“Who the hell are you? What the hell are you?” Kane asked in a hoarse voice.
For a moment, Magna fought against the sleep threatening to overwhelm her. Opening her eyes, she looked up at Kane with a sad look of resignation. Once he knew who she was, perhaps he would be merciful and take her life while she slept.
“I am… Magna,” she forced out as her eyelids lowered again. “I am… the Sea Witch.”
Kane studied the woman’s face. It was thin, and dark shadows made the areas under her eyes look almost bruised. Although she looked very young, the faint lines near the corner of her eyes and mouth showed that she was older than he had first thought.
He softly cursed when he saw the red stain spreading across the remnants of her white gown. The physician in him kicked into high gear, efficiently depositing the bullet on the sterilized disposable instrument tray he’d brought with him. He picked up some gauze and staunched the flow of her blood. Rinsing the area with a saline solution, he made sure there was no foreign debris in the wound, and then he sutured it.
Once he was finished, he cleaned up the supplies. His mind raced through what he knew about Magna – the Sea Witch. If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he was still shaken by what she’d done to remove the bullet. His eyes moved to the lead bullet on the tray, to her shoulder, then to her hand. Reaching down, he picked up her right hand and turned it over. He ran his thumb across her palm and froze, his eyes locked on the thin webbing between each of her fingers.
He replaced her hand at her side and began a thorough examination, mentally noting each detail and storing it in his memory. Her hair was long, black, and thick, but there was something about it that was bothering his sensibilities. Picking up a handful, he was surprised at how soft it was. Normally, if someone had been in the saltwater as long as she had been, their hair would feel stiff and grainy.
Her skin was soft as well, devoid of any salt crystals. He traced a path down her neck and then paused. Bending closer, he tilted his head and studied a two-inch vertical line on the left side of her neck. Blue markings in the shape of scales were clustered along the line.
Fascinated, he ran his fingers over the scales. They were smooth and warm. He quickly pulled his fingers away when they changed colors, rippling a darker blue with black and silver threads. The combination reminded him of the ocean.
He didn’t know what was going on, but Gabe – and this woman – had a lot of explaining to do. After all, it was the least they could do, considering he’d just put his medical license on the line. He continued his examination, trying to keep his touch as impersonal as possible, despite the heat warming his blood every time he touched Magna. With any other patient, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it. However, his blood and body were literally growing warmer and it had nothing to do with the room temperature or his clothing.
Kane frowned when he touched Magna’s side and felt her ribs. She was extremely thin, as if she had been starved. He added that information to his mental list of observations along with the dark shadows under her eyes, the lines of exhaustion around her mouth, and the gunshot wound. Memories of his own time in a war zone came back to him. He had seen his share of men who went through hell and returned as only a shell of who they had been when they first arrived.
He finished his exam and pulled up the duvet from the foot of the bed to cover her. A soft sigh slipped from her at the added warmth. He silently cursed himself. Between the chill in the room and her injuries, he should have realized she would be cold.
“Some doctor I am,” he muttered in self-disgust.
Compelled to touch her once more, he tenderly ran his fingers along her pale cheek. His breath caught when she turned her head and rubbed her cheek against his palm. Muttering a curse, he pulled his hand away and stood up. It was time that he and Gabe had a very serious talk.
Chapter Four
Gabe glanced over his shoulder when he heard Kane walking down the hall. He grabbed a potholder and opened the oven, then pulled out the salmon and shrimp combo. Sniffing the delicious aroma, he turned just as Kane came into the kitchen. He frowned at his friend’s pale complexion.
“How is she?” Gabe asked, looking toward the hallway behind Kane with a concerned expression. “Were you able to patch her up?”
Kane nodded distractedly as he walked over to the small wine refrigerator built into the wall. Opening it, he scanned the selection before picking out a dry white wine. Gabe raised an eyebrow when Kane hesitated a moment, and then pulled out a second bottle. A two-bottle night for Kane didn’t bode well for their upcoming discussion.
He placed the pan on the mango trivet on the table and tossed the potholder on the counter behind him, then leaned back against the polished granite countertop and folded his arms across his chest.
“What is it?” he asked in a blunt tone.
“Where did you find her?” Kane prompted, pulling the corkscrew out of the drawer next to the wine fridge and quickly removing the cork from the bottle. Gabe raised an eyebrow when his friend lifted the bottle of wine to his lips and greedily drank straight from the bottle. The way Kane was chugging the alcohol was more suited for a bottle of beer than the Sauvignon blanc. He waited with a sense of growing apprehension.
“Aw, shit! She’s not… dead, is she?” he muttered, raising his hand and running it over his face.
His throat felt constricted and his voice sounded slightly strangled. He looked back toward the hallway. An intense and unexpected ache formed in his chest. He unconsciously slid his hand down to rub his chest over his heart at the thought of the woman’s death.
“No!” Kane replied in a sharp tone. “No, she – her name is Magna, by the way – is not dead.”
He blew out a loud, relieved breath. “Thank you,” he replied and glanced toward the ceiling as the feeling in his chest eased a bit. He turned back to shoot Kane an accusing glare. “Then what the hell is wrong with you? I haven’t seen you down a bottle of wine like that in… ever! You had me thinking she had keeled over dead!”
Kane walked over to one of the kitchen chairs, pulled it out, and sank down onto it, then glanced forlornly back at the second bottle of wine on the counter. Worried that Kane would get drunk and pass out before he shared what he’d found out, Gabe walked over and set a wine glass down in front of his friend, then pulled the half empty bottle out of Kane’s hand and filled the glass before retrieving another and pouring one for himself.
He picked up the glass, looked at it, and downed it with a shrug before he poured himself another one. Only then did he slide onto the chair across from Kane with a fierce look of determination. He opened his mouth to ask, but Kane beat him to the punch.
“Tell me where you found her. I want to know everything,” Kane said, looking intently at Gabe.
Gabe frowned as he stared at the food he had placed on the table minutes earlier. He picked up the spatula and slid a piece of salmon and several shrimp onto a plate before he passed it across to Kane. He thought about the question as he prepared another plate for himself.
“I was a mile or so off the coast of Yachats State Park. I had just finished my last run and was going to see if I could catch something for dinner. I dropped the net and trolled for a half mile. I was about to call it a night when there was a tug. I thought the net had snagged on something, or worse, caught a sea lion pup, when I heard a moan. When I pulled the net up, she was in it,” he explained. He picked up his fork and moved the shrimp around on his plate, suddenly not as hungry as he had been.
“She said her name is Magna,” Kane murmured as he picked up his glass of wine and took a sip before he continued. “She also said she was called the Sea Witch.”
Gabe raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I’d call her a witch, more of a mermaid dressed in an evening gown. Anyway, Magna was in the net. I thought she was dead when I first pulled her in. Hell, I honestly don’t know how she survived. She must have been in the water for a while since there wasn’t another
boat in sight. At the very least, she should have been suffering from severe hypothermia. When I turned her over, she moaned, then threw up all over my boots. I took her below to the cabin. That’s when I realized that she had a bullet hole in her shoulder. I was going to call the authorities but figured if someone was willing to shoot her and dump her off the coast, maybe it was better if they didn’t know she was alive… yet,” he reasoned.
Kane leaned back in his chair, his dinner forgotten for the moment as he stared across the table at Gabe. He thought of the slits along Magna’s neck, the blue markings along it that heated and changed color when he had touched them, and the webbing between her fingers and delicate toes.
He shook his head and stared down into his wine glass. At the moment, nothing was making sense to him. There were two things that he was positive about, though. The first one was that Gabe did the right thing by not notifying the authorities. The second was that he was positive that Magna was very different than anyone he or Gabe had ever met before. He looked up when he heard the impatience in Gabe’s voice.
“What?” Kane asked with a frown.
Gabe scowled at him. “I asked what else did she tell you? Is she hiding from some drug dealer, a possessive husband or boyfriend, or was she kidnapped and jumped ship?” Gabe asked irritably.
“She said Mike Hallbrook shot her and she told me her name – both of them – right before she pulled the slug out of her shoulder with some glowing silver threads flowing out of the palm of her right hand,” he replied with a terse snort.
Shaking his head at the memory, he looked down at the plate in front of him and released a deep sigh. He picked up his fork and began eating the delicious meal Gabe had prepared for them. Maybe having food in his stomach would help him figure out what was going on. His mind spun. He kept thinking about what he’d seen and what his mind kept saying couldn’t be real.
“Silver threads? How much wine did you drink before you arrived?” Gabe demanded, stabbing the fish on his plate and taking a bite.
Kane chuckled. He could understand Gabe’s disbelief. If he hadn’t seen what Magna had done with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed him either! The problem was – he had seen what she’d done, and it still shook the hell out of him. He continued eating, deciding he might as well take the time to process all the information before he tried to explain it to Gabe.
They had been friends since their days in the army. That was over ten years ago. It was strange how they could be so different, yet so in tune with each other. He had seen the same type of relationships in twins and some siblings over the years, but never really between two people who came from such diverse backgrounds.
They saw the world and what they wanted from it in a slightly different way than most people did. Anyone looking at them would see two men who were the polar opposite of the other. Kane came from a wealthy family, had gone to exclusive private schools, received the best education money could buy, and was orphaned at a young age. He had enlisted in the Army after he achieved his medical degree at the tender age of twenty-four, searching for the one thing money couldn’t buy – a family.
Gabe came from a low-income family. He’d been told his mother died when he was young, but he later learned that she just couldn’t deal with his father anymore, so she’d left. Supposedly she planned on returning for him once she was financially able. His father hadn’t believed her, and he’d gained full custody based on abandonment.
In the end, he was raised by a father who believed hard work and religion were the answers to all of life’s problems. At eighteen, Gabe married and joined the Army to get away from home and to support his new wife with a better life. A year after he left, his dad died from a heart attack.
Gabe and Kane met when Gabe came into the infirmary. Kane had been relatively new to the Army while Gabe was nearly six years in by that time. Kane had discovered two things the first day they met. First, Gabe had an intense reaction to painkillers. They made him loopy and very talkative, which was uncharacteristic for the huge man. The second was what had connected them in a strange and serendipitous way. Gabe shared that he’d come home early one day to find his wife in bed with the Colonel in charge of his unit. When he had offered to join the two of them, his wife became outraged and kicked him to the curb. It was alright for her to screw around behind her husband’s back, but by damn, he’d better not expect to join her in bed while she was with the bastard she was screwing.
Blackballed, Gabe had been transferred to another base while his soon-to-be ex-wife did everything she could to take what little inheritance he had received from his father. The Colonel didn’t fair quite as well. His ex-wife had gone for blood. Gabe’s ex had finally roped the Colonel into getting married and having a kid. The marriage lasted less than two years before she was calling Gabe to complain.
Kane would never forget Gabe’s unexpected comment. “Hell, if she had said yes, I’d have tried to forget, you know? Go for it, despite the fact that I couldn’t stand the bastard,” Gabe had said in a slightly slurred voice. “Maybe there’s something wrong with me. I just want….”
Kane had waited, but Gabe had become quiet and somber. A week later, Kane ran into Gabe again while they were on temporary duty between reassignments. A few beers while playing pool, and they discovered they had a lot more in common than they’d thought, and after a lot more alcohol, they found a hot brunette who liked having two men at the same time. She had given them both a wild night that started a lifestyle they both enjoyed.
Since that night, their friendship had grown until they were more like family, which was something neither of them would ever admit they wanted or needed. Kane didn’t mind. He didn’t expect to ever find a woman who would complete him. Almost immediately, the dark-haired sea nymph lying asleep in Gabe’s spare bedroom flashed through his mind. No matter how hard he tried to push the vision of her face away, it kept coming back.
He grunted and drained his wine glass again. Personally, he had never found a woman who attracted him enough to risk everything he had worked for and the wealth he had inherited. Most women, including the nurses at the hospital, were only interested in his money and the lifestyle he could give them. Once again, Magna’s haunted eyes flashed through his mind.
“She’s not like us, Gabe,” Kane suddenly said, breaking the silence.
Gabe frowned and set his fork down on his empty plate. “Explain,” he demanded.
Kane groaned and pushed his plate away. He ran his hands through his tousled hair, then finally looked at Gabe with determination. Rising out of his seat, he pursed his lips before he jerked his head. It would be better to show Gabe than try to explain it.
“Come on,” Kane ordered. “I need to show you something.”
Gabe was surprised enough that it took a moment for his friend to rise up out of his seat, but Kane finally heard the scrape of the chair as Gabe pushed away from the table, then, as usual, he heard no footsteps as Gabe followed him. For such a big bastard, Gabe was light on his feet. That was one reason he’d done well in the army, not to mention how he was able to catch his ex-wife in the act with the Colonel.
He walked down the hallway and back to the bedroom where Magna was resting. Opening the bedroom door, he stepped inside and quietly walked over to the bed.
Kane silently gazed down at Magna’s thick black hair. The strands were spread out around her, creating a halo effect against the pristine white sheets.
Taking a deep breath, he waved his hand at Magna. “Look at her neck,” Kane quietly instructed, moving aside so Gabe could step closer.
Gabe looked down at Magna before he glanced at Kane. “I already did. She’s got a scar along her throat and… tattoos that look like real scales along her neck,” he replied.
“They aren’t scars or tattoos,” Kane replied with a firm shake of his head. “They are slits and she has them on each side of her neck.”
“Slits?” Gabe asked in surprise, glancing at Magna’s peaceful face. “Did
someone try to cut her throat as well? I don’t see Mike Hallbrook as the kind of guy who would carve up a woman – and what do you mean those aren’t tattoos?”
“They look real because they are. I observed reactive scales along her neck… and elsewhere,” Kane stated.
“Where else does she have them?” Gabe asked.
Kane took a step closer to the bed and carefully pulled back the covers. The long slits that ran down the gown’s skirt on each side had been torn further at some point in her misadventure and her sides were now bare from just above her waist down to her feet. There were faint lines of scales running down and around her legs. He pulled aside a torn section of the dress near her waist so that Gabe could see the pattern along her flat stomach as well.
Gabe softly whistled. “What the hell? Who is she? What is she?” he asked, repeating the same question Kane asked earlier.
They looked closer and noticed small patches of blue, silver, and black scales along both of her arms. Kane watched Gabe bend over and run his fingers over a part of her stomach that was peeking out from the torn gown. Magna moaned and restlessly moved against the soft, cotton sheets.
Gabe carefully pulled the covers over her before he stepped back. Kane gave his friend a strained smile when he noticed that Gabe’s tanned face was paler than normal. It was obvious from the way Gabe was rubbing his fingers that his friend had felt the same slight shock and warmth that he had when he had touched the colorful scales on Magna’s skin.
“I need a drink,” Gabe said bluntly as he turned on his heel.
“You're going to need more than wine when I tell you what else happened,” Kane muttered, turning to follow his friend. “You’d better break out the good stuff.”
Chapter Five
Magna yawned and slowly opened her eyes. She blinked in surprise at the bright light coming in through the window. For a moment, she lay there stunned. She was afraid that if she moved, the dream would disappear, and she would wake up locked in terror of the creature inhabiting her body again.