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Fun of a Lifetime 52
SHE HAD TO KISS HIM. There were a million reasons for Logan to back away from that stipulation, chief among them that she was a mermaid. As much as he hated that fact, he couldn’t deny that he’d wanted to kiss her last night. Before he’d known. And could, if he allowed himself, want to again. But she was a mermaid. What would be the point? There was no future for them. And even if there could be, he had Michael to think of. His son would have to lie to everyone he met because he couldn’t tell anyone that his stepmother was a mer¬maid. Back-to-school night? “Oh, sorry, my wife couldn’t make it. She’s having her tail washed.” Homeroom mom? “Sure, but the lemonade is made with saltwater.” Never going to happen. No and hell no. He wanted Normal. A mermaid was not normal. To bring that thought home, her tail brushed his legs. “Logan?” And what the hell was he doing even thinking the word wife in relation to her? “Are you ready?” She floated a little closer. The kiss. Right. “Yeah
Fun of a Lifetime 53
THE PINK CORAL-COVERED BUILDING WHERE THE SEA MONSTER was holding his son morphed from fairy-tale charming to dungeonesque the closer they swam and as Logan sur¬veyed the lay of the… land?… around it. Other than the terraced coral garden in front, only aquamarine water surrounded them—and comparing the color of the water in this hellish place to Angel’s eyes would be an abomination. “We need to find somewhere to lie low so we can scout the area, Angel. That… molehill, crab heap— whatever—back there isn’t going to cut it.” “There’s no reason to.” Angel stopped swimming when he did. “And no way, either. All of Ceto’s pal¬aces are set up with open space around them. There are guards in every tower monitoring arrivals. She already knows we’re here.” Son-of-a-bitch. “So your plan is to go straight in. Meet her face to face. In a position of power.” Bluffing. “Unless you’ve got a better idea?” She started swim-ming again. Well, hell. He was a decent poker player—and it wasn’t as if t
Fun of a Lifetime 54
THE CORRIDOR OPENED INTO A CAVERNOUS ROOM, TIERS OF seating descending to a stage carved from stone and marble. Massive columns held up a scallop-edged roof, sea grass or kelp or something draped from it like cur-tains. One side was tied back—with an octopus? The other side flowed away from the stage in the current, and stone statues lined the concave back of the stage— But they weren’t just any statues. No, those looked like… Logan blinked. Easter Island faces? A cloud of jellyfish circled above the statues with synchronized pulsations, their tentacles swaying from side to side as a swarm of different-colored morays dodged in and out in an other-worldly allemande left. A large dais made of glass sat at the center of the stage, and on it… On it was the most amazingly horrific creature Logan had ever seen. The sea monster. Only… she didn’t look like a monster. She didn’t look like anything he would have thought a sea monster looked like. Like a giant squid or some-thing. Not th
Fun of a Lifetime 55
LOGAN DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ANGEL PLANNED, BUT HE’D MAKE sure Michael was well out of harm’s way. “Cool!” reverberated again in the light current. Logan leaned off the bottom step to follow the sound and saw Michael clapping and smiling as col-orful fish darted in front of him. He looked anything but scared and injured. Angel was right. Ceto hadn’t frightened him. Thank God for small favors. He glanced at Ceto. He wouldn’t be thanking her, however. The sea monster met his gaze, and an eerie smile slid across her face. She nodded to the four makos at the edge of the stage. Two flicks of their tails put them on either side of Michael. The witch glanced at him, her message loud and clear. Don’t say a word, or she’d hurt his son. Logan ground his teeth and reached for Angel’s arm. They had to figure out how to get Michael free before they went any closer. “Michael, why don’t you go with my friends back to your room?” asked Ceto. “The oysters are there, ready for us. I’ll be along shor
Fun of a Lifetime 56
“And, Ceto, I wouldn’t get rid of all your guards if I were you.” Ceto smirked. “But you aren’t me, are you, Angel?” “No, thank the gods. I’m Angel Tritone, daughter of the previous High Councilman and sister of the current one. I know exactly who I am. The question is, do you?” Not that Rod would want her using his position to fix her screw-up, especially since she’d disobeyed di¬rect orders, but one sure thing about her brother was his loyalty. As far as Ceto knew, a High Council contingent could arrive at any moment, which would put a kink in whatever she thought she was going to do. Thank the gods, The Council, and everyone else who’d so put the fear of the gods into Ceto, the sea monster called back three of the sharks, leaving Brutus, the biggest, to guard Logan and Michael. Still not ideal, but it did give Logan a fighting chance. And she meant that literally. “I know who you are, too, Angel! You’re my bestest friend and you’re a mermaid!” Michael laughed be¬fore turning
Fun of a Lifetime 57
LOGAN ROUNDED THE CORNER INTO A WINDOWLESS CORRIDOR lined with the broken remnants of a dead coral colony on one wall, and cooled, pitted lava on the other. He was almost out of earshot when he heard Angel’s offer. Hostage. Angel was offering herself as Ceto’s hostage in return for Michael. He didn’t know whether to rush in and save her or hightail it out of there—until Michael’s question gave him the answer. “Why isn’t Angel with us, Logan? She’s coming, right?” Logan’s heart squeezed, both at the hopeful expres-sion on his son’s face and the knowledge that Angel was not coming with them. Hadn’t been planning to, obviously. Logan couldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain. He had to get Michael out of here. “She’ll be along when”—if—“she can, Michael,” he whispered, urging his son toward a light at the far end of the corridor, trying to block out the generosity and unselfishness of Angel’s act and focus on thwarting their shark guard and the bitch who’d put them in this spot to b
Fun of a Lifetime 58
“HOSTAGE?” CETO TAPPED HER FINGERNAILS AGAINST HER lip, her tails now alternating between red and orange. Well, at least Angel had brought the threat level down. A red tail wasn’t much of an improvement, but it beat black. A black sea-monster tail was never good. “You know, that could work.” Ceto started circling her. “Although I did try that with your brother, but he and his Human managed to get away.” Angel had heard the story enough times that she knew it by heart. She also knew she was signing her own death warrant by saying what she was about to, but she had to do this to save the men she loved. “You put Erica in a regular room, Ceto, not a cell. She was able to get out and free Reel.” “Yeah, who knew a Human had that many smarts?” Ceto’s tails flared, then went back to being black. “I’ll never make that mistake again. I had a new bedchamber specially made when The Council and I hammered out the deal about Joey. He hasn’t gone anywhere.” According to Erica, Joey’s ex-girl
Fun of a Lifetime 59
A week later “WHEN IS SHE COMING BACK?” IT WAS THE SAME QUESTION Michael asked him every night. Logan set the beers down on the hall table out-side Michael’s bedroom door. His son shouldn’t see him drinking. He shouldn’t be drinking. But it made thoughts of her so much easier to take. No. Not easier. Less difficult. Bearable. Almost. “I don’t know when, Michael.” That was the same answer Logan gave him every night. “Do you want to talk about it?” Michael slouched further under his covers, the stuffed raccoon falling on his head from atop the pillow. “I dunno.” Which meant yes in kid-speak. Logan pushed the door open and walked over to Michael’s bed, nudging his son’s legs over so he could sit. “I’m sure she’s fine, Michael.” “Do you think Ceto put her in a cage like Joey?” “Joey was in a cage?” Michael had told him about the friend he’d met there, this Joey, but this was the first he’d heard about any cage. It made him shudder to think of what he and Michael had narrowly e
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