“Of course, but I am on the fringe of acceptance myself. My word means little. Your patience is what will convince them.”
“Fine. Let’s head back.”I motioned out into the darkness.“Maybe we can get back before I’m an old man.”
A third time? I’d have to start calling him Jolly Saint Therin if he kept up this smiling thing.
Without any other response, he turned and shot off into the blackness. As fast as he was, I knew he was going at a snail’s pace so I could keep up. The thought irked me to no end.
Despite my relative slowness, I reveled in the travel. Even after all this time with him—I had no idea if I’d been down here weeks or months—everything felt like ecstasy. Hell, maybe I was going on half a year, but I doubted it. Riding the currents, being one with the water, was utter perfection. The emptiness I’d never seemed able to fill on land didn’t exist in the sea. It was like my soul had been parched and dry and only now had been nourished enough to come to life. The only drawback to the travel was the extended time for my mind to do its crazy-making.
Every once in a while, my life on land would try to nudge its way in, but there was enough to occupy my mind in the here and now. For all intrinsic purposes, my life began when I followed Therin that first time. That was my birth. I was new. Nothing that came before was important, or was real, for that matter. And being new, I had a lot to figure out.
I’m not sure how long we’d stayed out in the open water at first, but probably less than a week. It had been two days before I could hear Therin speaking to me in my mind. It was many, many more before I could return the favor, and even then, it was only in one- or two-word phrases.
When we were able to communicate with a modicum of accuracy, it was then that he told me he was my father, and that it was time to meet the rest of his tribe. I’d already figured out he was my dad before he told me. It only made sense, if anything in this fucked-up life could make sense. However, he wouldn’t go into further detail of my heritage, other than saying that, by their law, I shouldn’t exist, that copulation between mer and human was forbidden. Sure, it had happened on occasion over the centuries, but the offspring often was weak, and if they lived long enough to meet their mer parent, the ocean killed them one way or the other soon thereafter. However, I was different. I was strong. I was unlike anything they had ever seen before. I guess demon blood will do that to a person.
I think I’d made it ten or twenty feet into the village before getting startled by a puffer fish and lighting up like a bonfire on homecoming night, taking a few huts and the puffer fish with me. Luckily, no mers were harmed in the making of my humiliation. Of all things, apuffer fish? I was on edge. It hadn’t been like I meant to! It’s not every day a guy meets his mer family.
I was instantly categorized as a devil, which I guess isn’t that far off, and was no longer allowed to enter the village. Therin found a cave several miles from the tribe, and I moved in. We spent every day quietly getting familiar with each other and me attempting to communicate with the sea creatures and get a better grasp on my fire. Hence, the ship-burning trip. That particular hurdle passed, Therin determined me safe for mer-consumption. So, take two.
Five
BRETT WRIGHT
“Youstay here. I will go in and speak to them, vouch that you are safe and in control.”Therin started to swim into the thick kelp forest but turned back around, the tiny amount of sunlight filtering down from above catching his twisting tail, causing it to flash brilliantly.“Are you sure you are ready? I do not want you to feel pressured by me to try too soon. It is better to wait and make sure than to make haste into folly.”
Make haste into folly… who says that! My father, apparently.“I’m ready, Therin. Really. I was nervous the first time.”
“Your nerves are calm now?”Even in my mind, I could hear the skepticism.
“It was just… puffer fish… before.”Groan. “I’m fine. Go talk to them.”
Without further comment, he continued into the forest and quickly disappeared from view.
A school of sea bass swam by, one darting out to inspect me by nipping at my hair. With a soft stroke on his underbelly, I urged him away. No time to bother with inquisitive fish. It rejoined its fellows and took a path similar to Therin’s into the kelp. I followed the kelp up as far as my head could crane. It was well over a hundred feet tall, its fibrous blackish green nearly sparkling like emeralds the closer it grew to the sun.
The tribe had moved to a different kelp forest after my little exploding demonstration. Therin seemed less upset about that than the wasteful death of the stupid puffer fish. Apparently, the kelp regrows at a weed-like rate, and the tribe frequently moves from place to place. Or so he said. Maybe he’d just wanted to make me feel better, but I couldn’t see Therin lying about anything.
I’d never been ill at ease in the ocean, but the few times I’d been away from Therin, I found myself a touch nervous. Therin assured me that we had few natural predators, but still. If there were such things as merpeople, who knew what else was out there.
The other thing that took a while to get used to was being naked. I’d never been much of a prude.Shit, I am pretty. Why hide it?However, while I’d never expected my long-lost father to show up, only to be a merman, I even less expected to be hanging out with him naked. I got used to it pretty quickly, but I didn’t let myself dwell on it. Luckily, I’ve gotten pretty great at not thinking about anything.
It made sense, being naked. From the brief moment I’d been in the village, it was obvious the mers didn’t wear any type of coverings, but still, at least they had a tail to keep stuff inside—at least, I guessed that’s how it worked. One more question I was not gonna ask my father.
There was a growing list. Every day my questions increased. If he’s such a stickler for rules, how come the copulating with my half-demon mother? How did he know I existed, let alone how to find me in the ocean? Even more, why did he want me here now?
I figured, why push it? We were just getting to know each other. And really, where else would I rather be? This was a dream come true. I’d always wished I could stay in the sea. It seemed I always could have, I’d just never done it. Finding out I’m part mer was a hell of a lot better than discovering the raping-demon portion of my ancestry. And great timing. I was facing a mental breakdown, between the vampire and Sonia. Not to mention Finn. Finn…
“They chose to welcome you back.”Therin’s voice broke into my thoughts. Finn’s lovely countenance flitted through my mind for one more second and then dispersed in a rush of relief.
Therin stopped with his face less than an inch from mine—turns out, mers don’t have the personal-bubble concept.“Brett, are you all right? Would you like more time, spend a few more days in preparation?”
“Are you kidding me? Let’s go in! I’m fine, thanks.”
I thought I saw disappointment flash across his face at my answer, but if so, it left too soon for me to be sure.“Follow me, then.”
After the endless vastness of the open sea, the kelp forest felt like an encompassing embrace—a sheltering, private world floating amidst a limitless galaxy.
The dense kelp finally gave way to a meadow, ringed by a circle of kelp bundles that had been tied thirty to forty feet off the ocean floor. In the center of the meadow stood five mers. Stood? Floated? Something. There were five of them doing whatever mers did. Three females, two males. The center female motioned for me to come forward.
