By the time he landed on his balcony, his annoyance had eclipsed the bothersome arousal. The woman in his arms was once again the nuisance she’d become the instant the curse had taken her, only now she was even more of an inconvenience because she’d put herself squarely in his care.
“I don’t know how you did this to yourself,” he said firmly. “But you will undo it immediately. Whatever you might think, you are not staying here.” Whether he said the words more for her or himself, he didn’t know.
The redhead looked up at him, but her green eyes were glazed and dull. It was obvious that she wasn’t really seeing him. For a moment a sense of unease slithered through his stomach. Was this a sign the curse was growing stronger, more powerful? Would the people not only fawn over him when they saw him, but actually seek him out and try to insinuate themselves into his life? Would their appreciation grow into full out obsession?
He shoved those thoughts away, refusing to go down that path. “You were probably a clingy person to begin with.” The words left a sour taste in his mouth, but he cleared his throat and shook it off.
He strode across the sun-warmed stone, through the large glass doors that led into his bedroom. The mermaid weighed next to nothing in his arms, even soaking wet. He barely noticed a difference after he put her on his bed. She sat where he put her, dull gaze locked on the silk sheets as if she’d never seen anything like them. He waited for a moment then leaned down and tugged the sheets around her, haphazardly covering her up. She still shivered, but didn’t move to pull the covers tighter around her.
Something about the sight of her in his bed, blood-red hair spilling down her back, pale skin covered with nothing but his own sheets, tugged at something low in Patricio’s gut. His bed, perfect for a man of his considerable size, made the mermaid look tiny and vulnerable. It was a sharp contrast to the woman he’d seen pull herself and a sailor up the side of a ship with nothing but the strength in her own two arms.
“The first time I saw you, I was so impressed. What an utter waste.” He crossed his arms and looked down at her, firmly distancing himself. He had to remember she was under the effect of his curse, there was nothing he could do about that. Having any warm feelings for her would only give the witch the revenge she’d wanted. “Look at what you’ve done to yourself. I hope you can fix it, because you’re in for one devil of a rough road if you—”
“A charmer as always, eh, Your Majesty?”
That voice. Smooth like caramel with an eternal lilting edge of laughter. The sound slid down Patricio’s skin like a poison looking for an open wound and he spun around with his sword already in his hand.
“You!” he snarled.
Adonis waved at him from beside the elaborate gold-trimmed mirror hanging beside Patricio’s dressing screen. “Hello, feathered friend.”
“How dare you show up here.” Patricio tightened his grip on his sword, aching to swing the weapon at the incubus. He couldn’t think of a more perfect way to work off some of the ridiculous tension the persistent mermaid had built up inside him. “How did you get in here?”
“I introduced Kirill to the naiads and convinced them to hear him out on a proposal for a…” Adonis paused and a wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. “A… Oh, I don’t know, some sort of political alliance. You know how the vampire is. It’s always ‘Sign this’ and ‘In the event of war that’ and ‘Don’t touch my map, where’d you put the blue dart I had in the southern territories of Angosta—’”
“That miserable gargoyle transported you here, didn’t it?” Patricio interrupted. He looked up at the top of the mirror, searching for the little beast that had followed the vampire Kirill around ever since it had helped him save his wife Irina. It’s hiding.
Adonis snatched a cigarette out of whatever dimensional pocket he was always using and lit the tip in a burst of fiery orange. A foul cloud of cloves billowed from his lips. “Yes.”
“That vampire will answer for this,” Patricio vowed, waving a hand to shoo away the smoke. He had little against Kirill personally, the vampire was surprisingly light on sin for a blood-drinker. Not that his actions weren’t questionable, but the undead prince had a penchant for keeping his karmic scales very nearly balanced. Then again, Patricio granted that he should really expect nothing less from the meticulous royal. Patricio wouldn’t put it past Kirill to have a scroll dedicated to maintaining such a balance, with a carefully detailed list of his good and bad deeds. However, his apparent interest in taking the incubus under his wing was a quality Patricio found very revolting.
“Oh, calm yourself, Patricio. I only wanted to get a glimpse of the woman Eurydice picked out for you.” He turned to face the bed and the redhead still huddling there in a trembling ball of arms…and legs. “I am Adonis, Prince of Nysa. And you are…?”
Patricio tried to listen without appearing obvious. The last thing he needed was another lesson from the incubus on how to treat women. When no sound came from behind him, he turned.
The mermaid still sat there. She hadn’t moved other than to tremble since Patricio had set her down. The sheets had slid off one shoulder and the trembling had grown more pronounced.
“Beautiful one, are you all right?” Adonis snapped his fingers, banishing the cigarette.
He stepped forward, slowly. It took a full ten seconds for the mermaid to focus on him. Still she didn’t react. Adonis looked back at Patricio. His face was more serious than Patricio had ever seen it, not a hint of humor in his dark eyes. The sight was so unexpected, Patricio lowered his sword to rest on the floor.
“She’s in shock.” Adonis looked around the room. “Do you have any thicker blankets? Silk isn’t going to keep her warm.”
Patricio shifted from foot to foot. “I pulled her out of the sea. She…she was a mermaid a few days ago, a—”
“Wait, what?” Adonis’ hand flashed out, grabbing Patricio’s arm. His eyes searched Patricio’s face, as if looking for some sign he was joking. When he found none, his arm fell away. “Gods, preserve us. She…” He looked back at the mermaid. “You’re a mermaid?”
Again there was no response. Adonis took a deep, slow breath. Patricio tried to ignore the sense of unease crawling up his spine.
“Have a hot bath drawn up.” The demon stalked to a tall armoire standing in the corner. He opened it and began tearing out robes, and one thick cloak. He stomped across the room and started arranging them around the woman, tucking her into a nest of thick cotton. “What are you waiting for? Send for someone to draw up the bath.” His voice heated and dropped until it was nearly unrecognizable, a deep, soul-grating rasp.
Patricio stiffened. “Do not orde—”
“Don’t worry.” Adonis’s tone shifted from the gruff fury of moments ago to a soothing tone one might use with a child as he addressed the mermaid. “We’re going to get you in a nice hot bath, it’ll be like lying on a hot spring. You’ll be warm, and you can lie back and relax. Everything is going to be all right, I promise.”
He stood slowly from the bed. The mermaid didn’t move, didn’t react to anything. Adonis turned to face him.
The demon’s eyes glowed an unholy red, bright enough to offer Patricio a glimpse into what the heart of a volcano must look like. Adonis exhaled through his nose and twin curls of smoke escaped.
“You arrogant fool.” Adonis straightened his spine, faced off against Patricio. “Are you so far gone that they aren’t even people to you anymore? Not even the women?”
Heat flared in Patricio’s cheeks. He gritted his teeth and thrust his chin forward. “Get out.”
“She’s in shock, you pompous bastard. Her entire world has been torn away from her, her body mutilated. And you’re standing here, yelling at her like some imperious judge ready to condemn her for pining after your sorry, feathered ass.”
Patricio raised his sword without really meaning to. “I told you to get out.” He was determined not to rise to Adonis’ bait, but he couldn’t resist one response. “She brou
ght this on herself. She was the one fool enou—”
“Know that for a fact, do you?” Adonis snarled. “Even if you’re right, do you think that maybe her decision was influenced by your curse?”
“If it was, it would be no fault of mine.” Patricio gripped the hilt of his sword a little tighter. “The witch is responsible for that curse, not me.” Not me.
“You would have been better off with your mother.” Adonis wrinkled his nose in disgust. “At least then you wouldn’t have this damned superiority complex.”
Patricio reared back, his lips parting. Images of his mother flickered across his mind’s eye, blurry images created by a child’s brain. He’d been taken to Ares’ temple as a child, he hardly remembered his mother. Though he knew enough… “How dare you?”
“Zeus ruined you.” Adonis sneered. “Sending you to train with the god of war, giving you that damned sword. He filled your head with all those ridiculous ideas about how wonderful you are, how much better you are than all those sinners out there.” He rolled his eyes. “And I know that’s where your issues with sex come from. Who knows, maybe if I’d had to grow up seeing Zeus chase every female unfortunate enough to cross his path, maybe I’d—”
The incubus cut himself off, dodging out of the way as Patricio’s blade sliced through the air toward his shoulder. He hit the floor and rolled then sprang back to his feet in a low crouch. His eyes glowed a hellish red as he bared his teeth at Patricio.
“You may fool others, but you don’t fool me,” Adonis rasped. “I remember when you lived in Nysa. I know who you come from, what you are despite all of Zeus’ pretty words. You have a chance at a fresh start now, Patricio, can’t you see that? Eurydice is giving all of us a fresh start. Don’t be a fool.”
Patricio pulled the sword back for another swing, clutching his anger around him like a worn, familiar cloak. Echoes passed through the years, filling his head with the sounds of swords clanging together, the crash of a blade against a shield. The sounds of the temple that had been his home. There’d never been time for talk, no time for self-doubt. You fought, and you fought hard, or you died. The blade rested in his palm, a reminder that he’d survived, been given a purpose that separated him from the other bloodthirsty monsters he’d learned alongside. He inhaled slowly, calmly, readying himself for another attack.
“I don’t need a fresh start. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Adonis sneered. “You used to believe that. But it’s been so long since Zeus whispered your greatness in your ear. I wonder if you still see yourself in the same shining light?”
Patricio swung again, bringing the sword down toward the meat of Adonis’ thigh. The incubus’ words screeched in his ear, but he pushed it away, ignored it until it was lost amongst the screams in his memory. He took a deep breath, found his center the way he’d been trained to do. The demon rolled out of the way again, but this time Patricio anticipated it. He pivoted around and brought the sword down in another arc, taking a bite out of Adonis’ hip.
Adonis bellowed in pain, but clamped his teeth closed on the last sound. Power flared around the demon’s body, grey tendrils of smoke rising as his flesh wavered like the disturbed surface of a pond, his wounds healing and the blood drying into a dark patch on inky skin. Black claws sprouted from his hands, ebony horns erupting from his temples to wind around his head. Midnight wings exploded from his back in a fountain of leather and bone. He bared sharpened teeth at Patricio, his red eyes glowing like coals.
“If you have any sense left at all, Patricio, you will take my advice now. Stop fighting what you are and accept the goodness that has come into your life. Give the woman a chance.”
“A chance to what?” Patricio ground out. “Fawn over me like some mindless nymph?” He laughed, a short, humorless sound. “That sort of blind devotion may feed your ego, incubus, but I’ve had my fill. I don’t want to be worshipped.”
“Don’t you?”
Patricio swung again, but this time Adonis eluded him, using his wings to lift himself to safety and then dropping into a roll to dodge the follow-up swing.
“The curse has already taken her,” Patricio spat. “I have no time for dazzled females whose emotions are ruled by cruel magic. I brought her here out of duty, and as soon as I’ve discovered exactly what she’s done to herself—or what the witch’s curse has done to her—she will be out of this castle on the next breath. You can tell Eurydice and your friend the vampire that I will not be ord—”
Suddenly the bedroom door opened and a servant came into the room. She was small and thin, not even five feet tall. Her plain servant’s uniform a little too big for her slight frame. “Your Highness, Miss Emiliana is here to see y—”
“Oh, for the love of Zeus, can’t you see that I’m busy?” Patricio roared.
The girl’s eyes grew round as saucers and she squeaked then whirled around and scurried toward the door in a rustle of skirts.
“Little one, wait!” Adonis called out.
Patricio turned to glare at Adonis, shocked when he found the demon was once again his boyish human self. He smiled at the maid and Patricio curled his lip in disgust as the girl melted under the incubus’ attention.
“I wonder if you might be so kind as to have a bath arranged for Prince Patricio’s guest?” Adonis tilted his head, peering at the girl from under his thick eyelashes.
He gestured at the bed and the maid glanced over at the mermaid. She didn’t bat an eye. Since the prince of Nysa had been replaced by an angel wielding a great broadsword, very little fazed the staff.
“Right away, sir.” She bobbed a curtsy, a pink blush staining her cheeks. She kept her eyes on the floor as she curtsied to Patricio as well. Without another word, she fled the room.
Patricio clutched his sword tighter, desperately wanting to hit something. “You take liberties ordering my servants about.”
Adonis ignored him. He bowed to the mermaid on the bed, offering her a cheeky wink before striding over to Patricio’s mirror. He tapped the surface with one finger and the glass shimmered and rippled. Ignoring Patricio, Adonis prepared to step through the mirror. At the last second, with one foot through the mirror and one still on the floor, he turned back to Patricio.
“You are neither as wonderful nor as monstrous as you think you are,” he said quietly. “If Eurydice has worked as hard to bring that woman into your life as she did with Loupe, and Irina, and Ivy with the rest of us, then she very well may be the person to see you for who you are and love you for it. Since that’s something you haven’t yet managed to do for yourself, I hope you understand what a truly magnificent gift she is.”
He looked like he wanted to say more, but then he pressed his lips together and lowered his head. Before Patricio could respond, he vanished.
Chapter Five
Lavender. The scent of lavender tinged the steam hovering over the water. Wet warmth cradling her body in a slick, welcoming grasp. Large, lazy bubbles tickling her skin. Aching muscles relaxing as tension dissolved away. The familiar, smooth caress of water against her body. Sighing, sliding down, farther into the comforting embrace.
Hot water filling her nose and pouring down her throat. Adrenaline spiking in her blood like the sizzling kiss of acid. Throbbing pressure building inside her body as oxygen cut off, blocked by the water rushing in through her nose and mouth. Eyes widening, arms and legs thrashing around. Someone grabbed her by the arms.
Cold air hit her face like a physical slap and she choked. Water spewed from her mouth and nose, tracing heated paths down her rapidly cooling skin. She gasped and coughed as her lungs fought to get the oxygen she needed.
“Humans don’t have gills.”
The voice flew back to her, the tone edged with cruel laughter and filtered by her own terror. An image filled her mind. An ancient mermaid—Melusine—silver eyes glowing with cold fire as she watched someone writhing in the water, their lower body a macabre combination of fish and human. Pain.
Marc
ela blinked, still struggling to breathe through the remains of the water trickling from her body. That someone had been her. She blinked down at her body. Legs.
“What are you doing?”
A new voice, male. A deep baritone that made her insides vibrate. Marcela coughed and sputtered again as she turned to look.
Wings. Giant, white, feathery wings, towering over her like clouds. She blinked again then lowered her gaze to the angel’s face. His blue eyes bored into her, a crystal blue to make the spring sea jealous. Panic warring with anger in the lines of his face, his arms like twin vices around her biceps as he held her out of the water. Legs dangling.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?” His chest rose and fell in sharp, quick bursts, and his eyes twitched as he searched her face.
“I can’t breathe underwater.” The words sounded scratchy and hoarse, foreign to her own ears. That doesn’t sound like my voice.
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