Waterborn (The Emerald Series Book 1) (29 page)

“Offer yourself to the likes of Jax Harrison.” I hadn’t been mad when we’d taken to the beach, but just thinking about Jax’s hand on her hair, his mouth close to her neck, had my blood thrumming.

“What are you talking about?” Her gaze fell to where my hand had slid up her arm. “Let go. You’re hurting me.”

I dropped her arm. “He wanted to humiliate you. Degrade you. In front of me. And you were going to let him.”

“I don’t get it, Noah. It’s hair.” She closed her eyes and ran her hands down her face in exasperation.

“I know you don’t get it, which is why you should have done what I said. You told me you would, and the first chance you got, you ignored me.” I paced in front of her, my feet sinking into the wet sand.

“I didn’t want to leave you there. I didn’t want to leave Ellie.” Her eyes followed my movement. Back and forth. Water licked at our feet. I didn’t want to argue with her. I wanted to go back to where we were before. Before Sol. Ellie was free. We should have been happy.

“I don’t need you to take care of me. Or Ellie,” I said, tight-lipped, doing my best to keep my voice under control, knowing to her my anger was unjustified. How could she know what Jax had really meant to do?

“Oh, you don’t? What was your big plan for getting us out of there?”

“I would have figured something out.”

“Right.” She laughed at me. “If I remember correctly, you had your hands full.”

“What do you want me to do? You want me to apologize for not wanting Jax to put his hands on you? I wanted to kill him for even asking to take your hair.”

She took a step forward and looked up into my face.

“And that doesn’t sound just a little bit…”

“Don’t you dare say crazy.” My head reared back.

She narrowed her eyes at me and damn if she didn’t say it anyway.

“Crazy.” Right to my face, her eyes bold as brass.

Yeah, it was crazy the way I wanted to crush my mouth to hers and smack some sense into her at the same time. Not that I would ever lay a hand on her like that. But she might as well know the truth.

“Well, you know what? I am crazy when it comes to you. So out of my fucking mind.” The confession didn’t come easy, and for a few seconds, while my heart pounded, I held on to the hope I hadn’t actually said the words out loud.

“Don’t say that,” she whispered, her eyes searching my face.

I wanted to argue that she’d said it first, but I clamped my mouth shut. She looked truly horrified at the idea. At me. All the fight drained out of her and I wished I could take it back, whatever I had said to put that look on her face. She looked scared—of me. I preferred her fighting mad to this beaten look she’d adopted. I hadn’t seen her look like this since that first night she’d discovered what she was. Lost, almost desperate.

Curse the Deep.

Why had she picked me? I wasn’t good enough for Caris. I wasn’t helping her. This had to be tearing her up inside. She was becoming a different being, and not just physically. Mentally the toll had to be just as hard, if not worse. Add to that, she was special, something I had to admit now. She had abilities I would never understand. Abilities that could be used in the same way Sol had so casually used her tonight. And yeah, the thought drove me nuts. I had spent months in the Deep for the sole purpose of not feeling, and then she’d called me back and I’d done nothing but feel since I stepped foot on the beach and found her. But I was beginning to think it was me who had been found.

“Do you remember the night you found me with Jax and you asked if it was some sort of a game?”

She lowered her hands, her eyes still moist and her voice barely heard above the wind. “Yes.”

“It started that way. A game among ourselves, but for some reason a group of landers got involved. I don’t know, maybe it made them feel superior to take something like that from us. The problem is, we are superior. At least in strength, and it wasn’t as easy as they thought. So they started preying on the weaker of us. Some of the younger boys. Some of the girls. There was one girl. Her name was Talia. They got to her one night.” I paused, took a shuddering breath, the images still so clear in my mind, my whole body shook with renewed rage.

“I found her on the beach. I heard her weeping. They had taken her hair, shaved it clean off. And that’s not all they took. There had been three of them. When they were through with her, they just left her on the beach, broken and bleeding.” I remembered clearly her whimpers, the way she’d cried out when I’d picked her up. I’d taken her into the Deep. Held her while she cried, while she healed, physically at least. That had been a mistake in hindsight, left little proof to her story, but all I had wanted to do was stop her from hurting.

“When she was able to, she identified all of them, but there wasn’t enough physical proof. It was her word against theirs.” I closed my eyes, feeling again the anger, the injustice of it. “She had this golden hair literally the color of the sun. They made bracelets out of it. And Monday morning half of the guys in school had her hair on their wrists in a show of solidarity. In effect telling us she meant nothing. So when Jax says he wants your hair, he’s saying you’re nothing.” I looked at her then, taking in the curve of her cheek, the way her hair fell over her shoulder and lifted on the breeze.

“Don’t make me say I’m sorry for wanting to protect you from people like Jax. I wouldn’t be able to live with that. Him wearing your hair on his wrist. And he would do it, and he would make sure I saw it. Maybe my plan sucked. Next time I’ll let you make the plan, but don’t ask me to apologize for caring about what happens to you. I can’t do that.” My eyes begged over hers and my heart sank as I realized I couldn’t give her what she wanted. I didn’t know how to make this right.

She stared at me with round haunted eyes, not saying anything for the longest time. I don’t know, maybe I had expected her to throw her arms around me and tell me she understood. Tell me she wasn’t horrified by the fact that I made it so clear that I would do anything for her. I had threatened two people on her behalf tonight, and I had been serious. I was pretty sure she knew that. When she finally moved it wasn’t toward me. She faced the Deep, holding herself rigid as if she’d been on trial and been found lacking.

“I thought if I could just swim I’d naturally know how to be this person I am now. But that hasn’t happened. I got past my dad’s lies. But I love my dad. I had no choice but to forgive him. I had no choice when I was little to have short hair because it wouldn’t grow. I had no choice to not swim even though I wanted to, because I couldn’t, and now I have no choice because I can because I have to, to the point where I can’t even leave here. All my choices were taken from me when my parents put that charm on me.”

A flat plop of water fell from the sky and landed on my cheek. More drops stained the sand around our feet. She looked up and laughed, but there was nothing happy in the sound.

“I don’t have a choice in that either. I don’t want to be able to do that. I mean, what is that even about? And even you, as much as I…” She cut herself off, swallowed whatever she was about to say, then looked at me with a pair of eyes that shredded my insides. She immobilized me with those eyes. I knew exactly where she was going with this and it was like watching the tip of a spear coming straight at me with no way to stop it.

“You weren’t even a choice, Noah. Not really.”

Yep. Spear right dead center through my heart.

“Ahh, shit, Caris.” I ran my hand over my head. How the hell had we gotten to this? I couldn’t say I was sorry because I wasn’t a bit sorry for wanting to protect her. I wasn’t sorry she was here and couldn’t leave. I wasn’t sorry it was me who heard her.

She was so totally closed off to me. Her mind, her body, the way she wrapped herself in her own arms as though she needed to shield herself from me. And I thought in so many ways I didn’t have a choice either. The only difference was I didn’t care. But she’d made it obvious she did. And that stung more than I’d imagined it would. I couldn’t change who I was or how I felt. And I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with her Song. Hell, I wasn’t pretty sure. I was sure. I could try to convince her of that, but I knew she wouldn’t believe it.

She looked so strong and proud in that moment, with dry wisps of her hair flying around her head. The heat of emotion flashing in her eyes. She looked like her father. The very air responded to her and I did too. It was enough to bring to me to my knees.

I reached out and ran my finger down the slope of one cheek, scooping up a tear on my knuckle.

“I’m your friend, Caris. That was my choice. Doesn’t matter about all this other stuff between us.”

I did the only thing I could do. I left her.

I dove in the surf. If she wanted me all she had to do was sing and I would answer. I would always answer. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to.

I
’d had
this dream so many times before. Since before I could remember dreaming. Nothing but clear emerald water surrounded me. It held me up and penetrated my pores, infusing me with life. The sunlight, shooting from above, chased me farther and farther where nothing could catch me. I moved with perfect grace, in perfect symmetry and in harmony with the Deep. Only one thing could make this dream perfect.

Noah.

I searched for his green eyes, wishing so badly to see them, but he wasn’t here. And this wasn’t a dream. All of it so real. My life. For a few crazy minutes last night I’d thrown this dream in Noah’s face as though I hadn’t wanted it. Then I’d sent him away as though I didn’t want him either, and that was the craziest thing of all.

I’d wanted to call him back. I’d lain in my bed for hours, wanting nothing more than to sing him back to me. But how could I have done that? Given him no choice when I’d whined about not having any for myself.

He was my choice. He was my only choice.

A handful of dolphins came, floating around me like bubbles. Nervous at first, my heart rate doubled. These were mostly females and their young, so after a few minutes of introductions made with whistles and playful bumps of rostrums, I relaxed. I searched, hoping maybe this was the same pod we’d handed Ellie over to, but I didn’t hear her or see her in the midst of floating gray bodies.

We made a lazy procession, going nowhere and in no hurry. We passed under a boat, the drone of the motor a quiet unwanted reminder of life above the surface. This moment was too sweet for such an intrusion, a culmination of so many hidden longings. I sank deeper, using the depth to hide me from eyes I would just as soon avoid.

The mood of the pod changed. Friendly whistles became rasps of warning, an agitation that spread through the pod at the speed of sound. We picked up our pace. I didn’t even think of separating myself from the pod. I was one of them. The boat still followed, even as the pod cut for deeper waters. Not surprising really. Everyone wanted to see the dolphins.

Pop. A gurgle of water. The hiss of bubbles. I heard it again, followed by more pops. Calves shadowed their mothers as the movements of the pod grew frantic, weaving and darting in a frenzy. Bullets. They were dodging bullets.

Was someone shooting at us? I turned on my back for a better view, the boat’s hull an elongated triangle trailed by a foamy wake. A staccato of bullets hit the water, chasing the dolphins away.

Something silver flashed out of the corner of my eye. It torpedoed past me, hitting one of the dolphins swimming a few yards away from me. It nicked off the side of her dorsal fin before she scurried away, a swirl of pink in her wake.

A spear. Like so many of my dreams of the Deep, this one turned to nightmare, an unthinkable nightmare.

I spun around, intent on a flight into the Deep.

It hit me from behind—a sharp sting, followed by a jolt snagging me backward. Searing pain blazed through my shoulder and down my arm. My mind screamed,
Get away
, but forward motion only brought white heat pulsing down the whole right side of my body. Whatever had impaled me was attached to something at the other end. Limp as a doll, I floated and watched the tribe swim away to safety, thankful none of them had been hit.

I tucked my chin, needing to look but not wanting to look. My fingers traced the skin on the right side of my chest underneath my collarbone. The spear hadn’t pierced all the way through. It just felt like it. The pencil-thin shaft protruded from my back right above the shoulder blade. I felt numb, surreal, like I was having an out-of-body experience. Maybe this wasn’t real. Maybe it was a dream after all.

Wake up. Please wake up.

A tug came from the other end of the line. White spots flared in front of my eyes. Fireworks shot through my chest and up my neck as I was reeled backward.

I reached over my shoulder. I could get my hand on it, but that was about it. No way I could pull it out. Not at this angle. I had no choice but to endure as with each tug the spear tore at my flesh.

Up and up I drifted at the mercy of each pull until finally my head broke the surface. I gasped, biting my lip to keep from crying out.

“What the hell?” a voice said from above me.

“Looks like someone caught themselves a native.”

S
omething was pounding
in my head. I slept in my bed so little these days, I didn’t at first recognize my own room when I opened my eyes. My head ached, my heart ached. I wished I could get a do over of last night.

I heard it again. Not my head. Someone was knocking on the front door.

I heard my mom answer, the muffled conversation that followed. What the hell was Marshall doing here? My hands cradled my head, feeling like I had a hangover.

My mom said something about breakfast, then the front door shut.

“Noah around?” Marshall asked, using his official tone that had me snapping my eyes open.

“I think he’s still asleep. Take these out back and I’ll get him. I was just about to go for a swim.”

I swung my feet over the bed to the sound of her footsteps coming down the hall. She tapped on my door before pushing it all the way open. “Yeah, Mom. I heard. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Marshall waited for me out on the patio, sipping a cup of coffee. A box of donuts and muffins sat open on the table. I grabbed a blueberry muffin and sat down across from him. He wore shades and a cap, and his jaw was covered in a thick patch of grayish stubble, mouth pursed in a tired line. He looked like he’d been up a while.

I leaned back and put my feet up in the empty chair in front of me. My mom was halfway to the beach with a towel draped over her shoulder. She usually wore her hair tied up, but today it flowed down her back and hung right to the top of her red bathing suit bottoms. Granted, she was my mom, but she had the body of a twenty-five year old. A twenty-five year old that took really good care of herself. Marshall watched her until she disappeared into the surf.

“You wanted to see me,” I said around a mouth full of muffin.

In answer he dug his phone out of his pocket, opened a screen, then placed it on the table and slid it toward me. I picked it up and eyed him before looking at it.

It took me a second to figure out what I was looking at. “Is that Jax?”

“Go on, scroll through them.”

I flicked my finger over the images, each one more gruesome than the last. Someone had beaten the shit out of him. I shuddered then handed him back his phone.

“Did you see Jax last night?” He looked at me for the first time since I’d sat down.

“I didn’t do that.” Oh, I’d fantasized about it. Couldn’t say I was sorry someone had.

“No. Sol Kelley did.” He put his phone back in his pocket. “At least that’s what Jax said.”

So, he wasn’t dead. I hadn’t been sure by the looks of a couple of those pictures.

“Is he going to be all right?” I kept my gaze on the horizon. The sun shone bright here, but far off in the distance a storm brewed, clouds dark and billowing.

“He’ll live.” He took a sip of coffee. “You know where he is?”

“Sol? I don’t keep tabs on Sol.”

“But you did see him last night? With Jax?”

“I don’t know, Marshall. Do I need to call my lawyer?” He didn’t even crack a smile, which made me nervous.

“Mr. Harrison wants to press charges. Aggravated assault.”

“What?”

“Destruction of private property, theft. Someone gutted and skinned one of the alligators. Mr. Harrison claims there’s a dolphin missing.”

I leaned over, elbows on my knees. “Shit.”
Don’t do anything stupid.
Wasted words.

“I’m not that concerned about the latter. But the assault charge is serious, Noah.”

“I know.” What I didn’t know was what Marshall wanted from me. Even if I knew where Sol was, I wasn’t about to tell him. Hell, I told Caris last night I would have killed the guy myself if he’d touched her. It could just as easily have been me they were looking for. “So is there a warrant issued?”

“Not yet. But it might be just a matter of time. He is wanted for questioning.”

I looked back at him. “You do realize he could be anywhere.” Mexico, the Caribbean. He could be in Cuba smoking cigars by now. And if I had to, that would be my guess. Not to mention his style. Pick a damn fight, then leave the rest of us to deal with the fallout.

“I’m well aware of the complications of this situation, as are all involved.”

Was that a warning in his tone? What the hell did that mean?

“What exactly do you want from me?”

“Nothing. But you should talk to Caris. I’m with you. Sol’s probably long gone, but if he’s not, she is his sister. She’s also the daughter of an old friend of mine and I’d hate to see her get mixed up in any of this.”

I started to get up when he did, but he held up his hand. “I know the way out. Tell your mom bye. And if I hear anything else I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Marshall.” I sat staring at the beach until I was sure he was gone. I had to scour the house to even find my phone. I ended up finding it right where I had left it on the kitchen counter last night with an unsent message to Caris still in the text box. I deleted it and called her number. She didn’t pick up, which was not that unusual. She was like me in that she didn’t keep her phone with her all the time anymore. Erin responded with a negative to my question of whether she had heard from her.

I met my mom coming out of the water and filled her in on what had happened, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The pounding in my head was back. Then I went to find Caris, taking comfort in the fact that if she were in trouble, I would know about it.