Page 77 of Guarded By the Vodnik

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he murmured, not even looking at me. “You feel so good. Fuck, what’s this?”

He frowned, reaching for a small bottle of gun oil, and a shiver went down my spine. He looked so hot and dangerous when his long, emerald fingers deftly handled a gun. I could see myself blowing him while he did this in the future. Or while he trained. I wondered if he’d be game to have his cock sucked while he did bicep curls, or another upper body exercise…

A loud noise from the computer jolted us both. The volume was turned way up, and Vodyan immediately glanced at the screen.

“Your favorite sex toy shop has a sale,” he said without inflection, going back to his gun.

Well, there was that. Way too many newsletter subscriptions. They wracked my nerves.

Finally, Vodyan couldn’t focus on the gun anymore, his eyes sliding to my face time and again. It didn’t take long after that. He came in my mouth and then brought me up for a long, devouring kiss.

And then, we waited some more, getting two more jump scares from innocuous mail. Until, finally, Carver’s message came through at 8 pm.

“Showtime.”

Chapter 25

Vodyan

It was fateful that Carver wanted to meet by that shipwreck graveyard that was between Yeseera and Copper Harbor. After all, that was where I mutilated the lamia who then had a grudge that likely pushed him into Carver’s arms. I learned about my Zoe assignment right after that.

Carver probably closely worked with lamias, which might have influenced his decision to pick this place. Their choice of the rendezvous spot put them at an advantage, because the graveyard offered enough cover to conceal some of Carver’s forces.

He counted on crushing us with brute force, I assumed. He’d wait for us with overwhelming numbers, making it impossible for me to fight and protect Zoe. We’d both die fast, swarmed by lamias and human fighters.

Thankfully, Malgeri was nearby. He had two shehru ready to deploy in a boat right above us, which was excellent. They were very good swimmers and powerful allies under water even though, unlike lamias, they needed air tanks. Then, I didn’t know how, he got an abomination bodyguard from a different branch who just so happened to be in Wisconsin.

And Malgeri himself was coming, too, though he’d stay in the boat to offer us support if the fight came to the surface.

Our plan was simple. Those always worked the best.

“What if he just shoots me?” Zoe asked, clinging to me with all her might. I had to give it to her, though. She didn’t shake.

Her voice was steady, her body tense, her mind made up. She was committed, and she didn’t even know that I’d arranged it with Malgeri that she’d be whisked away by one of the shehru while I and the guys cleaned up Carver and his crew.

Malgeri, just like me, wasn’t interested in arresting anyone. It would be a bloodbath. Even a horde of lamias, who fought instinctively but lacked training, wasn’t a match against a few Monster Security Agency professionals.

“He won’t,” I answered calmly. “You heard him. He wants to gloat. Besides, the only weapon that’s effective underwater is a jet gun, which won’t kill you, or something like a harpoon, which is fucking slow.”

“Yeah. Okay,” she said, nodding fiercely.

We were five minutes away from the shipwreck. I watched the area with focus, though Malgeri had contacted me earlier, confirming no one lay in ambush. All living organisms detected by his scan from the surface were gathered around the graveyard.

We were about to walk into a trap and my insides were cold with the terror that I’d fail and lose Zoe forever. But that was just fear, and it wouldn’t obscure my goal.

Because here was my chance to kill all birds with one stone. Carver and his most trusted people were involved, together with all the lamias that had an ax to grind. If I played it right, I’d eliminate all threats to Zoe with this one mission and save the boy on top of it.

She’d have no choice but to marry me after this.

Zoe’s involvement was the only thing I hated about the plan, but it couldn’t be avoided. I took all the precautions to keep her safe, too. I even asked her to put on the air tank at the last moment, in case something went wrong.

But when I finally saw the dome-like cage over the shipwreck, with two figures right on top of it, alarm bells rang in my head.

A set of lights floated above the dome, lighting the area as if it was a fucking stage. They focused on the very top, plunging the rest of the structure into darkness. That meant visibility was even worse than normally at night.

“I don’t see anyone,” I murmured with my mouth that was covered with a similar mask to Zoe’s. I didn’t want the light from my voice sack to give us away if we needed to hide. “Just two people on top of the shipwreck. I assume it’s Carver and the boy.”

“Got it,” Malgeri said over comm. “We’re ready to dive.”

---