Waterborn (The Emerald Series Book 1) (30 page)

R
ough hands grabbed
me under the arms and pulled me from the water. I clenched my jaw around the scream that wanted to escape. They lifted me over the side of the boat, one of them cursing under his breath. I collapsed on my hands and knees when they released me. I thought there were three of them, but I couldn’t be sure, not with my hair hanging over my face. Whoever they were, they’d been drinking, so much even their sweat smelled of alcohol.

“It’s a girl,” one of them said, voice cracking in disbelief. He appeared to be the youngest of the three.

“No shit, Xander.”

Another voice. I turned my head to find its source. My blood froze, heart stuttering when I caught sight of the dolphin—a young, male, maybe four feet in length. It lay on the other side of the deck, eyes glazed and staring. A gaping hole in the middle of its head, a lurid streak of red running from the hole, dripping onto the deck. Dead. Bile rose and I wasn’t sure I could hold it down.

“What the hell were you thinking?” The same voice floated over my head and I looked past the dolphin to see a shirtless guy grabbing Xander by the scruff of his shirt.

“Get off me, man. I was just messing around. I didn’t mean to hit anything, except for one of those vultures that keep stealing my catch.”

“Well, you did.” Shirtless shoved Xander away. “Now what are we gonna do?”

“I say we pull it out and throw her back in.” This one squatted in front of me, reaching out to peel the hair off my face.

I shied away and slapped at his hand. My shoulder throbbed. Blood pounded in my head. I wanted to say something, but my voice was gone. It was lost in my struggle to breathe. I tried. God, I tried, but my Song wouldn’t come either.

“Easy there, now. You don’t want to hurt yourself more.” He sounded as though it was my fault I’d been shot. I couldn’t tell much about his face behind the beard and sunglasses.

“You can’t do that, Sean. She needs help,” Xander said.

My gaze dropped to his hand where it clutched the line linked to the spear. It snaked on the deck between us.

“She’s a fish.” Sean’s fingers plunged into my hair, lifting it off the back of my neck.

The warmth of the sun on my back faded as gray clouds bloomed overhead, eating up what was seconds ago a clear sky. The whole world turned ashen.

I wanted off this boat. I wanted Noah.

“She’s still a girl. We need to get help.” Xander, the one voice of reason.

“And what are you going to say? How are you going to explain this? You think she’s going to go along with it? I can think of about three laws we’ve broken.”

“Just pull it out,” I said.

All three looked at me, but I settled my eyes on Sean. “Pull it out and let me go.”

Sean came toward me, his boat shoes slapping over the deck. He crouched down, pulling his sunglasses off, revealing a pair of oddly golden eyes. I tensed under his probing fingers. He looked over his shoulder at Xander. “Xander, this is your mess, you hold her still.”

Xander knelt down on the other side of me, one hand braced on my thigh, the other on my shoulder. Our eyes met. He was probably my age. He looked sorry. He looked scared.

“This is going to hurt,” he said as his hand pressed on my shoulder.

“Do it,” I said, clenching my jaw. Rain started to fall. I held my breath. Fat, wet drops plopped on my back and pinged on the deck.

My eyes traveled back to the dolphin. I didn’t care how sorry or scared Xander was. He should have been both.

I felt Sean’s hand grip the shaft of the spear while his other hand lay flat on my back for leverage. My whole body tensed, from the top of my head to my curled toes.

The spear was ripped from my back, tearing flesh in an explosion of pain so much worse than when it had gone in. I didn’t want them to have the satisfaction of hearing me scream, seeing me cry, but they got both. My breaths wracked my body as I waited for the initial pain to subside. They’d opened a geyser. Blood poured from the wound, mixing with the rain, flowing in a pink river underneath me. I pretended it was rain falling warm down my cheeks.

Someone pressed a cloth over the wound to staunch the flow of blood. My head floated. Xander’s hands were still on me, steadying me.

Thunder sounded in a rolling boil.

The Deep was less than a foot away. One harsh push to my feet and I could slip right over the side. I reached for the rail and leveraged myself to stand up. I made it about halfway before my knees buckled. Instead of helping me, Xander pushed me back down on the deck.

“Maybe we can keep her around for a while,” he said. “I caught her.”

Shirtless laughed. “You’re sick, Xander. You know that?”

“I don’t know. He might have a good idea. What’s your name sweetheart?” Hard fingers gripped my thigh as Sean knelt beside me. With his other hand he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Don’t touch me.” I knocked his hand away. The effort zapped my strength. Sean’s face swam in and out focus. I teetered on the verge of passing out. I couldn’t do that.

“What’s the matter? You thirsty?” He held up a beer, encouraging me to take a sip. “Might take some of the edge off until we figure out what we’re going to do with you.”

“Like you said, throw me back in.” I shuddered at the way his eyes raked over me, lingering between my legs, on my chest.

I tried again to sing, but as hard as I tried, all I could do was make it rain.

Gone, my Song was completely gone.

“Maybe I will keep you. Teach you some manners.”

No. No. Throw me over. Quit touching me.

Lightning flashed as though a giant crooked hand was reaching down from the clouds. The air sizzled. Rain fell in a violent onslaught, like shrapnel falling from the clouds. Thunder rumbled over the sky, seeming to come from every direction. It vibrated right through my chest. The boat trembled with it.

“What the f…” One of them, I didn’t even care who anymore, stumbled back from his fishing rod as though it had been struck.

This wasn’t me, but I wished to God it was. I wished it was me causing the sudden fear in their eyes. I didn’t have this kind of power. I only knew one person who did.

My father’s face seemed to materialize right out of the downpour over Sean’s shoulder, his silver eyes cold and stark, electrifying, and I almost laughed because I thought he could do it, shoot lightning from his eyes.

Please, do it.

His arm snaked out, the tattoo on his shoulder emblazoned. His fingers curled around Xander’s throat, and like it was nothing, he tossed him overboard, a move so oddly comical it startled a laugh out of me. I didn’t hear the splash of impact, could hear nothing but the drowning rain as it beat over the fiberglass boat, pounding the surface of the water. It roared in my ears, deafening in a growing crescendo. My whole body sagged in relief, feeding greedily off the harsh buzz of electricity,

I’d wished for Noah and I’d gotten my father.

“Who the hell are you?” Sean tuned to face this new and unexpected threat.

“Don’t you mean
what
are you?” My father put his hand on Sean’s shoulder. One touch and Sean stiffened, eyes crystalizing to chunks of rough amber.

I’d been so relieved, so concentrated on my father, I had forgotten about Shirtless. My mouth opened on a warning that came too late.

“Let him go or I’ll blow your brains out.” Shirtless found his courage in the form of a gun, the end of it pointed at my father’s head.

My father’s expression didn’t change. He gave not one indication he’d even heard. He turned his head, casting his eyes down on me. Something crackled between us, something tangible flowing in the air, connecting us. Like he could take my meager offerings of a few drops of moisture and multiply them by thousands. I might be able to squeeze a few raindrops from the sky, but this? I couldn’t conjure the torrent that enveloped us. This was something altogether different than the game Sol and I had played on the beach. This was real. This was powerful.

This scared the shit out of me.

“Can you get up?” A question issued as a demand.

I nodded my head, grabbed the rail behind me for support and pushed to my feet. The boat tilted for a split second before righting itself. All I had to do was jump over.

My father smiled. His eyes sparked like a match had been lit behind them. An arm of lightning reached down from the gray sky. A frisson of energy electrified the boat. I felt it in my feet, all the way up my legs and arms, the force of it nearly stripping my skin. Sean yelled something I didn’t understand. I don’t even think they were words. Shirtless simply wasn’t there anymore.

“Go.” My father uttered the command with a jerk of his head. I didn’t even question it. The water caught me and gathered me in her warmth. It muted the chaos above the surface. Another harsh command spurred me on my way. My wound fizzed as the Deep worked her magic. I offered her a silent thank you as I surged toward shore.

I couldn’t think about what my father would do to them, whether he would let them live. I’d seen his eyes. I’d felt his power surging through me and the rage behind it.

No, I didn’t think he would let them live.

I hoped not.

I
’d love
to tell Caris to stay away from her dumbass brother, if I could find her. Hours. I’d been looking for hours. I’d burned a path between Caris’s house and mine over a dozen times, hoping against hope she’d come back to one place or the other eventually. I’d taken forays into the deeper waters, covered hundreds of miles and nothing.

I stood on the beach behind her house after checking her garage to make sure her bike was still there. Her bed hadn’t been slept in. It was like she’d vanished. I despised this feeling of total helplessness.

Anything could have happened to her: A propeller from a boat. A shark. She didn’t even carry a knife. Still totally defenseless in the Deep. God, I should have given her a knife and taught her how to use it. None of us swam without a knife. Ever. I had just always assumed I’d be there for her. Barracudas, man-of-wars with tentacles reaching up to fifty feet. She could get caught before she ever saw it. My head pounded thinking about all the possibilities.

My only consolation was that she would call me, right? If she were in trouble? I had to think she’d sing to me. That was the whole effing point of her gift wasn’t it? So I could protect her?

Screw it. I needed Jeb. Hell, I was about to enlist the whole damn tribe to look for her when she sprouted out of the surf all awkward arms and legs, looking back over her shoulder like something were chasing her.

“Jesus, Caris. Where the hell have you been?” I caught her as she crashed into me, the relief so total I fell to my knees, taking her with me. I couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying. Her words made no sense. They created a garish picture that had my blood running cold in my veins.

I grabbed her face and forced her to look at me. “Slow down, Caris. You’re not making any sense.”

It took a few seconds for her eyes to really focus on mine. “We were just swimming. I was coming to find you…” she said haltingly, her eyes clouded with fear. “It was horrible. They were shooting at us.”

“Who was shooting at you?”

“I don’t know. Some guys in a boat.”

I held her face tight, running my thumbs over her jaw. “Caris, what happened?”

“He… he shot me.”

My eyes frantically searched her body. I didn’t see anything— no marks, no blood. But I knew as well as anyone that didn’t mean she hadn’t been hurt. How in the hell had this happened without me knowing?

“Caris, you are going to have to tell me what happened and fast, I’m about to go nuts here.” She tried to look away, but my hands on her jaw forced her to keep eye contact. I needed her to look at me. Needed to know she really was okay.

“A spear gun.” Her eyes got all round in her face, swelling with tears. “One of them shot me with a spear gun.”

I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them again.
Get a grip, Noah. She’s here. She’s safe.
“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t feel okay. She was shaking in my hands, fingers biting into my arms, a haunted look on her face. “Where did it hit you?”

She turned and splayed her hand over her shoulder. The wound had closed, but it was still puckered and raw. I could well imagine what it had looked like—gaping, streaming blood. Her blood. A tremor went through her when I touched it.

“One of them, Sean, I think, he pulled it out and…” Her face crumbled.

“Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?”

“No.” She wouldn’t look me in the eye when she said it.

“Tell me the truth, dammit.”

“No, they didn’t, Noah. It wasn’t like that.” She took my face in her hands and kissed me, a dry meeting of lips. “He came for me. My father came for me.” Her voice faltered and she turned her head toward the Gulf like she half-expected him to be there, coming after her. “I think he killed them.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” I dropped my hands. “Why is it so hard for you to understand I want to be the one to protect you? I want to be the one who gets to save you.”

“I couldn’t.” She shook her head, denial hot in her eyes.

“Would you stop it,” I said, frustration getting the best of me. “Stop trying to protect me from you. Did you think I couldn’t handle three landers?”

“No. I mean, I tried.” Her voice sounded so small it took me a second to understand what she was telling me. “I couldn’t.” Her eyes frantically scoured my face, my eyes, as though in them she could find reason.

And then it hit me like a punch to the gut. I dropped my hands. I’d felt it all day, the sense that something wasn’t quite right. I had attributed it to the news about Jax and my worry over Caris, and that had been part of it, but that wasn’t all of it.

Quiet, it had been too damn quiet.

“I can’t hear you anymore.” The realization nearly knocked me over and a sick feeling settled in my stomach. I stared into her eyes, willing her to sing to me. This couldn’t be right. No part of me wanted this to be right.

“It’s gone,” she said, curling her fingers around my wrists. I couldn’t tell if she was shocked or relieved or maybe even disappointed. Hell, I sure as shit was. Inexplicably disappointed. My whole body shook and she gripped me tighter on my arms to quell the shaking. I’d finally gotten what I wanted and instead of relief, I thought I might puke. Near panic. Why did it hurt to even breathe?

I wanted it back.

Her Song. It’s what made her feel like mine. Mine in a way she couldn’t be anyone else’s.

“No.” I protested before crashing my mouth down on hers. Her lips parted and she took me in a frantic joining of tongues and lips as if she too were trying to force a reconnection. My hands slid to her back. I crushed her to my chest, mouth issuing a demand.

Sing.

Only she didn’t.

Caris pulled away, her hands gripped my face as she searched for the something that we’d lost. “I don’t understand.”

I wrapped my arms around her, held her as close as I could. I didn’t understand either. Not this sense of loss. She was here. She was safe, tight in my arms. But still, I couldn’t let go for fear she’d disappear from my life just like her Song had. I held her for a long time while my heart found its normal rhythm and my mind had a chance to form more rational thoughts. And I knew. With a heart-sinking feeling I knew.

“You don’t need me anymore.” I kissed her again, my lips begging her to need me, my hands begging her to want me. And now I realized Maggie had had it all wrong. “Or maybe it was me who needed you all along.” But that couldn’t be right either. I did need her. I had to have her.

She drew back, looking up into my face. “Yes I do. Maybe not like I did a month ago. But don’t think I don’t need you. More importantly, I want you. That won’t change.”

“Caris…” I wrapped her up again, so many words that clamored to get out, and I didn’t know how to say a single one of them. I buried my face in her neck, inhaling her salty, minty scent, tasting a trail from her jaw back to her mouth. I lifted her off the ground, pressed her into the hard length of my erection. Somehow after everything, her lips smiled against mine.

“I guess that answers that question,” she said, laughing into my mouth, pulling me back from the depths of hell. I swallowed the sound, hungry for more. So hungry.

“I don’t need your damn Song to want you. Never did. Tell me you really are okay.” My hands were in her hair, caressing her face. And then a tidal wave of feelings washed over me. The desperation of losing her, finding her again, needing to claim her as my own. The next thing I knew I had her down in the sand. Covering her with my body, no other purpose than to get inside her. I felt her small hands against my chest, the pressure as she pushed against my beating heart.

“Let me up,” she said, a breathless whisper. I sat back on my heels, wrestling for control.

“I’m sorry.” My hands ran through my hair, pulled down my face. She peeled them away, shushing me with her lips. How could I be doing this, wanting her so bad after what she’d just told me? When I opened my eyes she was standing over me.

“Swim with me.” Her steps took her backward, and I was too afraid to follow because I wanted to so bad, and I’d already screwed up once and she’d ended up getting hurt. And it had all been so out of my control. Water lapped around her knees, the setting sun turning her into a shadow of herself—a beautiful shadow that had the power to bring me to my knees. She tugged the strings on her top and slid her bottoms over her hips. It all floated away on the next wave and Caris stood in front of me wearing nothing but dying sunlight. “Swim with me, Noah.”

I swallowed, fists bunched. “I can’t go out there with you like this, not without wanting to…”

“It’s okay.” She leaned into me, the contact of skin on skin so startling I sucked in a breath. I didn’t even remember going to her. She had me more bewitched now than when I heard her Song. “I want this, Noah. I want you.” Her mouth was so damn sweet, and when her hand wrapped around me through my shorts I ceased to think altogether.

I tore my mouth away, resting my forehead against hers. “I don’t have any protection.”

“Since I was pretty sure I loved you, I made sure I would be ready when this happened between us. We’re good.”

“So it’s safe?” My voice sounded pathetically hopeful. I would beg if I had to. I was already walking us into the surf.

“Yes. Now stop talking and come swim with me.”