“But I didn’t put her in a challenging situation. I only put her in the bath tub. Christ, it wasn’t even salt water, Teo,” Alessa said. “Now she’s swimming alongside us.” Suddenly, Alessa looked ill. “What if she won’t become my baby again?”
“She will,” Marcy assured her. “She’ll always be your baby. If she’s anything like Javier, or my friend’s daughter, Astrid, she’ll change back when she’s ready to nap.”
Marcy’s words appeared to soothe Alessa and I was never more grateful for such good friends. When it was time for the herd to leave again, this time with Phoebe and myself, I knew my wife wouldn’t be alone.
Bored with me, or maybe more interested in my daughter, Javier abandoned my back and plopped down beside Phoebe instead. His brown limbs elongated, skin becoming raven hued scales. The young dragon shook out his feathered wings then pounced forward.
“You have to be very gentle with Phoebe, Javier. She’s only a baby,” Marcy coached him. Because dragon half-breeds aged slower than human babies, Marcy’s five-year-old didn’t appear to be more than a young toddler in his human form. He and Teo had similar smells, the scent of wild earth I associated with black dragons.
The shy dragonling touched noses with Phoebe and smelled her. Equally curious, Phoebe butted her small head against his snout.
“It’s a shame Astrid isn’t here to play with them. We’ll have to arrange a playdate,” Marcy said.
Dragons, playing with my child. A few hundred years ago, we would have been food for them. The thought prompted me to take my human shape so I could grin and laugh, pleased with the idea.
“What’s so funny, Dante?” Alessa asked.
“Time has changed so much, is all. I think a playdate is an excellent idea. Phoebe should know other special children like her.”
We played until the kids exhausted themselves. Phoebe sought out Alessa, ready to nurse, and took her human form. She fell asleep within minutes, cradled in her mother’s arms.
“Why don’t you two stay here tonight?” Teo invited.
“Yes, please,” Marcy added. She sat beneath a palm tree, Javier asleep in lap.
“I’d really like that, thanks.” Alessa smiled and looked to me for my thoughts on the matter.
“I would as well, but while you all rest I’m going to go check in with the herd. I can’t wait to tell dad about her first change. He’ll want to come see her.”
“I believe they are out on the reefs, Dante,” Teo told him. “I saw them heading out earlier today during a swim.”
True to the dragon’s word, I came across my people out past the reefs. A third of the herd had ventured out to graze in the open water, searching for crabs, urchins, and luscious sea grass. My father stood out, a shining beacon of golden scales, observing the feeding mares and youngsters.
“Dante, you’ve come.” Adon glided toward me. We rubbed our muzzles in affectionate greeting.
“Phoebe made her first change today. I thought you would like to know.”
Pleasure radiated through our mental link. “Good, good. We will go see her together after everyone is fed.”
The ocean above us suddenly thrived with food. Our world became saturated with delicious morsels of salmon and shelled clam, inducing a feeding frenzy unlike anything I’d ever witnessed.
I refused to give in to the feeder’s instinct and held back to watch. As a rule, lactating mares and foals ate first while the rest of us circled like sharks from below, prepared to ward off any predators hoping to ascend from the ocean depths. The guard had always eaten last, but now we were dispersed throughout and protection of our most helpless herdmates was everyone’s responsibility.
Wait. Why is there so much fish? Where’d it all come from?
The storm of fish continued to fill the waters from above. The shadow of the boat carried past.
“No! Wait! It’s a net!”
My warning came too late. Netting sliced through the water and took most of our meal with it. And countless mares. Our foals. The ones who escaped the trap screamed in panic and went rushing into the ocean depths.
I broke surface and watched the boat continue on its course, my mind filled with the terrified screams of hippocampi women and children. The trawl net dragged them along as helpless prisoners. I dove under again as Hyrum reached me.
“Dante, what’s happening?”
“Do you remember the boat we saw to the east years ago? The large fishing vessel?”
“Yes, I recall,” Hyrum said.
“This is a bigger version of it. It was made to capture sharks! We won’t be able to free them on our own,” I said.
“What can I do?”
“Go to the dragon’s island and tell Alessa we need help!”
~Alessa~
As much as I loved the sight of Phoebe in her other form, I preferred her pink skin and silken baby curls.
Teo, ever the sweet man, excused himself to allow us girls some time to chat amongst ourselves.
“Teo, I didn’t mean to intrude on your family picnic,” I began, only for him to smile and shake his head.
“No. It is no trouble at all. I intended to leave sometime this afternoon to make a visit to the mainland. I plan to visit a friend over a certain matter of piracy.” The corner of his mouth raised in a smirk. “And to make a bribe or several to guarantee my orders will be carried out.”
With our invitation secured for chilling in the cabana on the shore, I relaxed on a reclining lounge chair and napped until Kekoa arrived with cold drinks and light snacks. As I was raising my piña colada to my lips, my ears picked up the sound of a frantic cry. A horse’s cry, deep and terrified.
Fear twisted my belly into a nauseating knot, ruining my taste for the alcoholic beverage. I set it aside and rose from my seat in time to see the top of an equine head. Hyrum rushed across the stretch of beach and neighed once more with his head raised high.
“Hyrum! We’re over here!” I called back. I waved with my arm in the air and moved to intercept him.
We met in the middle as he shifted to his human body. A volley of Phoenician spilled from his mouth, all of them gibberish save for a single word: “Emergency.”
“What happened? Slow down,” I coaxed him in his language.
He shook his head and bent over with his hands on his knees, his face was flushed and he appeared exhausted. “Human boat... nets,” he panted out in English. “Boat take mares. Take children. Dante plead you hurry. Need help.”
“I’ll go find Teo,” Marcy said, her brown eyes huge in her face
“I don’t have time for you to locate Teo, Marcy. Hyrum says it’s urgent! If it’s poachers taking their mares, it has to be Castlebury.”
Marcy groaned. “Ugh. We should have known he wouldn’t give up.”
“I’m going with Hyrum now. Maybe I can talk reason into Castlebury or stall until help arrives. Sent Teo if you can find him quickly.”
“I’ll get on the phone and alert the authorities, too. Fishing of any kind around Teo’s islands is prohibited.”
“They could be gone by the time someone gets there.” I kissed Phoebe’s chubby cheek and breathed in her baby sweet scent. “I’ll be back, precious. I promise I’ll be back.” After passing my infant to Marcy, I hurried alongside Hyrum to the sandy bank.
“Do you really think that asshole is going to listen to you?” Marcy demanded.
I shook my head. “No. But I can’t stand by and do nothing either.”
“We can send Kekoa—”
“This is my family,” I cried back to her over my shoulder. “I’m going.”
Kekoa shook his head. “I will go with you to give whatever help I can offer.”
Hyrum took me on a blindingly fast ride beneath the surface. Underwater scenery flew past me in a blur of colors and shapes, quicker than the swim I’d taken with Dante. He didn’t slow until we reached the location where the herd encountered the fishing boat. From the surface, I shaded my eyes and searched, but there w
as no sign of the trawler.
We both sensed it at the same time. “East!” I cried, pointing with one hand as he twisted in the water. Instinct tugged at my mind and heart, telling me where to go.
It didn’t take us long to find them. Startled cries and panicked voices carried to us on the ocean wind. In the distance, I saw the ship under attack. Adon sailed through the air and landed on the deck where he swung his massive tail at one of the poachers. They looked like a well-equipped mercenary squad, all hard men with muscles and armed with harpoon guns.
He fought like a beast from hell despite his disadvantage on solid ground, crushing one man beneath his heavy bulk. As another man backed to the railing and raised his weapon, Dante heaved himself up, grasped the man by the shoulder, and dragged him to a watery death. Shouts in Spanish called for them to kill the sea monsters.
A dozen, maybe fifteen men, rushed across the deck. From the size of the ship, I estimated the crew to be at least a dozen. Adon and Dante had killed three since my arrival.
As I watched, a harpoon whistled past the gold stallion, missing by a narrow margin. He seized the attacker with his teeth and hurled the man overboard. Two other poachers bobbed in the water.
Hyrum took us beneath the surface, rushing toward the netting where his herdmates were captured. Dante was there, trying to help Lycus bite through the thick ropes. I pushed off Hyrum’s back to judge my mate’s progress with the durable netting. He’d never bite through it.
Why didn’t I think to bring a knife? There has to be a better way.
I saw the desperation in Dante’s eyes and knew I had to do more. Kicking to the surface, I circled the vessel until I found an attached ladder. The fight had ended before I heaved myself over the rail. It was a bitter stalemate without a clear winner; a damaged and hurting crew against a bleeding hippocampus backed against the rail. He couldn’t survive much more, and he knew it.
Under normal circumstances, I would have blushed to find so many eyes on me. The poachers stared at my bikini clad body.
“Ah. Alessa. I should have known you’d be tangled up in all of this.” Castlebury stepped out from an open hatchway and roved his eyes up and down my body.
One of the poachers asked him something in Spanish that sounded suspiciously like, “What should we do with the whore?”
“I’ll handle Miss Kokinos.”
“Victor, you have to let them go. You’re destroying the herd.”
“The herd that doesn’t exist?” he asked. His eyes lit up with amusement. “That bloody git had me laughed out of the conference when I arrived to show my photos. He made a fool of me, but you knew all along the photographs weren’t of a mechanical creation.”
“I was protecting them. You had no right to take those from my camera, but those pictures aren’t what’s important right now.” I pointed to Adon, fighting to free his herd. “Look at him, Victor. He’s hurt. Tell them to lower their harpoons.”
“This is my discovery and I’ll be damned if you try and sweet talk me out of it.”
“This isn’t about sweet talking you. They won’t survive! This is genocide. Those are women and children down there in your net. Babies! I assure you that if they’re taken from these waters, none of them will survive and any of the stallions you left behind are sure to die, too.”
“A small price to pay in the big picture.”
“Do you really think the scientific community will commend you for this when they find out you’ve killed every single one of them? Look at this bloodshed. Look at the human lives lost here, too.”
Castlebury scoffed at me. “Nonsense. Stop the dramatics, Alessa. This is why you’re a failure of a scientist. You get too attached. Too emotional. If there’s one herd here, there’s bound to be more in another ocean.”
“They’re magical. They’re not just some freaky new scientific discovery. This herd is their lifeline, and when separated, they become weak! They can die! They’ll never survive in captivity.”
“Magic. What a load of hogwash.”
“Damnit, Victor, they’re intelligent creatures and you can’t do this!” I glanced at the net where Dante and Hyrum failed to make progress. Terrified calls of young hippocampi and their scared mothers tore at my heart.
This cold, unfeeling bastard doesn’t care about anything but himself.
“They do appear to have some intelligence to them, but perhaps this animal merely submits to greater strength while wounded.” He gestured to the single harpoon lance protruding from Adon’s side. My father-in-law’s blue eyes were filled with pain, and blood stained his dark golden fur. Droplets of red pattered to the deck beneath him.
“Please,” I begged, but the man carried on as if I’d not spoken a word.
“I speared one of these beasts years ago, but I lost it. This time the scientific community will have to believe me. A shame I didn’t capture the young one then.”
Oh God, he means Dante, I realized. I wasn’t the only one to come to the same conclusion.
Adon knew English as well as his son. I watched as the hippocampus alpha’s nostrils flared and rage washed away all traces of pain.
“Victor—” I tried to blurt out a warning, but it came too late. The next events occurred in slow motion for me.
Adon’s muscles tensed like a spring coil before launching him into action. He seized the doctor by his good arm, and I heard a visceral, grisly tearing sound as the mighty stallion snapped his neck to the left and right. Victor was hurled to the boat deck during the chaos, then a spear punctured Adon’s chest.
“No!”
Adon didn’t stop. A paddle-shaped hoof landed on Victor’s shoulder.
Another harpoon bolt released, striking the hippocampus between his scaled hindquarters and furry forebody. He continued to fight as the deck dissolved once again into all-out war. I retreated from the chaos and hurried up the narrow steps leading to the bridge.
Desperate, I grabbed the fire extinguisher mounted by the hatchway and charged into the room. By the time the man inside realized my intentions, it was too late. I swung the red cylinder at his head and experienced a satisfied rush when he slumped to the deck.
“What do I do, what do I do?”
An array of buttons, levers, and blinking lights filled the control board. I searched until I found the emergency release lever for the nets then activated it without wasting any time. Through the viewport, I watched as the rising net released from the boom and splashed back into the ocean.
It was up to Dante, Hyrum, and Lycus now.
I came down again in time to hear an inhuman noise, a feral scream more terrifying than any sound a horse-like creature should be capable of making. I shivered.
My eyes drew toward the source in time to watch Adon rear up, his mighty ribs smeared with blood. He came down on one of his assailants and took another harpoon bolt. The proud hippocampus slumped to the cold deck.
“Stop! Can’t you see you’re killing him!”
Of course they could see, but they didn’t seem to care. Castlebury was unmoving on the deck, still and bleeding — I hoped he was dead, I hoped there was nothing left in him, because if he lived, I might kill him myself.
As I searched for a weapon, Dante and Hyrum sailed over the side. The two massive stallions struck the deck, and within seconds they had thrashed, kicked, slammed, and trampled the poaching bastards mercilessly until we received cries of surrender from two remaining crewmen. Screams from the humans floating in the water, and a frantic scramble to climb aboard, announced Kekoa’s arrival.
They hadn’t expected sea animals to put up such a huge fight, nor had they anticipated meeting a tiger shark.
I hurried to Adon’s side and knelt beside him in the blood-stained puddle. My fingers smoothed over his golden pelt while he took labored, agonized breaths.
“I’m here. I’m here, and I’m not leaving,” I whispered. Leaning over him, I set my brow to his and sobbed.
“Father!” Dante appeared beside us,
his expression broken. “Father, no. Please. You cannot leave us. Not now.”
“Dante, I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I tried.” He’d never meet his granddaughter in her hippocampus form. Never see her gracefully shooting across the waves beside her father. I was as angry as I was heartsore for my mate, unable to stop the tears flowing down my cheeks.
“He says he isn’t afraid. He looks forward to reuniting with my mother.”
In the next breath, he was gone.
Chapter 15
September
~Alessa~
“It’s over,” Marcy told me over the phone. “Teo made so many bribes the British consulate has forgotten Victor Castlebury even exists. He’ll spend the rest of his life in a Mexican prison. He won’t be alone, though. Most of the crew perished but the ones who survived were wanted in a few countries for similar crimes. They won’t be talking about what they saw either.”
“It’s more than that murderer deserves,” I grumbled. “More than any of them deserve. Adon may have been the only person lost, but the entire herd has been affected.”
“Have they come to a decision yet?” Marcy asked.
“It was a unanimous vote. They want Dante to replace his father in leading the herd.”
The months following the attack had left the herd on edge, frightened and angry. They mourned Adon’s loss, but none so much as Dante. His role in the rescue of the mares and children had cemented his place in their hearts as the new leader. No longer an outcast, he had made a flawless transition into the role of his father’s successor.
I made every day with my husband and child count, but as the passing weeks brought the changing of the seasons, I knew the herd would move on when fall arrived. They had to.
I never wanted to see Dante suffer on land again, and I’d sooner die than allow Phoebe to experience the pain he endured to be with us. A need to keep her healthy superseded my desire to have her beside me.
I joined Dante on the beach after ending my call with Marcy. The ocean-scented wind tousled my hair as I moved up to his side.
“I can’t believe it’s time to go already.”
Making Waves (Mythological Lovers) Page 14