“Seriously, Wrell. I’ve only managed to make anything happen six or seven times since we’ve started this. You might want to start with a more achievable goal. You don’t want me to get a complex.”
He reached out a hand, causing his left pectoral to twitch, and pressed an encouraging squeeze on the back of my shoulder. With his touch, he gave me yet another behold-the-whale-moveth silent movie. Even his visions couldn’t compete with the impact of his touch and warrior sensuality. Turning, I lowered my hand to help cover his effect on me.“I know, I know. I’ll get there. Thanks for believing that. I hope I can prove you right.”
Looking away from the whale, I noticed Therin and Lelas conversing a few feet away. I thought I saw Lelas’s eyes dart away from my growing reaction to Wrell, and I cursed my body once again. I still couldn’t figure out how mer sexuality worked, but I had yet to see any evidence of arousal from anyone. Of course, as serious as the mers were, sex was probably a very solemn ceremony that even their bodies didn’t dare betray without proper permission.
I glanced back at Wrell, which was stupid, as his face definitely didn’t help the situation.“You mind if I take a break for a moment?”
I didn’t wait to see his response and swam toward the whale. Nothing like a rotting carcass to get the blood flowing away from certain parts of my anatomy.
While I was right that I was a long way from being able to move a fifty-ton sea mammal, considering I didn’t even know I could affect water nearly three weeks ago, we’d made a lot of progress. While the four of us had stayed disciplined over the amount of miles we covered every day, we stopped frequently to practice my new parlor trick, especially when we came across something that would make good target practice.
Even though all we were doing was traveling endlessly, trying to reach Hawaii with no guarantees we would learn anything useful, I was the happiest I could remember since settling into my life with Sonia in Hillcrest. It reminded me of the first few weeks with Therin, when he’d had to teach me how to control my fire before Syleen would allow me back into the tribe. This was even better. All awkwardness between Therin and I had evaporated over the miles, at least as much as could be expected between a long-lost father who was part fish and his son who inherited his mother’s pesky demon blood. Our little heart-to-heart had gotten most of our dirty laundry out in the open, and I’m sure it didn’t hurt that our foursome spent every minute of every day together. Either get close to each other or resort to murder. I had to admit, the little-boy voice that wanted a father was finally satiated. I might have lost everything and everyone I had loved in my old life, but I’d found a new life here and a family I’d never dreamed of. Funny how it all seemed to work out. Well, if working out entailed swimming through the ocean trying to find out what was killing and capturing mermaids.
Even without getting within ten yards of it, the whale did its job, and my body quit putting out all my business for public display. Looking over my shoulder, I saw my three shadows making their way over.
I was fairly certain Wrell was aware of my attraction to him, but it didn’t seem to bother him—or entice him, sadly. Actually, in the weeks that had passed, that attraction had grown to a full-fledged crush. If I looked too deeply at it, I might have to admit to myself that I was starting to fall in love with him. I hadn’t made that mistake since high school. Fall in love with the straight quarterback. Yeah, that always works out. However, unlike high school, I didn’t delude myself in the slightest. I knew the closest I’d ever get to Wrell was the occasional touch he bestowed. Considering Wrell was about as physically demonstrative as Therin, I was rarely honored with the act—even if I thought about it a little too much the rest of the time. Honestly, I think Therin and Lelas also knew of my feelings for Wrell. While I recognized it wasn’t something Dad was comfortable with, I had to give him credit for taking it all in stride. In some ways, as much as I loved Lelas, I think Therin felt like he’d gotten a daughter through it all as well. I wasn’t sure how much time the two had spent together before I arrived, but since Lelas was only in her sixties and so much younger than him, I doubted they’d had much to bond over before.
The first few days of this journey, I was afraid it was going to be like those tortuous four weeks of the hunt for the Great Spirit. Speed swimming from sunup to sundown, no talking, no eating, no anything except getting ready to face a blood-frenzied hoard of sharks and trying not to die. As much as I hated it, I was secretly looking forward to the next one—talk about primal! I wasn’t going to tell anyone else that, though. As far as the rest of the mers were concerned, the demon boy thought the whole thing archaic, offensive, and hungry-making. While the four of us kept a similar pace as in the Great Hunt, we shared much eating, a lot of talking, and a sense of purpose and hope.
“You are going to get it, Brett. You were able to move those rocks the day before yesterday. Just give it time.”Therin pulled up beside me.“It will be like when you were struggling to control your fire, a power that you knew you had inside of you. It will take more time for something new.”
I rolled my eyes at him affectionately.“Those rocks were about the size of Lelas’s fists, and they only moved an inch. If that.”
“It is the starting place, and I believe you will progress quickly.”
Lelas swam past us, closing the distance toward the whale.“Actually, the starting place was moving a shark that was in motion, which I personally believe was a wonderful place to start, since I am still alive to say so. I agree with Therin. You will master this power, but I also have to trust that if the situation needs that certain power, you will find it in you to pull it out at the appropriate time.”She turned away and reached out toward the whale’s body.
I started to make a comment about it being unwise to trust such a thing to chance when I realized Lelas’s intention.“Oh, no! Please tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re going to do.”
She glanced over her shoulder, her expression genuine innocence.“Tell you that I am not going to do what?”
An image of Lelas rearing back and plunging her teeth into the soft side of the whale flashed through my mind.
I grimaced and felt my stomach gurgle.“Yeah, that.”I turned to the sex god behind me.“Thanks for that visual, Wrell. I’m not going to be able to look Lelas in the face for a good month and a half.”
Lelas smiled, a laugh in her voice.“While I believe Wrell may have slightly overstated my enthusiasm, I do indeed intend to dine on what the sea provides us.”
Wrell gave one of his all too rare grins, transforming his serious, fierce face to the point you could almost see the child he once was.
Therin and Wrell fell into place beside Lelas. Therin withdrew his blade as he reached the carcass and sliced off a large chunk, then handed it to Lelas.“I did not know there was anything my son was unwilling to devour.”
My lip curled even higher as I watched the three of them begin to eat.“I draw the line at things that are rotting to the point that bits of them are disintegrating.”I motioned toward the gray particles that began to mist around the slices Therin and Wrell made.
With two flicks of her lavender tail, Lelas was in front of me, holding out a thick portion of the flesh. One side still had the gelatinous-looking skin attached.“Try it. It is here for us to partake, and it saves us from having to hunt later.”She smiled at my hesitation, or maybe the ugly expression I was making.“It has a good, pungent flavor, like the roots of the gut weed.”
I gave her my best puppy-dog face.“Seriously? You want me to eat that?”I shuddered.“I’m pretty sure there’s something growing on it.”
She just nodded, smile broadening.
With an internal groan, I took the putrid meat from her hands.
I heard her laugh when I stared at it for too long.“Okay. Fine!”I closed my eyes and sank my teeth into the edge, trying to avoid the thick skin. Instantly upon contact with my tongue, bile rose. I forced it back down, along with the chunk of meat. She laughed again as I shuddered.
When I was certain it was going to stay down, I opened my eyes to see all three of them grinning stupidly at me.“Was this just some kind of prank to get me to eat that shit?”
Wrell’s dark eyes twinkled as he took a huge bite. As he did, part of the skin tore away from the chunk in his hand and stuck in the corner of his lips. His tongue darted out and swept it back in. Even he couldn’t make that sexy.
When I didn’t take the rest of the piece Lelas offered, she returned to Wrell and Therin and continued the meal.
