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first into the knee-high water, stabilizing the boat until after Christopher had stowed their oars and joined him. Together they easily beached the seventeen-foot skiff, a replica of those that had been used along the Jersey Shore since the late 1800s.
    From the moment Christopher entered the water he experienced the life energies swirling in the blessed liquid of Mother Ocean. So much life beneath the surface for him to sample, but also a perfect way for him to coexist with his Equinox. The intense demand and growth of energy that came at the height of a Hunter’s power and fertility had been with him for close to a year. He had balanced the need to bond in a variety of ways, including using the ocean around him as both a source of power and an energy sink.
    Ryan laid out a blanket and called out to him when he noted that Christopher lingered in the water. “Are you heading right in?”
    “I am. And you?”
    Ryan smiled boyishly, spreading his arms and raising his face to the sun. “I’m already in my environment.”
    True, Christopher realized. Ryan’s ability to store and use the power of the sun allowed him to gather very potent energy regularly, making his affinity much more formidable and lethal than that of other Shadow Hunters.
    “I’ll be back,” Christopher advised and grabbed the floating red and white scuba diving flag he would toss out over where he hunted. It provided an explanation for the extreme amount of time he spent below the surface.
    He swam out until he was in about thirty feet of water, released the diving flag, and then sank below the surface. As luck would have it, a small school of brown-green weakfish were spawning along the estuary floor. With a gush of energy, he formed a vortex and directed it downward. It acted like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up a large fish and bringing it up to his grasp through the swirling tunnel of water.
    Two feet of angry fish squirmed and flailed in his hands until he sucked in a bit of its life force and it weakened. Focusing his gathering, he took only a smidgen of the fish’s vitality within him. He needed the weakfish’s energy to partially shapeshift so he could stay below the surface long enough to do the exchange needed to rein in the demands of his Equinox.
    He forced the fish’s life force through his body, and his power drained while he directed it toward his throat. He gritted his teeth and battled the pain as his skin tore open and the muscles beneath the surface reformed, developing gills. Blood vessels rerouted themselves to those new organs, creating an avenue for the oxygen to flow from the gills throughout his body. He grew lightheaded fora moment, but then the outpouring of oxygen flooded through his gills and revitalized him.
    With the skill of a surgeon, he dissected a piece of the power he had absorbed and directed it to his eyes. He created a thin membrane with the life force to protect them against the salt water.
    Satisfied with the adaptations to his eyes and lungs, Christopher stopped his shapeshifting. He released the fish and expelled as much air as he could from his lungs. With nothing to keep him buoyant, he easily drifted down to the sandy bottom, scattering the swarm of fish when he settled in the midst of their school. Crossing his legs, he assumed a traditional Lotus position and opened his eyes. Looking around, he savored the sights around him.
    The bright sunlight streamed downward in muted lines through the clear waters, which shimmered and moved with the sway of the ocean. When he remained motionless, the weakfish returned, swimming around him, bumping him every now and then as they came close to check him out.
    Along the rough pockets of sand and rocks near the shore, sea grass and patches of seaweed provided protection for other species. Smaller fish swam in and out of the waving sea grass, while a few feet away, a lobster picked an ungainly path across the floor of the ocean. On the surfaces of the rocks, huge colonies