Though this was what Ashling wanted, surfing was not my idea of a good time. Surfing on the west coast of Vancouver Island was even less of a good idea, at least to me. The water was cold even through the heat of the summer and was known for its riptides and jagged rocks as much as its waves. And yet, here we were. I shook my head, blond curls catching in the wind that stirred up the waves.
“Come on, Quinn, that water is great and the waves are bitch’n!” Ashling yelled. I stared at her, out in the water sitting on her surf board, unruly strawberry blond curls escaping her ponytail and dancing in the wind.
I waved at her and forced a smile to my lips. I wouldn’t ruin this day for her; this was her moment, her celebration.
“I hate this.” I muttered under my breath.
“Then why are you here?” A strong male voice asked me. It was our instructor, Luke.
I had a hard time looking at him. Drop dead gorgeous wouldn’t even begin to describe the man in front of me. Not too tall, maybe 5’10, blond hair that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight and blue eyes that I couldn’t look away from. I swallowed hard and stared at the sand at my feet. Far too pretty, far too dangerous with his silky voice that made me forget my own name. Ashling had been, to say the least, delighted when she saw him and realized he was our surfing instructor. Flirting and prancing in her little red bikini, she’d been determined to get his attention. But he paid her no mind. Was, in fact, quite rude to her. So, although I would admit he was a hot, I had no interest in him. If he couldn’t at least be nice, then he wasn’t my type.
I fingered the cuffs on my wetsuit, anxiety starting to build. “I promised her we could do anything she wanted for her graduation gift.”
We were the only ones here on the beach, the early morning enough to scare many of the tourists away as well as the die hard locals. Usually the beach was flooded, despite the cooler water and the mist that wouldn’t burn off till afternoon.
“You must care for her a great deal.” Luke said. He sounded surprised.
I frowned at him. “She’s my baby sister man, of course I care about her.”
“That’s too bad.” He said his voice soft. My frown deepened and a thrill of alarm started at the base of my spine.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I snapped at him. He didn’t have a chance to answer me.
“Quinn!” Ashling’s call was sharp and far too high pitched. Not her usual light, airy tones. I spun to see her in the water with only her head above the waves as she gripped the surf board. Even from this distance, her pale green eyes were wide and full of fear. I didn’t hesitate- though my body quailed with remembered fear and pain- didn’t think about anything except getting her out of the water. I knew my sister, she wouldn’t play with me, not when it came to the ocean.
I took one step and arms circled around me, holding me tight and stopping me from diving into the water. “She’ll be fine. Let her be.”
“Let me go!” I yelled, jerking my body left and right, trying to free myself. Luke’s grip only tightened; his arms like vices around my middle. Damn he was strong.
“Quinn!” Ashling’s voice went up another octave and I stared in horror as her head bobbed down on the last bit of my name turning into a gurgle. Something huge and black breached in the water next to her then slid back under the waves. My heart constricted with fear, my body thundering with adrenaline. It had to be a killer whale. That was the only thing out here that could be attacking her. We didn’t have sharks on the west coast. At least, not that I knew of. God, I hoped not. I couldn’t face that again.
Luke held me tight. “She’ll be fine.” His voice caressed my skin, his words reverberating inside my skull until I believed them. I relaxed into his arms, my head leaning back into his chest as a wave of fatigue swept over me. I slumped as my blood slowed and the fear left me. Luke was right, Ashling would be okay. She was a strong swimmer and this, his arms around me, felt so nice. He turned me to face him, my back facing the ocean and the distant cries of the gulls. His hand came up and stroked my face; brushed an errant curl back and tucked it behind my ear.
“Ah, Quinn, let her go, she isn’t one of us, not really. It will be better for you to let her go now, rather than later.” He leaned down, holding my face in his hands as his thumbs rubbed intricate designs on my cheeks; his lips pressing into mine.
It was if I was kissing the sun, golden warmth rushed through my veins, waking parts of me I had no idea were even there. The heat stirred some long dormant piece of me and that piece responded in a flash. Pushing up against Luke’s energy, my own power rippled through me, answering his kiss and snapping my nerve endings awake and clearing my mind, tingling from head to toe, I pulled away, trying to untangle my limbs from his.
“Stop.” I gasped out. Luke pulled back, a frown slipping over his beautiful face, marring it, taking the glamour away.
I slid my hand down my thigh to the knife sheath. “Let me go!” I said, again trying to pull myself out of his arms to no avail.
“Trust me Quinn; I’m saving your life right now. If you go into that water, you’ll not come back out. You have to trust me.” He said, the power in his voice sweeping over me again. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, the pain keeping my mind from dissolving under his words. But more than that, my own power seemed to buck under his attempts to sway me. I clung to it for all I was worth.
“I don’t have to do anything!” I snapped.
I flicked the neoprene knife sheath open, and grasped the smooth bone handle. Jerking it out I plunged it into Luke’s thigh. He let out a howl and stumbled backwards as I turned and sprinted into the surf, slipping my knife back in its sheath as I ran.
“Ashling!” I shouted, fear for my baby sister rolling over me; stronger than the fear I had of the water and what lay beneath it, though just barely. The ocean was not warm, and it stole what heat the kiss had infused me with. I dove in, slicing underneath the surf as a wave rolled over me.
Memories of the last time I’d swum, over three years ago, snapped at my heels and I did my very best to ignore them. But, they caught me between diving under the waves and surfacing. The bite of a shark on my leg, the fear as my respirator slipped off at forty feet below the surface, the panic at not being able to breathe.
Breaking the surface, I gasped for air and nearly turned back as I imagined all the things that swam below me. Paralyzed by my past, I couldn’t move forward; I couldn’t go back. Treading water, I trembled, my breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Heart hammering, my vision blurred as I struggled to get enough air, my body shutting down as the panic set in full force.
A wave rolled and in the valley of it was a flash of white.
Ashling’s surfboard. One of her hands gripped the edge it and the sight broke my paralysis. Ashling’s head was submerged except for the ends of her hair which floated on the surface. Something cold and slimy brushed against my legs and I bit down on a scream that made it all the way to my lips before I caught it. Salt water slipped inside my mouth; I spit it out and kicked harder, trying to get to Ashling before it was too late.
I focused on the goal, gritting my teeth as a wave rose over me and pushed me under. The wave held me down, and I fought the weight of it above me, swimming hard for the surface. I broke through and sucked in a lungful of air managing to hold the fear at bay, at least for the moment. Two more strokes and I was right on the surf board. Gripping it I looked all around but there was nothing. She was gone.
“Ashling!” I screamed. My voice echoed out over the water but the only answer I got was the gulls crying over head.
Looking down, I couldn’t see anything below me; I could barely see my feet. Breathing deep, I prepped myself to dive, but on the second gulp of air, the choice was taken from me.
Teeth latched onto my calf yanking me under the water, my hands slipping from the surfboard. The bite was all too familiar. Apparently, I’d been wrong; there were sharks in these waters. Serrated teeth sliced through my flesh, biting all the way through the muscle, my foot clamped inside a powerful set of jaws.
My first thought was that mom couldn’t be upset with me now for losing Ashling, not if we were both gone. My second thought as I rolled in the water- pain in my leg snapping my eyes open- was that I’d lost my mind.
It was no shark on my leg, but a monster, human in appearance with a single eye in the middle of its forehead and a massive mouth filled with sharp, shark-like teeth. The thing smiled as its hands, hooked like claws, rose up to dig into the waist of my neoprene wetsuit. The jagged tips brushed against my bare skin inside the suit and I trembled with fear a new fear. What the hell was it?
“Can you hear me little Tuatha? I wonder if you know me deep in your soul? We are coming for you. All of you.”
I blinked and stared into the huge, soul less eye, felt the keen edge of years behind it and much as I wanted to deny what I was hearing, acknowledged that the voice in my head wasn’t my own. It was his.
What are you? I mouthed into the water, salty brine washing over my taste buds.
“I am your enemy, little Tuatha.”
It, he, rumbled and rolled in the water, taking me with him, end over end until I no longer knew which way was up. Finally, he stopped and began to pull me into the depths of the ocean, the water getting colder with each inch we moved deeper, away from the sun and air.
Air. How could I still be under the water and not need to breathe? I didn’t have time to think about that, as strange as it seemed.
Movement further below and to the right brought my attention off my own situation. It was Ashling, fighting with a monster very much like the one on my own leg. They were tumbling in the water, her hair floating about like tentacles as she fought the thing off. How could she be in this deep, for this long? How could I? This couldn’t be real. But, if it wasn’t real, then I didn’t have to be afraid of the water or what was in it. I could save her. That thought broke the last of my fear, its hold dissolving under the crazy logic.
I grabbed my knife out of the sheath and slashed at the monster that held me in his mouth, slicing through the bulbous eye, white fluid pouring out of it. He jerked away from me, releasing my leg- a spray of blood clouding out around me- as he writhed in the water
“Bitch! You will pay for that!”
He screamed, his words reverberating in my skull.
Turning my back on him, I swam hard towards Ashling, holding the knife in my mouth. Twenty feet, fifteen, ten. I was nearly to her before she looked up.
She saw me coming and kicked the monster that held her tight, sending it into a spin away from her. Ashling swam for me, her lips tight, eyes wide and dilated. Five feet. Three. I reached for her, my hand wrapping around her slender wrist. I didn’t pause, just turned and started to swim for the surface. She swam hard beside me, but I refused to let go of her.
“She is ours, Tuatha, you will not have her!”
We were yanked to a stop in mid stroke, the surface only a few feet away, the sunlight streaming down through the waves with tantalizing nearness. I turned in the water and looked down. Ashling had a sea monster on each leg. Her pale green eyes were so wide they seemed to fill her face as they jerked her from my hands, speeding into the depths faster than a rock sinking. Her hands reached for me, futilely. I started after them, not even thinking about taking a gulp of air. I didn’t need it; it felt as if I could hold my breath indefinitely.
Hands grabbed me and pulled me upwards, away from Ashling, out of the water.
“No!” I screamed as I broke the surface, the last of my air erupting in denial. There were people all over the water; rescuers dove after Ashling. But, I knew what they didn’t. They would never find her, somehow I knew that not only had my sister been stolen away, but my world had just shattered beyond repair.
And somehow, I knew, it all my fault.
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to my editors, Jessica Klassen and Melissa Breau, my proof reader Dr. Kathie M. Black, and my amazing cover artist, Ryan Bibby. You are a fabulous team of professionals, and I am so blessed to be able to work with you.
To my writers group, Writing In Progress, I want to thank you for the support, friendship and writing tips. You have helped this journey of mine along more than you could know, and I will be forever grateful for all of you in my life.
Finally, but far from least, to my family and incredible husband, Terry. It is your love that I draw strength from, that keeps me moving in the hard moments, and allows me to believe that, indeed, love does conquer all.
Dauntless
A Zombie-ish Apocalypse III
Shannon Mayer
COPYRIGHT ©2011 Shannon Mayer
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by and electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author/publisher.
To know more about Shannon Mayer, please visit her blog:
http://shannonmayer.blogspot.com
ELECTRONIC EDITION: 2011, Canada
COVER ART Ryan Bibby
Shannon Mayer
Dauntless: A Zombie-ish Apocalypse Book III/Shannon Mayer