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Motion in my peripheral vision startled me and I rose instinctively. Adonis swayed, one hand grasping a stalagmite. Not dead after all. Maybe Jack should choose less physically robust specimens. Or pay more attention. Why hadn't he sensed the human was still alive?
Adonis's eyes narrowed, and recognition crawled across his chiseled face.
"You. I know you."
I scrambled through memories and came up blank. Had he been a patient? Unlikely. Any humans I’d treated in the last decade had been in disaster zones outside the United States. I froze, and glanced sideways for Jack. His attention was elsewhere. Was I too far away for him to feel what was happening?
"You and that other freak stole from me." He moved closer. "Took my property. A whole shipment. Bunch of little girls beat the shit outta me and my guys."
Realization dawned. White-hot rage followed. I remembered the night with Jack and the banshee clique. They’d brought me along to treat the women they were rescuing. I still didn’t remember the man himself, but at the time, I’d been focused on something else entirely. Flashes of pain and horror flooded my brain, snatches of the women’s stories replayed in my memory. Lists of injuries flew like ticker tape across my vision. I’ve worked in plenty of refugee camps and outside war zones, and despite the rescue having happened just outside Austin, it had felt just the same.
I snarled, and completely forgot I was underground, naked and wet, facing a stranger. He was no longer someone Jack had kidnapped and dragged here to die. He was a human piece of filth if he’d been involved in that catastrophe. It had been months ago, so Jack must have kept tabs on him.
"People aren't property. You're lucky you're not dead." The irony of my words hit me as soon as they left my mouth.
"You cost us tens of thousands. You made lots of angry clients." He kept inching toward me. "You have no idea what you've done, you little skank."
"Big talk for someone in your position." Why wasn't he freaking out and begging for help?
He lurched forward, leaving me without time or space to dodge. I hit a sharp rock, then fell into the pool. The fall and the blow to my head were disorienting, and I thrashed, unsure which way was up. Adonis grappled at my arms and torso, fighting for a hold. He was a big man, with strong, soft hands. He tried to pull me to him with his legs, and one hand closed around my throat. He was above me, keeping me from surfacing for air. He pulled me to him, and I rammed one knee into his crotch as hard as the water’s resistance allowed.
He sucked in water, and his grip loosed just enough for me to push off of him. I braced one foot against a big rock and propelled myself farther away, staying underwater. I got as far as my dwindling air supply let me before surfacing. I sucked in air, gasping and coughing while I tried to figure out where I was and where my attacker had ended up. Blood ran into my eyes.
I was bleeding. I wasn't supposed to bleed. No matter what.
If things hadn't already been confusing enough, Spot entered the fray, slamming into both of us. The water frothed, Adonis punched and kicked, and Spot's exudate goo turned everything slick. I couldn’t tell how far from shore I was, and I lost sight of the human. I was thrown sideways into shallower water, my head and torso above the surface. I wiped my eyes and spat.
And then the singing stopped. Abrupt silence sent a chill down my spine and twisted my gut. A wail from the laboring mother broke the eerie stillness, and was followed by a splash. Adonis surfaced with a naiad child in one arm, opposite hand around its throat. Jack's gift was still clutched in its tiny hands. Its tail slapped against the man’s muscled thigh in an irregular spasm.
Adonis whirled, sending shining water arcing out to make ripples on the disturbed surface. "Lemme outta here or I'll kill whatever the fuck this thing is!" His snarling had taken on a shrill edge, and he finally looked properly confused and afraid. He was facing down a petite, naked redhead and a twenty-foot-long amphibian whilst holding a baby albino mermaid.
Spot had regained his footing, and I put out a hand.
"Spot! Settle!"
I tried emulating the commanding voice that came so easily to Jack. It must have worked, because Spot stilled and looked at me. This was going to be dicey, and his interference would only muddle matters more.
Beyond and behind Adonis, the clan advanced, teeth bared. A hissing sound filled the cave, and where blood dripped from my head into the water, the microflora flared brightly.
I reached deep down for any small negotiating abilities. Not a personal strength. "Just put the kid down. It's not involved in this. It's just a baby." I should have known this would have no effect. Everything I knew about him said he’d never shown any concern for a life not his own.
He sneered and tightened his hold. The panting child whimpered, then screamed. He slapped it. Adonis roared back at me. What I saw and heard of this man created a polluted black stain inside what had been a scene of indescribably pristine and shining beauty until minutes before. "Shut up! Do you know who I am? Let me the fuck out! You have no idea who you're dealing with!"
No, but Jack does. That's why you're here. And why you're never leaving.
Adonis turned his back on me and spread his stance to face the oncoming naiads. I looked down at the bag I somehow still held. There were scissors inside. Sharp, with long, tapered blades. I eased them out, holding them in my left hand, and met Jack's gaze across the pool. He nodded.
It was going to be one of those nights. Doing bad things for good reasons, out of options. With no regard for my own safety, I swam toward the human’s back. The child's cries echoed off the ceiling, then were lost in a scream of the mother in her next contraction. Adonis was no longer paying me any attention – he must have assumed I wasn't a threat.
In the moment, that may have pissed me off as much as anything else, because once I was just behind him, I murmured, "Say hallo to my leetle fren."
Movie quotes are my coping mechanism. That and bourbon, of which I’d need a decent amount later.
I shot forward and up, thrusting my arm between the human's legs from behind. I fell back to bury one scissor blade deep into his inner thigh, then yanked down with my entire body weight. My aim had been true. Luck and hard-earned anatomical expertise were on my side. I’d punctured one or more femoral vessels and the strong, downward motion opened them fully. His life's blood poured into the pool, and the water flared with light. The hissing intensified, and the naiads surged toward us.
I stumbled back to the safety of the unbloodied shore and of Spot. He placed himself between me and the water. My legs were shaking, and I couldn’t work up the energy to be embarrassed about it. I looked down at the bloody scissors, still gripped in my left hand, and dropped them. They fell onto dirt, and the blood soaked in. The metal sparkled with the water's phosphorescence. It shouldn’t look beautiful. But it did.
A circle of torsos rose up around the failing form of Adonis who was clutching his groin and screaming, his hostage nowhere in sight. The wound I’d inflicted was far too large, and nothing would save him now. Pink, sparkling water ran in rivulets down the naiads’ pallid bodies as clawed hands reached for the man's darker, quivering flesh. Their mouths stretched wide, showcasing rows of sharp teeth surrounding dark red tongues. Ribs and hip bones tented their white skin, and their limbs seemed too long. Each joint swelled past the bones it connected, giving them a bumpy appearance. Despite it all, their movements were fluid and graceful.
