A Mermaid's Ransom

  "Stop talking about me as if I'm an idiot child."

  Twelve

  SHE captured everyone's attention with the sharp rebuke. Even her mother's hand stilled upon her. When Jonah's dark gaze flickered back to her, she felt something from him, a tightly suppressed emotion that speared her own heart, brought an ache to her throat, but she couldn't react to it now.

  Dante sank onto his haunches. The dark hair spilled down his right arm, the left braced on the rock, lean muscle tense in his biceps and shoulders, breath barely moving the expanse of smooth chest. He reminded her of Lucifer there, his dark, sensuous energy and fearful potential. Because of her focus on her father and the other powers in this chamber, she couldn't gauge his intentions or thoughts.

  But it didn't matter. No matter his power, she knew his fate rested with her. Mina watched her with almost an identical inscrutability. She wondered if that eerie stillness was a Dark Spawn thing.

  Alexis drew a deep breath, prayed she wouldn't faint. "Pyel, I realize how I look. The past two days have been the most horrible of my life. That place . . ." Her voice faltered, and Anna made a noise. At first Lex thought the wave of powerful emotion came from her, but its source surprised her. It was David. Though his stance did not change where he stood at his commander's right shoulder, hands still on his daggers, she felt his reaction.

  Seeing the shadow cross his eyes, she remembered. He'd been nearly tortured to death there. While Mina was often a closed book to her, she sensed the seawitch reaching out to him in her mind, with her heart, her eyes moving toward him.

  The bond between them was something innate, hard to explain. Just as this was. But she had to do it, or Dante would be sent back. And that wasn't acceptable to her.

  Swallowing, she spoke to Jonah again. "No one should be there. Not him, not anyone. I'm not deceived. I feel his darkness, as you do." She shifted her gaze to Mina. "But perhaps what you don't feel, that I can, is his light. It's there. He didn't want to be born there. He has survived all these years, focusing only on escape, and he used what means he had at hand to do it. He could have treated me much worse, but he didn't."

  With relief, she saw Jonah was listening. The father who was enraged and worried was still there, his feelings grasping at her like sharp claws. It made her long to run to him, let him wrap his strong arms and the comfort of his wings around her, let her shudder out all the fear and terror of the past two days. In Anna's embrace, she'd had the barest start of how much of that she wanted to do. But she'd just told him she wasn't a child, and she wasn't addressing her father. She was talking to the being who'd made thousands of judgments on life or death.

  "You all know my gift. I can see the core of what he is, and what he can become."

  You were given this gift for a reason. She let the thought bolster her where her own physical strength couldn't. Hang in there. Somewhere at the end of this will be your bed and a long, hot shower.

  "Yes," Jonah inclined his head. "I do not doubt that, Alexis. But I also know it can make you blind to other forces."

  "Those were the mistakes I made as a child. I am not that child any longer." She bit back her impatience as he seared her with a glance.

  "If you are not a child, you know every being has the potential for good or evil. Which they become depends upon their choices. Their environment may push them, but in the end, it comes to a choice. He made his."

  To survive in my world, we kill. To have anything, we kill. Firming her chin at the recollection, she shook her head. "In his world, his choice was only to live or not to live, and to live however he could. There is no morality there, Pyel. No good to protect by making choices against evil. Now he has more choices, and if you let him remain here, he has the chance to make them."

  She pressed on, galvanized by the flicker in his expression. "Myel once told me that, soon after I was born, you took me flying over the water. She remembered how you stopped flying, hovered over the waves, holding me up in your arms so the moonlight shone on my skin, gleamed on my wings. She said they were no bigger than your hand then."

  Pausing, she let the memory sink in, weave a picture between the two of them. "There were tears in your eyes."

  Anna's breath drew in behind her. Jonah's gaze moved to her, then back to Alexis. She noted she'd even captured Dante's cautious interest, though he and the other angels remained far too fixated on one another. "You said you saw everything I could possibly be, all my potential, and you wanted to give me every chance to reach that potential, to achieve the highest pinnacle of happiness in my life. That's what I'm asking for Dante. This is his birth. He is an infant, and he deserves that chance."

  Perhaps it was ludicrous to compare the tall, muscular vampire with flaming eyes and bared fangs to a tiny infant, but she pressed on. "Please. I understand you have to think about it. But please don't send him back. Give him the chance to have a life here."

  Jonah looked toward Mina. Angels at his level could speak into the minds of others, and if a being thought directly at them, they could hear them. It was clear an intense communication was occurring. Lex wished she knew Dante's thoughts, because the only emotions she was clearly receiving from him had to do with impending violence. But since he'd been forced to live by his wits long before he gained the upper hand on the Dark Ones, she hoped he was using his brain rather than testosterone. The cavern was overloaded with it.

  "There's merit in her words," Mina said at last. "Perhaps a probation period, thirty days, under supervision. While we sort out all the issues involved."

  "He could stay with me," Alexis said.

  "When Lucifer decides to build an amusement park in Hell," Jonah responded.

  "I'm his surest chance of success here." She turned her appeal to Mina. "I'm the only one who can sense his intentions, help him navigate this world without misinterpreting his actions. He won't hurt me. I know it."

  Jonah pivoted. Everyone in the chamber tensed, with the exception of Mina, but her father merely used his wings to go to the ledge where she and Anna sat. When he squatted before Lex, she couldn't suppress the full force of his emotions. In his face she saw what these past two days had done to him. That, and his closeness, his strength and familiar scent, undid her. She couldn't help it. Tears came, and her limbs trembled anew.

  "Pyel," she whispered.

  She was in his arms, those wings wrapped around her and her mother as he brought them both into his embrace. They slid their arms around him as well, burying fingers in his wings and hair, faces in his chest, while he tilted his head over theirs, murmuring incoherent words that Alexis didn't need her gift or ears to understand. He spoke right to her erratically beating heart.

  His Legion was his family, of course, but she and Anna, they were his blood, his heart and soul. The emotion from him was overwhelming. Despite all the years of battle experience and training that had kept him focused on how best to bring her back, he'd feared, deep down, he was going to lose her. Because of that, Lex knew that not only was Dante lucky to be alive at this point, it was fortunate the cavern was still standing. It made it all the more difficult to push her father, but with the determined cruelty of the young, she knew she had to do it.

  Raising her head to look up into his beloved face, she repeated it. "He won't hurt me, Pyel."

  Jonah lifted her hand to his lips. Even as he pressed a kiss to it, his fingers slid over the bruises on her forearms, his gaze taking in the state of her broken wing, her battered face and weakened body. The symbols burned into her flesh, now clearly visible with the blood washed away. "Yes, I can see that."

  "There's more to it than that."

  "I need no supervision," Dante said. As he straightened to his full height on the ledge, the three angels closed ranks.

  Jonah lifted his head, turned it toward Dante. While Lex couldn't see his face, the warm emotions were replaced by something utterly cold. "You would be wise not to speak, Dark Spawn."

  When his lip curled back, showing fangs, Alexis spoke hastily
in her mind. This world is very different from the one you left. You know this. You'll need someone to help you get accustomed to it, to avoid pitfalls that might convince them you're too dangerous to be here.

  I do not seek to please them. I will be no one's pet.

  His voice in her head was a welcome brush on her frayed nerves, despite the tense circumstances. Lifting her gaze to him, she peered over her father's broad shoulder. It's not like that. Please give this a chance.

  Mina spoke then. "There is a way to ensure he does no physical or magical harm to innocents while he is here." She glanced at Jonah. "And it won't hamper his ability to explore this world with your daughter."

  Jonah blew out a breath. "He is not staying with my daughter."

  "Pyel, it's my choice."

  "No, it is not."

  Alexis set her teeth, but a noise between a tired chuckle and a sob drew their attention to Anna. "I thought I'd never hear the two of you having a battle of wills again," the mermaid said, her voice breaking.

  Jonah spoke a soft word of reassurance to his mate. Sliding his hand under her hair to caress, he touched her cheek with his thumb so her face tilted into his palm. Alexis gripped her mother's hand.

  Anna swept both of them with a loving look, but then met Jonah's gaze with unexpected purpose. "I don't like this any more than you do. But years ago, when Mina first told us about Dante, it bothered me. I think it bothered all of us on some level."

  Though the cavern was a grab bag of emotions, Lex received a sharp spear of surprise from Dante. It was probably no less than her own as her mother continued.

  "This is her gift, Jonah. I wish to Goddess it wasn't, but we've seen it grow, and we all knew more significant things would come from it. Perhaps he is too far gone, and it will end in his death. But if all she says is true, he deserves the chance. I can't think of anyone better equipped than our daughter to bring a dark soul back to the Light."

  Alexis sensed the weight of memory moving between them. "I can think of one," Jonah said at length, making Anna's mouth curve into a poignant smile.

  "I was twenty then," she murmured. "A year younger than she is now."

  A muscle twitched in Jonah's jaw, but he turned his gaze to Alexis. "If Mina can figure out a restraint, and the Dark Spawn prefers it to an instant and fiery death at the point of my sword," he said, cutting a glance at Dante, "we will do this. Under my conditions only, and one of them is that I want your word that you believe this is possible because of your empathic ability. Not a sentimental desire to save a stray dog."

  Temper flashed through her at the insult, but his mouth tightened. "I am not being sarcastic, Alexis. He is a Dark Spawn, and he has killed before. The scent of the blood on you tells me that, as well as the fact he's achieved power in a world where only violence is respected. You are taking responsibility for him among a host of innocents. We will be close," he added, when she paled. "A direct call from you, and one of my angels will instantly be at your side. But sometimes an instant is not enough. This is no child's game, Alexis. Be very, very sure."

  Alexis looked toward Dante. He stood alone, a being of rage and fire. She knew he could do great harm, felt it within him the same way the earth could feel the lava simmering in the volcano or the tsunami waiting dormant below the ocean waves, but he would always have such power. If Mina could do as she said, and the angels would be within calling range, the risk had to be acceptable, because imprisoning him wouldn't change the nature of what he could do with his power.

  She turned back to Jonah. "No matter what other feelings I have about him, my request is based on my gift. I swear it on my love and respect for you, and for Myel."

  Jonah nodded. When he returned to the other ledge, he strode forward, batting an irritated hand at the barrier. Mina swept it away before his flesh could burn. His wings took him aloft, toward the outcropping on which Dante stood. Jonah hovered before him, his wings holding him steady. "I seek no promises from you, for I would trust none. But know this. I need no excuse to send you back to the hell from whence you came. I will not hesitate to instruct Mina to ward you only so you cannot be killed, and send you back to whatever lesser torments the Dark Ones might wish to inflict upon you. Knowing what you may have done to survive these past two decades, I'm certain they would welcome the ability to make you their slave again."

  "Pyel," Alexis gasped, but Dante raised a hand, stilling her.

  "I expect nothing less from your kind," he spat.

  "Ahem." Mina had disappeared into the adjacent chamber during the interchange and now returned, a silver band of metal in her hands. "Once this is on you, I will charge it with the spell. Any type of violence will rebound upon you, causing you three times the pain you are inflicting. You will also be unable to take a life."

  He'd consented to none of it, Alexis realized. Mina's explanation of the collar's effects might as well have been in a foreign language, because when his gaze latched onto it, his rejection was a wall of denial. It would render him helpless, unable to defend himself. It was too much to ask.

  "You are not touching me, witch." He dropped back into his crouch, a preparation to attack.

  The combustible heat in the cavern expanded, the air much closer. Before Alexis could draw breath, swords and daggers were drawn. Jonah moved back to a position at the head of his angels, while the invisible energy cloud that seemed to float along with Mina wherever she went intensified. Darkness rolled through the chamber, a choking, suffocating reaction of rage, magic being gathered, though Alexis didn't know if it came from Jonah, Mina or Dante, or some fatal combination.

  "Both of you leave," Jonah snapped, jerking his head at her and Anna. Her mother's arms tightened on her, but Alexis broke free.

  "Pyel, no. Please, let me try something else."

  The few minutes in the water, and the return to her own world had barely rejuvenated her enough to make the transformation to human form. However, despite the agonizing pressure in her chest, which made her fight to breathe as she rose to wobbly legs, she made it to one foot, then the other. When she managed the awkward hop to the wider ledge, she stumbled against David, since he was the closest.

  "You are really pushing it," he murmured as he steadied her. But they weren't attacking, and she wondered if Mina had counseled her father to stay his hand, because no way would Alexis's protest have stopped him. As David helped her move forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jonah, her father gave her a warning look. She gave him a nod, but turned her attention to Dante.

  "We need to do this," she said softly. "It's the best way."

  He stared at her. Something shifted in him, so strong her trembling knees nearly gave out on her. Jonah caught her waist. His fury surged over her, but she shook her head. "It's not him," she said.

  It was partially true. She was reacting to what she was feeling from Dante, not something he'd aimed at her. Rage and fear, violence and hatred, rolled up in a fetid blackness, expulsed from his psyche like the monster in the child's closet come to life.

  "I will be no one's slave again," he said. "I will not."

  Still wearing the ragged trousers, he nevertheless managed to still be breathtakingly wild and handsome, the dark hair spilling across his broad shoulders, his fiery gaze intent, darting around the chamber, his upper body taut.

  Swallowing, she took another step forward. Trust me, Pyel. Please.

  She was still within a range where he could reach her faster than Dante could move, another reason she suspected he complied. When she reached out to Mina, the witch laid the collar in her palm. The heavy weight of it pulled against her grip, and she hated it instantly, almost as much as Dante did.

  As she made her way on the narrow broken ledge toward the outcropping where he stood, she balanced herself on the wall. Her father stayed just behind her. Myriad emotions ricocheted through the room. Her mother, pensive and worried, but curious as well, seeing things with a mother's eyes Lex suspected her father didn't. The angels, a dangerous fighting
force ready to move into action at the least indication by their commander it was needed. David, part of that feeling, but different, too, as he kept his attention on Mina. Mina was a blank wall as usual. But when those disquieting eyes had met hers, as the witch handed over the collar, Lex thought she'd registered approval.

  Of course she was too weak and stumbled. Her father caught her waist, but her hands landed on Dante's forearms, his fingers closing on her elbows.

  "You are injured," Dante said in a voice that sounded anything but sympathetic, but something emanated from him. Anger at her weakness? Frustration with it? Yes, that was it. Frustration. Something he didn't want to bother him, but did. He couldn't risk a distraction, but he'd vaulted down from the ledge to stand before her now. "You need care."

  "I need you to wear this." She tightened her fingers on him. "You know I can do nothing to you without your permission. You're stronger and faster. So will you at least listen to me, before this becomes really bloody and ugly?"

  "No." His fingers tightened on her. The ominous hostility behind her made her pulse accelerate. They didn't realize he was rejecting her initial request, not her plea to listen.

  "It will only be for a while. Until you prove you're not going to go out there and kill a bunch of innocent people. You've lived your life ready to kill, fight, struggle or escape. You won't have to do that here, but it will take time for you to learn different instincts. Without this, you could really hurt someone without meaning to do so. It's to protect others and help you, not trap you. You can read my mind. You know it's not a trick."

  "I know you are not trying to trick me. But you did not produce this item." His gaze turned to Mina. The witch gave him a flat stare.

  "Trust has to be given to be earned, Dante. You wanted to be here. Now you are, and how you managed it makes you lucky to still be alive. Don't test your luck. You might hurt him"--she tilted her head toward Jonah--"but I promise you, he will end you. And the pieces he doesn't incinerate, I'll finish off."

  "Please," Alexis said softly, digging her fingers in to bring his attention back to her face. "I've known them all my life. They are not deceiving you. Please trust me."