The Mark of the Phoenix [The Triplet Mermen Trilogy] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Casper Graham

  He didn’t bother to point out the fact that neither Caspian nor Drake could keep an eye out on Baltic for the rest of forever because he was enjoying the conversation too much. “I’ll do that, but I can’t promise anything. Some hunters are obsessed with the killing.”

  “I know, but I’ll appreciate any little help you can give me and my brothers.”

  “Sure. That won’t be a problem.”

  “All right then. I’ll be leaving now. Nice meeting you.”

  “Same here, Drake.” Edwin watched as Drake walked away from him. He observed for a bit longer before he couldn’t take it anymore. He had no doubt he would regret letting this gorgeous merman out of his life without at least attempting to ask the man out on a date. He hated thinking about possibly being rejected, but he would feel so much worse if he didn’t even try. “Yo, Drake?”

  Drake stopped and faced him once again. “Yeah?”

  Edwin hesitated for a few seconds before scrounging up enough courage to pop the question. “Can I have your number?”

  Drake raised his left eyebrow at him. “What for?”

  “I…I…” He expelled a breath and clenched his fists. He was determined to ask the question even if he was shot down by the merman. “I…look, this will sound really crazy, but I like you. I’m wondering if you want to hang out with me sometimes. We can grab a cup of coffee and maybe lunch afterward. Or dinner. Dinner will be fine, too.”

  It felt as if his heart stopped beating for a second or two when Drake beamed at him. The merman was beyond ethereal. There was no word good enough to describe Drake’s beauty. Edwin’s palms were clammy, and he could literally feel the beads of sweat forming on his forehead and right above his dry lips as he waited for what felt like an eternity for Drake to answer him. Drake eventually grinned at him before using water magic to form a string of numbers up in the air right above his head. Edwin grabbed his smartphone from within the pocket of his maroon leather pants in a hurry and recorded the numbers in his phone book.

  Drake chuckled and waved at him. “Call me, Ed.”

  He bobbed his head up and down, unable to hide his excitement. “I will. I promise.”

  Drake threw him one final smile before turning around and walking away from him once again. A slight mist appeared out of nowhere, and a moment later, Drake vanished from view. Edwin remained rooted on the spot for a few seconds longer before putting his smartphone back inside his pocket and conjuring a portal of fire in front of him. He stepped into it. It was time to return home and get some sleep. After all, he had to wake up again a few hours later and open his bakery. He might have failed in his mission, but he’d managed to get the phone number from a gorgeous merman. It wasn’t a bad night. Not at all.

  Chapter Two

  Drake sighed in relief when the female customer exited his shop. It wasn’t a huge space. It was a small room, and the inside was rather smoky from the effect of the burning lavender incense within the tiny cuboid ceramic container that was placed on the right side of the table. He always sat behind the simple wooden table and instructed any customer to take the seat across from him. After years of telling fortunes to millions of satisfied customers, he understood the humans much better than when he first started his business.

  Not that he was an expert of the human psyche. Humans still baffled him for the most part. They seemed to enjoy having their fortunes told, but at the same time, almost all of them disliked receiving horrible news. He had learned to tone things down for their sake, especially with his last customer. There were some things he simply couldn’t make light of. He didn’t need to have any skin contact with her to foresee her death, which would occur within the next few hours.

  There was no cheating the Grim Reaper. The angel of death would be furious if anyone dared to interfere in his solemn duty of collecting souls whose times on the mortal plane were done and over with. As much as Drake disliked informing anyone of such a terrible fortune, he couldn’t escape the current one. Besides, the paying customer insisted on hearing it. He could only sigh under his breath when the female customer laughed in amusement when he imparted the news of her impending death to her. He didn’t bother convincing her.

  “A penny for your thought.”

  He glanced sideways to the half-opened door and smiled at Caspian. “Hey. Just thinking about my last customer.”

  “Uh-oh. Not good, huh?”

  He shook his head at his older brother, who had been born a couple of minutes before him. “Terrible.”

  “I see.”

  He suppressed a sigh and changed the topic of conversation. “Enough with all this depressing shit. What’s going on with you and your precious plants?”

  Caspian’s face lit up, and he began to yammer nonstop about his precious plants and herbs, which Drake had sort of expected. He was aware how much Caspian loved his plants, which were being grown at the backyard of the house he, Caspian, and Baltic shared. It was a perfect arrangement, too. While he used a small space on the first floor for his fortune-telling business, Baltic would teach several yoga classes, in the much larger room right across the hallway from him. Each of the classes lasted either for an hour, ninety minutes, or up to two hours, depending on the levels of the participants.

  Caspian had the entire backyard all to himself, tending to various plants and herbs. The plants and herbs would be purchased by magic users such as the witches or sorcerers, who required them to create potions. Caspian also utilized the room behind Drake’s fortune-telling shop to store the dried herbs and plants. Drake had long since given up attempting to understand all those mumbo-jumbo talks about some potions needing fresh versus preserved herbs or plant-parts. That was Caspian’s domain, and Drake was more than delighted to leave it all to his older brother.

  “Your ability to see the future is getting stronger, Dray,” Caspian said a few moments later, startling Drake out of his reverie.

  Drake nodded. “I wish I had a more active ability like yours, though.”

  “You have water magic.”

  “But you have the additional fire power,” Drake retorted before sighing out loud.

  This was sort of a rehash of an old argument between him and Caspian. As mermen, they were naturally born with water magic, but some merfolks had extra magic in them. His additional magic manifested in the form of being able to see things yet to come. Caspian could use fire magic, which was unheard of in the history of merpeople. Baltic had an extremely powerful healing magic, which, Drake had witnessed first-hand, could pull someone back from the brink of death. Unlike Caspian and Baltic, Drake was unable to utilize his seer-magic to view his own future. Also, for reasons unknown to him, he was unable to predict Baltic’s future after his younger brother had turned into a siren. There was a blockage in his seer-magic that he couldn’t explain. Instead, there was a blank in his vision every time he tried to foretell Baltic’s future. In addition, he would have a pounding headache afterward.

  “Let’s not get into that stupid debate again.”

  “Agreed.” Drake grinned at Caspian after that. “We’ve been arguing about it for years. It’s a dead end.”

  “True. By the way, whose turn is it tonight to feed Balt?”

  Drake pointed at Caspian. “Yours.”

  “Okay then.” Then, Caspian stepped deeper into the room and pulled Drake up to his feet. The two of them embraced each other tightly. “We’re doing the right thing. Right?”

  Drake gulped a little and inhaled slowly to regain control of his emotions before responding. “Our blood is the only thing keeping Baltic from completely slipping away into a full-fledged siren. As long as he feeds on us, he can turn back into a merman from sunrise to sunset. It’s worth sacrificing some of our blood for him. I refuse to lose him. We’re triplets, Cas. We’ve been inseparable since birth. I can’t lose either one of my brothers.”

  Caspian nodded. “I feel the same way.”

  There was a brief period of silence before Drake spoke up again. “I miss M
om and Dad.”

  “I’m sure they miss us, too, but it’s better this way. They won’t be ostracized by the other merfolks as long as the three of us stay away from the ocean.”

  “Yeah, but I wish I could meet with them once in a while.”

  “Me, too.”

  The two of them were so engrossed in their whispered conversation that they were both startled when Baltic knocked on the door and gave them an apologetic smile.

  “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

  Drake relinquished his hold on Caspian before rushing toward Baltic and hugging his younger brother. He glared at Baltic, and his whole body trembled from the overwhelming fury inside him.

  “It’s not your fault. Cas and I made the choice to live on land with you all those years ago. Don’t you fucking apologize for that ever again. You’re pissing me off, Balt.”

  Baltic shook his head. “But if I hadn’t turned into this cursed abo—”

  “No!” Caspian shouted, obviously furious. “You’re still my baby brother, Balt. I don’t want to hear you label yourself with that damn word in the future. Am I clear? Promise me.”

  Baltic’s breath hitched while Drake wiped away the tears streaming down his younger brother’s face.

  “Yes. I promise.”

  The three of them were quiet for a few seconds afterward. Then, Drake and Baltic stretched out their arms and pulled Caspian into a three-way embrace. They remained like that for several moments before breaking apart and chuckling at one another.

  Caspian patted Baltic on the shoulder. “By the way, is your yoga class done?”

  “I have another one after lunch. What about you, Dray? Any other customers?”

  Drake shook his head. “Most of my customers are referred to me by the regulars. If there’s no one sitting outside in the hallway, that means I’m free until someone stops by our house without making an appointment.”

  “Let’s eat then,” Caspian suggested before dragging Baltic and Drake out from the room and up the stairs at the end of the hallway.

  The house had two floors. Drake loved it because it was spacious enough for him and his brothers to use the entire first floor as their places of business. Meanwhile, the second floor had a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, and three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom inside. He was able to live close to his brothers, but he had his own personal area to retreat to when he felt the need for some privacy.

  “What are we eating?” Baltic inquired the moment the three of them reached the second floor.

  Caspian smirked at Baltic. “Stir-fried minced pork and tofu. Plenty of salad with the vegetables fresh from my garden.”

  “Yum,” Drake voiced out a moment later when the delicious scent from the kitchen wafted toward his nose. “When did you have time to cook and set the table, Cas?”

  Caspian gestured at the chairs, and the three of them sat around the table. “I got done with my orders rather early, so I could run up and prepare lunch for us.”

  Baltic grinned. “You’re the best big brother ever.”

  Drake pretended to be hurt and affronted. “Fine. I guess I’m not a good brother to you.”

  Baltic rolled his eyes. “Don’t be childish, Dray.”

  The three of them laughed almost at the same time. Then, Caspian kicked Drake’s leg gently under the table.

  “What?”

  “You haven’t told us how you managed to escape from the phoenix shifter.”

  Drake did his best not to blush, but he knew he failed when Caspian and Baltic waggled their eyebrows at him. “He let me go.”

  “Really now?” Baltic’s subsequent snicker resulted in Drake’s cheeks becoming even more heated than before. “My memory from when I was in my siren form is a little hazy, but I remember enough to know that the phoenix shifter is very handsome. Redhead, isn’t he? Jade-green eyes?”

  Drake cleared his throat and took a sip of the iced chamomile tea next to him. “I don’t know what you’re trying to insinuate. Either one of you.”

  Caspian snorted. “We’re your brothers. We know you very well. Right now, you’re attempting to deflect from this interesting topic. Spill.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  Baltic chortled. “Oh, yes, there is.”

  Drake scooped up some salad onto his plate before responding. He knew his brothers well. They wouldn’t let it go, so he might as well give in to their demands. “His name is Edwin Barrett. We fought for a bit after you two escaped. I explained Balt’s condition to him. That’s it.”

  Caspian poked at the tofu on his plate before speaking up. “Ugh, that’s so dry and boring. What exactly did you tell him?”

  “Not the details. Just enough for him to understand.”

  “Why are you two talking about the unimportant things? I want to hear the romantic part.”

  Drake stuck his tongue out at Baltic. “There’s nothing romantic.”

  Caspian leaned in closer and smirked at Drake. “He didn’t ask you out on a date?”

  “Not really,” Drake blurted out before his eyes widened in shock and regret. He should learn to keep his mouth shut, especially around his brothers, who were both gazing at him with identical smiles. “He…he requested my number.”

  Baltic swallowed the food in his mouth before speaking up. “And?”

  “Nothing. He hasn’t called.”

  “Do you want him to?” Caspian interjected, still grinning like a maniac. “Are you attracted to him, Dray?”

  Drake did his best to keep his voice steady and calm. “Ed can do whatever he likes.”

  “Ooh, Ed,” Baltic cooed at him, which annoyed Drake a little. “You’ve even shortened his name. How sweet!”

  “For fuck’s sake, Balt. Don’t be dramatic. Calling him Edwin every time is such a mouthful. I’m just trying to save my breath.”

  “A mouthful, eh?” Caspian teased. “Is that what you’re hoping for, little brother?”

  Drake glared at his brothers and proceeded to ignore them both. Caspian and Baltic chuckled at him, but they remained quiet, which he was thankful for. For the next few minutes, the three of them ate in silence, except for the sounds of their utensils scraping against their plates a few times.

  “Are you going to say yes?”

  Drake glanced at Baltic without uttering a single word for a few seconds before shrugging. “Maybe. I think so.”

  “Great.”

  He turned toward Caspian in surprise. “What does that mean?”

  Baltic reached out for his hand and grabbed it gently. “You’ve been isolating yourself ever since I…you know.”

  He nodded. “I have more important things to worry about.”

  Baltic sighed. “I love you, Dray, but merpeople aren’t meant to go through eternity alone. You know that. You can’t stop living your life just because of me.”

  “I won’t be alone. I have you and Cas.”

  “What if I find my mate someday? Also, what will happen to you when we eventually find Balt’s mate? You’ll be alone, Dray.”

  “I’m sure I’ll find my mate, too. Someday. I think.”

  Baltic squeezed Drake’s hand gently. “I don’t want you to stop living your life because of me. I’m feeling guilty enough that I have to feed on your blood or Cas’s in order to retain some of my magic and original form. You have to promise me that you will at least agree to go out with Edwin if he calls you.”

  Drake hesitated for a few seconds before agreeing. “Fine. I—”

  His smartphone rang at that moment. He took it out from the left pocket of his jeans and eyed the unfamiliar number with some nervousness coursing through him. This couldn’t be Edwin. It would be too much of a coincidence. It might be a new customer calling to make an appointment. His right index finger trembled a little as he pressed the button to answer the call. He was astonished and excited simultaneously when he heard Edwin’s voice from the other end. He narrowed his eyes at Caspian and Baltic, who were chucklin
g and making kissing noises at each other while he tried to carry on a conversation with Edwin. He put his smartphone down on the table when the call ended.

  “So, what did he say to you?”

  He didn’t immediately reply to Caspian’s question. He needed a little time to let everything sink in. When it finally did, he glanced at his brothers, unable to keep the wide grin from appearing on his face.

  “He…he asked me out. Tonight. I agreed to it.”

  He was relieved and ecstatic when his brothers shouted out in joy on his behalf. Baltic even pulled him up to a standing position and hugged him tightly.

  “I’m glad. You should have fun once in a while.”

  Drake hesitated for a second or two before responding. “Are you sure you’ll be okay, though?”

  Caspian tapped him on his shoulder from behind before turning him around and embracing him. “Don’t worry. I can handle Balt just fine. You need to live a little.”

  He beamed at his older brother before tugging Baltic toward him and Caspian. “Thanks. I…I kind of like Ed. I mean, he seemed like a nice guy when I talked to him after the short battle between us.”

  “And cute,” Baltic reminded him with a smirk.

  Drake chortled in amusement. “That, too.”

  After that, the three of them returned to their respective seats to continue with their lunch. Caspian switched the topic of conversation to his plants and herbs while Baltic recounted some funny stories about his students earlier. Drake did his best to focus and listen to his brothers, but he wasn’t able to do it. He was consumed with daydreams about what his date with Edwin would be like later that night. It would be his first time dating after years of a self-imposed vacuum. It should be memorable and exhilarating. He didn’t think anything could go wrong. It was just a date after all.

  Chapter Three

  Edwin held back a yawn as he walked back and forth between the kitchen and the front of his bakery while his two best friends, Jefferson Workman and Gavin Barton, gazed at him with amusement in their eyes. He ignored them and worked as slowly as he could without being too obvious about it. Judging by the gleeful expressions on their faces, they were aware of what he was up to. He pretended not to notice their knowing glances and continued to stock up his display shelves with fresh cupcakes, sandwiches, and various kinds of pies at his own pace.