Page 24 of Beneath the Surface

And by all that was holy, where was Nisha?Forget this!He’d get Brett to the surface on his own. He grabbed the net and agonizing pain tore through his hands. It felt like his skin had been scraped raw, and then acid poured all over the wounds.

He let go of the net and looked down at his hands. He couldn’t see anything, but they burned. If the net felt like that and he barely touched it, what was it doing to Brett? He took a closer look at Brett. He could see blisters on him.Jesus, they’re everywhere the thing touched him.

Now he understood why Brooke was desperately trying to get him out of the net, but Brett drowning might be a bigger problem than the blisters. Except… he took a closer look at Brett. What was that on his neck?

Kannon narrowed his eyes in an effort to sharpen his gaze. Whatwasthat? It almost, almost looked like Brett had… gills. But that couldn’t be, could it? That was impossible.And his soon-to-be wife is half fish, so hey, why not gills?

He turned to Brooke, wishing desperately he could communicate with her, but then Brooke opened her mouth… and the sound that came out was completely inhuman. He slammed his hands over his ears and glared at her. Suddenly Kannon found himself jerked around.

He came face-to-face with another merman, but this one had long, dull red hair. Its face was eerily human—except for the sharp teeth bared at him and seafoam green eyes narrowed in malice.Holy moly, seriously? How many of them are down here?

Brooke barreled into the other merman, but with a sweep of his arm he sent her tumbling away, head over tail. Then the redheaded merman reached out and grabbed hold of Kannon’s forearms. He jerked him closer,, but they were practically and his nails sank into Kannon’s skin.Ow!

Trails of blood from his arms danced in the water. He struggled to get free, but they were practically hugging. And he was running out of air. The creature grinned at him with a malevolent smirk as it pulled Kannon farther down—down into the murky depths of the ocean.Fucker is trying to drown me!

His temper ignited as his lungs burned. Panic rode him hard. The need to breathe was overwhelming, but he wasn’t going to die without a fight. From somewhere behind him, Kannon heard a trill of notes sung through the water.

The creature fighting with Kannon froze then snarled. Kannon turned to look. Through the water something was coming fast, heading toward them at an amazing speed. Stunned, Kannon watched as two more of the mermen came out of nowhere.

One of the new mermen crashed into them. The redheaded merman let go and turned toward the new one. Kannon immediately started swimming toward the surface. He glanced down briefly as he swam and saw the two mermen fighting viciously.

It was then he noticed the other merman had blue hair. As Kannon watched, his savior made a fist, and three long spines erupted from his knuckles, but Kannon didn’t wait to see what the other merman planned to do with them. He faced the surface. The sound of a sharp scream echoed through the water behind Kannon as he struggled upward.

He flinched when he felt hands grasp his waist. He turned his head and saw the other merman who came to his rescue next to him. The one pushing him toward the surface also had blue hair. Anger flooded his system. Not only did the merman who propelled him toward the surface have long blue hair, he had blue eyes too.

It was Nisha.

But this wasn’t the Nisha who spent the day at his bungalow and fed s’mores to him.It’s him. The one who bit me. Dear God, Nisha is the merman from fifteen years ago.But at the moment, Kannon had more pressing issues. He turned his attention to the surface.

Fading light filtered through the turbulent water.So close… but I’m not going to make it.Just as Kannon gave up the fight to breathe, Nisha shoved him upward hard. His head broke the surface, and he gulped precious air, his lungs starving for oxygen. He coughed horribly, still struggling, as Nisha surfaced next to him.

They stared at each other then Nisha disappeared below the surface.Seriously?A moment later Brooke surfaced, holding Brett close to her. Somehow she’d removed the net from Brett, who was cussing a blue streak.

Obviously his best friend was going to be okay, and he was glad, even as it horrified him that apparently Brett wasn’t freaked out about Brooke being a mermaid. But then, why should he be? His best friend was sporting gills on each side of his neck.

A million questions crowded his mind, but those would have to wait. He had one thing and one thing only on his mind.Time to get the hell out of Dodge.Adrenaline spiked as he took off toward the shore. Land meant safety. His head spun at what he’d seen, but he kept going.

Just as he was closing in on the shore, something latched onto his ankle.Not again!

CHAPTER EIGHT

NISHAWATCHEDastheredheaded merman swam away. The wound his friend inflicted wasn’t much—just bad enough to make a point that this was Nisha’s territory. The only males he allowed here were friends.

The temptation to go after him was great, but now wasn’t the time. Besides, he had more pressing matters, namely the human swimming hell-for-leather toward the shore. With a flip of his tail, he took off after Kannon. Kannon was still a good, strong swimmer.

His mate was still over his head when Nisha grabbed his ankle. The suddenness of the action pulled Kannon under. Kannon twisted around. Nisha threw up his hands, hoping to show he meant no harm.

Pulling him under had been an accident. He hadn’t meant to do that. Sometimes he forgot the humans weren’t as strong as his kind in the water. Kannon surfaced, and Nisha followed him up. As they bobbed in the water, the other merman and Brooke slowly swam toward them. Brett had his arms around both their shoulders.

The glare Kannon flashed at Nisha should’ve left him writhing on the ocean floor. Finally Nisha sighed, tired of the stare-off. “Kannon, I need you to remain calm. I’m not going to hurt you. Surely you know—”

“Holy shizzballs, you canspeaklike… like… like that?” Kannon blurted.

Bewildered, Nisha could only gape at Kannon. “Of course I can speak. Why wouldn’t I be able to speak? You speak.”

“Ah… ah…ah…” Kannon’s eyes widened as he treaded water.

“Should I assume just because you’re human you can’t swim?” Nisha hiked a perfectly shaped blue eyebrow at Kannon, who just happened to be treading water.

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