A Mermaid's Ransom (17 page)

"If you feel strong enough, we'll do that." When Anna spoke, Alexis let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Jonah didn't move. Anna tugged at his arm, drawing his gaze. "Mina has tested the restraint. He will do no one any harm. As you said"--her blue eyes found Lex's again--"all she has to do is call. One of you can quickly come to wherever she is."

"Instantly," Jonah corrected.

Dante's gaze darkened, but he said nothing, just stood, silent and still. While they'd been talking, he'd moved so his back was to the wall and he had Jonah clearly in his sights. His gaze kept moving, gauging his surroundings. She suspected he'd already scoped out exit and entry points, but he also seemed interested in the array of items here. The lamp on the night table and the light it threw out. The ocean through the large expanse of window to his left.

"There are ways to hurt someone without inflicting a single scratch," Jonah said at last. He altered his glance from Dante to her. "You call if
anything
frightens you. Don't think about whether it's important or not. We'll come a thousand times if needed."

Lex crossed the room, aware of Dante's tension, the weighted scrutiny. He was as good at it as Jonah, so that with the two of them in the room the air nearly crackled. Her head continued to pound. Nevertheless, she laid a hand on Jonah's wrist guard, curling her fingers to touch his hand. "I would like to spend more time with you both. I'll come to visit you in the next day or so. And I'll check in with you often in my mind. You already know you can talk to me in my head whenever you need to do so. All right?"

Jonah's dark eyes searched her face. "All right. I'll leave you alone with the male who kidnapped you and almost left you in his world to die, since you prefer his company."

"Pyel--"

Withdrawing from her touch, he descended the stairs. Her mother gave her a steady look, reassuring but not revealing, and followed him. As Lex watched them, her heart ached, the pain behind her eyes intensifying. She needed to strengthen her filters, but blocking their emotions seemed another betrayal.

Before she left out the back deck entrance, Anna glanced up, meeting her eyes. Though her face remained somber, Anna blew her daughter a soft kiss. Then she turned away, shutting the door behind them.

Fourteen

ANNA didn't try to keep pace with her mate. When he took to the skies without a word, she shed her human clothes, folded and placed them somewhere she could retrieve them. Then she transformed and dove into the ocean, swimming deep and fast, surfacing far from the shore to view the late afternoon sunset. There was a coolness to the air that gave an edge to the dying of another day, underscoring her own uneasy state of mind. Jonah was likely streaking through the sky at a harrowing pace for the same reason, pushing himself up into the firmament where the thinner air could steal the breath.

She'd seen the hurt in Alexis's eyes at his abrupt departure, but there was nothing to help that right now. Because of how different Lex's life was from others', Anna knew her daughter sometimes forgot her youth, even more than most her age. But her parents never forgot, and perhaps that was what made this complex. Lex was a woman now. In the cavern, amid all the dangerous tempers and energy, Anna had been sorely tempted to convince herself Lex was a child who didn't know her mind. But she'd known from the look in Lex's gaze, the set of her chin. It would have been the height of hypocrisy to deny it when Anna had recognized her own destiny at age twenty, the first moment she'd seen a wounded, unconscious angel, poised to fall into the deepwater Abyss.

Alexis's heart was in her eyes when she looked at Dante, his for the taking. There was no telling what he would do with such a gift, when destruction hovered so thick around him. The angel somewhere in the skies above had dedicated the last twenty years of his life to protecting his daughter. Letting her have scraped knees and bounce out of trees on her fledgling wings had been hard enough. He'd been the first one to tell Alexis that some suffering was necessary for growth, so she wouldn't unwisely apply her gift, but he himself had struggled with the lesson throughout her entire life.

It was no easier for Anna, but she understood a woman's love for a male plagued by demons. All Jonah saw was an enemy, something far worse than a scraped knee or a fall, because Dante might very well turn out to be every bit of the nightmare that he'd so far proven to be.

"Self-conscious."

She rolled to her back to see him hovering above her, wings keeping him in place. Despite the seriousness of her thoughts, she couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of him, his arms crossed and expression dark as a storm cloud.

"Well, most daughters would be self-conscious to have their parents there when what the two of them were thinking about was--"

"Obvious." Jonah dropped down, crossing his legs Indian-style so he appeared to be sitting on the surface of the waves, though his body moved in rhythm with the current, staying with hers. Swimming to him, she curled her fingers over his calves and laid her head on his knee. He sighed, putting one large hand on her head. "I want her as far as possible from him. I want him dead. He deserves to be dead."

"I know." Shifting to human form, she pulled herself up and Jonah helped, catching her waist so she could straddle him. Wrapping her legs around his back, she seated herself in the vee of his lap. She grasped the sword harness across his broad shoulders to anchor herself. "We both know life demands a great deal from us all, especially those of us with gifts. Raphael has said for some time she's only tapped a portion of her abilities. As she gets older she'll be likely to trust herself more, let the filters down, increase her range."

"That I understand. But . . . damn it all." His arms tightened around her body as he pressed his face to her throat, breathed deep, nearly choking on his iron control.

"We can't stand in the way of this. We can only be here if it goes badly. You know that."

"Yes. I want to say the hell with all of it, but I do know." He made a low growl of frustration and lifted his head. "But cheerfully clearing out because he wants to ravish my daughter is going too far."

"You wouldn't have left for that. You left because it was what she wants." She cocked her head. "And you've never done anything cheerfully."

Jonah gave her a narrow look, but she switched topics. "Would you be willing to lead a delegation to talk to one of the vampires?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Mina thinks Dante is about sixty years old. Someone may remember his mother. He can't integrate into the human world, no matter how much he explores it. Like all of us who are something other than human, we need a base of support from those who know who we are." Anna tapped his shoulder thoughtfully. "From the things Mina told me about a vampire's nature, the strict rules of vampire society may help him cope here. And he won't be able to avoid them anyway. Those who try to exist outside Council structure aren't treated well. For that reason, we may want to initiate contact quickly."

"But he's as much Dark One as he is vampire."

"It's the vampire side that will matter here. Remember, Mina is Dark Spawn as well, and she conquered that part of herself."

"She manages it," Jonah corrected. "And David is key to that."

"Yes, he is." Anna held his gaze and Jonah swore.

"I don't even want to contemplate that."

"Neither do I. But you saw how she looked at him."

"Yes. She's infatuated with a handsome vampire with Dark One blood. At best, he breaks her heart. At worst . . ."

"Mina said that just because she is young, and expresses her feelings in a youthful way, we shouldn't mistake immature communication with immature feeling. Love isn't always limited by experience. We both know that."

His jaw tightened. "I can't bear this, Anna. I won't."

Brushing her knuckles against that set jaw, she drew his gaze back to her. "At best, she rescues his heart from darkness, and he embraces the life that should have been his in this world all along. He learns to cherish her for the gift she is, and they discover a love together that makes every sacrifice worth it. At worst, they go their own ways when their feelings for one another run their course. She herself sees that possibility, and that the most important thing is making sure he can survive here."

He shook his head. "You always see the best. You saw the bruises on her. The blood. The--"

"You saw more than that, and so did I. It's why he's still alive." Anna's chin firmed. "If I hadn't seen it, I would have killed him myself."

Jonah made another incoherent snarl. Grasping the back of her neck, he drew her to his chest. When she spoke again, she did so against his firm flesh. "If Mina can find someone among the vampires who will talk to us, are you willing to go?"

"Yes. But it will be a moot point if I murder him before then."

"Even so." She suppressed a smile and straightened. As she did she adjusted her legs around his waist so her heels slid across his buttocks. Leaning back, she arched to put her hair in the water again, fully aware of the upward tilt of her breasts, the jut of her nipples while the seawater waved her hair like fine sea grass across her cheeks beneath the surface. Her lips curved as his hand slid up her abdomen to her left breast, capturing it in a way that caught her breath. His desire for her was evident and reassuring in a way that wrenched her heart and tightened her lower belly. She lifted herself out of the water, came back to his arms as his hands slid over her wet, slick skin.

"You're trying to distract me."

"No." She sobered. "For all its frightening fire, passion often ignites from something deeper and more substantial. Something that doesn't make sense at first, but is undeniable, all the same. I know how you feel about this. I feel no differently. But we have to hope."
And pray.

He brought her closer to him with that effortless power that made her muscles weaken. She loved surrendering to him, in all ways. He understood her soul as she understood his. In this moment, as with many others, she thanked the Goddess for it. When she told him so in her mind, he took her mouth in answer. A breath from her lips, though, he stopped. He studied her face in that intent way he had, as if she were always something new for him to learn. "I need you," he said.

The joy of it leaped inside of her. Anna remembered that she'd once lived with hope when there was no reason to have any. Now she had a wonderful mate and incomparable daughter, blessings she'd earned. It would be all right. It had to be. She wouldn't despair now. "I know. I need you, too. Particularly right now. I'm afraid, Jonah. So afraid for her, because I know we have to let her do this. Help me be less afraid."

It was the right request, for she knew he would do anything to give her happiness. As his heated mouth closed over hers, she melted into him, taking them both to a place where they could escape their worries, if only for a short while.

WHEN the door closed, Alexis stood there. Despite the yearning in her body, she found herself swept by uncertainty. She glanced toward the window and saw late afternoon waning toward evening.

"I believed I'd been tricked, until your sire came for me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

"You've said that twice now. Your father feels you have nothing to . . . apologize for. I agree."

She looked back at him, met his eyes for the first time. The smile she'd been attempting failed before that crimson penetrating stare. "I went from being your prisoner, dying in your world, to pleading with them not to kill you, to this. Here we are, standing in a normal house, and I don't know what to say at all. Or how I should feel."

"Do you want me here?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. Would it make a difference if I didn't?"

He studied her. "No. Because you would be lying. You fear your feelings more than you fear me."

"Great. A boyfriend who can literally read my mind. Every woman's dream come true." Pushing her hands through her hair, Alexis wished she'd stop feeling light-headed.

"You're very weak still. You defied the magic the witch set upon the portal." His mouth tightened. "I'm angry with you for doing that. You're lucky to have survived."

"You're here because I did it. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

He blinked. "Your answer . . . it strangely fits."

"Yes, no and you don't know?" She was able to smile now, though it was tremulous. "I think I understand that. Yes, because no one would want to be there. No, because it's all unfamiliar and you're out of control. And you don't know because you're torn between the two. Right?"

He lifted a shoulder, but frowned as if that wasn't all of it. "I was told that, while the blood may have hurt you, the mark itself may have helped you survive. Apparently, it is very difficult to kill a vampire's servant."

"Your mother didn't tell you much about servants."

"She told me some things." Dante considered that. "But some things she put in my mind had no relevance to my life there. They made no sense to me, so I just pushed them away. The seawitch said it is a bond that cannot be broken."

As he took a step toward her, she curled a hand in the excess fabric of the sleep shirt. "I was hoping to be dressed when you saw me," she repeated lamely.

His clothes didn't make him less overwhelming, she realized. Nothing human was this magnificently gorgeous, vibrating with power the way he did. Or maybe it was that when he looked at her like this, her body liquefied, making it hard to--

His arm shot out, slid around her waist, catching her to him before she buckled. As she laid her head on his chest, his head bent over hers, his lips nuzzling her hair. His palm flattened, his fingers spreading as he held her tightly against him. "I shouldn't do this," she whispered. "I'm supposed to help you. It would be best if we tried to not--"

He tilted her head up, his thumb pressed under her jaw, close to her pulse. "Now that your body has accepted the mark, my blood is no longer a poison to you. Nourishment and rest will help you recover, but if you wish your energy to return sooner, it will help the most with this weakness."

She remembered that swirling feeling when he'd given her the third mark, as if their souls were being wound together irrevocably. Now she knew they had been. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but her current reaction was getting much clearer. He held her so close, her breasts were pressed into his chest, and there was nothing under the sleep shirt. Of course, when she had the thought, he had it, too. The hand not around her waist dipped, slid beneath the hem, and found the bare curve of her buttock. In her human form, they could come together face-to-face for the first time, his body stretched out on hers, weight pinning her down, spreading her open and burrowing deep.

He lifted her almost before the thought was completed, and took her back to the bed. As he laid her down, she reached up to his face. He caught her wrist, his face questioning, but she merely stretched out her fingers, asking without words. Slowly, he released her, let her lay her hand on his jaw, slide her fingers up into his hair. Her thumb found his mouth, the tip of a fang, the give of a sensual lip.

"I missed you," she whispered.

There was no reason for her to pretend otherwise. It was how she felt, no matter how insane it sounded, and he could read her mind anyway. With her abilities, she'd learned early that hiding feelings didn't negate their existence, and in fact often just made them worse. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. If destiny determined that Dante would break her heart into pieces, he would.