by Nalini Singh
It just so happened that he'd been in a bad mood for the past six months. Walruses. It was like they turned thirty and lost their minds if they hadn't yet found a mate. After that, it was sulking, temper, and general snarkiness. Hugo's disappearance had just exacerbated Alden's already black temperament.
He could kill Bowen with a single unthinking blow.
Skin suddenly chilled, Kaia took the final steps to Bowen's side. The scanner was already in her hand. That hand happened to be covered in flour--she'd been mixing dough when this dangerous man had decided to mess with her schedule.
"What are you doing out of bed?" She synced the scanner with the fine "smart-mesh" that lay against his scalp, hidden by the soft ebony waves of his hair.
His readings were exceptionally good for a man who'd suffered such a grievous insult to his body. According to Attie, it helped that he'd been in prime physical condition prior to taking a bullet to save his sister's life.
"I think I'm hallucinating," he said, his eyes trained on the water. "I could swear that whale was laughing as he swam by."
"Filipe has a strange sense of humor."
Bowen Knight angled his head to search her face, as if he wasn't sure if she was serious or not. But when he spoke, it was about another thing entirely. "I could've taken the big guy with the mustache."
The hairs rose on the back of Kaia's neck; she'd been sure he was utterly absorbed in the deep while she chewed out Alden. Hugo had been right to warn his friends to not let down their guard around Bowen Knight should they ever end up in his presence. "Fine. I'll let Alden pound you into paste next time," she said, forcing an ice into her voice that didn't come naturally. "Try to do it away from here. Blood is hell to clean out of carpet."
Bowen smiled. It lit up his whole face, the dark, dark eyes suddenly warm and the creases in his cheeks devastatingly attractive. "Thank you, Kaia Luna," he said in a solemn tone. "I appreciate being protected."
The other part of her poked up its head at the possibility of a playmate. Kaia sternly told it to stay underwater. According to Hugo, Bowen Knight was the kind of playmate who'd leave them both broken. "Are you hungry?" she asked curtly. "Attie won't thank me if you faint because you're starving."
"I've never fainted in my life." The affront in his expression reminded her so strongly of her male cousins that Kaia's defenses nearly cracked.
Careful, Kaia. He's a master at manipulation.
He was also putting out "bad boy" pheromones that spoke to her crazy--and to the wild, playful, and curious core of her nature. But Kaia had seen the photograph Hugo had found, and no charm onslaught was going to make her forget the carnage.
"You'd better come into my kitchen so I can get on with work while babysitting you." She put away the scanner, then turned and walked toward the back end of the atrium without waiting for his response. The kitchen area was located behind a partial wall that protected it from the atrium foot traffic but left it accessible to the clan.
Once in her domain, she moved past the large table on which her kitchen hands regularly put out fruit, cookies, sandwiches, and other "in-between" snacks. In a station this big, someone was always hungry.
She ruffled the messy golden brown curls of a ten-year-old trying to sneak a cookie out of the jar and put an apple in his hand instead. "You've already had three."
Bodie gave her a long-suffering look out of big hazel eyes. "You got the cookie jar under surveillance, right?"
"I'll never tell."
Sighing, the ten-year-old trudged off . . . but she heard him bite into the apple before he disappeared from view, her hearing plenty sharp enough to catch the sound even in the midst of the other noises in the air. Of Bowen Knight, there was no sign.
Kaia frowned, nearly took a step back out before shaking her head and striding onward to the currently empty working heart of the kitchen. As she'd reminded herself only minutes earlier, the security chief of the Human Alliance was far from helpless. He might even be the deadliest person on Ryujin.
Washing, then drying her hands, she returned to the counter where she'd been working on the dough. And ignored the jerk in her pulse when he finally came into view. His progress was slow but he didn't appear to be leaning on the cane. And when he pulled himself up onto a stool on the other side of her work counter, she noticed that while his skin was flushed, he wasn't sweating.
Rather than tired, he looked vividly, potently alive.
"So," he said, his gaze watchful in a way that wasn't a threat but that made her skin prickle and his voice full of complex layers that sank deep into her with unsettling ease, "do I have to worry about poison?"
Kaia would never use food to hurt anyone--for her, food was warmth, was how she showed her love even when the scars inside her stole her voice. "I wouldn't ruin Atalina's experiment." Firmly ignoring the electric sensations crackling across her skin, she dished him up a plate, then poured him a glass of water. "Eat slowly unless you trust me to save you if you choke."
He forked up a bite, his eyes closing as he savored the taste.
And Kaia's toes curled into the rug she kept below her workbench. Wearing shoes had never come easy to her, and she still tended to kick them off as soon as she could.
Exhaling gustily, Bowen lifted his lashes. "Damn, you could bring me to my knees with food alone."
Heat bloomed in her core, her gaze locked to his. She had to fight to shape a response that didn't betray her visceral and unwanted reaction to his presence, his voice, him. "Charm and flattery don't work on me," she said in her most cutting tone. "Eat, then leave so I can work in peace."
Kaia had scared off more than one would-be suitor with that tone, but Bowen Knight didn't even blink. "Any particular reason why you think I'm the spawn of Satan?"
The blunt question hit her hard in the center--and she responded without thought, her heart thundering and her cheeks hot. "You're the security chief of the Human Alliance, and humans are heartless, cruel creatures who love pretending to be the underdog. Like a wolf putting on a sheep's fleece."
Silence hung in the air, a sword about to fall.
Not about to back down from the ugly truth, Kaia sealed and set aside this lot of dough to rest, and opened up a batch that was ready to use. She got busy rolling out the circles for the dumplings she intended to make as part of dinner. Her kitchen hands would be arriving in thirty minutes and she'd put them to work prepping other items, but these dumplings needed a more expert touch.
She tore off small hunks of dough, rolled them into patties, then picked up the rolling pin and got to work. Circle after perfect circle, her body moving automatically even as a storm churned inside her, the being who swam under her skin as agitated as the human heart of her.
"What did humans do to you?" Bowen Knight's voice continued to please her ear on the innermost level, the deep tones of it flawlessly balanced.
Angrily rolling out another circle, she said, "Do you know that before water changelings banded together to become BlackSea, become strong, humans caught and ate us?" No one ever talked about that particular piece of gruesome history, but that didn't erase it.
"Changelings can shift very quickly." A steady voice, unflinching attention.
Kaia slammed the rolling pin down on the counter. "I don't have to lie when the truth is so awful."
Wrenching off another ball of dough, she began to shape it into a patty. "A harpoon through the heart does a fantastic job of ending any chance of a shift." Kaia had seen the pictures, read the heartrending memorials. "A water changeling killed in its animal form will remain in that form."
Putting down his fork, Bowen stared at her. "Tell me it doesn't happen anymore." The words came out harsh, raw.
"Only because BlackSea controls its borders with deadly force--and even then, humans creep at the edges with their illegal nets and rusting ships." Kaia's skin crawled with the remembered terror of the child she'd once been. How the hard plas fibers of the net had cut into her delicate skin, how her cries had
been unheard . . . and how she'd nearly drowned after panicking and shifting back into the form of a human child.
Bowen's eyes didn't leave her face, and she knew he saw too much, this man who was far too intelligent to trust. "I'm sorry for the crimes of other humans. There is no excuse for what was done to your people--but I swear to you, I've never knowingly taken part in any such evil."
It was a pretty thing to say, but Kaia had seen Hugo's proof, knew that at least two of their vanished would never again be coming home. The tears she'd shed that night had scraped her down to the bone. Even now, each time she closed her eyes, she saw their bruised and mutilated bodies, and she heard Hugo's voice telling her how the Alliance was playing a horrific game with BlackSea's most vulnerable as chess pieces.
Chapter 12
Kaia, I think humans might be the enemy masquerading as our friends. I have proof that Bowen Knight and the Alliance are deeply involved in the vanishings.
--Hugo Sorensen in a message to Kaia Luna
"HOW MANY PEOPLE in this habitat?" Bowen asked when she said nothing in response to his attempt to separate yesterday from today.
"A hundred right now, but this kitchen services all five residential habitats on Ryujin, so that's approximately four to six hundred people, depending on who's in and who's out." Kaia had no reason to hide the facts from him--as Mal had pointed out, once on Ryujin, Bowen had no way to escape.
If he did somehow manage to summon help, there were hundreds of heavily armed people on the floating city above who'd shoot down anything before it ever reached the deep. And, after a ruthless campaign run on multiple fronts, BlackSea had cornered the market on submersible vehicles. Others might build them, but they'd never match the deadly grace of the ones on patrol in BlackSea territory.
It was only once her people ventured beyond their territorial borders that they became prey--and BlackSea was made up of countless creatures who ranged across the world's oceans. They couldn't always be safe . . . but Kaia still didn't understand why Hugo had broken the border when he knew human ships were prowling.
Why had he put himself at risk?
"Four to six hundred people." Bowen Knight's voice was deeper and rougher than her friend's smooth tenor, and right now it rubbed over her skin like sandpaper. "Lot of people for you to feed."
"I try not to fade away from overwork." Having prepared the filling earlier, she dropped a spoonful on each rolled-out skin before accordioning them into dumplings.
"I hate to point this out, but you seem to have a mouse problem."
Kaia glanced down to see that Hex was poking his nose out of her pocket, his paws on the edge. He knew better than to jump out in the kitchen, but he clearly wanted freedom. "His name is Hex, and he's healthier and cleaner than anyone else on this station." She put him on the counter beside Bowen, then washed her hands again and got back to work.
In front of her, Bowen and Hex seemed to be taking each other's measure.
Catching a halting movement out of the corner of her eye, she picked up a plate she'd kept on the counter, took off the thermal cover, and walked over to thrust it into a skinny teenager's hand. "I better see a squeaky clean plate when you're done."
Scott's grin cracked his face, the starburst birthmark on the top of his left cheekbone crinkling with the movement. "You made my favorite." After pressing an enthusiastic kiss to her cheek, the boy who'd recently had a run-in with a wild inhabitant of the sea--and come out worse off--grabbed a fork and began to stuff his face. His eyes, however, were on Bowen Knight.
Kaia put her hands on his bony shoulders and physically turned him around. "Go sit in the atrium." He was sure to find a friend out there; a thirty-strong group of children lived in the habitats because their parents worked on Ryujin. The kids could've stayed in the city on the surface, but they chose to live and play in the deep--because family was life, was heart.
Kaia's own heart pulsed with decades-old pain as she returned to her counter. Sometimes she forgot her grief for long periods, but it was always there. And this hurt was one she wanted to feel, because when she did, she also remembered the love that had enclosed her, the warm arms and soft kisses, and a bearish laugh far too loud for a BlackSea changeling.
She was conscious of Bowen Knight watching her with security chief concentration, but though the tiny hairs on her body rose in warning, she ignored him to finish this set of dumplings.
The other dough had rested enough by now that she could prep the second set. Her kitchen helpers could be trusted with the cooking part of the process, with her supervising.
While they did that, she'd get to work on a batch of cookies. Her last lot had been hoovered up so fast she was half-convinced certain cookie fiends were hoarding them in their rooms. Might be time to send Hex on a spy mission.
"Kid was limping."
"Scott's a teenager who can swim in the black." Kaia rolled out another circle. "More sensible than most, but his brain's still developing its danger sense."
"What did he do? Try to wrestle a shark?"
She flicked Bowen a glance--and felt a nearly physical shock of sensation when their gazes collided. "I'm fairly certain he wasn't looking for trouble." Her heart thudded. "But neither did he get out of the way fast enough."
Eyes of such a deep brown they appeared black in this light continued to hold her own, the currents arcing between them white fire she could almost see.
"Kaia."
A shiver rippled over her skin.
Forcibly breaking the eye contact, she dived back into work. But her mind was racing, spinning. Why was her body reacting to him? Why was she reacting to him? It wasn't as if she was starved of choice should she want skin privileges. Ryujin's population aside, the station had visitors from the city on a regular basis. Kaia, too, could swim up whenever she pleased.
More than one clanmate had made her an invitation. And yet . . .
"Shit." Metal hitting china, Bowen's fork clattering onto his plate. "Muscles are spasming." Rising from the stool with a wince, he began to stretch with slow, intense attention to detail.
Kaia wondered if he ever did anything any other way as she kept an eye on him. Should he begin to topple over, she'd summon one of the group of clanmates who'd come in to grab coffee a couple of minutes earlier and were now lingering nonchalantly in the external part of the kitchen.
The five women were too scared of Kaia's wrath to invade her domain, but that didn't stop them from staring in Bowen Knight's direction with unabashed interest. BlackSea might've managed to convince the rest of the world that they were mysterious and aloof loners, but everyone seemed to forget that a great number of water creatures preferred to hang about in large groups.
Forget mysterious, the oceanic flow of gossip was second only to the massive currents that formed the North Atlantic Gyre.
Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the precarious way Bowen's jeans were hanging off his hips.
"Does your mouse eat human food?" he asked after shaking out his body like a large dog settling its skin.
The curious cats--all of whom were single females--made eyes at each other.
"Give him a hunk of that yellow cheese on your plate," Kaia said absently as she finished accordioning the last dumpling. "I'll be back in a moment." She headed to the knot of watchers. "Drooling over a man just out of a coma?" She glared at them. "Shoo."
"But Kaia," one whispered, "he's so . . . rough looking. That stubble, the tumbled hair."
"Yeah. Like Malachai. He can dive with me anytime."
Kaia shook off a shudder at the image--Mal was like her brother; she did not want to visualize his love life. "Fine. Keep drooling, but do not go near him." The instruction had nothing to do with her painfully uncomfortable response to him; Bowen needed to eat, not fend off amorous offers. "And especially no offering him tentacle skin privileges." She pinned the most likely offender with her gaze.
Oleanna giggled as she stole a flower from a friend's braid to tuck behind her right ear. "Not
my fault so many humans have a fetish."
Throwing up her hands, Kaia took the risk of leaving Bowen alone with the horde while she went to her quarters. It didn't take her long to find the belt Edison had forgotten the last time he'd visited. The oldest of Atalina's five younger brothers--and the cousin to whom Kaia was closest--had crashed in her room on a mattress on the floor.
He'd kept her awake half the night with hysterical stories from the city, his sense of humor so dry most people saw him as stoic and quiet. But that quiet existed, too; Edison had a deep well of silence within, an unshakable inner peace. As a heartbroken little girl, it was fifteen-year-old Edison whom Kaia had allowed to hold her, Edison whose hand she'd clutched when the clan consigned her parents' bodies to the deep with a song of mourning that pierced her childish heart.
Returning with the belt to find Bowen unmolested but all the watchers giggling and blushing, she thrust the battered black leather at him over the counter. "Put this on before you give your fan club a strip show." He'd obviously lost weight during the coma and his jeans were barely hanging on to his hips.
A slow smile that reached the darkness of his eyes and made her stomach clutch . . . and had certain people fanning themselves. Lifting her rolling pin, Kaia tapped it against her other palm. The fan club continued to watch, unrepentant and gleeful.
"Thanks." He got off the stool and, lifting up his shirt, began to slip the belt through the loops on his jeans. The action revealed the still-hard plane of his belly, though it was more concave now than she guessed was normal for him. A dark line of hair arrowed down and into his jeans. It was a view available only to Kaia . . . who didn't look away.
"Done."
Dumplings all prepped for cooking, Kaia made a production out of checking her recipe organizer. "Shortbread," she said aloud.
"Oatmeal raisin, too!" cried she-of-the-tentacles. "Please."
"If you scat right now."
A pause, but Bowen's admirers finally decided they really wanted the cookies. "Bye, Bo." The women waggled their fingers in his direction.
"Ladies." Waiting until they were alone once more, he sat back down on his stool.