Page 38 of Blood of the Sirens
The small bit of land I was looking for finally came into view as exhaustion threatened to overcome me. I took one last breath of air and pressed my lips to hers like a sucker fish. I dove with her under the water, the noise of the surface disappearing as though sucked into a whale’s blowhole. Pain exploded down my neck as my gills slit open, greedily gulping water and converting it into oxygen, which I pressed into Jesse’s mouth.
Under the water was calm and quiet, as things should be. I found the opening to the underground cavern easily without needing to see it and swam hard. The underground tunnel wasn’t that long, but with Jesse, it felt like ages.
Please don’t let me drown her. Please let this work.
Darkness pressed in all around me. I knew the way, but with such precious cargo, doubt crept in.What if you go the wrong way? You can’t run into a dead end with her!
My muscles ached and my gills burned, but I could make it. I was almost there. I nearly cried in relief when I saw the surface, bursting through the water violently as I heaved Jesse onto a rock. I gasped and twitched, my body confused on whether to gulp in air through lungs or gills.
I sank back into the water fully, writhing as my gills worked furiously, trying to figure out which organs were needed.
I took a minute to catch my breath. When the spots disappeared from my eyes, I crawled up on the rock next to her, wincing as my gills faded away and air expanded in my lungs. I sent a silent apology to my body.
One never really got used to it.
This cavern was mine. Or at least, I thought of it as such. It was where I kept most of my artwork and works in progress. This cave was only accessible by the tunnel, which kept humans away, and I highly doubted any other mers knew of it.
The rocks were cool under my scales, but I knew humans were used to different climates. I reached out a hand and placed it on Jesse’s shoulder, frowning at how cold it was. Human flesh was supposed to be warm, not cold like mine!
I heaved my lower body out of the water and as soon as I had legs, I stumbled over to my supply chest. I needed all the jellyfish serum I could find to treat her wounds. Maybe that would help her warm up.
My eyes dilated quickly, allowing me to easily navigate inthe darkness. Piles of small bioluminescent algae covered the walls here and there, giving enough of a glow to bounce off the reflective glass and shells I had decorated the cave with for practice. It had been a pain getting the moss to grow, but with enough persistence some had taken and now it was illuminated quite nicely. Water dripped steadily from overhead, louder than I remembered.
A horrible thought came to mind; what if the cave collapsed? It wasn’t something I had to worry about, but Jesse couldn’t breathe under water! She could die!
Poseidon’s nutsack.
Don’t think about that now. Treat the wounds first. Panic later.
Luckily, I had a decent supply since I frequently cut myself on the sharp shells and glass I worked with. I pulled all of it out and quickly smeared it all over Jesse’s legs and arms. Next I dabbed some on the slice on her cheek, and the few cuts that dotted her chest around the swell of her breasts. I picked up her feet, seeing the glass embedded in her flesh.
It was tempting to throw such impractical garments back into the ocean, but the memory of Orion howling as the sharp point of the foot garment met his pelvis would be one I would always cherish. Perhaps we would keep these, then. I put them to the side, since they held such fond memories.
I fetched a sharpened piece of fishbone I used to help manipulate the smaller shells. And I patiently worked to remove the glass out of her foot. My vision swam as I tried to focus, but I forced myself to pay attention. I could sleep later from the exhaustion from battle, or the wound that still bled sluggishly from my back. Or both.
Thankfully, I only had one piece of glass left to retrieve when Jesse woke up.
ELEVEN
Jesse
I must have passed out when I hit the water. All I remembered was having the air knocked from my chest when my body met the ocean hard. It was as if I’d slammed into a cement wall. The cuts all over my body stung like hell from the salt, a fresh agony I had never contemplated before. And it was freezing.
And dark! I couldn’t see! Was I blind?
Focus on not being dead, first.
I was on land somewhere, and I wasn’t blind. It took a moment to come into focus, but I was surrounded by oddly glowing walls. The more my eyes adjusted, the lower my jaw dropped.
A cave? No, not a cave, a mausoleum! Every inch of rock wall around me was covered by a mosaic of glass, glinting around me in sheens of green, blue, and white. The scenes depicted mermen, which I thought was strange. Where were the mermaids?
The work was beautiful, the subtle shading of the different hued blues and whites forming realistic waves that borderedthe top of the cave walls. More works of art surrounded me: chairs made of bone and sea shells, tables, and drinking cups. It was like an artist had closed their gallery and everything had been shoved here for storage. Nonetheless, It felt wrong to have so many beautiful pieces just sitting here in the almost dark.
The next thing I noticed was the sharp, stinging sensation in my feet. I jerked, nearly kicking Merrick in the face.
“MERRICK!”
With a soft splash he rolled into the water, coming back to the edge toward me with only his upper body visible.
