One Soul To Share (4 page)

Sarina searched the ocean for hours, long
past time any human could possibly still be alive, but despite the
growing pain in her chest and all logic, she couldn’t stop. She
couldn’t believe Nolan was truly gone, and she wouldn’t until she
saw his body.

She had worked in a spiral out from the boat,
moving deeper into the ocean as she moved outward. She was at the
bottom now and farther from the boat than she had been at any other
point. Once back to the yacht, she would have to stop. The pain had
moved past something she could describe as an ache or throb and now
edged toward agonizing.

She wouldn’t be able to stay under water much
longer.

Her mermaid body, legendary for its ability
to survive any storm and hundreds of years, was about to give
out.

Her fingers trailed over the ocean’s floor,
touching sand and debris. She was pulling herself along now, her
body too tired to even swim. She coughed and tasted metal. Her hand
moved to her mouth and came back red.

Blood. She was coughing out blood.

In a sea filled with predators, that couldn’t
be good.

The thought was fleeting.

Her eyes closed, and she let her body
drift.

o0o

Nolan’s head snapped up, and his nostrils
flared. He smelled blood, or maybe he tasted it. He wasn’t sure how
he knew blood was in the water somewhere close, but he did.

Realizing he most likely was not the only
predator in the sea that might be drawn by the scent, he spun in
place, searching for the source and any creatures that might have
been attracted by it.

At first, he saw nothing.

Then something long and silver fluttered.

Nolan’s gut tightened.

There had to be many things in the ocean that
were silver—plants, debris, fish…

A logical thought, but one Nolan couldn’t
accept, not without seeing for himself.

He jerked his foot upward again. The plant
that held him tightened like a seat belt activated by a sudden
stop.

Nolan paused. The analogy gave him a thought.
He pulled again, this time softly. Again the plant tightened, but
not as quickly or as tightly.

He took a step to the side with his free foot
and dragged the other behind him. The plant allowed it. He tried to
swim upward. The plant objected, jerking him back down.

Another step to the side and then another.
Soon, Nolan, never lifting his trapped foot from the ocean’s floor,
was six feet from where he had originally been pinned.

He could move, in an ungainly manner, but
move.

He lowered his head and concentrated on his
steps and nothing more. He kept going until the smell of blood had
his vampire hunger snapping to be set free.

Then he looked up.

Sarina floated six feet above the ocean
floor, looking like a magician’s assistant levitated for an
astonished crowd.

Except most magician’s assistants didn’t have
blood leaking from their mouths.

Nolan leapt forward, forgetting his
constraints and the repercussions moving upward had. The plant’s
tendril tightened around his ankle, so tight it cut through Nolan’s
sock and skin. Now Sarina wasn’t the only source of blood in the
sea.

But Nolan had no time to worry about that. He
lengthened his body as far and as quickly as he could, desperate to
latch on to the unconscious mermaid before the plant could
retaliate fully and jerk him back to where he had started.

His fingers wrapped around her hand, and they
both went flying backward to his starting point.

But Nolan didn’t let go of Sarina; he clung
to her like a child holding a treasured toy. Water whooshed around
them and tore at his clothes. He closed his eyes and concentrated
on his only mission, not losing hold of his prize.

Finally, they stopped, and they were no
better off than they had been before—except they were now together
and bleeding.

One arm around Sarina’s waist, he used the
other to pull her hair from her face. Her features were fine and
her skin delicate, at least in appearance, but Nolan knew from
stories that mermaids weren’t delicate or easy to damage.

What had the dragon done to her and why?

It was a useless question, one, if Nolan
wanted to save them before sharks or something worse arrived, he
had no time to answer.

Now he needed to think—not about the dragon
or its motive, not even about the beauty of the mermaid in his arms
or the arousing scent of her blood. He needed to think of how to
save them, how to get his foot loose and them both back to the
ship, where maybe he’d think of a way to save her.

Save her. How much life did she have left?
Unable to do anything until he knew, he pressed his ear against her
chest.

The vial she wore around her neck dug into
his cheek. He grabbed it in his fist, his first instinct to jerk it
free and release it to the sea, but something about the feel of the
tiny object in his hand caused reason to return. She wore the
object for some reason; it had some meaning to her. It wasn’t his
place, in a fit of annoyance, to steal it from her.

He brushed the vial aside instead and placed
his ear back against her chest.

Her heart beat. Weak, but he could hear
it.

He closed his eyes for a moment, relieved and
not, he realized, just because he needed the mermaid to find the
sea hag.

He was relieved because he saw something in
Sarina—a quiet strength and determination.

She was, in some eyes, a monster like him,
but she was beautiful too. He’d seen her swimming when she didn’t
think he could see her. Seen her staring into the distance too.

He didn’t know her purpose for coming on this
trip, or for wanting a companion, but he knew it wasn’t for money
or personal gain. It was for someone or something she loved.

He envied her that—that she had something to
love.

He lowered her body so he could stare into
her face. Her lips parted. Blood still trickled from her mouth.
Unable to resist, he lowered his face and kissed her lips, tasted
her blood.

His lips tingled, his body tingled, and his
nostrils flared. He had never tasted anything like this mermaid’s
blood.

He pulled her body close to his so her face
was cradled against his neck, and spun in a slow circle,
thinking—resisting.

The color of her skin had lost its silvery
sheen and shifted to blue-green. He knew nothing of mermaids but
had to imagine this change was tied to the blood she continued to
lose.

His eyes went to the trickle of red. Guilt
shot through him for tasting her blood while she suffered, perhaps
even died.

No. His jaw clenched. She wouldn’t die. She
was a mermaid, a creature even more mythic than vampires, and
vampires didn’t die, not this easily.

Vampires
. He’d been one only a few
short years, but even before his own turn, he’d heard stories of
what they could do—knew at least part of what had happened to him
too.

He had been close to death, at the hands of
his sire, but he had survived. His sire’s blood had saved him.

Could he do the same for the mermaid? What
would happen to a mermaid who drank vampire blood? Would she live?
Die? Become a vampire too?

Nolan had no idea, but he could think of no
other options.

He jammed his fangs into his wrist and slit
his skin. Then he pressed the wound to Sarina’s lips and
waited.

Warmth spread through Sarina. She flexed her
fingers and lifted her tail.

Cold
. She had been so cold, colder
than when she’d swum through the Arctic Ocean, colder than the
first time she’d stepped onto land, naked and shivering.

Those had been a surface discomfort, but
this… what she’d just felt… went past that, deeper, into her very
soul.

Soul
. Her hand reached to her neck
and the vial that hung there. Her fingers touched the bit of glass
and metal, and her body relaxed.

Safe
. Her soul was safe, and so was
she.

Her eyes fluttered, and as she came a little
further out of unconsciousness, new sensations followed. Taste
first; something thick and earthy filled her mouth. She parted her
lips, letting more of the substance in.

A band around her waist tightened, pulling
her against a hard surface. Her hands moved up and forward, defense
against whatever thought to pin her in place. But her lips and
tongue kept moving, kept lapping at whatever the heady substance
was making her warm and whole.

Something moved through her hair, like a
caress, like… fingers.

Her eyes flew open, and she twisted her head
to the side. Nolan stared down at her.

His face was pale, and his hair floated
around his head, reminding her that they were underwater and had
been… how long?

He moved his arm, and she stared, shocked, at
the gash in his flesh. Blood oozed from the wound. She touched her
lips and looked back at the human.

He gestured, brushing away the question in
her eyes, as if feeding a mermaid his blood deep underwater was an
average event in his life.

She pulled away, shocked more that he’d
thought to share his blood with her than that she had ingested the
fluid. The mainstay of mermaids’ diet was raw fish. Eating cooked
food had been an adjustment. Drinking blood, while not something
mermaids did, held no revulsion for her, and that the blood was
from a human made no difference at all.

Nolan’s face hardened. Realizing he’d
misinterpreted her reaction, she moved back to where she had been
and placed her palm on his chest. His eyes met hers, and, for a
moment, she couldn’t move. She could feel his hurt, so intense she
wanted to pull away again, but also, strangely, she wanted to
comfort him, to make whatever caused the pain in his eyes to
disappear forever.

Instead, she grabbed his arm and tried to
pull him upward. He waved his hand and pointed down.

Something was keeping him here.

Nodding to let him know she understood, she
released her hold and floated downward.

A plant was wrapped around his ankle. It
appeared normal enough, but as she ran her fingers over its
strands, she knew instantly the greenery was no ordinary bit of
ocean vegetation. It, like the dragon, served Melusine.

Nolan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her
up so she was once again looking at his face. His head shaking, he
pointed upward.

He wanted her to leave him? Sarina pulled
back again, this time swimming a few feet away, far enough she
could study him and think without the pressure of his gaze.

A soulless mermaid would leave him. A
soulless mermaid would have dragged him under the water, then torn
him apart with her hands—so desperate would she be to get at his
soul.

But Sarina had her soul, and she told herself
if she hoped to get another one, she needed Nolan alive and back on
the boat.

She swam back, circling him, keeping her gaze
low and away from his face. If she looked at him… She pushed the
thought away. She didn’t need to look at him. She only needed to
save him, and only because she needed him to trade to Melusine.

He was just a human—nothing more.

But, as she reached for the blade of sea
grass that had wrapped its way around his ankle, her fingers
trembled.

She feared having a soul was finally catching
up with her. She feared she was close to caring—for man, a
human.

She bit down on her cheek and concentrated on
the grass. She tugged, and it tightened. She leaned closer and bit
at it with her teeth. Nothing.

The grass wouldn’t loosen, and it couldn’t be
cut. What other options were there? Her brows lowered, and she swam
back again.

Seeing her failed efforts, Nolan pointed up
again.

She ignored him. He wasn’t in charge. She
wouldn’t leave him. The ocean was her realm. Even Melusine couldn’t
argue mermaids’ rights to the land below the sea.

Melusine had been cursed and forced to take
up her underwater home. The mermaids chose to live here.

This plant, as a part of the sea, was as much
Sarina’s to command as it was Melusine’s.

And like that, it came to Sarina.

She opened her mouth and sang.

o0o

Nolan stilled, and his eyes closed. He could
feel his body drifting back and forth in the water, leaning with
each sway more toward Sarina and the incredible sound that was
coming from her throat.

At least he thought it was Sarina singing. He
couldn’t hear her song, not like he could hear on land, but he
could
feel
her song. It vibrated through him like note
after note hit on a tuning fork, except delicious and alluring in a
sleepy, dream-inducing way.

A smile curved his lips. She was his and
waiting for him. He couldn’t wait to get to her.

She swam upward until she was looking down at
him and held out one hand. Her hair fanned out around her face,
silver and glistening. She was an angel, beckoning him to
paradise.

He took a step, then bent his knees to push
off the bottom. His arms moved overhead, catapulting him upward. A
band tightened around his ankle, and he jerked to a stop. He
frowned and stared down. The plant.

Anger ripped through him. He bent down, ready
to rip the vegetation from the seabed by its roots, to do whatever
it took to escape its hold and get to the angel who called him from
above.

But, as he did, the greenery loosened,
fluttering through his fingers like a ribbon. The strands floated
up, past his face, reaching, it seemed, for the mermaid whose song
still beckoned.

Peace settled over Nolan, and he swayed in
place. Then, unable to stay away from the mermaid and her song a
second longer, he pushed himself off the bottom of the sea and swam
upward to meet her.