Water (22 page)

Before I had the opportunity to answer him, he’d dashed off.

The gathering dark pressed in on me ominously as I gingerly felt my way forwards with unsure feet.

Each step became a miniature nightmare as I imagined holes in the ground, and rocks I couldn’t see. I stumbled over another tussock of grass, losing my balance and grazing my hands as I hit the ground.

A hissing noise to my right locked every muscle in fear. Luke and Allan’s long-ago warning about snakes twisted through my mind.

“Sssssso pathetic,” came the hissing noise again, this time formed around horrible words.

Perhaps a snake would have been easier to handle, I thought in the moment before an icy grip around the top of my arm pulled me to my feet.

The landscape lit up again, in the same way it had when Merrick held my hand. The scent of the dead deer still lingered faintly in the air, mixed with the unmistakable but indescribable scent of evening.

When it released me I was instantly plunged into darkness again. Realising with a shock that this was another Traduzir, I relaxed a little. This must be Merrick’’s back-up, I thought.

“Where is Merrick?” The voice was hard and slightly gravelled.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

A deep growl from just behind me had me quickly re-evaluating my safety with this creature.

“He went to drop off the deer at the place we’re staying tonight,” I added quickly, in case my response had seemed un-cooperative.

“His youth is obvious in such stupid mistakes.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you found me then,” I said, knowing I sounded naïve and hoping that my trust in the good nature of this Oceanid was not unfounded.

The sinister, almost whispered laugh that followed did nothing to calm my suddenly racing pulse.

I twisted trying to track its movement so that I could at least see the attack when it came, because a deep and dreadful heaviness in my chest told me that it would come – and when it did I didn’t know if I’d be able to stop it.

My desperate brain scrambled to push the fear aside, searching for the fury I knew would help me defend myself.

Languid steps paced around me like a predator toying with its prey, each step bringing it a little bit closer to me, until it was so close that I could hear calm breathing and feel the heat radiating off its skin.

A tiny brush of its skin against mine illuminated my vision enough to realise that it was a he. And he was the most frighteningly powerful looking Oceanid I’d met so far.

“You will make a very tasty addition to my collection,” he told me conversationally, shadows obscuring elements of his features as he continued to circle me.

“What do you mean?” I asked shakily, determined to rein in the stark terror that blossomed inside me as I realised that I wasn’t safe at all, that Merrick had made a terrible error in judgement in leaving me alone.

Very slowly I moved my arms so that my palms faced each other again, willing the blue ball of energy to appear between my palms.

A faint tingle in my palms sparked a moment of hope, I tried to block out what he was saying. I tried to concentrate, but it was all so new and I didn’t know how to hold onto it. The tingle dissipated up my arms.

“I collect, shall we say, experiences with those I protect,” he continued, running his hands millimetres from my head, and then down my body, shaping his hands to emphasise what he liked the most.

He hadn’t touched me, but his meaning was horrifically clear.

Stark impressions of his features are still burned in terror-induced clarity into my memory. Slightly slanted pitch-black eyes – shadow – a hooked nose – shadow – perfect silhouette – shadow – a long, jagged and out of place scar from temple to throa t– shadow – thick powerful muscles – shadow.

“You don’t protect me,” I told him, forcing myself to face him, “Merrick does.”

He laughed, a cracked dusty sound full of threat. “Believe me, little girl, I’m working on changing that,” he whispered, brushing my hair from my neck and grazing my shoulder with his teeth.

“How can you call yourself a Traduzir if you harm those assigned to you?” I challenged in a wobbly voice that belied the audacity of my words.

He chuckled darkly. “Known terror is often preferable to unknown terror. All of my ‘collection’ willingly chose me over the alternative.”

“What was the alternative?” I whispered, afraid that my voice would give away just how frightened I was.

He’d circled around until he was facing me. He leant into me and breathed deeply, a disgustingly leering smile crawling across his face.

“Capture by their enemies.”

Pushing the fear away from my thoughts I drew myself up to my fullest height, the tingle reappearing in the palms of my hands.

“I don’t have any enemies,” I told him firmly, waiting for the jolt that would produce the ball of energy.

He chuckled darkly. “That’s what you think.”

He leaned in closer to me, his eyes watching my every move as I tried to step away from him.

Long powerful fingers wrapped around my arm, pulling me closer towards him. My heightened senses at his touch were a curse. I could smell and taste the revolting lust that rolled off of him, I could see the glint in his obsidian eyes as they wondered over my body, I could feel the drops of moisture forming on his palm.

And then my senses went into hyperdrive and everything slowed down so that I watched it happen in premeditative slow motion.

Merrick had appeared, snatching my other arm and pulling me protectively into his side, his face an inhuman mask of rage, his voice gravelled in fury as he spat a series of furious phrases at the other Oceanid.

To my shock I recognised each word and understood what he said perfectly, watching in disoriented fascination as a burst of bright orange and deep purple mist was thrown from him to encapsulate the other Oceanid.

I don’t know how I understood it, but I knew Merrick wanted to kill him. Not just take his life, but violently dispose of him. I watched in fascinated horror as each jaw-rattling punch, each bone-breaking kick he planned for the other Oceanid played out in a tumble of movements.

I took a breath and turned to the other Oceanid who hadn’t released his vice-like grip on my arm.

His initial expression of surprise morphed into a vicious cruelty and I knew – again, I don’t know how – that he was going to hurt Merrick, going to make him pay, his initially defensive movements turning into a far more experienced and exceptionally effective annihilation of the man I loved.

It only took about three seconds of both of them holding one of my arms, but in that time I saw their fight and knew that Merrick would lose and I would be the spoils left for the taking by the victor.

I blinked as I slowly turned my head towards Merrick again, wanting to protect him from the violence I’d seen the other Oceanid plan, wanting to run away with him.

And then everything blurred around us and when I took another breath we were half a kilometre away from the other Oceanid.

I crumpled, bile forcing its way up my throat and my ears ringing as I fought for oxygen.

“Alexandra!” He brushed the hair back from my face. “Alexandra, are you all right?”

I shuddered and gulped the cool evening air.

“He was another Traduzir…” I managed to gasp before another wave of nausea had me doubled over again.

“Nereus!” growled Merrick. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you before I got there?”

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of a series of terrifying freeze-frame images that played over and over in my head. Eventually I was able to breathe slow calming breaths into my lungs, the adrenalin leaving me shaky and weak.

Merrick carried me, cradling me like a child, the rest of the way down the mountain, leaping nimbly from boulder to boulder until we reached the mouth of a cave.

A fire crackled cheerfully in one of the corners and the smell of roasting venison filled the air.

He set me down carefully at the entrance where the cool evening air helped my rolling stomach, keeping one arm wrapped around my waist.

“Drink some water,” he instructed me quietly, handing me a gourd stoppered with grass. I obeyed numbly.

I began to shiver. I shut my eyes, willing my body to calm down. Merrick sat down beside me and carefully put an arm around my shoulders.

“Are you sure you’re OK, Alexa?” he asked, shortening my name for the first time since I’d met him. Despite my shock I liked it, liked that he felt he knew me well enough to take that liberty. “If he hurt you in any way, we need to get you help.”

I knew what he was so carefully referring to and shook my head vehemently.

“I-I-I’m sorry.” I shivered. “I d-d-don’t know why I’m reacting like this.” To my embarrassment great shuddering sobs followed this.

Merrick simply pulled me into his lap and held me.

“It’s OK,” he said quietly over and over again, kissing my hair and hugging me.

Eventually the sobs subsided and I sat curled in his lap, my head resting against his chest and listening to his heartbeat.

He ran his hands over my hair, cupping my face and twisting so that he could look me in the eyes.

“I will never let anything like that happen to you again,” he told me, anguish, anger and sadness twisting his face in worry. “You mean everything to me. You’re brave and strong and kind.” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “And exquisitely beautiful.”

I smiled up at him, amazed that he felt any of these things for me at all. After all,
he
was the godlike one.
He
was incredible in the extreme,
he
had saved me so many times.

“I feel as though –” he searched the space around me, looking for an answer “– I feel as though I’ve been only half alive, always watching you, always on the outskirts, looking in on your life. And now I feel like a starving man presented with a feast, and I want to know everything I can about you. The thought of you afraid or hurt…” His eyes burnt with fury.

I reached up and ran my fingers lightly over his cheekbone, tracing the shape of his lips. He kissed my fingertips, the light in his eyes changing from fury to hunger as he searched my face.

Very slowly, so that I could feel the increased pressure of his breath, he moved until our lips were millimetres apart. And then he stopped. I closed my eyes and leaned in to him, as very lightly he dipped his mouth to mine. The kiss was soft and hesitantly sweet.

He moved away from me, looking vulnerable and a little scared. “I wasn’t sure if you felt about me as I do about you,” he murmured as he took my hand, entwining his fingers with mine.

I smiled, stretching my other arm up around his neck and pulling him closer again. His lips were warm and soft as they moulded to mine, unlike the forceful way they’d moved as we’d breathed together. Kissing Merrick was an entirely different experience.

I felt lost in the warmth, and the intense sharpening of my senses as they swirled around me, the vortex being him. The increased warmth of his breath as the kiss turned from softly hesitant to hungrily insistent. I watched in awe as his lash-fringed eyes fluttered open briefly, his hands skimming my neck and tangling in my hair, the blends of blue from deep navy to pale turquoise, backlit with fire.

He pulled away from me shakily, his breath ragged. “I guess that’s a yes then,” he grinned.

“Hmmm, I guess so.” I grinned back at him, trying to calm the pounding of my heart.

He pulled me to my feet, keeping a determined hold of my hand as he led me to the fire. The flames took on a life of their own my eyesight obviously sharpened with the contact with him, the previously pleasant smell of the woodsmoke permeated with cloying undertones I’d never noticed before.

A myriad of new colours danced within the fire. A brilliant sky blue, indigo, white, sunflower yellow, ochre, orange, maroon.

I watched in fascination as the air around the fire curled up and around us, forming a warmer shimmering yellow bubble that dissipated in curling spirals of colour around us, the cooler darker air fleeing before it.

He dipped his mouth to mine again, exploring my bottom lip with his tongue. He grinned when I lost my balance a little, instructing me to sit so that he could provide me with dinner.

I watched him placing portions of meat on cleaned pieces of tree bark.

He chatted easily over the meal, trying a little too hard to avoid the topic that still hung around us. Eventually though I asked him to tell me about the other Traduzir, needing to work out what had happened that had allowed us to escape like that.

He’d pulled me back into the safety of his arms, his bent legs on either side of me, and his arms wrapped securely over my shoulders. We were both watching the flames consume the last of the logs. We’d fallen into silence which was filled with the music of the crackling of the fire and soft peeping of near-by frogs when I broached the topic. “Are you and the other Traduzir” – I shuddered at the thought of him – “a team?” I asked.

His arms tightened convulsively around me. “Absolutely not,” he hissed into my ear.

I nodded. “OK.”

His voice softened as he kissed my hair. “Nereus was here before I arrived. Talita refused to assign him to you for the very reason you had the misfortune of experiencing this evening. He disgusts me in every possible way and I have made it my life’s mission to be everything he is not.”

“Well, you’ve succeeded in that for the most part,” I told him.

“What do you mean for the most part?” he asked, horror filling his voice.

I twisted in his arms, stretching up so that I could kiss him again.

“You’ve succeeded in seducing me,” I whispered against his lips.

He chuckled, kissing me more deeply. Eventually I pulled away from him breathlessly, settling back into the cocoon he’d formed around me.

“Also you two were fighting each other pre-emptively,” I murmured. “Does that always happen?”

He was instantly alert, twisting me around so that he could look at me.

“What are you talking about?”

I described the crystal-clear fight I’d seen them have, how I’d known Merrick would lose and how I’d been so relieved when he’d moved us away from Nereus so quickly.

“You saw all of that?”

I nodded, still sleepy. “Yeah, but only when you were both touching me.”

He moved away from me, and I watched my world whither into darkness.

“Hey,” I protested, “that’s not fair.”

He was wide awake and really excited.

“I thought it was because I was so angry, but I also saw what he was going to do. In crystal clarity and perfectly matched to my plan. You’re right, I would have lost and I knew it. I wanted to get you away from there.”

“We must have both wanted it at the same time,” I chipped in.

He nodded, thoughtful. “Possibly.”

“So you moved us away then?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t think so, speed isn’t one of my talents, but perhaps…”

He trailed off staring at me, his forehead creased in a frown.

“Merrick?” I prompted.

“You said you saw my intention?”

I nodded. “Yes, it was bright orange and deep purple and very very dangerous and then immediately afterwards I could see what you were planning to do.”

“And Nereus?”

I nodded again, describing the similar experience I’d had with Nereus.

“Now that you describe it, I remember it,” he whispered. “It happened so fast though, how can you remember such detail?”

“Oh it wasn’t fast for me,” I explained. “Although maybe it was, because I only remember breathing once.”

He pulled me protesting to my feet, and led me determinedly out of the cave and up a short pathway to the top of the mountain.

The cool night air chilled my fire-warmed skin and I cuddled into his side as we walked, curious as to what he was up to.

“Sit down and stop whining,” he told me playfully, before sitting opposite me. “Now tell me what you see,” he demanded gently, placing my hands in my lap and avoiding all contact.

I concentrated, and to my surprise the darkness lightened infinitesimally.

I described the shapes I could see and the slight sharpening of my other senses.

“Close your eyes please.”

Even with my eyelids firmly closed, I knew the instant his fingers brushed lightly over my skin.

A myriad of noises filled the night. The harmonious frogs were complemented by the conversational burble of water as it ran unrelenting to the sea. The chirp of the crickets which I’d never noticed had a wide range of variety, as if a room full of little people were all talking to each other at once. The whisper of wings as an owl swooped on a bustling mouse somewhere in the valley.

There were others senses to take into account too, the scent of the freshly crushed grass we were sitting on, the smell of water not far from us, and then Merrick’s scent – indescribable because the English language doesn’t have the right words to describe the exotic fragrance of his skin.

I shifted my focus to touch, amazed at the textures that leapt into focus as I did so. My hair brushing my skin as a light breeze swirled it softly around my shoulders. The rougher texture of my clothing that if I concentrated too long, could become almost abrasive. The prickle of the grass along my bare legs. And most of all, the heat from the single finger Merrick had placed on my hand.

The strangest, and most difficult sensory input to process, was taste. I’d noticed before that the air had flavours to it. I found the flavour of the air now difficult to process. There was a distinct flavour of the bush, wild and untamed, but every now and then I would get a hint of something else, that delicious something that had filled my mouth when I’d been sitting on the log – was it only yesterday? It felt like a lifetime ago. This time though I held onto the flavour, trying to identify the different notes within it.

“I want you to describe everything to me,” he instructed.

I did, keeping my eyes closed the entire time.

“Open your eyes,” he whispered hoarsely.

His expression sent a shudder of fear through me. He was terrified.

“Merrick, what’s wrong?”

He ignored me.

“Tell me what you see,” he instructed, his eyes never leaving my face as I gazed into the night sky.

I described as best I could the swirls of light I could see coming off the mountain, the trails the stars left behind them in the midnight-blue sky. I ended by telling him how I could see the individual colours of each strand of his hair, my stomach dropping as my strengthened senses picked up the shock in his eyes.

“Please tell me what’s wrong,” I whispered as he finally pulled away from me, gripping his hands together.

“I will tell you, but I have just one more question,” he said quietly. “Have your senses been this intense the whole time we’ve been together?

I thought a little about the few days I’d spent with him before shaking my head.

“No, they seemed to have been growing the more time we spend together, and especially after tonight.”

He was very quiet, pulling me to my feet and leading me back to the cave where the fire had drifted into embers.

We sat beside its smoky warmth, his arms wrapped around his knees, and his face serious in thought.

“Merrick,” I prompted, “please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong exactly,” he began, flashing me a troubled smile. “It’s just that my senses are not as strong as yours.”

I went cold.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t see the trail of light the stars are leaving behind them,” he said quietly, taking my hand in both of his and looking up at the night sky.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” he said looking deep into my eyes, “but I think we might have stumbled onto your ‘talent’.”

“I’m a Traduzir too?” I asked, a bubble of excitement forming in my stomach.

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I can’t create energy balls between my palms.”

“Oh yeah, right. So what can I do then?”

“I think,” he paused, “you can do a little of everything.”

“Everything?”

He nodded, still frowning a little. “It’s right there in the legend of the fortieth generation Gurrer, and we’ve all missed it.” He let out a little bark of disbelieving laughter.

“What’s right there?”

“‘She will be a unique representation.’ Those are the exact words of the legend. A unique representation.”

“Meaning?”

“All Oceanids have a talent of sorts, I’ve mentioned a few of them – controlling water, being able to read spiritus like the Merrow, strength is another one, and venom…”

“Venom?”

“Yeah, well you saw what Neith did to Josh and Luke?”

I shuddered at the thought of dislocating my jaw like that and paralysing someone.

“There are a whole lot of other ones, we’ll have to talk to Muirgel and Llyr to get a more comprehensive list, but what is definitive among all Oceanids is that we can only do one thing. I can’t make someone forget, or produce energy balls out of nowhere, or remember our entire species history. I also can’t predict what another Oceanid will do, except when Nereus and I were touching you. But if I’m right, you can do all of it, and it looks like, apart from just ‘connecting’ talents between two Oceanids you can heighten them until they morph into something new.”