Merman's Love (Merman's Kiss, Book 4)

by Dee J. Stone

  I feel my shoulders droop. I can’t bear to let my little sister and brother be thrown into the foster system. No, if Mom won’t take them, I will. Damarian and I will figure it all out.

  She puts her arms around me and hugs me close. “Look, you gave me enough shock tonight to last me my entire life and the afterlife. How about we go get some sleep and discuss this further in the morning?”

  “Okay. What time is it, anyway?”

  “About two AM.” She draws back and looks from me to Damarian. “You two look like you could sleep for a week.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel,” I say.

  She puts her arms around me again. “Mermaid,” she whispers like she can’t believe what’s coming out of her mouth.

  “Yep.”

  She plays with my hair. “Maybe it will all feel better in the morning.”

  “Probably not.”

  She laughs lightly before kissing my cheek. “Good night, honey.” She touches Damarian’s arm. “I do accept you into the family, Damian. I mean…um…”

  “Damarian.”

  “Dam…Damarian.”

  He nods and beams. “Thank you. I will cherish Cassie for all eternity.”

  She takes hold of both my hand and Damarian’s. “I can see how much you love each other. That’s what makes this so hard. That kind of love doesn’t come often.”

  Damarian and I look at each other. I bet if we were in a cartoon, we’d have hearts in our eyes.

  “I’m going to bed,” Mom says. “We’ll see if I manage to sleep at all.”

  “Thanks for listening,” I tell Mom.

  “No problem.”

  Once she leaves, Damarian wraps me in his arms. “How do you feel, my love?”

  “Relieved that the secret is out. You have no idea how hard it was to keep it from her.” I brush some hair out of his eyes. “You look so tired. Let’s go to bed.”

  Even though Mom prefers us to sleep in different rooms, she doesn’t say anything as we pass hers to get to ours. I guess the thought of us sleeping on the same bed is nothing compared to the news she just heard. Damarian and I climb into bed and cuddle in each other’s arms.

  “You tremble so,” he murmurs.

  “I’m just so nervous about Bobby and Ruthie. I hoped my mom would agree to take care of them, but of course that was wishful thinking. Her life doesn’t have room for two little kids.”

  “I will help you care for them, my Cassie.”

  Tears seep out of my eyes. “Thanks. That’s so sweet of you.” I reach to give him a loving kiss. “I love you so much.”

  “My love for you is as vast as the sea.”

  “My love for you runs all the way to Earth’s core.”

  He frowns. “I still do not know what that is.”

  I smile before finally telling him what that means.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Someone jumps on top of me. My eyes open to Ruthie staring down at me, her eyes shining. “Wake up! Wake up!”

  I groan before gently pushing her off my legs. “Ugh, what time is it?”

  “Dunno!”

  When the sleep finally manages to leave my head, it all comes back to me. The battle with the sea serpents, Ruthie and Bobby being orphans. Mom not willing to take them in. My heart sinks.

  “Why are you frowning?” She bounces on the bed. “And ew, is that your boyfriend in bed with you?”

  Damarian looks like a dead log. It seems not even Ruthie’s overabundant energy can wake him. I would probably be just as dead if I didn’t have so many worries on my head.

  “He had a rough night. Come.” I hoist her onto my hip and carry her out of the room. Before I go downstairs, I tuck some hair behind her ear and ask, “How are you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How do you feel?”

  “Good. Aunt Joanie said Bobby and me are staying here for a bit while Mommy and Daddy are on vacation. Do you know how long they’ll be gone? We’ll have so much fun here!”

  My stomach squeezes together at the way she talks about her parents. I swallow a few times before saying, “So you don’t remember?”

  “Joanie said we were so tired on the way over that we fell asleep in the car. I don’t remember Mommy and Daddy telling us we get to come here.” She squeals.

  Bile rises in my throat. How on Earth are we going to tell them they don’t have parents? The good news is that Ruthie doesn’t seem to have any memory of shifting into a sea serpent and battling the merpeople. Hopefully Bobby doesn’t remember, either.

  A delicious smell reaches my nose. “Mmm, something smells good.”

  Ruthie bounces in my arms. “Aunt Joanie’s making pancakes! And she promised she’d put blueberries in mine and make them in the shape of smiley faces!”

  Her bouncing is making her slip from my arms. I lower her, take her hand, and go downstairs. Bobby is sitting at the table reading a magazine, and Mom is flipping pancakes by the stove. “Hey, Bobby,” I greet. “Good morning, Mom.”

  She returns the greeting while Bobby frowns and lowers the magazine. “How could Mom forget to pack my 3DS? It sucks.”

  I now realize both kids are dressed in kid’s clothes. I recognize the one Ruthie’s wearing—it’s one of her favorites. I let go of her hand and make my way to Mom. “You went to their house?”

  “Your dad left a spare key with me a while ago.”

  I lean in close to her and whisper, “It doesn’t seem like Ruthie remembers anything. What about Bobby?”

  “From what I gathered so far, it seems the last thing he remembers is being on vacation with his family?”

  That’s right. My father pretended they were on an extended vacation while he and Sheila traveled all around the country to recruit the sea serpents. “That’s good,” I say.

  Ruthie tugs on Mom’s hand. “Are my pancakes ready yet?”

  “In a few minutes. Why don’t you show Cassie the drawing you worked on?”

  “Okay!”

  Geez, how long where these kids up? When I glance at the time, I see it’s ten o’clock. Ruthie runs away and returns a few seconds later with a pink piece of paper. I prepare my mind with the possibility that she drew a sea serpent—maybe her subconscious is aware of what happened back in the ocean—but a sigh leaves my mouth when I see it’s a picture of a house, trees, and flowers.

  “It’s beautiful,” I tell her. Hopefully, they’ll never know about the sea serpents.

  “Here you go.” Mom places two plates stacked with pancakes in front of the kids.

  “Yummy!”

  “Would be better if I had my 3DS,” Bobby mutters before digging in.

  “Where’s Damian?” Mom asks.

  “Sleeping like a baby,” Ruthie says with a full mouth.

  “Hey, Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?” I ask.

  She follows me into the living room. “What’s up?”

  “Damarian will need to go for a swim soon.”

  She looks toward the kids, who are munching on their pancakes. “So you want me to take them out for a while?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all.” She shakes her head so fast she looks like she has two heads. “I thought things would be better this morning, but I’m still reeling.”

  I laugh lightly. “Maybe you’ll never get used to it.”

  Mom and I join the kids at the table and munch on our own pancakes. A satisfied sigh leaves my mouth. I’ve missed Mom’s pancakes. After about ten minutes, I hear footsteps coming down the steps. Damarian appears a second later, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. For a moment, he looks surprised to see the full kitchen, as though he momentarily forgot the events that happened these past few days.

  “Morning,” I greet.

  “Good morning, Cassie, Joanie, Ruthie and Bobby.” His gaze lands on the stack of pancakes on the table and he rubs his stomach. “I have not realized how famished I am.”

  “Please join us,” Mom says.

  Dam
arian wastes no time putting three on his plate and devouring them. We haven’t eaten a proper meal since…I’m not even sure when. Was it back in the cave when Damarian taught me how to hunt for fish? It makes me wonder how the hunting is going back at the merpeople colony. I hope they manage to collect enough food for everyone.

  Once we’re done eating and have washed and dried the dishes, Mom informs the kids they are going out to play in the park for a few hours. Damarian gives me a questioning look, and I send him a smile. He nods in appreciation. When they’re gone, Damarian gathers me in his arms. “Thank you for caring for me, my love.”

  I lock my arms around his neck as I push my body close to his. “Always. I guess we’re going to have to figure out how you can swim twice a day in the pool with Bobby and Ruthie around. Little kids aren’t that great at keeping secrets.”

  He caresses the side of my face. “Perhaps we shall have no choice but to tell them the truth.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat. Maybe I’ll have no choice but to give them up. It hurts my heart to even let those thoughts enter my mind, but I can’t risk Damarian being exposed.

  Hand in hand, we make our way to the pool. Since I swam last night and have just come out of the ocean less than a day ago, I’m set for a while and have no need to dip myself in salt water. It’d be dangerous for the two of us to be in our mermaid/merman form right now.

  Damarian raises his arms and dives into the water. I distance myself from him so that the water won’t hit me and cause me to change. Normally, I love watching him swim in the pool, love seeing the shine in his eyes and how carefree and happy he looks. But I can’t enjoy it right now. It seems like once we manage to overcome one problem, another one arises. I really don’t want to give up my little brother and sister.

  After Damarian is dried up, we get dressed, and he settles down on the couch. I lean forward to kiss him. “Are you sure you’re okay being here alone?”

  He nods. “It is imperative that you speak with Leah. I do not wish to stand in your way.”

  “You won’t. But this is something I should probably do on my own.” I have no idea what I’m going to tell her about Jace. I know she’ll be devastated.

  “Good luck, my love. It is my hope that she is not too hurt by the news.”

  “I doubt it.” I give him another kiss before grabbing my keys and closing the door behind me.

  Leah should have her break around now. I try rehearsing what I’ll say to her, what would be the best approach to cause her the least amount of pain, but I don’t think there’s any way to soften the blow. She’ll be hurt no matter what.

  As soon as I walk into Misty’s Juice Bar, her eyes immediately spring to me. The smoothie in her hand drops to the floor, splattering her, her coworkers, and some of the customers. She lifts the counter and bullets toward me, flinging her arms around me with so much force that I nearly lose my balance and send us crashing to the floor.

  “Oh my God.” She squeezes me so tight my spine is about to snap. “You’re okay! You have no idea how worried I was!”

  I hug her just as strongly. “I was so worried about you, too. Will you have a break soon?”

  “I’ll take it now.” She calls to her coworker to take over. He scowls at her as he cleans the mess she made. She ignores him and takes my hand, pulling me out of the shop. We search for a private spot on the beach.

  “Oh my God,” Leah says again as she once again yanks me into her arms. “I lost so much sleep over you. You have no idea! I even called your mom, which was so stupid because she started freaking out and then I had to make up all these ridiculous excuses.” She swallows before her vocal chords fly out of her mouth, and catches her breath. “I even considered going into the ocean. I know how stupid that would have been.”

  I gently pull out of the hug, take her hands, and sit on the sand, pulling her down with me. “I’m sorry you were so worried. Did they do anything to you?”

  She shakes her head, her eyes focused on the sand. “I yelled and ran after you. I saw them dump you in the trunk of a car and drive away. I chased after you, but I just couldn’t keep up.” She bites hard on her lower lip. “Jace didn’t even look at me, no matter how many times I called his name. How many times I begged for him to let you go.”

  Tears enter her eyes. She swats at them before they drip down her cheeks. It causes my own eyes to well up. Telling her the news about Jace is going to be so hard. I don’t want to cause her any pain, but I don’t have a choice.

  “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she says, her voice so low I almost miss it. She flattens her hands on the sand and gathers some grains, squeezing them so hard her hands grow red.

  I gently take her hands and loosen them, watching the grains slip out. She slowly raises her head and looks into my face, her eyes filled to the brim, her lower lip trembling.

  “Yeah,” I whisper. “Jace is dead. So is my dad, stepmom, and every other sea serpent. Other than Ruthie and Bobby. We managed to save them.”

  At first, she remains as still as a statue, not even blinking. Then I watch as her mind and body slowly react to the news. Her shoulders droop so low she looks like a question mark, her hands start to quake, and it looks like she’s about to collapse. I envelop her in my arms. “I’m so sorry, Leah. So sorry.”

  “I knew he would die.” She sobs into my shoulder. “I just knew it. Oh, God. My Jace is dead. I can’t believe he’s dead.”

  She frees herself from the hug and looks into my eyes. “Tell me everything. I need to know.”

  “I don’t know. Some of the things he did—”

  She grips my shoulders. “Please, Cassie. I need to know.”

  Reluctantly, I nod and tell her everything that happened since my dad and the others snatched me away from her. Her face fills with horror when I describe how Cassila took over my body and forced me to kill all those merpeople and ocean creatures. But nothing compares to the look on her face when she discovers what Jace had done, nor to how I had no choice but to kill him. She wraps her arms around her stomach and squeezes tight as she bends over and weeps.

  “He wasn’t the Jace you knew,” I say as softly as I can. “Just like my dad wasn’t the dad I grew up with. The dad I loved. Their serpent sides took complete control of them. We…we had to kill them.”

  She nods as she continues to cry.

  I rub her back. “Right before he died, his human side came to the surface. He told me to give you a message.”

  Her head snaps to mine. “W…what?”

  “He wanted you to know how much he loved you and how sorry he was for everything. His human side loved you very much.”

  Her cries grow more intense. “How will I move on from this, Cass? The only guy I’ve ever truly loved is gone.” She falls on me and continues to howl on my shoulder.

  “I don’t know,” I say as I rub circles on her back. “But I’m here. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

  “Why did a part of me refuse to give up on this pathetic hope that everything would turn out okay and that I would live happily ever after? I should have killed it once all these weird things started happening on the beach.”

  “Weird things? You mean the tsunami?”

  She slowly pulls away and rubs the inside of her wrist against her nose. “Yeah. It wasn’t a massive one, though it did quite some damage. No major injuries, thank God. They had to evacuate the ocean and nearby houses.”

  I nod, my heart hurting as the undying tears continue to splash down her cheeks.

  “A few college kids swore they saw a monster on the beach.” Her head lifts to mine. “It was them, wasn’t it?”

  I nod, the memory of my transformation and the transformation of the others knocking into my skull. Everything Cassila did will most likely be ingrained in my brain for the rest of my life. I don’t know how I’ll ever get over it. But I need to push that aside and focus on Leah.

  “The day after they took you,” she says, “Some fishermen complained about how
bad their catch was. Like a large amount of fish died or something.”

  I try to block out the memories of the sea serpents, including me, killing those innocent fish.

  “There was a murder on the beach, too.”

  She must be referring to the woman my dad killed, the one who saw me shift into Cassila.

  “All because of them?” she asks.

  I nod.

  She lets out a breath. “Everything seems to be back to normal now.” She sniffs as she wipes her nose. “But I don’t think anything will ever be normal again for me.”

  I feel the exact same way.

  Chapter Thirty

  I don’t know how long I hold Leah in my arms as she mourns the man she loved. When she calms down a little, she tells me she needs to be alone. She calls work and tells them she’s taking the rest of the day off, and goes home. I wish I knew what to do to make her feel better, but this is something she needs to deal with on her own. I’ll be here whenever she needs me, just like I’ve been since the day we became friends. Just like she was when I needed her all those times I cried over Damarian.

  I watch her form grow smaller, her shoulders hunched, the heartache practically swallowing the entire beach. I know it’ll be hard, but she’ll get through this. Leah is one of the strongest people I know. I’m not saying her heart will ever truly heal from this, but I’m certain she will learn to move on. I hope she meets the right guy when the time is right, when she’s ready to open her heart again.

  Just as I turn to leave, I catch sight of a familiar person trudging through the sand, lugging a surfboard in his arms. “Timmy!” I call as I rush over. He lifts his head, and when he realizes it’s me, he drops the surfboard and dashes toward me. “Miss Cassie!”

  I fall to my knees and hold my arms out, just as he launches himself at me. I’m about to drop him when it dawns on me he could be wet, but then I realize he’s completely dry and I tighten my hold on him. A guy a few years older than him stands awkwardly behind us—his cousin.

  “How are you?” I ask. “And since when do you let me hug you? I thought hugs are ew.”