One Soul To Share (8 page)

He had lost control of his own body, and,
despite all efforts—striking his thighs, attempting to pry his
hands under his legs—he couldn’t gain that control back.

He was stuck.

The kelpie, still trotting, lifted its head
and neighed… laughed.

o0o

Her sister’s soul in her fist, Sarina swam in
circles.

She had seen Nolan’s face when she
jumped.

He knew she had used him. Knew she had
brought him there with every intention of leaving him behind.

Guilt lanced through Sarina. More than
guilt—pain.

She needed Nolan… loved him.

Admitting that truth hurt almost as much as
seeing the disbelief on his face when she jumped.

But her choices weren’t good. If she tried to
save him now, it would be Sarina against an army of kelpies, water
dragons, and any number of other creatures the sea hag might have
enlisted to serve her.

One mermaid stood no chance against such an
army, but still, Sarina couldn’t force herself to swim away.
Couldn’t force herself to look at Nolan as she knew she should—an
expendable human who had served his purpose in her quest to
retrieve her sister’s soul.

She spun in another circle, swimming away and
then swimming back twenty times before reality truly sank in.

What was done was done. Now that Melusine had
met Nolan, she wouldn’t give him up—not willingly.

And Sarina had made a promise, to herself,
her sister, and her dying mother.

Allera’s soul gripped tight in her hand and
her heart dying, she swam away.

o0o

Its laugh at Nolan’s expense over, the kelpie
had trotted along, giving Nolan and his continued efforts to
dislodge himself no consideration.

With a silent curse, the vampire jerked on
his leg again. Still it wouldn’t budge, but the kelpie did. The
creature surged forward, moving so swiftly that Nolan’s body bent
backward over the beast’s rump.

Then, with no warning, the kelpie stopped and
fell forward onto its knees. Just as suddenly, Nolan was free and
catapulting forward. He flew over the creature’s head toward a
large metal cage. His body hit the back wall of bars, and his teeth
slammed together. His own blood filled his mouth, but he didn’t let
that slow him. He leapt to his feet, but the door he had flown
through had already slammed shut.

He raced to the closed opening anyway and
jerked on the door. It held fast.

Frustration and rage filled him. He wrapped
his hands around the cold bars and hissed, or tried to. Only air
gurgled from his lips.

A few yards away, the sea hag appeared on a
kelpie of her own. Her snake-tail draped like pearl strands over
the creature’s sides, and her fingers wove into its mane. With a
shake of her head, she guided the kelpie closer.

“Neither running nor fighting will do you any
good. Why not accept your fate and give love a chance?” She swept
her hair over one shoulder, revealing one perfectly formed breast.
“I assure you, I have every charm the mermaid offered.” Looking
like some twisted version of Lady Godiva, she leaned forward. “Love
me, and I will set you free.”

A luminous globe appeared in her hand. She
tossed it toward his cage. He tried to move, but the bubble burst,
coating him in some invisible liquid.

“Speak now,” she ordered, impatient.

Realizing her voice sounded clearer now, he
did. Water didn’t rush into his mouth, and his words came out with
ease. “You can’t order love delivered like milk to your door.”
Disgust and disbelief warred for control of Nolan’s emotions.

Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps not, but I can
and did order a man, and I can order more. Would you like to see
your predecessors?” She waved her hand, and the water around Nolan
lightened, as if illuminated from below. Twenty cages stood
anchored to the sea floor. Kelpies wearing harnesses waited beside
them.

“They’re empty,” he replied, unimpressed.

Melusine smiled. “Look again.” She motioned
to two of the harnessed kelpies. The creatures walked toward him
pulling one of the cages with them.

Bones littered the bottom of the cage—human
bones.

Nolan’s stomach clenched, but he held his
gaze steady. “That won’t happen to me. I’m a vampire.”

Again, Melusine smiled. “All the better. You
have eternity to realize our love. In the meanwhile, I have more
suitors to gather.” She flicked her tail against the kelpie’s side,
but then, as the creature started to move, pulled back on its mane.
“If you have a breakthrough, simply tell your guard. He will be
happy to find me so you can declare your love.”

The dragon swam toward them, knocking against
the empty cages and jostling the bones inside. The kelpies parted
and pulled back; then, after a signal from the sea hag, bolted as
one upward and out of sight.

The dragon curled around Nolan’s cage. Its
head propped onto its body, it watched him through one slitted
green eye.

Finding the dragon’s regard unnerving, Nolan
closed his eyes and allowed his body to drift upward to the top of
the cage. Once there, he floated, feigning sleep and wishing for
the millionth time he wasn’t a vampire. Wishing he could die.

Nolan floated at the top of the cage like a
dead fish for days. The sea hag returned regularly to tempt him
with promises of sex, riches, and everything her twisted mind could
imagine that a human turned vampire might desire.

The first day into what Nolan calculated was
his second week trapped underwater, she arrived on the back of a
kelpie, a dagger in her hand.

“What about blood, vampire? Would you love me
for blood?” She held out one smooth, green-tinged arm.

The need for blood had been growing in Nolan
for days. He closed his eyes but could feel his body shake.

“Ah… you do need blood.” The sea hag reined
her kelpie closer. She hovered above his cage, looking down at
him.

“What kind of blood do you crave, vampire?
Mermaid? Kelpie? Dragon? Tell me you love me, and it will be
yours.”

The herd of kelpies that always accompanied
Melusine on her visits blew air bubbles softly out of their noses,
and the dragon stirred.

Eyes still closed, Nolan replied, “Will a lie
break your curse, hag?”

Melusine slapped her tail against her
kelpie’s side, causing the animal to shriek. “Don’t call me
that.”

“What?” Nolan opened one eye. Melusine had
never shown emotion before. “Hag? The world calls you hag. Didn’t
you know that?”

“No!” Melusine lowered her tail and whacked
it against Nolan’s cage, sending it, and the dragon still curled
around it, flying. The chain anchoring the cage in place tightened,
and the cage jerked to a stop. Nolan slammed into the bars,
releasing a grunt as he did.

Holding on to the bars, he forced his body
into a vertical position and stared at his captor. “Outbursts won’t
change the truth any more than a lie. The world knows you as a hag
and a monster, and it appears they are right. Melusine, whoever she
was, is dead. This is what you are now.”

“No!” Melusine dropped onto his cage, her
tail wrapping around it and her hands reaching inside to grab
him.

“Truth,” he yelled. “You will never find a
man to love you and break your curse. No man could love what you
have become.”

“Then more men will die,” she muttered, her
hands groping for Nolan while her tail continued to squeeze the
cage.

The kelpies and the dragon backed away. They
floated at a distance, watching as Melusine raged and clawed,
trying to reach Nolan to silence him.

Metal creaked, and Melusine smiled. “I will
crush you in this cage, vampire.”

“And you will still be alone,” he replied,
his gaze shifting to the corners of the cage and the metal that was
beginning to bend, to weaken.

He’d had no plan for this fight when he’d
started it, but now… If the cage broke, he could get free, but
could he escape? He hadn’t fed in a week.

The tip of Melusine’s tail poked through the
bars, jabbing the water, searching for Nolan.

Blood. He needed blood.

Not allowing himself to think further, he
kicked his legs and propelled himself forward. Wrapping his arms
and legs around the sea hag’s tail, he sank his fangs into her
flesh.

Her blood was cold and thick, and tasted of
salt and oil. Nolan’s first instinct was to spit out the vile
liquid and pull away, but something told him to hang on and drink
as he had never drunk before.

He did, guzzling until he thought he would be
sick.

Melusine screamed and thrashed, trying to
free her tail from his fangs. She slammed his body against the
bars, but the more he drank, the stronger he felt. Until he looked
out at the sea and saw things differently.

The kelpies morphed, not horses but women,
bound in chains of seaweed with their mouths gagged. And the dragon
was a merman, tied in the same bonds as the kelpies but his entire
body wrapped in the stuff so his arms were pinned down and he had
no choice but to undulate his body like a snake’s.

She’s trapped you, he thought. And the dragon
lifted his head. A new understanding… hope shone in his eyes. The
kelpies moved too, their eyes wide and filled with fear.

Reenergized, Nolan kicked his legs against
the bars. They creaked and bent. He kicked again. He felt them
give, but Melusine did too. She reached inside the broken cage and
grabbed him with her tail.

Then she squeezed and squeezed some more
until Nolan heard a new noise… His ribs and spine breaking. His
heart would be next—not pierced but crushed. It would have the same
effect.

Blood leaked from his mouth, and his senses
dulled.

Wishes do come true, he thought. I’m
dying.

o0o

Weeks had passed since Sarina had left Nolan.
Weeks that had been filled with joy as she had returned her
sister’s soul and seen the warmth return to her sister’s eyes. But
the weeks had been painful too. The guilt of leaving Nolan hadn’t
faded, and the torture of knowing what he had to be enduring under
the sea hag’s control had not subsided.

Today it would. Today Sarina would do
whatever it took to make sure she undid the wrong she’d done to the
vampire.

Allera swam by Sarina’s side.

“Why are we returning?” Allera asked as she
brushed aside a school of fish that had surrounded them. “Does
Melusine have more souls?”

“Perhaps.” It had occurred to Sarina that if
the sea hag had found Allera’s soul, she might have found others
too, but that wasn’t why Sarina was swimming until her arms and
tail ached or why she hadn’t stopped to sleep or eat since leaving
the sea hag’s realm.

“We should have brought the others,” Allera
added.

“They wouldn’t have come.”

“For the promise of souls, they would
have.”

Perhaps, but soulless mermaids were too
undependable and unstable. They could have been captured by the sea
hag and turned into man-hunting monsters in her quest for the love
that would free her from her curse.

“We can take the souls to them,” Sarina said.
She’d tried to get her sister to stay behind, but Allera had
insisted on following. At some point, she would learn Sarina’s true
reason for returning to the sea hag’s world, but not until Sarina
had Nolan in her sights—when it would be too late for Allera to
fight her.

It took them another hour to reach the area
where the dragon had attacked them. Sarina slowed her frantic pace
to a steady flip of her tail.

Allera slowed too. “Something is… off,” she
murmured.

Sarina nodded and slowed to a stop. “I smell…
blood,” she said.

Without waiting for her sister to reply, she
dove forward, following the scent as quickly as she could—three
times their previous speed.

“Sarina!” Allera called, but Sarina had
already left her sister behind, and her focus had already
shifted—to a scene of mass destruction such that she could never
have imagined.

Metal cages the size of small human rooms
were strewn over the floor of the sea like broken toys. Bones
occupied most or fell from them onto the sandy floor.

Sarina’s hands fisted as she tried to stay
calm. The bones couldn’t be Nolan’s. She hadn’t been gone that
long. He’d survived her test, survived the dragon’s too. He
wouldn’t have drowned, and Melusine wouldn’t have killed him. He
was too valuable to her; he held too much potential.

“Your vampire wasn’t up to par. I want a new
human or my soul back.” Melusine wove her way through the wreckage.
She was alone, no sign of her kelpies, the dragon, or any other
creatures she might have enslaved to her service.

“Where is he?” Sarina asked, pulling herself
upright to face the water spirit face-to-face.

“Gone.” Melusine fluttered her hand. There
were gashes in her tail, and the human part of her body bore
bruises.

“It’s your blood I smell.” Sarina lifted her
eyes and stared the sea hag in the face. “He fought you.”

“He insulted me.” Melusine’s eyes narrowed,
and her tongue flitted out of her mouth. Then her gaze shifted, and
a smile curved her lips. “My soul. You brought it back to me.”

She raised her hand, and kelpies surged
forward like green water pouring from a tap.

“Get the soul!” Melusine yelled.

“No!” Sarina threw herself toward the sea
hag, but the kelpies flowed between them, separating them.

“The dragon has your man.”

Sarina spun, unsure from where the words had
come.

A blue-green kelpie raised its head to catch
her gaze. “The sea hag has us bound so we can’t shift or speak, but
your man weakened her hold.” The horse-shifter glanced over its
shoulder, toward Melusine. “She doesn’t realize her power over us
has weakened.”

“He weakened her?” Sarina didn’t realize it
was possible to weaken a water spirit as old and powerful as
Melusine.