Chapter Seven

The breeze blowing off the water was warm, a sure sign that summer was around the corner. At his suggestion, I'd thrown on a swimsuit underneath Kai's borrowed shirt before walking the beach with him to Cee's house. It was late and she was probably sleeping by now, wrapped up in lengths of fabric and design sheets. As long as she'd put the scissors on her workbench, there was no reason to disturb Sleeping Beauty until tomorrow.

I plugged in the code for the garden gate. The pool lights were on, a buttery yellow glow that matched the ones on the deck.

"You can shut those," he said. "Just watch your step."

"What about you?"

He shook his head. "We hunt deep."

Because of course he had night vision.

I turned off the exterior lights, but left the ones in the pool lit. The bottom was black to absorb and retain heat and rock formations had been added to one end along with a rotating waterfall next to the hot tub that ran on a solar powered generator. I knew the water would be enough for Kai to transform, since it was actually ocean water, filtered with whatever system Cee's parents had spent an exorbitant amount of money on.

Kai tossed me a wink over his shoulder as he shucked off his pants and dove into the pool in one fluid motion. I hurried to the edge, leaning closer just as a deep blue light overtook his form.

This was the first time I'd seen him shift back to a merman, and my inner scientist would not be denied the opportunity to witness it firsthand. The water distorted the image, but I could make out the scales rising from under his skin like gooseflesh, and a thin veil of slime coating and fusing his legs in a cocoon of spun silk. What triggered the change? What special reaction did the saltwater have when combined with his skin that triggered the scales? And where was the light coming from? Theories circulated as the water distorted and fizzled, obscuring him from view. A few moments later he rose to the surface, skin shimmering with a pearlescent glow, his midnight hair luminous and slick. The scales that made up his tail spread around his forearms and up the base of his ribs. I could see the gill slits flex on his neck before shutting, allowing his human lungs to work above the water.

"Amazing," my voice sounded far away, my eyes darting over him. He was even more beautiful in this form, and I don't know what that said about my sanity. Maybe it had something to do with the luring, siren-like aspect of his abilities. That was a question for later. But right now, with droplets of water dripping over the lips that had just been on me, inside me mere moments ago, I didn"t care.

"Be prepared to keep that amazement for a while. I'm just getting started." A blue glow suffused his countenance again, concentrated on his tail. I recognized that phosphorescent light for what it was this time.

"Jellyfish?"

"We hunt deep," he repeated. "Light can be used to attract or distract, as I'm sure you are aware of others that use it to their advantage."

The monster-like angler fish came to mind, and I officially added Finding Nemo to our movie marathon list. If he'd ever run into a clownfish that far down, I definitely wanted to know.

"That's incredible," I reached out to run my hands over the scales, then paused. At least ask before touching the guy's tail, Maren, geez!

Kai noticed my hesitation and swam closer, angling himself to float on his back with a braced arm on the lip of the pool, his shimmering tail hovering just beneath the surface. "Go ahead." He encouraged me with a soft smile.

Biting my lip, I reached out again, sliding my fingers over a patch near where his knees would be in human form. Besides their abnormal size and bioluminescence, they were like any of the other fish scales I had studied before, and coated with the same protective slime layer, only much larger, with a sheen like an oil slick.

I trailed my hand higher, lifting it out of the water to trace the scales that covered his forearms like vambraces. "They're harder than normal scales." I observed, taking one with my nail.

He nodded. "A shark's bite cannot pierce them."

"Really?" I marveled, grasping his hand to turn his arm this way and that. His grin widened at my exploration, and it was a testament to how much he trusted me that he didn't seem the least bit tense at my perusal. "I saw they'd failed to take any samples in the lab. They disintegrated in the air."

"A self-preservation measure," Kai said. "It's nearly impossible to remove them otherwise."

I thought about the ones that had flaked off of him in the lab, swirling down the drain along with his blood. A sudden tightness seized my throat. I didn't think I'd ever look at the aquarium the same way again.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, "You never should have had to go through that."

"I'm not the first of my kind to be captured. There have been others in the past. Sold as entertainment or speared on the ends of hooks." I winced, tucking my chin against my chest. Humans were far from saints, but with the levels of cruelty we could reach, especially amongst ourselves, I didn't blame the merfolk for not wanting to touch us with a ten-foot pole.

I felt his fingers beneath my chin a moment before he tilted it up. His eyes were tender, "But I was the first to be spared, little star. Because of you."

His words touched that soft part of me that had driven me into the kitchen. But I kept the words far below the surface of my mind. If there was any chance he heard them…

I quickly changed topics. "So, you're a glow stick with flashlights for eyes. What else can you do?"

He shot me a wicked smile, pushing off the wall. His fluke moved in a serpentine pattern, lingering in the very center of the kidney-shaped pool. "Why don't you come in here and find out?"

"Just so you know," I said casually, rising long enough to remove my shirt and shorts. "Challenging an academic is a bad move. We're naturally competitive." Then I leapt from the edge, plunging into the water beside him in a pallid imitation of his graceful dive.

Bubbles tickled my nose as I dove into the deep end, my descent slowing five feet into the cavernous fifteen-foot depth. The glow of his tail was distorted under the water, but I could tell he was swimming towards me, the undulating motion reminding me of a shark on the hunt. I felt like prey again, questioning my sanity once more at the ripple of excitement that accompanied it. Then his hands were at my waist, tugging me against his chest as the sensual slide of his lips took over every sensation.

This man, merman, kissed like a god, alternating between sweet pecking and long, sensuous slides that had my toes curling at my crossed ankles over his waist. He slid his hand into the nape of hair just above my neck, and I opened our bond to beg him to tug, nearly swallowed salty pool water as my groan escaped in a rush of bubbles when he obliged. Then he was on me again, my mouth gloriously distracted as his low mental growl made me shiver.

I don't know how long we stayed, lost in each other, but unlike the night I'd rescued him, I sensed the tightening in my lungs that meant I was running out of air. I pulled back, tapping in his chest quickly, then pointing up. His tail flexed, and we broke the water's surface in two easy strokes.

Then he flipped onto his back, the motion flinging me onto his chest. I giggled as I pushed back, slightly light-headed from the lack of oxygen and him as I sat up, legs hanging from either side of his waist like he was my personal surfboard.

"I don't even need a board, I could just wave ride with you."I sent down the pathway of our minds, that srange and magical bond, as my breathing steadied.

He flashed a satisfied grin as he put his arms behind his head, moving us around the pool, his tail like the rudder of a boat.

"Show off," I teased.

"No, this is," His hands suddenly gripped my waist, and then we were launching into the air. I bit down a scream as we arced, nearly five feet above the surface. For a moment, we seemed to hang there, suspended in the air. If I wanted to, I could reach up and touch the stars, caress the curve of the moon. Anything was possible with him there to stabilize me. Then gravity took over, and we splashed into the pool, water lapping and sloshing over the sides.

"I could think of some other waves you could ride." he commented casually, voice steady like he hadn't just sent us skyward.

"You're picking up on human innuendos too quickly." I slid off his waist, treading water beside him. He sat up. "So merfolk are stronger and faster than us. Then there's your telepathy and the little sparks of electricity when your tail is lit up like a firecracker. But there's more," He'd broken the hatch apart, shattering a hole through a foot of acrylic, but I hadn't seen him use it since. He raised an eyebrow when I didn't elaborate. "That trick with the water?"

He rubbed his neck. "Ah, yes. That's a unique skill amongst my kind."

I tilted my head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He swam back, putting a good amount of distance between us. Raising his hands, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

The droplets trailing down his arms began to flow in the opposite direction, like someone had reversed the gravity around him. Twin streams rose from the pool as well, coalescing into a moving sphere of water the size of a basketball, suspended in the air above his head. As I looked closely, I could see it pulsed with an inner light, and various shapes began to take form in the kinetic reservoir. A dolphin swam against the clockwise current, then a crab scuttled around the ball, their watery forms surprisingly detailed.

"I assume this is closer to what humans would call magic." Kai said, observing the display with a coolness that suggested this was no more difficult for him than swimming.

I gaped. He had a water-based projector at his fingertips. That was so much better than watching "The Little Mermaid" in my living room! The water began to spark in places, little lightning strikes connecting like firing neurons, or the purple-pink fibers of a plasma ball.

Even though he alluded that there was no scientific way to prove this phenomenon, I was still making notes in my head about the shapes the water formed and where it rose from. His body was the conduit, but there was nothing observable about how he was conducting it.

"This is how you got us out of the tank?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. "And what about that breathing trick?" I wasn't about to forget those few amazing seconds I was actually able to breathe underwater with him.

But Kai only shrugged. "There are some mysteries I am still discovering myself." He looked at me for a long moment and I had to fight the blood that rushed to my cheeks. I dipped my chin beneath the water, my eyes still on the water acrobatics as he maneuvered the ball to hover in front of us, droplets still rising from the pool to join it.

"Really? Even in your advanced age?"

His answering growl had no bite. "Careful, little star."

I shrugged innocently. "Whatever you say, grandpa," The hydrosphere spun clockwise at the tip, and counterclockwise at its base, and where they melded in the center created the same kind of waves on the beach just over the hill that I could hear roaring in the distance, ones I had swam in and watched countless surfers wipe out on. It was like he held the entire ocean in the palm of his hand, and the thought was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.

For the second time that night my hand reached out of its own accord, drawn to the water like a missing piece of myself. "Could I do it?"

A strange look entered his eyes, but he sank beneath the water before I could make it out. The orb still hovered where he'd left it as he asked, "Would you want to?"

I followed him under, and my sarcasm rang down our bond, "Would I want to manipulate electrified water? It's like you don't know me at all!"

An electric charge entered his eyes, and I felt the zings along my body as he perused it leisurely. He reached out a hand, bringing us back to the surface where the ball of charged water now hovered between our joined hands. "I may know you better than you do, little star."

I swallowed, my mouth dry. One provocative sentence and I was ready to pounce on him. My libido needed a serious reality check. "Yes, well your arrogance aside," I said, thankful that my voice didn't quake, "Making water balls filled with lightning would be a pastime I would gladly take up. What's charging it?"

He held the sphere higher when I reached for it. "Want to take a guess before you fry your hair?"

"Electric eels?" I guessed. "Or stingrays?"

Kai nodded. "I tried to use this after I was captured. Nearly suffocated myself when the power outage cut off the water supply to the tank."

Guess that explained why they installed the backup generator. I traced my hands around his eyes in a figure-eight. "Even out of the water, I can see your power here. Your eyes look like the ocean."

"It's a part of me, Maren." he said softly. "It's a part of us."

I smiled softly, sad that I'd never be as connected to the water as he was. It was a sobering thought.

The sparks vanished as the water sphere fell from Kai's hold, merging with a soft plunk back into the pool. His palms slid over my cheeks, pulling me in for a sweeping embrace of our lips. I leaned in, sneaking tiny breaths between each kiss. The hand that had circled his eyes trailed down his shoulder, feeling the smattering of scales along his forearms, right above veins that glowed like opals.

My other hand idled over his abs, the rigid planes tightening at my touch. He growled, catching my hand in his. "Keep that up, little star." He breathed against my lips. "And we'll have to get out of the pool."

I shivered, thinking of finishing what we started on my kitchen counter. "Will it hurt to change back?"

Kai shook his head. "Only to new fry and when our strength is diminished. It is more of a nuisance finding a dry perch to wait."

"Then by all means, let me dry you off." I said, sweeping my tongue into his mouth, climbing onto him like a koala with my own eucalyptus tree. He hoisted me onto the edge of the pool, sliding his hands up my thighs. I gasped as his hands trailed up to the laces of my bikini top.

"Um…" I stuttered. "Towels."

He sighed, pulling back with a rueful glance at his tail. Breathless, lips tingling, I scooted back so he had room to get out. Then I stumbled over to the cabana, aiming for the shelves filled with fresh towels. Kai was sitting on the edge of the pool when I returned, the fluke of his tail sending steady ripples across the water. I laid out several fluffy towels for him to roll onto, then made a second trip for more. Kai's transformation in the lab had only taken several minutes, but they'd had heaters that mimicked sunlight. I'd have to apologize to the Morrison laundry team later.

Kai started drying his chest, so I moved lower, gently wiping down his fluke. Shaped like a dolphin with the longer, serrated edges of a betta fish, it was tough and firm, but not scaled like the rest of the tail. "What exactly triggers the change?" I asked as scales began to flake off and disintegrate under the towel, the dust blowing off into the night breeze.

"Some combination of more air and less seawater," he shrugged. "I don't know much more beyond that."

"Some scientist you are," I teased.

He raised a competitive brow. "And your theory would be?"

I bit my lip. "Before seeing it in person, I would have said it was impossible for even one cell to change its entire genetic structure from contact with ocean water, never mind a multi-celled living organism. I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Yes, well your scientists had a few ideas about that," he grumbled, his nose scrunching as more scales popped off.

"They aren't my scientists," I snapped, sharper than I intended.

The flash of pain in his eyes was gone so quickly I could've blinked and missed it. "Of course, my apologies."

I sighed, "No, I'm sorry. You have every right to your prejudices." I knew if I were in his position I would be far less forgiving, "What did they do to you?"

He nodded to his tail, which was starting to split with the familiar sound of peeling velcro. "We can lose hundreds of scales in a transformation alone, but they grow back quickly in water. Sort of like humans shedding hair, though ten times as painful when pulled."

He looked down, shuttering his eyes from mine. "They couldn't pin me down in the tank, so they would hold me between transformations and try to pry them off before they disappeared. They found that they still dissolved regardless once removed from the water, but it…it took them a while to rule out their theory completely."

I winced, my heart twisting. His body"s natural defense was why they had so little data on Kai to begin with. It may have saved his species in the past, but he suffered at Reinhardt's hands when he'd doubled his efforts for answers. I thanked whatever driving force had urged me to follow my instincts to save him.

I covered his waist with the towel, watching the split fluke morph into feet and toes. Though I was soon to be the proud owner of a master's degree in marine biology, I didn"t have a clue where to start explaining what I was seeing. I didn't know if that spoke to my limited knowledge in the field, or the incompetency of the American schooling system, but my pride leaned on the latter.

He let out a breath through his nose that spoke of pure relief as his bones ground into their final shape.

"It must be difficult going through that." I noticed.

"Many of my kind go their entire lives without setting foot or fin near the surface."

"Sounds like they need to get out more," I joked, delighted when it coaxed a smile from him.

"I've always thought that adapting to your world was better than hiding in fear."

"Is that why you decided to stay?" I asked, mentally smacking myself as soon as the question left my lips. Way to go with the flow, Maren. But I still had to fulfill my promise to bring him back when it was time, and that included knowing how much time I had to do so. I didn't know if Cee would convince her dad that she wouldn't crash the boat if he let her use it, and Dad's boat The Captain's Lady, had sunk to the briny depths.

A stray thought had me contemplating a risky backup plan. Juno had a boat, one that he rented out when he wasn't using it for his own research. It was like Dad's, built with a room below deck to spend a night or two on the open seas. I knew he wouldn't turn me down if I asked.

It was still risky, but I seemed to be on a lucky streak when it came to things that should've killed me or landed me in jail by now.

Kai tilted his head up, looking at the stars. "Your people use the heavens to navigate, and so did ours. Their patterns tell the stories of where we intersect."

That was not even remotely close to what I'd asked him, but I let him change the topic, "I believe the folklore of constellations, and you, go back to ancient Greece. But in those myths, you were depicted as half birds, not half fish."

"Humans fear us no matter what form we take in your minds," he grumbled.

"We only protect what we love, love what we understand, and understand what we are taught." I mused, quoting Cousteau. Besides my dad, he was my biggest inspiration.

"But we did teach you," I jerked my head down, but he was still stargazing. "Millenia ago we worked in harmony. You shared the secrets of the land, and us those of the sea. How to navigate the water using the sky, so you wouldn't fall off your so-called blasted edge." He shook his head, the idea of a flat earth absurd. I stifled my laugh.

"They also feared crashing their ships into rocks to hear your songs." I replied, pausing in thought. Dad had worked for the very organization that took its name from the same story that first mentioned Kai's people. Could he have known? No, it was impossible. He surely would've documented his findings, even if he never officially published them. I'd seen the research in his office after the accident, and when I picked it all up from the floor after his last bout of night terrors.

"Blame the females, they were always the vindictive ones."

"As a fellow female I take offense to that, tail or not."

"Yet you do not deny it."

"I'm not a liar."

The drawl of his lips was pure male satisfaction. "We are alike in many ways, little star."

"Humans and merfolk?" Or you and I? I kept the latter thought to myself. I wasn't sure I wanted to know his answer.

"It is my hope that we work together again one day." He slipped his hand into mine, interlacing our fingers, his thumb stroking the pruned skin. "It may be the only thing that can save us all."

I wasn't sure what time it was when we snuck into Cee's house, because I didn't have my phone. I was pretty sure I knew where it was, though, and as long as Becca didn't spontaneously decide to wash my jeans before tomorrow, I wouldn't have to get a new one…again.

I motioned for Kai to be quiet with a finger to my lips, but he just smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Forgetting something?"

Yes. "No." I rubbed at my neck awkwardly, then thrice more when the itch didn't go away.

His smirk widened to a crooked grin. "Are you lying to me, little star?"

I rolled my eyes. "Just shut up and show me which room Cee put you in."

"It took some time to find it…"he trailed off as we ascended the left staircase.

"Not surprising. This place is like a maze."There were no lights, save for what filtered through the windows from the driveway's lights, and I grasped tightly to Kai's hand, relying on his night vision to get us to his room.

I jumped at the top of the stairs when Kai nearly ran into Cee's live-in housekeeper. She held out her phone in front of her like a weapon, the flashlight glaring brightly. She quickly lowered it when she recognized us.

"OH! Forgive me Mr. Morrison, Ms. Saunders. I thought you had already retired for the night, but I heard a noise, so I came to investigate." she said in a thick polish accent, clutching her free hand over her chest.

"Sorry, Maja. We didn't mean to startle you." I whispered.

"Should I let Ms. Morrison know you are here?" she asked apprehensively.

I didn't blame her. Trying to wake Cee at any hour was the equivalent of poking a bear during hibernation.

"No, no, that won't be necessary, we know where to go." I grabbed Kai's hand and tugged him down the hall, hoping it was the right direction, before she could protest. "Goodnight!"

We continued down the hall in the same direction- I guess I chose correctly- for another minute before Kai turned down another offshoot, stopping at the last door at the end of the hall.

I didn't know what I was expecting to find as I looked around the elegantly decorated guest room. Down to the dusted desk, polished crystal lamps and crisply folded bedding, the room looked sterile…hotel-like…lonely.

I glanced at Kai, but the state of the room didn't seem to bother him as he flicked on the light with the very tip of his finger.

"It took a few tries to work this particular switch," he admitted.

I tilted my head in confusion for a moment before realization hit, then I covered my mouth to suppress my laughter. It didn't work. "You shorted the wires?"

He pointed to the top drawer of his dresser, "I believe the she-devil called them…socks…and they do not combine well with a carpet and my powers."

I bit my knuckle around my grin, my eyes squeezing shut in mirth. "Up here we call that static electricity." Knowing the amount of lightning power in his veins, his hair must have stood straight on its end. The image nearly took me to the floor.

It was his turn to roll his eyes, a gesture that was far too human, spiky hair and all. He walked over to the bed, bouncing softly on the mattress as he sat. "What would you like to do now?"

The question was innocent enough, my mind, however, was decidedly not. Flashes of me on the kitchen counter with his head between my thighs came in like a flood, the word ‘you' hovering on the tip of my tongue. I had to slow things down, I'd already had one revelation tonight, and I didn't want to rush whatever this was between us.

Instead, I looked around the room again, my eyes lingering on the flat screen TV with a gaming console beneath. "I could kick your ass in Mario Kart."

"You could try," he challenged.

I answered it with a smug smile, kicking off my shoes as he arranged the blankets and pillows to accommodate us. He turned on the TV and I reached for the controllers, feeling a familiar pinch of fabric static when my fingers grasped the metal, and quickly discarded my socks as well, settling for burrowing my legs under the blanket with his.

I hit the start button on my controller as the screen finished loading, frowning when nothing happened. I tried again, then reached over Kai to use his. Nothing.

"What's wrong?" he asked as I put both controllers in my lap.

"Cee forgot to replace the batteries as usual. I thought she got a charging cable for them, but it's fine," I muttered, untangling myself from the blanket pile. "I'll go get more."

"Maren," Kai called as I reached the door. I turned over my shoulder, but he was already shaking his head, looking out the window beside the bed that faced the ocean. "Never mind."

I frowned. "Everything ok?" Did he need to swim for longer tonight? Was he starting to feel that pull for the ocean? My stomach dropped to my feet.

He shook his head again, "I was going to offer to come with you, but I'm too comfortable."

I gave him my best attempt at a relieved smile. "The word you're looking for, merman, is lazy."

It took me nearly ten minutes to track down a pack of batteries, but when I returned to the room Kai was already asleep, the moonlight spilling over his bare chest and the blankets scrunched at his waist.

Without his ocean eyes or sarcastic mouth to distract me, I could actually take a moment to admire him. The long waves of shiny hair, the bump in his otherwise perfect nose that suggested it may have been broken in the past, the sharp edges of his jaw, and the smattering stubble that ran over it. His mouth was relaxed, not smirking at my expense or frowning in thought. He looked so peaceful, the bed so inviting. And I really didn't want to trudge all the way across the sand back to my own room. At least, that's what I told myself as I gently lifted the covers and climbed in beside him.