Forbidden To Love (The Erosians) (10 page)

When they pull me under the water, their cackles pierce my mind as I try to focus on a way out of this. This is a game to them, but I'm not about to give in. Every time they release me, I push myself as hard as I can away from them. I push forward to try and get some distance from them, but they
’re creatures of the sea, they slice through the water with ease. Their movements may be graceful, and they may look like aquatic angels but when they grip me the pressure is like being trapped in an iron vice.
              “You’re coming with us,” the male one hisses at me. He grabs my leg higher, near the top of my thigh. I pull frantically at his fingers, trying to tear them from my leg. I watch the other two grinning at each other as the one holding my leg loosens his grip slightly. I shoot out of his grasp, but as I do so, my flesh runs along his nails, tearing my body open. My screams of pain bubble gently at the surface masking my true anguish as I watch powerlessly as the blood pours from the wounds created by this beast.
              My skin isn’t impenetrable to them. My blood pounds in my ears. Now I know they can hurt me, I need to escape, fast. But swimming from them isn’t going to work. I need to try and fight my way out. I gulp. If that’s my only option, I may as well give up now.
              My leg starts to throb as I'm encased in a swarm of my own crimson blood. I turn towards them and take all three of my attackers in, hoping I’ll see a weakness or a way out. They’re all watching me intently. They know I'm no match for them so they can take their time in their persecution.
              Two of them are female, both with dark hair that’s so long I can’t see where it ends. Their hair flows behind them, blending into the water of which they are truly a part. Their eyes don’t seem to be one colour. Instead they change, depending on how the light catches them; one minute they’re green, and then they are the lightest shade of purple. Both are showing off their porcelain skin as they are naked to their navels. At that point, their skin becomes a deep 'v' of scales that mould into shimmering tails. The way their tails bounce the light around is mesmerising. Each of them must be over ten feet long. They all start to flick them like a cat getting ready to attack. I push my body backwards through the water.
              The male merman begins to shriek instructions to the other two in a language I don’t understand while he floats effortlessly in between them.
              His hair is cropped short, and his eyes are a solid orange shade. His thick arms and strongly formed body disappear into scales which are a dark purple colour, and his tail is longer than the girls' tails combined.
              Terrified I look between both girls, waiting to see what they do under his instructions, but he lunges forward and grabs my waist. The air leaves my body as the two girls wrap their arms around each one of my legs. I kick with every ounce of strength I contain to get them off, but with each movement, all I receive is a fresh wave of pain that threatens to suffocate me.
              I scream and watch helplessly as the bubbles escape my mouth. I claw wildly at his arms, his shoulders, his face, at every part of him my fingers hit, but my nails don’t even cause a scratch. Their skin is like marble! Any hope of me escaping fades. I arch my back screaming as the tips of his fingers pierce the skin above my hips.
              I’ve never felt pain like this. I close my eyes and desperately try to regain control, so I don't give up.
              As I struggle, the merman reaches behind my neck, pulling me upright.
              I’m forced to stare into his eyes as his grip on my waist deepens. He grins, at my feeble attempts, to hurt him. Each one of his fingers crushes into my side. I'm close to passing out from the pain, but I seriously don’t want the last image in my mind to be his terrifying grin. My eyelids become heavy, they sink shut, and I don’t encompass the energy to lift them. My leg is no longer throbbing. Perhaps all the blood has left me. Josh’s face appears before me, and I tell him that I love him.
              The merman’s fingers loosen. I drag my eyes open as I see his shoot up above my head to a dark shadow creeping over all of us. The pressure has vanished from my ankles; the girls have already disappeared. What’s happening?
              I follow the merman as he races away. In seconds, he’s faded into the black of the deep water. As vicious as they are, I'm still entranced by their graceful movements. I'm too engrossed in their exodus to notice the arms reaching down to me until two strong hands latch under my arms and start to pull me up. Terrified the body belongs to another one of the merfolk - one even more malicious than any of them if they are afraid of them- I begin to fight the hands off, finding strength from what must be the tips of my toes as I'm all but worn out.
              Again I'm powerless. The fingers don’t loosen, and I can’t pry them off, but they’re pulling me up out of the water. This can’t be one of them if they’re taking me out of the water. They can’t breathe above the surface. I relax in relief but become rigid seconds later. How am I going to explain the blood pouring out of me when they pull me out? I look down at my shredded body and see blood seeping from the wounds at my ankles, ribs and legs. I guess I hadn’t stopped bleeding; instead I’d become numb. I can’t do anything about it now, the sun becomes brighter, I'm only seconds from breaking the surface.
              I glance up and see what looks like a surfboard. A passing surfer must have watched me go under and thought I drowned. I force my body to go limp and close my eyes as I'm hauled through the water and onto something hard, knowing I need to convince whoever this is that they just saved me from imminent death.
              If I act like I'm unconscious, hopefully my bleeding will be enough to make them rush me to the shore, and they won’t be able to ask any questions. I may not know much about the sea, but I know blood equals sharks, and I could do with my rescuer, whoever they are, not being eaten right now.
              The fresh air caresses my face, and I'm desperate to take in a deep breath to try and make up for some of the water I’ve ingested. I know I can’t, I know I must pretend to be out of it, so my saviour won't expect an explanation for how my skin has been torn up. My body rests limply on the surf board, and I allow my head to loll to the side while my arms fall lifeless at my side. I'm careful to keep them out of the water. I'm still not entirely convinced my attackers have left. They might be assessing whoever has come to rescue me, and when they realize my saviour is merely a mortal surfer, they’re bound to return.
              “Acacia.” Whoever this is turns my face over and brushes my hair from where it’s matted across my cheeks. Wait; did they say 'Acacia'?
              “Acacia, can you hear me?” The voice is male and sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. I almost open my eyes, but I'm playing unconscious mortal, so I keep them shut. My rescuer starts checking for a pulse. “Come on, Acacia, wake up!”
              A scared tone takes over their voice, and I become aware of the pressure of their hands on my jaw as they open my mouth, checking my airways. Their breathing gets louder as they get closer to me. They must be about to start CPR. Why aren’t they trying to stop the bleeding, though? I haven’t felt him apply any pressure to any of my wounds, and they aren’t in a rush to get me to shore to get them stopped. I don’t understand. I saw the damage to my body in the water. If I was a mortal, I’d have died from blood loss.
              I can taste their breath almost at my lips. I certainly don’t want some stranger’s mouth on mine. I snap open my eyes as their mouth is seconds from connecting with mine. I'm about to tell them that I'm OK when everything stops.
              “Josh,” I breathe. He doesn’t speak, and he doesn’t move. He looks from my eyes to my lips and back. I mimic him in perfect synchronicity. His lips are parted, as are mine, and our breath is intertwined as we both float here alone. I’ve never wanted anything more than for him to lean down a little further and press his lips against mine. Josh looks as if he wants to too, but something is stopping him. He pulls himself up and sits back at the edge of the board.
              My heart breaks as he moves himself away, but I take the chance to look down at my body, not actually wanting to see how messed up I look.
              There are no wounds, no blood or scars! Did I dream the attack? The only evidence of the encounter is the dark red lines running down my legs and sides.
              I look around me, trying to detect any smears of blood. I'm laid on a bright blue surfboard. Josh straddles one end with one of my legs either side of his bare waist. Not the most flattering position I’d wish to find myself in with anyone, and especially, not with him. But there’s no blood anywhere.
              I quickly push myself up, so I'm straddling the other end of his board to try and retain some of my dignity. Josh clearly doesn't want me in any sort of compromising position with him so I'd better save him the embarrassment and provide him with as much space as possible on this board.
              “Wait. Be careful. You shouldn’t be rushing to move.” Josh reaches his hand out, and grabs my elbow to steady me as I sit up.
              “I'm fine,” I snap back and wish I hadn’t, but I'm still stinging from not being kissed. Why didn’t he just kiss me?
              “Well, excuse me. Five minutes ago I saw you almost drown, so allow me to be a little concerned for you,” he answers, the irritation spilling from his mouth.
              I look down at the board, talking myself into apologizing.
              “What the hell are you doing this far out if you can’t swim?”
              The apologies can wait.
              “I can swim, thank you very much, I … I … ” I don’t really have an answer for him as to why I almost drowned in his opinion. I’d prefer 'molested to within an inch of my life'. I search for some inspiration for a reason, but when my eyes brush the water, I grip the edges of the board to stop myself from trembling. What if they’ve come back!
              “Hey, everything's ok.” He reaches for me but stops short. “Did something grab you?” Josh reaches further towards me and moves my arms from where I’ve subconsciously wrapped them around myself. I look up at him, and he’s staring at the sides of my waist where four swollen red strips stand out on either side. The merman’s marks are prominent on my skin. I look down at my legs, and Josh follows I listen to him gasp as we both take in the marks covering every part of me from my thighs to my toes.
“Are you ok?”
              Josh’s face is full of concern for me. His fingers are still reaching towards me, but he stops himself short of touching my skin. I look at him sitting in only his swim shorts. The last of the water streams down the channels of his stomach to the small trail of hair that ends above the band of his shorts. I’ve never wanted him more.
              “Erm … ” I struggle to speak at the sight of him, “yeh, I don’t know happened, something… erm… tangled me up. That’s why I went under.” I swallow hard and force myself to look away from his body and to stop imagining what could be. I need to downplay these marks, so he doesn't start asking too many questions and to do that I need to be focused.
              Staring at his abs isn’t helping my concentration.
              “You didn’t see what grabbed you?” he asks sceptically. He doesn’t look as if he’s buying my story but why wouldn’t he unless he knew what was under the water and wants me to admit it to him, or maybe he sent them so he could come to rescue me.
              “Must’ve been sea weed or something” I suggest. What if he’s one of the merfolk and he’s done some sort of deal with Poseidon, so he got given legs to come on land, Ariel style? Is that even possible? I’ll need to try my theory out on Allana later if I get a later.
              I start to look anxiously around the water, sure I'm going to find their eyes somewhere in the depths. But now I'm not too sure who I'm more scared of, them or Josh?
              “What are you looking for” he asks, breaking my thoughts. I don’t reply. I can’t give him a straight answer, so I think staying silent is the best option.
              “Let’s get you back to the beach then”
              I nod, relieved he isn’t going to hurt me, but a part of me wants to stay out here with him alone and find out some answers. I'm too on edge from the attack, though, and I know they could come back at any moment.
              I suppose I owe him really.
              “Thanks for, you know, saving me.”
              Josh laughs at my afterthought. “You’re welcome,” he smiles, the most relaxed smile I’ve ever seen. His eyes shine happily, but I can see his concern for me behind them. Josh thinks I’m human, that means he actually thought I was drowning, and he actually cared enough to come in and save me.
              My stomach starts to do flips. He must like me, and he was watching me if he saw me go under. I'm not reading too much into any of our brief meetings. There genuinely is something here and maybe I should be brave and somehow co-ordinate myself down to the end of his surfboard and thank him properly for what he’s just done.
              I lean forward, but he interrupts me. “My job is to rescue people. I'm a weekend lifeguard here”
Oh.
              My stomach stops flipping with a thud. My image of our happily-ever-after shatters! He wasn’t watching me or worrying about me. He was doing his job. The weight of the waves seems to crash over me crushing me with his blow. Maybe I should hop off his board and swim back; being kidnapped by merfolk couldn’t be as painful as Josh pretty much spelling out for me that he was only doing his job.