Autumn Mermaid (Mermaid Series Book 4)

by Dan Glover

  The whispers were just that at first... quietly deceptive... urging him on even while knowing his actions were bound to fail. That time he convinced Marilyn to mount a campaign against her friend and erstwhile lover Karen... the way he had ingratiated himself into Nate's good graces... it was all preordained.

  All but Luciana... she was a mistake... someone unforeseen... and the love he felt for her was threatening to undo all the planning of a thousand years. He couldn’t allow that to happen... he had worked too hard and for too long to throw it away on something as ephemeral as love.

  He needed a drink.

  He thought he had long ago put aside the urge to drink but suddenly Kirk felt a real need to imbibe. He remembered the forgetfulness that grew from strong alcohol... the solace it brought if only for a few moments. He wondered what effect the spirits of his youth might have on these monstrosities holding sway over his every desire and action.

  It was too late. Even if a bottle of old Ireland's finest was about, there was no telling if he had the power to raise it to his lips and defy the shrieks that were bound to result deep inside his skull.

  As if he had read his mind, Niall stepped forward with a liter of Glenlivet, his old favorite, proffering it to him with a smile on his face. Though Kirk expected malice in return for his deceit in trapping Niall and the tiger, instead he was receiving a gift.

  Something was screaming inside his head... not exactly a voice but more a shrill warning at what would happen if he consumed the proffered liquor... the ill effects it would have not only upon him but upon the miniature machines at work inside his body remaking him into an image of the perfect man... something that had never before existed in the entire history of the world.

  If he took but one drink he'd be lost, but then again he'd been lost most of his life... that is, until he met Luciana. Without her, his existence was as dull as the dust that proliferated around him, luring him into whispered promises of immortality and greatness that would be his for the asking.

  "Don't tempt me into doing something I'll regret, Niall."

  Kirk's hand trembled as he reached for the bottle.

  Chapter 44—Sparks

  The days here were as long as a month back home.

  The fresh water seas enlivened her being in ways Lake Baikal had never done. Lily often wondered if her Ladies missed her as dreadfully as she missed them but at the same time she had come to revel in the solitude of this special place.

  She found herself craving the touch of a man again... the way Nate used to caress her so softly with that rough skin of his touching her in places she didn’t know existed until he brought them into her purview.

  The men she had known before Nate were all invariably the same... their desires burning so hotly that they soon withered under the heat. With Nate, it was different. Perhaps watching him come of age at Orchardton Hall had something to do with that, or maybe it was simply his endearing nature that captured her love so succinctly.

  He had been a shy boy always watching her almost furtively though of course Lily had always been a bit of an exhibitionist. She loved showing off... perhaps that was due to her time beneath the waters of Lake Baikal where the visual was magnified over the other senses, or maybe she simply enjoyed teasing others with the sight of something they could never hope to possess.

  She learned early in her life how desirable her body was to both men and women though among her kind the men were few and far between. Though her people had no need of mirrors beneath the surface of the Lake, when she surfaced for the first time and caught a reflection of herself on the surface of a moonlit pond she knew it had to be someone else... she wasn’t capable of producing such beauty.

  Yet when she moved, the reflection moved too. How odd it was to suddenly know she was desirable... that her beauty outshined even the loveliest women of the Lake and all the human beings she would ever meet, save one.

  When she met Natalia the girl was obviously ill to the point of death yet her splendor was not diminished in the least... in fact, Natalia's disease seemed to accentuate the exquisiteness of her features marred though they were by the ravages of approaching age and the cancer eating her alive.

  "My touch heals all, my darling Natalia... I was known as a mender of injuries among my kind... though we do not fall ill there are times when accidents befall us. My touch repairs broken bones, angry wounds, and even missing limbs will grow back under my sway."

  "I have cancer, sweet Lily. The doctors tell me I will die soon. That is why I have come on this trip... as a last opportunity to see the world I have never before witnessed."

  "I have a secret, my precious Natalia... as long as you remain by my side, you will never die. All those doctors that told you that will themselves turn to dust and even this world will break in two before either of us perish."

  Natalia had been aghast when Lily asked her to bear a child. Now, if Lily could turn back the clock she would have never suggested such a thing... she would rather it was only the three of them against the world even if it meant the end of both species.

  She was a fool to think she could alter the music set in place from whatever beginning there might or might not have been. During her life Lily had watched as one species after another arose, flourished, and then died out. There was no reason to believe her own would not suffer the same fate given enough time.

  Nate had raged against the possibility of that scenario by plotting in intricate detail a way for those of the Lake along with their human companions to migrate to the stars. The two species were decidedly linked now, thanks to her momentous choice to allow Karen and Marilyn to stay at Orchardton Hall rather than allowing Lady Lauren to send them to their inevitable doom.

  It seemed poetic justice that she found herself alone now when all she ever desired was companionship. Seeing Nate again had released pent up emotions inside of her that she had suppressed for long centuries and in her excitement to reach him she had forgotten his admonition.

  What had Nate said about coming into contact with the singularity produced by his anti-gravity craft? It was something about being bodily disintegrated and transported across time and space. She had been thinking all the while that ending up in this place was inextricably linked to the time that she lived within on earth.

  What if that wasn’t so? What if she had been teleported not only across vast reaches of space but time as well? That was why Nate had said it would be virtually impossible to find her again.

  She must have been trapped in time... perhaps billions of years in the past or the future... either way it didn’t much matter. No one would be coming to her rescue. She held onto the slim chance that perhaps Nate might perfect a method of tracking her and if he did she was certain he would come for her.

  He was still madly in love with her. She saw it in his eyes. And despite herself, she was in desperately love with him too. He had always been in her heart even when she had taken up with Kāne in order to distance herself from Nate and allow him the opportunity to procreate with the girls of the People.

  "You do not remember me."

  She finally found the occasion to speak to him alone while she was walking along the beach. Though she disliked its salt she adored the tiny treasures the tides brought in with them leaving behind shining shells and multi-colored trinkets that reminded her of the time she lived beneath the waters of the Lake and the great artist she had loved there.

  "Should I know you, my Lady?"

  He had unexpectedly taken her hand in his and bowed before her the same way she recalled the men of their species doing during the lost ages past of living beneath the waters of the Lake. It had been such a natural and unassuming gesture that Lily thought for just a moment that he really did remember her.

  She had heard his voice for the first time the day Kāne arrived at Orchardton Hall aboard the Nautilus. She remembered how it hurt her that Nate hadn’t remembered his promise to bring both her and Lady Lauren the beach in old France where Ena had sensed a
sort of presence indicative of those of the Lake.

  Later, she learned her husband was suffering from the intensity of Kāne's presence. This time it was she who had forgotten how overwhelming the males of her species could be to any living beings they came into contact with.

  "No... our time has long passed us by. I only thought..."

  "We were lovers once."

  He spoke the words as a sort of undeniable truth as the blood rushed through her veins much more quickly than she would have wished. He did remember her! Even after a hundred centuries or more apart, he still remembered their love.

  Those four words had set a spark to the tiny tinder of love that Lily carried with her ever since she had lost him. From that day on he seemed to endeavor to woo her love back again yet he frightened her... as if she sensed the ghost inside of him staring out into a world it could never inhabit.

  "Not that it matters... I just thought... I mean... I don't even know your name any longer... is it Kāne? Wasn’t that also your father's name?"

  She stammered like she remembered the boy Kirk doing when he first arrived at Orchardton Hall. There was something in the man standing in front of her now that reminded her of Kirk... something sullenly abrasive, as if he held a handful of secrets like so many shiny coins and would only hand them out to preferred individuals.

  Bilbla had a habit of never answering her questions directly and apparently the man Kāne had inherited that irritating habit from the person he used to be. Even after she asked him a direct question his answers ran off in different directions as if he was either unsure of himself or else too sure.

  "You are... I should know who you are... but I cannot recall your name."

  She had held herself aloof from him with only the greatest of effort, denying his advances even when she yearned to give in to the lure of his embrace once more. Finally, she succumbed.

  Chapter 45—End of the Innocence

  She was sure it was Lauren's son.

  Natalia wanted to call out to him but he was too far away to hear and even if he wasn’t she wondered if he would remember her. She didn’t think she could bear it if he didn’t.

  "Is Australia any closer to Lake Baikal, my darling Lauren?"

  She asked the words to cover her own mounting sense of loss. Natalia had wondered for centuries what had become of Kāne just as she kept their secret love affair to herself. She knew Lily loved him too and though they often shared the loves of their lives with each other she wasn’t sure how either Lily or Lauren would take the news of her infidelities with the man.

  It all started innocently enough. She had been walking along the shoreline at Orchardton Hall when a rogue wave surprised her and pulled her into the ocean. Despite her efforts at swimming ashore the rip tide had taken her and was pulling her farther out to sea.

  About the time she had grown exhausted and was ready to give herself over to whatever maker awaited her a set of strong arms gathered her in and towed her back onto the beach. As she lay there struggling to catch her breath, Natalia had looked up to see a figure of a man walking away.

  "Wait... don't go. You saved my life."

  It was Kāne. His skin was red and he seemed in distress. She remembered how the Ladies always shunned the salt water and suddenly she realized what a sacrifice the man had made coming into the ocean to save her.

  "Come with me... I'll run a bath so you can clean off the salt."

  Despite her fatigue and aching muscles Natalia leaped up and taking Kāne by the hand she ran to the nearby cabin where he once lived with Ginger. She knew it was empty but the water was still hooked up to the pump that powered the main castle.

  "Take off your clothes."

  The man had begun to stumble as if he was growing dizzy with sickness. Natalia unbuttoned his shirt and pants and led him to the tub of water she had just drawn. It was cold but she knew he had to wash off the salt before he succumbed all together.

  She had never been with a man before. She didn’t understand the pull she felt as she washed his body massaging away the damaging salt and watching as his skin turned a health brown hue once more. When he looked up at her, she knew she was lost.

  They stayed in the cabin for a week. Natalia found herself making excuses to her Ladies to spend all her time with Kāne. She had never made love with a man and now that she discovered the secret she couldn’t get enough.

  On the eight day she went to the cabin and he was gone. She told herself he'd come back, that he must have had urgent business, but she knew in her heart that he had forgotten about her.

  "Please do not leave me for long, my lovely Natalia, for my memory slips away from me quickly. The men of my species live in the moment. The past and the future have no meaning for us."

  She had thought he was teasing her. Surely a person couldn’t forget someone they'd just made love to for hours on end. But he was telling her a great truth, one she failed to fathom. Losing him had been one of the many vast sorrows of her life.

  "No, I think the distance is the same, my sweet Natalia. But I am excited at this new start in our life. Come, let us explore this castle. It looks even bigger than our old Orchardton Hall."

  Lauren knew. Up until that moment, Natalia thought she had covered the tracks of her affair with Kāne well enough that no one suspected a thing. But just now, she was certain Lauren had seen the man too yet she said nothing. He was her son. He'd been away from them for centuries. If she saw him Lauren should be elated. Instead, she seemed content to play around the edges of knowing.

  "Do you think we'll be able to find some food, darling Lauren? I'm starved."

  "The printer is working, sweet Natalia. Please tell me what you wish to eat and it will be ready in seconds."

  Nate had furnished their craft with a three dimensional printer that produced any food a person desired. Lily had expressed the opinion that she found the taste of such fare rather bland compared to home cooked meals but Natalia couldn’t tell the difference. She imagined it might be on account of Nate being her son.

  "Do you think our dearest Lily will be able to find us here, darling Lauren? I miss her dreadfully."

  She didn’t want to leave Orchardton Hall without her but Lily had vanished without a trace. Lauren had been of the opinion that the girl had met someone from long ago... probably Nate... and gone off with him again. Though Natalia loved Lily she also knew the girl had always been fickle when it came to love.

  "We left messages at Orchardton Hall, my lovely Natalia. If our Lily returns, she'll know where we've gone. I have the feeling that we will not be seeing her again any time soon, however. I'm sorry, sweetie, but my intuition tells me she is far away from us now."

  Natalia wanted to ask where Lily had gone, and why, but she sensed Lauren didn’t have the answers either. She had always harbored a secret crush for Lauren anyway and to have the Lady all to herself was a sort of dream come true for Natalia. Still, she couldn’t help but lament the loss of Lily.

  The castle had signs of being recently inhabited, confirming Natalia's suspicions. Though the rooms were orderly she could see that the floors hadn't been swept as if a man had lived there and when she turned on a faucet water poured forth. Even the lights worked when she flipped a switch on the wall.

  "Will you miss our darling Lily terribly, my sumptuous Lauren?"

  They had made their way to the gourmet kitchen that dominated the center of the first floor. The cabinets were filled with fresh food as if someone had been expecting them. Natalia almost felt like an intruder though she knew Kāne wouldn’t mind them helping themselves. She doubted he would ever return anyway.

  When the man left he stayed away, unlike others in her life who made a habit of buzzing around them like pesky flies. She loved her son Nate yet once the man had an idea in his head it was nearly impossible to sway him from it... like his infatuation with Lily.

  "I will miss our Lily, of course, but as long as I have you in my arms, my precious Natalia, I will survive the loss. I
thought I had lost you too. I would have allowed myself to be swept away by the tides if that had happened. I could never live without my darlings."

  "It was the strangest thing, sweet Lauren. One moment I was in the garden behind Orchardton Hall plucking herbs to make soup for lunch. The next thing I knew I was in Kurgan at that old church we used to go to have picnics. It was evening and I was sick. If not for Nubia, I would have died. I wonder how she knew to bring me home?"

  "Our tigress has her father's good sense, my lovely Natalia."

  "Do you think the tigers will be okay in old Scotland, darling Lauren?"

  "They will thrive there with or without us. Now, please feed me, my tender Natalia. I am famished."

  Chapter 46—Aftermath

  It was like the time he found himself trapped underground.

  He was their only hope... though he hated the thought of crawling through the tiny airshaft running beneath the concrete floor of the cage where they'd been locked he had begged for the chance.

  Halfway through his clothing caught on a sharp protrusion pinning him in place as the sweat poured from his body drenching him in seconds. He couldn’t catch his breath as his bowels threatened to let loose. After what seemed like hours but were doubtlessly minutes—perhaps seconds—he pulled free to continue the journey.

  Even now he sometimes woke from surreal dreams where he was once again stuck in some dark crevice unable to move and knowing even if he called out there would be no one to help him.

  Though Maon prided himself on his fearlessness, two things scared him... being trapped in close quarters, and falling. Though he'd only been two years old at the time facing down his claustrophobia had been one of the great accomplishments of his life. It seemed odd that centuries later when he thought sure he had grown both in stature and in wisdom, his other fear still haunted him.