Chapter 23 – Clark
CLARK
It’s nearly morning before I spot the little island with the dying fire. Before I even see them, I know that it’s them. These desolate, miserable islands aren’t exactly a tourist destination.
Landing quietly near them, I stiffen. They’re all naked. Curled around the lying sea witch like lovers. And then, I know it. They are lovers.
I drop my sword and bag on the shore, my anger churning.
If they’ve fucked her, they’re already too far gone. They won’t have the balls to do what needs to be done. Yet again I’m glad that I’m here. I'm their protector, whether they know it or not.
Creeping toward them, I shake Keto’s shoulder softly. Her dark eyes open sleepily, and for a minute I’m struck by her beauty. Before I remember she’s been lying to us from the start. She’s no slave, no innocent woman in need of our protection. She’s nothing more than a lying bitch.
My jaw clenches, and I motion for her to follow me.
She untangles herself from my Brothers. I hold my breath as I watch, afraid she’ll wake them, but they simply frown and remain sleeping. We step further from them, and I scratch the name of the Lonely Island into the sand, before leading her further down the shore. Just in case.
When we’re out of ear-shot, I turn to her and try to mask my rage. “We need to go.”
She looks confused. “Go? Where?”
I say the words I practiced. “I know how to get what you want.”
“You know where Hephaestus is?”
Hephaestus? The blacksmith god? Why would she want him?
I keep my face blank. “Yes, if we leave now, we can reach him.”
She smiles, and I hate that her happiness tugs at something in my chest. “Where is he?”
“On the Lonely Island.”
A flicker of doubt comes and goes from her face. “That isn’t far from here. If we leave now, we can be there before midday.”
I'm relieved that she believes me so easily. Yes, only relieved, not guilty.
“It’ll be faster to reach if we swim,” she says.
I tense. “Not the way I do it.”
She smiles. “But you can shift. Why don’t you shift into a merman?”
I stiffen. “I don’t know…”
“You want to get there quickly, right?”
That’s exactly what I want. “Okay, show me what to do.”
She nods, and then frowns. “But the others—“
“It’ll be a quick trip,” I reassure her. “There's no reason to wake them.”
“And they’ll be safe here?” She looks back down the beach.
My gods, she’s an amazing actress. I almost believe the concern in her face. Unfortunately for her, I see right through her.
“Of course,” I say.
She nods after a second and reaches out for my hand.
I reluctantly slip it into hers.
“I know you’re still angry with me,” she says. “And you have every right to be, but I promise, I’ll make it up to you.”
Like hell. “It’s okay. I’ve already forgiven you.”
She surprises me with the most incredible smile, then leans up and brushes a kiss against my lips that has my heart racing. “Time to take off your clothes.”
My cock hardens. “My clothes?”
“You don’t want to destroy them shifting.”
Oh. “Okay.”
As I remove my clothes, she watches me, her gaze lustful. I hate that I feel a spike of pride that she likes how I look naked. I'm proud until I remember that it’s only an act.
Once I’m naked, she walks up to me. Her gaze slides down to where I’m hard-as-fuck. I grit my teeth as she reaches down and strokes me slowly. If I could just forget what her brother said, I could close my eyes and let this beautiful woman stroke me to completion, but I can’t forget.
A betrayal is a betrayal. There’s no coming back from that.
“We should hurry,” I state, swallow, “and get there as soon as possible.”
She looks a little sad as her hand drops from my cock, but she still holds my hand as she leads me to the water. We go deeper and deeper until we can disappear beneath the waves. Her hair is damp. Her smile’s bright.
“Just imagine becoming a merman. Imagine what it’ll feel like. Imagine how your body will feel.”
And then she tugs me beneath the water. For one second I panic and want to shoot to the surface, but instead, I remind myself that this is all necessary to deliver her to her brother and get the little creature that can save our lives.
As those thoughts fill my mind, I also remember what she said. I imagine being a merman, what it would feel like. What—I feel my body shifting and changing again. For a second, it’s hard to breathe, and then the world seems to explode into color.
Not only can I see more clearly beneath the water, but I’m also breathing under water.
I take a deep breath, just to be sure, and then smile.
Looking down at myself, I see that I have a blue tail, colorful and bright in a way I never expected.
I notice for the first time the stunning pinks and purples of her tail.
The colors feel powerful and significant somehow, in a way I don’t understand.
“Come on,” she says, and her voice rings clearly in my ears.
Still holding my hand, she leads me deeper and deeper beneath the ocean. She points out amazing plants and animals I never imagined, their colors bright and stunning with my new eyes. Then she takes me deeper still. The sea animals grow stranger, and yet just as beautiful in their own way.
I want to ask her where she’s taking me, but I’m overwhelmed by it all. I'm experiencing something I know I’ll never experience again.
And then as time passes, I see bright lights in the very depths of the ocean. As we swim closer, I’m stunned to see a small city beneath the sea. It looks just the way I imagined some kind of mermaid Atlantis to be.
There are towering rock structures that enclose more of the coral buildings in a strange kind of safety. Bright coral covers every inch of the structures, weaving with blue flowers that light up the darkness. It’s beautiful and strange.
Mermaids play in the streets, they swim, they chase one another, they eat and laugh. Many, many of them fuck.
It’s almost a shock. No wonder she thinks nothing of nudity. Everyone is naked, and apparently sex is as normal as eating here.
She leads me past it all until we reach a very strange place. It's a place that looks like a necklace of underground volcanoes, only the substance that flows out of it is a stunning pink.
Lovers fuck all along the necklace. And I’m not sure what it is, staring at them or seeing all the nudity, but I feel my arousal increasing with each moment that passes.
She takes me further and further, and then tugs me beneath one of the strange pink volcanoes.
In the tiny cave, bright flowers illuminate every inch, and moss softens the rock.
“Just shift your tail,” she whispers.
And I watch in fascination as her tail fades away, replaced by her legs.
Closing my eyes, I try to imagine doing the same thing, and I’m unbelievably proud when I feel my legs return.
She smiles at me and pushes me back into the glowing moss.
Before I can speak, her lips find mine, and she steals my breath with a kiss so powerful that it sends my thoughts spinning away.
I feel her pussy come to rest above my cock as she straddles me, and something primitive awakens within me. I must possess this beautiful creature.
Rolling so that I’m on top of her, I capture her wrists and hold them above her head. To my surprise, she wraps her legs around my back. Gripping her ass with my free hand, I angle her, then press my tip into her folds, seeking her entrance.
She leans closer to me, and unable to help myself, I lean closer and kiss her, capturing her lips in a crushing kiss. It's a possessive kiss. I have the unbelievable instinct to claim this woman as my own. I want to make her shout my name and swear that she's mine.
Plunging my shaft deeply inside of her, a shudder runs through my body when she cries out against my lips. I fuck her then, hard and fast, loving her sounds of pleasure, watching her breasts as they bounce with each of my thrusts. I need to hear my name from her sweet lips.
When my balls tighten and my shaft throbs, I force myself to continue to fuck her until she shudders and comes, finally shouting my name. Then, and only then, do I fill her with my seed. I pump in and out, claiming her as my own.
We continue moving against each other for several long seconds until I collapse above her.
“Oh, Clark,” she whispers. “I love you.”
Her words make every muscle in my body tense. Without answering her, I turn her around. Positioning myself at her ass, I thrust deeply inside. She cries out again. I hold her in place, my hands still around her wrists, and my other hand reaching around to stroke her clit while I fuck her ass.
I don’t know what I’m doing. Punishing her for destroying me? For saying the words I long to hear, even while I know they’re a lie.
Pretending for a little while longer that I’m not about to betray her, to return her to her people, and call her out for her lies.
I don’t know what I'm doing.
I continue to fuck her beautiful tight ass, enjoying her every sound of pleasure. I enjoy the way her inner-muscles tighten around my shaft and I love it when she comes again and I fill her with my hot cum.
When we’re done, I don’t pull out of her.
She tries to turn around, but I hold her in place. The second this is done, reality is going to capture us. This will fade away, and we’ll be back to enemies.
Even if she doesn’t know it yet.
So I kiss her shoulders and her back. I close my eyes and let myself feel my cock still buried deep inside her, and I memorize the feel of it all.
I imagine it’ll be years before I touch another woman again.
And I imagine it might be forever before I trust another woman enough to feel this way about one again.
Angrily, I feel myself harden again. Pulling my cock out of her ass, I growl, “turn around and open that pretty little mouth of yours.”
I release her lips, and her eyes are wide when she turns around. “Again?”
I don’t answer her. I position my cock over her mouth, and my mouth over her sweet pussy. I grasp her ass, and I begin my slow licking of her folds. In the water, I can’t quite taste her, but this isn’t about tasting her.
This is about something else. Something I don’t understand.
I’m lost in touching her. Time has no meaning. The strangeness of making love underneath the water means nothing. It’s just me and her in this magical place.
I stroke her legs as I lick her, as I kiss her core. I want my hands on every inch of her, memorizing every line like she’s the last thing I’ll ever touch. When she orgasms, her hands are buried in my hair. It takes nothing at all to come into her sweet, warm mouth.
Then, and only then, do I pull away from her. I go to the mouth of our little cave and stare out into the fantastical mermaid city.
She’s at my side in an instant. “Clark?” Her hand touches my shoulder.
I want to shake her off, but I don’t. “We need to go. We’ve wasted too much time already.”
“Okay,” she says, and she sounds hurt.
But I don’t care. I don’t know why the hell I fucked her.
I don’t know why the hell every moment of it seems to be carved into my heart like a scar I can’t forget.
I do know one thing. I don’t plan to waste any more time thinking about it.
It’s time to deliver this liar to her family… and to save my own.
“To the Lonely Island then,” she says.
I don’t respond.
She hesitates only a moment. “Remember to shift your tail back.”
I nod and concentrate again. The shifting comes easier this time, but my head also pounds horribly. I hiss, holding it in my hands, waiting for the headache to ease.
She’s there in an instant, her soft touch moving over my head. “It’s okay. It’s the effect of the sea dragons’ powers on you.”
Wincing, I look up at her. “What do you mean?”
“Your semi-immortal body can’t handle it long. That’s why I need to find my friend and rid you of these powers, before they really hurt you.”
For a minute I’m stunned. She’s actually telling me? I thought she planned to hide this information from us. She had until now, so what had caused her to finally tell the truth?
“Who’s this friend of yours?”
She looks uncertain for a minute. “It’s actually a little creature… the golden creature Max told all of you about.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?”
Her dark gaze meets mine. “I was scared. I never intended this to happen, not really. I just wanted to get free from the dragons.”
I hate that I believe her. But the little creature was the same one her brother held. And yet, does her one confession negate all her lies?
My mouth curls into an angry line. No. She’s still a liar. She’s a monster.
Her brother wishes to speak to her, so he can.
When he’s done, we’ll get her back, and we’ll take the little monster to our Elites and be done with this mission.
They’ll hear the details, and they’ll know for certain that they made a mistake making Max the leader.
They’ll reinstate me, and there will be no question who was meant to lead our Brotherhood.
We just need to get through the exchange.
“Let’s just go,” I say.
“You’re sure you’ll be okay?”
“I will be,” I tell her, and I mean it.
I’ll be fine when I get rid of this Keto. I’ll be able to go back to my other life and just forget her. Forget her face. Forget her touch. Forget the feelings that seem to have awakened inside of me.
I just need to get free from her.