by Dani Stowe
“What do you want?” I ask.
“It’s not what I want, dear. It’s what we all want. When do you plan to lay with Orphelius?”
Okay. Now, I’m mad. I was scared, but not anymore. “What are you, my pimp? I’m not going to screw with him. Everybody is insisting that I do. And for what? So he can walk? So I can break his century-old curse? I’m not a whore.”
“But you were.”
“I’ve never been a prostitute.”
“No?” she asks. “How many men have you slept with in your lifetime? Fifty? A hundred?” She laughs. “Two hundred? And for what?”
I throw the knife at the mirror. “That’s none of your business!”
The knife hits the glass, but nothing shatters. I march into Shelley’s room shutting the door behind me only to see the palm reader in the mirror above the vanity. I notice the bed next to the vanity, which is a mess, and automatically recall this morning; I feel ill. Does this freak, this witch, even know what I went through this morning?
“I’m not sleeping with him!” I yell. “I’m not sleeping with Orphelius!”
I hear a screech and the flutter of wings from the hall outside. I rush to the window and my heart aches. My feathered friend is flying away.
“Cookie, why are you so afraid?” she rattles.
“Don’t call me that!” I snap. “And I’m not afraid. Orphelius is just different. He’s wrong! He’s got tentacles for Christ’s sake.”
“Orphelius would love you if you had tentacles. He loved you when you were nothing but another man’s plaything. He’s killed for you. He’s died for you. He’s rescued you several times over and yet you won’t even speak to him because he’s different.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I grit as I lean my back against the bedroom wall and sink to crouch on the floor.
“In your former life, Orphelius rescued you from swindlers who would have had their way with you and killed you if they did not receive a ransom. Later, Orphelius rescued you from a burning ship and then again by towing you to safety. But on the night you risked going out to see him, in the same form he is in now, because you loved him, you died.”
“That wasn’t me!”
“But it was,” she insists, “Your lord, who owned you, had followed you to the pier where he watched the two of you copulate. When you returned onshore, your lord slit your throat and tossed you back into the sea like garbage. Orphelius was mortified. He carried your decaying body with him for days until...” she chuckles, “until he came to see me.”
“Stop,” I tell her. “I don’t understand any of this. You keep telling me this story is about me, but it’s not. I don’t know who this other person is or who she was. I suspect you’re going to tell me I was reincarnated somehow and now I owe Orphelius for all of this. But I didn’t ask for it and it even sounds like my former self didn’t ask for it either because I was dead.”
“Exactly,” she says. “You were dead. Do you know what it takes to bring someone back from the dead?” I shake my head. “More death,” she gripes.
“Ow!” I feel a bite at my shoulder and I look to it. Big round dragon eyes are looking back.
“Talk to him,” says the witch and I look up to see her fading in the mirror. “Talk to Orphelius before more animals are taken, more suffering endures, and more birds die or worse! The world will have to live forever with your indifference to a man who only wants to give you love.”
I OPEN MY EYES TO DARKNESS; I can’t sleep. The witch’s last words continue to echo in my mind.
I’m also scared. I’ve decided to make camp on the couch as it was too late and too dark to leave this night, not to mention I had no idea where I planned to go.
Waves roll outside. I know Orphelius is out there—I can tell by the way the waves sound, like they’re lightly crashing into something as they come up onshore.
I can’t for the life of me figure out why I’m so resistant to him.
Because he’s strange? Because I hardly know him? These are legitimate reasons, aren’t they?
He was sweet on the beach during the few minutes we spent together. I chuckle to myself knowing Athena was right—I am a slut. I let Orphelius kiss me even though he was a stranger. Of course, I had to! His face is gorgeous!
My legs are tingling, like I have restless leg syndrome, so I get up. I walk quietly in a circle in the dark until I decide to head towards the kitchen.
Lost in my thoughts, I twiddle my fingers over the countertop. Abs. Orphelius had nice abs and two strong arms as well. In fact, I liked the way he held me in them. I felt so secure—he held me so tight.
I reach down to open the drawer and feel around until I find...a pen. I toss that on the counter. I continue to rummage through the junk drawer and I discover...a round metal thingy with a chain. I toss that on the counter, too. Digging a little further back into the drawer, I finally find it—the flashlight!
I turn it on. The light pierces through the darkness and I recall Orphelius as he popped out of the water when I was isolated on the beach. He didn’t talk much, but we didn’t really have time as Bradley, the asshole, interrupted us.
I walk towards the back door and open it. Maybe, I’ll just give Orphelius a chance to explain himself. I don’t have to get to close. I’m sure he could choke me with his tentacles, even though everyone vows he’s “safe” to be around.
Walking down the ramp onto the sand I march towards the water until I see him...or at least, a portion of him. My flashlight illuminates large tentacles the size of anacondas slipping and sliding along one another in a huge slivering wet mess.
“Kumiko,” I hear him say and I lift the light towards his face. He squints with a cocked head.
I keep the light on him for minute to look at his face. He’s so pretty and manly at the same time, even when he’s grimacing. He’s so human from the waste up and it crushes me I can’t have all of him in human flesh. His emerald green eyes dazzle between the squinting until he raises his hand to block the light and I turn it off.
“Come closer,” he says. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”
“I know you won’t,” I mention, but I don’t move.
“Do I disgust you?” he asks.
“What? Pfft. No!” I’m lying, of course, and I feel terrible. To hear him ask me like that makes me feel like a jerk, like I have no consideration for his feelings or his predicament. But I am judging him based solely on his appearance, so yeah, I’m a jerk.
He clears his throat. “Have you seen the pup?”
“Pup?”
“The dolphin calf?”
“Oh, the baby! No, I haven’t.”
“Is there any way you could bring it to me or I to it? It’s in pain. If I don’t bring it back to its mother soon, it will die.”
I’m such a bitch. Coming out here, I thought this whole encounter was going to be about me.
“I don’t think I can do that, but Athena might be able to help. I will talk to her in the morning.”
“I sense the pup may not make it past morning. How about you? Are you well? Did that skipper hurt you badly?”
I chuckle at the use of the term skipper; it sounds too regal for Bradley. He is more like a cock-sucking pirate. I rub my head. “I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“That’s rude,” I chortle. “How do you know I’m lying?”
“I can sense it. Come closer.”
Reluctantly, I trail my bare feet through the sand to get closer and when I’m within arm’s reach, Orphelius traces his fingers through my hair, rubbing the bump to the side of my head lightly. “I apologize for being late this morning.”
The small, tender, aching sensation of his palpating fingertips is accompanied by a sweet tingle that radiates through my body, lifting my soul, but a warm breeze brings me back to earth. “Late? It’s not your responsibility to look out for me.”
“But it is,” he says gripping his hand behind my neck. “I brought you back from the dea
d.”
I feel a sliver, like scales under my skin, run through my shoulder. It doesn’t hurt but the feeling makes me uncomfortable—my dragon tattoo is moving. Orphelius puts his hand on my shoulder and the thing stops.
It makes me angry he has such control, yet also puts me at ease. I feel lost and hopeless and hopeful, all at the same time. It’s not just the mystery, but also the magic that makes me fearful. There are so many things I want to understand, but I also don’t want to hear about any of it. I am of two minds. It’s like I have no control of my fate and I don’t know how to take control.
Talk. That’s what the witch suggested, but I’m afraid to talk. My parents never talked. I don’t really know how to talk to someone...
Maybe I don’t have to talk. Maybe Orphelius can do all the talking.
“Will you tell me the story,” I ask with a soft whisper. “Tell me the story of our past, of us.”
Chapter 12
Orphelius
“THE STORY OF US?” I repeat. “Are you sure? It’s painfully complex. We could just talk about—”
“Tell me,” she demands.
“Are you absolutely positive you want to know? You might be disappointed with what you learn about our joined past.”
“I’m sure!” She stomps her foot.
Kumiko is different than she was, so I feel I have no choice but to oblige before she spits fire at me.
I take a breath. “More than two centuries ago, I heard you screaming. I came to your aid against criminals and you rewarded me by lying with me. But it was more than a lay; we pretended to be in love. We pretended to make love as we thought true lovers would and I believe we fell in love this way. Afterward, you demanded I bring you back to your lord, who owned you. You were his prostitute. When he set sail for the Americas, I convinced my dear friend, Captain Willis, we follow you. But tragedy struck. A fire consumed your vessel. It was magic that brought upon the fire and it was magic that turned me into what I am, so despite an injury you received, I was still able to bring you back to safety aboard the Annabelle, my ship. A few days after you reached shore, you came to me. You made love to me and your lord...”
I pause. It still pains me.
“What?” Kumiko whines.
“Your lord saw us. He was waiting on the pier behind empty barrels and the second you approached his position, he slit your throat.”
I can still feel the pain—the piercing slice of blade against Kumiko’s thin flesh and the choke of blood as it left her body. I reached for Kumiko with two long limbs to caress and carry her while gripping her lord with two limbs and instantly twisting, breaking his neck.
“Then what?” Kumiko shudders, taking my hand.
“I held you for a few days and that’s when my dear friend, the sea dragon, left and returned in the company of nymphs. They were exhausted of my sadness. The powers granted to me by Poseidon allow me to not only command the creatures of the sea, but also feel what they are feeling, what anyone who has contact with the sea is feeling. And I can also project my feelings. My grief was so great, the creatures begged me to see the witch, Lenora, and that’s when—”
Kumiko squeezes my hand tight. “What?”
“I made a trade.”
I RECALL THE EVENTS like they were yesterday, although it has been more than two hundred years. The nymphs were too afraid to approach Lenora’s plateau, as she had only been a witch for a few weeks, the same amount of time I had been made half a sea monster. She was already aware and making use of her power. Opposite ends of the plateau held two ships, slave ships, wrecked, as dead bodies lay suspended to float about.
“The Master at Arms,” she laughed as I approached, leaving the nymphs and their large pet behind. “What do you hold there?”
“Can you help me, Lenora? The nymphs suggested you might be able to help.”
I brought Kumiko’s dead body into view and Lenora turned away with a grimace.
“Get her out of my sight,” said Lenora, “she’s disgusting. And you’re just as disgusting for carting her dead carcass around. I know what you want, Orphelius. You want me to bring her back to life.”
My heart, feeling dead for days, beat back to life. “Can you do it?”
Lenora, naked, hugged herself. It was as if she had acquired a reward deserving of self-adoration. “It’s possible I can bring her back, but it’s going to cost you more than you might want to pay.”
I looked at Kumiko in my arms. Her eyes were cloudy and gelatinous as her pale skin, plump with seawater, was peeling. Yet, she was still beautiful to me. “Whatever it is I’ll pay it.”
“Summon the dragon,” Lenora commanded.
“The sea dragon?”
“I cannot create something out of nothing. To bring your lover back to life, we must take a life.”
I searched my mind and found the creature within it and summoned it to us. Reluctantly, it came—scared and aware of what was about to happen, but I forced it towards Lenora’s side.
“It is the last of its kind,” I told Lenora. “I can sense it.”
Lenora held out a knife, pressing the handle into my hand then led my hand to push firmly against the scaled yellow belly of the creature as she demanded, “Choose—the dragon or your lover?”
As a Master at Arms, I had exterminated many men either by stabbing, shooting, or hanging, but never had I felt so bad about taking this poor creature’s life. However, seeing Kumiko afloat and without life, I really had no other choice.
“I choose her,” I said, ready to slice the animal.
“Be warned, Orphelius,” Lenora stopped me, gripping my hand before I could slice the creature’s belly open. “My plan is to take an egg from this dragon’s womb and trap your lover’s essence within it. You will bring the egg to shore where she will evolve over centuries until she becomes human. Know she will alter. She will not likely be the exact same person she is or was. She will be different. I also cannot guarantee she will return to you or when. And, you will have to pay.”
“Pay?”
Lenora held out a ring and I cringed. It was the ring that once rested on the hand of Kumiko’s lord. “Magic is not free. If your lover does, in fact, return to you, she must accept this ring and then lay with you, allowing you to walk on land, and my portion of this trade will be complete. I will accept your power to control the beasts of the sea as payment for this deal.”
The full extent of my powers I hardly knew, thus, I was willing to forfeit control of the sea creatures if it meant I could be free to return to land one day with my lover, who would be free of a lord and free to choose me.
I cut the beast open, and as I did, my own gut thrashed with pain. Lenora pulled a dragon egg resembling a large pearl and placed it in my hands. I pulled Kumiko’s body close with my tentacles.
“Leave her dead flesh here,” said Lenora. “Her soul is still with it. It seems she does not want to leave you either. I will protect her until her new body comes looking for the rest of her soul.”
I was wary of Lenora and whether she would do exactly as she stated—protect my lover’s soul. Not to mention, Lenora was a slave—a tortured soul, so I had no idea whether I could truly trust her.
“Hurry,” she shooed. “The sooner you let her go, the sooner she might return to you.”
Unsure of Lenora, but hopeful, I took the egg and swam about the sea for a day, irresolute of where to place the egg. I didn’t want to just leave it to be crushed or eaten. I found a beach, secluded among a mountain peak so high, I knew I would always be able to find it.
“AND THE BEACH GLOWED,” I continue telling Kumiko our story. “It glows at night, making it easier to find due to the crystals embedded in the black rock. I visited the beach daily, but nothing ever happened until one day, the egg vanished. It was just gone.”
Kumiko tilts her head with curiosity. She’s still holding my hand.
I move a strand of hair away from her face to behold her. “And here you are.”
Chap
ter 13
Kumiko
“AM I DIFFERENT? AS the witch said I would be?”
“Hmm...” he hesitates. “Yes.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it,” I sneer and pull away, but he grips my hand tighter, pulling me back to him.
“Because you scare me,” he says.
“I scare you,” I laugh.
“You have a fire within you that I don’t recognize. It wasn’t there before.”
“So, you’re afraid I’m going to burn you.”
“No, but you are braver and stronger than you once were.”
“It still doesn’t sound like you’re happy with this reincarnated, newer me.”
He wraps his arm behind my back and puts his forehead to mine. “Because it makes you sexier than you used to be and it makes me want you more.”
A hardness that I know could only be coming from the sea monster’s groin digs into my thigh. “You want me?”
“I want you.”
“You want to fuck me?”
He pushes me away. “Damn it, no!”
I’m seriously confused and I snap. “I thought that’s what you wanted. That’s what everybody wants—for us to join at the hips, make magic, and free every one of their wretched curses!”
“That is the last thing I want!” he snaps and I feel the remnants of a splash. I almost forgot I was arguing with tentacle man, who is way more sentimental than a sea monster should be and it irritates me.
I put my hands on my hips. “If you want me to fuck you, I’ll fuck you.”
“No!” he snaps and falls back away into the water to swim away.
“Then what do you want?” I yell as I drop the flashlight to chase him, trudging until I’m waist deep in water, which makes my white pajama dress float about me.
“I don’t want to be fucked,” he cries from afar. “I want to be loved.”
I sigh. I can’t see him, but it makes no difference. “This girl, this new me,” I say aloud, “is not capable of love.”