This chapter is dedicated to Mimi! I appreciate all your genuine help and support on my first awkward lesbian novels. Thank you for having been my amazing proofreader
Part 1
Nota bene: the chapter includes strong words!
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" her friend is snapping at me, still rubbing his hand.
What a pussy! The torrent was not even the hardest one... I have no idea why I did it. I was so angry, and I'm unbelievably angry now. Juni and Sylvester are looking at me as if I'm crazy. I AM more likely crazy. But I don't look at him. Actually, I don't give a fuck about this human man, for the focus of my attention is Marina; she seems terribly tired; her slim body is almost transparent against the misty air and deceasing raindrops. How did I fail to notice it? My starving for her body was more than my sanity. She is looking at me like a scared pelagic fairy, but I witness something new in her eyes I have never paid attention to before...
"Can I have a word, Doris?" Juni's expression is like the calm before the storm. She takes my wrist as if delicately and friendly, but in reality, the grip is exceptionally tight. If it were Marina's or Syl's hand, the dryad would certainly break it. "Go back to the lighthouse," looking at confused humans, Juni continues in a staccato, harsh tone she has never used before.
Marina makes an attempt to step forward, and my whole body, my all entity is sweetly reacting, ready to come up beside her. I would be next to the girl, saving the fact that Juni is strengthening the grip. This time the pain is strong, and I almost cry out, but hold myself together, gritting the teeth, pushing a smile that resembles a shark's grin.
"Eat something. You, humans, need meals more often than creatures. Doris and I want to chat a little bit. Right?"
"Uhummm," I mumble, nodding. Stupid forest bitch doesn't let my wrist go. I keep on looking at Marina, trying to find THAT something in her eyes again, but it has fainted, vanished.
My breathing is sharp and uncommon. My mind is flashing as if full of fireworks' explosions: I want to return everything back, to start all over again from the moment she kissed me on the beach. Hahaha... I am the most stupid undead in the world: it was the only real kiss in my useless, idle life, but I took it for a fake. I was afraid to kiss her lips again thinking I'm not worthy to receive this pleasure.
It feels I stare at the girl for centuries, time stops, but it was just the blink of an eye.
"Come on, you do really need to eat something," his words are like a secateurs that cuts our connection. I hate him so much!
Marina slowly turns from me, trying to preserve our eye contact as long as possible (or maybe it's just me and my silly imagination).
I'm broken for no reason.
She's ascending, following the ginger. Her ephemeral body has just disappeared in between the rocks like a ghost dissolving into the mist.
"Ouch! Juni! It hurts!" Her hand is an inquisitorial apparatus of torture.
We are behind the rock. Hidden.
"Can you relax your grip a bit?" Unwillingly, she does it, killing me with her angry expression. "What are you waiting for?" I ask, rubbing my wrist just like Sylvester. "You wanted to get rid of him, didn't you? Maybe it was another dryad. I'm not sure now. The woman I see is not my determined friend..." I want to hurt her with my words.
Juni is grabbing me by the collar of my blouse and pulls me closer to her face:
"What. Are. You. Doing, stupid mermaid?"
"Juni... Juniper..."
"Your eyes are getting darker again! Don't you feel it, bloody undead! Your whole eye is like a pupil, for Spirit's sake! You are not controlling yourself. Twice in one day!"
"Take your hands off me..." I try to push her away, but I can't do it with all my might, for I could hurt her or she might hurt me. I believe she can.
"Is it because of the Ocean?" she forces me to answer.
"I don't know..."
"Who was the mage?"
"I DON'T KNOW! Let me go!"
Instead, she pushes me to the rock even harder. I've never seen her like this before. Vera believes in devil and karma. I don't believe in humans' devil, but I think I believe in karma since this very moment. I'm like Marina now, whom I forced at the rock.
I take a deep sharp breath. Only now I feel the way my undead heart is thumping.
Loudly, painfully.
I want to move my limbs, but Juni is holding me almost the way I pinned Marina between me and the cold stone.
BAM! BAM! BAM! bam. bam. bam... I'm relaxing slowly. My body is aching, my chest is burning. I want to sleep in my little shapeless pond with quite waters. bam. bam. bam. I want to see Marina's comforting Caribbean blue eyes. bam. I want...
"Better now?" I hear Juni's voice as if from the distance. I don't answer, gazing at the disgusting Ocean.
She's not holding me anymore.
I slowly slip on the ground, putting the face on my knees and covering the head with my hands.
"Now listen to me very attentively, Doris. You are inviting Vera and Alex the moment we are in the lighthouse. And together we are deciding what we are going to do. We'll deal with Sylvester later. Alright?" she says it almost softly. "His not our hugest problem on the agenda. I insist on your and Marina's staying with siblings at their human apartment. We don't know who was the mage. His raincoat smells nothing," she wrinkles her pretty Grecian nose. "We don't know who were Marina's kidnappers. Some witches. Yes. But who? And why? Did they find us here or it was another coincidence? They can't be from the committee..." She ruffles her bangs that are getting higher. "You and your human need protection. No witch or mage will mess up with the siblings without being involved into open warfare. The safest place is to be closer to them: they could also help you to avoid the creature committee. Some runes or forbidden spells to hide you from other creatures or... Ohhh Spirits, help me!"
"You must join us."
"I... I think I should," she stumbles, but agrees easily. I know, deep inside she doesn't want to return to the Hidden Sanctuary.
"Alex will not dare to hassle you."
"Alex? Pfff, he's a jerk, but he's fine." Her pointy ears are treacherously blushing: the dryad is like an open book.
I totally know that they slept together, once at least. Short after her sister's demise, Juni and I spent most of the time here, on the island. The Ocean was not a problem back then (or, maybe, Juni was not Marina). The problem was Juni's psychological condition. Most of her miserable kins were pissed and hateful after her sister's "disgraceful" connection with a human. I was sure she would never return to the Sanctuary.
It was about that time I got acquainted with Vera and Alex, thus they were fond of paying us multiple visits on the island, using their diabolic pentagram portals, considering it a family fun trip. Ugh... Alex was intolerably annoying: he was nagging the dryad constantly. Sometimes, it seemed she was about to kill him. To be honest, she almost did it. Luckily, I was quick to react otherwise he would have the dryad's spear deep in his eye pit: in a flash Juni managed to break his aura protection with a powerful forest spirit that happened to be floating nearby. Meanwhile, Vera, an infernal child, was enjoying the scene with a scary, excited fire in her pitch-black eyes; she did not even move when Juni was so close to poke her brother.
I would ask my friend if she wanted them to stop coming, but in response she indifferently shrugged her shoulders.
Once, Vera and I left them alone for a while. I was reluctant, but the witch wanted my company and assured me that they would be fine. She was quite enthusiastic about getting some fresh water from the spring. Usually, it does not take us long to get there and return, but Vera would stop and smell every fucking flower or scrutiny every stupid herb suspiciously long as if she was a typical dryad gatherer. Moreover, she found a young flower fairy who was about to change his wings. Of course, she started chasing him like a crazy woman in love until a poor one agreed to donate them for her suspicious purposes. No wonder, it's hard to contradict a fabulous witch who might swat you as a mosquito.
Approaching the lighthouse, I was as confident as possible that the place was staying in ruins. But the atmosphere turned out to be heavenly placid and remarkably decent. They both were hushed and, as Vera secretly mentioned, boring and satisfied. The climax has passed; the show was over. Alex was muted and a little bit sad, at least for a while. Juni, well, as for Juni she looked quite dreamy and relaxed but her classic burning ears.
I never ask her about it, for I know about the strict rules of her society; she never confides me the secret either, but I know that she knows that I know. And that was enough. Without words. She needed him then.
It's still a great mystery for me whether they continue their little hook-ups. Beyond belief stays the fact that the witcher manages to keep it a secret, though, stressing ironically here and there how virgin Juni is (which is extremely important for weird dryads and their wedding traditions). Hahaha! As if she's still untouched like a Sacred Forest. Fuck. I'm thinking like their pompous elders. I can't accept dryads' stupid devotion and respect for them. Juni could be a perfect warrior, but they preferred Ash... Ash! And she forgave them for all they had told her before, all those spiteful words about her late sister.
I sigh.
My friend has a type, no doubt, and this type has nothing to do with dryad males. I can't disagree, for these forest male nymphs are too righteous and boring. I know, they want me the moment they see me, but they are too proud of who they are, couldn't bear the thought of fucking the undead. They would rather fuck a hole in a tree. I laugh at my own thoughts. Juni is gazing at me with irritation having come to the conclusion that I'm one hundred percent a coo-coo.
"What was that expression of hers?" I whisper to myself.
"Did you say anything?" Juni turns to me while we are going up the narrow track.
"Nothing," I exhale sharply, returning to my brooding again.
I don't understand my feelings. "If they are real," a nasty inner voice is reminding me. She must be angry at me for forcing her. Well... I squeeze my drenched human hair. If she were a creature, it would not be a problem at all. Shifters' alphas do it all the time! Dominance is not a great deal in their packs. Nothing terrible... I guess..." But not when you are forcing a young (centuries younger) virgin girl against her will," my own voice inside is stabbing me.
What I want is to stay alone with her without Juni, siblings, her annoying friend, and the ruthless eye of the Ocean that is revealing all my undead, predator instincts. It's settled: Marina shouldn't see my true self. I will not become a mermaid anymore if she orders me. The girl could peel all my scales with a kitchen knife if she wants... Everything just to experience her warm breath on my neck one more time like when I was carrying her to the old tree. Every scary transformation in order to be softly kissed by her one more time. Everything... for her.