“Hey.” Orion’s voice travels to me, weighted with the strain of yesterday’s events.
“Hey, you okay?” I ask anxiously, hating that he is unhappy.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He says moving fluidly over the sofa and plopping down on the adjoining half.
“You’re sure?” I try to edge closer to him. Wanting him to know I care.
“Yes.” He practically spits out.
“Don’t take your anger out on me, please.” I say, short with him. I get up, wounded but not entirely blinded as so I couldn’t see why he was upset. I mean his sister had just been taken prisoner.
I look down at my hands … what has my life become? People being kidnapped, people getting killed, Goddesses, and seemingly beautiful weapons of destruction … it sounds too bizarre to be real. Even to me.
“I’m going to bed.” I tell the brooding Orion, my eyes softening at his lost expression. “Are you coming?” I ask, throwing him a line.
“No … I’m okay, you go.” He says simply, staring at me as if his world has crumbled. I turn and swim through the archway into our bedroom; the four-poster bed has never seemed so inviting. I lay on the anchored sheets, allowing my heavily muscled tail to sink into the mattress. I close my eyes and within seconds, though I have felt no fatigue as a mermaid, I fall fast asleep.
AZURE
“What the hell happened, Titus?” I bark across the chamber, my voice echoing harshly. We have returned to our dwelling, far from the Occulta Mirum, it stands in darkness and under deep pressure, crouching away from the sun above, shielding us from vulnerability. The cavern we are floating within is large and small bio-luminescent fish flutter meekly on the ground beneath my eel-like tail, caressed by azure lightning, breaking up the darkness of the black scales surrounding it. Titus is still, as though frozen in time, the smallest movement from him is gone. He is suspended, his long dragon like tail rigid as the phallus he so misses.
“Do not take that tone with me, Azure.”
“Why not.” I spit back, laughing a little. “You go on about being so powerful, but you got beaten by nothing more than a girl, a girl who is not even one tenth your age.”
“That is indeed true, but you however failed to notify me that she had the ability TO DRAIN MY POWERS, YOU INSOLENT, USELESS BITCH!” He has me by the hair in an instant, smashing my forehead into the cavern wall. Pain shatters through my skull like broken glass, sharp and jagged, coursing through my veins and sensitive tissues, my brain vibrating within its bony prison. I scream out, momentarily shocked and terrified. Titus has played rough before, but this is different. This is unhindered, raw rage and so much worse than any sensual assault I have endured in the past.
“Whh …” I begin, but he just laughs, deep and evil.
“Don’t you think if she was just a little girl, she’d be long dead by now?” He asks, cutting me off before I can mumble my disgust at his violence. I see the blood spurting from the cut on my face; see it billowing out in osmotic waves through the water. I close my eyes and breathe slowly.
“I am sorry. I don’t see everything. You know there are limits to our power, even yours.” I apologize and bite my lip, there is blood in the back of my throat, and I swallow it down hard.
“Yes … well … I am sure that I now know your limitations. Maybe I will have to break them.” He strokes his chin with a long finger, white and bony. I cower on the floor feeling for the first time, completely helpless. Perhaps it was my imagination running wild with me, but I had believed Titus and I had real passion. The way he touched me those long nights in the darkness, made me writhe with unhindered pleasure, interspersed with infinite agonies. I guess that really hadn’t meant anything, even though it had required such trust on my part. I sag, my breasts touching my rib cage as I bend over, my skull throbbing from the pain of his abuse. Solustus’ voice reaches me and my head jerks upward in response, his sharp accent piercing the air as he enters the cave.
“She’s subdued. In the dark anti-chamber.” his silver swordfish-esque tail and grey seal skin vest are dull in the water, as though he has become one with the shadow.
“Ahh …”
“Would you like me to do the honours?” He asks, his grey eyes filled with acute excitement. He sees me staring and he glazes them over, he is impenetrable. I wonder how much he is concealing from us behind them daily.
“Of course. No wait… I have a better idea.” Titus purrs, turning his head to me with a wicked, pointy toothed smile.
“Azure, won’t you go to see that our prisoner is co-operative?” He asks.
“You want me to … No!” I gasp. He wants me to torture my own sister. I refuse point blank.
“Azure, you know why we took her, are you honestly telling me you’re okay with someone else doing the job, but are too lazy to do it yourself? Why? She’s your sister for heaven’s sake.”
“Please … don’t make me do this.” I plead as he moves toward me. I watch Solustus, his face remains impassive but his body tenses, his hand twitching in that way it does right before he reaches for the rapier he most prizes.
“You mistake me … Just because some girl took me down for mere minutes, I am not weak, Azure. I am not merciful.” He places a finger on my cheek and I feel painful promise sizzling beneath the skin.
“Now … run along and be a good girl. Do what I ask.” The command is no more than a whisper. I glide upright and put distance between the cavern floor and myself. The water is milky where I have disturbed the earth. I move quickly across the space between Solustus and me.
“You’re a real bastard. I will get you what you want … but I won’t hurt her.” I spit back over my shoulder.
“We will see about that.” Titus laughs. “The thing you fail to comprehend, Azure, is that Starlet has no desire to be your family now. You betrayed her, left her alone in the world, and all because some dark, handsome, powerful stranger told you some pretty lies.” He smiles wickedly, the blackness of his eyes becoming hollowed.
“YOU BASTARD!” I cry and launch forward. Solustus grabs both my arms and restrains me viciously. I am pulled, straining, screaming, and writhing to get free, wishing to rip his skin from bone, into the darkness and towards the room which holds my unconsciously sleeping sister.
CALLIE
I find consciousness at the sensation of Orion’s cheek to my spine. He nuzzles me slowly, putting small kisses up my back; the feeling is divine as my eyes crack open and find the dim light too bright.
“Mmm.” I murmur and he stops.
“What?” He asks as though he misheard me.
“I said Mmm.” I repeat the sound in demonstration and he gives a small laugh, and then a sigh of relief, as though his worries are leaving through his chest.
“You okay?” He asks as I roll over to face him with a small smile.
“I should be asking you that.” I complain with a frown, reaching up and placing my fingers through his hair, stroking gently. He sighs again, his skin shimmering in the dim golden glow coming from the glassless windows.
“I’m okay, there’s just a lot going on.” He is holding back from me and the distance is evident in his eyes. I cup his cheek, removing my hand from his mahogany locks.
“Any news on Starlet?” I ask, hopeful.
“No.” He says, a secretive look in his eyes.
“Orion, please talk to me. I know you’re hurting, but you keeping things from me is hurting me too.” I plead as he rolls onto his back.
“You don’t like my sister.” He states bluntly.
“No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I want her kidnapped.”
“You don’t understand, Callie, she acted awful to you, I know. But you don’t know the whole story. Azure, her only soul mate left her. I didn’t have anyone either, we were close for hundreds of years, and then you come along. She feels left out. It’s not her fault.” He explains and I feel rage bubble through my blood.
“Oh, so what? This is MY fault no
w? In case you’re wondering, Orion, I didn’t ask for this! You were the one who walked into my life and screwed everything up!” I spit, not worrying about the repercussions.
“I’m not saying that, what I’m saying is that perhaps you could be a little understanding …”
“Oh boohoo for Starlet! Getting you to herself for hundreds of years and then having to share you for five minutes … and yeah her sister left her but so what? People leave Orion … I should know. You just get on with it. You don’t turn into Queen Bitch of the seven seas!” I yell, gesticulating. I rise in my fury and storm out. How had our post-sleep bliss turned into this?
I swim from the apartment, grabbing my scythe and slamming the door behind me, ungraceful in my stroke.
Orion doesn’t come after me.
Out in the circular plaza of the Occulta Mirum, where the fountain gushes air upward from the Goddess’ outstretched hands and the Alcazar Oceania towers as a jade shard, I have a moment of déjà vu. I spot Sophia across the water. It’s her beautiful soft lilac tail and white skin that turn my head as unmistakably belonging to her.
“Sophia!” I call out waving.
“Oh hey, Callie!” she calls back swimming over to me in a hurry, looking flustered as she leaves bubbles in her wake.
“Do you just, like, hang out round here waiting for me to have an argument with Orion or something?” I joke and she looks startled.
“Oh … I … I just like the fountain.” She’s worried she’s offended me.
“I’m joking, Sophia, don’t look so worried!” I exclaim, feeling all the anger leave my chest after butting heads with Orion.
“Oh, yes of course, sorry.” She smiles easily.
“It would not be a small truth to say we are not from the same generation. I joke a lot.” I grin trying to put her at ease. It was easy to like Sophia, her eyes and cautious polite expression reminded me so much of Kayla.
“Yes, I can’t say that was a big custom when I was young.” She admits. I nod feeling the distance between us. “So what happened between you and Orion?” She asks looking concerned.
“A lot has gone on, ever since …” I stop, not knowing whether or not to disclose the details of the events that have passed.
“Not here …” She whispers looking sideways. “Come on.” She takes my hand and together we disappear beyond the outskirts of the Occulta Mirum, under the once more setting sun.
The waters are cool as the sun lowers beyond the horizon.
“Are you sure you should be carrying that around?” Sophia asks, gesturing to the scythe that I still grip in one hand as we glide through the water side by side.
“I feel better with it here. Just leaving it sat in my apartment, you know the one with no locks and glassless windows? It just seemed like I was asking for trouble.” I justify my irrational taking of the weapon easily, the cool water caressing my lips. “Where are we going anyway?” I ask, curious. We pass stilling shoals of blue tangs, their pursed expressions looking at us disapprovingly.
“Just a cove I like to go to sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love Oscar, but I need time to myself, you know?” She looks at me as a wise old woman would look at another and I feel as though she is possibly the only person who treats me like an equal.
“Ah right, how far is it?” I ask, feeling impatient and mentally drained despite being asleep not an hour before.
“Not far from here. You know, you sure are impatient …” She smiles at me and I think for a moment about the difference in our origins.
“I come from a world where you can find out any piece of information or news within seconds by just a few clicks, and where you can get pizza delivered at 4am within 20 minutes or less.”
“Wow! You are impatient!” She smiles at me, her large brown eyes twinkling in the light of the closing day.
“Yeah, guess it’s just a symptom of too much 4am pizza.” I smile back at her feeling comfortable.
“The thing you have to know about the mermaids of the Occulta Mirum is that most of them have been doing the same thing and behaving the same way for hundreds of years. It’ll take a little adjusting for you I suppose.” I think on her words for a moment.
“Has it ever occurred to anyone that maybe there are more efficient ways of doing things?” I ask, feeling out of my depth as I look down at the blackness of the ocean beneath me.
“No, never.” she smiles at me, brown eyes crinkling in the corners. Her expression creates a longing within me. A longing to hear the childish laughter of my sister that runs so deep my chest tightens.
“Maybe if they went into the human world on the surface …” I begin and she shakes her head again.
“Humans and mer have no place living together in the same world, Callie. The sooner you accept this and see yourself as different from them, the easier this transition will be for you.” Sophia shakes her head, as though she is disappointed in me … I scowl.
“Hey, that’s easy for you to say, you don’t have a mom and sister that you left behind.” I feel defensive as the moon overhead illuminates over a swarm of black fin barracuda. I watch them and my anger dissipates at the situation, perhaps Sophia has reason for hating humans.
“No, but I do have a partner who was captured and experimented on for days, barely kept alive, and then returned to the sea much less than when he left it. Humans can’t handle our immortal beauty, Callie. They want to dissect it, take it for themselves. I suppose you’ve never experienced lusting before either? If you think they’re so noble.”
“Oh, no, that I’ve experienced.” I say dully, trying to hide my shock at her statement about Oscar and what had been done to him. I shiver, wondering what the experiments entailed.
“Really? Fun was it?” she smiles crookedly, her beautiful white teeth and skin dazzling me. She looks pure in the moonlight.
“Uh … no, I could stand not having to deal with that again.” I admit, smiling back. She laughs as I do, remembering Orion and I running back to my little red vintage. My smile disappears at the memory of the incident with Daryl that followed. “I’m sorry about Oscar.” I blurt out, wondering after if I should have said anything.
“Don’t be, it was a long time ago. Just don’t expect me to be going ashore anytime soon.” she says, her face straight and unreadable. I think back, I hadn’t seen her at my initiation at the Lunar Sanctum, I guess now I know why.
The surface above ripples, a beautiful barrier between us and the supposed cruelties of humans. I wonder if there is darkness within every human being. Would my own mother be willing to sell me off to the highest bidder? I banish the thought from my mind. Sophia touches my arm gently and gestures upwards, we surface together, my breath becoming strained at the dryness of the air. The water is still, throwing moonbeams in multiple directions. I spot where she is pointing and she smiles slightly to herself, as though the place before us holds fond memories for her.
It’s a tiny spit of land that juts out from the side of a cliff. It shimmers in the night, slick with sea-spray. I notice her hair straight away as I turn to face her, the auburn locks look practically black above the water, and it lies pressed against her skull before falling straight along her spine. I reach upward and touch my own, she smiles, noticing my curiosity.
“Mermaid hair is strange, don’t you think? It goes stiff in water, to stop it floating all over the place, and then goes soft when taken out of water almost immediately. It’s worth something in some parts of the world, particularly South America.” She touches a piece of her hair and fiddles with it, twirling it into tight knots around her finger. I look down at my long locks that fall over my breasts, dark from water saturation but still unmistakably blonde.
“Well, my hair was super curly before I changed …” I say and she cocks her head trying to picture it mentally.
“I don’t see it!” she giggles, more Kayla in her laugh than I could ever express. I wince, as though the absence of my little sister physically pains me.
“What’s wrong?” Those brown eyes fill with concern.
“You just remind me of someone, that’s all.” I say not wanting to share, I don’t know her well enough to be exposed, laid bare, and with all my emotions spilling out of me like bloody guts quite yet.
“Oh, someone nice?” she says, seeming not older than 15 in that moment. Her cheery optimism is like a snake in the grass of my pain, sneaking up on me, and ready to strike deep and true.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I admit and she nods turning to face the cove again, her auburn hair catching the light.
“We are heading for that cove over there.” She points and I nod back, glad of the change of subject. Slowly the silhouettes of our tails disappear beneath the calm surface as we head for the cove.
Sophia and I drag ourselves up the beach and onto the sand, the warm night air making my skin immediately clammy.
“Don’t you ever worry you’ll get stuck?” I pant as I pull the now heavy mass of muscle attached to my waist up the beach a small way. The waves still reach the end of my fin, but barely.
“No, you just have to shuffle using your rear end and the last piece of muscle before your fin flutters out at the end.” She demonstrates and I copy her, finding the movement easier immediately.
“I guess Orion didn’t think that was important to teach me!” I growl slightly. She laughs.
“Give the man a break; he’s totally undone now that you’re finally here.” She smiles a little and I don’t understand why. I find it less than convenient that I seem to be getting little, if any, help from the man who is supposed to be my other half.
The Kiss That Killed Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 1) Page 40
