would always remember him. He was unforgettable, her Lord of the Dark. And they had to go and fight Garrick. They had to get Julian back. Had to rescue Eli. They had to—
Her legs had become a tail. She flicked it in the water and a laugh of wonder escaped her.
“I will never forget you, Mina.”
The waves crashed over her, pulling her in deep, and Mina sank into a new world.
***
An hour later, Luke was in the same spot, staring at the pounding surf. Looking for the flash of a mermaid’s tail.
“She’s not going to come back.”
His dumb ass of a brother had just appeared at his side. Luke didn’t even glance his way. His focus was on the spot he’d last seen Mina.
“You know her kind don’t have a choice. The ocean is their joy. She didn’t leave you to…to hurt you.” Leo seemed to stumble over those words, as if unsure how to comfort his twin. Mostly because they’d never comforted one another before. “She left because she had to go home.”
“Fuck off.” Before he turned his growing rage on his brother.
“Figured you’d say that,” Leo muttered. “Look, I healed her, okay? That was what you wanted. You wanted—”
I wanted her. He’d wanted to keep her with him, forever. But even more than that… “I wanted her alive. Happy.” The Eye of Hell seemed to heat on his hand. That damn Eye was part of him. Mina hadn’t realized that. No one ever did. He wielded it because he owned the darkness inside of it. The Eye only did what he wished.
And right then, he was trying so very, very hard not to be a selfish bastard. Trying so hard…
Not to wish her back to me. But a mermaid couldn’t stay with someone like him. In order to stay, the Eye would have to change her.
She’d lose the new life that she’d just found.
His hands fisted. I will not wish it. For once—for fucking once—I will let the choice be Mina’s. The ring kept heating on his hand. It will be Mina’s choice.
Leo the dumb ass stepped closer. “Mermaids experience only joy in the ocean. You know that. They command every creature beneath the surface. Even great whites will thrill to a touch from her fingertips.”
But Mina was afraid of sharks. He remembered how she’d frozen that first night. He took a step forward. The water hit his shoe. What if she was afraid right then? What if she saw a shark and it terrified her? What if—
“I didn’t think you had it in you,” Leo continued, the words bemused. “To sacrifice your happiness for someone else.”
The waves kept breaking against the shore. “You ever think the damn stories about us are wrong? Maybe I’m not evil to my core.” His lips twisted. “And maybe you aren’t so freaking good.”
“I’m not.”
A surprising admission.
“I’ve made mistakes, too. Mistakes like…Garrick McAdams.”
Very slowly, Luke turned his head to look at Leo.
“I didn’t pay enough attention to what the humans were doing. I didn’t realize just how powerful that group was becoming.” Leo heaved out a breath. “You think I gave them my arrows, don’t you? That I gave them my arrows because only their tips can pierce the hide of a dragon.”
Luke just stared at him. Leo’s arrows were very special and very ancient. They were made of material no longer found on earth. The only material that could truly hurt his kind. Not just hurt me, but kill me.
“If you think that, why am I still alive?” Leo asked.
Luke looked back at the water. “Because even if you betrayed me, you still saved her.”
He heard Leo’s sharp inhalation. “You…love her, don’t you?”
I will always love her. “My good will toward you is ebbing. I have humans to go destroy. You probably don’t want to watch that part. Being the squeamish sort that you are.” He waved dismissively toward him. “I’ll get back your arrows. Try not to lose them again.”
“I haven’t lost them.”
And once more, Luke studied his brother.
“I did not betray you that way, I swear.” Leo didn’t even blink. “But I want to find out what is happening. I have to find out.” A grim smile curved his lips. “After all, brother…what wounds you, well, it also wounds me.”
True. They did have the same weaknesses, but their strengths were very, very different.
“I think they’ve taken some of my kind, too,” Leo continued. “There have been some troubling disappearances of late. I can’t let that keep happening. I protect what belongs to me.”
Something else they had in common.
“They’ve vacated the Naval Air Station.” Leo rolled back his shoulders. For just an instant, Luke saw the shadow of wings behind his brother’s body. “But we can track them.”
The dragon could track anyone, anywhere.
“Are you ready to hunt, brother?” Leo asked.
He hadn’t hunted with his brother in centuries. “I don’t plan to play nicely with these humans. Are you ready for that?”
Leo’s lips pressed together, but he didn’t argue.
Interesting.
Luke smiled at him. “Then I’m ready.” He motioned to the sky. “By all means, you first.”
Leo erupted, heading straight up, and he shed the body of a man. A great, hulking dragon shot toward the sky.
You try to act as if you’re civilized, but I know the truth. Inside, you’re just like me.
Luke didn’t immediately fly off after his brother. He stood on the beach a moment, waiting…
Then he sighed. “Are you going to keep lurking back there forever?” Finally, he heard the quick rush of footsteps approaching him. He turned around and saw Rayce closing in. “I was wondering how long you were going to eavesdrop.”
Rayce lifted his brows and appeared vaguely insulted. “Eavesdrop? No way, man. I was just hanging back to make sure the world didn’t explode because you and your twin were so close together.” A little pause. “I figured you’d go for each other’s throats.”
They hadn’t. “You know the old saying…the enemy of my enemy is my for-the-moment friend.”
Rayce shook his head. “That isn’t the way the saying goes.”
Almost helplessly, Luke glanced back at the water. “It’s not?”
“No. But I get what you mean. You and Leo are teaming up to take out Garrick McAdams and his goons because you’re both scared those humans are causing too much trouble.”
The waves were churning. The sky starting to darken. A storm was coming. His storm. “Those humans hurt Mina. They will pay for that.”
“Uh, yeah, about Mina…did I see her very nice ass walking into the water?”
Luke’s shoulders tensed. “Mina is gone.” And I feel her absence like a hole in my soul. Only he wasn’t supposed to have a soul. No soul, no heart.
Pity he had both. Or rather, he’d had them.
He was pretty sure the ocean had taken both away.
“You can get her back, right?”
Mermaids didn’t come back, not as a rule. They often had dalliances with humans, brief affairs sparked by curiosity. All mermaids were given one chance to walk on land, a chance to taste human love and compare that love to the joy they felt in the sea.
Nothing could ever compete with the sea. The freedom. The power.
A mermaid’s life.
“Mermaids and sirens are very similar,” Luke murmured. “Both have captivating voices. Power that can compel. Sirens lured sailors to their doom long ago, but mermaids, I think they were even worse.” He put a hand to his chest. “Mermaids got sailors to love them, and just when those foolish sailors thought they held paradise, the mermaids would turn away. They’d choose the ocean.”
“I didn’t think there was really a choice for mermaids.”
There was something in Rayce’s voice…Sonofabitch. Luke scowled at his friend. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“That Mina wasn’t a siren?” Rayce came a bit closer, his voice growing stronger. “I suspected. She didn’t seem to have that cold touch, if you know what I mean. A bit too soft on the inside.”
He looked down at his ring. “She wanted me to use the Eye to take her dark power away. She didn’t understand that she wasn’t dark at all.” Right then, he hated the Eye. He hated the whole fucking world. “Why didn’t you warn me to stay away from her?”
“Because I thought you deserved a chance to be happy, too.”
His head whipped up.
“Tell me the truth, O’ Great Lord of the Dark.” The title was mocking but Rayce’s gaze was dead serious. “Weren’t you happy with her?”
“Yes.”
Rayce’s hands flew up into the air. “Then why aren’t you fighting for her? Why aren’t you using your power, using that freaking Eye, using everything that you have to keep her with you?”
Rayce had wanted the truth. So Luke would give it to him. “Because I love her. And I find that, more than my own happiness…I want hers. I want her to have the choice. I want her to have whatever she desires most.”
Rayce’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“So I’m going to kill some people.” Luke nodded decisively. “I’m going to spread terror and hell, and I’m going to spend the rest of my exceedingly long life missing a mermaid who won’t even remember me. That happens, you see. Did you know that?”
Rayce shook his head. “No, Luke…”
“It’s why her mother never came back for her,” Luke continued grimly, the words just not stopping. “When a mermaid returns to the ocean, she forgets her human life. It’s as if that time never was. The longer you stay in the water, the more those memories vanish.” He gave a bitter laugh. “How is this for my own private hell? I’ll never forget her, but Mina won’t even remember my name.”
The cruelest twist of fate.
“Luke, fuck…I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
Luke exhaled and a puff of smoke blew from his lungs. Time for his beast to come out. “Stay on the island. Things are about to get ugly in the Keys.”
“Luke—”
He flew straight up into the air, traveling fast, shifting easily and the beast started hunting its prey.
Maybe I should just stay this way. No longer even pretend to be a man. I’ve lost her, so what is the fucking point? What is the point of trying to keep my control? She’s gone.
And I…hurt.
Chapter Seventeen
The water was beautiful, so clear and warm. She swam deep, then shot to the surface, moving so fast. Far faster than she’d ever dreamed.
Her tail was powerful, propelling her forward. She was racing with a dolphin and laughing because she was beating him. She broke through the surface and did a roll in the air, pushed again by her magnificent tail.
She splashed into the water. Sank deep. She was moving so quickly, swimming right past coral reefs and sunken ships. Her hands touched the fish that rushed eagerly toward her. They surrounded her and danced for her.
It was amazing.
It was…home. She felt it, all the way in her bones. This was where she was meant to be. Happiness beat in her heart. Such pure joy and—
A shark was up ahead.
For a moment, she stilled and a shiver of fear slipped through her. The shark’s eyes were so dark, and its mouth open as it swam toward her. She could see those deadly rows of teeth. I’m afraid of the shark. It’s just like before, when I was trying to get away from Luke, and the shark was there. I froze and—
The memory vanished when the shark bumped her.
But the shark didn’t attack after that bump. It just…stayed beside her. Her shaking fingers reached out and she touched its side.
The shark seemed to vibrate against her, as if enjoying her touch. In that moment, she knew there was nothing to fear. Not in the ocean. The certainty was soul deep. She didn’t have to be afraid. Not any longer. She never had to fear again.
She should tell Luke. She should—
Luke.
The name was in her mind, lingering.
But…
Who was Luke?
She spun beneath the water. The shark had disappeared. The school of fish was gone. She was all alone right then, just a few feet from the wreckage of an old plane.
Who is Luke? The question battered at her. She stared at her fluttering hands. At her beautiful tail, and another chilling thought sliced through her…
Who am I?
Because she couldn’t remember…she couldn’t even remember her own name.
She looked up, seeing a streak of lightning flash just beyond the water’s surface. Her tail snapped down, propelling her once again as she rushed upward to follow that lightning. Rushing—
Her head broke the surface. She started to suck in a desperate breath of air because she’d been down below so long but…I don’t need to hold my breath underwater.
Lightning flashed again. Thunder rolled through the air. Her head tilted back and she stared above her. Too late, she realized that the sound hadn’t been thunder.
It had been a roar. Her eyes widened as the lightning came once more and, this time, she saw just what had made that terrible roar. A big, hulking beast was flying through the air. A beast with giant, black wings. A long, serpentine tail. Sharp teeth and fire flying from its mouth.
She dove beneath the waves, fear beating at her. That creature was horrifying.
She sank deep beneath the water. The ocean soothed her. Comforted her. Joy pulsed in her veins once more.
The school of brightly colored fish swam toward her and—
Who is Luke? Her gaze darted upward once more.
***
Luke touched down at the remains of the Naval Air Station. The place appeared deserted, the buildings now blac
k and singed. A wave of his hand had clothes on his body as he stormed for the broken front gate.
Leo appeared in his path. “They aren’t here. I’ve tracked them to a boat that departed about thirty minutes ago—”
“They left someone behind.” He could smell the blood. Judging from that heavy scent, they’d actually left more than a few someones. He shoved Leo out of his path and, moments later, he was in the bowels of that place. No guards rushed out to meet him. No one came at all.
But the scent of blood just grew stronger.
He hurried down a flight of stairs. Luke turned to the right and there—through a thick pane of glass, he saw the two men who’d been left behind.
Agent Timothy Lang sat in the middle of the room. His arms were tied behind his back. His feet were tied to the legs of a chair.
And sprawled at his side, a deep pool of blood around him…Julian.
“Keep calm, Luke,” Leo warned. The guy had followed him. “Stay in control, stay—”
Luke lifted his hand and shattered that glass. Then he stepped through the now-broken wall and the shards of glass crunched beneath his feet.
“OhmyGod,” Timothy stared up at him with wide eyes. “Garrick said you’d come back. I wanted him to be wrong. I needed him to be wrong.”
Luke bent next to Julian. He turned his friend over and a low hiss escaped him when he saw the damage that had been done. They shot you in the head. Fucking bastards. He put his hand to Julian’s throat.
“I didn’t do it!” Timothy cried out. “I swear, I didn’t! Garrick said you’d be pissed as all hell when you found your dead friend and that you’d kill me, too. He wanted you to do that, to get rid of me because I know what a twisted SOB he is. That bastard turned on me. He’s trying to get you to do his dirty work and kill me so I can’t report him to the higher-ups at the agency, but—”
“Shut up.” Luke glared at him. “Or I will kill you.”
Timothy gulped and immediately shut up.
Luke glanced back at Julian. “My friend isn’t dead yet. That’s why you’re still breathing, Agent Lang. If I’d found his dead body, you would be in pieces right now.”