SeaChange

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  Leta might still be young for a mermaid, but she’d clearly grown up since Jake had seen her last. She took Heidi’s hand and nodded regally, even speaking in English. “Pleased to meet you. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to talk to my brother.”

  “Is anything wrong?” Jake asked. “This isn’t the best time, Leta. We’re in the middle of something here, and it may not be entirely safe.”

  “Everything’s wrong,” she replied. “I’ve come to stay with you. I can’t go back.”

  “Well, I think I’ve had enough swimming,” Heidi said diplomatically. “Jake, I’ll wait for you up on the boat.”

  “Thanks.” He wanted to tell her to stay, but he didn’t think Leta would talk in front of a stranger, so he just leaned over to drop a kiss on her cheek.

  “Is it wonderful living among the humans?” Leta’s voice was wistful as she watched Heidi climb back aboard the Siren and remove her flippers.

  “Not until now,” Jake answered absently. Then he heard what he’d said and shook his head. “No. That’s not what I meant at all. Leta, what are you doing here? You need to go home. Now.”

  “I can’t go home.” She hung her head, her shoulders drooping sadly. “If I go back, Mother will make me marry Nikolaos.”

  “Marry him? Why?” Nikolaos was one of their strongest warriors, true, just a few years older than Jake. The two had long been rivals, and constantly coming in second to the other merman had been one of the reasons Jake had been so frustrated that he’d engineered his own banishment. Niko was a third or fourth cousin, and with two merfolk parents, he’d often taunted that he should be the prince, as his blood was purer than Jake’s. Apparently he’d found a way to insinuate himself into the royal family. Jake reached out and wrapped an arm around his baby sister’s shoulders. “I can’t believe Mother would force you to marry someone you don’t love. Tell me what’s really going on, chica.” The Spanish endearment was one their father had used. Since Ernesto’s death when Leta was twelve, it was unique to the two of them.

  “Things are different now,” she said in a voice more adult than he’d ever expected to hear from her. “Once you left, everything fell apart. Uncle Phaeton used your powers to challenge Mother’s rule.”

  “Damn it!” The news hit Jake with all the force of a tail fluke to the stomach. Why had he trusted his uncle? Now his people were in trouble and it was all his fault.

  “Mother won eventually, and Phaeton was exiled,” Leta continued. “But he had followers—many of them from the families that think Mother should never have mated with a human. Niko’s parents pushed really hard to make Niko the heir—but Niko stayed loyal to Mother.”

  “So this is her way of rewarding him—making sure he’ll be your consort when you’re queen.”

  “I don’t want to be queen,” she declared with a sharp swish of her tail. “You were supposed to inherit. All I ever wanted to do was sing.”

  “Still have the most beautiful voice in the ocean, I’ll bet.” A low throb began to pound at the base of Jake’s skull.

  “I want to get a job singing at one of the human resorts,” Leta continued. “But Mother disapproves because I’m supposed to be learning leadership skills. Come home, Che. Take up your inheritance so I don’t have to.”

  “Well, I can hardly marry Niko,” he joked. Guilt and dread coiled in his stomach. He had to do something, but he had no idea what. “Besides, I can’t enter the colony until the spell is finished. Phaeton included that as a geas in the transformation spell. If I break it, I’ll never be a merman again. Think you can hold off the wedding for another twenty-two years?”

  “Fuck.” Leta moved back and peered into Jake’s face. “Are you happy, Che? Do you even want to come home?”

  “Of course I do. I figured that out less than a year after I left.”

  “Then why won’t you help me?” Her big brown eyes were wide and brimmed with moisture.

  Gods, he’d always been a sucker for Leta’s tears. “I want to help you, chica. I really do. But I’m in the middle of something here that could be dangerous. Is there somewhere you could hide out for a couple of days until it’s taken care of? Then we’ll figure out how to get you out of this wedding.”

  Leta shook her head. “Where do you think I could hide in the ocean that Mother couldn’t find me?”

  “Good point.” Something about that statement nagged at the base of Jake’s brain, but he ignored it.

  “Besides, I want to meet your woman,” she added. “Let’s go up on your boat so I can talk to her.”

  “I can’t just yet,” Jake admitted. “One of the rules of my spell. One hour, seven nights a month. No exceptions.”

  “Oh pooh!” Leta pouted. “We could change into dolphins and race.”

  “Sorry. I can’t do that either.”

  “Wow. You really let Uncle Phae do a number on you, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to grimace. “I guess I did.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  He could hear suppressed laughter in her voice, and he only wished it was funny instead of tragic. “I have an idea. Hey, Heidi!” He raised his voice so he could be heard from the boat.

  “Yes?” She was up on the sundeck, waiting for him. That thought made him smile.

  “Come on down to the swim deck, will you?”

  “No problem.” He heard her moving about, and he turned to Leta, motioning her over toward the boat.

  “Heidi is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. If anyone can help us figure this out, she’s the one. Now, mi hermana, you are going to tell us everything you know about what is going on with our colony.”

  * * * * *

  Heidi rummaged through her clothes and ended up pulling out a pair of drawstring cotton pajama pants to loan to Leta. While Jake’s sister was nearly as tall as Heidi, the brunette beauty was much, much slimmer.

  “Here,” she said, handing the soft knit garment over to the other woman who stood in the Siren’s cabin with a towel wrapped around her waist. “These should work.” Apparently Jake had spent enough time in the human world to be freaked out by the idea of sitting and chatting with his sister naked from the waist down—at least after Jake’s hour was up and they’d joined Heidi on the boat.

  “Do humans really wear clothing all the time?” Leta asked as she unselfconsciously dropped the towel to pull on the pants. “Even in the privacy of their own homes?”

  “Umm—most of them do,” Heidi answered cautiously. “Unless they’re bathing or sleeping.”

  “How odd. I suppose I shall have to get used to it.” She shook out her long, curly black hair and sauntered back into the salon, leaving her wet towel in a heap on the rug.

  Heidi shook her head. She was so not going to run around being Princess Leta’s personal servant.

  “Look, Leta,” Heidi heard Jake say as she followed the mermaid out into the salon. Jake stood in the galley beside the refrigerator. “I don’t think you have any idea what the human world is like. Are you prepared to work long hours every day, just to earn money for food and clothing, not to mention shelter? And you’ll still have to spend at least half your time swimming. How will you explain that to an employer? No, what we need to do is find some way to talk Mother out of this marriage business so you can go home.”

  “Does your government allow for non-hereditary leadership?” Heidi asked, curling up on a sofa across from Leta. “Perhaps it’s as simple as offering the population some say in how they’re governed.”

  Jake nodded. He poured three glasses of wine and handed one to each of the women before taking a seat on the other end of the same couch as Heidi. “After observing human society for the last seventy-eight years, I’d come to much that same conclusion myself. When I returned, I wanted to talk to my mother about setting up a governing council. I was thinking three seats, with the monarch as the titular head, but with two councilors elected by the entire colony to serve with her.”

/>   “Mother will never accept that,” Leta protested. “Give up some of her gods-given powers? Utterly inconceivable.”

  “It beats being overthrown in a bloody coup,” Heidi pointed out. “And it sounds as if that nearly happened.” A loud yawn turned the last word of her statement into an incoherent shriek. She winced, rubbing the back of her neck. She hadn’t noticed how tired she was, how much all her bruises were beginning to hurt. When she was active, or with Jake, it was almost, almost, possible to forget about the shooting.

  “Heidi is recovering from a concussion,” Jake informed his sister. “She needs to rest.”

  Leta smiled sympathetically. Despite her spoiled princess air, there was a sweetness about her that came through on occasion. She seemed so young, it was hard to believe she was nearly a hundred years old. “Your bruises look very painful. I’m sorry you were hurt.” She turned to Jake. “Perhaps you can show me to my room, hermano. We can talk more in the morning.”

  Jake laughed. “This is your room, chica. There’s only one bed on this boat. I’ll get you a pillow and a blanket. Fortunately, that sofa is fairly comfortable.”

  Heidi felt as if she should offer to take the sofa, but then Jake would have to as well, and he was way too tall to fit.

  “Really?” Instead of turning up her nose, Leta looked intrigued. “How versatile.”

  “There’s limited furniture in the human sections of our settlements,” Jake told Heidi with a wry grin. He reached out a hand to haul her to her feet. “What we do have is handmade or scavenged from shipwrecks, and is pretty restricted to the humans, unless we’re having dinner together or something. Most of us sleep on the sand in our caves, or in dolphin form if we’re out in the open ocean for some reason.”

  “I’d love to hear more,” she said around another yawn. “But I really am fading fast. Good night, Leta. I’m very glad I got to meet you.”

  “Good night, Heidi.” Leta ran over to give Heidi an impulsive little hug. “I’m delighted to know you, as well.”

  Jake followed Heidi into the cabin, then went back to the salon with a spare blanket and pillow while Heidi brushed her teeth. A few moments later he joined her in bed.

  Half asleep already, Heidi nestled into Jake’s arms. It was the first time she’d just slept with him, with no expectations of sex—at least she didn’t think he’d try anything with his sister just a few feet away.

  “Hard to believe I was ever that young,” Jake mused, lacing his fingers through hers and settling in beside her. “Sorry if she was rude at times.”

  “She’s okay,” Heidi murmured. “Reminds me of the undergrads I used to teach. ‘Til I remember she’s three times my age.”

  He dropped a kiss on her ear. “It’s literally a different world, Freya. Though you’d have made a magnificent mermaid.”

  It was maybe the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her.

  * * * * *

  “But I need clothing, Che.” They’d just finished lunch up on the sundeck and Leta was sulking. “Why can’t you take me into the village to purchase some?”

  “Because there are guys with guns looking for an excuse to kill him, maybe?” Heidi crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “He told you to come back when the shooting was over. What part of that didn’t you understand?”

  Jake grinned. Heidi had a real knack for handling his sister’s tantrums.

  “I didn’t think he was serious,” Leta said, her lower lip quivering ominously. She lounged in the sun wearing one of Heidi’s sporty black bikinis with a white mesh cover-up, which had been in the suitcase recovered from her campsite.

  “Well, he was. You want to know how he made a living after your uncle kicked him out? By catching bad guys. That’s dangerous work. So when he says he absolutely cannot take you into town to go shopping, he means it. Maybe tomorrow. For now, we’re stuck sharing.”

  “And Heidi is being very generous,” Jake added. “Most of her things were destroyed. She doesn’t have a lot of clothing left.”

  “By these same evil men you are trying to catch?” Leta’s head tilted sideways, and Jake’s breath caught at the sight of her, all grown up and lovely. He’d missed her changing from adolescent to woman—though she still had some growing up to do emotionally.

  “Yes,” Heidi replied. Her hair had faded today to a muddy brown color, about halfway between the artificial black and her own. In her white denim shorts and pink tank top, she looked younger than her students—until he looked closely at the bruises, which had begun to turn yellow and green as well as purple and black. He’d convinced Leta to be far away from the boat tonight—he wished he could get Heidi to do the same. Even while he admired her courage, he couldn’t help the sick knot of terror that weighted his stomach at the thought of her being in danger.

  “I am sorry,” Leta said, biting her lip. “I didn’t know.”

  Heidi smiled. “It’s okay. You didn’t do it. But you can’t put people in danger just because you don’t like my clothes, all right?”

  “Of course.” To Jake’s surprise, Leta scrambled to her feet and began to help clear away the dishes from lunch. “I am sorry for intruding at a difficult time.”

  There was a slight thump to the starboard and Jake turned just in time to hear, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to have guests.”

  A heartbeat later, Wen shimmered into view next to the aft starboard rail, barefoot, dressed in jeans and an untucked black dress shirt.

  “Wen?” Heidi said with a start. “Oh, hi. You just missed lunch.”

  Leta dropped the sandwich platter, which fortunately was plastic. “Who are you?”

  Jake laughed. “Wen, meet my younger sister, Leta. Leta, this is Wen. I used to work for him, once upon a time.”

  “And now we merely work together on occasion,” Wen said with a courtly bow. “Delighted.”

  “Likewise, Mr. Wen.” Her voice had dropped to a purr that Jake didn’t recognize for a moment. Gods, was his sister actually flirting? With Wen?

  A slight pop sounded next to Wen and suddenly Steve was there too, dressed in denim shorts and a black T-shirt, with a large duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

  “Either of you guys hungry?” As soon as introductions had been completed, Heidi picked up the tray Leta had dropped. “I could rustle up a few more sandwiches.”

  “I could eat,” Steve said agreeably. “Let me come give you a hand.”

  Jake started to object, then realized he was being stupid. Marinucci was not going to hit on Heidi down in the cabin. He probably just wanted to stow the firepower somewhere safe.

  “Actually, we should all go below,” Wen noted. “Our—prey may decide to look in on us. We know they have an airplane.”

  “Good point.” Jake stood, gathering up the last of the leftovers. “Let’s go.”

  “My brother is lucky to have someone as wise as you to direct him,” Leta purred, taking Wen’s arm as they moved toward the stairs.

  Wen proffered a courtly elbow, but deftly maintained his distance. “But I don’t direct him at all. Merely advise.” The flash of panic in the man’s dark eyes was the funniest thing Jake had seen all day.

  “Unhand my betrothed. At once!” Immediately following that bellow was a splash, and a naked man scrambled up from the swimdeck.

  “Niko!” Leta screeched and ducked behind Wen. “How did you find me?”

  “It’s a fucking circus around here today,” Jake muttered, crossing to stand between Nikolaos and Leta. Off to the side he heard Heidi gasp, then chuckle, while Steve and Wen immediately took up defensive postures.

  Heidi had to force her eyes away from the naked, angry man, who stood on the deck with water running off his very fine physique. His hair was a lighter shade than Jake’s or Leta’s, but his features had the same clean, aquiline lines, and he had the same strong fluidity of motion that both the merfolk possessed. So this was Leta’s fiancé. Damn, in Southern California Niko would have to beat the girls off with a stick. Ev
en pissed, he was gorgeous.

  “Che. I should have known she’d come to you. A traitor, just like her brother,” Niko spat.

  “Is this liable to get bloody?” Steve had already been partway down the stairs, so his head was on a level with Heidi’s elbow.

  “I have no idea,” she answered. “I think they’re supposed to be engaged, but she doesn’t want to marry him, so she ran away.”

  “Sounds like a soap opera.” The DEA agent murmured, “Hold this.”

  He handed Heidi the duffle bag and produced a handgun from behind his back as he passed her, coming back up the stairs.

  Meanwhile, Jake was talking to Niko. “Calm down, Nikolaos. Either you rein in your temper, or things are going to get really messy really fast.”

  “Your friends would shoot me?” Niko seemed to register the gun in Steve’s hand, and he backed up a step.

  “Only if you get violent first,” Jake assured him. “You want to just come inside and talk, then nobody needs to get hurt.”

  Niko looked around, taking a moment to study each of them, then nodded. “Fine.”

  Heidi saw each of the men relax their posture just a fraction. “I was about to make some sandwiches,” she offered. “Niko, would you like something to eat?” Her Midwestern roots were definitely showing. Solve all social problems with copious amounts of food.

  Niko gazed at her for a moment then offered a tight smile. “Thank you. That would be good.”

  Jake clapped the other merman’s arm. “Then welcome aboard. As soon as we get below, we can talk. Heidi—do you think maybe you can find our guest a pair of pants?”

  “Pretty soon we’re going to run out of clothing,” she muttered, heading down the stairs.

  “I gotta start hanging out on boats more often,” Steve mused, following her. “It’s a lot more interesting than fishing.”

  “I don’t know. Fishing is beginning to sound awfully appealing.” All the drama was making Heidi’s head throb. She went through to the master cabin and set Steve’s duffle bag carefully on the bed. Based on the weight, it contained more guns than clothing. She pulled a pair of Jake’s board shorts and a T-shirt out of a drawer, and returned to the salon just in time to see Jake close the door to the stairs.