Children of Andromeda:
Lords of the Sea
By
Kaitlyn O’Connor
(c) copyright by Kaitlyn O’Connor, June 2007
Cover Art by Jenny Dixon, June 2007
Published by New Concepts Publishing
Smashwords Edition
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s
imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or
events is merely coincidence.
Dedication
For Rosemary down under---you were right. This is the ‘real’ me!
And for the fan who looked for me at the RT book signing just to tell me she loved Below. I hope you enjoy this new tale of merfolk as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Chapter One
It was Mark who first noticed the blue glow coming from below. Cassia Pendell was lounging on the deck, more than half asleep and struggling with the exhaustion that seemed it would defy her will to stay awake. They’d headed out before daylight, though, and she was not only not used to being up and stirring about by five AM, she also wasn’t used to diving.
As a first date, however, it was definitely unique. It had sounded like something that might be fun. As loathe as she was to admit it, though, she’d been impressed because it seemed like the sort of thing only the rich and famous might indulge in and it was that that had finally swayed her more than the belief that she’d actually enjoy it.
She’d met Mark on an internet dating/mating site. They’d been chatting for weeks before he’d suggested an actual meeting. She’d liked what she’d learned about him in the time they’d been internet dating, but she’d been leery. He was still a stranger. After all the horror stories she’d heard about women meeting psychopaths over the net, she’d been nervous as hell at the prospect of driving to a strange city to meet a man she really didn’t know. When he’d suggested that they could go scuba diving with the diving club he belonged to she hadn’t been a lot more enthusiastic, even though it removed the danger of being completely alone with him, mostly because she’d never done it before and she didn’t like deep water. She hadn’t wanted to tell him she was phobic about deep, natural bodies of water, though.
He was an amateur diving enthusiast. Exploring the ocean was his favorite pastime, something he did whenever he got the chance. If she couldn’t dredge up some interest in it herself, she figured their relationship was doomed before it had really gotten started.
Truthfully, she’d almost called it off right then. She had absolutely no sense of adventure. She didn’t like risks, and she especially didn’t like taking them. She wasn’t ‘addicted’ to the adrenaline rush of doing something wild and dangerous. She was allergic to it. She didn’t like having the hell scared out of her, not when it entailed her taking part in it—watching from a safe distance was alright, but not participating. She preferred being comfortable and safe.
Deep down, she’d accepted right then that they were completely incompatible. She’d refused to acknowledge it, though. She’d convinced herself that it was time she put in the effort to lighten up and live a little—past time, actually. She was nearly thirty two, close enough to feel the chill, anyway. Even if it turned out to be something she hated, she needed to at least give it a try.
She hadn’t exactly hated it. She had hated getting up so damned early, but then she wasn’t the only one in the group that didn’t seem to be at their best that early in the day, or the only one who’d spent the time while the boat was en route to the chosen diving site sleeping. Mark hadn’t seemed to take that in bad part, which was a plus in his column.
The boat was big enough and the gulf waters calm enough she hadn’t gotten motion sickness or overly frightened. She still didn’t like it, but she hadn’t disliked it.
Carl Smith, the man who’d founded the scuba diving club, had been patient in instructing her and had stressed safety, which she’d found soothed her uneasiness a great deal.
Despite the fact that she could tell Mark was anxious to strike out on his own, he’d also been patient and solicitous, which had earned him another mark in the good column. He’d ‘forgotten’ he was supposed to be baby-sitting her a couple of times and darted away, leaving her behind, and he’d also taken off into some dark, creepy places where she’d refused to follow a couple of times, but overall he’d been considerate.
She was still more inclined to think she was just getting used to the idea of deep water diving than actually beginning to like it, but she’d gotten over the first tremors of terror and was able to play off a token enthusiasm when everyone had settled in the boat to eat their lunch and discuss their experiences.
She thought that was mostly because she’d been certain it was over and they would be heading back after they’d eaten.
Mark had proposed they move on to another spot to dive, though—a minus in his column—and although everyone wasn’t in total agreement, she was the only one who actually hadn’t wanted to. Good manners had compelled her to join the group for a little while in the second dive, but she hadn’t stayed down long and had returned to the boat long before the last of the divers had returned.
Mark had been the last.
Another minus in his column, especially when someone had pointed out that it was probably going to be dark before they made it back to the dock.
She suspected Mark thought it would be a good opportunity for a little romantic necking, that darkness would give him the chance to cuddle up, but she wasn’t in the mood. She was exhausted. It was amazing how drained she felt from the little bit of actual swimming she’d done, but an inescapable fact, and beyond that she felt downright disgustingly sticky from both the water and the salt in the sea air. All she really wanted to do was bathe and collapse in the hotel room for a nice long nap.
She wasn’t a sun worshipper, but she’d reached the point where she didn’t think she could stand wearing the wet suit another moment. Peeling it off, she’d spread a thick towel on the deck, grabbed a life preserver to use as a pillow, and stretched out to pretend she was sunning when she actually only wanted to sleep.
Mark had obligingly slathered sun screen all over her, mostly, she thought, as an excuse to feel her up—not that she cared as long as it prevented her skin from turning lobster red. Since it had evolved into an erotic sort of massage, though, and had warmed her even as it relaxed her aching muscles, she gave him another plus in the good column.
Unfortunately, that made the scales more or less even since he’d accumulated almost as many minuses throughout the day as pluses. She was drowsing, debating whether or not she was interested in taking the next step and ‘test driving’ him that night when he suddenly sat back and stiffened.
“Hey! Look at that!”
Cassie didn’t even lift her head, despite the excitement she heard in his voice. Whatever it was, she wasn’t interested.
“Carl! Do you see that?” he persisted, coming to his feet.
As she heard the rest of the diving party moving in their direction, curiosity finally penetrated her stupor of exhaustion and Cassie lifted her head to look around. She couldn’t see anything from her position and was tempted to dismiss it again until she realized that everyone was craning to look into the distance. It was the look on their faces that finally sent a shaft of alarm through her. Pushing herself up onto her knees, she followed the direction of their gazes, more than half expecting so see a ship flying a pirate flag.
She thought, at first, that the glaring sun had dazzled her and it was just a trick of the eyes. Blinking, she slowly got to her feet. The mirage didn’t disappear, though. After staring at the thick bank of clouds rolling toward them, she swiveled her head and scanned the horizon all the way around. Her heart began to thud dully in her chest. “What would cause that?” she asked of no one in particular. “Is it a storm?”
Several moments passed while first one and then another speculated as to the cause of the phenomenon and then it finally dawned on Cassie that no one was looking at the same thing she was. Everyone was staring at the water. Turning, she peered at the water again and realized that a huge patch of ocean was glowing a strange, eerie blue.
“What is that?” she gasped.
Something in her voice must have finally penetrated Mark’s absorption. He glanced at her, his expression questioning. “I don’t know. Never seen anything like it.”
“You think, maybe, it’s just … like sunlight reflecting off the clouds?” Cassie speculated hopefully
Mark frowned at her and then lifted his head to glance around as she had. “Shit!” he exclaimed abruptly, drawing everyone’s attention to the bank of clouds that had ringed them. “What the hell!”
For several moments everyone babbled excitedly. Abruptly, Carl plowed his way through the group and headed for the controls. “Everyone get everything tied down. NOW! Get your life vests on! We’ve got a freak storm rolling in!”
Cassie bent over and scooped up the life vest she’d been cuddling and began to struggle into it. She had no idea what else might need doing, but she wasn’t going anywhere until she had that on. She was still struggling with figuring out which loops went with which straps when Carl began to cuss loud and long. “The damned radio’s dead! I can’t get a call in to the coast guard!”
That announcement made everyone freeze.
“What do you mean the radio’s dead?” Ben, one of the group demanded, anger edging his voice. “Didn’t you check it out?”
“Of course I checked it out!” Carl yelled angrily. “What do you take me for? It was working fine when we left!”
“Maybe we’re just out of range?” Shelley, one of the women, suggested uneasily.
“It’s not picking up anything but static! Somebody should be close enough to pick up a mayday!”
“Why do we need to send out a mayday?” Cassie asked, trying to keep the hysteria out of her voice.
She didn’t think she succeeded very well. As low as she’d pitched her voice, mostly because she was too breathless with sudden fear to manage much more than a whisper, the question brought everyone’s attention to her.
“Just in case,” Mark muttered after a moment.
“In case of what?” Cassie demanded.
“The instruments have gone haywire,” Carl announced, dragging everyone’s attention to him.
“Electrical storm?” Jimmy, another diver, suggested.
Cassie was about to dispute that when she noticed a jagged streak of light threading through the clouds advancing on them. Her heart seemed to leap into her throat to strangle her as she turned slowly to survey the cloud bank and saw similar streaks forking down to the water all the way around them.
“Let’s just get the hell out of here!” Mark yelled.
“And go where?” Ben demanded. “You heard him. The instruments aren’t working.”
“So? We get clear of the storm, they’ll work, and probably the radio, too, and we can call for help,” Jimmy yelled back at him, seconding Mark’s motion.
“We don’t have enough fuel to wander around the gulf!” Carl, the doomsayer, announced. “We’ll be dead in the water if we aren’t careful. And what if the radio still doesn’t work? We don’t have enough food or water on board for more than a day. Unless one of you has a really good idea of which direction to go, I say we drop anchor and try to ride this out. Any direction we take, we’ll be heading into the storm.”
“But it’s coming right toward us! We’re not going to avoid it.”
“Exactly my point—there doesn’t seem to be any possibility of avoiding it. I’d rather not take the chance of getting lost. If we stay put, when it passes over us, we should at least be able to get our bearings and then, even if the radio and the instruments still don’t work, we’ll have a better chance of making landfall.”
“How far are we from land?” Cassie asked.
Instead of ignoring her as they had before, several of the divers glanced at her and then turned to look at Carl questioningly. He shrugged. “The last time I checked about two hundred and fifty nautical miles.”
Cassie felt anger surge through her. She hadn’t liked the idea of sailing so far out they couldn’t see land in any direction to begin with, but now it seemed even more insane to her. She, at least, hadn’t known the potential for disaster. They had known and they’d still struck off for deep water as if it hadn’t occurred to any of them that they were land dwellers.
With an effort, she tamped her anger. Everyone was already on edge. Arguing wasn’t going to help anything. Apparently everyone else arrived at the same conclusion. After glaring with angry accusation at one another for a few moments, everyone found a spot to settle and watch the clouds. After a while, although her nerves were still stretched tauter than a barbed wire fence, Cassie noticed something else strange about the glowing water and the bank of clouds.
“Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that the clouds aren’t moving?” The strange light was becoming more and more pervasive, as well, and her skin was prickling, as if static electricity was rippling over her.
“I think she’s right,” Mark announced after studying the clouds for several minutes. “They don’t look any closer to me either.”
Carl shook his head. “I can’t tell. It could just be a slow moving storm.”
“It doesn’t look like a storm, though,” Cassie disputed. “I mean—I’ve never seen a storm when I was at sea. Maybe they look differently than they do on land, but—shouldn’t they be dark? They’re so white and fluffy they don’t even look like storm clouds. The lightening looks weird, too. It’s coming straight down.”
“The sea,” Mark said succinctly. “Water draws lightning.”
Lovely! Why hadn’t she thought about that? “Maybe it would be better to get inside?” she suggested uneasily.
Mark stared at her a long moment. A look passed between him and the others that she didn’t like—at all. “If the lightning strikes get close, we will,” he said finally.
Cassie studied his face and then the faces of the other divers. After a few moments it sank in that they preferred chancing the lightning to the possibility of being trapped inside if the boat sank.
An hour passed. Cassie was still on edge, but she discovered she couldn’t maintain her fear. It was wearing her down. “This is so bizarre,” she finally muttered. “I almost feel like time has stopped.”
Linda, a woman who looked to be around thirty five, who should have had more sense than to consider going off on such a harebrained adventure, sent her a commiserating look. “It’s the waiting.”
Cassie shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m more inclined to think it’s the ‘nothing’ that’s happening. I guess my sense of depth perception could be off, but I don’t think those clouds are moving any closer. I feel like I’m in a … jar, or something.”
The comment didn’t pass unnoticed. The men exchanged that ‘look’ the one men always shared whenever they consider a woman had said something ‘womanish’—which translated to farfetched and hysterical. Shelly and Linda, the only women in the group besides her, looked thoughtful, though.
“She’s right,” Linda finally seconded. “The clouds are … boiling, but they don’t look any closer—nor further away. Even if it’s a slow moving storm it’s been an hour and half. We should be able to discern some difference.”
“So maybe it’s just stalled,” Carl said pointedly.
“Well, why is it that everything looks bluer? And why is it that I can feel my skin prickling if the storm isn’t any closer?” Shelly put in.
Mark surged to his feet. “I’m going down to see if I can find out what’s causing that glow.”
“Don’t be stupid!” Carl snapped. “What if the storm hits while you’re down there?”
“I’ll follow the anchor line!” Mark said angrily. “It’s not going to take more than a few minutes to have a look. I’ll come right back up.”
“It’s too risky,” Carl pointed out.
“He’s right, man,” Ben and Jimmy agreed almost in the same breath.
“I’ll spot you,” David, the other man in the group, offered.
“You’re both crazy!” Carl said angrily.
David shrugged. “Maybe, but this just sitting around is getting on my nerves. And I want to see what’s causing the glow myself.”
“What if it’s like—gas?” Cassie asked, an edge of anger in her own voice. “I saw this special one time where they were speculating that the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle were caused by a rise of methane gases that made the ships loose buoyancy. That’s where we are, isn’t it? In the Triangle?”
Mark gave her a look that she didn’t like. “The boat isn’t sinking,” he said pointedly. “I think that blows that theory.”
Carl shrugged. “We could be in the Triangle, but I don’t believe in that crap.”
The comment redirected Cassie’s anger in his direction. “So how do you explain this weird phenomenon?”
“Yeah,” Shelley agreed. “I mean, I’ve heard of freak storms, but this is seriously weirding me out!”
“All the more reason to check it out,” Mark pointed out with a mixture of amusement and excitement. “Don’t you think it would be cool as hell to be able to go back and explain the mystery?”
“No!” Cassie and Linda said almost in unison.
He gave them both a look that was a mixture of irritation and disgust. “Well, I do.”
He reminded Cassie of a sullen little boy as he stalked off and began to put his gear on. Right up until that point, Cassie had given him a good many points for looks and intelligence. Not that he was even close to an Adonis, but he was above average in looks and built pretty good—now she knew why. It was from all the swimming. And he’d seemed to be pretty smart and to have a sense of humor that was somewhat compatible with her own.
Staring at him, she was pretty sure, now, this was going to prove to be a bust all the way around. The scales were way against him now. Even if they made it back to the dock without disaster overtaking them, she didn’t think she wanted to go any further in pursuit of a relationship with him. She wasn’t going to give him any points at all for brazen stupidity and, in her book, the threat of the storm was enough to cancel out any pluses he might have gotten for bravery. As improbable as it seemed that he could actually protect her if the storm struck, he should consider keeping her safe as top priority, not going off on an adventure in the teeth of death!
“Idiots!” Carl muttered as Mark and David went over the side and disappeared.
From the expressions of the other divers, it looked like most of them were in agreement. Jimmy looked a little torn, as if he wanted to join them but just couldn’t get up the nerve.
Strike scuba diving enthusiasts, Cassie thought angrily—sky divers, mountain climbers, racing---If she met any other guys who ‘loved’ flirting with death she wasn’t going to give them the time of day.
Too nervous to sit still any longer, Cassie got up to pace around the deck, staring at the clouds, glancing at her watch from time to time—which was how she finally realized time actually had stood still—as in, her watch had stopped. About fifteen minutes later, David emerged beside the boat.
“You’ve got to see this!” he announced in a voice edged with hysterical excitement. “There’s a whole city below us—honest to god! I think we’ve found Atlantis!”
Chapter Two
David’s excitement was contagious.
Cassie didn’t catch it.
The others did, however. When Mark surfaced a few moments later and added his description of the ruins they’d found below, there was a mad scramble to get their gear on. Even Carl, the eldest of the group, whom Cassie had considered the most reliable and sensible up until then, looked like a child who’d been promised a treat and feared it would be snatched away. He looked on as, one by one, the other divers leapt over the side and disappeared. Finally, he caved and began to put his own gear on.
“Hey!” Cassie exclaimed. “You’re not going down, too?”
He sent her a look that was sheepish and at the same time determined. “You said yourself the storm was stalled. I won’t be gone long.”
“You’re going to leave me here by myself?” she demanded incredulously.
He glared at her. “You’ll be fine. I’m just going down for a quick look. The instruments are shot. We can’t even be sure of the location—there won’t be any coming back later for a look.”
Cassie was still trying to reason with him when he leapt out of the boat and disappeared. Fear stole over her as she stared down at the water in dismay, watching until he completely disappeared from sight. How long she stood staring down into the water, muttering curses under her breath, she had no idea, but when she finally realized it wasn’t doing anything for her sense of desertion, she eased away from the side of the boat and looked around worriedly.
It seemed the strange blue haze had become notably more pronounced. Shivering, Cassie looked around uneasily and finally went to get her wet suit, pulling it on again. “Idiots!” she grumbled, unnerved at the sound of her own voice even though she’d thought it would comfort her, make her feel less alone.
What was she going to do if they didn’t come back? She didn’t know the first thing about driving a boat! Not that it had looked all that difficult. She thought she could figure it out, but she had far less confidence that she could find land.
When she’d managed to get her wet suit on, she paced, gnawing at a finger nail, stopping every few moments to peer over the side in the hopes that at least one of the divers would surface. The longer she paced, the darker it grew. She stopped to stare at the strange clouds. Were they getting closer? Or did it just seem like they were?
Finally, she grabbed her tanks and put them on, struggling to remember Carl’s instructions about the gauges. She didn’t realize she’d come to the decision to go after them until she found herself standing on the diving platform.
They’d had plenty of damned time to look, though, she thought angrily! Surely she could convince someone to come back up?
She wasn’t convinced that she could and she had no real desire to go down, but she realized she was more afraid of being alone than going down. Finally, she leapt into the water, adjusted her mask, and dipped below the surface.
She couldn’t see a sign of anyone, but that was hardly surprising since she couldn’t see the bottom and they were undoubtedly on the bottom. After a moment, when it seemed terror was going to completely consume her, she finally decided she would use the anchor line as a guide. She would go down, look for the others and if she didn’t see anybody, she was going to come right back up. She wasn’t going to take a chance on getting lost. She couldn’t lose the boat if she stayed within reach of the anchor chain.
Fear dogged her all the way down. She considered turning back several times, but each time she did the fear of being alone on the boat superseded her fear of the ocean. She kept glancing at her gauges, carefully monitoring the amount of air in her tanks. She not only had no desire to cut it close and wait until she had just enough air to get back, she wasn’t going to cut it close!
She’d reached the point where the fear of going deeper had begun to swing the balance when she saw something below her, regular shapes—like manmade structures—and irregular shapes that looked vaguely like people. Pausing, she peered toward them. The water was hazy and dark besides, but she decided that the shapes she’d caught a glimpse of must be the others. Feeling a tingling of relief, and still reluctant to let go of the chain she’d been following, she propelled herself deeper, glancing at the figures every few moments.
She’d just decided that what she’d seen wasn’t the other divers when it finally dawned on her that the trembling she’d been dimly aware of for sometime wasn’t actually her trembling.
Well, part of it was. It wasn’t all coming from inside of her, though. Part of it was from the water surrounding her. Pausing in consternation, she tried to think what might be causing it. Nothing came to mind, and she dismissed it after a moment, unable to focus on anything beyond the need to find someone, turning in a slow circle to see if she could catch a glimpse of any of the others.
Either they were a lot further away than she thought they should be, or the visibility was a lot poorer than it seemed.
She checked her gauges again, debating whether she actually wanted to move away from the only landmark she had.
She could see the closest figure pretty clearly, though. Shouldn’t she be able to spot the anchor chain if she could see that far?
Distances were really deceptive under water, though. She’d already discovered that.
Maybe she’d just take a quick look? Maybe, if she went over to the figure she could see the others?
Glancing down in search of something else to use to mark her bearings, she thought she saw a faint shimmy in the formations below her. But maybe it was just the odd waffling of the current? Or maybe it was just her? She was shivering, from the chill of the water now, not just nerves.
She’d come this far. She should at least make a push to find one of the others before giving up and returning alone, she decided.
She did not want to be stuck on that boat alone if the storm hit!
Trying to calm herself so that she wouldn’t be sucking up more oxygen than she could afford, she glanced down one last time, trying to imprint the image below her on her mind’s eye, and finally let go of the anchor chain.
She was afraid to stare down as she swam toward the image, afraid she’d lose the advantage of that one point of reference. It took longer to reach it than she’d expected and the realization slowly dawned on her that she hadn’t been mistaken. It was further away that it had seemed. As she neared it, though, she became more focused on the figure as she began to make out details she hadn’t been able to before. She’d more than half suspected that it was nothing but a formation of rock that appeared to have been formed in the shape of a man.
It wasn’t. It wasn’t even in the shape of a man.
It was a sculpture of a merman.
Intrigued despite the fear inspired adrenaline still pumping through her, she swam closer. As she drew nearer, she discovered it wasn’t just one sculpture. In the distance she could make out others. Awe began to supersede her fear.
David might have been stretching it to guess that they’d found Atlantis, but this was no illusion. It really was a sculpture, fashioned by the hand of man, not nature!
It was beautiful, she thought as she finally got close enough to see it really well!
It reminded her of Greek sculptures she’d seen in pictures and reproductions of those classic sculptures. She wasn’t certain why it did unless it was because it so faithfully depicted a man—a merman—with such accuracy of detail.
It was life-sized, too—or maybe larger than life? As she reached it at last, she discovered the figure dwarfed her. If the sculptor had used an actual living man as a model, he’d been a big man, and beautifully formed! God! She hadn’t seen a man built that impressive outside of bodybuilding magazines! His back was muscular! His arms, one of which was lifted to hold a lethal looking trident, were huge!
Surprise flickered through her as she allowed her gaze to follow the contours of his back down to the dolphin like tail. He had buttocks! Nice round ones! The fish part seemed to start around the tops of where his thighs would’ve been instead of at the waist as she would’ve expected.
That was odd! In every depiction she’d ever seen of merfolk, the upper torso was human and they were fish from the waist down.
It leapt into her mind to wonder what he looked like from the front.
Naughty, Cassie, she chided herself! But the thought had barely flashed through her mind when she pedaled forward to see if the statue was anatomically correct in every way.
Despite her suspicions, she was still startled when she discovered he was anatomically correct—sort of. The genitalia definitely didn’t look Greek in origin. He might’ve been hung like a dolphin—she’d heard they were huge—but he definitely wasn’t hung like any human male she’d ever seen and she damned sure hadn’t ever seen a Greek statue with a dong like that!
Abruptly embarrassed at her focus, she jerked her head up and glanced around guilty. Unfortunately, she saw no sign of the other divers. Guilt gave way to consternation. She didn’t know where they were, but she wasn’t hanging around any longer! The urge to explore what looked to actually be the ruins of a city warred briefly with her chicken shit side, but the yellow streak won out. Almost with a sense of regret, she returned her attention to the statue again, allowing herself to briefly examine the beautifully sculpted torso and face.
She shouldn’t have been surprised to discover the face was as beautiful as the rest of the sculpture—angular and manly, but with features so classically perfect ‘beautiful’ came to mind before handsome did—but she was.
Greek, she thought again, definitely Greek, though how the sculpture had ended up in this area of the world was a mystery destined never to be resolved. Even the merman’s long hair seemed to be arranged in a style reminiscent of the height of the Greek era of enlightenment.
What she wouldn’t give to be able to lug this thing home and just admire it!
Even the stone that had been used to sculpt it was unusual, had an almost pink tinge to it that made it look like living flesh—except for the tail. That was a pale, grayish-bluish looking stone, very close to the same color as a dolphin and she thought it likely that was what the sculptor had used as a model—a dolphin.
Shrugging the thoughts off, she allowed her gaze to sweep over the statue one more time before she checked her gauges again, feeling real regret when she saw she’d been under as long as she dared stay.
She just wished she’d thought to bring a camera.
But then she’d been scared shitless. She hadn’t had anything on her mind but finding the others.
A shudder rippled through the water around her, this time far harder than anything she’d felt before. Her mind registered ‘quake’ even as she was pushed by the force of it against the statue. Pain shot through her as her face plate connected with the stone. Panic followed the pain. Placing her hands on the sculpture, she shoved away from it, glancing at it to see if she’d damaged it when she’d been slammed against it.
Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the eyes were open.
They’d been closed before, hadn’t they?
She would’ve noticed, she realized, if they’d been open.
The eyes, unfocused for a split second, abruptly focused and looked directly at her.
Cassie screamed. It emerged as a bubbling gurgle around her mouth piece and a cloud of bubbles.
Too panicked to even think about the anchor chain she’d followed down let alone to look for it, Cassie backstroked the closest approximation she could manage to a leap backwards and then shot toward the surface of the ocean, swimming for all she was worth.
She hadn’t gone far when something clamped around one of her ankles. She was so blind with panic it took her several heartbeats to realize she was no longer making any progress toward the surface of the water and several more before it dawned on her that she was tethered. The discovery when she glanced down to see what she was snagged on, however, that it was the merman she’d been admiring only succeeded in bringing her fight or flight instincts to the foreground. She was incapable of anything even approaching logical thought.
Whirling, she commenced to hammering on his head, shoulders, and arms, trying to kick him with her free leg at the same time. The drag of the water on her arms and legs not only made her blows completely ineffectual, however, it drained her of any ability to even try to fight within moments.
The panic cost her more than that, although she was in no state of mind to realize right away. Her swift, ragged breaths ate up her oxygen far more quickly than would’ve been the case if she hadn’t been panicked.
He released his grip on her ankle as the fight drained out of her. Shooting upwards with no more than a slight flick of his tail, he grabbed her around the waist with one arm. With his free hand, he grasped her mask and ripped it off, dropping it as soon as he’d removed it. Cassie grabbed for the mask frantically as she saw it drifting downward. She whirled to stare at him in wide eyed horror as the mask disappeared.
His expression was stern. There was a glint of curiosity in his eyes, as well, though Cassie was in no state to interpret that look at the moment. The harsh set of his features was enough to reinforce her certainty that her life was in danger—that and the fact that he’d pulled her mask off. More than half fearing he’d rip her mouth piece off next, she recommenced her struggles, this time shoving at him instead of swinging.
Ignoring her attempts to pry herself from his grip, he dove, carrying her through the water at a dizzying speed. Cassie’s terror hit a new peak as she dragged on the mouth piece and discovered she’d run out of air. Her fight this time was much more ferocious but of far shorter duration. As her lungs began to burn with the need to pull air into them, her struggles became weaker and weaker until she finally hung limply in his grip. She still managed a half hearted attempt to fight him as he pulled her mouth piece from her mouth, but she didn’t even have enough strength left to try to fight him when he caught the back of her head with his free hand, fastened his mouth over hers, forced her lips apart and breathed into her mouth. She sucked in the air he gave her, wondering dimly if it was the shortage of air that sent a dizzying rush through her. She didn’t know or care at that moment, the only thing that mattered to her was breathing. She ceased struggling and wrapped her arms and legs tightly around him, fighting now to recapture his mouth each time he lifted his head.
She didn’t have a thought to spare for anything beyond the precious breaths he gave her each time the panic of drowning swept over her again. She was dimly aware that they were moving deeper and deeper and that cold was creeping into the marrow of her bones, but there was only one focus in her life and that was getting air.
The darkness that had been steadily encroaching, growing deeper and more profound, began to lighten after a time. Cassie had no idea when that happened, only that she became aware that she wasn’t surrounded by darkness anymore. The merman slowed, paused for a few moments, and then moved forward again.
A great heaviness settled over her. Her skin, what was exposed, prickled with a sensation that seemed vaguely familiar—like air. Her mind refused to accept it, however, when it didn’t make sense to her.
She held her breath, refusing to give in to the desperate urge to breathe. Blindly, she sought the merman’s mouth again. She saw a gleam in his eyes as his head descended obligingly toward hers. When his mouth fastened over hers this time, however, it was far more than a sharing of air. His mouth clung to hers in a way that transformed it from resuscitation to kiss. Heat wafted through her as her body acknowledged the sensual nature of the touch before her brain caught on. She became acutely conscious of the taste of him even before he thrust his tongue into her mouth and raked it possessively over hers, exploring her mouth with a thoroughness that set her heart to hammering with something entirely different than fear.
She blinked up at him dizzily when he broke the contact and lifted his head to look down at her. Heat and amusement both gleamed in his pale blue eyes as he stared down at her. His hard mouth curled slowly into what was almost a smile.
Then he opened it and said something completely incomprehensible to her.
She blinked, thrown into more confusion.
Lifting his arms, he caught her legs and peeled them off. Gravity, unimpeded by the buoyancy of salt water, dragged her legs downward. The sensation finally penetrated, and she looked down to see a bright mosaic floor beneath her feet—which still hovered several inches above the surface. His hands settled on her waist as she loosened her death grip on his neck and she slid down his hard frame.
She was in a room, she realized blankly, wondering a little wildly if she’d died or was just hallucinating. How?
“Get your hands off of her, fishman!”
Mark’s voice snagged her attention, and Cassie’s head swiveled automatically in the direction of the sound. Carl, Ben, and David were struggling to hold him, she saw in dismay. A shaft of guilt went through her, and Cassie pushed the merman’s hands from her and moved away from him before it even occurred to her that she had no reason to feel guilty.
She glanced back at the merman when she’d put some distance between them, still too stunned by all that had happened to take everything in.
He was standing, though--on two legs.
Taking care not to allow her gaze to linger on his genitals, she swept her gaze upwards to his face again, puzzled. The face was the same. She’d imprinted that pretty solidly in her mind. But where was the merman’s tail?
Shaking her head to try to clear away her confusion, she retreated to the far side of the room where she saw that the diving crew was grouped. Mark snagged her as she reached him, wrapping his arms around her possessively and glaring at the merman—naked man—over the top of her head.
It didn’t occur to her to try to break his grip, but she twisted around to look at the man again.
Whatever amusement had been on his face, or that she’d thought she’d seen, was gone. His expression was hard now, his gaze speculative as it moved over Mark.
Without another word—not that she’d understood what he’d said before—he turned on his heel, strode to a doorway that looked like nothing so much as a wavering mirror—and stepped through.
Cassie felt her jaw slide to half mast.
He paused on the other side. As she watched, his legs merged, became the fish tail she’d seen before. Without glancing back, he flicked the tailfins and vanished from sight.
Slowly becoming aware that Mark was still holding her in a bruising grip, Cassie began to struggle to free herself. Reluctantly, he eased his hold on her, but he didn’t release her completely. She pushed at him until he let go, putting some distance between them before she stopped. “What’s going on here?”
Mark frowned at her. “That’s what I’d like to know. What the hell were you doing kissing that fish?”
* * * *
Raen moved to the video display when he reached the observation room. Jadin, who was already at the console studying the prisoners, glanced over at him and grinned. What was that all about? I can not believe you, of all people, would deign to touch one of the primitives so intimately.
Raen turned to look at his long time friend, studied him for a moment, and finally shrugged. She is a land dweller. She needed air.
Jadin eyed his friend skeptically but finally decided Raen’s expression didn’t welcome teasing. They seem to have progressed quite a bit since I saw them last. How long do you suppose we were in stasis?
Too long. I feel like hell. Do you know what brought us out?
You have not heard? Jadin asked in surprise, pleased to know he’d learned the news before his superior officer, a little puzzled, too, if it came to that. Raen wasn’t just his superior officer, he was the head of the garrison. He should’ve been informed first, but then again he appeared to have been a little preoccupied with his prisoner, he thought wryly.
Raen frowned. I assumed it was the breach in security, that they had tripped the alert when they came in. When I came around the woman was right in front of me and all the lights were on, the alarms blaring ….
Jadin shrugged. Maybe, but everyone is awakening, not just the sentinels.
Raen dragged his attention from the woman with an effort and looked at Jadin, sensing he was bursting with excitement. They have come?
Jadin’s face fell. Damn it to hell! Who told you?
Raen felt a smile tug at his lips. No one. It was just a wild guess, he retorted dryly, based upon your comment that everyone is awakening. You are certain that is what it is?
I heard it from Kadar. He said when he roused, the communications were open and they were trying to hail us.
Raen’s expression turned wry. And there were those who doubted the Mother world would send us succor in our hour of need!
Jadin frowned. You did not think they would? Why the hell did you agree to go into stasis if you did not think they would send help?
Raen shrugged. I am a sentinel. It is my duty to guard the citizens of Atlantis, not to question my superiors.
Chapter Three
Cassie felt her color fluctuate madly at the accusation in Mark’s voice. Guilt and resentment warred with embarrassment. “He’s not a fish!” she said indignantly.
Mark’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever the hell it is, it ain’t a human,” he said tightly.
Cassie had had time to wonder why her first impulse was to defend the merman. She didn’t have time to analyze it, though, since Mark’s next comment put her on the defensive. “I ran out of air. He was breathing for me. I’d have drowned if he hadn’t.”
“You wouldn’t have nearly drowned if he hadn’t grabbed you,” Shelley pointed out.
Cassie turned to look at the woman huddled next to Linda against the wall.
“And that didn’t look like he was breathing for you … aside from the fact that he didn’t need to once you got here.”
Cassie turned a narrow eyed glare on Mark again, but she couldn’t help the blush that rose to her cheeks. “I was still in a blind panic about not being able to breathe,” she admitted reluctantly. “I didn’t know he’d brought me to a place where I could breathe without his help.”
She had realized it at about the same time it had dawned on her that he was kissing her, not breathing for her, but she saw no reason to admit that. Not that she felt like Mark had any right to question her in the first place! As far as she was concerned the date had ended the minute he’d abandoned her top side to go off exploring.
Glancing away from Mark, she saw the others were staring at her with varying degrees of accusation, and her temper erupted. “You needn’t be looking at me so damned accusingly! I didn’t get any of you into this mess! You got yourselves into it, and got me into it, too, I might add! I happen to be the only one here that isn’t used to diving and I would very happily have stayed on the damned boat if all of you hadn’t left me there by myself.”
They had the grace to look away guiltily, but she was still angry that they behaved as if she was fraternizing with the enemy when she hadn’t done anything but try to survive. Was it her fault the guy had taken advantage of her mindless panic? Why should she feel guilty that she’d actually enjoyed it?
Moving to the wall where the other women were seated, she put some distance between herself and the others and sat down. She still felt unaccountably weak from her ordeal and found herself struggling against the urge to burst into tears.
“What are we going to do now?” Shelley asked after a prolonged silence. “We can’t stay here. We have to think of a way to get out.”
“Hey!” Mark said nastily. “We’re all open to suggestions! Unfortunately, none of us can breathe water like they do and they took the damned tanks.”
Cassie looked up at him in surprise. Right up until he’d said that, she hadn’t realized she’d been relieved of her tank, as well. Not that it mattered since the thing was empty, and she suspected theirs would’ve been close to empty, but she couldn’t even remember when he’d taken it off of her. Truthfully, she’d been so mindless with terror she couldn’t remember much of anything from the moment she’d found the merman staring back at her when she’d pushed away from him.
Remembering the wave that had shoved her into him to begin with, though, brought her prior impressions back to mind. “Has anybody noticed the vibrations?” she asked uneasily.
Shelley gave her a look. “Yes, we’ve all noticed. Carl seems to think it might be the shocks of an underwater quake. That’s why I want to get the hell out of here.” She glanced around at the men. “One of the reasons, anyway.”
Cassie frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think it’s a quake.”
Carl sent her an irritated look. “You a specialist?”
She glared at him at his tone. “It’s been constant since I first noticed it,” she said tightly. “Nothing I’ve ever heard about quakes seemed to point to the constant vibrations I’ve been feeling.”
“She’s got you there,” Mark retorted. “Although I have to wonder how you noticed anything the way you were wrapped around that guy.”
Cassie studied him for a long moment, wrestling with her temper. They were all scared and lashing out with their tempers and it wasn’t helping matters at all. Nevertheless, she found his possessiveness too irritating to ignore. “Let’s just get one thing straight right now, Mark Sanderson! Your possessive attitude has been duly noted and isn’t appreciated! I do not belong to you. This was a date—a first date—and as far as I’m concerned it ended when you left me on that damned boat to go exploring, knowing we had a storm bearing down us! So I don’t, definitely don’t, feel like taking this shit from you about me being with that merman—like I … enticed him or something!
“I thought he was a statue. I was looking at him and the next thing I knew he was looking back at me! I tried to get away, but he caught me—the same way you were all caught, I assume.
“Even if I was flirting with him—which I wasn’t—it still wouldn’t be any of your damned business!”
Mark reddened. “I guess this means ‘every man for himself’ then?”
“Oh, you really are an asshole!” Linda snapped. “I don’t blame her for dumping you!”
“Up yours, Sanchez!” Mark snapped and stalked to the other side of the room.
“Fighting among ourselves isn’t going to help anything,” Carl put it. “We need to be constructive, people.”
“Well, in the words of the asshole, we’re all open to suggestions, great leader,” David said testily. “I don’t know how it went down for the rest of you, but I tangled with one of those things, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think three of us could take one of them down. Then there’s the little problem of no air. I could make it to the top, I think, but it would have to be a fast climb and we don’t have anything on the boat for the bends.”
Carl stared at him angrily for several moments and finally moved to settle against the wall like everyone else.
There were no furnishings in the room at all. After studying over that for a little while, Cassie finally decided that where ever they were the place wasn’t a prison cell. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She supposed it didn’t actually make a hell of a lot of difference, but she felt better about it not being a prison cell until it dawned on her that it was just one room and there was no place to relieve themselves if anybody had the need.
She wished she hadn’t thought about it because the moment the ‘suggestion’ popped into her mind she noticed her bladder was beginning to get uncomfortable. “Do you think they’ll keep us here long?” she asked no one in particular.
“I don’t know why we’re here at all,” Shelly retorted. “How can we guess how long we’ll be here when we don’t know why?”
“Snooping,” Jimmy said succinctly. “They’re aliens and they caught us snooping around their ship and they’re not going to let us go at all.”
“Shit, Jimmy!” Carl snapped. “Don’t start with that crap!”
“Well, what the hell do you think they are?” Jimmy demanded.
“This isn’t a ship,” Shelly said pointedly. “Look around. It’s obviously a building.”
“On the ocean floor?” David pointed out, his voice laced with skepticism.
“Don’t tell me you agree with him,” Linda demanded.
“They aren’t human.”
“Who says they aren’t?” Cassie asked irritably. “Just because they don’t look like any of the races we’re familiar with doesn’t mean they’re not human.”
“Oh! Come on, woman! You kiss that thing and now you think you know it’s human?”
Cassie narrowed her eyes at Mark’s comment. “Fine! Have it your way! I kissed him! He felt human, damn it! He tasted human! He kissed like a human—except better,” she added nastily.
“Really?” Shelly asked, obviously intrigued. “They are … gorgeous.”
“She’s lost her mind. They must be able to control minds or something,” David growled savagely, pushing himself to his feet and stalking across the room to join Mark.
Shelley exchanged a long look with Cassie and finally shrugged. “I’m just saying ….”
“Just don’t,” Carl snapped. “We’re in danger. Yes, I can see where you might think they look good—I’ll concede that much—but they’re not human and it would be really dangerous for you to think of them that way.”
Linda stared at him speculatively for a moment. “You agree with Jimmy? You think they’re aliens, too?”
He returned her look for a moment and finally shrugged irritably. “How the fuck would I know? All I do know is that they’re not human … Did anybody understand anything that thing said?”
“It sounded like Greek to me,” David put in.
“Well, at least we can all agree on that,” Carl said dryly. “It was Greek to me, too, but that ain’t very helpful.”
“Naw, man! I’m serious. It sounded like Greek.”
That comment caught everyone’s attention. “You can speak Greek?” Jimmy asked, obviously impressed.
David reddened. “I can’t speak Greek, but I used to work for this Greek couple. They talked in their native tongue to each other all the time. What he said sounded a lot like that. I think it’s Greek.”
Carl rolled his eyes. “Well, even if it is, that isn’t helpful worth a shit! We can’t speak Greek.”
Cassie thought that over. “Maybe Mark was right? Maybe this is Atlantis? I mean, the language—the architecture—doesn’t it seem like it has a strong Greek influence?”
“The Atlanteans were Atlanteans, not Greek. It was just the ancient Greeks that wrote about Atlantis.”
Cassie frowned. “So? This place still has a strong Greek influence. Doesn’t that suggest they had contact with them sometime in the past?”
Carl shrugged. “Maybe … but I still don’t see anything helpful about that information, even if you’re right.”
“Maybe and maybe not, but it might mean they have some familiarity with other people that were around back then.”
David frowned. “Unless there were people around that were speaking English, I doubt it would matter if they had.”
“The Romans!” Cassie said pointedly. “They spoke Latin, and English is based on Latin, and so are the romance languages—like Spanish.”
Everyone turned to look at Linda. She stared back at them blankly for a moment and then with irritation. “I don’t speak Spanish.”
Shelly gaped at her. “How can you not speak Spanish when your name’s Sanchez?”
Linda glared at her. “Your last name’s German. Do you speak German?”
“No, but ….”
“I rest my case.”
* * * *
What language do you think they’re speaking? It doesn’t sound like anything I’m familiar with.
Raen shrugged. Are you recording it?
Jadin gave him an offended look. Of course.
Why not check to see if the computer has had any luck translating, then, instead of speculating?
Sending Raen an irritated glance, Jadin focused on the computer. Translation?
Still collating. Shall I play what I have decoded? the computer responded.
Jadin threw a laughing glance at his friend when the computer translated the discussion about Raen’s ‘sharing air’ with the female called Cassie. Raen, however, did not look amused.
The one called Mark seems to think she is his woman, Raen commented.
Jadin eyed Raen speculatively and finally shrugged. She does not seem to agree.
Raen’s frown deepened. I am not sure it was wise to leave them all together.
Jadin tamped his amusement with an effort and shrugged off handedly. It was the only room that was dry that we could pump air in to at such short notice. We will have to make other arrangements if we are to hold them long … unless our people manage to raise the ship before they run out of air.
Raen glanced at him sharply. As far as we know they have done nothing more than wander into the city. Unless I find out otherwise, we will let them go long before air is an issue for them. Keep a close eye on them. I do not think they are stupid enough to try to leave, knowing how deep we are, but you never know with humans.
Jadin nodded, knowing it was an order, not a request. You do not want to stay a while longer and observe? he asked, all innocence. Unless I miss my guess, the one called Cassie is starting to feel a little uncomfortably warm. I am thinking she will be coming out of that strange suit she is wearing before long.
Raen sent him an amused glance. In mixed company? I doubt it. If anything they seem more inhibited about their bodies than they used to be.
Jadin turned to watch him as he moved to the doorway of the observation room. Where are you going? he asked curiously.
Raen paused and turned to frown at Jadin but finally shrugged off his irritation. They said ‘ancient’ Greeks. I am going to see if I can figure out just how gods bedamned long we have been down here waiting for the Mother world to send help.
He stopped by communications on the way out to speak with Kadar. Did no one think to turn the gods bedamned alert off? The vibrations are rattling my brain.
Kadar glanced at him in surprise. It is off. I turned it off myself.
Raen sent him a perturbed look. What is the source of the tremors then?
The mother ship is probing for us, Kadar responded with a shrug.
They have found us, Raen retorted dryly as he headed out the door. I feel it in my bones.