Tempest Unleashed (31 page)

“I want to go to the beach,” Moku whined as I placed a plateful of pancakes in front of him.

“The doctor said you needed to take it easy for a few days,” I reminded him.

“I don’t want to take it easy. Besides, in a few days you’re going to be gone again. I want to go to the beach with you, Tempest! I wanna watch you surf!”

I sighed. “Look, how about we make a deal? You eat your pancakes and then we’ll go sit on the beach for a while.”

“But I want to go swimming! It’s boring being sick.”

“Boring or not—Dad will kill me if anything happens to you. He’ll be back in an hour. If he says you can go in the water, then you can. Until then, it’s the sand or nothing.”

He sighed, obviously annoyed. “Fine. It’s better than sitting in this stupid house, anyway.”

“See? Things are looking up already.” I brushed a kiss over the top of his head. “I’m going to go change into my swimsuit. Eat your pancakes and we’ll go.”

A few minutes later, Moku and I had cleaned up the kitchen and were on our way down to the beach. He was practically dancing with excitement and I wasn’t much better. It had been a long time since I’d hung out with my brother at the beach, and if I was lucky, maybe some of my friends would be there too. Scooter and Bach, Tony and Logan. Brianne. Mark. My stomach did a little flip at the thought.

We had barely crossed the street before I saw them. All five guys were in the water, paddling their boards out to catch a wave while my girlfriends Brianne and Mickey watched from shore. It had been so long since I’d seen my friends, and watching them now made me realize just how much I’d missed them.

“Look, Tempest, Mark’s the first one up!” Moku said, pointing at the water. Sure enough, in his bright orange and white Hawaiian board shorts, Mark was hard to miss as he caught pretty decent air.

“He looks good,” I told Moku.

“Not as good as Logan! Look!”

I smiled as my best bud took the next wave, and ended up shooting the barrel. He rode it all the way in, while Bach and Scooter snaked Tony.

Logan was getting ready to paddle back out when he saw me. A huge grin split his face and then he was sloshing the last few yards to the shallows. Moku and I ran down to meet him.

“Tempest! I heard you were back!” he yelled as we got closer, his Australian accent as heavy as ever. “It’s about time you made it down here.”

“She was at the hospital with me,” Moku told him seriously.

“I know, man.” He reached out, ruffled my brother’s hair, then pulled him into his side for a one-armed hug. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Thank you for saving him,” I said, throwing my arms around Logan’s neck in a huge hug.

He laughed and picked me up, swung me around. “Mark did most of it. I just held his hand when he got scared.”

“Moku?” I asked, confused, because I thought he’d been unconscious the whole time.

“No. Mark.” Logan winked at me before his blue eyes turned serious. “It’s good to have you back, Tempest Maguire.”

“It’s good to be back, Logan Callaway. Except, I probably won’t be staying all that long—”

“I know. Mark told me.”

My eyes bugged out of my head. “He told you?”

“About you going to school in Hawaii for the year? Yeah. A kind of homage to your mom. I think it’s cool. Still wish you were here, though.”

“I kind of do too, Logan.” I rested my head on his shoulder.

A couple minutes later, Mark dropped down next to Moku on the towel we’d set out. “How you feeling?” he asked.

“Good,” Moku answered. “I’m not sick anymore.”

“Glad to hear that.” He held his fist out for a bump, which my brother was only too happy to give him. “So, what are you doing up here then? Don’t you want to go in the water?”

Moku sighed. “Tempest won’t let me. She says we have to wait to clear it with Dad.” His tone said that I was obviously the worst sister ever.

Mark glanced at me apologetically. “She’s probably right. Dads tend to get bent on stuff like that.”

“Still, she doesn’t have to sit here and watch me like a baby. She can surf. Right, Logan?”

“Absolutely,” my friend answered.

“Maybe I don’t want to surf. Did you ever think of that, smart guy?”

The only response I got to that was three of the most incredulous looks I had ever seen. Which just went to show how well these guys knew me.

“I’ll hang with Moku for a while. Take my board. It’s not a custom-made Brewer, but the shape isn’t that different from yours.” Mark pushed my shoulder lightly. “Go,” he told me. “Have fun.”

Logan was already on his feet, reaching for my hand to pull me up. “Come on, just one. It’s been forever since you surfed with us.”

It had been forever since I’d surfed, period. And to do it on an unfamiliar board? I’d probably make a total ass of myself. At the same time, though, the waves
were
calling …

“Okay, just once.”

Mark snorted, muttering something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “Yeah, right.”

“Just once,” I reiterated to Moku. “You’ll be okay?”

He rolled his eyes. “Really, Tempest? Mark saved my life once already. I think he can handle watching me sit on the beach.”

“Whoa! You got owned,” Logan said with a grin. “Come on, let’s go shock the hell out of Scooter, Tony, and Bach. It’ll be fun.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s do it.” I grabbed Mark’s board, which was a little longer and more unwieldy than mine—he was taller and weighed more—and ran for the water. Once I was on it, though, I realized he was right—the shape was pretty much the same as the Brewer I had used for months before becoming mermaid.

“You ready?” Logan asked as we started paddling out.

“I was born ready, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, yeah, big words. Let’s see if you can actually pony up.”

“Let’s see if you can
keep
up.”

We kept paddling until we got close to where the other guys were. “Hey, Tempest!” Scooter hooted. “Good to see you out here, girl!”

“Good to be out here!”

The other guys added their greetings, but before we could do anything else, a huge wave started surging. “Party wave!” Bach yelled, and we all started hauling ass straight toward it.

It was going to be a monster, I could tell, so I braced myself, duck dived down, and came up exactly where I needed to be. A quick glance at Logan told me if I didn’t move it, he was going to be up before I was, so I rushed it a little. Got my feet, found my balance, and then promptly got knocked ass over teakettle into the wave.

I hit hard, rolled, morphed just enough to let my gills do the work for me, then made my way back up to the surface in time to watch Logan and Bach find the sweet spot.

“Dude!” Scooter said as I climbed back on Mark’s board and made my way over to him. “The waves in Hawaii not up to snuff or something? You almost never get worked like that.”

“It doesn’t look like you did any better,” I said, punching his arm. But he was right. I had been totally worked over—I just didn’t know if it was because of the board or because I was that out of practice. I was really hoping it was the board.

He pretended to be wounded from my punch. “Yeah, well, I’m not some crazy good surfing goddess. I’m allowed to get worked.”

“This is true,” I teased, then nodded behind him. “Another one’s coming. Wanna try again?”

“No doubt.”

We started paddling.

“This one’s a monster!” Scooter yelled. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Who are you talking to?”

He just laughed. I shifted my weight, watched as the wave got closer and closer. Then I duck dived down for extra momentum, came up right where I was supposed to again, and tried this whole surfing thing one more time.

And it was magic. Beautiful. Like I’d never, ever left. Within a second of finding my legs, I’d also found the sweet spot, and then I just rode. Up and over, I got great air and finished with a nice run down the center of the barrel.

I glanced toward shore, where Moku was cheering for me. I waved at him and Mark and then started the trek back in.

“You done so soon?” Scooter asked.

“I’ve got to get back to my brother. Maybe I’ll come out again tomorrow morning, stay for a while.”

“We’re going for pizza later. You should come.”

I smiled, grateful and a little amazed at his easy acceptance. I’d disappeared on them twice, without a word, yet my friends were willing to just take me back. “I’d like that,” I told him. “I missed you guys.”

“We missed you too. Besides, you look much better in a bikini than Tony does.”

“Since when does Tony wear a bikini?”

“Come to Frazoni’s with us and I’ll tell you the story.”

“Bribery?”

“Hey, I’m not proud. We need to hang out before you head back to paradise. Plus, I want to hear about those waves off Waimea—my parents said they’d spring for a trip next month. Maybe you could show me around.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I told him, but the lie made my stomach hurt. I hadn’t surfed Hawaii in more than two years, and I wasn’t going to be anywhere near there when Scooter made it over.

By the time I got back to Mark and Moku, my brother had convinced Mark to take him into the water on his surfboard. “Like a raft ride,” Moku told me. “I swear, no swimming.”

He looked so hopeful and I’d come so close to losing him, that I couldn’t resist the puppy dog eyes for long. So I traipsed down the beach with them, and when we got to the water, we put Moku on the surfboard between us. As we floated him around the shallows, I was careful to stay on one side while Mark stayed on the other. Moku giggled and kept trying to talk us into making it wilder, but aside from a few bumps here and there, we kept it calm.

At least until I looked onto the shore and saw my father running at us, waving his arms like a crazy man. “What’s wrong with Dad?” Moku asked.

“I have no idea.” I turned to Mark. “Watch him, will you?”

“Sure.” He looked as concerned as I felt.

As I hit the shore, I heard my father yelling, “Get him out, Tempest! Get Moku out of the water!”

I didn’t know what was wrong, and I didn’t stick around to find out. I just dived for Moku, whipped him off the surfboard and waded to shore with him in my arms. When we got there, my dad all but ripped Moku away and started checking him over.

“Dad? What’s wrong? I was careful. He’s fine.”

For long seconds my dad didn’t answer, just continued to check Moku’s arms and legs. When he was convinced my brother was okay, he handed Moku to Mark, who had come to see what all the commotion was about. Then he pulled me a few steps down the beach for privacy.

“It wasn’t a surfing accident,” my dad told me fiercely.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Moku’s near drowning. It wasn’t a surfing accident. That thing, that witch that went after you when you were ten. She was here. It wasn’t a bump on the head that nearly killed him. It was her.”

Chapter 26

It was like my father had started speaking another language. “What?” I asked, unable to truly understand what he was saying. “Tiamat was
here
?” My blood ran cold, even as a freight train roared through my head. “How do you know?” I whispered. “I thought you were at work when Moku was hurt?”

“Rosa. It scared the hell out of her. It’s why she hasn’t been here for the last week—she quit after I asked her not to call the police and report what happened.”

“What did she see?”

“Moku going into the water like he was in a trance. When she called him back, he didn’t respond or act like he heard her at all, which is totally not like him. And then, when she started to pull him out, it was like something was holding on to him, refusing to let go. I tried to convince her it was seaweed, but she knew better.”

God, it really was the same as when Tiamat had come after me all those years ago. It was a horrifying thought.

“Tiamat was here,” I said again, just so there was no misunderstanding. “At
this
beach. And she attacked Moku.”

“Yes. That’s why I don’t want him near the water. What if she comes back and we can’t fight her off? I almost lost you that night in Hawaii, almost lost him the other day. I won’t risk it. Not again. I’m not losing any more of my family to that damn ocean.” He looked so tormented that it nearly ripped me apart.

“She won’t get her hands on him, Dad.” Lightning suddenly crisscrossed the sky, slamming into the sand so hard that the very ground around us trembled.

My father jumped and screams echoed down the beach before being drowned out in the loud boom of thunder rumbling through the air. Pitch-black clouds rolled in from nowhere, letting loose a heavy curtain of frigid rain that had people screeching and running for their cars.

“We need to go in,” my dad said, glancing at the sky even as he reached for my arm. “This storm looks dangerous.”

He had no idea just
how
dangerous it could be.

I yanked my arm from his grasp, but even as I did, I reached for the control Jared had so painstakingly taught me. For the discipline I’d spent the last eight months working on. But it was gone. Had evaporated like so much mist in the face of Tiamat’s newest attack on my family.