A Mermaid s Kiss

  "What have you been doing?" Mina demanded.

  "What do you mean?"

  "The Dark Ones were loose and swarming about the ocean floor, seeking one of the winged ones. And it's all over you, his aura. You are fair glowing with it." Mina was already rummaging through her stores, reaching into crevices in the rock used for storage for her healing tonics and potions.

  "He said I would be safe as long as I wasn't with him."

  "Idiot."

  "Mina," Anna gasped. "He's an angel."

  "And an idiot. Here, drink this quickly. It will purge you and you'll be rid of that glow. Go on or I'll pour it down your throat."

  Anna hesitated. "What do you mean, purge? Not . . . forget?"

  Mina stopped, stared at her. "No," she said at last. "It's a cleansing, not a . . ."

  "Cleansing. How . . . Does that mean . . ." He'd said he could voluntarily withhold his seed, but what if . . .

  Mina peered at her. Now her gaze traveled more slowly over Anna, apparently seeing far more than auras.

  "Anna, you lay with him."

  "It was necessary, to heal him. He used Joining Magic." And then, inexplicably, Anna burst into tears.

  "I don't know why I did that," she said at last, when she was able to get herself under control.

  "Crying in the ocean is a sad metaphor," Mina said cryptically. "And you do know. I see it all the time in those pathetic creatures that slink to me for love potions. You're feeling this wonderful yearning, but it makes you hurt at the same time. Like you've glimpsed the meaning of the universe, but you already know you can't hold on to it. It's mocking you. So tell me the full story, beginning to end."

  Anna complied. She knew Mina enough to know the futility of arguing with her cynical assessment or taking affront at being lumped in with the "pathetic creatures." While she didn't dwell on their coupling, Mina asked her more questions about that than was comfortable, gazing at her with typical discomfiting shrewdness with her one visible crimson eye. The rest of her face, like most of the features of her body, was shadowed in the cowl and floating tendrils of that cloak, though Anna could see the pitted scarring that covered her cheek and jaw beneath the glittering eye.

  When she finished, Mina raised a brow. "He had to use Joining Magic. It was the only thing that would work," she mimicked. "Oh, that's rich. If I had an anemone for every time I'd heard that one . . ."

  "Mina . . ." Anna let out a startled chuckle at the acid comment, but then shook her head. "I don't know if I can get him to leave."

  The seawitch cocked her head. "Enamored of you as all that, is he?"

  "No. No." Anna blanched. "Goddess, he's an angel, Mina. I'm not as daft as you think. It's just . . . It's almost like . . . When I found him, he wanted me to leave him. Just let him die. Then I got him to the cave, and it's like he's not interested in leaving it. Ever. Can his wound have affected his mind? He doesn't even seem to want his own kind to find him. I can't explain it. It's wrong, is all."

  "So he doesn't want to return to the skies. Sometimes people get tired of what they're doing and want to do something different, at least for a little while. Those humans you are so fond of--what do you call it? They take a holiday."

  "No, it's not that." Anna lifted her shoulder in a shrug, gave an unhappy laugh. "Though I'm not denying that I could be a holiday. Was a holiday," she corrected herself.

  Mina gave her an impatient look. "Do I have to hold your hand through this, like a child? Get past it. Relationships would do far better if they weren't tied up with sex. Sex should be as basic as eating or shi . . ."

  "Don't compare it to that."

  "See what I mean? If it was just a bodily function, no one would get confused about whether or not they were in love. It wouldn't have anything to do with the body. Most of the potions I give are to simply deaden the sex drive. That tells people instantly whether they're thinking with their hearts or their hormones."

  "I'm going. You're just making me depressed."

  "It's never stopped you from hanging about endlessly before. And we're going back to see him now, anyway."

  Anna bit off her irritated retort. "What?"

  Mina rose and began to rummage through her stores again, tucking things away in the cloak. "You're many things, Anna. Impulsive, too open and loving. But you're not daft. Not in the least. The Dark Ones will be back very soon. They know he's still down here. And there's nothing the Dark Ones want so much as a captured angel."

  "Why? To kill him?"

  "No." Mina shook her head. "Far worse than that. To cut him open and take the Lady's power that resides in his chest. It would increase their own power exponentially and make his will their slave, as long as they hold his heart. He would fight for them."

  Anna gave her a horrified look. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? He could be in danger. He could--"

  "I wasn't going to tell you at all." The seawitch shrugged. "It's not our concern. But then I figured you'd hear about it when it happened, and you'd be hanging about here again, blaming yourself and spreading your guilt heavy enough to suffocate me."

  Anna counted to ten, figuring it would not be productive for her to reach out and try to strangle the witch. "So you're going back with me, because?" she asked between gritted teeth.

  "Because without my help, you'll try to do something noble and stupid to save him and get yourself killed. Stay here. I'm going to go deeper into my cave and throw together some ingredients that may help him. Then we'll go evaluate his condition. If he won't go back to the skies, perhaps you can persuade him to go to the surface, somewhere not in the vicinity of where he originally landed. I can figure out a way to disguise him, not only from the Dark Ones, but from his own kind."

  "His own kind? I don't understand."

  "They're the best source of help for him, but he hasn't summoned them. Do you know why?" Mina asked it bluntly. "Angels are mighty beings, Anna, but that doesn't make them all good. You need to keep that in mind for your angel as well. He may be hiding for a reason that is not so angelic."

  "No, he hasn't fallen from grace. I'm sure of it. It's . . ." Anna's brow furrowed. "You remember the male dolphin, the one whose brother was killed?"

  "Yes. You followed him around the ocean, became his family until he was willing to integrate with a male pod again." Mina muttered something to herself and added another packet from her hidden stores to her person.

  "He wanted to die," Anna said softly. "He saw nothing in the world to keep him. His loss hurt him so much, he just shut down, waiting for death."

  "Your angel is not a dolphin, Anna." Mina shook her head. "Your capacity to love may be endless, but it can't always save the day. It's not going to be enough to save you, let alone everyone else."

  Anna looked down, focusing for a long moment on the automatic, slow sway of her tail, keeping her stationary in the water. "Well then, on that day I'll no longer be a nuisance to you, will I?"

  When she raised her gaze and met that of the seawitch, Anna thought she might have seen a flicker of regret, but she'd long ago learned her lesson about assigning regular emotions to Mina. "You may be right," she said at last. "But I must help him. When an angel falls out of the sky practically into your arms, how can that not be Fate?"

  Mina gave a grudging grimace, turned away again. "Is he handsome?"

  "Of course. I mean, he's an angel."

  "His body . . . is it finely made?"

  "Mina." Anna snorted at the glint in Mina's eye. Some of the tension loosened its band around her chest. "Now you're teasing me."

  "I rarely get handsome, confident and powerful men in my cave. Never close enough to smell their skin, see their bodies move with such casual beauty." She was moving away into the recesses of the cave, the shadows swallowing her, but her voice still resonated. "The flow of muscle, the tensing of a buttock as they turn. The chance to stroke my finger down a line of ridged, tightly overlapping scales and find out what they conceal beneath them. Perhaps I simply wanted to know."
r />   The evocative image was startling, powerful, particularly in combination with the mesmerizing tone with which Mina murmured it. The words echoed through the cavern, vibrating in the water against Anna's body. Now she wasn't sure if Mina was teasing or saying simple truth. With Mina, one never knew. And she'd certainly turned the conversation in a different direction, distracting Anna from more troublesome areas.

  "Well? Keep talking; I can still hear you." Mina sounded farther away, suggesting that there were a few more twists and turns in the mysterious recesses of her home.

  "He is very finely made," Anna said cautiously. Then the images Mina had painted spurred her own and she couldn't help herself. "Oh, Mina, I've never . . . He's so large and powerful. All of him is firm muscle. His arms and legs . . . His shoulders seem as broad as a ship's timbers. I know all angels are probably like that, but somehow, I just know he is more handsome, more beautiful than all of them. Goddess help me."

  Mina reemerged, and her red eye blinked once, holding a wealth of things Anna couldn't decipher. "I don't know if the Goddess will help you, Anna. But I'm going to."

  IF he meditated on it, Jonah could reach down, down, and feel the lick of flame of Lucifer's world below, so close. If he wanted to reach farther, he knew he'd find the essence of Luc himself. Just as he could the Lady if he went in the opposite direction. As above, so below.

  But he didn't. He preferred here, this place of stasis, below one Line and above the other. Disembodied, as if his soul had split.

  He'd been on his side awhile, perhaps hours, studying the dragon's outline in the wall. At the lapping of the water, he adjusted his chin to see Anna's head break the surface, her long golden hair, which waved and wildly curled when dry, now slick along her skull and bare shoulders. His heart leaped in his throat, disregarding the fact she was ignoring his wish that she not return. No, not his wish. His command. It was not his wish at all.

  Another being surfaced behind him and grasped the rock, gracefully lifting itself upon it, despite a strange cloak that made the being unrecognizable. And then he felt . . .

  Dark One! It exploded through his system, tripping off all alarms. Here, where Anna was, where Anna could be harmed. Jonah launched himself off the ground, ignoring the searing pain that shot through his back, cursing the fact he almost stumbled from the unexpected lurch it caused. He still moved quickly enough that the creature only had time to let out a feminine shriek and throw herself backward as he reached for a sword that was not there. The fact he was unbalanced was the only thing that made his grip on her neck fall short. Otherwise, he was sure he could have snapped it in a heartbeat.

  Then Anna was there, and before he could stop her, she'd flung herself over the sprawled creature, a bundle of rags and snarled black hair.

  "Anna, get--"

  "No!" Anna tucked her limbs around the Dark One's body like a mother bird with a precious egg. "Jonah, no! This is Mina. She's a seawitch. A healer."

  "She's a Dark One."

  "Half." Anna said it emphatically. "Her mother was a mermaid. She is my friend. She is not evil. Please, you're frightening her. Step back. Step away."

  He struggled with it, gripped in the bloodlust that had been trained to rise to killing level at the barest hint of a Dark One. Only Anna's eyes disrupted it, the plea in her voice.

  "Please, my lord. I have known her all my life."

  At length, he stepped back, and Anna rose cautiously. Mina straightened to a sitting position. She had the hated red iris of the Dark One in the one eye he could see, almost the only feature of a horribly scarred face distinguishable in the folds of her cowl. That eye followed his every twitch just as closely as he was following hers. As he watched, she uttered several unfamiliar, harsh words. The hint of a serpentine pair of tentacles vanished, giving her the ability to stand on two legs, though he could only see her feet and ankles.

  While Anna had said he'd frightened the witch, she didn't show it. Her face was an impassive mask. Stepping outside of the protection of Anna's body, the witch began to move to his left, studying his wound.

  "The blade that did this. Did you see it?"

  Jonah moved with her, instinctively keeping himself between her and Anna.

  "My lord--"

  "No, Anna. Stay where you are so he needn't worry about you."

  He was surprised at the creature's admonition, and the careful scrutiny she was giving the wound, despite the fact he was making no attempt to help her examine it.

  "It was an axe," he said gruffly.

  "It was more than an axe." Mina took three deliberate steps forward. "If you are not too fainthearted to let me touch it, I believe the wound is poisoned. I can help."

  "You would help an angel." He didn't bother to hide his derision.

  "I would help Anna." Mina planted her feet.

  "Your filth is not touching me."

  "If you want to lie here and let it fester until you rot and die, ratty seagull," Mina responded, "that is no concern of mine."

  "My lord, please. Mina." Anna threw an admonishing glance between the two of them, then shifted back to Jonah. "She has come here to help you, I promise. Since I was born, Mina has done nothing but help and protect me."

  Jonah knew he shouldn't be surprised. Loyalty was usually a close handfast of courage, and he already knew his mermaid had a foolish overabundance of the latter. Despite that, he had too much experience with Dark Ones to simply go on faith. "She's pretending friendship for the advantage it brings her, getting close to the house of Neptune."

  Anna let out an inelegant snort at almost the same time Mina rolled her eyes, bemusing and irritating him at once. "Trust me, my lord," Anna said resolutely. "Being my friend brings no one an advantage."

  "Except perhaps you," Mina offered in a dry tone, staring at Jonah with that hated gaze.

  But now that he'd had a moment to adjust, he could tell there was something different about this Dark Spawn. His experience with the few that had managed to survive birth was that they were either wholly evil, unable to control or conceal their base nature, or so deformed they did not live long beyond two or three years.

  It intrigued him to sense a duality of nature in this one, a strong darkness warring with a flickering light. While it didn't make him less repulsed by her or more trustful, he was more willing to tolerate her presence in the room with Anna. Within limits.

  "My lord." Anna was speaking again. "If there is nothing I can say that can make you understand, I'm asking you to respect my judgment, out of courtesy for me. If you feel you owe me a moment of such regard," she added.

  He cocked his head toward her, still keeping Mina in his peripheral vision. "Now, you're going for polite. Haughty. And using the fact that you saved my life to make me behave."

  Anna opened her mouth, a flush staining her cheeks, but Jonah waved a hand. "The Goddess I serve is female, Anna. I am not unused to such tactics." At a sound from the dark creature to his left, he arched a brow at Mina. "Are you laughing at us, Dark Spawn?"

  "I laugh at most everything, my lord," Mina said, the seriousness of her one visible eye altering not a bit.

  "Mmm. I shall allow you to examine me." It took a tremendous effort to say it, but in truth, what did he care? What did he have to lose? Of course, that answer was in the cavern, just to his right, watching him with concern in her lovely face. He would not drag an innocent down with him. "I will do you no harm, for the moment."

  "Do you promise?" Anna asked.

  He shot a narrow look at her. "Using the truths I've told you against me is a woman's weapon as well."

  When she blinked innocently, he blew out a breath. "I promise." It irritated him that the clearing of her expression pleased him, so his brow lowered, and he turned back to Mina, not bothering to mask the menace in his voice. "But keep in mind I have destroyed Dark Ones far more powerful than yourself. You cause Anna any kind of harm, you will not live to regret it."

  "My exact sentiments toward you, my lord." Mina approach
ed and examined the wound, the attachment of the wing, though she didn't touch him as expected. "You can't use it well, can you? The muscles are not fusing as they should."

  He shook his head, wanting this over. Despite his agreement, his heart was thundering, his body tense, ready to react if the creature twitched in the wrong direction toward Anna, no matter the illogic of that, if the two had known each other for some time. But Dark Ones were wholly evil, and the creature stank of their blood, as well as a variety of other disturbing things.

  Why couldn't she just leave so he could have Anna to himself? He wanted her safe. But more than that, notwithstanding the fact she shouldn't have returned at all, he found himself inappropriately glad about her disobedience.

  "There definitely was a poison in the blade," the seawitch muttered. "Cleverly done, but not irreversible. I expect, my lord, their intent was to disable you for a prolonged period so they'd have a better chance of capturing you. Even now, they continue to look."

  "And you brought her back down here--"

  "She brought me here, my lord. You can take your ire out on her."

  Anna opened her mouth, then closed it, suggesting there was more to that story, but Jonah managed to throttle his reaction down to a glower as Mina continued.

  "If you will sit down, I'll put you in a healing circle and use a simple spell to start the cleansing process. The poison can't kill you, but as long as it's in your system, it will hamper the wing's ability to heal."

  When her attention flitted briefly toward Anna, Anna saw the unspoken message. And it may be what is causing his mind to be affected so oddly.

  "Very well." Anna let out a relieved breath as Jonah took a seat, cross-legged on the flat, wide ledge, keeping Mina in his peripheral vision like a watchful lion as she began to gather loose rocks. Drawing a sharp tool out of the recesses of her clothing, she used it to break them down to a uniform size. As she began to build a circle around him, apparently satisfying him of her immediate intentions, he turned his gaze back to Anna. She'd taken up a position along the dragon's wall, her hips resting on the nervous hands she'd deliberately folded behind her back.

  On one hand, she was glad his immediate thoughts had turned from murdering her friend. On the other hand, when he looked toward her, Anna realized how the position tilted her breasts up, drawing his attention even though her long hair tangled forward over her shoulders, impeding the view of her body to the juncture of her thighs.