Sara’s chest squeezed the breath right out of her as panic set in. Xanthus lowered her and her chair down to the sand. He stripped out of his clothes and stepped into the lapping water. It was a testament to how terrified she was that she didn’t give his amazing body a thought as she sucked in air and tried to wheel through the thick sand, attempting to escape.
The water began to churn and bubble. “You might want to close your eyes. You don’t want to see this.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard what he said, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. She was too busy trying to get away. All she could think about was the thundering sound of the surf and the giant, threatening waves. Sara started to sob as her chair refused to budge. In desperation, her eyes locked onto Xanthus as she sat, petrified.
Xanthus bent forward, groaning in agony, and squeezed his arms around his chest. His growl increased in volume and then turned into a shriek as the skin on his legs ripped open, peeling back to expose slick, red muscles and white tendons.
Sara gasped in horror at the grotesque sight, the ocean waves suddenly forgotten. Each of Xanthus’s muscles pulsed and throbbed as they grew and morphed. Muscles and tendons snaked around Xanthus’s exposed legs, wrapping them from front to back as if they were tying his legs together.
Gray skin rippled down from his waist, covering the exposed flesh all the way to his ankles. Below his ankles, the white bones of his feet had torn through his skin and stretched like skeletal branches. The bones were soon connected with white elongating tendons and then covered by the advancing grey skin forming a great fin.
When the transformation was complete, Xanthus’s head flew back as he shouted in triumphant. Shock-driven adrenaline jolted Sara’s body. Xanthus looked magnificent and ferocious. It was like coming face to face with a vicious shark.
Sara opened her mouth to scream but the scream choked off when the recognition hit her. She sat frozen, her mouth agape. Xanthus’s fin was much like her own deformed legs—the same shape, the same form. The only difference was that hers was flesh colored and his was grey. He must be… a merman? And if that were true, was she really a mermaid?
Sara sat stunned.
She’d never known a merman could look so deadly. Sara’s eyes rose to his face. Xanthus looked apprehensive, as if he sensed her alarm. When she saw his trepidation, her fear melted away. This was Xanthus, the man who had been watching over and protecting her since the moment they’d met. He might look lethal, but he would never hurt her.
Sara shut her mouth and swallowed. Her eyes, burning with curiosity, brushed over his body in a careful examination. Xanthus was amazing. The skin on his upper body was tanned, muscled, smooth, and hairless. His lower body was dark grey, almost black. His fin looked long and muscular. It fanned out darkly in the sandy surf. He was wearing a wide, gold belt at the waist that matched the gold armbands around his biceps. However incredible his form may have been, what was even more amazing was the fact that he was suspended in the air.
This merman could fly.
“Are you a…?” Sara licked her parched lips.
“Dagonian. We’re both Dagonians. Well, you’re half. But you’re the perfect image of one, except for your blue eyes. Dagonians only have dark brown eyes.”
“So I’m not a mermaid?”
“No, you’re not. The children of Triton are extinct—killed off two thousand years ago at the command of Poseidon, Triton’s own father and King of the Greek sea gods. You’re a descendant of the unlikely union of the gods Dagon and Calypso. Dagon is a sea god in the Sumerian pantheon. Calypso is a sea goddess of the Greek pantheon.”
“Oh, well that that clears everything up,” she said.
Sara’s heart took off in a sprint when Xanthus approached her. She guessed her heart hadn’t yet gotten the news that he wasn’t a threat to her. Xanthus leaned down, wrapped his arm around her waist, and lifted her out of her chair. Her tail brushed his for a moment. His fin felt rough like sandpaper, where hers was soft, smooth, and no different in texture and color from the rest of her skin.
In one quick move, Xanthus flung her beloved wheelchair a mile out to sea. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a mile, but this Dagonian had incredible strength.
“What did you do that for?” Sara asked, breathless.
He put his hand under the backside of her fin and lifted her into a cradle hold. “We can’t leave any sign that we were here.”
“Xanthus, please. I really can’t swim. In fact, I’m terrified of the water.” Sara realized where he was about to take her.
“You’re going to have to trust me. You can do this.” Xanthus’s confidence was apparent.
Sara shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “No, I can’t. I really can’t go in the water. I’d rather you make me disappear like you did those three men.”
“Sara, don’t be ridiculous. We don’t have far to go.”
“Please, don’t make me do this,” she said, going into full panic mode. Xanthus raised an eyebrow at her protests.
“Can you breathe underwater?” he asked.
“Oh no, please no. It’s the most horrible thing imaginable.”
Xanthus must have taken that for a yes, because the next thing Sara knew, she was headed straight for the water. Before she could scream, they broke through the water’s surface. It washed over her face and body, enveloping her in a black nightmare.
At once, she was fighting him with everything she had. Bubbles churned around them as she struggled, squirmed, clawed, and ran out of air. In one great terrible gulp, she took in a lungful of water.
Then she fought harder.
Xanthus had a tight grip around Sara’s waist as she battered his chest and clawed at his face. He responded by releasing one of his arms from around her waist in order to pin her arms down. Now all she had was her fin, which she flailed with all her might, scraping it against his sandpaper skin. She was raw emotion, raw terror.
After a long time of desperate struggles, exhaustion eventually wore her out and Sara was left so weak she couldn’t move. Sobs shook her chest as unrecognized tears floated from her eyes into the seawater.
When she’d cried all the tears she had, the haze of fear lifted and she was left feeling drained–emotionally and physically exhausted. Even holding her head in place was too much of an effort and her head bobbed back and forth in time with the strokes of Xanthus’s tail. It was a relief when she felt his hand press her cheek into his chest.
It was a long time before the strained breaths of water began to pass more easily in and out of her lungs. Then a miracle occurred. Her fear melted completely away and she relaxed in his arms.
She could hear Xanthus’s watery breaths. They were smooth, even, and slow. It was pitiful that as hard as she fought, he wasn’t even winded. Or would the correct term be “watered?”
Sara was soothed by the rhythmic stroke of his fin. With her ear at his chest, she heard the steady beating of his heart. Those thump, thump, thumping sounds relaxed her even more. She closed her eyes just to rest them for a moment. Even her eyes were tired.
“Sara?” Underwater, the tones of Xanthus’s voice woke her up. She hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep. How much time had passed? It didn’t feel like too long.
“Sara? Are you all right?” He spoke again. His voice hummed in the water and was laced with real concern.
Sara knew he was waiting for a response. Her first instinct was to give him the silent treatment. After what he’d put her through, he didn’t deserve an acknowledgement. However, Sara was curious to see what her own voice sounded like underwater. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook yet, so she settled on, “I’m not talking to you.” Her voice sounded not only weak, but also strange and foreign.
Sara felt his chest shaking and heard a low rumble.
“Oh no, you did not just laugh me.” Anger seemed to give her strength. “You heartless beast. You think my situation is funny? You didn’t even k
now if I could breathe underwater, but here we are anyway. I could have died.”
“You said that breathing underwater was horrible. That meant you could do it. I would have never…”
“Did I say I could?” Sara interrupted. “You assumed. Thank heaven you assumed right or I would be dead. And I told you I was terrified of the water. I can’t believe you pulled me under anyway.”
“Sara, I would never have let you drown. I know it was terrifying, but it worked, didn’t it? Are you still afraid?”
Sara couldn’t think of a thing to say about that. She wasn’t about to admit he might be right. Instead, she changed the subject. “Where is your house? It’s in the Pacific ocean, isn’t it?”
“Actually, it’s in the Mediterranean Sea. Remember?”
“What? We aren’t swimming there, are we?”
“No, we aren’t swimming to the Mediterranean.” She heard the smile in his voice and was angry all over again.
“Ouch,” he said.
Oh, yeah. She pinched him. Hard too, which was about all she could do. It wasn’t her fault he was stronger than she was. Xanthus let the pinch slide without a comment.
“We’re going to my houseboat, near Waikiki.”
“Waikiki? What is taking us so long? We should have been there hours ago,” she said, exaggerating.
“We took the scenic route.”
The faint glow of a boat appeared in the distance. As they got closer, Sara made out more boats lined up in a row. “How are we going to get on your boat without anyone seeing us?”
“I have a hatch that opens up from underneath. No one will see us.” Xanthus swam up to the boat closest to them and farthest from shore. Underneath, she could make out a dark, round door.
He positioned them below the door, pushed open the hatch, and swam straight up. His head broke the surface of the water a fraction of a second before hers. As she breathed out, ocean water poured from her mouth and down her body. The next breath she took in filled her lungs with warm, humid air. It felt so good to breathe air again.
The room they were in was dark with no windows and a sealed door was just ahead of them. Xanthus closed the lid on the hatch they had passed through and turned a handle to lock it in place. The room was now pitch black, but Xanthus seemed to know exactly where to go. Without hesitation, he moved over to the sealed door and opened it.
He reached down under Sara’s fin and once again lifted her up into a cradle hold. In a smooth motion, they were moving through the door. He turned and sealed it shut. They were traveling through what looked to be the main living area, dripping water all along the way. For a houseboat, it was incredibly spacious. Or maybe Sara was just used to her tiny apartment.
It was also very masculine, with dark, knotted, wood-paneled walls. Sconces shaped like old lanterns gave the room a warm glow. The windows were covered with blinds and shut tight. Sparse, oversized furniture was placed randomly throughout the room—a huge leather couch, a large, flat-screen television, a table with two matching chairs. That was about it.
The few items Xanthus had looked expensive and there was not much in the way of a décor theme. It was a typical bachelor pad. Actually, this was the first bachelor pad she’d been in. But it’s what she would have expected.
Xanthus sat Sara down on his leather couch. As soon as he moved away, she began to shiver. It felt a little chilly but she guessed her tremors were coming more from shock than the cool air.
“I’ll be right back,” Xanthus said.
Sara nearly fell off the couch as she leaned forward to get a better look at him as he moved. Her eyes widened in shock. Instead of the vertical walking movements she was used to, he appeared to swim through the air. It looked surreal and amazingly cool.
Xanthus passed through the door of his bedroom and out of sight. She heard a tortured growl. Again, she leaned forward, clutching the arm of the couch. “Xanthus? Are you all right?” He didn’t answer right away. For several moments, she was worried. When she was about shout out again, Xanthus walked back in the room wearing a plush red robe. His legs were back. How in the heck did he do that?
Sara sure wished she knew. Her heartbeat picked up as she considered the possibility that he might know how she could grow two normal legs. Could it be possible?
Xanthus had a white robe clutched in his hands. Sara slipped her arms in the oversized sleeves and belted the robe around her waist.
Okay, now that she was clothed and safe, she needed some answers. Sara shot a glare in Xanthus’s direction. “All right, Mr. Dimitriou, it’s time for you to answer a few questions.” She had a million. Her first one was a no-brainer. “How in the world are you able to grow legs?”
“They’re a gift from Triton. When I’m on dry land, I have legs. When I enter the ocean, I get my fin back.”
“Triton, huh? You don’t think he would ever…”
Xanthus frowned and shook his head.
That would be a no. Triton would not be giving her legs. Well, that stunk, but it wasn’t like she knew what she was missing. She’d spent her life in a wheelchair. She guessed she would be staying in one. Still, that one glimmer of hope that had come and gone so quickly was devastating.
Xanthus frowned, pity written across his face. Like he cared anyway, Mr. Nice-one-minute-Jerk-the-next.
“I get it, no legs for me,” Sara said. “I do have one question I need to ask you.”
She pulled her hair back to keep it from getting the back of her robe wet. “Do you have a towel?”
“A towel? That’s your one question?” Xanthus smiled.
“What? No, of course not,” Sara answered, feeling foolish.
“Just a minute.” Xanthus left and came back with a towel.
“So what is the one question you want to ask me?” He looked doubtful. The couch sagged as he sat down next to her.
“Why were you so angry after saving that woman?” Sara saw his eyes darken at that question.
“I was angry with myself,” he said. “That night, when I saved that human, I broke one of Triton’s most basic rules. I am never to interfere in the lives of humans unless they threaten our way of life or me. I misused the power he granted me. It was a breach of trust.” Xanthus paused and sighed. “I just didn’t want you to see a woman fall to her death. Then when you asked me how I saved her, it was like having an accusation flung in my face. I was angry with myself. I acted dishonorably.”
“Are you sorry you saved her?”
“No. I’m not sorry I saved her. But my personal feelings shouldn’t supersede Triton’s commands. Was that all you wanted to ask me?” He smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Sara gave half a smile back. “No, there is another.” She scrunched her brows in confusion. “How in the world can you fly?”
Xanthus’s smile turned genuine. “I don’t fly. I hover.”
“Fly. Hover. Whatever. How did you do it?”
“See this these bands?” He pulled his sleeve up to show the familiar metal band around his bicep. He also had matching ones on his other bicep and waist.
“Yes.” Sara nodded as she looked at the gold band with the strange writing.
“They are maj bands. You humans might call them anti-gravity bands.”
“Oh, wow. That’s really cool.” Sara reached out, touched the metal, and traced the strange writing. “Is that another gift from Triton?”
“No. This one was a gift from Calypso to all her descendants. We’ve had them for about a hundred years.”
“So you grew up with them?” Sara draped the towel around her shoulders.
Xanthus looked away. “Actually, I was around a while before they were gifted to us.”
“Excuse me?” Sara’s pulled on his arm. “I must have heard you wrong. I thought you’ve had them for a century.”
He cleared his throat and shrugged. “I did.”
“How old are you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Xanthus…” Sara said.
He paused as if to brace himself for her reaction. “I’m a hundred and sixty-four.”
“A hundred and sixty-four? How can you be a hundred and sixty-four? You don’t look a day over twenty-five.”
“Sara, we Dagonians are immortal. I’ll look exactly this way for the rest of my life.”
“What do you mean, you’re immortal?”
“We don’t get old, we don’t get ill, and we only die from serious physical trauma.”
“So I’m half-Dagonian right? Am I immortal too?”
“I don’t know.” Xanthus shrugged. “Since you’re half-human, you may suffer from human ailments. Have you ever been sick?”
“I had food poisoning when I ate some bad chicken.”
Xanthus shook his head. “That doesn’t count. That was your body’s way of getting rid of rancid food. But you’ve never had a cold, flu, fever?”
Sara shook her head.
Xanthus sighed in relief. “That’s a good sign.”
Sara nodded. She was having a hard time accepting what he was saying. Could she really live forever? Was she one of them? Then a thought struck her.
“How did you know I was a Dagonian?” Sara turned, leaned against the corner of the couch, and tucked her fin up underneath her.
Xanthus looked embarrassed at her question, but still he answered. “I could smell you.”
“Smell me? Why? Do I stink?” she asked, appalled.
“No, you smell good. Beyond good.” The last part he spoke so low she’d almost missed it.
“So, do all Dagonians smell like I do?”
“Only females when they are… fertile. It is a very compelling scent. You actually smell quite different from the typical female, although it’s much more appealing to me than any other I’ve come in contact with. It must be the human in you.” Xanthus cleared his throat. He looked uncomfortable with these questions.
“How often are we fertile?” Sara didn’t care whether these questions were embarrassing to him. This was her life, darn it.
“Once a year, for about two weeks.”
“Oh. That’s why I only have a period once a year.” Had she just said that out loud? That would go under the heading “TMI” (too much information).
“So, I really am half-Dagonian?” Sara asked. “I actually come from the sea? Oh my gosh, my mom isn’t crazy. She really was trying to send me to my father when she tossed me off a cliff.”
“She did what?” Xanthus shouted. Sara was embarrassed. She shouldn’t have said anything.
“It was years ago,” she said, trying to shrug off what had been the most traumatic day of her life.
“Tell me what happened.”
Sara was a bit irked at his tone, but she answered anyway. “My mom couldn’t handle the pressure of raising me and tried to send me off to live with my father.”
“So she tossed you off a cliff into the ocean? How old were you?”
“I’m not sure. I think I was four or five.”
“No wonder you were afraid of the water. How long was it before she returned for you?” Xanthus’s voice was strained.
“It seemed like a very long time, but it must have been less than a day. I didn’t have to spend the night clinging to that rock, thank goodness. To my mom’s credit, she did have to climb down some very jagged rocks to retrieve me. We both ended up with quite a few cuts and bruises.”
Xanthus growled. “The more I learn about your mother, the less I like that woman.”
“Yeah, she’s not the sanest person. She is beautiful though, which is probably why she attracted the attention of a Dagonian. I wonder who my father is.”
“I have no idea. Most Dagonians avoid humans at all costs. I’m shocked one of us got close enough to father a child. But whoever he is, if he’s found out, it will mean a death sentence. Intentional contact with a human is forbidden and carries with it a capital punishment. Procreating with one would be much worse.”
“So where does this leave me? What will happen to me if I’m found out?” A worried crease pinched Sara’s forehead as she gnawed on her bottom lip.
“Nothing will happen to you,” Xanthus said in dark, even tones. Sara heard an unusual popping sound and looked down. Xanthus’s fingers were gripping the couch cushion so hard that he’d ripped the fabric at the seam.
“But how can you be sure?” His reaction was scaring her.
“Because, they’d have to kill me first,” he said.
Whoa. She hadn’t expected that answer.
Sara looked at the large Dagonian, his black hair still wet, curling around his chiseled face, and his broad shoulders framing a formidable physique. Why would he be so protective of her? She wasn’t anything special. There must Dagonians that were more appealing. He shouldn’t be giving her the time of day.
“Do I look like other Dagonian women?” she whispered.
“No.” He shook his head.
She knew it. Judging by how gorgeous he was, Dagonian women would have to be beyond stunning. Sara furrowed her eyebrows, disappointed.
He lifted her chin and raised her face to meet his eyes. “You’re much more beautiful.”
Sara’s heart fluttered at his words. She thought a stupid grin might have spread across her face, but she wasn’t sure. She was too preoccupied with being flabbergasted.
“Really?”
“Yes.” Xanthus’s mouth turned up in a smile. “Still, you could pass for a Dagonian if it weren’t for the eyes. A Dagonian’s eyes are only ever dark brown.”
Sara began to consider the possibilities. Did they have white picket fences in the ocean? She couldn’t ask him that, so instead she asked, “Are there colored contacts I could wear underwater?”
“I don’t know. Dagonians don’t have a need for them. There’s another problem. I doubt you know how to speak Atlantian.”
“Oh my gosh. There really is an Atlantis?” Sara leaned forward.
“Yes. It’s a bit run down and outdated.” Xanthus leaned toward Sara and rested his arm on the back of the couch. “But it still has a sizable population. I’m from the much more modern city of Corin.”
“How many Dagonians are out there?” she asked, leaning her head against his arm.
“Total?”
Sara nodded.
“About eight million.” Xanthus stroked her damp hair.
“Do they live in all the oceans?” She leaned closer to absorb his body heat.
“Yes, but most live in the warmer climates of the Atlantic.”
“Wait a minute.” Sara’s head rose. “How did you learn English? Are there a lot of Dagonians here on dry land? And what are you doing here?”
“Slow down, Sara.” Xanthus draped his arm around her and nudged her back against his side. “I was one of a few Dagonians who studied English as part of my job. To protect ourselves from human discovery, we have to know about them, learn how they think, discover their weaknesses and strengths. It was necessary for me to get to know them and to know them I had to speak their language.
“And I’m the only Dagonian on land. Dagonians as a rule stay far away from humans. I have no idea how your father got close enough to a human to father a child, but obviously he did.”
“So what are you here for?” She curled up into his side.
“Triton sent me. And you don’t need to know more than that.”
Sara yawned wide. The evening was catching up to her. Her eyes were feeling heavy. “How in the world could I be tired at a time like this?”
Xanthus chuckled softly. “It’s the after-effects of adrenaline.” He leaned back, propped against the plush arm of the couch, and pulled her down to lie across his chest.
Sara wrapped her arms around him and laid her cheek against him. Once again, she heard the beating of his heart. She wanted to ask him what he would do if he found out who her father was, but she didn’t think she wanted to know the answer.