Page 27 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

Theo would never have thought a seal could appear incredulous. This one did. He barked again and stood on his tail in the shallow water, his front flippers resting atop the surface to show Theo it wasn’t deep.

“Wading. Okay.”

The oasis still hadn’t shown any signs of recent humans, not even a hint of old exhaust fumes or ancient camel dung.

It wasn’t large enough to support an actual settlement.

Desert nomads may have used the oasis in the past, but apparently they no longer had a need for it in the modern world.

This morning might be the only one in hell knew how long that Theo would be able to let his guard down.

A flat rock presented a good place for him to set things out of the sand.

Limpet barked impatiently, but Theo took the time to fold first Limpet’s clothes then his own as he stripped.

He wrapped his sidearm in his shirt, holster and all, just in case Limpet decided to splash in that direction. No need to be careless .

Limpet surfaced and submerged several times, finally settling on floating with just his eyes and nose showing, watching Theo’s every move.

It was a little disconcerting, those black eyes practically devouring him, but it wasn’t anything Limpet hadn’t already seen and Theo knew he had nothing to be ashamed of, all lean muscles and long legs.

The warm waves lapped over his toes when he approached the pool. Not hot, but city pool in the summer warm, without all the nasty, eye-stinging chemicals and the kids peeing in the water. Limpet let out a series of noisy barks and flipped backward to splash Theo with his tail.

“Working on it. Shh.”

Living on the island, Theo had tried to learn to improve his swimming.

Problem was, vampire bones were quite dense and he had become even less buoyant after the change.

Water is not my friend . Slowly, cautious of sudden drop-offs, he waded in to his waist. It did feel soothing against his skin.

The delicious badness of skinny-dipping with the water gently caressing his balls did send a little thrill through him.

“Not half bad,” Theo murmured, staring through the glass-clear water at his feet. “Not bad at—whoa!”

A black torpedo shot around him and slammed into the backs of his knees, taking him down before he could react. He sputtered and swore when his head broke the surface again, trying to clear water and hair from his eyes and find Limpet to glare at all at once.

“ Cabrón!” Theo bellowed at the black head bobbing ten feet to his right. “Do you want me to drown?”

The seal let out a sad little squeak and approached more slowly. The black nose nudged at Theo’s shoulder, whiskers tickling him. Limpet ducked underneath and nosed under Theo’s arm so that it rested across his back. He surfaced just far enough to take some of Theo’s weight in the water.

“I see. You’d rescue me after drowning me. Nice of you.”

Limpet nuzzled at his throat and jaw, making little chipping sounds in what had to be an apology.

He swam slowly around Theo’s torso, the leathery texture of the skin surprising him, though the coarse fur gave another feeling entirely when Limpet rubbed back instead of forward.

Strangely sensual, having a sentient seal pay court.

Theo was certain he blushed when he realized how incredibly wrong that sounded.

He’s not a seal, though. Not really. That brain in there’s still Limpet, with all his quirks and weird thoughts .

Careful of his footing, Theo ventured in to midchest when Limpet nudged him from behind.

With his anxiety subsiding, Theo had to admit that the clean water felt wonderful after days of hot sand and grit in every fold of clothing and in places he didn’t think about ever having sand.

He dunked his head back to straighten out his hair, scrubbing at his scalp to ease the feeling of days without a shower.

When Limpet left him again to zoom through the water, gyrating and somersaulting under the surface, Theo had to laugh.

It was good to see him showing off, having fun.

He obviously felt much better than he had an hour before.

Theo decided the limit for keeping a selkie from water was about three days.

God help them if they still had a longer stretch to go without an oasis in between.

This time when he returned, Limpet rested his head on Theo’s shoulder with a soft sigh. Theo put his arms around the barrel body, guessing correctly that Limpet wanted to be held since he snuggled closer.

Theo cleared his throat. “Might be better in your other shape? Not cutting your swim short. Swim as long as you need to. But this is getting strange for me.” Really strange .

Limpet-seal made an odd rattling sound that might have been a laugh before he flipped away from Theo, did one more circuit of the pool and flopped out onto the sand.

The reverse transformation was more disturbing than fae to seal, as the seal pelt split and Limpet started to struggle out.

Theo swallowed back nausea when fingers reached through the seal chest, the process too much like John Hurt’s death in Alien .

Probably should stop watching old school sci-fi with Morrigan on my nights off.

The shocking part didn’t last long, though, and once Limpet freed his head from his seal hood, it just looked like he was struggling out of a kid-sized sleeping bag.

When he had wriggled out, Limpet rinsed the pelt and shook it out before folding it in half, then in half again.

He kept folding until it was impossibly small, a roughly rectangular packet the size of his palm that he tucked into his neat little thigh pouch.

Now that he knew it was there, Theo could see the slight bulge, as if something had been implanted under the skin.

“There. Is that better?” Limpet asked with a little grin.

“Better,” Theo growled, taking in the rest of Limpet, his first leisurely, unobstructed, undistracted view.

He really wasn’t that little. Maybe five foot ten or so.

His sleek, compact body made him seem smaller somehow, muscular but without the hard definitions of an athletic human.

The lovely, delicate features would have been strange on a human male, but they still left no doubt that he was male in the turn of the jaw and the breadth of the nose.

His glorious hair, gray, green and blue seeming to shift as colors on an ocean would, hung down to the top curve of his ass.

That tight little bubble butt, one of Theo’s great weaknesses and something that had gotten him into trouble when he was younger.

He found out the hard way that staring goggle-eyed at a beautiful male backside could get one beaten into the dirt.

He didn’t have any business looking at this one, either, even though owner of said ass was about to set Theo on fire with his eyes. “I can’t, little bit. I can’t. You’re wonderful. You’re beautiful. But I’m…it’s dangerous.”

Limpet frowned and sat on the rock next to their clothes. “You say that, but I haven’t seen it. Why do you think this? What has you so terribly afraid?”

“I’m not—” Liar. Yes, you are. You’re scared out of your mind. “I’ve killed. I lost control once and I killed.”

“Did you do it for the pleasure of killing?”

“No.”

“Did you do it because you have no care for anything but yourself?”

“No!”

“Then tell me, Theo the Nightwalker, terrible and vicious hunter, scourge of the living, why you did this thing.”

Theo waded back toward shore, wanting more solid footing. He stopped when he was waist deep again, plenty of room between them still. “I…have little sisters.”

Limpet pulled in a shocked breath. “You killed your sisters?”

“What? No! Just…shut up so I can tell you.”

“Your pardon.”

“Okay.” Theo closed his eyes, trying to stop the shiver that crept up his spine.

Only Mr. Sandoval knew the whole story. Even Luz didn’t know everything, since she would never speak to him again.

“The oldest of my sisters, Luz, she was fourteen then. I don’t know why she was out so late.

Probably coming back from a friend’s house later than she’d promised.

We lived in a neighborhood that maybe wasn’t that bad, but a young girl late at night, alone in the city? No. Just no.”

Limpet gave him a slow nod. He might not really understand, but he was following.

“Luz was maybe two blocks from home. This bunch of Sureno punks must’ve started following her. I was living on the rooftops already then.”

“After your mother banished you.”

“Yes. They…cornered her and forced her into an alley. Those chingasos … Four of them against a ninety-pound girl. They ripped her clothes off. I heard her scream and ran there, roof to roof. They never saw me coming.”

Limpet pulled his legs up onto the rock, his eyes widening. “Theo…”

“The big one, they held her down and he took her from behind. I couldn’t…

all I heard after that was the blood pounding in my ears.

Blood. Blood, everywhere. So much and more and in my rage, I couldn’t stop.

I broke their spines and drank until the last one fell lifeless from my hands.

When I looked up, Luz was staring at me, all that blood and horror in her eyes.

She had watched while her older brother, her protector, the one to read her stories at night, became a vicious monster in front of her. ”

Theo swallowed hard and sat down in the shallow water. Somehow, he had drifted up to where it was only ankle deep. “Sounds came back then and I heard her screaming.”

“You saved her but you feel you frightened her more than those terrible humans,” Limpet said gently.

“Yes. She ran home. I made sure she made it but didn’t let her see me. Never again. You understand now. Understand I’m a killer. I have to keep hold of it. So tight. That can’t ever happen again.”

“But you feed.”