Hyacinth, Scarlet - Craving Owen [Tides of Love 2] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (3 page)

Sassaki went around the building and at last found his mate’s room. The human seemed to be resting, although Sassaki couldn’t tell for sure. He tried to look closer, but the reflection in the window taunted him in its ugliness. Gods, how he hated himself. Perhaps he should leave. Perhaps he should never have come here. He belonged in the deep dark waters beyond the harbor.

But no. He needed to make sure his mate would be all right. He owed the human that much. Of course he wouldn’t try to take his mate with him. The other man deserved better than to be tied down to a monster for an eternity. But just once…just once. To see him up close. Just to know that his mate would be all right and cared for.

First, however, he decided to put some clothes on. He didn’t think the man would wake, but it wouldn’t hurt to cover his nudity up. He backtracked to a nearby house and slipped inside. It was empty, and Sassaki quickly found a pair of pants in a wardrobe and left.

Returning to the hospital, Sassaki made his way to his mate’s room again and slowly opened the window. He didn’t have too much trouble with the flimsy lock—the nymphs must be concentrating their efforts on the outskirts of town and didn’t focus too much on the city. Sassaki considered himself lucky water nymphs were so rare and slipped inside the room.

Even if it looked quite barren and sterile, the chamber itself felt warm and cozy. Sassaki supposed it would be necessary for patients being treated against the effect of wyrm attacks. In fact, Sassaki enjoyed the heat quite a lot. He hated the cold waters that were his home, a remnant of the melted polar ice caps that caused the flood so long ago.

At first, he hesitated to approach the bed. From the window, he could tell the human’s breathing was quite even and his color good. Obviously, the nymphs had worked their magic on him. Technically speaking, he’d seen what he’d come for, but he couldn’t resist his mate’s draw. Just this once, he told himself. He would touch his mate’s skin one time and then return to the water.

Pushing away all his misgivings, Sassaki made his way to the bed. His hand trembled as he reached out for the human’s palm. Almost instantly, he pulled back. His scaled skin looked obscene against the delicate softness of his beautiful mate. Sassaki gritted his teeth. Why couldn’t he have been born as something else? Why a wyrm? What a cruel destiny he had. He’d have preferred to never find his mate rather than to be taunted with the beauty of one he could not claim.

Sassaki reached out to pet the human’s blond hair but retracted his hand at the last moment. He couldn’t touch his mate. For all he knew, the polluted waters might still cling to him, and the touch would hurt the other man. This had been a horrible idea. He needed to leave, now, before he did anything even more stupid.

He turned and was halfway back to the window when a soft voice said, “Wait. Don’t go.”

Every muscle in Sassaki’s body froze. He looked back at his mate and realized in shock the human had awoken. He had blue eyes, Sassaki realized. In his snake form, he’d completely missed their color, but they were blue, as blue as the sky in the rare days when the sun shone over the water. For Sassaki, they were the color of peace and hope, and they pinned him in his place more effectively than any weapon.

“Come closer,” the human said.

Even if everything in Sassaki screamed he needed to leave, his beast refused, roaring in satisfaction at the acceptance of its mate. So Sassaki obeyed and approached the bed once again. He fidgeted, uncertain on what to say or to do.

“I know you,” his mate continued in a raspy voice. “Where do I know you from?”

Sassaki gulped. How could he explain he’d almost killed the other man just earlier that day? But then, he noticed his mate was forcing himself to speak. That couldn’t be good for him. “Don’t,” he answered. “You need to rest. You’re just recovering from a severe injury.”

He suppressed a wince as he spoke, but his mate didn’t seem to realize his identity. He nodded and answered, “Okay. Just…stay with me. A while longer.”

Sassaki was in shock. He’d have expected his mate to scream bloody murder at the first sight of him, but instead the human asked him to stay. How could he refuse?

Nodding, Sassaki knelt next to the bed. The human smiled and said, “I’m Owen. What’s your name?”

“Sassaki. It’s nice to meet you, Owen,” Sassaki answered.

It was odd to talk to Owen. Sassaki’s knowledge of the human language stemmed from a couple of books he’d stolen from ships sunken nearby his lair. The humans inside these ships had all been eaten by his kin. Sassaki himself disliked that sort of thing, but he could hardly stop it. On impulse, he’d taken some of the usable items on the ship, and he felt thankful for that now. It gave him at least a basis of knowledge to chat with his mate, even if he did have trouble with longer words.

Owen asked him about this world, about the nymphs and the storms, and much to Sassaki’s dismay, about the nymphs and wyrms. He understood so little, Sassaki realized. The nymph had left without giving him too much information. Perhaps Sassaki could at least provide some amount of support. What would it hurt?

“Well, Owen,” he said, “the nymphs here are soldiers for The Great Dryad Nation. Their power over water gives them the ability to stand against the wyrms. The dryads have been fighting the sea snakes for ages now, ever since they took hold of the plague lands, leaving the polluted waters to the wyrms.”

Owen listened, occasionally nodding as he took in the information. Unfortunately, he was a very sharp young man. As Sassaki spoke, Owen interrupted him.”You are a wyrm, aren’t you?” Owen said. “You’re the second wyrm, the one with just one head.”

Sassaki wanted to lie. He hated the thought of seeing hate and disgust in Owen’s eyes. But it was inevitable, he realized, and lying would jut prolong the agony. And so, he nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know,” Owen said with a smile. “The other one. He was different. He wanted to eat me. You saved me.”

For a few moments, Sassaki just stared at Owen’s beautiful face. “They,” he said at last. “When a wyrm has more heads, it means they are more than one person.”

Owen’s eyes widened. “Wow. Seriously? Why do I have the feeling Yane doesn’t know that?”

Sassaki chuckled bitterly. “The nymphs don’t know many things.”

All of a sudden, Sassaki heard footsteps outside. He got up and rushed toward window. “I have to go, Owen.”

“Will you come back?” Owen asked him.

Sassaki hesitated. He wanted to say yes, but he didn’t think it would be a very good idea.

“Is it hard for you to sneak in here?” Owen prodded. “Maybe we could meet on the shore after I feel better.”

Sassaki’s heart leapt at the thought of his mate giving him such a chance. He could not push Owen away. In the end, he was just a beast, one who yearned for his mate. Selflessness paled in front of that need. “I will come again,” he answered.

“Promise me,” Owen insisted, giving him an earnest look.

“I promise,” Sassaki answered. After a moment of indecision, he turned back and pressed a quick kiss on Owen’s forehead. With that goodbye, he fled the room, never once looking behind.

Owen watched the strange man go in a mix of shock and unsettlement. He did not know what to believe anymore. While Sassaki had been here, everything seemed to make sense, at least to a certain extent. The way Sassaki spoke made this odd world feel more real, less crazy. After all, Connor disappeared mysteriously, and the explanation could very well lie in the existence of another world. And Sassaki looked so handsome, in his strange, outlandish way. Green scales lined the skin of his neck, and Owen had barely refrained from touching them or sinking his fingers in the man’s long green hair.

Even as he thought this, Owen realized how crazy his musings were. Left alone in his room, he couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t dreaming the whole thing. Perhaps he’d hit his head while in the desert. There were plenty of snakes there, right? Perhaps he was blowing their size out of proportion and imagining all the water here out of sheer thirst. And Sassaki could very well be a daydream, as well.

He was working himself into a real panic when a woman entered the room. He thought he remembered her from someplace but couldn’t figure out her identity.

She spoke to him, but Owen didn’t understand a word. He blinked and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

The woman frowned and repeated her sentences, a bit slower. Naturally, Owen didn’t grasp their meaning, so he just shrugged. Couldn’t she tell he didn’t know their language?

Apparently, she could indeed tell, because she pressed her hand to her chest and said, “Hannah.”

She did the same to him and stated inquiringly, “Owen?”

It was obviously an introduction of sorts, and when she spoke, a flash of memory passed through Owen’s mind. “Right. Yane said you were going to look after me.”

It was very strange to remember the scene now. It felt bizarre, just like his meeting with Sassaki had been. Seeing Hannah served to thrust him once more in this strange reality. She looked somewhat similar to Yane, sharing his dark blue hair. Her eyes were green, though, and her facial features completely different. If Owen had to guess, he would bet the slight similarity stemmed from them both being water nymphs.

“I’m very confused,” he admitted, even if she didn’t understand him. “This is all so new to me.”

If he was completely honest to himself, it went beyond the sea snakes and the new world he found himself in. A lot of it came from the odd warmth he sensed in his chest whenever he thought of either Yane or Sassaki. He didn’t know what it meant, but what suspicions he did have made his brain hurt.

Hannah petted the bed and forced Owen to fall back against the pillows once more. She spoke softly, her voice gentle and soothing. A warm trickle of some liquid slipped over Owen’s forehead and face. Whatever she was doing, it made Owen feel better. Her words, while incomprehensible for him, gave him a measure of comfort when nothing made sense.

Owen closed his eyes and allowed her to care for him. Soon, Owen fell asleep in the arms of the new friend he didn’t quite understand.