Her Selkie Secret (6 page)

He simply said, “Danae, I see only you.”

She melted into his arms and they erupted in a blaze of passion. Two grieving people seeing an end to their pain for the first time. Her hands were clumsy and she couldn't unbutton his shirt. With a growl, he grasped it and tugged, buttons flying everywhere. The rest of their clothes disappeared under his hands, until they stood naked before each other.

Liam paused and slowly stroked down her flank. “You are so exquisite.” He pushed her to the edge of the bed and she sat down as he stood between her legs. He dropped to his knees and lifted her leg.

Liam slowly laved kisses at the side of her knee and nibbled his way toward her center. He gently parted her nether lips, exposing her inner core to his view. Danae shivered in the long moment before he lowered his head and sucked her throbbing nub into his mouth.

It had been so long since she'd been touched intimately that she quivered at his touch. His fingers explored her soft folds and she felt herself rush headlong toward her ultimate pleasure. She couldn’t hold back as he slowly sank a single finger into her she exploded, screaming out her delight as her whole body shook.

She tried so say something as Liam brought her to orgasm over and over again with his hands and mouth. Finally, he moved and slid up her body. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he slowly plunged his thick cock into her waiting sheath. He moved slowly to let her get used to his girth. When he was finally fully seated in her, she almost wept with joy. She felt so full of him, so utterly connected to him.

She stared into his eyes as they moved together, and Danae felt her breath catch as she raced towards the brink again and in one glorious moment they both crashed into a moment of shared pleasure.

Chapter Six

Danae sat across from Liam at the kitchen table, sipping the coffee he’d made. Every so often she would shift and her body would remind her how they’d spent the night.

Liam said, “I’m sorry to bring this up, but what do we do about Lori attacking you and causing the accident?”

Danae looked at Liam in despair and said, “Who do I even call about this? No one here will believe me. It's all between humans so we can't call on a tribunal.”

Liam said, “There is no one you trust in the village, at all?”

“Not really. Well, I think Maude would at least listen to me.”

“Maude? From the Dented Kettle?”

She laughed at the look on his face. “I wouldn't exactly trust her, but I know she doesn't much care for Lori.” Danae thought for a moment before she slowly said, “Now that I think on it, I don't know that many people are very fond of her. Her father did her no favors and she's spoiled rotten. He convinced her there was a prophecy about a 'golden child' who would purge the world of magical creatures and cleanse Flickend of its curse.”

He said, “You said her father was the preacher here?”

Danae nodded at Liam. “He was very angry about the Veil cracking and humans having to make room for other creatures. He disappeared during the worst of it, but not before convincing a lot of people that auras, magic and fae creatures where sent by the devil.”

Danae poured herself another cup of coffee. “When he reappeared he had Lori with him and was even stricter than before. He claimed magic killed her mother, leaving him to raise her alone.”

Liam said, “Is that why I seem to be the only nonhuman in the area?”

Danae shrugged at him and said, “Flickend was apparently fairly barren long before the Cracking. Something unsavory happened here a very long time ago. Whatever it was, magical creatures haven't wanted to be here.”

He said, “I'm sure the friendly reception of the locals helped.”

She smiled at him and said, “They can be friendly and they have suffered since the war. What else have you noticed about the village?”

Liam frowned at her and said, “I'm not overly familiar with human settlements.”

“Children. How many children have you seen?”

He finally grasped what she was saying and said, “None.”

Danae said, “Because there aren't any.”

“None? But how?”

She said, “At first it was that young adults wanted to explore our new world, so they left and rarely came back.”

Liam took a sip of his drink. “But some of them must have stayed, must have wanted to start families.”

“They couldn't. They didn't realize right away, but no child was conceived here after the Cracking.”

“Whatever kept us away...”

Danae finished Liam’s sentence. “Got worse after, and started to impact humans as well.”

He said, “But you had a child?”

Danae nodded at him. “We did. It's why everything went so crazy after the accident. They all believed everything was finally going to be okay.”

He said, “So no other children?”

“Not so far. Let’s call Maude, see if she’ll talk to us about it.”

Liam nodded at her and picked up the phone. He spoke into it for a moment then turned back to Danae. “I wish there was enough time to consult Neya but Maude agreed to meet with us. Let's go into town now. I will want to commune with Neya when we return.”

They piled into her small car and zipped into town.

Danae walked into the Dented Kettle and went up to Maude sitting behind the table. She glanced around and made sure they were alone.

She looked at the older woman and said, “Maude, I remember the accident.”

Maude shrugged and said, “Of course you do. You gave the police a report.”

Danae shook her head and pulled up a chair next to Maude. “No, I mean, I remember what happened right before the accident.”

Maude sat up straight and tilted her head. She looked straight at Liam and smiled. She felt a pulse of power come from the other woman and Danae's blood ran ice cold. Maude knew something. Whose side was she on?

“I'm glad to see your kind here again.” Maude had dismissed Danae and was completely focused on the tall man before her. “You are far too young to understand, either of you. Something is wrong with the land, and has been for a long time. But a very nasty man did something when the Veil cracked, made it worse. It twisted something in Flickend. Made us all wrong. But I can feel it healing. You are part of it, selkie.”

Danae was confused, what was Maude talking about? She'd been under the preacher's thumb as much as anyone else here.

Maude came from behind the counter and took Liam's hands in hers and stared into his eyes until she nodded in satisfaction. She then took Danae's hand, pressing it into Liam's. She smiled in certain grim satisfaction and said, “You are connected. This is good.”

She dropped their hands and turned and walked to the counter. “Something is happening. I don't know what, or where. But the wheel is turning. Liam, you must go to your goddess, now. Tell her this: she must circle the sea cave.”

He said, “The sea cave? She'll know what you mean?”

Maude rolled her eyes at the young man in front of her. “She's a goddess, you twit.”

Liam hugged Danae and turned to walk out the door. Danae moved to go with him but Maude stopped her. “No, you must wait with me. I don't know what it is, but everything is screaming that you must stay with me.”

“You've never had the time of day for me, and now you want to stop me?”

Danae felt emboldened. Her baby was alive, somewhere. She could flee this awful place and forget her terrible pain and find her beautiful baby. And those evil crones weren't going to keep her from anything. In the heat of the moment, Danae didn’t care about Flickend or anything other than getting Alba.

“Please, he has to do this.” She'd never heard a pleading tone from Maude and let her continue, “I know you don't trust me, I understand that, I do. But I swear unto everything I hold dear, if you go with him, you will never have your heart's desire.” For a moment, she swore that it was Neya's voice that echoed through Maude's lips. Danae pinched her mouth, hating to acquiesce but grabbed Liam and pulled him into a hug, whispering in his ear, “Please, come back to me.”

He answered back, “Always.”

It felt like her heart was going with him as he walked out the door. Danae turned back and walked over to Maude, who'd pulled out a deck of cards and a small leather sack. Maude handed the sack to Danae and said, “Keep this with you. It’s blessed salt.”

Danae tucked the small bag into her pocket.

Maude said shuffled the deck of cards, gestured at Danae and said, “Gin?”

Danae said, “I don't suppose I could get an actual G&T while we play?”

Maude threw her head back and laughed. “Trust me, no booze today.”

“I'm already trusting you more than I really want to.”

They played a few hands and Danae finally started to relax a little. The Maude she remembered from before the accident was slipping through the cracks and Danae remembered how she once enjoyed the woman's company. She caught Maude's eye and they smiled at each other, a moment that was disturbed by a sudden darkening of the sky, a crack of lightening outside and bone-clattering thunder rumbling through the building.

Maude stood and said, “It's now.”

The door flew open and the lights went out as the silhouette in the door screamed at them. It was Lori, drenched to the skin and hysterical. She stepped in and screamed, “Please, it's Simon, he fell. Please, please help him. Don't let me lose him.”

Danae didn't trust the other woman, but she had to react to the pain and fear in the woman's voice. She remembered those horrible moments with David and no matter what Lori had done, she didn’t deserve that loss.

Danae and Maude followed her into the storm and they ran to the path down the cliff, to the rocky beach below.

Precious moments passed as they struggled down the slick path in the lashing storm. Danae helped Maude over a rock and turned to Lori, yelling to be heard over the wind, “Where is he? I can't see.” The woman directed them around the point. They passed by a dark hole in the rocky cliff and Lori stopped in front of them and spun suddenly, pointing and shouting. Danae was suddenly engulfed in impenetrable darkness when a something struck her from behind and she fell to the ground.

Chapter Seven

Danae finally came to and groaned at the flare of pain in her head. She opened her eyes and saw Maude tied up across from her. She looked up and saw Lori standing over her. Danae's hands were bound behind her back, tied to her feet.

“Danae, this is your fault, you did this to us. You separated us. So I'm separating you from your sickeningly sweet new love.”

“What are you talking about, Lori.” Danae was trying to get her bearings. Sandy floor. Rock walls. A low stone altar. She remembered the beach, the storm, the panic in Lori's voice.

“You know what I'm talking about. He and I were meant to be together. David was supposed to be mine. But you took him from me, you took him away from me. Why? You're beautiful, you're magical, you could have had other men. But you picked
mine
. So now, I'm picking yours. It was pure luck I caught him coming up from the beach.”

“No, Lori--”

“Shut up, you whore.” Lori sharpened the knife on the stone. “The power I harvest from such a strong witch and a magical creature should do it.”

“Do what, Lori?”

“I'm going to fix what you broke.  David belonged to me, and you took him from me. You took away my chance at a family. So now I'm going to get David back and let you have a little bit of what I've been feeling all these years.”

“David's gone, he can't come back. You can't change that.”

Lori tested the edge of the knife against her thumb. “Oh you stupid little white witch, of course he can come back. I tied him to me, before he died...”

Danae spat out the words, she was finally able to put the blame for David’s death where it should have been all along. “You mean before you killed him.”

“Don't say that.”

“But you killed him, you killed them both.”

Lori’s face twisted in rage. “It's your fault, you're the only one who should have died. Then I would have taken care of David and Alba. So now I'll kill your precious Liam and take David back.”

Danae couldn’t see Liam in the cave, but she knew she needed to keep Lori distracted as long as possible. “You did it wrong, you know. You did it wrong, and you killed David. What makes you think you will do this right?”

“I said shut up. The only reason you're still alive is because you
have
to be for this ritual to work. You'll wish I'd just slit your throat or that you'd died in the accident. ” Lori paced towards the back of the cave. “I'm looking forward to seeing your face when I gut that miserable selkie. Then I'll fuck David on a seal skin rug.”

“David died in my arms. He died in my arms because that's where he wanted to be. Even if you could bring him back, he wouldn't stay with you. Even if you cast a million spells. When he picked me, despite knowing you for all those years, he was picking anyone but you.”

Lori reached down and slapped Danae hard across the mouth. Sharp, coppery blood filled her mouth.

Lori said, “I need you alive, but I don't need you to be happy about it. Don't push me. Besides, you ensnared David with your magic. If I'd been allowed to use my magic, he never would have been trapped by you, by your fertile womb. It’s my father’s fault this place ruined my body and my magic could have stopped it.”