“Now we wait to see what kind of monster comes,” Levi whispered, a chord of excitement making his voice vibrate.
The only sound inside the submersible was their even breathing and the occasional groan of the vessel under the weight of the water. Time ticked forward, Levi regularly taking his watch out of his pocket, glancing down at its face, then slipping it back into his pocket again.
“And what if it’s none of those four? What if we’re dealing with something else entirely?” he said after nearly an hour had passed.
“Mr. Digby knows his monsters.” But so did Melusine. She began to itch, a tightening like salt water drying on her skin. The thing was near.
The sub wobbled as something disturbed the water. The observation window went dark for a good three seconds as the monster swam past. Along its length, they could see immense shiny black scales with spiked edges. Then nothing, as if it had disappeared into thin air.
Levi’s shoulders tensed as he put a hand on the switch for the harpoon. His gaze darted to each of the miniscule port holes on their sides. Melusine’s skin felt like it was going to crawl right off of her.
Suddenly, an enormous set of pointed teeth rammed against the front window, the sound as loud as an explosive. A slick purple tongue dragged across the thick glass that was still, amazingly, intact.
“Siren Eel!” Levi laughed as if this were the creature he’d been hoping for.
He launched the harpoon as the beast pulled back to gather more steam for another attack. The silver point of the weapon bounced directly off the thick layer of scales, but that didn’t stop the eel from screaming. Its high-pitched wail could be heard all the way to the other end of the lake.
Now Melusine could see the creature well. The Siren Eel was thick, but long and snake-like, maybe a good thirty feet long—Melusine wasn’t sure because from the observation window she couldn’t see the entire beast all at one time. A mountain range of dorsal fins stuck out from along its back, sharp and pointy as swords. Its eyes were like gaslight flames—a mixture of burning blue and orange. Tube-like nostrils protruded from the beast’s long snout, and though all its teeth were massive and pointed, three pronged fangs jutted out from its top lip.
Levi reached down for the gun control, while she pedaled to get the vessel closer to their prey. The monster opened its jaw and headed straight towards them, thousands of tiny bubbles trailing its head as it approached.
“Now!” shouted Melusine, and Levi pumped the lever, shooting off a round of bullets into the eel’s mouth. It screeched, pink spots of blood flowing from its tongue, and shook its colossal tail, slamming it against the sub. The vessel was catapulted through the water, Levi and Melusine like dolls thrown about inside it.
Somehow, Melusine had landed on top of Levi, her back to the control panels, her chest directly under his chin. His breath was quick and hot against the front of her neck. She grasped his shoulders, trying to quickly get off of him but her right boot was stuck between a pedal and the base of his seat.
“Blazes!” She wiggled her foot and only succeeded in wedging herself closer to Levi. “I can’t get my foot free.”
The submersible juddered as the eel hit it again. “Dear God, any other time I would be reveling in this,” Levi moaned, his lips warm on her skin as he spoke, his hands gripping her hips. “But right now, Miss Doré, you make a better door than a window.”
She was effectively blocking any view of the observation glass for him, her body in front, and her hair hanging like a thick curtain on either side. He reached up and gathered her hair in his hand, then peeked around her shoulder. “This will have to do.” He leaned further into her and shot off another round of bullets.
“Did you get him?” She squirmed around, trying in vain to see behind her.
“Knocked out a tooth. But with how many he’s got, I doubt it will make a difference. We need to keep the sub’s appendages out; those are the only things that are making us too big for him to swallow.”
“Mr. Digby said the mouth is a Siren Eel’s weak spot.”
“It is. But ‘weak’ for a beast of that size is relative.” He pressed against her body, his chest hard against her as he fiddled with more controls and shot off another harpoon. “Our harpoons are like tooth-picks to this monster.”
He must not have shaved that morning, because Melusine felt the rough sand of stubble against her collarbone. One of his hands left the controls and slid up her back. Her heightened adrenaline amplified the hum of his touch.
“We may be in over our heads,” he whispered. She wondered for the briefest moment if he was talking about their physical proximity or their situation with the Siren Eel.
The submersible plunged into darkness as the Siren Eel wrapped its jaw around the vessel. The screeching of bent metal filled the air, and then Melusine felt a steady trickle of wetness on her left shoulder.
“A leak!” She took a breath and held it, counting to five, trying to calm her skittering heart. When she exhaled, she didn’t feel calmer, but slightly more concentrated. She wriggled her foot around once again, and this time she felt it break free from under the pedal. She pushed off of Levi and fell back into her own seat.
The appendages must have stopped the eel from holding the sub in its mouth, as dim light once again filtered through the window. Levi stood, struggling with the wheel on the hatch, which was dented inward. Water rained down onto his face and shoulders. A puddle of it was now at their feet, and was rapidly filling the sub. “Oh, ballocks!” he swore and smacked the hatch.
“Pedal! Let’s try to get this heap up to the surface if we can!” Levi dropped back down into his seat which was now soaked. The two of them pedaled as hard as they could. Melusine’s thighs ached with the effort. The eel must have damaged some part of the system, because it was nearly impossible to get the vessel to react.
But eventually, they moved upward. Not all the way to the surface, as the water now reached their waists and they couldn’t waste any more time pedaling. “And I thought our biggest worry was running out of air,” Levi shouted, shaking his head, lake water pouring over him. “I need to get that hatch open or we’re trapped. You try breaking the window.”
But the eel came at them again, the sub a toy ball for a large, ugly puppy.
At impact, the hatch folded in upon itself even more, widening the gap where the water was coming in. Levi tugged at the thick metal, pulling it a hair’s breadth further. But it was still too small for either of them to slip through.
Melusine pounded the observation glass with a sharp bit of metal from one of the levers. But her blows made no difference. Not more than a scratch. Edwin had constructed this contraption to be indestructible. Typical Edwin.
They were going to die in this metal vessel.
Enough! she told herself, you can do this! And she pressed her face against the glass, the water up to her chin. The eel was undulating around them. She bit her tongue hard, the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. As the eel turned its head her way again, she caught its blue-flamed gaze.
She opened her mouth and spit into the water. The red ribbon of blood floated in front of her, its scent slowly reaching the beast on the other side of the glass.
The eel’s eyes lit to orange and it raced directly towards her. Its long teeth smashed against the glass like sharpened battering rams. Once, twice…and as the water was level with her mouth, she was finally satisfied with a loud crack.
She felt Levi next to her. “Something got him excited,” he said. “Take a breath!”
He rammed his shoulder against the new fissure in the glass. It broke into two pieces. Water rushed in to the sub. The eel bit down again, its teeth puncturing the metal. Its tongue flopped into the open observation window as if someone were rolling out a long carpet. Melusine stomped on the tongue with the heel of her boot and was rewarded when the slimy thing retracted. Levi wrapped one arm around Melusine’s waist and swam quickly out the hole.
The two of them ki
cked their way upwards towards the surface. Their shoes weighed them down, the water tugging on the stiff leather, but both Levi and Melusine had enough strength in their arms to keep them moving upward. With the submersible still covered in the odor of the mermaid scale bait, the risk to their lives would be minimal…if it didn’t pick up on Melusine’s secret scent. The Siren Eel gnawed for a moment on the vessel, but as Levi and Melusine reached the warmer water closer to the surface, it turned its attention towards them.
Already Melusine’s lungs felt full to bursting, but instead of kicking the few feet to the surface, she released herself from Levi’s grip. She sensed his confusion in the way he thrashed around, unsure what she was doing. She pointed upwards, telling him to go. And as his head broke the surface, she swam off, leading the Siren Eel away from him. At least he would be safe.
She felt for the blade in her sheath and pulled it out. Once the weapon was in her hand she kicked and turned around. The eel was only a few feet from her; she was no bigger than its incisors.
The beast opened its jaw and despite her agility in the water, she was caught inside its mouth. Its teeth were yellowing stalactites; she grabbed hold of one, though the force of the water wanted to push her further down its throat. Before the Siren Eel could swallow, Melusine pierced the softer skin of the roof with the point of the dagger, then ripped a long vial of salt from her belt and dumped it onto the monster’s tongue, which was already riddled with tiny wounds from their bullets and harpoons.
It was enough to make the eel open up and squawk. Melusine dove out from between its teeth and headed to the surface. She knew if she didn’t get a breath soon, her reflexes would take over and she’d suck water into her lungs. Her face broke through the skin of the surface. She gulped in fresh air, then went back under. The Siren Eel had already recovered and was heading towards her again.
This time, Melusine was able to avoid being caught in the beast’s teeth by a quick movement to her right. But as the eel passed her, it made sure to slither through the water, its tail grazing Melusine, its spiny scales grating against her skin.
Long scratches showed up in the places where the tiny spikes of the eel’s scales had ripped through her clothing. The pain was intense—sharp and burning—and enveloped her entire body though she’d only been touched on one side. Dark spots filled her vision. Then she saw Levi dive from out of nowhere onto the monster’s head, a gun pointing directly at the beast’s left eye. She wasn’t sure if she screamed or the eel did.
All of a sudden, everything went cold and black.
Only Melusine’s memories burned inside her.
Melusine had always sensed the strange creeping prickle that moved along her spine the moment she was near a monster when her father came close.
Melusine’s father could do what he pleased in the house. His word was law. His every desire was to be fulfilled, regardless of the consequences. Melusine’s mother was a strong woman by anyone else’s standards, but when it came to her husband she was mollusk-like—quivering and soft. Her mother’s normal eagle eyes went cloudy and blind when her husband’s touch lingered on his daughters. Her normal sense of propriety went missing when her husband insisted on tightening the girls’ corsets or helping them into their stockings.
Mother never said a word against him. Never looked upon him with anything other than a loving smile.
That is, unless it was bathing day.
It was the one and only rule Mother made and enforced. Father was to never, ever interrupt her while she was bathing.
On bathing day, each girl had a specific task. Melusine’s was to make sure the fancy silver key was turned in the lock. No one could see her mother bathing. Especially not Father.
“A beauty spell has repercussions on the lover of the woman who casts the spell,” said Mother. “He is never to see her during her transformation. His eyes will bleed and he will be blind to his lover’s beauty from that moment on.”
Melusine had seen her mother slice the head off of a knobby swamp troll who’d been gnawing on a human bone. She’d watched her mother shoot a squat, hairy Sasquatch who’d come at them howling. Melusine had helped yank the teeth out of their dead bodies and had cut off handfuls of their hair for Mother’s beauty spells. The base, the ugly, the monstrous—it was this that Mother transformed into a web of desire.
“So all creatures that are beautiful are good?” she asked.
Mother had smiled at her, a small slow smile that spoke of many things unsaid. “Ah, Melusine, not at all.” Mother’s lovely eyes were dark jewels and the perfect plane of her face glowed softly in the moonlight. “Beauty can reveal one’s soul, or it can artfully disguise it. But if you have an eye for seeing beyond appearances, you will find the monster that lurks under the skin.”
Melusine thought of her father. Of the way his hands kneaded her skin. Everyone commented on his good looks, on his handsome charm. But Melusine wondered if his true form was, in fact, monstrous. If the face of his soul had horns.
For years, Melusine turned that key on bath day. For years, she felt it click as the lock slid into place. For years, she watched the handle shake as her father tried in vain to enter, wishing to see his wife step out of the bathtub, resenting the one rule he was beholden to. For years, she obeyed her mother’s orders to keep him safe.
But there came a point when Father’s fingers strayed in ways that made Melusine’s throat close up. It was then that she decided to no longer turn the key so Father’s eyes would bleed.
Chapter Five
“Miss Doré? Melusine, can you hear me?” Levi’s voice came to her through the darkness of her closed eyelids.
“Mmmph,” she said. She didn’t want to open her eyes or move. She was so comfortable. Something soft and warm and divine was under her head and hugging her body. She snuggled further into it, but her entire left side stung at the movement. All of a sudden she remembered the morning and sat up, eyes wide open.
She was in one of Sir Edwin Aldridge’s guest rooms, on a bed, under a pleated velvet canopy. She’d recognize Edwin’s butter-upon-bacon decorating style anywhere. Underneath her were a stack of feather pillows and over her was a soft quilt in garish colors. The walls were covered in scarlet and plum brocade, gold framed daguerreotype portraits, and a series of varnished shelves heavy with odd gadgets. A fireplace was on her right, an antique arm chair to her left, and Levi Cannon at the foot of the bed.
“Do you know what day it is? What year? Do you remember your name?” He got up and moved next to her. She saw that he had changed into dry clothing. “Do you remember my name?”
Melusine looked at him and felt her chest swell. He’d saved her life. She forced herself to take a slow breath in and out and affect an annoyed tone. “Unfortunately, I do remember you, Mr. Cannon. It would have been bliss to forget.”
He grinned and leaned closer, gesturing to her left arm. “Let me see.” He had a warm compress in his hands.
From her shoulder to her wrist was a multitude of long, red scratches, and again from her hip all along her thigh, where the thin cotton nightdress she’d been put in was stained with blood. As Levi touched the compress onto her skin, she held back a cry. It stung like fire.
“Apparently, the spines on the eel’s scales are sharp as knives. I was worr—” here he cut himself off and coughed, then started again. “I was wondering if they were poisoned, so I hired a boy to run over to Eden’s Apple to ask Mr. Digby.”
The scent of clove rose into the air as Levi patted down her abrasions with the soft compress. He’d finished her arm and dipped the compress into a bowl of water sitting in the seat of the armchair next to them. He now looked at her, his usually teasing eyes serious and questioning. He motioned to her thigh with the material in his hand. “May I, Miss Doré?”
She swallowed a tangle that had formed in her throat and nodded once.
With extreme gentleness, Levi pushed back the quilt and lifted the nightdress just enough to reveal the pink flesh of h
er thigh, blood congealed on the surface. The cuts were not deep, but the moment he touched her with the poultice her leg was ablaze.
He patted each wound with the flannel, starting from her knee and moving higher. As he reached her hip, the material slipped and his thumb grazed her skin. She gasped aloud and Levi pulled away, looking startled. “Forgive me; I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
But it hadn’t hurt. Not at all.
She closed her eyes then opened them again. Levi had put the poultice back into the bowl. “And?” she asked. “Is there poison on a Siren Eel’s scales?”
Levi shook his head. “None for you to worry about; the poison is specific to its prey.”
The fire that had been coursing through her body turned to frost. “Fin people?”
“Mr. Digby said it produced a manner of death sleep. That is to say, a sudden sleep so intense it is nearly impossible to wake the mermaid. Not that there would be time for that: a Siren Eel would swallow the monster in a matter of seconds.”
She glanced to the window, but the curtains were drawn. “How…how long was I…unconscious?”
“Hours. You saw how the Siren Eel knocked about the submersible with a swish of its tail. I cannot imagine how hard it must have hit you for you to go under like that.”
Panic rose inside Melusine like water in a boiling pot. She could not finish this job. Regardless of whether her secret were revealed or not, it would be the death of her. Of Levi.
And though she told herself she didn’t care—that, in fact, she hated the man—her instinct to keep the Siren Eel away from him told her something else entirely.
He leaned towards her, taking her face in between his hands. His palms were warm against her cool skin. His voice low, he said, “What in heaven’s holy name were you doing out there, Melusine? Why did you swim away from me? You could have been killed.”
The way he used her given name—the way he said it like it was a rare item to be treasured—along with the quiet tone of his voice sent a delicious hum over her entire body. She was infinitely aware of the way his fingers moved back and grasped her hair with gentle strength.
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