“Shut up, Meena. I saw the way you looked at me.” He twisted his head again and the gills reappeared. So did that terrible smell. “You think I’m a freak.”

“No, I don’t. If anyone can understand being different, it’s me.”

His eyes narrowed at me and I thought for a minute that he was going to back down. I edged a step or two along the wall of tanks, trying to get a straight line to the door. He shook his head and jerked the container in my direction. Some of the liquid splashed onto my legs and I couldn’t help the scream that escaped my throat. It was like acid running down my legs that left blisters in its wake. I backed away from him, tears filling my eyes.

“That looks painful.” He tsked.

I didn’t say anything. At this point, anything I said would just egg him on. Not to mention the fact that I could barely breathe through the pain. He walked forward, his eyes gleaming in the shadows of the room. I tried to back up, but my shoe slipped in the liquid and I almost fell. I managed to make my way to the step stool and picked it up in an attempt to shield myself.

He didn’t say anything else and it somehow made it so much worse as he walked toward me. He wasn’t making any attempt to hide his gills, and the pupils of his eyes had taken on a slit shape. My back was pressed against the tanks and I had nowhere to go. He smiled as he flung the liquid in the bottle again. I tried to dodge the stream of fluid, but I couldn’t move fast enough. As the chemicals hit my stomach and ran down my legs, the door burst open.

I fell to the ground and tried to crawl away from the liquid, but my legs wouldn’t hold me any longer. My palms stung as I scrambled along the cold tiles. I looked up in time to see Blake slam into Devin. The container fell out of Devin’s hands and I moved some more to escape the spreading cleaning fluid. The sounds of flesh hitting flesh and a soft moaning sound filled the room. It took a minute for me to realize that I was the one making the keening noise. I bit my lip and rolled over on my back and tried to concentrate on breathing. In and out.

There was a loud thump and I saw Devin slide across the floor. I started to try and move again, but Blake knelt next to me and I stopped.

“Oh shit. Meena. Can you hear me?” His hands moved in the air over me and I realized he didn’t know where to touch me. “Shit.”

“I’m hurt, not deaf.” I took a deep breath and winced when the skin on my stomach tightened.

“I’ll go get help.” He started to stand and I panicked. I reached for him, but remembered how badly my hands were damaged before I touched him.

“No, please don’t leave me.” It felt so pathetic to say that out loud, but I needed to get in the water fast.

“Meena, you need help.” I watched as he ran a hand through his hair. There was blood on his knuckles and a cut under his left eye. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Take me to my beach.” I looked at him, begging him with my eyes.

“You need an ambulance.” He patted the pockets of his shorts. “Fuck it. I must’ve dropped my phone when I heard you scream. God, Meena, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here faster.”

“You can’t call an ambulance. Take me to my beach, Blake.” I closed my eyes and took a few breaths. “Please.”

“Meena.” His eyes were wild as he shook his head. “No.”

“Trust me.” I reached out with my left hand and brushed my fingers just below the cut on his face. “Please.”

His eyes zeroed in on mine and I saw him make up his mind before he said anything. “This is going to hurt.”

As gently as he could, he slid an arm under my legs and under my shoulders. I bit my lip and tried to not make any sound as he stood with me. He held me out away from his body, trying to keep from agitating my skin any more than it already was. He leaned against the door, pushing it open, and took the path to the beach as quickly as possible.

“Where are your shoes?” I looked at him, more to distract myself than anything else.

“Shoes?” He looked down and then back up quickly. Carrying me like this wasn’t exactly easy. I owed him big-time if he didn’t end up running and screaming. “I have no idea.” He huffed a little as he climbed over the dunes and down to my little beach. “What now?”

“The water.” He didn’t ask any questions, just waded right in. When the water finally touched me, I sighed in relief. He didn’t stop walking until I told him to.

“Meena, I don’t think this is a good idea. You might get an infection.” He looked down at me and I shifted in his arms, moving so that I was holding onto his shoulders and my legs dangled in the water.

“I need you take my clothes off.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen an expression like his before, and if I weren’t in so much pain, I would have laughed. “I can’t do it.”

“Your clothes?” His voice dropped and he looked me in the eyes. “Meena, I don’t think you’re feeling right.”

“My shorts. Please.” My skin was tightening and I needed to change. It was painful to fight it off when my body needed it so badly. “Hurry.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” His hands fumbled between us, undoing the button and zipper on my shorts. He worked them down my hips as gently as he could, but they still scraped along the blisters. I buried my face in his neck and tried to not cry out. Once they were down to my knees, they slid to the ground, and I moved my feet so that they could float free.

“Now my bottoms.”

“This is not how I imagined undressing you.” His low voice was frustrated and worried. His hands moved to the sides of my bathing-suit bottom and he pulled at the strings. I looked up at him, wishing that we had been on better terms before this. I was pretty sure that I was about to chase away the boy who had stolen my heart. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran screaming for his life. His eyes met mine and stayed there as my bathing suit drifted away. His hands moved up to cup the back of my shoulders and lifted, relieving the pain along my arms.

“I couldn’t just tell you.” His eyes held me captive. “Please don’t hate me.” I pushed away from him and let the change take me.

Chapter Fourteen

- Blake -

She pushed away from me and fell into the water. I dipped down to try and catch her, but she wiggled out of the way. Wrestling with her T-shirt, she managed to pull it over her head, revealing her bikini top, and fling it to the side. A few bubbles escaped her mouth as she looked up at me through the water and my heart flopped in my chest. She said something, but I had no idea what it was and I didn’t have long to wonder.

Her back bowed and the water seemed to swirl around her. Right before my eyes, Meena’s legs seemed to meld together and elongate. It was magic, real magic, and I had no understanding of how it happened. At one point she had the sexy undercarriage of a woman and the next she was a mythical creature. I stared down at her, my eyes moving over her beautiful face and down to the parts of her that didn’t make sense. Her eyes were sad as she watched from under the water, but all I could do was stare. This was unreal and yet here she was, the most amazing thing I had ever seen. With a flick of her tail, she shot away from me and I panicked.

“Wait!” I moved to follow her, but she spun around and hesitated. She surfaced ten feet away, the water running over her hair and face. One of the first things that I noticed was that her eyes matched her tail. She had a tail. Holy fuck. A tail.

Mermaid. Meena was a mermaid. The word bounced around in my head like a penny falling down an empty stairwell. I stared at her, unable to speak. She was beautiful, breathtaking. The sun shined through the water to reflect from her scales. Her tail was hundreds of shades of teal, glimmering each time she shifted or moved. Even her skin seemed to have a slight shimmer now.

She looked scared, like she was waiting for me to do something. Was I supposed say something? What the hell do you say to that? Then my eyes trailed over her shoulders and I saw that there were still red welts along her arms. I ground my teeth. I was going to kill Devin if I saw him again. My left hand clenched into a fist and I felt a tingling along my wrist. I looked down at my hand floating in the water and frowned. White lines seemed to appear for a minute, but were gone in a blink. I looked back at Meena and realized she had floated a little farther away.

“Say something.” Her words slid across the water and I immediately took a step in her direction.

“Six months ago my brother was jumped in town. He was beaten so badly I didn’t recognize him when I got to the hospital. But I did recognize the words they had written all over his face and arms.” I took another step closer to her. “Someone almost killed him, just for being gay. My little brother, one of the best people I know. He wouldn’t tell me who did it. Told the police he hadn’t seen them, but I had my suspicions. That day at school in the locker room, Trevor asked if my brother still had marker on his face. No one could have known about that. The file was sealed. There I was, sitting on a bench next to a guy that had tried to kill my brother.” I took another step forward. “That’s why I did what I did. That’s why I’m here. And I wouldn’t take any of it back.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Meena moved closer, her eyes locked on mine.

“Now you know my secret, too.” I sank down in the water so that we were looking at each other eye to eye. I was so relieved that she was talking me again. “Trevor won’t tell because he would be prosecuted for his hate crime. Vince guessed, but we don’t talk about it. He tried to convince me to let him work off the community service.”

“Your brother sounds like a great guy. I’m so sorry someone did that to him.” Meena bit her lip for a minute. “I’d like to meet him some time.”

“I’d like that, too.” Some of the tension seeped out of Meena’s shoulders. “His best friend has been asking to swim with the dolphins. Olivia will love you.”

She smiled and I swam a little closer. Slowly I moved my hand to her shoulder and pushed some of the hair away. I touched her skin, surprised by how much she had healed. She didn’t move while I looked, face blank while I examined her wounds.

“I thought you would need skin grafts or something.”

“When I change, I heal from almost anything. I’ll probably have red marks for a few days and I’ll be tired, but bringing me to the water was the best thing you could do.” She looked at me, her teal eyes shimmering. I wanted to pull her to me, to kiss her senseless. I was so relieved that she was okay, it was almost painful.

“When I saw you lying on the floor…” How could I explain how I felt? It had been like seeing Vince in the hospital. It had scared me so badly I had just acted, not even realizing what I was doing. As soon as that thought manifested in my head, I realized just how much I cared about Meena. It had only taken me a couple of weeks to fall in love with her.

“Thank you.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come when you did.”

I was still reeling from my realization. All the girls I had dated, fooled around with, hadn’t come close to making me feel what I did for Meena. She had captured my heart with her sense of humor, her smiles, and one sweet kiss. I moved closer and touched her cheek.

“Aren’t you upset? I’m a freak.” She started to move away, but I moved with her. “Part fish. I’m not human, Blake.”

“I don’t care.” And I meant it. She was Meena and that was all that mattered. I leaned forward and slid my hand around the back of her neck, cradling her head. Her hands slid over my chest before coming to rest on my shoulders. Slowly, I touched my lips to hers, enjoying the way the salt water mingled with her taste. Just as I was about to dive into the kiss, shouting from the sanctuary broke us apart. She looked at me with wide eyes.

“My parents.” She looked around us wildly and I realized she was trying to find her clothes. I pulled my shirt off and handed it to her. It would hang low enough to cover the important stuff. She took it thankfully and grimaced as the noises came closer. “I’m sorry, Blake.”

“For what?”

“They’re going to freak out. There isn’t much I can do at this point.” She reached out and grabbed my hand. A shock ran up my arm, making us both jump. There was a faint glow from our joined hands.

“MEENA!” Marion hit the beach first, her face frantic. She was knee-deep in the water in no time. Ben was right behind her and surprisingly, so was Violet.

“I’m okay, Mom!” Meena swam toward her mother. “I’m okay. Don’t get your clothes wet. I’m fine.”

I followed suit, there was no way I was leaving her side at this point. I needed to know that she was really okay. She stopped a little way away and looked at me shyly. There was a faint blush creeping up her neck.

“Um. I need to change and when I do…” She whispered the words before nodding her head toward her tail.

“Oh. Right. Naked.” I couldn’t help the dip my eyes took over her body and down her tail. I looked back at her face, enjoying the blush. “Maybe you can show me that trick again sometime. Only slower.”

She splashed me, but laughed. Well, it wasn’t a no. I’d take it.

“Go.” She pointed toward the shore.

“I’m going. Can’t blame me for trying.” I backed away from her.

“Hey,” she called. “Thanks. For before.” She smiled, a teasing light in her eyes. “I owe you.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” I turned and made my way to her parents and best friend. Ben was looking at me with an expression that made me nervous. It wasn’t that I blamed him for giving me the stink eye. I knew his daughter’s secret and it was a big one.

“Are you okay?” Marion met me as I exited the water, her little hands reaching up to touch my face. “Did you get in a fight?”

“I’m okay.” To be honest, I hadn’t given much thought to the stinging on my face. I looked at Ben. “Did you find Devin?”

“What happened? When Devin didn’t come back I went looking for him. I saw the cleaner poured all over the floor in the fish house and went looking for Meena.” Ben moved next to Marion. “Did he hurt her?”

“Dad, I’m fine.” Meena waded out of the water wearing my shirt and part of me wanted to growl in pleasure. I liked seeing her in my clothes. And I really liked the way the wet material clung to her body. As my eyes traveled down her frame, my vision turned red. There were still welts running down her legs and her arms. And I knew that if they were there, they would be along her stomach and other tender areas. She looked exhausted, dark smudges under her eyes.