She could not lose him like this, not because she’d been an idiot. She couldn’t. There had to be another way.
She kissed his back again, hoping he’d feel her apology, her regret in the soft press of her lips to his blackened flesh.
He had to live. Celestina had told her so from the beginning. If he died, the future was “too terrible to be borne”.
Raiden would live, and not like this, not as one of the charcoaled, faceless corpses. He would be strong. It was his destiny.
Her destiny was to love a man who would never know what she felt for him. Her destiny was to heal him. Again.
She knew the moment his heart stopped beating, she felt it as if the blade had been plunged into her own chest. The moment he died, the very second his life-force was switched to “off”, the darkness stopped moving, stopped growing. There was nothing left for it to feed on, no heat, no power, no emotion or strength of will.
Nothing.
Mari stripped her suit down to the waist in seconds and lay back down behind Raiden. She wiggled her arms around his exposed torso, hugged his waist on the inside of the dive suit and placed her cheek flat to his back. Reverently, she moved her palm to cover the mark on his shoulder, the Mark that meant he belonged to her.
If he was hers, truly hers, then she could save him.
Closing her eyes, she drew his scent into her lungs and closed her mind to everything but him, his body, his smile, his kiss. The fire in his eyes when he looked at her. The annoyed slant of his mouth when Tim talked to him. The way his lips felt pressed to her neck. The hard span of his chest beneath her cheek as she slept. His heartbeat.
The sound of his voice, that sexy, aristocratic, no-nonsense voice whispering along the walls inside her mind, whirling around inside of her soul. That voice was a piece of her, a piece she would not surrender to the darkness.
Mari?
A question. Awareness. It was enough. She locked on to him, on to the part of him that had yet to yield to death, and pulled. She pulled with every ounce of will and stubborn female strength her father had ever accused her of possessing. She pulled until she felt the flow of the darkness waken, reach toward her, and she swallowed it whole.
Mari? No!
“Yesss.” She heard her own voice and smiled. It was working. She would take this from him. She clutched the soul stone more tightly in her fist and willed the Triscani energy to travel into a new home.
The evil clung more tightly to her than ever. “Raiden, I’m sssorry. I can’t get the them into the ssstone.”
She wasn’t sure he heard her, but he shuddered in her arms and heated to her touch. Ice flowed from his soul to hers, and she welcomed it, opened herself to the flow of the dark power and rolled in the shocking cold. The pain was fleeting, like dipping a twisted ankle in an ice bath. It hurt for a bit, but the affected part quickly went numb.
Thank God. That was what she was now, numb. And happy. She felt him try to stop her, try to command the direction the energy took between them, but he wasn’t the healer, she was. And she was stronger than she’d ever dared dream.
Mari pulled the blade free of his flesh and held the image of him whole and perfect in her mind as she siphoned death from his body to her own. She nearly had it all now, Ryu and the souls he carried, and older souls that had been with Raiden for years, no longer as strong, but just as dark, just as lost. How he’d carried this burden she’d never comprehend, but if he could do it, so could she.
And the female? The insistent and cold voice of the Immortal Queen that demanded she cease? That bitch could go to hell and get the fuck out of her man.
She’d take them all away from him. Once she did, she’d force their souls into the damn stone or figure out a way to carry the burden. There was no other option. She refused to let him die.
Boom!
A shudder rocked the small craft and she actually smiled. The sharks weren’t happy.
Boom! The great white bumped the side of the ship again, trying to get to her. Now that calm acceptance had replaced her frazzled state of fear and distraction, Mari could feel the giant alpha female circling the ship. She could feel them all moving above her. She felt the ocean currents and the pulse of Earth’s core. Way cool. Nearly worth the pain for that alone. Add in Mr. Rock Star, and it was a done deal.
Mari? Frantic, Sarah’s voice filled her head.
Sarah?
You find it?
Mari looked at Raiden’s back, relieved to see his flesh returned to its normal delicious tan. Yes.
Are you throwing a shark party down there or what? Hurry up! Your friends are making us nervous.
Boom.
Sarah, I’m in trouble…
Raiden felt alarm flare in Sarah, then Tim’s voice filled his head. Raiden, what’s your status? What the hell is going on down there?
We were attacked. Three Triscani and an Immortal. The Triscani are dead and Mari has been poisoned by a Remnant.
Sarah’s shocked voice barged into the conversation. What can we do?
Terror nearly froze Raiden in place when he rolled in Mari’s arms and saw the dark swirls of Triscani power flowing just beneath the surface of her skin. “Gods be damned, Mari. What the hell were you thinking?”
He kissed her, hard and fast on the mouth, but didn’t hesitate in making a decision. We’ve got to get Mari out of here and track down Teagh, the Dark One. She’ll be dead in a week of we don’t find him.
Tim’s answer was composed, but not happy. The human didn’t lose his cool. He’d be good in a fight. Got it. Get her to the entrance of the ship. Get her to the entrance and I’ll pull you both out.
No! Don’t get in the water. My friends will eat you for lunch. Was that satisfaction he heard in Mari’s voice? Relief flooded him that she was still listening, still thinking. Still trying to save them all. Stubborn woman.
Sarah was undeterred. Not when I fry their little electrical shark brains.
“No,” Mari whispered, despair in her tone as she struggled to release him. Her cold hands slid from his body and she went limp in his arms.
Stay where you are, Tim. I will get her to the surface. Raiden opened his eyes, shocked that he could move so easily. His flesh returned to normal. Years of agony erased in a matter of minutes.
No, not erased. Transferred to her. Her eyes were closed but the tight lines around her beautiful mouth and eyes revealed her pain even more effectively than the dark swirls travelling through her body like newly birthed eels through water.
She suffered, yet his skin was whole and healthy. His head clear. The blade he’d plunged into his heart lay on the floor beside him, covered in blood, but his heart still beat.
Tim answered him. Make it quick, or I’m going to tell Sarah she can fry the sharks so I can get down there.
Raiden rolled over and pushed up on his elbows. Mari lay beside him, her cheeks sunken, and her eyes covered in a milky haze like an old dog with cataracts. Gods damn her, she wasn’t recovering. There was no tug on his Mark, no flow of energy between them. He tried to get to her telepathically, but after her final communication with Sarah, she’d locked him out of her head. Protecting him.
Saving him. Again.
There might have been a chance if he’d bonded with her. Claimed her. But he hadn’t made love to her when he’d had the chance, hadn’t made her completely his, hadn’t allowed himself to love her. Tim was right. He’d fucked her. Taken her body but kept his heart out of the equation. She needed him, needed his strength, needed his Immortal blood to keep her heart beating. And now it was too late. She is injured. I will get her out, but she’s…
He couldn’t finish the thought.
Understood. I threw down an anchor rope. Just get clear, grab the rope and we’ll pull you up. Tim’s regret and his calculating acceptance of the situation came through loud and clear. If there was an “I told you so” in there, Raiden didn’t sense it.
Too late now. He finally understood exactly what his mother’s dark gift would cost
him, what it had cost his twin, Ryu. He’d lost himself to the darkness, and it would happen again. As long as he fought the Triscani, it was inevitable. Which meant there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d risk Mari being with him when that happened. Assuming she survived the current nightmare, which didn’t look good at the moment.
Raiden took a few deep breathes and gently helped Mari back into her dive suit, straightened his and lifted her into his arms. He walked out of the room, once a sanctuary and now a reminder of horror. When he reached the point of descent, he reluctantly laid her down so he could hook the air tank with one hand and slip the BCD vest on as quickly possible. He shoved the regulator in his mouth and made sure the air was flowing. Ready now, he lifted Mari once more and stepped down onto the ladder that would take him back through the access tunnel, pulling her along behind him with soft touches, afraid to hurt her. Causing her more pain than he already had would drive him past the brink. He pulled Mari into the water and swam straight toward the exit. The collapsed tunnel appeared before him, slowing him down. He pushed his vest through first, wiggled through backward and then pulled her along after him. Her small frame slipped through the blockade quickly, the tiny light of his flashlight all he had to guide them.
Just how had she known her way around his ship? The fact that she’d headed straight to his private quarters was another enigma. He wished he could ask, but there was no one home to speak to, no worry in the milky-white gaze. For a short time, her gaze had darted over her shoulder as he lifted her. More than once, she’d curled toward his embrace, as if she still recognized his touch.
No more. Now she ignored him, her legs no longer moved at all, she didn’t give the smallest effort to propel herself forward. She bumped into the walls and floated wherever the current took her. He held on to her with one hand and grasped the seams of his ship with the other, pulling her body forward hand over hand with his fingertips.
He knew this ship like the back of his hand. He didn’t need light to find his way out. And he didn’t want her flopping around hurting herself. He tucked the light into his dive suit, pressed Mari to his chest with one arm and felt his way along the corridor with the other. Swim past three doorways on his left. Turn. Two more doors. Pass by an open workstation.
At last he reached the open portal. Light filtered through and his chest relaxed. He would get them out of here alive, back to her friends.
It was a shock to him that Mari had healed him. He’d never even heard rumors of what had just happened. The Immortals on Itara guarded their lies and their secrets with equal fervor. Perhaps one of them would know how this was possible, but they’d most likely kill him for asking.
Grateful for his strength, he pulled Mari into the entryway beside him, tucked her smaller body close and peeked out into the open water. A sea of turquoise stretched to the surface clear and bright. A boat floated above with a long anchor line attached to a heavy anchor that rested a short distance in front of him.
Boom!
Raiden turned in time to see a massive great white shark hit the side of his ship then move on. The giant female, who was easily three times his height, was big enough to bite him in half and barely notice.
All around him they swam in circles. At least twenty sharks circled them, several nearly as large as their leader, who swam straight at him now in a silent and deadly glide.
Were they here to protect her, or kill him for getting her hurt? Would Mari’s connection to them be lost with her consciousness? Was his blood attracting them? If so, he couldn’t bring her out without inciting a feeding frenzy. He hadn’t come this far to turn her into a shark snack.
He glanced up toward the boat again. Maybe they could help. He reached for Tim in his mind. I need help getting her to the surface. There are too many sharks.
Sarah, answered. They’re Mari’s friends. Trust in that. Just hurry up.
Chapter Eleven
Mari’s friends? Allies perhaps, but friends? And would their protection extend to him with her not just unconscious, but dying in his arms? The question hovered in his mind as the largest female swam straight at him. Was she watching him? He fought the urge to hide Mari behind his back when the largest female swam back around for another pass. The shark slipped by within a few inches of his hands.
When he didn’t move she went by. She turned for another pass, the large black eyes and razor-sharp grin on her face unsettling.
The woman was actually friends. With sharks.
The enormous shark swam directly to him again. This time he reached out to run his palm along the giant’s side, hungry for aide, for communication, for help of any kind.
As soon as their bodies touched the shark bombarded him, attempting to communicate with images. The first was an impression of Mari, from a shark’s point of view. To this female shark, Mari was a shimmering mass of soothing energy, a living extension of the great Earth Mother’s core.
Friends? Hardly. To this giant predator, Mari was something sacred, revered. A sacred female she would kill to protect.
Raiden held Mari to his chest and agreed with the beast wholeheartedly. The shark gently nudged her with its nose. Mari was unconscious and could not respond. The giant female was distressed by Mari’s condition and swam in a tight circle around them.
He hoped Sarah was right, and he would not be devoured by the sharks on his way to the surface. He didn’t have much choice. Raiden wrapped his arm around her waist and kicked for the anchor rope.
He reached the rope and wrapped his hand around it. Tim, pull us up! Had he been wholly human, he would’ve worried about the rapid ascent. He’d suffered far worse than a few nitrogen bubbles in his blood, or a burst lung in the past. One goal drove him…get Mari to the surface.
As for his little water-breathing female, he’d have to hope her body’s abilities in water would take care of itself.
They surfaced an arm’s length from a shiny silver ladder. Raiden headed for it, pulling Mari along this wake. A tattooed arm reached over his head to grab Mari from his arms. Reluctantly, he let her go but could not resist trailing his fingers over the dark locks of her hair. With her head out of the water, she choked and sputtered as blood-drenched water flowed down the side of her abnormally gray face. No human’s flesh should be that color.
“Mari!” She was hauled from the water and onto a low swim platform. Raiden lifted his face and took a deep breath, eager to taste fresh air and to assess the damage to her in full daylight.
No such luck. Tim had already pulled her onto the boat and out of sight. Hanging on to the water craft, Raiden struggled to lift the heavy tank and vest onto the craft. He didn’t want to drop it and leave evidence others might use to track his ship.
“Let me help.” Tim leaned over him, looking like a bald warlord from Raiden’s home world. Fierce green eyes, grim expression, and arm extended in friendship. Even from this vantage point Raiden was reminded that the Timewalker’s human mate was strong. Would he be strong enough to protect Mari if Raiden were gone?
Tim glanced up nervously, scanning the skies and scowling at what looked to be a fierce lightning storm. Thunder boomed over them and lightning crackled through the clouds. Strangely, the water around them remained calm and untouched. Raiden grasped Tim’s forearm and was hauled out of the water to sit on the platform. A couple quick yanks and Raiden was on his feet inside the safety of the boat.
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Now what the hell happened down there?”
“The damn sharks pulled her down to the ship too far ahead of me. And she didn’t wait.”
Tim grunted. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
“I’m listening, you know,” Sarah shouted from the front of the small craft.
“Yeah, we know.” Tim stepped back. “What else? What happened to her?”
Raiden put his hands on his knees, gulping air as he studied her unmoving form. The sight gave him chills and he longed to pull the stubborn woman into his arms and never
let her go again. A fool’s dream.
“Tim!” Sarah yelled a warning.
“I feel them!” Tim jumped to the driver’s seat. “Get your ass in the boat, brother. We’re about to have company. Time to get the hell out of here before my wife stirs up more storm than she can handle.”
“I heard that, too.” Sarah stood at the front of the boat with her arms and face raised to the sky. Her hair crackled around her head in a halo of power, like the gods of legend.
Tim started the engine and Raiden pulled the short length of rope and its attached anchor out of the water.
“Anchor?” Tim yelled over his shoulder.
Raiden moved to the main area and knelt beside Mari where she lay on the bench seat. “Got it.”
Tim shoved the throttle forward and Raiden settled on the floor. He pulled Mari into his lap, concern eating at him. She was breathing, but that was all. She remained unconscious, and cold, and gray as fresh concrete.
Tim nodded and yelled at his wife, “Hold on to something, Sarah!” The engine roared and they took off, the boat jumping waves as they raced over open water. A giant helicopter approached in the distance, attempting to follow them.
“Sarah?”
“Got it.” Lightning hit the rear of the craft and it lurched to the side before righting itself.
“Try not to kill the good guys, sunshine.”
“Trust me.” Sarah smiled. “I just fried their radar and communication system.”
“That’s my girl.” Tim chuckled and Raiden fought to make sense of what was going on around him. He’d suspected these humans were more, but just how powerful were the Timewalkers and their mates? No wonder the Immortal Queen wanted them all to herself. They were powerful enough to be a threat, even to the Itarans.
Tim yelled over the wind, “Here comes another one.”
The hair on Raiden’s arms rose as the electrical charge built all around them, but nothing happened. Soon, a second military helicopter was close enough that Raiden could hear the rotating blades beating the air above them.
“Now would be a good time,” Tim yelled.
Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) Page 21