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“You understand what might happen if you feed her, right?” Kye asked me. “You need to be sure.” His tone was soft, not a hint of jealousy.
“Yes.” My mouth turned as dry as the Sahara Desert as I spoke the one word I could manage.
Zosime’s eyes met mine over the back of the large shark that surfaced between us, and she smiled.
“Come, my love.”
I didn’t need to be asked twice. Storm held her waist and moved her against Sheba’s side. To my surprise, she didn’t grab the shark’s dorsal or pectoral fin. She pressed her palms against the shark and flatted her body along the length of the thick bodied great white. Her hands must have the ability to suction. I would give anything to explore her body.
“She looks like a remora attached to the shark like that!” Kye’s laughter was contagious. He wasn’t wrong, she was doing a dang good impression of a suckerfish.
“Come on, fish boy. Let’s see you pull that off!”Kye said, slapping me playfully on the back.
I gave Kye the stink eye. I had to hold Sheba’s pectoral fin since I lacked Zosi’s unique adaptations.
“Flatten yourself against her body,” Zosi instructed. “You are not hurting her, but your clumsy body will create drag when she moves. She does not need your help to swim. Stay tight against her. She will surface every two minutes for you to breathe. Do not waste time, take a breath quickly.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond. With a hard thrust of her tail, we were underwater.
* * *
I laidZosime on a small cot in the medical wing of the local marine conservation center. My arms shook from fatigue. After Sheba brought us as close to the shore as Zosime allowed, I had swum to shore, bringing Zosi with me. I was a strong swimmer and enjoyed working out, but my body was strained. The events of the day, combined with dehydration and hunger, were getting to me.
I had hidden Zosi in a tiny, abandoned boat. Splashing onto shore, I rushed into the small dock office. When things started to not add up, I had asked a trusted friend to bring his boat and discretely hang out offshore. I called him and asked him to go pick up the guys, hoping that my vague directions were enough for him to find them.
I then called in a favor at the marine conservation center. They were happy to lend me their lab and medical supplies for my ‘research.’ In exchange, I would have to give a lecture at a charity dinner the following year.
With that done, I jogged to the hotel where my car was parked. Reaching under the fender, I located the tiny magnetic box where I kept a spare key. I tended to forget things when I was engrossed in research, and having extra keys became a necessity. It had been a challenge to get Zosi loaded into the car. She had to be in extreme pain in the small confines of the interior, but she never said a word.
Now that it was time to begin tending to her wounds, I was frozen; with fear that I wouldn’t be able to figure out her unique medical needs, worry that I would hurt her further, and disgust at the part of me that was excited at the opportunity to examine her unique physiology.
“I don’t mind.” A smile played around her lips.
It was the first time she had spoken since we left the others, and I was confused by the randomness.
“What don’t you mind?” I asked.
“That you want to inspect me like one of your specimens.” She gave a small chuckle and then winced.
“You can read my thoughts? Can you read everyone’s thoughts?”
“I do not read thoughts,” she replied. “I hear thoughts. Yes, I can hear everyone’s thoughts, although some people are easier to hear and understand.”
That might explain the mystery of how she picked her victims,I thought. If she heard their thoughts, she would know what sick things they had been up to. But we had time to discuss things later.
I moved to her tail first, it was the worst of her external injuries. The skin and most of the muscles were still ripped open. The tissue around her bones had woven itself back together so that the bones were no longer visible.
“If I stitch this back together, it may heal faster,” I said gently.
“Do it,” she replied.
I gathered the supplies I needed, thankful the small center was well stocked. Pushing a small stool to the foot of the cot, I got to work. She twitched when I injected the local anesthetic. I didn’t want to risk putting her to sleep or giving her a large dose of painkillers while she was so weak. She was tough, but her breathing had grown ragged and her pulse faint. Once she drank blood, I would give her enough to let her slip into a painless sleep so she could heal.
After an hour of tedious work, I pushed away from the cot and stretched my aching back. Her eyes tracked my movements, but her body remained motionless.
“You did well, princess.”
They only response I got was her eyes becoming slits. It was going to take me a while to understand her behavior. I was looking forward to it.
