by Lori Devoti
One Soul to Share
by Lori Devoti
Copyright 2011, Lori Devoti
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or any portion thereof, in any form. This ebook may not be resold or uploaded for distribution to others.
This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
If you notice any typos or formatting issues with this book, the author would appreciate being notified.
Email her at [email protected]
Dedication
To all my fans who offer me support and just good old fashioned chit chat at Facebook and around the web.
Chapter One
The bar was dirtier and darker than any dive Nolan Moore had ever entered, even on a dare. Smoke clouded the air, shrouding the bar’s patrons and decor, but Nolan could smell the humans, each and every one, and hear them…hear the beat of each of their hearts and the whoosh of every breath as it exited their lungs.
His nostrils flared, and his hands fisted. He didn’t want to know that the man on his right, drinking beer from a chipped glass mug, had a heart valve that was close to failing. He didn’t want to know that the woman that man was standing close to had slept with someone other than the man, only hours earlier.
But, damn his vampire senses, he did.
The man with the damaged valve moved his hand to the woman’s ass and whispered in her ear. She giggled and rubbed against him.
Nolan, teeth grinding together, turned away and stalked deeper into the stink, heat, and sound until he wanted to spin in circles and growl and become the monster his family already thought he’d become. His mother’s face flashed into his mind, her relieved and welcoming smile twisting into distaste and then horror as she realized he’d returned, not dead, but not alive either. And his father —
“Stranger.”
The word jerked Nolan back to the present.
A man standing behind the bar, a short, grizzled type with weathered skin and battered features, laid a revolver onto the wooden bar in front of Nolan. On the back of the man’s hand was a tattoo of an eye—the evil eye. Nolan glanced at it, unimpressed.
His fingers curling around the gun’s butt, the bartender asked, “What or who are you looking for?”
Straight to business, which suited Nolan fine. The sooner he was out of the stifling stench of the bar, the better.
“I need a guide, one that knows the sea. I heard this was the place to come.”
The bartender’s index finger twitched, less than a flicker of movement, but the vampire didn’t miss the nervous tic.
The man replied, “You’re feet from the docks. Lots know the sea here. Some place in particular you’re looking to find?”
“The hag.” Not a place, but a person… or being. Nolan wasn’t sure what the sea hag was, and he didn’t care. His only concern was that the stories were true and she had what he needed.
The bartender’s fingers closed tighter around the gun’s butt. “You have business with her?”
“I wouldn’t need a guide to find her if I didn’t.” Nolan leaned closer, meeting the man’s gaze.
The wall behind the bar was covered with objects Nolan recognized as attempts to ward off evil. But considering they’d done nothing to stop him from entering the place, the effort was wasted.
“There’s… someone who might help.” The man raised one bushy brow and slid his hand forward.
Nolan dropped two bills onto the man’s palm and waited.
The bartender slid his fingers over the bills, apparently checking their validity, then slipped them into his pocket.
“Talk to the mermaid. She’s been coming in for months. Rumor has it she’s planning a visit to the hag herself and looking for a companion.”
“Mermaid? How did she come by that name?” Nolan needed a guide, one tough enough to weather whatever journey lay before him. He didn’t need a female looking for help of her own.
“Not a name. It’s her… breed.”
“Breed?” Surely the bartender didn’t believe whoever this female was that she was truly a mermaid. Mermaids were myths like dragons and Pegasus and—Nolan flicked his tongue over one canine—vampires. He growled. “Where can I find her?”
“She was in the back earlier. Sitting alone. Can’t miss her.” The bartender straightened his arms, ready to push himself away from the bar, but then apparently thought better of it. He reached out and grabbed Nolan by the arm. His fingers digging into Nolan’s bicep, he whispered, “You ain’t the first one what went with her. She takes ’em to the docks, and they never come back.”
Nolan stared down at the man’s fingers. The bartender loosened his hold and stepped back as if burned, but Nolan wasn’t done with him. He leaned over the bar. “She’s taken others to the hag?” He hadn’t heard of anyone successfully making it to wherever the sea hag called home, or if they had, they’d never returned to share their stories.
The bartender shook his head, his eyes wide now and worried. “Don’t think so. They weren’t gone that long. She’s like the rest of her kind but with legs. She lures men out to the water and pulls them under. From there…” His voice dropped. “There’s no coming back.”
o0o
Sarina Neri crossed her legs at the ankle and stared toward the front of the bar. Someone new had entered, someone different from the worn-out men who usually stumbled into the place. Maybe, finally, her search was over. Maybe, finally, she would find a man capable of passing the sea hag’s tests.
He was talking with the bartender and, Sarina could tell, hearing tales of her dangers. The superstitious man’s gossip didn’t worry her.
No man could resist the lure of a nixie if she turned her attention his way.
After taking a drink of her beer, she uncrossed her ankles and placed her bare feet onto the filthy bar floor. She was preparing to stand, to search out this new man, when she saw him crossing the room toward her.
She smiled. This one was coming to her.
As he approached, she studied him, looking for some sign that he was different from the others. She’d tried eight so far, each younger and, from outward appearance, stronger than the last, but none had survived her test. None had lasted the quarter of an hour Sarina considered the minimum she would need to trick the sea hag into thinking she had brought the old goddess what she demanded—a man who could live out his life beside the hag under the sea.
This man was tall, with broad shoulders that tapered to an athletic waist. Trim and fit—neither signs he possessed the talent Sarina needed. He was handsome too, with rugged features and a cleft in his chin. The hag, like all sea beings, appreciated beauty. So, his looks were a plus, but neither that nor the confident way he prowled forward were enough.
He had to be able to stay alive in the sea hag’s home long enough for Sarina to swim away with the soul.
As he moved closer, Sarina spun in her seat to face him. “Are you looking for me?”
He paused, surprise registering on his face. Like the others, he’d probably taken her soft features and feminine form as some sign she would be submissive, an easy target for whatever caused him to search her out.
But mermaids, nixies, none of their kind, were submissive or easy targets.
She stood, sweeping her waist-length hair behind her. The long shirt she’d taken from her last failed candidate fell open over one bare shoulder, and the dungarees she’d belted at her waist slipped. A
nnoyed with the human clothing, she undid the belt with one hand and let the pants fall to the ground.
Stepping out of them, she moved forward.
She trailed her fingers over the newcomer’s chest as she walked around him, appraising. “What did the bartender tell you?” This man was the first to come to her. The others she had searched out. They had come willingly enough, of course, but they hadn’t walked into the bar looking for her, as she suspected this male had.
“I need a guide,” he murmured.
His chest and back were layered with muscle. She paused for a second to lay her palm flat over his heart. Its beat was slow, slower than any she had felt before. Her brows pulled forward, and, confused, she took a step back to study him again.
He was not a merman come to land, or a selkie. Her fortune couldn’t be that great. Or poor—another creature like herself would be harder to fool, harder to mesmerize into thinking he was in love with her, and harder to convince to accompany her on her journey to see the sea hag.
“What type of guide?” she asked, for the moment making no effort to charm him in any way. She wanted to hear the answer he intended to give, not one put into his mind by a spell.
“I have business at sea.” He paused, and she sighed. Nothing special after all.
“With the sea hag,” he added.
Sarina’s body stiffened, and she stepped back, studying him again. “You know Melusine?”
“My business is just that…business. I have no prior connection with the hag…Melusine.”
Sarina tilted her head. Ordinary humans didn’t know of Melusine, or if they did, thought her nothing but legend. But this man before her wasn’t selkie or merman, so what could he be? What was his story?
She inhaled, checking for the scent of the sea.
Sadly, or luckily, she wasn’t sure which yet, he smelled no more of the ocean than any of the unbathed seafarers seated at the tables nearby. He didn’t, however, smell entirely human either. There was something different about him, but Sarina couldn’t peg what it was.
“As it happens, I’m in need of a companion myself,” she replied, keeping her tone neutral.
He smiled, confident, like a man used to getting his way. “So I heard. That is, then, fortunate for us both, isn’t it?”
Perhaps. Sarina still didn’t trust that her luck had finally changed. “Can you swim?” she asked. All said they could, but none really knew what they might expect to encounter in a journey to Melusine’s home.
Like the others, he nodded his head in assent.
Tired of speculating as to whether her search was finally over, she walked past him and strode to the door.
o0o
The mermaid, as the bartender had called her, said nothing to Nolan as she passed in nothing but the thigh-length shirt. She simply walked toward the door, showing not the tiniest amount of doubt that he would follow.
And he would. In fact, he was surprised every man in the place didn’t rise to his feet and rush after her.
Maybe one hundred and twenty pounds and under five feet eight inches in height, she was slim and athletic but also exuded femininity.
He had never encountered another woman, or creature, like her.
As he turned, his foot caught in the pants she had dropped so casually to the floor. He stared down at them, wondering if he should scoop them up and carry them along.
From the front, the bartender’s gaze met his. Even through the hazy air, Nolan could read the man’s face. He thought Nolan a fool, or worse, a soon-to-be-dead fool.
Little did he know, Nolan was already the walking dead.
With a grimace, he left the pants and followed the “mermaid.”
o0o
Sarina stood on the damp dock, waiting for the human. The wind had picked up, catching her hair and wrapping it around her. She could smell the water behind her. Her body itched to leap into the bay that led to the ocean. Her toes wiggled, already preparing to shift to the fin she still found so much more natural.
As the man approached, her hand wrapped around the tiny vial hanging from her neck. Feeling its pulsing warmth against her palm calmed her, assured her that what she was about to do was necessary.
Having a soul had saved her, but at times like this, it cost her too.
“Now what?” The man arched one brow and stared out over the water.
She moved toward him with all the power and grace of her kind. Humming, she grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and rose up on her toes. “You said you can swim, right?” She sang the words with no tune in mind. The notes didn’t matter; any that left her throat, any mermaid’s throat, would be enough to lure a human into her bidding.
He stared down at her, his gaze hooded. “I did.”
“Then now”—she brushed her lips over his and took a teasing step back—“is the time to prove it.”
With no other warning, she fell backward into the bay, taking the human with her.
Chapter Two
Icy water rushed over Nolan, hitting him in the face. He closed his eyes and cursed his own stupidity. The bartender had warned him. The woman had too, in a way. She had asked him if he could swim.
Stupidly, he had expected her to take him at his word.
He held his breath and waited for her to loosen her hold on him so he could prove his claim, but as seconds ticked by, her grip remained iron strong. And he was no longer falling; he was being pulled… down… at an impossible speed.
His eyes flew open, and his upper lip pulled back, revealing his fangs—not that the woman saw them. She was too busy swimming herself, tugging him down in steady flap after steady flap of her undeniably aquatic tail.
The bartender hadn’t been wrong.
The guide he had searched out was a mermaid.
And, based on the hold she had on Nolan and the speed she was traveling, her intentions were not good.
Nolan’s first instinct was to lash out, to show her the timid fish she thought she’d caught was in fact a shark, sharp teeth and all, but as water slid over him and he caught sight of her hair flowing behind her and her shirt clinging to her breasts, he calmed.
He was at no risk. He was a vampire. He had no need to breathe. Let her tow him wherever she liked. It would do her no good, and he would learn more about her and her kind—the mystical mermaids no one truly believed existed.
Just as no one believed vampires existed.
Her tail slapped against his side. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of being swept along. In some strange way—despite the tight grip she had on his body—it felt like freedom.
o0o
Sarina had quit singing when her back touched the water. She swam now, strong and determined to reach the bottom of the bay before the human she held came out from under the fog she had created.
She glanced at him. His eyes were closed, and he looked… peaceful. Minutes had passed, five at least. By now, the need to breathe should have overcome the fog—or should soon. She flapped her tail again, sending her and the human shooting another ten feet toward the bottom.
The man moved. This was the part she hated… the part that having her own soul made hard.
For other mermaids—shells with no souls of their own—it was easy, expected even, to capture sailors and the like and tow them to the bottom of the sea. The mermaids gathered men, not even realizing that what they hungered for—a soul—couldn’t be harvested in this way.
But not any soul would do. For a mermaid to be free of the hunger and the ties to the sea, she needed the soul meant for her and her alone.
Sarina glanced at the man again. His eyes were open now. She steeled herself against his panic and tightened her grip to keep him from breaking away.
Then he smiled.
Sarina’s mouth opened, and a bubble escaped. Their time underwater was pressing against the fifteen-minute mark now, and he was calm, beyond calm. He looked… pleased.
She loosened her hold and pushed him free. He didn’t move; he just hung in
place like seaweed attached to the bay floor.
His gaze shifted from her face, down her borrowed shirt, and finally to her tail. His attention clung there, making her feel uneasy and exposed.
She’d walked among the humans for two years now, knew the bartender had guessed her secret, but she had only revealed herself so thoroughly to the men she had brought to the bay for her test. And none of the others had survived.
This man, however, was different. He was surviving, and he would know what she was, know mermaids were real.
She pulled back farther, suddenly uncertain. The idea that mermaids were myth had protected the nixies. Sure, a few storm-tossed sailors had washed to shore with tales of her kind, but that was it. There were no real photographs and no rational accounts. No proof that other humans couldn’t brush off as the rantings of some battered, most often drunk, sailor wanting for attention.
But this man, with his self-possessed gait and his confident stare… this man, people would believe.
She twirled in the water and swam to the side, leaving him floating and watching her, his attention and ability to hold his breath eerie now.
It wasn’t too late. She could drag him deeper, to a part of the ocean that, no matter his ability to hold his breath, he could never escape.
She rushed forward, intent on righting the mistake she’d almost made, and stopped in front of him. Her hair billowed forward, forming a veil around them. He reached out with one finger and lightly touched the vial that floated upward, away from her chest. She clasped her hand around the tiny tube and jerked it back down.
His eyes met hers, and her heart thumped hard in her chest. No ordinary man this, but not selkie or merman or any other being she had ever encountered in the sea. That she knew for sure.
Whatever his magic, whatever gave him the ability to walk the earth with such confidence and stay calmly submerged under the bay too, he was the one to fulfill her plan.
A plan she had dreamed of for too long to give up now.
And, she reminded herself, she needn’t worry that he knew her secret. His part of the journey would be one-way. He would meet the sea hag as he asked, but he wouldn’t be coming back. There would be no one but Melusine, her kelpies, and the fish for him to tell.
