Page 58 of Blood of the Sirens
I fought the urge to cross my arms over my naked chest. I’dneverbeen one to show a lot of skin, even when I hadn’t been heavier. To just have my girls floating around in the water in front of me wasn’t easy or natural. I gave an experimental twitch of my tail and zoomed a few feet away. It took my breasts a full second to stop after I did.
No, this wouldn’t work.
“I need my bra back. Can you slather it in goo too?”
Merrick definitely pouted as he dug it out of his satchel and handed it to me, and I fought to hide an inappropriate grin. I would need a better solution eventually (like a sports bra), but for now, the lavender, lacy undergarment was better than nothing.Merrick was a bit handsy as he slathered the straps and cups in goo, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
It did at least feel better not to have my dress scraps floating around me anymore.
“Come on. I don’t like lingering anywhere alone with you.” He shot off to the right, and I hurried to follow him.
NINETEEN
Merrick
I couldn’t takeher anywhere that there was likely to be mers. So that left one place: the siren shrine.
It wasn’t anything grandiose or morbid. It was simply where the center of our village used to be, hundreds of years ago, before the sirens had disappeared. The old structures were now derelict and uninhabitable, but it would be a safe place to leave Jesse as long as the jellyfish paste kept her scent hidden. The clan avoided it out of superstition and shame, but as guppies they took us all once on a trip to talk about our history.
The sight made me sad then, and I didn’t feel much better about it now. It didn’t make sense to abandon such a stronghold—it would have been a much better place to house all the clans that came for the festival.
Mer were a very superstitious lot.
The old village was much, much deeper than our currentone, so far down that bioluminescent seaweed and other plants had been purposefully placed in the village. They grew out of control now, similar to the bright lights of the human city with all the clashing colors and violent tangles. Instead of being cloaked in darkness, it shined like the human city up above. Well, sort of. This light was far more preferable than the blinding lights of the surface.
Nevertheless, it would be perfect to hide in. The glow would help camouflage our flashing scales. And there was something artistic and beautiful about how silent and untouched the city was a shrine and tomb from a different time.
I pushed aside a giant, bright blue plant and ushered Jesse into the half-collapsed stone building behind it. The high seaweed would cover what had degraded from the structure over time. Jesse swam in behind me, wary as she floated around the small space.
“This isn’t creepy at all,” she muttered.
I was learning that when humans said one thing, they actually meant the opposite.
“We used to live here down in the deep to protect our young and the females,” I explained.
She rubbed at a patch of green algae on the wall, revealing crude, red scratches of a mer and a female. Two smaller mers were etched next to them, and a long string of scratches spelling out a name—Meruse.
A child’s drawing from many lifetimes ago.
“I bet this place would clean up easily.” Jesse turned to me, her hair swishing around her neck with the quick movement.
“This is the part where you tell me to stay put again, isn’t it?” she asked, disappointment in her voice.
“I just need to ensure my father is on my side,” I pleaded. “Icannot protect you against everyone. Having the clan leader will go a long way to keep everyone else in line.”
I hoped.
But my blood pulsed in my veins, insisting otherwise.
“I will only be gone an hour or so. I promise,” I protested vehemently, putting my fist to my chest to indicate my sincerity.
Jesse bit her lip. “All right,” she conceded, floating down to a flat, curved section on the floor. “I’ll be here. Besides, this looks fun to explore.”
I turned and darted away, knowing that if I didn’t leave her now, I never would. My instincts had been screaming at me since the moment I saw her in her siren form, and they hadn’t abated in the slightest. It had taken all of my self-control not to take her when my hands had caressed her bare breasts.
I wouldn’t do that though. I wasn’t that selfish. If Jesse had every mer in the world to choose from, I would give her that choice. Tying her down to me wasn’t fair.
She is mine.
