Authors: Tawny Taylor
“Is he okay?” Diana asked Jane as she helped Jane climb over the concrete pond wall. “Look at you!” She dropped her gaze and Jane looked down.
She was a soaking wet mess. Clothes wet and tangled with weeds, hair streaming down her back, nylons torn, shoes lost. “I’m a mess.”
“No, you’re a hero!” Diana’s expression was full of such pride, Jane felt herself glowing with embarrassment.
“No, I’m not. It was a little boy.” She brushed past Diana to check and see how he was.
He lay in his father’s arms, coughing like mad, but alive and breathing.
“I owe you his life,” the father said. “Thank you. I went after his sister, and I saw Jimmy fall, but I couldn’t get there… He could have…”
“I’m glad I could help. Is he okay?”
The man nodded, and a fireman approached from behind. Jane left, and only when she reached her car did she realize what she’d just done.
She dove into water to save a drowning child. She did that. Without fear. Without thinking. As if she’d been born swimming.
There was only one person to thank for that. One person who’d worked so hard to help her overcome her fear. One person who’d encouraged and supported her. Josh.
She had to thank him, if nothing more. He deserved no less.
When shesat in sat in her car, she called to Diana, “I’m going home for the rest of the day. I’ll call you later.”
“What are you up to?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“You’re going to talk to him, aren’t you?”
“If he hadn’t helped me, if he hadn’t forced me to overcome my fear, I would never have gone after that little boy. I want to thank him. Tell him what he’s done.”
Since Diana could go back to work in a cab, Jane drove straight home to change her clothes.
After hopping on the net to read up on selkie lore and schizophrenia, she drove to his home. It was still early, mid-afternoon, and he wasn’t home, but the butler welcomed her into the mansion and gave her free reign of the whole house. Jane took advantage of it, exploring every room she stumbled upon.
No doubt about it, Josh took that selkie thing seriously. Every space was decorated in a sea life theme. Various shades of blue colored every wall, and nearly every room had an aquarium in it. In the kitchen, the refrigerator and freezer were both stocked to the gills with seafood, fish, shrimp, crab.
Such a sad thing. How had he become so obsessed?
When hours passed, and she’d grown tired of wandering the huge building, she found her way to his bedroom and relaxed, slipping into a dream-filled sleep where he was swimming around her, and they were both surrounded by cool blue waters.
She felt his touch. Could he be real? Or was she still dreaming? She opened her eyes.
He smiled, his eyes glittering with mischief and happiness. “Hi.”
Her heart nearly exploded with joy at seeing him, those eyes. His lips. The mole under his eye. “Hi.” She blinked the sleep from her eyes and sat up. “Something happened today, and I needed to tell you.”
He sat next to her. “What happened?”
“There was a little boy. He fell into the pond at the park, and I dove in and saved him. It was because of you. I would never have done that if it hadn’t been for you.”
“That’s wonderful, but it was you. You did it. Your strength allowed it.”
“Speaking of strength, or lack thereof, I’m sorry for running out like I did last night.”
“You still don’t believe me.”
“No.”
“Will you let me prove it to you?”
How would he do that?
Did she really want to know the truth? What if he was a selkie? “Okay.”
He took her hands in his and pulled her from the bed. “We have to go somewhere.”
A brief flash of unease coursed through her body but was quickly replaced by calm. “Okay.” She followed him through the house and outside. The limo came to a stop to pick them up, without being summoned, and they rode the short distance to the beach they’d visited together on that wonderful day.
But this time it was dark, the sky a deep blue-black. Stars twinkled. The moon cast a silvery glow over the water’s rippling surface.
Once out of the car, Josh led her to the water’s edge. “I must come here every Friday at exactly midnight, and I must remain in the water until midnight Saturday. That’s why you’ve never seen me on a Saturday afternoon.”
Immediately, memories from that first night, his unusual pallor, surfaced. That had been Friday night. Midnight. A chill shot up Jane’s spine and she shivered.
Could he be telling the truth? “What happens if you don’t go to the water?” she asked.
“I die. The poisons in the air are too toxic for my body. And I must replenish the water that escapes into the air as well.”
“Like a frog?”
He smiled, and she couldn’t help appreciating the beauty of it, even in the dark. “In a way.”
She glanced at her watch, surprised by the time. She’d slept for hours back at the house, and it was now near midnight.
What would she see in a few short minutes? She wasn’t sure she could deal with it, whether she saw him change into a fish-man or not.
Josh shed his shirt, shoes, socks and pants, and she watched, enthralled by his sleek, muscled, body. He moved with such grace, even as he did the most mundane of tasks. As each heartbeat sounded in her ear, she waited for something, anything, to prove what he was.
Which did she hope for? Which was worse? For him to be some kind of mythological creature? Or for him to be delusional?
He motioned for her to join him as he sat on the sand, so near the lapping tide as the cool water slipped up over her feet, but she wrapped her arms around herself against the chill and sat next to him.
“No human is permitted to see the Transformation. It is written; it is our curse. After today, I will not be able to return to the surface, to you.”
“You won’t?”
He shook his head. “I love you. If you must see this to believe me, then so be it. But understand that I cannot return. Ever.”
“So, how do I find you?”
“You must either go with me, now, or forget about me forever.”
What kind of choice was that? “But you said I needed a bone marrow transplant to live underwater. How will I go with you?”
“I can breathe for you until we get to my world. It is in a protective dome. Our doctors can perform the transplant. Then you will be like us, like other marine mammals. We have a protein that allows us to carry extra oxygen in our bloodstream. We can hold our breath for hours. Or to be sure of this, we can wait up to a year to do the procedure.”
Protein in the blood? Was it true? She knew whales and other animals did hold their breath, but she’d never read how.
It was possible.
She wasn’t buying this…was she?
Was his skin turning gray? Maybe it was the cold. Or the strange color of the moonlight. A funny slapping sound hit the beach at her feet and she looked down.
Oh God!
She felt the world spinning. She hadn’t just seen what she thought she’d seen. No way! His legs were not fusing into one, his feet twisting to the sides and bending into a fin.
She clamped her eyelids closed, swallowed several times, and waited for the dizziness to ease.
“I have to go now,” he said. “You must make a choice. And once that choice is made, you cannot go back.”
She opened her eyes and drew in a deep breath. He looked unreal, like a picture in fantasy art. His body was even bulkier than before, if that was possible, but where his skin had been sun-bronzed, now it was silver, a strange contrast to his gold hair. His legs were gone, replaced with one long tail covered with silver-blue scales. “Oh my God!”
“Do you love me?”
She did. She knew she did. But live under the sea? Where all her worst nightmares lurked?
“Do you trust me?”
He had always said if she was with him, nothing would happen to her. She looked into his eyes, and heard his voice inside her head. It vibrated through every part of her.
You are carrying my child,
he said.
It is not my wish that you will raise him alone. Come. Be my wife. Our queen. I love you.
She dropped her hand to her belly. “A child?”
He nodded. “My son. Our future king.”
This was too much! She gripped her head in her hands, muffling the soft sound of the water splashing against the sandy shore. What should she do?
It was real!
She thought about Diana and Carmen. How they’d miss her. She hadn’t even said goodbye. Her job—okay, she wouldn’t miss that.
But what about the warmth of the sun on a summer day? She’d miss that. And the smell of flowers and freshly mown grass. She’d miss those.
There was one thing—one person—she’d miss more than anything. There was one man she could no more live without than air, and he was being carried away on the tide.
“Wait!” She dashed into the sea, the water pulling at her shins. “Don’t go!”
He turned to face her, his head bobbing above the surface. “Come to me. You must come on your own.”
She ran, pushing through the heavy water, eager to break the distance between them, but it was as if the water wouldn’t let her. It rolled, forming high walls, obscuring him from her view, and no matter how hard she fought, she found herself being swept back toward shore.
Exhausted, and unable to see him over the bulging tide, she sat on the sand and did the only thing she could do. She cried, hollered out in frustration, then cursed the sea for being so damn big and strong.
Chapter 17
Doubt paralyses the strongest of men.
He was gone.
Damn it! She hadn’t really been convinced she wanted to go, even as she’d thrashed and kicked through the water.
Until now. Now, she felt empty and alone. He was gone, and he could never come back.
What had she done? She’d hesitated too long, and look what it had cost her. How would she live without him? And what if he said was true? What if she was carrying his baby? She shouted a few more choice words.
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be; this isn’t what she wanted.
“I love you, Josh!” she yelled into the splashing, crashing surf. “I will always love you.” Then she stood and pushing against the tide that had seemed to have changed directions, she started moving toward the open water.
But now, instead of being swept inland, she seemed to be pushed out to sea, no matter how hard she fought it. It was as if the water had a will.
She fought it, panicking, fearful she’d drown without Josh. Still, it pulled her deeper and deeper out to sea, until she was floating, the land beyond her reach, the shore too distant to see over the waves.
Oh God! She would die out here! “Josh!”
Something gripped her waist and pulled her under, and she fought for a moment, thrashing her hands to bring her back to the surface. Then, she saw his face and she relaxed.
I’m here
, he said in her head.
I thought you were gone. You said you couldn’t come back. You said I had to come to you.
I had to wait. You had to choose. You had to truly wish to be with me, or the tide would not turn. It followed your lead, carrying you to me.
It followed my lead? Not in my book. If it had, I’d have been out here a lot sooner.
It’s just like humans to fight against the tide they themselves command, but once they learn to follow its will, they’re rewarded. I’m glad you chose me.
Me, too.
Let’s begin our journey.
He kissed her, filling her lungs with sweet, pure air. He shed her clothes, his fingertips tracing the curves of her body, and heating her against the chill of the sea. She pressed her body to his, eager to feel his strength. Eager to meld her body to his, her legs wrapped around his waist, and his thick erection prodded her pussy.
His growl rumbled through her body, electrifying nerve endings everywhere. Foreign sounds echoed in her ears, and new tastes seeped into her mouth. The silky water caressed her skin, soaking up the heat bursting from her core as her need for Josh’s touch grew.
He slipped two fingers inside, stroking in and out.
She bit back a cry of agony and leaned back, weightless and floating. He held her hips with one hand, his other carrying her away on a tide of bliss as he circled over her clit before plunging deep inside again. Then his tongue took the place of his fingers, lapping her folds and teasing her clit.
She was drifting, falling, careening to a far off land, yet all she cared about was the feel of his touch, the taste of the air he blew into her mouth, and the sound of his voice in her head.
Her eyelids fell closed, and when they opened, there were more silver faces surrounding her. People she’d never seen. Men and women.
She is my queen,
Josh said.
I have chosen.
She is a human,
a woman with flowing blonde hair said.