The man had a hand on either side of the doorframe, essentially blocking the exit with his body.Fian looked in through the window and saw Kai there, his face pale, a jar of jam in his hand.He was shaking, caught between running or fighting.
“Just give me a kiss, cutie,” the man said.“We really should kiss.It’ll make it all better, like it was before.Just like the last time this happened.”
Fian tried to collect himself.Magic was rolling off that human, stronger even than his barnacle aura.I can’t just break into tentacles and throttle this man, not with Kai here and watching.Swamps and brackish waters be damned, this is a mess.But I have to protect Kai.
Fian did the only thing he could think of.He emulated Mikano, the perfect Human Liaisons agent with the kind of teeth and stomach that could handle everything.
“Excuse me, sir, but you seem distinctly not invited,” Fian said, trying to sound as superior as his big brother.
The human barnacle turned.Fian had been wrong.His hair wasn’t brown but blond, the kind of shifty color the sand on the beach got after an ugly storm.His eyes were the brown of mud, not good plant nourishing mud, but rather sludge that dropped off the trucks that took away manure to festering, smelly pits so common in the human realm.
With a grating, annoyed-sounding voice, he asked, “What do you want?”
Oh, he’s just a bloated corpse drifting on the waves.I can take him, no problem.
Fian smiled, showing teeth the same way Mikano always did.“I want jam.”
The shifty human crossed his arms.“Get it elsewhere.We’re talking here.”
“No, we’re not.Just leave, Nick,” Kai yelled.He still sounded scared, but more than anything, his voice was thin as if he were a human the waves had washed off a ship and out to sea, struggling to keep himself from drowning.
Fian narrowed his eyes once more, shifting deeper into his demon sight.There’s enchantments creeping toward Kai.What for?To keep him compliant?Oh, but this is foul.No wonder he was so tired, even in his dreams.
The enchantment was slithering right toward Kai’s heart, slow and steady, a poisonous spell that knew its way to hurting all too well.
Without thinking about it hard or long, Fian reached for the human’s collar and dragged him back from the door he was still blocking.His mud eyes widened in shock.
“Kai told you to leave.You should.”
The barnacle’s eyes widened, and he froze.It looked as if he was thinking, calculating.It made Fian’s skin run cold, and not shifting right then and there to squish the human took everything he had.
Fian released the man’s collar, and he stepped back, a disgusting smile on his face that made him look superior, like he had won, like the last clam was his to savor.
“I’ll be back for you, cutie pie.We have a good thing going here, and I won’t let you ruin it, Kai.”
He left with that, angry but entitled, moving as if he owned the place and could do whatever he wanted.
Fian watched him, turning to Kai only when he felt it was safe to take his eyes off the retreating barnacle.
“Are you okay, Kai?I heard glass breaking.Are you hurt at all?”
The question was a silly one to ask.The spell, that malevolent vine of evil, was still winding itself up Kai’s legs.My landbride is human and has no way at all to guard himself against such witchery.I should never have left him alone this long.
Fian stepped forward, intent on dissolving the spell with magic of his own, but Kai was scared still.He took a step backward, and that distance, it felt like a stab right at Fian’s heart.
It’s not his fault.He’s scared.And he has every right to be scared after all that.
Kai looked at Fian, eyes wide and haunted.It occurred to Fian that Kai’s reluctance to accept the truth of last night’s dream might make him only more afraid.
I can’t rush him, I can’t.It’s the same with a piece of driftwood I can’t rush to give up how it wants to be carved.Yes, having a landbride means a demon needs to be patient.Humans need more time than the tides for the easiest things after all.
At the same time, Fian ached to change shape until he was in his cecaelian form again with all his tentacles out so he could wrap Kai in their safety.But before any of that, he needed to dissolve that spell.
Kai closed his mouth and balled his hands to fists, knuckles standing out white against the jar of jam he was still holding on to.Clearly, he was struggling for composure.
“I’m all right.I’m sorry you had to see that, but it was nothing.I was on my way out, but you said you wanted jam?”
“Oh?Right.Jam.Can I come inside?”Fian pointed at one of the shelves without looking, making it seem as if he wanted what jam was displayed there.
