Seas Of Passion

They finally made it through the tunnels and into the cave and took some time to shift into human form and look around. This cave wasn’t nearly as massive as the other one, it was around the size of a two story house, but it had a large shaft of sunlight that came through the top and shone in the center of the cave, which Shanice went into and laid down, enjoying the warmth of the ground.

“Alan, come lay with me, this light feels wonderful,” she said. Alan lay behind her and put his arms around her waist, but she still felt the anger in his mind at the whale-if it had been a whale-that had cut their journey into the deep water so short.

“Alan, it’s okay, you don’t have to feel angry at whatever it was that we met back there, it was just doing what came naturally to it. We don’t have to stay in the deep water and can go wherever we please, plus we can travel on land as well.”

As the anger slowly faded from Alan’s mind, he held Shanice close and they both dozed off, unaware that Jacob was less than ten miles away from where they slept.

Above the cave, on the crowded beach, Jacob was watching the ocean waves and considering shifting into a shark and fleeing from the city. Lara, who was somehow able to speak to him mentally even when he moved away from the facility, the last place he spoke to her, was a constant plague to him. In reality, the scientists under her command at the facility had discovered that she could make recordings of herself speaking mentally if they were aimed at a particular person and she had done so, making messages for Jacob telling him that his only chance at freedom was to help her one last time. After this the recordings were played in the areas he frequented with instructions for him to contact Lara at the facility. Eventually, when the recordings were too much for him to bear, he called her.

“Hello Jacob, have you decided to help me so that the recordings can stop?”

“I could just leave you know, go to another city or shift and then escape to the sea.”

“Oh Jacob, any other shifter that found you would tear you apart, you’re too weak as it is to survive on your own, you really should come and work for me, at least then you won’t have to live in fear like a food fish, always terrified Alan will detect you.”

“I’ll do this, but then the recordings stop and you leave me alone.”

“What exactly makes you think you can give orders or demands to me? I could have you brought into me or just find you myself.”

“You said the recordings would stop if I helped you.”

“Indeed, but you just tried to dictate terms to me as if we were equals. I think I’ll just bring you in myself, unless you’ve become too good at fleeing like the coward you’ve become.”

After hanging up, Lara had the call traced and within thirty minutes had a team of men running surveillance on Jacob. She took her time heading toward the beach he was at and once she arrived, it was afternoon and the air was filled with the sounds of beach-goers. She watched from her car as Jacob blended well enough with the crowds and then got out and gave herself a powerful negative charge.  Within moments people began to leave the beach in droves, some citing the weather, others all but fleeing as they felt an unnamed eerie feeling the closer they were to Lara. Jacob stayed, sitting in the sand and staring out at the sea as Lara sat next to him.

“Well, here I am. Are you going to take me back to the facility? That would be a truly cruel thing to do, so it’s what I’ve been preparing for.”

“No Jacob, you’re of no use to me there, I’ve made a shifter already who listens to me as if I’m controlling him without me even needing to. You’re going to face Alan for me.”

“There’s no possible way I’ll be able to win against him.”

“I’m afraid that’s not really something I care about Jacob. After you face, and are presumably killed by him, I’ll be killing the woman he’s with, so that he’ll return to me.”

“Lara, I can’t believe you think that would work for even a minute. I will obviously do it, I can’t refuse you anyhow. But I’m going to tell you this: I don’t even hope that you fail, you already have.”

“It’s been fun catching up Jacob, but I’ve got things to do, so go ahead and look at me so I can get things started.”

Lara’s guards sitting in the vehicle kept their weapons trained on Jacob as he looked angrily at Lara, then they all sighed with relief as the two shifters got up and came back to the car. Lara made several recordings of Jacob challenging Alan by speaking mentally and then sedated him and expended a massive amount of power taking control of his subconscious mind, directing him to behave a certain way once he encountered Alan. Once Lara completed programming his subconscious, she revived him and let him go with instructions to go into his shark form and search for Alan.

Ten miles away from the beach where Jacob had just been released, Alan and Shanice were waking up in the latest underwater cave they had visited. Shanice woke up first and yawned, smiling as Alan embraced her more tightly.

“Alan, that was incredible, I feel closer to you each time we come to one of these caves, but I really want to try hunting with you as a shark. Ever since I dreamt about it I’ve wanted to, can we?”

“Of course, just let me get my energy back for a bit and we can go hunt whatever you like, maybe we’ll find a seal.”