Free One Soul To Share by Lori Devoti

position and stared at his captor. “Outbursts won’t
change the truth any more than a lie. The world knows you as a hag
and a monster, and it appears they are right. Melusine, whoever she
was, is dead. This is what you are now.”
    “No!” Melusine dropped onto his cage, her
tail wrapping around it and her hands reaching inside to grab
him.
    “Truth,” he yelled. “You will never find a
man to love you and break your curse. No man could love what you
have become.”
    “Then more men will die,” she muttered, her
hands groping for Nolan while her tail continued to squeeze the
cage.
    The kelpies and the dragon backed away. They
floated at a distance, watching as Melusine raged and clawed,
trying to reach Nolan to silence him.
    Metal creaked, and Melusine smiled. “I will
crush you in this cage, vampire.”
    “And you will still be alone,” he replied,
his gaze shifting to the corners of the cage and the metal that was
beginning to bend, to weaken.
    He’d had no plan for this fight when he’d
started it, but now… If the cage broke, he could get free, but
could he escape? He hadn’t fed in a week.
    The tip of Melusine’s tail poked through the
bars, jabbing the water, searching for Nolan.
    Blood. He needed blood.
    Not allowing himself to think further, he
kicked his legs and propelled himself forward. Wrapping his arms
and legs around the sea hag’s tail, he sank his fangs into her
flesh.
    Her blood was cold and thick, and tasted of
salt and oil. Nolan’s first instinct was to spit out the vile
liquid and pull away, but something told him to hang on and drink
as he had never drunk before.
    He did, guzzling until he thought he would be
sick.
    Melusine screamed and thrashed, trying to
free her tail from his fangs. She slammed his body against the
bars, but the more he drank, the stronger he felt. Until he looked
out at the sea and saw things differently.
    The kelpies morphed, not horses but women,
bound in chains of seaweed with their mouths gagged. And the dragon
was a merman, tied in the same bonds as the kelpies but his entire
body wrapped in the stuff so his arms were pinned down and he had
no choice but to undulate his body like a snake’s.
    She’s trapped you, he thought. And the dragon
lifted his head. A new understanding… hope shone in his eyes. The
kelpies moved too, their eyes wide and filled with fear.
    Reenergized, Nolan kicked his legs against
the bars. They creaked and bent. He kicked again. He felt them
give, but Melusine did too. She reached inside the broken cage and
grabbed him with her tail.
    Then she squeezed and squeezed some more
until Nolan heard a new noise… His ribs and spine breaking. His
heart would be next—not pierced but crushed. It would have the same
effect.
    Blood leaked from his mouth, and his senses
dulled.
    Wishes do come true, he thought. I’m
dying.
    o0o
    Weeks had passed since Sarina had left Nolan.
Weeks that had been filled with joy as she had returned her
sister’s soul and seen the warmth return to her sister’s eyes. But
the weeks had been painful too. The guilt of leaving Nolan hadn’t
faded, and the torture of knowing what he had to be enduring under
the sea hag’s control had not subsided.
    Today it would. Today Sarina would do
whatever it took to make sure she undid the wrong she’d done to the
vampire.
    Allera swam by Sarina’s side.
    “Why are we returning?” Allera asked as she
brushed aside a school of fish that had surrounded them. “Does
Melusine have more souls?”
    “Perhaps.” It had occurred to Sarina that if
the sea hag had found Allera’s soul, she might have found others
too, but that wasn’t why Sarina was swimming until her arms and
tail ached or why she hadn’t stopped to sleep or eat since leaving
the sea hag’s realm.
    “We should have brought the others,” Allera
added.
    “They wouldn’t have come.”
    “For the promise of souls, they would
have.”
    Perhaps, but soulless mermaids were too
undependable and unstable.