Halcyon

by Demelza Carlton

  Not sick. Pregnant. With his child. It wasn't possible.

  "But we're different species. We can't breed," he said.

  "Stardust. That's what they want you to think. Ceyx discovered we could and he died to protect his secret." Allie finished her slice of pizza and reached for another. "It doesn't matter, anyway. She won't live long enough to surface."

  "You mean be born?"

  Allie shook her head. "Surface. Cross-race children are always female, born to swim. Mer give birth in the water, and the first thing she'll learn is to surface, closing her gills to breathe through her lungs. Later, she'll learn to turn her tail so she can walk like us."

  Galen couldn't help laughing at the image that popped into his head. "You mean our daughter will be a mermaid?"

  "Galen, don't get attached. In a few weeks – "

  Galen pressed a finger to her lips. "I'm not an expert in genetics, but you said your husband was. If you say his genes made you miscarry because you're too closely related, that doesn't mean mine will. In fact, a couple can't get more diverse than the two of us."

  Allie didn't pull away this time, as his eyes held hers. "We're not a couple any more," she said. "You've made it abundantly clear that you hate me for what I did to your family."

  "No, I haven't. You're the one who told me I was worse than my father because of what I nearly did to the city." Galen grasped her hands. "I don't care what you did in the past. I love you because of what you've done for me since I met you here. You've saved my life, stopped me from doing something incredibly stupid, and made every day I spend with you a pleasure. Even the ones where I don't get to sleep with you. I love you, Allie." He pressed a hand to her still-flat belly. "And I'm going to love her, too, when she's born. Even if she has a tail."

  "But what if – "

  "I'm going to take such good care of you, nothing will hurt this baby. I'll pay every S-Co I have to keep a doctor at your side round the clock until she's born." Galen swallowed. "If you'll let me. I mean, I'm under house arrest. I can't be with you every moment, even if I want to be."

  For the first time in weeks, Allie actually smiled. "Actually, Lennox never said it had to be your house you stayed in. You could come live with me. There's more than enough space for two at my place. Maybe even three, if she survives."

  "She will," Galen swore. "I'll start building her a crib in the workshop tomorrow on my lunch break. What else will you need? Just tell me and I'll do it."

  Allie blushed. "Actually, there's one thing that's different about this pregnancy. Something I never experienced before. When I'm not feeling ill, I crave sex like you wouldn't believe. Alone at night in my apartment, so many nights now, I imagined I was with you once more and...it's not the same, a poor shadow of the reality, but I want...you."

  "I'm yours if you want me," Galen said. "Now and forever. Halcyon...Allie, I love you. Anything you want, you just have to ask."

  "Stay with me, Galen. Sleep with me. Love me like...like I love you," she said.

  "As my lady wishes," he replied. He hoisted her in his arms and carried her to his bed. As he set her on the mattress, Galen said, "You know, there's an old Human saying that would be perfect for us. Make love, not war."

  Allie laughed and pulled off her shirt. "Yes, Galen. Make no more war. And love...it's such a strange phrase you Humans have. I never thought of love as something you can make. It's created, yes, but born out of so many things shared between two people. You make me feel love for you, and I want to...we would call it joining, where two people become one so completely it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. When you make love to me, there is only us, and a universe of stars."

  Galen crossed the aquaculture farm to the temporary apartment he shared with Allie until her time came. Any day now, the Mer doctor had said, and Allie had agreed. She looked ready to burst, and she'd taken to spending more time in the water than on land. He was fairly certain that's why the Intra had lifted his house arrest early. Not that he liked to be away from Allie for long, but when she got cravings for things, he'd scour the Main City to get her what she needed.

  Today it was chocolate, which he left on the counter in their empty apartment. She must be in one of the pools again, or in the Mer habitat proper, where they lived underwater. Allie had invited him in there a couple of times, giving him a rebreather so he could stay under for as long as she did, but he didn't feel comfortable in what he felt was nothing but a giant fish tank. Not to mention the Mer were a bunch of hippy nudists, which he wasn't sure he'd ever get used to.

  Galen stripped down to a pair of board shorts. He wasn't ready to join the nudists, but he did want to sit with Allie in the water.

  He spotted Leukosia as he passed the tuna pools. "Have you seen Allie?" he asked.

  "Try the birthing pool," she said.

  Allie had gone into labour already? Galen broke into a run.

  The birthing pool was warm, wide and shallow, filled with Mer bodies of every colour. Every colour except orange.

  "Where is she?" he asked urgently.

  "I'm here," Allie's voice said, sounding strained.

  Now he saw her – looking like a naked Human woman, not a mermaid, in the middle of the pool.

  "She's coming, Galen," Allie cried, reaching for his hand as she gritted her teeth through a contraction.

  The Mer women made space for him, and for once he didn't notice their nakedness. He had eyes only for Allie.

  "She's crowning. Push again!" one of the Mer women said, peering intently between Allie's legs. She swished her tail impatiently. "Now. Push hard now!"

  Allie screamed until she ran out of air, but still she pushed, panting for breath.

  "Again!" the Mer doctor ordered.

  Allie obeyed, but the look of agony on her face as she cried out to the stars above tore Galen's heart in two.

  "You need to give her something for the pain. Can't you see how much this is hurting her?" Galen demanded.

  No one listened.

  "One more!"

  Allie squeezed Galen's had so hard he wanted to cry out, but he stayed strong for her. He had to.

  "Oooh!" the surrounding crowd sang, as something small and rust-coloured shot between Allie's legs in a cloud of blood.

  One of them caught the baby and brought her squirming to her mother's arms. Her tail made her look like a salmon, shimmery silver-pink, but her eyes were the colour of sage.

  "Her name!" the Mer chanted. "What is her name?"

  Galen ignored them, reaching to stroke his daughter's cheek. "She has my mother's eyes," he said softly, finding it hard to swallow.

  "Then her name is Panacea," Allie said.

  Galen knew he'd never told her his mother's name. Lennox' words came back to him then – Allie might have killed hundreds of people during the war, but she knew every name. Allie was many things, but not a monster. And because of her, Panacea Tasker lived again, sired in the impossible union between two races that might one day learn to live in peace.

  In the future, they would call times like these halcyon days, where peace reigned and no storm raged. For sometimes the universe needed a halcyon, a siren who could both call and calm the storm.

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from The Complex!

  All reviews are appreciated.

  If you would like to read more from The Complex series, please click on the link below:

  The Complex Website

  Or...if you'd like a sneak peek from Sven's story, Fishtail, which you can get HERE, read on...

  On a planet far from home, a solitary merman carved up corpses to sell to unsuspecting Humans in the morning.

  The entrails were already in the bins out the back, waiting for the waste personnel to dispose of the evidence of tonight's carnage, because Sven was nothing if not efficient. He did like to take his time with the flesh, though, slicing it up to make it as attractive as possible to a potential buyer.

  He shook his head. He didn't
understand Humans. Not at all. What could be attractive about a piece of dead flesh, usually hours or even days old, sometimes even frozen for who knew how long, instead of a live body that writhed beneath you in its death throes as you decided it was the one that would have to die for your dinner?

  Gah, it was enough to make him hungry just thinking about it. He should finish up and head home, like the others had. He'd done plenty for today, and he could always do more tomorrow.

  A bang and a splash sounded from the front of the shop.

  "Hello?" Sven called, lifting his knife so that blood ran down the blade onto his fingers, where it blended in with the rest.

  A splash, then the squeak of flesh hitting the side of a glass tank and being scraped along it.

  "Stop fighting." Bloody teenagers. Didn't matter what species, the males always seemed to want to fight. Even his kind, though it'd been centuries since any of them had. Except for Halcyon, of course, but she was special. All kinds of special.

  And the reason he was in the back of the shop, late at night, hacking bits up instead of at home with his own people. He should be there, paying attention to one of the lovely girls who thought the leader of the Mer colony in the Complex was important enough to spend time with. Instead of ignoring him for some Human who could scarcely swim.

  With one savage blow, Sven severed another head and focussed on slicing the finest fillets on Lorn. Perhaps in the whole Seldova system. Humans just didn't deserve them.

  When Minali returned to the Intra office, she was surprised to hear applause. Had someone broken the doughnut eating record already? There wasn't a doughnut to be seen, but then there wouldn't be, if someone had eaten them all, she reasoned.

  Lieutenant Diamond, her supervisor, appeared in front of her, holding out his hand. "Good going, Detective Burman." He nearly crushed her fingers, he shook her hand so hard. "And Detective Small, too. Biggest drug bust in the history of the Complex!" Diamond beamed. "And we all thought it was drones flying in somehow. Where did you get the idea they were using the prostitutes to bring it in?"

  Phil Burman opened his mouth to reply, by Minali got in first. "It was Phil. He thought of body cavity searches. I didn't think it was a good idea at first." She grimaced as she remembered the terror on the girl's face when Phil had mentioned the search as a joke. What kind of prostitute was terrified of being penetrated? Either she'd made a very poor job choice or she had something to hide. Gambling on the latter, Minali had called Phil's bluff and insisted on the search. And hit paydirt. "But it never hurts to be thorough, so..."

  Laughter echoed around the office. Minali was glad the girls couldn't hear it down in the cells. They'd be up on minor charges with a night or two in the cells and a fine, no more, but their boss would probably be shipped offplanet to face the authorities on Wreston. Wreston had a zero tolerance policy on drug dealers, and a dim view on sex slavery, too. He wouldn't see daylight again for a long, long time.

  "It feels so good to wrap this case up, I'm going for a beer. Who's with me?" Phil shouted. "To the Uni Moon and Sixpence!"

  A chorus of shouts told him half the office was up for a drink, it being a Friday night and all.

  "You coming, babe?" Phil asked Minali.

  She shook her head. "That report won't write itself."

  Phil laughed. "After a couple of beers, you bet it will! Come with us."

  "No."

  His smile faltered for a moment, before he hitched it back up. "All right then, I'll have one for you. You better be home before I am, though, 'cause that bed's sure cold without you."

  If anyone in the office hadn't known he was her partner in more than the professional sense, they did now. Whoops and catcalls followed his words as the mass exodus began, leaving only Minali behind.

  She slumped down at her desk, wishing she could one day meet a man, any man, whose life didn't involve drinking copious amounts of alcohol at the local pub. From her drunkard father to her equally inebriated ex-husband, her experience with alcohol only led to violence, anger and pain. Hers, more often than not, and she bore the scars to prove it. Back before her dad had drunk himself to death and she'd showed up in hospital with a broken bottle embedded in her shoulder, courtesy of her loving ex-husband, she might have considered going for a drink. One drink couldn't hurt, right?

  But her shoulder ached, reminding her that it could.

  Sighing, she got to work. She'd rather write up the report, anyway, closing this week with the successful end to a difficult case so she'd have a fresh assignment in the morning. She'd take anything that didn't involve body cavity searches of Metas. She shuddered. Some of those creatures had fur or scales or more orifices than any being should have. Give her Humans any day. At least they made sense, biologically.

  The Uni Moon and Sixpence thrummed with energy tonight, and it coursed through Bolina as readily as it did all the other bar patrons. Ever the red-haired cook seemed to be affected by it, as she peeped hungrily through the serving window as if searching for someone.

  Bolina smiled, not needing to search. She had eyes for only one man, and he didn't know she existed. Maybe she'd work up the courage to change that tonight.

  She glided between patrons, wanting to be near him, even if he didn't look at her. She dodged around an Intra officer who had a woman on each arm while he piggybacked a third, and almost bumped into him. She laid a hand on his arm to steady herself before she'd realised what she was doing. The contact was electric, holding her in place so she couldn't let go.

  An incubus on the other side of the bar, high on the energy in the room, did something to intensify it. A casual spark blazed into a raging bushfire of lust.

  His eyes turned on her, taking in her fingers on his arm before settling on her face. Impossibly, recognition flared in his eyes.

  "You!" he cried, loud enough to be heard over the music. "The girl of my dreams. Come here!"

  As if in a dream, Bolina felt his arms wrap around her, reeling her in closer so that her body pressed against his. She melted in his embrace, barely believing such a thing was possible.

  Then he pressed his lips against hers as he kissed her.

  Bolina reeled, lost in the sensation as he set her lips, her tongue and then her whole body afire. How could one body – no, two, because they were so intertwined right now that he undoubtedly shared what she was feeling – contain so much emotion and energy without bursting?

  She couldn't – she was certain she couldn't. Breathless, panting, she pulled away from him. These feelings, these sensations, were too heady for her. Too much for one night.

  Bolina stumbled through the crowd, intent on reaching the door and the cool night air outside. Her knees had gone strangely weak, so it felt like wading through neck-deep water as well as people. Yet she made it, nearly falling out the open door into the street.

  Bolina sucked in a deep breath, wondering if it was the first since he'd kissed her. Between her whirling head and her racing heartbeat, she could happily have slid to the ground and stared up at the dome above, just reliving that incredible kiss.

  "Wait!"

  She heard the shout from behind her, and knew she couldn't stay here.

  Bolina bolted, not caring where her feet took her, as long as it was away.

  The patter of running feet behind her spurred her into going faster still. She couldn't seem to catch her breath, yet still she ran. Most of the shops here were shut, dark windows yawning like black holes on either side of her. She'd have dived into a black hole right now, if it offered her an escape, but the shops were all dark and silent.

  All but one. The front of this shop was dark, true, but a light burned out the back, in the office or the preparation area, while someone worked late. She glimpsed glass tanks with something swimming inside.

  Bolina shoved at the door, which didn't budge. Growling, she reached up to wave at the motion sensor, and the door hissed open. She staggered inside, knowing that the blackness edging her vision had little to do with th
e darkness of simulated night. No, this was her body failing to retain consciousness after being pushed to the point of exhaustion.

  A familiar voice called out a greeting, and Bolina nearly cried. Serendipity had led her to the one place she would be safe.

  The door hissed closed behind her, but Bolina didn't notice. She grabbed for the nearest thing to help keep her upright – a waist-high fish tank with scuttling creatures on the bottom. Too late she realised that the top of the tank was open, and her arms splashed into the water.

  A shadow loomed behind her. Bolina was too tired to even turn her head to see.

  Arms caught her around the middle, tipping her headfirst into the tank.

  Bolina panicked, trying to brace her arms against the glass walls, reaching desperately for the top to haul herself out, but all she did was slide down the slippery glass, unable to find any purchase.

  "Stop fighting," that familiar voice said, sounding far away.

  Too exhausted to argue, Bolina complied, letting her body sink into the water. As her vision darkened, she thought she glimpsed a flash of fire before everything faded to black.

  You can read the rest of Sven's story, Fishtail, HERE

  Author's Note

  Halcyon isn't my first book about sirens or mermaids – far from it. If you'd like to get a bundle of books for free, including three free mermaid books, go to: http://subscribe.demelzacarlton.com/Halcyon

  Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.

  She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.

  Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.

  The Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by her suspense thriller Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn't leave her alone.