by Dani Stowe
Athena clutches the coin again. “Poseidon gave it to him. Rather than let Blue and the other two men drown, Poseidon not only transformed them into mermen as a reward for attempting to save the woman, but he also gave them powers. Together, they are Poseidon’s trident—three mermen to control the seas. One can manipulate the water, the other can control the beasts, and the third?” Athena examines me as she had the first time we met. “The third can control elements of the atmosphere, like the weather or this breeze.”
“It has been storming more than usual since Blue arrived. Let me see the coin,” demands Yanka.
“No!” shouts Athena. “The coin is cursed. Poseidon did not take into account the curse the slave put on the men before he struck the boat. Since the captain did not rescue the slave woman when he had the chance, the mermen were forbidden from being rescued. They control the seas, but they are also death dealers and forbidden from walking on land. As the slave was tethered by chains and drowned, she tethered the trident of men to the sea forever. Yet, Poseidon pitied the men for at least attempting to save the wailing slave; he transformed her into a sea witch, so she could undo the curse befallen upon his trident. Heaven forbid a man should return to land to have women! Reluctantly, the witch gave each man a trinket from the treasures of the sunken ship and shackled each merman to the trinket with magic. If a woman could not only lay with each man but love him in his beastly sea form as well, he could give her the trinket and walk with her on land.”
“So, if Blue gave Shelley his trinket or his coin, then why can’t he walk?” Yanka asks factiously with raised eyebrows.
“Maybe Shelley doesn’t love him enough,” replies Athena very seriously.
Shelley chortles, “Why would anyone choose to be tethered to another human? Wouldn’t he just choose to be a merman and live forever?”
“Look around, Shelley,” replies Yanka. “There’s no one in sight for miles. It’s fucking lonely out here.”
Shelley sighs. “My parents are out here somewhere.” Shelley turns back to look at me. “You know where they are, don’t you?”
I hint at nothing.
“Why did they find your hair on my parents’ boat?” Shelley asks.
“I’m telling you,” stresses Athena, “he’s a merman, just like your aunt said and I’m sure he was trying to help them.”
I push my chair towards Shelley as she marches away towards Athena and quickly snatches the coin, tossing it into the water. My heart sinks with the coin that is beginning to make its way to the bottom of the sea and a bolt of lightning strikes the water.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” cries Yanka.
“I knew it!” shouts Athena. “You can control the weather,” she says to me and I nod.
“That’s bullshit!” cries Shelley. “That’s a coincidence,” she smirks and stands up. “He’s a fucking murderer and a loony, too,” she asserts and starts walking towards me like she’s about to kill me.
I conjure another bolt of lightning to distract her and she trips and scrapes her chin.
She gets up angrily and demands, “Where are my parents?!” Thunder cracks through the sky, but it doesn’t dissuade her wrath and I fear the fire shooting from her mouth. “If you’re a merman then you know, don’t you?! You know what happened to them! You know exactly where they are.”
“Shelley, calm down,” Yanka implores, as she gets between us.
I don’t like this or seeing Shelley in this condition. She looks exactly like her father and it makes me ill. I have to tell her before she hurts herself.
“Do you know?!” she asks grabbing a hold of my shirt.
I nod, yes, and Shelley strikes me. She hits me so hard in the face I cannot remember the last time, perhaps in some pub brawl centuries ago, when I was struck to the point my face is throbbing. I massage my jaw and can’t seem to stop the clouds from swirling above as a storm stirs.
“Where are they?!” cries Shelley. “Where are my parents?”
I look to the spot where Shelley tossed the coin, to where the sea has swallowed any chance I have of ever winning her affection or of ever being able to walk again, and I point.
“They’re down there?” Shelley asks and I nod. “They’re dead?” she questions once more and I nod again.
Shelley’s shoulders sink as she strolls towards the edge of the boat, but as she walks I see she has a faint smile. “You’ve seen them down there, haven’t you? And they’re together? Have they been together this whole time?”
I sigh.
Athena and Yanka are watching the sky in amazement as the clouds quickly clear and I bow my head. I cannot look at Shelley knowing I’m partly responsible, but she deserves the truth, so I nod once more.
I hear a splash and both Yanka and Athena are shouting Shelley’s name. Shelley has jumped over the rail, but she’s not in view. All I see is the white aftermath of her splash adjoining a circle at the surface of the water as more bubbles rise from below.
Shelley is indeed her parents’ daughter.
Chapter 14
Shelley
IT’S DARK DOWN HERE, but something about the darkness feels familiar. My boots are dragging me down and I let my arms float to the side as gravity pulls down at me. I don’t want to look down. I don’t want to look up, either; it will call me back to the surface. So, I look straight ahead.
I don’t know why I did this, why I jumped in, but I knew if I did I would sink. Somehow, I knew my boots would yank me down as if they had already done so before though I never reached the bottom.
The bottom. It’s where I feel like I belong. I have no family, have never been in love, and I just broke a guy out of prison because, if I’m honest with myself, there is an itty-bitty place in my heart that wishes he was a merman who needed my help, which is lunacy.
Ridiculous. I’m ridiculous. Wherever my parents are, I belong with them. I know it. I’ve felt it my whole life. Aunt Cora even said so. “Earth is to water as water is to earth,” she used to say. “Let yourself soak in the pleasure of the sea.”
So, I belong down here, except I’m not just going to soak; I’m going to drown or...be eaten!
Straight ahead, I swear I see something move. My heart starts pounding and I feel like I need to breathe as something is coming straight at me. It looks like it’s picking up speed as it glides towards me in a side-to-side motion.
Holy fuck! I can barely see the whole thing, but I do see the inside of its jaws strewn with hundreds of jagged teeth coming to gnaw on me!
I kick my legs and try to scream, but I only end up gulping water. I keep kicking and my heart is throbbing; I need air so bad. I’m going to die.
The mouth of a shark opens wide and I stop to face my death. I pray the pain will be over quickly, but then I feel a yank on my arm.
My head and legs jerk wildly in the water and I feel the scrape of the shark’s back fin across my legs. My arm is gripped tight by someone’s hand pulling me, but I’m more worried about the fact I can’t breathe. I grab my throat and kick my legs as hard as I can—the shark is coming back.
The hand gripping me lets go and I see its connected to the arm of a man with an enormous fishtail. The man swims head on towards the shark and punches it.
I swallow more water as the man punches the shark again, which seems to stun the massive devourer. With one flick of his fishtail, the man swims towards me and grabs my arm again. He pulls me swiftly into the deep. I feel like we are racing so fast, I can’t keep my eyes open so I close them.
As fast as we are going, my heart is slowing. The shark didn’t get me, but I’m still going to die. I swallow more water and the hand guides me into a structure of some sort as I hit my boot on the rim of the opening, which hurts, but I don’t care. I pull the hand that is gripping me, pulling me, and I really feel like I’m at the end of my rope. I need air!
The man comes behind me and lunges me upward above water and I can breathe.
As I come crashing back down into
the water, the man takes my hand and leads it to grip on something over the surface of the seawater. I pull myself up and take a big breath. Water gets stuck at the back of my throat and I cough. I take another big breath as my heart pounds again, trying to absorb the oxygen it was desperate for.
Wiping my eyes with one hand, I realize I’m in the dark. I cough again and the sound of my hacking hits a few walls and echoes back into my ears. I’m in a room of some type. I wait for a few minutes, but nothing stirs except the sound of ocean water knocking.
“Hello?” I call out except I’m not sure I should be saying anything. Perhaps I should not be trying to attract any attention—especially not from anything that might try to consume me.
It’s pitch black and I have no idea which way is out. I’m dangling in the water, my boots still trying to pull me down, but my head is able to stay above the surface as long as I hang onto what feels like a beam. I reach up to grab the beam with my other hand and listen intently.
The rhythmic plopping of droplets resounds as ocean water continues to knock against the walls of the underwater space. I’m not sure what I am in—an old ship perhaps, but it’s so dark I’m more afraid right now than when I first jumped off the boat.
“Hello?” I call out softly once more and hear a small splash. “Who’s there?” I ask with a quiver. I recall the man who came to my rescue and punched the shark. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen that made me imagine he had a fishtail.
A light below the surface of the water comes into view. It’s a fish with another one right behind it and the room begins to glow. I’m relieved to have some light until I see a shadow underwater at the corner of the room not more than ten feet away moving towards me. It could be another shark ready to eat me or it could be the strange creature that is half a man that brought me here to be its next meal.
It pops its head out—it’s Blue.
At least, I think its Blue. It has Blue’s face, but when I look down, he has the tail of a fish.
I sigh. Why am I not surprised?
“This isn’t fair,” I tell him. Blue squints and cocks his head. “I was beginning to like the wheelchair and now I have to get used to the idea of you with a fishtail, instead.”
Blue smiles that big beautiful smile of his and it lights up the whole underwater chamber.
“You still can’t talk?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“Did you jump in after me?”
Yes, he nods.
“And your tail grew back?”
Yes, he nods again and reaches out to touch my cheek with his thumb. The feeling is comforting and I wonder if he has any kind of mystical power, which he might later try to use on me to seduce me like sirens so he can eat me—or so I’ve been told.
“Are you planning to turn me into a meal?” I ask and Blue slaps the water and rolls his eyes so far up into his head it makes me feel silly for asking. “It was a fair question,” I say and he chuckles. “Are you magical?” I ask.
Blue’s eyebrows crinkle at the center. He’s thinking hard about it, but then he points to me.
“Me?” I question with a chuckle. “You think I’m magical?”
Blue nods and I laugh so loud, the vibration bounces off the walls in every direction until Blue wraps his hand around the back of my neck and kisses me.
The wet surprise of his lips on mine forces me to let go of the beam I’m holding and I fall into the water. I’m waving my arms wildly, but Blue grabs a hold of them, pulling me up, and helping me to reach the beam with both hands so I’m dangling again with my head just above the water.
Blue moves my wet hair out of my face. “You can’t do that!” I blurt and wipe my face with one hand. “You can’t surprise me like that.”
Blue bites his lip, bows his head, and floats backward. This action surprises me, too; I don’t want him to be so far away.
I speak softly. “I meant you can’t keep scaring me.”
The space between his brows crinkles again. He’s confused and floats even farther away. The distance pulls at my heartstrings—I want him closer.
“Blue,” I say in all seriousness, trying to get a grip on the fact that I’m attracted to him, “you looked like you were about to attack me in the hospital. Then you took a dive off the stairwell, and just now you popped your head out of the water frightening me because I didn’t know what kind of creature you were. Plus, you kissed me out of the blue and without warning. You’re a little unpredictable.”
Blue’s face sinks below the surface of the water, so only his eyes are showing. I can’t help but speculate he dipped himself under because he doesn’t want me to see him upset.
You’re scared and now you’re scaring him. Fix the flame in your mouth and stop messing this up, Shelley!
I adjust my hands holding onto the beam to get a better grip. “What I’m trying to say is I wish we could communicate better so I wouldn’t have to be so nervous worrying about you and what you’re thinking.”
Blue’s whole face floats back up above the water and he glides towards me leading with his hands like he’s reaching for me, which makes me uneasy. I feel so vulnerable, dangling like a fish on a hook deep in his lair. As he comes towards me, I wish he could speak. I wish he could say what his intentions are.
Each droplet of water on every corner of his face illuminates from the glow of the underwater creatures below as he closes in on me. I’m not sure what I’m going to do if he tries to kiss me again and then I feel the bulk of each of Blue’s strong arms wrap all the way around my back and squeezes as he buries his wet face in my neck.
He’s hugging me; I can’t remember the last time someone hugged or squeezed me so tight. It must’ve been my mother or father—they used to squeeze so tight I couldn’t breathe. But the lack of air felt good in a way; to be held that tightly made me feel safe and secure. To be held this tight almost feels like home.
A sliver of an animal slips across my bare legs and I can’t help but jerk my lower half and yelp. I kick the animal and Blue grunts as he lets go of me, looking at me with a crooked face.
I tilt my head down and I see it’s him. It’s his fishtail that got me feeling squirmy. “I’m so sorry!” I cry and he looks like he’s pouting. “This is just going to take some getting used to. You know?”
Blue nods with a devilish grin and leans far back into the water to splash me in the face with the fan of his fin.
“Hey!” I exclaim as I dangle with only one hand and wipe my face with the other.
He laughs at me so I splash him back, but I hardly throw anything at him. He uses his hand like a wall against the surface of the water and splashes me again. I try to get him back, but my one hand slips and I sink underwater again.
I kick with my boots and Blue grabs my wrists and pulls them once more to the beam where I grip a hold with both hands. I feel his hands grip the beam, too. When I open my eyes I see we are both hanging, his face in front of mine. His lips are glistening wet along with his arms and shoulders while the rest of his body is hanging, leaning against me and I against him.
I feel like I can’t breathe. My chest is heaving though my lungs expand so I know everything is working, but the thought of his wet, bare chest against mine makes me weak. I take in as much air as my body can possibly hold and blow it right back out, right into his open mouth.
He opens his mouth a tiny bit wider as he inches it closer. I know what’s coming, so I close my eyes...
The soft pressure of his chilly wet lips sends a tingle through my core and I kiss him back harder. I sense Blue let go of the beam and dip slightly downward; I don’t want his lips to part from mine, but he quickly swims back up and wraps one hand around the back of my neck as the other grabs my waist.
I grip the beam firmly as Blue tilts my head with his hand as he slips his tongue into my mouth kissing me again. His fingertips move across my belly and down between my legs as his fishtail brushes against my inner thigh.
“Wait!” I say and
I pull my face away. “What are we doing?!”
Blue entangles his fingers at the back of my hair and grips at my scalp, pulling my hair to force my eyes to look straight on at him. He stares me down without flinching. Except for the ocean, which is causing us both to sway slightly, he doesn’t move.
I understand the look he’s giving me and I get what he’s implying, so my lower jaw is trembling when I dare to ask, “Can we do that? You and me? Can we—”
Blue grabs a hold of the front of the waistline to my shorts with his other hand and yanks me towards him. I bang against what feels like a hard rod at my groin. I guess we can.
Blue tugs again at the waistline of my shorts; I don’t say anything, but I know he’s asking for permission, so I take a breath and nod.
I watch Blue dip his head below the surface and tug at my boot. My feet become weightless as he takes one boot off and then the other. My jaw starts trembling when he slides his hands up my legs to my waist where I feel him messing with the button then the zipper to my shorts.
Looking around the underwater room, there’s no sound except for the creaking of walls and soft knocking of seawater against each corner. It’s peaceful, that is until I feel the sliver of Blue’s tongue along the slit between my thighs and I want to let go of the beam, but I clench my hands tighter to hold on.
Blue rubs his tongue up and down on my clit and I thank God this man can stay down there without air. Blue glides my legs open, placing them over his shoulders, and I see tiny waves moving along the surface of the water from the turbulence of his swirling head rotating between my thighs below.
My body tenses as his head swirls faster and I slip, accidentally letting go of the beam. I slip below the surface, entangled with Blue, but he quickly grabs my wrists once more, pulling me back up to the beam.
Blue lifts my top and we both struggle to get it off; he ducks his head below the surface where his lips find my nipple and he licks and nibbles. I realize he enjoys me naked, vulnerable, and dangling from the beam like a fish caught on a hook.
