by daisy harris
“Doctor Wayber taught you a lesson, no?” Juan smirked as he strapped the restrains across Nereus’s torso.
He looked straight in the lab hands eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. “Yeah, he did.”
Juan’s grin fell at the growl in Nereus’s voice. The stocky lab tech nodded to his friend and they left, right before David swept in. The doctor peered down at him, his eyes seeming larger without glasses. Nereus turned his head to the side, refusing to meet his eyes. “What’s on deck for today, doc?”
David’s hand dropped to his shoulder, trying to be reassuring, Nereus figured. “Nothing too horrible. I just have to get a few blood samples.”
“Yeah, well you didn’t need to tie me down for that.”
A needle stabbed into his arm, and Nereus’ face heated, moisture collecting in his eyes. He tamped down hard his emotions. Bound as he was, he couldn’t even wipe his eyes.
The needle jostled in his arm. David switched out the tubes in the vaccutainer and then pressed gauze into Nereus’s elbow and released the tourniquet. “Not too bad, huh, baby? I usually let the phlebotomists do draws at my old lab.”
“Fuck you,” Nereus muttered.
David’s head snapped up. The merman felt vindicated at the hurt he saw in those contact-lens-wearing eyes. “What’s your problem?”
Nereus pressed his lips together, not even justifying that with an answer. He heard more than saw David’s growing discomfort. His feet shuffled and a finger jabbed at a bridge of his nose.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to find time to see you, but I was working.”
“On what?”
David stepped back a fraction, his eyes darting to the side.
“On what?” he repeated.
“Um.” David’s hazel green eyes looked sheepish. “Well, I’m up for a big grant…” Nereus could tell that David actually expected him to be excited for him. And that was more than a little messed up. “And…well, there’s a new subject coming in, a shark-mere hybrid, and since you weren’t going to be needed anymore, Friedson scheduled you for termination.”
Nereus looked into David’s pleading eyes. The scientist reached out a hand to stroke his bound bicep. Nereus flinched away as best he could. “So what does that have to do with anything?”
The scientist’s face lit up again, a flashing smile signifying that he thought he’d get off the hook. “I re-instated some earlier mere research. So long as I get a few more mere in the next few months, I can keep you on board. The funding is huge. We can put on a whole new wing of tanks!”
Nausea crawled up Nereus’s esophagus. “You’re going to kidnap more of my people?”
“No!” David looked more confused than sorry. “No, I’m going to try to make it voluntary. We could offer cash incentives. I’ve been working on a plan for this.”
The restraints bit into Nereus’s chest as he lifted his head from the table. “No mere is going to agree to this shit! No shark-shifter either. And does it not occur to you how ironic it is that we’re having this discussion while I’m tied to a godsdamned table?”
David twitched, shutting himself off. “You’re not seeing this clearly. My work stands to help people.” He’d turned back to his test tubes, placing several in a centrifuge and turning it on.
“Yeah, people.” Nereus’s head fell back onto the metal.
David drew the tubes from the holder and dropped them into a plastic basket along with a requisition form before heading for the door. “I’d hope to have a little time alone with you, but apparently I’m the bad guy now.”
Nereus banged his head back against the steel table, causing a loud clang to reverberate through the room.
David shut the door behind him.
* * * * Rhoaver lay back in his lounge chair, accepting the blowjob offered by the newly released shark females. The cuter of the two had unbuttoned his pants and was reaching in to grab his thickening cock. The other perched at his side, her small hand stroking along his belly.
He heard the boats coming, of course, but Dendric’s stooges didn’t cause him any worry.
Dracht leaned in and muttered in his ear. “They’re tying up now.” One of the females was easing her mouth onto his dick while the other lapped at his balls.
“Eh, just tell them the hybrid headed south. They know where to wire the funds.”
Dracht scurried away, leaving Rhoaver to enjoy the tongues now slurping at his junk. He lit up a jay and took a toke, before handing it off to one of his passing guys. Then he pulled out his cell phone and drew up his address book. Choosing the Dragon Council’s address from his list of favorites, he started to text.
Dragon female and shark-shifter male took off. Should be at the DORC in Panama City 2-3 days. Wire money to account on file.
Clicking send, he opened his Facebook app and updated his status.
Made a cool mill today, SUCKAS! Next raft-up in Fiji-10 days. Coordinates by invite only.
* * * * Sophia gripped the handrail and positioned her weight to counter the boat’s wild bucking. Raider turned the wheel, heading west on a following sea. Her stomach lurched. Motors, several of them, gained pace behind. Why the coast guard laid chase on their little cabin cruiser when multi-million dollar yachts sat at the raft-up she couldn’t imagine. But clearly they’d be boarded in a matter of minutes.
“Maybe we should just dive and swim.” She didn’t want to tell the shark what to do, especially since his expression was more than a little crazed.
The boat rolled sickeningly over the waves again before he answered. “I’m not giving up this boat.” The cold determination in his voice sent a shiver down her spine. Her whisper escaped her lips almost against her will. “But you stole it.”
His gaze snapped to hers, eyes wild, flashing black and blue. “What’s on this little piece of shit is more than I’ve had in years. It’s the only place that’s ever been…”
The word home hovered in the air. She didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to say it. Because that would make it all too real. This tiny boat had come to mean something to her as well
She laid a hand on Raider’s shoulder, watched as the muscles of his back flexed under her touch. “I’d miss it too. But if they catch us, they’ll take the ship anyway.”
His shoulders slumped in defeat. “Shit, I know you’re right…” He checked the navigation equipment again. “Throw our stuff in the dry bag, Soph.” She heard his resignation, and it tugged at her heart.
Sophia crawled into the V-berth, gathering up their clothes and few possessions and shoving it all into the bag. Amid the blankets she found the underwear he’d pulled off her earlier that day. Her hands folded over the cloth, remembering how he’d tugged them to the side to taste her. Mercy, she didn’t want to say goodbye to their little haven either.
“You ready?” She climbed out in time to see Raider ripping his shirt over his head and thrusting his pants to his ankles. The motor idled as he shoved his clothes in the dry bag. She pulled her dress over her head and put her underthings in the bag. Raider took one last look at her as they faced each other naked. Too many feelings ran through her to express. His eyes devoured her. She saw anger war with lust and maybe something else altogether.
“Time to abandon ship.” He spun to the door and ripped it open, leading her out to the deck and then into the splashing water.
* * * * The instant Raider’s head broke the water’s surface he lost all sense of direction. Those fuckers were projecting electromagnetic static underwater. He flipped upside down as his shark form took over. His eyes searched for Sophia, and he caught a glimpse of her swimming in tight circles. Dragons might not be as sensitive to the static as sharks, but even they could become disoriented by this level of interference.
He tried to swim in her direction, but the conflicting electrical pulses made the world seem upside down. Her body would come into focus, just to disappear again. He registered bubbles rising at odd intervals in the water. Scuba divers approached with
a large net.
A spear gun, a searing pain in his side, and the chaos became darker. The last thing he registered before all went black was a highpitched roar.
Chapter 13
Voices whispered in the corners of Raider’s mind. One sounded excited, the next angry. He focused more closely, making sure not to tense a single muscle as he sifted through the sounds. A motor hummed, bubbles through water. His body rested in something cold, smooth.
He hears growls in the background, sharks like him. Swishing noises like tails, and a moment later Sophia’s voice saying, “Don’t hurt him, please!”
The person she spoke to didn’t reply. He wondered how whoever had taken them had forced her into her human form.
“I see a spike in its heartbeat,” the excited voice said. “It’s waking up!”
Raider wondered how much longer he could play dead.
Sophia shouted, “Raider!” and his eyes flew open.
Crap, that female couldn’t keep her mouth shut. His eyes met the red-rimmed faded blue of a middle-aged man in a lab coat. The human looked at his face closely.
“We need to turn on the hydration system in the quarantine area. I want to keep him in human form for as long as possible.”
Two tan-skinned humans appeared above his table. They jabbered to each other in rapid Spanish. The table beneath him jostled, rolling. He still couldn’t move or speak. His mouth twitched, trying to form words.
“Put the dragon in the cell next to him. I can’t believe how lucky we got. No one’s ever autopsied a dragon.
Sophia’s voice followed behind him as he was wheeled out of the cavernous space through a set of double doors and down a short hallway to a smaller enclosure. Hands fell onto his shoulders and hauled him up under his arms. The room pitched around him. Plexiglass walls surrounded the cell within a room. He caught a glimpse of Sophia, dressed in a hospital gown, as they positioned him on the floor.
She pressed up against the transparent barrier between their enclosures. She started sobbing.
His head lolled forward as the men closed the door to his cell. His eyes fell on the drain set in the center of the floor, then on a small bowl of water and another of some kind of food. No utensils.
Raider willed his head to move. The room pitched to the side, but he finally found her. His mouth formed a sound. “Shhh…I’m okay.”
Her cry hitched in her throat and she dropped into a crouch, meeting his eyes. “Are you hurt?”
Raider tried to shake his head, but the movement caused the room to spin. He pressed his eyes closed and forced his vocal chords to work. “Yeah. I’m good.”
She petted the glass with her tiny brown fingers. “They kept shooting more drugs into you on the boat every time you woke up. This one guy said you couldn’t overdose because you’re a sharkshifter, but I…Every time they did it, you had these convulsions.” Her voice broke.
“They were right. But why didn’t they dose you?” He looked her up and down. She didn’t appear groggy or disoriented.
“I didn’t put up a fight.” Her voice was small, like he might think less of her. Crap, he liked that she was so pliable, though he hated that he’d let her get caught.
“D’you figure out who the hell these guys are?” His disorientation lifted slowly, but already he could focus better. One by one his muscles came back online.
“They’re some kind of scientists”
“Yeah, I figured that much.”
“They’ve got a whole room of sharks back there, and even a mere—but only one.” Her finger traced little patterns on the glass.
He flexed one hand, then the other. One arm rose as he scratched his nose. “So we got snagged in a shark-catching operation?”
She bit her bottom lip. Even though most of his body was still numb, his dick pulsed with life. “No, it appears they wanted you in particular.”
He shifted position, stretching his muscles and trying to work out the cramps and pins and needles. “Why would they want…?” His eyes fell to his body. They’d put him in a pair of loose shorts, but he was otherwise naked. The white mark on his chest stood stark against the distinctive gray-tan skin of a shark-shifter. “Fuck. Because I’m half mere.”
He pushed to standing, the drugged-out haze clearing fast now that he could move. His head bowed. He’d be running from his background the rest of his life, putting everyone he cared about at risk.
When he raised his head, he noticed her standing with her cheek and hand flattened against the glass. Before he could think, he’d stepped next to her. He ran his fingertips over where her hair lay, and then stroked his knuckles along and flat white patch of her cheek.
He said, “I’m sorry” right as she said, “I missed you.”
A sore ache pounded in his chest. He wanted to touch her more than anything, hold her in his arms and steal her away again.
“We’ll find a way to get out of here.” His voice sounded more certain than he felt.
“Raider, if all those other sharks haven’t figured out how to do it, I don’t see how we…”
He cut her off. Damn, this girl had no idea of her power. “Sophia, they’re shark shifters. Most of them wouldn’t survive more than five minutes on land. You’re a dragon. You could walk around the fucking desert if you wanted.”
Her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked extremely uncertain.
He rolled his eyes. “First, how do you think the dragons got so successful? They can mix with humans better than mere and much better than sharks. Second, what’s stopping you from shifting right now? You could probably take out these walls with a good hard swat of your tail.”
She stepped from one foot to the other. “I’m really small for a dragon.”
He couldn’t help but snort. “These aren’t dragons we’re up against, sweetheart. They’re human. And you’re pretty big compared to them.”
When she nodded in reluctant agreement, he added, “We just need to come up with a plan.”
Her lips twitched to the side, and she sighed. Sophia pressed more of her body up against the plastic barrier. “Oh gods, it’s been hard without you…”
He wasn’t sure how to respond. Her lips were darker than he remembered, and, was it possible her boobs had grown? He stroked at her form along the window.
Even not feeling his touch, she moaned.
“Um, Soph, are you feeling okay?” He knew she was affected by her impending heat, but she hadn’t acted like this before.
When her eyes rose up to meet his, they were filled with tears. She whispered, “I think it’s starting.”
* * * * David stalked back to his office, his hand scrubbing through his hair in frustration. The girl hadn’t stopped crying as Friedson drew what seemed like pints of her blood. At least he’d managed to convince him to leave tissue samples and spinal taps for tomorrow.
He fell into the chair and bent his head into his hands. A knock on the door behind him told David that Friedson had followed. “I need to speak with you about something, David.” The older scientist closed the door behind him.
David covered his eyelids with his fingers, rolling the contacts lenses over his pupils and trying to make them more comfortable. He wasn’t even sure why he wore them anymore. Nereus hadn’t noticed, or cared. “Yes?”
“Please don’t mention the dragon subject we collected today to anyone.” Friedson’s eyes bore into his.
“Who would I tell?” David was confused. He didn’t discuss any work matters with his family or his friends back home. Now that he thought about it, Nereus was the only person he really talked to. Or used to talk to.
“I mean the work we do on the dragon needs to be off the books.”
When David raised an eyebrow, Friedson continued. “The Dragon Council has banned experimentation on their species, not to mention that one of the board members is dragon.”
His mind reeled. “You mean to tell me that one of the species of ocean shifters knows what goes on here?”
Fri
edson looked at him with what could only be described as pity. “How do you think the higher ups learned about these species? Or where to find them? Without our contacts in the dragon and vampire communities we wouldn’t have access to half the species we’ve studied.”
David processed Friedson’s words. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t see why the shifters species aren’t given the same rights as human subjects.”
Friedson looked uncomfortable for a second but changed his expression to one of mild amusement almost immediately. “We keep to the highest standards of ethical treatment of animals here, but you can’t expect us to implement informed consent and the rest with shifter species.”
“Why not?” David heard his voice come stronger. “They can talk, reason. I don’t see why they couldn’t…”
Friedson’s expression changed from fatherly and kind to hard and cold in a split second. “Because it’s too profitable this way, you idiot. It’s only a matter of time before some other paranormal faction teams up with another company.”
His stomach lurched, and it was as if the world tilted askew. On some level he’d allowed himself to believe that Friedson and the other folks at Dendric didn’t really know what they were doing, didn’t understand.
“You’re a geneticist, David. Do you know where genetics would be without the work of German scientists during the Nazi regime?”
David gripped hard on the table. “No discovery is worth that kind of dehumanization.”
Friedson shrugged. “I’m not defending what happened during that time, I’m just…”
David cut him off. “You’re defending what you’re doing here.”
“Perhaps.” The offhand way he said it made David cringe. “But we’re following the dragon’s lead in this. They’ve done things with mere over the years that would curl your toes, so believe me nothing that happens here is any worse. And the sharks? For ages, dragons killed them on sight.”
David quieted, sure that nothing he said would sway Friedson’s thinking. He turned to his computer and tried to act like this was all a theoretical conversation anyway. “Well, that makes sense then. If you think it’s worth keeping the dragon, I’ll keep my mouth shut. But if someone asks, I’m not going to lie. The Board of Directors signs my checks.”