A Witch's Beauty (Daughters of Arianne 2)

"Hmm? Oh." Following his glance, she appeared to take a moment to focus, then turned back toward their exit.

"You're afraid of heights," he repeated. "You can shapeshift into a dragon. You flew over a canyon, did aerial maneuvers to escape a Dark One archery attack."

"Hmm." She didn't pause, continuing to swim forward at a fairly swift pace, her gaze moving around them. It told him she was used to relying on herself to anticipate a threat. He was mildly gratified to see she wasn't including him in that surveillance, though, trusting him to guard her right flank. "So?"

"So I don't understand."

A school of fish parted as if cut by a scythe to let her pass through their ranks. "Let me know when you do. I'll wait for your comprehension with bated breath."

"I'm beginning to understand why Marcellus wanted a gag," he muttered darkly.

As they moved into a more open area, David fell back and went up, wanting to survey a wider scope of their surroundings, see more attack points.

She flicked a sidelong glance at him as he changed position but said nothing. The others had probably employed similar tactics. She seemed unconcerned with his movements, but dropped lower, so she became nothing more than a mundane sea creature making her way along the seafloor, brushing close to reefs when they were provided, minimizing her open exposure. The cloak spread out so at first glance, with tentacles curling and uncurling behind in graceful propulsion, she could be mistaken for a squid of some type, a creature without numerous enemies moving casually over the surface populated by myriad corals, sponges, sea fans and darting fish, in a silent, mostly blue green world.

Except he saw something entirely different down there. The rippling silk of the hair, the brief glimpse of slim arms, almost lost against the sandy portions of the seafloor. He remembered their strength around him, the desperate grip of the one undamaged hand, the press of the three fingers on the other. The odd, rough feel of the stumps where fingers no longer were, but pressing down even more fervently, as if making up for their deficit.

He'd unbalanced her, in more than one way, and maybe himself as well. He'd known that intuition would guide him, but he hadn't expected how innate it would be to employ the strategy of sexually dominating her, such that he wasn't sure whether or not it was a natural compulsion she seemed to provoke in him. But in the brief flash of vulnerability she'd shown as a result, he'd known it was the difficult but only sure road of winning her trust. If she didn't kill him first, or compel him to strangle her.

She stopped, her cloak waving around her, and settled to the ocean floor. David stilled, scouting the terrain and her position to see a group of merpeople skirting a line of the reef. Coming from a passageway that led down to Neptune's lower realm, if he recalled the layout of this area correctly.

It was a mixed group. Mermaids and mermen, perhaps a family and some extra friends thrown into the mix. Possibly a foraging party, or swimming as a group to go sun on the rocks. The males had an outer flanking position, for though there were only a few predators of merpeople, they were formidable ones. Killer whales, bands of sharks.

The formation reminded him that merpeople were a very patriarchal society, where women were not expected to be warriors. Mina was an apparent exception, with her lethal fighting skills.

He'd expected her to move after confirming it was her own people, but she remained motionless as they passed overhead, until they were well along their way. Then she rose from the bottom, a slow shift, like a sea creature in truth, nothing that would catch the eye, and continued on her way, sliding around the side of a coral bed and starting her swim across the more open area.

"Begone! Go!"

The combination of musical notes and shrill cries that signified the merpeople language resonated to him. Another group had been emerging from the passageway from Neptune's realm. Mina increased her speed, but something was hampering her. She was favoring her left side. As he dove, the position of the reef shifted so he could see a cut on her forehead. The wildly spinning disks of a cluster of sharp oyster shells floating toward the bottom helped him put it together.

"Dark Spawn! Begone from here. Filth! Seawitch."

He dropped into the space before her just as another projectile torpedoed her way. Merpeople used a modified form of underwater slingshot and crossbow to give them the propulsion to launch underwater missiles at foes. Fury spurted through him as he caught the sandstone, jagged with embedded shells, in one hand.

"Angel." The group of merwomen shrieked at the sight of him and about-faced, diving behind the reefs. The two mermen with them backpedaled and then followed, creating a strong wake with the frantic propulsion of their tails. Merpeople, like most nonhumans, treated angels with fear and awe. In this case, David was glad for it, because he felt like bringing a storm of wrath down on them they wouldn't soon forget.

Releasing the stone with disgust, he turned to find his seawitch still in motion. Having crossed the passageway, she was now moving more swiftly on her way. When he caught up with her and tried to see how she was injured, she jerked away.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded.

"They were attacking you."

"They were throwing things at me. They always do that. All you did was draw attention to me. An angel, no less. That makes it worse."

"Maybe they'll be less likely to do it if they think someone is protecting you."

She came to such a sudden halt she swayed in the aborted flow of water. Eyes as sharp as his daggers leveled on him. "For the last time, I don't need your protection. I held off an archery attack of Dark Ones at the Canyon Battle to reclaim Jonah. I threw a detonation at you that knocked you unconscious. You think I couldn't annihilate a group of ignorant, superstitious merpeople? I can conjure fire spells that would-" As she cut herself off, obviously struggling with her frustration, he raised a brow.

"Make half my platoon look like naked chickens?"

Her attention snapped back to him. David arched his brow higher, waiting.

"You don't understand."

"I do. People suck." Coming closer despite her warning expression, he took a look at what was luckily a superficial cut. Her gaze narrowed, became more menacing. However, as he'd endured withering looks from not only Jonah but Lucifer, the overpowering Lord of the Hades Underworld, it would take more than a look to shake him.

"Where did the other one hit you?" He dropped his attention to where she was still clutching her side.

"They didn't hit me. It's a muscle cramp. It happens sometimes."

"Let me help."

"No," she snapped. Closing her eyes, Mina shook her head. "I can't have you disrupting my life like this."

"We want to keep you safe."

"I've never been safe a day in my life, David." Gritting her teeth, Mina moved back from him again. "Neptune tried to have me killed when I was nine years old. When he decided he might have made a mistake, he ordered his healers to help me as best they could. I felt their revulsion in every touch. If they'd had the courage to defy him, they'd have blocked off my gills and made it look like I died of my injuries. I know that, because they told me so.

"And you don't want me safe," she added. "You want my power safe."

Mina pressed on before he could deny it, aware that the shrillness in her voice was increasing, but unable to stop herself. "No one will

use my power but me. If anyone tries to make me use it for their benefit, I will destroy myself in the process. Not for some greater good, but just to deny them the pleasure of taking what they were never offered. If I can convince you of that, will you leave me be? I don't want you, don't need you, any of you. To me, you're all the same side. You're-"

It clamped down on her, shoving her into a howling vortex of darkness. She clawed at the sides of it, but the sinking despair told her she'd lost the fight again. Rage. She knew better than to get this worked up. Twice in one day now. Or was it three? She couldn't have him around. Oh, gods, why couldn't she make him understand?

Maybe because if he did, he would try to kill her and be done with it, and for reasons she didn't comprehend, she still clung to the idea of life. She shot off through the water, hoping David, if he wouldn't leave her, at least wouldn't be stupid and try to slow her down this time.

She used the pain from the muscle cramp, pushing herself to the limits of her speed, stroking and pumping wildly with her tentacles, twisting her body so that it screamed in agony. Going faster and faster until her heart was laboring, gills flared wide along her neck. The pain became living fire in her side, a wall of flame between her and the red Minotaur of rage that wanted to leapfrog over it, reduce that group of smug, useless merpeople to chunks of torn-apart meat. A meal that would summon an army of sharks while she perched on a nearby rock, glorying in the cloud of blood, opening her mouth to taste the remnants of it, of their laughter, as she laughed last. She'd catch the women's long, beautiful hair on her arms, weave herself a cloak out of it. Maybe she'd even take the delicate necklace of shells she'd seen one of the mergirls wearing. Probably given to her by an adoring father or friend. A sister or mother. Maybe she'd made it herself, with slim, dainty fingers that had never known a single twinge, let alone the clawing agony in joints that screamed for relief that would never come.

By the time she reached the entrance to her cave, she was shaking so hard she had to slow down or risk bumping into the jagged collar of stinging fire coral around it. Diving into its welcoming darkness, she pushed herself to keep moving, far into its depths. This was her place where no one else dared enter, warded to maintain that sense of apprehension in those that approached. Nothing could enter, except one annoying angel.