Her Selkie Harem

by Savannah Skye

  We could not be sure that Saorise was still in the country, let alone in the state. Moving a whole menagerie out of the country would be almost impossible on short notice. Moving one small woman?

  Much easier.

  Using technology for research seemed the only way for us to help while the others used their magic and underground network to try to locate her. The only sensible thing to do was pick a base - my New York apartment being the most obvious - and wait there for news so the foot soldiers of Saorise's Army would know where to find us when they had such news.

  It would be incredibly frustrating to sit around doing nothing when we knew Saorise was out there - and who knew why this collector wanted her or what he might do with her? - but we had little choice, aside from chasing our tails aimlessly.

  Reluctantly, but with our new optimism still intact, we headed back for New York.

  "How can they find her?" I asked Connor on the train ride back.

  He shrugged. "They have their ways. The fairies are probably our best shot. Fairies don't see the world as we do, through reflected light. To them, light is just one in a whole spectrum of visible sensations. They can see the unique aura left by a person as clearly as you or I could see a trail of footprints. They met Saorise; they know what they're looking for. Others of them can talk to animals and ask if they've seen her. Animals see more than you would think. Even that Merrow we helped could be useful. Water creatures can sense one another."

  It was an excruciating few days before we heard anything, and we were all on edge.

  "This could be it."

  Connor was trying to control his excitement and be circumspect, but I had spent enough time with him now to recognize the hope in his eyes even as he emphasized the word 'could'. "A woman named Leanne, one of the creatures who we freed who gave me the information, seemed pretty confident. She's called in some others to help, but I still think we should check it out for ourselves, too."

  "About time," said Patch. “Let’s go.”

  "Not you," said Connor.

  "Why not?"

  Anyone watching Patch during the fight in the Twisted Club would have assumed that he had made a remarkable recovery, or that he had not been hurt that badly to begin with. But he had been running on adrenaline, which is a high-octane fuel that burns hard and fast.

  Once the fight was over, the damage he had suffered from the lack of water and long hours of torture took its toll. He had slept almost the whole train journey back, and since then had been recuperating. He was much better than he was, but for all the brave face that he put on it, he needed a few more days to be hale and hearty again.

  "No argument," Connor insisted firmly.

  "I'll go," said Declan. "It's my turn."

  “Me, too,” I said.

  Connor had clearly been planning to take the trip himself, but he was also aware that keeping Patch in bed would be a full-time job and possibly one for the elder brother.

  "When do we leave?" I asked.

  "Soon as you can pack."

  That same day, Declan and I were on a plane heading west to a remote place in Montana, near the Canadian border.

  Declan sat with his head butted against the window, watching the clouds go by in his quiet way.

  Though he said little, I was sure that Saorise's continued absence was hardest on him. In fact, I fancied that, even were she not being held against her will, he would be sad when not in her company. He nodded into sleep and I took the opportunity to study his angelic face. There was something almost unbearably sweet about Declan. His red hair and green eyes could have made him look mischievous, as they sometimes did his sister, but the innocence he projected seemed to preclude that.

  Declan was exquisitely beautiful, like a renaissance painting. His cheeks were smooth and still free of stubble despite his age, his firm lips seemed to be inviting me to kiss them. Though he was strong, he had not the bulky musculature of his brothers - and especially Connor. He was lean and fit.

  All in all, Declan looked as if God had just decided to go for broke and make one perfect human male specimen, as if to say; this is how we do it.

  I was aware that I was staring, perhaps a little too much, and that the thoughts in my mind as I stared were not entirely appropriate.

  I had slept with both his brothers and, right now, all I could think of was what it would be like...

  For all the innocence he seemed to possess, he also had a sensuality that I couldn’t deny. I imagined my lips kissing their way down his smooth, leanly muscled torso, and his fingers caressing my body, slipping between my legs to discover the hot wetness of my core, ready for him.

  He would peel away his clothes and stand above me, perfect in his flawless nudity, his body seeming to shine with an inner light, and I would draw him down on top of me, feeling that pure flesh against mine, relishing its smoothness as he moved against me. I would keep my eyes open as I kissed him, just so as not to lose sight of his beauty. And then, because I could stand it no longer, I would part my legs and...

  "Sienna?"

  I started awake. I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep and now Declan was leaning towards me, his beautiful features creased into adorable concern for my well-being.

  "You were... well, you were making noises."

  I flushed an even deeper shade of scarlet. "Bad dream."

  Declan nodded. "I've had nothing but nightmares since Saorise was taken."

  His sister and my friend had been kidnapped, and I was fantasizing about getting my rocks off with her twin brother.

  Once we shook the sleep off and I stopped mentally undressing him, and then mentally having him do a whole lot more to me, he was simply good company.

  For all that he was unlike Saorise in so many ways, once he had been coaxed out of his shell, Declan was as warm as his sister. It was a different kind of friendliness. While Saorise sought to make the world her friend, projecting her good nature before her to encompass everyone she met, Declan closely guarded himself, trusting few. I was proud and pleased to be of that company.

  When we finally deplaned in Montana, we collected our bags and Declan rented a car.

  Our destination was far off the beaten trail; a private compound - practically a castle, according to Leanne - built by a reclusive and well-known collector of rare art and antiquities, William K. Mung, who had, according to the grapevine, seen Saorise’s picture on the dark web advertising her presence at the Twisted Club. Apparently, it was love at first sight, and he’d decided to expand the parameters of his ‘collection’.

  More than that, we did not know, as Mung carried his preference for seclusion into every aspect of his life, and even what we did know was based on rumor. We would need to find out more.

  The scenery as we drove north was beyond beautiful, but it was the company that really made the time pass. Declan and I played 'I Spy' like a couple of kids. It was something I could easily imagine myself and Saorise doing, but I tried not to focus on my grief that she was not here with us. It would only make the time seem longer.

  The road wound into the mountains, through valleys, across streams that rolled like rivers. Mighty trees towered above us, somehow finding a toehold in the thin earth across the rocky landscape. If you were a nutter creating a fortress of solitude for yourself then this was the place to do it.

  At a small waterfall that tumbled picturesquely from the rocks into a small lake, we pulled up.

  "This is it," said Declan.

  "This is where Leanne said to meet her?" I couldn't see anything nearby that suggested habitation.

  Declan smiled. "Did Connor tell you much about Leanne?"

  "Not a lot," I admitted.

  "She's a nymph." My face must’ve given away my confusion because he continued, "A nymph is a type of natural spirit. In Leanne's case, she is a water nymph. Come on, let's go meet her."

  He got out of the car and I followed, looking about the chill but stunning surroundings. Declan walked ahead, going down to the bro
ad pool into which the waterfall poured. As I watched, the surface of the pool rippled and a head appeared. It was not that Leanne emerged from the water, like a swimmer coming up from beneath the surface, the water itself seemed to gather to form her, as if she was part of it. As she walked towards us, her body formed from the liquid and solidified into skin and flesh. Though, not clothes. Whatever the meaning of the word nymph, there was no way that any man looking at Leanne's naked body did not have one thing on his mind.

  Outside of a couple of drunken kisses in college, I've always been one hundred percent into men, but even I could see that, made of water or not, Leanne was spectacular.

  "Hi, guys," said Leanne enthusiastically, which was a bizarrely prosaic greeting for someone composed of water.

  "Hey." Declan raised a hand, and just that simple gesture sent jealousy coursing through me. It wasn't as if I had any specific claim to Declan but I didn’t like this one bit.

  "You remember Sienna, yeah?"

  Leanne smiled at me. "Of course. How could I forget? You saved me. Thank you so much."

  "It was nothing, really," I replied, forcing a smile that I didn’t feel. It was going to be hard to dislike Leanne, but apparently, I was still willing to give it a try.

  "I've found a place where you can stay while you're here," Leanne went on. "Would you like to see it now?"

  Draping a light sheet over her body, which hid its ample curves about as well as a napkin would hide the Empire State Building, Leanne led the way around the pool and into the forest.

  "It's just a cabin but I think it will suit you."

  Though it was not far from the rough road that led through the wilderness, the cabin was completely hidden by the trees from anyone passing. It was situated in a small clearing and a plume of smoke trailed discretely from its chimney, providing the only clue to the outside world that there was anything here. Leanne opened the door and showed us in.

  "It's pretty rustic but it should do. There's food in the cupboards and the generator gives you limited electricity. No fridge or freezer but it's cold enough outside to keep milk fresh. No hot water, either, but the lake isn't far if you want to wash."

  I wanted to ask if I bathed in the lake, would I be bathing in Leanne herself, but wasn't sure how to phrase the question without it coming across as racist in some oblique, supernatural way.

  Declan and I dumped our bags and Declan turned back to Leanne. "When can we see the Mung place?"

  "You don't need time to settle in?"

  "I want to get moving on this as soon as possible, so I can let Connor know one way or the other."

  I could see the nervous energy in Declan. He scratched his palms irritably. He was either within a mile of his beloved sister, and perhaps within a few days of seeing her again, or this was yet another disappointment.

  He wanted to find out which as soon as possible before his hopes were built up too high. Declan was an optimist, which was a difficult thing to be if you were also sensitive because you felt the disappointments all the more sharply.

  "Come on, then," said Leanne, smiling.

  Again, she led the way, taking us out of the cabin and on a walk deeper into the woods. As we walked, the ground trended upwards, becoming steeper, shards of rock starting to push through the litter and moss of the forest floor. I fought to keep pace with my supernatural companions. I was in good shape for this sort of thing, but Declan was as fit as they came and I guess water doesn't have muscles to strain - Leanne seemed quite unconcerned by the terrain.

  The trees thinned as we got higher and, finally, we emerged out onto a cliff edge that gave an extraordinary view down into the valley beyond.

  "Wow." I didn't have anything more eloquent to say than that.

  "I second that," said Declan.

  "It's nice to have a little place in the country," nodded Leanne.

  The valley beneath us was long and green, filled with trees and with a waterfall crashing down into an impossibly blue lake at our end. Just beyond the lake, a high wall rose, fringed with barbed wire, studded with craning security cameras. It encircled several acres of forest and at the far end of this enclosure was a huge house. Actually, house was the wrong word.

  "He built himself a castle?" Declan muttered.

  "Rebuilt, apparently," replied Leanne. "We've been trying to find out a bit more about this guy and one thing we found was that he bought a castle in Germany - one of those proper fairytale places - had it dismantled, brick by brick, then transported it here and rebuilt it."

  I thought of that old saying; what do you get the man who has everything? Turns out, he gets himself a female Selkie.

  Bastard.

  "Are those guards?" Declan asked, pointing to the wall.

  "Sentries," said Leanne.

  "What's the difference?"

  "I don't know, but apparently he calls them sentries. The security staff numbers about a hundred."

  "A hundred?" I demanded, suddenly nauseous.

  "It's a big place, and it needs protecting around the clock, so they work in shifts."

  Declan shook his head. "For a man who's so keen on being left alone, he sure surrounds himself with a lot of people.”

  I was starting to understand why we still did not know for sure if Saorise was here or not. How the hell did you get in to find out?

  Despite its remoteness, the place was a frigging fortress.

  "The good news is," Leanne continued, "that Mung doesn't like guards in his house. Of those one hundred, only a handful of them have permission to enter the castle. The theory is that you stop intruders before they get that far. And with this much security, it's a pretty good theory."

  "How did you find out about Saorise being here?" asked Declan, and I could not help noting that he had already decided she was here.

  "I don't know she is," corrected Leanne, who had also noticed Declan's incurable optimism. "I heard a rumor through the waters."

  It was ethereal statements like that which made me want to shake her. Although, mostly it was the fact that she was so many things that I was not and could never hope to be.

  Magical and gorgeous and amazing. Maybe if I’d been more like her, Saorise wouldn’t have been snatched right out from under my nose…

  "How do we find out for sure?" I asked. We were all willing to take risks for Saorise's sake, but breaking into a place like this only to find that she wasn't even there would be a body blow.

  "I have put a message out for one of the other creatures that was in the Twisted Club," said Leanne, and her face was suddenly serious. "It was not one of those which agreed to help you. In fact, it stole away as soon as you opened its tank - helping others is not in its nature. But the fact remains; you did open its tank, and that may sway it."

  "What are we talking about here?" asked Declan. "A bogey?"

  "A shade."

  Beyond the fact that the word sounded sinister, I didn't know the first thing about 'shades', but the look on Declan's face told me more than I wanted to know.

  "It has been weakened by its long captivity," said Leanne. "Shades suffer more than most - maybe even more than Selkie - when they are held in one place. They are, by nature, transitory. I think it may have some small concept of gratitude."

  "But would you trust one?" asked Declan.

  "Oh, definitely not. Not for a second."

  "I think I might need some more detail," I spoke up.

  "A shade is..." Declan looked about for inspiration on how to explain something he knew instinctively. "Like the mirror of a nymph. Leanne is a spirit of water - she can inhabit any water but has a specific lake or river or pond that she calls home. A shade is a spirit of nowhere. An empty hole in space, tied to nothing, swallowing life."

  These were all words that I mentally categorized as 'bad guy'.

  "There's no defense against a shade," Declan went on. "Because it isn't there. It is personified nothing. They pass through the world, trying to fill the void that they are. They are almost impossi
ble to trap - the Twisted Club must have really wanted one - and they feel their captivity very much because it locates them to a single place, which is the antithesis of everything a shade is. If they cannot move, they cannot feed."

  "They starve?" I asked, feeling suddenly sorry for this creature.

  "How can nothing starve? But the need to feed is always there. Eternal, gnawing hunger."

  Leanne nodded. "The shade had no way of expressing pain - not that it would have made any difference to those bastards in the club. But I think the fact that you ended its agony will help."

  "And a shade could get Saorise out?" I didn't like the idea of letting that thing anywhere near my friend.

  Leanne shrugged. "I really don't know if it could. I'm sure it won't. Shades don't involve themselves with the corporeal beyond feeding on it. What a shade can and might do is get into that fortress completely unnoticed and find out if she is there or not."

  Declan nodded. "The more I think about it the more I think you're right. There are other creatures that might be able to get in, but if this man is familiar with Selkie, if he's visited the Twisted Club, then he knows about magical creatures, he knows what to look out for. And if he finds out that we're looking around his home then I don't know what he might do with Saorise. Best case scenario, he'll lock her up all the more securely,” he spat out the last few words bitterly.

  "Cameras don't see shades," I assumed out loud.

  Declan nodded. "How do you record what isn't there?"

  "When will we hear?" I asked.

  Leanne could only shrug again. "I've put word out. Soon, I imagine. Or never. Depends on whether he will help or not.”

  I started uneasily. After an initial shock, I had been completely comfortable around the Selkie, and that had seemed to prepare me for other magical creatures, and so I had been comfortable with Kobolds and nymphs and even the werewolf - who had actually been very polite. This was the first time I had felt a real anxiety about these 'others'. Had I developed a prejudice? I didn't think so. I was afraid of shades, but it seemed to me that I had every reason to be afraid of them.