“Let me go,” I said at last. The man could have crushed me if he had wanted. He had the power to squeeze my ribs until I couldn’t breathe.
But he hadn’t.
Still, I couldn’t trust that he might not hurt me. These were strangers. I had no idea what manner of men they were, and Uncle Phil and Aunt Lorraine taught me never trust anyone.
“I’ll let you go if you don’t run away,” the man said, breathing heavily against my ear. “We just want our cameras back.”
That couldn’t happen. I still clutched both cameras in my hands. With as much force as I could muster, I threw them onto the ground hoping they would smash to pieces. To my great chagrin, they landed on a cushion of high grass.
I raised my foot ready to slam it down on top of them, but the man’s arms squeezed my chest and my entire body was suddenly lifted into the air.
“No, you don’t,” he said as he backed me away from the equipment, settling my feet onto the ground a few steps away. “What are you doing?”
I was rapidly running out of options. Now the cameras with that damning footage lay out of my reach and it didn’t appear that this guy intended to let me go anytime soon.
“You need to erase the footage you took earlier.” The words were out of my mouth before I even knew I’d said them. I wanted to curse myself for opening my darn mouth.
“What?”
I attempted to struggle against him one more time, but his arms were immobile. I sighed, knowing defeat. What other options did I have? Plus, I was getting tired. The rush of adrenaline that had pumped through me earlier was beginning to drain.
“I need the footage you took earlier erased. If you do that, I’ll leave you alone.”
“Why?” His arms had loosened around me. I could breathe easier, although he allowed no other wiggle room.
“It’s a matter of life and death.”
“That’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it?”
“It’s true.”
“How?”
“You’ll just have to trust me, okay?” I couldn’t give any reason other than that. But I wasn’t lying. Uncle Phil would kill me for sure if this footage leaked onto social media.
Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. Kill was a harsh word. Uncle Phil was many things, but a killer… I didn’t think so. However, other repercussions could happen, and I didn’t want to face any of them.
Better to destroy the footage than to face Uncle Phil’s wrath.
“Trusting you is a stretch,” the man said. “You’re a thief. Could be you’re a liar, too.”
“I’m not.” I shook my head. “And I’m not a thief. I’m just trying to protect someone.”
“Your mermaid friend?”
My body went still. For a split second, I didn’t move or breathe. Rapidly, I considered all my options, my responses, future questions, consequences.
Nothing seemed safe.
In a panic, I blurted, “What mermaid?”
“Yeah, okay,” the man said with a chuckle. “You’re definitely a liar, but not a very good one.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Maybe I could try the ignorance approach since I certainly couldn’t tell him the truth.
“The only footage on those cameras of any worth is those ten seconds of a mermaid swimming in the lake by the waterfall. Why else would you want our cameras?”
“You’re crazy,” I whispered, again trying to shove against him for my freedom. He still wasn’t letting go.
“I thought I was crazy. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Please, just delete the footage. It’ll make all of our lives so much easier.” I doubted I could talk myself out of this like I’d hoped. Nothing I could say would convince him. Begging was the only thing I had left.
“I don’t know,” the guy said. “It depends on if that mermaid was real or not.”
“Not real at all.” I shook my head fiercely. “We were just pretending. And we’ll get in trouble if someone finds out.”
“You really need to practice lying if you’re planning a future as a thief.”
Suddenly, my arms were free. He spun me around to face him but kept his hands touching my elbows lightly. Other than that, I was no longer trapped.
“Who are you?”
I held my breath, ready to make a run for it until I looked into the man’s eyes. Hazel green eyes. The color of seaweed washed onto the beach after a summer storm.
Warm. Sincere. Caring.
For a moment, I lost myself in his gaze. The dark depths of his eyes pierced my soul as if he could see straight through me. Through all the layers I had built to protect myself in this harsh world. Through all the emotions I kept locked within myself. It felt like he could see through it all.
Instead of feeling open and bare, I reveled in the sensation that I wasn’t alone. That he had bonded somehow with me and our souls became united. That he could see me, truly see the real me and he didn’t turn from me in disgust.
I blinked. Still, the feeling remained. There was a connection between us, something I’d never felt with anyone, neither human nor merfolk. I couldn’t be imagining it. Could I?
“I… I can’t tell you…” I murmured, unable to think of any proper excuse. My mind muddled from the sensations I was experiencing.
Suddenly, I was keenly aware of his fingertips brushing my elbows. My body tingled where his arms had previously wrapped around me.
“Okay,” he said, nodding his understanding. “That’s okay. You’re scared. I can tell. But I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to understand what’s going on.”
He sounded as sincere as the emotions I saw within his eyes. I could tell he was speaking the truth. But I kept my mouth shut. My loyalty to my family could never outweigh my trust in a stranger.
“My name is Oscar. My friends call me Ozzy. The other guy I’m with is called Zak. We came here to film the haunted mansion. We didn’t plan on finding a mermaid on this island. We had no idea that such a thing even existed. We were just in the right place, at the right time. Simple as that.”
“There’s nothing simple about this at all,” I mumbled, trying desperately to get my scattered thoughts together. I had to stop focusing on his eyes and begin thinking of another plan to convince him to delete that footage. Penelope was relying on me to keep her safe.
“Yeah,” Oscar nodded. “I’m beginning to get that.”
He released my elbows and stepped back. He watched me warily with one eyebrow raised. I adjusted the bag on my shoulder. I suspected he imagined I’d take off running. When I remained in place, he nodded.
He knelt on the ground to pick up both cameras. I watched him carefully as he held the equipment.
“The footage on here could make or break my career,” Oscar said. “If it’s real…”
“It’s not.” I quickly commented, but other than raising his eyebrow again, he ignored me.
“This could mean a lot of money for me and my friend. A lot of money that could mean freedom for us. Opportunity. A better life.”
“Or it could take a life away.” I wasn’t lying when I said this. Penelope’s freedom would be revoked. So would mine. Our lives would never be the same.
Uncle Phil would see to that.
Oscar stared at me and I could tell he searched for the sincerity in my words. He couldn’t call me a liar this time.
I watched the emotions on his face, trusting my instinct that he would do the right thing. I could see his hesitation.
He believed me.
I sensed it. I knew it just as I knew when the sun would rise in the morning. I could feel it.
“Ozzy!” His friend’s voice shouted from somewhere behind me and the moment of stillness that Oscar and I had created between us shattered.
Oscar blinked. He glanced over my shoulder. I knew at that moment I wouldn’t be getting that footage deleted. His friend wouldn’t allow it. The man, Zak, would never agree.
I saw all this on Oscar’s face, I fe
lt it in the air between us.
I had one option.
He glanced over my shoulder again as Zak approached, so I grabbed the cameras from his hands and ran.
“I’m sorry,” I said, hating myself for taking away the means of freedom from one man, so I could keep it for myself and Penelope.
Zak shouted behind me, but I sped away as swiftly as my legs could carry me. I cradled the cameras to my chest. The wind whipped around me as the rain pelted my skin. As soon as I could, I swung my backpack to my stomach and shoved the cameras into the bag, then gripped it tight. My feet pounded the dirt path as I headed toward the beach.
There was only one way off this island. I’d never be able to hide until daybreak. I had to go now.
Distantly, I could hear the men shouting as they chased after me. I didn’t even take the time to look back. My heart thudded fiercely as I imagined they were just behind me, reaching to grab me.
I ran faster and faster until I reached the beach. I raced into the water. The waves crashed ferociously against the rocks scattered along the beach, the water stirred to a frenzy from the storm.
More shouts came from behind me. They had reached the beach. I ignored them. Once I was waist-deep in the water, I grasped the strap of the backpack with one hand and used the other to unbutton my shorts and push the fabric from my legs.
As soon as my body was free from the confining clothes, I closed my eyes and concentrated on shifting. What began as a warm tingle soon blazed into a sharp white-hot pain. This always happened when I forced the change too quickly. But I was in a hurry. I had wanted to get under the water before they saw me.
Too late now.
I held the backpack tightly as my limbs spasmed, the skin sprouting glistening scales as my legs fused together. My bare feet stretched, my toes lengthened, curling until a fin sprouted.
Alongside my neck, the skin split to allow my gills to open so I could breathe underwater.
My fingers ached as a thin webbing formed between my fingers which aided me in swimming.
As soon as my body had shifted successfully, I raised my head above the surface, glimpsing the two men still standing on the shore. Satisfied that I had accomplished my goal, I was about to swim away when I saw one man dive into the ocean.
Oh, no.
What was he doing?
I watched him take long strokes, struggling with the ocean’s erratic waves as he tried to reach me.
Was he that desperate to get his camera? He would risk his life to retrieve it?
I turned my head, closing my eyes in despair. I should let him drown. He was foolish to risk his life with nature’s fury. The cameras were most likely destroyed already. I had them submerged beneath the saltwater. I doubted they had any chance of survival.
Just like the man swimming in my direction. I focused my attention on him and with sickening dread, I recognized Oscar’s dark-haired head.
I watched in horror as he continued swimming in my direction. Inside my brain, I screamed for him to turn back. As wave after wave crashed over his head, he kept resurfacing and continued coming toward me. Until that last time when the wave crashed over him and he didn’t appear again.
Sighing, I knew what I had to do. I couldn’t live with myself if I let the man drown.
I released my backpack and dove underwater.
Chapter 5
Oscar
She hadn’t gotten too far. I could see the long brown strands of her hair floating across the surface of the water. What did she think she was doing swimming out so far in a storm? She would get herself killed.
Saving her was all I could think of as I plunged into the water.
“Ozzy!” Zak shouted behind me. “What are you doing?”
Good question.
It was stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I wasn’t that great a swimmer. But I couldn’t let the woman kill herself. She’d been frightened. I saw that clearly enough when I gazed into her fathomless brown eyes.
Had she been so scared that she thought her only escape was to swim for it?
The nearest island was too far to see with the naked eye. And during a storm like this, she’d never make it even halfway.
I relied often on instinct and my gut told me this woman needed help.
But with each wave crashing over my head, I realized the futility of my actions, noble as they were. Sure, I wanted to save her. But I began to suspect that I might be the one who needed saving.
I kicked to the surface every time a wave drove me under. Again and again. The last time I struggled to the surface, gasping for air, I had already lost sight of the woman and panic set in.
Had she already drowned? Was I too late?
My next thought was equally grim.
Was I going to drown, too?
I took in a huge lungful of air as another wave hit me and I tumbled down. This time, instead of kicking to the surface, I relaxed the straining muscles in my body.
I was exhausted. I just needed a moment before I continued to battle the ocean for breath. But the waves pummeled me, pushing me farther under.
I didn’t think I was going to escape this watery grave. Just as my lungs began to burn with the need for air, I felt slim arms slip around my chest, then a delicate hand on my cheek. Lips pressed against mine, forcing them open as precious air blew into my lungs.
I shivered at the sensation of her lips on mine. Her hair drifted around my face, caressing me with silky strands. My hands instinctively grabbed her arms, clinging to her at first for dear life, but as her kiss of air turned into something more sensuous, my shock shifted to wonder and desire.
We kissed beneath the ocean, her hands wrapping more securely around me, pulling me closer to her. Her breasts pressed against my chest, separated by our wet shirts and yet it felt like there was nothing at all between us. My hands slid along her shoulders, down her back until I felt the rough fabric of her jeans.
My panic-filled brain had a moment of confusion as I realized what I felt along my fingertips was not denim, but something else entirely. Something rough and scaly.
The kiss lasted all a few seconds, but it was the longest, most momentous few seconds of my life.
Before I could react to what I discovered, she broke our kiss and surged forward, pulling me with her as she swam, the strong muscles in her tail forcing us away from the crashing waves. I held on tight knowing without her, I was a goner.
It didn’t take long to reach the shore. She lifted my head above the surface, and I gasped, letting precious air refill my lungs as I blinked the saltwater from my eyes.
She held me still, using her powerful tail to keep my head above water despite the waves.
“You saved me,” I gasped, inhaling as much air as I could manage into my deprived lungs.
“That was a foolish thing to do. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“I was trying to save you,” I said, breathing heavily. “I thought you might drown.”
“Save me?” She blinked, reeling back, but she didn’t release her hold on me. “You weren’t coming after the cameras?”
I shook my head. “I know you’re frightened. I thought you might be desperate.”
“I am desperate, but not enough to kill myself.” She pushed at a dark strand of hair that had gotten in her face, slicking it back behind her ear.
“You’re a mermaid, too.”
She stared at me for a moment, probably trying to evaluate whether that was a question or a statement and what I might do with that information.
No wonder she was so desperate to get those cameras and delete that footage. It wasn’t only to keep her friend’s secret, but her own as well.
She nodded, her brown eyes wide. “As you can see, I don’t need saving from the ocean.”
“What do you need saving from?”
She blinked. Opened her mouth, then closed it. Finally, she glanced at the shore behind me.
“You need to get out of
here. The storm will only get worse. Get your friend. Go back to the mansion.”
Without another word, she swung one arm into the water, and I glimpsed webbing between her fingers. She clung to me with one arm as she swam us as close to the beach as she dared.
When my feet found sand, I stood, and she released me.
I watched as she drifted back about an arm’s length. I wanted to say something. To keep her close to me. I didn’t want to let her go. Not yet. I had so many questions, but I couldn’t think of a thing to say.
More than that, I wanted to explore the emotions swirling within me. The sensations that she aroused, the feeling that I yearned to be near her.
Before I could decide what to say or do, she surged forward and kissed me once more.
I closed my eyes, her hands on my face as she deepened our kiss. It was wet, passionate and burned with a silent need from us both. I didn’t even have time to wrap my arms around her.
She broke the kiss and whispered against my lips, “Good-bye, Oscar.”
When I opened my eyes, she disappeared. I glimpsed a tail before it vanished into the water as my heart thudded fiercely in my chest.
“Ozzy! Ozzy!” I heard Zak shouting my name, but I ignored him as I continued searching for any sign of the woman… the mermaid.
A mermaid. A real-life mermaid.
And she had kissed me.
I touched my lips, wondering if a mermaid could cast spells. Were mythical creatures magical, too?
Because I had felt a connection between us, some unseen thing that drew us together and I think she felt it, too.
My heart ached to wonder if I’d ever see her again.
“Ozzy! Yo, Oscar!” Zak’s shout was louder with a hint of desperation.
I turned toward the beach, watching Zak attempting to climb the rocks to meet the water. I surged forward, lifting my feet out of the sand that sucked at them until I grasped the rocks on the shore. Zak was there, giving me a hand to help me out of the water.
Mermaidia: A Limited Edition Anthology Page 78