Free A Mermaid's Ransom by Joey W. Hill Page A

reached out with trembling fingers to touch the lighted sphere. She couldn't bring herself to ask the question, but he answered anyway.
    "It came here before the Earth rifts were sealed. It fell off the body of a human and the other Dark Ones didn't notice. Preserving it was the first magic I learned."
    "Did someone teach you?" Alexis pushed on it, watched it circle back to her, float around her head.
    "Before the Mountain Battle, our strongest Dark Ones were mages. I was taught to read their texts to help them with their spells, but I wasn't able to try any of them until after they were gone. This tower was destroyed by the witch, but I dug out the books and rebuilt it. There were many things to learn here. I learned all of them. And more."
    There was no boast to it, only simple acknowledgment. Digesting that, Lex rubbed the blood off her body, working carefully around the throbbing symbols burned on her sternum, below her breasts, and on her lower abdomen. She wanted to douse her wings as well, but when she tried to bring them into the "pond," they caught on the unfinished edges of the tub.
    As she struggled to free herself, Dante bent forward. Grasping the curve, he stretched out the closest wing and lifted it free, then guided it into the water, following the contour so she could fold it to her back. He repeated the same process with the other. He stroked her feathers before letting her pull them in. The way he studied them brought to mind how the Dark Ones had leathery wings, no softness or feathers to them.
    When she'd removed the blood, she stretched both wings out, lifting them high enough to clear the tub this time, and gave a vigorous flap to dislodge the water. Water sprayed everywhere, including over the immovable Dante. What causes laughter?
    "If circumstances were different," she ventured cautiously, " that would have made me laugh." Very different . Laughing was the last thing she wanted to do right now.
    His brow furrowed, the droplets sliding down his cheek. His crimson gaze moved from her wings to her throat and face. Leaning forward, he kissed her.

Six
    NO. A part of her immediately rebelled, but as if anticipating her, he put his hand on the back of her head, holding her in place.
    Live in the moment, Alexis.
    Now that she knew she wasn't in a dream, his voice in her head stunned her, such that she remained frozen. He should have been rank with blood, and she did smell it on his breath, but perhaps because he was a vampire, it was integrated into whatever he was and didn't repel her as she expected it to do. But her own body's response confused her even more.
    Her betraying lips softened under his, parting as he slid his tongue between them, played with her mouth in a way that reinforced again how quickly he adapted to direction. Gentle but passionate at once, and it muddled her head in a way it shouldn't have. No, it should. Because she was getting myriad signals from him. The simple ignorance of a cruel child, a man's passionate, overwhelming desire for her and something deeper, the thing that perhaps was most confusing and compelling of all. She couldn't say what it was, but somewhere beneath the layers, it drew her. It was related to need, his need for her specifically. Her certainty that this need wasn't related to her role as a bargaining chip was what kept her from drawing away. This was something indefinable, maybe something even he didn't recognize.
    "Why did you do that?" she asked when he raised his head.
    "You relaxed when you kissed me, before, so I thought it would help you be less frightened. And I wanted to kiss you." His eyes heated. "I want to be inside you again."
    It was possible to do that, of course, even in her merform, but she wasn't going to tell him that. However, when his gaze flickered, she stilled in shock. "You can hear my thoughts."
    "Yes. The second mark is one of the ways I was able to pull you through to my world. That, and many sacrifices."
    "Sacrifices? As in living