Surrender to the Sea (Lords of the Abyss Book 4)

S
urrender
to the Sea (Lords of the Abyss) © copyright 2016, Michelle M. Pillow

First Electronic Printing Feb 2016

ISBN 978-1-62501-102-2

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

All books copyrighted to the author and may not be resold or given away without written permission from the author, Michelle M. Pillow.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s *crane imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, *crane living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.

Published by The Raaven Books LLC

Raven Books and all affiliate sites and projects are © Copyrighted 2004-2016

A
tlantes
, a lost city of intrigue to most, is Brutus's home, his curse, his prison. Doomed to an immortal life deep in the ocean, their only chance at salvation is to rescue damsels in distress from the surface world and bring them into the abyss. While mythology may label he and his kind monsters, this warrior is simply a man with needs. And he's found the perfect woman to see to them. 

A
s he watched yet
another human flail beneath the ocean’s surface, Brutus the Warrior wondered if killing them wouldn’t be a kinder gesture than trying to push as many as he could to the top. All he could do was help them toward air and try to give them something solid to hold on to. The odds of being found by the surface world after a shipwreck were not in the mortals’ favor. He felt no vibrations in the surrounding water that would indicate another vessel was near.

Humans were no match for his larger size. With his agility in the water, he would be able to swim up and snap their necks before they realized what had happened, or he could cut them with the razor sharp fin growing from his forearms. Every time he was forced to see this play of human death, he told himself to be kind, to kill them, to prevent suffering. And yet every time, he could not bring himself to do it. As fierce and big and monstrous as he would appear to these humans, he was none of those things. He was not a monster.

The scylla were the real monsters of the ocean—mindless souls lost in the sea, Merr people who had left home only to be cursed to search for something they’d never find. They were shadows in the water, almost impossible to perceive, harder to catch. Brutus was one of the few Merr hunters sent up to the ocean’s surface to capture them. His brother Nemus had suffered the scylla fate for hundreds of years. It was why Brutus started hunting. They had trapped Nemus and had given his lost soul peace. As a hunter, it was Brutus’s duty to save the humans, as if doing so enough times could somehow atone for his people’s past.

He’d been hunting the creatures for a very long time, joined by his twin brother, Demon, and their younger brother, Rigel. Their team was called
Warriors
, and they made up one of the four units of hunters who were allowed to stray so close to the surface world. The hunting teams took turns every few weeks. Fourteen days was about the maximum time the mermen could stay in the open ocean without losing their minds.

The vibration of boats on open water drew the scylla. In the old days, the slide of the wooden hull and the rhythmic dip of oars had been like a dinner bell. With the right oceanic conditions and following the beat of oars, the Merr could track the young scylla easily. Back then, there were fewer crafts on the water—or maybe it just seemed that way. Now the subtle vibration of engines combined with the great distances ships could travel made hunting much more difficult. That, and the scylla were much older now.

They were all much older now.

Brutus wondered if his eternity would ever end, this infinite punishment of watching helplessly as person after person died. Yet, how could he stop doing his duty? Out of the tens upon tens of thousands he’d pushed to the surface, surely more than a few had survived.

When his sister-by-marriage’s ship had gone down, he’d helped save her father and five brothers. Of course, they’d only found out the men had been rescued after Lyra had been brought down to Atlantes and condemned to their immortality. She couldn’t return to her birth family, but had managed to make contact with her brothers on the surface world, something that had never been done in the history of Atlantes’s curse. The confirmation that he’d been successful at least six times kept him going.

The white bottom of the small vessel finally gave way, creaking a last warning before sinking past him into the deep abyss below. At least, the screaming had stopped. He hated the screaming the most, the sound of their fear.

Brutus looked for his brothers in the water. Strips of sunlight filtered through from above, casting an eerie backdrop to kicking feet over his head.

Seeing the flash of black and silver of Demon’s long tail, he dashed to follow. While Brutus saved the humans, Demon was tracking the scylla and Rigel would be nearby waiting to blow the vial of special liquid that would paralyze the creature so it could be brought back to Atlantes.

‘It’s fast,’
Demon grumbled using the telepathic mind link.

‘And strong,’
Rigel warned.
‘Be careful. It’s pushed me twice.’

‘Circle it in,’
Demon ordered.
‘Brutus?’

Brutus saw the glide of a shadow in the water and automatically darted in front of it to block the scylla’s movement. Instead of rerouting, the creature slammed against Brutus like an ocean current, pushing him back with such force the merman couldn’t stop his body as he was thrust up to the surface.

‘Stop it!’
Brutus yelled, knowing if he touched the surface air it could kill him. It would burn his flesh and if he inhaled it would scorch his lungs. It was the most effective way to kill his kind. The scylla was small but strong, and it propelled him upward, higher, higher. He struck his fist at it, but his hand slid through the shadow like water, and the creature did not stop.

‘Brutus!’
his brothers yelled in unison.

He saw the light from above. There was nothing he could do. This was it.
‘It’s been a good run, brothers. Bag this one and get his ass home.’

‘Brutus, no!’

L
aurel Paulson kicked
her feet to tread water. The ocean was calm, the day perfect. The boat she’d chartered to take her out to sea had been highly recommended.

Then why was she floating in the water, clinging desperately for her life…on a freaking beer cooler?

“They know we’re out here, right?” she yelled at the captain floating nearby. “They’ll know where to look for us?”

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he paddled toward his fishing buddy. Why wouldn’t he tell her everything was going to be all right? And why was he swimming away from her?

“Highly recommended my ass,” Laurel yelled. She should have demanded he turn around when she saw him grab his sixth beer from the cooler. “You drunken asshole, answer me! How the hell do you hit something in the middle of open water?” She kicked her feet. Fear came out as anger. “When this is over, if you think I’m going to give you this beer back you got another thing coming!”

Why was he
still
swimming away from her? He was the captain. He should be saving her and keeping her calm.

Well, she wasn’t calm. Not fucking calm at all.

The water near her feet felt colder all of a sudden, and she felt movement
. Shark? Big teeth? Eat human?

“No, no, no, no,” she whispered frantically, trying to draw her legs up while simultaneously kicking the unseen danger back. The idea of just how big the ocean really was terrified her. She clung to her cooler, trying to climb on top of it and unable to. “Don’t bite me, don’t bite me, don’t...”

Suddenly, a great force thumped into her flotation device. Laurel called out in fright as she was launched several feet into the air. The men screamed. She flailed as ice and beer cans lifted around her. Then she dropped, indelicately slapping against the ocean’s surface. Her back stung, and the wind was knocked out of her lungs. Blinking in pain and unable to move her stunned body, she witnessed the silver butt of a beer can as it careened toward her face.

B
rutus grunted
in surprise as his back slammed into a hard object. He bobbed past the surface before coming down again. He felt the unmistakable tingle of hot sun and waited a stunned moment for the fire of death to overtake him.

‘Brutus?’
Demon jerked his arm, dragging him deeper into the water. Tiny metal missiles shot down from above.

‘I’m good,’
Brutus told his twin, wrenching free.
‘I’m good.’

‘What the hell were you thinking telling me goodbye?’
Demon punched him hard in the face.

Brutus flung back, but the contact didn’t hurt.
‘I’m good.’

‘If you try to die on me again…’
Demon dodged one of the metal projectiles before catching another one. He launched it at Brutus’s head.
‘I’ll throw you onto surface land myself. I will not lose another brother—what the…?’

A giant splash hit the surface, and they both looked up in time to see a female’s back surrounded by ripples of disturbed water. A piece of the falling debris struck her in the head and blood instantly clouded the water from the wound. She slowly started to sink.

‘Oh, just wonderful, see what you’ve done?’
Demon accused.
‘Now we have to take her with us. There is no way she’s surviving unconscious with her two friends not bothering to come to help her.’

Brutus made a move to push her to the surface, hoping she’d come to. She didn’t. He waited to see if her people would come for her. They kicked in the water, swimming away, probably terrified that whatever had tossed her into the air would come for them next.

‘Cowards,’
Brutus grumbled toward the humans.

‘You take her. She’s your responsibility now,’
Demon said.
‘Punishment from the gods for trying to die.’

Brutus didn’t bother to explain that he had not wanted to die. Strangely, this mortal’s inconvenient circumstance of floating in the water had saved his life. Her flotation box stopped his ascent.

‘Are you injured?’
Rigel asked. He held the vial in his hand.

The woman drifted back down. Brutus jerked the woman deeper into the water. Her hair was pulled back from her face, giving him an easy target as he pressed his lips around hers. Creating a seal, he inhaled the water from her lungs to filter it out of his body. There wasn’t much and soon he was forcing her to breathe with him. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she gave him a dazed look. Brown eyes flecked with shards of gold tried to focus on him before closing again.

‘It’s coming back,’
Rigel warned.
‘Get ready
!’

Brutus couldn’t see all that well with the woman blocking his vision. With a light curse, he unlatched his lips and pushed her toward the surface. Turning, he darted to where Demon swam in circles around the scylla to stop it.

‘A little help here,’
Demon demanded.

‘I’m coming!’
Brutus glanced up to the unconscious female sinking back down into the water from the surface.
‘Rigel, get ready.’

‘Ready,’
Rigel answered.

Brutus swam forward. Demon changed directions. The scylla paused to alter his course. Rigel broke open the vial of paralyzing liquid and blew the contents toward the creature. The second the trap touched the slender being he jerked toward Demon. The sudden movement caused the dispersed paralyzing liquid to change direction. It washed over Demon’s arm.

Demon growled, more in frustration than from pain, and whipped his tail back. The scylla seized several more times before finally stopping and floating. Now that it was paralyzed, Rigel could grab hold of the captured creature.

Demon flung his arm, the forearm and hand unmistakably paralyzed from having touched the trap.

Brutus darted to where the woman sank into the water. Her arms trailed lifelessly over her head. ‘
Come back here, woman.
’ Jerking her upward, he held her once more to his chest and created a seal with his lips around hers. He suctioned the ocean out of her lungs and fed her the oxygen from his.

‘This hunt has been a clusterfuck,’
Rigel said. He’d learned the new term from his wife, Cassandra. They had been married only a short time—just under a decade.

‘How’s the female?’
Demon asked, his mocking laugh coming through clearly on the mind link.

‘How’s the hand?’
Brutus answered, moving his eyes and adjusting his body so he could watch where he was swimming as he took his burden deeper into the abyss. If he were to break the seal again, she would die from the pressure. He was glad when she didn’t struggle, or even open her eyes for that matter. He didn’t think he could make the long dive down with those eyes staring into his.

‘Even with one hand dead, I can still beat you back,’
Demon taunted.

‘The race is on.’
Brutus accepted the challenge and swam harder, grateful for an excuse to get the task of trying to save the woman over with. Odds were she would die. They almost always did. That’s why they only took people who were assuredly condemned to death anyway. With her friends not even trying to help her, this woman wouldn’t make it on the surface world. He was her only chance. The problem was, Brutus had yet to personally take a human back to Atlantes alive.