Merman's Touch (Merman's Kiss, Book 2)

by Dee J. Stone

  He nods. “He has spoken with me last night. I believe our relationship has much improved.”

  “I’m so happy for you.”

  He sits up and lowers me to the ground. My skin sinks into the coral. It’s very soft on top and hard underneath. “I am so happy that you are here with me.” He lifts both my hands to his mouth and kisses the back of them. “When I was captured, I did not know if I would be able to see you again. It caused my heart to ache.”

  I cup his cheek. “I felt the same way.”

  His hands slide underneath me, lifting me to his body. “I love you, Cassie Price.”

  “I love you, Damarian of the Sapphire clan.”

  He shifts over so that he’s sitting and I’m on his lap. “Do you have a location where you travel to when you require solitude?” he asks.

  I think for a few seconds. “I don’t think so. I usually surf when I’m upset.”

  His eyes fill with regret. “Cassie, forgive me. You will never have the opportunity to surf.”

  I put my finger on his lips. “That’s okay. Look at this.” I gesture around. “Look at us. We’re here together in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. What more can I ask for?”

  He smiles and positions his lips over mine. They move closer, slowly, making my heart race with anticipation. Unable to wait any longer, I press mine to his. His mouth moves over mine with vigor, strongly, passionately. Electric. I fall back on the coral and yank him down with me, tangling my fingers in his hair.

  Everything we’ve felt these past few days are shown in these kisses—the fear, the worry, the hope. The relief and happiness that we are finally together again.

  We whisper and moan each other’s names as our lips continue moving over each other with all the energy and love we have. We’ve been through so much together, but our love for one another reigned supreme and no matter what else we need to face in life, I know we will get through it.

  After a few more minutes, maybe hours, of making out, we fall back on the coral and stare at the ceiling of the cave, which is also lined with coral. “I can stay here forever,” I say.

  “As can I.”

  “We totally should. Away from everyone else where we will be alone.”

  He brushes some hair off my cheek. “Is it not your wish to return to land?”

  “I do want to go back. I miss everyone.” I look into his eyes. “But I don’t want to face everything. Life. It’s easier to just stay here.”

  He’s watching me closely, like he’s trying to understand what I’m saying. “Is it your wish to remain in the sea?”

  To give up my human life? I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to give up being a human. Even though I’m afraid to face a lot of things, I want to. I want to become a stronger, more confident and independent woman. I want us to share both of our worlds.”

  He nuzzles my nose. “That is my wish as well. I wish to live in the sea with you, as well as live as a human with you. To work and provide us with pay, and enjoy your world.”

  I giggle before kissing him. “Provide us with money.”

  He grins. “I know. I enjoy causing you to laugh.”

  He lowers his mouth to mine.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  My stomach burns. I’m yanked out of my sleep and spring up, knocking into Damarian and forcing him to roll off of me.

  “Cassie?”

  My palms dig into the coral and my head hangs low as I find it difficult to breathe. Clutching my chest that’s starting to ache, I shoot my other hand out to Damarian. He grabs it, trying to look into my eyes, but my shoulders are slouched so low they’re nearly touching the coral. “Cassie, what is wrong?” he asks, his voice laced with worry.

  It’s hard to breathe. I open my mouth wide to draw in oxygen, but that’s useless because I get oxygen through my gills. I can’t see them, but I feel them opening and closing rapidly. Violently.

  Damarian takes hold of my face and stares into my eyes. A look of terror flashes across his face.

  “What?” I ask, my voice weak.

  “Your eyes. They are no longer the color of the sea, but the color of land.”

  It takes a few seconds for me to grasp what he just said. My eyes are turning back to my natural color—brown. Glancing down at my hands, I see they are no longer webbed. And my skin seems to be more peachy.

  I’m turning back into a human. And I’m thousands of feet in the ocean.

  Damarian must realize it, too, because he scoops me in his arms and bolts toward the entrance of the cave. My head flops on his shoulder as my chest continues to ache, my lungs begging for oxygen. My gills must be disappearing.

  Why didn’t we consider this? Damarian can’t be on land for too long because his natural form is a merman. No matter how many years he lives on land, he will always need to dip himself into sea water at least twice a day. The same is happening to me. My natural form is a human, and I need to return to land. Apparently not every twelve hours, but at least once or twice a week. And it explains why I don’t need to swim in sea water as often as Damarian, because my true form is a human.

  Flora told me I changed into a mermaid because it was against nature for me and Damarian to mate in different forms. But I guess my body requires me to sometimes be a human, too.

  “You will be all right,” Damarian murmurs, his lips grazing my temple. “I will return you to land. I will reach the sandbar as quickly as possible.” He presses the back of his fingers into my forehead, my cheeks, my neck. “You are warm,” he says, his voice breaking. “To warm for a child of the sea.”

  “I…I don’t think…”

  “No. No, Cassie. I will not lose you.”

  The average human can hold his or her breath for no longer than a minute, maybe two. If I undergo a complete transformation, we won’t make it.

  My whole body is shaking uncontrollably and I can barely keep my head up or my eyes open. Damarian tightens his hold on me and gives me words of encouragement and hope, telling me to hold on because we’re going to make it and I’m going to be okay. Forcing my eyes open, I look at the surface. We’re not even close.

  As my eyes flutter closed, I see shadows. Forcing them open again, I look around but don’t see anything. My eyes close again, and the only thing I feel is the movement of Damarian’s body as he rushes to bring me to land. The only things I hear are the water and our tails as we zip away.

  Something knocks into us. I fly out of Damarian’s arms and tumble in the water, coming to a stop a few hundred feet away. My head pounds and my chest is on fire, my limbs so weak they can no longer support my body. I sink toward the bottom.

  “Cassie!” Damarian yells, racing toward me. Two Emeralds, with their sharks at their sides, block his path. He tries to push past them, but they grab hold of his arms and shove him back. The sharks open their mouths wide, baring their teeth.

  I continue to sink.

  “Move aside!” Damarian yells.

  They fold their arms and don’t budge.

  “I said, move aside!” I’ve never heard him this frantic.

  “Is she going to perish?” one of them says in a humorous tone. He waves his hand. “A measly human? She is an abomination. It is better if she is dead.”

  Damarian tries to push past them again, and again they shove him back.

  “Please,” Damarian pleads. “You may do as you please with me, but allow me to return her to land.”

  They snicker.

  “Please!”

  They continue to snicker. Even the sharks laugh.

  My tail touches the floor. I open and close my mouth desperately, tying to breathe in oxygen. But it’s futile.

  With an enraged shout, Damarian slams his body into the Emeralds. They are propelled backward like he blasted them with a grenade.

  Damarian zooms to me and snatches me off the ocean floor. With his tail pumping and pumping, he shoots toward the surface. He must realize that the most important thing I need right now is oxyg
en. Maybe if I have that, my body will hold out long enough for us to get to land.

  “It will be all right,” he tells me.

  But it’s not. Because a Diamond stands in our way.

  “Move aside,” Damarian says in an authoritative tone.

  I’m wheezing. I don’t know how much oxygen I have left.

  The Diamond stays put. Damarian must not have enough strength to shoot another invisible grenade, because he makes a sharp turn and continues to swim to the surface.

  An Emerald blocks our way.

  Damarian turns the other way, but there is another Emerald. And another, and another. We’re surrounded by at least twenty-five merpeople, each with a shark.

  “Damarian,” I whisper, panic taking hold of me.

  His body is trembling. He’s exhausted, probably because he’s using every ounce of energy he has left to bring me to the surface.

  He spins in different directions, trying to find weak spots in this merblockade.

  There isn’t any.

  My chest gets as stiff as a board. I’ve run out of oxygen.

  Read on for an excerpt from Merman’s Bond, Book Three in the Merman’s Kiss series, now available on Kindle!

  Chapter One

  I’ve never thought it possible that beautiful creatures of the sea with tails that form crystals in the sunlight could be so evil. I was told they are a peaceful species, one that wouldn’t want to cause harm to anyone. But here they are, surrounding me and my merboyfriend, Damarian, with their sharks at their sides, their eyes laughing as I fight to live.

  My legs kick in the water. Legs that are no longer a tail. Noises come out of my throat as I hold my breath. My ears ring. I won’t be able to hold on for much longer.

  Damarian tightens his hold on me as he spins in the water, still looking for weak spots in the blockade the rebel merpeople have created. I feel the desperation in his movements. The rebels keep their eyes on us like they’re waiting for the show to end. For me to lose the oxygen in my lungs and die.

  “Move aside,” Damarian says for the millionth time, his voice authoritative but wavering. He knows his words are futile. They didn’t budge the first time and I seriously doubt they’ll budge now.

  “Move aside!”

  None of them move.

  Damarian stares down at me with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. Even though I shouldn’t be able to see tears in the ocean, I see his. The way they spill over his eyes and rush down his cheeks as though he has a water fountain behind them.

  Tearing his gaze from me, he faces the rebels. “You wish for me to be your king,” he says, loud enough for every one of them to hear him clearly. “You wish for me to rule over you. I will do as you ask, if you move aside and allow me to bring my mate to land.”

  What? No! I won’t let him sacrifice himself for me. Shaking my head vigorously, I cup his cheek, forcing him to look at me. I can’t talk, but I speak to him with my eyes, telling him I’ll kill him if he agrees to be their king.

  I also tell him goodbye, because I can’t hold my breath any longer. My lungs are bursting in pain. My eyes start to droop.

  “No,” he says, his voice cracking. He gently takes hold of my chin and lifts it so our eyes meet. “No, my love. Please do not close your eyes.”

  He’s about to say something to the rebels, when I reach for his hand, forcing him to look at me again. I squeeze it softly. I love you, Damarian. You’ve been in my life for a short while, but you’ve taught me so much. You helped me open my heart and face the problems I’ve avoided for so long. You’ve loved me in a way no one has loved me before. Thanks so much for washing up on the shore and into my life.

  My head falls back.

  “No,” he says again, hysteric. “No!” He faces the rebels and roars, “MOVE ASIDE THIS INSTANT!”

  Electricity sparks between our interlocked hands. It shoots up to the surface, into the sky, illuminating the entire ocean. Trying to keep my head up, I look at Damarian and see his eyes filled with silver light. More electricity crackles between us, surrounding us.

  With an enraged growl, Damarian thrusts out his palm toward an Emerald merman. Electricity fires out, hitting the rebel and throwing him back. He does the same to the other twenty four of them, until they are all gone.

  Not wasting a second, he pulls me closer and surges toward the surface. My head falls limp as my vision gets spotty. I have no more oxygen and we’re not even close to the surface. I won’t make it. My hands clutch onto him, digging into his arms as my lungs burn, as my head rings, as the life slowly seeps out of me.

  Through my haze, I hear Damarian say something, but I can’t make it out. The world turns black.

  ***

  “Cassie.” Someone gently taps my cheek, then my other cheek. “Cassie, my love. Please open your eyes.”

  I spring to a sitting position and cough out water. My lungs suck in as much air as possible. When my coughing fit is over and air enters and leaves my body steadily, Damarian draws me to his chest and kisses every part of my face. “Cassie,” he whispers against my temple. “How I worried.”

  Scanning the area, I see I’m sitting on a sandbar. But it’s not the sandbar Damarian and I hung out at when he was living in the ocean. It’s a larger one, probably far from land. The lower half of his body is submerged in the water while his upper part holds me close.

  “Damarian,” I whisper back. Even though I’m low on air, I press my lips to his. All of the sudden, everything feels okay.

  His arms wrap around my waist as he hauls me even closer to his body, fusing us into one, showing the universe that we are meant to be together and we will fight every obstacle thrown in our way. My hands tangle in his hair as I continue to kiss him as though he’s the oxygen I desperately sought a few minutes ago.

  He reluctantly breaks the kiss, takes hold of my face, and gazes into my eyes. “Are you all right?”

  I nod. “Are you?”

  He rests his forehead against mine. “Yes, now that you are all right.”

  “You’re wet,” I tell him. “It’s not making me change.”

  “Perhaps your body requires to remain human for a while.”

  I close my eyes, and we stay like this, taking comfort in each other’s arms.

  After a bit, cold wind blows against me. My eyes snap open. I’m a human. I’m naked. “Um…Damarian?”

  His eyes open.

  “I’m…I’m kind of cold.”

  His eyes dip to my body and widen in understanding. “I shall swim to land and search for a garment.”

  “No. You can’t go back down there. There might be rebels around.” Staring into his eyes, I see how exhausted he is.

  “But you are cold,” he says with a frown. Then his face lights up. “I shall return shortly.”

  “Wait, Damarian!”

  It’s too late. He’s back in the water. After a few minutes, he returns with a handful of seaweed. Thick seaweed, enough to use as a blanket.

  “It may cause you to shift,” he says.

  It may not, since my body most likely still needs some time to remain human. I’m willing to risk it because I’m cold and because I’m not very comfortable sitting in middle of the ocean completely naked.

  I wrap it around me and wait. I don’t change.

  Damarian reaches for my hand and rubs his thumb over my knuckles. I see the relief and love he has for me brewing in his eyes. I stroke his cheek.

  What I’d give for some tap water right now. But I don’t say anything because I don’t want Damarian to worry.

  “What happened before?” I ask him. “With the electricity?”

  He shakes his head. “I am not certain.”

  “It’s just like what happened back in the cave when our hands were connected. Electricity sparked between us and dissolved the net around you.”

  He nods slowly.

  “Your powers?” I ask.

  “I do not know.”

  “Your eyes were silver. Like electri
city was inside them.”

  His eyebrows crease. “As were yours as well.”

  I had light in my eyes, too? What exactly does all of this mean? Damarian thinks he has some abilities because he is the true king and I, as his mate, have acquired them, too.

  All of this, along with almost drowning, causes my eyes to droop. Damarian brushes the back of his fingers against my cheek. “You should rest, my love.” His own eyes are drooping, too.

  “Let me help you onto the sandbar so you can rest with me,” I tell him.

  “It is quite all right.”

  “You’re always taking care of me, Damarian. Let me take care of you.”

  He doesn’t argue. After a few minutes, we manage to lug him onto the sandbar. I nestle into his arms and hold him as he undergoes the painful transformation into a human.

  The last thing I hear is his soft breathing.

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  Read on for an excerpt from No Ordinary Hero, now available on Amazon!

  Chapter One

  That’s one hell of a fire.

  X-Ray parks the jeep on the side of the road and the three of us pile out. The heat latches onto my skin. Smothers me. Maybe this isn’t such a great idea.

  “We doing this?” Stretch asks, scratching his eye mask.

  I stare up at the apartment building. They’re alive, the flames. I’ve seen infernos on TV, but standing fifty feet away from one is something totally different. Saliva gathers at the roof of my mouth, under my tongue, between my teeth. But I don’t swallow, because I’m not afraid. I came here for one purpose and one purpose only: tonight, I’m going to be a hero. Yeah, I’m fourteen and saying that makes me sound like a little kid. But I can dream.

  “Let’s go,” I say.

  The guys follow me as I edge closer to the last place any sane person would think of nearing. They huff behind me. Some firemen stand around, others hose the place down, a few are on a ladder. A group runs inside. Bystanders are around, too, as well as the cops and news reporters. Lights flash from the trucks and police cars.