by Eve Langlais
Their tongues dueled as he pushed deeper into her, grinding himself, drawing the most delicious sensations. She held him tight, arms and legs wrapped around, sucking at his tongue, nibbling at his lips.
His hips pulled back, teasing her with only the tip of his dick. She wanted him sheathed, so she tightened her legs and slammed him back in.
“Jeezus, Red.” Jett threw his head back, the cords in his neck bulging with the strain of controlling himself.
But she wanted him wild. Wanted him to lose himself inside her.
“Fuck me,” she whispered, knowing the vulgar words would excite him.
The reaction was instantaneous. He shifted his grip, gripping her around the thighs, spreading her wide that he might pump her hard and fast. He slammed his cock in and out of her, deep strokes. Hard thrusts.
She cried out and clawed at him as her channel gripped him tight.
“Yes. Yes.” She panted as he kept slamming into her, his motions frantic. His control lost.
When he changed the angle, he hit her G-spot, and it took only a few strokes before it was all over for her. She came.
Came with a shudder and a cry of his name. Her moist flesh pulsing around his cock, squeezing him tight.
“Red.” He sighed her name as he came, spilling inside her. He caught her lips in a soft kiss, a kiss that she wanted to last forever.
But he couldn’t stay. His walkie-talkie went off before they’d caught their breath, and he growled, “I’ve got to go.”
He returned late that night, angry, his steps brisk as he paced her room.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice thick with sleep.
“Boss is making me head to the city.”
That woke her up. “What? When? Why?”
“Tonight. And I can’t say any more than that.” He sighed. “Fuck me. I don’t want to go.”
She didn’t want him to leave either and yet…without him here, she could go through with her desperate plan.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Could he hear the lie?
“But I’ll miss you.” The words wrenched out of him, and her heart almost broke, especially since she didn’t know what would happen, or if she would even be around when he returned.
“Come here.” She held open her arms, and he came into them, his body heavy, his kisses fierce. He took her quickly, bringing her to orgasm with his mouth then again with his cock. Leaving her panting in bed, the scent of him on her sheets. Sheets that grew cold with his departure.
But it was for the best. The vials and their possible miracle cure called to her. Teased her with the possibilities.
The question was, one at a time or all at once?
Despite her eagerness, she chose to do one per day.
One per day for five days.
Days during which she had no one to talk to. Jett had been shipped off on a helicopter to handle some mysterious business with Mr. Lowry. All he managed was a brief video call, where he took in her appearance and said, “You look like shit.”
Her reply? “Because I miss you.”
She took comfort in the concern in his gaze. His whispered, “Stay safe. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Soon stretched from five days to seven. The vials were all gone, and her lungs still hurt. Even more than before.
The ache in her heart, though, was his fault. She missed him. Missed not having anyone to talk to. Especially as the nightmares grew intense, leaving her shivering and shaking, covered in sweat. Was this the cancer or the serum at work?
She wished she had someone to ask. She didn’t even have Margaret anymore. After their last encounter, the woman had up and disappeared overnight. The rumor mill claimed she was let go due to management differences. But given Luke, Margaret’s one and only patient, appeared to have disappeared at the same time, she wondered.
Did they run off together?
Whatever the reason, Becky missed her. Wished she’d been nicer those last few times because she could have used a friend. Especially now.
Something is wrong with me. And she didn’t think the cancer was to blame. Seeing her looking wan, Chimera had told her to take the day off and rest. Sleep wouldn’t fix what ailed her. Perhaps fresh air would.
Heading outside, she winced at the bright light. Coughed at the briskness of the fresh air. Still, she didn’t go back inside. Her steps took her to the shore of the lake, where she shivered despite the warm rays of the sun. For the past few days she’d been running a fever. A cold one, which made no sense. Her core temperature kept dropping, and her skin itched. Itched something fierce.
She also craved water. Not to drink. Nope. She wanted to soak in it. Took crazy long showers that never quite satisfied. She wanted a bath. A way to submerge her whole body, hence why the lake drew her.
The large body of water had always intimidated her. Yet it kept calling. Even in her dreams she saw it.
As if in a trance, she kicked off her shoes and stepped into the water. The cold barely registered, but a sense of relief swept her.
More. She needed more. So she waded deeper and deeper until the bottom dropped away and she began to sink. Like a rock.
And she did nothing to stop it. Panic only began to claw at her as her lungs tightened. The pressure in them built. Begged. Screamed for her to breathe.
She convulsed and flailed, suddenly realizing what had happened.
I’m drowning. Oh God. What have I done?
She began kicking, only to find herself being dragged down by the weight of her clothes. The last of the air left her body, and she floated, eyes wide open, still drifting downwards. How deep was this lake?
From above, parts of it could be seen clear as day, but she’d chosen to walk into the darker section where the bottom lay out of sight. Yet she could still see.
Her body cried out for air. Yet there was none to be found. Her lungs were desperate for her to breathe. Any moment now she’d officially drown, which sucked.
I don’t want to die.
Not yet. So many things she’d yet to do. Bungee jump. Eat a real poutine from Quebec. Snorkel in the tropics. Get white sand in the crotch of her bathing suit. Tell Jett she loved him.
Too late for that.
She heaved in a breath, a lungful of water that would end it all.
The cold fluid filled her lungs. She blinked and waited to die.
Didn’t die right away. What the heck? Since her lungs hurt again, she blew out, noticed the little bubbles rising from her mouth and heaved in another breath.
She noticed something odd. Her lungs no longer hurt, and she found herself inhaling water and expelling it as if it were air. How was this possible?
She tried to talk.
“Blrgergrg.” The sound was muffled and indecipherable.
Did she dream?
Something nudged her. Startled, she turned in the water, only then realizing she’d stopped her sinking and floated. She came face to face with a fish. A big fish. It nudged her again.
“Shhpptt.” The garbled warning to stop did nothing to halt the fish from poking at her again, the touch of him cold and scaly.
But it gave her an idea. Didn’t dolphins save people all the time? She wrapped her arms around the fish before she could think twice. Only to blow out a stream of water in shock as it bolted.
Straight down. Deeper. Away from the light.
Away from it all.
Chapter Eighteen
“No, that can’t be right.” Jett made them rewind the footage and watched again. And again, as Becky walked to the edge of the lake and then waded in. Waded until her head went under.
She never came back up.
He punched the wall, the pain of hitting concrete not enough to numb the pain suddenly filling his heart.
Why? Why had she done that?
Had his leaving been the catalyst? Or had she taken a turn for the worse?
Whatever the reason, she’d chosen to suicide by drowning.
And
he was fucking sad about it. Actually sad didn’t come close to covering his emotions. Yeah, fucking emotions because he cared for Becky. The way she smiled, no matter how much he scowled. The way she chattered, not always expecting a reply, yet when he did talk, she listened to him intently.
The way she lit up when she saw him. Melted at his touch. Hugged him close as if he mattered.
His eyes prickled, and it shocked to realize the loss of her brought him to tears.
Guess I liked her more than I knew. More than he’d ever admitted. Which meant he felt guilty. Perhaps he should have told her how much he actually cared for her. Sure, it was emasculating, but the woman was fucking dying. And he couldn’t even give her that?
What he wouldn’t give to have one last chance to tell her how he felt.
Instead, all he could do was drown his sorrows with a bottle of vodka, which he drank along the shore of the lake. Toasting the woman who’d managed to make a killer feel.
No wonder his dad advised against it. Caring hurt. Hurt in a way no stab wound or gunshot ever managed.
The crunch of footsteps roused a snarled and slurred, “Fuck off.”
“You’re taking her death awfully hard.”
“She was a nice girl. And you”—he turned a bleary glare on his boss—“let her die. You could have saved her. You said you were healing her.”
“I was trying. A pity she couldn’t wait. Probably for the best, given what she saw.”
“I could have convinced her to stay quiet,” Jett muttered, taking another slug of burning alcohol.
“Maybe you could have. But what about when you tired of her? It would have happened, don’t deny it.”
Thing was Jett did want to deny it. Did Chimera really not grasp just how rare his affection for Becky was?
“Doesn’t matter now, does it? She’s gone.” No more teasing or touching. Gone were the smiles meant just for him.
“Are you sure she is gone?” Chimera stood beside him, staring at the lake, hands shoved in his pocket.
“Are you going to spout some bullshit about her spirit being all fucking around me?” Jett staggered to his feet. “Because that’s a load of crap.”
“The soul is something invented by the religious establishments to try and appease those who fear death. It’s nonsense. Dead is dead.”
“Do you think we’ll ever find her body?” Because he hated to think of her in that cold watery grave forever.
“I know exactly where her body is. Would you like to see it?”
“Mother fucker. What have you done to her?” Jett lunged but was drunker than expected, given Chimera danced out of reach.
“Calm yourself. I don’t have her. I said you could see her.”
“How?”
“Follow me.”
Chimera took him to his office, the public one that he kept on the ground level of the clinic. He opened a closet door and beckoned Jett.
Turned out it wasn’t a closet but a slim elevator. It shot down, not too far by his reckoning, and opened onto a room he’d never even suspected existed. A room massive in size with a wall comprised of glass. Glass holding back tons of water.
“What the fuck is this?” he asked. “An aquarium?”
“Of a sort.” Chimera approached the glass, hands tucked behind his back. “It’s actually a view into the cavern that forms the lake.
The lake that took his Red. Jett stayed away from the glass wall, not sure if he could handle seeing her floating corpse.
Chimera kept talking. “Originally I had this built for my pleasure. I’ve always felt the ocean held so many of the world’s secrets. But then it became practical. Early in my research, a few of my subjects treated with aquatic splices found themselves unable to tolerate living on land, but thrived in the water.”
“You mean there really are monsters in the lake?” The dull edge of liquor still gripped him as Jett approached the window.
“I wouldn’t call them monsters. Some are quite beautiful. A few days ago, we acquired a new addition.” Chimera flicked a switch, illuminating the water from all directions. The clarity was startling. He could see myriad fish swimming around.
But that wasn’t what held him riveted in place.
Swimming toward him, her red hair floating, the separate strands undulating, was Becky. Not dead after all. But also not quite the woman he’d left. For one, she appeared to be breathing water, and the skin of her body, arms and legs, shimmered, as if covered in scales. Only her face remained untouched, gorgeous.
Alive. She reached for him with a smile.
His eyes widened. “Holy shit.” He palmed the glass and whispered, “She’s a fucking mermaid.”
Elation filled him, then confusion. “I don’t understand.” Only to suddenly grasp things with a clarity that roused his anger. “You did this to her!”
“Not me.”
“Don’t fucking lie. Those treatments you said you were giving her, they changed her.” He advanced on the doctor, fists clenched.
“While my treatments might have eased the process, it wasn’t that which transformed Nurse Hendrickson but the vials she stole and used.”
“What?” The accusation stopped him in his tracks.
“You heard me. Your paramour stole from me and then foolishly injected herself.” Chimera turned to the glass. “She should have died. All the others did, and yet look at her. A mermaid sans tail.”
“Can you fix her?”
“Perhaps,” Chimera mused. “But I’d need to have access to her. I’ll require samples, which I can’t acquire while she’s in the lake.”
“Then how do we get her out?” He approached the glass, still trying to process the fact that she floated on the other side.
“That is why I fetched you. We need your help to get her out of there.”
Jett lifted his hand to the glass. “Tell me what I have to do.”
Chapter Nineteen
It took Becky awhile before she stopped huddling on the bottom of the lake. The big fish who’d brought here to the underwater cave had left.
Left her alone. In the dark.
Despite being in the water, she didn’t feel cold. Although, when a school of fish passed and left behind a warm spot…let’s just say she changed places.
Breathing didn’t hurt. Not anymore. She could suck in great big lungfuls of water with ease. As to how she didn’t die?
It might have had to do with the fact that she’d changed. A fact she first noticed when some jerk threw a switch and turned on a light.
After hours of darkness, the illumination proved jarring. She blinked and looked around her in shock. It was one thing to know she resided in some kind of watery cavern, another to see it. The rock walls all around were striated and smoothed by the water. The bottom, a pebbled and muddy mess. Left and right of her, fish swam, some in schools, others alone. All of them oblivious to the giant window.
A window overlooking an empty room. Not much in it, a pair of chairs facing the glass with a table between them. An observation chamber. But no one was in it. She learned the lights were on a timer. On for a few hours a day. Timed to come on at the same time as several openings in the wall squirted something into the water.
She wrinkled her nose at the taste it left behind. Poison wouldn’t leave her feeling more energized and clear-headed. Some kind of nutrient addition. Just like the shellfish that were propelled out of a hole above were food.
That first time the chute opened, she ignored the raining shrimp. The fact that she craved some of the little fish swimming by wasn’t something she wanted to contemplate. She’d never been big on the whole sushi thing. At all!
The second day, when that light came on and it rained chunks of tuna, her hungry belly didn’t care if it was raw.
By the fourth day, she was one of the first to grab a handful. Better than scrounging like some of the other creatures that lurked from under rocks and shallow caves.
Things that made her shudder—Because I think they
were once human like me.
Once being the key word. Becky wasn’t herself anymore.
Becky had become a mermaid, which was kind of weird. While many little girls dreamed of being a mermaid, she wasn’t one of them. She didn’t think the scales adorning her skin were pretty. Their iridescent sheen only served to remind her she’d done this to herself.
Why didn’t I pay more attention to the monster in his lab?
The only saving grace was she retained her human shape and face. She’d seen her reflection in the glass. Her two legs. Two arms. Still two boobs. Barely hidden by the shirt that billowed around her every time she moved.
No tail, thank goodness. Still, she’d become something other than human, which was quite scary. Not to mention lonely. The other fish in the lake? They didn’t talk much. But at least she could see them, her eyesight clear despite looking at everything through water.
Funny how in some respects she was part fish, able to breathe, scales shimmering on her arms, eyes with a strange film to protect them. Yet in others, she wasn’t. Not a single fin to be seen. A hybrid mermaid who really wished she’d not played with Chimera’s potions.
But at the same time…the pain in her lungs was gone. She was alive.
She just didn’t know if it would last. Not to mention there were things in the lake. Scary things. None of them had tried to eat her yet, but she did worry. She’d seen the bones lying at the bottom. One appeared to be a human skull.
If only she could figure out how to escape. She feared leaving the room with the light and the food. What if she left the cavern and never found it again?
On the fifth day, the light came on as usual, but there was a difference. A man stood looking out the window. Dr. Chimera, whose eyes widened upon seeing her.
Then he smiled.
A smile that didn’t say, Don’t worry, Becky, I can fix this, but rather the kind of grin a shark might give before making you its lunch.
The light turned off abruptly, leaving her in shocking darkness.
Her heart pounded.
What did it mean?
The illumination only lasted a few minutes, not the usual hours. The food still dropped from above. She could sense more than see it falling around her, yet she didn’t grab for any.