by Devyn Quinn
Jake barely spared her a glance. Since he’d found out she carried Kenneth Randall’s brats—three of them, no less!—he’d lost all interest in her.
“Get used to it, babe.” Clamping his teeth against the rush of nausea, he forced himself onto his knees. Blinking hard, he glanced around. Although he couldn’t be sure, he seemed to be on some kind of platform inside a stone sanctuary. Recognition filtered back into his scrambled brains.
A smile parted his lips. They’d made it through intact. His tongue felt like a dry wad of cotton. “We’re back.” His eyes searched for and found Queen Magaera, who seemed to be suffering no ill effects from her own passage through the sea-gate. The atmosphere around them was oppressively silent.
The Mer queen gazed down on the great hall. As was to be expected, this sanctuary of worship was crowded with women on their knees before the great dais. Since the queen’s departure, her minions had kept watch, waiting for the time when the sea-gate would again reopen.
Gaining sight of their revered leader, the Mer women rose to their feet. Hushed murmurings spread throughout the temple. Nobody present blinked for fear of missing a single detail.
Composed mostly of stone and crystal, Ishaldi looked much as he remembered from his first visit to the lost city. There had been a time when lush forests teeming with wildlife and cold streams of pure water spread throughout the land. But the beauty of the city was an illusion, as transient as a phantom in the mist.
In sealing the wormhole between Ishaldi and Earth, Queen Nyala had doomed her people to a slow and inexorable death. Because the natural resources could not be replenished, the animals died off, water became poisoned, and plant life shriveled. Though the Mer would learn to adapt by drawing their sustenance out of the stone, the humans left behind fared less well. Famine forced the culling of the weak, the sick, and the inferior. Only the strongest, most desirable males were kept for breeding. The rest of the men, and a few women, were consigned to slavery.
As he looked around, a sense of accomplishment filled him. The perilous times were at an end. I did it, he thought smugly. He imagined he would be well rewarded.
Flinging back her head and squaring her shoulders, Magaera slowly crossed to the front of the dais, from where she could be seen and from where she could see—all angles. Her blond hair and shimmering white weblike robes gave her an unearthly appearance. The scepter of Atargatis glimmered, a star plucked from the heavens. Her impassive eyes betrayed nothing of her thoughts.
The queen spread her arms. “My people, as I promised, I have returned,” she said, addressing them in the Mer language. She raised the scepter. “I have retrieved that which has been stolen, and with it I shall grant the freedom that has been taken from us. Once again we shall rule Earth’s waters as Atargatis intended.”
A deep, booming cheer rolled forward. “We believe! It is proven to our eyes!”
Jake’s brow furrowed as he struggled to keep up with her words. English was not the language of the Mer. Since becoming acquainted with Magaera, he’d picked up bits and pieces of their strange dialect. He’d found that much of the language was based on dialects of ancient Greece and Egypt, two seafaring nations the Mer would have been in contact with for trade and commerce. As an archaeologist who specialized in the Mediterranean countries, he had enough training to follow along.
Magaera smirked. “Have I earned your faith?”
“Our queen has provided well and truly,” the women roared back.
The queen raised her hand for silence. “And what is your will?” she questioned gravely.
Again came the thunder of female voices, en masse: “We shall serve!” The temple was no longer a place of meditation and contemplation. Peace was shattered by the rallying cry for war.
Without warning, Magaera gestured for her soldiers to bring Tessa forward. Still reeling and weak from passing through the sea-gate, Tessa stumbled, falling to her knees. Her long red hair was a tangle around her face, as bright and damning as the mark of Cain. Any Mer who did not have blond hair and blue eyes was considered to be of an impure bloodline.
“This is the inferior who betrayed us,” the Mer queen said, pointing an accusing finger at Tessa. “She is a descendant of the Tesch dynasty, of the queen who chose mankind over her own people. She now carries the seed of a husla, a human male, whom we would not deem worthy for breeding.”
A hiss rose through the crowd.
Magaera’s strong voice rang out. “What is your will?”
“Condemn her to death!” the collective roared. The judgment reverberated through the voluminous temple with a grim finality.
Feeling his blood turn to icy chips, Jake winced. This wasn’t what he’d been expecting at all. “If Tessa dies, her soul-stone dies with her,” he reminded Magaera.
Her frigid blue eyes met his. “I need her soul-stone only a little while longer,” she said in a low and curiously level voice. “Once we have established ourselves in Earth’s waters, there will be no need to return to this realm. Besides, we cannot allow the spawn of an inferior to survive. Our race is a pure one, and we intend to keep it that way.”
Jake gazed back at her in consternation. The future he’d envisioned had suddenly turned pitch-black before his eyes. The Mer had no intention of adapting to the modern world. No, by the look in her steely gaze, she was hell-bent on going to war. The power vested in her was a very real thing.
There would be no peace, no mediation.
And no place for him, except as a consort for her pleasure, and perhaps breeding.
A voice from behind snapped through his silence. “Looks as though you’ve fucked us all, Jake.”
He turned his head and looked into Tessa’s eyes. Her features were etched with despair and the finality of the death sentence Magaera had leveled on her head.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, though his lips barely moved. He knew then that he would suffer for his stupidity. His own blind pride and foolishness had generated endless, bad karma, for which he and many other innocent people would now pay. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t deny his responsibility for what had happened.
Slumping forward, Tessa ignored his apology. “I hope you got what you wanted, Jake.” She covered her face with her hands and shuddered. The pain in her voice penetrated deep. “You’ve just killed my children.”
Chapter 11
“Why are you hiding in a utility closet?” Mason McKenzie asked.
Pulling her legs closer to her chest, Addison wrapped her arms around her knees. “I just wanted to be out of sight,” she mumbled toward the tall figure silhouetted in the doorway. “I needed a place to myself.”
He checked his watch. “It’s almost midnight.” Consternation creased his smooth forehead. “I would think my cabin would have provided the same function, albeit a bit more comfortably.”
Addison shook her head. If nothing else, being in McKenzie’s quarters only made her that much more jumpy. Everything she looked at only made her think of him; from the shower where he would soap his naked body, to the bunk that supported his lanky frame. Since their brief encounter earlier in the day, she couldn’t get the feel of his body pressed against hers out of her mind. She had no doubt that Mason was a man capable of fulfilling every fantasy she’d ever had—and maybe even a few she hadn’t dreamed up yet. Just the thought of his strong hands skimming her skin made her senses hum with a sexual awareness she couldn’t ignore.
And yet she still couldn’t figure out how or why this man had wormed himself inside her brain. She didn’t even like blonds!
Addison drew a deep breath. “I like it here. Nobody bothers me.”
Stepping into the narrow space, Mason closed the door behind him. It took him only a few steps to narrow the distance between them. He knelt, folding his long legs beneath his weight. The dim light from the bare bulb above cast strange shadows across his face, giving him an unearthly look. “Is something wrong?”
She pressed back against the wall, wishing h
er hiding place were a little bit deeper and darker. “I don’t like the way they’re looking at me,” she said after a moment’s pause. “They keep eyeing me as if I’m some kind of a magical wonder. As if I can wave my hands and make it all better.”
One side of his mouth curled up. He chuckled, emitting a deep masculine sound. “In their eyes you are magical. Imagine how they feel seeing something so incredible and amazing.”
Addison huffed. “Imagine how I feel, being gawked at like a sideshow freak.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I think Gwen was right. That it would be better if the Mer were to stay hidden.”
“Too late for that,” Mason pointed out. “Whether or not you like it, the genie’s been let out of the bottle. You’re going to have to accept that some people are simply going to stare. It’s rude, I know. But it’s also human nature. I’ll speak to my crew and tell them to lay off.”
“Don’t do that. It’s my problem, not theirs.”
His gaze never wavered. Eyes she would willingly drown in, locked and held with hers. “They’re pretty good at following orders.”
A swirling ribbon of desire unfurled deep within her all over again. She suddenly felt cramped, hot, and definitely uncomfortable. “It’s not their fault, I suppose.” Shaking her head to clear away thoughts of Mason naked and aroused, she raised her chin a notch. “Why can’t they understand that I’m not anything special? I’m just me, Addison. The girl who sometimes wears a tail when she swims.” In her secret heart she longed to be approached by a man who’d treat her like a regular woman. She wanted a man who could look beyond the Mer and find the woman.
Mason moved to one knee, leaning closer. His aftershave smelled crisp and fresh, a sensual combination that reminded her of the ocean after sunset. “Don’t be so fast to put yourself down,” he murmured. “You’re a lot more than a girl who wears a tail.”
Addison tilted her head back and found herself staring into his eyes. Awareness bubbled up inside her, growing hotter and more intense with every beat of her heart. She couldn’t help but wonder how many women this handsome man in uniform had charmed.
He doesn’t look like the kind who spends a lot of nights alone, she thought.
She forced herself to swallow, suddenly aware of how parched her mouth was. She hadn’t had a thing to eat or drink in hours. “I am?”
Mason’s gaze settled on her face, intense and focused. “Absolutely.”
“Then why do I get the feeling you’d rather not have me here?”
Surprised, he drew back. “What?”
“Mermaids aren’t psychic, but we are empaths. The vibrations emanating off you are strong enough to knock me over.”
Her words seemed to strike a chord. The sudden hitch in his breathing seemed to prove her right. “And what do my vibes say, if I may ask?”
Addison attempted to focus her concentration, something she found difficult to do, given their close proximity. “I make you uncomfortable,” she said quietly. “You’re wary. Maybe because you don’t know what to make of a mermaid that isn’t trying to blast you to bits. It isn’t personal, I think. You just don’t trust the species.”
“It’s true,” he countered wryly. “The first time I saw a mermaid, she was trying to drag me to the bottom of the sea.”
She winced. “Shit. We’ll never live that down, you know. Everyone thinks that all mermaids do is sing prettily and lure sailors to their deaths.”
He thought a moment. “Well, there must be some truth to the legend.”
Addison speared him with a disgruntled look. “I admit, Mer are known to be a little grouchy,” she allowed.
He rocked back on his heels. “A little bit?”
Hot blood rushed into her cheeks. “Oh, hell. A lot. We’re bitches, okay? We gotta work to control our instincts. Just like anyone else has to learn to keep his cool.” Glancing at his handsome face, she forced a casual shrug. “But things still simmer beneath the surface, fighting to break out. You’re the same way. You fight hard to keep control, but even now it’s getting the better of you.”
He didn’t blink. “Is it?”
Her heart rate bumped up a notch, even though his face was one of composure. Desire shimmered in the depths of his gaze, just as it hammered insistently inside her. There was no mistaking it. The unspoken connection was strong and unmistakable.
“I think so.” She paused a moment. Did she really want to open that door? Once she said the words, they couldn’t be taken back. Something inside her warned that she’d be taking a risk, but she decided to ignore it. “You’d like to know more about me,” she ventured slowly. “But you think it’s inappropriate.”
He raised a skeptical brow. “And you can tell all that just by being around me?”
Addison allowed a small smile. “Well, that, and the fact your first officer thinks you’re trying to hog me to yourself.”
His eyes darkened subtly. An immediate frown followed. “Hawkins told you that?” He cursed under his breath.
Yes, she was right. She’d definitely piqued his interest. There was no mistaking when a man was interested in a Mer. “No. I overheard him talking with a couple of the other crew members. He says you told them hands off. He thinks that’s because you want me for yourself.” She paused, then added, “Am I right?”
A long pause ensued. The silence between them was maddening.
Just when Addison was beginning to believe she’d taken things too damn far, Mason reached out, brushing her face with the tips of his fingers. “I shouldn’t,” he admitted in a low voice, “but I do.”
She licked dry lips. Her hand rose, fingers curling around his wrist. Just touching him made her feel so intensely alive, vital, desired. “We could…” She’d never heard her own voice sound like that, throbbing with need.
Mason regretfully shook his head. “I can’t, Addison. The worst sin any officer can commit is to do anything remotely wrong regarding sex.”
Her grip tightened. The sudden hitch in his breathing proved to her that he was tempted. A shiver took hold. Overwhelmed and consumed by his physical presence, she closed her eyes. His pulse raged beneath his skin, matching her own heart’s frantic beat.
She’d never been the kind of woman to wait around for a man to make the advances. Mer were sexual, sensual creatures. And she had to admit that she’d never before encountered a man who filled her with such carnal longings.
Anticipation burst like a bubble. She let her hand fall away, destroying their physical connection. Breaking contact wasn’t easy, but she managed. “I understand.” She’d opened herself up, and now she had to take the consequences. His rejection was like a jab to the gut. It hurt, but she would survive.
He climbed to his feet. The distance between them was immediate and striking. “What I want and what my job says I can have are two different things,” he whispered. His gaze settled on her face. “As much as I want you, I can’t put my career on the line.”
She had to respect his honesty. He wasn’t turning her down because he didn’t desire her, but because he did. “You don’t have to explain. I understand the chain of command.”
Mason quickly pushed his hands into his pockets. As if he didn’t trust himself, he stepped back to put a little more distance between them. “Yes,” he admitted, then tried to make light of his answer by adding, “I’ve always been a traveling man.”
She could practically hear the wheels grinding in his head. “It’s always going to be duty first with you.”
He gave another stiff nod. “I’m afraid so. Forever and always.”
An awkward pause ensued.
Addison eyed him from head to foot. It was only a passing fancy, she reminded herself. She was a big girl. Rejection was par for the course when navigating through the tricky relations between men and mermaids.
An ironic smile tugged at her lips. “Gotcha.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
He offered a hand. “Let me help you up.”
/> Addison reluctantly accepted. His hand practically swallowed hers. It was the first time she could ever remember being around a man whose own size dwarfed hers. At five foot ten, she wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet.
He tugged her to her feet. “You going to be okay?”
Nodding, she reluctantly let her hand fall away from his. She was tired, weary to the bone. A shower and a snooze would go a long way toward clearing her head. And it didn’t even matter that she’d struck out with Mason McKenzie. It wasn’t as if she’d been looking for more than a fling. And she felt a little selfish for letting herself put aside the reason she’d agreed to join USET in the first place.
Focus, she reminded herself. Tessa needs your help. Knocking boots with Mason McKenzie wasn’t any way to accomplish that. “I guess this is where we should say good night.” Mentally cursing the narrow confines of the closet, she tried to slip past his tall frame. Used for storing cleaning supplies, the space was barely big enough for one person, much less two. “Excuse me, Captain.”
Mason’s breath caught noticeably when her body pressed against his. “Shit,” he swore under his breath.
Her heart jumped into her throat. She suddenly felt as if she were burning up. “What?”
Without warning, he caught her in his arms. His grip was sure and possessive. His hips shifted against her in the tight space. “Damn it, Addison. You aren’t making this easy.”
Addison didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the comment. The heat from his touch seemed to pour straight into her veins, spreading like wildfire across dry prairie grass. The connection between them was so strong that it felt as though some magnetic force had drawn them together. “Just let me by.”
His fingers tightened. “I can’t.”
Her spine stiffened. “This isn’t funny. Don’t play games with me.” Getting out of there looked to be harder than expected.
“I don’t play games.” His tone was husky now—strained.
Addison tipped her head back. She looked at him, expecting him to let her go and apologize at any second. The unabashed desire in his eyes said something else. “Then what are you doing?”