Page 7 of Hummingbird and Kraken

He got close enough that he could see it just below, a long iridescent green tube undulating beneath him and a second one crossing beneath it. No sign of Geir, though.

He blew all of the air from his lungs so that he was ready to suck in a deep breath just as he reached the surface. Then, he pushed back down. Under water, he could hear his heartbeat racing in his own ears, but he couldn’t see anything. Just more of those squirming iridescent shapes with white bumps on the underside. They could be seaweed, but they looked much thicker.

He swam deeper, reminding himself to stay calm so that his air would last as long as possible. One of the squirming shapes brushed his arm. It was soft, in the way of underwater things, slimy and velvety.

Then suddenly, they all drew back, as if pulled by a string. He wasn’t sure if he was seeing everything right, but they seemed to darken, turning almost instantaneously from a pale greenish rainbow to a dull brown. The water, which was already murky, turned to an almost midnight black. He knew the strange, undulating lengths were nearby, but he couldn’t see them. He couldn’t see anything.

He was starting to get worried now, his active imagination moving into overtime. That was totally a giant squid. A mutant octopus. It was the only thing that could change color that quickly and then hide itself in a cloud of ink.

But he’d watched enough nature shows to know that they didn’t live in freshwater. Something about maintaining the salt concentration in their bodies.

But it sure as fuck looked like an octopus.

He moved in the direction that he hoped was toward it, both terrified and intrigued. Maybe it was some top-secret military device. Or an alien.

Not that it mattered because he needed to find Geir. The man had been down there for way too long. CPR long. Hospital long. Brain damage long. He wouldn’t let himself think of anything else.

Declan’s lungs were starting to burn, and his head was feeling light. He gave a few powerful kicks to propel himself to the surface. He would swim a little closer to the thing and then dive again.

He blew out bubbles as he rose, maximizing his efficiency. The second he hit the surface he sucked in air until he thought he would explode, barely blinked open his eyes, and powered back down again.

Focused on his mission, it took a second for his brain to process what he’d seen.

He slowly rose back to the surface.

“Geir?”

Yes, he was definitely there, healthy and solid and very, very pissed.

Chapter 4

Geir

Geir felt frozen. This was worse than anything he’d expected. Worse than anything that had happened in hundreds of years.

He hadn’t needed to shift. Could have gone weeks more without it. But there was something about Declan that made him act irrationally. Made him feel like he was losing control. And he’d needed to get back into the water, into the slow, solid mindset of his other self to regain balance.

And now Declan was here. Frantic and pink-cheeked and determined.

Geir already knew that he would deny everything. He’d done it before. Told people that they’d counted wrong. That they’d just missed seeing him. That he couldn’t possibly have been underwater for as long as they thought. That they’d seen the pale skin of his arm or leg, a bit of driftwood, the flicker of a fish.

And when that didn’t work, he’d moved. First to different towns, then to different countries. As he’d aged, he’d gotten better at going longer periods without shifting. He’d gotten better at living on his own and learned to form alliances with other shifters.

But it was exhausting.

He wasn’t sure he had it in him to go through it one more time. And it would be harder, now, with identification and things. The world was moving too fast, and he was too slow.

He didn’t know much about the internet, but he knew that what Declan had seen today could be all over the world within an hour. And Geir wasn’t sure if there was anywhere he could go to escape that.

“I told you not to go near the lake.”

Declan didn’t look cowed at all. “Well, I wasn’t trying to, but I came up over this little hill, and it was right there. And I wasn’t going to look, but you were diving in, and I might have looked a little, because let’s face it, anyone would,” he winked, “but I really wasn’t trying to. And then you didn’t come up for air.”

“Maybe you just didn’t see me.”

“Maybe you’re a giant squid and you should have just told me, so I didn’t freak out and jump into this freezing cold water to try and rescue you.”

“That’s impossible.”