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CHAPTER NINE

ALL KANNON could see was Nisha’s eyes. It was more than a little unnerving that all he could see peeking at him from above the water were those odd blue eyes. Then Nisha ducked under the water, and Kannon lost sight of him completely. Now he truly was unnerved.

Where Nisha once stood the water churned. It roiled and spun. Kannon took a step back. His nerves danced. His heart fluttered. Uneasily he glanced over his shoulder at the sandy beach. What the devil was Nisha doing out there?

Maybe it would be safer if he… a body exploded from the water—a long and lean body that glistened a silvery pale. Kannon caught a flash of blue as the creature tossed his head back in a spray of water.

A large splash in front of him sent out a torrent of small waves powerful enough to send him stumbling back. Once the water calmed, he found himself facing Nisha, but this wasn’t the Nisha he knew. Memories flooded him as he stared.

Suddenly he was back, back to where he was fifteen years ago, staring at a face across from him that wasn’t quite human. His heart pounded as he remembered looking upon those features years ago… and he was still fascinated with those pointy ears.

His fingers twitched to trace them even as he struggled to breathe. His chest was tight. The water around Nisha moved gently, and he wondered how it was doing that. When a large iridescent blue tail cut through the water, he knew.

“Holy cow.”

Nisha grinned at him.

His breathing did stutter when Nisha swam closer, but he stayed still. Curiosity drove him. He wanted to touch Nisha, to see if his merman would be warm to the touch or cool like a fish. When Nisha reached out and ran his hand up Kannon’s arm, he breathed easier.

Nisha was warm to the touch. Thank God. While his skin was smooth, and looked silvery, it felt really no different from human skin. He looked down at Nisha’s hand… Nisha’s webbed hands. They were wonderfully creepy and awe-inspiring.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Nisha pulled him closer until Nisha’s arms circled him. Kannon didn’t fight. Even though his heart pounded in his chest, he wanted to know what Nisha was capable of. Common sense told him he should be scared out of his mind, but he and common sense never did get along all that well.

Instinct said Nisha wouldn’t harm him, and he was going with that. Once Nisha had a good hold on him, he propelled them backward, and Kannon felt that massive tail brush against his legs . Nisha took them farther out into the water.

Kannon wasn’t sure what Nisha had planned until he noticed his merman had angled them toward the side of the cave. As they drew closer, he noticed a shelf that projected slightly out of the water.

When they reached it Kannon quickly rested his arms on it so he didn’t have to tread water or depend on Nisha to keep him afloat. Nisha ran his hands up and down Kannon’s side, and the water churned around them as Nisha’s tail moved.

Nisha reached around him and gently pried the lube out of his hand. Kannon was surprised to see he still held it. When Nisha opened it and squirted some on his fingers, Kannon figured out right quick what was about to happen.

A hundred questions ran through his mind, then scattered to the winds. A thousand different scenarios played out in his mind, but he couldn’t grasp one of them. One question forced its way to the front of his mind. Did he want to do this?

All thoughts ended as Nisha sank below the water’s surface, and Kannon felt a slick finger caress his hole. Kannon jumped, clutched at the rock’s edge, and then shuddered. His stomach fluttered as Nisha touched him.

A gentle nudge encouraged him to spread his legs, but he froze. Could he do this? Should he? Was it even possible for the two of them to do this? But the last thing Nisha would do was hurt him, so it must be possible for them to make love.

He spread his legs and waited to see what would happen. Nisha’s slick finger worked its way into Kannon’s depths, caressing the inner walls. Kannon clutched the ledge again. Nisha took his time, working his finger in and out, loosening Kannon.

His body writhed, and the need for more grew. Almost as if he understood, another of Nisha’s fingers entered Kannon and stretched him more. When Nisha pegged his hot spot, fireworks exploded through his system, sending little bursts of pleasure through his body.

“Oh my God!” He jerked and let go of the ledge.

Immediately he sank under the water. Seconds later, his head broke the surface, and his fingers scrabbled at the ledge again. He spit water. Now he understood where “sinking like a rock” came from. He struggled to hold his legs open, and his desire faded.

Then Nisha’s shoulders pushed between his legs, and he didn’t have to strain so. Nisha’s leverage also braced him, so he didn’t have to worry about keeping his head above water. Nisha even patted his ass, as if to say he had everything under control.

He tried to glance down through the water, but all he could see was Nisha’s blue hair floating aimlessly. Lucky bastard. Wish I was able to stay down there like that. Oddly enough the thoughts didn’t send sheer terror through him. But he did tremble when he realized Nisha had spread him open. His gasp echoed through the cave as Nisha thrust another finger inside him.

“I’m ready,” he gasped. “And I really, really hope you can hear me under there.”

Nisha surfaced and pulled Kannon around to face him so they were chest to chest. He reached down, grabbed Kannon’s legs, and draped them over his arms.

Shocked, Kannon grasped Nisha’s shoulders. “W-wait just a minute! I can’t... I can’t float like this if... if I needed to.”

“I’ll take care of you, I promise. Trust me to hold you up.” Nisha stole a quick kiss. “I’m going to fuck you like this... as if I was standing up with you in my arms. And yes, you’ll have to just take it.”

Kannon’s back rested against the ledge. He shivered, and the water splashed gently against him. Feelings of helplessness washed through him. “ Now you decide to talk?”

Nisha’s grin was positively wicked. “I’m going to fuck you until you scream for me. It’ll echo around us. We’ll both get to hear your cries of pleasure.”

“But... in this form?” Kannon waved mindlessly at Nisha. “Like that?”

“Oh yes.” Nisha tightened his hands on Kannon’s legs. “Most certainly.”

His arousal spiked. Spread open like this, he couldn’t do anything but take it, and that excited him more. Something hot and slick probed at his entrance, and he arched, unsure if he was trying to get away or get closer. The strange feeling unnerved him but also excited him. Nisha tightened his hold. The tip of Nisha’s cock, which felt rounded and narrow, slid into Kannon.

But as it went deeper, it flared out to open him up. He panted. The feeling was alien, different from a normal dick… but not bad or painful. He whimpered, and Nisha trilled in his ear. The sound soothed him. “Is that… is that your cock?”

“Yes.”

“Oh wow. Just”—he gulped—“wow.”

Nisha flexed his tail and thrust his hips. Kannon’s eyes widened as Nisha’s hardness stroked deeper inside him. The force of the thrust sent small waves out from them.

“Good?”

“Oh God, oh… yeah. I’m good. Harder.”

Grinning, Nisha did as he asked. Kannon held on as Nisha fucked him hard. There was no pain, only an overwhelming fullness. Then Nisha changed his angle, and Kannon gasped. Nisha nailed his hot spot. His shaft hardened, and tension rolled through his body. Tingles started at the base of his spine and rocked up his spine. Pleasure beat at him.

“Going to…” he gasped.

“No. Not yet.”

Eyes closed, Kannon threw his head back and fought the rising need. He wanted to do as Nisha said, but he didn’t know if he could. His body burned with the need to come, but still… Nisha said no. He bit his lip in an effort to distract himself. A small bite of pain zinged through his lip. How hard had he bitten himself? Nisha growled suddenly, and Kannon blinked open his eyes.

“Come,” he demanded. “Come for me.”

Kannon came just as Nisha slammed his mouth down on Kannon’s. The taste of copper flooded his mouth. What’s that? Blood? Kannon’s mind shut down as his body took over and followed Nisha’s command.

Pleasure ripped through him. One more deep thrust, and Nisha held himself against Kannon as he came. He jerked his mouth off Kannon’s and leaned forward until he could sink his sharp teeth into that same spot he bit fifteen years ago.

“Fuck!” Kannon’s scream tore from his throat to bounce around the cave. Spots danced in front of his eyes, and everything went black.

WARM WATER cradled him.

“Kannon? Can you wake up?”

Kannon opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the ceiling of the cave. Wow, there were all these colors in the rocks. How cool. Really, folks should take a minute and float around staring up at ceilings more often.

Whoa. That was weird. Jeez, what was wrong with him? Speaking of which, his body was warm and lax as it rocked gently in the water, but he felt fuzzy. O-okay, what’s going on? He took a deep breath and looked around.

“Welcome back.”

Nisha held him in his arms. It didn’t take him long to figure out Nisha was still in his merman form, since water brushed against him in small waves.

“Um, hey.” His last memory was… Jesus, had Nisha fucked him unconscious? He hadn’t thought that was possible.

“How do you feel?”

“Well…” Now that he was a little more with it, he noticed his head ached, and his stomach was sending messages it wasn’t exactly happy either.

He was slightly queasy, and a warm sensation spread from the bite on his shoulder, but it wasn’t too bad. Just annoying. And it tingled. And well… now that he was paying attention, he noticed his body tingled. His legs, arms, back, neck—everything tingled, and that made him restless.

“Kannon?”

“I, ah… I’m not feeling too hot. What’s going on with me?”

“I… I bit you fifteen years ago and started the process of changing you. From what we know, a merfolk bite must contain something—maybe bacteria—that’s toxic to humans. Whatever it is, it changes the human enough to adapt to our world. In other words, a human will develop gills.”

“Gills. As in… gills.”

“Yes. The transformation comes from a bite, not from sex. So, when a merman or maid bites a human, the saliva enters the human’s blood stream and… changes take place.”

“I… I… seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. But one bite isn’t enough. It takes two. After the second bite, the process takes a few hours to integrate fully into human cells.”

“I hate biology, just so you know. Really sucked at it.”

“I’ll review as many times as you need. So while this was happening, you passed out. Once awake, you may have a headache and even be nauseated.”

“Lovely.”

“I know. It isn’t fun. Now, you won’t show any external signs of any changes, and you won’t until you make a conscious effort to… change. I can get into the water and not change into my merman form, just as you can get into water and not open your gills.”

“You bit me again, didn’t you? Right there at the end.”

“Of course. I also feel I should apologize for what happened earlier with Cree. He was the one who attacked you in the water and at the bungalow.”

“Wait, wait… what? Cree? You… you just jumped from basically describing how you abused my DNA to what happened with that other merman? Are you for real? Well, please, go ahead, then. Seems you got a program to follow.”

“Um, I sense you mean something by that, but I’m unsure as to what you mean.”

Kannon growled, and Nisha paused, a bemused look on his face. “Anyway, Cree has carried a grudge against me for a long time, but that gave him no right to not only attack Brett, but you too.”

“Well, we can agree on that.”

Nisha took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry you were subjected to that. I can promise you Cree will never bother you again. Not if he knows what’s good for him.”

Is he kidding me ? Kannon struggled until Nisha let him go. Amazed, he quickly made his way to the shallows where he could stand on his own two feet. He couldn’t believe what he heard.

“You… you… Let me get this straight. That’s what you apologize for? Cree attacking me? Of all the things—and there’s a laundry list of them, let me tell you— that’s what you focus on first? Seriously?”

He’d been pretty calm up until now, all things considered. But calm was quickly taking a backseat to anger.

“I… I’m confused.” Nisha scratched his head.

“I’ve spent the last fifteen years in that state, so please, join the crowd.”

“Should I not apologize for Cree attacking you because of something I did a long time ago? Or rather, I didn’t do. I refused to him the right to mate Brooke. Of course it didn’t much matter what I said. Brett was her mate, and she would’ve refused anyone else. Cree never understood that.”

Kannon threw his hands up in the air. “ Seriously ? No apology about when I was eighteen? When you popped up out of nowhere, dragged me under the water, and fucking bit me? Got nothing to say about the fact that you’re a merman? A creature who does not exist? Just going to ignore the fact that Brooke’s a mermaid and mated to Brett, who’s my best friend?”

“Well—”

“And oh my God!” Kannon thrust his hands into his hair and rubbed his temples. “I told Brett what happened to me. Never once did he act as though he knew what I was fucking talking about.”

“I believe he explained why he couldn’t—”

“It’s been fifteen years, and in all this time he never once told me he knew about your existence. I am going to fucking kill him!”

“Um, he couldn’t. He wanted to, but it’s against our ways to share such with humans—”

“And you!” Kannon pointed a finger at Nisha.

Nisha flinched.

“What the hell , man? You bit me. You left a scar. Do you have any fucking idea how that messed with my mind? Everything I knew got tossed out the window after that day. I worried something freaky was going to happen to my body, thanks to you biting me. Shit! Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with that kind of stress?”

“I—you’re cussing. You don’t normally cuss. ”

“No?” Kannon paced back and forth in the shallows in front of Nisha. “You’re right. I don’t normally cuss, but by God, this is what you’ve reduced me to. You don’t have any idea what it’s like to live with this kind of stress because you just bit me then fucking disappeared !”

“At the time I thought it best for you to stay with your—”

Kannon screeched.

Nisha flinched again.

“Aaaaand there we go. You. What you thought was best for me. Did I get a fucking say in that? Oh hell no!” Kannon yelled. “Then you turned around and bit me again. Do you know what consent is? Ever heard of this little thing called permission? Obviously not, since you just up and bit me again . Fucking hell!”

Kannon spun around and headed toward the beach. “Do whatever you have to do, but damn you, change. I’m not having this conversation hip deep in water.”