Tempest Unleashed (3 page)

“Tempest!” The word was low and growly and so close to my ear that I couldn’t mistake it for anything but what it was.

I whirled around. “Mark!”

“What are you—”

I threw myself at him, nearly took him under as I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed as tightly as I could. And then he was hugging me back, his firm, hard body pressed against me from shoulder to hip, while our legs kicked again and again to keep us from going under.

He pulled away. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for months—”

My voice froze in my throat. What was I supposed to say? What
could
I say after all this time?

“Damn it, Tempest!” he snarled. “Answer me.”

I opened my mouth, my mind racing for a response. An excuse. Anything. But before I could do more than take a breath, his lips were on mine and any hope I had of thinking dissolved like so much sea foam.

He tasted just the same, only wilder. Better. Like lemons and peppermints and my Saturday-morning mocha.

He tasted like home—with an edge.

I knew I should stop him. I even started to push away, but in the end all I did was wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back with all the emotion this crazy, mixed-up roller-coaster ride of a day had awakened inside of me.

I couldn’t do anything else, not while one of his hands cupped my jaw and the other pressed against my lower back in a hold so possessive I forgot for a minute that we no longer belonged to each other.

Kissing Mark, being held by him, reminded me too much of everything I’d given up by becoming mermaid, and for those few, brief seconds I wanted it all back.

Wanted
him
back.

But if there was one thing my mother’s life—and death—had taught me, it was that it wasn’t possible to go back. Whatever we’ve done, whichever path we’ve chosen, we have to walk down it. Or in my case, swim down it. Either way, going back to the way things had once been was impossible.

I knew this, understood it—or at least told myself I did. And still I didn’t pull back from Mark right away. Instead, I pressed myself more tightly against him and gave us, gave myself, this one perfect kiss. I felt certain it was the last we would ever share, and I was determined to hold on to the first boy I’d ever loved as long as I could.

But the ocean had other plans for us. A huge wave came along, sweeping us up in its wake until our only choice was to let go or drown. I pulled away immediately, but it took Mark longer. Almost as if he didn’t mind being dragged under if it meant we would be together again.

But that was fanciful thinking, I reminded myself as the splash of cold water against my face brought me back to my senses. He had Chelsea and I had Kona. Kissing him had been just one more mistake. It seemed like I was making a lot of them these days.

Knowledge flashed through me at the thought, an understanding that I was coming precariously close to where I’d been eight months before. At the precipice of a cliff I had no chance of backing away from. And like eight months before, I wouldn’t be the only one who got hurt.

The thought had me propelling myself backward, away from Mark and the wary, wanting look on his face.

“This isn’t over, Tempest.” His voice was dark, dangerous, sexy. “You don’t get to just show up here, kiss me in the middle of the frickin’ ocean, and then disappear again.”

“You kissed me.” It was an inane answer, especially considering the way I’d twined myself around him like a piece of seaweed. But I didn’t know what else to say. What excuse to level for my imminent disappearance. All I knew was that I had to go. The air was closing in on me, the shore far too near for comfort—especially with Scooter and the others paddling straight toward us on their boards.

Mark cocked an eyebrow, gave a sardonic little grin that got to me even as I forced myself to keep retreating. “Is that the excuse you’re giving yourself?”

“It’s the truth,” I insisted. “Besides, I have to go.”

“Let’s go then. I’ll take you back to shore and we can talk—”

“I’m not going back, Mark. I think you know that.”

“Where are you going then, Tempest?” His eyes narrowed and he started to swim toward me. “Where
can
you go?”

His advance galvanized me to action like few other things could have. If he came near me again, if he touched me, I knew without a doubt that I’d end up right back in his arms. And I couldn’t do that—not to myself, not to Kona, and not to Mark.

I needed to tell him the truth, needed to let him know why things would never work between us. But I didn’t know how to say it in a way that would make him believe.

So, in the end, I did the only thing I could do. I swam forward, reached out my hand. Stroked it down his cheek. Then I turned and dived deep, knowing a word from him could melt my already shaky resolve.

At the last second, I shifted—again so easily that it surprised me—and turned my legs back into a tail. I might not be able to find the words to tell Mark why we couldn’t be together, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t show him. Which was why I very slowly, very deliberately, extended the bottom half of my tail just above the surface, slapping the water with it and no doubt spraying droplets of sea water all over Mark’s face.

Then I took off without bothering to try to find my bikini bottoms, too cowardly to stick around and wait for his reaction.

Chapter 3

My head was on the verge of exploding as I swam away from Mark as quickly as I could.
Did I really just do that?
I wondered.
Did I really just show him my tail?

Now I had to live with the consequences, whatever those might be. I could only hope that they would only affect just me, and not the entire mermaid population who worked so hard to maintain secrecy.

What was Mark thinking right now?

Did he understand why I’d run away, why we couldn’t be together?

Or was he completely freaked out by what I’d become?

I really hoped he wasn’t. But because just the idea of it hurt, I swam faster in an effort to escape my thoughts and the invisible lure that seemed to stretch between us.

Why did I still feel this messed-up connection to Mark? This inexplicable feeling of rightness even after all the things that had passed between us?

It was stupid. Absolutely ridiculous, considering the fact that I couldn’t even be sure Mark still wanted me now that he knew the truth. He had kissed me, yes, and it had been as wonderful, as powerful, as ever. But I was smart enough to know one kiss didn’t mean anything, especially when he was human and I was … not.

Which was why I needed to stop thinking about him. It had been just a kiss, nothing more. It wasn’t like he’d pledged his undying love for me—or even his like for me. I would do well to remember that.

Just as I would do well to remember that humans and mermaids didn’t mix. My parents had proven that. And though my mother had said she’d left to protect her people—not because she didn’t care about my father, the boys, and me—it didn’t really matter because the outcome was the same. Rio, Moku, and I had grown up without a mother, and my father had lived the past seven years of his life without the wife he loved more than anything.

Knowing that, how could I even be worrying about what Mark was feeling? The two of us had been completely doomed from the very beginning; I had just been too stupid to figure it out. Back then, I’d been so sure I could stay human. Little had I known how limited my choices would really be in the end.

No
, I told myself firmly, using my tail to propel my body through the water like a torpedo. Freaking out about Mark and one silly kiss wasn’t going to do me any good. It was over between us. He had Chelsea and I had Kona—which was more than enough for me.

I loved Kona, adored him, wanted to spend every waking moment with him. He was perfect for me. Perfect for the Tempest who was adviser/whipping girl to the merQueen and second in command of her mother’s clan. Perfect for the Tempest who had chosen water over land.

But if all that was true, why were my lips still tingling? And why did I still hunger for the feel of dry sand between my toes?

Wrapped up in berating myself, I was focused so completely inward that I forgot the first rule of the ocean. The first rule that Kona had taught me when he brought me down here—never,
never
lose your concentration.

The ocean was filled with dangerous predators, and though I was slowly learning not to be afraid of sharks or be squicked out by octopuses, there were other, more dangerous creatures down here. I knew better than to leave myself open to them.

And yet that was exactly what I’d done. I had been so busy thinking of all the reasons I couldn’t go back to land, I hadn’t noticed the shadows creeping up behind me until it was too late.

One minute I was swimming as fast as I could toward my mother’s clan—
my
clan—and the next I was surrounded by five of the ugliest-looking creatures I had ever seen. Half human, half shark, each of the shark-men had a great white’s tail with a human torso and head, while their faces were a weird amalgamation of shark and human. Small, black eyes, long, rounded nose, with rows and rows of sharp teeth behind their humanlike lips.

They circled me and I jerked to a stop, though every instinct I had screamed for me to flee. These were Tiamat’s henchmen, predators of the first order, and as usual, her instructions seemed to have something to do with tormenting me. I could only hope they didn’t also include ripping me limb from limb.

But as the five of them got closer, their beady eyes terrifyingly flat and their mouths stretched in crooked, macabre grins, I knew they hadn’t hunted me down just to hassle me. Tiamat was making her move, trying to force me to join her while I was confused and vulnerable and isolated.

I had to get out of there, had to maneuver so they weren’t surrounding me. Adrenaline coursed through my body, made me shaky. Or at least that’s what I was blaming for the fine trembling of my hands—adrenaline, not total and complete terror.

I knew better than to let the nerves show. I had learned at an early age that the best defense really was a good offense, and though I wasn’t going to be the one to attack first, that didn’t mean I couldn’t play a little. Try to distract them.

Hi, guys
, I projected telepathically.
Long time no see.

Not long enough
, answered the biggest one.
You’re in Tiamat’s territory.

I froze for a minute, wondering if I had somehow managed to wander that far off course—I was still learning my way around down here and sometimes I made mistakes. But Tiamat’s territory was far north from my own clan’s waters, and from Kona’s as well. Had I been traveling in that direction all this time when I had thought I was traveling west?

I glanced around, but it wasn’t like there were street signs down here to help me get my bearings. There was, however, a huge trench to the left of me, and I recognized its odd zigzagging pattern. I was nowhere near Tiamat’s territory.

These are selkie waters
, I told him defiantly.
You have no business here.

You mean they
were
selkie waters
, answered the big one.
Now they belong to Tiamat. She has claimed them for her own.

A new spurt of alarm coursed through me. They were bluffing. They had to be. These were Kona’s family’s waters, and I knew Ari would never give up his territory, and his people, without a fight. He would have called for reinforcements and put up a battle of epic proportions. There was no way all of that had happened in the time I swam to my old stomping ground and back.

Now didn’t seem the time to call shark-guy a liar, though. Not when he and the others were circling me, moving nearer and nearer. Closing in for the kill, as Kona called it. Months before, he’d told me I had nothing to fear from the ocean’s sharks unless they were in attack formation. These guys were only half sharks, but I knew from bitter experience that this just made them more dangerous. They had a shark’s predatory instincts combined with human intelligence and Tiamat’s amorality.
Not
a good combination …

And especially not a good combination for me. If I didn’t do something quickly, I wouldn’t have to worry about Mark or Kona or what I liked and didn’t like about being mermaid. I would be too dead to care.

I didn’t realize things had come under new management
, I said.
I apologize. I’ll chart a course around this area from now on.

It’s too late for that, little Tempest, and I think you know it.

One reached out to grab on to my wrist, but I jerked back. There was no way I wanted these monsters to touch me. But that quick movement brought me within arm’s reach of the one directly behind me and he latched on—one arm around my waist from behind and the other around my neck. The flat of his hand rested against the gills behind my right ear, making it difficult to breathe.