Turning Tides (Elements, Book 3) Page 8

  It took over, needy, demanding, feeding on and fueling our emotions. I felt it expand through my body, from my lips to my neck, my collarbone, dancing along my arms and fingers and legs. My core grew warm, a heat that spread everywhere until I wanted to push him backwards onto the twisted sheets and forget everything in the wild heat of his body.

  He pulled back, gasping, and I saw the same desperate craving in his eyes. Then, with no warning, he stood, putting several feet between us.

  “I need to clean up. Go see Simon and Miriam, let them know your plan, whatever it is.”

  I stared, uncertain what I’d missed. He didn’t look angry. He looked lost.

  “Aidan, I’ve been slowly getting used to the idea that I don’t want to live without you, and I think I’m okay with that. I just wasn’t prepared to literally be unable to live without you. I need some time, okay?”

  I agreed. There was nothing else to say.

  He entered the small bathroom and turned on the shower, closing the door behind him. I stepped out into a Seattle twilight that didn’t look like the same world I’d known when I entered the trailer half an hour earlier.

  Chapter 8

  I met them two hours later outside Bremerton, an old navy town an hour’s ferry ride from the city. Like most towns within commuting distance of Seattle, recent years had brought steady renewal to the once forgotten town, but it was still far enough out from the city to have plenty of underdeveloped and working class neighborhoods, and therefore more trailer parks than we’d find in the city itself.

  The parking situation was only one reason I’d chosen to meet here. While I could easily sail to Bremerton, they needed to drive an hour south to Tacoma and then back north along the peninsula, putting both distance and time between me and Mac.

  It’s possible I spent the entire trip back steering with crossed fingers, hoping Mac felt fine and dandy during our separation.

  I dug through my memories, looking for any time we were apart with no ill effects. We hadn’t been inseparable since the night I healed him. In fact, we’d spent more time apart than either of us would have liked while he healed and I tied up loose ends from our last FBI case.

  But we’d never been apart for long, not until I boarded the plane the day before. Before that, I’d provided lots of opportunities to feed his water magic through me, and whenever I was at the cabin, I constantly tapped into the river, creating a rich source of elemental fuel.

  Part of me wanted to speed toward Mac, hungry for reassurance that everything was fine and, somehow, we’d get through this new problem. A louder part wanted to take a lengthy detour, possibly through Canada, to give him the time to prove he was perfectly healthy, regardless of my proximity—or lack thereof.

  In the end, I neither rushed nor tarried, but it didn’t matter. I reached the dock first and waited while they arranged parking for the trailer and Bronco. By the time the three shifters joined me, over three hours had passed, and Mac looked as healthy as he had in Seattle.

  Simon’s and Miriam’s worried expressions told me this was a recent development.

  I cast off, asking the water to remain calm while the three shifters boarded. “Welcome aboard.” I gestured behind me, showing off my stolen wares. “Or maybe I should say welcome home, at least for now.”

  Miriam made no attempt to hide her pleasure. As much a creature of water as I was, she acted like a child with a new toy. Simon, on the other hand, appeared decidedly green at the thought of spending any time aboard the houseboat.

  Mac just looked resigned.

  “How are you?” I whispered as he stepped past me onto the boat. I only received an unimpressed glance in reply. All right, then. If he wanted to do the stoic and stubborn bullshit masculine thing, he could, and I would silently mock him for it.

  It didn’t take them long to unpack. They hadn’t brought much from Tahoe. I’d need to make a supply run to make sure they had food and clothes for at least a few days.

  “You know how to drive this thing, Miriam?” I asked, calling her over to the wheel.

  “Brook, if I managed to fly a fighter jet, I’m pretty sure I can handle the three buttons on this boat. Hand me the keys.”

  I couldn’t. I was too busy staring at her.

  “What? I was in the Air Force. Is that so shocking?”

  I nodded, vehemently. “Yes. Don’t they require you to follow orders in the military?”

  She laughed. “Yeah, well. That’s why we parted ways after a year. I’m used to being considered disreputable, but the military are the only ones who’ve ever called me dishonorable and gotten away with it. So, which direction am I heading?”

  After that, it was just a matter of choosing rooms and settling in for the long ride back.

  Simon agreed to take the pull-out couch. I thought that had less to do with his inherent selflessness and more to do with the sitting room being further from the water than the two bedrooms.

  I filled them in on the recent disasters on the island. “I’m not bringing you along to help. Let’s be clear about that. There are two problems here, Mac’s health and the murder investigation, and the two will not meet.” I put on my serious face, so they’d know I wasn’t messing around.

  Miriam snorted. “If you say so, Brook.” My serious face still needed some work.

  My friends knew little about elemental enclaves beyond what Sera and I had told them, and it was difficult for them to fully grasp the insular mentality that had developed among people who’d lived isolated for centuries. They knew the island was filled with elementals who either detested shifters or believed they didn’t exist, but knowing something and experiencing it are two very different things.

  I refused to give in to Miriam’s teasing. “You’ll need to drop anchor at least half a mile off shore, on the western side. It’s less crowded, since everyone is staying far away from the accused murderer. Though if you have a cloak of invisibility, now would be a good time to mention it.”

  Miriam shook her head. “Aw, c’mon, Brook. It can’t be that bad. You’re saying we need to be prisoners on this boat until you figure out the next step?”

  Simon looked longingly at the land receding in the distance.

  “Pretty much.”

  She harrumphed. “Please. How bad can it be? They wanna start something, I can take a bunch of skinny water fuckers. No offense.”

  “Miriam, you don’t really understand. You’ve only met elementals outside the enclaves, and they weren’t old ones. As far as you know, a quarter-blooded elemental is strong as hell, but for us, it’s a baby. Right now, the council is in residence, too. You’re going to an island full of some of the most powerful magical beings in the world, and they hate you. Not dislike or are annoyed by or have grumpy thoughts about. Hate. They pretend you don’t exist. You show up and provide living proof of their lies? I have no idea what they’ll do, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it will be unpleasant. Sera and I are struggling with enough right now. If they think we’re palling around with shifters, we’ll be fighting even more of an uphill battle.”

  They all looked disgusted, as they ought to. I felt dirty even making the request, as if they were a secret I was determined to hide.

  “And these are your people?” Miriam squinted at me, and I worried she was viewing me in a new light.

  “You know. Family.” It sounded like such a weak excuse, and yet I knew we’d all offered it at one point or another in our lives. A single word that explained so much.

  “Fine,” she said, in a voice that sounded like she meant the exact opposite. “I must actually like you and Sera to agree to this.”

  “Right back at you, Miriam.”

  “Are we done being sappy now?”

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  Simon waited until we were done. “The magic does not stretch half a mile. If Mac needs regular access to your magic, you’ll need to be closer to prevent him growing ill again.”

  “No.” It was a flat denial,
and not open to discussion.

  I still tried, of course. “He’s right, Mac. You get, what, three hours if you’re not within my magic’s range? I can’t swim out every couple of hours to recharge you, not right now. Maybe you could park the houseboat by the cottage where I found it, and just keep the blinds drawn.”

  Mac was shaking his head before I finished speaking. “It’s too risky. Anyone could board the boat. I won’t be the reason more suspicion falls on you and Sera. We were separated a day and a half before you met us in Seattle, and I can do it again. Besides, when you appear, I’ll instantly feel better. Just visit me once a day, and I’ll be okay. I can handle a bit of sickness.”

  “But…” He stared at me, jaw set in an expression I already knew too well. “Fine. But if he gets worse than before, you call me right away. Got it?” I glared at both Simon and Miriam, who kindly did not laugh at my poor attempt at authority.

  They both nodded, and there seemed nothing else to say. Miriam moved back to the steering wheel, and Simon shifted into his cat form. He curled up in a tight ball on the built-in couch, black tail wrapped around his face, covering his eyes and allowing him to pretend the rest of us no longer existed.

  I sat by Mac. We didn’t speak or touch, but I was aware of him the entire way back to the island. Aware of his warmth and his scent, of the thin coat of hair on his forearms, of the muscles clenching and unclenching as he circled through one frustrating thought after another.

  More than anything, I was aware of distance, even as mere inches separated us.

  I’d just taken the strongest, most capable man I knew and made him physically dependent on me. I suspected there would be an adjustment period.

  I mentally revised my to-do list. Prove that Sera didn’t murder the council member. Get Josiah off the island and permanently out of my life. Find out what my mysterious sentence from the council was supposed to be.

  Those all mattered. They were all necessary. And yet, all I could think during the long ride to the island was that I needed to break the magical link between us.

  Years ago, Mac’s father had forced him to live as a bear, never allowing him full control over his own body. I knew what his independence meant to him, and I would not be the one to take it away.

  Even if I had absolutely no idea how to give it back.

  “So, guess who I found roaming around Seattle?” I asked, opening the door to the cottage.

  There was no response, likely because I’d need a bullhorn to be heard over Blondie, currently blasting from the computer’s speakers. Sera was nowhere in sight.

  Rather than shout again, I crossed to the desk and turned the music down to a volume that wouldn’t cause my ears to ring.

  The minute the music dropped, Sera’s door opened and she rushed into the living room, reaching me in several quick strides.

  “Where have you been? It’s been fucking hours. Couldn’t you at least answer your phone?”

  “What do you mean? No one’s called.” I pulled it out of my pocket to show her. “Oh. I guess I should charge that. Anyway, I was just in Seattle. I didn’t have a chance to tell you, what with Josiah’s unexpected visit. What’s up?” My fire fought against its chains, wanting to tangle with Sera’s manic energy. “Oh, god. Did someone else die?”

  She glared at me, and I took a good look at my best friend. Her hair had crossed “untamed” and was heading for “mad scientist,” the curls sticking up in every possible direction. Her eyes were almost as wild as her hair. “I’ve been trapped.”

  I waited for more, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. “And?”

  “What do you mean? Trust me, that’s enough.”

  “Nothing’s different since this morning, then? You did know you wouldn’t be able to leave the house, right?”

  “Yeah, but no one told me how boring it would be. I’ve walked through the entire house six times. I’ve counted the light fixtures. I did laundry, just to have something to fold. I did one hundred sit ups and watched so many hours of Netflix I think my butt fused to the couch. I opened the front door every hour on the hour, just to flip off the camera. You have to get me out of here, Ade.”

  She finished, her eyes imploring, even desperate.

  “What’s going on, Sera? You weren’t like this when you were arrested. You acted like a career criminal in the Tahoe jail.”

  “That was different. I knew I could escape any time. It would be ugly and public, but I could get out and I knew Josiah would clean up any messes. This time, I might be able to get away, but then I’d have to spend my life in hiding. Or worse, on the Hawaiian compound. Neither of those are options.” As she spoke, she began pacing through the room, her right hand flicking against her thigh with every step.

  I sat on the sofa, forcing my body to calm. “Can you be still for a bit? Your fire energy is a little pronounced right now.”

  She froze, reading between the lines. Her slightly unhinged expression vanished, and while she looked more than a little exhausted, she also looked like Sera. Instead of joining me on the couch, she folded her legs beneath her and sat on the floor. “Sorry. I actually forgot. You’ve been acting balanced these last couple of weeks, shocking as that is.”

  I waved off her apology. She had no way of knowing I felt the fire all the time now.

  I hadn’t told anyone, not yet. I wanted to be known and loved for myself, not feared and pitied for the crazy woman I might someday become.

  “So, Mac, Simon, and Miriam are floating about half a mile away.” I told her, enjoying the surprise and pure glee that flashed across her face.

  I told the entire story as quickly as I could. Since Mac and I had been close-mouthed about the side effects of my healing, that part took longer than it should have, mainly because I had to stop several times so she could swear at me for keeping the secret.

  However, when I finished, I received only silence. It was a silence I knew well, the one where Sera studies me as if wondering how she became best friends with an alien life form. She shook her head, bemused. “Only you. You couldn’t just leave your earring at his place so you had an excuse to see him again. No, you had to leave some of your magic behind.”

  “Well, you know. I’d hate for him to think I was like other girls.”

  “Little risk of that. Mutant freak.”

  “Like anyone normal could be friends with you.”

  She grinned, and for a moment, all was exactly as it should be.

  It was late, well past bedtime, but neither of us wanted to move. We’d found a moment of peace within the chaos, and we clung to it. Only when the little hand on the clock pointed toward the two did we reluctantly stand and head for bed.

  “Sera.” She turned in the doorway to her room, waiting. Though she was calmer than she’d been when I arrived, tension still coursed through her body. “This isn’t different from the jail, not really. If we need to, we’ll bust out of here. We’ll take the houseboat, or I’ll carry you on my back the whole way, or we’ll train a freaking dolphin army. I don’t care. You’re not trapped. I’d never let that happen to you. And if we have to go on the run, well, I always wanted to do a road trip across the country. You know you’re not in this alone, right?”

  She met my eyes a long time, this friend and sister I’d lost and found again, and she let her guard drop. I saw fear and frustration and anger, but more than any of that, I saw love, and I saw trust. “I know,” she said, and closed the door gently behind her.

  I claimed the now vacant pink bed. I’d worn myself out with the trip to the mainland and back, and I fell asleep within minutes.

  I woke with the sun, my thoughts already turning to the houseboat full of shifters. They’d need supplies, and I needed to check on Mac’s progress through the night.

  I packed up what little we had in the cottage, at least enough for breakfast. Like most elementals, Sera and I ate no meat, so I’d need to figure out a way to sneak some tuna to Simon and Miriam. For now, at least, they wouldn’t starve.
I went heavy on the fruit in a blatant attempt to win Mac over by appealing to his stomach.

  Sera was still sleeping, but that changed when I opened the front door and screamed like a banshee watching a particularly scary horror movie.

  It’s the natural reaction when one finds a dead body spread across the front steps.

  Chapter 9

  It said something about how accustomed I’d become to fear and chaos that my shock was short-lived. Rather than stand and gape, I ran down the steps to the prone form at the bottom. It was a woman, lying facedown, and at least this time the body was in one piece. However, it was deeply burnt, covered in angry red welts. The skin was misshapen and melted, with a few patches of hair clinging to the scalp. The body had the height and slight build of a water.

  Except this one had hips.

  “Robin. Oh, hell. Please don’t be dead.”

  I pressed two fingers to her neck, feeling for a pulse and sending a silent prayer to anything that might be listening that a spark of life still flared inside the ruined husk, something I could heal.

  It was a desperate hope. I knew it, even before her silent heart confirmed it. There’s something about a dead body, an intangible absence of life and spirit, that told me Robin was gone.

  “Oh, hell.” Sera stood at the top of the stairs and echoed my own words. “Who is it?” Energy pulsed from her every pore, but it was no longer manic like the night before. The Sera who stared down at Robin’s body looked focused, intense, and as horrified as I felt.

  I sat back on my heels and released a humorless laugh. “Other than a blatant attempt to make you look more guilty? I can’t say for sure, because of the burns, but I think it’s Robin. She monitors the traffic on and off the island. Monitored,” I corrected.

  “Can you flip her? If she isn’t burned all over, we can confirm her identity.”