His eyes skittered back and forth, like he was trying to figure out how much to say or how to react. “Okay. Thank you. So I’ll get the kids, too. But I don’t want you on that boat.”
The urge to argue hit hard, but Sidon had a desperate look to him. “Fine, but I’m staying close.”
He peered at the boat, then back to the mermaid. “All right, but say below. If these kids are in as bad shape as it sounds, I may need your help getting them back to the Key anyway.” She caught the thread of reluctance and frustration in his voice. He probably thought asking a mere for help was beneath him. Isa simmered in anger but didn’t argue.
“All right.” Her voice came out chilly, but still he grabbed her behind the neck and kissed her hard before diving back into the azure depths.
The lizard tail beat ahead of her and she slowed her pace, conserving her strength until her body came up to the side of the hull. She circled for what felt like hours, cursing not having worn a watch. Her nerves were jangling, not only for the dragon, but also for the little ones. She hadn’t seen the last batch of fry the bastards had caught, hadn’t really imagined what might be happening aboard the ship. Fury bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. These were her people.
Her ponderings were interrupted by a growl rumbling low through the water. She looked up to see three sets of tiny legs and a large scaled tail treading water. She noted torpedoes jutting from the side of the hull as her body drifted up from the dark, sandy depths. Her head broke the surface and she found Sidon surrounded by the exhausted-looking children.
“Isa, they can’t shift. I don’t know what those bastards did to them!” He reached for the little one as her head slipped below a wave.
Isa grabbed the tiny child around the waist, pulling her close.
“Girls,” she shouted over the swooshing sound of waves. “Can you still hold your breath?”
Each terrified face nodded in the affirmative.
The dragon’s voice rose. “Good. I want you each to take one of our hands. Isa and I will take you below and pull you. Try and kick with your human legs, point your toes and keep your knees straight, kick from the hips, like you do with your tails.”
The smallest one started to cry into the mermaid’s shoulder. “Why is my tail gone?”
Isa laid a hand across her chubby face. “You’ll get it back.” She said firmly. “You’re just really tired now. Let’s get you home.”
The little girl nodded, and Isa hugged her close. “Now take a deep breath!” she said. Then she dragged her down.
Chapter 8
Released
Isa kicked with all her might, her fury propelling her through the choppy waves. If these kids didn’t get their tails back, Sidon wouldn’t have to sink the ship. She would do it herself.
They surfaced periodically to breathe during the journey. Sidon pulled two of the girls, the older of whom had learned how to kick with human legs. The smallest never stopped clinging to Isa, and the adult mermaid kept swiping the tiny child’s hair out of the way as she swam.
They finally reached a little stilt house over the water, with a netted-in area surrounding it filled with beach balls, inner tubes, and various pieces of colorful plastic paraphernalia.
Isa gasped in relief as her feet touched the sand, and she hauled the small body up towards the dock. The dragon launched out of the water, shifting in mid air. Isa was about to accuse him of showing off when he gathered her up and kissed her so hard she saw stars. Despite their exhaustion, the young girls around them giggled and made gagging noises.
The near-hysterical parents came running out onto the dock, and they bent to lift each child into their arms, crying and laughing and thanking Sidon and Isa. The mere moved to take their children inside, but the dragon reached for the father’s arm.
“I need to talk to you for a moment.”
“Yeah, Si, thank you so much for finding them. I’m sure you have a lot to tell me, but tomorrow, okay? I just want to be with my family tonight.”
“I know, Cree, but you need to know the kids can’t shift right now.”
Cree’s handsome face contorted into a mask of murderous rage. “Are you telling me that those goddamn motherfuckers…?”
Isa gulped. She hadn’t even considered that possibility. Her stomach clenched at the thought.
“No, Cree. Listen, I think they were just tired, or something. The people who took them are some kind of scientists, they may have given them something to block the shift. “
Cree was shaking now with a rage Isa had never seen before, one she hoped she would never see again.
“They could still hold their breath. Right, Isa?” Sidon turned to her for support.
“Yes,” Isa hurried to reassure the stricken father. “They still have the diving instinct too. My friend Sofie became human, y’know, the normal way, and she lost all of it, not just the tail. She can’t hold her breath any longer than a Landworlder now.”
The man seemed to calm a bit, but still regarded them bleakly. “But what did they do to them?”
Sidon patted a plastic container that Isa hadn’t noticed before. “We’re going to find that out, Cree. A contact on the boat gave me a lot of documents to read, stolen information. We’ll figure it out.”
Cree took a deep breath and seemed to relax. “They’re alive. That’s all that matters. You’re right, we’ll figure out the rest later.”
Sidon placed his hand on the man’s shoulder then. “Yeah, we’ll figure it out tomorrow. You go be with your kids, okay?”
Isa thought they’d head home for the night after dropping off the children, but Sidon insisted they head out to celebrate, and they boarded his skiff and went back into town. It was dusk, and the cheerful lights on every dock and awning flashed like laughter. The scene contrasted almost painfully with their conversation with Cree. Isa wondered if she could stomach whatever Sidon had planned.
Isa gave a little laugh when he tied the dinghy to the railing surrounding Sandbar. It had always been their place. She watched as he stowed the mysterious container in a lockbox under a seat. Then the two of them climbed onto the dock, and he pulled her to a booth in the back of the room where he kissed her wildly.
The energy of the people around her and the upbeat music ignited a happy, victorious feeling. They’d gotten the information and saved the kids. No matter what happened tomorrow, today was a success. They chatted and flirted and sipped the drinks Sidon had ordered. They pecked and tickled each other for a while, and he pulled her out to the center of the floor when a slow power-ballad started up on the bar’s boom-box. Isa blushed at the other patrons’ attention, but the dragon calmly swayed her from side to side until she relaxed into him.
The lights around her danced, and familiar faces flashed smiles her way as their bodies moved in time with the music. Images of those little girls popped into her mind now and again, and her heart broke a little at the thought of how they might have been altered. Isa had never questioned that living among humans would be better than living among mere, but now that she’d seen the terror in that little girl’s eyes at losing her tail, she knew she would feel the same way. Isa loved being mere. She loved the feel of the water, and the sounds under the ocean and didn’t want to give that up.
“Sidon.” She looked up into his strong face, searching his warm brown eyes. “If I did go through the change…” Somehow the end of the sentence escaped her.
Would you love me, and only me, forever?
sounded pathetic and needy, and an awful lot like what she wanted to ask.
She felt his sharp inhalation of breath, but when he answered, Sidon’s words sounded measured. “That would make me so happy, sweetheart. Just make sure that’s what you really want.”
Her stomach did a little flip at his response. She’d expected him to jump in and encourage her, or maybe to profess his undying love. His steady support placed the decision firmly on her, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.
“Well, I’m considering doing it. Not tonight. But maybe at some point.” She nestled herself against his chest.
“I’m so glad, sweetie.” He pulled her closer so she felt the thrum of his heartbeat against her cheek.
I want to hold you like this forever.
The words perched on her lips, but if she said them it would be too real. Instead Isa allowed Sidon to rock her. She let herself imagine she’d already said
yes
.
* * * *
Gracie shuffled the documents back into the filing cabinet just as Karon slid open the door to his office. Her face betrayed panic for a moment before she smoothed it into the mask he knew so well.
“Hello, big boy.” The succubus lowered her eyes and pouted her lips, playing it like she’d been waiting for him.
“Gracie?” Acid pulsed in his gut. Two fucking catches gone! Three if he counted the first botched attempt. He’d never failed to deliver a capture before. Not all of it was the succubus’s fault. Heck, maybe none of it was. And he’d certainly done his part to help along whatever little scheme she was hatching. But the look, that false look, was what hurt him.
He stepped to her and crushed her into his chest. This would end, right now. She knew it as well as he did. He felt her body tense and her mind start to sift through ways to spin the situation, to weave another thread of illusion he could cling to.
“Have I been a bad girl, John?” He heard tears forming behind her sexy words. “Do you need to punish me?” She stroked a hand over his growing cock. In his throat he felt a sob mix with his growl.
He kissed her, tasting salt and apologies. It may be goodbye, but it was the most honest interaction they’d ever had. He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as if to get close enough to erase the lies between them.
* * * *
The untamable Ismaelda Freya is offering to become marked—with me.
Sidon’s mind reeled as he lay next to her in bed. He kept his hands and thoughts to himself as he turned out the lights. Now that the possibility dangled in front of him, he was scared to say or do the wrong thing.
In the dark he listened to the sound of waves outside. Isa’s soft body snuggled into his, but his mind kept drifting to thoughts of his youth. He recalled the way his mother had pined and wept for Oceanus, a male she barely knew. How could he make Isa understand that he would never treat her that way? He cuddled against Ismaelda as images danced through his head—mostly of his mother crying and a broad dark back walking away. In some memories he cried as well, but in most he’d been angry, not only at the dragon who’d sired him but also at the woman who gave her sometimes lover every bit of her heart.
Lost in thought, he was surprised when Isa scooted down along his body and swept her fingers under the waistband of his boxer shorts. He petted her hair as she uncovered him, petted her face when she slowly took him in her mouth, and soon all thoughts fled. He flicked on the bedside light and shuffled the covers away.
He reached down and grasped Isa’s shoulders, drawing her up to kiss her. Her lips tasted sinful, with echoes of toothpaste and him. She nipped at his neck and seemed to be heading south again, but Sidon held her fast. Then he kissed his own path down her body. “I want to do you first.”
His kisses traveled over her soft belly and down into her curls. Then Sidon dove in and sucked her clit like an oyster, his fingers sinking deep into her. Soon her hard, rhythmic spasms pulsed against his fingers and her juices filled his mouth. He eased back with his pressure but continued to lick her as she came down. Her body tensed against his, and he wondered if now would be the moment when she’d finally ask him for everything, to mark her and love her and be her mate.
“Sidon?”
“Hmmmnnn?” He didn’t leave his spot between her legs.
“I was thinking, maybe we could try that thing we talked about the other day?”
A moment of surprise jolted him, and he peeked up at her face to find her eyes scrunched in embarrassment. It wasn’t what he’d hoped she’d ask, but a hot surge of excitement shot through him. At the thought of trying something new, Sidon’s memories skipped to the first time he’d touched her. He’d tried so hard to kiss her like a tough-guy, even though his fingers slipped and pinched hopelessly at the edges of her bra.