Chapter 6
Autumn sat, legs bent at the knees, as she looked out over the water. She dug her hand into the sand and scooped up granules. She opened her fingers and let them slide through only to dig her hand in once again.
Exhaustion weighed her down. Her thoughts were in complete disarray. She had come here to think. At least that was what she had told herself. Ever since she had met the alien, the alien with webbed feet who was so strange and familiar at the same time, her thoughts pushed against the world of following orders she had always accepted. It had been easy to accept them when the alternative was to fit into her family. She shuddered at the very thought.
Light glinted like flashes off the surface of the water. It winked and reminded Autumn of the stories of celebrities her great-grandmother once spoke of. The idea that a single person could ever inspire such a mass of enthusiasm didn’t quite seem feasible. She couldn’t even imagine a world where something like that could make sense. Life and the need to preserve it, however, those were the priorities she had been raised with. At least from a distance.
A blip in the distance interrupted her view. It looked as though something solid blocked out the winking lights. Autumn leaned forward, squinting her eyes. Hope blossomed in her chest. Which was crazy. Soulara was meeting her today. Autumn had been granted an unexpected free day, and she had decided to take full advantage.
How crazy for her to hope the alien would arrive sooner than later? As though she had found a connection with Soulara.
The blip in the distance appeared again. This time a lot closer than it had been before. Only a few strokes out into the water. Autumn stiffened her back at a splashing that sounded too close.
What the hell was that?
She turned her head toward the sound.
“Autumn.”
Autumn knew that voice, and the way Soulara said her name sent a shiver up her back.
“Where did you come from?” Autumn felt stupid the moment the words left her mouth. Soulara lived in the sea. Where else would she come from?
But this was the first time they had met on the large stretch of beach and not in the small alcove Autumn thought of as their own.
“Are you okay?” Soulara drew closer to the shore, her eyes wide with concern, and her head tilted in just that way that made Autumn smile, no matter how her emotions roiled.
“Yes. I’m…” But the words trailed off as the waves drew back from Soulara’s body to reveal the skin turned scales at Soulara’s waist.
Autumn’s gaze followed the receding water. Her mouth hung open by the time she watched the flap of tail fins against wet sand.
“Autumn?” Soulara’s voice sounded so far away as Autumn continued to stare at the deep navy-blue tail, glistening with water drops.
“You’re…” Autumn finally looked up into Soulara’s beautiful blue eyes and her rounded face. “You’re a mermaid? Or…” Fear gripped Autumn’s heart like a fist. She’d only ever read about creatures like this in children’s books. “…a siren.”
She remembered the warnings. Had they been aliens this whole time? Is that why Autumn hadn’t been able to shake Soulara from her mind over the last few weeks. Was she magically indebted to a creature she hadn’t even known existed before now?
“What’s a siren?” Soulara asked as she stood.
“Legs,” Autumn whispered, instantly forgetting the question Soulara had asked.
“Yes.” Soulara laughed. “You’ve seen my legs before.”
Autumn blinked and gradually the words sunk in. She nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry. I should have explained a bit more before I left the last time.” Soulara’s smile was bright, teasing almost. Was she enjoying Autumn’s shock?
“Are you a siren?” Autumn wished for the first time since that original meeting that she had a weapon on her. “Is that why I can’t stop thinking about you? Have you bewitched me?”
“You can’t stop thinking about me?” The shy grin that stretched across Soulara’s face was new, and oh wow, did Autumn want to lick the salty wet drops from those lips.
“Is any of this real?” Autumn hated hearing the vulnerability in her own words, but she had to know.
“Of course this is real.” Soulara was in her space, and while a part of Autumn’s mind screamed at her to be careful, her breath eased in her lungs. “I haven’t bewitched you, Autumn. Have you bewitched me?”
“Me?” The word vanished into the ocean breeze.
“Do you have magic?” Soulara trailed fingers over Autumn’s arm, the slow slide of Autumn to her doom.
“No.” Autumn chuckled. “I’m a boring human.”
“Oh, you’re not boring.” The chuckle was low and slow, and it coiled right between Autumn’s legs, setting her clit into a frenzy of tingles.
Heat kissed Autumn’s cheeks. “You haven’t bewitched me?”
“Not with any kind of magic.”
Soulara’s shyness clashed with her cockiness, and Autumn all but swooned at the beauty of contradictions wrapped in one mermaid’s body. Soulara gripped Autumn’s hand, bringing the knuckles to her lips for a gentle kiss. Autumn breathed out her arousal as it coiled even tighter.
“Would you like to see my favorite place?” Soulara asked.
“Your favorite place?” Autumn’s heart pounded. Surely Soulara didn’t mean in the water?
“It’s a little island that not many bother with. There are four trees that shade the middle of it perfectly.” Soulara kissed Autumn’s knuckles again before lowering her hand down. Her chin was ducked, her eyes lifted in a coy look.
“Oh.” Autumn smiled, but that pesky arousal wouldn’t go away. “Your own kind of sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary?”
“A place of safety—a holy place sometimes.” Autumn shrugged, not really knowing the actual definition but she figured this was close enough.
“I suppose. I like that. Would you like to see my sanctuary?”
“Is it far?”
“No, it’s not far. But we need to swim.” Soulara pointed toward the water.
“Swim?” Autumn squeaked, her heart in her throat. She’d never been submerged in the water without a machine to keep her alive. “As in… in the actual water?”
“Oh.” Soulara nodded and sat down in the sand. “I seem to forget sometimes that your world isn’t filled with water like mine is.”
“No, water is the greatest commodity. People die and kill for drops of it.”
“Kill?” The horror in Soulara’s face made a choked sound escape her mouth. Something Autumn couldn’t quite work out.
Silence settled over them.
“Will you tell me about it?”
Autumn didn’t quite understand. “Tell you about what?”
“What it was like growing up on your world?”
“Oh.” Autumn’s skin prickled with a heat that had absolutely nothing to do with the rising sun. “I don’t really know how.”
“Will it help if I tell you about my world?”
Autumn nodded.
“My world is a beautiful place. But compared to a place like this…” Soulara waved her hands around to take in the beach and the trees behind them. “It is a lot darker. There are beautiful colors and wonderful things to explore, but the brightness of the sun up here is dazzling.”
“Like your tail.”
Soulara laughed. The sound filtered into Autumn’s ears and trickled down, relaxing her muscles the same way a shot of tequila might.
“I suppose like my tail.” Soulara nodded her agreement.
“Do you miss it?”
“No,” Soulara answered though hesitation lingered on her lips. “I don’t miss it. I enjoy the freedom of legs, but I suppose if I thought I might never return to my true form, I would miss it very much.”
“How do you do it? Turn your tail into legs?”
“Oh, that’s magic.” Soulara grinned broadly, that understated tease right back where it was before.
“So,” Autumn swallowed a lump in her throat. “You do possess magic?”
“Yes, but not all of my people do.”
“Oh.” Autumn hadn’t considered Soulara might not be like every other mermaid in the sea. When had she thought there was more than one? Were there armies of them? “Well, I suppose that makes sense.”
“Does it?” Soulara shuffled closer, the warmth of their arms pressed together. Autumn didn’t feel as stifled by Soulara’s closeness this time. In fact, she had been yearning for the touch without realizing it.
“Humans aren’t all the same.” Autumn offered, wondering if that would be a segue into more information from Soulara about what lived under the sea.
“That’s a pity.”
“A pity?”
“Well, if you were the template, I don’t think humans would be so bad to all be like you.”
For a moment, they stared at each other. A fleeting look of worry or panic danced over Soulara’s face. It made Autumn smile. Was this perfect specimen nervous about the compliment?
“Thank you. I think.” Autumn chuckled self-deprecatingly.
“You’re very interesting.” Soulara ran one finger over Autumn’s arm again, and that touch sent another shiver of arousal through her.
“Is that like a science experiment?” Autumn bit her lip. She just had to know what Soulara’s game was.
“Experiment? No, I would never experiment with you.” A pink washed over Soulara’s cheeks. “Well, maybe in some ways, but nothing you wouldn’t agree to beforehand.”
Autumn recognized the sexual tease for what it was, and it relieved her. They weren’t as far off the same page as she’d thought. Not that she should be on that page, but at least she and Soulara were having the same thoughts. “My world is very hard. There’s little softness in the land, or in the people.”
“The people?” Soulara asked.
Autumn nodded and pulled her eyes away from Soulara’s. She looked out over the sparkling water but saw none of the beauty in front of her.
“I’ve never met anyone, in all the worlds I’ve visited, who I would consider soft.” With a small tug on her lips, she looked at Soulara from the corner of her eye. “Except maybe you.”
Soulara laughed and nodded, encouraging Autumn to continue.
“Living was a day-to-day thing. Without water on our world, everything started to die long before even my grandmother was born.” Autumn’s shoulders relaxed as she told the story, her hands scooping the sand and letting the granules slip through her fingers. “And not just the living things. Grandmother would tell stories about her own grandmother. There was once beauty in our world, created by people. Music and art and stories. Some of the stories have been passed down but the waterless world was also ravaged by time. That’s what many think about our home world now. We heard it named that far more than the name it once had.”
“What name did it have?”
“Earth.” Autumn chuckled. “I have no idea where that name came from. Waterless World does seem a whole lot more appropriate, but sometimes I miss hearing its real name being said.”
“Then I shall always think of it as Earth, and never call it anything else.”
“Thank you.” Autumn was overwhelmed by the sweetness that another person could ever care about something as trivial as her own feelings toward a name.
“Do you have parents?”
“Yes, my father and mother.”
“Only two? How strange.”
“I think having any more than that would have killed me, or sent me off in the ships far sooner than they did.”
“Your parents sent you away?” Soulara was horrified, and Autumn didn’t quite understand the look. Many of her comrades had been sent with tearful goodbyes and words of pride and encouragement from their families.
“Not technically.” Autumn pursed her lips, trying to work out how to frame a life that had been her normal for such a long time. “It’s considered an honor to serve our world and collect the necessary resources for our people. I’ve not met anyone who hasn’t been given a fanfare when they leave for duty.”
“An Honour?” Soulara smiled, a small chuckle tinkling in the air.
“Honor is funny?”
“Oh no,” Soulara shook her head. “I don’t know really. It’s just. I have a friend, and her name is Honour.”
“Oh. Does it mean the same?”
“I’m not certain. But we can come back to that. I want to know what made your leaving different.” Soulara took Autumn’s hand and wrapped their fingers together, as if they were on a date. But this wasn’t that.
Was it?
“How?” Autumn narrowed her eyes. “Why would you think it was different?”
“Well you said not technically, but then your fellow soldiers were sent. So I suppose I assumed there must have been something different.”
“Oh.” Autumn relaxed and let herself mentally scold her thoughts. She had definitely been around the untrustworthy far too long—all her life she supposed. “My family didn’t care what I did. So long as they still got the perks of having me there.”
“The perks of having you there?”
“Our population is dying, and if you have a child, the world pays for you to live a better life.”
“But you didn’t live a better life?”
“No.” Autumn shuddered, and before she knew it, she was telling Soulara some of the darker events that she had lived through. “My world was not better.”
“I’m sorry.” Soulara rested her cheek on Autumn’s shoulder, comfort passing between them. “Family should make your life better, not worse.”
“Does yours?” Autumn asked as she caught a flash of darkness cross Soulara’s features.
“Most of the time. But family isn’t always related. Family can also be those who become so much more than friends.”
“I don’t have friends.” Autumn’s breath caught in her throat, waiting for Soulara to see and hear the pathetic tone in her voice, to realize what everyone else knew the moment they laid eyes on her.
“Yes, you do, Autumn. You have me.”
Tension pulled in Autumn’s stomach. She didn’t want Soulara just as a friend. She wanted so much more, to lean in and press their mouths together, to know the weight of Soulara’s perky breast in her palm, the slide of her damp skin. Autumn blinked and pulled away slightly.
Silence settled over them as the lights continued to wink off of the water. Autumn never imagined water could be so beautiful. Not in this way. The beauty had always been in its discovery, in its ability to keep her people alive. But what she saw in front of her held a beauty she had never imagined.
“Will you teach me?”
“Teach you?” Soulara asked.
“To go in the water?” Autumn asked, surprised at her own fear that the request would be denied.
“I would love to.” Soulara stood and offered her hands.
Autumn looked at them, guilt warring with her desire to experience this world so different from what she had always known. Autumn allowed Soulara to lead her toward the water’s edge. They walked slowly into the waves. A cold sensation took Autumn’s breath away. While Soulara had spoken of it as warm, its touch sent goosebumps all over Autumn’s skin.
“Oh.” Autumn couldn’t hold back the sound, and as Soulara’s laughter filled the air, she was glad she hadn’t tried too hard.
“I’m not sure what it must be like to have never felt the water’s embrace and then to suddenly feel it for the first time. Can you describe it?”
“I-I can try,” Autumn stammered. Words weren’t her strength. They never had been, but the eagerness in those beautiful pale blue eyes. “It’s like clothing but without the weight. But it’s not quite that either. A tickling like feathers you can’t see or hair that brushes ever so gently over your skin. Does that make any sense?”
“Yes.” Soulara’s smile could have set the world on fire with its beauty. “Yes, it makes sense.”
“Good.” Autumn’s own smile seemed stuck on her face. Each step into the water felt like the beginning of change, the beginning of a whole new world. It was silly, she knew that, but for now she wanted to just enjoy the experience because she might never get it again.
“Let me dive in, and I’ll come back for you.” Soulara looked intently at Autumn’s face until she received a nod.
Autumn watched as Soulara turned her back, silver hair cascading down her naked body and brushing along the swell of her ass. Autumn’s heart rate ramped up, that coil of arousal tightening even more than before.
Soulara disappeared under the surface, and for a moment, the enjoyment of the experience slipped from Autumn’s lips. The weight of Autumn’s clothes made her legs fight against the water trapped in the material as well as its pull around her body. She never would have guessed that would happen, and Soulara probably hadn’t known since it was clear her people didn’t wear clothing. She struggled against what felt like a straitjacket, chains on her body.
“Are you ready?” Soulara popped up, but the water was against her waist since she could no longer stand up straight.
Autumn couldn’t speak, so instead, she nodded.
It took time, and Soulara was slow and patient.
The first time Autumn’s head went below the surface took her by surprise. The way Soulara spoke about the darkness seemed such a strange concept. Sunlight rippled through the water and danced along the top of colorful rock shapes. Autumn couldn’t deny it, the world beneath the water was unimaginable.
“It’s beautiful.” Autumn gasped as she pushed her head out of the water, breaking the surface tension.
“Are you ready to come farther out with me?” Soulara asked.
“How?”
“Hold onto me.”
“Oh.” Autumn thought she heard her brain literally fizz at the idea of wrapping her limbs around this naked goddess. It was exactly what her body had wanted, although in a completely different capacity.
Soulara swam closer and put her arm around Autumn’s waist and pulled Autumn into her side. Their bodies touched from shoulder to hip.
“It’ll be okay. Just relax, and I’ll take care of you.”
Again Autumn nodded, though fear tangled with arousal.
The weightlessness of her body felt new and familiar at the same time. Much like the training she had gone through before stepping on the ships to start her tour.
Autumn pushed her head back up out of the water as she struggled for breath. Soulara helped guide her, keeping her afloat just beneath the surface. Water rushed past her body, caressing her skin and invading all the gaps and pockets of her uniform.
By the fourth time Autumn submerged herself, she found the rhythm of breathing and holding her breath.
She looked around, and what she saw drained all the held breath out of her lungs. She thrashed in Soulara’s arms, head shaking back and forth. The recognition of the scales along Soulara’s body, the sinuous movement of Soulara’s tail. She had seen it before. But that time, she had been behind a wall of glass, stealing water from Soulara’s people.
Hands cupped her face and firmly lifted her head. When her eyes met Soulara’s, Autumn’s limbs stopped their desperate attempt to free themselves. Without a doubt, it had been a mermaid, or maybe several, who had attacked her and Marshall.
Soulara mouthed a word that Autumn couldn’t hear but looked something like breathe.
How could she breathe?
Soulara drew closer, pursed her lips, and blew on Autumn’s lips. The pressure made Autumn instinctively open her mouth. Her screaming lungs grasped at the water. Autumn braced herself for the choking, but it never came.
She stared at Soulara as she blew against Autumn’s lips again. Hungrily, Autumn devoured the aerated water. She didn’t know how it was possible, but her lungs relaxed, breathing in a way that didn’t feel quite right but was a vast improvement on dying.
“Better?” This time Autumn could swear she heard Soulara’s voice.
She nodded, flicking her eyes down to Soulara’s lips.
Her lungs might have relaxed, but the rest of Autumn’s body was coiling and heating for a far different reason.
Soulara got even closer, the hint of a touch pressed on Autumn’s lips along with the air.
Autumn gulped at the life-saving breath and then lunged toward Soulara’s lips.
Soulara must have pushed them up because the next thing Autumn felt was the air kissing the back of her neck and Soulara kissing her lips in return.