Tempest Unleashed (23 page)

Thank God.

Still, he should be dead. That’s what all the doctors had hinted at, what every bit of medical science told them. Yet here he was, in a coma, but alive. My dad thought it was his mermaid half that kept him from dying, but whatever it was, I was grateful.

Still, it wasn’t enough. Nobody knew if Moku would come out of the coma or not, and if he did, the doctors weren’t sure what kind of brain damage he’d have.

My dad kept saying his mermaid half would protect him, but I wasn’t so optimistic. If the last eight months had taught me anything, it was that the last thing being a mermaid protected you from was pain and suffering. In fact, it seemed to make both worse.

Still, I refused to think about all that yet. Refused to worry about it. I just wanted Moku to wake up. I closed my eyes and tried to believe that he was going to be all right, that somehow everything would be okay. It had to be. I couldn’t lose Moku too. I just couldn’t.

“It never would have happened if you’d been here.” Rio finally spoke, his words hurling across the silence between us. They struck me, sharp and poison-tipped, just as I was sure he’d intended. Though I fought not to react, I felt their impact all the way to my soul.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I’m so sorry.” And I was. If this was what had happened to my family in my absence, then I’d never been more sorry about a decision in my life.

“Yeah, I can tell,” he answered with a totally disgusted glance. “You looked really sorry when you were in the waiting room, hanging all over your boyfriend—or whatever the hell you call that weird animal thing you’re dating.”

“He’s a selkie.”

“He’s a
freak
.”

“Come on, Rio.” I glanced at Moku with a sigh. “You really think this is what he needs right now?”

“How the hell would you know what he needs?” Rio reached over and shoved me in the shoulder, hard. Something he’d never done before.

I ignored the sudden sharp pain, made worse by the sensitivity of my skin above water. “I don’t.” God, it grated to admit that. “Not like you do.”

“That’s right, you don’t. You haven’t been here—not for him. Not for anyone.”

“I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t
care
! It’s not the same thing. And now
we
don’t care, not about you. Why don’t you leave? Why don’t you get the hell out of here? No one wants you around anyway.”

“Rio—”

“Go.” He tried to drag me out of the chair but I was too strong for him. Frustrated, hurting, he started shoving the chair toward the door. “Just go!”

“Rio, stop it!” I was getting angry now too. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yeah, right. The second your loser boyfriend wants you, you’ll be gone. So you should leave now, before Moku wakes up. I won’t let you hurt him again.”

That took the fight right out of me. “I promise you, I won’t leave while Moku is hurt.”

“But you
will
leave, so what does it matter when?” He choked on a sob, and for a second I saw the lost little boy he was trying so hard to hide. And then he was gone, hurtling past me and out the door.

“Rio, stop!”

He didn’t. I needed to follow him, to chase him down and make him talk to me—really talk to me—but I didn’t want to leave Moku alone, not even for a few minutes. At the same time, Rio shouldn’t be alone right now either.

Biting my lip, I lowered my head to the side of Moku’s bed and just breathed for a few seconds. If I’d had my cell, I would have texted my dad in the waiting room, told him to look for Rio. But I didn’t have a phone anymore. I didn’t need one in my new life.

God, it felt strange—and terrible. It used to be that I believed I could fit into whichever of the two worlds I chose. These days, though, it felt like I was as ill equipped to deal with my old life as I was my new one.

So, what was I supposed to do now?

“Oh, Moku,” I whispered. “Please, please don’t do this. Please come back to me. I miss you so much.”

I threaded my fingers through his cold, limp ones and squeezed tightly. “Come on,” I cajoled. “Don’t you want to see me? I’m dying to talk to you. I have so many stories about sharks and sea turtles and the coolest coral reef I’ve ever seen. It makes the ones in Hawaii look like nothing. I swear, there was every color in the rainbow. You would have loved it.

“And just last week, I had an up-close-and-personal encounter with a great white shark. I survived, obviously, but for a while there I was pretty sure it was going to eat me. I’ve never seen that many teeth so close—”

“I’m not sure if you should finish that story. I don’t think my heart could take it.”

I turned toward the door, where my dad was leaning against the wall, his casual stance belying the pain in his eyes.

“You saw Rio?” I asked.

“Yeah. I called my secretary. She’s going to give him a ride home.”

“He’s really mad at me.”

My dad sighed. “He’s really mad at the world, Tempest. You’re just a small part of it.”

“I’m sorry.” It was hard to look him in the eye as I said it.

“Nothing to be sorry about, darlin’.” He tried to smile, but his lips trembled a little at the corners. He looked drawn, tired, and about ten years older than he’d seemed when I left. No matter what he said, I knew these last eight months had been hard on him. On all of them.

“What are we going to do, Dad?”

“We’re going to keep talking to your brother until he wakes up.” He slid into the chair beside me, looked me full in the face. “He
is
going to wake up, Tempest.”

“I know,” I told him, because anything else was unthinkable, unsayable. But fear—huge, looming, overwhelming fear—throbbed inside of me with each rise and fall of my too-human lungs.

With every beat of my too-frail human heart.

Kona was sprawled in a chair in the waiting room when my dad finally convinced me to leave Moku. He’d given me a hundred bucks and instructions to “pick up some food and then get some sleep.” I almost laughed. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to sleep again, at least not without nightmares playing through my head of Moku nearly drowning.

Still, he was right. I needed to go home, to talk to Rio. To show him that I still loved him even after choosing the sea. Too bad I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that.

Leaning down, I brushed a few strands of Kona’s hair out from in front of his eyes. When that didn’t wake him, I dropped a light kiss on his lips.

His gorgeous silver eyes blinked open and he smiled sweetly at me. “You okay?”

“I’ve been better.”

“I know. I saw Rio.”

“Yeah. Hard to recognize him, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He still looks a lot like you.”

“Perpetually angry?”

“I was talking about the stubborn jaw and don’t-screw-with-me expression, but whatever works.” He grew serious. “How’s Moku?”

“No change.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. We’re supposed to pick up some food and go back to the house. Feed Goth Boy. Dad will be home when visiting hours end.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” He stood up, still holding my hand.

We headed for the door, but when we got there somebody was coming in just as we were trying to leave. I brushed against him in passing and my entire body went nuts. Goose bumps, shivers, electric shocks. The whole nine yards. Plus the hum of my powers suddenly kicked into top gear.

I stiffened, gasped in surprise. Turned to look back at him the same second he turned to look at me.

I knew, even before our eyes met, but it was still a shock. For him too, obviously.

“Tempest?”

Without conscious thought, I stepped forward to meet him. “Mark.”

Chapter 20

Kona stiffened beside me, and I felt more than saw his hands clench into fists. It was only for a second. Then he was relaxing, pulling away from me, extending his hand for Mark to shake. I glanced up at him, a little shocked at the easy smile on his face when I could feel the tension radiating through him.

“Hey, Mark, how are you?”

Mark looked at Kona’s hand for long seconds before taking it. “I’ve been better, Kona. How are you?”

I didn’t hear Kona’s answer, didn’t hear much of anything but the roaring in my ears as the two of them exchanged obviously fake pleasantries. From the second my dad had told me what happened, I’d known I was going to see Mark again, if only to thank him for saving Moku’s life. But I hadn’t expected to see him here, hadn’t expected to see him
now
.

I was completely unprepared.

Even worse, I couldn’t think of anything to do that didn’t involve throwing myself into his arms and showering him with kisses of gratitude. I had a feeling that wouldn’t go over too well with Kona, though.

In the end, I settled for saying, “Hi, Mark,” and leaning into him for a quick, casual hug.

But nothing between Mark and me had ever been casual, and the way he wrapped his arms around me this time, pulling me close, was no exception. The second he pressed his body against mine, it was like I had never left. In a flash, I remembered everything I once was. Everything we once were together.

It was like coming home.

Except my powers went crazy, my body lighting up as energy hummed through me.

Kona cleared his throat and I pulled back reluctantly, a little unsure of how many seconds—or minutes—had passed while Mark just held me.

“Thank you,” I told him awkwardly. “For saving Moku. For watching out for him when I couldn’t.” From the time he was born, it had been my job to take care of Moku. How could I have forgotten that?

“No sweat, Tempe. You know I love Mo.” Mark looked down at the ground, shuffled his feet a little. “I just wish I could have found him sooner.”

“He’s going to come out of this. He’ll be okay.” I blinked my eyes a bunch of times in a useless attempt to banish the tears.

Kona cleared his throat again. “I’m going to go wait in the hall. Give you a couple of minutes to catch up.”

My knees turned to putty at the suggestion, and I glanced at Kona incredulously. It was obvious, from his tightly locked jaw to his white-knuckled fists, that he had no desire to leave me alone with Mark. And still he’d made the suggestion. That unselfishness, that determination to put my needs above his own, was just one of the reasons I’d fallen so hard for him.

Which was also why I couldn’t take him up on the offer. I wanted to, would love nothing more than to stay right here talking to Mark for as long as I had a voice, but it wasn’t right. It wouldn’t be fair—to either of them.

“No, that’s okay.” I forced the words out. “We need to get going. Rio’s probably starved.”

Mark stepped back. “I didn’t mean to keep you.” His voice was stiff now, his jaw rigid, and I could tell I had hurt him by refusing Kona’s offer—as much as I would have hurt Kona by taking him up on it.

Though they were being total gentlemen, I still felt like a rope in a tug-of-war contest—caught between two opposing sides. Belonging equally to both of them. It made my head throb.

“Don’t be stupid,” I told Mark. “We owe Moku’s life to you.”

“Logan helped. He’s going to try to stop by later, after he gets off work.”

“I’ll come back then. After I spend a little time with Rio—”

“And take a nap,” Kona interjected. “You’re exhausted.”

The proprietary way he said it irritated me to no end. Probably because I knew it had a lot more to do with Mark than with me.

Mark didn’t rise to the bait, though. Just stepped farther back and said, “Don’t let me keep you. I’m just going to stop in and see Moku for a few minutes. But I’ll tell Logan to look for you later.”

“Yeah, please. I want to thank him too.”

“It’s nothing you wouldn’t have done for us.” His phone beeped and he pulled it out, glanced down. “That’s your dad now. I guess I’ll catch you around, huh, Tempest?”

“Sure. And thanks again. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.” Though I meant every word, they came out stilted, which drove me nuts. For years, Mark had been a lot more than my boyfriend. He’d been my best friend, the person I wanted to spend more time with than anyone else besides Moku. And now we could barely look each other in the eye. It was awful.