Page 1 of Swimming With the Sharks

PROLOGUE

Zotol walked into the home he shared with hisbeautiful mate.He couldn’t wait to tell him about all he had donefor the day.Being Jinn was not all fun and games but today he hadenjoyed a particularly lovely day swimming with his old friendJabari.

Jabari had shown him the wonders of the greatAtlantic and damn he wished his mate would have joined them today,but the man was obsessed with two things...anything dealing withplants, and...the internet...ugh.

Zotol would never understand the wonders peoplefound in that computer space land.Shit, he couldn’t even turn oneon without wanting to throw the fucking thing across the room andwhy...he asked himself, why in the hell did the stupid thing haveto speak an entirely different language?Zotol could speak justabout every language around the world, and even those not part ofthis world, but computer talk...nope.RAM, Reboot, Cookies,Bits, Bites, Trojans, Worms...for the love of the gods,really?“Without a trojan I would like to ram my worm and bitsinto my mate’s cookies as he screams to the world, and once wereboot we can do it all over again.That is as close to a computeras I ever want to get.”

Hearing the sound of his lovely mate’s snifflesstopped Zotol in his tracks.Why was Xolin crying?His beautifulmate should never cry.Zotol had promised his baby that he wouldnever have a reason to feel sorrow, pain, or fear on the day theymet, and hearing his quiet crying mate made Zotol’s heart feel likeit would break.This had to be fixed, and whoever hurt his babywould have to die.

Quietly, Zotol made his way further into thehome he shared with Xolin.He’d never forget the day he had comehere looking for an herb for a spell he wanted to try.Jinn didn’toften use spells, but he had been bored and wanted to learnsomething new.He had done that often, but then again, beingimmortal, things tended to become old after a period of time.Thatwas why he had learned so many languages, studied so manyreligions, myths...not all were as mythical as they thought, justthe stories—not exactly accurate most of the time—searched forabout every shifter he had heard about in those lovely romancenovels, and so many other things...like spell casting.The momenthe had walked into Natural Fantasy, Zotol knew that his life wasabout to change.It wasn’t just the smell of fresh rain and wetearth that made goosebumps form all over his body, but the sight ofXolin bent over watering some plant or another.

The sight of that man’s sexy ass made Zotol sohard, he worried if he accidently hit it, the damn thing wouldbreak off.Then Xolin stood and turned.The first thing that madeZotol forget to breathe was the lavender eyes staring back at hisown emerald green.The color really popped with that long blondhair.Xolin was only a couple of inches shorter than Zotol’s ownsix feet, he couldn’t be much lighter than his own one seventy-fiveand his build...holy shit, it was like the man went swimming everyday.Fuck, Zotol always had a weak spot for a muscle-toned swimmer.The man was a true god and when the man smiled...fuck, Zotol wassure he was going to come in his pants.Then he spoke the word,“Hello,” and Zotol had to think of his grandmother getting it onwith his grandpapa in order to get his shit under control.

They had known from that very moment they weremates, and thank the gods, they didn’t waste any time bonding.Thathad been five hundred centuries ago and Zotol had never regrettedit for a second and had kept his words he had spoken when he cameinside his mate for the first time during the bonding.Yet, herehis mate sat, looking at that stupid contraption screen andcrying.

“Who do I need to kill?”Zotol demanded, “I willkill whoever has placed those wet lines on your face and puffed upthat adorable tweaky nose.Just tell me who and they will regretwhatever the fuck it is they have done.”

Xolin shook his head, blew his nose, thengrabbed another tissue to wipe his eyes.His voice was rough fromcrying as he said, “No one did anything.There’s a viral post andit just broke my heart.”

Xolin waved him over and Zotol immediately wentto his mate’s side.“Viral?You’re sick?How is this even possible?Not only are you a druid and the son of Myrddin Wyllt, you are themate of a Jinn.It isn’t possible for you to become ill.”

A small laugh came from Xolin which had Zotolfeeling a tad better, but also very confused.His mate cupped hischeek, saying, “If my father catches you calling him by his givenname instead of Merlin, he is going to put you in one of thosebottles with a ship inside...and no, I’m not sick, my love.Aviral post is something put on the internet that millions of peopleview.You really need to at least try and learn at least the basicsabout computers.They are the tool of these present times.”

Zotol waved his mate off.“Pfft.I’ve beenaround since almost the beginning of time, my heart.If I couldmake it through the sixties without being scathed, I do believe Ican make it through the two thousands.”

Xolin gave another laugh, which was what Zotolwas going for.He then said, “Yes, those were some trying times.Fun but a little too carefree for my liking.”

Giving his mate a soft kiss, Zotol rubbed hishardening cock against his sexy mates, saying in a suggestive tone.“I don’t know.I seem to remember some very good times for myliking.”

His mate smacked Zotol’s chest and laughed.“Sodo I.Now stop that, I have a buyer coming in a few minutes forsome herbs he needs to help his sick dog.”

Sighing, Zotol gave his mate a quick kiss.“Fine, but until then, show me this thing that made you cry.”

Xolin clicked a few buttons and pointed at thepicture of a nice looking young man.He was a bit on the thin side,and looked to be about five nine or ten with extremely short,blond, spiky hair and he was wearing a light jacket, whichsurprised Zotol since it was in the middle of June.“He’snice-looking enough.A bit skinny for my taste, but nice looking.Idon’t get it.Is it the fact that he’s wearing a jacket in themiddle of summer that has the humans interested?”

Shockingly, Zotol saw his lover’s eyes fill withtears once again as he shook his head.He swallowed once, thentwice before he could actually speak and when he did his voice wasrough and raspy, “He’s wearing a jacket because he has a hard timewith body temperature regulation, and he’s so skinny because hehasn’t been able to eat.His name is Foster Witman.He just won hisrights to take back his life from a court of law.”

“What are you talking about?He looks old enoughto make decisions for himself, why would he need to fight to makedecisions for himself?”Zotol asked.

Xolin wiped his eyes and explained.“Foster hassuffered from a form of Leukemia since he was ten years old.He hasbeen treated time and again, and just when they thought they had itbeat, the disease would return again and again.Foster didn’t wantany more treatments, but just before his eighteenth birthday, hisparents went to the courts and had the judge make them his medicalguardian.”

“Okay.That seems reasonable if the man couldn’tmake those choices for himself.”Zotol replied.

“He had cancer not a developmental disability,love.The thing is, Foster was trying to get his rights back fromthe time he was eighteen, but with the cancer and all thetreatments it took a great deal of energy.”

“Energy he didn’t have.”Zotol stated inunderstanding.

Nodding, Xolin said, “At nineteen his cancerwent into remission again and he was recovering from all thetreatments.He finally went to the courts and filed to have hisrights returned to him, but the judge denied him his request.A fewyears passed and a girl, Kelly something or other, he went toschool with went to law school.One of the classes she was instarted talking about Power of Attorneys.She brought up Foster’scase and the professor took an interest.He decided to use Foster’scase as an example, and when he spoke to the class they all agreedthey wanted to investigate what was going on.They did some diggingand discovered that the judge who had awarded Foster’s parents thePOA for everything medical was a good friend of theirs.”

“And this was the same judge that denied hisrequest for another hearing on the situation?”Zotol asked.

Again, Xolin nodded, “Yes.So anyway, theprofessor took what his class had put together alongside some ofhis colleagues that owned a very renowned law office.They offeredto take Foster’s case on pro bono, but when they contacted him, itseemed the cancer was back and his parents weren’t about to allowsome lawyers to talk to him.So Kelly offered to go and see theboy.It seemed the sensible thing to do and Foster’s parents knewthey were friends.While she did that, the law firm sent someone tothe courthouse and started working on getting the judge removedfrom Foster’s case.When Kelly came back with signed papers, thefirm went fast forward and took care of everything.It took a bitof time, but they got the POA removed, and not only that, but itseemed that his parents hadn’t told him that when his grandfatherhad passed away he had left Foster and his parents a buttload ofmoney.The judge not only ordered his portion to be transferred tohim, but the judge also ordered compensation to Foster for theirdeception or whatever.So he’s pretty much set for life...howeverlong that might be.”

“So he’s got his life back as he wanted and anice little nest egg to help him move forward.What’s his plan whenthe chemotherapy is over?I mean I take it if the cancer’s back,that means his parents had him going through the treatments?”Zotolasked.

“Yeah, they did, but the second Foster becamehis own medical guardian, he immediately put a stop to alltreatment.He said he was tired.He was sick of needles and all theinvasive procedures he had to go through.He said he’d beenfighting for over eighteen years and he was just done.He is sickof being sick and ready for whatever comes next.”Xolin saidremorsefully, and started crying again.

Zotol held his mate, whispering softly wordsthat made no sense.Xolin said through his tears.“The strengththat man must have to fight for so long and the courage to knowthat his life is about to end at such a young age...oh, Zotol, heis a remarkable man.”Xolin cried harder, trying to still talk,“A...and do...do you kn...know what he...what he says he’s....he’s going to do until his time comes?”