Hey guys, here it is! As if the last few chapters weren't a confrontation already ;-)

Much love,

Robin

*

Confrontation

I had no strength left. Whatever the moon was doing to me was getting so strong that I was struggling to even remember the reason why I'd been so scared a moment ago. Looking at the collapsed body in front of me I couldn't even feel horror at the mass of red, blistered skin that covered his back. Who was this guy? What had just happened?

Shaking my head I backed away from the body and nearly tumbled back into the curved bowl, the bathing area inside the plateau. I only barely managed to regain my balance and then stared at the water, mesmerized at the way it rippled, at the way it lapped at my toes and soothed the heat crawling through me.

"Dani darling," a voice said from behind me and I spun again, nearly overbalancing as if I was drunk. I was drunk; drunk on the moon. In the water, swimming through the grotto towards me was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Dark eyes, dark hair slicked back from the water and the colors of his fins, dark blue, bold and dramatic.

I sighed when he pulled himself onto the ledge at my side, his muscles straining, body transforming. His shoulders were so wide, one covered in the most intriguing lines of ink. He was naked and he was glorious. On two legs he came toward me and I reached for him immediately. Yes, this one would soothe the burning beneath my skin, this was a good mate.

I knew the expression on his face was worried but I didn't understand why. When he reached me he didn't hesitate to wrap me in his arms and that felt right, that felt exactly right. His touch didn't hurt, it felt good. With his touch a little sanity came back too; as the burning rushing through my body eased I knew this was Matt and Matt would keep me safe.

Clutching my arms tightly around his neck I held on for as long as he let me. Over his shoulder I could see the collapsed body of Clay and I shuddered, I barely remembered my confrontation with him but I knew it was bad. He looked bad and I didn't know if he was dead or alive.

"Hush," Matt whispered in my ear, "You did good baby, you're safe now. I got you." It penetrated then that he was alive and well, that I'd been worried sick about him before and that Clay had taunted me that he'd been blown up with the bomb. When the thoughts coalesced in my mind I realized I'd been crying and I hadn't even noticed.

"Shit! He said you were dead," I told him hoarsely and Matt pressed me even more tightly to his body. With every curve pressed against his hard chest I felt the heat stir again, different now than before. Now it felt like the heat was ready to urge me on but patient too because Matt was right here.

"He lied," Matt assured me, "Thorne and I dismantled the bomb and called the coastguard. Dave and Clayton have been arrested." Oh... that was fantastic news. That only left Gavin and Clay. I flinched when my eyes fell on the stretched out body behind Matt. No, that just left Gavin; I hurried to explain that to Matt.

He shifted us so that for the first time there was a little distance between our bodies, just enough that we could look into each other's eyes. "I'll take care of it. You know I have to," he said, though he sounded like he hated this task very much. Now I noticed that his dark eyes had a feverish glint to them, the moon was burning in him too. Was that how my eyes looked?

"No!" I said, irrationally. He had to go, we weren't completely safe yet. "I need to take Clay up to Thorne and Noah, locate Gavin and get rid of him." Matt's words made sense but I hated them all the same.

When he let go of me I felt a spike of pain again, my body didn't like it one bit to have distance between him and me. Still, I squared my shoulders and moved with Matt to help him tie up Clay's hands. I was relieved to know I hadn't actually killed him.

Matt didn't want to leave me when Gavin was still out there but at the same time... The longer we waited here together the more we'd lose ourselves to the heat. We needed action and we needed it now.

The only option was to get into the water with Matt, to go with him. He hated it but agreed in the end, urging me to stick close to him. With no respect for Clay's body Matt used his foot to roll the guy off the plateau and then he dove in after. I was just starting to untie my wrap when I realized a shape was darting out of the tunnel and Matt had his back to him.

I shouted a warning, Matt was completely under water and had his hands full picking up the unconscious body of Clay. His back turned to the tunnel opening so he could hook Clay under his arms and start dragging him out of here.

Like a wraith, Gavin came out of the small tunnel, his hair even lighter in color than that of his brother and the color of his tail paler too. He held a harpoon in one hand, I didn't know where he'd gotten it or if he'd had it before when he was chasing after me. Didn't matter, because now he was aiming it right at Matt's back.

My yelling had Matt move quickly, right as the harpoon was launched. He dropped Clay and twisted his body in an agile move none of us expected, his tail coiling and thrashing rapidly in the water. The harpoon only grazed him across the left shoulder but Clay was not as lucky, the harpoon embedded itself right in the center of his chest. Red blood whirled into the water, quickly forming a bigger and bigger cloud.

A moment it seemed that everyone simply stared at that, frozen by what had just happened. Then Matt darted to the side while pulling his diving knife from the sheath on his left bicep. He circled toward Gavin and the other man spun as well to keep Matt in his sights. He dropped the harpoon gun though and like Matt, he too pulled a diving knife; his face pulled into this fearsome snarl.

I watched with my heart pounding in my throat, for a while all I could see was their sleek bodies as they spun and darted around each other. Jabbing with their fists and knives. I couldn't tell who was winning, or even if any more injuries occurred. I did see the ribbon of blood trailing from Matt's shoulder. But Clay's body was gushing his life's blood into the grotto pool and it obscured my sight more and more.

Stumbling, I found the big storm lantern and lit it, placing it down on the ledge in the hopes that I'd be able to better see what was going on. Nothing though, it was all a blur of flashing tails and limbs, I couldn't make out what happened. Come on Matt! He had the training, unlike Gavin, he said so after that last confrontation. Their thrashing was whipping up sediment from the bottom of the water, whirling it around and mixing with the blood already obscuring everything.

Maybe my fear, the adrenaline running through my veins pushed the heat to the back of my mind. But I felt clearheaded, at least I thought I was, and when the fight seemed to drag on I knew I had to do something. Possibly, it wasn't nearly as long as it seemed to me in that moment, but every second was another anxious moment waiting and I couldn't do it.

Diving into the water I let the transformation pull through me, I needed to get my hands on the harpoon gun. It had been difficult to see from above, but in the water the murkiness became more bearable. I had other senses that told me where things were now, just the brush of the water against my skin told me where Matt and Gavin were struggling.

I scanned the pool quickly, diving low so I could run a hand across the bottom. I knew more or less where Gavin had dropped the damn thing and I thought I could see it jutting out from between two rocks. A dark silhouette in the bloodied and murky water.

While I tried to circle the grotto as much as possible, staying out of the middle where the body of Clay drifted and where Matt and Gavin were fighting, I still felt them come far too close to me for comfort. A rapid, hard current of water hitting me and stinging my side; a water punch as Matt would call it. There was a moment where I knew someone's fin brushed mine and I wasn't entirely certain if it was from a living person or not.

Then my fingers closed around the end of the harpoon gun and I yanked it free, there was no harpoon in it so all it was was a club right now. That didn't matter, I felt safer just holding it. Spinning around I pressed my back against the grotto wall, disturbing some of the glowing algae there but not caring. I was struggling hard now to make sense of the shapes darting around in front of me in the murky water.

They were holding their own against each other, which had to mean that Matt was tired or maybe even injured. I had to do something, I wasn't waiting around for Gavin to possibly gain the upper hand.

The algae I'd disturbed had drifted into the water around me, illuminating my arm, the harpoon gun, anything it got near to. An idea was born the next moment and I didn't pause to think if it was dumb or not, if it could work.

Scraping more algae of the rocky wall at my back was but a moments work and then I focused hard on my control of the water and send a stream of them across the rocky bottom. I hoped to illuminate the two combatants enough from below that I'd be able to tell who was who. It was hard work because while my focus was absolute, my reserves were extremely low.

They were far closer than I expected, darting around in front of me only a tail length away. At first the meager light from the algae just showed me their shadowy shapes but when I clustered more of the little flecks of light together I finally saw a little more. I tightened my grip around the harpoon gun, tensed my body and when I was absolutely certain I had the right one with his back toward me... I darted forward and whacked as hard as I could, slamming the long slender barrel into what I hoped fervently was Gavin's arm.

I raised my arm, ready for another hard hit with my makeshift bat but had to dodge fast instead. Much to my surprise the guy spun my way and came after me, his face going through the stream of glowing algae I'd sent his way. It lit up eerily, showing me what could only be described as a deranged grin and crazy, feral eyes.

He was far faster than I was, proving his greater experience in the water, and it didn't seem like the arm was bothering him much anyway. But Matt was right behind him and as I reached the surface, they did so behind me. There was a loud angry scream from Gavin and then nothing... Just silence.

*

Yup, I'm ending it on that note. This is already a longer chapter than most ;-)

I left a little hint in this chapter about a question some people already asked in earlier comments! Yes, I know I'm being super vague. ^. ^

Next update: Friday!

Much love,

Robin