A Mermaid s Kiss (Daughters of Arianne 1)

"Show-off," David said absently, though the worry line of his brow didn't ease.

"I need not your opulent throne, youngling," Lucifer said, casting a glance at David's self-made chair. "But I suspect you've been holding vigil here awhile."

"Have you heard anything?"

"He is below the Line. That's all we know. He fought off an exceptional number of Dark Ones. His captains thought he'd gotten free with them. They are much distressed about it. He was separated from the others. It was a fierce fight. Their numbers were great."

"Can't She . . ." David's voice trailed off as Lucifer looked toward him, dark eyes tinged with red. He had long black hair to his waist, his lean and strong body emanating power, great age and an intimidating level of wisdom he could quickly transform to censure if he felt it was warranted.

Since David had become an angel, he'd learned that the mysterious Lucifer was neither the fallen angel nor the horned specter of evil suggested by human religion. While that was reassuring, he was in charge of Hell, and no one crossed the Lord of the Underworld lightly.

"You know She will not offer help below the Line unless it is asked in a true manner. Even under the most terrible duress, he remains one of Her generals. Her Prime Legion Commander. All he would have to do is direct the merest wisp of a thought to Her and She would answer. If needed, She would send Raphael immediately to heal him. He has not called. Either he has no need of aid, or he is dead."

David lifted a shoulder. "The Dark Ones don't think he's dead. They're seeking him still."

"I know." For a moment, there was a grimness around Lucifer's mouth. "He and his angels, including you, defeated many, but there are always some that escape and must be hunted."

"If they capture a live angel, use his energy--"

"Jonah would destroy himself before he'd allow that to happen, no matter what his state," Luc said firmly. "You are worrying too much."

"As are you," David murmured. "Else you wouldn't have joined me here." He looked down at the blue patterns of the oceans. Even at this height, he could detect their movement, the vast deepness. "He drew some of them away from me, purposefully, to protect me."

"You are still learning, while he can handle many."

"I think he could obliterate them all with just his will," David said slowly, "but perhaps it was his state of mind that struck him from the sky."

Lucifer shifted to look at him. Like most angels, he and Jonah had never been men, their souls part of the seraph from the beginning. Whereas David was a made angel, no more than thirty earth years. He'd been a human, his mortal life lost as a teenager, but his soul had been called to the service of the angels, as certain pure souls were, rather than to reincarnation.

Jonah had seen centuries of battle and Lucifer . . . well, his purpose was something different, but he'd certainly been around quite awhile. However, David's quiet levelheadedness and his lack of ego made Lucifer give weight to the young angel's words.

"You have noticed his recent state."

"We spend time together, and he was getting . . . quieter. Sometimes I sensed something almost like despair in him." David met Lucifer's eyes. "He was lonely. Adrift. Luc, angels mate, don't they?"

Lucifer's gaze sharpened. "They do," he said cautiously. "Balance often comes in pairs, David. But time is far more relative for us, so for most angels it is centuries before the urge comes. We are all males, so those who desire females find their other halves outside of our species. And angels mate only once, no matter the life span of whom they choose."

"Like swans," David said thoughtfully.

"I've never thought to compare Jonah to a swan. Perhaps a rather irascible hawk. Ah, to Hades with it." Lucifer directed his piercing gaze down toward the sea. "I've known him a very long time. You have known him a very short time. And yet we both love him well, I think."

Reaching out, he pulled on a handful of feathers, nearly toppling David from his perch. "Come, chick. Do you feel like taking a swim?"

David rose, steadying his stance, his wings spreading out. "I do."

"Then let us go see what the ocean can tell us about our missing brother."

JOINING Magic was just a tool. A manipulative, diabolical tool that drew out every ounce of energy from her soul and mind, creating the illusion that it formed a permanent binding to another. Now Anna knew why so many females had such sad crushes on the first male they lay with. Like she did.

It seemed the farther away she swam, the more she felt the need to return to him. No matter he'd all but brusquely ordered her to leave, and he certainly hadn't asked her to check with Mina about anything.

She told herself she was going to Mina to find out if there was anything else she should do to heal the angel, get him back into the skies, out of that cave. Beyond where she could reach him physically, which might help banish him from her mind.

And fish will fly.

In the odd order of things, she considered Mina her closest friend, more like family than the many cousins she had. Of course, Anna was beginning to suspect she had a weakness for believing relationships to be far more than the object of her affections did. Most likely, Mina had never thought of her as a sister. Maybe not even as a friend. But then, Mina maintained her solitude the way a skeleton guarded internal organs, single-mindedly determined in its function.

While at a more endurable level of water, Mina's home was still in the upper reaches of the Abyss. The forbidding pit was a perfect neighbor, to Mina's way of thinking. Most creatures, except those that lived in its darkness, avoided any prolonged proximity to it.

As she looked for that cave opening, Anna let herself rise out of the Abyss cautiously. She'd felt such a squeezing sense of relief when light began to permeate and she could once again see, recognize her surroundings. She was also relieved that she didn't feel the presence of the Dark Ones. Of course, without Jonah, she suspected they would ignore her. Much as angels would on a normal day. Just an inconsequential water creature, not significant in the elaborate machinations of Heaven and Hell.

Her bruised feelings couldn't deny that, at the last, Jonah had seemed reluctant for her to go. When she'd moved into the water and shifted back to her mermaid form, he'd told her how to get back to the main throat of the Abyss. Made her repeat the tunnel directions to him several times, apparently to assure himself she would not get disoriented again.

"If the Dark Ones are still out there, little one, you'll feel them. And if you feel them, you go the other way. I forbid you to worry about me. I can handle myself, now that you've helped me heal my wing."

Though he himself had admitted the wing was not yet ready for prolonged flight, and she suspected from the careful way he moved that it impacted his balance.

She'd been hurt by his dismissal, but if she was going to be ruthless with herself, she knew that was her own doing. It had been magic, requested honestly and freely given. So she pushed aside the personal, female reaction and focused on what she was certain was far more important. Something more than the wing was wrong. She wanted to talk to Mina, who, of anyone, would be least likely to think her crazy.

"Are you completely insane?"

The hiss startled her, for it seemed to come at her from several directions at once. Anna yelped and spun, finding herself for one harrowing moment amid a tangling bed of black strips of cloth. They swept away from her like a man-o'-war's forest of tendrils as Mina drew back, pulling the cloak she al

ways wore around her, guarding the true shape of her form. "Come in here, out of sight. It's not safe to be in the open near the Abyss right now."

Mina swam into the opening of her cave, which required careful maneuvering for it was camouflaged by myriad inhospitable forms of sea life, including a rampant garden of stinging fire coral. The only portion of her lower body visible beneath the cloak was two sleek black tentacles, each nearly six feet long, that helped propel her along and served as an extra pair of appendages when she needed them. While Mina was of the mermaid people, like Anna, she was also something more than that.

So many things that connected them, and yet they were the same things that kept their relationship a wary one at best. When she stopped inside the shadows of the cavern, Anna knew this was as far as they would go. She had never been deeper than fifty feet into Mina's home. But she was certain that was more than anyone else had been permitted.

Mina was just a handful of years older than she was, the only mercreature the merpeople preferred to see less than Anna. It didn't keep them from seeking her out for her highly effective potions and spells, however. Anna had never asked her for either. Once she'd gotten old enough to go out alone and knew how Mina's story tied to hers, she'd tracked her down. Mina had threatened to turn her into a cat and let her drown if she didn't go away. Anna offered to help her gather plants in the more populated areas Mina didn't like. It took time, but eventually Mina agreed, and the uncertain bond had begun.

Now, seven years later, Anna was no more certain of her welcome at Mina's than she'd been the first time she'd come here. It just depended on Mina's mood. But Anna had learned not to take exception--much. Once or twice she'd caught the witch staring at her as if entranced, a chilling bloodlust in her vacant eyes. On those days, Mina had snapped out of it only to order her away, telling her never to return. But Anna always did.

Thinking about it now, Anna saw a similar connection between Mina's darkness and what she'd sensed in Jonah. As if he and Mina both were engaged in a personal struggle with demons they didn't care to discuss. She didn't know if Jonah's demons had been with him throughout his lifetime, but she knew Mina's had. So perhaps it was more appropriate than she'd first thought to seek Mina's help.