Master of the Deep

by Cleo Peitsche

  He thought of the propeller scars on the right side of his body. If he hadn’t shifted human, he never would have gotten them. If he’d been human the whole time, he would have eventually made a full recovery. It just would have taken much longer.

  And that was a perfect example of details Monroe didn’t need to know.

  Thank goodness she hadn’t asked why he kept pushing her away during oral. She probably assumed it was because of the spurs. That did have something to do with it, but it wasn’t the main reason.

  If he told her that swallowing his come would do things to her body, that would be the end of them. He was sure of it. She was barely dealing with the differences between them as it was. If she learned that he had the power to cause changes in her body as well…

  Ditto for the sick in the water. From now on, he was going to focus on the things they had in common. And if she couldn’t deal with him by the time she left, he’d have to cut her loose for her own sanity.

  Christ. No wonder human and shifter relationships were frowned upon. He liked humans, but he sometimes found the differences between man and shifter jarring. That obsession with wealth, for example, and their inability to think long term. And he’d grown up in their world. All this must be a hundred times worse for her.

  He turned to look at her, intending to apologize, and he was surprised to find she was already looking at him. She smiled, and it was like before, like everything between them was fine again.

  He returned her smile. “I’m sorry about all of this,” he said.

  She shook her head as if trying to dissuade an obnoxious gnat, and he was almost amused at how unaware she’d been of her own discomfort earlier. Monroe was a lot of things, but he didn’t get the impression that she was closely in touch with her feelings. He wondered if there was a reason for that.

  “Don’t apologize.” She laughed shakily. “I’m sorry. I’m not the most spontaneous, flexible person in the world. Anyway, I have more questions. For later.”

  Heaven help him.

  She leaned forward and pointed, and he could sense her curiosity in her elevated heartbeat and the dilation of her pupils. “What are those birds that look like parrots?” she asked.

  “They’re parrots,” Beth said, sounding equal parts surprised and amused. “I guess you’re not from around here.” Beth’s dark eyes flickered to the rear-view mirror.

  “No,” Monroe said. “Where I come from, we only have pigeons. And not normal pigeons. They’ve got tattoos, and they curse a lot.” She stared at the parrot until it was out of view.

  Beth took another, longer look at Monroe, and Koenraad had a feeling that his relationship with Monroe would be spread far and wide before they got back to Tureygua.

  The lab was located thirty minutes from where they’d left the boat. Monroe stared raptly out the window, asking questions about the trees, the construction of the homes. She knew enough Spanish to translate many of the road signs they passed.

  Her enthusiasm wasn’t exactly contagious. This wasn’t a pretty area, but he did enjoy seeing her so excited. He thought about what she’d said earlier, about everything being new, but he imagined the novelty would wear off pretty quickly.

  Chapter 7

  “Wow,” Monroe said as she followed Koenraad through BioAmbition’s glass doors.

  Koenraad assumed she was exaggerating, being polite. “Not what you were expecting?” he asked.

  “This place is posh!”

  And she seemed to mean it. He glanced around the lobby. It was crisp, clean lines, black tile, bright leafy plants. Not that impressive, and certainly not posh. Or had he lost all perspective?

  No, Monroe liked it because she knew he owned it. He wanted to kiss her for that.

  The receptionist, a youngish woman Koenraad didn’t recognize, smiled encouragingly at them. “May I help you?”

  “Koenraad!” a deep voice boomed before Koenraad could answer. He wasn’t surprised. He turned to see Spencer coming toward him. Spencer wore a spotless white lab coat, complete with a badge clipped to the breast pocket, and black shoes that squeaked on the floor with every step. His brown hair was lightly gelled away from his face, and his dark blue eyes sparkled. “So you see that it hasn’t burned to the ground yet,” he said, but already his gaze had flickered to Monroe, and Koenraad knew exactly what he was thinking.

  Spencer was a shark, after all, with the same hyper-acute senses as Koenraad. But even if Spencer couldn’t have smelled that Koenraad wore Monroe’s scent on his skin, he would have known. They’d been too close for too long.

  He made the necessary introductions, then said, “Thanks for coming in on such short notice, but you’re the only one I trust. I owe you.”

  Spencer shrugged. “It’s a favor that will help us all. Shall we get started?”

  “I think I’ll treat myself to an ice cream in that mini shopping center next door,” Monroe said.

  “One second.” Koenraad handed off the box to Spencer, and he dug in his pockets.

  “What are you doing?” Monroe asked.

  “You’ll need money.”

  Her brow creased, and a pink blush spread over her cheeks. “I have money,” she said, her voice low. He’d embarrassed her.

  He found the crumpled bills he’d been looking for. “There’s no money exchange nearby,” he said, and understanding dawned in her eyes.

  So she was sensitive about taking money from him. Interesting. After he’d begged her to stay another week in the Caribbean, she’d given him a bit of a hard time about rebooking her ticket home, but he’d told her, truthfully, that it didn’t cost him anything. He might have let her believe he’d used miles, but in fact he’d charged it to one of his father’s accounts.

  He’d have to be careful in the future.

  She accepted the money and thanked him, and he watched her walk back out through the glass doors. Her white dress was stunning, and he could just barely see the print of that sinful bikini underneath.

  “Shall we?” Spencer asked.

  Three weeks had passed since Koenraad last visited the lab, and that coincided with when he’d been able to get Spencer to come on part time to oversee things. It hadn’t been easy to lure his friend away from his career as a high-profile biotech genius, and Koenraad had written a lot of checks to Spencer’s favorite charities. In the end, he knew Spencer had agreed only because he knew Koenraad would never stop asking.

  Once Spencer learned the real reason for Koenraad’s persistence, he’d agreed to stay on as long as it took.

  “Do you think you’ll be able to figure anything out?” he asked as Spencer swiped an identification card on a lanyard, unlocking a sturdy door.

  “Let’s hope so. I talked to Darius about an hour ago, and he says the situation with the contaminant is still stable.”

  “You didn’t mention me, I hope.”

  “Of course not. But he surely knew I flew down from Boston this morning. It would be strange if I didn’t contact him at all. Why are you so paranoid about him?”

  Koenraad shook his head. “Just a feeling. He’s got his own agenda, and it wouldn’t be unlike him to hide information if he thinks it will help his cause du jour. What do you think is going on with the water?”

  “Give me a chance to look at it first. I’m a scientist, not a magician, and pollutants aren’t my specialty.”

  “You think it’s a pollutant?”

  “Darius seems to. Realistically, what else could it be?” Spencer placed the box of samples at the end of a lab bench. The lab was empty; most employees had been given the day off because of a safety inspection. Of course there was no such inspection. Even though each employee had been thoroughly vetted during the hiring process, Koenraad had asked that the workers in the lab be reduced to a minimum for this visit.

  Spencer had understood immediately and had promised to handle it.

  “Since you’re here, perhaps you could donate another blood sample,” Spencer said.

  “What ha
ppened to the one I gave you the last time?”

  “We just want to double-check some things,” Spencer said. “Have you gotten saliva samples from your parents and Victoria?”

  Koenraad shook his head, and Spencer sighed. “You want this to progress as quickly as possible—”

  “I’m not asking for full DNA testing of everyone related to Brady,” Koenraad said. “It’s a well-known disease. I don’t care about identifying the faulty gene. I just want a cure. After he’s fixed, then you can save everyone else.”

  “There’s enough resources to do both.”

  “Then put twice the effort into curing Brady.”

  Spencer opened the box, and Koenraad was again grateful that his friend knew him so well. Koenraad wanted to get every bit of material that BioAmbition needed, but he couldn’t risk bringing attention to the project.

  Money could buy a lot of things, but when the people you were hiding things from were also rich and powerful, money wasn’t enough.

  “Start with that one,” Koenraad said, indicating the samples from the beach where they’d found Wardell’s cowboy boot. Victoria had nearly fainted there when she’d gone into the surf, and the sick had been strong. If any of the samples would yield something, he’d put his money on that one.

  “I don’t have everything we need for the analysis.” Spencer grabbed a tall stool and sat. “Tomorrow I’ll have to take some of this to a friend who manages a chemistry lab in Colombia. Is that ok?”

  Koenraad nodded. It would have to be. He pulled up a tall stool of his own and lowered his weight onto it.

  “Tell me about your new girlfriend,” Spencer said as he put several drops of the water into small tubes. “It’s new?”

  “Yes. Though the way things are going, it might be over already.”

  Curious blue eyes swung briefly his way. “Why’s that?”

  “Shifters. Humans. Messiness.”

  Spencer swiveled to fully face Koenraad. “You told her?”

  “It came up. It wasn’t something I planned.” Unease unfurled inside him as he remembered that afternoon two days earlier. There had been a small window of opportunity… He could have convinced her that she’d passed out, dreamed the whole thing. But he’d wanted her to know.

  Because he was lonely. Because she was the first new person in his life in an eternity. And because she didn’t know a damned thing about what had happened with Brady. He was tired of the sympathetic looks from humans, who didn’t know the reason for the boy’s disappearance, and he wagered that a good portion of shifters didn’t care. Many had lost relatives the way he’d lost Brady.

  Judging by how other shifters acted, numbness, it seemed, was the best coping strategy.

  Now he had to wonder if he’d subconsciously orchestrated his forced revelation by bringing Monroe to the crater. He’d known it was risky to take her underwater, but he’d done it anyway. And even after he’d had to give her air, he could have returned to the surface, but instead he’d pulled her deeper into his world.

  “She seemed to handle the shark thing pretty well, but it’s the… non-human attributes that are getting to her.”

  A smile played at the edges of Spencer’s lips. “I find that females rather enjoy those attributes.”

  In no mood for levity, Koenraad aimed a lethal glare at his friend. “Dolphin shifters aren’t like humans, and you know it.” He paused as he suddenly remembered that Spencer had dated Hera, one of the dolphins Darius had sent to investigate Wardell’s disappearance and who was now in an inexplicable coma.

  Spencer must have remembered, too, because his smile faded, then disappeared completely. “I was the first shark Hera had been with. Actually, many of my exes had never been with a shark before.”

  “But they knew.”

  “Eh… not always. You remember Gillie?”

  “I didn’t really know her, but everyone knew about you two.” Koenraad and Spencer hadn’t become close until their final year of school, but it was common knowledge that Spencer had pulled off a coup by dating Gillie, one of the dolphin shifters. She was an adorable and playful slip of a girl, and even though Koenraad had always preferred full-figured women, he’d definitely seen the appeal. Gillie and Spencer had been like royalty until they broke up.

  “Let’s just say that our first time was memorable, and not in a good way. I scared her half to death. Hell, I scared myself. The sex-ed materials for non-mammalian shifters are woefully inadequate.”

  “Hm.” It was all Koenraad could come up with. He found the banter pleasantly distracting, but he didn’t have much to add. He wasn’t feeling light and nostalgic at the moment.

  “You’re unimpressed, but I do have a point. If bumbling teenage virgins can work it out, I’m sure two intelligent, sexually experienced adults will get through it.”

  “When you’re younger, you don’t have set ideas of how things work. What were you? Fifteen?”

  “Sixteen. We waited a long time.”

  Koenraad shrugged. “Sixteen, then. If you don’t know how things should go, if everything is new, then nothing is weird. That’s one of the theories behind fetishes, you know. That whatever’s in the air when you have your first sexual experiences, that’s what you fixate on.”

  Spencer was smiling again, and Koenraad didn’t hide his frustration when he shook his head. “You lost me. I give up,” Koenraad said.

  “Actually, you just proved my point. You’re overcomplicating this. If you act normal, she’ll accept it as normal much faster.”

  “Exactly how did I prove your point?”

  Spencer ignored the question. “If you act like you’ve got monsters in your pants, of course she’s going to be unnerved. She has no frame of reference.”

  “That’s almost exactly what I said,” Koenraad murmured. Of course, he’d been thinking about explaining Brady, then.

  A beeping noise sounded, and Spencer transferred his little tubes to a tray. He smeared three drops of water, now dyed red, onto a glass slide.

  “What are you doing, exactly?”

  “I suspect we’re dealing with either a bacteria or a virus. If it’s bacteria, I hope to see what an overnight culture yields, though it’s a bit of a shot in the dark. It’s anybody’s guess what kind of medium it needs, and ocean water will naturally have quite a bit of other things in it.”

  “And if it’s a virus?”

  “Then you’d better find religion.” Spencer grinned. “I’m going to test some of it on a willing subject.”

  “Spencer—”

  “Relax. I’m not going to drink it or bathe in it. This stuff only causes reactions in shifters, right? So we need to see what it does to shifter cells.”

  Koenraad gave his friend a dubious look. “You’re the science genius here, but…”

  “I’m just doing some preliminary stuff for now. Maybe we’ll get lucky. The heavy-duty work won’t happen until tomorrow.” Spencer made a sound like he was trying to clear his throat, and Koenraad crossed his arms.

  He knew what that sound meant. A lecture was coming his way. What put him on the defensive was that Spencer was invariably correct.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It’s good to see you happy again.”

  “And?”

  Spencer shook his head. “What makes you think there’s an and? You’ve been unhappy for so long. Things are obviously better since you started the company. That brought you hope. But hope and happiness aren’t interchangeable.”

  It was slick the way Spencer slowly wove in what he wanted to say. Koenraad held his tongue. He knew from long experience that if he just waited, it would all be over soon.

  “You probably think it’s the woman, but I don’t think so,” Spencer said.

  There it was… though Koenraad had no idea where Spencer was going with this line of thought. “What do you mean?”

  “You have to walk before you can run.”

  “Any other clichés?”

  “Clichés exist
for a reason. I’m thrilled to have you back among the living, but I think it’d be a mistake to give the credit to this woman. This is time’s balm, doing what it does best. You make it about her, when… I mean, if things go bad, it could set you back months. Baby steps.”

  “We’re hardly about to elope. She’s a tourist, here for a week,” Koenraad said. “And I don’t agree that I’m so changed.”

  Spencer shrugged, but Koenraad wasn’t fooled. Spencer never gave up; he merely changed tactics. “I’m worried because it sounds like you might have come on too strong.”

  “Five seconds ago you were telling me to just reveal myself.”

  “Only because you’ve already started. She knows part of the story but not all of it. At this point, dragging things out isn’t wise. But if you had come in here today, happy like this, and if you’d asked if I thought you should tell her, I’d have done everything in my power to talk you out of it. It’s too fast.”

  “But it’s done. She knows.”

  “No one appreciates unsolicited advice, but we’re friends, and it’s my job to tell you when I think you’re heading for a disaster. If you can’t find a way to fix this, it’s not your fault. It was just too soon. Don’t let it tear you apart.”

  “I’m not a child,” Koenraad said. “I’m not going to lose my mind over a woman I’ve only known for a few days.” But he couldn’t muster up any significant amount of indignation; Spencer had a point. “So we’re clear, I had to reveal myself to save her life. It wasn’t like I downed a case of vodka and then decided it would be fun.”

  Spencer held his gaze steadily. “You sure about that?”

  “You weren’t there.”

  Spencer shrugged again. For a man who backed down from confrontation, he sure managed to do a lot of damage nonetheless.

  “You mind if I take a look through the microscope?” Koenraad asked. “Because it’s not like you’re doing it.”