Watchtowers : Water Read online

  “Thank you. I would have died if you hadn’t intervened.” Keely realized Zion wasn’t the threatening entity she feared. Maybe she could help him, and he her. Perhaps Zion held the key to discovering an answer regarding her ability to communicate with the dolphins. “I have good news for you.”

  Zion quirked an eyebrow, and then straightened to his full height.

  Unable to conceal her excitement she gushed. “Have they told you? The physicians...are allowing me out of bed today, perhaps even releasing me.”

  She watched him run his fingers through his long hair. He didn’t smile. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy for me?”

  “Your leg, is it recovered? Shouldn’t you rehabilitate the break?”

  Worry lines appeared to crease his handsome face. “If I hadn’t sustained the injury underwater I would have gone home before now. They’ve been keeping an eye on the sealing to make sure no infection developed.” She paused and studied his features. “What is it?”

  “I’d hoped to take you away from here … to work on your power before there is another cataclysmic event.”

  She bit her lip. She needed to say more and the words on her tongue wouldn’t please him. “I need to go home.”

  Keely had never seen the word “crestfallen” as a verb. The look on his face personified the word. Joy ran from his face the way ice cream melted down a cone. Compelled to explain she went on, “I need to take care of things. Look for my parents. Salvage my research. You do understand don’t you?”

  Desperation tinted her words. Her stomach lurched and turned nauseous at the thought he didn’t recognize her need to see what remained of her home and discover what happened to her family.

  He held his thoughts behind veiled eyes the way a poker player hid the excitement of a winning hand. Keely detected a small motion, which gave his frustration away, a tic near the upper end of his jaw. “I need to do this, Zion. If the devastation of the tsunami took their lives, I need to put it all to rest. I can’t take care of my responsibilities properly here.”

  The disappointment she read in his face disappeared. Surprise at his ready capitulation seized her. “You’re not upset?”

  “What choice do I have? Family loyalties are not to be underestimated.”

  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood. Her weak muscles refused to hold her at first and she clutched the side of the bed momentarily.

  Zion rushed to her side, his arm went around her waist to steady her. “I can’t let you do this.”

  She wasn’t sure to what he referred. “Do what?”

  “Go home.” He paused and just as she was about to argue her point once more, Zion continued. “Without me. If you go, then I go with you.”

  She opened her mouth to protest but he cut off her words and clasped her to his solid chest. “It’s the only way, Keely.”

  On this point she allowed him the victory. There was no way of knowing what she would find once she returned to the estate. She nodded her head against the solid wall of muscle warming her.

  He tipped her head so she had to look up at him. His words cascaded over her like a gentle, warm rain. “Are you okay with this?”

  Next to him she was small and insignificant. It might be easier in some ways if she took care of family matters on her own. Even though he alluded to her mother’s mental state when they met, Zion didn’t need to know the full extent of her issues.

  On the other hand, natural disasters brought out two sorts of people. Those sacrificing to help and those using the event as an opportunity for gain. Either could await her at the Shane Castle.

  “Yes.” She placed her hand on his chest and felt the steady beat of his heart beneath her palm.

  Zion’s arms tightened around her, bands of muscle leaving no room for escape. She didn’t want to. Being in his arms offered her comfort and something else precious and almost imperceptible, the illusion of love.

  Waiting for love to enter her life tried Keely’s patience a lot when she was in her twenties. No one she met measured up to her fantasy man. Now, years later, she understood why. Zion was no dream conjured by an ill mind. Her doctors had been wrong; Zion was as real as the stars, moon or the dolphins in the sea.

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his full lips. He lifted her off the floor and brought her more level with his mouth. His lips parted under her gentle invasion and she took advantage of every opportunity he gave. The kiss went on for long seconds until she finally broke it. “I think now is as good a time as any.”

  Setting her back on her feet, Zion growled against her throat. “For what?”

  “To finish what we started in the cove.”

  Keely trailed her fingers across his chest, stopping to toy with each nipple through the black cotton. When they’d hardened into tiny peaks, she caressed his navel through the shirt, and then dipped her hand lower to cup his erection.

  He grabbed her arm by the wrist. “Don’t.”

  “Why not? I know you want me.”

  “I wanted you before and you accused me of taking advantage. I’ll not have my actions thrown in my face again.”

  His argument made sense. She’d spurned him in the cove. Her rejection must have stung like salt water in a cut.

  “Tell me something, Zion. All those midnight walks on the beach, the philosophical discussions we carried on in my mind ...what were those about? Getting laid?”

  He looked as if she’d slapped him. “No. How could you think that?”

  “I don’t.” Keely smiled. “I was just making sure there was something more to you and me than raw animal attraction.”

  He twisted her hair around his hands, stroked his face with the strands. “When you were young, I lusted after you. I forced myself to stay away. Then you began taking those drugs; I knew you didn’t want or need me any longer.”

  “No. That’s not true. Everyone believed I was delusional. They convinced me I was imagining a man that couldn’t be. No one believed we’d been lovers for years. In the end, I believed all the doctors were right.” Her throat closed up, choking her words. What had she denied herself and Zion for the past five years? “That night on the beach when I found you ... why did you come back?”

  He swept her into his arms, peppered her jaw with tiny kisses before sucking and blowing on her earlobe. “Lotis. He told me he saw you regularly. I couldn’t keep the memories of you hidden. Something or someone seemed to dredge them up with regularity.”

  Zion placed her back on the bed and straddled her. “I needed you,” he said simply before placing his mouth on the swell of her breast.

  “I stopped taking the medication a few days before the tsunami struck. I knew I’d never be convinced what was truth and what was imagination while I was medicated.”

  He stopped his ministrations. Grief filled his eyes and spilled into his words. “I told you I was real, Keely. When will you believe me?”

  “I was wrong. I know the truth. You are as real as the air I breathe. I need you.”

  His little kisses resumed and became slight bites, laved by Zion’s talented tongue. He sent heated flashes throughout her body, to the very center she wanted him to fill.

  She fondled his body, reaching to touch his manhood once more. “I want you Zion, in me, right now.”

  Even though she’d given permission, he hesitated, as if she’d stuck him in a cold fountain.

  “What is it, Zion?”

  “You’re not ready for this completion. I won’t make love to you under false illusions or pretenses.”

  Stunned, Keely backed out of his arms. Did she hold false pretenses about Zion? She’d told him she’d told him she no longer doubted his existence, confessed she knew him to be real and not a figment of her imagination. Was he still hurt from her earlier rejection and trying to protect his emotions?

  Tears sprang to her eyes and she quickly turned away. No way was she letting him see her cry. She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. She was ready to accept Zion
for who he was. If he didn’t believe her, she’d just have to wait for her actions to convince him otherwise. She just hoped she could keep her frustrations at bay long enough for him to announce that she was ready for their union.

  Chapter Six

  Upon her release from the hospital, Keely saw the results of the tsunami’s devastation. Death and debris littered the beach. Gone were the pristine sands where she imagined making love to Zion someday in the future.

  Broken pieces of wood, boats with gaping holes, downed trees, shards of glass, and sections of the protective abutment disrupted the once placid beach. “Dear God. The force to break the wall…” she couldn’t go on. The sight before her combined with the awful stench of decaying bodies turned her stomach. Rage oozed from her pores at the wanton destructiveness.

  Zion’s words came to her choked and angry. “I had no idea he was capable of this.”

  Keely’s anger needed a direction to vent. “Who? Who did this?”

  A frown crossed his face. Zion moved nearer and pulled her into his arms. “What I’ll tell you is another item you’ll find difficult to believe.”

  Fisting her hands, she willed herself to listen rather than give in to the urge to pummel her frustration against his chest. “Much of what I know I’ve learned is incomplete. I don’t think there is much remaining you can shock me with.”

  He kissed the top of her head before he leaned his chin on it. “Remember when I showed you my ability to stop the wave?”

  “Yes.” The single word hung in the air like a condemnation.

  “I said there were two others with this ability, besides the perpetrator of these unnatural disasters.”

  Her head snapped back and she looked him in the eye. “Disasters, more than one?”

  Zion released her from his embrace, and then guided her toward the abutment. “You’re unaware of the hurricanes?”

  She shook her head. “Terrible storms ravaged the coast of the United States. Far stronger than normal, but not out of season.”

  They reached the damaged wall. The gateway door, half open, didn’t respond to her magnetic key. Zion stepped around her and shoved the door further open, wide enough for them to exit and reach the stairs on the cliff.

  “Stay behind me, Keely.”

  “Why? I’ve climbed these stairs thousands of times.”

  He grabbed her elbow and forced her to look again into his aqua blue eyes. Pity resided in their depths. “Are you sure you want to go on? ”

  A soft breeze lifted the golden strands of his hair and tempted her to entwine her fingers in his silky mane. For a nanosecond she wished she wasn’t here, but she’d made the decision, ignored his advice to go with him somewhere safe to practice.

  Again, he pulled her into his arms. “I don’t know what you’ll see.” His lips deferentially grazed hers.

  She wanted to respond to both his statement and his kiss. He was right. The large arm of the tsunami, having broken through the shielding wall, might easily have reached across the grasses and slammed into the castle. Animals, people, tossed scooters and jet cycles, all could lay in horrifying disarray near her home. Things he’d probably witnessed before to some degree. Keely sighed. Zion’s offer meant to protect her from the ugliness.

  Silently she followed him up the stairs, also severely damaged by the tsunami. A glance over her shoulder toward the beach revealed debris and destruction as far as she could see. Beneath her breath she prayed the disharmony of the beach wouldn’t be evident once she reached the top.

  In front of her, Zion stopped. “Keely, go back down.”

  She stepped around him. Zion’s warning came too late. All about, she saw the results of the tsunami’s rampage.

  The sight was all she feared and more. Dead animals, fish, bodies decomposing in the front lawn. She rushed forward and searched for familiar faces. There was Johnny from the green grocer. The waves must have carried him here to his final resting place. She turned from his wasting body only to see more destruction.

  Rusted pieces of ancient metal sliced into the tall oaks. Broken branches from the strawberry trees hung by thin strings of bark. Keely stumbled forward and tried to make sense of the stimulus overloading her brain. Covering her mouth, she continued toward the castle, terrified her parents perished in the cataclysm.

  Stench wafted from the dead bodies of people, animals and fish and made her nauseous. She reached two more bodies, her stomach clenched with dread. Kneeling, she rolled the first body over and looked into the decaying features of her mother. Around her neck she still wore the black onyx butterfly pendant, a gift her father gave her mother on their first anniversary.

  Ragged sobs broke from her depths. Her mother, gentle, displaced royalty gone. She scrambled on her knees to the lanky body near that of her mother. She closed her eyes and prayed it wasn’t him, wasn’t her father. She tilted the body toward her and glanced into his lifeless face.

  Great shudders wracked her body. A chill stole over her, stealing her warmth as though somehow it could be used to reanimate her parents.

  Gone.

  They were gone. How often had Keely disregarded them because she believed they ignored her? No more would they try to match her up with a man they deemed worthy of her. No more would they be there to fret about her mental health and her future DNA donor. Their deaths should have brought relief now that she was no longer a pawn in their odd games.

  Instead, guilt slammed into her with the force of a hurricane. She should have tried harder to communicate her dreams and desires with them, gotten to know why they were so concerned over controlling the physical make-up of their future grand children. Domnu forgive her, she hadn’t made the most of the time she’d been given to be with them.

  Behind her, she sensed Zion. His rage seethed in palpable waves. The turbulence of his emotions matched hers. Whoever did this needed to pay, needed to be stopped. She gulped down her tears determined to find the person responsible. “Who else has this ability?” she growled.

  Zion surrounded her with his arms. “You do.”

  She broke free from his embrace, spun on her heels and confronted him. She tapped a finger against the solid wall of his chest. The fury within demanded release, but she held onto the tattered shreds of her humanity.

  She looked around once more, taking in the needless destruction, the unnecessary death. She swallowed back the bile burning her throat. “I didn’t do this.”

  The anger she’d restrained bubbled up from the recesses of her soul. New tears escaped and stung her eyes. She whirled and bolted across the debris-strewn grass toward home. She nearly gained the front doors when she spied a movement at the edge of the castle. Looters.

  Fury spurred her toward the motion. She rounded the corner ready to leap on the unfortunate soul who deigned to cross her family’s threshold uninvited. Her intended victim, a tall man, didn’t seem to notice her arrival.

  With an adrenaline-fueled dive, she crashed on the man’s back and slammed her fist into his kidneys. He hit the ground face first with a grunt, and then with a twist flipped Keely onto her back.

  She struggled against his stronger physique. His weight bore down on her, effectively controlling her puny efforts. Her lack of physical strength against a foe was disconcerting. However, the alarm in his eyes gave her a moral victory despite the fact that he had her pinned. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “I’m on top. I ask the questions.” He arched a blond brow. “What are you doing at the Shane residence?”

  “I live here,” she hissed. Zion’s form hovered at the back of the man who held her captive. Keely smiled. “You don’t.”

  Zion hauled the man from her body with a single hand. “That’s no way to treat a lady.”

  “She didn’t kidney punch you.”

  Zion snarled. “I didn’t give her a reason.”

  Keely sprang to her feet and kept her voice low and menacing. “I’ll ask you once more–”

  “Yeah, I know. You want to know
who the ‘fuck’ I am. Do I have that about right? Wouldn’t want to miss the tonal inflections you delivered.”

  She narrowed her eyes and framed her hips with her hands. “My day isn’t going so great right now. Don’t make it worse. Why were you skulking around my house?”

  The stranger tipped his blond head toward Zion. “Inside jacket pocket. I.D. Thane Denton, EPA.”

  Keely grimaced. “Earth Protection Agency?

  Denton nodded “I’m looking for Keely Shane.”

  The idea of the EPA returning for her didn’t sit well. The visit by Jade and Raiden coupled with their insinuations regarding her past still rankled. It took just a moment to make her decision. Denton wasn’t finding out anything from her anytime soon. Not until she had a clear idea of what the EPA truly expected of her. “Great. Yet another government entity to deal with. Don’t you guys find enough electronic paperwork to do without bothering hard working folk?”

  This would challenge her nearly non-existent acting abilities. She nonchalantly waved her hand. “Ms. Shane isn’t here.”

  Ignoring her diatribe, Thane Denton smiled, almost as if he laughed at her. “Ms. Shane, you might be a talented scientist, but don’t ever go into espionage. You already confessed this was your property.”

  Every fiber in her being wanted to argue with him, but the man caught her in her own small web of deceit. Lying backfired on her every time.

  “So,” Denton continued. “Do you think you could call this Neanderthal off me?”

  *****

  Zion didn’t like Thane Denton. He didn’t like the way the cocky bastard talked to Keely, didn’t like the way he’d pinned her to the ground outside the Castle.

  Their chat with him in the parlor didn’t improve Zion’s impression of the fast-talking American. The EPA sounded legit based on his chat with Jade and Raiden, but Thane still hadn’t explained what he exactly wanted Keely to do. If it dealt with stopping Amidurah, he’d let Denton know she wasn’t strong enough to even make an attempt.