CHAPTER 8
He was right. It started raining maybe two hours later, or really, it started down pouring like the Lord wanted to flood the earth once more.
Tired though she was, she made sure the light was lit and began keeping watch, hoping against hope that there would be no ships out tonight.
Her muscles still ached; her head was still tender if she touched the back of it.
No, realistically, she didn’t have much of another rescue in her, but if another ship were to go down, she wouldn’t have a choice.
She could not rely on the supernatural to save them, even if she had just seen a mermaid.
Had she really though? It felt so much easier to believe he was a specter of a wounded mind rather than a living, breathing being.
She found herself instantly wondering how he breathed.
Was he like the dolphins or the fish? She’d have to look next time to see if he had gills—if there was a next time.
Given their obvious language barrier and the fact that she had never seen him before after decades of being here, it seemed unlikely.
She wasn’t even sure why she wanted to. Surely it wasn’t scientific intent. Yes, she was fascinated and she wanted to know all there was to know about him, but she would never share it.
They once had had a man of science stay with them at the lighthouse for two months.
He had been studying a specific type of fish that lived in the area and had made a deal with the trading company who owned the lighthouse.
There was nothing he had not killed and then dissected—even and especially the precious fish he was there to study.
Worse, he had done it all with apparent glee as if he hadn’t been snuffing out life for the mere sake of curiosity.
Because she understood needing to kill to eat. She saw nature do that all the time. But killing just to know? That seemed too steep a price for knowledge.
She had been young then—maybe ten—and he often had been out so she had rarely talked to him, but on the one occasion she had mentioned her worries to him, well, he somehow had completely misunderstood what she meant about life being precious and then he had gone off on a long tangent about how the greatest minds had the responsibility to learn.
He had gone as far as applauding the killing of criminals to study anatomy.
She could recall even now the repulsion she had felt, and even if he was in the minority of those so inclined to curiosity—and she hadn’t the faintest idea if he was or not—even one man who might wish to capture the mermaid was enough.
Whether it was a minority or even a single actor didn’t matter once someone was dead.
No, she’d keep this mermaid her best kept secret, as others must have done before her.
Let them stay in myth. It was better that way.
The night was long and her mind kept drifting back to him. His long, white hair extended nearly the length of his back. His muscles looked like a perfection of the art of sculpture, and while she was no expert in anatomy—especially of the naked male form—all the muscles looked human enough.
His eyes were surely red though. Of that, she was not mistaken. And his lashes were as transparent as his hair on the water. His tail was like an artwork of tile, glittering silver and turquoise blue like the sea.
He was beautiful. Even now, the memory of him made her want to blush.
She knew she had heard stories of creatures—vampires, werewolves, incubi, demons, and the like—and how they had a supernatural pull on their natural prey, like magic or a spell.
She would have called it hogwash two days ago.
But now, now that the supernatural was very clearly real, what did she even know?
Maybe he had put a spell on her. They had certainly been close enough for it.
Or…
She paused. Maybe he wasn’t supernatural. This wasn’t like those stories of men transforming to beasts or ghosts floating through walls. A mermaid felt very possible indeed—explainable even—no different than a shark, whale, or dolphin.
And if that was the case, then it was merely his beauty that so enthralled her. It was possible; he was certainly beautiful enough.
And by God, how she wanted to see him again.
The night passed too slowly and no ships passed during the storm, and when the rain stopped sometime near dawn, she fell asleep on the floor near the light.