Sea Storm: Children of the Waves by LaVerne Thompson

shore.
    “Des!” Cori yelled and rushed forward to
embrace her friend.
    Des held up both hands to hold her off.
Looking back and forth between them all, her mouth opened and closed but no
words came forth. Finally, her eyes rolled up into her head and she crumpled
onto the deck.

    Des woke up alone in bed, but when she
touched the sheet, she found it still warm. She sat up but she couldn’t hear
Zek in the bathroom, something pulled her out of bed. The breeze from the open
doorway leading outside brushed past her. Zek had closed it when they’d first
come in. Perhaps he’d gone out there. She went into the bathroom and put on the
sundress she’d left on the floor, then returned to the bedroom. Going over to
the open doorway, she pushed the screen aside.
    A blanket of stars covered the darkened
sky but she saw a faint orange glow barely brushing the horizon. Dawn lay
moments away. Maybe that’s why she noticed the three moving silhouettes. One
already swam in the water, the other two racing for it. She recognized them. “What
the hell!”
    She hurried after the men though she
could no longer see Zek’s dark hair; he must have gone under and had yet to
surface. She watched Aaron and Cyrus swimming farther out. Oh, my God, Zek! The
man thought himself some kind of merman descended from Poseidon. Crazy or not,
she couldn’t let anything happen to him. She might not understand the intense
attraction between them, but it went beyond mere lust. Her heart contracted in
pain at the thought of losing him. She raced over the sand and out to the water
after the men. They were so far out. She tried to mark where they were going as
best she could. Praying and hoping they’d get to Zek in time to save him.
    Suddenly, when both men dove and didn’t
come back up, she panicked. The water seemed calm moments ago, but now rocked
like it would during a storm. Except no storm swirled overhead. Glancing up the
beach, she saw nothing and no one who could help. She looked to the other side
where the housekeepers resided but it would take too long to get there and then
back. Making a split decision, she sprinted for the dock. There were three
boats moored there. She couldn’t sail the larger crafts by herself, but the
relatively smaller motorboat she could manage. Plus, it had speed.
    She released the rope and pushed it away
from the dock. As it moved off, she hopped aboard and headed for the controls.
It seemed simple enough as she pushed the starter on. It might be larger than
anything she’d ever driven before but she had no choice. She kept her eye on the
spot where she thought the men had gone down and raced for it. Praying and
hoping they’d resurface, so she’d know she headed to the right area.
    Des kept going until she thought she
reached the spot and searched around. Looking back at the shoreline, she doubted
herself and what she’d seen. It all seemed so incredible. Why? Why would Zek
come all the way out here? They’d just found each other. They were supposed to
be together. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she immediately brushed them away
and shook her head. No! He couldn’t be dead. She wouldn’t accept that and screamed his name.
    A sound had her spinning around and
moving to the other side of the boat. She saw not the three men she expected
but Zek, a stranger who seemed familiar and looked remarkably like Zek
and—Cori…swimming toward the boat.
    Before she could say anything, Zek paused
and appeared to just shoot right out of the water, landing on the boat deck in
front of her. A naked Zek. “What the fuck?”
    She took a step back and then both Cori
and the stranger did the same thing, Landing smack on the deck. Her mouth
dropped open at the sight of her friend and at last, she recognized the man
with her, Xavior. She looked at Zek and Xav, recognizing the resemblance. For
the first time in her life, darkness invaded her waking mind and her body
crumpled. Muscular arms enfolded her and then nothing.
    Voices.