Lyric
Today I realized the beautiful shade of red that blood shone under the sunlight, almost sparkling like the treasure that lay beneath the ocean in the destroyed human boats near my old home. The liquid flowed darker than I’d imagined, though, to the point it looked nearly black. I cocked my head from left and then to the right, but it didn’t matter from what angle I looked, the blood was still the same color.
Ethan turned toward me, smiling, and my heart skipped a beat. My belly turned warm, a sensation I’d quickly become accustomed to over the last three months I’d been living with him. Everything he did made my body react in ways I’d never thought possible. I had no experiences with other mermen to compare it to, but if I had, I suspected it would never have felt like this.
“What do you think, my merman whisperer?” Ethan murmured, voice deep and raw. His dark hair was windswept, eyes unnaturally silver, and pure happiness settled on his handsome face. He was perfect in every way.
A shiver slid down my spine, and I shuddered, staring at the merman between Ethan’s feet. The area around us was covered in blood, but it didn’t all belong to Zolo, who’d been a tormenter of mine for years. He glared up at me from where he lay on the floor of the luxury boat, his green-scaled tail flicking in annoyance. Blood coated his forehead and the side of his face, some dribbling from a cut on his lip where Ethan had punched him to stop him from moving. His blond locks were also coated with the sticky substance, and his chest, covered in fine blond hairs, had a large gash across it from where the knife had sliced his skin.
Aza lay beside him, eyes wide, but he was as dead inside as he was out. His tail—a gold that had caused many of my brothers to be jealous—was gone. Sawed off. Ethan had already stored his tail away like the precious possession it was. My human liked to call itproof.
The stench of the blood and guts filled the air and it was putrid. I couldn’t help but scrunch my nose up at it.
Zolo yipped, or at least, it sounded like yipping to Ethan. He couldn’t understand what Zolo said, but even as a human myself now, I could distinguish the meaning of his words.
“Lyric, you traitor. Is this what you’ve become? A killer?” Zolo arched upward, but Ethan snarled at him, and his fist went flying into Zolo’s temple. Zolo crashed to the floor again, and he groaned. The sound was music to my ears.
Tilting my head, I smiled. I couldn’t speak because I’d struck a bargain and chosen legs over my voice, but Zolo saw my joy. With the way I glowed with excitement, he had to have realized.
“How could you do this to your own people?”
Easily, I wanted to say. The smell of salt in the air made me lean back against the edge of the boat. I sat on a bench and it was the ideal spot to watch what Ethan was doing to the two mermen.
“Lyric! What would your brothers say? Your father?” Zolo’s voice had always annoyed me. It was loud. Abrupt. Domineering. He acted as though he was the most important being in existence. He was loved under the ocean, in Atlantia, but not on this boat. In the human world, he was obsolete.
Here, I had the power.
Ethan slammed his fist against Zolo’s face again, and he cried out in agony. The sound made my toes curl in delight.
“Shut up, you piece of shit,” Ethan sneered. He might not have understood what Zolo was saying, but I had learned Ethan hated the sounds mermen made.
My human smiled and stood, stretching his shoulders. His hands were covered in blood, a mixture of Aza’s and Zolo’s, and he’d never looked more handsome. He grabbed a length of rope and expertly tied Zolo’s wrists together, securing the end tightly to a ring on the boat. Zolo let out a hiss. The noise earned him another punch, this one to the stomach.
Ethan straightened and moved toward me, and like the good little slave I was to him, I leaned forward expectantly. He touched my cheek and then ran his fingertips along my jaw, smearing blood across my face. The lifeblood of my enemies. My bullies. Mermen I’d hated for as long as I could remember. Then, he traced my lips with his thumb, and I darted out my tongue to taste the crimson fluid.
My human smiled, and my belly fluttered. “You’re so beautiful, Boy.”
Boy. It’s what he called me because he didn’t know my name. I’d decided early on that I preferred Boy to the name my father had given me. Tilting my head farther back, I plumped my mouth in his direction, and the smirk he gave me was worth it. He leaned down to capture my lips, and between his taste and that of the blood, I was floating high in ecstasy. He held my face between his hands, and I whimpered into his mouth, the only noise I could make outside of moans and grunts.
Ethan slid his hands to my shoulders and then down my arms, tracing my body like I was clay he was molding, until he had me on my feet. His palms found my asscheeks, squeezing.
My cock twitched, already half hard. To have the organ that human males used to mate had been a new experience for me, but I’d decided from the first time I saw one that I liked it. Mating was much more interesting in human form.
“Fuck you,” Zolo hissed, swinging his tail. I hadn’t realized how close he was to us, and he managed to strike Ethan in the back. My human crashed into me, and I spun to avoid spilling over the side. I didn’t grab Ethan in time, though, and he went flying into the water.
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The waves crashed against the boat, making it rock, and even though it was sunny, the ocean was wild today. I grabbed the side of the boat, searching.
I couldn’t see him.
Ethan, I saved you once; I can save you again. This time, though, I didn’t have a tail. I was human and not nearly as powerful as I had been as a merman.
Ethan, where are you?
