Chapter 22: Treachery

“Wait, that's it?” Ilia looked shocked. “We're just going home?”

Joe nodded. They were in her room, the small, stereotypical circular window open and letting the breeze come in. Joe was brushing her hair, the ugly green warmth suit set out on her bed, ready to be put on. Underneath it, she was only going to wear a swim suit.

Ilia sighed and shook her head. “I just can't believe that that's it! It's so sudden.”

“Not really.” Joe shook her head. “It's just about time. Our orders were just to identify. We've done that. It's done. Time to move on.”

“But, we were having so much fun.” Ilia pouted on Joe's bed. “And if we're leaving, why are you going back down in the mini-sub?”

“I have to.” Joe pulled her hair back and started braiding it in long plait down her back. “We need to get the tap back. That's an expensive piece of equipment. Besides, we weren't out here to have fun. This isn't a pleasure cruise, Ilia.”

“Of course not.” Ilia grumbled. “I would never go on a cruise, I'm not a big fan of water. But what if we don't see each other again?”

“I'm transferring to oceanic you know.” Joe laughed as she turned to her friend.

“Yeah, but I don't work oceanic.” Ilia complained. “I was only brought in to fix a computer problem Josh couldn't. Then I was kept on to make sure you two had no issues with the electronics. After this I'm probably going right back to base.”

“You know they invented cell phones a while back, right?” Joe laughed. “It's not like we wont ever see each other again. Perk up.”

“I'm trying to.” She sighed. “But my favorite method for doing that is being denied me.”

“Stop thinking about it.” Joe said as she walked forward and grabbed her green suit.

Ilia smiled as she approached. “You know, I do damn good work.”

“What do you mean?” Joe asked.

“That tat.” Ilia looked at her work. “It's gorgeous. My best work, I must say.”

Joe laughed. “Yeah, it healed really well. It's not sore anymore either.”

“So, are you going to show Kai?” Ilia asked, grinning like a fool.

“I was thinking about it.” Joe giggled as she blushed hotly. “There is a rather long trip down to the ocean floor ahead of us.”

“Ooh, in the mini-sub? Naughty, naughty.” Ilia tisked but she was smiling.

“But those are all the details you get.” Joe said as she pulled the green warmth suit on.

“Aw. Why?” Ilia frowned.

“You're going through withdrawals.” Joe patted her shoulder comfortingly. “The last thing you need to to try and live vicariously. You wanna be me and Kai's sub room controller for the dive?”

Ilia looked confused. “What about Josh?”

“He's oversleeping this morning.” Joe laughed. “He works so hard, he deserves a break. Besides, I can count on you not to interrupt Kai and I with anything useless while we're...occupied. And that's all the details you get.”

Ilia jumped up and hugged her. “Oh, thanks, sweetie! I promise, you won't here a peep from us and I'll get you to the bottom without a word from the control room. You got high hopes for this dive, huh?”

“One way or another, Ilia,” Joe said confidently, “I am coming out of that sub with his arms firmly around me.”

XXXXXXXXXX

“Just a quick dive.” Kai said as Kyma descended into the mini-sub first. Ben, the maintenance man he was speaking to, nodded.

“Sure thing.” he said. “Ilia said Joe gave her permission to man the control room?”

Kai nodded. “Yes. That's fine.”

“Are you sure?” Ben looked uncertain. “'Cause Josh is actually paid to do stuff like this. I can wake him up, it's no big deal.”

“It's fine.” Kai insisted. “It's just a simple retrieval dive.”

“If you insist.” Ben shrugged. “Good luck.”

Kai nodded his thanks as he turned to the sub and climbed inside. As he locked the door, Kyma was already putting up the plastic covers on the windows.

“Our last dive.” she said offhandedly. “Excited?”

“It doesn't mean we are going to separate.” he reminded her gently as he sat down on the ground beside her.

“Ready you two?” Ilia's voice came over the intercom.

“Go ahead.” Kyma said, after leaning down and pressing the green button.

“Drop commencing in 3...2...1.”

Their bellies lurches as the giant magnet released the sub and the fell and crashed into the water.

“That's actually become kind of fun.” Kyma laughed. “I can't believe the thought of doing this ever used to scare me.”

Kai nodded in agreement as he found a comfortable spot to sit, leaning against a piece of wall where there was nothing he could accidentally press.

“So, we got two hours to kill.” she said looking at him sweetly. “What do you want to do?”

Kai had no trouble catching up on what she was getting at. She had that tempting, come here, look in her eyes.

But he had yet to figure out why he hesitated. Why was he denying himself her touch, her love? It really didn't make sense. What could he possibly be waiting for?

“I have something to show you.” she licked her lips, not seductively but nervously. “Want to see?”

Kai raised one brow but didn't speak.

Kyma stood up, her head almost brushing the top of the sub. She reached up a hand, hesitated for a second, then pulled the zipper down on the front of her suit.

“You'll get cold.” Kai said automatically though his eyes followed the path of her hand and was mesmerized by the strip of flesh suddenly bared to his eyes. She didn't appear to be wearing anything but a bikini underneath. Not that uncommon and still it made his loins tighten not uncomfortably.

“I can think of a few ways to get warm.” she was blushing despite how sure of herself she was about this.

He watched, his eyes sharp and not missing a thing, as she slid the green suit down her body, and slipped it off with the boots she had left loose so she could do exactly that. She stood back up, showing him her body without shame as she watched his reaction.

Kai's eyes had run down her body as she exposed it to him. He enjoyed it a lot more than he had ever enjoyed anything. And the thought that she was baring it for him, and only him, was also extremely pleasing.

Then he spotted it as she stood back up. There could be no doubt as to what she had been referring and they had definitely not been there the last time he saw her in a swim suit.

“Those...” he got to his knees and walked on them over to her so his head was even with her hips.

He reached up a hand but hesitated just before he touched them.

“It's a tattoo.” Kyma's voice was soft, waiting for his judgment. “It finally finished healing. Took longer than we thought. I guess because it was so big.”

Kai blinked, not really sure he was seeing what he was seeing. He put his fingers on one and ran it down.

There, on both hips, were three identical slashes. Six perfectly created and incredibly realistic gills.

“You said I would look good with gills. Remember?” Kyma asked. “I thought, since I couldn't actually get real ones, this might do.”

Kai didn't speak as he looked them over.

The artist, and he was pretty sure he could guess who that was, had done an incredible job. She had even put the beginnings of scales, like they were just starting to form around the gills. But they weren't silver or any normal color that scales were. They were red. It was expertly done, he could almost imagine the rest of the transformation taking place, covering her entire lower half with the gloriously red scales.

“It's beautiful.” he said at last, putting Kyma out of her misery.

“Really?” she asked, smiling. “You like it?”

Kai didn't speak, instead he leaned forward and pressed his lips against the colored flesh, running them along the tattoo as if he could begin to feel the gills and scales.

He was a merman, scales were just part of being a being of sea. He saw sets every time he saw one of his kind. They were normal, ordinary, almost unnoticeable. Like the nose on any human face.

But on Kyma?

On Kyma the gills were somehow overpoweringly sexy.

He leaned back and looked up at her. “S 'agapo.” his voice was low and rumbling and completely sure.

“I love you, too.” Kyma smiled happily.

He raised an eye brow curiously.

“I looked that one up.” she laughed as she got on her knees as well and put her arms around his neck. “I was waiting for it.”

As was he, Kai realized. This was exactly what he had been waiting for.

He pulled her closer and kissed her sweetly, thanking her for this gift she gave to him. And this was a gift; a sweet, loving present just for him.

He could easily live the rest of his life loving this woman he discovered at that moment. This perfect red headed human.

A sudden vision filled his head. Him and her at that same beach house that he always imagined. But this time, they were watching a pair of half-human, half-mer children. Their red headed children, playing in the water. Half-human children, no matter what mythic they were mixed with, were called demis. From the word demi-human.

Demi merchildren would never have tails, but they would have both gills and lungs and could use both at will. Like they were perpetually on CBI's. And he wanted those children, he wanted that life with her.

He just wanted her.

He laid her back on the cushioned floor of the sub, one hand caressing her skin, the other buried in her glorious hair.

She unzipped his warmth suit and pulled it down but it got stuck on his boots.

They had to pause while he sat back and untied them.

Kyma watched him patiently, running her fingers up and down her torso. Tracing her gills. Circling her belly button.

Beautiful.

His heart, his mind, was full of her.

This, he understood, was why humans invented marriage. He wanted to be bound to her, have her bound to him, in a substantial way.

He would give her a wedding, he decided as he returned to her embrace, boots removed. He would give her anything.

Joe worked with mythics because the different species were fascinating to her. But she never thought that she would fall for one.

Kai, quiet, commanding, strong, Kai. He was everything she ever wanted without ever realizing that she wanted it.

When he kissed her, he did it thoroughly, without holding back. He held her close, his cooler body still so hot against hers.

He smelled like the sea.

He whispered her name, 'Kyma', into her ear.

Why was it so natural to respond to that name? After such a short time, after believing the name couldn't possibly describe her, and only ever hearing him say it? Still, it was her name now.

And she loved this man who called her Wave. This man who wasn't even of her species. This perfect, incredible, powerful man.

And how could she not love such a man?

The air in the sub started to get heavy as their pants and gasps filled it.

Kai ran his hand over every inch of her he could reach. Mermen and mermaids didn't mate in quite the same way humans did. Mermaids weren't even physically capable of having orgasms.

However, the human woman beneath him could. And she wiggled and bucked at his touch as it stimulated the nerves of her body.

She grasped at his neck as he pulled off her swimsuit, moaned softly in his ear as he brushed his fingers through her hair, bent her knees as he settled himself between her legs.

Human love making, Kai decided, was a lot better than merfolk sex.

He loved hearing her whimpers as he pushed into her, found it incredibly hot as she moved her hips in time with his thrusts, and dug her nails into his back with each stroke.

He whispered Greek in her ear, endearments and loving words of ecstasy.

The smell of sweat and sex filled the small room, neither noticing how hot it was getting inside because of their antics. They were too wrapped up in each other.

And when that glorious moment of pleasure swept over Joe as Kai's mind went blank with complete physical rhapsody, it was like the heavens opened up and shined down on both of them, wrapping them in a blanket of bliss.

XXXXXXXXXX

“Shall we check in with them?” a man in the sub room asked as they monitored the sub's descent.

“Nah.” Ilia waved the suggestion away carelessly. “They're fine.”

“But we have a spike of carbon dioxide levels.” another man said. “It might be bad.”

“Or it might not.” Ilia shrugged. “Don't worry about things so much.”

“What the hell is this?”

Ilia turned and smiled as Josh came in looking pissed.

“Hey, boo-boo!” Ilia waved happily from her seat. “Enjoy your lay in?”

“No.” Josh looked around. “What's going on?”

“Nothing much.” Ilia shrugged again. “Sweetie and love machine went down in the sub.”

“What?” Josh blinked in surprise.

“It's cool.” Ilia smiled. “We don't need you for this. Go relax. Eat some brea...lunch, actually.”

Josh opened his mouth to complain. Then sighed. “Are you sure you can handle a dive on your own, Ilia?”

“I'm the smartest fairy in the forest, big boy.” Ilia winked. “Leave it all to me.”

“All right.” Josh shook his head in disbelief as he left.

No sooner had the door shut behind him that he was pulling a phone from his pocket.

He dialed a number that he was never permitted to save into his phone.

After only two rings, it was picked up. “Sir.” he said. “They went back down again. What do you want me to do?”