He wasn’t some activist for the Human-Supe Coalition, hoping to help us integrate into society—if he even knew I wasn’t truly human at all. He was just someone who didn’t turn a blind eye to the less fortunate populating this world.
Yet staring at him now, at the hard lines of his face and the anger making the silver rim of his eyes even starker against the blue, there wasn’t even a single shadow of that former man resting there.
I swallowed, cradling the slowly melting tubs of ice cream in my hand, and channeled every bit of strength into keeping my voice as steady as I could make it. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, boss, but I promise you won’t have any trouble. I’ll leave the cafe right now—”
“And go where?” His tone was even sharper than the look he dealt me.
Slowly, his gaze swept up to my less than inconspicuous hair, the lilac that made me stand out even in the thickest of crowds, then came to rest on my face once more.
I bit my lip. “I’ll go somewhere. But the man won’t have any reason to come here again. I swear. Just—just let me go, please.”
Santino raked both hands through his mass of silver curls, swearing softly in Italian. “What have you gotten yourself into, Liana? The PI didn’t give details, only said your family was looking for you and that you might be a little…unhinged.”
I groaned, hugging the ice cream so tightly my breasts almost froze off. A part of me wanted to throw the tubs at Santino and flee out the door, but there was something in the tone of his voice that revealed he wouldn’t give up the chase that easily. Damn. When had humans become so persistent?
No, running away wasn’t an option.
Besides, that other part of me—the non-ice-cream-throwing one—felt like I owed Santino an explanation. For all I knew, that PI just might return if any of our clientele recognized me from the description he was passing around and pointed him back here. I couldn’t leave him in the dark. Not even to save my own ass.
Gods… I’d believed I’d left my past behind when I moved across two whole countries to escape the morass. But I had been a fool. After all, I did go back to my homeland, and I should have known better than to think something as insubstantial as a few borders would be enough to stifle my sisters’ determination to wipe me off the face of the earth.
What was a little distance when the taste for blood ruled over rational thought?
“Fine,” I said, my voice weary and quite obviously echoing the delicate state of my decision. “Meet me at Moon Bay at midnight, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
3
With the PI walking around Piran and handing people my description, leaving the town seemed like the safest option. There weren’t that many places where I could hide in such a small settlement, especially since my appearance made it hard to blend in with the crowds. None of the boutiques lining the narrow streets carried wigs, and, somehow, despite the blazing sun, large hats just didn’t seem to be in fashion.
So my hair remained hopelessly lilac, a beacon giving away my location to even a casual glance.
I had attempted to dye it to a neutral brown after I escaped the morass, but the chemicals simply refused to alter it. It must have been the vila blood, passed down from my great grandmother that gave me the unusual coloring—as well as the cruel inability to do a single thing about it. Magic truly wasn’t my friend.
Tension prickled at the back of my neck as I took one slightly crooked street after another, carefully scanning each corner and turn before hurrying down the cobblestones and farther away from the bustling, gleeful center. While there were fewer people here to see me, the lack of a crowd meant I was that much more exposed at the same time. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t win, but I still felt more secure in this intimacy of residential buildings than the mock anonymity the masses would have offered. And that was the precise reason I hadn’t returned to the boarding house.
Not only was it the kind of place the PI might be inclined to visit—if he hadn’t already—but its location close to the bank didn’t exactly give me many routes I could take and hope to stay hidden since it lay in the direction of Portorož and the heavy foot traffic flowing between the two towns. So I vehemently walked the other way, ascending Piran’s streets one rapid, terrified heartbeat at a time.
I passed just beneath St. George’s cathedral, listening to its melodic bells ring as another hour went by, then made my way down the other side of the hill, aiming for the somewhat less popular Fiesa which lay clustered farther east. Taking the seaside path connecting the two settlements was a gamble, but I hoped the PI was still too busy going from bar to bar to have made it all the way here on such a short notice.
Luckily, I wasn’t mistaken.
His absence, however, didn’t diminish the other problem that greeted me the instant my feet touched the white stones of the path.
With each second I spent walking along the shore, the sloshing of waves called to me, serenading me to join in their languid dance. I pushed on, furiously wishing the melody that twined around my heart would die down.
But it only increased.
Eventually, its relentless chanting stole away my control over my own body, and I found myself standing on the gentle slope, the sea an endless expanse of untamed beauty stretching out before me. I couldn’t deny that the riveting blend of muted green and deep, velvet blue was tempting, that it embodied my deepest desires—the freedom I could never taste while locked in this human form. And it most certainly didn’t help that when I looked around, I realized I was the sole person on the walkway.
No prying eyes. No children rushing about. Not even a single boat.
Just a few steps… Just a few steps and I would be nestled in the sea’s embrace. The PI would never notice my lonely form making its way east, slipping from his grasp.
I let out a sigh and felt something inside me crumble, breaking the glistening surface of the spell. The water would be my cover, my blanket of protection from inquisitive eyes, yes. But it wasn’t only human eyes I had to concern myself with.
For a moment, despite the rational impulse to clear this open space as fast as I could, I let myself mourn the loss of entering the world that spoke to my very soul. The insurmountable barrier lying between me and the waves clawed at my insides, but with each forced breath I took, some of the pain lessened until, finally, I managed to shuffle my feet forward.
There was no reason to tempt fate just yet.
What I intended to do later on tonight would be perilous enough.
The hum of life grew louder once more as I neared the Fiesa beach. The buzz wrapped around me in a playful whirlwind, only instead of lifting my spirits, all it did was remind me of everything I’d lost. Not the morass or the whispers of the sea. But before…
An ache I had believed to be long buried kindled in my chest, the treacherous heat of tears starting to prickle at the back of my eyes. I didn’t know why, but somehow, the shaded, murky waters of the morass had dulled these old wounds.
Or maybe it had simply been the presence of my sisters, locked in the same bubble of isolation that had loosened the clutches of my past. Because despite our differences, we had all been equal in the lives we’d lost. And that was no small kinship.
But here, alone in the midst of human and supernatural life with the sun blazing high above me, I couldn’t help feeling that, perhaps, they were right in hunting me.
After all, the dead had no place to walk among the living.
The sight was stunning, truly.
Moonlight bathed the world in silver, nothing but the faint, distant sounds of night critters filtering down from the canopy of trees looming above. Even the sea seemed tranquil as I sat beneath the imposing cliffs of Moon Bay, instinctively feeling the stroke of midnight approach.
My senses were only as keen as a human’s, yet through the whispers of the water that spoke to me regardless of which form I took, I had no difficulties discerning Santino’s growing presence on the backdrop of
the starry sky. His steps echoed down the shore, the vibrations entering the barely noticeable waves and making it easy to track his progress along the curving bay. I continued to sit on the rock, almost pointedly gazing out at the sea.
This wasn’t a meeting devoted to beauty. And I knew with bitter certainty that if I let my attention drift to Santino now, if I would see that glint of moonlight reflected in his silver hair, those shadows of night dancing on his face and making his elegant features even lovelier than they already were… That thread of composure still holding me together would unravel.
I stifled the tide of unease rising within me.
What was I hoping to achieve by luring him out here? Was it truly for his protection that I agreed to our midnight rendezvous?
I shook my head, hating how I failed to morph my lies into truth. If anything, I should have kept my distance simply to protect him from the ugliness that was my world…
Santino was human. He might have been aware of the supernatural, but werewolves, vampires, witches, and the other species now living out in the open were quite different from the murderous depths I’d swum out of. And if he miraculously decided to let me keep my job… Would I even take it?
Could I be so selfish and endanger him just because his little cafe and his company were the only security I had in my life? The only spark of joy I’d felt in a century?
I closed my eyes and battled the silent tears that refused to listen to my command.
No, whatever happened after, whatever turn my fate would take, one thing remained unchanged. Santino—he deserved to know. It was the least I could do to repay him for his kindness.
“Liana?” His voice slid around my shoulders like a caress.
Discreetly, I wiped the back of my hand across my cheeks, then tucked my hair behind my ears and lifted my gaze up to him.
My breath faltered. He was even more handsome, wrapped in the cocoon of the night than I imagined. Dressed in black jeans and a white T-shirt that revealed just a dash of silver curls spread so lovingly across his chest, he seemed more like an apparition of a dark angel than the man of flesh and blood I’d come to know him as. The moonlight made his sun-kissed skin paler, almost ethereal, and I marveled at how well those vivid, pure silver strands I could barely resist to touch framed his face. It was impossible to look away, impossible to do anything but admire how masterfully the gods had shaped him.
And yet, amidst my heart pounding and my breaths growing more irregular the longer I stared at him, I somehow found the voice to say, “Thank you for coming.”
Santino remained perfectly still. Only his eyes drifted down my body, then came back up to search my face. “You said you had answers.”
I rose from my perch on the rock and brushed off the dirt from the back of my dress. Stalling. By the gods, why was this so hard?
I gave myself a mental shake before the impulse to run away overcame me, then met the guarded hardness and curiosity of Santino’s gaze. The point of no return.
“I’m a runaway,” I admitted. “I believe you already figured out as much, given I had no papers when I came to you.”
He nodded. Just a simple nod, much like that day when I padded into his cafe, answering the call for an ice cream girl I’d seen written in chalk on the board set up on the corner of the patio.
“I’m—I’m different, Santino. Different than you, but also different from my family. I’ve known them for so long I fooled myself into believing this…change…wouldn’t tear down the bonds, however peculiar, we’ve built. But I was wrong.” A tear rolled down my cheek, and this time, I didn’t mask it. I was done hiding the pain. Hiding myself. “When I ran away from home, I thought that it would be enough, that they would let me be, leave me in peace since I wasn’t insulting them with my presence, but…”
“The PI,” Santino said grimly, understanding darkening the icy gleam of his eyes.
I sniffed and rubbed my hands across my face. “I guess they weren’t content with letting me go.”
Santino shifted minutely, the barest ripple of muscle and sway of hair. His jaw clenched, but the words that left his lips weren’t ones I expected.
“What do they want?”
A silent, bitter laugh rose inside me. “My death.”
For a moment, he went so still I couldn’t even hear him breathe. Then a long, melodic string of curses in Italian cut through the silence. He raked a hand through his hair, lifting his eyes up to the moon before he met my gaze again.
“What are you?” His tone was gentle despite the plain choice of words—despite the demand resting within them.
He knew I wasn’t human. And he wasn’t running away.
At least not yet.
I swallowed heavily, fighting the impulse to chew on my bottom lip. Then, as a long, trembling breath uncurled from my chest, I spun around. My fingers lingering on the hem of my sundress, and I breathed deeply, battling the tremors rushing through my flesh. I’d never…revealed myself to anyone. Not like this.
The heat of his gaze burned into my back as I tugged the fabric over my head and placed it on the smooth surface of a large rock. Once in nothing but my bra and panties—the latter I wasn’t willing to sacrifice even when I knew the shift would ruin them—I faced Santino once more. Briefly, he skimmed the swell of my breasts before he caught himself.
I almost smiled at the normalcy of the gesture, but the trepidation still locked at the base of my spine refused to let go.
“Just remember,” I whispered, “that I would never harm you.”
Whatever reply Santino might have had on the tip of his tongue I squandered as I kicked off my flip-flops and ran straight into the water. The magic wrapped around me as quickly as the affection of the dark waves welcoming me home, and I let the secrecy of my existence slip away.
Right alongside my human form.
For a beautiful moment, I forgot about my fears.
The rush of salt and water gliding against my scales and caressing the loose strands of my hair was all I could think about. All that mattered.
I could hear every current, feel every small pulse of life existing within the depths of the dark sea. Rapture washed through my heart, a smile blooming on my lips as I drifted down, down, down, becoming one with the current before I rose towards the surface once more.
With a powerful bat of my tail, I leaped out into the serenity of the night. The light breeze caressed my wet skin as I arched my back, soaring through the air and allowing the moonlight to illuminate my body, then dove headfirst into the water once more. Gracefully, I lifted my fluke into the air before going under, and a laugh—my laugh—bubbled through the dark.
I circled around, my gills seamlessly filtering the oxygen and infusing my enhanced lungs, every nerve in my body coming to life, hungry for this experience. This freedom. When I gained enough momentum, I broke the surface with another elegant leap. Only this time, I reached even higher.
Faintly, I noticed Santino’s silhouette on the shore, perfectly still. Stoic.
Reality kicked in, shattering the illusion of bliss, and I ducked my head under the surface, facing the harsh truth.
I’d spent enough time in the sea for my presence to carry on its currents.
With no small amount of remorse, I made my way back to the shore. Pebbles grazed my tail when the water became too shallow for me to swim in, but the sensation was more uncomfortable than painful. Mermaid scales, despite their beauty, were hard to break.
Santino didn’t move as I heaved myself onto dry land. He simply stood there, stark and beautiful in the moonlight, his gaze on mine.
“You’re a—a mermaid,” he whispered, the arch of his eyebrows suggesting the shock wasn’t entirely unpleasant. “I’ve heard stories of your kind’s existence, but I’ve never seen one with my own eyes.”
I worried on my lower lip. “Until recently, neither had I.”
Confusion swept across his features, and I silently cursed myself for saying those damning words. I was
still sitting there with the breeze drying off my tail that almost seemed to glow under the pale silver light… And I knew that the foul ache twisting my insides—it was shame.
Santino didn’t need to hear the rest of this mess. He should have the beauty, the rarity of my existence, not the darkness surrounding it weighing on his mind.
My sisters hunted me because I was a mermaid—it was his answer and the truth. I had fulfilled my vow. And yet I found myself craving the chance to finally confide in someone.
I frowned, hating myself for this weakness. For being so selfish. Spilling all my secrets wouldn’t mean a thing if they scared Santino away. In the end, I would still be alone, with only another person tainted by the danger of knowing who I was. Besides, even now, I couldn’t say with certainty that he wasn’t going to walk away at any given second, leaving me huddled on the empty beach.
“Would you mind handing me my dress?” I asked gingerly before the despair of fruitless hope swallowed me whole. “The change—the change destroyed my panties, and it won’t be long now before I regain my human legs.”
I didn’t know whether it was the raw embarrassment in my voice or the realization of what exactly would happen if I wasn’t dressed by the time I shifted, but Santino strode over to the rock where I’d stashed my dress, a sense of urgency infusing his steps. Still keeping his distance, he handed me the garment, then inched a little farther back.
“Thank you,” I whispered and quickly covered my already drying skin.
The fabric pooled around my waist, and I tugged it down lower, trying to cover as much of my tail as I could. Once I was moderately convinced I wasn’t going to show off any more skin than I intended, I leaned back on the palms of my hands and finally looked at the man staring at me.
“What do you know about mermaids?”
“Merda.” His fingers slipped through the strands of his hair as he shook his head lightly, and I could have sworn I saw a smile of disbelief quirking up the corners of his sensual lips. “I know you’re rare. I know you possess the ability to bespell men with your voices and sexuality alike.”
Sirens and Scales Page 76
