She was no longer running from anyone, only to a future she could have with her mate.
They had a child to protect, a future to pave, and as someone called out for another beer, she knew she also had a job to do.
Because Dante’s Circle was open to everybody, and those who stayed had a home, a family, and, in her case, a future.
BLOOD’S FIRST KISS
Chapter 1
The shark came out of nowhere.
Caly swore, one day, her tombstone would have that exact phrase. She used to be far better at remembering to look over her shoulder when a shark was near. She used to be able to sense them. However, recently, she’d been a little busy, a bit focused and in her head, and she kept missing the fact that, yes, she probably should be aware of her surroundings when she swam underwater.
After all, she was a mermaid. She lived deep down under the sea. She wasn’t friends with a flounder or a crab. However, she did have to worry about the aforementioned shark.
She snarled, angling her fin out of the way of some very pointy teeth. It was not a shark shifter, but a regular old hammerhead that wanted a little bite of her. And it wasn’t like she could actually hurt the damn thing because she didn’t want to hurt an innocent fish.
It was just hungry, and her fin was shiny. Apparently, the taste of mermaid was what was for dinner.
She swam quickly, swishing her fin again as it tried to nibble on her once more. She sighed, tired. “Stop it,” she muttered under her breath, bubbles of water and air escaping her lips.
She couldn’t actually talk to sharks, or really any sea life under the ocean. Her brother was better at it. Sometimes, she could if she tried. However, right then, the shark clearly wasn’t listening to her. It was hungry, and she didn’t have a weapon other than her brain to get herself out of this jam.
Considering she hadn’t even noticed the shark was upon her until it tried to nibble at her, her brain apparently wasn’t doing too well right then either.
“Okay, you asked for it.” She shot down to near the bottom of the seafloor, picking up a piece of driftwood that had sunk over time. It was waterlogged, not exactly good enough to do any real damage, but she didn’t really want to hurt him. She just wanted to stun him.
She twisted, smashing the shark between the eyes with the piece of wood. Unlike in some monster movies, sharks couldn’t swim backwards—though a few shark shifters she knew liked to try. The shark froze, seemed to shake it off, but swam away quickly, hopefully realizing that she was the superior predator.
Not that she really believed that, but at least the shark was gone.
She roamed her hands over her body, making sure she hadn’t actually gotten nicked by the shark.
In her mermaid form, she had gills on the sides of her neck, but not webbed fingers like some myths indicated. She wore a shell-shaped bra, mostly because it was easier to swim when she didn’t have to deal with flowy shirts underwater. Sometimes, she wore tight shirts with sleeves or other tops, but she’d felt like going Ariel today. Her green and blue tail with its touch of purple shimmered under the light that shone from the nearby underwater house, but she didn’t see any blood.
Frankly, she really just wanted to get home, so she was grateful that the attack hadn’t been worse. She had papers to pore over, and her brother and his mates were going to be there along with their son. She missed Seth and his family, and she just wanted to feel like she had a family of her own. She hadn’t really had much of that recently.
She quickly pushed those melancholic thoughts out of her mind and headed home. She waved at a school of young mermaids and mermen and then gestured at a couple of warriors. They gave her a strange look as if surprised to see her, but she shook it off.
She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere, was she? No, she just had to do some research and spend time with her family. Right?
She swam under the large dome that was her home and traversed the tunnels until she came to a pool. There were a few around her house where even humans using magic could find their way into her home. They acted as front doors as well as actual pools in the house. She loved them.
Her head breached the water, and she sucked in oxygen, her lungs now working as a human rather than a mermaid. She levered herself out of the pool and grabbed a towel. She shifted back into her human form and wiggled her toes, grateful that her legs were back. She loved both forms, but sometimes, she just really wanted to stretch her feet, and she couldn’t really do that with a tail. She wrapped a towel around her waist, the top half of her suit still on, and then got to her feet.
“What are you doing here?” her brother Seth asked. She turned, screaming.
“It’s my home. But you’re here. I’m so glad you are. I’ve missed you, Amara, and Tristan so much.” She ran to him and hugged him hard.
“I’ve missed you too, big sister,” Seth said as he lowered himself down to give her a big hug. Her little brother wasn’t so little anymore. He was a big guy with a heart of gold, two wonderful mates, and a baby boy.
She was an auntie thanks to him, and he made her so happy.
“Okay, where’s the rest of them? I can’t wait to hold my nephew.” She clapped her hands together and then went to go get her clothes from the bench.
“I’m going to ask you again. Why are you here?” he asked, and she frowned.
“What do you mean? I live here.”
“I know you do, darling, but you’re not supposed to be here.”
“What?”
“Amara is putting Eli down for a nap, but Tristan is at the Conclave meeting. You know, the one you’re supposed to be at.”
Caly’s eyes widened. “Oh, my goddess. How did I forget?”
She ran her hands through her curls and shook out her hair, knowing it was futile to want it to dry since she was going to have to head back into the water now. “How late am I?”
“Well, probably about ten minutes by now. They likely haven’t even started yet if the elders are just bumbling on about the good old days of the Conclave where they didn’t have to worry about the lower species.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. “Crap crap crap. Okay, I’m going to have to use a portal to get there. I don’t have time to swim to a main one on land that’ll use less magic.”
“I’m on it. You know you’re going to have to be in mermaid form when you’re there.”
Caly rolled her eyes. “I know. Everything has to be tradition. Even though Dante doesn’t have to show up as a dragon. And none of the shifters are in animal form.”
“No, but the first mermaids showed up in mer-form during the original Conclave. Therefore, you have to at least start the meeting in your nice little pool on your pedestal.
“I hate it. I literally feel like a fish in an aquarium.”
“Well, you are, Calypso.”
She stuck out her tongue and then pulled a ruffled shirt on over her swimsuit top. She didn’t like the way some of the older Conclave members stared at her boobs when she was in her mermaid form. Just because she liked her curves and the way she looked, didn’t mean she needed to be oversexualized by old dudes who would never touch her.
“Amara says we will have dinner for you when you get back with Tristan.”
“She’s doing the cooking, right?” she asked and went up on her toes to kiss her brother.
“You know it. You’re bringing a bag with all your work?”
She nodded. “Yep, and it’s waterproof. And I also have a pair of pants so I don’t have to stay in my mermaid form the whole time.
“You just hate the way they stare.”
“True. I love both forms, I don’t like others.”
“The family motto,” Seth said, rolling his eyes.
She punched him in the arm and kissed where she’d hit him, and then went to the portal that Seth had opened for her. She hadn’t changed out of her towel yet, so she sat down at the edge of the portal that she would dive into, changed back into her mer-form, and then undid th
e towel.
“Good luck,” Seth said.
“I guess I’ll need it.”
And then she dove. Magic swirled all around her, and she shimmered, her body shaking. She hated traveling by portal. She would’ve preferred to go to one of the other sanctioned areas where she didn’t have to touch so much magic and have to travel in her mer-form, but she was late because she had forgotten the darn meeting. All for a Conclave she’d once loved being a part of.
The Conclave was older than most of the realms themselves. Each of the realms had their own governing body, their own knights and kings and queens or Pack leaders and Alphas. It depended on the realm and the type of shifter or magical being they were and how they lived. After centuries and millennia of wars and strife and loss, a Conclave had been created.
It was her job to fine-tune the history and the lineage of those within the Conclave, and those of importance to the governing body. So, she knew more history about it than most. However, she wasn’t allowed to speak about the majority of it.
Two members of each of the realms met for the Conclave so they could discuss any important business. Namely if there was a war going on or like, at one point, if the seven lightning-struck women—one of which her brother had married—needed to be wiped from the face of the Earth or not.
She had been against that, and had, in fact, wanted to ensure that they stayed safe. Not just because of Seth, because at first, she hadn’t even known her brother would be mated to one. No, because it hadn’t been their fault that the gods had decided that they needed to change the way the face of the Earth lay.
Since her tenure as a Conclave member, she had dealt with countless wars, ridiculous infighting, and even the sanctions of a new realm. It was a realm of shaded magic that wasn’t actually as dark and evil as their name might suggest. She didn’t know much about them, but she was learning. Just like she was learning about all the realms. Including the brownies, dragons, bears, and all the others.
It was an exhausting job, but she loved it. Most days.
She found herself in her glass bowl on her pedestal after she slid through the end of the portal. She sucked in some air, trying to be as discreet as possible, but a low chuckle sounded from beside her.
She narrowed her eyes at Reynard, her second, who just shook his head. “Knew you’d forget,” he muttered.
She flipped him off. She wasn’t a huge fan. She used to have another merman next to her, but he had retired a few years ago. Now, she was stuck with Reynard. The merman who liked her boobs, and that was about it.
However, he did get shit done when it came to the Conclave, so he wasn’t all bad.
“What did I miss?” she asked, leaning against the edge of her bowl. He leaned against his, and she did her best not to let anybody’s stares bother her. No one else was truly in their shifter forms except for them, and she hated it. Loathed being on display. But she couldn’t fix it, not until after the minutes of the last Conclave were read, and she could change into her human form and sit on the edge of the bowl if she felt like it. She had done that more often than not recently, and she planned on doing it tonight, too.
“They’re about to start the minutes. It seems that a few of the elders were late, as well.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Why?”
“Probably because they like to keep us waiting.”
“You know, I wouldn’t put that past them.”
There were murmurs, and then the minutes were read. As soon as they were, she quickly shifted back to her human form and dressed. Reynard stayed in his mer-form, but he didn’t have to deal with the stares as much as she did. Usually anyway. Some of them liked to look at his tail just as much as hers.
They went over the agenda, and she was kind of grateful that nothing seemed too important. It was mostly just rehashing what had gone on at the last meeting. That meant that, at the moment, there weren’t too many wars and battles happening.
“I take it you took care of the rogue situation,” one of the elders said to one of the wolf Conclave members.
The Alpha of the Nocturne Pack nodded. “My men took care of it. You won’t have to deal with it.”
“And you took in that fox kit?” another elder asked.
“Yes.” The Alpha of the Pack glared over at the fox Conclave members, but the foxes didn’t seem to notice or care.
“Wonder what that was about,” Reynard whispered as the talks moved to something else.
“Don’t worry about it,” she whispered. “Seriously.”
He just looked at her. She knew exactly what that was about, and what the gorgons had been doing as they were questioned, as well. Not because it had made Conclave news before this, but because it all had to do with friends of friends and the fact that her circle was growing as Seth’s circle seemed to. She didn’t mind knowing as much as she did, and she liked having people in her life because, sometimes, it got a little lonely with what she was doing.
“If that’s all, we can end our Conclave,” the elder said, his voice low.
There was a commotion from the front, and the large—at least four-stories-high—gold, gilded doors slid open, smashing into the walls as a man with dark hair, a smirk, and a long, leather trench stormed in. He strode confidently forward, his head held high. Everyone started to shout, glaring at him.
“Unauthorized entry. Who let him in? Where are our guards?”
People started to move, ready to fight, but the elders held up their hands.
“Stay in your seats. What is the meaning of this?”
“You’re having a Conclave meeting. Shouldn’t you have all species represented?” the mysterious stranger asked.
Caly moved forward, trying to sense what he was, but she felt like she hit a brick wall when she tried. She had no idea what type of supernatural he was. And she was usually pretty good at sensing those things.
“I don’t understand,” the elder growled out.
“No, you don’t seem to understand much. But I just need to make sure you understand this. You have left out a prominent species based on your hatred. Let me join as a Conclave member, along with one other as per your rules, or suffer the consequences.”
There was an uproar, and she moved forward, trying to understand what was happening.
A new species? That hadn’t happened before. At least to her knowledge. The shades weren’t a new species, they had once been on the Conclave long ago, but everyone had thought they’d died out. When they showed up again, they had been allowed on the Conclave.
However, she didn’t know of another species like that.
Who was this man? And why couldn’t she pull her gaze from him?
“Be ready to run,” Tristan, Caly’s brother-in-law, said from her side.
He was fae, one of the Conclave members. His friend, a wizard named Levi, was at his side.
“Why would we run?”
“Because I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Dante the dragon said from behind her.
She turned and almost fell into her bowl, but Tristan held out a hand for her. “Seriously, this doesn’t look good.”
Dante hummed in agreement. “Hunter and the wolves will be gone, as well. Our friends will be safe. But I don’t trust this stranger.”
Caly looked at Dante, then back down at the man who wasn’t any supernatural species she’d ever known. “What is he?”
“That, I do not know. And that worries me more than I care to admit.”
Considering that Dante was millennia old, she didn’t blame him. She’d thought he knew everything there was to know about the realms.
“You can’t just come in here and issue ultimatums,” the elder snapped. “You are nothing. A figment of the imagination. You should go before you suffer the consequences. You are but one against many.”
The stranger tilted his head. “You know exactly who I am. Your lies and deceit can only last so long. And you know what I can do. You know what I represent. Let us have a voice, or remember exactly
what happened the last time you ignored us.” He looked around, winked at her, then shrugged.
What. The. Hell?
“I’ll be waiting outside while you make your decision.” He strode off just as he’d come in, and she was honestly so confused that it took her a moment to catch up.
“Well, that was interesting,” Tristan said, shaking his head as the rest of the Conclave fell into an uproar. “We need to get back to Seth and Amara. I have a feeling that this isn’t going to end well.”
“We can all meet up later if needed,” Dante said, but before Caly could agree, not even knowing if she was truly invited, one of the elders called out her name.
“Calypso Oceanus. Come. You are needed.”
She froze, and Reynard looked at her. “Should I go with you?”
“No, go home with Tristan and the others. You don’t want the elders’ eye on you if you can help it.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Tristan said.
“I don’t really think I have a choice.” She squeezed his hand and then jumped off the edge of her bowl so she could make her way to where the elders sat.
She looked over her shoulder as Tristan and her friend stared, clearly ready to fight if needed. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“Sire,” she said, not kneeling, but she did bow her head in respect. She might not like the elders, but they still helped rule the Conclave. Not that the Conclave truly had leaders per se, but the elders did hold sway. And if they asked to meet with you, you met with them. Their powers were legendary, and she didn’t want to face that. After all, she was just a mermaid. She wasn’t even sure she had any real powers to begin with.”
“Calypso.”
“Yes?”
“Talk to that man and figure out exactly what he wants. In detail. It is your job of lineage to figure out who this imposter is. Find him, or you will lose your job as a Conclave member, as a lineage maker. You don’t want to be shunned by the mermaids, do you?”
The elder spoke so quickly, she felt as if she couldn’t keep up.
Dante’s Circle Reborn: A Dante’s Circle Collection Page 13