Alex Prentiss - Dark Waters

Praise for Alex Prentisss
NIGHT TIDES

[Alex] Prentiss has created one of the most imaginative heroines ever. Shes both powerful and vulnerable, and truly compelling. An intriguing mystery with deep and complicated characters.

Romantic Times Book Reviews

A fascinating paranormal suspense thriller starring an interesting protagonist whose special skill brings a special freshness to the mission of saving abducted college-age females. The story line is fast paced from the onset, while the romantic subplot enhances the amateur-sleuth inquiry. Fans will appreciate Night Tides due to a heroine whose connection to the spirits of the lake makes for a unique enjoyable read.

H ARRIET K LAUSNER

With a plethora of characters, Night Tides is a fresh and exciting debut novel by new author Alex Prentiss. The pacing is quick, and the plot is addicting. The characters are well drawn and a bit quirky [and] the tension is palpable. The erotic content is plentiful but tastefully done. Delve into this mesmerizing read that will keep you captivated long into the night.

Romance Reviews Today

In Night Tides, first-time novelist Prentiss pens a charming and engaging story that is equally part mystery, thriller and romance, with just such a character and a light touch of the supernatural reminiscent of Charles de Lintthe father of urban mythin its subtlety and uniqueness.

The Miami Herald

An interesting story full of suspense and action. This book is fast paced and keeps the readers interest throughout. Dark and wondrous.

Fresh Fiction

BY ALEX PRENTISS

Dark Waters
Night Tides

Dark Waters is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

A Bantam Books Mass Market Original

Copyright 2010 by Alex Prentiss

Cover design: Marietta Anastassatos

Cover photo: Frank Petsch redbrickstock.com / Alamy

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B ANTAM B OOKS and the rooster colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90799-5

www.bantamdell.com

v3.1

To my mom, Grace West,
who really liked the first book

Special thanks to:
Anne Groell
Marlene Stringer
David Pomerico
Sjolinds Chocolate House
Caroline Aumann
Valette, Jake, and Charlie

T HE NIGHT WAS hot and wet, but Rachel Matre felt oddly distant from it as she stood naked on the edge of Lake Mendota, her bare feet sinking in the warm mud. Her belly fluttered with nervousness, and she wrung her hands unconsciously. But what was normally something she desiredsomething she craved and couldnt live withoutnow felt tentative and uncertain.

I almost failed them; what if they no longer want me?

Rachel was thirty-four but looked younger, with a body kept trim and firm by regular jogging. She had unruly blond hair and full lips, and a haunted look in her eyes that spoke of past traumas hidden deep and well.

She was in tiny Hudson Park, hidden from view by the effigy mound of a water spirit. It had been built by an ancient, now-vanished Native American tribe called the Lo-Stahzi, and the park existed to protect it. The park, and the rest of downtown Madison, Wisconsin, occupied a narrow isthmus between Mendota and its sister lake, Monona. Here was where she met her spectral lovers.

The spirits of the lake, ancient and inexplicable, had saved Rachel from drowning when she was a teen. Ever since, she had returned to their amorous, erotic, and insatiable embrace. She came to them naked, in the middle of the night, and they pulled her beneath the surface and enveloped her in sensual safety. They took her to heights of passion she never dreamed possible, and in return she helped them right wrongs in the surface world. She had no idea who they were or why they were here, only that they loved her and protected her.

Or at least they had once. But did they still want her, after what had happened? Not only had she failed in her task to protect a young woman named Patty Patilia from danger, but her own body was now marked by another man. The outline of a tattoo covered her torso from breasts to below her navel, placed there against her will by the madman Arlin Korbus. As she stepped into the water, she wondered if the spirits would even want her this way. Her body had been used against her will, but she still felt guilty for it. At weak moments she thought that if shed just allowed him to do the tattoo in the first place, perhaps he wouldnt have gone on the rampage that left one woman dead and four others marked for life. She knew rationally none of it was her fault, that Korbus acted for his own reasons, but that knowledge did little to stem her own sense of responsibility for what happened. She hid her shame at her violated flesh from everyone else, but the spirits would know. They always knew.

She took another step. Soft silt squirted up between her toes. A wave broke against her thigh, splashing across her abdomen and the evidence of her recent ordeal. Korbus had kidnapped her, along with four other girls, and planned to mark their bodies with designs theyd once refused. Rachel had fought back, ultimately killing Korbus with her bare hands. But only Ethan Walkers timely arrival had saved Patty from the effects of a black widow spider bite.

Please, she whispered. Please take me. I did the best I could. Please.

She neednt have worried. The first touch came gentlyan unmistakable caress along her calf that raised glorious goose bumps. The fingers trailed up her leg, across her knee, and then along the inside of her thigh. They faded as they neared her most intimate place, and for just a moment she feared it was a farewell, not a welcome.

Then the hands were everywhere, just as theyd always been, and they pulled her beneath the surface. As always, even though she was underwater, their magic allowed her to breathe in safety.

We have missed you, the voices said in her head as watery lips closed over her nipples. We have ached for your body. Hands pushed her thighs apart, exposing her in a way that would be grotesque in any other situation. But here, floating in a world with no up or down, she welcomed it. Already she was wet inside before the slippery, liquid tongue began stroking her, and teeth just firm enough for the purpose nibbled at her clit.

It was all it had ever been, and more. She wouldve screamed with relief and delight if shed been above the surface.

Another tongue traced the still-sensitive line of her new tattoo. We will always treasure you. You will never be defiled to us. Bring us your pain, your troubles, and drown them with us.

She felt a rush of emotion too powerful for words.

It was like an amorphous orgy with her at the center. All attention focused on her needs, sensing when things grew too intense and she required a moment to recover. Yet the passion never really abated. She was caressed, kissed, sucked, and penetrated. It went on for so long that she began to wonder if they ever intended to let her go. Could she die this way? she thought, after innumerable orgasms. And would she care?