by Katie May
As I glanced from Bash, leisurely stroking the hair of the Incubus girl
beside him, to Killian, I noticed something that struck me as odd.
Killian was hard. Like, full-on, dick-tenting-the-pants type of hard.
“What the fuck Kill?” Atta screamed, noticing the same thing I had. I
mean, it was kind of hard not to notice. Rumor had it that all Incubi grew a
few inches when they reached puberty...and not just in height.
“Oh that?” Bash waved his hand dismissively in the direction of his
friend. “He found his mate.”
“Found his…?” Atta looked between me and Kill. Her emerald green
eyes sparked with excitement. No doubt, she was already planning a double
wedding. Damn sisters.
“I haveenn’ttt seeennn her yet,” Killian said. He anxiously glanced from
face to face, noticeably uncomfortable to be having this conversation in front
of strangers, and the brunette besides Bash began to chuckle unashamedly at
Killian’s stutter. My beast roared inside of me at her blatant disrespect and
rudeness towards my brother. Even Bash’s eyes narrowed in the direction of
his lover.
“He can sense his mate though he has yet to see her,” Bash cut in, finally
turning away from the horrid girl beside him. “Hence, the hard-on.”
Something flashed in Bash’s eyes. Something akin to jealousy.
Despite his repeated claims of not wanting a mate, I knew that he longed
to have one. He longed to call a girl his own, to hold her late into the hours
and whisper sweet nothings into her ear. He had admitted that on more than
one occasion when he got wasted. Despite this, the bastard was terrified.
Of losing us, his family.
He didn’t want some girls to come between us all. I knew for a fact he
would bust a nut if he discovered I found my mate as well. From the pursing
of Atta’s lips, I deduced that she came to the same conclusion.
“So little Killian is growing up?” Atta cooed. She flashed the man in
question a wicked smile, and Killian blushed. It was the strangest thing to
see. A muscled man - not nearly as defined as me but still more developed
than an average male - with tattoos evident on every swath of bare skin was
blushing. He ducked his head, hiding behind his auburn hair.
Maybe that was why we were friends.
We were both fuckups at being Nightmares.
“I hope I never find my mate,” Bash began, leaning back in his chair
indolently.
Here we go…
Killian met my eyes over Bash’s head and sighed heavily. Bash’s “rants”
could last anywhere from a minute to an hour.
Atta glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. Her dainty hand was
already wrapped around the girl’s.
“I’m going to head out,” she whispered. “Before I leave, do you have a
picture?”
I knew what she was asking. A delicate blush dusted across my own
cheekbones. I felt like such a ass making fun of Killian’s blush when I was
no better.
Glancing at Bash, still discussing all of the cons of having a mate, I
grabbed my notebook off of the table and reluctantly handed it to Atta. She
wouldn’t stop pestering me until I did.
I knew what she would see when she opened the notebook to the first
page.
The beautiful girl.
The girl whose name I had yet to discover.
The girl who had been thrusted into my world...and became the sun that
my earth revolved around. Maybe I should start writing some poems…
ELEVEN
Z
Pro tip:Never scale the side of a building without a parachute. Seriously.
Don’t.
Falling? Scary as hell. Knowing that you’re going to die? Well...let’s just
say I wouldn’t recommend it.
The world spun as I fell. A kaleidoscope of colors. Shapes. Sounds. They
all whirled past me. I saw my life in those brief moments before I would’ve
hit the ground. All of my mistakes and failures were displayed before me,
suffocating me. I thought of B. He would be so disappointed in me for failing
my mission. I thought of Mali and Diego and how they would mourn me. I
thought of T, the assassin who had been in love with me for years. I even
allowed my mind to drift to Devlin. He had been my first - and I did love
him. Even now, my heart squeezed painfully at the thought of my Genie.
My Genie. The possessiveness I felt towards Lin had always scared me,
but now it gave me strength. I didn’t forgive him for what he had done to me,
but I wanted one more memory with him. His hands running over my body.
His lips between my breasts. His skilled fingers bringing me to the peak of
pleasure.
Did it make me a hussy that I thought of sex with Devlin before I died?
Strangely enough, I also thought of the mysterious Shifter I had met earlier.
He had been handsome, an immense brute of a man that I normally wouldn’t
have looked twice at. Why did my final thoughts turn towards him?
What the hell was wrong with me?
You might think that those thoughts took hours to articulate. They
actually only lasted approximately three-seconds, just long enough for me to
see the water rushing towards my face. I braced myself for the impact, for the
excruciating pain, but it never came.
Instead, I found myself engulfed in something warm.
Water.
It held me in gentle arms, a physical being, before depositing me into the
lake. This exchange lasted only a moment. There was no pain. Just comfort.
I broke the surface of the water, sputtering slightly. The waves lapped at
my skin, surprisingly warm despite the frigidly cold air.
Stunned, I glanced from side to side. How had I survived? I was positive I
was a few feet away from the lake when I had initially fallen. I should’ve
been splattered on the concrete, a Z pancake, not in the water.
It was almost as if…
Almost as if the water had caught me.
But that was ridiculous, right?
My thoughts spun, even as I continued to scan the dark abyss of water.
Oceans and lakes had always terrified me. They were vast and unknown.
Anything could be lurking in their dark depths. Hell, Mermaids had lived
there for years without anyone knowing. What else hid away beneath the
roiling sea?
White foam crested against the nearby shore, and I immediately swam in
that direction. The fabric of my assassin outfit stuck to my body like a second
skin.
“Are you okay?” a soft voice asked, and I spun towards the sound. Using
my arms to tread water, I stared at the blond head poking above the surface.
He was too far away for me to be able to distinguish any noticeable
characteristics. “I tried to make you land as painlessly as possible.”
“Was that you?” I asked. “The water?”
“Yes.”
So my savior was a Mermaid. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
“Thank you. For saving my life.”
I felt hesitant on how to deal with him. A mother fucking Mermaid had
saved my life. Why? To kill me himself?
“The water heard your cries,” he continued, oblivious to my thoughts.
“You spoke to me in
a way no one has ever spoken to me before.”
Well that explained it.
Mr. Mermaid was insane.
“Well thank you. Again.”
The water rippled as he ducked beneath the surface. He reappeared a
moment later directly in front of me.
Blond, golden hair clung to his temples. His skin was tanned and
deliciously muscled. His blue eyes, the color of a translucent pool of water,
surveyed my face intently. He was beautiful, in the way that art was. It was a
traditional beauty that couldn’t be referred to as “sexy” or “hot”. Those words
weren’t eloquent enough to describe the man before me.
He reached a hand out, and I flinched away.
“Don’t...don’t touch me,” I managed. His expression shuttered, surprise
giving way to unreadability. After a moment, he held up his hands as if he
was a prisoner approaching a police officer. He appeared rightfully wary and
cautious, regarding me like one would look at a rabid Shifter.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
Despite the sincerity in his voice, years after years of abuse at the hands
of Nightmares couldn’t be ignored that easily.
Pro tip number two:
Everybody had an agenda. People could offer you false promises, present
after present wrapped in bows, but there would always be a catch. That
promise? It was actually an exchange for your soul. That present? It was a
ticking time bomb. You couldn’t trust anyone.
I scrambled backwards, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of water in
my haste. His eyebrows crinkled with concern, but he still respected my
wishes and remained a safe distance away.
“Why would I save you if I was going to hurt you?” he asked, sounding
honestly confused.
A lot of reasons why, I thought sardonically, my anger cresting.
A lot.
God. What was wrong with me? What had life done to me that I
automatically assumed that everybody had ill-intentions? He had done
nothing to me, and yet I was cowering before him like a child instead of the
assassin I knew myself to be.
My legs were aching from treading water for so long. I had went
swimming once or twice when I was younger, but this was different. If I had
to fight while in water, I would merely accept defeat. I was so tired, my body
leaden, and the urge to allow the water to consume me was overwhelming.
I was just so tired of fighting.
So tired of everything.
“Don’t you hear the water?” the Mermaid asked me, voice rising in
disbelief. “It’s significantly louder now that you’re here.”
“Um…”
How does one respond to that?
“You look exhausted. May I help you back to shore?”
I considered his words seriously, picking apart what little I knew of him.
He wasn’t a competitor for The Damning - I would’ve recognized him from
the files B had provided for me - so he must’ve been an Assistant. Innocent.
He could be completely innocent, a pawn in this game we had both been
forced into. I needed to stop fearing every Nightmare I came into contact
with. I needed to stop assuming they were the enemy when I knew plenty of
humans that were ten times worse.
Trust. I had to trust this stranger, this Mermaid, and the mere aspect of it
was terrifying. My thoughts turned to Mali and Diego, my two best friends
who both happened to be Nightmares. Their species and sin didn’t define
who they were as a person.
And if this Mermaid somehow was able to pull one over on me…
I still had two knives hooked to my thighs.
Eyes trained on his, I nodded.
Before I could change my mind, he grabbed my arm and began to glide
across the water. Each movement allowed me to see the dark blue of his tail,
scales reflecting in the sinking sunlight. It was incredibly beautiful, a word I
would never have used to describe a Nightmare before. But that was what
this man was: beautiful.
Instinctively, like a voice whispering inside my mind, I reached a hand
out to stroke one of the shimmery scales. His body froze suddenly, and his
breathing turned ragged.
“That is...that is extremely sensitive,” he gasped at last. I removed my
hand as if his tail was acid.
“Oh shit. Sorry.”
I could feel my face burning. I had practically touched a stranger’s dick.
Yup. I would not blame him if he decided to drown me.
Trust.
I had to trust him.
“You didn’t know,” he said through clenched teeth. His tail twitched in
the water, rising up and hardening as if it was…
Nope. No more looking at the tail for you Z.
“So why are you here?” I asked, before I could stop myself. “Most
Mermaids prefer to use their twelve hours as a man during the day. You
know, to interact with people and what not.”
And to have sex, I thought but didn’t say. Rumor had it that a Mermaid
couldn’t get it on while in their Mer forms. A horrible flaw in their creation,
if you asked me.
And why was I even thinking about sex?
With a Mermaid?
“I don’t like for people to see me,” he answered uneasily.
“Because you’re hot?”
Again, I really needed to develop a filter. I wondered if the potion I had
ingested earlier was still in effect.
He chuckled, a surprisingly delicious sound. Or perhaps unsurprisingly,
given that he looked like a model.
We reached the shoreline where a small hut separated the water from the
shore. After depositing me on the land, my Mermaid savior swam inside the
diminutive building, out of view from me.
“I need to change into my human form.” His voice was muffled through
the wall separating us.
I considered briefly pressing my necklace to turn back into Zara. I quickly
decided against it. Despite my intuition telling me I could trust this strange
man, I would not risk my identity because of a pretty face. Hearts and minds
were often liars. It was hard to distinguish between the two.
“Why don’t you like your human form?” I pressed. I heard the sound of
clothing being shuffled around before he replied.
“You know that Mermaids are descended from Envy, correct?” he asked.
I couldn’t help but snort.
“No shit. Everybody knows that.”
Once again, my words were greeted by a toe-curling laugh.
“Did you know that I have three Mermaid brothers?” he asked. Pulling
myself onto my elbows, I faced the wooden siding of the shack. Though I
couldn’t see him, I imagined him pulling his clothes on.
Damn it. That thought made me throb.
“How the hell would I know that?” I retorted.
“They were always envious of me. I was the handsomest. The smartest.
The funniest.” He spoke without preamble, as if he was stating facts and not
bragging about his perfection. “So they decided to do something about it.”
“I have a feeling this story doesn’t have a happy ending,” I said softly.
My heart ached for some undefinable reason. I didn’t know why I felt pity for
a Mermaid. I should hate him - I did hate him - but at the same time, I wanted
to soothe him. I wanted to bandage the scars I knew cut deeply. He saved my
life, and a little voice inside of me wanted to save his.
That little voice was a dumbass.
“No happy ending,” he said chuckling. “At least not yet.” He paused for a
moment, as if considering his words. “They cut off my tail.”
I allowed his words to process. My heart hammered inside of my chest at
his declaration.
“But I saw it...your tail, that is. I even stroked it.”
Okay. I did not mean that to sound as sexual as it ended up being. I was
grateful for the barrier separating us just then. I was sure my face was the
color of a ripe tomato.
“My tail grew back,” he said after a long moment of silence. “But my
legs? They weren’t as lucky.”
He finally emerged from the shack, and I gasped as I took stock of the
beautiful man.
He was confined to a wheelchair. His legs, from his knees down, were
completely gone.
Tears welled in my eyes unexplainably. I hated seeing him like this, hated
seeing the pain in his eyes as if he thought he was less of a man. I couldn’t
understand my own emotions. I had just met him; I should’ve hated him.
What was happening to me?
The Mermaid mistook my silence for something else.
“It’s ugly, right? I hate the looks of disgust. The pity.” His lip curled. “I
don’t want anyone to think of me as less than. Less than a man. A lover. A
person.”
I gasped at him, stunned that I had correctly guessed his inner turmoil.
“You’re not,” I whispered. “Less than, that is.”
“You know...I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this. Or showing
you. I haven’t even told my brothers - my real brothers, not my blood
brothers - about the way I feel.”
“To be honest, I don’t know why I’m listening.”
Or why I cared.
“What’s your name?” I asked suddenly. His beautiful cerulean blue eyes
turned towards me, blinking slowly. They widened with the realization that
he hadn’t shared that snippet of information with me, nor I with him.
“Dair,” he answered at last. The word rolled off his tongue like music.
Dair. A beautiful name. And a slightly familiar name, though I couldn’t
pinpoint where I had heard it before.
“What’s your name Little Assassin?” he asked. My heart thumped at the
nickname.
