But Mal wasn't a man to back down easily. "I can get together a team that knows how to move in the water."
"Will they fight as hard to retrieve what George has taken?" Bowen demanded. "Will it mean as much to them?" Each word was a gauntlet thrown down between them.
Malachai's body jerked violently again.
"Why are you on a ship?" Kaia asked. "You're so fast in the water." Nothing got in Mal's way when he swam, which made him the perfect playmate for a little girl who wanted to swim to Bebe's island but was afraid to go out alone.
"Ship's a quick one and the witness is wounded and on a damaged vessel." His eyes took in the way Kaia had her hand over Bowen's heart, returned to her face.
And she saw him realize the truth, realize how she knew Bowen was no liar beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Those sunlight eyes darkened. "Lunatic," he murmured.
"It's in the genes."
Switching his attention to Bowen, Mal said, "Are you healthy enough to undertake the chase? George might look like a stick but he's very strong."
"I'm up to ninety percent of normal," Bowen answered with security chief practicality. "It'll be enough--George might be strong, but he's still a scientist."
"Do it." Mal's form swayed with increasing intensity. "I'll alert my people in Lantia that you have my authorization. Use what resources you need--and bring George back alive," he said, and it was an uncompromising demand. "He's Miane's, not yours."
"Understood."
Mal's strange, beautiful, golden eyes landed on Kaia once again. "You sure, Cookie?" An unspoken question, a hidden worry.
Though her gut churned, Kaia nodded. "Bo will need someone with him who understands how to handle the compound once we retrieve it from George."
"Will it survive outside the fridge?"
"Long enough." Because if it took them longer than just over forty-three hours to find George, the experiment was over, Bowen's life forfeit.
Chapter 51
Lily, I need this photo sent out across the Alliance network. No one is to approach this man or do him any harm. Report his location only.
--Bowen Knight to Lily Knight
"I HATE THIS, that we're hunting a friend," Kaia said after Malachai hung up and Bo had spoken to Lily about sending out an alert on George. He knew Malachai would be giving the same order to his own people.
"I know." Enfolding her in his arms, he whispered Heenali's name in her ear--Kaia had made her loyalties clear by standing with him against Mal even knowing Bowen might soon be lost forever, and it left Bowen shaken down to the soul.
He had to honor her faith with his own. "Heenali deserves happiness and peace after all the horror in her past," he said. "I don't want it to be her, but I won't turn my face from it if it is."
"Oh, Bo." A soft breath against his neck. "Thank you for trusting me with her."
Pulling back so he could see her face, he pressed his forehead to hers. "Forgive me, Kaia, if it all goes wrong." The bond between them might be forged of stubborn hope, but the realist part of his nature knew too well that hope alone couldn't alter fate.
"There is nothing to forgive." Fierce words.
Cupping her face in one hand, he just held her, held his siren with her marshmallow heart and her courage in loving him when he was her worst nightmare.
She turned, pressed her lips to his palm. "We have to get up to the surface."
"Yes." They had to be ready to move the instant George was spotted. "When's the next scheduled submersible?"
"Four hours," she said. "That's a long time for George to disappear."
Bo considered ejecting himself using an emergency capsule and asking to be hauled up, but not only would that take a lifepod out of commission, it'd shatter Ryujin's peace--and alert Dr. Kahananui that something very bad was going on.
"I'm guessing we have time," he said after calculating all the possibilities. "If I were George, I'd swim as far as I could before coming up on shore. He's going to be counting on the fact that Malachai will be running the search--and while your people are good, they're limited to areas near oceans and other waterways."
"So is George," Kaia pointed out. "He won't be able to go too far into the dry."
"But he might deliberately head that way to shake off the scent, then swing back toward the water." He ran his hands down the sides of Kaia's body, her lightweight dress airy under his palms. "We'll both need changes of clothes. No knowing if George will head to warmth or to cold."
"I'll go pack a small bag."
Returning to his room after reluctantly releasing her, Bo did the same. As for money, he had access to his accounts via the phone.
It all took far too short a time.
With the hours ironically heavy on his hands, he strode to the window and looked out at the endless black that was his quarry's domain. Bo couldn't hunt him in the ocean. He'd have to wait for George to surface. And hope the other man didn't simply stay in the silken wet darkness.
In the Deep
GEORGE SWEPT OUT his tentacles as he moved through the water with smooth grace. Here, he could be a dancer, could be as athletic as he wanted. In human form, he was awkward and gangly and without confidence. But in the cold blackness of the water that was his true home, he was a powerful being who made others scurry away.
He smiled inside his other self, feeling whole and strong and not damaged as he was in human form. Not scarred and used up and broken.
His tentacles thrashed.
He nearly lost his grip on the case he held so tightly.
Calm, be calm, his human self whispered. No one can touch us here.
It was difficult at times. The most primal part of his changeling nature occasionally wanted to take over. He knew that was dangerous. But part of him wanted the wildness in control. The others in the clan, when he heard them talking, they all spoke about how both sides of their nature were in balance, how it was never a fight between one or the other. They didn't worry about shifting and becoming lost in the shift.
George never said anything when they talked like that; he'd learned his lesson as a child when he dared tell a long-ago friend about his fight for control. That friend had immediately told his own mother, who'd told George's mother. She'd then made him go to extra lessons meant to teach him how to manage the powerful creature inside him.
Her voice had been soft and warm as she explained it wasn't a punishment but only a thing he needed to learn for his future. Like math and science. He'd gone quietly because that was what he did, that was what made her happy.
George had loved his mother. He hadn't liked it when she cried.
But though he'd gone to the lessons, he'd tried not to learn anything the adults wanted to teach him. He'd pretended he did, but inside, he stayed the same. Because if he ever learned how to control this self, he couldn't lose himself in the black and forget the horrors that had been done to his human body.
In the water, he was free and strong and no one's victim.
In the water, he was the predator and everything else quailed in front of him.
In the water, nothing could harm him.
He smiled again, the human part of him curled up happily within the wildness of his other side. And he thought about just giving in, taking that extra step and losing himself to the wildness forever. But no, he was a scientist and he'd read enough reports to know that changelings who did that, the "rogues," inevitably went mad and began hunting their clanmates.
The latter didn't worry George. He felt very little loyalty toward those who were meant to be his clan.
Except for Seraphina and Dr. Kahananui and Kaia.
Dr. Kahananui had always treated him as an equal even though he was less qualified. She'd even given him the position of responsibility that allowed him to take his vengeance. He'd never want to hurt her or the innocent child she carried in her womb.
The same with Kaia. She always made a special effort to bake his favorite cake at least once every month. She didn't have t
o do that--there were a lot of people on the station and carrot cake wasn't as popular as chocolate or red velvet. But Kaia always said he had just as much right to her skills as anyone else. He never felt bad asking her for a burger on a day when that wasn't on the menu. She'd scowl and tell him she was busy, but then a little later, the burger would turn up on his desk.
Kaia was nice in a deep-inside way. He wouldn't want to kill Kaia in his madness, either.
As for Seraphina . . .
He thrashed again, unable to stand the idea that he might hurt her in his insanity.
So no, he couldn't give in to his primal heart. Not today, anyway.
Because the pain, it was growing inside him. Each year it felt as if it grew stronger, huger. Until he could no longer escape it. Maybe when that happened, he'd stop fighting. Maybe he'd forget Seraphina and Kaia and Dr. Kahananui.
Maybe he'd become this creature, magnificent and dangerous.
And because he didn't want to be human again, he kept on swimming. The ones to whom he'd sold his spoils could wait. They could all wait.
He would come up in his own good time.
Chapter 52
Fear is an intruder in your life, child. You must cast him out.
--Bebe to Kaia (17)
KAIA'S HEART THUNDERED when the submersible finally docked with Ryujin. "I'm only going up to Lantia," she told herself silently, but her mind knew this was the first step on the road to a nightmare.
"Hey." Bowen's hand closing around hers, warm and strong. "The doc is doing fine. I just spoke to Dex."
Kaia smiled tightly and nodded, not ready to tell him that her fear was her own and that it was an aged and knotted thing with roots sunk into her soul. Waiting until the passengers from Lantia had disembarked--and after exchanging hugs with more than one--Kaia forced herself over the threshold.
Bowen prowled in behind her; the stronger he got, the more he reminded her of some sleek hunting creature. This man would always be a demanding lover--but oh, his capacity to give was a vastness that enfolded her in affection and an emotion to which she wasn't ready to give a name.
"Where's Hex?" he asked, settling down beside her.
"With Tansy." She'd kissed Hex good-bye and told him to be good for her friend. "I moved his house to her quarters. That's how he knows he's supposed to stay with her until I get back."
"Mouse genius."
Kaia couldn't smile, but it was all right. Bowen was distracted by watching their departure from the station, his attention on the procedure so acute that she knew he was storing it all away in his brain just in case he ever needed the information.
They were the only two in the autonomous submersible, but Kaia knew they weren't the only station dwellers heading cityward. When she spotted movement through the windows on the other side, she touched Bowen's shoulder and said, "Look."
His muscles moved under her hand as he turned. Bowen was fascinated by everything in the deep, laughed when an octopus touched its suction pads against a window for a second. "Oleanna?"
"Yes. She told me she's swimming up to surprise Tevesi." Kaia wasn't sure her cousin had any idea what he was in for.
Bowen kept watch for other visitors, but stayed pressed up alongside her, his body thrumming with tension.
Thirty-nine hours.
Fighting to shut down that voice with its ominous countdown, Kaia leaned her head against his shoulder. "Tell me a story about your childhood," she said. "A happy one."
"I've got nothing that can top kissing a lion." He laughed and it was a big, warm, alive thing. "But I did get chased by an angry cow once."
Kaia couldn't help but smile as he told the story, just able to imagine a wild little boy running amuck in a muddy field full of normally lazy cows. Deep inside her, however, fear continued to curl outward with tendrils as black as night.
* * *
*
THEY arrived in darkness, the sky above dotted with stars. Stepping onto the sprawling floating city of Lantia, Bo felt a chill wind against his skin, a taste of the winter that held this hemisphere of the planet in thrall. And though he had a hundred questions, the first thing he did was look to his phone to see if Lily had sent through any updates about George.
Nothing. No sightings.
He and Kaia headed directly toward a grim-faced woman who stood with the bearing of a soldier; this had to be the commander Malachai had said would be waiting for him. Miane was with Malachai, a sleek and dark shadow in the water.
"Have you found your people?" he asked the commander, who reminded him strongly of someone, though he couldn't put his finger on whom.
"The wounded witness, yes," she said shortly, though her face softened when she turned her attention toward Kaia. "Aloha, Cookie. It's good to see you--you need to come up more often."
"Aloha, Aunt Geraldine." Giving Bo the lightweight box she'd carried onto the submersible along with her overnight bag, Kaia leaned forward to hug the tall and sober-faced woman.
The resemblance clicked.
The commander's dark eyes had an edge of sunlight to them.
"I had just enough time to bake your favorite muffins." Kaia took the box from Bo, held it out.
Commander Geraldine Rhys smiled and shook her head before pressing a kiss to Kaia's forehead, her hands rising to cup Kaia's face. "The same old Cookie." Afterward, she set the box of muffins carefully aside on a nearby stack of small shipping containers that were still wet on the sides--either from being recently offloaded, or because a rogue wave had crashed onto the massive deck that jutted out from the city.
Bo couldn't see all of Lantia from his current position, but he could tell there were sharp towers within, not quite high-rises but not exactly small family homes, either. Material that appeared to be glass dominated, though he guessed it was apt to be the same thing BlackSea had used to build Ryujin.
There was no wood or brick, the deck under his feet apparently metal. The same type of material was incorporated into the buildings he could see--but there were no signs of rust, which told him this was another BlackSea-developed solution to the salt water. Greenery cascaded from various balconies and on the roofs he could spot, this city supporting a thriving internal ecosystem in the middle of the ocean.
In front of him, Geraldine Rhys returned her attention to Bo. "This is BlackSea business." No trace of maternal softness in her face now. "I don't know why Malachai is letting you run it, but I promised him that I'd help. What do you need?"
"Have any of your people spotted George?"
"No." Chilly dark eyes in a face full of angular contours that made her striking. "We have excellent lines of communication, but we can't reach those who are swimming in the deep. If they see him, we'll only find out once they surface."
"Then we wait." He might be running out of time, but rushing off half-cocked would achieve exactly nothing.
"We should eat," Kaia murmured, and though she didn't say it, he knew she was thinking about his continued recovery.
He had the piercing knowledge that were she his, he'd never again miss dinner. Kaia would make sure he ate. That was what Kaia did--look after the people who mattered to her.
Her aunt nodded at her. "You know where everything is."
"Your mother was the youngest?" he asked Kaia after they were alone.
"By quite a few years. It hurt her sisters a lot when she died." Weaving her fingers through his, she smiled sadly. "Aunt Natia cried but Aunt Geri got angry. I think part of her is still angry."
"She protects her own."
"Yes, just like Mal and his father. All three of them are the same."
"She and Mal don't look alike, not really, but there's something in the presence."
"He looks more like his dad." Leading him inside, Kaia took him to what appeared to be a small break room. "Because the city's so big," she said, "it's divided into grids. Each grid has a central kitchen, but there are smaller eating and lounge areas like this scattered around."
"Communities with
in a community."
A true smile, one that lit up her eyes. "Exactly. The whole point of BlackSea is being one. We don't want anyone feeling isolated from the group." Her smile faded. "George did, though."
"George often chose his isolation." KJ was right in that. Even Bo, a stranger, had walked out into the atrium and grabbed a seat with different people. George, he'd noticed, had always taken his food into the lab--even when invited to join a table.
Kaia didn't reply, her expression pensive.
"Let's sit outside," he said after they'd made sandwiches and grabbed bottles of water. Kaia was a creature of the deep; he had the sense she'd feel better if she could see the ocean. "It's not every day I visit a floating city in the middle of the ocean." Lantia moved under him, the motion slight but ever-present, as if BlackSea eschewed too much physical stability. "Does this city float away at times?"
"No, it's very strongly anchored." Kaia looked around the outer deck to which they'd returned. "No chairs."
"I don't mind sitting on the ground."
Without a word, she sat down beside him, their backs to the wall and their eyes on the black stretch of open water. They ate in silence, protected from the view of any others up this late by another pile of small shipping containers. Waves crashed against the edge of the city, throwing up bits of foam, the ocean in competition with the star-studded sky.
Putting aside her plate and his, the half-drunk bottles of water beside them, Kaia shifted to kneel between his legs. And in her eyes, he saw an infinite darkness. But she didn't give him a chance to speak, to ask about the terrible sadness within. Her kiss was an invitation . . . and it was a request.
Need crashed into him, as primal and untamed as the ocean.
He could no more deny her than he could stop breathing. Weaving the fingers of one hand into her hair, he kissed his siren with the sad eyes and the lush curves and the marshmallow heart, giving her everything. They kissed until his heart pounded and his lungs protested and she was breathless.
She sat back on her haunches, her hands on his raised knees. "I still don't want to tell you my secret." A pained whisper.
The wind blew her hair forward, surrounding him in a silken wave of deepest brown threaded with black. He closed his eyes, drew in her scent. "I can wait," he said when he opened his eyes. "For you, Kaia Luna, I'll wait an eternity."