Tridia (The Poseidia Series Book 3) Page 3

  “Here is the last, and most special of rooms. I’m sure, after this tour, you’d like to sit and put your feet up. I give a great foot massage,” he added suggestively, opening the door to a bedroom.

  Uh, yeah. I mean no.

  Only a kiss, right, Eric?

  We entered the kind of master suite you see in one of those fancy magazines showing off rich people’s houses. Immaculate—not a dust bunny hiding anywhere. White, thick wall-to-wall carpet, a king-sized canopy bed draped with white scarves, and mahogany furnishings adorned his room. Afraid to touch anything for fear of leaving not only my fingerprints, but actually smudging the shiny, delicate vases positioned on the mantle over the fireplace, I walked carefully around the room. Accustomed to the regal elegance of Poseidia and Atlia, this opulence was overwhelming. French doors led to yet another balcony. There must be twenty in this place.

  Wanting to avoid sitting on his bed, I pushed aside the door’s sheer drapes and tugged on the handles.

  I can jump if need be.

  Don’t be silly.

  Curious, I walked to the edge, noting we stood on the top floor—about fifty feet from the cliffs below.

  Too high for this chicken. I may be super-hormonal, but I’m not indestructible. And I’m fairly sure Eric would leave me to die, unlike Roman. Roman I could trust—Eric, not so much. No jumping.

  The ocean called to me.

  “Great house, amazing view.” I returned to the bedroom’s dim lighting. “I’d better get going, it’s getting late, and I have to work tomorrow,” I lied.

  “Wait,” he begged, his hands softly landing on my shoulders. “A few more minutes?”

  Outmaneuvering his hands, I pretended to admire the décor. “This room is well-appointed. The sheets alone must be worth a fortune.” I unintentionally smoothed my hand over the silky fabric.

  On the bedside table sat a gilded frame, featuring a beautiful brunette, and a small child with oxygen tubes in her nose.

  A child who was the spitting image of Mark.

  Grabbing the photo, I sat on the bed. “Who is this?” I asked, hoping the diversion would kill the mood.

  Mark rubbed his lightly-whiskered cheeks, and then smoothed back his hair, letting out a deep sigh. “That’s Penny and Allison. Allison is my nine-year-old daughter.” He gazed back to the French doors, his eyes taking on a pained distance.

  “Is she with your wife in Michigan?”

  “Yes.” He sat next to me, keeping his hands to himself. With the mention of his daughter, an obvious dark cloud settled over him.

  “How long has she been there?” I searched his face, trying to decipher him the way I could Mer. Apparently, my meager skills remained better at reading Mer than humans, because I got absolutely nothing.

  He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Four months.”

  “Are you separated?”

  “Unofficially.” Mark stood and walked to the dresser, loosening his tie. “As I said, we live separate lives.” Annoyance with my invasive questions came through in his tone.

  “Your daughter, why is she on oxygen?”

  He paused, his untying motion frozen in midair. “Allison has a fatal lung disease. She’s waiting on a transplant. The company I work for is paying for all her medical bills, and maneuvered to get her higher on the transplant list.” The last words had been delivered in a rush, as if he hoped by admitting some truth he could get me to shut up.

  Saddened by the revelation, I gently placed the picture back in its place. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  After a long pause with his back to me, he confided, “It’s a difficult subject.” Mark unbuttoned his shirt and returned, again sitting beside me.

  “Tonight, I want to forget.” Leaning in, he buried his face in my hair and inhaled. “What is it about you? You smell so good.”

  “What kind of work do you do?” I asked, uncomfortable with where this could go. Or rather, how he thought the night would go.

  Mark lay back on the bed, running his hands through his hair. “I do shit work. I’m the decision-making scapegoat. But I’m stuck. As I said, the company I work for pays all my daughter’s medical bills. Her prescriptions alone cost over a million dollars a year. We’ve had a few close calls. More than enough squashed hopes.” His eyes grew distant again, cold. Gray with the heavy sadness he carried. “Ugh, why am I telling you all of this. I don’t want to burden a beautiful woman with my problems.” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

  “You’re not burdening me. Everyone needs someone to talk to. I’m sorry you feel stuck. Why not find another job?”

  “Money traps you. I can never leave. The things I’ve done… the decisions I’ve made… they—the company—would destroy me. I would never be able to find work. And I can’t risk my daughter’s life. Again, I’m telling you too much. I never tell anyone anything. That’s the first rule you learn.” Mark sat up, wrapping his arms around me from the side. He buried his face into my hair and inhaled again. “Your scent is amazing.” Brushing my hair away from my face, he leaned his nose into my neck. “My god, your skin smells so delicious.” Hesitantly, he kissed below my left ear.

  “Would your daughter be provided for if something happened to you?”

  “That’s a strange question,” he answered, peppering my neck and shoulders with kisses. “Why do you ask?” Pulling back, he cradled his hand along my jaw and turned my head to look me in the eyes. Vaguely, I read him—he wasn’t giving my questions a second thought, believing me to be one of Eric’s bimbo dates. Sexual hunger glossed over any rational thought. He only wanted in my panties—badly.

  “Humor me.”

  “She would die. Which will never happen. I’m a good boy and healthy as a horse.” He emphasized the comparison by placing my hand over his erection.

  Touching the sides of my face, he leaned in to kiss me.

  Deciding then I couldn’t follow through with this heinous mission, I pulled away. “I need to use the restroom. To freshen up.”

  Groaning with frustration, he reluctantly pointed to a door in the bedroom’s far right corner. “Hurry.”

  Nearly running, I slammed the door behind me, locking it. Damn, damn, damn. Eric, you bastard. I ran water in the sink until the liquid turned hot. Finding a cloth, I washed my lips until they were raw. I can’t kill this guy. Crap, Eric’s going to destroy me.

  Back in the room, I made a bee-line for the door. “I’m sorry, I need to go.”

  Looking defeated, he asked, “Was it something I said?”

  “No, it’s not you. Something I ate didn’t agree with me. Maybe we can continue our discussion some other time.”

  Chapter 5

  Eric waited in his convertible at the valet desk. In the back sat two blonde humans.

  Slamming the passenger door as I sat, I yelled, “Go.”

  “Is the job done?” Eric asked, revving the engine.

  “Just go,” I screamed, straining to hold in the tears.

  I blew the mission. My chance at greater freedom.

  Eric slammed the Jaguar into gear, and headed back to the Mer house. I didn’t ask why he had two humans in the back seat. His infraction would be a minor one when compared to my total failure.

  Back at the Mer house, behind my bedroom doors, I shed the too-tight black dress to the floor and kicked off the painful shoes.

  Panicking, after removing the human-illusion bracelet, I changed back into my loose Poseidian clothes, and headed for the portal in the hallway. Get back to Atlia and talk to King Atlas. He’ll understand and run interference for me.

  Seconds before I stepped through, Eric grabbed me by the arm. “Where are you going?” he demanded. “You haven’t been dismissed. You need to give a mission report in the morning.”

  “Why are there two humans here? Why would you bring them back to this house?” Yeah, turn the focus back on him.

  “What I do on my own time is my business,” he spat.

&
nbsp; “Not when your business involves breaking the rules.” I twisted my arm out of his grasp.

  Eric reclaimed his grip on my arm and shoved me up against the wall. His face flushed dark red, a huge vein bulging on his forehead. “You botched the mission, didn’t you?”

  “You’re hurting me. Let go.”

  “I knew you would fail. You’re finished.” Confusing thoughts and emotions were thrown at me through our connection. Most notable? His boiling frustration wasn’t only with me. But I couldn’t quite understand where Eric’s anger was directed.

  “Don’t threaten me. You brought two humans back here—I’ll tell the High Council exactly what you’re up to.” I struggled to be free of his vise-like grasp.

  “And what, exactly, am I up to? What?” he spat.

  I twisted out of his grip and punched him in the nose. “Other than trying to get rid of me? I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to be told what the mission is, to understand why. Not blindly sent in to murder someone.”

  Eric grabbed his now bleeding nose, cursing under his breath. “You’ve had zero training, Anna. You don’t need to know what, why, or how. You simply need to obey orders. The High Council will hear about your noncompliance.”

  “And they’ll hear about your apparent fetish for humans. I’m going back to Atlia, where I’ll speak with King Atlas. We’ll hear what he has to say about the situation.”

  Eric twisted the portal key from my ear. “You’ll return to Atlia only when I say so.” Eric stormed back down the hallway.

  Double ass-munch.

  Chapter 6

  Back in my room, I paced, wracking my angry, hormonal brain for a solution. I’ll swim home. No, I’m too far—it’ll take weeks. And I don’t know the exact way—only a general direction. Damn. They really need to invent a GPS implant.

  Frantic and not thinking clearly, I searched the closet. Human clothes—yes. I slipped out of my Poseidian dress and slunk into faded jeans, a skin-tight white t-shirt paired with a flannel shirt I tied around my waist, and cowboy boots. I’d fit in. I twisted back on the arm ring Eric had given me earlier. You can take my portal key, but you forgot this, ass-munch.

  I’d learned my lesson in Hawaii. Now, whenever I left Atlia via portal, I took a passport, credit card, and the fake identification that King Atlas had made for me. Honestly, I never believed I would use the items given the obstacle of having iridescent skin. But since Eric had given me the bracelet, which changed my Mer skin to human-looking, I now had a level of freedom I hadn’t imagined possible since waking up in Poseidia.

  While Eric played with his human woman toys, I packed a small overnight bag, stuffing some cash into the side pocket.

  Remembering the human way to Roman’s castle, on a barren stretch of the United Kingdom’s Atlantic coastline, I stole a Mer car from the garage and headed to the airport. Atlia was only a short distance from Roman’s castle. Secretly, I hoped once I made my way there, I could communicate with Atlas. I’d watched Roman communicate telepathically with Poseidia before—I’d discover his Jedi mind tricks.

  I’ll be damned if Eric is going to hold me hostage.

  Amazingly, at the airport, I had no problems. Before I’d left the house, I made sure to apply thick makeup to any exposed skin, in case I had to take off my jewelry when I went through security. And I did. For the few minutes the hologram deactivated, no one seemed to notice. I’d dressed down on purpose—to blend in.

  Once in England, I rented a car, and followed GPS directions to Glastonbury. I’d never figured out why a thinning veil between Mer and human worlds existed, or why Roman’s castle stood only in the other realm—I’d given up trying to figure out the phenomenon after losing too many nights of sleep. My best guess was the portals had something to do with the anomaly, but the few times I had asked anyone about the enigma, they looked at me strangely and shrugged their shoulders.

  As expected, the shimmering wall, only visible to me, remained. Resisting the urge to cast a paranoid glance around me, I walked through the veil and onto the dirt path leading to Roman’s castle.

  Chapter 7

  Safely inside, I headed to the terrace. Wanting to retrace the steps of our first time here, frantic to recapture the fleeting memories, I ran to the edge and leaned over—desperately hoping to catch a whiff of Roman’s essence, wafting off the ocean’s surface.

  But only the salty wind welcomed me, echoing the silence and loneliness weighing down my heart. The memory of being here with Roman a distant, hollow echo. Damn, I miss him so bad. Will he ever wake up?

  With time and fresh air between Eric and me, I realized I’d been an over-reactive child. Scolding myself, I wished I had followed through with what I had promised to do.

  How do I go back and admit I’m wrong?

  Had I mistakenly fallen for the guy’s sob story? I obviously didn’t know all the information, or even what crime he’d committed. But I knew the Mer to be a rational race, fair and forgiving; they’d not have passed judgement lightly. I’m causing more problems for myself with the High Council. Eric is probably already back tattling on me. Crap, another massive fail.

  “Anna,” I heard, while leaning over the terrace, contemplating tossing my sorry ass over the edge.

  Atlas. Thank heavens.

  Whirling, I lunged into his arms. A muffled sob escaped my throat as I buried my face into his pristine light-blue shirt.

  “I’m such a failure,” I cried. “You gave me what I wanted, and I’ve failed you, the High Council. I’ve failed Atlia, Poseidia, and most of all, I’ve failed Laith. Why can’t I learn to follow orders?”

  Atlas’s arms tightened around me. “You wouldn’t be my precious Anna without a mind of your own, including your compassionate heart,” he whispered into my hair.

  “But the mission?” I looked up into his face, blurry through my tears.

  With his thumbs, he wiped the damp streaks from my face. “You haven’t failed. Eric came to me. I’ve forbidden him from reporting to the High Council. For now.”

  “Eric has an issue with me. He wants me to fail. And I have—I’ve given him everything he needs to get me kicked off missions and thrown into some dungeon.” Placing my hands over his on my face, I pushed his palms firmly against my skin, imagining I could squeeze out the pain of failure with his warmth.

  “Now you’re being overly dramatic. I would never allow anyone to throw you into some dungeon. It’s your first mission, allow yourself some grace. All is not lost.” Atlas tenderly kissed my forehead.

  Meeting his eyes, I admitted, “The horrible truth is, I don’t believe I can carry out the mission—I can’t kill Mark.”

  “Who told you to kill him?”

  “I assumed… by the way Eric acted.” I pushed out of his arms and strode to the terrace’s edge again. Ocean waves below stirred angrily, and the wind picked up—warning of an impending storm. “And because Roman had implied that’s how things were dealt with.” I placed my hands on the cold, wet stone. Slime coated my palms, but I didn’t care.

  Atlas’s voice came from directly behind my head. “My security team deals with threats swiftly and harshly. However, most details are left to their discretion. I’m sorry if Eric put you in a situation where you weren’t comfortable.” His supportive words, and the hot breath on my neck, warmed me. He walked to my side and placed his hands on the terrace’s stone. His eyes blankly stared out over the wide-open ocean.

  “Yeah, not comfortable.” I remembered the dress Eric had me wear. “A massive understatement.”

  Breaking away from his trance-like stare, Atlas touched his wet, cold hands to my shoulders, and gently squeezed. A calm peacefulness filled my being. An instinctual recognition of complete safety and love. “Return to California and meet with Eric. Please. Work out your differences. You must function as a team if you are to continue on missions. I want you to be happy and fulfilled, Anna.”

  Warmed by his presence, I wanted to lean into his body and wrap my ar
ms around him. Caught up in old emotions, I yearned to lose myself in his kiss, tear my clothes off, and let them fly away on the wind while his fingers explored every inch of my electroreceptors.

  Wait.

  What am I thinking?

  What’s wrong with me?

  A tiny voice at the back of my mind screamed, Nothing. Maybe I needlessly fought my instincts, denying myself what I truly desired out of some silly human sense of loyalty. The person to whom I tried to prove my faithfulness may never wake up to appreciate my sacrifice.

  Or maybe my impending ovulation meant my Mer hormones spiraled out of control.

  No, it’s not so simple. The problem was me. I overthought every impulse and emotion, not accustomed to the high sensual needs of Mer anatomy.

  “Will you be there?” I asked, looking up into his blue eyes. The love flowing from them nearly took my breath away. In that moment, I knew he’d always be there. No matter how off-course I strayed, he’d be there, patiently waiting for me to be ready.

  His eyes never wavered from mine. “I cannot. I’m leaving Atlia for a few days.” He glanced away briefly, returning his eyes to mine before he continued. “You can do this. Work this difference out between Eric and you. My interference will only cause further resentment.”

  “Leaving to where?” Overcome with fear of loss, I searched his face, hoping to read him. “What about the threat of Tridia? Your queen?”

  “I…” Atlas wanted to tell me the truth of his intended destination, but for whatever reason, fear stopped him. “Atlia has been secured. Tridia is under constant observation. We’ll know well in advance if they decide to move against us. As far as the queen goes, she has fallen off our radar.” He removed his hands from my shoulders and stepped toward the terrace’s edge.

  Grabbing his left shoulder and turning him to face me, I warned, “Queen Atlas is a crazy time bomb waiting to blow. You know she won’t give up.” A boiling rage bubbled within me at the mention of her name. Memories of the torture she’d subjected me to flashed vividly across my mind. I’d vowed to kill her, a shameful promise whose existence disrupted the harmony of my soul. Surely committing such a premeditated act would condemn me to hell alongside David. But the anger wouldn’t let go.