Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

LEVI

Kris stumbled into the living room the next morning looking like he’d been thoroughly put through his paces. Round two had led to round three, and we’d fallen asleep before we could talk any more about Delmar or the wraiths or whatever the hell was happening with the ley line magic.

But those thoughts were never far from the front of my mind, even when I was buried tentacles deep in my mate.

My mate .

Since the moment Kris Kringle walked into my shop to invite me to the KELPS party, I’d been trying to keep myself from thinking the words, but after last night, there was no way to stop it.

Kris was mine. Which meant the safety of his town—which was our town now—just got moved to the top of my priorities list. Nothing would touch my mate while I had breath in my lungs and strength in my body, and gods help anyone who tried.

His boxers were on backwards, and his hair and beard stuck out in every direction. Dark sucker-shaped and finger-shaped bruises dotted his torso and peeked above the waistband of his underwear, and my hearts flip-flopped in my chest. He looked beautiful with my marks all over his skin. I wondered if he’d seen them yet. I wondered if the moment he caught sight of them in the mirror would be the moment everything hit him and he’d go running like his ass was on fire.

But he wasn’t running. He was studying my law degree where I’d hung it on the wall. I still wasn’t sure why I’d bothered.

“Your middle name is Ethan? And you’re a lawyer?” He looked over his shoulder at me. “How did you end up here running a record shop?”

I shrugged. “Yes, my full name is Levi Ethan Shoal. My parents thought they were being funny.”

When Kris looked confused, I spelled it out for him. “Levi Ethan. Levi-ethan. Leviathan.”

His eyes went comically round, and then he laughed. “Okay, that’s pretty clever since that’s pretty much exactly what you are. Well, kind of.”

“Yeah, yeah. As for how I ended up here and why I’m not practicing law, I just needed a change of pace. I wanted to go into music when I was younger, though I have zero talent for it, but I do know how to run a business. I’d been running my own barrister’s firm for years. I wanted to come to the States, and Lifeboat is the only North Atlantic haven town here, so it made sense.”

“With Delmar and all the shit going on here, do you regret it?” He shuffled toward me, his expression unsure.

“Not at all. Not for one second. If I wouldn’t have come here, I wouldn’t have met you.”

My mate picked up the pace, closing the distance between us in three long strides, and threw his arms around my neck, kissing me until I was backed up against the kitchen counter.

“Morning.” His breath smelled like peppermint, which meant he’d stolen some of my toothpaste, and presumably, he’d had to have caught his reflection, which meant he knew he was covered in my marks and he didn’t care.

“Morning. How are you feeling?”

His smile turned a little dreamy. “Really, really good.”

My tentacles were out, and one reached behind me to grab my coffee cup from the counter, passing it into my hand, and I took a sip to cover my smile. “Sore?”

“Mmhm. But in the best way.” That’s when he noticed my mug. “Is there any of that for me?”

“Of course. How do you like it?”

“Splash of milk or cream. Two good spoonfuls of sugar.”

One of my tentacles grabbed a cup while another unscrewed the lid on the milk, and a third scooped sugar into the cup.

When I handed Kris his doctored cup, he smirked. “Showoff.”

My shoulders and all my tentacles shrugged. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving. Last thing we ate was pizza at the community center.”

“And a ton of shortbread cookies.”

“Those would go so well with this coffee.”

I shook my head. “You need real food. Protein.”

One of Kris’s eyebrows winged toward his hairline. “Protein, you say? I never did get to taste you last night.” He licked his lips, and I watched the path his tongue took with interest, my dick and tentacles immediately on board.

So of course, before I could further debauch Kris on my kitchen table, my phone rang.

I’d unearthed it from the pile of clothes we’d left strewn from my front door to the bedroom, and it was behind me on the counter. A tentacle lifted it to my ear before I could glance at the screen.

“Hello?”

“Levi. This is Kori. There was another wraith attack last night. Blew the windows out on the restaurant.”

“Fuck. Why didn’t you call me last night?”

“We didn’t know until we got here to start prep this morning. The alarms didn’t go off.”

“And you’re sur?—”

“My mom recognized the smell. We’re sure.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Kris was watching me intently, and the second I hung up the phone, he was on his feet. “Another attack?”

I nodded. “At Kori’s.”

“Shit. Let me call my brothers.” He waved his hand at my body. “Might want to put those away if we’re calling in the cavalry.” He kissed me again, his hands stroking lovingly over my tentacles, and turned to hunt down his cell phone.

“Are those the same clothes you were wearing yesterday?” Kevin asked when he and Keith pulled up outside Mizu Mizu. “Don’t those look like the same clothes, Keith?”

Kris’s other brother nodded. “Yep. Look like the same clothes to me.”

“So where’d you sleep last night, big brother?” Kevin climbed out of his truck, Keith hot on his heels, and they both gave Kris a hug before extending their hands to me.

“Ya know”—Keith pretended to study Kris, then elbowed Kevin—“I don’t think I’ve seen Kris all glowy like this”—he drew a circle in the air with a gloved finger that encompassed Kris’s face—“like ever. Nice job, Levi.”

“Fuck you both very much.” Kris’s irritated grumble still held the hint of a smile.

The two younger men guffawed as they moved around the truck and started sliding sheets of plywood out of the bed.

“I’m beginning to think we need to set up a new business boarding up windows.” Kevin hoisted the sheet of plywood into his arms and carried it over to rest it against the side of the building.

Keith nodded, balancing his own sheet of plywood. “I can’t believe they haven’t been able to figure out who is doing this crap.”

Kori pushed through the restaurant door in time to hear what Keith said, and he, Kris, and I shared a look behind the other men’s backs. Until we figured out what exactly was causing the ley line magic in Lifeboat to behave so erratically, there was no chance of stopping the wraith attacks.

“My grandmother would like to see you.” Kori pointed toward the door as he spoke in the worldwide language of the ocean. Each region had a different dialect, but the language was mostly the same no matter where you were in the world. It made communicating with sea monsters that didn’t speak English much easier. It also made keeping humans, like Kris’s brothers, who weren’t aware of our existence, in the dark. We could communicate openly without them understanding. “She has an idea for how to slow down the wraith attacks, but she says she doesn’t think you are going to like it.”

“What choice do we have?”

My friend shook his head. “None.”

Kris watched our exchange, and when Kori went back into the restaurant to finish sweeping up the glass and melted snow inside, Kris stepped closer and whispered, “That’s not Japanese, is it?”

I shook my head. “No, but I’ll explain later. I have to meet with Kori’s grandmother. I’m sorry to leave you to do this.”

“Nah, the boys and I can totally handle it. You go.” He kissed me quickly and caught my hand as I started to walk away, giving it a quick hard squeeze for luck.

In that moment, when I looked over my shoulder at where he and his brothers were working to board up the broken windows, I fell just a little more in love.

My mate was a good man, and his family was pretty amazing too. Kevin and Keith had come quickly without asking any questions that weren’t about the damage and what supplies they’d need to do the job. Kris might not feel like he shared their love for Christmas, but there was definitely a lot of love there. Even his brothers’ good-natured ribbing spoke to the love they had for Kris and the fact that they wanted their brother happy.

I just hoped I could keep the threats at bay long enough to make that a reality.

Kori’s grandmother sat at a table just inside the restaurant rolling silverware and chopsticks into paper napkins. I greeted her in the language of the sea and bowed, waiting until she patted the chair next to her to sit down.

“Kori said you wanted to see me?”

She nodded. “You know you are the only one who can make this right, yes?”

“I know. I just don’t know what I’m doing.”

She set down the silverware roll in her hand and took one of mine where I’d rested them on the table. “What I will tell you is old magic. You might not know it. In the other towns there is no need to remember because the magic is in balance. Here, you must use it.”

“I understand. I will do whatever I can to keep the people in Lifeboat safe.”

Her hand moved to cup my cheek. “You will. You are a good leader and a good man.” She patted my cheek fondly, then picked up another set of silverware, talking while she worked, her hands never idle. “You are in touch with the magic within you, yes?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. You will need to combine that essence of yourself with water from the sea and earth from the town to create a talisman. If the people here wear the talisman or keep it by their door, the wraiths will not be able to cause them harm.”

“Forgive me, obaasan, but that sounds like a temporary solution. I will do it, of course, but how do we fix the problem for good?” Kappas were very particular about titles, so I made sure to use the Japanese word for grandmother to address her. It would have been rude to use her name.

She frowned. “This is a much harder question to answer. The solution is simple, but years of secrets will make it difficult.”

My stomach flipped over.

“What is different here than where you are from?”

I thought for a moment, trying to see beyond the obvious, and she squeezed my hand again. “You are thinking too hard. It is not difficult to see.”

“In Baleen, we live openly. The humans know about us. We coexist and are friends, lovers, and mates.”

“Yes. The magic needs this balance. The humans here need to know us. To believe we are real. To be our friends openly. To be our lovers. To be mates.” She tipped her head toward the door. “Like the Kringle boy is yours. We must change, and you are where we must begin. The magic is only as strong and steady as the bonds between us in town.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” I shook my head. “Delmar has made sure there are no humans left in town that know who we are.”

“You must tell them.”

“They’ll laugh me out of town, or worse, they will harm one of us.”

“Did Kristopher laugh? Did he attack you?”

“No, but I think he’s the exception to the rule.”

“Do not be so sure. Make the talismans first. Bring them to everyone in the town. When the movement for revealing ourselves is right, you will know. Trust your hearts.”

She turned back to the silverware, and I knew I’d been dismissed.

While revealing the whole sea monster community felt daunting, making talismans for the town was something actionable I could do.

Possibly.

Hopefully.

And Kris was going to help me.

There was just one part I needed to figure out, and maybe I’d oversimplified the process when I’d sort of explained it to Kris last night when he’d asked me if I was capable of getting him pregnant like some sort of alien.

I could feel the magic at the core of myself, but I had no idea how to access it or get it out of my body.

Which meant I was going to need to talk to someone who had experience with this kind of thing.

I was going to need to call my parents. I needed to figure out why they hadn’t told me the Shoals were supposed to be in Lifeboat anyway.

They had given me a lot of shit about my move, and while they loved me, and I knew they just wanted what was best for me, I hadn’t spoken to them since I’d departed Baleen. I’d spoken to my brother, Lake, and he’d given me updates on how they were doing, but I hadn’t actually made the call myself.

It was time. With Marvin’s revelations still fresh, it was past time.

After the windows at Kori’s restaurant were securely boarded up, Kris left with his brothers to work the Sunday shift at the tree farm, and I’d puttered around my apartment, loving that my sheets smelled like Kris and trying to psych myself up for the call I needed to make.

“Come on, Levi. They’re your parents. You can do this.” The silence of my apartment didn’t answer back, so I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone, my finger hovering over my father’s phone number until I closed my eyes and tapped the screen to connect the call.

My father answered on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Dad. It’s Levi.”

“It’s about time you called. Your mother and I were trying to give you your space. I know you think we’re too old to understand, but we remember what it was like to be young and want to spread your wings.”

That was kind of a surprise. I thought they were still mad I left.

“We of course wish you would have stayed.”

And there it was.

“But we do understand.”

And now I was off-kilter again. Not a great way to start what was bound to be an embarrassing conversation.

“Uh, thanks. I appreciate that.”

“Of course.” There was a long pause before my dad asked, “So, how are you? How are things in Lifeboat? Are you finding what you were looking for?”

Leave it to my father to come at me with all the hard questions right out of the gate, but this was exactly the opening I needed to clear the air on a few things.

“Dad, did you know that when Grandfather left, the ley line magic didn’t replace him with another kraken?”

There was silence, and I pulled my phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. “Dad?”

He huffed out a huge sigh. “We knew. All the haven town leaders knew. We can feel that the magic there is volatile. That something is wrong.”

“Is that why you didn’t want me to come here?”

Another sigh, this one weighty with all the things he’d kept from me. “Yes. And I knew what you, a Shoal, going back there would mean. I wanted you to be able to make your own choice about whether you wanted to lead one of the haven towns. I wanted you to have the choice I never had. We were lucky enough to have two children. You know how rare that is for our species. And I was even luckier to find out that Lake wants to lead and protect Baleen when I choose to retire in a couple hundred years, but I also knew that wasn’t the life you wanted.”

“So you let me walk into this epic clusterfuck blind?” I had kind of been hoping that he had no idea, but I could see now that that was naive.

“Is it that bad?”

It was my turn to sigh as my father dodged my question. “It’s worse. Calder Delmar and his family before him have divided the town. The humans have no clue they live among sea monsters, and the magic is suffering for it. The population is barely over five hundred, and a lot of the sea monsters in the town are older. Many of the young people and families have left from what I’ve heard. Delmar is killing Lifeboat, but his plan is working in reverse. Instead of driving the humans out, he’s making our people leave by refusing to let them live openly.”

My father sounded like he’d aged a century when he spoke again. “I had no idea it was that bad. We’ve heard stories, of course, but I thought they’d been exaggerated.”

“That’s not even the worst of it. There have been two sea wraith attacks since I arrived. So far it’s just broken windows and property damage, but it’s only a matter of time before the attacks escalate.”

“Levi, maybe it’s time for you to come home.”

Hearing him give me the out was the thing I needed to steel my resolve. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to be the protector of a haven town, but maybe it was also time I started living up to my name, to take my place as a kraken leviathan and protector of Lifeboat, Maine.

“No. I owe it to the people of Lifeboat to stay. They deserve protection, and it is my job, as a kraken, and a Shoal, to right what our family technically put wrong.”

When my father spoke again, there was pride in his voice. “I knew you would find your way.”

Suddenly, everything was clear. He hadn’t told me about Lifeboat’s leadership problem because I wouldn’t have gone. He’d made me think he and my mother wanted me to stay in Baleen, so I would make the decision from my heart. He’d let me make the choice to go, as uninformed as I was, but now he was giving me the choice to stay, to fight for my people and everyone in the town I had fallen in love with. “There was never a choice, was there?”

“No, Levi. There really wasn’t. When you are born to do something, it finds you whether you want it or not.”

“Then I need your help. There is an old kappa here who told me how I can keep everyone safe until I figure out how to fix the ley line magic, but it requires some of my personal kraken magic. It’s a talisman meant for protection.”

“Yes. I know what she’s talking about. You need earth from within the haven town and seawater, plus your own magical essence. What is your question?”

“I can feel the magic inside me. I know it’s there, but I don’t know how to release it.”

My father laughed. “I guess you are still very young. You probably won’t really think about children until you’re at least sixty or so unless you find a mate before then. You haven’t found a mate there, have you?”

He totally caught me off guard, and I inhaled too fast, choking on my own saliva while my father laughed in my ear.

When I finally got myself under control, my father asked, “Levi, have you found your mate?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yes, but I’m not sure you are going to approve.”

“What? Why not?”

“He’s human.”

Another long silence echoed on my father’s end of the call, and once again, I looked at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Finally, he spoke. “I think that might be exactly what Lifeboat needs to bring the magic into balance. You will need to lead by example. If you introduce your human?—”

“His name is Kris.” It was important for my father to hear that not only was my mate human, but he was also a male. Krakens weren’t super picky about things like gender when it came to mating, but in my family, I would be the first to mate with another man. If Kris was even open to that. I was going to need to talk to him about it soon. It was weird that we’d talked about babies but not mating.

“Well, I think you and Kris need to show a united front when it comes to forging sea monster and human relations. If they see you are mated, it will be easier to accept that sea monsters and humans can be friends and more.” My father hadn’t missed a beat. Maybe I didn’t give him enough credit.

“Okay.”

“As for your other question, releasing your magic in a tangible form is the same as what we do when it is time to spawn. You must be in the water, in your full form, and fully submerged. Then you focus on the core of your being, where your magic lives, and you push it outward. It will travel through your tentacles and will release into the water around you. From there, you will need to collect it. Glass vessels work best for preserving the magic. You will want to do your best to make the talismans in glass vessels as well.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, it’s not a complicated process, but it does take time to get used to. You might not be able to make the magic release right away. If that is the case, keep trying. The more time you spend practicing, the easier it will become. Your mother and I had to practice for months before we were able to merge our cells and create you. It gets easier to access the magic the older we get.”

I made an eww face he couldn’t see. I knew it wasn’t technically a sex thing, but thinking about my parents combining their magic still gave me the ick. “Okay, I don’t need to hear any more about that.”

My father laughed. “You say that now, but when you and your Kris are ready to make kraken babies, you’ll be singing a different tune.”

That brought me up short. “Kris and I can make kraken babies? You heard me say he was human, right?”

“I did hear you say that, and yes, you can. Humans have their own magic too. They just have a hard time getting in touch with it since they don’t use it every day to stay in a shifted or partially shifted form that makes it possible to live on land like we do. But with time, your mate will be able to harness his internal energy. Especially since he will be mated to a leviathan.”

“And when we mate, his life force will be tied to mine, right, so I won’t lose him?” Until I asked the question, I didn’t know that had been bothering me.

“Levi, you know the answer to that question. Look at the human and sea monster couples you know here. Yes, your Kris’s lifespan will be tied to yours. You will not have to live without each other. When the ley line magic is back in balance, every human in Lifeboat should have a longer lifespan.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief, and the knot in my chest loosened. “Good. Yes, that’s good.”

“For the record, I’m really damn proud of you, son. Lifeboat is lucky to have you.”

The knot that had been in my chest turned into a lump in my throat. “Thanks. Love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, Levi.”

We chatted for a few more minutes, and my dad put my mom on the line to say hello, and I realized how much I missed them and my brother. I would need to make a visit soon. Maybe Kris could come with me.

In the meantime, though, I had a town to save.