Drake Sisters 07 - Hidden Currents

the edges of his mouth.
    Jackson had inadvertently given her the very tools she needed with his lecture on positive energy. A burst of confidence rushed through her and she felt the instant reaction in the joined minds of her sisters. El e faced the oncoming wave and a smal laugh escaped. Meeting Stavro’s attack with violence would only feed him power. She had to give him something else, something he couldn’t understand and it was al around her. Not power. Not control. Not even anger or revenge. Friendship. Love. Faith.
    The wave separated, speeding around the current running on the surface of the water back toward Stavros’s yacht. Her sisters spread out in a V-shape, with El e forming the point and they al lifted their hands. El e began to direct, feeding them al the energy around her, the positive, happy, celebratory energy.
    Just as in chemistry classes from al those years with her teachers frowning at her, El e began to mix the ingredients needed. Thicken the water, provide warmth, heat bursting up through the bottom as the wave rol ed over it, reduce the surface tension of the water, a bit tricky and she lent her mother and aunt a little help. The wave rol ed closer but now it was superheated and much thicker, the composition already changed. She could see the blossoming colors, like an iridescent rainbow rol ing through the water. And then Hannah and El e provided the fierce wind, stepping together, hands up, grinning at one another like two children, agitating the mixture, blowing hard, and the two waves began to break apart.
    Large spheres rose into the sky, fil ing the open spaces so that for a few moments the blue was blotted out and there was only a canopy of large, shiny bubbles, a myriad of colors shining through the translucent spheres. Behind her she could hear the laughter and applause, as if everyone thought this was an amazing part of the celebration, thousands of bubbles floating over the sea, back toward the horizon, the rush of warm air carrying the joyful mood of their celebration across the ocean.
    El e staggered and Jackson was there, his arm around her to steady her, kissing the side of her face, love pouring over and into her. Weak, she clung to him, looking over his shoulder at her brother-in-law. Laughter and conversation poured al around her as the music started up and children ran up and down the beach as if mountainous waves and thousands of bubbles were an everyday occurrence. None of them seemed to notice the rip current going from shore out to sea increasing in strength, the kelp lying flat now as pressure from Stavros sucked the water back toward him for another try.
    Ilya closed his eyes briefly and beneath the water a smal seal burst on the continental shelf, ejecting methane into the fast-moving current. The rapid stream carried the methane bubbles back with it. He concentrated on pushing the riptide under the yacht so that the power and energy Gratsos was generating took his boat farther out to sea in spite of the anchor. The Greek was forced to abandon building another wave for just a few moments in order to stop his yacht from being carried away.
    Stavros stood at the front of his opulent yacht, hands on the railing facing the shore where the celebration continued as if he were nothing at al .
    Nothing. Discounted as a nuisance, not a formidable opponent, a man to be reckoned with. She was mocking him with her bubbles, laughing at him, making him look weak. It was a slap in the face, an insult not to be forgiven. She had dismissed him, hadn’t taken him seriously, but she would learn, she would know, just before he destroyed everything that mattered to her, how powerful he real y was. His face was burned from the backlash of El e’s first psychic retaliation, unexpected and shocking, the pain stil excruciating. And he could barely walk, every step agony. He couldn’t be with a woman for a long time, and she was going to pay for her betrayal—letting another man touch her body that belonged to him—everyone she loved was going to die.
    The tiny methane bubbles frothed and agitated the water surrounding the boat the moment Gratsos stopped feeding the hidden current. The yacht staggered, shuddered and abruptly plummeted as if into a hole, sinking in one long drop. There was no time to do anything, his crew diving into the ocean around him and sinking as wel in spite of kicking strongly. He tried frantical y to swim to the