Dagger (Brothers of Element Series Book I)

"Come A Little Closer...Just A Little..."

A SLIGHT RUMBLE grabbed her attention. The summer's heat gave way to swollen clouds overhead. The weather changed abruptly. Pawleys Island was in for more rain, thank goodness. She was on fire and not just from the weather. 

She forced herself to shake the dream from her mind and concentrate on her work. 

Squatting low to the pier, she flipped her music on. The two basic m's in her life, music and marine life. 

"Why don't you use headphones, Drew?" Jim asked, irritated. 

She frowned. Was he serious? "Ozzy and Snoop Dogg... they're like a fine wine. They need to breathe." She bobbed her head back and forth. "Seriously though, if you can hear it on the beach, let me know." 

He shook his head, heading down to his car. "Need anything from Walgreens?" 

She gestured to the clouds. "No thanks. I won't be out here much longer, not with those wicked clouds jamming up the sky. I wanna get this logged." 

And seeing this was her day off and she no longer had a boyfriend to invite over, she'd go take in a movie. Take her mind off the weather for a minute. 

Not that she minded helping Jim. The recent rash of tsunamis and underwater earthquakes around the world affected everyone, so she enjoyed being there. Ever since the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra, then Katrina, now Haiti... nature was having a stroke and there wasn't a crash cart big enough. She had to laugh, the earth was having a health emergency and she'd broken up with a doctor, the one person who could get his hands on a cart. Jim worried she'd save the world. Not likely. 

Around the world thirty-foot waves bunched along shorelines causing tsunamis, beaches were eroding left and right, and the poor Pacific states suffered with their earthquakes. Things were just a mess all over the world. Nature was crying out, if she only knew what it was saying, she'd be on it in a heartbeat. 

Between the music and the ocean waves, she had a good rhythm going, rocking side to side. When her favorite group began singing, she lost herself in the beat. Good thing the vacationers weren't out yet. Her hips were getting a workout and right then it felt amazing to her spine. Her mind slipped back to that day on the playground. She still cursed Doug for running under the swing in the fifth grade, causing the accident that left her in the hospital for a week with a concussion, a hairline fracture in her skull, every scan known to man, and a spine that still didn't do well under stress. 

It didn't stop her hips from swaying as she scribbled in her iPad. A few things to- 

Click, click, click 

She looked up. Right in time to see the slip of gray that warmed her heart. With a warm sigh, she waited for them to come closer, dropping her little device in her duffle. Worried they wouldn't come out with Jim still on the dock, she became antsy. 

The soft, gray bodies sliced the surface, shedding water like a snake sheds skin. She knew they were dangerous, the dolphins. Most animals strike out in fear, but these animals had no reason to fear. They knew her, her voice, her touch. Frankly, that frightened her more than anything did. Although as sound as Jim's fears were, they looked at her like one of their own. Like family. Had she replaced humans with marine life? 

Heat moved up her knees from the steel platform. It creaked against the wood ladder. 

She knew the position they waited to see from her and they knew what to wait for. Without further hesitation, she dipped her hand beneath the murky current-swirled-and waited.  

"Come on, guys, get your morning rub," she called out. 

They were like puppies: a scratch, a rub, and they were yours.