Truth and Light

Chapter 14

When my eyes opened, I was no longer submerged in water but was cradled in Gabe's arms.

"Rise and shine, Sunshine," Gabe told me brightly, tears ran down his face in shiny tracks.

"Hi," I said stupidly. My eyes took in his face, his beautiful blue eyes, his soft brown hair that spiked up a bit in the front, and his pouty lips. Lips that I wanted to run my fingers over and then kiss.

I felt the golden cord pulse between us, and desire flooded my body even through my exhaustion. My thoughts turned to the erotic, and I had a fantasy in my head of tearing off his clothes, when Gabe lifted his head and looked at the man next to us, "Thank you, Tristan."

"No problem, man. Do you see this?" Tristan asked Gabe incredulously. He sat in the water; his torso bared from the waist up. His bottom half didn't need clothes, it was a tail.

A tail made up of scales in shades of turquoise and purple, all with a pearly, luminescent, luster. Tristan ran his hands over the scales, and then turning his tail this way and that, splashing water everywhere. It was incredibly magnificent, and I wanted to reach out and touch it, but thought better of it with Gabe sitting next to me. Heaven knows if it was Duncan, he would have beat me for just looking in the direction of Tristan, even though I had no attraction to him.

"Ask him, Sunshine," Gabe said, a sad smile played on his lips.

I looked at Gabe, I kept forgetting that he could hear my thoughts. This was going to get embarrassing fast. What did I do when I had to pee? Gabe laughed.

"What?" Tristan asked Gabe. He looked utterly confused.

Gabe looked at me and then at Tristan. Finally, he spoke, "Alina would like to touch your tail."

My whole body turned as red as a lobster when I became embarrassed, and this time was no exception. I buried my face into Gabe's throat to hide from the mortification. Both men laughed good naturedly.

"Sure, Alina. I might be stuck out here for a while," Tristan said, swishing his tail in the ocean water, he studied it. "I'm going to have to figure out how to make it go back to legs. I don't mind staying out here for a little while, but I think it would get pretty lonely, not to mention cold."

He didn't look cold, though. I, on the other hand, was shivering so bad my teeth were going to fall out from the chattering. I leaned over anyways and touched the beautiful tail that shined in the moonlight. It really was beautiful and surprisingly soft. I could feel each individual scale about the size of my thumbnail, under my fingertips.

"Have you seen the color of your hair? It changed when you entered the water," Gabe asked him.

Tristan's new look was amazing, he looked like he could have just stepped out of my favorite movie, The Little Mermaid. Gabe burst out laughing. Tristan gave us both another "you two are batty" look. I blushed.

"Sorry, Alina here thinks you would fit in perfectly with King Triton and Ariel," Gabe chuckled. I just grinned at Tristan.

I wasn't flustered by that statement, but I decided to change the subject, "How did you know to send Tristan in to save me?" I asked Gabe gesturing to Tristan's merman body, I wondered how they knew about Tristan's new tail.

"Tristan has always had an affinity with the ocean and has always been an amazing swimmer. We went to high school together and Tristan was the captain of both the water polo team and the swim team. It just made sense to send him to get you since we didn't have time to get scuba gear out here," Gabe explained. A shiver of fear shook his body, and I could hear the terror in his voice. I could also see it on his face.