Crave the Night (17 page)

Her body tightened more, and her world began
to swirl, as if she were caught in a whirlpool, moving, losing
control. She gripped Nolan tighter. Beneath her, he thrust harder
and deeper, faster and stronger.

The whirlpool's pace quickened. She spun and
spun, until she lost control, until the song flew from her throat
and her world whirled around in a flash of lights and smells, and
sensations of freedom and warmth made her smile and sing and then
sing some more.

Sarina's song wrapped around Nolan, lifting
him up even as his body collapsed, exhausted, against hers.

His eyes closed, he titled back his head and
let the notes fall over him like a warm rain.

He had never felt more content, or more sure
of his place and the person he was with. He was, for the first
time, whole.

Water lapped against the side of the boat,
at first so softly, Nolan barely noticed the sound, but then, as
Sarina's song continued, it wasn't just a noise, but a movement
too. The yacht was tilting side to side as if swaying in pace with
the mermaid's voice.

Nolan opened his eyes and looked out over
her shoulder and onto the sea. Except there was no sign of the sea,
no sign of the water. The space around the yacht was packed
shoulder to shoulder with strange horse-shaped creatures he had
never seen before.

"Sarina..." he murmured, afraid to speak
louder for fear of startling the beasts and starting a stampede, or
other mass movement that might end in the boat and its occupants
being tossed about or crushed.

Slowly, Sarina's song died and with an
expression of complete peace on her face, she shifted her gaze from
the sky to Nolan. Then she looked behind him and froze.

"Kelpies," she muttered. All color drained
from her face until her lips looked aqua against her skin. "The sea
hag it seems has sent us an escort."

She looked back at Nolan. Her hand moved to
his chest and regret was clear in her eyes.

For their lost moment of privacy? Nolan
regretted that too, but the kelpies arrival, if they were, as
Sarina guessed, sent by the sea hag, had to be good news.

The creatures, all horse-shaped, showed no
sign of aggression. They varied in size from that of a miniature
horse, no bigger than a good-sized dog, to a massive Percheron.
Their color varied widely too, from black to pale green and even a
few that seemed translucent.

As Nolan stared at them, they sank into the
ocean, like alligators with just their ears, eyes and nostrils
above water.

Somehow this made them seem even more
intimidating. The kelpies surrounded them from all sides. He placed
an arm in front of Sarina, to push her behind him, before realizing
the worthlessness of such a move. As a fellow creature of the sea,
chances were good that the mermaid would be far more equipped to
deal with the animals than a once-human vampire.

Still, he placed a hand on her waist. His
gaze on as many of the creatures as he could keep in sight, asked,
"Are they a threat?"

Sarina hesitated. "They can be, but I don't
think they are. At least not yet."

As she finished the sentence, the boat began
to shift, in short jerky movements.

The water horses it seemed were now
directing their travel. The kelpies rose and sank in the water as
they swam. A few closest to the yacht blew air from their noses in
loud watery snorts.

"So, our journey is almost over." Nolan
glanced at the mermaid.

She pulled her shirt closed over her breasts
and stepped to the side, toward the yacht's railing and away from
Nolan's touch.

His hand fell back to his side, and his
spirits dropped along with it.

A night breeze blew over him, reminding him
he was naked...and cold. He'd been cold since his turn. He’d
forgotten what it was like to be warm until he'd tasted Sarina's
blood and held her in his arms.

He didn't move to follow her and didn't call
out for her to come back to him. He just stood watching as she
clasped the vial in her hand and stared out over the ever-shifting
bodies of the kelpies.

He was cold, and this time, he feared it was
for good.

The kelpies' arrival had brought Sarina back
to reality—shattered the dream she'd allowed to form around her
like delicate glass.

Melusine had accepted her offer. The
kelpies' calm escort assured Sarina of that. If the sea hag had
rejected Nolan or, worse, been angered by him, the kelpies would
have attacked, climbed onto the deck of the boat like fleas
scrambling onto a leaf until they sank the yacht and took Nolan and
Sarina with it.

And sank they would have. Sarina could hold
her own with one kelpie, maybe two, but thousands? No single
creature aside from Melusine herself would stand a chance against
that.

The boat moved side to side now, the rhythm
peaceful and lulling, but Sarina was anything but relaxed. With
each sway she knew they moved closer to Melusine and the conclusion
of her deal.

She should be happy. Soon she would have
what she'd been searching and fighting for for over one hundred
years.

Her fingers wrapped around her vial, she
closed her eyes and tried to focus on why she was here, tried to
picture her sister's face, calm and sweet, intelligent and
knowing—just as it had been before the pirates ripped her soul from
around her neck.

"Sarina?"

She opened her eyes to find Nolan standing a
few feet away, dressed now and with a look of such complete care
and concern on his face she wanted to throw herself over the side
of the yacht and hide at the bottom of the sea.

But it was too late for that.

He held up one hand.

Moving toward them, carried on the backs of
two of the most massive kelpies Sarina had ever encountered, was a
giant shell. Seated inside was Melusine.

The woman lounging in what appeared to be a
giant oyster shell was exotic and beautiful. Perhaps, aside from
Sarina, the most beautiful woman Nolan had ever seen. Moss green
hair flowed down her back and over her body, covering all but her
bare arms. On her wrists, fingers, and around her neck were loops
of pearls, and a crown of coral perched on her head.

She waved delicate fingers at the kelpies,
directing them closer to the yacht, but her focus was on Nolan. He
could feel her attention like twin beams of light, burning into
him.

He stood straight, meeting her gaze and
resisting the urge to reach for Sarina's hand, to assure the
mermaid and himself that what had passed between them before the
kelpies' arrival was real. Their duty to each other was about to
end, but their future had, he hoped, just begun.

As Melusine drew closer, her attention
became almost unbearable. Nolan wanted to turn from her, grab
Sarina and leave, but he couldn't.

The sea hag had a soul, a soul Nolan needed
to be human again, and the vampire had planned to get it, anyway he
could.

But that was before he'd met Sarina. With
her acceptance, his family's didn't seem as important.

Still, though, he'd come too far, risked too
much to leave as he'd come. His gaze locked on the sea hag's, he
stood straight and confident.

Melusine smiled and a predatory, possessive
glint appeared in her eyes. She stood, or prepared to, using her
arms to help her rise as if her legs were incapable of holding her
weight. Her hair fell back and her lower body, that of a snake, was
revealed.

Beside him, Sarina touched his arm, warning
him not to react, and Nolan didn't. He held his smile, and his
stance.

And waited for the half-snake beauty to come
aboard so the bargaining could begin.

Melusine slithered forward, her massive tail
moving up and down while her human upper body stayed level and
still. If Sarina hadn't known the sea hag's secret before and not
seen the snake half for herself now, she wouldn't have guessed that
the exiled female was anything except human. Of course, sailors
said the same of mermaids.

With their tails submerged they looked
human. On land, they became human—outward appearance at least, but
Melusine wasn't a mermaid. She was a water spirit cursed, doomed to
staying as Sarina saw her now until she could find a man who would
love her as she was, her ugly inner-self fully visible in her
serpent tail.

Melusine circled around Nolan, her gaze
moving over him as if she was appraising a catch. "He passed the
test." Her tongue flickered out of her mouth when she spoke, a hint
that her shift to snake was still progressing.

Sarina felt Nolan stiffen, but he gave no
other sign that he'd heard the sea hag's comment.

"He did," Sarina replied. The words felt
like dry sand in her mouth. Nolan's indisputable success at living
underwater was also his guaranteed doom. There was no way Melusine
would let such a prize escape her realm.

"And he's handsome, not...." Melusine
slithered a bit to one side and looked past Nolan at Sarina. "...a
must, but a definite plus."

Sarina inclined her head. She'd known
Nolan's looks would please the spirit. Now she wished he was
disfigured and fat, so unappealing even his ability to live under
the sea would make him an unwanted catch.

But then Allera, her sister, would be
lost.

"Yes, this one, I think, will do nicely."
Melusine leaned back to the other side. Her head tilted, and she
reached to her throat. It was then Sarina saw it—her sister's soul
tucked into a vial just like the one Sarina wore around her own
neck.

"She—" Nolan started. His eyes moved from
the vial hanging from Melusine's throat to the one hanging from
Sarina's.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Melusine swung Allera's
soul back and forth, like it was a worthless piece of coral, easily
replaced. "You've heard the stories, haven't you? Of the things
mermaids will do for a soul?" She slithered closer. Her hand cupped
Nolan's face. "Well, my pretty human. They are all true, but how
lucky are you..." She tapped on his chest with her finger. "...that
this mermaid wanted one soul in particular and had no interest in
harvesting one of her own." She inhaled, loudly and her back
stiffened. Brows raised, she turned back to Sarina. "Is this a
trick? This is no human. This body...." She tapped on Nolan again.
"Has no soul."

Fear and elation rose inside Sarina. Elation
at Melusine's tone. She had found Nolan wanting. She would reject
him, but Sarina feared that too. She would fail her sister, lose
her soul, again.

Torn and confused, Sarina wrapped her
fingers around her vial and bit down on her lip, as if the pain
would bring clarity and focus.

"I'm a vampire." Nolan spoke with power and
determination.

"Vampire?" Melusine raised a brow. Then,
surprise clear on her face, she turned to Sarina. "You brought me a
vampire?"

"She didn't bring me. I came on my own.
Sarina is my..." Nolan hesitated. "...guide."

"Your guide?" The water spirit laughed.
"Mermaids are better tricksters than I realized if she convinced
you of that." Looking back at Sarina, she asked, "Is it true,
daughter of Ianthe, did you convince this...male...that he was
coming to me of his own free will? That you were serving him?"

The air seemed to chill even further. Sarina
couldn't breathe, and she couldn't look at Nolan. She didn't have
to, though, to know his reaction. She could feel shock, disbelief,
and hurt rolling off of him, like living things reaching out and
slapping her.

"We...." Sarina began.

Nolan interrupted. "We had an agreement. I
knew Sarina had her own reasons for coming to this place. I didn't
ask what they were." His voice was cold.

Behind him, the sun was beginning to rise. A
line of pink shone on the horizon. Sarina placed her hands on her
upper arms, hugging herself against the shame building inside
her.

"So, you had reasons too?" Melusine's
attention returned to Nolan. "Tell me, vampire, devourer of your
own kind, what reasons might those be?"

The water spirit cocked her hip and twitched
her tail. Her face took on a new, provocative expression. Sarina's
jaw tightened.

But if Nolan noticed Melusine's interest, he
showed no sign. "Vampires don't devour their own kind." His eyes
flashed.

"No?" The tip of Melusine's tail flicked up
and brushed over Nolan's chest. "Do tell. What do they devour?" She
enunciated the word, making it sound sensual and forbidden.

"Blood. We drink blood." Nolan's gaze slid
to Sarina. She flushed.

"And is that what you hoped to find here?
Blood? Surely, there is blood aplenty in the human realm."

"A soul. I heard you had a soul. I came to
bargain for it."

Melusine's eyes widened. She twisted on her
tail, seeming to address the herd of kelpies that still surrounded
them. "How rich! Did you hear that? He came for a soul." With
another laugh, she turned back. "It seems we have two bidders, but
only one soul to sell. Tell me, vampire, what do you think to trade
me for this soul?" She held Allera's vial out so it glistened in
the rising sun.

Nolan blinked, and his eyes began to water.
Sarina's palms itched. Allera's soul was so close, but her heart
ached too.

"Anything I have to give." Nolan held out
both arms, opening himself to the spirit. She drew closer, her tail
wrapping around him.

"Anything?" Melusine whispered.

Nolan hesitated, and his gaze moved briefly
to Sarina.

Nolan stared at the mermaid, looking for
some sign the conclusions he'd drawn from the sea hag's
conversation were false, but Sarina didn't look at him. Instead,
her fingers wrapped tightly around the vial at her throat, she
averted her gaze.

Would he give anything to have a soul
again?

No. He wouldn't, but would Sarina? Was the
soul so important to her, she would give anything to have it? If
so, how could he deny her?