MERCILESS (The Mermen Trilogy #3) (15 page)

When he woke to an empty space beside him, terror flooded his mind. He could hear Liv screaming for him. He could feel her anguish.

“Liv! Liv!” He pried himself out of bed, grabbed his suede and a machete, and ran, following the sound of her voice.

Like a dream, he followed the cries drifting in the wind to the Great Hall. “Liv! Where are you?” Then the screaming stopped, and there she was, standing at the center of the large cavern. The walls were flowing with water again, and she was smiling at him.

“Woman, what the foke happened to you?” he asked, still on his guard.

“Nothing. But we won.” She glowed with joy. Her skin was radiant with sweat and water. “We did it!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

He pulled her back, gripping her by the shoulders. “Why were you screaming?”

“That fucking bitch of an island tried to hurt me. She tried to convince me to drown myself in the water. But I’m too strong for her, Roen. She’s given up. She knows that fighting us won’t change anything.”

The island surrendered?
“Liv, that can’t be. She’s…”

Liv slapped him hard across the cheek, indignation burning in her eyes. “Roen, wake the fuck up! She needs protection. That’s what this was always about. It’s over. You’re free. I’m free. Why can’t you just be happy?”

“Did you just slap me?” he growled.

Liv shrugged. “Sorry. But I don’t want to waste a minute. We just got our happy ending, Roen! She gets that she needs our help. Those fucking thugs were proof.”

It made sense, but… “What did she say she wants?”

“Exactly like you proposed to her.” Liv pushed herself up on her tiptoes and ran her sweet, wet tongue over his lips. “You make sure there are always a few mermen here at all times. You hire that security firm to protect her from intruders. Everyone’s happy.” Liv gripped his arms, digging hard into his skin with her nails. “You can rotate the men. They can all have lives. You’ve succeeded, baby.” She kissed him again.

He felt sick to his stomach. He leaned over, bracing his arms on his knees. “I need…I need to rest.”

He couldn’t think straight. This was all too…too…easy. But really, had it been? When he thought of everything they’d endured to get to this point? No, it had been a living hell.

Liv ran over to the now flowing pool of water and scooped some into her hands. She ran back to him. “Drink, Roen. Drink.”

He pushed her hands away. “What are you doing?”

Her gaze thickened with anger. “For fuck’s sake, Roen. Why do you always have to be so stubborn? Drink the damned water. If I had any doubts whatsoever, I’d tell you. But now you’re being delusional. Get well. Then we can heal everyone, give the men back their women, and decide together who stays or goes.” She shook him. “It’s over, Roen.”

She was right. He’d been in fight mode for so long, he simply didn’t know how to believe that their luck had turned.

He gave her a quick kiss. “Your lips are cold.”

“Then hurry the hell up and get them warm, merman.” She flashed a seductive smile.

He strolled over to the pool and bent down. Somehow it felt wrong to drink, but he wanted this, more time with Liv. He wanted it more than life itself.

He drank several gulps, and it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before, like his soul had been filled with hope and strength. He felt…fucking powerful.

He shook his head from side to side.

“Roen?” Liv grabbed his arm. “Are you okay?”

“Never better.” He kissed her and ignored the chill of her lips. Perhaps she was simply in need of a little more kissing.

“I’ll get the others,” she said excitedly.

“No.” He grabbed her elbow and yanked her back. “I’m going to fuck you. Right here. Right now.”

His cock felt like a steel post that would explode like a bomb if he didn’t come.

She grinned. “Yes, sir. But make it quick, honey. The people await us.”

He backed her up to the wall, ignoring how it now trickled with a steady stream of water, and turned her around, yanking down her shorts. He found her entrance and thrust himself into her with one smooth motion.

“Yeah, baby. That feels so good,” she moaned.

Why does she feel so cold?
Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting her. He fucked her hard, focusing on her moans, on the sound of her voice. And when he poured himself into her, all he could think of was that something wasn’t right.

Shut the foke up. You just don’t know how to be happy.

“Liv!” Dana’s voice rang out, and Roen quickly pulled out and covered himself.

Still panting and bracing herself against the wall, Liv grumbled something underneath her breath and then put her shorts back on.

Dana appeared in the doorway of the Great Hall, her eyes lighting up. “Holy shit. What happened in here?”

“The island is healing,” Liv said, sounding mildly annoyed. “What do you want, Dana?”

Dana shook her head from side to side. “Oh. Yeah. Um, you guys have to come and see this.”

“We’re busy, sister. What is it?” Liv responded coldly.

Of course, he didn’t appreciate surprises either. He never had. He never would. That said, Liv seemed like she couldn’t be bothered.

She’s been through a lot, man. She’s likely reached her threshold for stress.

“Dana?” he said. “What is the matter?”

Dana blinked up at him, and then she grinned. It was a smile that reminded him so much of Liv. “You’re not going to fucking believe this.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“I don’t foking believe it.” Roen ran his hands over the top of his head and stared down at the sleeping creature—clearly male—lying on the bed in the modest bedroom. The doorway began filling up with curious faces—the maids who’d been transformed. Word always spread quickly on this island.

Dana, who stood behind Roen, peeked around him and looked at the thing on the bed. “I watched it happen. I was holding his hand, and he died. At least, I thought he did. And then it just happened.”

Roen looked at Dana. “This is Edward?” Yes, this was Edward’s bungalow, but…that was…well, it was a foking merman sleeping on that bed.

Dana nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

“Why are you so happy?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I thought he was dead. Now he’s not.”

Roen’s mind began sliding all of the pieces into place. The water on this island was what transformed them into human-looking creatures. If they ceased taking the water, they returned back to…mermen? However, if a maid drank the water, it healed her from whatever was in their saliva that transformed them.

It was very…interesting. Or confusing? He wasn’t sure.

He glanced at Liv, who glared at the thing on the bed. “Guess you can’t accuse us of being crazy for calling ourselves mermen, can you, Liv?” He elbowed her.

“He’s disgusting. Just like the maids.”

Roen looked at Edward’s charcoal black skin, his body bursting with powerful muscles that were the size of any merman’s arms and chest, if not larger. He had a black scaly tail and a black, well-endowed member dangling where his groin once was. His hair had also transformed into thick twisted ropes of seaweed-looking matter, similar to a maid. And, of course, there were the teeth.

“I dunno.” Dana shrugged. “I think he looks like a sexy badass—I mean, look at the size of his—”

“Yes. We see it, Dana,” Liv snapped acerbically at her sister. “But I also see that he’s got teeth. Sharp ones.” Liv grabbed Roen’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “Thank God the island is healing. We can give him water and turn him back to the way he was.” Her big brown eyes pierced him with a warning, as if to say that he dare not disagree with her.

“Of course, Liv. But this is an extremely important revelation. I think we should get the men together and discuss the news of this.”

“You’re not honestly thinking of letting all of the men turn back into these things, are you?”

Why was Liv being so…foking pushy?

He looked around the room. “Everyone out, please.” Edward might wake up soon, and he’d probably be hungry.

Everyone cleared the room, and Roen followed them out, closing the door behind him. “Please spread the word; we are to gather in the Great Hall. Immediately,” he said to one of the ladies. “And, Dana, you are to wait just outside. I need to speak with your sister for a moment and you should not be running around this island unaccompanied. By the way, where the foke is Lyle?”

“He’s sleeping. But I need to tell—”

“You will do as you are fucking told, Dana,” Liv barked.

Dana shrank back. Clearly, she was not accustomed to her older sister speaking that way to her. Frankly, he wasn’t accustomed to hearing Liv speak in such a way either.

“Uh-huh…okay.” Dana went outside, and he and Liv went into the small living room of Edward’s cabin.

“Liv, I feel like you’re not telling me something.”

She blinked her lovely brown eyes at him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You left our bedroom after we made love. I found you in the Great Hall, and suddenly the water had returned.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“Why were you in the Great Hall? What did the island ask of you?” he asked.

“Nothing. She didn’t ask anything. I just heard her calling me, and I came. Then she told me to deliver that message since none of you are listening to her anymore.”

That sounded much too simple. “I thought you said she tried to drown you.”

Liv blinked at him. “Oh, well, she did. But it didn’t work. And then she said she was giving up.”

So easily? “Tell me exactly what she said, Liv.”

“Roen.” Liv rolled her eyes. “I just did. There’s nothing else. I think you’re just paranoid.”

“She’s foking dangerous, Liv. You and I both know that. And we know she’s been lying and manipulating our people for years.”

Candidly, however, he didn’t understand why. The island had been ensuring the men took the water—like a drug they’d become addicted to that made them bigger and stronger. Almost like a steroid. And when they stopped taking it, they turned into mermen. Of course, he would’ve expected a merman to look more like the creatures from their folklore—beautiful with tails of greens and blues. That thing was a monster, just like the maids.

Of course, what did he know? This island’s historical records and their legends were shrouded in so many myths and lies that it was difficult to sieve any true information from them.

“I simply do not understand,” he mumbled, partially to himself, “why the island would suddenly change her ways and agree to coexist peacefully.”

“Maybe there is no reason other than she really does need your protection. And you, hers. Haven’t you ever wondered what would’ve happened to your people if humans knew about you? You would’ve been hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago. This place is your safe haven. I mean, nature is full of examples of symbiotic relationships, right? Think about those clownfish that live inside of anemones.”

Perhaps Liv was right. “But in symbiotic relationships, each species gains something.”

“You’re the clownfish. You chase away the humans. In exchange, the island offers you shelter from the world.”

He was still missing something. The island and his people didn’t exactly live in harmony. Their laws had been designed to encourage killing. The island was quick to punish and harm the men if they disobeyed. No, this did not feel like a mutually beneficial relationship. It felt like enslavement. So what did the island really get from them? Was it truly protection from humans?

And what about their folklore? It said that they were once a powerful people who could command the air and water around them. But at some point they’d given all that up. Then they tried to leave and the island used their women as leverage to keep them here. And finally, there was the matter of her water. She claimed, as did their elders, that the world could not survive without it. That everything and everyone would perish. No new life without her spark.

But what if all that gibberish about being necessary to life on the planet was just another lie meant to prey upon their sense of duty and loyalty?

It would explain why, when he proposed to find another way to keep her safe and protect her, without requiring the mermen to stay here, she resisted.

“I think, Liv,” he finally said, “that nothing in this place is as it seems. And that the island’s real agenda has yet to be revealed.”

“So what does that mean?” she asked, sounding irritated.

“I’m not sure. But I will begin with discussing what we’ve learned with my people.”

“Goddammit, Roen! Do you hear yourself? Do you? Fuck them! Fuck this place! It’s our time now. You saved them all. They’re free. You and I are leaving here, and we’re going to start our life together.”

“But, Liv, you don’t understa—”

“Oh, but I fucking do, Roen. I understand that you almost died. I understand that that crazy bitch almost killed me and my sister. I understand that she tried to have everyone killed by bringing those men here. And I understand that I am through with this place. So either you love me or you don’t. You want me or you don’t. But I refuse to spend another moment in this hellhole.”

The anger in her eyes was palpable, and he understood why. “But if we leave now, what will become of these men and this place?”

“You do as you planned,” she snarled. “The island is legally mine now. Those mercenaries are coming to protect it. The men are free to stay or go. The maids can be cured.”

“Yes. But if any of us stop drinking the water, we will turn back to our natural state.”

“Then we
fucking
bring some water with us and have a supply shipped to wherever we go!” She grabbed both sides of his face and kissed him hard. Again he noticed how her mouth felt cooler than he remembered.

He pulled back. “Your skin is cold. Are you feeling all right?”

Liv slid one hand down his torso, underneath his suede, and began stroking him with her cool hand. “I feel great. But you feel hotter. Must be the water.” She began grinding herself against him as he grew hard and ready in her hand. He’d missed her so much he didn’t want her to stop. However…