Wickedly Wonderful (Baba Yaga, #2)(99)
Now the sound and the smell and the rhythms of the sea had gotten back under his skin. Just like the woman sitting next to him.
He turned to face her, pulling her in close, breathing in the scent of her and that strange, elusive hint of strawberries. One hand rose to caress the velvet of her cheek, and the other tangled in her silky hair as he bent down to press his lips against hers in a kiss that he’d intended to be gentle but that somehow turned to fiery passion as soon as their lips touched.
Her arms reached up to wrap around his neck, holding on as if she would never let go. She kissed him back with an ardor that astonished, gratified, and aroused him all at once, and for a moment, he lost himself in the kiss, and in the woman, thinking to himself, now this, this is magic.
She finally pulled away, leaving Marcus feeling as if she took all the oxygen with her as she went. The space within his arms where she had been felt strangely empty and cold.
Beka’s smile glinted at him in the darkness. “What was that for?” she asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”
Marcus stood up with a sigh, handing her the box containing the Water of Life and Death and then tugging her up with him and turning them both back toward the Jeep and the complications of reality.
“I have a feeling it is going to be a long night,” he said. “And I wanted something pleasant to think about in the midst of all the craziness.”
“I could give you even more to think about, if you like,” she said in a throaty voice, and his pants were suddenly tighter than they had been. He was incredibly tempted to run away from all of his troubles and hide in the warmth of her arms. And her bed. Images flashed before his eyes of Beka, naked and lovely, smiling her bright smile, long lashes half hiding those remarkable eyes.
“Oh, believe me,” he said, barely able to form coherent words. “You just did.” He sighed again, a gusty protest against obligation and responsibility. “But I really need to get home and talk to my father.”
“I know,” Beka said. She hugged him quickly before walking him to the driver’s side.
He slid into the seat and turned the key. “So I guess you have to spend the morning figuring out how to get the radiation out of the trench. Can you really do that?”
“I think so,” Beka said. “I guess we’ll find out. Can you really talk to your father about Selkies and Merpeople and witches?”
“I think so,” Marcus said glumly. “I guess we’re going to find out.”
*
BEKA STOOD FOR a moment in the darkness, watching the lights of the Jeep recede into the distance. It felt symbolic somehow of what was yet to come. One way or the other, Marcus’s father would soon no longer need him. And then Marcus would leave, and she would never see him again. The very thought made the night seem colder, and the stars less bright.
“It ain’t over until it’s over,” Chewie said, materializing out of nowhere. Beka jumped, having almost forgotten he was there. Toe-tingling kisses could do that to a girl.
“What?” she said. “You mean solving the water people’s problem? I know there’s still a lot of work to do.”
“That too,” Chewie said, “but that’s not what I was talking about.” He shook his head, rolling big brown eyes in her direction. “You need to have a little more faith.”
“I need to focus on doing my job,” she said, trying to do just that. “Speaking of which, I need you to do one last thing for me.”
He gave a dragonish snort, crisping the edges of a few nearby weeds. “If it involves chasing down a certain fisherman and sitting on him until he comes to his senses, I’m all in.”
Beka ruffled his fur, not sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. “No, you ninny. Not that. I’ve been thinking about those canisters Kesh put into the trench. It would be a lot easier to clean up the area if they were gone. But I can’t risk moving them by boat because we’d contaminate everything they touched. Could you bring them all up to the surface for me, if I can figure out some place to stash them until I can make an anonymous call to the authorities?”
Chewie looked longingly across the road and up the bluff to where the bus sat waiting. “I’ll do it,” he said, “but then I swear, I’m never letting the Water of Life and Death out of my sight again. This has all been way too traumatic.”
Tell me about it, Beka thought. “Fine by me,” she said. “But where the heck are we going to put that radioactive mess where it won’t hurt anyone?”
Chewie gnawed on his tail thoughtfully. “None of the canisters are leaking very badly, as far as I can tell. It was only the cumulative effect over time that caused such drastic problems for the underwater trench. Isn’t there someplace out of the way where you could put them? Preferably right on the ocean, so I can stay in dragon form the entire time?”
Beka pondered. “Well, we could probably use the little cove where Marcus and I fought with Kesh. If he thought it was isolated enough to risk meeting his followers there, it would probably be a safe place to leave the canisters for a few hours until they could be picked up by a cleanup crew.” She would be very happy when the containers were back in the hands of people who knew how to deal with them. Without using magic, that is.
She gave Chewie the directions so he would know how to get there, and reminded him to try and keep a low profile when he made his multiple trips back and forth between the trench and the cove. It wouldn’t do to suddenly have a whole bunch of people report seeing a flying sea dragon, all on the same night.