by Michele Hauf
Nolan stood, running his hands over his clothing to remove some of the water as he did.
"I was right, wasn't I? She is a nixie, a mermaid." The man's voice quivered and his flashlight's beam shook.
Nolan paused. Behind him he heard the slap of a tail against the water. He pulled off his shirt and wrung it out onto the dock. Water fell against the wood in loud splatters.
"The mermaid. Where did she go?" There was an eagerness in the bartender's voice now, his merchant mind realizing the potential draw a real mermaid might hold for his business.
Nolan slung his wet shirt over his shoulder and walked forward. "No mermaid here. Just a girl looking to play a joke with some friends. I called her bluff and she shoved me in, then ran. Her friends did too."
"A joke?" Uncertain.
"They had a camera. My guess? They were planning to upload these 'mermaid encounters' on the Internet and become the next big thing."
"A stunt?" The bartender still didn't sound as if he was buying Nolan's explanation.
The vampire shrugged. "Believe me or not, but I don't think you'll be seeing her again."
"Oh." Disappointment now.
Nolan walked past the bartender without looking back.
If the mermaid thought to dump him now, she would at least have to find another place to fish for his replacement. Of course, he had also saved her from possible pursuit by the bartender and other fortune hunters, but that had held no weight in his decision to lie about her real identity.
None at all.
They had been at sea for two weeks. Sarina had given the main cabin of the yacht she'd "borrowed" to the human, Nolan. She slept on deck or in the water, her hand pressed against the boat's side so she didn't lose it in her slumber.
The sun was fully overhead now, and she was alone on deck. Nolan, she'd soon learned, preferred night to day, disappearing into the cabin at dawn and not appearing back above deck until dusk.
He had other habits too that didn't fit with what she knew of humans. While he slept each day, she would swim and catch fish for their dinner, but he had yet to eat any of them in front of her. He drank wine and once she had seen him sipping something from a flask he'd pulled from one of his bags, but he had declined all of her offers of food.
She had quit asking, preferring to eat her fish alone in the sea anyway.
His habits, she realized, suited her...gave her privacy to be in her natural state in the sea. And, since mermaids didn't require the same amount of sleep as humans, staying awake through the night was no issue.
She was able to do what she wished in the day, even sunbathing in her mermaid form on the deck, and watch the human at night.
But still...she slapped her fin lightly against the deck...Nolan's habits added to her certainty that he wasn't what he appeared, that he wasn't human at all, but some other creature she hadn't encountered before.
A gull squawked overhead, pulling her back to the present and reminding her that they were approaching land—a small string of islands, uninhabited by humans, but the first visible sign that they were moving closer to the sea hag's home.
There would be a test soon.
Sarina had no idea in what form it would come or when, but she knew it would come.
She only hoped that whatever kept Nolan hidden in the cabin by day wouldn't prove to be their downfall.
Nolan's body rolled off the bed and slammed into a wall. His eyes flew open, and his nails scraped over the cherry boards that lined the cabin walls. He fell back onto the bed, only to be flung sideways again as the boat was catapulted sideways by some unknown force.
With a curse, he leapt to his feet and clawed at the walls to keep from falling again.
His head throbbed, telling him night had yet to fall. Since his turn, he had avoided the day. He had never been caught in the daylight to know if the horror flick images of vampires erupting into roman candles of flames were true; the general groggy feeling and aches he experienced when the sun was in the sky had been enough on their own to keep him inside.
The boat listed violently to the side again. Only Nolan's hands pressed on the walls of the tiny hall by the cabin's door, kept him from slamming into the wood.
He could, he realized, stay here and drown, or go out and hazard the sun.
Water or flames?
He chose flames.
As the boat continued to tilt side to side, Nolan struggled his way through the bedroom door and into the kitchen and living part of the cabin.
Sarina was nowhere to be seen, which meant the mermaid was above deck facing whatever threatened them alone, or she had already left—swam off to safety.
Grim but determined, Nolan flung open the main cabin door. Sun blasted into the room, hitting him in the eyes like a giant laser. Wincing, he stepped back, out of the light.
His eyes burning, he groped around the room, looking for the small desk and a pair of sunglasses he'd seen tucked into a basket.
Glasses in place, he opened the door again.
The sea hag's pet, a sea wyrm, rose over the yacht and blew steam from its nose. Sarina clung to the boat's railing and stared up at it.
The creature's tongue danced over her face, smelling her. She held still, knowing any movement on her part would only anger the dragon.
It snorted, spewing hot water over her. She shook her head, freeing the droplets from her hair and held up both hands, revealing she held no weapon. "I'm here by Melusine's invitation."
It was the right thing to say, although most likely unnecessary. If the dragon had thought the yacht and its occupants were trespassing, it would have sank the boat long before this. Still though, its job was to guard the outer perimeter of Melusine's territory, and it apparently took its job seriously.
The dragon's worm-like body curved up on both sides of the ship.
The yacht was trapped now, sandwiched.
"If you are going to sink us, get on with it." To show the creature his threat was wasted on her, Sarina lifted her head to meet his gaze and allowed her body to shift. In seconds, her human legs were replaced by her tail and only the strength of her arms holding onto the railing kept her upright.
The dragon moved its body again, sending the boat popping upward and out of the water before landing back down with a bone-jarring jolt.
Sarina lost her grip on the railing and went flying. With a roar, the dragon moved in and caught her on the bridge of its wide nose.
Stranded like a beached animal, she could do nothing but stare into the creature's over-sized amber eyes.
Holding her gaze, it pulled its tail from the water and slapped it hard against the surface of the water.
A wave washed over the yacht and the dragon, sending the boat and Sarina airborne. She closed her eyes and prepared to hit the water, but the welcome feel of the ocean embracing her never came. Instead, she was grabbed again, this time by the dragon's tail.
With a roar he held her overhead, like a human dangling a mouse by its tail.
On deck, Nolan blinked—not from the sun, but what was blocking it.
A huge gold and green dragon with fins jutting from the sides of its face and a tongue that danced out of its mouth like an excited snake's rose from the sea next to the yacht.
At Nolan's arrival, it opened its lips and roared. Hot steam coated Nolan, clouding his glasses.
He had wanted fire. It appeared the dragon might soon give him his wish.
He glanced over the deck, searching for Sarina, but the mermaid was nowhere in sight.
Free then. Swum away, leaving Nolan to face this beast on his own. Not that Nolan could blame her. He couldn't imagine a mermaid had much defense against a creature this large—no more than a lone vampire might.
But then Nolan couldn't swim, at least not like the mermaid.
Which left him with one choice—fight.
While he thought, the dragon had turned the boat, using a part of its body submerged beneath the water, Nolan guessed.
Nolan st
ood still as it analyzed him and his apparently hopeless situation.
"If you are going to sink me, do it now," he muttered as much to himself as the beast.
The dragon paused and for a moment leaned closer. Its tongue darted out, touching Nolan's face, chest and legs.
The boat rose and the dragon turned, another bigger section of its body appearing from beneath the waves—its tail, Nolan realized, but something more too.
Wrapped tight in the creature's tail was Sarina, her face pale and her eyes closed.
She hadn't swam away.
One simple thought, but it was enough.
The beast Nolan worked so hard to keep hidden behind a human face burst free. His fangs extended and his muscles clenched. His thick vampire blood pounded through his heart, and the pulse at his neck jumped.
He hadn't fed in two weeks, not from a living creature. And while the blood of this over-sized snake was far from what he craved, it would more than do for now.
He ran forward, leaping as he did.
His arms wrapped around the dragon's body, not far below its head and his fangs sank into its flesh.
Its scales were soft and easy to pierce, but in an anger-fueled rush, Nolan had taken no time to assess his target. His bite sank into flesh, but missed any veins the creature might have.
If it had veins.
The dragon jerked and tossed its head trying it seemed to dislodge the vampire attached to its throat, but determined, Nolan hung on. The creature roared, and steam rolled from its throat.
Nolan's clothing stuck to his skin, and his hair clung to his face. He was sticky, and his arms ached with the effort of holding the twisting, angry beast, but none of that mattered, nothing mattered but getting it to loosen its hold on the mermaid.
His lifted his face and yelled, "Drop her."
The dragon sank under the sea, beneath the boat and lower. Arms and legs wrapped around the creature now, Nolan closed his eyes and willed his mind to slow.
He was accomplishing nothing holding the creature like this. Would accomplish nothing. He was to the dragon what a mosquito might be to a bear. Annoying, but little more.
Deeper they went until sun no longer filtered through the water, until only Nolan's vampire ability allowed him to see at all. Suddenly with no apparent reason, the dragon slowed until he seemed to barely be moving at all.
Nolan pulled the sunglasses from his face and shoved them into a pocket. Then, thinking this would be his chance to let go and escape back to the surface, he looked around, but he quickly realized that he had no idea which was up and which way was down.
He could as easily swim deeper into the sea as swim to the surface.
As he pondered his choice, something slipped under his waist and curled tightly around him. Then with no other warning, he was jerked from the dragon's throat and dropped. He floated for a moment, stunned and unsure of what had happened.
With no sound and no backward look, the dragon slithered away. It was then Nolan realized the creature had done as he'd ordered. He had dropped Sarina, and Nolan too.
Unfortunately, wherever he had left the mermaid was nowhere near here.
Deciding his only choice was to take a chance and hope he swam the right direction, Nolan swept his arms through the water, pushing his body upward...or what he hoped was upward.
He had moved maybe three feet, before his body jerked to a stop. Confused, he looked down.
A long, green tendril of some plant was wrapped around his leg. Curving his body down, he tried to loosen the strands with his fingers. The plant held tight. In fact, if Nolan hadn't known better—that plants were incapable of action of their own volition—he would have sworn the vine actually tightened in protest to his pulls.
Tired of messing with the thing, he bent lower and tried to saw through the tendril with his teeth. After what felt like minutes of scraping his fangs over the plant, he pulled back again.
The plant was completely unscathed, not even a scratch to show where Nolan's fangs had touched it.
It was then he realized that the dragon's unexpected release of him might not have been unexpected at all.
He had been trapped.
Chapter Four
Sarina floated to the surface and gasped in air. The dragon had held her too tightly, too long. The air she'd held in her lungs had been squeezed out. She'd been close to passing out when the beast had dropped her and left her floating like debris in the deep water.
Mermaids didn't die easily though, and she'd managed, despite a shooting pain in her chest, to make her way back to the surface.
She had also, however, lost sight of both the dragon and Nolan.
An image of the human flying toward the dragon shot through her mind. She'd been weak then, desperate, and the human had seemed to notice...had seemed to care.
An impossible thought, of course. Humans didn't care, not about mermaids as beings like themselves. They cared about what they thought mermaids could bring them.
But the light in Nolan's eyes; the way his face had twisted....
It had reminded Sarina of her mother, fighting the pirate who three hundred years earlier had thought to steal Sarina and her sister away. Rage so pure and intense, no creature could face it and think they would win against it.
Her mother had won, at least what she fought for. Sarina and Allera had slipped out of the pirates' net.
But Sarina and her sister had lost.
Allera had lost her soul, and their mother hadn't survived. She'd died in that net, speared by a sailor when she tried to follow her daughters through the opening she'd created with the slashing of her tail.
Her mother's tears and blood had coated them. Sarina could still feel and smell both. She'd stared at her sister and known Allera, younger and more vulnerable, was her responsibility now, and she'd sworn she would find away to get her sister’s soul back.
Sarina's hand wrapped around the vial that hung from her neck.
Which brought her back to Nolan. Whether he'd attacked the dragon out of rage for Sarina as a being, or Sarina as the mermaid who could get him to the sea hag, didn't matter.
Sarina needed him.
In the distance she could see their yacht, still a float. She spun in place, scanning for the human and the dragon. There was no sign of either.
If the dragon had left, his assignment must have been completed. The boat seemed stable and Sarina, though hurt, was alive.
Which only left Nolan. Sarina couldn't imagine the sea hag would have ordered a possible mate killed, but tested? Yes.
And how would Melusine test a mate?
She'd do the same thing Sarina had done. She'd see if he could last underwater.
Ribs aching, Sarina dove deep into the sea.
Sarina searched the ocean for hours, long past time any human could possibly still be alive, but despite the growing pain in her chest and all logic, she couldn't stop. She couldn't believe Nolan was truly gone, and she wouldn't until she saw his body.
She had worked in a spiral out from the boat, moving deeper into the ocean as she moved outward. She was at the bottom now and further from the boat than she had been at any other point. Once back to the yacht she would have to stop. The pain had moved past something she could describe as an ache or throb and now edged toward agonizing.
She wouldn't be able to stay under water much longer.
Her mermaid body, legendary for its ability to survive any storm and hundreds of years, was about to give out.
Her fingers trailed over the ocean's floor, touching sand and debris. She was pulling herself along now, her body too tired to even swim. She coughed and tasted metal. Her hand moved to her mouth and came back red.
Blood. She was coughing out blood.
In a sea filled with predators, that couldn't be good.
The thought was fleeting.
Her eyes closed, and she let her body drift.
Nolan smelled blood, or maybe he tasted it. He wasn't sure how he knew blood was
in the water somewhere close, but he did.
Realizing he most likely was not the only predator in the sea that might be drawn by the scent, he spun in place, searching for the source and any creatures that might have been attracted by it.
At first he saw nothing.
Then something long and silver fluttered.
Nolan's gut tightened.
There had to be many things in the ocean that were silver—plants, debris, fish....
A logical thought, but one Nolan couldn't accept, not without seeing for himself.
He jerked his foot upward again. The plant that held him tightened like a seat belt activated by a sudden stop.
Nolan paused. The analogy gave him a thought. He pulled again, this time softly. Again the plant tightened, but not as quickly or as tightly.
He took a step to the side with his free foot and dragged the other behind him. The plant allowed it. He tried to swim upward. The plant objected, jerking him back down.
Another step to the side and then another. Soon Nolan, never lifting his trapped foot from the ocean's floor, was six feet from where he had originally been pinned.
He could move, in an ungainly manner, but move.
He lowered his head and concentrated on his steps and nothing more. He kept going until the smell of blood had his vampire hunger snapping to be set free.
Then he looked up.
Sarina floated six feet above the ocean floor, looking like a magician's assistant levitated for an astonished crowd.
Except most magician's assistants didn't have blood leaking from their mouths.
Nolan leapt forward, forgetting his constraints and the repercussions moving upward had. The plant's tendril tightened around his ankle, so tight it cut through Nolan's sock and skin. Now Sarina wasn't the only source of blood in the sea.
But Nolan had no time to worry about that, he lengthened his body as far and as quickly as he could, desperate to latch onto the unconscious mermaid before the plant could retaliate fully and jerk him back to where he had started.
