7. Grace

Chapter 7

Grace

M ama joined the cruise on day six as we sailed into Hilo, Hawaii. My guards and I, along with Sebastian, met her at the docks.

She dumped her stuff on the ground and gave me a tight squeeze. "Gracie girl. I was worried about you."

My eyes got a little misty. My mom's hugs were the best in the world. I pulled away from her, eying her warily.

"You're looking suspiciously tan." I said. "I've only been gone a few days!"

"I put on that fake tanning stuff," she sassed.

I laughed and helped her grab her things, then we met the little tender boat. In less than five minutes, we were back on board the Kamaria.

My mom about fainted when I showed her where she would stay for the next month. Sebastian had kept quiet, but I knew Mama wouldn't let him do that for much longer.

She put her hands on her hips and turned to inspect him from stem to stern. "You're sure handsome."

"Thank you, Mama Liora."

She grinned at him. "What excursion do you have planned for us today?"

I sighed, trying not to roll my eyes to the heavens and plead for mercy. "Mama, he's the owner of the ship. That's not his job."

Mama smiled slyly. "He's got something planned, I can tell."

Micaela, who was eating a cookie on the sofa, said through her munching, "I really like your mama, Grace."

I couldn't help but laugh. And then I noticed Mama had brought the pink baseball bat that she'd threatened Sebastian with. Probably the only way she'd been able to bring it was because she'd flown on a private plane to get here. I for sure didn't think they allowed baseball bats to go through TSA.

"I do have something planned," Sebastian said, ruffling Kazi's fur. "But it's tonight." He glanced at me. "Feel free to spend all day on the island if you want, but the excursion starts at eight. We need to be there to check in by seven-thirty, so we'll leave here by six forty-five."

Mama knelt before her cat carrier and pulled out Sir Winsor out. Sir Winsor took one look at Kazi and hissed. His back arched and his fur stood on end. Kazi pranced over and licked him. His tongue covered the entirety of Sir Winsor's head, and Sir Winsor yowled at him, less terrified now, and just mad that he was suddenly sopping wet.

Mama obviously felt no compunction about letting her cat get slobbered on. "Now, Sir Winsor, Sebastian said Kazi is a gentlemen. You two need to get along. Behave!"

Apparently, Sir Winsor did not like this piece of advice. He scrambled under the bed, hissing as Kazi tried to stick his long tongue underneath and bathe Sir Winsor some more.

Micaela cracked up. "Food and entertainment! Excellent!"

Mama needed to rest after her flight, so we stayed on the boat so she could nap. After dinner, we got our suits and cover-ups on and headed to deck one to meet Sebastian at the tender entrance.

The ocean wind was whipping my hair around, so I grabbed an elastic and pulled it into a low ponytail to keep it out of my face. Micaela did the same, but Mama's hair was short, so she didn't have to do anything but smile in delight at the ocean.

Sebastian stood next to me at the railing. "Are you going to tell me what the excursion is yet?" I arched an eyebrow. "Thank you, by the way. For everything. For getting Mama, for setting up something fun for us today. I really appreciate it."

"It was my pleasure. I think I'm going to keep the excursion a secret, if you don't mind."

I bit my lip. I was not good with surprises, but he'd booked something for us specifically, so I tried my best to be patient. Once we got to land, we drove a good thirty minutes, then met another boat. We were the last ones to arrive, and the boat carried at least thirty other people on it.

Mama and I were holding on to each other's arms, vibrating with excitement. I couldn't imagine what excursion we might be doing in the water at night. I was a little nervous that it would end up being me in a cage with sharks swarming around. I didn't think I'd like that. Or maybe we were heading to a cavern that could only be accessed by the sea, and it was better viewed at night? A phosphorescent cavern? That sounded fun.

But we stopped in the middle of nowhere, with no caves in sight. Now I was really confused.

The crew carefully lowered what looked like illuminated flotation devices into the water. While a few of the crew members anchored the devices in place, the rest handed out snorkel gear to everyone.

There were no good places to steady myself while I put on my flippers, but Sebastian let me perch on his knee for a minute. My cheeks, I'm sure, were flaming red after I secured the flippers in place and waddled to the ladder. Sebastian chuckled darkly behind me, and I shivered. The weather was a balmy eighty-five degrees out, yet one handsome vampire had the power to make me shiver just from his laughter.

It occurred to me then that I was, perhaps, in over my head. I'd never considered that before. I'd been through some tough challenges in my life, and I'd always risen to meet them. Always. But... I'd never met a vampire before, or a man like Sebastian. I'd never been a part of the paranormal world before. Heck, I'd barely left my house once I'd become an adult. Even as a child, my mom had to homeschool me. I wasn't exactly smooth in social situations. For many years, it had just been my mom and me.

So, a vampire that was as smooth as chocolate and twice as delicious? Umm, way past my pay grade.

As though he could read my mind, Sebastian went down the ladder and into the water first, then took my hand to help me, then Mama down. Micaela didn't want help, and Sebastian seemed to know this instinctively because he didn't offer.

An employee for the snorkeling company spoke. "Those of you who are comfortable without the floatation devices are welcome to snorkel around this area. But stay close. The mantas will be drawn to the lights here on the bottom of the flotation device, and you won't want to miss out."

I gawped at Sebastian, who looked ridiculously handsome, even soaking wet. I probably looked like a drowned rat. "Manta rays!" I took both of his hands and swam in a circle around him, bobbing around in the water like a crazy person. "Oh my gosh! I'm so excited!"

"Gracie, I'm going to use the flotation device, okay?"

I glanced over at my mom, who was happily clinging to the huge flotation device in the water. "Okay, Mama."

Sebastian and I stayed close to the main group but floated freely. We dove under the water, holding our breath, then surfaced, blowing air through our snorkels like a whale through their blowholes. After a few minutes, the mantas came.

At first, it felt magical. The water was calm. The air above the water was really still and smelled heavenly, like green things and coconuts. The mantas came in twos and threes, and people oohed and aahed. A few of the women squealed when one of the creatures got close to them, and the guy next to them, holding onto the flotation device, plugged one ear with his finger and scowled at the shrieking women.

And then, it all turned scary very quickly. Suddenly, it was as though the mantas had gotten a good whiff of me in the water, and like sharks to blood, they all converged on me. I was about five feet below the surface, and maybe a dozen of the smaller manta rays, which were still fourteen feet long or so, suddenly swarmed around me in a tight circle, cutting off any escape. Seeing my distress, Sebastian darted over quickly and roughly pushed through the mantas. He held me protectively in the circle of his arms and kept the creatures from touching me as we quickly made for the surface.

"What's happening?" I cried after yanking my snorkel from my mouth.

Sebastian pulled his snorkel out too and tried to soothe me by gently running his fingers up and down my arms. "It's okay. It's just because you're a siren. I didn't think this would happen, or I would have warned you ahead of time."

I clung to him, shivering. "I don't think I would have come if I'd known." I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see them circling below me. I was well and truly freaked out now.

"Can you... feel them?"

I gave him an odd look, but then, as my pulse slowed down, and my breathing became less ragged and gasping, I did feel something odd.

Joy.

And the feeling was definitely not coming from me, because I was still feeling stark terror.

Sebastian leaned closer to me, whispering so the people around us couldn't hear our conversation. I still huddled within the circle of his arms as he kicked lazily to keep us in place. "They're dancing for you. They're joyful to see you, and they're showing off. You should be able to feel them."

My breath was loud in our quiet pocket of space. "I... can," I said in wonder. They didn't feel murdery, like I thought they would. Instead, they felt joyful, playful, and excited. I opened my eyes and looked down. Now that I was less terrified, I could admire their lithe movements. "Do you think it's safe to go back down? I mean, they're putting on a show for me. It would be rude not to watch, right?"

He laughed and kissed my nose. "I'll go down with you and stay right beside you. I promise they're gentle and the farthest thing from their minds is hurting you."

"Okay," I said. I tried to gather enough of my fraying courage around me to submerge into the nest of manta rays. Was it a nest? A pod? I wasn't sure, and I couldn't think straight at the moment. It mattered that they didn't want to hurt me, as it lessened my fear, but sometimes animals panicked, and people got hurt when that happened. I shook the thought away and breathed out fully. Then I inhaled deeply and dived again with Sebastian.

At first, I had my eyes squeezed shut, but then, after a few seconds and a few soft touches of fins sweeping across my chilled skin, I opened them. The manta rays swirled gracefully and purposefully, like they were doing a choreographed dance that only they knew. Sebastian and I surfaced for air, and then dove again. I almost sucked in sea water in surprise when a giant manta ray headed toward us. He was easily twenty feet across. All the smaller mantas danced around the giant one, still swirling around me. Smiling from ear to ear, I let go of Sebastian and joined their dance for a few precious seconds.

I felt... loved and accepted. I felt free.

We surfaced and dove one more time, and the manta rays, maybe sensing how exhausted I was becoming, each gracefully let a fin skim across my skin before they swam away. The giant manta ray stopped just in front of my face, staring at me for a moment, before he too gently kissed my skin with a fin and swam away.

Sebastian and I popped up to the surface and took our snorkels from our mouths.

"That was―"

"Incredible," he finished.

And then he leaned forward, stopping only inches from my lips, as though waiting for permission. And even though I'd just decided, like yesterday, not to get involved with anyone while I figured out how to be a siren and how exactly I fit into my new reality, I leaned forward the last few inches until our lips met.

And just like our last kiss, it was magic. He pulled me closer to him until our bodies fused together, sharing our warmth with one another. The water lapped all around us, tossing us gently one way, then another until I could no longer tell which way was up and which way was down. I felt like I could kiss him forever. And we were certainly making inroads to do just that when my mama's voice piped up from behind me.

"Gracie, are you kissing that man?"

Sebastian and I pulled apart and grinned at each other. Then he kissed a water droplet from my nose. "No, Mama," I assured her. " He was kissing me. "

"Oh, well, that's okay then."

I laughed and snuggled closer to Sebastian.

This had been the best night ever.