“Coastal Maine is a far cry from the Mediterranean but maybe you’ll like it.”
“I hope so. I like my sense of purpose on this ship but I don’t feel like a permanent fit, curse or no curse. I’ll have to think of something one day. How do your families handle all of you being away so much with such a dangerous job?”
Cancer traced his book’s cover. “Some don’t,” he admitted. “More often than not, wives can’t handle us being away as much as we are. Kids look at their fathers as strangers. Divorce is far too common for sailors. We miss so much in the name of putting food on the table and a roof over our families’ heads, but we do our jobs because we love them. And we love the sea.”
“How does your wife handle it?”
He shrugged. “She’s a painter. She needs a lot of alone time to work, so our lifestyles compliment each other. Hopefully it’ll work just as well for you and Mido. You’ve made him very happy.”
Jessie turned to Mido and began admiring the contours of his face—his straight nose, his soft lips, the stubble-covered line of his jaw, the shape of his ears, all of it. “As he’s made me. I hope everything turns out alright for all of us.” She ran a hand through his hair and refrained from mentioning her hopes to steal him from the rest of the crew. Maybe instead she could do as Cancer’s wife did and have a life of her own while Mido kept his job as ship cook, but she cringed at the idea. They’d been together for three quick months. She wasn’t sure that was anywhere near enough to be strong enough to go on without him for months at a time, but still, it was something to consider once the dust settled. “But this curse thing first. If we’re all still alive and I can do no more, I’ll start thinking about it. For now there’s no point. Is it time to wake him again?”
Cancer looked at his watch. “Fifteen more minutes.”
Chapter 27
Stuck
I was dimly aware of who I was and where I was going. I was Dyne Lavere, Captain of the Pertinacious, a cursed skipper, and on a collision course with the palace where the water gods dwell. And since I’d been forcibly transformed, I was overloaded with hormones. A small part of my mind was aware enough to feel humiliation and dread. The rest of me could think of nothing more than finding Amphitrite and bedding her over and over. I swam in my secondary demon form, a serpentine water dragon with no legs and instead a tail over twice as long as the rest of my body, making it possible to swim as fast as a race boat from the days before the Purge. Yep, my hormones were hell-bent on uniting me with her as soon as possible.
My mental haze made it impossible to tell how long it took to arrive at the underwater mountain range rising up before me. Could’ve been months. Could’ve been days. The small, humiliated part of me was curious, but the rest of me focused on navigating the mountainous seascape so I could hurry up and copulate. Two spires of lava rock jutted out among the range, a sign that I was close. I slowed my hellish pace and hunted for the next landmark.
Two more spires guided me deeper in the water. Rays of moonlight lanced all the way down to the seaweeds and anemones rocking back and forth in the current. I passed between the second set of spires and the reef below me became geometric in layout, like it was hiding a Greek temple underneath all that growth. Schools of various tropical fish flourished among the reef.
The water darkened as I swam into a pitch black tunnel without hesitation. My heightened senses kept my course visible. Soon I would be there. Soon my body would rock with hers. Very soon.
The underwater tunnel ended at a small pool—well small to my demon form—that sat at the beginning of an air-filled tunnel. Bioluminescent fish illuminated the pool and hall. My serpentine head broke the surface and paused to take in my newest surroundings. Two large veins of water lined the walls, and a third at the apex of the domed ceiling. Old divine powers held the water in place while schools of glowing fish swam to and fro inside. The place smelled like saltwater and rock.
I slithered onto shore and down the hall like a cobra with its head up and ready to strike. At the end of the hall, I braced my clawed hands on the ground while I reformed my legs. The partial transformation tingled and felt like I was peeling apart sticky fingers. I needed legs so I could better balance my weight while I had my way with Amphitrite and her body. I rose upright and began jogging.
The hall ended at a gargantuan chamber that dwarfed me like the earth does the moon. I was a mouse inside a Greek-looking temple. Countless pillars stretched into the gloom of a ceiling I couldn’t see. Every pillar had a pictogram story carved into it, chronicling the divine past. More veins of water spiraled up the pillars and at intervals in the floor, casting the chamber in a pale blue light. I paid no mind to any part of them but their general shape, which made me think of aroused males. I jogged faster. The stone floor was blanketed in flat carvings of every creature living in the sea, plant and animal. Ancient Greece, though beautiful, was just a cheap knockoff by comparison.
I sped along the carved floor, an instinct guiding me across the chamber like a salmon swimming upstream to spawn. No one but me occupied the chamber. Even the giant throne at the end opposite the pool was empty. I jogged down another tunnel just big enough to allow me to remain upright, then flung open the double doors carved with coral patterns. They groaned, announcing my arrival.
Amphitrite lay on her bed at the far end of the room, naked. Smiling. A tiny part of me begged my demon form to turn around as I crossed the room, my eyes tunnel visioning on a body of divine perfection the same size as me. I stopped at the foot of the water bed, instinctively waiting permission to join her, my muscles taut with eager anticipation.
“Welcome, Dyne Lavere,” Amphitrite said in a sensual voice as she ran a hand along her voluptuous curves. “I’ve been waiting for you. It’s time for you to please me.”
The tiny part of me yelled in protest as I climbed onto the bed and up to her body, each touch of the bed under my clawed hands soft as a woman’s breast. She smelled delectably of sand and an ocean breeze. My hands began to explore her body, eager to find ways to make her moan in ecstasy. She held my reptilian chin with two fingers, making me go still. I looked into her dark eyes and could barely contain my need to take her as her lips flushed with desire and parted slightly.
“Eat of my honey, my pet, and be energized. You have swam a long way to unite with me.” Her fingers slid away from my chin as she reclined on her mound of silk pillows.
I gently parted her legs and lay down to my feast. The tiny part of me tried to block out what my demon form was doing.
Regrouping in Darwin didn’t have the positive impact Jessie had hoped for. She and Mido had spent the whole week trying to relax, but not knowing where Dyne was, what had happened to him for pissing Amphitrite off so bad, or when he’d be back killed her ability to think about much else. On top of that, Mido couldn’t move or breathe without causing pain. Making love was out of the question; she’d spent most of the time paying attention to his breathing to make sure he didn’t come down with pneumonia. Her constant nagging and his constant pain made them both a little cranky but they still spent every waking and sleeping moment together.
All that aside, something just plain felt wrong to wait around for Dyne to return.
When the vacation came to an end, he still hadn’t showed. Sauna secured a shipment to New Zealand, so once the whole crew gathered on the bow, Rammus announced that they’d cross to South America, work their way up whichever coast generated more business, then head home for some family time, unless Dyne appeared and decided to change plans.