Falling in Deep Collection Box Set

by Pauline Creeden

  Her hands flew up and gripped the back of his head, urging him to kiss her more deeply. He wrapped his arms around her, dragging the fingers of one hand up and down her side. They caught in the stiff hem of her corset and hitched it up just enough to reveal a spot of her body that was not encrusted with mud. Levi leaned down to kiss it. Goose flesh prickled Melusine all over as his lips met her skin.

  He lifted his head, his voice thick. “Dear God in Heaven. I cannot get enough of you.”

  She drew him in for another kiss and he moaned, his hands now tight around her waist. She felt his lips widen into a grin against hers as he rapped on her armored corset with his knuckles. “Very hospitable.”

  “I have a dangerous job,” Melusine murmured between kisses.

  He pulled back, his amber eyes now serious. “You said earlier that you thought men were very much like monsters.” She nodded and he continued. “I will never seek to hurt you, Melusine Doré.”

  A thread of soreness rose from her chest to climb into her throat.

  His lips brushed against hers before he pulled back once more. “I know my reputation is one of violence when it comes to monsters. But there are only two creatures on this earth that I will ever take pleasure in destroying: any man or monster that harms you and any beast like the ones that murdered my brother.”

  Fear etched its way through her veins. The sting of tears smoldered behind her eyes. She gripped the back of the velvet seat and blinked, wishing she could tell him. Wishing the tenderness she felt for him was enough to make everything all right.

  The carriage came to an abrupt stop and steam chuffed out the seams of the doors as they slid open. Melusine had expected to see her own dilapidated building and the wobbly stairs. Instead, what lay before them was the inside of Sir Edwin Aldridge’s carriage house.

  “Driver!” Levi shouted. “You’ve taken us to the wrong place. I insist you take us to Miss Doré’s address!”

  But the automaton had shut down, not a whir or click from its metal hull.

  Levi helped Melusine down from the coach. “I’ll walk you home,” he said.

  Edwin’s voice sailed over to them from the entranceway. “No need for that Mr. Cannon. As I said earlier, you are both my guests for the night.” He pulled out his pocket watch. “Though with the hours the two of you keep, there is little of the night left.”

  He strode over to them, his haughty expression changing to one of horror as he took in their appearance.

  “Guests or prisoners?” asked Levi, arms crossed. “The driver took us here despite the fact we’d given orders to go elsewhere.”

  Edwin brushed non-existent dust from his waistcoat with his mechanical hand. “Guests, of course. Your driver had already been instructed to come back here. And my instructions always take precedence.” His eyes shot to the inside of his carriage and back to them again with a sigh. “I just had those cushions reupholstered last month.”

  Melusine felt a bubble of laughter rising up again.

  Edwin scorched her with a glare but said nothing more.

  Melusine and Levi followed Sir Aldridge to the house. He stopped and studied the two of them in their muddy outfits then changed direction. “Perhaps it’s wiser to take the back way,” he said, leading them to the servants’ entrance.

  When she was up in her room for the night, Melusine stripped down to nothing and handed her soiled clothes to the same automaton maid who’d dressed her earlier. Every bit of her was dark with dirt except for a stripe of white skin from her breasts to the very tops of her thighs. In the adjacent bathing room, a deep, claw footed tub waited. Rose scented steam shimmied up from the water into the air. A square of flannel hugged the edge of the tub. Melusine took it and went over to the porcelain sink and opened the gold spigot. Pipes shuddered from inside the walls and then a stream of water came out. It was clear and steady. So unlike the pumped-in water at her own boarding house.

  She took as much surface mud off as she could before sinking into the bath. The pleasant tingling that covered her skin as she soaked made her think of Levi. She held her breath, searching her body for any signs that it had started, but she saw none. A surge of bliss overtook her, coming out as deep, wracking sobs that made her ribs ache and yet were a glorious release.

  It hadn’t happened. There was no need to fret.

  The cotton nightdress was cool and dry against her skin. She slipped into the canopy bed, a wide smile fixed upon her face. In the morning, she would give her heart to Levi, gift-wrapped and tied with a bow with no worries of it hurting either of them. She closed her eyes, sleep taking her, her fingers clutching the sheets, some inner part of her realizing she could never let go.

  The pain woke her less than an hour later. Darts of fire all along her hips, thighs and shins. She balled up the edge of the bedcovers, shoving a corner of it into her mouth to keep from crying out. She writhed about on the bed, willing it to stop. Before her eyes rolled back into her head and she lost consciousness, she reached down and brushed her fingers along her thighs. They came back bloody.

  She had not outgrown it. Mother had not forgiven her. This was no nightmare.

  This was her curse.

  When she’d first come to Chicago, she’d found shelter with a group of other homeless children. They stayed in a dank basement room in the Patch. They picked pockets and pinched items from storefronts to survive.

  Their alliance was a tenuous one—skirmishes and viciousness and even a stabbing or two kept them from fully trusting one another. But there was a boy, Reuben, who was Melusine’s age and who’d taken a shine to her. His parents had died of cholera two years earlier and he’d run away from the orphanage to be on his own. He had dark hair and freckles and sharp uppercut that sent home many a boy several teeth short. But he told Melusine she was his and he kissed in such a way that it made Melusine yearn for more. She gave her mother’s curse no thought and fell easily into love with the only person in the world who seemed to care she even existed.

  When the scales had started to grow in, the other children thought her pain was due to illness and they threw her out into the street. Reuben carried her to an abandoned tool shed in an overgrown lot and lay her on the damp ground, rats sniffing at her feet. “Come back to us when you’re feelin’ better.” She didn’t blame him or any of them; epidemic diseases had a chokehold on Chicago so no one wanted to be near the sick.

  She ripped out as many scales as she could, but the transformation continued. For three days she suffered the change in her body, each day scales covering more of her. For long moments she lost all track of herself.

  But the last night was different. The scales had stopped just below her knees and already half the day had passed without the transformation continuing. A reprieve. Or perhaps an end. Perhaps her mother’s spell wasn’t as complete as she’d expected it to be.

  She had to see Reuben. He’d told her he loved her. They would find a way to get through this.

  The sky was a deep purple, fissures of pink breaking through where the waning sunlight still clung to clouds. It was Thursday evening, which meant Reuben and the others were near the airship dock on the lakefront. Thursday was race night, so crowds of spectators lined the shore. Money lined pockets, ready for bets or to buy the countless wares sellers hawked while young and old alike cheered on their favorite pilots. For pickpockets, it was paradise.

  She spotted Fanny, another girl who ran with the group, at the edge of a crowd.

  Fanny pouted at Melusine’s sudden presence. “He went off that way,” she said pointing to the lake, away from the airship route. But before Melusine turned away, Fanny revealed a blooming pink love bite at the base of her neck. “Reuben thought you might be dying. I’m kind of his girl now.”

  Melusine told herself the tears burning her eyes were due to the top of her boots rubbing against her scales.

  It was then that she felt the familiar pull and prickling under her skin like she had when her father was near. She left Fanny a
nd headed to the lake, hurrying through the long grasses and garbage on the sand. It was deserted here, the airship circuit now a distance away. A sliver of fear pierced her—the possibility that the monster she was sensing was, in fact, herself. That she was drawn to the water, not by the lure of a creature, but by instinct that came with the scales sprouting on her skin.

  Then she saw them—a couple, arms around each other, chest deep in the water.

  Reuben. It was her Reuben, the boy she loved, who stood looking deep into the eyes of a strange woman. She was young and vibrant, her blond hair shining like gold, the skin on her face and shoulders glowing like moonlight. She was saying something to Reuben, her voice a song, lilting and melodic.

  Terror dipped and rose in Melusine’s gut. There was no monster. It was Melusine’s own evil rising though her veins and calling to her.

  She threw off her shoes, new scales rising down her shins, each leg turning into a tail. She dove into the lake, gliding through the chilly water. The water provided no resistance and she found herself next to Reuben and the woman in a matter of seconds.

  “Reuben?” she said, but he did not turn.

  A soft sigh came from the woman. Melusine studied her and now knew why she’d sensed a monster. The woman had deep green eyes that shone iridescent even in the darkening night. At the very edge of those eyes, a line of tiny, shimmering scales swept out to her temples and disappeared under the golden silk of her hairline. Fine, sloping shoulders led to delicate arms. Her taut breasts were uncovered, but a thin streak of sapphire scales rippled down from her belly, growing wider as it descended her body. And there, instead of legs, she had a fish’s tail, scales ending in a large blue fin.

  She was magnificent. The most beautiful monster Melusine had ever laid eyes upon.

  The siren narrowed her eyes at Melusine. “Your scent was on him. It carried over on the wind, but it was murky. I couldn’t tell if you were one of us or human. Curiosity got the best of me. I reckoned you’d come if I sang to him.”

  Melusine swam around to move closer to Reuben. He stood silent—that glazed look he got when he’d just kissed a girl still evident in his eyes.

  “I believe he’s waiting for your kiss,” said the mermaid. She shrugged. “I have a feeling he did not appreciate mine.”

  His chest heaved and he took strong, panicked breaths in and out through his nose. One of the mermaid’s white hands clutched his upper arm and Melusine saw now that the creature had claws instead of fingernails, shiny pearly claws ending in sharp tips.

  “Reuben?” Melusine said again. But his mouth stayed shut.

  An overwhelming desire to kiss him—to taste him—washed over Melusine. Even when Reuben had touched her in the dark of the underground room where they slept, never had the urge to make him hers been so strong.

  The monster inside her threatened to take over. It was that feeling that Melusine would always remember. The feeling of the beast in her rolling in like a thick fog, ready to devour her soul.

  She remembered it the following morning when the shiny flakes fell off her body and the pain faded away. When she awoke on the sand with Reuben next to her. His body bloated, his mouth bloody, his hands ripped to shreds, tiny broken barbs stuck in his skin.

  She knew then that love was too dangerous.

  She began to kill monsters, those beings that fed off of humans.

  Those beings like herself.

  In Sir Aldridge’s guestroom, Melusine rolled in and out of consciousness, fighting to not lose control. For the slightest moment near three in the morning, the pain subsided. Respite. Melusine removed the bit of blanket from her mouth, the material peeling off her tongue as she did so. The air in the room was stuffy and thick, like the humid summers in Louisiana where it took effort to breathe. Melusine stared at the opulent canopy above her bed, yards of drapery folded and twisted into an elaborate pattern. But slowly, slowly she lowered her gaze until she was looking at her own body. Her heart hammered at an impossible speed inside her ribcage as she took in her hips and legs.

  Dozens of coral colored scales had sprouted out of her skin. Her left hip and thigh were nearly covered, while her right side was spattered in scales. They would grow in. Unless she could stop it.

  She grasped one of the shiny flakes, slicing the pads of her fingers on the sharp spines. Blood trickled down onto the bedclothes, but she pulled, clenching her teeth against the pain.

  Finally, she wrenched the scale out of her skin. She then moved on to another one. And another one. She managed to remove a good dozen of them, the mixture of her sweat and blood making her fingers slippery, before the darkness of oblivion held her again.

  When the clocks on Sir Aldridge’s mantelpiece rang seven, Melusine woke with one thought in mind: She had to leave this house, this city. She had to get as far from the lake as possible. As far from Levi as possible. She did not want to hurt him.

  The scales covered her hips and thighs, but they just crested her knees. She still had time, but she’d need to move fast.

  She threw open the wardrobe, rummaging around for anything at all to wear. A violent knock beat at the door. Edwin’s voice came from the other side, “Miss Doré? May I come in?”

  Melusine yelped, ripping a quilt off of the bed and draping it in front of her. “I’m indecent!”

  “Cover yourself. I cannot wait any longer.” The door swung open and Edwin stood there, his blue eyes narrowed, his mechanical fingers tapping out a steady rhythm of impatience.

  “You’re out of sorts,” he said.

  Melusine’s hand went to her hair. “Yes…ah…well, you did wake me.”

  Edwin’s shoes clacked against the hardwood floor as he neared the bed. He turned to her. “There is blood on the bedclothes.”

  “My injury,” she said, one hand pulling the quilt tighter to her. “I must have rubbed against it in my sleep.”

  “Shall I get my maid to come dress the wounds?”

  Melusine shook her head. “No need.”

  Edwin raised his eyebrows but said no more about it. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to polish his mechanical hand. “You and Mr. Cannon have grown familiar with each other, I see. Your line to me about having no interest in men seems to have been just that: a line.”

  “I don’t—”

  Edwin’s glare stopped her talking. “Miss Doré, there is no use in denying it; despite their lack of humanity, my servants have eyes and ears. They are equipped with photographic and phonographic recording devices of my own invention.” Having polished his fingers, he now rubbed at the shiny surface of his palm. “Nothing goes on in this house without my knowing it.”

  Melusine’s heart galloped in her chest.

  “If you must know,” she said, “it does not befit me to be with a man. In fact, I’m leaving town today. I have no interest in seeing Mr. Cannon or continuing this job.”

  Edwin slipped the handkerchief back into his pocket. “Oh, Miss Doré, you cannot quit now. You are so very, very close to having a small fortune in your hand. Come. We’re going to kill that Siren Eel. Mr. Cannon is waiting downstairs.”

  An uneasiness took root in Melusine’s gut. “Mr. Cannon has all the tools necessary to slay the Siren Eel. You no longer need me. I must be on my way.”

  Edwin’s lips flattened into a straight line as he pushed a long sigh out of his nose. “Very well, then, my dear. But allow me to give you a ride to your residence.”

  “Thank you, but no—”

  Edwin held his hands up, tsking her. “Ah, ah, ah. It’s the least I can do. I insist.”

  Chapter Eight

  Dark clouds rumbled overhead and raindrops tumbled down as Edwin ushered Melusine into the steam carriage. She’d thrown on a dress that had been hanging near the back of the wardrobe—doubtless Edwin’s late mother’s given the outdated style and the intense smell of years in storage. The cotton stuck to her moist palms as she gathered the skirts to sit down.

  Levi was already in t
he coach, impeccable in a cranberry waistcoat and white cravat. He winked a toffee colored eye at her, his lips turning up into a warm smile. “Good morning to you, Miss Doré.”

  A buzzing surge of electricity circuited through her as she remembered the feel of his hands upon her. She nodded towards him, but did not dare make eye contact for fear she would find herself begging him to love her, or worse, that she would find herself with her teeth sunk into his flesh.

  She pushed her hands down onto her thighs to bring herself back to the moment, needles of pain shooting through her palms as she did so. A stain of blood blossomed onto the thin silk of the gown, sharp barbs from the mermaid scales poking through.

  She folded a length of the skirt over the soiled bit and waited for the carriage to move. In only moments she would be home and then she’d leave Chicago. And they all would be safe.

  Edwin pushed in next to her, his nostrils flaring as if he smelled something off. “Lock and go!” he shouted to the automaton driver. The clunk of bolts sliding into place and the click of a catch fitting into its hole sounded loudly within the carriage. The vehicle shuddered and spat steam, then moved forward.

  “I shall be very glad when this business with the Siren Eel is done,” said Edwin, eyes on the crooked paths drops of water made against the window. “I should like to put everything embroiled in it behind me.”

  Levi leaned forward and Melusine caught the clean cedar wood scent of him. “Then it will be your lucky day, Sir Aldridge. We have some shiny little devices that should put an end to the eel.” He took one from his pocket and showed it to Edwin. Then Melusine felt Levi’s gaze upon her. “You do have the bait, don’t you?”

  At the same time Melusine responded, “No,” Sir Aldridge answered with, “yes.”

  Levi shook his head in confusion. Melusine swallowed down a hot bubble of pain at the thought of losing this man. But she opened her mouth and murmured, “I cannot finish the job with you.”