Wildfire Sea Dragon (Fire & Rescue Shifters: Wildfire Crew Book 3), page 17
Seven cast him a perplexed look. “But from what I’ve heard, you hardly ever go to Atlantis now. You haven’t been seen in the city for years.”
“Yeah, well.” He flicked a few drops of water at her. “I had my reasons for avoiding the place.”
She gazed at him for a moment, eyes darkening. “And not only because you knew I was there.”
She always saw right through him. “That was a big part of it, but yeah. Not all. Anyway, my mom taught me that the ocean was always with me, so I never needed to be homesick. Never tried to do this on anything bigger than a bathtub, though. How far out does it go?”
Seven dove fluidly underneath him, her back brushing his. Even when she moved further away, exploring the limits of his power, somehow he could still feel her. It was as though she swam through him, not the water. His awareness caressed every curve and angle of her body, from her parted lips to her spread toes. It was simultaneously the most erotic thing he’d ever experienced, and also the most disconcerting.
“About ten feet in all directions,” Seven reported, resurfacing. “Centered on you. It’s bizarre. It’s like there’s an invisible bubble holding the seawater in. It doesn’t mix with the freshwater at all.”
“Just as well, since I really don’t want to poison all the poor innocent fish in this lake.” He rolled over to face her, treading water. “They’re going to be startled enough by having a shark in their midst. Promise you won’t eat any of them, okay?”
The awe on Seven’s face was abruptly snuffed out, replaced by something he couldn’t read. “You want me to shift.”
“That was kinda the whole point of this, yeah.” He spoke through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the siren song of the sea. It was getting louder, more insistent, calling to him with every beat of his heart. Hungry currents curled around his ankles, trying to tug him down into the lightless depths. “And if you could hurry up, that would be awesome. This isn’t entirely comfortable for me.”
She hung motionless in the water. There was a kind of hungry longing in her face, like a dieter eying up a dessert cart. For an instant, he could see her waver, tempted.
Then she shook her head. “No. I can see that doing this is stressful for you. I’m touched by the effort, but there’s no need. I am perfectly fine now.”
“Seven—”
“I said no!” She kicked her feet, propelling herself out of his circle of sea in one savage motion. “Stop it, Joe! I don’t want to shift, not ever! Stop trying to make me!”
No, his dragon said in his soul. Dive deeper. Wrap her in the ocean, in the heart of the sea. This is who she is, no matter how she denies her soul.
The ocean’s tides pounded through his mind, drowning out all other thought. He clung to his human self like a bit of flotsam, fighting not to be swept away entirely.
But this is who we are, his dragon whispered, through the roar of the waves. Why do you both resist your natures?
With an effort, he walled himself off from the sea’s insistent pull once more. His awareness shrank back to his own senses.
“It’s okay.” Even without tasting it, he knew that the water lapping against his chin was merely the lake once more. “It’s gone now. I’m sorry. I won’t pressure you about shifting again.”
Seven edged back toward him, as cautiously as if expecting a whirlpool to open up beneath her at any moment. “Promise?”
“I promise.” He stretched out, floating spread-eagled on the surface of the lake. He tipped his head back, gazing into the star-strewn sky. “But I wish that you would tell me why you’re so scared of your shark.”
She was silent for a long moment. He just drifted, not looking at her. Giving her space.
Then Seven’s cool, sleek body brushed his side. She rested her head on his shoulder, her smooth legs entwining around his own. He drew her closer, stretching out his free arm to keep them both afloat. They lay together on the lake as if on a bed, ripples rocking them gently.
“My father,” Seven said, very quietly, “was not a good man.”
When she didn’t go on, he prompted, “I take it you got your shark side from him.”
He felt her nod. “I never actually knew him. My mother…worked very hard to ensure that. She only found out what he truly was after I was born.”
“He didn’t tell her he was a shifter, even when she got pregnant?”
“No. But that’s not what I mean.” Seven drew in a long, shaking breath. “My mother never wanted to talk about him much. But she isn’t a fool. I think he must have been charming enough while he was wooing her, in an alpha, commanding sort of way. And he was rich—like, private island, luxury-yacht rich. He spun my mother a story about being a hedge fund manager, but really his income came from organized crime.”
Joe hissed through his teeth. “Lot of sea shifters who don’t like the Pearl Empire end up in that area.”
“Yes. Especially sharks. My father had a whole crew of renegade shifters, that he hired out to anyone who could pay high enough. The mob, the cartel, pirates…no job was too dirty. When I was a baby, my mom finally found out the truth. She didn’t want any part of it. And when she confronted him, he just laughed at her. Told her she was welcome to leave, that he was tired of her anyway. But that I was staying with him. Because I belonged with my own kind. And then he showed her what he meant.”
“He shifted?”
“Partially. Just his head. He turned into a monster, right in front of her eyes.” Seven stopped for a moment, her legs tightening around his. “She was so terrified she fainted. Which saved us both. Because it made my father think she was weak. He locked her in their bedroom, but didn’t bother to assign anyone to watch her. And he left me in there with her, because my crying annoyed him. When my mother woke up, she grabbed me and escaped out a window. She went on the run with nothing more than me and the clothes on her back. My father sent his sharks out to track us down, but my mother managed to evade them all, for years and years. All his money, all his mob power and shifter magic, and he still couldn’t defeat her.”
He stroked her rigid shoulder with his thumb, a feather-light caress. “Y’know, I’m beginning to realize you don’t get your toughness from your animal.”
“My mother is the strongest woman you’ll ever meet.” Pride warmed Seven’s voice. “She runs a homeless shelter now, near Boston. She keeps other women and children safe, just like she kept me safe.”
“She sounds a lot like my mom. Just without a crown. Do you get to visit her much?”
“Not for a long time. My duties mean I’m rarely free to leave Atlantis. And…” She hesitated, a catch in her voice. “It would hurt my standing in the Order if I asked to visit her. All of the knights are native sea shifters, as are all the other squires. They don’t understand why anyone would want to spend time on land.”
It didn’t take a genius to guess that there was one knight in particular who disapproved. Joe privately added yet another item to his ever-growing mental list, ‘Reasons to Punch Lord Azure in the Face.’
“Well, I really want to meet her,” he said. “And I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t go hang out in Boston after fire season finishes.”
Assuming we both live that long. The thought scuttled across his mind like a cockroach. He stomped on it, hard.
“I’d like that,” Seven said softly. “I think the two of you would get on well together. You’re both alike, in some ways. Always able to smile, no matter what else is going on. Even when she was bone-tired from working three jobs, even when she was sick and stressed and scared, she could still always make me laugh. She gave me a proper childhood. We never had much, but I never lacked for love.”
He lifted his head so he could gaze at her profile. “Were you happy?”
She was silent for a long, long moment, staring up at the full moon. A silvery trail of water gleamed on her cheek. He didn’t think it had come from the lake.
“No,” she said at last. “And it made me feel like the most ungrateful, awful child in the world. My mother had told me just enough about my father—that he was a bad man, a criminal, and that was why we had to kept running—that I understood how much she’d sacrificed for me. I knew she loved me. But somehow, I always felt like there was something missing. That I was…incomplete. And different from everyone else.”
“Well, you were.” Then he started, accidentally dunking Seven. “Wait. She didn’t tell you?”
“That I was a shifter? Of course not.” Seven sounded surprised at his surprise. “She was scared that if she did, I would be foolish enough to want to go to my father. She did everything she could to raise me totally human. She kept me away from the ocean, as far inland as possible. She didn’t even allow me to go to swimming pools. She managed to keep me from shifting until I was twelve.”
He inhaled lake water, and lost a few moments to undignified spluttering. Seven trod water at his side, calmly, as though she hadn’t just revealed years of appalling trauma.
Many types of shifter didn’t experience their first change until near puberty…but not sea shifters. Sea dragons, sharks, seals, dolphins…they were all, by necessity, born with the ability to shift. Their animals were fundamentally woven through their souls. They were supposed to shift.
To grow up being prevented from expressing that side of her soul at all, prevented from even knowing it existed…it was incredible that Seven was even sane.
“That,” he wheezed, when he could speak again, “is utterly horrible. I get that your mom was scared, and that she had the best of intentions, but couldn’t she see what she was doing to you?”
Seven stiffened at the implied criticism. She flicked her hands, opening up a few feet of space between them. “She was protecting me. From my inner beast, as much as from my father. As far as she knew, she was stopping me from turning into a monster. In fact, she did. It’s thanks to her that I can pass as human as well as I can.”
Now he understood her perfect, even teeth. If she’d never shifted before losing her baby teeth, her shark would have been too weak and repressed to influence the shape of her adult set. Her human smile had been bought by years of pain.
He’d only seen her shark-teeth, her real teeth, once. He remembered the feel of those sharp, deliciously dangerous points press against his lips. Showing that she was totally in the moment, all control abandoned…
With all his heart, he longed to awaken that side of Seven again. But insulting her beloved mother wouldn’t help. And he could sympathize with the poor woman’s impossible predicament. Given her first and only exposure to the entire concept of shifters, it was no wonder she’d done everything in her power to stop her daughter from discovering her true nature.
“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it. “I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for your mom, as well as for yourself.”
Seven’s defensive, cold glare softened. She swam back to him again, her hands slipping around his waist. Gently, he enfolded her in his arms. Their legs moved in perfect, effortless unison, keeping their shoulders and heads above water.
“Tell me what happened when you were twelve,” he murmured in her ear. “How you found out at last.”
Chapter 24
Almost, she refused him. The memories of that day—the day—were too powerful, too personal. She’d never shared them with anyone.
But Joe’s arms were warm and gentle, fingertips resting feather-light on her skin. He held her as though she was some fragile, impossibly precious treasure. Something intricate and delicate, that he was terrified of breaking.
Did he think her weak, like Lord Azure did? Before, he had always respected her strength, her honor. But now that he knew her past, was that all he saw? A confused, lost little girl?
She didn’t want him to hold her like spun glass. She wanted him to see her as a partner in battle. She wanted him to hold her like a sword.
If he was ever to trust in her strength, her resolve, she had to tell him about the day that she’d changed. The day that everything had changed.
The day she’d found her destiny.
“We’d just moved again,” she said. “It was the middle of summer vacation, thankfully. I always hated when we had to move halfway through school. We were living out of our tiny, run-down motorhome. I was supposed to stay inside while my mother was out working, but it was so hot I couldn’t stand it. I only meant to find some shade, but I found myself walking down the road. It was…I can’t describe it. Like something was pulling me on.”
He drew back a little from their embrace to gaze at her. In the moonlight, his eyes were dark, all their sparkling turquoise laughter masked in shadow. “Your shark?”
Her wet braids clung to her shoulders as she nodded. “I didn’t know that, then. I just knew that I had to keep going. I stumbled through the town, like I was sleepwalking, until I heard voices. Children’s voices. Laughing and hollering and whooping. Normally that would have had me running straight for home again. Even…even as I was, back then, other kids could always sense that there was something wrong about me. Children are more perceptive than adults.”
“And crueler,” he said, softly.
“Yes,” Seven said, and had to stop there.
He pulled her close again, without saying anything. The strong, even beat of his heart steadied her own. She closed her eyes, concentrating on his warmth—not only against her skin, but in her soul.
His gentle, steady presence gave her the strength to swallow the razor-edged memories, and find her voice again. “But something called to me, drowning out my fears. So I pushed open the gate. I went through. And found myself in the middle of a party. A pool party, in someone’s backyard. Kids running around shrieking, cannonballing into the pool, squirting water guns at each other…I just froze, trying to understand what I was seeing. It felt like I’d stepped into a whole other world.”
The baking heat of the patio through her worn flip-flops. The smoky, mouthwatering scent of the barbecue. It was all burned into her memory, so intensely that even now, years later, she could see every detail. The bright patterns of the women’s sundresses, the men’s shirts. The rainbow spray of water into the air.
And…him.
Words came slowly, inadequate to explain the enormity of that moment. “As I stood there gaping, I slowly realized that a man was watching me from across the yard. An old, old man, bald and wrinkled, but still huge. He should have been absolutely terrifying…but somehow, he wasn’t. I’d never seen him before, but I felt like I’d known him all my life. And, more than that, I felt that he knew me. Better than my own mother did. Better than I did.”
Joe let out an ear-splitting whoop, nearly scaring her out of her skin. Apparently entirely forgetting where they were, he thrust his arms in the air, and immediately sank like a stone. Seven made a grab at him as he disappeared, but not quite in time to save him from a dunking.
Joe re-emerged with lake water streaming from his broad grin. “I will bet you a week of bacon that I know what town you were in.”
Understanding dawned at last. Her heart was still hammering from the fright he’d given her, but she grinned back.
“No bet.” On a sudden playful whim, Seven splashed water at Joe, making him splutter. “You already told me he’s your godfather, remember.”
“Curses. Foiled by my own tongue.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I am very put out, you know. Here I was, eagerly looking forward to introducing you to the Master Shark, and it turns out you’ve already met him.”
“Only that once. And I didn’t know who or what he was until much later. At the time, all I knew was that there was something about him that made everything else…” She groped for a way to explain it. “Disappear. Like he was the center of the world.”
“Yeah, he has that effect on people. Especially other sharks.” His grin shifted into a smirk. “Not to me, though. It’s hard to be in awe of someone who used to give you piggybacks round the backyard while making train noises.”
She stared at him.
Joe shrugged. “I was four. At that age, if it didn’t go ‘choo-choo’, I wasn’t interested. I’m guessing he didn’t do that with you, though.”
The mental image of the most dangerous shifter in the sea jogging in circles while intoning ‘choo-choo’ was…arresting. With an effort, she wrested her mind back to her story.
“He came over to me,” she said. “I thought he was going to yell at me, demand to know who I was, what I was doing gate-crashing the party. But he just nodded to me, as though we saw each other every day. He asked me if I wanted to swim. I told him I didn’t know how. He looked at me a moment longer, then got down on one knee, stiffly, so that we were eye-to-eye. And he said, ‘Yes. You do.’”
She could see his face as clearly as Joe’s, in front of her now. Every weathered wrinkle; every pale, faded scar. Those old, old eyes, as deep and ancient as the ocean itself.
“When he said that, he was close enough that I could see that his teeth weren’t human.” Even now, the memory still made her feel cold, an echo of the jolt of pure terror that had shot through her at the sight of those pointed, serrated rows. “I screamed and shoved him away. I ran for my life. Just like my mother had told me to do, over and over, if I ever saw someone with teeth like a shark.”
Joe blinked at her, looking nonplussed. “Hold up. You said she didn’t tell you about shifters.”
A short, painful laugh escaped her tight throat. “No. She told me that my father’s gang members filed their teeth into points. So I just thought that he was working for my father. That he’d found me at last, and was going to snatch me away from my mother. So I ran. I thought the man would pursue me, but he didn’t. He just watched me go.”
“Well, he is something like a hundred years old,” Joe said, sounding oddly defensive, as though she was attacking his godfather’s honor. “I expect he wanted to sprint after you. He found you later, right?”
