Chapter 14
“Pho…ebe. Here…to help…Pho–ebe.”
His speech is slow and deliberate, like he’s forcing the words out. I sit in stunned silence as I recognize the words I’d told him just the night before. When he was hurt, I had healed him. Now, he was returning the favor.
Despite my fear, I’m also bewildered, unsure why the merman would give a damn what condition I’m in.
“What is your name?” I ask without thinking.
His brows lower, clearly confused by the question. I place a hand on my chest and try again, “Phoebe. That’s my name.”
Slowly, he nods. “Pho–ebe.” He seems to grasp the concept, repeating my name with more deliberate precision. His pronunciation is still halting, splitting my name in two, but, inexplicably, I feel the ghost of a smile on my lips.
I nod along, trying to encourage him. “What is your name?”
I place my hand on his chest, trying to communicate that it’s now his turn to share, and it appears that he understands, if begrudgingly. He lets out an irritated huff and searches around as if looking for an answer.
Then, he lets out a low growl and points off behind me.
I jump and whirl around, expecting to find danger lurking in the shadows. But there’s nothing. The merman steadies me with one enormous arm clamped down around my middle to hold me in place, then he points again, gesturing to the stream of bubbles and foam trailing behind the ship as it sails aimlessly, following in its wake. Wait…
“Wake?” I ask, tentatively. “Your name is Wake?”
The merman
Wake – makes a noncommittal gesture as if to say, Close enough. Then, without another word, he leans forward and licks me across my cheek.
“Wha-” I rear back, but he grabs me by the back of my head, holding me in place as he licks me again, lapping along the length of my left cheek.
As he does, my cheek begins to tingle and burn, making me gasp. When he’s done, he lets me go and simply moves on to another part of my body, leaning down to run his tongue across an abrasion along my collarbone I hadn’t even realized was there.
I’m too preoccupied by what he’s doing that I don’t think to try and stop him. Mystified, I lift a hand to my cheek where the stinging sensation is already beginning to fade. My fingers brush against something sensitive and I hiss, pulling back my hand to see my fingertips are speckled with dots of red.
Blood, I surmise, testing the sensitive area again. I don’t know when I’d been cut, but the laceration felt to be at least two–inches long. I should be bleeding a hell of a lot more than this.
“You’re…healing me,” I whisper.
Wake pauses in his careful lapping against my skin. “Helping…Pho–ebe.”
An abrupt burst of laughter escapes me, startling us both, “I was right! You have a coagulating agent in your saliva.”
He all but rolls his eyes and continues searching out every scrape and bruise on my body to, quite literally, kiss and make better. This discovery alone is enough to send waves across the scientific community. I touch my fingers to my cheek once again to reconfirm my suspicions, and, sure enough, the laceration is notably smaller.
Plenty of animals have coagulating abilities in their saliva, even humans to an extent, but what Wake does goes beyond slowing down blood flow – he’s actively healing me.
“Wake, are there more people like you?” I ask.
Before I can get an answer, Wake picks me up effortlessly, cradling me against his chest. He strides purposefully towards the edge of the ship, his intentions clear. He’s going to take me into the sea. “Whoa, whoa, wait,” I yelp, flailing in his arms. “Wake, what are you doing?”
He doesn’t respond, but he pauses when we hear the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind us.
“Take another step and I’ll blow your fucking head off,” Stan growls from between gritted teeth.
Wake turns, completely unfazed, to face Stan, who looks worse for wear, with a rivulet of blood running down his face and his clothes torn and disheveled.
1/2
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