24. Castor

"Roll it back again."Eros holds her on his lap in the middle of the pod bed. The tablet lies on her legs, and the rest of us huddle around them. I don't want to be the one to call it, but Michio and Forrest have to be dead. Watching the dome come down over and over, there's no way they could be alive.

It's the tenth, no, twelfth time we've watched the dome come down. I get it. He's gutted. The chances that Michio and the Stele governor are alive are, well, slimmer than surviving a massive wild kraken attack.

"You're sure?" Annabelle's voice is dim.

"Yes. You guys don't have to watch it with me."

"No, it's fine. We'll stay with you." Annabelle puts her hand on Eros's leg.

"Oh, fuck. You think I'm doing some strange, morbid my-brother-is-dead thing?"

No one says a word until Annabelle speaks up. "Uh, Eros?" She turns in his lap. "Yes?"

"No. That's not what's going on here, Sunshine. I fucking wish I had the rest of my equipment."

"Okay, we can get that for you," she answers. "We should probably get dressed." She tries to move off the bed, but he clamps his arm around her waist like a safety restraint.

"Haven't you all been watching it?"

"Yes," Holter says slowly. If Holter doesn't know what's going on—and he's one of the smartest people I know—how the hell should I?

"Play it again, Sunshine. Just the last twenty seconds."

"Okay." Her lips thin in discomfort.

"Now stop. I thought, watching it in real time, I could see more of it. See it?" He points to the tablet.

"No," I add. "I don't know what you're talking about. What are you pointing at?"

"Right here. A shimmer."

"What shimmer?" Nico leans in.

"I see something." Annabelle squints. "I didn't want to suggest the projector because it seemed, well, kind of macabre. But Holter showed me a documentary video on blue whales when I couldn't sleep a while back. Couldn't we?—"

"Sunshine, you're brilliant." Eros plops Annabelle on my lap and rolls to the bedside table, grabbing a remote from the drawer. "Hook us up, Nico."

"Ready?" Nico waits for Eros to move back to the middle of the bed. But instead, he charges to the wall. Nico hands the tablet back to Annabelle.

"Ready." Eros nods.

"Okay." Annabelle starts the video. Their projector system is top-notch. Not only is it clear, but it has a touch of depth to it as well.

We turn off the commentary after the second time through.

"Stop it here." Eros points to a small area above the dome. And he's right. It does shimmer, or rather there is a smudge when stopped and blown up to twenty feet wide. "Start it." We watch for another ten seconds. "Stop, back it up. Okay, stop. There."

Annabelle sits up taller. "There's a second shimmer coming out of the top of the dome before it explodes."

"Exactly." Eros raises his fist in triumph. "And who has access to security council tech?"

"You," I say.

He glares. "Yes, but so do the members of the security council. Forrest Mason."

"Who else?" Nico asks.

"Tristan Bellucci. But he's dead, so he didn't have any on him."

"And other agents of the security council. I don't want you to get your hopes up, but what if those two smudges aren't Forrest and Michio? What if they're agents who were there to make the dome collapse?" Nico says.

"Right, that's why I was having you play it over and over." Eros raises his eyebrows.

"You could have said something." Holter runs his hand through his hair.

"I thought you saw it. My tech would have made it easier to see. But, well, we don't need it. It's clear. Anyway, if you didn't see that, you didn't see what I'm really excited about." Eros stares at the spot on the floor in front of him, at me. "Castor, I'm going to need you to get into the entire system. I need another angle, and the tech I have here isn't good enough. I don't want to be seen pulling things from up there. My access to tech is well, dead. And as much as I would have thought I would be happy about seeing that ass vanquished, it's suddenly inconvenient."

"Sure. Are you going to keep us in suspense much longer?"

"No. Hit play, Sunshine. Watch the top left part of the screen. It's dark there. Play it once regular speed, then go back and do it slowly."

The shimmer is there. Where no one would ever look, just barely in view of the camera. It comes once, then twice. At regular speed, and then when it's slowed down, the flashes form a pattern.

"Holy Mackerel!" Annabelle stands on the bed and wobbles over to the spot. She starts the pattern clip again. "It is!"

"Yes. It's something Michio read about in a human kids' story. Using torches to send signals to a friend who lived next door. He made me learn it so we could use it to talk at night after mother turned out the lights."

"Morse code? Is that right?"

"That's exactly what it is. And the fact that none of you saw it proves that it's Forrest, the security member with the tech, and my brother, the one who knows morse code. It's a message for me."

"All right, what is it, then?" I'm standing now, and I'm in a line with Holter and Nico. We're like three naked school podlets.

"Play it." Eros is bouncing on his heels. "It's not long. Four letters. Do you know what it says, Sunshine?"

"No, only that the first letter is S, and the last is O. I know S O S, and that's it. I loved reading my mother's old scouting book."

"Exactly, four letters. In English because Michio is fascinated with everything human, always has been. S, blank, blank, O." Eros wiggles his eyebrows at him.

"I don't think there is any word like that. There's a Saco, Maine, but that's a bit out of the way. Soho, New York, but that's got another O. Oh... oh."

"I think she's got it." Eros is wearing his shit-eating grin.

Annabelle drops the tablet onto the bed and jumps into his arms. "Silo?" she asks.

"Yes."

"Where your mother taught you how to pilot a solo!" Annabelle squeezes Eros tightly around the neck. "Michio is alive. It has to be your brother."

"Exactly." Eros kisses her neck and lowers her onto the bed.

I turn to Holter and Nico, who have the same look on their faces. His mother taught him how to pilot?

"What are you doing?" She pushes on his chest. "We need to get going to the silos."

"First of all, there is no ‘we,' Sunshine. You aren't coming. You're staying here nice and safe. We don't know who sabotaged the dome. I know it's not Michio, but meeting him isn't going to look good for any of us. Especially you, golden prince."

"I'm going," Nico says.

"Me too," adds Holter.

I glance between Annabelle and Eros. "I sure as hell want to come. But I'm also willing to take one for the team and stay here with Annabelle." I smile at her.

"Hey." She crawls across the bed and playfully smacks at my leg. "We should all go."

"No." I tug her into my lap. "We should stay here."

Nico growls. "No one is going anywhere yet. We're going to wait until the lockdown is over."

"Look at you being all law-abiding." Eros laughs.

"I'm always law-abiding, when it's the right thing to do." Nico pulls Annabelle to him.

"We can't just leave Michio out there by himself." Annabelle squeezes Nico's leg.

"I don't think he's by himself, Sunshine. Michio isn't on the security council. I never told him about the new personal cloaking devices. Forrest Mason would have access. My guess is they're together, but that's just a guess. That section out where the ball was, the empty dome pad? That's near the greenhouse dome, and behind it is a silo dome for the animals. There's also a whole lot of garden domes that aren't being used. That's where Michio and I used to hang out when we wanted to get away from people. If he's there—and I know he is—he's fine. Or at least safe for now."

"You don't think anyone will figure out what the message means?" Annabelle hugs a pillow to her chest.

"Castor didn't. Holter said no too. Nico, did you have any idea?"

"None, and if anyone did figure it out, there are hundreds of silos in the city. And my first thought would be military silos, not ones that feed our land animals." Nico slides Annabelle to him, tossing the pillow away. "Besides, I don't think you're out of your mermaid hormones—are you?"

"No, but I can be if we could go and rescue Michio."

"I don't risk members of my team unless I know victory is assured. I'm not letting any of you go, not when they will consider anyone breaking curfew suspicious." Nico gives Annabelle a kiss on the top of her head. "And you are way more valuable than a squadron soldier."

"Didn't you and Holter go behind the Viking lines to rescue mermen?"

"Yes, so?"

"Wasn't it only the two of you against the whole Viking army?"

"Like I said, Little Krill, I don't take risks. I knew we could do it."

I glance over at Holter. I've heard his side of the story, and it's not the same as Nico's. Holter sees the world for what it is, while Nico... sees Nico.

"I agree with Nico and Eros," says Holter. "If Michio is safe, let him stay where he is. If we go out and are seen breaking curfew, and we're anywhere near him, it's not going to end well on either side."

Annabelle turns to Eros. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely, Sunshine."

"Okay."

I don't wait for anyone to move. I grab Annabelle and pull her to me. I want to taste her.

"No." She lets out a playful laugh. "Put me down. I want to do something."

I raise my hands in the air. Her eyes dance over my skin. We've gone from one extreme to the other, and I'm not sure how she's going to take it. But a mermaid who's interrupted when she's in her need is never a good thing. Annabelle might think she can handle stopping halfway through a hormone high, but it's not easy.

I know what Eros said. If I think about this as the last time with her, I'll end up manifesting it. I've never given up before. Why the fuck am I doing it now? My eyes flick from her peach-colored skin to Nico's glowering face and back. She climbs on top of me, pushing my head back to the headboard. I'm not going to take no for an answer. She's too important.

"Annabelle," I whisper.

When's she's like this, her blue eyes darken. She's looking at me and I'm captured by her, bound to her. She wraps a hand around each one of my wrists. The mark on her hand catches my eye, flashing at me as she does. Damn, it makes me want her even more. No. I want her in spite of it. Her fertility means nothing. She means everything. I've been a fool for waiting, a fool for not claiming her. I should claim her. I should take her, make her mine. Forget about Nico's veto.

She kisses down my chest, releasing my wrists, taking my cock in her hands. She smiles before she takes me into her mouth, swallowing down until I hit the back of her throat. My head kicks back, and my eyes involuntarily close. I have to force them open because I can't not watch her. This isn't the last time we're together. No, this is the first time we're together. I claim her as mine in my heart. No male, not Nico, a human, or a Dorian, will stop me from being with her forever.

She works me with her mouth. I'm so close to oblivion. When she stops, there's a wicked smile on her face. Straddling me, she sinks on me to the base of my hilt.

"Fuck, Annabelle. You are perfect."

"If anyone is perfect, it's you." A single finger traces the indents on my abs. "All of you." Her eyes close, and her rhythm picks up. The bed on the side of me dips—I barely notice. They're not here.

Watching her, the way her hair moves in the slow rhythm she's set, how her skin glistens, her shoulders raised... The tension between us pulls at me.

"I want this to never end." Her palms cup at my chest, her fingertips digging into my flesh, and I fucking love it.

"Veto or not, you're mine."

Her eyes flash, and she comes hard around my cock. The flutter of her pussy has me off, and I want to sink my teeth into her, claim her—make it real. But I've seen what happens when not all the pod mates approve of the mate. It's not good. I won't do that to her.

But this isn't the last time. I will have a lifetime.