Water Nymph

by Edmund Hughes

  “You foolish, stupid boy,” she hissed. “Don’t you ever worry me like that again!”

  “Get the candles,” said Jack. “And the incense. Hurry, I don’t know how much time we have.”

  Mira pulled back. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it, slowly shaking her head as she realized what he had planned.

  “No,” she whispered. “Jack, no. This… wouldn’t be any better.”

  He reached out to her, taking her by the shoulders. His grip was weak, and his breathing was still shaky, but he held her eye and forced her to see his pain.

  “Please,” he said. “Mira, please. I’m begging you. If you’ve ever cared for me, or Ryoko… this is the only way. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t do this.”

  “From what you told me about your encounter with Mezolak, the price demanded was high,” said Mira. “Absolute, even. Are you truly willing to pay it? Think about this!”

  Jack nodded. There was a deep sadness in Mira’s expression, but he was numb to it, along with everything else.

  “I can’t do it on my own,” muttered Jack. “I don’t have enough blood essence reserves…”

  “Or the right state of mind.” Mira took a slow breath, and then pushed it out. “Your existence is tragic, dearest Jack. You spend so much time worrying about being a monster that you’re blind to your true failings.”

  “Mira, please,” said Jack.

  “I will help you,” she said. “I cannot bear to see you like this.”

  She pulled him into another hug. Jack felt fresh tears welling in his eyes and had to blink them back. He felt ridiculous. He knew that there was still only a chance in hell that what he intended would do much of anything other than disappoint him.

  Mira led him upstairs and into the bathroom. Jack didn’t say much as she turned on the shower, though even if he’d wanted to, it was hard to force words past the lump in his throat.

  She came over to him and gently began undressing him, pulling his shirt and jeans off with quick, insistent tugs. She stripped herself naked, too, though Jack was too far gone to be able to appreciate it.

  Mira gently pulled him into the shower, and then began washing him. She leaned his head forward as she lathered shampoo into his hair, cradling his head against her naked bosom.

  She was the woman who’d made him into what he was. His former broodmother. She’d been a catalyst and a teacher throughout the past months of his life, for better and for worse. And the fact that she continued to stand by him at the time when he needed her most stirred to life a deep, tumultuous mixture of emotions.

  Mira ran her hand through his hair again, letting the water wash away the suds. It was gentle and intimate, and she took her time, humming quietly as she worked. Jack loved and hated the way she made him feel. He loved and hated her.

  He lifted his head up. Mira’s blonde hair fell across her shoulders in wet locks, curling ever so slightly more than usual from the moisture, like golden ribbons. She still looked concerned for him, but her lips were turned up into a faint, sad smile.

  She brushed her hair away from her neck and gave him a small nod. She was offering herself to him. Her pale, naked body, with the kind of curves that drove men insane. Her delicious, candy-sweet blood. Her love, and her trust.

  Jack wanted to say the words to her, so badly. He wanted to let her know how he felt, despite how complicated their history—and hell, their current situation—was. But in that moment, the love that he felt for Mira was completely eclipsed by the pain of Ryoko’s death. Mira reached her hand out and cupped his cheek.

  “I know,” she whispered. “You are in so much pain.”

  She gently guided his face forward, not toward her lips, but toward her neck. Jack wrapped his arm around her waist and let their bodies crush together as he positioned his mouth. He planted a soft, several second-long kiss on the nape of her neck, and felt Mira shiver and press herself more tightly against him.

  He pierced her neck with his fangs, and Mira let out a thin squeal of ecstasy. Jack took deep, mechanical sips, feeling his focus shift from her soft, naked breasts to the deeply satisfying sensation of drinking on her blood. It would give him a chance to save Ryoko. A chance to make things right.

  He took more than he probably should have, filling his reserves all the way up. As he pulled his fangs back, Mira nearly collapsed against him. Jack felt a sudden flush of shame at how ruthless he’d been, this time. He gave her a tight hug and turned the shower’s water off.

  “My sweet Jack,” she said, in a breathless voice. “You shouldn’t… tease me like this.”

  “I wouldn’t, if I didn’t have to,” he said. “I don’t know how much time we have.”

  He grabbed a towel for Mira and then began drying himself off. He was already moving through the mansion before he was finished, grabbing clean, simple clothing from his room to throw on and heading down to the cellar to set things up for the summoning.

  Mira joined him a minute later, clad only in one of Ryoko’s thin nightgowns. It pained Jack to see her wearing it, but then again, there were few things he could look at in the mansion that didn’t conjure the same feeling. He made sure that fresh candles were set onto each of the points of the summoning circle and began the slow walk to the servant’s chambers to get Ryoko.

  She was in the same position that he’d last seen her in. A small, stupid part of him had been hoping that he’d enter her room and find her smiling and sitting up. Instead, she was cold and still, her mouth and chin still dirtied by her body’s desperate attempt to throw up the pills.

  Jack got a warm, wet hand towel from the bathroom and used it to wipe her face. It was hard for him to even breathe when he got close to her. It sent daggers through his heart to see her in a lifeless state, without the innocent, reserved vibrancy that he’d grown to appreciate and love.

  He carried her downstairs, blinking back tears as he made it the last few steps into the cellar. He placed her next to the summoning circle and tried to ignore the creeping presence of the memory of his father doing the same thing with his and his mother’s bodies. He made a quick trip through the hidden door and into the workshop, returning with the bottle containing the water nymph, which he set beside Ryoko.

  Mira had already lit the candles and the incense. She had her arms tightly crossed over her chest, and her lips were set into a worried frown. The tension was almost enough to choke Jack up as he lowered himself to his knees by the summoning circle, one hand on the chalk line, and one hand on his grandfather’s staff.

  He’d already committed to what he was about to do. There was no hesitation in his voice as he reached out to the demon and whispered her name.

  “Adana.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Adana arrived almost immediately after Jack called out to her. The summoning circle flashed, burning with blindingly bright, prismatic light. The flames of the candles spun wildly as the portal opened in the floor, and a woman’s silhouette rose up from its depths.

  She was smiling, and the expression looked cruel and condescending on her strange, onyx face. Her eyes burned a fiery red as she held Jack’s gaze. She didn’t say anything immediately, instead letting her hands drag across her stomach and breasts, before arching her back and leaning into an exaggerated stretch.

  “How very fitting,” said Adana, her voice rippling in a chorus of overlapped sounds. “After how our last encounter went, I was a little unsure as to whether we’d meet again, mortal.”

  The smile never left her expression. Adana hovered in the air, her impossibly dark hair waving back and forth, as though it was weightless or underwater. The red lines running through her body pulsed in time with the slight, up and down sway of her floating body.

  “I need your help,” said Jack.

  It felt so much harder to say the words than he’d been expecting it to be. The reality of summoning a demon and attempting to make a deal with it, on even terms, was far more daunting than Jack had been ab
le to appreciate.

  Adana let out a sickly sweet laugh that echoed off the stone walls of the cellar. She leaned forward, bringing her face in closer to Jack’s. He didn’t look away from her, but he also didn’t allow himself to see her, instead letting his eyes unfocus slightly. Her gaze was too intense for him to hold at that distance.

  “You wish for my aid?” asked Adana. “Very well then. Speak your request. I shall hear it and consider.”

  She pulled back, putting a few feet of distance in between them and repositioning herself over the glowing summoning circle. Jack opened his mouth to explain, but Adana shook her head, gesturing for him to come closer.

  “Speak it for my ears only, mortal,” she said. “I wish for any deal made to be between us and none other.”

  Jack glanced over at Mira, who frowned and shrugged her shoulders. He took a step forward, hesitating at the edge of the summoning circle for a moment before stepping across it.

  Adana sprung toward him in a flash of movement, faster than the human eye could follow. She entwined herself with Jack, pressing her breasts and body tightly into him. She was soft, but her body temperature was a good ten or twenty degrees higher than any human’s should have been.

  Reality wavered, and then snapped to somewhere else completely. Jack found himself transported out of the mansion’s cellar and into a place that defied comprehension. He was outside, but the sky overhead was red and choked with black clouds.

  The sun was different, larger than it should have been, with an eclipsing black void at its center. Scattered around where Jack stood were massive twisted spires, all of which extended so far up into the sky that they seemed to protrude into the clouds.

  The ground underneath his feet was made from small shards of black glass, slightly coarser than the sand on a beach. Adana was still pressed against him, but there were others around now, too. They looked similar to her, with that same onyx skin, but the coloring of the lines running through their bodies was different. One of them had black skin with blue cracks, another black and pink. All of them were disturbingly beautiful, and all of them were reaching out to touch him.

  “What?” Jack shook his head and tried to take a step back. “What is this?”

  “I wished to get a sense of you, mortal,” said Adana. “My sisters and I can see to your needs, if you’d like.”

  He felt soft, feminine hands sliding underneath his shirt and across his skin. Jack had changed into sweatpants after his shower, and they offered little resistance as the black and pink demoness slid her hand down his waistband. Adana kissed him, and there was a sucking, vacuous quality to the way her lips pulled into a seal against his that made him feel as though she was stealing his soul.

  He didn’t know enough about what was going on to convince himself that it wasn’t the case. Jack tried to pull away from them. Adana and her sisters responded by trying to pull his clothes off. One of them groped at him from the side, brushing her breasts against his shoulder and whispering words into his ear that were spoken in a language with impossible pronunciation.

  “Are you curious about how it would feel?” whispered Adana. “About the pleasure we could give you? I know you are, mortal. Say that you want it, and you shall have as much as you can handle.”

  “Stop,” muttered Jack. “Stop this!”

  One of Adana’s sisters had pulled his sweatpants and underwear down far enough to expose him. Jack watched as she poked out a tongue that glittered with silver and pink scales, and prodded it against him. The pleasure of that simple, tiny point of contact was enough to make Jack groan.

  He knew without needing to be told that if he allowed them to have their way with him, he would be in serious peril. They didn’t want to have fun with him. They wanted to drain him for all he was worth. He was not their toy to play with or to break.

  “Enough!” he boomed. Jack threw his arms to the side in a rough, deliberate movement. Several piercing screams clawed at his ears for a moment, and he was back in the mansion’s cellar, coated in a thin layer of sweat.

  Adana was laughing. Jack took a step back from the summoning circle, shaking his head.

  “Oh, come now, mortal,” she said. “I was just having a bit of fun at your expense. I would have made them stop before any real damage was done.”

  “Don’t ever try that again,” said Jack. “I mean it.”

  “Very well,” said Adana. “I won’t waste any more of your time. If you’d speak your request now, I’ll hear it.”

  Jack took a slow breath. Part of him wanted to call the whole thing off. It was hard for him to imagine trusting Adana to fulfill what he’d be requesting, given how high the stakes would be. Ryoko’s fate hung in the balance, and he’d be putting his faith in the powers of a demoness with a sinister sense of humor.

  But it was the same as what his father had done to save him. It was a risk he’d have to take to save Ryoko.

  “I need you to bring back someone I love,” said Jack. He glanced over at Ryoko’s body. “Can you do that? Can you bring her back?”

  He felt ashamed at the desperation he could hear in his own voice, but it wasn’t something that he could hide. He was willing to do anything, say anything, to bring Ryoko back. It was the only thing that mattered, the only way forward that would let him live with himself and what he’d done.

  “I cannot,” said Adana. “This form of magic has never been my specialty. Mezolak, however, could do what you request. And as it so happens, he is still close by. Shall I reach out to him on your behalf?”

  Jack glanced over at Mira. She looked unsure and gave a small shrug with a single shoulder.

  “Go ahead,” said Jack. “Reach out to him.”

  Adana smiled and nodded slowly.

  “I envy you, mortal,” she said. “Almost as much as I pity you.”

  The summoning circle flashed with prismatic light, and Adana descended back down into it. The glow faded after a few seconds, leaving the mansion’s cellar in the same state it had been in at the beginning of the summoning. Jack exhaled through his teeth, feeling his insides twist with anxiety.

  “Mezolak,” said Mira. “He’s in your father’s body, isn’t he?”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Will that make this more difficult for you?” asked Mira.

  “Yeah,” said Jack.

  “But you have no intention of reconsidering?” asked Mira.

  Jack looked over at Ryoko’s pale, unmoving body. It made him want to tear his eyes out.

  “I have to do this,” he said. “If there’s any chance at all… I have to try.”

  CHAPTER 35

  Jack and Mira waited upstairs in the lounge, sitting next to each other on the couch in a silence that was tense enough to be physically painful. Minutes went by slowly, until an hour had passed. A knock finally came at the door, sharp and loud. Jack’s heart immediately began rattling against his ribcage as he made the slow walk into the foyer.

  He opened the door and stared into Mezolak’s face. His father’s face. He wore the same simple, unassuming outfit he’d had on the last time Jack had seen him. He was grinning, and he moved to step past Jack without waiting to be invited inside.

  “Show me where she is,” said Mezolak.

  Mira watched from the edge of the foyer, wearing her suspicion openly on her face. Jack brought Mezolak down into the cellar, dropping to one knee alongside Ryoko’s body and cradling her head.

  “I’m not sure how long she’s been… like this,” he said. “At least a few hours. Half a day, maybe.”

  Mezolak pressed the back of his hand to Ryoko’s forehead.

  “She’s still fresh,” said Mezolak. “What you ask for is achievable, though there are a few caveats.”

  Jack nodded slowly.

  “Name your price,” he said. “What do you want in return for bringing her back?”

  Mezolak flashed that over-wide, demonic smile again. He may have been wearing Jack’s father’s face, but everything ab
out him ran contrary to the man Jack remembered.

  “First, I’ll need the life essence of a sacrificial vessel to draw from,” said Mezolak. “A slave, or a prisoner, if you have one.”

  Jack gritted his teeth. He nodded toward the bottle holding the water nymph, which Mezolak noticed for the first time.

  “Interesting…” said Mezolak. “A nymph. That will certainly have enough essence within it to do the trick. There may be a few side effects, however.”

  “Such as?” asked Jack.

  “Nothing to be overly concerned about,” said Mezolak. “Personality leakage. A few inherited quirks.”

  The demon gave an innocent shrug, as though he couldn’t be bothered to explain further. As much as Jack wanted to lash out at him, he forced himself to remain civil. He wanted Ryoko back. As long as it was still her in the end, he didn’t care if the process wasn’t perfect.

  “What else?” asked Jack. “I’ve seen what you are, demon. I know you aren’t interested in doing this out of the kindness of your heart.”

  “In that, you are correct,” said Mezolak. “Did you wonder at all why I remained on this pathetic island, for as long as I did? Why I was so interested in coming here in the first place to observe the life of a pathetic mortal?”

  Jack shook his head.

  “Familial bonds, as absurd of a concept as they are to me, contain a certain undeniable strength,” said Mezolak. “A hidden, innate power that oftentimes gets mistaken for something else. I wish to take advantage of the bond between us.”

  “There is no bond between me and you,” Jack said, through gritted teeth.

  “Through this vessel and you, then,” said Mezolak, rolling his eyes. “You are more powerful than you know, mortal. I wish for you to ally yourself with my cause. If you agree to that, I shall bring your cherished back into a state of being and breathing.”

  Jack furrowed his brow. He glanced over at Mira, who stood at the bottom of the stairs. He expected her to butt in or object. He expected her, at the very least, to explain to him why what he was about to do was a horrible idea. Instead, she said nothing. She just looked at him with a concerned, but trusting expression on her face. She would support him, regardless of his decisions. Regardless of how good or bad they might be.