Rising Tides

12

All she felt was pain. She faintly heard footsteps and shuffling near her, and let out a shriek as something wet landed on her leg and white-hot agony caused her body to shake and arch off the ground.

"Easy! Easy! I know it hurts, but it will get infected if I don't clean it." Said Rowan, who quickly wrapped something tight around her calf.

She blinked her eyes open and was immediately blinded by the sun. She felt groggy and dazed and confused. What happened? I don't remember anything. "Wh-what happened?" She croaked.

"Shh! Don't speak. I'm taking you to the hospital. You're losing too much blood. " Ever-so-carefully, Rowan lifted her into his arms. She could hear the wailing sirens of an ambulance growing louder. She blacked out during the ride to the hospital, and when she woke up she was in a white hospital room. Someone had changed her into a hospital gown and an IV was stuck in her arm and a large gauze covered her calf.  The strong chemically smell of disinfectant burned her nose.

The door to the hospital room opened and an elderly lady walked in, followed closely by Rowan.

"Ahh. Good to see you're awake, dear." The lady said, heels clicking as she walked towards the bed. She had greying brown hair tied back in a bun and her green eyes were kind as they studied her from behind round wire-framed glasses. She smiled and the lines around her mouth and eyes deepened. "That was one nasty shark bite. You're lucky this young man was around to save you and call for help. You can call me Dr. Amber Hernández. How do you feel?"

Sarah winced, her head throbbed painfully. "Other than a headache and dizziness, I feel okay. What happened?"

"You were attacked by a shark, according to your friend here-"

"Boyfriend." Rowan corrected her and Sarah's cheeks warmed. "We're dating."

The woman's lips twitched in a smile. "I see. Anyway, the damage to your leg was pretty bad. Chunks of your skin was torn off and  the muscle and bone were exposed. Some muscles were torn as well and a bone was broken. You lost a lot of blood and were dehydrated, so we're giving you some fluids and a blood transfusion. We repaired the damage as much as we could, cleaned and stitched it up, but it will have to heal on its own. Meaning, you will have to wear a cast for the next few months and stay off that leg until its fully healed. Okay?"

"O-kay." Sarah barely remembered what happened, but she knew that was no shark that bit her. Rowan avoided Sarah's gaze.

"Is there anyone you would like to call?"

Sarah groaned at the thought of explaining her situation to Sam and Danni or, heaven forbid, her mother. "Yeah. I'll give my friends a call."

"Alrighty, then." The nurse, Dr. Hernández, scribbled something on her clipboard. "I'm going to go get some things and I'll get started on your cast. But we'll be keeping you here overnight for observation, just to make double sure you're ready to go home. Is that okay with you?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes, thank you, Dr. "

"I'll be back in a bit." She clicked away and shut the door behind her. They listened until they could no longer hear her heels, then Sarah glared at her boyfriend and pointed her finger at him.

"You are going to explain everything to me, and I mean everything. No lies, no bullcrap, no hiding anything. Starting now. What was that thing?"

Rowan sighed and rubbed the heel of his hand against his temples, striding over to the chair next to her bed and sinking into it. His slender fingers then slid up to rake through his still-wet hair that hung loosely around his body. "I think you already know the answer to that." Oceanic eyes peered up at her through his bangs, a grim expression on his otherworldly beautiful face. "It was a merman."

"Okay." Sarah swallowed hard, clenching her hands into tight fists. "If I wasn't sitting here right now with a bite mark on my leg and memories of a fish man trying kill me running through my mind, I'd say you're crazy. But here I am, so I believe you. What are you?"

"I am also a merman." Said Rowan. "I could feel your fear and pain and heard you screaming in my head and hurried as fast as possible to get to you. I willed myself to transform and dove in after you. When I saw him dragging you down, I chased after you. I knocked him off of you and knocked him out, but you were unconscious when I returned to you and bleeding so I carried you safely to shore."

"Who was he? The other merman?"

"My brother." Rowan glared down at the pristine white floor. "Do you remember what I said in the library? About my family being hunters and that I don't agree with their methods of hunting? Mers are carnivorous predators who will eat any kind of meat they can find out in the ocean. Including humans. My family likes to hunt and toy with and eat humans. If I hadn't arrived in time, my brother would have devoured you right there in less than a minute."

The way he said that was so calm and cold and serious that it unnerved her and she shivered under his intense, almost predatory gaze. "You...don't like to eat humans, do you?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't. I prefer fish."

A realization struck her and her jaw fell open. "It was a mer that saved me that day twelve years ago, wasn't it? It looked like a man, but I remember seeing a tail."

A tiny smile curved his luscious mouth. "Yes, it was. It was I who saved you."

"What?" Sarah exclaimed, eyes bugging out and heart racing. "It was you?"

"Yes."

She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry and scream. But instead, she burst into hysterical laughter, causing her heart monitor to go into a beeping frenzy.

"Hey. Hey! Easy. Calm down. You don't want the nurses to hear." Rowan carefully maneuvered Sarah into an upright sitting position so he could wrap his arms around her and hold her close. Perching on the corner of the bed.

"All this time." She wheezed with tears in her eyes. "All this time I've been wondering why I'm so drawn to you. Why you're so familiar to me. It's been driving me crazy." She broke into giggles and nuzzled his neck. "You saved me three times already. But what I don't get is why? Why me? What's so special about me? Why is it that when I kiss you and hold you or stand anywhere near you, it feels like I've done those things many times before I met you? Who are you to me?"

"I'll tell you everything later, il tesoro mio." Rowan cooed, voice dropping to a soothing tone that could probably lull an angry, rampaging grizzly bear to sleep. "For now, I just want to hold you in my arms and know that you're safe. I was so scared, cara mia. I don't want to lose you. Not again."

It was her turn to comfort him. Pushing her questions aside for now, she reached up and cradled his face in her hands and leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. I'm here and alive and kicking." She smiled warmly and pressed her lips onto his eyelid, feeling the soft brush of eyelashes tickling her bottom lip and chin. "I'm here. I'm here. Thank you for protecting me, my knight in shining armor."

Rowan reached up and covered her hands with his, breath trembling, and lifted her left hand to his lips; pressing a kiss to her palm and running featherlight kisses along it to her fingers.

"I love you." She said.

"I love you, too, my treasure. "