“How long have you been here?”
My question surprised both of us.
The mermaid stretched out her hand and reached toward me, water spilling across the marble.
Uncertainly, I offered my hand to her.
She took it and held on. She lifted her other hand out of the water and traced her fingers over my skin. The motion reminded me of seeing people deciphering Braille.“I do not know how long. My entire life.”
Her entire life. She’d been born here.“Do you remember when Omar… when the evil one came here?”
“No.”She continued to trace up and down my skin, turning my hand over and over, her fingers gliding halfway up my forearm before returning to my fingers.
I wanted to ask her more. If her parents were here. If she was young. If she’d had offspring. If the vampires had eaten them.
I couldn’t ask. I didn’t want to know.
She kept feeling my skin until I was nearly numb to the sensation.
At long last, she set my hand gingerly upon the marble, as if it might shatter against the stone.
“Are you here to renew the water? Like the evil one?”
“Can you tell a difference? Already?”
She shrugged, the human gesture erasing her tail, hidden from view.“It is uncomfortable.”
I nearly asked if she wanted me to fix the problem or if she’d like to take the chance to help herself and the rest to escape. I wouldn’t have to tell her what I meant by escape.
I didn’t.
Saul. Big brown eyes. Eyes full of fear. Full of pleading.
“Yes. I’m here to renew the water.”
“May I watch?”
I nodded, then shuffled awkwardly over to the edge of the pool and slipped my hand under the surface.
The mermaid’s fingers interlocked with mine as I felt the power begin to flow out of me. She let out an audible sigh.
After a while she looked up at me, still holding onto my hand, a curious tone in her words.“You have tears once more.”
Thirty-Three
Brett Wright
“There’s noway the Vampire Cathedral is close to this place.”
Shane looked over his shoulder at me as he handed a small wad of cash to the girl behind the counter. He bugged his eyes out. “Ya wanna say that a little louder?”
I lowered my volume, my gaze traveling to the girl as she dug into the register for change. She hadn’t seemed to notice. “Well, seriously. This is even more touristy than the last place…” For a second I forgot where I’d been. “Than Playa Carmen.”
He took the change, dropped the coins into the tip jar, and grasped the two red plastic baskets that held our sandwiches. “I wouldn’t say that. Even so, the Royals settled here a lot longer ago than when a bunch of middle-class white people discovered a cheap place to take tropical vacations.” He walked over to a table on the corner of the open-air porch and used his foot to pull out a chair. “This okay?”
“Yeah.” I set the soda we’d ordered on the table and sat down across from him. “So, the Royals are in the middle of all this?” I gestured toward the paved street that ran alongside the sandwich shop we’d chosen.
We’d been in Montezuma less than an hour and had already seen the entire town. There seemed to be two main streets that met in a T, the longer of which ended at the beach. A small boat had been unloading passengers holding suitcases above their heads as they waded to shore. The town was charming, if you were truly here to lounge on the beaches, buy some shell jewelry, and smoke some hash. I couldn’t say I was truly appreciating all it had to offer when it was the gateway into vampire land.
