The Sirens Gift

Chapter 19

“Good morning, Caspian.” I said softly as I smiled at him. He grinned. “I brought you something.”

He tilted his head to the side. I reached into my bag and produced a small bracelet. It was a braided twine bracelet made of dark and light blue thread.

He stuck his right wrist out as I motioned it toward him and I carefully tied it around his wrist.

“Otis cut the one you had given me… I meant to give you this the day Otis grabbed me…”

He gazed at it for a moment before signing “thank you” to me.

“You really like it?” I asked.

He smiled then stuck his hand out to me. He motioned me into the water and I nodded. Standing and pulling off my clothes, revealing a black bikini before I took a step into the frigid water. He twirled over on his back as we moved further out into the water. As I reached chest height I took a nervous breath. He floated just beneath the water, watching me before he breached the surface and tilted his head. I watched his eyes shift from green to black as they rose from the water.

“I’m… nervous…” I said softly and he nodded before using his fingers to tap his lips, and then he gave me a thumbs up. I chuckled nervously.

He urged me forward again with a beckoning finger as he reached out his other hand. I took it and felt his tail fin swish across my legs beneath the water as he yanked me over top of him. I landed on his chest and he grinned a devilish little grin before he allowed himself to sink down into the water.

He wrapped his hands around my waist and held me to his body as the water encompassed us. I watched his eyes turn from black to green as he submerged his face, continuing to stare at me with a teasing smile.

I instinctively held my breath as we swam further down, his tail bumping against my legs as he beat it through the water. I clung to him, my nails digging into his shoulders and pressing as close to him as I could.

“Breathe Addy.” He whispered with a soft laugh against my ear as his hands loosened on my body and I floated from him.

I took a timid breath, it was a lot smoother than when I had come out of the ocean a few nights previous.

“Oh…” I said as I opened my eyes and looked at him. He floated just beneath me. His fingertips held onto the strings of my bikini so I wouldn’t float away with the rippling water around us. I became painfully aware of his fingers sitting against my skin on my hips. “I… thought it’d hurt.”

He laughed and shook his head. His brown curls swirled around his head. “It shouldn’t… you spent quite a lot of time down here already. Your body is used to it already.” His right hand moved up and carefully pushed long strands of my hair back behind my head. His fingers lingered against my ear and he smiled.

“Do you really like the bracelet?” I asked. “I’m sorry I couldn’t afford anything more… I just didn’t know what would stand being in the water all the time and…”

“I love it.” He said firmly before his hand cupped my cheek and he pressed his lips to mine. I felt some of his curls brush against my forehead.

“Really?” I asked as we parted.

“Of course.” He responded. “I’ll make you a new one… okay?”

“I’d like that…” I responded with a grin, then placed my hands on each side of his face and pulled him into another kiss.

“I wanted to show you something.”

“What?”

“Do you have time to come with me for a bit? An hour, two tops?”

“My dad won’t let me work… he doesn’t want me over exerting myself in the diner quite yet… so… I’m free all day…”

“C’mon then.” His body easily flipped from beneath me and he laced his fingers with mine. Honestly, I don’t think I would have minded just floating against his body in the water for a few hours.

We swam for a good 30 minutes before Caspian stopped and looked around. We were only a few dozen feet below the surface of the water but it felt like we’d gone a few miles off coast in such a short time.

“What are you wanting to show me?” I asked, he smiled back at me as we came to a stop. He reached over his own chest and swapped my hand to his other hand and then wrapped his right arm around my side, holding me to him as we floated.

“Just give it a minute.” He responded eagerly.

After a few minutes, I heard an odd clicking radiate into my ears. And in the distance I saw a grey blob swirling playfully as it neared us, followed by another and another until a dozen blobs of grey were heading toward us.

As they came from the dark ocean, I grinned. 12 dolphins began to playfully circle us, swirling and dodging each other as they seemed to dance in the water. I could hear their jovial squeaks and whistles as they turned in circles. It was as if they were showing off.

“This is the Bernadette Pod…” Caspian said. “They call this area of the water their home…”

I was too stunned to even respond. I heard Caspian make a clicking noise with his tongue and one of the dolphins made an upside-down loop as she turned around toward us.

“You… can talk to her?”

Caspian nodded. “Sort of… it’s not exactly English… more along the lines of learning their behaviors… they are very smart though, they understand me a lot easier than I understand them… it’s sort of like… humans and the… the four-legged big furry things…” he paused for a second. “Dogs!”

“That’s… amazing.”

The dolphin stopped before us and looked at me expectantly before looking at Caspian. She was noticeably larger than the others and seemed to have more scarring along her face and sides.

“This is Pearl.” He said as he reached out his free hand and smoothed it against the top of her head. “She’s the eldest of the pod, she’s about 40 or so years old…”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Well… she was a brand new calf when my mom was born. My mom grew up with her, and she’s spent the latter half of her life growing up with me…” Caspian pet her affectionately. “She just had a calf a few months ago.” Then he looked around at the others still joyfully surrounding us before pointing to one of the three smaller dolphin calves chasing each other in a circle as if they were playing tag. “She’s the littlest one playing there…”

I spotted the littlest calf as she happily dodged another one and I smiled.

“You can pet her…” Caspian said. I looked back to him and he motioned toward Pearl who still hovered close to us as she melted into Caspian's touch.

“Really?” I asked.

“She loves pets.” He chuckled.

I reached my hand out slowly, hesitating as Pearl's eyes fell on me away from Caspian. She surveyed my hand closely and I swallowed my nerves down before reaching forward more. She suddenly closed the distance and pressed her nose into my palm before dipping her head beneath my hand so it would brush against the top of her head. She let out a chirping vocalization that sounded like a laugh. Then she wiggled her tail slightly. Her entire body swayed.

Caspian giggled. “She likes you I think.” He said as she wiggled and chirped.

“She’s spectacular…” I responded, having to fight back the urge to sob at just how incredibly amazing this experience was. I watched Pearl roll her body through the water. Flipping beneath us before swimming over our heads and back into her little pod to play

“She is…”

“C’mon, let’s get back to the reef… the dolphins usually head out to open water about this time.” I could see the dolphins beginning to group up slightly around Pearl before she gave one last flip and glance toward us. Caspian gave a small wave to hear before she turned and shot through the water away from us. Her pod followed closely behind while the calves goofed off like school children at the back of a line.

Caspian led me back to the reef, back to a familiar area before he found the shimmering portal that was nestled into a shelf of corals and ocean plants. We moved back through the little town, which was much quieter this time in the morning than it had been when I was there late in the night.

Caspian's home sat at the very far reaches of the area, his dwelling seemed as though it were on the high society end, and the neighborhood was affluent in comparison to other neighborhoods we traversed through on our way in. It made me laugh to see that rank and riches affected even the mythical creatures of our world.

An awning made of coral shelf hung over the doorway which was covered with a wooden door made of what seemed like shiplap. I had hardly noticed it when we came through it the night he took me back to shore. I was too tired or too delirious to grasp certain details of his home.

“You… said it was the Bernadette Pod? like St. Bernadette’s Island?” I asked as we swam through one of the archways that led into the grand hallway I had met Marci in.

“Yeah, they most commonly play around here when they are in the area. That’s how we identify the unique pods that come through the area.”

“Otis… owns that island…” I said softly as I watched the tall statue that we passed.

“What?” Caspian started.

“Otis… he owns that island… Or, at least, his father did before passing…”

“Oh yeah… that’s why we try to stay away from there when possible…”

I looked down at my arm for a moment, the broken skin swelled with the water.

“Hey…” he began as he turned to see my worried expression surveying my arm, his finger caught my chin and pulled my face to look at him. He smiled. “Don’t worry… he can’t get you down here…”

I let out a sneer as I shook my head. “You say that… but…”

“But?”

“I just have this… constant dread he’s going to find me again… the police haven’t located him… they have no evidence yet to tie him to the case besides for my account…”.

“I have it too…” he said softly.

“Really?” I asked.

He nodded, “Down here you’re a lot safer though. He can’t come down here without equipment, and he can’t get into the Reef without the Oceans Gift, which makes it impossible to sneak around… on land… you’re a lot more vulnerable…”

I nodded.

“At Least with so many cops around it’s hard for him to get near…”

“Does he even know you’re still alive?” He asked.

“Likely… when I was found they had to release a press statement saying I was found so they could discontinue the search… So, as long as he pays attention to the TV.” I responded as we swam through the far door that blocked his room from the hallway. I was greeted with his warm room with shimmering lights from the tiny porthole windows and the bed of dark sea-green fabric.

“You could stay down here, you know…” he said softly. “The elders could be convinced from the circumstances…”

I shook my head “I can’t leave my family, Caspian… they wouldn’t understand…”

“But your sister… she saw me, I mean…”

“But my dad…” I shook my head, “he already lost our mom… I can’t disappear with no explanation…”

“It doesn’t have to be forever…”

I smiled up at him as I reached for his other hand, letting my body float away from him slightly as our fingers locked together. His brows raised at me.

“You’re just trying to find excuses for me to stay with you, aren’t you?” I teased. He smirked and suddenly yanked my arms forward, wrapping his arms around my waist as my hands found the soft, flowing brown curls on his head. His green eyes glinted with the light from the amber orbs that sat on the golden sconces around the room.

“So what if I am?” He asked gently.

I sighed softly and shook my head. Feeling strands of my own hair brush against my neck as I hung my head.

“I… Wish I could…”

His finger found my chin again and pulled my face to him again. “Just… say yes…”

“I can’t…” I said softly, “No matter how much I want to… I can’t abandon my family… I don’t belong down here…”

“But… you belong with me…” his voice was low and sad, it quivered as if he was going to cry.

I searched his green eyes as we stared at one another. I’d never belonged anywhere… I had always felt like a misfit in my family, I couldn’t make many friends in school, and the few friends I did have made me feel as though I was a black sheep amongst the herd. Something always made me feel off. I always felt like something, some part of me, was missing… But with Caspian I felt whole… the empty feeling I’d always felt within my heart felt full and complete.

I didn’t have a response to him. All I could manage to do was press my lips to his and tighten my hold around his shoulders. One of his hands slid up and wrapped around the nape of my neck, my hair tangling into his fingers. His other hand slid down, slowly inching toward my bottom before cupping my bottom in his large palm.

I deepened the kiss. The salt water of the ocean had begun to taste sweet on my tongue the longer I spent in the water, and the taste of his mouth only amplified the sugary taste, as if my taste buds had completely forgotten what salt tasted like.

He pressed himself closer to me and I felt his tail curl beneath my body. His tail fin swirled around us and I felt the tips of his fin brush against my back as he leaned backward, cupping my body in an embrace. His pelvic fins tickled against my thighs as they swayed with us. I felt the dorsal ridge on his back raise against my palm.

His kiss became more needing. The longer we stayed there the deeper he kissed me, the tighter his hands became against my body. He spun me around toward the bed, loosening his grip as he pushed me backward.

I felt weightless as he dropped me down. One of his arms braced himself over me as my back pressed to the bed. His other hand snaked down over one leg and pulled it up over his waist as he laid over me. I moved my hand over his chest, my fingers scratching into his skin. As he tightened his hand on my thigh, his pectoral muscles flexed beneath my fingers. His tightening hand caused my skin to tingle.

Soon I felt a mass pressing against the thin fabric of my black bikini bottoms. Almost Instinctively, I tried to grind myself down on him, increasing the pressure between us. His soft sigh slipped into my ear as his mouth dropped down to my neck and over my clavicle to my chest. His hand released my thigh and slid up my abdomen, his fingertips easily slipping beneath the thin string on the side of my top and pushing it up. My breasts spilled from the cups, and his lips found their place around one n****e while his fingers rolled the other gently. The chill of the water caused them both to harden quickly and an almost painful ache rippled through them as he teased.

The hand on my breast slowly moved down toward my bottoms. Catching thin black fabric with his nails as he pushed them down on my hips.

“Caspian…” I breathed. He paused and his face came back to mine.

“If you’re not ready, I…”

I grinned and shook my head before I slipped my hands around his cheeks and pulled him into a new kiss which broke his sentence.

“I… know I belong with you…”