“I’m sorry—I can’t do this,” I said to Aver. And I swam away, pushing my way through the orchestra. Nothing compared to Shaul. And all this beauty that surrounded me meant nothing to me without him.
14
I felt so guilty for being attracted to Aver when all my yearning should have been for Shaul only. It didn’t seem right to split my desires. But, I couldn’t help it. It seemed as if I was programmed to yearn for both. In many ways, I felt powerless.
But, there is a big difference between lust and love. And even though I lusted for Aver, I hated him. Shaul may have been bad, but I couldn’t help it—I loved him. For Shaul, I felt both lust and love.
I swam as fast as I could past crowds of mermaids and mermen partying on the streets and at café fronts and from the balconies of charming cobblestone buildings. As I moved out of the immediate city area, I came to a golden grass field.
I couldn’t help but slow my pace to look at the curious fish that danced alluringly above the plant life. Their eyes were dreamy with thick eyelashes that reminded me of Aver. They made such fascinating patterns in the water. Their tales were long and transparent with phosphorescent glows. As I studied them closer, I noticed they had the same full, sensual lips as Aver too. And dimples. Their dance was hypnotic and I couldn’t help but follow them as they swam toward a huge pink coral reef. I felt like I was in a trance.
They led me through a hole in the reef that led into a marvelous cave. The walls were of the same pink coral. There was a luxurious bear fur rug on the ground set before a lit fireplace. Off to the side was a delicate round table with lit candles and two set plates of fine food that looked more like art than edibles, the way it was arranged so spectacularly.
The meal smelled delicious and I was so hungry. There was nobody around aside from the peculiar fish that continued to dance before me, so I decided I’d just take a quick bite and leave before I got caught. I sat down on a lovely delicate chair with a plush satin cushion. It was so surprisingly comfortable. I had never felt such a seat. And oh, the scent of the food before me was mouthwatering.
I took a little taste of something sweet with a fine sauce. And, yes, it was unbelievably scrumptious. What an exotic flavor and oh, so delicious. I wanted to keep eating. The food was like a drug. The fish continued to dance around the room. And then before I took another bite, Aver swam into the coral cave.
He clapped his hands twice and the fish swam away out through the hole. “I see you found my home, wild child.”
“Your home?” I was confused. Of all the places I could have swam to in this land of revelry, I ended up in the home of the very creature I was trying to flee from. How odd.
“Yes. I called in ahead and had these meals prepared for us. What did you think of the rose fish that lured you here?”
I looked at him closely, wondering what he was up to. “You planned the fish dance too?”
He chuckled lightly. “What? Did you think it was just coincidence that a school of fish had the same facial features as me?” His smile was big and playful.
“I did notice that.” I started to smile even though I didn’t want to. “That was funny.” I really thought his odd creations were clever and appealing to the senses.
He sat in the other plush chair across from me at the table. His lips looked so pillowy soft. I liked his physical appearance very much. He had just the right balance of appeal. His look was a little exotic, a little childish, and a little rugged. Put it all together and he was a dream.
“You must try the wine,” His voice was almost lyrical. “It’s from the vineyard here. The grapes are magical with the scent of flowers and perfume.” He poured me a glass of wine.
I took the delicate glass from him and tasted it. “Wow!” my eyes popped wide. The taste was otherworldly. “It’s so good. I can’t even describe it. It’s so smooth. And I see what you mean about the scent. It’s so familiar, but I can’t place it.”
He smiled softly and watched me with gentle eyes. “It smells like Grace Devine. Doesn’t it?”
“Grace Devine? Oh, yes it does. I haven’t smelled that perfume in so long. That was the fragrance I used to wear on holidays before the Economy Crash.” What pleasant memories the scent brought back.
We ate the delicious meal together. The candle light on the table coupled with the light in the fireplace gave the cave a comfortable glow. I liked watching the shadows flicker across Aver’s face as he spoke.
“I wish I knew more about you, wild child.” He tilted his head to the side and seemed to be studying my hair. “I like the way your black hair spreads out in the water. It really is beautiful.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t used to receiving compliments from the male race and especially not from someone as appealing as him. And I kept trying to remind myself how much I hated him.
After he was finished eating, he put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the chair. “Do you like dome cinema shows?”
“Of course, but I haven’t seen one in so long. Do you like them?” I asked as I took another sip of the delicious wine.
“I was a bit of a cinema fanatic before the collapse.” It looked as if he was thinking back to that time. “Who was your favorite actor?”
I blushed when he asked that.
“Why did you blush, hot cakes?” From his expression, he looked very curious.
“Oh, it’s just that I used to have this huge crush on Zadder Collazra. Do you know who he is?”
Now, to my surprise, Aver blushed. “Uh, yeah. I’ve heard of him.”
“What?” I looked at him curiously. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Oh, no. Not at all.” He genuinely looked embarrassed.
“What are you jealous?” I laughed uncomfortably. “You don’t like that my world was about somebody else other than you?” I tried to make light of it.
“It’s just that…” He paused. “Well… Zadder Collazra was me.” He twisted in his seat and then smiled wryly at me.
“That’s a strange thing to say. What do you mean?” I started to twist a strand of my hair as I often did when I was uncomfortable.
“When the United States was still strong, all the serpent people were guised as humans. We didn’t show our true selves. Because we had powers and special abilities that humans didn’t possess, most serpents were of the elite of society. My human guise was Zadder Collazra. I just didn’t expect you to say he was your favorite. You know, he was kind of crazy and alternative. I thought you’d say you liked someone more conventional like Bastile Ronnanan.”
I was embarrassed now too. He had no idea how much I was obsessed with Zadder Collazra and now I was sitting in the same room with him. “Uh, no. I didn’t like Bastile Ronnanan.”
“You’re blushing again,” he said. And then, he suddenly chanted something and snapped his fingers. At once, he turned into Zadder Collazra.
My body filled with giddy excitement. I couldn’t believe I was actually sitting across from the teenage heartthrob. Endless nights while lying in bed, I had dreamed of such. And now, here I was right across from my dream idol. I felt my throat grow tight like an awkward kid. I couldn’t even talk, I was so embarrassed.
“Is this for real?” I finally asked because I didn’t know what else to say.
“Yup,” he gazed at me darkly as was the way of Zadder Collazra. “I’m real.”
“I can’t believe you were a teen star. This is all too strange.”
His lips were naturally red and his pale skin was a dramatic contrast to his dark hair. But, his intense blue eyes were exactly the same as Aver’s.
“I noticed something familiar about you, but I couldn’t place it. You and Zadder both have the same eyes. Why is that?” I stopped twisting my hair and looked at him inquisitively.
“Serpent people can shape shift into many things, but we can’t change our eyes.”
“The eyes are the windows to the soul,” I whispered. “My mother used to say that. Some religi
ous thing she read.” A tinge of hatred toward my mother rose up in me.
“Your mother was right. The eyes cannot lie.” He gulped down his wine and shook his head maniacally. His eyes were wide with a crazed look.
I laughed a little, feeling off balance. “That’s one of the things I liked about Zadder. He had that unpredictable way about him that I found unfathomable. I could never figure him out.”
“There wasn’t a lot to figure out. When I was a cinema actor, I was restless. I wanted love, but I couldn’t find it. No matter how many fans adored me, it wasn’t genuine and it wasn’t enough.” While gazing at me, he leaned forward placing his elbow on the table as his face rested in his hand. “I wanted you, wild child.”
My body tingled all over when he said that. I knew it had to be a lie, but he sure knew what to say. “You knew about me back then, right?”
He smiled crookedly. “I sure as hell did, hot cakes. You were just too young then. You hadn’t gone through puberty yet. I was just waiting for you to become a josephine.”
“It’s so shocking to learn that Zadder Collazra was thinking of me when he was a big super star. I could have never imagined that back then.”
“Well, I was.” He was looking down at the ground and brooding now. “I know you don’t trust me, Cordellia, but I’m going to change that.”
“How?” I asked, as I watched the candlelight flicker on the table.
He looked up at me through his thick lashes. “You’ll see.” I saw a facetious look in his eyes now.
I thought about how the zebra girl and Goliath said Aver and Shaul were only attracted to the Eve tri-breed because of the music. And if that was so, then he couldn’t have been longing for me back when he was a star because the music hadn’t started playing in our minds. According to the giant and zebra girl, they were repulsed with their genetic creation and only about a year ago when my father started playing the siren song did they gain attraction for me. But, even so, it fascinated me that Zadder Collazra thought of me at all!
Zadder stood up and stretched. He had a great physique. “Ok…” He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Enough of this, wild child.” With a whisk of the hand, he said a spell in Latin and within an instant he was back in merman form as Aver Hainsworth.
“Wait.” I swam out of my seat and waded in the water before him. “Do the mermaids here in Azkelon know you are a serpent?”
“Hell, no!” He had a shocked look on his face. “That would send their lazy minds into fits. The purpose of Azkelon is to keep everyone too busy with fun and leisure to notice anything.”
“So you’re saying that Azkelon is like a cage without bars?”
He smiled. “Yes, that about sums it up. The mers think they are free, but really they are oblivious slaves to pleasure. They would never rebel against anyone but themselves. Never would they bother with an uprising against the serpents because our presence is hidden. They know we created them, but that is all.”
“Are you saying that entertainment is a form of mental control?”
“That’s exactly what I am saying, wild child. The mers do commit crimes, but only within their land and against each other. They are slaves to the serpent people and they don’t even know it.” He shook his head.
“We wanted to experiment with setting some of our crossbreeds free while still controlling them,” he continued. “After they started multiplying in our warehouses, the work to maintain all of them became too time extensive. We wanted as many crossbreeds as possible, but we couldn’t take care of them all, so we put them in cities.
“They are happier thinking they are free and it’s easier for us. We just keep what we need for study and experimentation in the facilities and free the rest. With this scenario, everyone wins. We have various lands that can be accessed through different portholes, each with its own kind. And there are some melting pots where we intermix crossbreeds within a land.” He smiled and then swam over to the fireplace.
I rolled my eyes when he turned away. I was one of his creations and I didn’t like the idea. Something about it just didn’t seem right. “I guess I see what you mean,” I managed to say.
He turned back to me. “Think about it, wild child.” His expression was serious. “It’s a great life. I’d like the life of a mer for myself!”
“You would?” I was surprised by his statement because I thought he must find pleasure in controlling populations for his own power.
“Of course—that’s why Shaul and I, with the help of the other serpents, implemented it. We thought about what we would want and Azkelon is it. Azkelon is a life of pure bliss. Who wouldn’t want that?”
“I guess you have a point there.” Actually, the more I started thinking about what he had said, the more it made sense. I would have to give his philosophies further thought, but at least in some ways he was right. “I sure hated hiding away for my life on the island off the Los Angeles Coast after the U.S. downfall. And even before that, life wasn’t so great going to city school and living in an apartment with my mother. A life of fun sure beats any of that.”
“That’s my point exactly.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “We played God in creating these crossbreeds and now we’re playing God in giving them a perfect world.”
Though I feigned satisfaction, I was still uncomfortable with his philosophies. It seemed like he had robbed all these creatures of their freedom. Though they were happy, essentially they were slaves at the core. Happy slaves. Something about that just didn’t seem right to me.
My body tensed suddenly. “What was that?” I asked with a start. “Did you hear that?”
I heard screams and then laughter. Frightened, I moved toward Aver. Suddenly, four mers swam through the entrance into the coral cave where we were. Their abrupt presence startled me, so I rushed behind Aver.
15
Aver laughed as I hid behind him. At once, he turned around to look at me. “You don’t need to be afraid, Cordellia. These are my friends.”
Now I was embarrassed. I must have looked infantile hiding behind Aver like he was my mommy. The idea of something as normal as hanging out with friends had been entirely out of my realm for years. Even before the United States downfall, I never had many friends. And these four were all unusually attractive and confident. They were all about my age.
“Hi, there,” one of the mers said cheerily. She was gorgeous with long red hair and light blue eyes.
I swam out from behind Aver and forced myself to be somewhat friendly. “I’m Cordellia,” I said hesitantly. It had been so long since I had done anything normal like this. Since the Economy Crash, people weren’t polite and social. The survivors were just looking out for themselves and were more cautious than friendly. This was surprisingly refreshing, but altogether foreign.
“Wild child, this is Renena,” Aver said merrily as he gestured toward the red headed beauty. “She’s like a sister to me.”
Then he motioned toward the boy with her. “Hey there, chief,” Aver said to Renena’s boyfriend, as he slapped him on the back. He was thin with wide green eyes and brown short hair. He looked like a model from a flashboard with such extreme good looks.
“Welcome back, friend,” the mer said to Aver in his low, but friendly voice and then he looked at me. “I’m Hark.”
“Hi,” I responded awkwardly.
“And this is Amdathan.” Aver took the gorgeous, shapely blonde with blue eyes by the hand and brought her over to me. I had never seen anyone so beautiful.
“Hello, Cordellia,” she said in a soft voice that had a slight sultry resonance to it. Though she was more aloof than Renena, she was polite. “This is my boyfriend, Ailey.”
The way she introduced him to me, I felt like she was hinting that I should keep my hands off him. But, she had nothing to worry about—a guy as breathtaking as Ailey would never be interested in me when stunning perfection was beside him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Amdathan and Ailey.” Ailey was even taller tha
n Hark. His shoulders were broad like a football player and he had short dark curly hair and dark eyes.
“Pleasure,” Ailey said in a brief, but polite voice.
For a moment, I just looked at these four spectacles as they chatted with Aver. They were all so charismatic and visually beautiful. Renena with her flowing red hair, Amadathan with her long blonde curls, Hark and his wide, deep eyes, and Ailey and his enormous muscular frame and grand presence looked like impressive Greek gods. They were so appealing that they hardly seemed real.
Aver clapped his hand once. “Well, let’s go have some fun!”
They all chatted amongst themselves in agreement and we were on our way out through the hole of the coral cave. I hardly had time to think about whether or not I even wanted to join them. Aver just whisked me off and away with him, holding my hand all the while.
How could I deny him with the erotic music pounding in my head, edging me on? “What about Shaul?” I whispered to him so the others could not hear as we swam through the golden field.
“We’ll keep an eye out for him. If he is in Azkelon like I expect, we are sure to run into him tonight. No better way to find him than to go with the crowds.”
We arrived at the dance club. Nobody had to show IDs here which was something I wasn’t used to. In Los Angeles, before the bars burnt down from looting fires, the bouncers used to scan our arm implants for age information and criminal records.
The dance floor in the club looked like it was made of pure silver. It was shiny and slick. I think it was designed more for appearance than function though because the mers didn’t have any use for it without feet or legs. They simply danced above it with the lights from above flashing upon them.
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 10