Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
CIARAN
“Weird?” Sawyer asked. Then he burst out laughing. Not the reaction Ciaran had expected. “Weird is why I’m here.”
He cocked his head. “What? Why you’re here?”
Sawyer nodded. “Yeah. I saw that kid, on Constitution Dock. He shimmered, and his eyes did this thing. Like a goat.”
What the fuck? “A goat?”
“Yeah. The pupils are horizontal lines. Not circles.”
“They’re not goat’s eyes,” Ciaran said, annoyed and offended.
“Well, they’re not fucking human, I can tell you that much,” Sawyer shot back. “The same thing I’ve seen your eyes do when you get all worked up—”
“I don’t get worked up.”
Sawyer ignored that. “And in my dream, Fraser’s back tattoo. It had the same eyes.”
Ice water flushed through Ciaran’s veins. “You dreamed of Fraser?”
Sawyer squinted at him. “Your eyes. They just did the thing. What the fuck is that?”
Ciaran let out a slow, measured breath, grasping for any modicum of calm he could find. “You dreamed of Fraser?”
Then, as if to antagonise and torture Ciaran some more, Sawyer laughed. “Are you jealous?”
Ciaran seethed.
Sawyer’s mouth fell open, and he murmured, “Holy shit. You are.”
Ciaran inhaled deeply, Sawyer’s scent getting under his skin. He needed to tell him everything, then fate willing, they could secure the bond. They could fuck for hours, and then Ciaran might be able to think straight.
“We’re getting off-track,” he mumbled. He ran his hand through his hair.
It really would be easier if he could just show him.
He could take him into the Cove right now and let him see his freeform, but Sawyer had already been in the too-cold water today, and that hadn’t ended well.
Plus, he’d very likely freak out and inhale water.
Human lungs were so stupid.
“The dream I had about Fraser was very different to the dreams I have about you,” Sawyer said, clearly oblivious to Ciaran’s internal tirade. “Because those dreams, let me tell ya, aren’t like any I’ve had before.”
He was still talking about the dreams....
“What...” Ciaran hedged. “What were the dreams with me about?”
“Sex,” Sawyer replied far too easily. “Really fucking hot sex.”
Ciaran let out a low hiss.
Sawyer gestured between them. “Whatever this is. This... attraction. This need to be near you. Actually, it’s more of an inability to not be near you.
What the hell is that about? It has something to do with the eye thing, doesn’t it?
And the kid from the pier in Hobart.” He squinted at him.
“So, are you going to tell me what you are?”
“I’m trying to.”
“Let me make it easier for you,” Sawyer said. “Tell me if I’m wrong.”
Ciaran waited, his hearts thrumming to the point of pain.
“You’re not human,” Sawyer said. “I mean, you look human, but you’re not entirely human.
It has something to do with the water. I don’t know what, exactly, but the water out there isn’t exactly normal either.
You said you wanted to know if I’m good with weird.
Well, I am. This town is weird, and while most other people can’t stand to be here—the cops before me, the fishermen, the miners from a hundred years ago—for some reason, I freaking love it here.
This town feels like home to me. It calls to me.
Like the water called to me, pulling me in.
And I wanted to go in. I wanted to stay in there forever. ”
He swallowed then, and his voice was softer when he spoke again.
“Like you call to me. I want to be close to you. Even though you drive me fucking crazy, and you look at me like you hate me, I need to be near you. I want you to do to me what you do to me in my dreams. None of it makes sense, but that’s what I know. ”
Ciaran stared at him.
“You’re not correcting me,” Sawyer added quietly.
“Because you’re not wrong.”
Sawyer stared at him for a long beat before blinking a few times. “A... about which... about which part? What was I not wrong about?” He paled a little and swallowed hard.
“All of it.” Ciaran winced. “You’re... you’re, uh...”
“I’m what?”
“Perceptive,” Ciaran replied. “Different. Different to other... people.”
He blinked again. “So....” He let out a sharp breath. “So you’re n-not human?”
Ciaran swallowed hard. “I am Cephic.” He couldn’t believe he was doing this, saying this. Divulging their secret. “We are an old race. Older than humans, but time is different for us.”
Sawyer stared at him, his gaze drifting down to Ciaran’s tattoo. “Cephic....”
Ciaran’s instinct was to lie, to keep the secret always, but he couldn’t lie to Sawyer. “Yes. Cephic. The word comes from ceph—”
“Cephalopods,” he whispered. “Octopus.”
Ciaran wanted to be irritated by that, but how could Sawyer discern the difference when he didn’t yet know...
“We are cephamorphic,” he explained. “The ancient Greeks used the word Cetus, or Ketos, but throughout history, that was bastardised. Beings from the sea, yes. Monsters, no.”
“M-m-mon....” He stared, blinked, swallowed hard, and licked his lips. Then he made an annoyed face. “You’re an octopus?”
Ciaran’s nostrils flared even though he did his best to rein in his temper. “No. I’m cephamorphic.” He gestured up and down his body. “Human form, see? Not an octopus, but I have the ability to morph into the form of what humans would call an octopus.”
Sawyer stared at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and then his tongue caught the corner of his mouth. He leaned against his desk, ran his hand over his face, and stared. “Octopus.”
Ciaran held his breath. This really could go either way, and he needed Sawyer to not freak out. To not hate him, at the very least. “Yes.”
Sawyer narrowed his eyes at him. “Your consortium—” He stopped and sighed. “Jesus. Consortium.”
Ciaran almost smiled. The collective noun... “Yes.”
“So, all of you...”
“Yes.”
“I just thought because there are eight of you,” he said. Then he shook his head. “How... how does it work?”
Wait.
“You believe me?”
Sawyer’s gaze met his, nothing but truth and honesty looking back at him. “Yes. Is it weird? Fuck yes. Does it sound like a joke or a prank? Sure. But do I believe you?” His eyes softened, as did his voice. “Yes. For some reason, I do. I know you’ll tell me the truth.”
Ciaran let out a slow, nervous breath. Because he still had a whole other half of this conversation to tell him. “I can’t lie to you.”
Sawyer nodded. “Should I be freaking out right now? Probably. Should I be concerned that I’m not freaking out right now? Uh, yes. Should I be....” He tilted his head. “You can’t lie to me?”
Aaaaand there it was.
Ciaran shook his head. “No.” Ciaran was more nervous about this part of their conversation. “I... I physically cannot lie to you.”
Sawyer stared at him for a long, scrutinising moment. “What do you mean by that?”
It was easier to look at the floor when he said this. “That feeling you mentioned before. Needing to be near me, the pull you feel to me. Well, there’s a reason for that.”
When Sawyer didn’t say anything, Ciaran looked at him.
A slow smile spread across Sawyer’s face. “Are you gonna tell me it’s some biological attraction?” He laughed then. “Like fated mates or some bullshit?”
Ciaran stared at him, his hearts racing, his stomach in twisted knots.
Sawyer’s eyes widened as his smile faded. “Oh.”
“We think so, anyway,” Ciaran murmured. “We can’t be entirely sure. There’s never been a cephic-human mating bond before, that we know of.”
Sawyer blinked rapidly again. “We...?”
“Kellan has been trying to research it.” He shrugged. “On my part, I know the answer is yes. What I feel for you, the need to be near you, to touch you, tells me what this is. But the human reaction to such bonding is unknown.”
“You feel for me,” he whispered. He slow-blinked and shook his head, clearly trying to process. “Need to be near me and touch me?”
Ciaran nodded, his mouth dry. “Yes.” Christ, why was this so nerve-wracking? “I tried to stay away. I tried to deny it.”
Sawyer’s breaths were hard and fast now, and he opened his mouth to speak but could only manage a whisper. “You don’t want this?”
Ciaran sucked back a breath, his gaze lasering in on Sawyer’s. “I do. But you... you won’t....” He had to clear his throat so he could speak but couldn’t bring himself to say the next part.
“I won’t what?”
Ciaran winced and again spoke to the floor. “You won’t want this, once you know the truth. I mean... I’m not human. My freeform is...”
“Your freeform? Is that what you call it?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t what, though? You started to say I won’t want this… something. What is this, exactly?”
Ciaran motioned between them. “You won’t want this. I mean, you’re human. And I am n—”
Sawyer narrowed his gaze. “Okay, so let’s just clear something up real quick. What you’re not going to do is assume anything on my behalf or without asking me.”
Ciaran could have sworn he heard Fraser laugh from somewhere outside close by, so he safely assumed that he and possibly others were listening.
He couldn’t even be mad. If it were any of them going through this, he’d want to listen, too, to make sure his brother was safe.
And Ciaran had to admit that what Sawyer had said was kinda funny.
“Duly noted.”
“Good.”
“Soooo...,” Ciaran hedged. “You do want this? Or you don’t not want it.” He cringed, but he couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful. “If I’m not to assume you don’t want this, is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what it means, for a start. Is it just this crazy desire to fuck all the time?”
Fraser snorted outside.
Ciaran sighed. “Fraser, please leave.”
Fraser laughed, of course.
“He’s listening?” Sawyer asked. “Do you guys have supernatural hearing or something?” Before Ciaran could answer, Sawyer turned to the wall and yelled. “Fraser, please come in here.”
Ciaran sighed as Fray burst through the door, grinning from ear to ear. “So, this is going well,” he said, far too cheerfully.
“Hardly,” Ciaran mumbled.
“Well, he didn’t run away screaming,” Fray said with a shrug. “And he’s not rocking it out in the foetal position, so I’d call it a win.”
Sawyer looked Fraser up and down in a way Ciaran didn’t particularly care for. “So, you’re a cephamorph too,” he said.
Fray nodded, still grinning. “Guilty.”
Sawyer looked back at Ciaran. “So how does it work?” He then looked Ciaran up and down. “Is it like one of those werewolf movies where you just scream in pain and change form? Do you have to be in water? Do you need a full moon?”
Fray snorted. “A full moon?”
Ciaran shot Fray a scathing glare that shut him up.
“Does the lunar cycle not affect the tides and marine life?” Sawyer asked him. “That was a fair fucking question.”
That made Ciaran smile, but Fray chuckled. “I like you, Sawyer,” he said without a skerrick of shame. “We don’t need to be in water. I can change for you right now if you want—”
Ciaran growled, and Fray backed up a step, still smiling but with his hands up. “Try not to make the grouchy one angry,” he said to Sawyer.
Sawyer looked between them and, with a deep breath, he sighed. He scrubbed his hands over his face, and then his determined gaze met Ciaran’s as he pushed off the desk. “I could ask a thousand questions, but it’d be easier if you just showed me.”
Ciaran stared at him, not really computing. “What?”
Then Sawyer did the darndest thing. He walked over, took Ciaran’s hand, and walked them to the door. “We’re going in the water, and you’re going to show me the real you.”