All my new stainless steel appliances were packed into the cupboard beneath the silver hotplate, from the mixer to the pizza cooker. I even had a curved pizza knife tucked into the third drawer.
I sat in the kitchen and opened a chilled Stella. I raised it above my head. "In memory of death and duty," I said quietly, sipping the beer with my eyes closed as my thoughts turned to more recent memories. Should I pick up my smartphone and call Skipper, to obtain the contact details of his sexy deckhand with the sweet arse? I shook my head with a smile. Not tonight. Perhaps one day…
I drained my drink and threw the empty into my new recycling bin. I looked out the window at the new playground and swing set, hoping they would meet with my youngest daughter's approval when I brought her to land. We would have to drive by a playground full of human children so she would understand its use.
Marina…Just the thought of my youngest daughter had me yearning for home. I slipped out of my clothes, throwing them into the hamper beside the new washing machine. I padded across the dining room, snatching up the digital camera on my way to the folding doors that led outside. I closed and locked them behind me, hiding the key behind the mermaid tile on the wall.
I strode across the street and the park to the river in the darkness. I slipped over the side of the ferry terminal jetty and into the dark river water.
On my return, I will truly infiltrate the humans as never before, with my daughter by my side. May heaven help them, if I decide that I will not, I thought as I swam out to sea. Next landfall is at the Abrolhos, for a slight rest before I head home. If only it were the fishing season, when Skipper's dreamy deckhand might appear on my decking again. Perhaps there is one man who can rival my Harley. I let my laughter bubble up to the surface as I swept through the water, increasing my speed.
5. Joe
"Vanessa!" I stepped off the shack's veranda and there she was, like a perfect hallucination. She sat on a chair in the sun, sipping from a steaming cup. More than three years had passed, but she hadn't changed a bit.
I kept my eyes on her as I stumbled closer, scared that I was dreaming and she'd disappear.
She jumped to her feet in surprise. "Joe? What are you doing here?" Her hands and the cup they held started to shake. "The fishing season's over. I didn't think anyone was here."
I smiled. "Maintenance goes on year-round, fishing season or not. Anyway, all that's changed. Fishing is year-round now, too, and we might be allowed to take tourists. Skipper and I have a business plan, buying up some of the old fishing shacks from guys who don't fish any more. I'm here trying to fix them up so they'll have power. Then we can renovate them properly so they look nicer." I frowned. "I didn't hear a plane land." I looked at the jetty. "And you didn't bring the Siren over. When did you arrive?"
Her eyes widened in alarm. The cup dropped from her hands and smashed at her feet, but she didn't even glance at it. "Early this morning. You mustn't have heard the plane, you were probably still asleep…" She looked away as her voice faded.
Shit. She didn't take a plane or a boat. She probably swam here while it was still dark. I couldn't keep my eyes off her, drinking her in. In three and a half years, I'd thought of a million questions to ask her and now she was in front of me I was tongue-tied. I'd felt like the world was in black and white and it suddenly burst into colour now I saw her again. I didn't care what she was – I just wanted to hold her again and never let go. Preferably with as little clothing on as possible…
She backed away from me. "I just came to pick a few things up and then I'll go again. I'm not going to be here long. I should never have come…" She fumbled for the door handle behind her, not taking her frightened eyes off me. As if she was afraid of me.
I found my voice. "Please, don't go." I sounded desperate.
She dropped her hands to her sides, her back to the door. Her smile was wan. "I have to," she whispered.
"You don't," I told her, grasping her nerveless hands. "Please, stay with me. I can take care of you. I'll never look at another woman again. I'll do anything to make you happy."
"You barely know me," she said.
"I know you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met. I've loved you since the moment I first saw you. You're amazing. You're an expert fisher, you're so smart I can barely follow you sometimes, you kill sharks with a filleting knife, you're incredible in bed and you're a good cook. Your smile and your laugh are like sunshine. I haven't stopped thinking about you since I met you and I don't want to be without you." I took a deep breath. "And your tail is exactly the same colour as your eyes, the most beautiful stormy blue I've ever seen."
She tried to pull her hands away from me, but I held on. "What did you say?" she asked faintly.
"I don't care what you are. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, from top to beautiful blue tail. I love you and I want to stay with you for the rest of my life." I kissed her.
She froze for a moment, before she responded to my kiss, as half-hearted and cold as a dying fish.
"You must be joking," she managed to say when I broke away from her.
I shook my head, my eyes on hers.
"How long have you known?" she said weakly, sliding down the door to sink onto the veranda decking.
I sat on the decking in front of her and pulled out my phone. "Since just after you left. I saw you say goodbye to the island before you swam away with the other two." I started flipping feverishly through the menus on my phone, searching for the video, my only evidence that I hadn't dreamed her. "There." I showed her the grainy video, watching her rise from water, say her goodbye and flip her tail as she swam away. It might have been the millionth time I'd watched it, but a black hole opened up in my heart all the same.
A tear trickled down her cheek. "How many people have you shown this to?" she asked urgently as she wiped it away.
I hesitated. "Just one – Dean saw it before I did. But he didn't believe it was real. He thought it was just a movie."
She managed a weak laugh. "You've had evidence of the existence of my people for three years and you haven't shown it to anyone?"
"I didn't want anyone else to see it," I replied defensively. "You weren't wearing any clothes and it didn't seem right."
Her laughter was stronger. "You could have posted that video on the internet and had humans hunting for us for three years, but you didn't do it. Not because you didn't want people to know what I was, but because you didn't want them to see my breasts?" For the first time, she laughed like I remembered. Then she sobered a little. "Did you make any copies of that?"
"No!" I answered immediately. "I haven't replaced my phone for three years because it has that video on it. I didn't want to share you with anyone."
She closed her eyes. "So if I destroy that video, the only human who knows will be you." She looked as if the knowledge pained her.
I felt an overwhelming sense of loss. "But that's the only thing I have of you. The only memory you left me."
She stared at me in disbelief. "I gave you plenty of pleasant memories, including a parting one that I know you enjoyed. Your electronic memory puts my people in danger."
I struggled to explain. "In three years, even my best memories fade. A video, or even a picture, helps me to remember."
She held my phone in her hands and frowned at the screen. I reached for it, but she scrambled to her feet and ran out onto the path. "There, deleted," she said in relief before I'd made it down the steps off her veranda. Before I could reach her, she threw my phone out across the anchorage. It smashed against a jetty pylon before it fell into the water in pieces.
"NO!" I gasped.
She held her hands up in a gesture of conciliation. "I will reimburse you for the loss of your phone. It was necessary." She looked at me in concern. "Now, what do I do with you?"
Vanessa just stole, smashed and sank my phone. I felt lightheaded. "Marry me," I told her, with a laugh that sounded slightly hysterical.
She shook her head. "Don't b
e silly. I'll be gone as soon as it's dark."
"Then spend the day with me. Please," I begged. "Give me a memory to replace the one you just took."
She bit her lip. "What did you have in mind?"
I could think of a million things to do and they all involved taking her clothes off. I voiced the most improbable of the lot. "I'd like to go for a swim with you. I'd like you to show me what you really look like, in daylight. I want to know what it feels like to touch your tail."
She opened her mouth, but couldn't seem to frame the words.
"There's no one else here, just us. No one will see you but me," I promised.
She looked at me for a long moment, before she smiled sadly. "I'll stay with you, just for a swim."
6. Laila
"One hundred years ago, the humans were at war with one another. They ventured to sea in vessels which attempted to sink the others. Many vessels were sunk in our ocean, but there is one which stands out. A battle occurred near the Nursery Grounds. A vessel was damaged and many humans were hurt or killed. Three of our kind remained at the Nursery Grounds. Da-Xia was a mother who was due to birth a child. She was labouring as the vessel appeared and the healers could not move her.
"A human from the stricken vessel saw our kind and approached the shore. He was a human healer and he thought to assist. Healer Duyong stayed with Da-Xia whilst Healer Sephira took hold of the human healer and swam him into deep water, amid metal projectiles fired by the human vessels at one another. She held him there until his breath ran out, but sustained an injury from a piece of metal through her arm. When she returned to Healer Duyong and Da-Xia, she found that metal projectiles had pierced their bodies, also. Both they and the unborn child were lifeless.
"Sephira carried her own daughter and Da-Xia to deep water, to hide their bodies from the humans. Though injured, she swam home to tell the other elders of the tragedy. Today we have her story to remind us of the dangers of humans, whether they are hostile or well-meaning, and the sacrifices that must be made to ensure our safety."
Teacher Darma spoke further of security and the need for our people to remain hidden from humans, but I turned to Estella to converse quietly. "Could you do it, Estella? Kill a human in cold blood, to protect our people?"
Her reply was thoughtful. "I would not like to. I would hope to blend with humans well enough that death would not be necessary. And you?"
I did not hesitate. "My people are here. Humans hurt my mother when she was among them. I could hurt or kill a human to protect myself or my people."
"How would you do it, Laila? If a human saw you swimming, how could you kill him?" Estella's big, dark eyes were sad.
I closed my eyes and imagined my actions. "I might try to lure him into the water for a swim with me, then drown him or call sharks to him if it were at night. If he were aboard a vessel, I would shape waves to capsize the vessel and then ensure the human did not survive the wreck."
Estella shook her head, those big eyes wide. "I could not swim so close with a human, to pull him down into the depths and drown him. To see the human's face as his air runs out and he realises that you are the instrument of his death. I might be able to shape waves, sink ships or call sharks, but to kill a human with my hands on him? It seems too personal. After all, humans are people, too."
"But, Estella and Laila, this is what you must do." Teacher Darma's interruption surprised us both. "It does not matter if the human is unknown to you or if you have joined with him and been as close to the human as our kind can be. We must protect our people from humans, at all costs. If the humans catch even one of us, it is death to her and all of our people, for they will hunt us. It is better to die whilst destroying a human witness than to be caught and killed by humans."
Estella turned to Teacher Darma. "It seems so drastic, Teacher. How often have our kind been called to give their life to kill a human in order to protect our people?"
Teacher Darma frowned. "Not in my lifetime, but in legends there are stories of sisters who gave their lives to end humans who knew too much. You must be prepared to act to protect your people, if you are to be permitted on land. That is one reason why we avoid close contact with humans as much as possible. Even Elder Sirena, who has been closest to the humans in her role as human liaison, will not hesitate if a human sees too much. She would take his life and sacrifice her own if necessary, for she is well aware that more than two lives are at stake."
7. Joe
Vanessa started north along the path and I followed her automatically. She led me up to the tiny beach at the northern end of the island, where the rusted wreck of a boat lay on the sand. She started peeling off her clothes, folding them carefully in a pile on a rock. Naked, she waded into the water until it licked at her thighs, before she lay back, floating on the surface of the waves.
I swallowed convulsively. God, she looks good. More perfect than I remember her. I couldn't help staring.
For the first time, she looked nervous. "No human has ever seen me change before," she admitted.
"It's the first time for me, too," I replied hoarsely.
She touched her heels together and gave a flick with her feet. The movement rippled up her body, before she did it again. It looked like her skin was darkening, or was it just the waves washing over her? Another flick, her feet rising out of the water this time, and I saw the blue wasn't just the water. It was like the skin of her legs had grown together, extending over her feet into curved flukes, as blue as the water. It blended seamlessly up her body, though her torso remained pale.
She turned on her side, her eyes curious. In the skin along her ribs, I saw dark lines that looked like gills. I couldn't take my eyes off her. She'd never looked less human, but I'd never wanted to touch her more. My mouth hung open and I couldn't seem to close it.
"What do you think? Are you disgusted that you slept with a fish?" she asked archly.
My eyes raked her from head to tail. "No. I'm torn between wanting to touch you to make sure you don't feel like a fish and wanting to sleep with you again."
She smiled properly and laughed. There was an edge to the sound. "Are you coming in, or not?" She twisted, arched and dived down. I caught a glimpse of the darker blue blending with the ocean surface, stretching from her tail flukes to her neck, before she dove too deep to see.
I waded in to my knees, then realised I hadn't brought my boardies or even a towel and these were the only shorts I had with me. If I swam in them now, I'd be working in my undies 'til they dried, possibly the whole day. Or I could take them off and go buck naked now…
Well, it's not like she hasn't seen me naked before, and there's no one else here. I ripped my shorts off and threw them on top of the bushes at the edge of the beach. I plunged into the water after her.
I was painfully reminded of that first day I went out with her on the boat, when I swam with the sea lions. She darted around me with an agility I'd never have. I'd stick my head in the water to see if I could spot her and I'd hear her laughter behind me, feeling the brush of moving water, but she'd be gone by the time I surfaced.
"You said you'd swim with me, not swim circles around me," I complained after about ten minutes.
Almost instantly, she popped up in front of me, maybe an arm's length away. She held out her hand. "Do you really want to swim with me?"
I held onto her hand with grim determination. "For the rest of my life," I told her fervently.
She bit her lip and dived, taking me with her. We swam further, faster and deeper than I'd ever been before. I saw clouds of fish, bright corals and some bigger fish that shied away as we approached. My lungs burned for air, but she didn't seem to notice. I wrapped my arms around her, hanging on so I could bring my face up to hers. I exhaled the air I had left in a small cloud of bubbles and then kissed her, trying to tell her with my eyes what my voice couldn't, down here.
As her lips touched mine, she blew a burst of air into my mouth, then another. The burning in my lungs faded. Her spee
d didn't slow, even holding me. I felt her body ripple against mine. I held on tightly with my arms, and then hooked my legs around her tail, too. My God, her skin's soft, softer than any human woman, no matter how many beauty products the human woman used. I freed up one hand and used it to stroke her side, from her arm to her thigh. No, from her arm to around the widest curve of her tail.
I kissed her again and she filled my mouth with breath. I went in for another kiss, the sort that on land would be more for enjoyment than for air, and she responded, her tongue curling around mine even as her tail curled around my leg. Her arms tightened around my back and we'd stopped moving. Not needing to hang on so tightly, I stroked her soft breasts with my hands, letting my hands slide down her sides and across her gills to fasten on her luscious arse. It was somehow even more luscious, with the blue velvet skin covering it. Half out of my mind with how much I wanted her, I drove my hips hard against hers, even as my hands pushed her closer to me. Shit, if she'd been human that thrust would have slid me inside her, but I met only the soft resistance of her tail. Fuck, why didn't anyone ever tell me you can't fuck a mermaid?
I kissed her, over and over, her kisses a mixture of breath and passion. Her hands were everywhere, but so were mine. Her soft skin was cooler than mine, but her hands burned. Suddenly, she tore her lips from mine. The sound that came out was like no language I knew, a squeaky mix of dolphin and whale, but the words were swearing in any language. We spun through the water rapidly, faster than before, so all I could see was a stream of bubbles. My lungs started to burn again. I was ready to let go of her and struggle my way to the surface for a desperate breath, but I realised I didn't know which way was up anymore.
My knees hit sand and I fell over, gasping for breath as my head broke the surface. I should have fallen on the sand, but her body was beneath me, her boobs heaving as she gasped as hard as I did. There were words in her gasping, though, that I struggled to understand.
Ocean's Infiltrator Page 2
