Each Step Like Knives (12 page)

He went to the porch and saw Helena running toward
the ocean. What was she doing? Was the man pursuing her? Jeenai
leaped from the porch rail to the rocky sand below. His knees
buckled from the impact and he sprawled onto his face. His skin
instantly stung from a myriad of scrapes and bruises, but he got to
his feet and ran through the rain. His body shuddered beneath the
cold onslaught. He wasn't used to not being able to regulate his
internal temperature.

None of that mattered. All he could think of was
getting to Helena. As he came closer, he saw the man had grabbed
her hair, yanked her backward, and knocked her into the waves. The
ocean crashed around her as she struggled in Howard's grip.

Jeenai ran into the surf. The instant the salt water
touched his skin, he felt the change begin.

"You son
of a bitch!" Helena grabbed at Howard's wrist as she got to her
feet. She was soaked from head to foot from the pouring rain and
now the salt water. She used the side of her fist to chop at his
arm until he let go. "Keep your hands off me!"

"Don't you throw that ring in the ocean,
Helena!"

"I gave you a chance to take it back and you didn't
want it!" she yelled. Incredibly, the ring still remained in her
closed fist. "Take the ring back, if you want it so much!"

He grabbed for it and caught his fingers around her
wrist. Maybe he didn't realize he was hurting her, or more likely,
he didn't care. His grip bit into her skin and ground the bones
together so hard it made her gasp aloud. Water slid down her throat
and choked her. She began to cough.

"Give me the ring!"

She held it out to him, but he was shaking her so
fiercely she couldn't show him she still had it. Helena flailed at
him, but couldn't get a good purchase in the shifting wet sand.
Waves crashed around her feet, further unbalancing her. Finally,
she lifted her hand toward Howard, who grabbed at the ring and let
her go.

Johnny came from out of nowhere. He ran straight
into the water and reached for her. He pulled Howard off her, and
Howard stumbled back, clutching the ring triumphantly. Helena went
down into the water again and came up spluttering, mouth full of
salty, sandy water.

"Johnny!"

He had fallen. She watched in stunned silence as his
body shifted in front of her eyes. His legs melded, meshed, and
became sleek and smooth...a tail. Not scaled and glittering like
the pictures of mermaids in fairy stories, but blue and smooth like
a porpoise's tail. It melded perfectly into his waist which, like
the rest of his skin, had darkened to the same blue color. He
writhed in the water and rolled deeper, pushing against the sand
with his tail to little effect.

He was caught, Helena realized with horror. The
water wasn't deep enough for him to swim. He pushed himself up on
his powerful arms, but Howard whirled and let out a cry of utter
terror as his foot connected with Johnny's jaw.

"What the hell is that thing?" Howard kicked again.
Johnny bent in half to absorb the blow, which rocked his entire
body.

"Stop! You're hurting him!"

"Him? This is some kind of monster!" Howard backed
away, his face a mask of disgust. "Helena, what is this?"

"It's Johnny," she managed to say as she went on her
knees beside her lover. He reached for her, his gaze murderous
toward Howard, and she realized that though he was at a severe
physical disadvantage, he was still trying to help her. "It's
Johnny, Howard."

"My God, you actually fucked that thing?" Howard
came closer and bent low. He suddenly spat on Johnny's face. "It's
a fucking freak, Helena. I've never seen anything so nasty in my
life!"

"He's not nasty. But you should see the most
disgusting creature imaginable, Howard, every time you look in the
mirror," Helena retorted. She gazed into Johnny's eyes, dark with
swirling colors. "I'm sorry, Johnny. You shouldn't have come after
me."

His hands spoke to her. "He was hurting you."

His body shuddered as his mouth opened. The gill
slits she'd noticed in the bathtub fluttered. She didn't find them
so odd to look at now.

Howard grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her
away from Johnny. "C'mon, get out of the storm! Come with me!"

She tried to shake him off. "No!"

He grabbed her harder. "Helena, let's go!"

"I said no!"

He still wouldn't let go of her. Helena stood and
gave him a roundhouse kick to the midsection that sent him tumbling
backward into the sand. She advanced on him, fists raised and her
teeth bared. Howard got up and ran without looking back.

I can't
breathe.

His form had changed. For the first time since
joining Helena, his body was without pain. He moved muscles suited
to lower gravity and less resistance, but he couldn't push himself
far enough into the water.

Her impossibly beautiful face loomed over him. Her
hair hung in wet strings down around them both. He wanted very
badly to kiss her.

"Johnny?" She voiced the name she had given him.

He used his arms to push against the sand, but it
slipped away beneath his fingers and made a deep furrow quickly
smoothed by the ocean. He wanted to speak to her, to tell her how
he felt. That it had been worth everything, worth even becoming
foam on the waves, to have had her in his arms for even so short a
time.

She was not looking at him. She looked past him, at
the man running across the sand. She got up. She left Jeenai there,
and he fell back in the splashing water and waited to die.

"Howard!
Wait!" She hated to run after him, but Johnny was too heavy for her
to move. "Help!"

He heard her. She knew he did. The bastard just
ignored her and kept running. Helena stopped after a few feet and
looked back at Johnny. The water pushed and pulled at him. One wave
came up high enough to cover his face briefly, and she could see
him gulping like a human man would gulp a breath of air.

She had to move him alone. She could not, would not,
leave him there to die. Without another glance at Howard, who was a
bastard and always would be, Helena ran to Johnny and lifted him
under the arms.

"You have to help me, Johnny. Push as hard as you
can!"

He moved his tail and pulled with his arms. They
moved a few inches deeper into the water. The waves picked him up
and lifted him, making it easier for them both to move. Then
another, bigger wave pushed her to her knees and rolled him back up
above the water line.

He arched his body, but she could see his struggles
were getting weaker. How long had he been unable to breathe? She
could breathe. She could move. She bent and hooked her arms beneath
his and pulled as hard as she could. This time, she made it all the
way down to where the incoming waves met the outgoing ones.

Johnny was face down in the water. She could see his
shoulders heaving. She let him go just as a gigantic wave took her
feet from under her. Water went up her nose and down her throat,
burning. She choked and flailed, but could not longer tell which
way was up or down. She could feel nothing beneath her feet, or
above her head, or to her side. Her hands reached but found nothing
but water.

She was drowning again.

Jeenai gulped the water past his gill slits and instant energy
flooded him. He could breathe. He could move. He lived.

He opened his eyes and saw a glitter of golden hair
as Helena sank past him. Small bubbles of air leaked from her
mouth. Her eyes were closed.

He caught her in his arms. She hung there limply. He
was too late.

"I warned you." It was the sea hag. She rose from
the depths, her white-and-black hair trailing behind her. She
hovered in the water in front of him. She looked up. "There's quite
a storm above. She'll never be able to swim back to shore. She's
dead, or soon will be, mal."

"I don't want her to die." He shifted Helena in his
arms to speak to the hag. "I love her."

"Does she love you?"

"She hasn't said so."

"She must say so, else you know what will happen. Of
course, if she dies, then you will go on as you have always done.
You're in your true form now. Let her fall to the ocean floor to
feed the crabs and sharks. Join the rest of your people."

"I can't do that. I have to save her, if I can."

She gave him a fierce look. "You'd risk your life to
save hers?"

"I would."

The hag nodded. "Then give her the lifekiss. Take
her to the surface. See if she loves you. And if she does not, come
back here to die."

Lips
caressed hers. Helena opened beneath them. A soft tongue stroked
hers. She sighed and her eyes flew open. She could breathe. She was
alive.

She twisted in his arms. "Johnny!"

The storm had passed. Now the night sky shone clear,
the stars bright. The ocean had calmed. Gentle waves lifted them.
Johnny pulled her close and kissed her again. Then he held her
firmly and swam with her to the place where the waves began to
break. A little further and she could stand in the water.

He ducked below to breathe before reappearing. He
spoke to her with his hands.

Helena watched his graceful motions. "You have a
question for me?"

He nodded and asked.

She thought very hard before she gave her answer,
but after only a moment she knew there could be only one. She took
a breath. She took a chance. She made the leap. "I do. I don't know
why, or how, but yes, Johnny, I do love you."

He put a hand to his throat, his eyes wide and
startled. Then he looked out to the ocean and grinned. Far out, so
far she could not be certain she saw it at all, a dark figure
bobbed on the water's surface. Then, with a splash of silver, it
disappeared.

The surf caressed them. He leaned close, so close
she thought he would kiss her again, and then he said, "I love you,
too."

His voice was deep and soothing like the sound of
the ocean.

"You can speak!"

"I can speak. I can breathe." He moved forward, out
of the water, and took her with him. "I can walk."

She laughed and cried at the same time. Johnny
reached for her tears and wiped them gently away. He held her close
while the water swirled around their ankles.

"I don't understand any of this."

"I think it's a story for another time." Johnny
scuffed at the sand with his feet, then grinned at her. "It doesn't
hurt."

She didn't know what he meant, but something
distracted her from asking about it. "I think we're going to have
to get you some clothes."

He looked down at his naked skin, at his long,
strong legs, and at his penis, which rose at her words. The grin he
gave her made a shiver run down her spine. "I have a better
idea."

All at once, Helena discovered she didn't really
care about what the future would bring them. She didn't even really
care how or why the fairy tale had come true. All that mattered was
that it had.

"C'mon," she said. "Let's walk together."

And taking Johnny's hand, she led him up the beach
toward the house and the bed they would share.

About the author:

I was born and then I lived a while
and I did some stuff. Then I did some things and whatnot. Now, I
mostly write books.

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