The witch grunted and flicked his tail, swimming toward what looked like a chair made of stone. He sat, resting his elbow on the arm, and stroked his chin. His deep red hair was cut short like mine, and I’d never seen anything quite like it before. “And why would you want that?”
“I want to be a human and live above the surface. I’ve met the man I will marry.”
“Marry?” The witch laughed, and I cringed at how mocking it sounded. “You poor, innocent child. Humans are no better than merfolk, if not worse.” His top lip curled and the puckered skin of a scar that swept over his mouth upturned with it. “Love is a trap.”
“I want to be a human,” I repeated with more force as I swam closer. Raising my chin in determination, I held out my hand to him. “I’ll accept any deal.”
“You fool.” He shook his head and clicked his tongue in a way my mother used to when she was mad at me. “Does your brother know you’re here?”
“My brother?” I furrowed my brows in confusion and dropped my arm. “Which one?”
“Wily. He cares deeply about all his brothers. I doubt he’d let you come here.”
My frown deepened. “How do you know Wily?”
The witch snorted and flicked his tail in my direction, and I took it as a gesture that he wanted me to go away. I wasn’t going to do that, though. I’d come here for a reason, and I wasn’t going to leave until I got what I wanted.
“I am a prince of Atlantia. You should do what I say.” I crossed my arms, as though that would make me seem more confident. I’d never used my political position before because I hated being a prince, but I’d do anything to be a human.
He laughed again and cocked his head. “Oh, really? You’re so much like him.”
“Wily?” I asked.
He shook his head and pursed his lips. “Fine. If this is truly what you want, I’ll give it to you.”
Excitement made my skin prickle and I grinned. “Really?”
“Nothing is for free, little prince.” He shot forward and grabbed my chin in his fingers with a hard grip. I gasped, but that only made him tighten his hold. “I’ll give you the legs you want, and the ability to still understand your merfolk family, even as a human, but I want your voice in return.”
“My voice?” I mumbled, eyes widening.
“If you’re so sure this human will love you, make him do it without speaking.” His mouth twisted into a cruel grin. Now I understood what they meant when they said he was ugly because I’d never seen a demented smile like it before. “Your voice for legs.”
I should have said no, but I nodded instead. “Deal.”
I would never forget the way he laughed then.
Chapter Three
Ethan
I rolled my shoulders and sighed into the fingers that clamped down onto them, digging into all my sore bits. “A little to the left.”
Teena sighed and did as I asked, moving her hands and massaging my muscles there. “The town’s talking about you.”
I snorted and leaned farther back against her. She had her legs on either side of my body, and I sat between them. Teena was the prettiest whore in Loutu, Florida, but if you asked her, she preferred to be called a working woman. As if there was any difference. She still serviced dick, either way.
“When are they not talking about me?” I asked with a shrug.
“They say you’ve gone mad.” Teena managed to get a particularly sore spot, and I cringed.
“Fuck, that hurt.” I shifted away from her, and she dropped her hands as I turned to look at her. “What do you think?”
“I think you pay, so I don’t care if you’re mad or stupid.” She brushed some of her brown hair off her face and sighed. Her English accent came off stronger right after we had sex, and I’d always been tempted to ask her if having orgasms were the reason. “Are you mad?”
“I’m angry, but not crazy.” I stood and searched for my sneakers, finding them over near the door. At least I already had my pants on. My shirt was on the bed so I grabbed that, too, and soon I was fully dressed.
“Only a mad person would believe in mermaids.” Teena spread her legs, seemingly uncaring that she was still completely naked. With a body like hers, it wasn’t hard to see why.
“Merpeople. There’s mermen too.” I winked at her as I pulled out my wallet, grabbing a wad of bills and throwing them on the dresser beside the bed. She knew I was good for it. I’d been seeing her two nights a week for months now.
“Oh, what about fairies? Do they exist too? Or giants. I’m sure they do, too, if merpeople do.” Teena rolled her eyes and stood, placing her hands on her hips. Her tits were nice and perky, one of the many reasons I loved spending the night with her, but her attitude needed work.
“Don’t get smart with me. I pay to fuck you, not get your opinion.” I glared at her. “If you don’t want to lose a customer, learn to keep your mouth shut, whore.”
She huffed. “You know I hate being called that.”
I held out my hands. “I don’t give a fuck.”
“I just got into town eight months ago. After this thing with your dad happened. Are you at least gonna tell me what this is about?” She strode forward and grabbed her robe, slipping it on before tying it up in the front. “Why are you so angry at the world, huh?”
“I’m not.” Fuck, I was. I sighed and ran a hand over my head. “What have you heard?”
“Some things, like your dad was as mad as you are. He believed in mermaids, too, and he spent the last years of his life searching for them. A storm finally got him in the end, at least that’s what the gossips say.”
I sighed, not exactly surprised by what the people in this town had to say about him. They’d never liked my father, from the moment he and Mom moved into town. Loutu was on the coast of Florida, a dream come true for anyone. Dad, a true fisher at heart, had loved the idea of coming here with my pregnant mom. They called it their home until Mom drowned. I didn’t know what he saw that day because my ten-year-old self hadn’t been there, but since then, he’d sworn mermaids existed. He made it his mission to find and hunt them down.
“Which gossip are we talking about? Mrs. Darla?” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. They’re all the same.”
I headed toward the door of her hotel room, one she often rented for days where she sold herself.
“Are you going to tell me why you believe in them, then?” Teena grabbed her cigarette pack and knocked a cig out, popping it into her mouth.
“No,” I said simply before I exited and stalked down the narrow hallway lined with horrible shaggy gray carpet and light yellow walls. It reminded me of something out of the seventies: psychedelic, ugly, and the kind you’d see in a horror movie. But the room was cheap, and I supposed that’s what Teena cared about.
I nodded at the desk attendant on my way out the glass doors and breathed in the scent of fresh ocean air. While the hotel looked shit, it was in the perfect location, right by the sea. The waves rolled luxuriously on the beach today, a gentle crest of white caps, not like the night I’d been found on the sand by Amber, the baker’s daughter.
Shaking the thoughts of that night from my head, I walked along the street, ignoring the way people stared at me, as though I would pop a second head out any second. They were the kind of looks I was used to and had been since my father started talking about the existence of mermaids. I hadn’t believed him, either, and thought he was crazy, like the rest of Loutu, until that night he died. It was a blur of memories that mixed together to give me flashes, but the one prominent thing I remembered was him. A tail, vibrant red and scaled like a fish’s, and a man’s slim chest. The night our boat went down, he’d been there. He’d taken me to the beach for Amber to find.
When I spoke about what I’d remembered, I’d been tarred with the same brush as my father.
Mad.
Crazy.
Lunatic.
The damning descriptions of me where never-ending, and I finally understood my
father and how he’d felt.
“Hey, Ethan!” Joey, my second-in-command, waved his arm from the boat and grinned. His sailor’s cap was crooked, and he had on that ridiculous blue-and-white striped shirt he liked wearing just to piss me off. He acted as though we were actually in the navy. He’d joined my crew to get away from his parents, or at least that’s what I assumed.
“Are we ready to go?” I asked as I headed down the marina to my luxury yacht, all pristine and white, and mid-sized so it was big enough to be relaxing but small enough to sit comfortably in at the jetty. I’d bought it from my inheritance, thanks to my father’s will and my grandfather’s oil company, making me an oil tycoon. My uncle handled the business, though, and my share was only what came from Dad.
Joey stood on the back deck, leaning his hands on the shiny silver railing around the edge. He waved his arm, gesturing to the boat. “She’s as clean as the day you bought her, Boss.”
“Good.” I glanced down the jetty toward a group of men that ambled our way. The rest of the crew. The ones who’d come out with us before didn’t believe me about the existence of mermaids and mermen, either, and they were only here for the money. I didn’t care what they thought, as long as I had the help. I traded through my crew each trip, taking back to sea the fishermen who pulled their weight and getting rid of the ones who gave me problems. “This them?”
Joey glanced in the direction of the men and nodded. “Yep. That’s them. There’s Taylor, see?”
I grunted. Taylor Cole had been part of our crew from the first trip. He was good at his job, even if he let it be known he thought searching for merpeople was ridiculous, but he was Amber’s brother and he didn’t let us down.
There were ten men who stopped in front of me, ranging in sizes and appearances. Some looked rougher than others, their skin leathery from the sun. Then there was Taylor, who had skin that looked like he’d never seen a day of work in his life. All dark haired and rosy cheeked. No one would have guessed he was a few years older than me.
“Welcome aboard.” I stuffed my hands in my pockets and stared around at them. Usually I could tell who’d give me trouble, but no one stood out this time. They looked like hardworking fishermen. “You know why you’re here.”
The men either grunted or nodded.
“Good. I give you one chance. One. If you fuck up, I’ll throw your ass back on land, and you’ll never come back out with us again. Am I clear?”
Again, they made their responses known.
Happy with their answers, I pointed at Joey. “Joel Harris. He goes by Joey. He’s my second-in-command. You got a problem when I’m not around, you go to him. And I’m your captain. Ethan Turmont.”
I could almost see their brains working and how some of their mouths parted, like they wanted to ask me but weren’t sure if they should or not. The newbies were always surprised to learn who I was. I rolled my eyes.
“Yes, that Ethan Turmont. Yes, my father died in a storm while searching for mermaids, and yes, that’s what we’re searching for, too. If you have a problem with that, leave, now.” I waited, and like I expected, two men snorted and turned on their heel, storming away as though the job wasn’t worth the money. There were always a couple, even though they were warned we were searching for the unknown. They just didn’t know what and who for until they arrived.
“Okay, for those who are still here, get on the boat.”
Heavy footsteps echoed around them as they shuffled onto the gangway that connected the boat to the jetty. When the last of them was on, I walked across the gangway, too, before I grabbed the rope, tugging the board up and connecting it to the boat again. When the quick chore was done, I took the stairs up to the wheel and started the engines, which roared to life.
Joey was at my side in minutes, collapsing into the second seat beside mine. “Another trip, Captain.”
I snorted. “Another trip.”
“You reckon we’ll find one?”
I sent him a look of disbelief. “No, Joey. I’m spending all this money on searching for them because it’s fun.”
He held out his hands toward me and laughed. The red curls on his head bounced as he moved forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. “No need to get defensive. I only asked.”
“You ask every time. Do you think this’ll be the trip we find one? The answer will always be the same. We look and search, and when it comes time, we will find one and prove my father was telling the truth, that he’s not crazy, or mad, or whatever insult they’re using these days for him around this shitty town.” My hands squeezed around the steering wheel as I put her in Reverse. I turned, checking around the boat, before I backed her out slowly.
When I had The Mermaid Hunter out far enough, I turned and hit the accelerator, taking her out of the marina slow and steady. We passed some familiar faces, and Joey waved at them. I shook my head. He’d make friends with anyone he came across, which made him the complete opposite of me. It was easier for me to hate people.
It took us an hour or so to get out into the ocean, to the long and latitude where we’d left off last time, and I turned to Joey. “Get the sonar ready. We start here.”
Joey nodded and climbed down the ladder, heading toward the crew to give them a rundown on what was about to happen. We never knew what we’d find, or when we finally found the merpeople, how strong they’d be. It was best to have as many men as possible, even if they were untrained.
I sighed, falling into the leather chair and staring at the horizon. Dad would have loved this boat, slim and sleek with all the right technology. Finding his cryptids would have been a lot easier with my equipment than what he chose to have. He’d always liked keeping things old-school, though, preferring to send the boys down with masks, tanks, and flippers. At least now we didn’t have to go down until we saw something.
Yelling interrupted my thoughts, and I frowned, shoving off my chair and grabbing onto the railing to look at the aft deck. The men were leaning over starboard, even Joey, and there was more yelling.
“What’s going on?” I snapped loudly enough that they could hear me.
Joey glanced up at me. “Boss, there’s a guy in the water. On a piece of floating wood.”
Shock ripped through me, leaving me breathless for a second, before my brain caught up with what I’d heard. I moved down the ladder quickly, running to where they’d gathered. Sure enough, not far from the boat was a young man lying on a piece of thick wood that looked like it could have come from a wreck. His eyes were closed, and he lay awkwardly, knees bent and arms sprawled above his head.
“Get the life preserver!” I pulled myself up the side of the boat, diving off into the water. The waves weren’t as rough as they had been on the last trip we took, but they knocked me around. By the time I swam to the guy, my muscles felt like they were on fire, burning hot. I grabbed the edge of the wood and rolled myself onto it.
“Hey, you all right?” I slapped his cheek, but he didn’t respond. Bending low, I put my ear near his mouth so I could hear his breathing. It was faint but there.
“Boss, catch!” Joey threw the preserver toward me and it landed a few inches from us. The waves were dragging it away, though. Growling in frustration, I dove off the wood and swam toward the ring, grabbing it before turning to swim back. The man didn’t as much as flinch when I pulled myself back beside him, clearly so deep in unconsciousness that he was oblivious to the world of the living.
“Fuck,” I muttered, lifting the guy up as much as I could. He wasn’t as heavy as I thought, even dripping wet. His blond curls clung to his forehead and the sides of his face, plump lips were nearly purple from the cold. He was shirtless, except for a pair of pants that were torn at his knees. I slipped the orange ring around him and maneuvered him over it before I pushed us both into the water. I nearly lost him, as he was close to slipping out of it, but I managed to grab his arm before an accident happened. Holding onto the preserver, I raised my arm to signal Joey to start pulling
us in, which took ten minutes and four men pulling against the current.
The waves were beginning to rock harder, and I cursed when we crashed against the side of the boat and the stranger nearly slipped out of the preserver again.
“Pass me down a rope that I can tie around him,” I yelled up to Joey.
My second-in-command did what I asked, and when I had the rope tied around the stranger’s chest securely, I gave Joey a thumbs-up. He and the men pulled, raising the unconscious man out of the water and up against the boat. When I saw them yank him over the side, I swam around to the port side and climbed up the ladder attached to it. I shivered, the chilly wind making me very aware that I was now dripping wet.
Joey had the man splayed out on the deck and was checking his pulse and breathing, and when he looked at me with thin lips, I knew what needed to happen. I pointed at Taylor. “You know how to drive the boat. Get us back to the marina.” Then I turned to Joey. “Help me get him to the cabin. We need to strip him of his clothes and get him wrapped up, turn the heater on.”
Everyone moved at once. Taylor dragging another man who I knew had been with us before toward the helm. Joey and I lifted the stranger together and we dragged him down the stairs to my cabin, throwing open the door to the small area I considered my home for many months of the year.
Inside was a bedroom, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. Gleaming wood covered all the surfaces and made it look like the luxury boat it was. Lights twinkled in the darkness of the room, illuminating the small alcove that I often retreated to when we had another bad day of searching. I never expected to find a man while searching for merpeople, though.
“Into the bathroom,” I ordered.
Joey and I maneuvered the skinny man in the direction of the bathroom and gently lowered him against the wall. I grabbed towels and threw them at Joey before I began working at the man’s pants, dragging them down his slim hips and legs. He didn’t wear any underwear, and I didn’t have the time to care why.
A Merman's Tail: A dark gay retelling of The Little Mermaid (Grim and Sinister Delights Book 14) Page 3