COME TO PAPA! A.C.’S PRIZED TEETH GROUND AGAINST EACH
other in anticipation—and this time he didn’t give a fly-ing fuck that a few broke off. Breakfast was about to be served.
“AAAnngggeeelll!”
Of course the pup had to be yelling underwater.
A.C. wanted to clean out his ears. Too bad they were on the dorsal side of his head and he couldn’t reach them. Hades. Didn’t the pup have anything else to say? Another tone he could use?
If only he could surge in and grab him, but A.C. was still a few yards too far out, and the water was becoming too shallow for him to be able to function properly. And if there was one thing a Hammerhead liked to do, it was function properly. He was a veritable killing machine created by the gods. He hadn’t missed any prey yet.
Except that Mer…
Yeah. Much as he hated to admit it, the fact that Angel had gotten away did count as a miss. Couldn’t have that. He had a 100 percent EVA. Earned Victim Average. He’d put a lot of effort into it.
A.C. strummed his pectoral fin against the sandy bot-tom. How could he get Angel?
“AAAAnnnnggggeeeellll! I wanna come with you!” The pup splashed a few more yards into the water.
How handy was that?
“Hey, pup. I mean, kid.” A.C. tilted his head side-ways so the words would resonate above the water. Hammers were definitely not made to talk like this, but when you wanted something badly enough, you found a way.
“Who said that?” The pup stopped screaming.
Finally.
Another handy thing was the fact that Human vocal chords were located in the neck, A.C.’s usual target of attack.
Although… Hmmm… Maybe he wouldn’t eat him. Well, not yet anyway. If the pup—kid—cared this much about her, maybe she cared about him, too, and why not kill two parrotfish with one strike?
Yeah. He’d use the kid as bait to lure Angel out of her royal air bubble. Wouldn’t that be a bait and switch? Mers were all about protecting the young—even Human young. He’d seen some perfectly fine cruise-ship meals pass him by, thanks to those damn altruistic Mers-turned-dolphins.
Dolphins. Blech. Mammal, or a Mer who’d turned into one for whatever idiotic reason they came up with, the result was the same: perpetually smiling, happy do-gooders. Made him want to puke.
The kid stopped moving and put a hat on his head. Yeah, that ought to protect him.
Not. “Angel?”
“No. Me.” A.C.’s mind was churning along with the anticipation in his gut. He knew what he was going to do. And it was going to be a b-eaut. Everyone would be talking about this catch.
214
JUDI FENNELL
It really was a no-brainer to see why he was high on the food chain in every ocean. Instinct jumped in and saved him where indecision could have lost him this deal.
“You’re… a shark.”
Oooh, score one for the Human. “Yeah, I am. Problem with that?”
“Sharks eat people.”
Only if they qualified as a meal. This pup was barely an appetizer. “Well, some do. But not all of us. And I can take you to Angel.”
“You can? Cool!”
A.C. had absolutely no problem lying to him. A shark with a conscience was a skinny shark. Dead, even.
Besides he would take him to her. Right before he ate both of them.
The Human started heading in deeper. A little slower than A.C. would have liked, but it was progress—to both a gargantuan meal and one hell of a reputation. He didn’t know the last time a shark had gotten a Mer.
“You really know where Angel is?”
Heh. He’d hooked the little sucker. “You betcha.”
And then the sucker stopped. Two more feet, and his
two feet would be A.C.’s. “I dunno.”
Gods save him from creatures with a brain—which would be why he put up with Abby. What that shark could do with only two brain cells…
“Look, kid. I can’t hang out here all day. You comin’ or what?” A.C. even turned a hundred-and-twenty de-grees to make it look legit.
“How?”
“How?” What did he mean, how? It was the ocean.
He was a shark. Was there really a question?
“Yeah. How? I can’t breathe water like you and Angel can. I don’t wanna get drowned.”
Fuck. He hadn’t thought about that.
A.C. scanned the area. He didn’t see any boats around. No one to see him hauling his prize through the water and decide he’d make a nicer prize.
“Yeah. Okay. Whatever. You can ride on top. Climb on.” The things he did for dinner. And lunch. And an appetizer… He’d savor every one of Angel’s scales.
“Okay. I’m comin’.” And with that, two little legs splashed through the waves, right toward him. A.C.’s mouth started to water.
The kid climbed aboard and grabbed hold of his dorsal. A.C. hoped none of the guys saw him acting like those stupid, Human-friendly dolphins, but then, they had no room to talk. They were just plain stupid. Besides, they were probably still asleep. Losers.
Still, A.C. wanted to hightail it out of there, so he whipped his caudal fin sideways—and almost flung his appetizer off in the process. He slowed down so the kid could hold on for dear life—such a futile gesture— because there was no fucking way he was gonna lose his ticket to a tasty Mer meal. This was like taking candy from a baby.
No. Make that, making candy from a baby.