The Curran Sea

Isla Ibra

Alfred Curran blocked the door to his home, where three vulnerable half sisters hid. Only one mer walked up his steps. One brow quirked, in a fair imitation of his father.
   "Do I take offense that you are alone?" he asked quietly.
   "You are the only suitable male in the house," the platinum blonde said coolly.
   "So you're here for me, and not Uncle Ed? I thought I was disqualified, on account of Pierre's alien genes. Great-grandpa didn't seem overly fond of them."
   Large, pale green eyes blinked slowly. "It was a deterrent for many. Not for me."
   "And Edison? Nobody wants a scrawny rocket scientist-turned-submariner with an alien grandparent? He's got less alien blood than I do, y'know."
   She shook her head. "He is not a Curran."
   Ed snatched open the door behind Alfie. "Might I point out that this here is the only kid, 'sides Kitty's, that doesn't have my DNA? These genes don't slouch, babe."
   The predatory tilt to her head frightened Alfie, but Edison Hancock popped wood on the spot. One slender hand curled toward someone behind her, and three raven-haired lasses sauntered up behind her.
   Women with Curran blue eyes.
   Alfie backed up a step, as did Ed.
   "Your dad would kill me."
   The younger man said "For what it's worth, I'm okay with it. Remember, every time we... do what the old man wants... Dad doesn't have to."
   Both took that step back toward the girls.
   "Three to one? Bit insulting to my nephew. Y'all going easy on him 'cause he's young, or is it the alien blood?"
   The blonde grinned, and they shivered. "The sea awaits, boys."
   "H..." Alfie tried again. "How many of you are in the sea?"
   "Less than your brothers, more than him."
   Cora opened the door, long enough to toss her brother a rebreather. She reached back for another, hurled it at Ed, and slammed the door. They heard the lock turn.
   "Guess that's our marching orders," Ed said, his laugh a bit thin.
   They did not run into the sea. They marched, like the soldiers they were. They were taking a hit for their best friend, or father.
   "I'm young, I can take it," Alfie thought.
   "What a way to die," Ed thought.
   He could have used his bedroom, unlike Alfred with his bunk bed, but they'd already agreed to keep the mer as far away from the girls as possible. Besides, they'd all been in and out of the cove more times than any could count. It was as good as any other place... with the rebreather, of Curran-Gehzik-Hancock make. They'd all contributed to its design.
   It was about to get the most thorough test any of them could devise!
   Edison was done with his three ladies first, but only because the pod had but three Currans to spare. Nora was off on other business, her sister was already pregnant, and none of Mona's sisters had taken a mate, in all their years. Ed would have taken it as a compliment, had he known, that Ibrahim's maiden aunts had been entrusted to him, to... give children.
   None of the Curran maids looked older than he, but Saoirse had said that the mer lived long lives, in the sea. They had to be older than Ibrahim's mother, for her to name Mordred after her, but the lithe bodies that twined around him were smooth, youthful. Their grasp was strong, movements sinuous.
   Alfred didn't absorb much of what happened to him. His first time was much like his Puppa's, all sound and motion, and skin. So much skin. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to know what was leg, or arm, or firm abdomen. He'd taken Orla's warning to heart, he simply didn't know if he followed it.
   Is that skin, or one of those dolphin tails? Was that an arm, or a leg? He tried not to panic. His parents had all taught him, early on, never to panic in the water. There was hair everywhere, in a kaleidoscope of color. Tails, fins, hands in many skin tones...
   In the end, he did what Judah told his brothers, and just held onto a boner as long as he could.
   Afterward, he flopped onto the sand next to Edison, who was sitting cross-legged. "I don't... think... any got... past me," he panted.
   "Only one," Ed said calmly, "but I left Cara in charge."
   Alfie laughed. "She flex at 'er, and fling her skinny butt over your head?"
   Ed chuckled. "Just about. She said they wanted no part of their... What were her exact words? 'Brainless beehive life'. I think she might've just about swayed the girl to their way of thinking, when the old man flung her your way."
   He understood the look on his uncle's face, then. Both nearly matched the look on his father's face, when he talked about the days at the lab.
   "Well, maybe she'll get out of the life when the old man dies. Maybe sooner. Might be all we gotta do is distract him long enough, and they can run as far as they can--"
   "And maybe carry our kids with 'em," Ed said.
   Alfie looked at him, propped up on his elbows to see better. "You... care about that, now? Uncle Ed, did you just grow up?"
   Those odd, dark eyes stared down at him, lit by the moonlight. "I think I just did, yeah."
   Alfie flopped back in the sand.