by Lori Devoti
His fingers ran over her face, and his thumb brushed over her lip.
Then he leaned forward and kissed her.
o0o
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 before he’d been declared undead.
The skin on her back was soft and smooth. His fingers kneaded their way down her spine, pausing at her hips where her fish half began. Her hands grabbed on to 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.
o0o
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 go back to where they had been before. She shifted her gaze 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 hadn’t noticed 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’d passed her test. It wouldn’t be long before she and Nolan arrived at Melusine’s home, and Sarina completed her bargain—a male capable of living as the sea hag’s mate in exchange for Allera’s soul.
The pirates had taken 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 wrapped a towel 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.
He didn’t regret it. In fact, he would have liked nothing more than to repeat it, but after she’d mentioned the blood… He lowered his arm and looked around for a spot to deposit the towel. Seeing a basket, he walked over and dropped the wet object inside.
“It won’t be long now,” she murmured.
He turned to find she’d moved. She was only a few feet away from him now. The wind caught her shirt, pushing it tight against her curves. Her breasts were full, and her nipples were hard. It was easy to imagine her without the shirt, remember how she’d looked under the ocean, her hair fanning around her face.
His groin hardened. “Until what?” he asked, lost as to what she could mean, lost to everything but the pounding need to touch her that seemed to grow with each passing second.
“Melusine… the sea hag. The dragon was one of her pets. She was… testing.”
“And we passed?” It hadn’t occurred to him that the sea hag would be aware of their approach.
“Yes.” The mermaid didn’t look pleased with her answer. Her lips pressed together, and her hand rose to hold the vial that hung from her neck.
Remembering how he’d been tempted to toss the piece of jewelry into the ocean’s depths, he motioned to it. “Is that important?”
She stilled, and alarm shone in her eyes. She took a step back, causing him to immediately regret his question. He held up a hand to reassure her. “I shouldn’t have asked. Obviously, it’s important to you or you wouldn’t wear it.”
She licked her lips and slowly nodded. She didn’t, however, relax or loosen her tight grip on the vial. “It is. My mother gave it to me when I was born.”
“Really?” He made a point not to look at the vial again. Instead, he focused on the female who wore it.
The decision was a bad one. His heart thumped, and he felt his body take a step toward her. She drew him as surely as fresh blood, but he knew, while he had relished the small taste of her blood, what drew him was even more elemental than that.
There was something about the mermaid that promised peace and contentment. Something that made him think with her he could relax, go back to being who he’d been before he’d met the vampire, before he’d become a monster.
He moved toward her, pulled by some invisible string. She glanced over her shoulder, toward the sea, and for a moment, he thought she would dive in and leave him standing alone on the yacht.
But then she looked back.
She sighed, and her shoulders lowered. Her expression changed from alarm to resigned surrender, as if she was as incapable of fighting whatever pulled them together as he was.
Relieved, he closed the space between them, slipped his fingers into her hair, and pulled her mouth to his.
o0o
She was kissing a human, again.
Sarina closed her eyes, closing out the sight of the ocean and the eyes she imagined staring at her from its depths.
Mermaids used humans. They didn’t mate with them or have feelings for them.
But Sarina could feel that she was on the verge of doing both. She wanted Nolan’s touch, wanted to feel his lips on hers, wanted his arms around her.
She wanted him.
His hands moved from her hair, down her body, over her shoulders and arms, to her hips. His thumbs caressed the curve of her waist through her gauzy shirt. The tips of her breasts were hard and sensitive, and as the material grazed them, she wiggled. Desire built deep inside her.
She knew how humans mated but had never thought of how it would feel, how she would feel.
Nolan’s hand moved upward, and she found herself arching toward him. Her breasts felt heavy and ached with the need to be touched. His fingers lifted and caressed, and a moan fell from her lips.
She stepped closer until her pelvis pressed against his thigh. His sex was hard, and strangely, she found that exciting. She moaned again. A song was building inside her.
She murmured a few words, unable to keep it inside.
His hands moved again, cupping her butt, kneading the flesh there and pulling her even tighter against him.
Unable to resist touching him, she placed her hands on his chest and pulled at his water-soaked clothes. His shirt fell to the ground with a slap, and she was free to move her fingers over his skin—still cold and damp from the water. She ran her lips over his skin. He tasted of salt and the ocean. A new thrill ran through her. He smelled of the sea too.
She ran her nose from his neck to his chest, inhaling the scent of sea and man and knowing she would never smell or taste anything more intoxicating.
Giddy with desire and new sensations, she bent and trailed her tongue down his chest to the hard planes of his stomach. His abdomen was flat and muscled, nothing like the sailors she’d seen in the past. They had been wiry, almost emaciated, not muscled and strong. And their smell, of sweat and ale, had soured her stomach, not drawn her like a bee to a flower.
“You’re beautiful,” Nolan murmured
Others had said the words, but they had always been laced with an unspoken, What can I get from you? Sailors believing the tales of mermaid treasure, or hunting mermaids for fame and the fortune they thought would come in selling the females to circus sideshows.
Those men had all died for their words and intentions.
But Nolan’s voice held no hint of ulterior motive. He believed what he said and simply reveled in her beauty.
A flush of pride flowed over her. She moved her hands again, running them over his chest and back, memorizing each plane and muscular ridge. “You are too,” she whispered.
And he was. She would never have thought it possible, but this human, or whatever creature he was, was beautiful… irresistible.
As he leaned down and captured her lips with his, she suspected she knew how those sailors drawn by mermaids’ songs felt. Caught as if wrapped in a net but filled with joy that the net had chosen her to ensnare.
o0o
Nolan’s heart beat so fast he could for that moment almost believe he was still alive. Sarina’s magic was that real, her touch that intoxicating. Being with her made him forget what he’d become, forget everything but the thrill of being with another being, touched… accepted.
He ran his hands, the palms flat, down her shoulders and arms. The gauzy material of her shirt clung to her skin. He could see through it, see her dark nipples as they rose and fell with each of her breaths, and see the outline of her waist giving way to the curve of her hips.
He bit his lip and tasted his own blood, closed his eyes for a second and listened to the beat of his heart.
Then he listened to hers. Steady and sure, alluring.
Sarina’s tongue moved over his lip, licking up the bit of blood his fang had drawn. He froze, wondering if she would solve the puzzle—realize what he was, then run, repulsed.
But she only moved closer, her arms winding around his waist and pulling him so tight against her, he found himself matching his breaths to hers. She licked his lip again. Her tongue dragged across his fang. She inhaled sharply, surprised, and he stiffened, again prepared for rejection, but she only murmured something under her breath and continued to kiss him.
Her tongue’s contact with his fang had left a mark though. Blood, hers, sweet and almost… fizzy… flavored her kiss.
His body tightened; his mind tightened. The world changed, became sharper and more alive.
“Vampire,” she murmured. “I thought you were myths.”
“Monsters,” he replied, his world turning dark. Resolved, he closed his eyes again, this time to shut the image of her reaction out of his view.
She laughed, a strange sound that made him open his eyes. Hers, clear and green, stared back at him. “Fangs don’t make a monster; actions do.” Then she wove her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers.
Her kiss was strong and sweet. As if the knowledge that he was a vampire encouraged and empowered her. Her hands moved to his pants. She undid the snap and shoved the wet material aside.
“I’ve never been with a human. Never mated as one,” she said, her voice soft as if confessing. “Mermaids don’t do that, not lightly.”
He understood then. She was telling him this… what they were about to do… was no small act for her.
But it wasn’t for Nolan either.
He stepped out of his pants and pulled her against his naked form. “What I am doesn’t bother you?” He needed to hear the words.
She laughed again and tossed her hair away from her face. “Does what I am bother you?”
It was a ridiculous question, but then so was their situation—a vampire and a mermaid, two creatures most of the world didn’t believe existed, making love in the sea hag’s realm.
“No,” he replied; then he slipped his thigh between hers and lowered his mouth to her throat.
His fangs pierced her skin, clean and su
dden. Her body jerked, and her fingers dug into his arms. She moaned and arched her back, pushing her sex more tightly against his thigh.
Her blood flowed slow and thick, almost as thick as his own. Sweet and effervescent, like dense, sparkling wine.
She leaned back against the railing, and he lifted her up so her buttocks perched on the polished metal. She opened her thighs, and he stepped between them, his mouth never leaving her neck.
He moved his hands down and lifted her shirt, baring her breasts to the night air. They were full and heavy. His sex hardened, and he knew he couldn’t wait any longer.
He pulled his fangs from her throat, lapping at the wound to close it before leaning back to catch her gaze with his. “Are you—”
She leaned forward, shifting her weight from the railing to his waist. Her arms on his shoulders, she stared down at him and started to sing.
This song was different from the one she’d sung before, sad but also happy. As if she mourned something that had gone on before while rejoicing in the changes that loss had brought.
And suddenly, he was happy too. He was a vampire, and he’d lost his family because of it, but he had found Sarina, a creature he would never have believed existed.
Her lips touched his, and he opened his mouth for her. Her breasts slid over his chest and her legs down his back. She wrapped around him, clinging to him as if she would never let go.
He clung to her too. His hands under her buttocks, he lowered her more, until his erection pressed against her sex, and his heart almost leapt from his chest.
Her song slowed and died. There was no sound at all except the beat of their hearts and the water lapping against the hull.
Nolan stepped forward, and Sarina pressed down. They were one, moving together and blocking out everything else around them.
o0o
Sarina moved up and down, her legs squeezing Nolan’s waist and her hands clutching at his shoulders. Her body tightened, and her breasts tingled. She wanted to arch her back and scream, wanted to sing in a voice that would reach the seven seas and more. Knew if she opened her mouth, she would. She couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop the song that was building, threatening to erupt.
