Waterborn (The Emerald Series Book 1) (27 page)

“I’m coming with you.” She put her hands on either side of my face and kissed me, then gave me that look that brooked no argument.

“And that’s the other reason. I knew you’d want to come and I really don’t want to put you in a situation where you might get in trouble. Jax will know it was me. He’s practically set me up.”

“Well, then you need me for backup. I’m going.” She got up, dragging me along with her.

“Caris,” I started to argue further, but her kiss stopped the words.

“Resistance is futile. I’m coming with you.”

“Okay, fine.” I put my arms around her, then picked her up so she could wrap her legs around my hips. I loved carrying her this way. “But you have to do everything I say.”

“Okay. I will.” She managed to jump up and down in my arms. “The whole thing is kind of Bonnie and Clyde sexy.”

“Is that all you think about? Sex?” I teased her lips with mine as I walked us into the water.

“With you, yes,” she said, resting her forehead against mine.

I stopped when the water rose around my hips.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s do this,” she said.

I waited for her to look at me and made sure her eyes were focused on mine.

“I did hear what you said, and not just the sex part.” I kissed her. “When you’re sure about the other, let me know.”

I
f you build
it they will come. A fire that was. There’s something about a fire on the beach with the aroma of fish cooking over it that drew us like fish to a shiny lure. Toss in a cooler of beer and you have a party, by my standards at least.

That’s what Caris and I walked into when we emerged from the surf hand in hand—a small time party and all my favorite people were there. Eye roll.

Freaking kumbaya circle with Sol on one side of the fire, Levi on the other, and Daniel and Quinn between them.

“What’s going on?” Jeb and I exchanged a fist bump.

“Sorry man. You were late. I got hungry and you know how it is.” Jeb leaned around me to grab the end of Caris’s ponytail and gave it a playful tug.

“Hey,” he said. “Do you know everybody?”

“I don’t know him.” She pointed to Levi, who watched her with overly curious eyes before sliding his gaze to me. He winked and tipped his beer.

“I see our songbird found her wings,” Sol said. Caris grabbed his offered hand and leaned over, whispering something in his ear that caused his smile to widen.

“Glad I could be of help,” he said before finally releasing her hand.

All this meant we’d have to wait on the whole rescue Ellie thing. Levi liked to pretend he thought I was a total wuss, so I wasn’t about to offer him any more fodder, especially with Caris around. The teasing would be merciless if I walked out of the back of that place carrying Ellie in my arms. And then I’d have to kick Levi’s ass and, well, I didn’t want Caris to see me like that either.

“I heard about your little performance the other night at the concert, Caris,” Levi said between bouts of nursing his beer. The way he was eyeing her with such open speculation made my skin crawl.

She’d sat down next to Quinn and they were having a conversation about the new top Caris had on, a short-sleeved rash guard with an open neck in a rosy pink with orange sleeves. I’d been paying more attention to Quinn’s designs now that Caris wore them. This one looked especially good on her. She looked like a sunset.

At Levi’s words, Caris ducked her head, but not before I saw the light fall out of her eyes. She became engrossed in the sand between her knees, running her fingers through it over and over.

“Leave it alone, Levi,” I said.

“What’s the matter, Noah? You jealous?” Levi raised his eyebrows at me, like he was daring me to start something. And to think I could have been doing sex with Caris instead of standing here dodging barbs from this asshole.

“Jealous? With what he can do? I bet Caris would like to see it,” Jeb said, flashing his too-bright grin.

“Better not.” I sat down in the empty chair closest to Caris. She looked up at me with a spark of interest at Jeb’s words. I didn’t want to do it, but if it would take some of the attention off her I would.

“Yes, please, Noah, show us your trick. And not the one where you put off enough pheromones to lure every dolphin in a hundred mile radius,” Sol quipped.

I was nothing if not a good sport.

“Nah. I’m good. I wouldn’t want to show you guys up.” I smiled at Levi. They liked to make fun of me, but there was nothing like a horde of creepy crawlies to create a bit of pandemonium. I gave it another ten seconds.

Quinn squealed and jumped up from her chair, Daniel not far behind as crabs popped out of nowhere in plague-like proportions. Caris jumped into my lap, laughing and kicking a crustacean off her foot. I even got a girly squeal out of Sol for my efforts. In fact, he was fighting it hard, but he looked downright panicked.

Levi picked up a crab and crushed it in his fist. He was the only one not acting like he suffered from some kind of phobia. He thumped another one off his shoulder with his index finger. Then his knife was out and with one flick of his wrist he impaled it as it scuttled across the sand.

Caris grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks together, and swung it around to hers. She pierced me with accusing eyes. “Oh my God. That was you?”

I laughed. I had almost forgotten about that first day.

“I had nightmares for days after that,” she said and punched me playfully on the chest, tucking her legs in my lap.

“Why am I not surprised?” I teased.

“Call your minions off, dude,” Jeb said, trying to disengage a crab crawling up his hair.

I could feel Caris’s eyes on me, could almost hear the speculation behind them. She leaned into me, mouth close to my ear, and whispered where no one could hear her.

“You kissed me,” she said.

I only smiled in response, tucking her closer against my side while the commotion died down and everyone settled back in their seats.

A set of headlights cut through the dark, bouncing over the sand as the thrum of a four-wheeler’s engine drew closer. It stopped a few feet away, spotlighting our little campfire. The patrolman dismounted, the thick soles of his shoes scraping through the sand.

“Evening folks,” he said, the Barney Fife greeting a contrast to the overzealous expression on his face. His eyes ran over each and every one of us in a quick study, taking our measure.

“Evening officer,” Levi said, offering a mock salute with his beer.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a permit for this fire would you?” he asked like he already knew we didn’t, his hands perched on his hips, stretching the white fabric of his shirt over the hours-in-the gym-a-day swole. He couldn’t be much older than any of us were. Twenty-five at the most.

“No, sir, can’t say that we do,” Levi responded again, having set himself up as our unofficial spokesperson.

“Well then, I’m going to have to ask you to put this fire out,” he said, nodding down at our meager flame and smoking fish.

Sol leaned forward in his chair, a shark scenting blood.

“But our dinner isn’t done. The wildlife is hungry,” Sol said, earning a snicker from Daniel and Jeb, and a humorless look from the overly serious patrolman.

We’d had countless fires out here. I couldn’t ever remember being asked to put one out. Technically we needed a permit, but no one had ever asked for one before. What was he going to do next, start checking IDs? I didn’t have one of those either.

“There are designated cooking areas for that. And you people have your own beach for this kind of gathering.”

And with that one comment his audience went from playful and semi-cooperative to openly hostile. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise at the sudden tension that flared in the air.

“You people,” Sol mimicked. “You hear that, Noah? We’ve gone and wandered too far off the reservation and deputy asshole here wants to shoo us off like biting flies. Put us back in our designated place.”

“No. I just want you to douse the fire,” Deputy Asshole said.

God, I was starting to think like him.

Fog curled around the deputy’s feet, encasing his legs. It spread around the fire, billowing up from the ground. The deputy stood stoic and a flash of fear rounded his eyes. He hid it quickly.

That was the thing about landers. Anything out of the ordinary scared them. Anything they couldn’t explain in scientific terms. I guess there was a scientific reason for what Sol could do, for what I could do. We were biological creatures. We’d just never needed to know the reason behind any of our abilities. We’d accepted them without question, called them gifts and lived with them. Fog in and of itself was nothing to be afraid of. It was the unknown of being able to conjure it out of nowhere, and control it that gave landers fits. Made them leery. None of us had any abilities that could cause any real damage, except for maybe Athen Kelley. And now Caris.

“Caris, deputy here would like the fire doused,” Sol said, sprawling back in his chair.

Caris stiffened in my lap and my hand tightened on her hip. She tilted her head toward me and I shook my head. This was where Sol and I parted ways. It just didn’t feel right to antagonize the guy. He obviously wished he hadn’t interfered. A tick thrummed in his jaw, and his fingers inched closer to his holster. He didn’t look the type to back down, even with the odds stacked against him. And I had to hand it to him. He wasn’t going to.

None of us were small guys, and Jeb and Levi were outright beasts. Faster, stronger than this guy even knew. I was guessing he thought the gun in his holster evened out the odds.

Rain dripped from the sky, pinging off the chairs. With each passing second it fell harder, the drops growing in size until the fire hissed. No one moved, all eyes locked on the deputy. Caris sat on my lap, tight as a bowstring. Her fingers curled around mine, squeezing to the point of discomfort.

“Caris,” I said under my breath. This guy didn’t need to see this and Sol had called her by name. We didn’t do this. We didn’t use our gifts in front of outsiders.

“I can’t,” she said, her voice strained. I heard it too, in the sounds of her Song echoing on my head, calling to me as if I could make her stop. Begging me to make her stop as if she had no control over it at all.

My eyes cut to Sol as he sat there, his dark gaze concentrated on the deputy, the energy brewing between Sol and Caris palpable.

After a few minutes we were all soaked. Water dripped from the brim of the patrolman’s ball cap and still no one moved or talked, not even to save the fish frying over the now dead flames. Lightning flashed, a jagged edge of brilliance that seemed to fire the sand under our feet. Caris’s cry got lost in the crack of energy as we all flinched—everyone except Sol.

“See, officer. Fire doused,” Sol said over the low din as the rain slacked off.

“Get a permit next time,” the patrolman said, his voice shaking.

We all watched in silence as he walked back to his four-wheeler, kicked it in gear, and drove off, lights bouncing in the distance. By the time the engine faded away the rain had stopped completely, the fog vanished and the stars were back out.

“Nice, lil’ sis.” Sol put up his hand as if he expected her to high-five him.

Caris looked at me, a denial in the shake of her head and her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. Her whole body trembled.

“It wasn’t me.” She turned to look at her brother. “How did you do that?”

I was out of my chair in a split second. I deposited Caris onto Jeb’s lap and was on Sol so fast, I had him straddled on the ground and my knife pressed to the corded column of his neck before anyone else could react. “You ever do that again and I will gut you.”

I fought against Levi’s iron grip as he tried to haul me off. Not even Levi was strong enough to tackle whatever had hold of me.

“You will not use her. I won’t let you do that. I don’t care if you are her brother.”

I’d never heard of anyone being able to channel a gift like that before. And it about scared the shit out of me, because if Sol could do it, it meant her father could too. Caris didn’t need this from her brother right now. Despite the brave front she’d put on, deep down she was scared. I knew it. I could hear it. Her fear sang down my spine, tingling its way down my arm straight to the tip of the knife that strained against Sol’s throat. I pressed harder, letting the tip slice into flesh.

“Noah,” Jeb warned, his voice barely cutting through the haze of rage that gripped me.

Daniel’s hands joined Levi’s and they hauled me back, only letting go when Sol sprang to his feet.

“Get your head out of the sand.” Sol shoved me in the chest with both hands. Caris stepped between us.

“Stop it.” She didn’t scream. She didn’t yell. She just a calmly stated request. I knew it to be a lie. She was anything but calm. Her anger was directed toward Sol and therefore mine was too. If she asked me to, I’d stick my knife in him. She didn’t. “Please, stop.”

Sol had better back off because there was no way I could. Not while that part of me that responded to her Song thought he was a threat to her. Caris reached out a hand to him.

“Maybe you should go,” she said.

At first I thought he would refuse “Caris…” He swallowed, eyes cast heavenward. “I’m sorry. It was just a joke.”

I laughed. It was so much more than that.

My eyes never left his back, not until he lost himself in the surf. By the time I felt like myself again, it was just me, Jeb, and Caris on the beach. I had been totally oblivious to the others cleaning up the fire, herding the chairs together. Leaving.

“Noah?” Jeb’s voice brought my mind back into focus.

“You really think I was out of line? He basically mind-raped her while she was sitting on my lap.” I should have stuck him.

“No. I don’t.” His eyes traveled between me and Caris. “Do you need me to stay? Help out with Ellie?”

“You go on. No need to risk getting in trouble. You work here, remember? I don’t.”

“You’re sure?”

“Jeb, we got it.” I sighed at his apparent lack of confidence in me.

“Well, then will you put that up?” He nodded at the knife still clutched in my hand.