Moontide

by Amanda V. Shane

  The scenes kept coming ─ him in battle, in victory, raiding lands, showing no mercy. Still others came of him at a grand table, demanding territories and gold, presiding over a court in decadent robes, uniting with a band of rulers in strength and dominion. He was helpless to stop the images now as he watched himself fighting against that same brotherhood, plotting and engaging in intrigues, jockeying for power. Throughout it all, with each new vision, the beast inside him strengthened.

  Fast and bloody, the scenes rolled through him until they stopped on her. His savior. His light. His…

  “Nooo!”

  He doubled over, head in his hands and fought the urge to vomit. Why was she there? What cruel twist of the curse had brought Cindy into the midst of his torment?

  ***

  Poseidon looked down on the shuddering form crumpled before him. His eyes dimmed and then closed while he pulled information from the ether. He sniffed at the air like a predator on the hunt then his eyes widened with realization. They settled on the object of his scrutiny.

  Something like compassion crossed the god’s visage then and a smile broke the majestic lines of his face. He threw his coppery head back and laughed, a booming sound fit to shake down the beams of the villa.

  The human curled in on himself again and Poseidon immediately muted the brilliance of his voice and appearance.

  How long had he stayed away from this place, avoiding the pain it would bring him to see it again? For millennia he’d tried to put it from his mind ─ the treachery of his brethren gods and what it had wrought on his land and people. His Atlantis. If only he’d come when he’d first heard of the one Thema held captive here.

  He would deal with the Nereid queen later.

  “Captain,” the word came out sounding rough though the god kept his voice to a single tone. He watched as the human he’d used as a messenger rose to his feet and glared directly at him. Poseidon laughed again, though not so loudly this time, then he sobered and tilted his head before he spoke.

  “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Miami

  “These latest attacks all have the same subject type,” Santiago was saying, “blonde, female, young.”

  “Young people have traditionally been their main targets but the Miserians usually aren’t this particular. I’ve only encountered a few of them but, before, it didn’t seem like they cared whose life force they took as long as it got them high, gave them a taste of what the old gods left them lacking.”

  “Well, I haven’t been doing this as long as you,” Santiago said, “but if we were dealing with humans, they’d be considered serial killers.”

  Adam nodded in agreement. It was hard having to explain to modern law enforcement about the things he’d learned over centuries of dealing with gods and demons.

  “They’re hunting someone specific,” he explained, “and I have a good idea who. It took me a while to put the pieces together after what happened last month. After tonight, I’ll know for sure.”

  “You get some special intel from the other side, you let me know okay? We need all the help we can get with this one, Chief.”

  “Careful what you wish for,” Adam muttered.

  “What’s that?” Santiago asked.

  “Hold on to your hat Detective because we have hill people coming our way.”

  “Hill people? Appalachians?”

  The detective grinned for some reason.

  “No, from the west, off the mountains, they’re a real trip and they come with a whole new list of preternatural ills just to make things even more fun.” Adam shook his head and muttered. “Like I haven’t had enough going on what with demons and cultists, now we get to deal with secret orders.”

  “More Greeks?” Santiago asked, trying to dig more information out of Adam.

  Adam’s mouth shaped into a fleeting frown before it smoothed back to its usual impassive state and he shook his head.

  “More like a sick mix of obscure Keltia and Atlantean that was muddied by a Greek goddess somewhere along the line, all rolled up in the pretense of a biker gang. Absolute nightmare. I tried to get them to stay out of our jurisdiction but they have agents everywhere.”

  “So the one that’s been stirring up so much trouble around here, she’s one of them I take it?”

  Adam closed his eyes briefly, the action meant to be taken for a nod.

  “Don’t worry Detective, I’ve halted her activities. She won’t be bothering you or your officers anymore.”

  “Mmhmm,” Santiago fiddled with some paperwork on his desk, “you said that a couple days ago and she managed to slip past you. Came in here all fired up, demanding that I write down everything she said and get more officers out on the job.”

  “Like I said, she won’t be bothering you anymore.”

  Santiago looked up at him with something like amused doubt on his face.

  “Okay, Chief, I’ll wait to hear what you find out from the uh,” he paused, “hill people.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  The Isle of Gades

  Ronan lay in his bed, holding Cindy’s sleeping body and wondering if he’d lost every ounce of self control where this woman was concerned. He hadn’t meant to come back to her, not after what Poseidon had revealed. His whole plan to keep her safe from what he was had been solidified after their “little chat.”

  “I’ve been looking for you,” Poseidon had said.

  Ronan had just stood there, confused and seething.

  “Think back Captain Garring, to your life on earth. Thema is powerful, but she is not powerful enough to change you in any lasting way. Even a god such as I cannot tamper with the nature of a human soul. A change of heart, so to speak, comes about only from free will.”

  “What are you saying,” Ronan had asked, “what of the curse, the visions that plague me? That war general, whoever he is? Those are not my memories.”

  Poseidon had only stared at him, his eerie sea-filled eyes going still.

  Ronan had felt that stillness transfer to himself, and with a push as small as a breath, all the things that worked inside him making him what he was ─ ideas, emotions, sensation ─ had come to a halt and clarity had stolen over him. And then he’d known.

  They were his. Those memories, Thema’s curse of visions, the blood fury, they were all his own. He was that violent creature that craved blood and battle. One and the same.

  “It can’t be,” he’d said looking at Poseidon.

  “You know the truth Captain and we’ve no more time for you to come to acceptance. Things are not well in this world or the other, as you well know. Your special talent, your sense of the spirit world, I thought it just a fluke of human genetics when I first learned of your ability. But, knowing who you are now, I see that I was wrong to assume.”

  The god’s lips had twitched into a smile then and he’d shaken his head before gazing upward.

  “Design,” he’d muttered to himself.

  Ronan wondered if the sea god might be on the fringes of insanity just like his brothers were purported to be.

  “What do you mean,” Ronan had asked, “what does any of it mean, other than that I am a monster?”

  “Not a monster,” Poseidon had said with a scowl, “a king, and son of a god…my son.”

  All of Ronan’s breath had rushed out of him at once and he’d stood staring in shock and horror.

  Then he had laughed loudly and for too long.

  Finally, the grim look on Poseidon’s face had pierced through the lunacy he’d started slipping into and he’d sobered.

  “I do not jest,” Poseidon had said, “you are of my line, my son. You come from a long line of my sons, Gadeiros, King of Gades of Atlantis. You were lost to me in the Great Destruction and cursed by the gods of Olympus along with nine brothers, to wander the realms unknowing of what you were until such a time as you had atoned for your sins. Then you were further cursed by those same gods with the sight.”

&
nbsp; “The sight,” Ronan had repeated and Poseidon had nodded solemnly one time in a disturbingly familiar way.

  “Before Atlantis fell, there were some who walked that land that had been gifted with the ability to see the truth of others’ souls. They saw the corruptions of their rulers. This “gift” was bestowed upon the kings of Atlantis at the time of their land’s decimation. It is the sight that lets you “see” the others no matter that they may hide or disguise themselves.”

  Poseidon had gone on, telling Ronan how the Tides were being used to leak an army of underworld beings into the world.

  He spoke of a reckoning between all powers, another great destruction and how it was necessary for all ten of the lost kings to be found because only they could seal the Tides. Then he’d thrown a small crystal from out of the fountain onto the floor.”

  “It will help you to understand,” was all he’d said, “I must go now but will return for the woman and the elixir.”

  Ronan’s head had snapped up at that.

  “What do you mean you will return for the woman?”

  “Did you think to keep her hidden away in your bed?” Poseidon scoffed.

  Ronan’s eyes shot up to the ceiling. Poseidon shook his head.

  “You wear her smell,” he said. “The elixir was mine to bargain, not yours Gadeiros,” Ronan flinched at the sound of the new name, “it must be returned.”

  “She gave up her home to save my life. Surely…”

  “You understood that there would be repercussions when you gave her the contents of that vile.”

  “What if I refuse?”

  “Refuse?”

  Poseidon had said the word like it brought a curious taste to his mouth.

  “Refuse to be one of these kings you speak of. What if I refuse to help you?”

  The god’s mouth had pulled upward in what might have been a sad smile before it turned to stone again.

  “Balance must be achieved in all things. That is all I am concerned with. There was a time when I became entangled in the workings of human wishes. It brought me nothing but pain. Do not try to interfere any further Gadeiros. When I come, you will bring her to me.”

  Like a lamb to the slaughter Ronan had thought. Like hell he would.

  “I will be sending agents with new missions very soon,” Poseidon had said. Then the god’s image had blurred before disappearing in a tight cyclone of the fountain’s water.

  Ronan rolled over onto his back, away from the warmth of Cindy’s small body. After everything that had happened, he’d had to see her to be sure she was still there, still safe. When he’d looked down on her sleeping form he’d known he should have left right then but couldn’t will himself to go. He should have stayed away. Being near her would lead Poseidon and who knew what else right to her.

  Coming back to her had been a selfish act. That was unlike him, at least it had been unlike him. He really didn’t know anything about himself anymore. King of Atlantis? Son of Poseidon? There were so many unanswered questions and the sea god hadn’t been game to stick around and explain things. He had just needed to be close to her, to feel her breathe. Ronan looked across his room to where he’d set the small black piece of crystal Poseidon had flung at him, then rolled out of the bed.

  Silently, he crossed the room and snatched up the crystal. Pausing at the doorway, he looked back at the bed. The fabric of the linens rose and fell with his woman’s breathing. The beast inside him licked at his insides, goading him, encouraging him.

  He turned and walked from the room, sure now that he had to keep away from her.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Laughter echoed through the valley. She ran, gold curls bouncing behind her as she chased her tiny friends. Glimmering beams of light flew past her, urging her on in their favorite game. Two of the miniscule fae paused in their flight to look back at her, held aloft by the rapid beating of their wings. They laughed back to her, though the sound was too small to hear but she could tell by the way their glow grew brighter.

  She reached out for them with little girl hands spread before her but, just as she was about to touch them, they sped away again. She giggled and the sound filled the space where she played. Her bare feet fell on soft grasses as she ran and fragrant wildflowers bowed to her as she passed through their field. A soft shadow had begun to fall over the place and she knew she hadn’t much more time. She quickened her pace as her friends led her into the bushes that stood at the valley’s end. There they gathered around her, lighting on her shoulders, in her hair and at her feet, making the dark space glow.

  “Aureliaura!” a man’s voice called from a distance.

  Father, her child’s mind thought. Any moment he’d come out of the forest with his silver hunting bow in hand to find her. He’d swing her up into his arms and she’d hug him around the neck as he carried her home.

  “Aureliaura,” he called again, “Where could my princess be hiding?” he spoke the words as if he didn’t already know exactly where to find her.

  She giggled into her hand and the fairies smiled, shimmering even brighter. Even if her laughter hadn’t already given her away, their happy glow would.

  ***

  Yawning and stretching at the same time, Cindy started the process of waking up. Her eyes were still closed, pleasant remnants of her dream lingering. She tried going back but it drifted away, then something tickled her nose and she opened her eyes.

  And nearly screamed. There they were! Staring back at her through tiny shining eyes were the little lightening bug fairies she’d just dreamt of. Where had they come from? She would have sworn she was still dreaming but she knew that wasn’t the case. They were real and they gave her a serious case of déjà vu that she didn’t like.

  “Wha—?” she reached out with her hand to touch one that was hovering in front of her face but it darted back before she could touch it then covered its mouth with its tiny hands and appeared to laugh – just like in the dream.

  “What are you?”

  Cindy looked around and found she was surrounded by at least a dozen of the creatures.

  “This must be one of the hazards of skip-jumping worlds,” she said and the fairies all cocked their heads at her in unison, “waking up to find the locals staring at you. Guess that makes me Gulliver.”

  She couldn’t tell whether her audience understood her or not but they all laughed again then flew off in every direction.

  “Weird,” she said as she slid out of bed, “cute but weird.”

  She supposed she should be a little more creeped out by the encounter but, with all she’d been through in the past few days, nothing fazed her now.

  Half of the morning had passed while she’d slept in, so she bathed in a hurry in Ronan’s giant bathroom then deliberated over what to wear before pulling on her own shorts and sandals. She couldn’t resist the silky Grecian scarves though and grabbed one in a pretty turquoise shade and tied it around her to fashion a top. Satisfied with her island look, she set about finding out what the new day had in store.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Ronan found Finn and James leaning against the corral as they watched the bay stallion. Both mens’ heads turned as their captain walked toward them. He nodded a greeting then looked at the horse.

  “He’s working out well James,” he said.

  “Indeed, he’s doing very well. High spirited but that’s good,” James said.

  “Speaking of spirits how is our fair visitor this day?” Finn asked, smiling beneath his beard.

  “She is well,” Ronan replied, “I gave her a tonic last night to spare her the effects of a night spent in the company of my shipmates,” with that said, he leveled a stare at both men.

  They burst out laughing.

  “I’d wager the vixen enjoyed our company,” said James.

  “Aye, too much,” Ronan agreed, chuckling, “I left her to her rest.” Then his face darkened. “What did you find last night?”

  The two shook their heads.<
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  “Nothing more,” Finn replied, “but Bas and Will are keeping an eye on the falls.”

  Ronan nodded. His head was still swimming with everything Poseidon had told him. He could no longer hold himself apart from the otherworld now that he knew what he was. Immortal. Half god, half human. The words made him feel like a traitor. He looked at Finn and James. What would they make of all this? Poseidon may have been well pleased to have found his missing son but that didn’t change Ronan’s sense of duty to his men.

  “Poseidon came to the villa last night,” he blurted out.

  They said nothing, just waited for him to continue.

  “A dark evil is being loosed on the realms and the sea god asks our help in the coming battle.”

  “What of the woman?” Finn asked. “Will she be staying on with us then?”

  Ronan dropped his head to study the dirt underneath his boots.

  “I don’t know what will happen. I fear I have put her in danger by bringing her here. Having the gods’ notice is never a good thing.”

  And definitely not a god as powerful as Poseidon but Ronan thought he’d be damned if he was just going to hand Cindy over to the sea god. Just then, the sound of voices came up over the hill and they all three turned to find Cully and Cindy heading toward them.

  Before she could catch sight of him, Ronan decided to make his excuses. He couldn’t trust himself with her. The blood fury rushed hard through his veins and his head pounded. The beast inside him was coming alive again at just the thought of her. He didn’t know his own mind anymore and needed to come up with a plan.

  “I have some…uh…things to attend to this morning…for Poseidon,” he shot a glance at Cully and Cindy, “keep an eye on her for me and don’t let her leave the villa. I must go.”