The Marked Ones (35 page)

‘Figured I owed you one.’

‘You really did.’ Lincoln smiled tightly. ‘Appreciated.’

‘I called mum!’ Ivyanne said softly to Tristan. ‘Aubrielle is going to meet us at Bracken and see what she can do for you. If it’s too deep, there’s a doc up north who can help us. Mum’s already sent out a bunch of people looking for Ardhi.’ She looked back at Lincoln. ‘I don’t suppose you saw which way he went?’

Lincoln shook his head, sifting through the nightmarish, watery events he had just been subjected to, looking for a clue. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I think he thought I was dead sooner than I was. The weirdo kissed me, shoved me down and then bam-he was gone. Is that some sort of mer mafia thing?’ he joked. ‘The kiss of death?’

Four heartbreakingly beautiful heads whipped around and regarded him with four sets of beautiful albeit stricken eyes. For ten seconds, there was a stunned silence.

Ivyanne was the first to break it. ‘He kissed you?!’ she demanded, abandoning Tristan and swooping down beside him. ‘Lincoln, are you sure?’

‘Oh-’ Bane’s hand went to his mouth. His dark eyes were wide, appalled.

Lincoln made a face at Ivyanne. ‘Does that sound like something I’d spread around if I wasn’t?’ he joked. ‘It was my first, and I prey, last gay experience. Can’t say I enjoyed it much-it felt more like he was sucking the life out of me, and I blacked out. Asphyxiation, you know?’ he shuddered. ‘When I came to my senses enough to realize I was checking out- permanently, everything was getting darker and Ardhi was gone. It was just me, some fish and I think maybe a dolphin?’ he frowned, realizing that he was babbling. But it was strange-he just felt so amped. ‘Though it’s out of season for them. Hope it wasn’t a shark! All that blood in the water...’

‘
No!’ Pintang’s wail was so sudden, so tortured, that Lincoln flinched, chills racing through him at the woeful sound.

‘
Nai’a?’ Bane asked him with wide eyes. Lincoln had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that, so he looked back at the stricken cleaning-girl.

Pintang threw herself down, smashing her head against the floor, towel sliding down slightly. ‘No! NO! Ardhi
no!’ she shrieked. Bane went to embrace her, but she threw him off. ‘Get off me!’ she sobbed. ‘Everybody leave me alone!’

Tristan struggled to get up, his tanned complexion more waxen now that his blood loss seemed to be compounded with shock. His eyes were fixed beyond Lincoln, on Ivyanne, his expression one of horror and anticipation.

Lincoln swiveled to look at Ivyanne, amazed to see her staring at him with utter disbelief, one hand in her mouth, like she intended to swallow it whole.

‘What did I say?’ Lincoln asked weakly, shooting a nervous glance at Pintang.

Tears began to run down Ivyanne’s face. ‘When we kiss underwater, Link.....’ she began haltingly, eyes unfocused. ‘When we, suck out the air.... it’s to blow our own in.... if Ardhi-’ her voice broke. ‘If Ardhi did that to you-it was to give you his life. And then we become dolphin. So if you saw one-’

Lincoln wasn’t following. It was all too big for his small life. ‘Are you telling me that Ardhi’s
dead?’

‘Not dead exactly, but lost to us.’ To his surprise, she reached out and took his hand. ‘And that means you’re one of
us now, Link. A mer. Ardhi gave you our gift.’

The whole world tilted crazily. Lincoln snatched his hand back, resting it against his heart. ‘But how?’

‘Magic!’ Ivyanne sniffled, offering him a weak smile. ‘Like I told you.’

‘I don’t understand!’ Tristan was sitting, paler now, shaken. ‘Did he say anything to you?’

Lincoln nodded. ‘He said he was the only one who could make Ivyanne happy,’ he whispered, heart racing as it all began to come into focus. ‘He said he’d finally prove it, and that she would love him for it.’

A fresh wail escaped Pintang, and Tristan looked like he was going to fall off the chair. His head snapped up to regard Ivyanne,
astonishment too weak a word to correctly describe how thrown the handsome blonde man appeared to be.

‘Ivyanne....’ his voice broke. ‘Ivyanne do you understand what has happened? Ardhi told me that if
he couldn’t have you, that I couldn’t-’ he pointed to Lincoln. ‘But why him? Why would he choose him? A human?’

‘I don’t know!’ Ivyanne cried, getting to her feet. ‘I can’t even think-’ she spun on Lincoln, staring down at him, her eyes looking twice the size in her face, magnified by tears. ‘Did you tell him Lincoln?’ she demanded. ‘About us? About it
all?’

Lincoln nodded, feeling guilty and not quite knowing why. ‘He tried to tell me I had no right to you, and that no one could ever love you like he did... so I put him straight.’ He shrugged. ‘I yelled at him, about how long I’ve known you, about what I’ve gone through, and how I’d never love anyone else and that you’d abandoned me for Tristan too! I said that you loved me, but you’d sacrificed us to do the right thing!’ He looked at all of the dumbstruck faces wildly, feeling helpless. ‘I’m sorry! But I thought he was going to kill me, so I didn’t see why I
shouldn’t.’

‘Don’t you guys get it?’ Pintang finally erupted. ‘God you’re all so stupid! Ardhi thought Tristan was unworthy, so he wouldn’t surrender you to him. But when he found out that you two go
way back-’ she paused to glare accusingly at Lincoln before whirling back on Ivyanne, ‘and that you loved Link most of all-he decided to offer up his life for your happiness!’ The words left her in a furious rush. ‘It was his way of proving that he valued you above himself, your highness. Something he’s been trying to tell you for months, but you didn’t listen!’ She picked up the first aid kit which was sitting beside her, and hefted it into the control panel of the boat, a scream of frustration ripping out of her lungs. The towel covering her slid off completely and Lincoln averted his eyes. ‘And now my brother’s dead- because of you three! Because no one could see what he could offer-and no one cared!’ she backed up. ‘Now you know, but it’s too late! I hate you all!’

With that Pintang turn and dove off the deck, towel falling away, her smooth skin glistening in the light before she dissolved into a shimmering spiral which plowed into the water almost noiselessly.

‘Oh no!’ Ivyanne shrieked, moving to go after her, but Tristan held her back. ‘Pintang!’

‘She needs to be alone Ivyanne.’ Tristan said quietly. ‘Or at least, with her mom and dad. Just give her time-she’ll calm down.’

‘Calm down? Ardhi’s dead!’ Ivyanne sank to her knees and beat at her temples. ‘Dead because of me!’

‘But
Lincoln and I are alive because of you.’ Tristan whispered. ‘Even if Ardhi hadn’t done what he’d done-you found Link in time to save him.’

‘He’s right.’ Bane’s accent sounded further away. ‘Because of you, Ardhi didn’t die a murderer, so you’ve spared his family
that shame.’

Lincoln’s heart was hammering like crazy-freaked out by Ivyanne’s meltdown and astounded to have seen a real mermaid in motion, but unable to compute the full implications of it all. He forced himself to get to his feet, feeling now, a strength he hadn’t noticed prior, like a current was surging through him, like whatever Pintang had just done,
he could do if he tried.

I’m a mer,
he thought, unable to make his spinning brain focus on any one of the people speaking frantically around him. It was like they were far, far away, and he was floating on a tidal wave of ecstasy. But then, as a wave breaks against the shore, Lincoln’s own surge came crashing back down, allowing him to focus on his current situation. Bane was starting the boat.

‘What are you going to do?’ Tristan was asking Ivyanne. His toffee colored eyes were saddened, and weary. ‘I mean, now that he’s one of us?’

One of them. Not just a mermaid- full a blood-turned by a Marked son! Lincoln was tempted to let out a whoop of victory. He could live for centuries! The wall between Ivyanne and himself had crumbled down at last! He looked at Ivyanne, catching her gaze, hoping to see his euphoria reflected there, but she turned away, back at the ocean, expression....bereft.

‘Both of you stop looking at me like that,’ she whispered, a fresh round of tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. ‘I don’t know what to make of anything right now.’

She hadn’t said yes, and she hadn’t said no. Lincoln looked at Tristan, a smile curving the corner of his lips. Tristan narrowed his eyes, a challenge sizzling in the air between them.

‘Don’t stress yourself out, my love,’ Lincoln said softly, placing a comforting yet possessive hand on her shoulder. Her skin under his palm made his body hum. For the first time in twelve years, Ivyanne was no longer untouchable, a situation he intended to make the most of. ‘From what you tell me, we’ve got a bit of time to figure it out....’

Tristan looked at him and smirked. ‘Maybe,’ he said snidely. ‘Or maybe in nine months, her future will be a little more certain....’ He lifted his chin and grinned devilishly at Lincoln, that one look sucking the air out of him more quickly than Ardhi had. ‘You know... because of that thing we did...’

‘Right,’ Ivyanne whispered, moving out from under Lincoln’s hand, scrambling to her feet and putting her back to both of them. ‘Right.....’

Lincoln’s heart plummeted. So excited had he been, at the very idea of sharing an existence with Ivyanne, he’d completely forgot the anguish which had driven Ardhi into exchanging his life for Lincoln’s-the threat of existing for hundreds of years without ever being able to hold her. Ardhi had passed on not only his breath-but his burden.

1.
      
35.

Everyone fussed over Ivyanne once they had all safely been delivered back to her mothers’ now very crowded house. The place was in complete chaos. Aubrielle was working on Tristan, who refused to let Ivyanne’s hand release his own clammy one, as Saraya barked orders at everyone who had come from the surrounding districts to help search for Ardhi and even Adele, who still hadn’t answered her phone. But she hadn’t been on Needle Island, so the little crews were checking out the other tiny islands which dotted the coast, as well as Ardhi’s parents cabin at the Cape.

Those who were not going out on search were fawning over Lincoln, their newest kin, giving him advice, telling him about the way his life had to suddenly change. Bane, Dalton, Remi and Marcus didn’t seem to pause for breath at all as they relayed their advice on how to handle the matter.

Lincoln no longer looked tired, but the expression of bewilderment on his face as he was welcomed to the fold was almost comical. He kept looking up at Ivyanne, imploring her with his eyes to help him, but Tristan’s grip on her trembling fingers was desperate enough to hold her to his side.

Vana looked troubled, to say the least. The moment she realized Ivyanne was okay, she’d begun to walk around in crazy circles, huffing and cursing under her breath, looking from Tristan with clear concern, to Lincoln with consternation. When her eyes met Ivyanne’s, all the daughter could do was shrug helplessly. Ivyanne could no sooner giver her mother an answer than she could herself-but if the queen was upset now, Ivyanne cringed to think of how she’d react when Ivyanne confessed about the line she’d crossed with Tristan earlier!

Ardhi’s parents had been called for, but Ivyanne didn’t know if they’d come. Perhaps Pintang had already been there, and if they
were coming, it was to rip everybody to shreds.

Not that much of Ivyanne was ‘whole’ enough to be shredded anyway. Tears for Ardhi leaked out of Ivyanne’s eyes with no sign of slowing. Her best friend was gone forever, and he’d given his life to make
her happy. Whether or not that had been his plan since he’d left the note, or a decision he’d made after hearing Lincoln’s story, would never be clear. But he was dead. She’d never be able to ask him, or yell at him, or thank him for any of it. Her last words to him had been hateful ones, and it made something deep inside her burn like acid. She’d been a fool to think that him loving her had been painful before. It was excruciating now.

‘Ivyanne?’

Ivyanne looked up, hitching the blanket someone had wrapped her in more tightly around her chest. Aubrielle had left Tristan’s side, and now he was staring at her. His handsome face was pale, and the pain and fear in his eyes evident. Just one more perfect man suffering because he’d tried to make her happy.

‘Yes?’ she asked him softly.

He swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. ‘I understand, you know. I know you must be dying on the inside right now. I just want you to know, that I won’t hold you to your promise, not if it brings you pain.’ His voice was quiet, so as not to be overheard. ‘After all, you never said you loved me.’

Ivyanne leaned closer to him, squeezing his cold hand tightly, then kissed it. ‘I love you Tristan.’ She said honestly.

A tiny flame of hope rose in his eyes like it had been fueled by oxygen. ‘You do?’

His clear joy filled her with a warmth. ‘You can hold me to
that much-okay? But I need time to think this through.’ She glanced down at the feint pink line running down her thigh from where the oyster rock had only just penetrated her tail. She couldn’t look her lover in the eye when she said: ‘Because I love him too.’

Tristan sighed heavily. ‘Okay.’ He whispered. ‘Okay.’ He cleared his throat. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t care if it takes you
forty years to figure it out. I’ll wait.’

Ivyanne looked up to see him lying back on his pillow, staring at the ceiling with a small smile playing at his lips-and she knew he
would wait. She was unlucky that way.

⁓

By Friday afternoon, Lincoln had basically recovered from his initial shock. True, it still felt like the world had been turned upside down on him-but he liked the way it looked anyway. Everything was brighter and louder and wetter and magical now, like looking into his future through a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

He’d called his father and informed him that he’d had a nervous breakdown of sorts, in light of his break-up with Adele, and that he needed to get away for a week to clear his head. His father had been angry at first, but eventually understanding. He’d ordered Lincoln to sort himself out quickly then hurry home, because the new girl Ivyanne had taken a few days off for bereavement leave, leaving him short-handed at night. A cover-up, of course, though the bereavement part was true-but Ivyanne had stayed on at Bracken with him to help introduce him to their ways and tend to the injured Tristan. Lincoln had commiserated with his father on the subject of unreliable employees. Now he dove under the brilliantly clear water in front of the royal summer home, a laugh escaping him in the form of bubbles. He’d lectured Ivyanne so harshly on the webs of deceit she had spun-and now he was going to have to start doing it himself!

Adele hadn’t been found. There was no trace of her at the resort, and her parents hadn’t seen her. They wanted to call the police, but couldn’t until later that night when forty eight hours had lapsed. Part of Lincoln was worried about her, but the more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed that she’d come back. For all he knew, she was back at her campus house in Sydney with her phone turned off, drinking and shagging him out of her head.

Lincoln kicked his legs, but nothing happened. He rolled his eyes-just when he’d thought the mystery shrouding his life had lifted, there was a
new one.

The biggest question mark in his life of course, was what it had always been-Ivyanne. She was in the water with him, cajoling him into transforming-something he hadn’t done yet. She seemed excited to have him around, and to teach him her ways. But was that because she loved him, and intended for them to be together? Or because she thought he’d find peace now with a new and thrilling life?

Of course with Tristan, who was slowly recovering, and Queen Vana watching them cavorting in the shallows from the beach, it was impossible for either of them to broach the subject, and someone, mainly Tristan, was almost always at Ivyanne’s side. It bothered him that Ivyanne didn’t seem to mind her new shadow. There was an intimate, though awkward air between them which Lincoln felt excluded from.

‘Come on!’ Ivyanne said teasingly, as Lincoln broke the surface. ‘We know you can breathe down here for at least ten minutes-now let’s see you
swim!’

Lincoln rubbed his eyes, getting irritated with his failure. ‘It’s hard, okay?’

‘Maybe he’s half human, half crustacean?’ Tristan joked. ‘He certainly seems crabby enough!’

Lincoln shot him an irritated look, noticing that the queen was trying to stifle a giggle with her hand. Queen Vana-hurdle number two. Though warm and welcoming with Lincoln, didn’t cease to remind him that he had no right to make a play for her daughter until enough time had passed to know if Ivyanne was carrying the baby of the man she’d crossed the line with.

‘Knock it off,’ Ivyanne said, but she was smiling. She was reclining back on her hands, the edge of her tail occasionally slapping against the water. ‘You’re not helping.’

‘Sorry Ivyanne!’ Tristan called gaily. ‘But I wasn’t exactly
trying to.’

Lincoln exhaled. Once he got a hang of transforming, he was going to bitch-slap Tristan with his own damn tail. ‘Maybe we should just give it one more day?’

But Ivyanne shook her head firmly. ‘No. You have to get back to The Seaview soon, and clean up my mess.’ She giggled, rising taller out of the water and using her arms to lazily propel herself backwards a few feet. ‘Okay! I have an idea!’ She tilted her head to the side as she continued to back up. ‘Lincoln, if you can get to me in under five seconds, you can kiss me.’

Lincoln’s heart skipped a beat. Another beat later, he was under, and one beat after
that, he felt a strange prickling sensation work it’s way up from his toes to his groin. He pushed forward with his arms, and then suddenly, something inside his body seemed to sync with the water, and Lincoln was suddenly propelled forward so quickly that he practically smashed into Ivyanne’s bare breasts. He surfaced, grinning like an idiot, his face only inches from hers.

‘How was that?’ he whispered, bobbing in front of her.

She placed her hands on either side of his face, drawing his mouth to hers. ‘Not as good as this will be,’ she whispered, pulling him under.

Lincoln kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. He could feel her racing heart against his own. Once again, they embraced in their own private world, hidden from view, as they had always been.

Nothing had changed since he had been sixteen-Ivyanne’s time with him was limited, her kisses stolen and hidden from those who might disapprove, her heart torn between what she was expected to do and what she wanted to do. To punctuate this, she broke off the kiss, smiled, and then lightly pushed him away by the shoulder.

But, just as when he had been sixteen, Lincoln didn’t care. He’d lived the majority of his life waiting for her to come back to him, and that was how he planned to live the new one. The future was as uncertain as it had always been, but when her heart was beating against his, the present was all that would ever matter again!

⁓

The creature broke through the water, shooting out the water and taking in new before plunging again. Never before had it felt so free, so exulted. The vessel was unfamiliar, but it felt no less itself than it ever had before. Heart, soul, mind, all remained as they had been, and yet it no longer felt overwhelmed by these things, as though it’s essence was too small to touch the edges of it’s new physical boundaries.

The water changed from navy to sapphire to royal blue and then to a faint green so clear that the surface seemed magnified. Coral began to rush towards the creature, a sharp and living rainbow, giving and taking life every moment. The creature began to twirl, spiraling through the water, feeling it’s edges blur and take new shape. The temperature dropped, the rainbow spun, and the creature plowed into the shallows, knowing before it looked down, that it was as it was supposed to be again.

Ardhi’s hand shot out to slow his approach to the sandbank, the yellow grains tickling his now, more sensitive appendages. He pulled himself out, breathing deeply and trying to steady his heartbeat as his insides shifted to accommodate his human organs once again.

When he had regained composure, Ardhi forced himself to stand, feeling wobbly on legs after half a day in dolphin form. Naked, he swum back out of the shallows to where the sleek speedboat waited, bobbing in the water in the shadowy water of the otherwise uninhabited cove.

Ardhi reached the ladder descending into the water and climbed up, smiling in satisfaction to discover it cloaked in silence, as he’d demanded. He glanced behind him, quickly surveying the horizon for any sign of life-mer or boat-but there was none. He’d obviously put enough distance between Seaview and himself with the stolen boat the night before, when he’d taken it from the marina and headed south. If the water police were after him, he was doing a good job of eluding them so far. But soon, he’d have to ditch it for another.

Ardhi crept across the fishing deck of the boat before lowering down into the galley, grinning when he saw Adele shivering in the corner, eyeing him warily. ‘Hello, sweet Adele.’

‘Ardhi.’ Adele’s clothes were soaked with sweat, her hair stuck out in all directions, and her feet and wrists were bound with rope. Her icy blue eyes were still glazed and unfocused from his constant serenading, and when she said his name, her speech was slightly slurred. She eyed his naked state and those milky eyes widened. ‘Please.... don’t. Not that. Just let me go and I won’t tell anybody that you took me-.’

Ardhi began to hum again, needing her to be as compliant as possible. ‘I’m not going to hurt you or touch you,’ he whispered, halting his song. ‘I told you why I brought you with me, and I meant it... we’re going to get even with those who hurt us, and then get them back.’

Adele’s eyelids fluttered drowsily. ‘Oh.....
good.... I’ll get him back... I’ll get everyone back....’ Her head slumped to the side. ‘But I need to rest first....’

‘My sentiments exactly.’ Ardhi caressed her cheek as she drifted off to sleep once more. She was a beautiful girl-when he turned her-he knew she’d be an excellent ally and weapon. But he couldn’t do that just yet-learning to swim right could take days, and he needed to make haste for the time being. He couldn’t afford to be spotted by
anyone. For now, they would presume he was dead-just as he had-and be mourning him for and selfless, final deed.

But Ardhi wasn’t dead, and he
would return. Being granted not only a second chance at life, which he’d thrown away for love, but the knowledge that he could now turn humans and become dolphin made him the most powerful mer since Roan Fire. Had he known this about himself a week ago-he was confident that Ivyanne would have willingly taken his hand instead of snatching it away.

But he’d made a mess of things in the throes of overwhelming passion, and now he had to be logical about how to go about fixing them. Tristan was dead, so there would be penance for that, and Lincoln would be at Ivyanne’s side instead.