“You jump, I jump,” he countered.
“I think you may be insane,” Toni said softly.
“I can’t help it,” Dylan told her, “I’m involved now.”
Toni busted up into a fit of laughter as they role played from the movie as if their minds were completely in sync. “Okay, seriously now, how are you doing this?”
“The water is a part of me,” he answered. He lifted his hand and the water rose up from the ocean, lifting Toni and himself higher. “I listen to it, and it listens to me." The water under her feet became a small wave, raising her higher and moving forward. “We are one, the water and I,” Dylan continued. “As long as I live, I can control it. The water also helps me stay strong.” The wave moved faster, blowing Toni’s hair free of her bun.
She raised her face to the stars and closed her eyes, feeling the salty wind on her cheeks. The feeling was very similar to flying, only her feet felt properly grounded. But she wasn’t grounded. She was standing on water! Laughter peeled from her lungs and Dylan moved them faster. “This is incredible!” she cried out into the night air.
Dylan slowed the water and Toni could see a small island in the distance. “What is that?” she asked.
“It doesn’t have a name,” he told her. “No one has discovered it yet.”
“But you know where it is,” Toni corrected him. “So it has been discovered.”
“I couldn’t possibly name every place I have ever been,” Dylan said sarcastically.
“Can we go there?” she asked hopefully.
“Anything you want,” he told her.
They began to move forward when movement caught Toni’s attention. “What was that?”
Dylan looked in the direction Toni indicated. “Oh, that,” he said. “Probably Zira.”
“And who is Zira?” she asked. She pretended that she didn’t just feel a stab of jealousy.
“Want to meet her?” he asked. He was wearing that smile again. The one that made him look boyish and damn sexy at the same time. The one that made Toni’s heart forget how to beat.
“Sure,” she answered him tentatively.
Dylan made a weird clicking noise in the back of his throat and the movement came closer. The closer it got, the bigger Toni realized it was. When it was nearly on top of them, a spray of water erupted from the sea, splashing them both. And then, it broke the surface.
“A whale?” Toni exclaimed, unable to hide her excitement.
“Zira is a humpback whale,” Dylan said. “Good evening ma’am,” he said to the whale.
The beast let out a low, whining noise and sprayed water again.
“This is Toni. She’s a dragon,” he continued. “She’s my friend.”
The whale made a series of noises and Dylan smiled.
“Can I touch her?” Toni asked.
“Sure,” Dylan said, leaning down to rub the animal’s head. “She likes to be rubbed just behind her eye.”
Toni leaned down the same way he had and reached for the huge whale. She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t the warm, soft skin that she felt. She rubbed lightly, careful not to hurt the whale. “Hello Zira,” she said and the whale responded in kind.
“Okay, we gotta get moving now,” Dylan said. “Keep this under your hat, Zira.”
The whale huffed and sprayed water before dropping back down below the surface of the water. No more than ten feet away, she leapt from the water and splashed back down, causing Dylan’s water perch to wobble and forcing Toni to hold on to him for support.
“Show off,” he called after the whale. “She’s really sweet. You’ll like her.”
“You say that like I’ll be seeing more of her,” Toni said as they began to move toward the island again.
“I hope you will,” Dylan told her honestly.
When they were close enough, Dylan stopped the water and the pair splashed their way to the sandy shore. “I love the feel of sand on my feet,” Toni said. “There is no need to ever get a pedicure if you can walk in the sand and keep a steady hand.”
Dylan couldn’t help but smile at her. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, but Toni was smart and funny. She was brave and strong. Everything he ever wanted in a woman, and everything he couldn’t have. The reality was, he was stealing time with her. If his father found out that he was entertaining her and not erasing her memory, Dylan was going to be in deep shit. He decided he didn’t care. A few stolen moments with her was worth a lifetime of torture. And Poseidon was no stranger to torture. When Dylan had been little more than a child, his father had punished him by locking him in a cage under the water for fifty years. That was the last time Dylan ever touched something that belonged to Poseidon.
“This place is beautiful,” Toni breathed in awe. “Untouched. Like it is supposed to be.”
Dylan took her hand in his own. “You want something to eat?” he asked her.
“Dinner too?” she grinned. “I could eat.”
Dylan cawed and soon a small monkey came running. “Hey little guy, you think you could round us up some food?” The monkey grunted at him happily and took off.
“You can talk to land animals too?” Toni asked, her eyes wide.
“I can talk to all living things,” Dylan answered nonchalant. “It comes with the package.”
“I’m still not sure what package that is,” Toni reminded him as she sat on a washed up log. “When are you going to tell me what you are? Sea urchin?”
“No,” he answered.
“I know what you are,” she said in a low voice, lowering her head.
“And what is that?” Dylan said, coming to stand behind her.
Toni closed her eyes and grinned. “You’re a Sea Nymph.”
Dylan laughed. “No. I am none of those things.”
“Well what?” she demanded, throwing a hand in the air. “I give up. You show up at my family’s party, seduce me, and then disappear into a fountain. Then you show up at a club, looking like–" She stopped herself from what she was about to say. “Like you do, and then all of this. And yet, you offer no explanation. I would like to know who I am dealing with here.”
Dylan sat beside her and crushed the sand under his toes deliberately before answering her. “As far as humans are concerned, I don’t exist.”
Toni snorted.
“I am what the books call a demigod,” Dylan explained.
Toni rolled her eyes. “So, what? You’re like… Poseidon?”
He could tell that she didn’t really believe in the ancient gods, but still he continued. “No. Poseidon is a god. God of the Sea, to be exact. I am a demigod. A mixture of an ancient god and some other creature. Like a mermaid.”
“You’re serious,” Toni said, realizing that it was the truth.
“Poseidon is my father,” Dylan blurted out.
Toni leaned back on her hands and stretched her feet out in front of her. She chewed her bottom lip as she thought over the information. “I thought those gods were just myths,” she finally said. “I mean, Azerial is an Earth Goddess, and I know there are more like her. Her son is a demigod. But the big ones, the ones that lived on Mount Olympus, I didn’t think those were real.”
“That’s how most feel about it and it is not an accident,” he told her. “The Gods of Olympus are very ancient. As old as time. They have kept their existence a secret for the most part. Stories have been told over time and embellished by humans. Some of them are so far off by now that there isn’t even a sliver of truth to them.”
“Like which ones?” Toni asked, her rapt attention trained on Dylan’s every word.
“Like Hercules. Also technically a demigod. Yes, he is very strong, but he did not go to the underworld and come back. No one comes back.”
“So, why the secret now days?” she asked. “We all live out in the open. Humans can handle it.”
Dylan shook his head. “No, they can’t. So long as they have religion, the Gods of Olympus can never be known. It would cause religiou
s war and rioting. No matter what religion you subscribe to, there is always one highest power. One deity that stands above all others. This is true, but that’s not how the Olympians saw it. Humans are better off not knowing.” He tapped his jaw in thought for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to tell her more. “Besides, the Olympians can never come to Earth. Not exactly. My father is the only one physically on the planet, but he can’t leave the sea.”
“But I thought that they came here to dabble with humans," Toni said. "How in the world were you born if he couldn’t come out of the water?”
Dylan brushed his hands off on his pants and sighed. “A long time ago, the Olympians thought themselves to be indestructible. They thought they were better than God. God had other ideas, though. He created all, even the gods and goddesses that you are aware of now. When Olympus fell, it was by God’s hand. To punish them, He forced them to live in their respective realms for the rest of eternity so that they could never interfere with humans again.”
“Again,” Toni repeated herself. “How the hell did you come about then?”
“My father has his ways. Wayward sailors and wenches, drowning victims, virtually anyone who goes out on the water is accessible to my dad.” He took Toni’s hand. “My mother was a mermaid. And before you ask, no I do not grow fins. Not exactly.”
“And I thought my family was eclectic.” Toni pushed a stray hair out of her face. She eyed the necklace Dylan was wearing. It was a blue pendant of sorts, on a thick silver chain. It almost looked like it held some kind of glowing blue liquid. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at it.
Dylan followed her direction to his chest. “That is a piece of sea magic. It is the only thing I have from my mother. But I really don’t want to talk about that. Let’s talk about you.” Dylan didn’t know anything about Toni, or her family for that matter. He knew who Angel was and he knew who the King of Vampires was, but that was just about it. “Will you tell me about them? Your family, I mean?” he asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Well, they aren’t gods. Well, Azerial is, but she’s the only one.” She heaved a sigh and continued. “My family is huge. At first, it was just the guys. Angel, Sebastian, Antonio, Gage, Jacque, and my dad, Rebel. Angel is the California Clan Leader, but back then they were all more interested in music. Rock stars, to be exact.”
“Vampire rock stars, huh?” Dylan laughed lightly. “Bet they had no trouble with the ladies.”
Toni grinned at him. “Yeah probably not. That was before my time. Anyhow, Angel met Brea, a human, and claimed her as his mate. After that, the rest of them followed. Sebastian met Jessica, my dad met my mom, Leigh, and Antonio met Macy, but they’re both dead now.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dylan told her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she told him. “They pop in every now and again to say hi. Jacque is married to Frankie. She’s a witch. And now, there is Sam. He was a human that worked with my uncle for a while, but he turned and his mate is Azerial, the Earth Goddess. And of course, Uncle Gage is the King of Vampires by blood right. He doesn’t really like it, though. His wife, Serena, makes him do all the pomp and circumstance. Angel still runs Cali though.”
Dylan watched as Toni talked about her family. It was clear that she loved each and every one of them. It was while he watched her speak that Dylan found a new emotion. Envy. He wished he had a family like that. “I think your family must be pretty wonderful,” he told her.
“They are,” she said with a nod. She looked up to the night sky with a far off look in her eyes. Dylan wondered what she was thinking, but he didn’t ask. He was content to just be near her and soak in her beauty. “This is all so wonderful,” Toni said more to herself than to Dylan. “I always loved mythology. How fitting is it that my mate is one of them?”
Dylan had been watching her, admiring the way she worried her bottom lip when she was lost in thought, but her words brought him up short. Did she say her mate? Her mate? Oh damn, this did make things a lot more complicated.
9
“I’m telling you, something stinks here,” Rebel insisted to his wife as he paced the family room at the Knight Estate.
Leigh, a dragon herself, did her best not to laugh. “Honey,” she said, “Have you seen our daughter when she is pissed off? Even I won’t fuck with her.”
Rebel took his Stetson off his head, rubbed his hair back and forth, and then put the hat back on. “She is our daughter,” he needlessly reminded her. “It’s our job to protect her. I know Jade is in on whatever this guy is, but she isn’t talking. I don’t like my child going off to meet some damn stranger with weird ass abilities.”
Leigh stood up and held out her hand in a stop motion. “OK, first of all, Jade would never put Toni in harm’s way. Second of all, Toni is an adult. She is competent, powerful, and smart. This guy, whoever he is, must be something special to her. Do I need to remind you about what happened when Angel interfered with Jade’s mate?”
Rebel sank into the chair and scrubbed his hand over his face. That was a disaster. Angel, the Clan Leader, didn’t like his daughter dating. Normal right? Well the boy, Michael, just so happened to be her mate and she had claimed him without realizing it. Jade nearly died. No, he didn’t want that for his daughter. “But Toni is a dragon!” he protested.
“And dragons physically need their mates too,” Leigh reminded him. She came over and parked herself on his lap. She pushed her long black hair over her shoulder and put her hand on his face, forcing him to look at her. “Everything will work out the way it is supposed to,” she assured him.
“Why do you put up with me?” Rebel asked her with love in his eyes.
“Because you’re good in the sack, Cowboy,” Leigh told him with a grin.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Gage whined as he entered the room. “You have a room.”
“Fuck off, King Smurf,” Leigh retorted. She even waved. With one finger.
“When are you ever gonna let that shit go,” Gage said with a roll of his eyes. Just because one time, Antonio replaced his body wash with blue dye, and he was blue from head to toe for about a week, didn’t mean they had the right to tease him for the rest of eternity. He was the fucking king of vampires! “You should show a little respect for your King,” he added as an afterthought.
“You’re not my king,” Leigh pointed out.
“Semantics,” Gage shot back.
“Rebel is concerned for Toni. He thinks she’s hooking up with the wrong kind of man,” Leigh said, deliberately changing the subject.
Gage lowered his long body into an adjacent chair. “Well, if that’s the case, the man is probably her mate,” he said with complete seriousness.
“It’s the man from the party,” Rebel added.
Gage’s brow shot up. “The one we can’t seem to find?”
Rebel nodded.
Gage pondered that fact for a moment. Mystery man that may well be Toni's mate? He was well and properly intrigued at a minimum, the fact that they didn't know anything about the man and that he evaded the entire security team caused a protective streak to rear up in his chest. “Well, I don’t have children, but it seems to me like we should know something about a potential man in her life. I mean, she’s my niece and all. I only want the best for her.”
“Oh, good gravy,” Leigh sighed with exasperation. “Why can’t you men just let it go?”
“Because he got in and out of our party without an invitation and without being invited. That makes him a possible threat,” Gage told her. “I’m not one to judge anyone’s love life, but the safety of our family must come first.”
“Fine,” Leigh said, standing from her husband’s lap. “I’ll talk to her when she gets home.”
“That’s all I’m asking,” Rebel said to her retreating back.
“I smell trouble,” Gage said after Leigh was gone.
“Me too, Brother, me too,” Rebel replied.
“Does Angel know about any of
this?” Gage asked.
Rebel shook his head. “I’m sure he knows more than we have told him, but he isn’t acting like it. All he knows is that someone crashed the party and Toni helped him escape. No one knows who he is. For a while there, I didn’t think Toni even really knew. I heard bits of conversation and from what I gathered, Toni hadn’t even seen his face.”
“You mean you eavesdropped,” Gage corrected him.
“Whatever.” Rebel shifted his weight in the chair and crossed one leg over the other one. “What does that say about how I’ve raised my daughter? That she would just jump in bed with someone that she has no name for and no face?”
Gage thought about that for a moment. “Now, before you go jumping to conclusions, we all know you raised her right. It doesn’t seem like something Toni would do, which is why I am even more convinced that this man may be her mate. You know as well as any of us what the mating can do to a person.”
“But she’s not a vampire,” Rebel pointed out.
“Not outwardly, no,” Gage agreed. “But she is a part of you, and you are. She may not have physical vampire traits, but make no mistake, Toni is half vampire and she will act as such. Especially if her mate is nearby or worse, in danger.”
Rebel sighed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. In his world, it was. Toni and Leigh were his everything and he would do anything to protect them. He didn’t like the thought of his young having a mate, but it was more because that meant that he had to face the fact that she had grown up. “What am I going to do?” he asked his brother and friend.
“Angel and Brea survived it with Jade,” Gage said. He got out of his chair and walked over to Rebel. He clapped the man on the back and said, “I’m sure you’ll know what your part is when the time comes. Until then, try not to be a cave man.”
***
Dylan didn’t hear anything else Toni said after the word mate left her lovely lips. Was that the reason for the instant, all-consuming attraction he felt for her? Did gods even have mates? Did it matter? It was out there and there was no putting it back. He didn’t have a clue how to be a mate. He didn’t think Poseidon would allow it. What was he supposed to do? Panic began to build in his chest. Was the air getting thinner? What would his father do if he found out? The thought of anyone causing harm to Toni was unacceptable.
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