by Michele Hauf
His fingers wrapped around her hand and they both went flying backward to his starting point.
But Nolan didn’t let go of Sarina; he clung to her like a child holding a prized toy.
When they stopped, they were no better off than they had been before—except they were now together, bleeding.
One arm around her waist, he used the other to pull her hair from her face. Her features were fine and her skin delicate, at least in appearance, but Nolan knew from stories that mermaids weren't delicate or easy to damage.
What had the dragon done to her and why?
It was a useless question, one, if Nolan wanted to save them before sharks or something worse arrived, he had no time to answer.
Now he needed to think—not about the dragon or its motive, not even about the beauty of the mermaid in his arms, or the arousing scent of her blood. He needed to think of how to save them, how to get his foot loose and them both back to the ship where maybe he'd think of a way to save her.
Save her. How much life did she have left? Unable to do anything until he knew, he pressed his ear against her chest.
The vial she wore around her neck, dug into his cheek. He grabbed it in his fist, his first instinct to jerk it free and release it to the sea, but something about the feel of the tiny object in his hand caused reason to return. She wore the object for some reason; it had some meaning to her. It wasn't his place, in a fit of annoyance, to steal it from her.
He brushed the vial aside instead and placed his ear back against her chest.
Her heart beat...weak, but he could hear it.
He closed his eyes for a moment, relieved and not, he realized, just because he needed the mermaid to find the sea hag.
He was relieved because he saw something in Sarina—a quiet strength and determination.
She was, in some eyes, a monster like him, but she was beautiful too. He'd seen her swimming when she didn't think he could see her. Seen her staring into the distance too.
He didn't know her purpose for coming on this trip, or for wanting a companion, but he knew it wasn't for money or personal gain. It was for someone or something she loved.
He envied her that—that she had something to love.
He lowered her body, so he could stare into her face. Her lips parted. Blood still trickled from her mouth. Unable to resist, he lowered his face and kissed her lips, tasted her blood.
His lips tingled, his body tingled, and his nostrils flared. He had never tasted anything like this mermaid's blood.
He pulled her body close to his so her face was cradled against his neck, and spun in a slow circle, thinking—resisting.
The color of her skin had lost its silvery sheen and shifted to blue green. He knew nothing of mermaids, but had to imagine this change was tied to the blood she continued to lose.
His eyes went to the trickle of red. Guilt shot through him for tasting her blood while she suffered, perhaps even died.
No. His jaw clinched. She wouldn't die. She was a mermaid, a creature even more mythic than vampires, and vampires didn't die, not this easily.
Vampires. He'd only been one a few short years, but even before his own turn, he'd heard stories of what they could do—knew at least part of what had happened to him too.
He had been close to death, at the hands of his sire, but he had survived. His sire's blood had saved him.
Could he do the same for the mermaid? What would happen to a mermaid who drank vampire blood? Would she live? Die? Become a vampire too?
Nolan had no idea, but he could think of no other options.
He jammed his fangs into his wrist and slit his skin. Then he pressed the wound to Sarina's lips and waited.
Chapter Five
Warmth spread through Sarina. She flexed her fingers and lifted her tail.
Cold. She had been so cold, colder than when she'd swum through the Arctic Ocean, colder than the first time she'd stepped onto land, naked and shivering.
Those had been a surface discomfort, but this...what she'd just felt...went past that, deeper, into her very soul.
Soul. Her hand reached to her neck and the vial that hung there. Her fingers touched the bit of glass and metal, and her body relaxed.
Safe. Her soul was safe, and so was she.
Her eyes fluttered and as she came a little further out of unconsciousness, new sensations followed. Taste first, something thick and earthy filled her mouth. She parted her lips, letting more of the substance in.
A band around her waist tightened, pulling her against a hard surface. Her hands moved up and forward, defense against whatever thought to pin her in place. But her lips and tongue kept moving, kept lapping at whatever the heady substance was making her warm and whole.
Something moved through her hair, like a caress, like...fingers.
Her eyes flew open, and she twisted her head to the side. Nolan stared down at her.
His face was pale, and his hair floated around his head, reminding her that they were underwater and had been...how long?
He moved his arm, and she stared, shocked, at the gash in his flesh. Blood oozed from the wound...she touched her lips and looked back at the human.
He gestured, brushing away the question in her eyes, as if feeding a mermaid his blood 14,000 feet underwater was an average event in his life.
She pulled away, shocked more that he'd thought to share his blood with her than that she had ingested the fluid. The mainstay of mermaids’ diet was raw fish, eating cooked food had been an adjustment. Drinking blood, while not something mermaids did, held no revulsion for her, and that the blood was from a human made no difference at all.
Nolan's face hardened. Realizing he'd misinterpreted her reaction, she moved back to where she had been and placed her palm on his chest. His eyes met hers and for a moment, she couldn't move. She could feel his hurt, so intense she wanted to pull away again, but also, strangely, she wanted to comfort him, to make whatever caused the pain in his eyes to disappear forever.
Confused, she folded her fingers into her palm and busied herself by floating downward, studying what held him in place.
A plant was wrapped around his ankle. She ran her fingers over it, but knew instantly the greenery was no ordinary bit of ocean vegetation. It, like the dragon, served Melusine.
Nolan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up so she was once again looking at his face. His head shaking, he pointed upward.
He wanted her to leave him? Sarina pulled back again, this time swimming a few feet away, far enough she could study him and think without the pressure of his gaze.
A soulless mermaid would leave him. A soulless mermaid would have dragged him under the water, then torn him apart with her hands—so desperate would she be to get at his soul.
But Sarina had her soul, and she told herself, if she hoped to get another one, she needed Nolan alive and back on the boat.
She swam back, circling him and keeping her gaze low, away from his face. If she looked at him...she pushed the thought away. She didn't need to look at him. She only needed to save him and only because she needed him to trade to Melusine.
He was just a human—nothing more.
But, as she reached for the blade of grass that had wrapped its way around his ankle, her fingers trembled.
She feared having a soul was finally catching up with her. She feared she was close to caring—for man, a human.
She bit down on her cheek and concentrated on the grass. She tugged and it tightened. She leaned closer and bit at it with her teeth. Nothing.
The grass wouldn't loosen and it couldn't be cut. What other options were there? Her brows lowered and she swam back again.
Seeing her failed efforts, Nolan pointed up again.
She ignored him. He wasn't in charge. She wouldn’t leave him. The ocean was her realm. Even Melusine couldn't argue mermaids’ rights to the land below the sea.
Melusine was cursed and forced to take up her under-water home. The mermaids chose to live here.<
br />
This plant, as a part of the sea, was as much Sarina's to command as it was Melusine's.
And like that it came to Sarina, she opened her mouth and began to sing.
Nolan stilled, and his eyes closed. He could feel his body drifting back and forth in the water, leaning with each sway more toward Sarina and the incredible sound that was coming from her throat.
At least he thought it was Sarina singing. He couldn't hear her song...not like he could hear on land, but he could feel her song. It vibrated through him like note after note hit on a tuning fork, except delicious and alluring in a sleepy, dream-inducing way.
A smile curved his lips. She was his and waiting for him. He couldn't wait to get to her.
She swam upward, until she was looking down at him, and held out one hand. Her hair fanned out around her face, silver and glistening. She was an angel, beckoning him to paradise.
He took a step, then bent his knees to push off of the bottom. His arms moved overhead, catapulting him upward. A band tightened around his ankle, and he jerked to a stop. He frowned and stared down. The plant.
Anger ripped through him. He bent down, ready to rip the vegetation from the seabed by its roots, to do whatever it took to escape its hold and get to the angel who called him from above.
But, as he did, the greenery loosened, fluttering through his fingers like a ribbon. The strands floated up, past his face, reaching, it seemed, for the mermaid whose song still beckoned.
Peace settled over Nolan, and he swayed in place. Then, unable to stay away from the mermaid and her song a second longer, he pushed himself off the bottom of the sea and swam upward to meet her.
Nolan's face was pale, but content as he drifted toward Sarina. She'd seen the look before, on other humans, moments before one of her kind grabbed them and sucked them to the depths of the sea.
She closed her eyes, hoping to block out the image, but it only grew stronger. She could see the mermaids' faces now, the hunger that threatened to consume them, their eagerness as they dove with their prize, swam away in search of somewhere private to rip into their human captive with their bare hands—to find the soul they so craved.
Fingers slipped into hers, and despite the horror that had engulfed her, she felt herself calm.
Her eyes open, she reached down with her other hand and pulled Nolan upward, until he was facing her.
The blind joy she'd expected to see in his eyes immediately disappeared. Concern darkened them instead. He bent his elbows toward his body and pulled her close. His arm slipped around her waist, until her hips were pressed against his.
Surprised and confused, her song died and she stared at him.
He didn't pull away, or blink or do anything to show that the spell she had woven around him had ended, but she knew it had, knew the only way to keep a human in thrall was to sing and keep singing, until he had been dragged too deep to fight.
His fingers ran over her face, and his thumb brushed over her lip.
Then he leaned forward and kissed her.
Nolan had never kissed anyone underwater. Of course, until he had met Sarina, he had never been underwater, not for longer than a few seconds.
Holding the mermaid in his arms, water and her hair swirling around them, he realized how much he had missed out on, how little he had lived when he'd been alive, or at least before he'd been declared undead.
The skin of her back was soft and smooth. His fingers kneaded their way down her back, pausing at her hips where her fish half began. Her hands grabbed onto his shirt, and she kissed him back.
There was something both desperate and sweet in the touch of her lips, like the experience was as new and surprising to her as it was to him.
The thought made his vampire heart beat a little faster, far from racing, but fast enough he could almost believe he was still human, still alive.
He kissed her harder. His fingers pressing into the back of her head, holding her mouth to his.
He realized then a plus to their shared lack of humanity, neither needed to breathe, at least not for very long periods of time. They could kiss and kiss, stay beneath the ocean, secluded and alone for hours, be together just touching each other with no thought to the outside world and the hurt it held.
Hurt.
The word jolted Nolan, reminding him that Sarina had been hurt, had only moments earlier been losing blood.
Concern wrapping around him, he pulled his face from hers and one arm still around her waist, began moving them upward toward open air and hopefully, the yacht.
Nolan had stopped kissing her.
At first the realization hurt, but then Sarina realized he still held her tight and was swimming, pulling her with him as he moved toward open air.
Feeling selfish for forgetting that he was not like her, not a creature of the sea, she swam with him, flapping her tail in strong steady swipes that ate through the water.
In moments they broke through the surface, into the dark cold night.
She stared at him, uncertain. Their kiss while below water had seemed natural and right, but here in the open air she felt embarrassed and awkward.
She had never kissed a human before, not like that, not willingly and wanting more.
But she had kissed Nolan and given the chance, she would do it again...and again.
She pressed her lips together and turned in a circle, hiding her embarrassment by pretending to search for their ship. It was less than a tenth of a mile away, a quick swim, too quick for Sarina to recover from the emotions tearing her apart.
Fingers brushed over her shoulder, and knowing she couldn't avoid Nolan any longer, she turned to face him.
"You were bleeding," he said, and there was concern in his voice. "I..." He closed his lips and glanced to the side.
The blood. He'd given her his blood, and she'd taken it.
Sarina studied him, her own uncertainty gone for the moment. "I drank your blood," she replied. "It made me better. How?" He wasn't human. She'd suspected it all along, but now she was certain.
His jaw tightened. "You don't want to know."
Sarina's hand moved, as it so often did when she felt uncertain, to the vial at her throat. A cold wind blew over the water. She shivered, but Nolan seemed unmoved. His gaze was stony now, all the joy she'd seen in it earlier gone.
She bit her lip, sorry for whatever had changed and wishing she could take it back. She shifted her gaze, back to the yacht. "The boat isn't far. Can you make it on your own, or do you—"
In answer to her unfinished question, Nolan leaned forward and started to swim. His arms sliced through the water, steady and sure, and his face never rose. He didn't, she realized, need to breathe—not for long periods of time, maybe never.
What creature didn't need air? She had noticed no gills on him to allow him to breathe underwater.
Her fist still closed around the vial, she stared after him. What could he be? What secret did he hide?
And, perhaps, most important, why did she care? They were in the sea hag's territory now and he had passed her test. It wouldn't be long before she and Nolan arrived at her home, and Sarina completed her bargain—a male capable of living as the sea hag's mate for Melusine, Allera's soul for Sarina.
The pirates took her mother's life and her sister's soul, in one fell swoop stealing everything Sarina valued, but now she would get at least one of those things back.
She would save her sister, and all it would cost her was Nolan.
She turned her face to the wind, letting the chill numb her, then she dove into the water and swam toward the boat.
Chapter Six
Sarina reached Nolan before he reached the boat. She held out her hand, and after a moment, he took it.
She hadn't rejected him, hadn't turned her back on him because of what he was.
Because she didn't know, an inner voice reminded him. If she did...when she did...she would look at him with the same revulsion everyone else he'd thought he'd known, thought he could
trust, had.
Still, as her fingers wrapped around his and she pulled him through the water, it was easy to get lost in the joy of the moment. He sped forward, his body surfing over the water's surface and cold air blowing over his face.
It was brisk and invigorating—exciting and like nothing he had ever experienced before.
They reached the yacht, and sensing Sarina might want privacy for her transition from water to land, Nolan climbed onto the boat on his own, then turned his back. He was curious to see the mermaid's tail out of water, but he maintained his stance through the sounds of splashing and something flapping against the boat's polished wood deck.
"Thank you." Her voice was soft and almost shy.
He shrugged, and suddenly aware of his own saturated state, began wringing out his clothing on the deck. Since his turn, cold didn't bother him, but removing the water from his clothing seemed like the expected thing to do.
"Here."
Something flew through the air toward him. Nolan spun, catching it. A towel.
He rubbed at his face and hair.
The mermaid had dried off too. Her hair was still damp, but she had donned one of the loose-fitting shirts she seemed to prefer, and a towel was wrapped around her lower body. As Nolan watched, the tip of her fin, which was visible at the end of the towel, disappeared, and she wiggled her toes.
She looked up and caught him staring. He averted his gaze, but she waved her hand and stood. "It's okay. Humans have always been curious. At least you didn't try to cut open my tail to see if legs were hidden inside."
"That's happened?"
"Not to me, but others." She looked away, and he could tell she didn't want to discuss the subject more.
He bunched the towel he'd been holding into a ball. Things felt odd between them, unanswered questions lying around, weighing them both down.
And there was the kiss too.
