Rising (16 page)

Sara’s heart
took off in a sprint when Xanthus approached her. She guessed her heart hadn’t yet gotten the news that he wasn’t a threat to her. Xanthus leaned down, wrapped his arm around her waist, and lifted her out of her chair. Her tail brushed his for a moment. His fin felt rough like sandpaper, where hers was soft, smooth, and no different in texture and color from the rest of her skin.

I
n one quick move, Xanthus flung her beloved wheelchair a mile out to sea. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a mile, but this Dagonian had incredible strength.

“What did you do that for?” Sara
asked, breathless.

He put his hand under the backside of
her fin and lifted her into a cradle hold. “We can’t leave any sign that we were here.”

“Xanthus, please
. I really can’t swim. In fact, I’m terrified of the water.” Sara realized where he was about to take her.

“You’re going to have to trust me. You can do this.
” Xanthus’s confidence was apparent.

Sara
shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “No, I can’t. I really can’t go in the water. I’d rather you make me disappear like you did those three men.”

“Sara, don’t be ridiculous. We don’t have far to go.”

“Please, don’t make me do this,” she said, going into full panic mode. Xanthus raised an eyebrow at her protests.

“Can you breathe underwater?”
he asked.

“Oh no, please no
. It’s the most horrible thing imaginable.”

Xanthus
must have taken that for a yes, because the next thing Sara knew, she was headed straight for the water. Before she could scream, they broke through the water’s surface. It washed over her face and body, enveloping her in a black nightmare.

At once, she was fighting
him with everything she had. Bubbles churned around them as she struggled, squirmed, clawed, and ran out of air. In one great terrible gulp, she took in a lungful of water.

Then
she fought harder.

Xanthus
had a tight grip around Sara’s waist as she battered his chest and clawed at his face. He responded by releasing one of his arms from around her waist in order to pin her arms down. Now all she had was her fin, which she flailed with all her might, scraping it against his sandpaper skin. She was raw emotion, raw terror.

A
fter a long time of desperate struggles, exhaustion eventually wore her out and Sara was left so weak she couldn’t move. Sobs shook her chest as unrecognized tears floated from her eyes into the seawater.

When she’d cried all the tears she had, the haze of
fear lifted and she was left feeling drained–emotionally and physically exhausted. Even holding her head in place was too much of an effort and her head bobbed back and forth in time with the strokes of Xanthus’s tail. It was a relief when she felt his hand press her cheek into his chest.

It was a long time before
the strained breaths of water began to pass more easily in and out of her lungs. Then a miracle occurred. Her fear melted completely away and she relaxed in his arms.

She
could hear Xanthus’s watery breaths. They were smooth, even, and slow. It was pitiful that as hard as she fought, he wasn’t even winded. Or would the correct term be “watered?”

S
ara was soothed by the rhythmic stroke of his fin. With her ear at his chest, she heard the steady beating of his heart. Those thump, thump, thumping sounds relaxed her even more. She closed her eyes just to rest them for a moment. Even her eyes were tired.

“Sara?”
Underwater, the tones of Xanthus’s voice woke her up. She hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep. How much time had passed? It didn’t feel like too long.

“Sara? Are you a
ll right?” He spoke again. His voice hummed in the water and was laced with real concern.

S
ara knew he was waiting for a response. Her first instinct was to give him the silent treatment. After what he’d put her through, he didn’t deserve an acknowledgement. However, Sara was curious to see what her own voice sounded like underwater. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook yet, so she settled on, “I’m not talking to you.” Her voice sounded not only weak, but also strange and foreign.

S
ara felt his chest shaking and heard a low rumble.

“Oh no, you did not just laugh me.”
Anger seemed to give her strength. “You heartless beast. You think my situation is funny? You didn’t even know if I could breathe underwater, but here we are anyway. I could have died.”

“You said that breathing underwater was horrible
. That meant you could do it. I would have never…”

“Did I say I could?
” Sara interrupted. “You assumed. Thank heaven you assumed right or I would be dead. And I told you I was terrified of the water. I can’t believe you pulled me under anyway.”

“
Sara, I would never have let you drown. I know it was terrifying, but it worked, didn’t it? Are you still afraid?”

Sara
couldn’t think of a thing to say about that. She wasn’t about to admit he might be right. Instead, she changed the subject. “Where is your house? It’s in the Pacific ocean, isn’t it?”

“Actually
, it’s in the Mediterranean Sea. Remember?”

“What? We aren’t swimming there
, are we?”

“No, we aren’t
swimming to the Mediterranean.” She heard the smile in his voice and was angry all over again.

“Ouch,” he
said.

Oh
, yeah. She pinched him. Hard too, which was about all she could do. It wasn’t her fault he was stronger than she was. Xanthus let the pinch slide without a comment.

“
We’re going to my houseboat, near Waikiki.”

“Waikiki?
What is taking us so long? We should have been there hours ago,” she said, exaggerating.

“We took the scenic route.”

The
faint glow of a boat appeared in the distance. As they got closer, Sara made out more boats lined up in a row. “How are we going to get on your boat without anyone seeing us?”

“I have a
hatch that opens up from underneath. No one will see us.” Xanthus swam up to the boat closest to them and farthest from shore. Underneath, she could make out a dark, round door.

He positioned
them below the door, pushed open the hatch, and swam straight up. His head broke the surface of the water a fraction of a second before hers. As she breathed out, ocean water poured from her mouth and down her body. The next breath she took in filled her lungs with warm, humid air. It felt so good to breathe air again.

The room
they were in was dark with no windows and a sealed door was just ahead of them. Xanthus closed the lid on the hatch they had passed through and turned a handle to lock it in place. The room was now pitch black, but Xanthus seemed to know exactly where to go. Without hesitation, he moved over to the sealed door and opened it.

He reached down under
Sara’s fin and once again lifted her up into a cradle hold. In a smooth motion, they were moving through the door. He turned and sealed it shut. They were traveling through what looked to be the main living area, dripping water all along the way. For a houseboat, it was incredibly spacious. Or maybe Sara was just used to her tiny apartment.

It was
also very masculine, with dark, knotted, wood-paneled walls. Sconces shaped like old lanterns gave the room a warm glow. The windows were covered with blinds and shut tight. Sparse, oversized furniture was placed randomly throughout the room—a huge leather couch, a large, flat-screen television, a table with two matching chairs. That was about it.

The few items
Xanthus had looked expensive and there was not much in the way of a décor theme. It was a typical bachelor pad. Actually, this was the first bachelor pad she’d been in. But it’s what she would have expected.

Xanthus sat
Sara down on his leather couch. As soon as he moved away, she began to shiver. It felt a little chilly but she guessed her tremors were coming more from shock than the cool air.

“
I’ll be right back,” Xanthus said.

Sara
nearly fell off the couch as she leaned forward to get a better look at him as he moved. Her eyes widened in shock. Instead of the vertical walking movements she was used to, he appeared to swim through the air. It looked surreal and amazingly cool.

Xanthus
passed through the door of his bedroom and out of sight. She heard a tortured growl. Again, she leaned forward, clutching the arm of the couch. “Xanthus? Are you all right?” He didn’t answer right away. For several moments, she was worried. When she was about shout out again, Xanthus walked back in the room wearing a plush red robe. His legs were back. How in the heck did he do that?

S
ara sure wished she knew. Her heartbeat picked up as she considered the possibility that he might know how she could grow two normal legs. Could it be possible?

Xanthus
had a white robe clutched in his hands. Sara slipped her arms in the oversized sleeves and belted the robe around her waist.

Okay,
now that she was clothed and safe, she needed some answers. Sara shot a glare in Xanthus’s direction. “All right, Mr. Dimitriou, it’s time for you to answer a few questions.” She had a million. Her first one was a no-brainer. “How in the world are you able to grow legs?”

“They’re a gift from Triton.
When I’m on dry land, I have legs. When I enter the ocean, I get my fin back.”

“Triton, huh?
You don’t think he would ever…”

Xanthus
frowned and shook his head.

That would be a
no. Triton would not be giving her legs. Well, that stunk, but it wasn’t like she knew what she was missing. She’d spent her life in a wheelchair. She guessed she would be staying in one. Still, that one glimmer of hope that had come and gone so quickly was devastating.

Xanthus
frowned, pity written across his face. Like he cared anyway, Mr. Nice-one-minute-Jerk-the-next.

“I get it, no legs for me,
” Sara said. “I do have one question I need to ask you.”

S
he pulled her hair back to keep it from getting the back of her robe wet. “Do you have a towel?”

“A towel?
That’s your one question?” Xanthus smiled.

“What? No
, of course not,” Sara answered, feeling foolish.

“Just a minute.”
Xanthus left and came back with a towel.

“
So what is the
one
question you want to ask me?” He looked doubtful. The couch sagged as he sat down next to her.

“Wh
y were you so angry after saving that woman?” Sara saw his eyes darken at that question.

“
I was angry with myself,” he said. “That night, when I saved that human, I broke one of Triton’s most basic rules. I am never to interfere in the lives of humans unless they threaten our way of life or me. I misused the power he granted me. It was a breach of trust.” Xanthus paused and sighed. “I just didn’t want you to see a woman fall to her death. Then when you asked me how I saved her, it was like having an accusation flung in my face. I was angry with myself. I acted dishonorably.”

“A
re you sorry you saved her?”

“No. I’m not sorry
I saved her. But my personal feelings shouldn’t supersede Triton’s commands. Was that all you wanted to ask me?” He smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

S
ara gave half a smile back. “No, there is another.” She scrunched her brows in confusion. “How in the world can you fly?”

Xanthus’s
smile turned genuine. “I don’t fly. I hover.”

“Fly
. Hover. Whatever. How did you do it?”

“See th
is these bands?” He pulled his sleeve up to show the familiar metal band around his bicep. He also had matching ones on his other bicep and waist.

“Yes.” Sara nodded as she looked at the gold band with the strange writing.

“They are
maj bands. You humans might call them anti-gravity bands.”

“Oh, wow
. That’s really cool.” Sara reached out, touched the metal, and traced the strange writing. “Is that another gift from Triton?”

“No
. This one was a gift from Calypso to all her descendants. We’ve had them for about a hundred years.”

“
So you grew up with them?” Sara draped the towel around her shoulders.

Xanthus
looked away. “Actually, I was around a while before they were gifted to us.”

“Excuse me
?” Sara’s pulled on his arm. “I must have heard you wrong. I thought you’ve had them for a century.”

He cleared his throat and
shrugged. “I did.”

“
How old
are
you?”