Page 23 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 13
Iknew better than anyone that being blasé with kisses usually made creatures with different cocks go crazy and was generally a bad idea. Even jellyfish got jealous. I knew when the idea popped into my head that it could make things a million times worse, but I could just feel it in my gut it was the right thing to do.
Taron had visibly relaxed, and I was having a blast with Beck while Callum was off muttering over his potions. Taron was making an effort to communicate as much as he could. He had a perfectly good head now and was capable of nodding, but he hadn’t wanted to until I kissed him. I guess that worked on land too. And frankly, I liked sitting this close to him.
Beck had shown us all the art in his house, and I had to admit, it was beautiful. They had materials here we didn’t in the sea.
“Wait here. I want to show you my favorite. I keep it in my bedroom so I can look at it before I go to sleep.”
Beck jumped up and disappeared deeper into the house. Taron tightened his arm around me and nuzzled my head with his cheek. It felt pretty great, so I squeezed him back. It was such a damned shame he wasn’t a merman.
“What do you think he’s going to bring out next?”Taron asked.
“I have no idea. How are you feeling, Taron?”
“I’m glad I didn’t kill him. He’s at least as amusing as a clownfish. I guess the other two aren’t so bad either. Forrest is gathering intel on his father, and Callum hasn’t given up with those potions because he doesn’t know you are faking it. But, of course, if they were going to hurt you, they would have by now.”
“Kissing everyone fixed that for you?”
“No, kissing me first fixed it. And you promised to do it again later when we were alone. So you’d better not have been lying through your teeth like a moray eel.”
I punched him in the stomach because he knew me better than that. Moray eels lied about everything. Even if they hadn’t been doing anything wrong when you came across them, they still lied about it. Everyone knew they never spoke an ounce of truth, but they had this rare gift of telling everyone exactly what they wanted to hear, so sometimes, people believed them.
“Woah, if we are wrestling, I want in,” Beck said, sitting next to me on the couch.
His leg was pressed against mine, and Taron didn’t even react.
“I’d never lie to you, Taron. I’m fibbing about many things right now, but I’ve always been honest with you. I liked it too.”
Taron puffed his chest out and craned his head around me to look at Beck. Beck pulled a sculpture from behind his back and set it on the table.
“I bought this from an old incubus on my travels. He swears he saw a mermaid on the beach. When she dried off, she got legs. He helped her get clothes and fed her. He claims they were lovers, and she lived with him for four years before disappearing into the sea one night.
“It takesa lotfor an incubus to be smitten with someone enough to stop feeding after they’ve gone. Most people don’t want to leave when they’ve got the attention of one. The sex is incredible, and they are incredibly attentive and caring to those they fall in love with.
“He told me he didn’t want to live without her. He stopped feeding and allowed himself to age. While he waited for nature to take its course, he carved these statues of her. He only let me buy this off him because I listened to his story without judging or telling him he was insane for letting himself die for some crazy story. Everyone just assumed he caught something from one of his lovers and had just gone insane. They treated him pretty badly. I’ve never heard of mermaids coming on land and taking an incubus for a lover. Maybe he was crazy, but no one makes art like this unless they’ve been in love.”
That should have scared me, but it didn’t. I picked up the sculpture, and it was beautiful. These land dwellers may have thought he was insane and mistreated him, but this sculpture radiated with energy and love. He knew her secret, and Beck said his kind treated their mates well. I could only imagine the sea called her home, and it was a tough decision for her.
“He carved this one from rose quartz. The druids use it for healing and to amplify love. He used many different crystals and sometimes driftwood for his carvings. An incubus doesn’t have the same kind of magic druids do, but he tried some things that are common knowledge that we do for other people to bring her back.”
I got that, and I understood the brothers a little better. This crystal was important and had magical qualities. I could feel it just holding it. It was the same in the ocean. We didn’t have this particular crystal where I lived, but we coveted certain rocks for jewelry and sculptures because of their magical properties. I didn’t just take Seira to the ship graveyard because she was obsessed with land dwellers. Sometimes, we’d swim out looking for rocks.
I stroked the statue. She had been a beautiful mermaid, and the carving was well done. I didn’t recognize her from home, but then again, if she had left while I was still a hatchling, I doubted she would have been welcomed back. Taron touched it, but he didn’t take it away from me.
“He really loved her. I can feel it.”
“You two believe him, don’t you?” Beck said.
Taron finally decided to acknowledge a question with a nod right when I didn’t want to answer. Beck was fond of that statue and wasn’t completely horrible to the man who carved it. He hadn’t given me any reason to distrust him, but he was drawn to this statue for a reason. I needed to know more.
Beck just sighed and leaned back into the couch.
“Maybe I do too. All I know about them is that they live in the very deep parts of the ocean and they don’t like it when we go out there. Sometimes, our boats have to sail miles out of the way to avoid certain waters, so we don’t disturb their homes. I get it, though. There’s an entire ecosystem down there we don’t know anything about here. Our ships could be damaging it, but until we somehow learn to fly, it’s the only way we can travel and trade with some places.”
He was half right. I could feel that ship, even though I wasn’t close to it, and I wasn’t too fond of the way it felt. It wasn’t just our ecosystem. Those stupid nets didn’t discriminate against what got caught in them. Every mermaid carried a blade with them for protection. Seira wouldn’t have snuck out without the knife I made her. Instead, she was hauled onto that ship and mutilated before she could cut herself free.
“There’s an entire culture down there that none of us know about,” Beck said. “I have no interest in disturbing it or trying to conquer it if I could breathe underwater, but I’d love to learn about it. We come across sirens sometimes, but they aren’t really interested in talking to us.”
