by Lori Devoti
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.
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 a way 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 afloat. 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.
o0o
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 farther 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.
o0o
Nolan’s head snapped up, and his nostrils flared. He 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 on to the unconscious mermaid before the plant could retaliate fully and jerk him back to where he had started.
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 treasured toy. Water whooshed around them and tore at his clothes. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his only mission, not losing hold of his prize.
Finally, they stopped, and they were no better off than they had been before—except they were now together and bleeding.
One arm around Sarina’s 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 t
he 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 clenched. 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 been one only 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 deep 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.
Instead, she grabbed his arm and tried to pull him upward. He waved his hand and pointed down.
Something was keeping him here.
Nodding to let him know she understood, she released her hold and floated downward.
A plant was wrapped around his ankle. It appeared normal enough, but as she ran her fingers over its strands, she 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, keeping her gaze low and 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 sea 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 had been cursed and forced to take up her underwater home. The mermaids chose to live here.
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 sang.
o0o
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 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.
o0o
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, she let her song die and stared at him.
He didn’t pull away or blink or do anything to show 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.
