Page 3 of Magic Potions and the Merman's Lure

I’m wondering where the violence comes into mating, and if that’s something I need to warn Adiele about, when I turn the page and feel the blood drain out of my face as I begin to read. The book describes the mating process in detail, but thankfully there is nothing that I can see being risky to humans when it comes to mermen. While mermaids have been known to steal sailors from capsized ships, mermaids who wish to mate among their own species sing so that they draw large numbers of nearby males to them with their magic—and into direct competition with each other. A very dangerous sort of competition too. Not only are mermen pretty, but they are also highly aggressive. Interested mermen partners engage in combat that fills the water with their drawn blood—all for a chance to be chosen by her.

My brows creep up as I continue reading. It seems almost indecent, like I’m reading something particularly illicit in public, as the book explains how, once she chooses her preferred male, he pins her to him—literally. He wraps his arms around her torso, and barbs protract from his arms into her skin so that he injects her body with a chemical that makes her receptive to his seed. Without it, even a female of their own species can go into shock when exposed to his semen. He also pins her in place with his teeth so that she doesn’t move and cause herself pain or injury from his barbs. The penis extrudes, and he wraps his tail around her to tie her to him as they copulate. As potentially uncomfortable as it sounds, I can’t help but feel more than a little fascinated by it.

I’m flushed by the time I finish reading the chapter, and my entire body is washed with a tingle of desire. Shaking my head, I set the book aside. Better to stop now if this book is having the opposite effect than what I intended. It’s not entirely appropriate for work either. I think I’ve learned enough to decide that there probably isn’t any immediate danger since it seems that the initial mating needs to be in water. Hopefully any sane woman will work out what she’s getting into before actually getting into the water with him. I can mention it to Adiele just in case, but I don’t think it’s something to panic about, thank goodness. With a sigh of relief, I stow it away to return it to the restricted section later.

I don’t exactly need to read more when I have no intention of getting into the water with a merman. I mentally tell my aroused body to behave as I get up to find another task that needs seeing to. Perhaps the alchemy section. The nature and property of plants and implementing their use is a large part of it. I know my cousin Fran has a particular interest in magical and medicinal plants and sells them to other witches and in little remedies, but I’m more fascinated with the way the different properties can be purified and combined to create powerful potions of a strictly occult nature. My thoughts drift pleasantly along this subject matter, glad to be distracted from the subject of mermen and their mating. There is little traffic today, so I’m able to pull a few books on the subject and peruse them to my pleasure during my break. I move on to occupy myself by putting in orders for some book loan requests that have come in. By the time I’m done there is a large stack of returns that need to be scanned back into the system, and I’m grateful for the busy work.

I’m about three-quarters of the way through the pile when the bell over the door clangs, and I look up from my work to peer at the couple stepping through the door. My eyebrows fly up in surprise when I see that it is Adiele. Not because she’s with a mind-numbingly beautiful stranger—though I am a little horrified and intrigued by the sudden hot rush of desire I feel when he steps in after her—but because with a business to run, she rarely comes by.

Unfortunately, I’m distracted enough by Adiele’s new friend to be too curious as to why she’s there. I blink once and then gasp when his magic unexpectedly rolls over me, threading around and through my own power. It is just shy of invasive with how its impact ripples through me, and just that quickly, I’m unable to pull my eyes off him even as something deep within me sends up red flags in alarm. The alarm doesn’t make it through the heavy allure that pulls at me insistently as my gaze eagerly devours him. Six and a half feet tall, or a little more, and built with miles of beautiful lean, athletic muscles, on the surface he’s every grown woman’s wet dream. My breath stutters out of my lungs as my eyes run over his sculpted abs and chest, wishing that I could use my tongue to follow those perfect lines. Every inch of him is built for lethal power and speed.

And definitely not human.

It’s not his complexion, which is the color of flawless marble, that gives him away. It’s in the tiny details. It’s the faint iridescent scaled pattern to his skin that catches tiny rainbows of light, the thick mass of iridescent pearl white hair that no dye job can even get close to faking. And the way the bones of his hands are long and strong, each finger slightly webbed and tipped with a small black claw honed to a razor-sharp edge. He is clearly as potentially dangerous as he is beautiful. And as physically powerful as he is elegant. For all that his build doesn’t appear bulky, he is easily twice my size. The graceful column of his neck is corded with muscle, the lines of it drawing the path of my vision up to beautifully ridged webbed ears. His lips are beautifully sculpted, his cheekbones are high and prominent. Yes, without a doubt, he’s a gorgeous male. Especially his eyes, which are such an unworldly shade of aquamarine that they are like two chips of stone glowing with the vibrant force of his life.

Eyes that suddenly pin me. I stare back at him, and something pricks at my mind, warning me to look away but I can’t. Awareness slams through me with the knowledge of exactly what I’m looking at when his throat pulses and a sound rolls over me as he begins to “sing.”

“Oh, damn!” Adiele immediately sidles away from her companion, casting a wary look between the two of us.

Fuck me.

Chapter 3

Ro

I stifle a resigned sigh at Adiele’s apologetic face. She still hasn’t received the shipment of the supplements my kind needs to spend any length of time on land. Although there is no resisting the pull of the sea for a full day when the moon is full, the supplement helps us with the inconvenience of having to return to the sea after every sundown. Acquiring human legs is the easy part, just a simple enchantment every child learns, but spending time on land is highly stressful to the bodies of Aquanas, or merfolk as humans like to call us.

It’s a wretched inconvenience I’ve been dealing with incessantly since beginning my search. It’s only recently, and completely by accident, that I’ve discovered that there is a way by means of a supplement witches make. It’s even more frustrating, however, to know that if not for that I likely would never have heard of it. For reasons I can’t understand, it appears that many witches react poorly to the presence of Aquanas. The coven with which Adiele is negotiating on my behalf for the supplement certainly isn’t inclined to help me. She is too nice to say that it is because of what I am, but I know the reason since my sharp hearing picked up her hushed argument on the phone with the coven when she made the order.

Granted, I didn’t exactly go straight to the witches to begin with, so perhaps there is some reason for them to be suspicious, but Aquanas tend to live very far from places where humans dwell. It is only by chance that I came across a newly mated Selkie a year and a half ago and learned of the new supplements. Fortunately, he was happy to trade his supply to me.

But soon after acquiring it I discovered that, despite humanity’s fascination with the females of my species, a male Aquana on land is treated with far more suspicion without knowing anything about us. The idea that we are seducers who prey on women is a double-edged sword. On one hand it seems to make many witches wary, and covens disinclined to help us. On the other hand, much to my frustration, it tends to interest “adventurous” witches in a most annoying manner. They are of no more help than their brethren, but rather than be repulsed, their interest is solely in dampening my magic to control its effect on them so that they can enjoy the pleasure of bedding me without risk. I have received more offers than I can care to think about. It’s only due to some merciful deity that Adiele not only appears unaffected by my magic but also doesn’t seem to hold a grudge against me for my species, which makes me grateful for her friendship.

A heavy sigh escapes me. It’s a shame that the supplement is not something commonly known among all witches, otherwise I’m certain that Adiele would have already helped me. Here I thought it would be easy just to go into any occult shop and purchase more when I ran out. I had foolishly miscalculated. So, I keep coming back to this shop, hoping for some word about my order while I take time to enjoy the local atmosphere.

As with most of my species, I’m completely charmed by humans and their magic—and the Emporium reeks of both. It makes me yearn to stay on land even more as I search, even if I have to tolerate the lust that emanates off many females, and some males, when I near them. Even those who cannot penetrate the glamour I weave around myself are afflicted, much to my frustration, and I can’t get away from their little gasps or the poignant scent of their desire. Their unfulfilled fantasies prick at me like the stinging, grasping arms of a jellyfish that I am constantly brushing aside. None of them are the one person I crave: a female whose magic aligns perfectly with mine and draws me to her.

---