Shattered by the Sea Lord - Starla Night Page 0,14
is?”
“I know they’re out there.” Stevie made a fist. “And I’ve had twenty years to prepare my anti-squid devices for combat.”
Chapter Six
Dannika finished the interviews with a darker soul than she had started.
Whenever Stevie’s camera turned away from her, she studied her cell phone or worried the chunky, colorful rings adorning her slender fingers.
“You are in no danger from Lusca on the land,” Ciran assured her at the end of the interviews when they boarded the car to the airport. “And our warriors are skilled at avoiding them beneath the ocean.”
“It’s just another thing.” She blew air between her soft, plum-colored lips. “The Sons of Hercules don’t need any help to make the mer look bad. But if they’re right about this…no. I can’t let fear win.”
He rested an arm on the seat behind her. “I will protect you.”
“In a physical fight, I know you would.” She buckled him in as the car began driving across the island. “But in the land of public opinion and politics, this is just another unfortunate setback.”
“Tell me your resources. I will conceive a strategy.”
“I need to convince a senator to reconvene his committee and open visa applications for the mer.”
“Show him our size.”
“I’m sorry. I know you guys are muscular, but I’m trying to be as non-threatening as possible. The concern is—”
“Of our mating gemstones.”
“Oh!”
“Humans value these Sea Opals, yes? Show him our largest sizes. We give these to our brides, and our brides enrich their land. Perhaps envisioning, touching, manifesting the potential bounty may change his mind.”
“As they say, money talks.” Her lips curved. “I feel you’ve worked in politics before.”
“Undine youths train first in strategy and second in skills of a warrior.” He leaned closer. “Tell me all your problems, Dannika. I will solve them.”
Her soul flared, and her gaze dropped to his lips as though tasting him. Her tongue grazed her lower lip.
She was hungry.
Hungry for him.
And then she shook herself and oriented her knees away. “You know what? I’ll turn you over to our public relations expert as soon as we land.” She stared intently into her cell phone and gave a heavy sigh. “We can use all the help we can get.”
Ciran leaned back.
He could be patient.
The landscape passed in a blur. So many humans populated the land. Some had bright souls, some dim, all colors and sizes, in growling cars, and strolling along the gray pathways in front of the pastel, square, and glass shelters.
At the airport, they transferred to a small, open car and crossed to the sharp-nosed plane. Their driver met with other humans and loaded cases of Sea Opal elixir into the underside baggage compartment. It glimmered with an unearthly shine.
Normally elixir took centuries of steeping mating gemstones in the ancient sacred churches. Drinking the steeped liqueur gave brides the ability to transform long enough to return to a warrior’s city and sip the nectar of the Life Tree, which would make the ability permanent. But since many sacred churches had been destroyed, and Atlantis had never had its own sacred islands, healer Balim had discovered a method to steep the mating gemstones in only a few hours using a human technology called an Instant Pot.
Indigo had drunk one bottle when she’d accepted Zoan’s claim. Ciran had left a case of elixir with Lotar for any more brides discovered on Bermuda. The rest would return to MerMatch.
Dannika ascended the narrow stairs, then pivoted. “Oh, that’s right. I wanted to—oh!”
Her heel slid on the hot metal and she teetered.
He caught her easily.
“Ciran, I…” She slid into his arms, fitting perfectly against the crook of his elbow. Her breasts brushed his rib cage. She rested a hand on his chest. “Oh.”
The gentle dip of her waist, the fertile flare of her hip, the rounded cushion of her buttocks pressed to his side. She was female and perfect. A sharp, hard need pierced him. Mine.
His silent claim seemed to cross the air.
Time suspended.
Her lashes fluttered, lowering, and her chin tilted up.
Dannika offered her soft lips? He would claim them.
And her.
Heat pounded into his cock.
Ciran lowered his head.
“Yoo-hoo!” A cheery woman in a button-up uniform waved from the top of the steps.
Dannika sucked in a huge breath and turned her head at the last moment. Ciran’s mouth grazed her cheek. She paused there, so close, yet so far.
Need coiled around his cock like a vise.
He no longer felt so very patient.
Dannika pulled back and looked up the stairs. “Hm? Val?”