Chapter 4

Chapter Four

J ulianne had been ready to do a jog through the woods when she spotted the kids thrashing around in the middle of the bay. The two small boys had blond hair, and looked too young to be great swimmers. She didn't know why anyone would allow them to swim out so far from shore, and she didn't see any adults anywhere. Were there no babysitters in the twelfth century? She hurried down the cliff stairs.

Focus, girl. You're going to have to haul both of them back at the same time.

Multiple victims in the water always made the rescues even more dangerous for a lifeguard. She had no flotation device to give to one so she could tow him along by a rope while supporting the other, which would have been her strategy in her time. Luckily they were little guys, and kids always liked her. She just had to get them to listen to her and do what she told them.

From the stairs she jumped the last couple of feet to the sand and tore off her boots. The white dunes seemed like soft, warm powder on her bare feet. Keeping her gaze locked on the kids, she stripped off her borrowed shirt and pants, down to the lingerie Lark had made for her.

Down at the water's edge the temperature of the sea seemed close to bath water, and warmed her legs as she waded out to the drop-off of the shallows. From there she submerged and surfaced, starting her swim with quick freestyle strokes that would allow her to reach them faster. As she cleaved her way through the water toward the two youngsters, the salt stung her eyes until they grew accustomed to the sea again and cleared. She made sure to keep her breathing deep and regular, inhaling as she turned her head to the air, and then exhaling underwater.

Hold on, I'm almost there, kids.

When she drew closer the boys stopped splashing and struggling, and abruptly disappeared from sight. When they didn't surface again she dove down to look for them, only to find both floating right in front of her. She grabbed both kids by their arms and dragged them up to get some air, but neither of them coughed or showed any sign of distress.

"It's all right, little dudes," she told them, blinking to clear her eyes. "I won't let you drown."

The smaller of the boys tilted his head, and ejected some water from three slits on his neck, making her flinch.

"You're so fair, my lady." He held out a small hand with webbed fingers. "Willnae you wait for me before you take a mate? When I'm a man, I should love you dearly, and give you a fine son."

Julianne inadvertently got a mouthful of sea water as her jaw dropped, and had to spit it out before she asked, "You want to what ?"

"Eejit." The bigger boy smacked him on the back of the head, and then gave her an apologetic look. "Forgive us, my lady. We're no' yet grown enough to mate, and as such cannae trifle with mortal females." He grinned, showing a glimpse of the handsome man he'd be someday. "I only hope I may meet one as fair as you to wed."

"Uh, thanks, little dude." Her breath hitched as she watched them turn and dive under the surface to swim off, both boys moving so fast they became blurs that quickly disappeared. "Fish boys. They have talking fish boys here."

When two arms curled around her she nearly screamed, but Shaw came around and held her as he treaded water.

"Dinnae fear them," he said, his eyes changing from black to dark gray. "The lads, they're the bairns of the Finfolk, the clan's allies."

"They can breathe water through those gills on their neck, right? And they live underwater?" When he nodded she looked out at where the boys had disappeared. "How many fish people are there out there? Why didn't anyone tell me about them?"

"I cannae give you a count of the lads, but the Finfolk males, they're many. 'Twas reckoned by Lady Valerie 'twould be too much for you accept all at once." He studied her face and then drew back. "Do you wish me gone from you again?"

She wanted to shout yes , but that would be mean. Shaw had been with her most of the time, so he probably hadn't voted to keep her in the dark. At the same time he knew everything about this place and the strange things that lived here.

"I need answers," she told him. "Can you give them to me?" When he nodded she pointed to the nearest shore.

Shaw swam with her to the little islet, which turned out to be the same one Caroline had told Julianne was her home. As soon as they waded out of the water the diver walked down, a basket of berries over one arm.

"Fair morning, Chieftain, Jules." The diver glanced past them. "And the other love of my life. Quite a party. What's up?"

Julianne looked back to see a tall, well-built man with waist-length white-blonde hair walking out of the surf. Like the two boys she'd seen earlier, he had three gill slits on either side of his neck. He also wore what looked like an abbreviated gray wet suit so well-fitted to his muscular body it seemed like a second skin. His face, which rivaled Shaw's for stunning good looks, had an exasperated expression.

"Hey, love of her life," she said, smiling so much it hurt her cheeks, which was better than passing out at his feet. "I'm Julianne." She glanced down and forgot to keep smiling. Whoa. Even fish dude's toes are webbed.

"I'm Jamaran, commander of the Selseus garrison," the fair-haired man said, and gave her a respectful bow before he regarded Caroline. "Two of our lads strayed from the settlement, and Mistress Scott believed them drowning. She attempted rescue them."

"No one told you about the immortal aquatic beings out in the bay?" the diver asked Julianne, who shook her head. "Okay, Jean, I've got this. You two, come back to the cottage with me. Hey." She pointed at Shaw. "You do not give me the stink eye like that anymore, remember?"

The chieftain's jaw tightened, but he inclined his head.

Julianne glanced at Jamaran and gave him a little wave good-bye before she followed Caroline on a path into the trees, which led to a somewhat shabby but entirely charming little cottage. Inside the diver set down her basket and put a pot of water on the fire to boil. As she looked around, she saw a tartan slung over a chair, the diver's wet suit on a rack, and baskets and rakes that looked like shellfish gear.

At the sight of the wet suit, Julianne glanced down at herself. She'd stripped down to her underwear. By the time she looked back up, Caroline had already set down the berries and was fetching her a shirt, while Shaw stared at the ground.

"Here you go," Caroline said. "One of Nyall's. It'll fit you better than one of mine."

"Thanks," Julianne said as she tugged it on. It had the same warm scent as the rest of the cottage: fresh herbs, spices and sweet berries. She smiled.

Mom and Dad would love this. So would Aunt Klee. It reminds me of… A sharp pain at her temple made her grimace and rub the spot. Sometimes when she tried to remember things from the past she gave herself a headache, which she definitely did not need right now.

"We make brew when we talk about stuff on the island," Caroline said. "The one I've got going here is my own blend of lavender, honey, and roots from a plant that tastes like cinnamon. It's not Valium, but the closest thing to."

"Shaw, quit pacing and sit down," Julianne told him.

The chieftain grunted and dropped onto a chair at the kitchen table. She sat beside him, and sensing how agitated he was, patted his tattooed arm. Interestingly the moment she touched his ink her breasts stopped tingling and heating up then just simply went warm.

"It's okay, we're fine." She held onto him when he would have moved away. "No, I need to hold the arm for a bit. Let Caroline give me the deets. She's the only one besides you who doesn't talk to me like I'm a kid."

"The best way to handle the deets is all at once, without any sugar coating," the diver said as she brought over three mugs of steaming aromatic herbal brews. "Fasten your seatbelt, too, because it's a lot. Ready?"

Julianne nearly refused, but then thought of all that Mitch had kept from her while pretending to be her perfect guy. "As I'll ever be. Hit me."

"The MacMar Clan is half-Fae, and their father gave them his magical blood," the diver said. "As soon as they became adults all of them stopped ageing. They heal fast, don't get sick, and it's very hard to kill them, too. They don't drown in any kind of water. I really hated them for all that when I first got here, but anyway." She gestured at Shaw. "He's looked like that for about nine hundred years."

"So that means they'll never get wrinkles or gray hair?" When the other woman gave her a thumbs up she took a deep breath. "I'm starting to hate them, too. Okay, what else?"

"All the men in the clan have the same Fae Dad but different mortal moms. A few, like the laird and Fletcher and Shaw, have the same mom." Caroline gestured toward the main island. "Fae Prince Dad built Caladh and surrounded it with a mist barrier to hide his sons and their people from this shape-shifting witch who killed his wife in Fae land. Prince Dad died soon after, but the witch is still hunting his sons. With me so far?"

Julianne nodded.

"Out in the bay is a settlement of aquatic humanoid immortals who came from another world a long time ago. They're like mermen, and the clan call them the Finfolk, but they refer to themselves as the Selseus," Caroline said. "They're as powerful as the Fae, so Prince Dad made a truce with them to build the island and share the sea here with the clan. Selseus can only father boys, so they're all male, and always need mortal women to transform into mates. That's why they're given first dibs to offer marriage and immortality to any female who comes here and can bear children."

"No' her," Shaw said flatly.

"Quiet, we're adulting here," Julianne told him. To the diver, she said, "I don't want to marry a merman or grow gills or have fish kids. How do I get out of that?"

"Yeah, that's the thing." Caroline took a sip of her tea. "Physically speaking, you are like Miss Universe to the Selseus, which is probably why Valerie and Connal haven't introduced you to them. Also, all the women who came to Caladh from the future—including me—have refused to join the aquatics, so right now they're a little pissed. Okay, a lot pissed. Until the clan and the Selseus settle down and work around this, you should stay out of the bay."

"So, fairies and immortals and fish people and an enchantress." Julianne pressed her hands over her eyes for a second. "Is there a dragon? Please tell me there isn't a dragon. I hated that book in school. Especially those guys with the hairy feet." She shuddered, remembering.

"No dragons, but there's a renegade Selseus who has been transforming mortals into killers by merging them with sharks. He's also done that with at least one shape-shifter. That's another reason you should never go swimming without a MacMar beside you." The diver glanced at Shaw before she added, "Now would be the time for you to set her straight on your problem, Chieftain. I need to go finish weeding my raspberries."

Julianne watched the other woman leave before she regarded Shaw. It can't be worse than a dragon, right? "Your problem would be that oil-slick thing you turn into when you move uber fast, which totally creeped me out, by the way."

"'Tis dark magic." He pulled up the damp sleeve of his tunic, exposing his strange tattoos. "The Pritani captured me as a lad, and forced me into slavery. So that they might use me as a weapon they held a ritual that summoned a dark destroyer, and marked me as sacrifice. The skinwork bound me and the thing as one. I've held the facking beast locked away inside me for centuries now."

It's worse than a dragon.

"You're still in charge, though, right?" As he nodded she reached out to trace the pattern of the ink encircling his elbow, frowning as he flinched and jerked away his arm. "Why do you keep doing that? Does it hurt when I touch you?"

"'Tis evil," Shaw said through his teeth. "I'd sooner cut off my arm than permit you near the thing."

"Calm down. Having a Big Bad doesn't make you an evil guy, you know. The jerks who did this to you, they're the monsters." She took hold of his marked arm, bringing that hand to her face and pressing his palm to her cheek. The warm glow in her breasts grew a little hotter. "See? Nothing evil going on here, right?"

"Dinnae," Shaw said.

"It's okay," she said when he tried to shake off her grip. "I know you won't hurt me. I'm the woman of your dreams, remember? And I don't think your dark magical thing would attack me, either. Big Bad totally would have done that already. Maybe it likes me, too."

Despair made his gray eyes go dull. "You cannae ken such."

Somehow she did know she was right, although she could see she'd have a tough time convincing him of that. He hated this thing so much he wouldn't listen to anything nice about it.

"The first time I saw you, Chief, I knew you were something—even if you were drowning, which you actually weren't, but like I didn't know that then." She smiled, remembering that moment. "So now I know lots. You're not only from the twelfth century, but you're half-Fae, and immortal, and you've been through pretty scary, terrible things because of what those jerk-face slaver people did to you. But hey, you're still alive, right?"

Shaw looked as if she'd hit him. "Some afflictions, they're worse than death."

"What could be worse than never being able to do anything ever again?" she countered. "I mean, yeah, it would be way cool if there's a heaven, and we get all the stuff we wanted when we were alive. Or we get to come back and do another life. Next time I want to be smart like Valerie and have cool skills like Lark and be indie like Caroline. I also want to eat all thirty-one flavors of ice cream in a big punch bowl for breakfast every morning of my life and never get fat. But Tbr I think that's not it, Chief. This life is all we get, and we only have what we have."

"Then what shall I do, my lady?" he asked, his eyes a soft, light gray now.

"Live with what you got, Shaw, like me. I may not be Einstein, but I'm a happy person, and I don't hurt anybody. I get to sit on a beach waiting to rescue people for a living, which is a great job, especially when it's little kids. So be grateful for the good stuff in your life." She leaned in until their brows touched. "That way you don't have to wait to see if there's a heaven. You can be happy now."

He smiled at last, changing his face from dark and stern to gorgeous and stunning. Bringing her hand to his lips, he kissed her knuckles. "Mayhap you're my heaven, my lady."

After the encounter with Shaw and Julianne, Caroline imagined Jamaran would be the first one to return to the cottage that night. While she waited on him to arrive, she stood in the garden to enjoy the scents from the night-flowering plants. Although she'd been just an average gardener back in her time, everything she touched here seemed to grow like weeds on crack. She now wondered if that could be attributed to the life-saving magic bestowed on her by the ring. That Shaw had found it after she had lost it in the surf also seemed significant, especially as he'd said the magic had swept him off to the twenty-first century.

Why would a ring enchanted to save women rescue Shaw by having a lifeguard save him in the future, and then bring them both back? Why was Julianne Scott so different from the rest of them?

The lifeguard had several fairly obvious problems, but the one that troubled her the most was Julianne's obvious affection for the chieftain. She spoke to him in a very strange, maternal way, almost like a mother would cajole a troublesome toddler. Yet the way the woman touched Shaw and looked at him definitely swung more to the romantic. She also had a very distinct way of speaking that nagged at Caroline, for she'd definitely met someone who used the same kind of deceptively simple speech and sometimes the wrong words while expressing genuinely deep ideas.

It was in school, I'm sure of it. Caroline had dropped out at sixteen, but she still remembered some kids who had left a definite impression on her before she'd gone. There had been a small crew of them who had sat together at lunch at what they called the UN table.

A soft breath on her nape made her smile and lean back against a hard, wet chest. "Hey, lover. I've been waiting for you."

"I suspected you would." Jamaran splayed his webbed fingers across her belly, massaging her there gently. "Nyall told me he must stay at the stronghold tonight."

Although, like her men, she could now stay underwater indefinitely without drowning, Caroline couldn't hear the thoughts they shared with each other, something she still resented a little.

"I'll guess that our captain is worried about Shaw, and you're worried about our captain and I'm worried about both of you and Shaw and the nice lady lifeguard from my time." She turned around and draped her arms around his neck. "Something very weird is going on between those two, by the way."

Jamaran began walking her back into the cottage. "How very weird?"

"She knows a little about Shaw's thing, but she doesn't seem afraid of it or him," Caroline said as he nudged open the door. "While we were talking she scolded him twice for interrupting me. Like he was a misbehaving kid. I‘ve never heard any woman talk to Shaw like that."

"You did, the day you came to Caladh." Jamaran picked her up, stepped over the threshold and kicked the door shut. "Mayhap she sees all of Shaw, as you do."

"I wanted to kill him. She's talking to him like he's a chihuahua who just chewed up her sneaks." As he sat down with her in the big chair by the hearth she sighed. "I don't know why I'm worried. Julianne obviously isn't falling for his pretty face. It's not like that guy needs anyone to look out for him, either."

"Shaw's ever needed someone to care for him," her lover said, surprising her. "He wouldnae ask for help from his brothers, as he's ashamed of what the Pritani made of him. Such brutes attempt turn you from caring and decent souls into monsters like them."

"Like the Norse tried with you." Now she regretted bringing it up and reminding him of the years he'd spent enslaved. "I'm sorry."

"I understand Shaw better than most," Jamaran admitted. "You've no control of your person during enslavement, and must sometimes do terrible things so you may survive. When you finally escape, you cannot forget those things. They prevent you from becoming who you were before capture. They're as wounds none see, that forever bleed."

Caroline knew she could never have survived what Jamaran and Shaw must have suffered while enslaved. "What can I do to help them?"

"Much." He smiled and kissed her brow. "Provide them your home as haven. They shall need a place where they may come and talk away from the eyes and ears of the clan. Offer Julianne your friendship. What she faces, 'tisnae something the other ladies may understand."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She wondered if she should mention the other thing, and then just decided to tell him. "Julianne may seem simple and open, but she's quite intuitive and a little scary with how well she reads everyone. It's like I've met someone like her before now, but I can't quite place it. Also, when she walked close by me in the cottage, every hair on my arms stood up."

"'Twas from sensing some danger from her?" he asked, frowning.

"No, the opposite. Just for a second, I wanted to grab her." She tapped a finger against her lips. "It wasn't a sexual attraction, either. I mean, she's beautiful, but I've never been into the ladies. It's like when you're a kid, and you look at embers in a fire. They're so pretty when they glow you want to touch them, even when you know you shouldn't."

"An interesting effect." He stroked his palm from her shoulder to her forearm. "I suffer the same when I see you." His hand moved to cover one of her breasts. "Often."

"It's probably from that damn ring. I'll talk to Duncan and see if it has any Fae significance." Caroline shifted so that she straddled him, and pulled off her blouse, under which she wore nothing. "I won't stop you if you see anything you want to touch."

He groaned as she began moving against his thick, hard erection, and reached under her skirt to release the seam of his swim suit. With his fist he guided his cock to the slick, flowering folds of her pussy.

Caroline still loved it every time he came into her this way, as only since the ring had transformed her could they make love safely. "I love having you inside me."

"I meant do this with you in bed." He shuddered as she gripped him with her internal muscles. "Only I find I'm very fond of this chair."

"Much better than the floor, isn't it?" She lowered herself inch by inch until she buried him inside her, and then drew his mouth to the tight nipples of her swollen breasts. "Next time we should sneak into the stronghold, and wait for Nyall in his bed. I'd love to have him walk in on us while we're in the midst."

"Shameless." Jamaran thrust hard up into her pussy. "He'd be annoyed with us both for beginning without him."

"Oh, yeah." She shivered with delight as he sucked at her breasts. "I love when that happens. Especially when he makes you watch him fuck me while I rub your cock."

Talking dirty to the Selseus commander always sent him into a frenzy, and Caroline laughed as he took hold of her and rose from the chair, still thrusting inside her as he carried her over to the bed. There he dropped down on top of her, fucking her with deep, slow strokes of his cock, making the headboard slam against the stone wall.

"You drive me mad," Jamaran told her, kissing her mouth and her cheeks and nipping the lobe of her ear. "I shall end gasping in your arms, I vow."

"Oh, no, we get to do this forever, my friend." She wrapped her legs around him, meeting every hard plunge of his cock and writhing with the need to come.

With her men, sex was always thrilling, especially when they took her together, but making love with her best friend alone always excited Caroline in a different way. There was a kind of bond between them that transcended love, perhaps because they had both faced death by deliberate drowning. She would always love Nyall with all her heart, but Jamaran was like her mirror self.

Caroline rolled him onto his back, disengaging their bodies and shifting around so she reversed herself atop him. As she engulfed his cock and sucked him, he gripped her thighs and buried his mouth against her pussy. They came together, both of them shuddering deeply, and as she swallowed the silken warmth of his seed she thought of Nyall, and what he would think once he read this memory from Jamaran's thoughts.

Slowly she let his shaft slide from her lips before she shifted around to curl up beside him. She wanted to talk about things important to them, but what she had seen before with the chieftain and Julianne Scott kept nagging at her.

"How tough would it be to get a druid out to the island?" she asked him.

"The clan, they've some allies among the magic folk. If the laird asked them to permit a visit, they'd likely agree." He propped his head on his hand and looked down at her. "Why?"

She smiled a little. "I think our chieftain could definitely use a magical intervention, but actually I'd like them to look at Julianne."

"Even with her boons and attractions she seems quite pleasant and rather harmless," Jamaran said. "What more about her troubles you, my lady?"

"It was just for a moment, when the light came through the window behind her." Caroline stroked her fingers through his long silver-blond hair. "Maybe it was sun glare, but I don't know. Anyway, she turned green. Not light green, either—dark green. Like she was covered head to toe in pine needles. When I blinked, the green went away, and she just looked like a tall, attractive blonde again."

"'Tis likely a trick of the light," Jamaran said.

She nodded. "I thought the same thing. Only, what if the tall blonde is the trick?"

Duxor waited in the cave for a week before his Cait Sith shifter returned from her last hunt. Although she appeared uninjured, her long dark hair had been shorn close to her scalp. Burned off, he guessed as he saw the blackened condition of her garments, and tasted soot in the water. She had also returned alone after going on the hunt with Erskin, the first mortal he had transformed.

Master. She made an obeisance. As you see I couldnae capture the dark mortal female and the marked chieftain.

He kept a tight rein on his anger and instead swam around her as if inspecting her for wounds. Why did you fail me?

The MacMar garrison commander now possesses a lightning boon. She pulled down her tunic to reveal a large pink mark on the flesh of her arm that resembled a fern. He used the power to kill Erskin. He nearly did the same to me, so I couldnae take Caroline from him and the fishman.

You must learn more of what they ken, he told her. Change into Bered and go among the Selseus.

No, I shallnae. She smiled at him, and her teeth shifted and swelled into huge, jagged double rows. They now ken that I may shift into different forms. I cannae serve you if they slay me.

Duxor raised his fist to clout her, but then saw a strange anticipation in her flat black shark's eyes. He had the sense that he was no longer speaking to only the Cait Sith female, and if he enraged the white-mouth he'd merged with her, it would attack.

Slowly he lowered his hand. You need go and hunt.

Fiacail surfaced, and climbed onto a rock shelf in the upper part of the cave. When Duxor swam up to look at her she shifted into her halfling form, changing her burned and tattered garments into a servant's gown and apron.

You need a stronger ally to face the MacMar, she told him. My former sovereign, Derdrui, is a full-blood Fae Therion enchantress. No one in the mortal realm may prevail over her.

Why should she offer me her aid? Duxor asked.

She wishes slay the MacMar clan. All of them, and their vassals. She smiled, showing her human teeth now. If you bargain with her, she will provide you with more like me. But once you show her the way to the island, she will have no more use for you.

He knew she was speaking the truth, and trying to prevent him from making a mistake, but he wasn't sure why. What happened after the hunt? Why didnae you return at once?

I boarded the vessel my sisters sail to search for the MacMar, Fiacail said, her gaze growing distant. That marked chieftain changed into a demon and slew many of them with a single passing blow. If you could transform and command him, no' even Derdrui could stop you.

Very well. You may go and convince your former sisters that their sovereign should meet your master. He decided to give her the reward he'd been saving. Take these two with you.

Fiacail dove down into the water to greet the two he'd summoned, only to shriek with surprise as soon as she saw them. Master, what did you?

Do you imagine you do anything that I dinnae ken? I remained out of sight during your failure to secure the diver. He smiled as she cringed. 'Tis well you ever tell me truth, Fiacail. The first time you lie, I shall end you myself.