ELEVEN
The date was set for 7:30. He was supposed to pick her up. By 8:15, she was pacing. At 8:30, she called him a no-show. She had texted, and called, but gotten no response on either front. Calls were going straight to voicemail, so either the phone was off, or he was on it. Either way, cold feet or other, they were obviously not going to make the reservation.
At 9:00 she decided he wasn’t late, he wasn’t anything. She had groused for the last thirty minutes waiting. “Fuck it. This is bullshit. If he didn’t want to go, he should have just said so.” She cussed out openly as she headed for the bedroom, stripping as she went.
Pulling on a swim top, shorts, and a T-shirt, she stashed a towel, change of clothes, her cell, and a hair tie in her bag before taking off. It was a quick drive to the Back Bay shallows, she would be calmer before 10:00. Addian Hevir was damn lucky she was only half Mer, and a vegetarian, or he’d be dinner. She had more than a little bit of influence from her father that way. Her mother, was a full on raging mermaid. She would have hunted him down.
Stashing her bag in the cleft of the rocks, she checked the area before slipping off everything but her swim top and wading in. Saltwater was always the solution… Sea, sweat, and the ability for unseen tears made everything better. It didn’t take long for her to shift and swim out. It was the only answer when she was so aggravated. With her transformation complete, she dove beneath the surface and took off.
Not nearly long enough to be fully calm, but a bit saner than she had been, her attention was abruptly pulled back from the direction she had come. She felt the distortion of the water as something large displaced it. It was only a few moments later that she smelled blood on the current. Her heart raced as the scent profile was familiar.
She heard the awkward sounds of the struggle. Beneath the surface, everything was muffled. Cautious but curious, she swam in the direction of the disturbance. Once she was closer, her heart sank as what she feared became undeniable. Part of her wanted to race forward, while the part that wanted to keep her secret tried to flee. Halfway between Addian and racing away, she froze.
Well below the surface, the red streams of blood trickled up, catching in the current that carried it away. He was hogtied, but by what she couldn’t see yet. She already knew that he couldn’t swim.
His arms were drawn so tight that his shoulders looked like they would pop through his skin. The more he struggled, the redder the water became. The gag in his mouth was preventing him from screaming, but more effectively, was drowning him faster. As far as she knew, there was no way to hold one’s breath well with your mouth wide open.
She didn’t have time for another plan. Racing forward, she hoped to get air into his lungs, but he’d stopped struggling before she reached him. If he resuscitated and tried to breathe while still underwater, it would be a vicious cycle. She had to get him to shallower water, where his head could be above the surface before she tried to free him. If he came to before, struggled more, or any other number of things happened, her efforts would be in vain.
She reached the small sandbar and tried to buoy him. It was temporary. Realizing that she had to work on two fronts, she tried to loosen the bindings, finding that it was barbed razor wire. Every movement cut further in, making everything slippery with blood. Her fingers were sliced repeatedly in the effort. Once his feet were free, she changed to try to get air into his lungs. The options were bad and worse.
It took several minutes, her heart racing the whole way, to force enough air in to push the water out. He coughed and spluttered finally. Once he was breathing, she dove back below the surface trying to liberate his hands enough that he could finish the job once he was fully alert to the situation. What she didn’t plan for, or count on, was the moment when his other nature was alert enough to transition and come below the surface.
There was no escaping once he spotted her. Though obviously in an altered state, there was a flicker of recognition from the glowing eyes that nailed her. Even if she left him now, he had seen her. The question was, was he aware enough to understand what he saw?
“In for a penny, in for a pound.” She muttered as he stared at her openly and she continued her efforts.