One Soul To Share by Lori Devoti Page B

type of guide?” she asked, for the
moment making no effort to charm him in any way. She wanted to hear
the answer he intended to give, not one put into his mind by a
spell.
    “I have business at sea.” He paused, and she
sighed. Nothing special after all.
    “With the sea hag,” he added.
    Sarina’s body stiffened, and she stepped
back, studying him again. “You know Melusine?”
    “My business is just that…business. I have no
prior connection with the hag…
Melusine
.”
    Sarina tilted her head. Ordinary humans
didn’t know of Melusine, or if they did, thought her nothing but
legend. But this man before her wasn’t selkie or merman, so what
could he be? What was his story?
    She inhaled, checking for the scent of the
sea.
    Sadly, or luckily, she wasn’t sure which yet,
he smelled no more of the ocean than any of the unbathed seafarers
seated at the tables nearby. He didn’t, however, smell entirely
human either. There was something different about him, but Sarina
couldn’t peg what it was.
    “As it happens, I’m in need of a companion
myself,” she replied, keeping her tone neutral.
    He smiled, confident, like a man used to
getting his way. “So I heard. That is, then, fortunate for us both,
isn’t it?”
    Perhaps. Sarina still didn’t trust that her
luck had finally changed. “Can you swim?” she asked. All said they
could, but none really knew what they might expect to encounter in
a journey to Melusine’s home.
    Like the others, he nodded his head in
assent.
    Tired of speculating as to whether her search
was finally over, she walked past him and strode to the door.
    o0o
    The mermaid, as the bartender had called her,
said nothing to Nolan as she passed in nothing but the thigh-length
shirt. She simply walked toward the door, showing not the tiniest
amount of doubt that he would follow.
    And he would. In fact, he was surprised every
man in the place didn’t rise to his feet and rush after her.
    Maybe one hundred and twenty pounds and under
five feet eight inches in height, she was slim and athletic but
also exuded femininity.
    He had never encountered another woman, or
creature, like her.
    As he turned, his foot caught in the pants
she had dropped so casually to the floor. He stared down at them,
wondering if he should scoop them up and carry them along.
    From the front, the bartender’s gaze met his.
Even through the hazy air, Nolan could read the man’s face. He
thought Nolan a fool, or worse, a
soon-to-be-dead
fool.
    Little did he know, Nolan was already the
walking dead.
    With a grimace, he left the pants and
followed the “mermaid.”
    o0o
    Sarina stood on the damp dock, waiting for
the human. The wind had picked up, catching her hair and wrapping
it around her. She could smell the water behind her. Her body
itched to leap into the bay that led to the ocean. Her toes
wiggled, already preparing to shift to the fin she still found so
much more natural.
    As the man approached, her hand wrapped
around the tiny vial hanging from her neck. Feeling its pulsing
warmth against her palm calmed her, assured her that what she was
about to do was necessary.
    Having a soul had saved her, but at times
like this, it cost her too.
    “Now what?” The man arched one brow and
stared out over the water.
    She moved toward him with all the power and
grace of her kind. Humming, she grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and
rose up on her toes. “You said you can swim, right?” She sang the
words with no tune in mind. The notes didn’t matter; any that left
her throat, any mermaid’s throat, would be enough to lure a human
into her bidding.
    He stared down at her, his gaze hooded. “I
did.”
    “Then now”—she brushed her lips over his and
took a teasing step back—“is the time to prove it.”
    With no other warning, she fell backward into
the bay, taking the human with her.

Chapter Two
    Icy water rushed over Nolan, hitting him in
the face. He closed his eyes and cursed his own stupidity. The
bartender had