Lords of the Deep (25 page)

Damien frowned. “Maybe
she’s
confused? Maybe her instincts are out of whack, or something like that?” he suggested a little doubtfully. “Maybe
we’re
doing something that we don’t realize that’s making her think she should be in season even when she actually isn’t?”

Miles stared at him in fascination for so long that Damien began to feel his temper getting the better of him again. “You might be on to something,” he said finally. “
Not
that I think there’s a chance in
fucking hell
of ever figuring it out when I can’t get these
fucking
translators to more than half ass work!”

Mollified that Miles at least thought his theory might have some merit, Damien shrugged. “It’s better than nothing. At least she can understand us half the time and vice versa. Before, it was more like one out of ten, I’m thinking.”

Miles glared at him but finally uttered a sigh of disgust. “That’s not close enough for good science,” he muttered.

“I’m not interested in the
science
of it, gods damn it, Miles! I’m interested in Angie! I’m sick to death of feeling like everything I do and say is the wrong thing!”

Miles studied him a moment and looked away. “Do you think I’m not?” he muttered finally. “She’s going to run back to her own people just as soon as we make that possible. You know that, don’t you?”

Damien glared at the floor. “I know.”

“You’re thinking if you could make her understand, she wouldn’t.”

Damien shrugged. “Mayhap. That’s the problem, Miles. I don’t know.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “When I showed her what I’d done … when I captured her. She said she was glad. And I don’t know what she was fucking glad about, Miles. Glad she was unconscious and didn’t know what was happening to her? Or glad that she’d come? Or just glad that I hadn’t done it to her again!”

* * * *

Angie was torn between excitement at the prospect of watching the mating practices of the merfolk and uneasiness that, despite everything Miles had done to help to disguise her, she’d be discovered. In also unnerved her more than she was willing to admit to be separated from Miles and Damien, but apparently the women traveled separately to the breeding grounds and that was why both Miles and Damien had enlisted their mothers to sponsor her.

She’d gotten the dim impression that the ritual, to the merfolk, was as old as time and that they clung to most of the old ways where the ritual was concerned. The females had always traveled separately, under guard for protection. The males had always taken the shortest, but more treacherous route.

It had something to do with a test of manhood, she gathered, though she couldn’t quite figure out what the ‘test’ was or how cunning, strength, and stamina were established by the test.

She didn’t get to actually meet Damien’s mother until she reached the gathering place for the mermaids, but she wasn’t favorably impressed with the woman. She was beautiful. There was no doubt about that, but she was as cold and reticent as Miles’ mother, Deirdre, was warm and outgoing. She scanned Angie when Deirdre made the introduction with a look, Angie felt, of barely concealed contempt … and suspicion.

Angie was willing to admit she might have been wrong on both counts, but she didn’t think so. It set her back up. She had to struggle to behave politely, to keep her instant dislike of the woman hidden.

She didn’t like her, though, and she felt sorry for Damien, wondered how he could’ve grown into such a warm, caring person when he’d sprung from those iceberg loins.

Millicent reminded her of her aunt and that wasn’t a compliment.

She didn’t actually get to see the city, which was something of a disappointment to her, but it had been agreed that the disguise they’d concocted might not stand up to that kind of scrutiny. So Deirdre, although she complained about it, led Angie around the city to the ‘shuttle’, which Angie discovered was very much like a train.

She was relieved to see they were going to actually have transportation. By the time they came within view, she completely understood why Deirdre had complained so loud and long about having to swim to it instead of going through the city to reach it.

She’d spent several days—which was all she had—working to get used to using the implant. The first time she’d tried it was the most terrifying thing she’d ever done in her life and she’d nearly passed out from lack of air before she could force herself to actually
inhale
water—deliberately. She’d been relieved it worked, but it hadn’t dulled the panic by a great deal. She’d been more terrified the second time, not less and, with that fear she still hadn’t conquered riding her on top of her other anxieties, the first hour or so of swimming had been sheer torture. It wasn’t until she was just plain worn out from swimming that she’d been able to focus on her new misery—exhaustion.

If it hadn’t been for everything that had gone before, Angie thought she might have been more unnerved when she climbed into the shuttle to find herself surrounded by merfolk—mermaids. She was still intimidated. The impression she got as she followed Deirdre to the compartment that was to be theirs, was beauty. She thought it doubtful they could all be gloriously beautiful, but that was certainly the overall impression—either because they were all young, in prime health, and exotic—or because they were exceptionally pretty.

Maybe the ugly ones didn’t bother trying to go to the breeding grounds because they couldn’t compete, she wondered wryly?

They stared at her. She was aware of every eye as she followed Deirdre and Millicent, and she thought they whispered about her, but she couldn’t decide if she was enough of a curiosity to arouse that much attention or if it was paranoia because she knew she didn’t belong.

It was a relief to settle in the compartment and catch her breath and have the privacy to let her guard down at least a little. Miles’ two sisters shared the compartment with them and, like their mother, they loved to talk. She thought a good bit of it was because they were as nervous and excited as she was … as all the women seemed to be.

They’d worked on the translator at every opportunity, trying to perfect it, but since most of the focus had, perforce, been on preparing her ‘disguise’ it was still a long way from perfected. She was still able to follow a good bit of the chatter and thought she could’ve understood more under normal circumstances—if the mers hadn’t been excited.

It was the second trip for the eldest sister, Alys, she discovered. Alys had come away from the first gathering without having conceived and was trying hard not to show that she was afraid she would have no better luck this time around.

It was Felicity’s first gathering and she babbled a while in happy excitement, naming off all the males she had a ‘particular’ interest in and went silent for long spells in sheer terror.

Angie could relate—Her initiation into the rites of womanhood/sexuality had been a tremendous, embarrassing disappointment. Like Felicity, she’d been both excited and scared shitless when she’d come to the moment of truth—and if she’d known before hand how things would turn out, she thought she would’ve run the other way.

Maybe not—but probably.

On the whole, she liked Felicity and Alys as much as their mother. They seemed as curious about her as the other mers that had stared at her on her way into the shuttle, but like Miles and their mother, they seemed good hearted. They tried not to stare and they didn’t pelt her with questions just because they were curious about her.

It was a good thing, too, because Angie wasn’t really prepared for a battle of wits. She was too unnerved about the whole situation and too anxious about giving something away that she shouldn’t. Beyond that, although Miles had taken what Damien had said to heart and reprogrammed the translator to use her voice when it translated her English into Atlantican, she’d seen from the expressions that flitted across Miles’ face that she hadn’t managed to pronounce anything all that well. Part of the time he’d obviously been struggling not to laugh. Some of the time he winced and at other times he looked like he would’ve pulled his hair out if he’d actually had hair.

She thought he wasn’t that tempted to pull on what he referred to as his caplet since it, apparently, was very sensitive.

The thought made her smile in memory. She wondered if he would’ve made love to her that last time if she’d kept her hands to herself instead of deciding to explore his ‘hair’. He and Damien both had seemed determined to keep their distance and focus on their latest ‘project’ up until then …. Well, and afterwards, too.

It was an interesting quirk that they didn’t seem to have a problem sharing her sexual favors—or at least, not with her—and she wasn’t absolutely certain that their frequent fights afterwards had anything to do with the sex. In some ways, it
seemed
to be connected. In others, not.

She wondered if that was common among them or if it was only something Damien and Miles did.

She supposed she would find out once they got to the breeding grounds, although she had no idea of what to expect. She might not find out. It might not be that obvious in such a large gathering.

And it was certainly going to be huge. From what she’d seen, it looked as if every marriageable female was packed into the shuttle—or at least every female of breeding age.

Tuning out the chatter once the shuttle finally began to move, Angie focused on staring out at the scenery through the viewing port as they left the city behind and entered the ‘countryside’. It was bizarre in a way to think of it that way and yet it was nothing but the ‘wilderness’ beyond civilization just as it was from her part of the world—just different wildlife and plants.

It was almost more like being on an alien world than on her own, she thought, trying to figure out what it was they were growing as they passed by an area that was obviously under cultivation. She decided finally that it wasn’t recognizable to her because it was cultivated plants—not the wild sea plants she’d studied.

She dozed off after a while and roused again to hear the others whispering about her—Alys and Felicity, anyway.

Apparently, they weren’t impressed with her size—not favorably—they were a little envious of her scarlet ‘caplet’ and curious that her nipples matched the color of her caplet instead of being blue like theirs were. Millicent pointed out, coldly, that their nipples tended to match their caplets and she didn’t see anything strange about it.

Surprise flickered through her that the woman had actually seemed to defend her, but she was inclined to think it was more from a desire to give them a set-down than defense of her.

Maybe she just didn’t want to ruin the dislike she’d developed for the woman, but she didn’t think she was being unjust.

The entire thing put her in a quandary. She hadn’t actually intended to eavesdrop, but she had, intentional or not. Waking on the heels of the conversation would just make everyone uncomfortable.

She was still trying to decide whether to pretend to be sleeping a while longer or to pretend she’d just woke up when someone tapped on the door of the compartment, effectively distracting everyone else.

Well, everyone but Millicent. The woman was staring right at her when she ‘woke’ and opened her eyes.

Shit!

She felt her face heat as she turned to see what the distraction was about, but the discovery that food had been delivered effectively redirected her focus to her stomach. She was starving, she realized. The exercise of swimming so far before they’d gotten on the shuttle hadn’t just tired her out, it had burnt up her breakfast and then some.

She dozed off again not long after they’d eaten, but since the others did, too, before she did, she didn’t worry too much about not blending. The deceleration of the shuttle some time later roused her and she looked out the view port to see if they’d arrived at their destination.

She didn’t really see anything at first to tell her one way or another, but a huge pavilion came into view after a few minutes. She stared at it, soaking in the details, wondering if they
had
arrived at their destination. The question was answered by Felicity’s squeal of excitement.

Angie couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm, but at the same time she was disconcerted. She behaved far more like she’d arrived at the shopping mall, or some holiday resort than ‘the breeding grounds’.

She wasn’t by any means alone in that, however. The moment their compartment door was opened, she heard excited babbling coming from every direction.

Clearly, the females had a lot of enthusiasm for the breeding grounds!

They were almost the last to get off. The shuttle had disgorged what appeared to be several hundred females of varying ages. Instead of heading toward the pavilion, however, the entire group began to swim toward what looked like a natural coliseum of rock.

Or maybe the open mouth of a volcano, Angie wondered, unnerved by the thought as she reluctantly followed the group she was with.

If it was a volcano, it appeared to be one that had been extinct for a very long time, Angie saw with relief when they finally reached it. There was certainly no warmth emanating from the crater in the center. Moreover, as she came nearer, she began to see signs that steps and/or seats or maybe just ledges had been carved in the rocks. Beyond the ragged rim, the rock had been hewn to form the ledges.