Chapter 2
Chapter Two
DOREN
“One large peppermint latte for…Doren?”
Doren smiled wide as the barista said their name, no matter how unsure he sounded. This was the best day ever!
The barista’s eyebrows furrowed as Doren stepped forward to retrieve their drink.
The man had the face and body of a typical human male in his twenties, with curly brown hair that came down to his shoulders.
Doren understood, on some level, that this one was handsome as far as humans went, but he usually couldn’t tell them apart. Luckily, the barista had a nametag on.
“Thank you, Mr. Rex.”
Rex frowned for a moment before asking a question. “Is this the third peppermint latte you’ve had this morning?”
“It is!” Doren replied, winking and bouncing a little on their heels. A woman sitting at a nearby table stopped typing on her laptop to give them a withering look, but Doren didn’t care. “This is my favorite day of the year.”
Confusion flashed across Rex’s face. He moved back to the espresso machine, starting the next drink but continuing the conversation.
“What day is that?”
Doren’s grin grew even wider. “Today is the auspicious day Grounds for Divorce begins to serve holiday-themed drinks! Christmas flavors warm my soul.”
Rex considered Doren for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay.”
“Have a joyous, celebratory season!” Doren spun around on their heels and headed out the door, unable to contain their happiness. Grounds for Divorce was the best coffee shop in Linwood Falls, and peppermint was the best flavor latte in existence. Nothing could ruin their good mood.
Grounds for Divorce had been Doren’s coffeeshop of choice since the day it had opened. The cozy atmosphere was absolute perfection. Lined with dark-stained wooden shelves, the place was positively stuffed with books.
When they first saw the sign, the name of the shop had confused Doren, but the owner, Mercedes, explained she’d started it with the settlement she’d received when she left her cheating ex-husband.
Mercedes had said the jerk had always hated coffee, so it was only fitting.
Taking a sip of the delicious libation, warmth spread through Doren’s chest cavity. Doren surveyed the picturesque street in front of him. The lamps were adorable, as were the cobblestones, and a big older man with a bushy white beard balanced on a tall ladder, stringing up Christmas lights.
Other than that, the streets were empty, which was to be expected.
Linwood Falls was a beach town, bustling in the spring and summer, but abandoned once the water turned cold.
Many of the local businesses closed down for the season as the population dwindled down to a few hundred year-round residents.
Luckily for Doren, Grounds for Divorce was one of the few shops that stayed open. Thankfully, enough of the locals had a coffee obsession that it was worth it financially.
Doren was about to take another sip when they stopped in their tracks. An intimidating figure was standing at the end of the block, arms crossed, staring daggers at Doren.
That wasn’t good. It was Doren’s sibling, Bard. For a second, Doren considered whether they could escape somehow, but they knew it was impossible. Where would they go? Eventually, Bard would hunt Doren down.
“Where have you been?” Bard’s voice was lower than Doren’s, and it always contained a note of disappointment that Doren found unsettling, even though Bard was younger and smaller than Doren. Bard was a born rule-follower and martinet.
“It’s peppermint latte day—”
“What the fuck, Doren? You’ve been gone for three days. Mom and Dad are freaking out. They keep asking dolphins if they’ve seen you, and you know what assholes dolphins can be.”
Doren shrugged, keeping their face still despite the growing shame that was brewing in their gut. They hadn’t meant to cause any trouble, and they hated the idea of causing their parents any worry.
“I didn’t realize so much time had passed. The water has been lovely today.”
Bard gazed up at the sky with a frustrated sigh. “You can’t surf for three days nonstop, Doren. It’s too cold for a human to be in the water without a wetsuit. The minute someone sees you—”
“No one has espied me in my oceanic form.” Doren frowned, which was frustrating because there shouldn’t be any frowning on peppermint latte day. “I am always vigilant. I am three hundred years old, not a hatchling of ninety. Mother and Father needn’t concern themselves.”
Doren continued walking down the sidewalk toward the ocean, and Bard fell in lockstep beside them.
“I know that. I’m not sure if Mom and Dad know that, but I do. But…” There was a strange anxiety in the silence.
“Hmm?”
“Humans are violent. One slip-up could be deadly. You’re not used to wearing your human form. You’ll give yourself away. Look at poor Ren.”
Doren nodded, not responding. How could anyone forget what happened to their father’s sibling, Ren?
Somehow, they’d revealed themselves to the wrong human, and the police showed up while they were shifting into their aquatic form.
They’d escaped, but not before the cops had shot at them.
A few of the bullets had found their target.
Some of the injuries had been permanent.
Worse than that, at least to Doren, was that Ren hadn’t left the safety of the ocean since that day.
Doren shook their head. “Being confined to the depths…I would lose track of my sanity. You’ve seen how stir-crazy I become.”
Bard turned, grabbing Doren by both arms, compassion showing on their face. “I do, Doren. Really. But it’s dangerous. I don’t understand why you can’t surf at the surface somewhere further from land. Or on some uninhabited island. Why do you need to be so close to humans?”
Doren didn’t answer the question, and if they were being honest, they didn’t know why. They’d always been drawn to human life, and the yearning had only gotten worse as they grew older.
“Safety shall be my priority.” As the words left Doren’s mouth, they questioned their honesty.
It’s true Doren wanted nothing bad to happen, but this was a cute little tourist town.
Everyone here was harmless. In the winter, Linwood Falls didn’t even have a full-time police officer. No one was going to shoot at Doren.
“I don’t believe you.” Bard’s tone was flat, clearly annoyed, but Doren couldn’t take it seriously. Look at the decked out street around them! How could anyone be worried in this adorable town?
Even the stores that shuttered for the season put up the cutest decorations for Christmas.
The olive oil store to the left of them had an elaborate holiday village in its window, and the owners had the lights on a timer so they would pop on at night.
Across the street, the pottery shop had erected a gorgeous kiln-fired clay tree.
The town even strung lights down at the public beaches, despite it being winter.
Doren adored it all. Their alien culture didn’t have holidays like that, at least not according to Mother and Father. Having never been to the home planet, Doren wouldn’t know firsthand.
“It’s all so delightful!” Doren couldn’t control the excitement in their voice. “Humans have developed such interesting technology. What a boon to use it for the winter celebration!”
Bard rubbed at their eyes with a sigh. “You are one hundred percent going to get caught.”
The two of them turned down a shrub-lined public path as Doren scoffed. “What do you speak of?”
“You talk like a historical novel!” Bard shouted, then quickly looked around, checking to see if any humans were near.
“I? I speakest not so.”
Bard groaned. “Now you’re just fucking with me. You have to be.”
Doren couldn’t help themself. It was fun to taunt their sibling. Bard was so easily annoyed.
“Perhaps I employ a more expansive vocabulary than some humans. But that’s only due to my appreciation of their linguistics and brain mechanisms. If you made an honest attempt to read any Ben Jonson or Aphra Behn, you might comprehend my fascination.”
“Well, you’re not a seventeenth-century playwright, and neither is anyone who lives here. You just come off as a weirdo.”
Doren didn’t know how to respond, but it soon didn’t matter as they had reached the largest of the public beaches, Endless Sand Beach. An ostentatious name, maybe, but it did have a lot of sand.
Doren smirked as they turned to their sibling.
“Let’s the two of us play before we return to the depths.
The surf is fabulous today, and there are longboards hidden in my cache.
If we make our way down the beach, we’ll have more privacy.
The houses further out are uninhabited during the winter months, other than a couple of locals, and they all love me.
So, no need to worry. It’s been too long for you, sib. ”
“I came all this way to bring you back!” Bard’s face was suddenly red and splotchy. “I’m not going to—”
A loud crash sounded from the beach just beyond them as a good-sized wave hit the wet sand. From the longing that lit up Bard’s eyes, Doren knew they’d won, regardless of Bard’s protestations.
With a sigh, Bard gave in. “Fine. An hour. Then we’re going home.”
Doren giggled with delight, stripping off their shirt to reveal the sun-kissed and muscular chest of their human form. They’d modeled it after a surfer they’d met at a beach further south sixty years prior.
“Come on,” Bard said, rolling their eyes. “Who would believe that a human would surf bare-chested at the end of November? It’s too cold for any normal person.”
“I despise wetsuits,” Doren called out as they darted forward, eager to get out on the water.
Out of the corner of their eye, Bard reluctantly removed their shirt.
Bard had gone for a much beefier form than Doren’s, muscular and dark-haired.
Doren was fairly lean and sported a light blonde beard, while Bard was wide and solid as a rock, with a smooth, clean-shaven face.
It was like Bard had deliberately chosen the polar opposite of Doren. Maybe they had. They got along well—Doren considered Bard both sibling and best friend—but Bard had always concerned themself with differentiating from their siblings.
Doren had never cared about such things. Which perhaps was a privilege of being firstborn. After all, they’d had fifty years of their parents’ full attention before Bard was born.
Ah, well. The least they could do was help loosen Bard up.
“Come on!” Doren shouted, running down the beach, the sand giving way under their footfalls.
After three quarters of a mile, they reached an old wooden dock and bent down to fetch their gear from underneath it.
Doren waded out until they were waist deep in water and waited with both longboards as Bard caught up to them.
Bard’s eyes flashed as they sped out to meet Doren and wordlessly grabbed a surfboard. Before long, the two of them were aloft, speeding along atop a wave.
Doren couldn’t help but let out a ringing laugh. Even Bard couldn’t help but smile, which made Doren laugh even louder. The spray in their faces as they shot forward was bracing, a perfect shock to diffuse their previous argument.
The whole town spread out before them as the wave brought them closer to land. An old woman sitting out on her ocean-facing porch waved at the two of them. She was hard at work crocheting a colorful afghan and seemed unfazed by Doren and Bard’s shirtlessness.
She was so cute! These humans weren’t like the ones that went after Ren. They were kind. They happily provided multiple peppermint lattes a day. They smiled all the time and loved to chat about the Linwood Falls gossip. Doren refused to believe any human here would want to harm them.