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With one inhalation, Dax had changed her life. What lie ahead she didn't know. Where he was taking her she couldn't even hazard a guess. But he'd asked her to trust him once, and opened up a new world for her. A world she hadn't imagined existed. She didn't know what kind of world it was, or even what would happen to her now that her very biology had changed.
But one thing she did know for certain. At this moment, she'd follow Dax to the ends of the earth and beyond.
Chapter Ten
Isabelle let the tears flow, the salty drops mixing invisibly with the water surrounding her. She was swimming along like a fish--like the golden mermaid Dax had called her. He held her hand, periodically turning his head and smiling that boyish grin that never failed to make her insides churn with need.
But her tears hadn't come from the awe-inspiring events she'd already witnessed. When a dolphin swam up beside her, and she swore it smiled at her, she'd lost it completely, breaking down into a weeping puddle of joy.
The grey creature still moved along beside her, keeping pace with them. It looked over at her the same way Dax did, as if studying her.
"That's Zeus," Dax said, nodding toward the bottlenose.
"I see. And you know his name, how?"
"Because I told him."
Isabelle stopped and pulled her hand from Dax's. Okay, now that dolphin had not just spoken to her. She turned to Dax. "Did he do what I think he just did?"
"Yeah. He talks. Everything has a voice down here, Isabelle. Most people just can't hear them."
"I don't talk to just anybody, either, but Dax tells me you're okay for a land creature," Zeus said, his smiling mouth moving open and closed with his words.
She knew her eyes must be bugging out of her head as she stared open mouthed at the dolphin. Her mind spun. This wasn't happening. This world could not be real. "I'm dreaming this, right? We actually completed the dive earlier and I'm dreaming this entire thing. Or maybe I died when I took off my mask and tanks and this is heaven?"
Dax's lips curled in a smile. "If that's what you want to believe, then sure. You're dreaming, my golden mermaid." He held out his hand again and she tentatively slipped her palm in his, allowing him to propel them rapidly through the water. Zeus followed along, whistling. Isabelle shook her head, completely awed by this new world.
They reached a ledge in the ocean's floor that seemed to stretch for miles in either direction. Dax moved forward but Isabelle stopped, tugging at his hand. Below the shelf appeared a crevice that fell into complete darkness below. "I can't."
He turned and frowned. "Why not?"
"The depth...I'll be crushed."
"No, you won't. Come on."
She chewed her bottom lip and shook her head, refusing to budge. "I'm not going, Dax. I know the maximum depth a human can travel and survive. We're practically at that depth now."
He tilted his head and said, "Can a human breathe water and live, like you're doing right now?"
"Well, no."
"Then trust me. I haven't killed you yet, have I?" He winked and held out his hand.
He did have a point. She'd survived all the miraculous changes so far. Chances were he knew what she was capable of withstanding. She reached for his hand and let him lead her down into the darkness. Each meter they descended propelled them further into the black depths, much further than any known or documented exploration.
Isabelle tried not to let fear overtake her, yet she couldn't help the trepidation shivering along her spine. This murky trek was the unknown. The dark, blind, unknown. More so than anything she'd ever experienced. Before, she could at least see. Now she was forced to trust that Dax knew where he was going. She felt him alongside her, and clung to his hand like a lifeline, surely hurting his fingers in her squeezing grip. But he didn't complain once, just held on tight, his firm grasp reassuring her.
With every meter their speed seemed to increase. Before long they were bulleting downward at such a fast pace the water pressed in against her skin.
After descending for nearly ten minutes, she expected to feel the pressure. But she didn't. Dax had told her she wouldn't, and yet she still had a hard time believing she could defy physics.
The darkness began to close in around her, a suffocating squeezing of her body as if invisible walls were crushing her. Further and further they traveled down at lightning speed. Nothing physical affected her, merely the claustrophobic sensation of not being able to see. The only sound she heard was the fast rush of water flowing past her ears. Adrenaline kicked in and she tugged at Dax's hand. She wanted to stop, to go back up. But he wouldn't let her go.
And he wasn't speaking to her, either. At least not to her mind as he had before. She couldn't even look over at him to gauge his expression since she couldn't see. The silence unnerved her.
No. She couldn't do this. Fear coursed through her. She wanted to go back up. Back to the surface, where there was light. Where was he taking her? She didn't want to be in this blackness, this complete void of sensation.
When she would have told him so, a flicker of light appeared below them. Faint at first, then growing as they drew closer. It was almost a glow now, spreading out before them, a golden light shooting out rays of colors.
Her anxiety forgotten, she propelled herself forward with renewed enthusiasm, wanting to reach the light, needing to know what was down here when nothing was supposed to live at this depth. Hell, she wasn't supposed to live at this depth.
They were almost there, the light revealing a building of sorts. A structure? Like a house? But how?
Dax led her to some kind of glass enclosure. Intricate carvings of mermaids and sea creatures were etched on the outside of the glass, architecture like she'd never seen before. She looked over to him, intent on questioning him, but he looked straight ahead, leading her to an archway with no door. But where she would have swum through it thinking it was an opening, Dax stopped, waved his hand across the center of the archway and a nearly invisible door slid open. He pulled her inside, the door closing with a swoosh behind her, and suddenly they weren't swimming any longer.
The water she'd been breathing completely disappeared and she sucked in a lungful of oxygen. Fresh, clean oxygen.
Despite the pressure of the ocean surrounding them, there was no water inside the structure. The place was a house of sorts. Although everything was glass, or at least appeared to be transparent. She walked over to what looked like a sofa, surprised to feel the give of its cushioned softness when she pressed on it.
"I don't understand," she said, turning to Dax.
"Ask your questions." He had his back turned to her, fiddling with some kind of console against the wall. Oddly enough, with everything nearly transparent she could still make out objects. There was a dimension to everything, almost as if it were varying colors of transparency, from the brightest white to a near black, and yet no color at all. How confusing--stark, and yet utterly beautiful.
"What is this place?"
"My laboratory. My sanctuary. And occasionally, my home."
"You live here?"
"Sometimes."
"Where do you live at other times?"
He was touching invisible buttons and dials when suddenly a color image appeared on the wall in front of him, almost as if projected onto television screens. She peered around him, startled to see their beach and bungalow on one screen. Three other images captured the ocean, although she couldn't pinpoint exactly where.
"How?" she asked.
"Advanced imagery. I couldn't explain it to you because the technology as you know it doesn't exist."
"Try me. I'm fairly intelligent."
He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled. "I know. One of the things I...like about you."
She frowned, not sure what he originally started to say before he stumbled over his words.
"It's a mental imagery," he continued. "I can think of a specific area and it'll show up here."
"Any place you want?"
"Yes. For example, the hotel." Without turning to look at the screen, Paradise Resort appeared.
"Is it a real time image?"
"Yes."
"How are you able to do that?"
"I can't explain it."
"Like I said before, Dax, I'm smart enough to--"
"There are some things I can't explain to you right now, Isabelle. Trust me."
She supposed, given what he'd already revealed to her, that she'd have to be satisfied with that answer. At least for now.
"Look around, if you'd like. I have a little work to do here."
She nodded, grateful for the opportunity to get her mind around all that had happened in such a short time.
The place appeared to be like a regular house, with a living area complete with sofa and chairs, a kitchen and even a bedroom. She walked down a hallway, still giddy over traversing through a nearly transparent house, and entered a bedroom which contained a king-sized bed and a cover that felt like jelly. Yet it wasn't sticky, just warm. It contained a regular looking bathroom that she couldn't see through to the outside. She guessed even sea people like Dax wanted their privacy. Isabelle chuckled at the thought of taking a shower or a bath while surrounded by the ocean. How odd.
Everything was strange and different and yet in so many ways exactly the same as her house above the surface of the water. Her head pounded with the thoughts jackhammering her mind. She headed back towards Dax and found him still standing at the monitor screens. She heard his voice and looked around, expecting to find someone, but he was alone.
"Who are you talking to?" she asked.
Dax turned and smiled at her. "No one."
She crossed her arms and fixed him with a stare. "I heard you talking."
