Summer's Mermaid (Mermaid series Book 3)

by Dan Glover

  Sometimes he thought Chester could nearly talk. Though the big cat didn’t purr in happiness like the domestic housecats they keep, he had a rumble that could upset dishes setting on the counters causing them to tumble to the floor. Other times he yowled in a plaintive voice as if asking permission to take off on some cat adventure.

  Chester disappeared for weeks at a time causing Kirk tremendous anxiety and heartache. Often he would go walking in the hills surrounding the estate searching for signs of the big cat but it was never any use.

  One day Chester would reappear, acting as if nothing had happened, happy to be home for a time. Kirk envied the big cat's freedom. He wished he could take off like that. But he knew the Lake sickness would quickly overcome him. Though he was tired of living, to die like that was not high on his favorite list of ways to go out.

  "We want to introduce you to Luciana."

  Living at Toulon Castle with Ginger and Amanda had not improved the relationship he had with the two girls. He still had nightmares of the day he pushed Ginger into the dungeon at Orchardton Hall in the misguided coup attempt. The sound of her bones breaking as she fell down those horrid stone steps haunted his every waking moment. He still remembered Amanda's threats to shoot him dead.

  He spent a great deal of time on the beach. It reminded him of long ago when he and Nate used to spend time together at Orchardton Hall sitting around a campfire and talking of things of no consequence. Being on the beach served to reflect memories of when he was as close to being happy as he ever was.

  He was alone today. It seemed as if he was always by himself these days. In the distance he spotted three figures coming toward him but he doubted they actually knew he was here... more likely they were simply going for a stroll. As they came closer he realized it is Ginger, Amanda, and a girl he had yet to meet.

  He expected them to walk past him and of course he was prepared to be shunned, as always. Suddenly though, Amanda stepped forward with the girl he had never seen before. She was clearly one of the hybrids, probably a visitor from the Isle of Skye. He had heard Alpin and Ena had many children and they from time to time showed up here in Toulon.

  "Luciana... this is Kirk. He's a friend of Nate's."

  Amanda didn’t speak the words so much as she spit them out, as if she was being forced into doing something against her will. Ginger hung back without actually look at him. He didn’t blame her. Though he yearned to apologize to her and had started to many times she had never stayed around long enough to let him finish. He assumed today would be no different.

  Luciana on the other hand seemed to shine with a light all her own so that he answered without thinking.

  "Hi, sweet Luciana... that's such a lovely name."

  He sounded so stupid that he wouldn’t have been surprised if the girl walked away from him without giving him a second glance but instead a smile lighted up her face.

  "Thank you, darling Kirk. It's so good to finally meet you. I've heard a lot of amazing things about you. You're an artist... right?"

  He was stunned.

  During the three hundred years he had spent on Earth he had never been treated like that by anyone. The guilt he felt over what he did to Ginger came roaring back. He wanted to hide his face; he felt like running away so no one would ever see him again. He yearned to tell this incredible creature standing in front of him that he was anything but a good man. It was enough to make him start to stutter again.

  "I've been working on some new pieces. Would you like to see them?"

  Kirk couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. He sounded so suave, so elegant, that he was certain it must be someone else doing the talking for him... yet Luciana smiled again before taking his arm in hers as they set off toward his studio.

  She was a tall girl. For some reason, each time he was around a girl who was taller than him Kirk had a propensity to stand up straighter than ever, as if trying to outdo them in height. With Luciana it did no good though she seemed to notice what he was doing and giggled.

  Luciana could have been her mother Ena's twin they looked so much alike. Kirk had always harbored a secret crush on Ena though he never had the bravado to act upon it. Her long raven hair and dark complexion served to set off her remarkably green eyes in ways that had him dreaming of her nearly every night for years.

  He knew Ena was completely out of his league... she was like an elfin princess while he was the troll who lived in the crawlspace beneath the floors she walked upon worshipping her from afar.

  Now, he suddenly felt like a man.

  Chapter 17—Losing Lily

  Natalia was having feelings she wasn’t even sure existed.

  Lauren seemed unusually recalcitrant when she suggested they visit Lily. Although her voice didn’t betray any feelings but love, an unsettling sense of discord arose in Natalia's heart.

  She ended up having to insist they go together. Only rarely during her life with the Ladies had Natalia demanded anything of her lovers but she knew if she wasn’t adamant about seeing Lily, Lauren would refuse the invitation.

  She had been away for ages, it seemed, and when Lily finally returned to Orchardton Hall she hadn’t called on her old lovers like Natalia dreamed she would. She understood Lily was infatuated with Kāne, Lauren's long lost son, and Natalia wondered fleetingly if that was the cause of the rupture taking place between her Ladies.

  It seemed a shame to allow the presence of a man to come between them all, for whatever was bothering the Ladies was bleeding into her own life and causing Natalia such a heartache that there were times when she thought she might be dying.

  She had been so certain of the love Lily and Lauren shared for each other yet her lovers did not seem happy to see one another after their long separation. The look on Lily's face was not one of surprise so much as it was one of disdain.

  "Oh, it's you two... I thought I heard someone knocking at the door."

  Lily looked as unsettled as Natalia had ever witnessed. She seemed on edge, as if expecting visitors but not her lovers. She was clearly surprised when she opened the door to see Lauren and Natalia standing there.

  Her long blonde hair was in snarls, there were dark circles under her dimmed eyes, and a perpetual frown tugged down the edges of her mouth carving deep wrinkles in skin that once was smooth and silky.

  When she made no move to invite them inside, Lauren pushed her way into the room. When Natalia followed she was taken aback at the disarray. Soiled clothing was strewn over every piece of furniture, dirty dishes spilled off table tops and shelving, and a thin film of biomass was growing over it all making everything she touched sticky and unwholesome.

  "What do you want, Lauren? What can I do for you?"

  Lauren spoke but Natalia didn’t hear the words. Instead, her attention was focused upon their disheveled surroundings. The stench of rotting food and unwashed flesh was unbearable, the shades were drawn darkening the room, and in the diffuse light Lily's skin took on a sallow tone that matched her yellow lack luster eyes. She brushed Lauren aside and went to Lily.

  "Are you sick, Lady Lily? Please tell me what's wrong."

  In all the years they'd spent together, Natalia had never known Lily to be unwell for even a single day. Now, she heard phlegm rattling in her throat each time she took a breath.

  "Did you come here just to taunt me, Natalia?"

  "We came here because we love you, sweet Lily."

  "You should both go. I am not fit to be around. Should you stay, you may begin suffering the same as I am. What I have is highly contagious. Isn't that right, Lauren?"

  Natalia was perplexed at the hatred behind Lily's words, especially when she addressed Lauren. She sensed some great rift had opened between her lovers, one which was rooted in the dim recesses of time long before she came into their lives.

  "Come, we should do as she says, darling Natalia."

  "Yes, the two of you should get out of here and please take care not to return."

  Lauren left
the room without turning around to see of Natalia was following. The door stood open beckoning her yet she couldn't leave Lily's side. Outside the atmosphere was fragrantly clean and fresh while inside each breath she drew only served to sicken Natalia... but she couldn’t leave.

  Her friend needed her. She remembered how ill she was when she first met Lily—how close to dying—and how her lover healed her with but a gentle touch and her hushed whispers of love. Lily's harsh words of today were not real. They were a pretense, an effort at pushing her away.

  Natalia couldn’t understand why Lily would do such a thing... unless she was hiding some secret affliction. Perhaps she really was suffering from a contagious malady that could be passed on to others and she was merely seeking to protect everyone by secluding herself in the recesses of her old apartment.

  It didn’t matter. Natalia made up her mind that she wasn’t going to fall for Lily's trickery. Something was wrong here and until she could discover what it was, she wasn’t leaving... not unless she was thrown out bodily.

  "Well, Natalia? Aren't you going with your friend?"

  "You saved my life, sweet Lily."

  "I did nothing for you, Natalia. You healed yourself. I was merely a presence, and now I wish to be alone. Please go."

  Natalia heard Lily's voice breaking with sorrow and going to her, she wrapped her arms around her lover pulling her close. For just a moment, Lily allowed it. But then she muttered words unintelligible, broke away, and pushed Natalia so hard that she fell back against the wall striking the back of her head so hard she saw green geometric patterns dancing before her eyes as she slouched to the floor.

  When she woke she was alone, the room was dark, and she was lying upon a bed. A form of a cloud in the shape of several dragons hovered over her, gray and metallic. A hissing sound filled the air as tiny pellets the size of bird shot pummeled her face and body.

  She suddenly found herself on the beach. Her feet were sinking into the sand only it wasn’t sand... it was coarse and grainy, clinging to her skin, pulling her under its surface. She was suddenly terrified; she tried to run but her feet would not move.

  Screaming herself awake, she discovered she was back in Lily's apartment lying where she fell. The door stood open, her ribcage hurt where she struck the wall, and there was a softball sized lump forming on the back of her head.

  Lily was gone.

  At first she thought her friend might have gone for help but after loitering for several minutes to gain her bearings again Natalia realized Lily wasn’t returning anytime soon. A surreal feeling came over her as she recalled the strange dream she was having, a dream of iron dragons hissing like cats and her feet sinking into quicksand which enticingly whispered her name.

  "So what did she say to you? Is she staying or going?"

  Lauren was waiting for her when she returned to their rooms in the northern wing of Orchardton Hall. Though she was limping slightly from the pain in her ribs, Lauren didn’t seem to notice or if she did, she said nothing.

  "She is gone."

  Though Natalia tried to hold them back, tears burst forth: great fractured sobs that seemed to well up from somewhere heretofore unknown.

  Chapter 1 8—Solitude

  Though they swam the seas from old Europe to the coast of old Africa, they were happiest on the beaches surrounding the Isle of Skye.

  Alpin worried that he was keeping Ena here when the whole world beckoned to her. All the others have moved away to sunnier climates and warmer shores but the treacherous currents of the Atlantic kept pulling him back.

  He saw the look in her eyes when they surfaced, a wild and wanton longing for unknown shores and undiscovered depths. In all the years he had known her, Ena's beauty never ceased to amaze him along with the fact that she had given herself to him so freely. She deserved better.

  "Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live in old France, darling Ena?"

  "I didn’t much care for it the time we visited Grandfather Nate there. The sunshine is too much for my skin, sweet Alpin. I am more like Lady Lauren in that I prefer the Scottish gloom to the bright skies of France. Why do you ask? Is moving to Toulon Castle something you wish to consider?"

  He loved the way she read his mind though it never failed to unnerve him as well. She had a predilection for knowing his thoughts before he had the time to think them. Ena seemed to live precariously in the future while he was stuck wallowing in the past. Try as he might, he could never reach that moment that he knew was there yet proved so elusive.

  When Karen and Pete paid a visit to the Isle of Skye along with Lady Lauren, Alpin was surprised when the doctors asked to stay. He loved the solitude on their Isle and yet it did become overtly pressing at times.

  "Is Lady Lauren staying as well?"

  "No, it will be only Pete and me. Lady Lauren will go back home tomorrow. We've talked about it and we love it here. If we're a bother we will leave, of course."

  "I'm so happy you're both here, Karen! I'm sure Ena is too. You can stay as long as you wish. We have tons of room here at the chateau or you may find your own home. The village is full of magnificent mansions built during the days before the Great Dying."

  Karen and Ena seemed to get pregnant at the same time although Karen's gestation period was three months longer than Ena's, who gave birth to a second boy. Their first son Catan was five years old and fast becoming an adult already. Alpin loved making breakfast for his family and listening while Catan and Ena talked.

  "Why do the two babies look so different, my precious mother?"

  "Karen's little girl is a human baby, my darling son, and your brother is a mixture of the races, just as you are."

  "I don't understand how that could happen."

  "Nor do I, my wondrous son. Dr. Karen is an extremely intelligent woman who makes miracles happen all the time. She helped to give birth to me, and to your great grandfather Nate who you will meet one day, and to many others. If not for Karen, we wouldn’t be here now."

  "Her baby has no gills."

  "Yes, that's right, my sweet Catan."

  "So Angel won't be able to swim?"

  "Well, she'll be able to swim if she wishes but she won't have the ability to breathe under water the same way that we do."

  "I like holding her."

  "She is a precious little thing, sweet Catan. I'm glad you enjoy being with her."

  "Our little Dillon grows so fast. He is only six months old and he is walking and talking already."

  "Yes, my precious Catan, you were the same way. Our species matures at a much quicker rate than do human beings. Little Angel will not grow as quickly as our darling Dillon and yet she is just as special."

  "I'm going to marry her when we get older."

  "You are! When did you decide this?"

  "I dreamed about it on the night she was born."

  "Is that why you like holding her so much?"

  "I like the way she looks at me. It's almost like she knows me. Have human beings and people like us married before?"

  "Absolutely they have... one of these days we'll take you to visit Ginger and her son Joshua. He is half human and half people of the Lake."

  "Who is Joshua's father? Is it Mr. Nate?"

  "No... his father moved away years ago. His name is Kāne."

  At the mention of his name Alpin recalled the day he and Ena made love on the beach in old France and how something made him jump up afterward and race into the sea. Even now he felt guilty about leaving her there alone.

  He thought about Kāne often.

  When she came to him asking if he'd sail to old America with them, he refused to even consider the notion even though he knew he was the most qualified of anyone at Orchardton Hall. It was almost as if he was punishing the girl for some unknown slight. He knew his father and mother needed him along. He knew he was hurting Ena dreadfully by taking up with Amanda but he didn’t care.

  It was only later after he left Orchardton Hall and went north that his min
d cleared enough to realize what a good thing he had pushed away. Amanda didn’t mean anything to him. He used her. Even now he cringed inwardly when he thought of the hurt on her face when he told her to get out of his life and stay out.

  He was glad to hear she found love in Toulon with Nate and Ginger. Through his mother Alpin learned that between Amanda and Ginger they have sired sixteen sons and daughters some of who had moved away from Toulon Castle to start colonies of their own.

  His family continued to grow as well.

  Catan now had seven brothers and though they planned to keep trying, it was becoming apparent that he and Ena were as incapable of having a daughter as Karen and Pete were at having a son.

  Their children got on well together, well enough that neither he nor Ena were surprised when Catan came to them with plans to wed Angel, the first daughter of Karen and Pete. Alpin chuckled as he remembered his son informing them when Angel was born about how one day they would be married. He wondered if Catan shared the prescience of Ena.

  "Come for a swim with me, old man."

  Ena was still as beautiful and youthful looking as the day they first came together but he had taken on the feral look that Kāne had sported when they first found him alone on that beach in old France. Alpin still felt young and strong but his body and spirit seemed to mature in ways opposite to the Ladies.

  His heretofore slim body had taken on the same thick musculature of the man Ena called Father and his mind had become dull. Instead of growing wiser, he seemed become emptier as the centuries progressed. He didn’t count it as an infirmity so much as the way his nature had of shedding that which was no longer needed.

  The water was cold and salty, just the way he liked it. He had long ago given up traveling to Lake Baikal and as far as he knew so had Ena. The ocean was their place of renewal. He felt the electricity in the water flowing into his bones and through his bloodstreams as he took in great life-giving gulps through his gills.