Deep Water (11 page)

And yet he couldn’t forget the very real
necessity of having sex with Griffin as soon as possible.
Perhaps I should have brought camping equipment and more food. Then I
could have suggested that we stay overnight.

A breeze rattled through the limbs of the
pines. The sea god glanced at the sky, noting the position of the sun, then
reached out to the water. The tide was coming back in, enough to let the boat
slide easily out of the inlet.

Finally, he looked at his
agapetos
. Griffin seemed more than a bit
tired, cheekbones flushed under their coating of sunblock.

With regret, Poseidon let go of the lost
opportunity. “It’s getting late,” he said, getting to his feet. “I suppose we’d
better get back.”

“Yeah, not really up for roughing it
overnight.” Groaning, Griffin got into a crouch, then stopped, wobbling
slightly. “Bugger. Legs went to sleep. Give us a hand up?”

Poseidon took the outstretched hands and
hauled the mortal to his feet. He expected the sudden barrage of memory now,
but it still stunned him with its intensity.
Lips and thighs and long hair that smelled like green growing things
and huge brown eyes—

With a start, he realized his
agapetos
’s
eyes
were still the same. Lit with sunlight, they were the color of whiskey and just
as intoxicating.

Need, rich and sweet, flowed through
Poseidon like honey. He leaned forward, watching the irises widen and turn
whiskey to a thin ring around the deepest black.
One kiss. Please, my love, let me have just a kiss.

Unconsciously Griffin leaned towards him
as well, firm lips parting just the slightest bit. Poseidon could feel the
warmth of his breath, wanted to taste his mouth, claim it—

“Go.”

The sea god stopped. “What?”

“Go,” Griffin repeated, eyes still wide.
“We have to go, remember?”

The spell was broken. Taking a shaky
breath, Poseidon stepped back. “Yes, sorry. Let me get my knapsack.”

Gathering up the remainder of lunch, they made
their way back to the inlet, Poseidon hanging back surreptitiously to make sure
that his mortal didn’t stumble. As he suspected, the tide had already flowed up
the sandy cut, widening it and floating the
Seabird
off the sandbar. Getting in, however, would now mean wading through the water
and hoisting themselves over the side. That posed no difficulty for him, but
Griffin’s aura was hazing with weariness.

The mortal grimaced at the boat. “Oh,
well. No help for it, I suppose.”

Taking off their shoes, they slogged into
water that quickly went up to mid-thigh. Griffin tossed his footwear over the
side into the sailboat, then tried to boost himself over the side. His grip
slipped from the gunwale and he fell back into the water. Grimacing, he shook
out his hands.

“Wait.” Poseidon tossed his knapsack and
his own shoes into the boat. If it was up to him, he’d simply lift Griffin into
the boat, but he knew full well it would injure his
agapetos
’s
pride. Instead, he
made a cradle of his hands and braced it on his leg. “Here, I’ll give you a
boost.”

“No, I can—”

“Let me help you.”

Griffin twitched, and Poseidon realized
he’d let some of his power slip. “Let me help you,” he said, more gently this
time.

“Uh, yeah. All right.” Awkwardly, Griffin
lifted a bare foot and planted it in Poseidon’s hands. Trying to ignore the
strong surge of need from the physical contact, Poseidon hoisted the man up,
waiting until Griffin had swung his legs inside. Untying the mooring rope, the
sea god clambered into the boat himself.

Griffin had sunk down onto one of the
seats, quietly trying not to pant. He glanced up, embarrassment and anger pinching
his expression. Poseidon wished he could offer some sort of reassurance, but
felt helpless in the face of Griffin’s rage at his own vitality slipping away.
The best comfort you can offer him is your
seed. The sooner you get him into bed, the better.

Raising the anchor, Poseidon positioned
himself at the tiller.
Water, rise to my
call, heed me.
There was a susurrating gurgle as seawater swirled around
the sailboat, sending it gliding back down the inlet. He grabbed the boathook
and used it to pole along the sandy bottom for appearances. The
Seabird
rocked gently as the now-normal
tide took it.

And then the boat rocked again, much
harder this time, as a greyish-green hand clawed over the gunwale.

****

Griffin grabbed for the gunwale as the
boat rocked. He touched something cold and rubbery and jerked his hand back. Turning,
he saw a nightmare grinning at him over the boat’s edge, shark teeth champing
in an oversized jaw. It hissed something, all sibilant consonants and a
venomous tone that raised goosebumps on his skin, then lunged forward.

Before he could move Dunn was there, driving
the boathook into the thing’s open maw with an enraged shout. There was a wet
crunch, and then the thing literally dissolved before his eyes, turning into
foul-smelling black gunk that dropped back into the water.

The yell that had been locked in his
throat erupted now. “What the fuck—”

His curse was cut off as Dunn bodily
lifted him from his spot, dumping him on the sailboat’s center seat. “Stay
there!” the man barked, hefting the boathook like a spear. Somehow he looked even
larger than before, muscles bulging as he glared at the water around the boat.
Griffin flashed on the image of Poseidon and his trident, ready to do battle.

A stiff breeze sprang up, ruffling his
hair. Dunn tossed the boathook down and jumped for the sheets, unfurling the
sails. The canvas snapped, filling with wind. The sailboat surged forward,
clearing the inlet and speeding into open water.

The redheaded man stepped to the stern
seat and thumped down, grabbing the tiller. “Are you all right?” he demanded.

It took Griffin a moment to find his
voice. “Yeah. What
was
that?”

Dunn’s already grim expression turned
darker. “I don’t know.”

Somehow, Griffin knew he was lying. “You
killed
it. Jesus, Dunn.”

Furious blue eyes lifted to him, but Dunn
didn’t reply. Griffin gripped the seat, trying to will his heartbeat to slow
down. The day had been strange enough, what with Dunn almost kissing him on the
island.

And God, he’d
wanted
it, wanted to taste Dunn’s mouth on his, feel those large
arms holding him. He knew he wasn’t gay, apart from that one drunken fumble in
uni.
But in that moment he’d needed Dunn to kiss him,
needed it like he needed to breathe, and felt like a fool when he opened his
mouth and that idiotic suggestion to leave tumbled out.

And then something that looked like a
cross between a zombie and a shark had come out of the water after them.
It had human hands. Even with the claws, I’d
swear they were human.

And Dunn had killed it with a single
strike.

Griffin shuddered, wondering if there were
more of the things under the water right now pacing the boat.
Christ, when I said I wanted one last
adventure I didn’t mean with sea monsters.

Luckily the wind was with them all the way
to Olympic Cove, shoving them through the entrance. Only then did he see Dunn
relax, sweat slicking his skin.

“Can you take the tiller?” the big man asked.

Griffin changed position, waiting until
Dunn had reefed the sail before firing up the outboard motor. “We need to tell
someone about that thing,” he said. “The Coast Guard, the local police,
someone.”

Dunn frowned, but nodded. “Ian is friends
with the sheriff of Olympic Beach. I’ll contact him this afternoon.”

“Why not call the Coast Guard? I mean,
this is more their line, isn’t it?”

“If Sheriff Connors recommends that I do
so, I will,” Dunn said. “But he’s responsible for the well-being of a great
number of tourists at the moment, many of whom will be out on the water.”

“Yeah, I suppose he doesn’t want to pull
an Amity if he doesn’t have to,” Griffin said, easing back on the outboard
throttle as the
Seabird
closed in on
the dock.

Dunn gave him a distracted look. “Amity?”

“You know,
Jaws
? ‘We’re
gonna
need a bigger boat’?”

Dunn still looked mystified.

“Okay, that’s it,” Griffin said. “Tonight
is definitely movie night.”

He knew it was a distraction technique. He
didn’t care. Did he actually see human arms, human hands despite the claws? It
sounded insane, but was there a chance it could have been an unfortunately
deformed local, out for a swim?

Except that
deformed humans don’t explode into gore when you chuck a boathook into them.
Whatever that was, it wasn’t human.

So what in God’s name was it?

Chapter Five

Poseidon deposited Griffin at his cottage
with a promise to return for movie night. Once he was sure the mortal had moved
away from the windows, he turned and jogged to the water, diving cleanly into a
wave.

It was below his station to do something
so physical, but he had to do something to work off the fury that coursed
through his veins.
Thetis
,
you bitch
.
How dare you send one of your foul
beasts after us?

He had no particular fear for himself.
Even a pod of ilkothelloi would be no match for the God of the Sea. But Griffin
was not only mortal and vulnerable to the
ilkothella’s
venom, but already deathly ill. If the creature had bitten him...

His fists clenched as he arrowed through
the water towards Sthenios and Skylla. The seahorses lifted their heads at his
approach, golden manes floating in the current.

He quickly hitched them to the chariot and
threw himself in, summoning his trident. “Home, as fast as you can.”

The seahorses whinnied and shot out of the
cove, chariot in tow. The trip across the Atlantic sped by in a flash, Poseidon
fuming all the way. Soon enough they were pulling into the magnificent stables
attached to his undersea palace.

A triton stable hand swam up, catching the
reins Poseidon tossed him. “Welcome home, my lord. Lord Aphros and Commander
Kasos
are waiting to see you.”

Just the individuals he wanted to see. Grunting
acknowledgment, Poseidon stalked into his palace. Unlike his Olympus mansion,
his underwater home was far more colorful, with Doric columns of dark-grained
basalt setting off walls of nacre gleaming softly in every shade of the
rainbow. Normally the beauty of it soothed him, but today all he wanted to do
was find Thetis and wrap his hands around her putrid throat.

He reached the main foyer and swung right,
into the large audience chamber that now served as a war room. Inside, Aphros
and the triton commander were poring over a map and conferring quietly. They
both straightened at his entrance,
Kasos
thumping a
fist against his breastplate in salute.

Aphros simply nodded. “Father. We weren’t
expecting you for a few days.”

Poseidon scowled. “My schedule was
changed.”

He recounted the attack by the ilkothella.
Kasos’s
dark eyes narrowed in concern. “You have my
deepest apologies, my lord,” the triton said. “The area around the cove is
supposed to be kept clear of the beasts. I’ll have my squads do another sweep
immediately.”

“Do that, commander,” Poseidon said brusquely.
The triton saluted again and swam out of the room.

Aphros frowned. “You think this was a
deliberate attack,” he said without prologue.

“I do. The damned thing spoke to Griffin
in
Éthlé
. It’s Gaia’s own mercy that he didn’t
recognize it as language.”

“If the creature can still talk, it’s one
of Thetis’s new and improved beasts,” Aphros noted. “What did it say?”

Poseidon clenched his fists. “‘Time to
die, Gorgon.’”

His son’s eyes widened at that. “How in
Tartarus could she know that?”

“An excellent question, seeing as there
are only four people in the world who know about Griffin—you, your brother,
Ian, and myself.”

Aphros drew himself up stiffly. “None of
us have said one word about Griffin, Father. To
anyone
, much less Thetis. We gave you our word.”

“I have faith in your word, and that of
your brother.” He left the obvious unsaid.

Aphros shook his head, red curls swirling
in the water. “Ian wouldn’t betray you like this.”

“I find it hard to believe myself, my son,
but as far as I know we four are the only ones who know that Griffin was
Medusa—”

Poseidon stopped, words drifting into his
mind.
I wouldn’t dawdle with your wooing,
Lord Poseidon. The Mad Nereid is unpredictable and may strike again at any
time.

Something cracked loudly. Looking down, he
saw a chunk of the polished onyx tabletop in his hand where he’d snapped it off
from the table.

“Father?”

Poseidon placed the broken onyx chunk on
top of the table with a muted click. “I just realized who else knows about
Griffin’s true identity,” he said as evenly as he could. “And they are by far
the most likely sources of this leak. I apologize for doubting your
agapetos
. I will trust Ian’s word as I
do yours and Bythos’s. In the meantime, I want you to assign a triton squad to
Griffin. Any time he’s out on the water, even in the cove, I want them in guard
formation around him.”

“It will be done,” Aphros said, nodding.
“If I may ask, who is the leak?”

“Unless I’m greatly mistaken, the Fates. I
hadn’t expected that.” And if the three divines were communicating with Thetis,
they might be communicating with Amphitrite as well. The time for polite scheduling
was past. “I need to speak to your mother. Do you know where she is?”

“She’s taken a residence in Olympic
Beach,” Aphros said. “She said she wanted to be nearby. Just in case.”

There was a wealth of meanings, most of
them
contradictory, that
could be read into that.
“Understood,” Poseidon said. “And thank you, my son.”

Aphros seemed startled by the praise. “For
what?”

“For being tolerant of your foolish
father.” There was no time to go up to dry land. Amphitrite would simply have
to live with some seawater on her floor. He reached out with
godsense
to find his consort, then opened a portal and swam
through in a shower of blue sparks.

****

Amphitrite propped her chin on her hand,
trying not to smile. “It sounds … very interesting,” she said. “But I don’t see
how I can help with this.”

The three individuals currently in her
living room appeared to be beautiful young career women in designer outfits,
expensive haircuts, and flawless makeup. A certain similarity in bone structure
and eye color would have suggested to mortals that they were relatives of some
sort.

Amphitrite, of course, knew the truth—not
one of the three Nereids currently in her living room was under nine thousand
years old, and their stunning good looks were a gift from their father, the
Titan
Nereus
.
Being
immortal and divine does have its advantages.

But the career women part was also
correct. “Frankly,
Ammie
, we could use someone with
psych training,” Lisa said, brushing a lock of chocolate brown hair behind one
ear. “I’ve got event design nailed down, Patricia’s a whiz with planning and
logistics, and of course Jennifer’s our PR person.”

“But we need someone to calm down
Bridezilla when she’s on a rampage,” Patricia added. “We’re basically looking
for someone who can be the Bride Whisperer.”

“Or the Mother of the Bride Whisperer,”
Jennifer muttered into her mimosa.

Much to Amphitrite’s surprise, her three
sisters had shown up on her doorstep an hour ago, bearing the makings for
mimosas and a proposal for her to join Divine Events, their party planning
company. She hadn’t even known that Lisa, Patricia, or Jennifer (or
Ligea
,
Pasithea
, and
Iaera
, as they had originally been known) were working in
the mortal sphere, but upon further thought she had to admit that their choice
of career suited them down to the ground. Even Lord Zeus had been known to call
upon their party planning skills back in the old days. And judging from the
glossy color brochure Jennifer had displayed, Divine Events was certainly
making a name for itself in the upper echelons of Florida society.

Now they were moving into big-ticket
weddings, and that, Lisa explained, was where Amphitrite came in. “You would
not believe how high-strung some of these women are,” she said. “More than one
has actually had herself put on a nasal feeding tube to lose weight before her
wedding. I ask you.”

“The men aren’t that much better, either,”
Patricia said, taking a sip of her drink. “We just organized a wedding for an
actor and his boyfriend, and by the day of the actual event each groom was
convinced the other one was cheating on him with some waiter, most of the
wedding party were at each other’s throats, and the actor’s mother was well on
her way to a roaring case of cirrhosis. I wanted to drown the whole bloody lot
of them, but Lisa wouldn’t let me.”

“So we need someone who can talk these
people down,” Jennifer concluded. “And that’s where you would come in. We’ll
cut you in for a quarter of the profits and all the crazy you can handle.”

Amphitrite blinked, wondering how best to
turn them down diplomatically. “I appreciate you thinking of me for this,
truly,” she said. “But I don’t think I’m the person for the job.”

Lisa’s lower lip came out at that. “Why
not?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m much bossier
than any of you, and you know it.”

There were three reluctant nods.

“And for another thing, I have no interest
whatsoever in moving to West Palm Beach.”

“Why not?” Patricia said, exasperated.
“For Gaia’s sake,
Ammie
, this place is a backwater.
You have everything you could ever want in Palm Beach—culture, shopping,
wonderful weather, nightlife—”

“Men,” Jennifer said dreamily. “All those
handsome, ripped young men, ready and waiting to please.”

A particularly memorable night in bed with
Poseidon flickered through Amphitrite’s mind, and she cleared her throat.
“You’re also forgetting I’m still married.”

All three of them stared at her as if
she’d just admitted to voting for the Tea Party. “But darling,” Lisa said
tentatively, “the two of you haven’t been, well, together for quite some time,
now.”

“And I’d be shocked green if
Earthshaker’s
been keeping it in his pants,” Patricia
snarked
.

Lisa glared at the other Nereid, then
patted Amphitrite’s arm. “That being said, I do see your point. If you aren’t
up to another relationship, that’s your choice. But it would be so lovely to
work with you again. Especially now.”

The four of them thought of their lost
sister. “Have you … heard anything?” Jennifer said tentatively.

Amphitrite shook her head. “She won’t
speak to me anymore.” She had prided herself on staying on good terms with all
of the Nereids, but she always been closest to Hyacinth and Thetis. To watch
her beloved older sister turn into a vicious monster was a pain that seemed
unbearable at times. “And that’s the third reason why I’m staying in Olympic
Beach,” she said. “I have to help Poseidon and the boys stop her.”

The other Nereids glanced at each other in
silent communication. “But
Ammie
, really,” Jennifer
said. “If Thetis has turned into some kind of invincible goddess, you’re still
just, well, you. How do you think you can stop her?”

A loud roaring sound startled them all. It
was quickly replaced by the sound of gallons of water splashing on tile. “I
think you underestimate your sister, ladies,” a familiar voice said behind
them.

All four Nereids turned, staring at a
drenched Poseidon.

****

Amphitrite’s chin came up, eyes blazing
blue fire. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “And why in Gaia’s name did
you bring half the Mediterranean with you?”

It ran against his grain, but Poseidon
raised both hands in appeasement. The inches of water around his feet vanished
and his clothes dried instantly. “I come in peace, Amphitrite. Greetings,
sisters.” He gave the Nereids a polite nod. It was answered by a triplicate
poison glare.

“What do you mean, we’re underestimating
Ammie
?” Lisa said pugnaciously, standing and moving in
front of Amphitrite.

And so it begins.
“My consort is
skilled in the ways of healing diseased minds,” Poseidon said. “It is my hope
that she can reach Thetis even in her madness and dissuade her from this
destructive path.”

Amphitrite’s expression was marble. “I
wasn’t aware you had such a high opinion of my skills as a therapist,” she said,
her voice clipped.

“We haven’t had much time to speak
recently, have we?” he pointed out. “Which is partially why I’m here. I need to
speak with you.” He eyed the other Nereids. “Alone, if you please.”

Lisa, Patricia, and Jennifer bristled at
that, but Amphitrite stayed in her seat. “Anything you wish to say to me, you
can say in front of my sisters.”

He had been afraid of that. “If this affected
only me, I would comply with your wishes. But this involves someone else,
someone who may be in danger from Thetis.” He tried to put significance into
his tone. “Someone whom you do want to assist, Amphitrite.”

She considered him for a long, painful moment.
“All right. Who is this individual?”

“Medusa.”