Off the coast of Yachats, Oregon:

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Gabe Lightcloud powered his thirty-two-foot trawler along the rocky coast. He took a deep breath of the crisp salty air. Today had been a good day.

He glanced at the time on the depth finder. No wonder my stomach is protesting, he thought. It was nearly seven o’clock in the evening. Turning the wheel, he started the long trip back to the docks. He had left the house just before sunrise and had spent most of the day doing catch and release for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A new program at the University of Oregon had given him an opportunity to combine work with research. The University of Oregon’s grant was part of an on-going research program backed by the USFWS to study the migratory patterns of Chinook Salmon.

As far as Gabe was concerned, he’d been assigned the fun part of the research – tagging, releasing, and not having to deal with people. He enjoyed the peace and quiet of working offshore. The sound of the motor, the waves slapping against the hull of his boat, and the high-pitched cries of seagulls hoping for an easy meal were his companions. He preferred them above anything else. He rolled his shoulders, glad he had finished his last catch for the day.

He hadn’t had anything to eat except an egg sandwich and a thermos of coffee this morning. He grinned as he stared out at the water. A nice shrimp dinner sounded pretty good right about now. If he couldn’t snag any, he’d settle for a nice grilled halibut. His mouth started watering at the thought of them cooking on the grill. Either one would be a welcome treat and was just what he needed to quiet his rebelling stomach. Hell, he might even be nice and see if Kane wanted to come over to watch the football game.

He turned the wheel when he saw a school of fish on the depth finder and pushed the throttle to neutral. Stepping out of the wheelhouse, he released the lock on the winch and lowered the net into the water. He made sure it wasn’t tangled before he turned back to the helm. Checking the settings on the depth finder, he searched the bottom for any structures that might be an issue before he pushed the throttle forward. He decided he’d troll for half an hour before pulling everything in and heading back home.

The time was almost up when he felt a slight drag on the boat. He turned in time to see the buoy attached to the net violently dip below the surface. He quickly pushed the throttle back into neutral. He muttered a curse and sighed in frustration. He should have quit while he was ahead. If the net was caught on the bottom or worse, tangled around some floating garbage, it could mean a long night, which meant it would be even longer before he had anything to eat.

Gabe grabbed the net and began pulling it in. The one thing that bugged him more than anything else was when people decided to use the ocean as their own private garbage dump. He was always finding shit that someone had thrown out.

He frowned when he felt the net shift. Afraid it might have caught on something, he looked over the side, but didn’t see any sign that it was snagged. He hoped it wasn’t, because the net was a pain in the ass to patch. Shifting the winch into gear again, he continued reeling in the net. Then he heard a moan.

“What the hell?” he muttered, pressing the stop button on the winch control. “Shit!”

Muttering under his breath, he decided he must have snagged some unsuspecting seal pup. He grabbed the net and continued pulling it in by hand. His eyes widened in shock when he saw a person caught in the net. Moving swiftly, he finished pulling the net in. He lowered it and his unexpected catch to the deck of the rocking boat. Grabbing the side of the net, he released it from the rigging and knelt next to the still, cold body.

“Damn it,” Gabe muttered under his breath. “I don’t need a dead body on my boat.”

He gently rolled the body over, pulled away the netting tangled around it, and gasped when he saw that it belonged to a woman. Yanking off his gloves, he carefully brushed the long tangle of midnight hair back from her pale face. He touched the icy skin of her neck, feeling for a pulse, and pulled back in surprise when she shuddered and moaned.

He gently touched her cheek again, smoothing back a long strand of hair. She was deathly pale with dark shadows under her eyes. His shocked brain also noted that she was beautiful in a weird, exotic way.

“Hey, lady,” Gabe said in a rough voice. “Can you hear me?”

He watched in fascination as her lush, black eyelashes fluttered for a moment before she opened her eyes. He gazed down into crystal-clear green eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder who in the hell she was and why she was miles off the Pacific Coast in freezing water. He was just about to ask her when she rolled to her side and threw up all over his rubber boots.

“Ah, hell,” he muttered, looking down at the heaving figure.

Half an Hour Earlier:

---

Magna softly moaned as the pain from her shoulder pulled her to consciousness for a brief moment. The pain was the first thing telling her that she hadn’t died from her Starburst spell. The gentle sway of her body surrounded by water and the feeling of weightlessness was the second thing.

For a brief moment, she wondered if the Goddess had granted her a measure of compassion. That thought quickly fled when she tried to move and was in too much pain and too exhausted to do it. The current flowed around her, sweeping her along the rocky bottom, and she was powerless to prevent herself from bumping against the rocks, causing even more excruciating pain to radiate through her. The spell had taken every ounce of energy she had left.

Eventually, an upwelling current caused her to rise, mercifully giving her a measure of relief. As she floated along, Magna didn’t bother opening her eyes. She preferred not knowing where she was for fear of waking up and discovering it was all an illusion and she was once more a captive inside her own body. She wanted to hold onto the feel of the water surrounding her, even if it came with pain.

She listlessly floated for what seemed like an eternity before something wrapped around her. The weight of the coarse threads pushed her back down to the bottom. She tried to lift her hand and push it away, but it was useless. She was too weak. She gave up, and let it take her. Deciding that her dream was coming to another agonizing end, she gave in to the darkness.

She awoke again when she was lifted out of the soothing comfort of the water. She wanted to scream in protest, but the scream came out as a soft moan. As she was lowered onto a hard surface, a stray tear slipped from the corner of her eye and grief filled her. All hope was gone. She couldn’t fight the creature any longer. The only way she could still be alive was if she had failed. Nausea rose in her throat when the cold air connected with the wound in her shoulder. A protest formed on her lips when she was suddenly rolled onto her back.

A shudder swept through her when a warm hand pressed against her neck. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring up into a pair of unfamiliar brown eyes. The combination of pain and the movement of her body was too much for her rebellious stomach. Rolling to the side, she ejected the last remnants of the dead creature from her stomach all over the man’s scuffed up white boots.

She dropped her head to the side when she was done. She was too weak and tired to bother lifting it. Instead, she closed her eyes and shuddered again as the darkness rose up to claim her. She hoped this time it was for good. She really was too tired to fight any longer.

Gabe contemplated the woman lying on the deck of his boat as he knelt next to her limp body. There was a little more color in her face now that she’d thrown up. Muttering a series of expletives under his breath, he gently scooped her up in his arms and rose to his feet. He squinted, and carefully searched the water nearby before looking up to scan the horizon. There wasn’t another boat in sight. He looked toward the rocky coast. Hell, he was at least a mile offshore. There was no way the woman swam that distance, especially wearing an evening gown.

He looked down at her again and froze. The gown on her left shoulder was bright red with fresh blood. He tightened his lips into a firm line and he walked toward the lower galley and cabin area.

Awkwardly navigating the stairs, he breathed a sigh of relief when the woman didn’t react as he shifted her around to fit through the doorway. He walked over to his bunk and gently laid her down, then turned on the light above his bed. He gripped the material on her shoulder and ripped it open. His eyes widened, and he paled when he saw the evidence hidden beneath the silky material.

“Shot?” he hissed, glancing back up at her pale face. “Lady, what the hell happened to you? Why would anyone shoot you and dump your ass in the Pacific?”

He gently lifted her enough to see the other side of her shoulder. There was no exit wound. Gabe stood up and pulled open the cabinet above the bed. He pulled out the first aid kit and sat back down. Setting the kit down on the bed, he opened it and pulled out some gauze bandage and tape. There wasn’t much he could do for her on the boat. It wasn’t the cleanest place in the world and he didn’t have the medical expertise to remove a bullet. He would patch her up as best he could and radio for assistance.

He quickly dried the area, covered the wound with the clean gauze, and taped it down. He looked at the relaxed lines of the woman’s face. She hadn’t moved an inch during his clumsy patch job. Unable to resist, he reached out and turned her face toward him. Her features were arresting. She didn’t look like she was of European descent, but she didn’t look like she had any Asian ancestry either. His fingers ran down her pale cheek.

A slight, rusty smile curved his lips before a frown creased his brow when he noticed a thin line along the right side of her pale neck. It started just behind her ear and curved down about two inches. Another line of faint but colorful tattoos ran down beside it. He reached out to touch the marks but quickly pulled back when he felt the smooth, glossy texture of each design. They reminded him of…

“Scales?” he muttered with a disbelieving shake of his head. “What the hell is going on?”

Standing, he quickly deposited the scraps from the bandage into the trash. He returned the first aid kit to the cabinet before he grabbed a thin blanket and covered her with it. He frowned and ran a hand through his hair, trying to think if there was anything else he should do before he returned to the upper deck.

He decided he had done the best he could for the moment. Glancing down one last time to make sure the woman was still unconscious, he turned on his heel and strode back up the stairs. It looked like it was going to be a long night. He grimaced when his stomach growled in protest again. Dinner would have to be pushed back until his unexpected guest was safely delivered into the hands of the proper authorities.

Gabe quickly secured the net and made sure the deck, and his boots, were cleared and cleaned before he stepped through the passage to the bridge. He pushed the throttle forward, slowly picking up speed, and headed for home again. He reached for the mic on his radio, then paused. With a low growl of frustration, he pulled his hand back and ran it through his disheveled hair before he reached for his cell phone instead.

His gaze flickered from the sea in front of him to the phone. He released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He had three bars. Pressing the phone icon, he punched in the number he knew by heart.

“This is Kane,” a distracted voice said on the other end.

“I need help,” Gabe bit out in a sharp voice.

There was a slight pause before Kane spoke again. “How bad?” Kane asked.

“Gunshot to the left shoulder,” Gabe replied.

This time the pause was filled with a low hiss. “Who’d you piss off this time?” Kane asked sharply. “You know I’m supposed to report anything like this.”

“Yeah, I know,” Gabe said in a low voice. “It’s not me this time. Just be at my house in an hour. I’ll be coming in from the dock.”

“I’ll be there,” Kane responded in a tense voice. “You sure you don’t want to come to the clinic?”

Gabe’s lips twisted in a sardonic grin. “Naw,” he said. “Then you’d really feel like you had to report it.”

The sound of a frustrated sigh made Gabe thankful he wasn’t onshore yet. Kane wasn’t above bending the rules or looking the other way when he felt it was necessary, but Gabe wouldn’t ask his friend to jeopardize his practice or his medical license by having to cover for him there. Now, coming to his house… What happened there, stayed there.

“One of these days I’m going to ignore it when you call,” Kane threatened. “I’ll be at the dock.”

“Thanks, man,” Gabe replied in a soft voice. “Something tells me that this should be kept quiet.”

“You can explain when we’re together,” Kane retorted.

“Right now, there’s not much to explain,” Gabe admitted. “I’ll be coming around the point in about forty minutes.”

Gabe clicked the phone off and slid it back into his pocket. Exactly forty minutes later, he automatically swung wide into the mouth of the narrow inlet and slowly pulled back on the throttle so he wouldn’t create a wake. Frustration ate at him, and his fingers twitched in impatience on the throttle. He knew the feeling of restlessness and unease was due to his unexpected passenger.

“I hope to hell this doesn’t become more complicated,” he grunted as he navigated the narrow, winding passage to the dock below his house.