Siren's Surrender (11 page)

“Don’t touch my sister, you bitch!” Gwen shrieked.

Addison’s assailant whirled on her heel. She leveled her weapon, preparing to take down the new threat. She fired, unleashing a bolt of pure energy.

Blake simultaneously raised his weapon. Puny as it was, it was all he had.
Oh, fuck me!
It wasn’t enough.

He stood right in the path of the oncoming discharge. No way the Mer could miss him, either. He didn’t have a chance of succeeding, but he had to take it anyway.

A series of strange words flowing from her mouth, Gwen lunged forward and threw up her hands. A shimmering wall of light appeared out of nowhere. The laserlike flare struck dead-on. Blinking out of existence, it vanished with a weak fizz.

Seizing his chance, Blake fired again and again. Aimed with expert precision, the darts struck their target with a deadening
thunk-thunk
sound.

The Mer holding Addison hostage reeled, collapsing to the floor like an anchor cut from its ballasts.

Freed from the threat of being wasted, Addison launched herself toward Tessa’s captors. She tackled the nearest woman, knocking her to the ground with a full-body blow. Fists flying like hammers, Addison went to town. The pummeling commenced with vicious intent.

Gwen’s hands suddenly dropped, taking with it the glimmering shield of protection she’d provided. The last of her energy spent, she sagged to the ground. Weakened from giving her all, she didn’t look like she had the strength to fight off a determined kitten. “I haven’t got any more,” she breathed, pressing a hand against her forehead. “You’re on your own.”

Blake cursed under his breath. “Shit.” It was one-on-one now, and he clearly didn’t have the advantage. His palms started to sweat, forcing him to tighten his hold on the tranq gun.

The last Mer standing snarled, an inhuman predator that wouldn’t be easily subdued. The insult she hurled toward them was an unintelligible jumble to his ears. Though he couldn’t understand her words, he easily picked up their meaning. She reached for the blade sheathed at her hip. The serrated edge looked wickedly sharp. Her gaze never deviated from his.

Blake had no doubts about her objective. The bitch wasn’t going without a fight.

Levering a fresh clip into the tranq pistol, Blake couldn’t help smiling. “Sorry, babe . . . You should know better than to bring a knife to a gunfight.” His index finger squeezed the trigger. Once, twice, three times.

Every single dart halted in midair. The Mer waved them aside as if brushing away pesky flies. They dropped harmlessly to the floor around her feet.

Blake blinked stupidly. Apparently Gwen wasn’t the only one with a few tricks up her sleeve.

He cursed and braced himself for the attack. The tranq gun was useless, offering no more defense than a toy cap pistol. Still, it was something in his hand and better than nothing at all.

Apprehension coursed through him. His pulse throbbed in his ears, a dull roar that muted everything except the danger looming in front of him. His assailant was an Amazon, brawny and well muscled. Years, a whole lot of years, had passed since he’d last fought hand to hand. He’d better damn well remember some moves or he’d get his ass kicked all over the place.

No doubt there.

The rogue Mer raised her wicked blade. Her lips drew back into a feral smile.

Suddenly Tessa snatched a nearby folding chair and swung it with every last ounce of strength she possessed. The flat seat of the chair connected squarely with the back of the Mer’s head. A sickening crack followed the strike, which sounded much like a champion baseball player hitting a home run.

The Mer stumbled forward, striking the floor in a dead heap. Fingers losing their grip, her weapon clattered harmlessly against the concrete. She lay still and silent.

Just like that, the attack was over.

Everyone froze a few minutes, shocked by the sudden lack of frenzied action.

The silence was deafening.

Panting hard, Tessa was the first to move. The metal chair slipped from her fingers. A half-choked sob broke from her throat. Crying softly, she stumbled toward her unconscious husband. “Ken,” she wailed, dropping to her knees and taking his face in her hands. Tears slipped down her cheeks. “Kenneth, babe, are you all right?”

Blake lowered the air gun. “Shit.” He moistened his lips and took a steadying breath. The basement looked like a war zone, blasted and in ruins.

Addison struggled to her feet. Her clothes were ripped and covered with blood. The woman she’d attacked didn’t move, not even to breathe.

Nerves going taut, Blake wondered if she was alive. He hoped not. It didn’t bother him one bit if a terrorist died.

Addison wiped trembling hands across her face. “Is it over?” she asked, voice trembling as hard as her body.

Blake tossed the tranq pistol aside. “Pretty much.”

“Everyone still here?” Before she’d even finished the question, Addison’s eyes widened with alarm. “Gwen’s down—”

Blake’s heart almost stopped in his chest. Gwen’s face was a pale, deathly white.

He hurried toward her, lifting her into his arms and pulling her close. He brushed his fingertips across her pale forehead, smoothing away strands of damp, clinging hair. Her flesh was ice cold.

Without opening her eyes, Gwen moaned. Her body trembled with the chill consuming her.

Blake pressed two fingers against her throat, checking her pulse. Her heartbeat was weak, almost nonexistent. “Gwen,” he whispered, emotion unexpectedly tightening his throat. “It’s Whittaker. I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’ll be okay.”

He held his breath, ears straining for any sound from her.
Let her be okay, please God
, he silently prayed.

Barely able to respond, Gwen cracked her lids. Her gaze was dull, laced with exhaustion. “Promise?” Her voice was little more than a weak rasp. The single word was so faint he barely heard it. Thick black lashes lowered against her bloodless cheeks. There was no spark, no animation. She was as limp as a rag doll.

Blake’s inner reserve crumbled. He pulled her closer, trying to warm her body with his. He was cold to the marrow of his bones and couldn’t offer much. “I promise.”

Even as he uttered the words, guilt sliced through him. He wasn’t supposed to care, but somehow he’d gotten sucked into a vortex of events he still couldn’t even begin to comprehend. As much as he wanted to protect her, deep down inside he doubted he could keep the pledge. Though Gwen didn’t know it yet, her life would never be the same once the agency found out about them.

Neither will mine,
came his grim thought.

T
he morning no longer felt crisp, bright, or promising. There was trouble on Little Mer island. Big trouble.

Jake Massey lowered his binoculars. “Shit! We’ve just been fucked.” He shook his head.
And we didn’t even get a kiss for it.

He didn’t have to be on the island to know Magaera’s soldiers had botched the attempt to take Tessa hostage. They’d apparently failed, and magnificently so.

A swarm of boats and aircraft buzzed in from the mainland, some identifiable, others not so much. A small army went into motion, spreading across the landscape like the plague. A coast guard cruiser swept in from nowhere, circling the perimeter of the island like a shark looking for prey.

The thing that bothered him most was the helicopters. A couple were clearly medical craft, used to transport the critically injured. No doubt people had been wounded and needed to be airlifted to the mainland. That made sense.

But those weren’t the only choppers in sight. Two larger helicopters had also landed. Painted stark black, these had no identifiable markings whatsoever. Though not military, there was no doubt in his mind who owned the aircraft.

Sweat popped up across his brow in tiny beads. He wiped them away. This wasn’t how he’d imagined the morning would end. “Damn, they got there fast,” he breathed.
But how?

The question nagged like a pesky fly. What the hell were the feds doing on Little Mer Island? Their response had been too immediate to be coincidence, which meant the place must have been under active surveillance.

Whatever the answer might be, one thing was perfectly clear. They needed to leave these waters. And quickly. No reason to tempt the authorities into coming closer. The yacht was flying a Canadian flag. Though he and Niklos had valid passports, the Mer women living aboard the boat did not.

Fury boiled up inside him, but he forced it to simmer. No time to lose his head. Blowing his temper wouldn’t do any good now. They’d only had this single chance, and it was gone. It didn’t matter who had messed up or why.

Standing beside him, Niklos Sarantos laughed softly. “Didn’t go as smoothly as you thought it would.”

Jake shot his partner a dirty look. “We’ve hit a little snag. Doesn’t mean we’re down yet.”

Time to switch to the backup. Trouble was he didn’t know what plan B might be. He hadn’t believed Magaera’s soldiers could fail in such a simple task. There was no way anyone on the island could have known they were coming. No one would have expected an ambush in broad daylight.

As it stood, the entire island was enveloped in chaos.

A flurry of movement snagged Jake’s attention and he refocused his binoculars to check out the action. He couldn’t miss the men whose jackets were clearly marked FBI. “I knew it,” he said angrily. “The fucking feds.”

Niklos also raised his specs. “Correct me if I am wrong, my friend, but it looks like they’ve got a couple of your queen’s soldiers,” he remarked coolly.

Jaw tightening, Jake’s heartbeat sped up. For ten, maybe twenty seconds, he couldn’t move. His body felt paralyzed by what he was witnessing. His own arrogance hadn’t allowed him to consider the consequences of failure.

His gaze zeroed in on the main house. The entire building was smoking, practically in ruins.

The women Magaera had sent to retrieve Tessa weren’t walking on their own two legs. They appeared to be strapped to gurneys, which were quickly being loaded into the medic choppers. The next gurney that came out carried Kenneth Randall, clearly as unconscious as the Mer who’d preceded him. Tessa ran beside the medics, trying to keep up. Another came out carrying a woman. He recognized Gwen. Addison and a man he couldn’t identify followed as she was loaded onto one of the choppers.

He swallowed hard, forcing down regret. Man, too bad Gwen seemed to have gotten caught in the crossfire. He wondered how badly she and Kenneth might be wounded.

The last gurney that came out held a body in a bag.

Since he’d identified the survivors, he knew one of the Mer hadn’t made it.

Jake inwardly braced himself to keep his feelings in check. He’d also seen Lucky get the blast. That was really too bad. He’d always liked the old sea dog. But Magaera had only ordered her soldiers to take Tessa alive. The rest were to be sacrificed, incidentals in the larger objective, which was to regain control over the sea-gate. If people had to die, then so be it.

“What are we going to do now?” Niklos asked. Nervous sweat beaded his upper lip. Involved in a lot of under-the-table dealings, he wasn’t exactly comfortable when the law was around.

Jerking his gaze away from the chaos, Jake tapped his binoculars with the tips of his fingers. “This just upped the ante. Now that the feds are involved, there’s no doubt they’ll find out about Ishaldi and the Mer.” That was something he hadn’t planned to have happen until after he and Magaera had regained control of the sea-gate.

Tessa had just slipped between their fingers like water through a sieve.

Returning to Ishaldi was out of the question.

Jake considered the options. At this point, everyone believed he was dead. That was a blessing. He still needed the cloak being deceased offered in order to get around undetected. But there was no telling how long his new identity would serve him.

He doubted it would serve the Mer. He was certain the government wouldn’t release the discovery of an inhuman species to the general public, but they’d no doubt be combing the waters around the bay and in the Mediterranean for more Mer.

The one place they wouldn’t look for a sea creature was on land.

“Get us out of here before the coast guard starts sniffing around,” he ordered Niklos. There was nothing he could do but take the failure and move on.

“Where are we headed?” his friend drawled. The Mer didn’t really interest him as much as the lure of easy money did. He expected to be compensated handsomely for his services.

Raising a hand to shield his eyes against the glaring light of the sun, Jake considered. “Let’s cruise back up toward Canada and hit Grand Manan. We can drop anchor there and take a little time to let this disaster cool. We’ll be out of American waters, but close enough to cross back into the States if we need to.”

Niklos gave a quick thumbs-up. “I will make it so.” He shuddered. “The sooner we get out of here, the less chance we have of being boarded by the authorities. We’re drifting too close as it is.”

“You worry about getting us out of here,” Jake said. “I’ll figure out what to do next.”

A grim smile wavered around Niklos’s mouth. “Your queen is not going to like the news you’ve got to deliver.”

Jake glanced toward the entry to the suites belowdecks. Magaera had retreated from the blazing morning sun to rest and recenter her strength. In her mind her soldiers could not—and would not fail.

She’s in for a rude awakening
.

 

 

Without waiting for an answer to his knock, Jake slipped into Queen Magaera’s private quarters. He glanced around the salon, taking in the fifty-two-inch widescreen, tricked-out stereo system, not to mention the king-sized bed-and-bath combination. Her soldiers occupied two smaller rooms down the hall, bunking together in cramped quarters. He’d spent a lot of money to keep her comfortable. Though hardly a palace, the yacht provided a lot of luxury. Still, the money he’d squirreled away wasn’t going to last forever. Not at this rate.