Authors: Lori Devoti

Found, a Vampire Romance (8 page)

But mermaids, nixies, none of their kind, were submissive or easy targets.

She stood, sweeping her waist-length hair behind her. The long shirt she’d taken from her last failed candidate fell open over one bare shoulder, and the dungarees she’d belted at her waist slipped. Annoyed with the human clothing, she undid the belt with one hand and let the pants fall to the ground.

Stepping out of them, she moved forward.

She trailed her fingers over the newcomer’s chest as she walked around him, appraising. “What did the bartender tell you?” This man was the first to come to her. The others she had searched out. They had come willingly enough, of course, but they hadn’t walked into the bar looking for her, as she suspected this male had.

“I need a guide,” he murmured.

His chest and back were layered with muscle. She paused for a second to lay her palm flat over his heart. Its beat was slow, slower than any she had felt before. Her brows pulled forward, and, confused, she took a step back to study him again.

He was not a merman come to land, or a selkie. Her fortune couldn’t be that great. Or poor—another creature like herself would be harder to fool, harder to mesmerize into thinking he was in love with her, and harder to convince to accompany her on her journey to see the sea hag.

“What type of guide?” she asked, for the moment making no effort to charm him in any way. She wanted to hear the answer he intended to give, not one put into his mind by a spell.

“I have business at sea.” He paused, and she sighed. Nothing special after all.

“With the sea hag,” he added.

Sarina’s body stiffened, and she stepped back, studying him again. “You know Melusine?”

“My business is just that… business. I have no prior connection with the hag…
Melusine
.”

Sarina tilted her head. Ordinary humans didn’t know of Melusine, or if they did, thought her nothing but legend. But this man before her wasn’t selkie or merman, so what could he be? What was his story?

She inhaled, checking for the scent of the sea.

Sadly, or luckily, she wasn’t sure which yet, he smelled no more of the ocean than any of the unbathed seafarers seated at the tables nearby. He didn’t, however, smell entirely human either. There was something different about him, but Sarina couldn’t peg what it was.

“As it happens, I’m in need of a companion myself,” she replied, keeping her tone neutral.

He smiled, confident, like a man used to getting his way. “So I heard. That is, then, fortunate for us both, isn’t it?”

Perhaps. Sarina still didn’t trust that her luck had finally changed. “Can you swim?” she asked. All said they could, but none really knew what they might expect to encounter in a journey to Melusine’s home.

Like the others, he nodded his head in assent.

Tired of speculating as to whether her search was finally over, she walked past him and strode to the door.

o0o

The mermaid, as the bartender had called her, said nothing to Nolan as she passed in nothing but the thigh-length shirt. She simply walked toward the door, showing not the tiniest amount of doubt that he would follow.

And he would. In fact, he was surprised every man in the place didn’t rise to his feet and rush after her.

Maybe one hundred and twenty pounds and under five feet eight inches in height, she was slim and athletic but also exuded femininity.

He had never encountered another woman, or creature, like her.

As he turned, his foot caught in the pants she had dropped so casually to the floor. He stared down at them, wondering if he should scoop them up and carry them along.

From the front, the bartender’s gaze met his. Even through the hazy air, Nolan could read the man’s face. He thought Nolan a fool, or worse, a
soon-to-be-dead
fool.

Little did he know, Nolan was already the walking dead.

With a grimace, he left the pants and followed the “mermaid.”

o0o

Sarina stood on the damp dock, waiting for the human. The wind had picked up, catching her hair and wrapping it around her. She could smell the water behind her. Her body itched to leap into the bay that led to the ocean. Her toes wiggled, already preparing to shift to the fin she still found so much more natural.

As the man approached, her hand wrapped around the tiny vial hanging from her neck. Feeling its pulsing warmth against her palm calmed her, assured her that what she was about to do was necessary.

Having a soul had saved her, but at times like this, it cost her too.

“Now what?” The man arched one brow and stared out over the water.

She moved toward him with all the power and grace of her kind. Humming, she grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and rose up on her toes. “You said you can swim, right?” She sang the words with no tune in mind. The notes didn’t matter; any that left her throat, any mermaid’s throat, would be enough to lure a human into her bidding.

He stared down at her, his gaze hooded. “I did.”

“Then now”—she brushed her lips over his and took a teasing step back—“is the time to prove it.”

With no other warning, she fell backward into the bay, taking the human with her.

o0o

-To read more, look for One Soul to Share at all online booksellers-

About the Author

Lori Devoti is the author of urban fantasy, contemporary and paranormal romance. To learn more about her fiction,
visit her web site
, http://www.loridevoti.com, or her
fan page on Facebook
, http://www.facebook.com/LoriDevotiAuthor.

Or email her at
[email protected]

o0o

Table of Contents

Found