Chapter Seventeen

Iwas swaying, gently pulled from one end of consciousness to the other. Wrapped securely in Kai's arms as we moved through the water, his tail undulated in a steady rhythm behind him. I didn't know why he bothered to carry me, seeing as I could keep up with him on my own now, but I wasn't going to leave his arms. I snuggled closer to his hard chest, too tired to open my eyes, and tried to get warm despite the press of cold skin against my cheek.

Wait, that wasn't right. Kai was always warm, unusually so, even underwater. The guy was a freaking space heater. And there was a reason I shouldn't be cozying up with him. I was mad at him, about…something. But I also wanted to talk to him about whatever that something was. My tail, yes, but there was something else. Something more pressing that niggled at me, told me I shouldn't be sleeping as heavily as I was. It wasn't a natural sleep.

I tried to retrace my steps. I'd stormed out on Kai, but I was on my way back to him when the ocean started calling to me. I took an impromptu swim. I had a thought to do…something, something related to him, or about him. I remember climbing out of the water, I wasn't in it now, and if I was, it wasn't sea water. If I strained, I could feel my toes wiggling. So, where was the rocking coming from?

My eyes shot open, and I sprang up. Well, tried to. I didn't get more than an inch before I was forced back down. Thick straps bound me to a surgical table at the shoulders, forearms, thighs and ankles. The table was bolted to the floor, presumably to keep it from rocking. A boat, I was on a boat.

The single light in the cream-colored ceiling cast a muted, buttery glow throughout the room. Cabinets lined the opposite wall, but besides the table, the rest of the furniture was pretty standard for a houseboat. There were no windows, which promoted a disturbing sense of claustrophobia. Me and tight spaces did not go well together, but a reflective smattering of light on the ceiling drew my gaze to the floor, where several glass panes provided viewing access to the ocean below.

Okay, so I was on a boat, but where was I, and where was I going?

I remembered the blood, finding Hughes in the lab... I'd run, and Reinhardt, Dennis and Marcus found me on the beach. No, not found. They'd been waiting for me. I ran, trying to get to the ocean, the last thing I felt before falling into darkness. I still had my shirt, and someone had tossed a blanket over my lower half, above the straps that bound me to the table. They were the same ones they used on Kai, I realized. Except I was the specimen this time.

I pulled against the restraints, but whatever supernatural strength Kai had used to break free of his bonds was not working for me. Trying to wiggle out didn't work either, the straps at my feet looped around my ankles like manacles, and two more were wrapped around my wrists. The most I could do was strain against the material, which burned my skin as I rubbed it raw, tugging and pulling frantically at the bindings.

Reinhardt was stark-raving mad. He'd killed Hughes and used the others to kidnap me. How did they know what I was? I'd only been a mermaid for a few hours before he showed up on the beach. How had he known I'd be there?

Outside the door, I heard footsteps on creaky wooden stairs, coming closer. I went limp, feigning unconsciousness as a lock unlatched, and the door swung inward.

I heard a tongue click, then, "The dose you gave her was too strong." That was Dennis.

"How should I have known? The only data we had was on 275." This from Marcus. They still wore those ridiculous glasses, like I could mesmerize them with my eyes closed, "Besides, you filled the damn vial."

"That's enough. Go tell Reinhardt she's still out. He's anxious to get the basics started, then we'll get her in the water."

"I don't think it's a good idea to—"

"Well it's a good thing I'm not asking you to think, Marcus. I'm telling you, now get it done!"

There was no reply, but I heard the door open and slam shut. "Damn idiot." Dennis muttered. I could hear him start to pace. I cracked one eye open, watching him run his fingers through his disheveled hair. He was back in a lab coat, but it was rumpled and hung off his shoulders, like he'd lost several pounds in a single night.

He was muttering something that I couldn't hear when his head suddenly snapped to me. I closed my eyes again.

Dennis sighed. "Maree," He drew out the last vowel of that abhorrent nickname, "I know you're awake. Time to face the music."

I opened my eyes, focusing my glare on him. He'd pulled up a chair and was leaning back, an ankle crossed over his opposite knee, like we were having a civilized discussion over afternoon tea. "Do you like the accommodations?"

"They're a bit snug." I sneered, pulling on the straps for emphasis.

"Really? My confines in a jail cell were quite similar."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Oh, but they were. You see, when the cops brought me in, I knew I was fucked. My parents would cut me off, my job prospects would go to shit, I'd be lucky if they let me scrub the aquarium floors."

"You don't even deserve that honor." That got me a sharp slap to the cheek, my head whipping to the side. Maybe I shouldn't be back talking when I was restrained, but I couldn't stop the snide comments when he walked right into them.

He wiped his hand on his lab coat, then continued. He was in full monologue mode, something I thought only Disney villains were capable of. But he wasn't the true villain. No, Dennis had the makings of an evil sidekick. "It was all your fault, yet you got off squeaky clean. Leaving me, me, all so you could fuck around with some playboy model. But ever since our kiss, I couldn't get you out of my head."

I sucked in a breath. The kiss, the one he'd stolen from me after Kai…the soul exchange. Had it done something to Dennis? I didn't feel particularly bonded to him right now, but that bond only worked between other merfolk. It was more akin to a mental breakdown when used on humans. And considering I was still in the transformation process when he'd thrown himself at me, it was unstable and unpredictable. Who knew what his current mental state was? Actually, judging by the fact that he'd kidnapped me barely a day after trying to rape me, I'd bet my college tuition that he was one sandwich short of a picnic.

"I had to see you again, but first I had to make sure your boy-toy was out of the picture. He dropped something that night, you know. But then again I already had a feeling he wasn't who he was pretending to be." Dennis reached into the pocket of his lab coat, pulling out a slim watch with a bright aqua band. The cracked screen of the Fitbit mocked me as it winked in the glow of the lamplight. "Very unique, and Cee's handiwork is it not? You know, I never recalled her ever mentioning her cousin, the aspiring European model. Then the pieces came together. I called Reinhardt. He was kind enough to bail me out and told me he could track down 275. But I know you, Maree. I knew the lengths you'd go to for your work. So, we came up with a new plan. That device of his really is something, turns out one strand of your hair was all we needed. You were miles off the coast, traveling faster than a speed boat, and even better, heading right for us! I'm almost jealous, you proved my transference theory of 275's powers to humans!"

Hate to break it to you, but I wasn't human to begin with, I wanted to say, with a good amount of colorful expletives thrown in, but I didn't. I wasn't giving him or Reinhardt an ounce of information, or the satisfaction of my anger.

"I'm guessing you found Hughes. Let's just say he wasn't sold on the plan. Shame too, now there's no one left from the original team. They didn't have the right mindset for it, but we are the ones who will change this world. Once we can isolate the right DNA sequence, we can start selecting subjects for clinical trials. Of course, you could always make our jobs a lot easier and tell us how you did it…"

He trailed off, staring at me expectantly. My lips thinned into a flat line, and I was tempted to spit at him, a weapon that wouldn't go farther than dribbling down my chin, so I refrained. Barely.

But I had another weapon, didn't I?One that had worked on him before, a siren song that I'd possessed long before I kissed Kai, a birthright.

I took a steadying breath to keep my voice from shaking as I intoned, "You will release me. Now."

His jaw went slack, and he stood coming over to the braces at my shoulders. Then he grabbed my neck, and my shocked cry ended in a strangled squeak, "Looks like you traded your siren"s voice for that tail of yours. How ironic."

I glared at him, and his grip tightened, bruising, before he released me. He trailed that same hand down the sheet, and I realized with horror that he could very well finish what he started the other night if he wanted to.

Instead, he stepped back, rising to his full height, "I'll let Reinhardt know the sedative is out of your system. It's time to earn your medal as the superior scientist."

The door closed behind him with a cavernous echo. I tried wriggling out of the straps, straining desperately against the material. I cried out when the soft skin of my wrists burned red hot, and droplets of blood welled to the surface.

Tears streamed down my face, and I let them come. It was the only weakness I would allow myself in the privacy of this moment. I would not break, I would not yield in this place, in front of these people.

I'd never felt more helpless, more alone. I didn't know how long I was out for, how far they'd taken me. Kai would probably think I'd abandoned him, and somehow that thought scared me more than the possibilities of what I was to face. I knew exactly what they would do, I'd seen it firsthand. Becca always used to tell me that no good deed went unpunished, but I never thought I'd be facing my own execution for sparing Kai's.

When the straps refused to come loose after another pointless tug, I cursed them all; Dennis, Reinhardt, Marcus, the damned Sea herself.

I flopped back onto the table, my neck stiff, my eyes heavy and stinging from the tears still falling down my cheeks. I closed them, anticipating my morbid fate. I just wanted to go back to dreaming. At least Kai would be waiting for me there.

The hours passed by in a jumbled mass of pain, cursing, and threats to the genitalia of every man who ever walked on two legs. My limbs had been poked and prodded, both in and out of the water, and the transformations were twice as painful when I was only submerged long enough for the last of my gills to open before being yanked back out. A cage was constructed beneath the bottom of the boat, and when I wasn't being dipped like a candle in wax and could actually stay beneath the surface longer than five minutes, I found that whatever it was made out of was too strong for me to pierce. I didn't know where that enhanced mermaid speed and strength was, or any powers that resembled Kai's manipulation or water, but they were taking far longer to show up than it was taking Dennis to kill me.

It had been a few days since I'd woken, and so far Dennis and Marcus had been the only ones to enter the room. They'd left me unstrapped from the table after realizing just how squirmy I could be when I wanted to, but the door was heavily reinforced and would only open with a security code I didn"t have, and fingerprint access that I couldn't fake. I found it disturbing that Reinhardt would leave his prize alone with anyone for that long, and paranoia set in that there could be hidden cameras, though my modesty was the least of my concerns. I sometimes found a towel waiting for me when I stayed below the surface long enough to wear out their patience. I doubt it came from Dennis, but I used it just the same. I wanted to keep as much of my dignity as possible, as I was constantly fighting just to hold myself together.

I was epically failing in the captured mermaid department. My transformation had changed nearly ever ability I might"ve once had as a half-mermaid, my siren song being the most detrimental at a time like this. Either the ability had vanished completely or I simply wasn't doing it right, since every time I tried, nothing happened besides my ire spiking at my uselessness.

But even with no supernatural abilities, I was determined to be the least willing specimen to experiment on, going as far as to bite at them when they shoved the manacles onto my wrists. I was waiting for them to let their guard down, forget to lock the door behind them, leave a power tool that I could use to saw my way out of the side of the boat. Something. Anything.

I currently had a gag over my mouth, one of my many attempts to nip at Dennis with my sharpened canines while he tried to draw blood finally succeeding. At least he was bleeding too. They'd taken the sample from the side of my tail, which hurt like a bitch, and I noticed that the blood in the vial was closer to sapphire than ruby in color.

Like Kai's eyes.

I'd long given up hope that he'd find me, that he was even looking. We were sailing to who knows where, and though he was fast, he didn't know what he was looking for. All I knew is that whatever telepathy link we had was severed by the distance-my mental voice had gone raw screaming for him enough to prove so. If I was going to get out of here, I had to do it myself.

Easier said than done.

"Marcus, take that up to the lab." Dennis tossed the vial to Marcus, who fumbled, but didn't drop it.

I glared at him. That was my blood in there, buddy! If I just had to go through the agony of it being unwillingly drawn from my body, the least you can do is not drop the damn vial.

"I want that sampled and spread out on slides by the time I get up there."

Okay Assford, since when did you command this much authority? He'd been walking around these past few days with an inflated ego, exercising his status wherever he could. I didn't like the way he had been looking at me either, like he was waiting for the door to click shut so he could make me pay for his bleeding hand.Marcus may be one of my three least favorite people on earth at the moment, but that didn't stop me from silently begging him not to leave me alone with my psychotic ex.

"I haven't spent much time around that equipment. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not break anything else."

Dennis grumbled, tearing his eyes away from the scales covering my breasts. He snatched the vial back from Marcus. "Fine, but don't hang around long. Get 276 untied and then get your ass back upstairs."

276, they'd started calling me that not long after I'd woken up. No doubt Dennis' twisted idea of what he thought was karma coming to bite me in the ass. I was going to show him the exact meaning of divine justice. If I could just get my hands free!

With Marcus and I alone in the room, I focused my glare on him as he looked at his shoes, using the tip of one to play with the fibers in the floor. When he mustered enough bravery to look at me, he was hollow-eyed and looked ready to puke. He approached slowly, as one would a cornered animal, and it occurred to me that to him, I was exactly that.

"I'm going to untie the gag, okay? Just, hold still." He reached behind me, pulling the strip of cloth away with gentle fingers, and that was the only reason I didn't snap at him once the saliva-coated cloth left my mouth. I swallowed, trying to restore sensation. Dennis had tied it so tight, two red lines streaked up my cheek from the corners of my mouth. Marcus winced.

"There, better?" he asked.

I narrowed my eyes. How the hell did he expect me to answer that?

He sighed. "You're right. Stupid question." He tossed the rag aside, stepping back to loosen the bonds holding my wrists up like a prisoner hanging over a vat of acid. My ass, or the closest thing that body part was in this form, thumped against the rim of the glass, the rest of my tail submerged under the water as the boat made steady progress to wherever we were supposed to be going. I winced, rubbing the tender spot where Dennis had just jabbed an unnecessarily large needle into my side. The scales were tough, and he'd broken three of them on previous attempts.

"Shit, sorry. That was also dumb."

"You think?" When he didn't make a move to leave, I gestured to the door. "Well? Can't keep your psycho bosses waiting."

"Maren, I'm sorry—"

"Don't you dare try to apologize." I cut him off. "Do you really think that after all of this I would believe a word that came out of your mouth? At least I know exactly what you'll do to get a real paying job."

He flinched, opening his mouth to say more, when the door creaked open, and a voice I never wanted to hear again filled the room like a thundercloud. "Marcus, I"d like a word alone with our specimen. Why don't you assist Mr. Ashford upstairs and make sure your specialguest is settling in?"

Marcus paled, shooting me one last apologetic look before scurrying out the door. Reinhardt closed it behind him, and I heard the familiar tone of the lock sliding into place. Great, left alone with yet another lunatic.

"To what do I owe the honor of your presence?" I said, my voice dripping with venom and sarcasm. "Is it my birthday?"

"According to your file that day passed in March, under the sign of Pisces." Reinhardt smiled, while I found new irony remembering that my star sign was, in fact, a fish. "You can't imagine how surprised I was when you introduced yourself at the gala. I had no idea David had a child."

Oh great, now he was going to start monologuing.

"He fled like a coward with you and his research."

"Research that you stole. You broke into our house, trashed his office." I'd had ample time to put the pieces together, and it couldn't have been anyone else. Like the idiot I was, I'd drawn him a roadmap which ultimately led me here. Karma really was a bitch. "This was all some mad pursuit to steal what wasn't yours to begin with!"

"That research was just as much mine as it was his." Somehow, I doubted that. Everything I had learned about Reinhardt proved he could never be a fraction of the man my dad was, and his jealously over a budding scientist two decades his junior getting all the recognition had driven him to his own special kind of madness, "David only ran with it once he realized the true potential of what he could find. He selfishly wanted to keep it to himself."

My mother, and the merfolk. Not to mention the other magical creatures Kai confirmed were real. The knowledge of their existence, and the exact whereabouts of their species, was information too valuable to be trusted with anyone else. It was why dad went to such lengths to hide it. I wished he would have destroyed the damn tracker and burned the blueprints when he had the chance, but I knew why he hadn't. Even if he could never let the knowledge reach the public, it was his life's work. It had led him to mom, and he was hoping one day it would again.

"I didn't know any of this at the time, of course. It took a lot of puzzle pieces fitting together to get the whole picture. David shows up with a strange woman he saved from a boating accident, one that he intends to marry. Then he pulls the plug on Odyssey, taking his research with him. Years of long days and sleepless nights. You can imagine my disappointment, and I refused to let the name disappear the same way the man had."

"That work was never yours." I repeated. "My father had every right to do what he pleased with it. Including keeping it from you."

"It was a selfish man's desire," Reinhardt snapped.

And the knowledge that Reinhardt had been loitering around my house in the middle of the night was not nearly as disturbing as what he said next. "After reclaiming what was rightfully mine, with your help," I scowled. "I knew I had to bring you on board. And after seeing how well you interacted with 275— oh my apologies, I believe you named him Kai— well, I became quite curious to see what traits a half-mermaid could develop if left to explore the other side of her nature. So, I set up an additional experiment."

My lips thinned, the only reaction I would allow, but it was enough as he flashed another patronizing smile. "Come now Maren? Did you really think you could break a subject out of a top-secret research facility without help? Without someone dismissing the guards, scrubbing the cameras you missed, giving you complete access to the lab after hours? Brilliant job swiping the key from Mr. Ashford. One of your siren tricks to muddy his senses, I presume. No? That's what he claimed, but perhaps it was simply your natural wiles against the weak-minded. I couldn't make it too easy for you, of course, but you performed wonderfully."

"It seems our merman's powers helped hide him quite well on land. A form of shapeshifting, is it? I knew there was much he was capable of, not that I think you'll tell me about any of it now. But soon enough, I will get the answers I need. I got them from David, and I will get them from you."

"You're a soulless monster!" I cried, but my outburst only amused him.

He chuckled. "Like father like daughter. David always said I had an iron-clad heart."

Iron heart. I"d heard that before…from Dad.

The monster that he fought in his nightmares, the beast that stole my mother and me away from him in Florida, or tried to. It all clicked into place. Why he hadn't published in years, let his research go dormant so they wouldn't find us again. So Reinhardt wouldn't find my mother, or me.

Holy shit.

"And you are in no position to lecture me about monsters, Maren." he said, gesturing to my tail. "You're well on your way to becoming one yourself. However, being half-human and David's child, you do have some rudimentary skills that could prove useful." I couldn't tell if he was trying to compliment or insult me. But my anger was boiling over, so I went with the latter.

Still, his line of questioning had my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. What more could he need other than every sample he'd already taken?

I looked at his empty hands, and what Dad told me clicked in my mind. A slow, wicked smirk rose to my face. "There"s something wrong with the tracker." His silence gave it away. "That"s why you're down here. You want me to fix it for you."

"You're a brilliant scientist, one of the brightest I"ve seen in some time, but no. I don"t need you tinkering with a fool-proof design."

"Then why try to explain your side of the story? You're trying to get me to comply, which you know I won't, because I have something you need." I had no idea where Dad had hidden the blueprints, or how I would begin to repair the tracker if it was actually broken, but Reinhardt didn't know that.

"Just being here is everything we need from you, though your compliance would be appreciated."

"But it's not enough," I continued, and it felt good for the gears to be turning in my brain again as it pieced together the bilious puzzle he'd presented. "And I'm not enough. You can't present me to the public without being exposed as a kidnapper. And you can't find Kai or any merfolk without a working tracker, I'll make sure of that."

"Honestly Maren, you surprised me. I thought you wanted to be a scientist, not some bleeding-heart hippie. Can't you see we are doing what's best in the name of science?"

"There is no right way to do the wrong thing." I spat. "Do whatever the hell you want to me, I will never help you."

His saccharine smile was grating on my last nerve, but he stood too far away for me to lunge at him without flopping on the floor like a freshly caught flounder.

"I'll give you a few more days to think it over. I assure you Maren, I can be very persuasive."