Surfacing Read online

  Surfacing

  a mermaid tale

  Pauline Creeden

  Surfacing © 2019 Pauline Creeden

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Logan

  2. Logan

  3. Bailey

  4. Logan

  5. Verona

  6. Verona

  7. Logan

  8. Verona

  9. Logan

  10. Bailey

  11. Verona

  12. Logan

  13. Bailey

  14. Verona

  15. Logan

  16. Logan

  17. Logan

  18. Logan

  19. Logan

  20. Logan

  21. Verona

  22. Verona

  About the Author

  Don’t miss the prequel to the Salt ~ Sanctuary Duet

  Scales

  1

  Logan

  Logan had thought she was going to leave. He knew that he cared for Verona, maybe even loved her, but he wasn’t sure she felt the same way until she burst through the door and told him that she needed him. Now that he had her in his arms, he felt as though he never wanted to let her go. He buried his face in her neck, the curtain of her sandy blonde hair surrounding his face and tickling his cheeks. She smelled of sea water and strawberries at the same time. Her body molded to his and her warmth seeped into him as he held her.

  “Verona!” a deep male baritone shouted from downstairs. Benji started barking.

  Verona stiffened in his arms. His stomach twisted.

  He pulled back and frowned over her shoulder. “Who is that?”

  Her soft eyes blinked up at him. “I... uh... I think it... might be...”

  “Verona!” the voice yelled again, closer this time. Benji continued barking.

  Logan pulled Verona behind him and leaned out his bedroom door. Wet feet slapped against the wood on the second-floor landing. With a frown, Logan turned toward Verona. “Stay here.”

  Then he started down the steps a short way. As he turned the corner, he came face to face with a naked young man, standing on the landing with Benji jumping against the man’s wet leg. Water dripped from the blond curls that settled over his forehead. The moment he laid eyes on Logan, the young man narrowed his gaze and sneered slightly. “Where is she? Where is my mate?”

  At the sight of Logan, Benji stopped barking and sat on his haunches, but he didn’t stop giving the side eye to the stranger in the house. Verona’s hands suddenly pressed into Logan’s back as she leaned against him on the steps. She growled. “I am not your mate. I never once said I would be your mate or that I would want to be your mate. Do not take what no one has offered you.”

  Logan blinked hard and then tilted to the side to meet her gaze. “What’s going on, Verona?”

  The curly-haired, blond guy who seemed to be about the same age as Logan took a step closer, water dripping down his leg and onto the hardwood floors. Logan hissed and spun past Verona back up the stairs. He grabbed two towels from the hall closet and tossed one at the man and the other at his feet. “You’re dripping water everywhere. Mama Wend would have a fit.”

  A frown furrowed the man’s brows. “What is this?”

  Verona shook her head. “It’s a towel. Use it to dry yourself by wiping your skin. And use it to clean up the water you’ve dripped everywhere. You can’t just get everything all wet like that. What are you doing here, Bailey?”

  “Bailey?” Logan asked, still confused.

  At least the man on the steps began to swipe at his skin with the towel the way that Verona instructed. Then he leaned down and started wiping up the mess on the floor. This “Bailey” was tall and muscular, with long smooth muscles, like a swimmer. His blond, curly hair continued to drip down the sides of his face. His copper brown eyes fixed on the job he’s been doing, but Logan couldn’t pull his gaze away from him. Logan leaned toward Verona. “What’s going on... is he... do you know him from before?”

  Verona squeezed Logan’s arm and stepped down on the same step where he stood and nodded at him. “I know Bailey from before, yes.”

  Logan frowned, thinking of the wounds on Verona’s back. “Is he the one who hurt you?”

  Bailey suddenly straightened and glared at Logan. “I would never hurt Verona. What kind of Mer would I be if I hurt my own mate?”

  A bout of dizziness suddenly seized Logan, and he grabbed hold of the banister in order to keep from collapsing completely on the steps. “This is crazy.”

  There were two of them. Two mermaids... or mer-creatures, rather... in his house. Mama Wend didn’t even know about Verona. No one knew about Verona except him, and those doctors, apparently. And now there was another? Crazy.

  “You need to go back,” Verona said in the same commanding tone she’d used when telling Bailey to clean up. “It’s not morning yet. This might not be permanent. Maybe you can change your mind and get right back in the water and go home.”

  “I’m not leaving without you.” Bailey continued to make his way down the steps, mopping up the floor as he went. He didn’t even look up at her while he voiced his disagreement.

  Verona followed him down the steps. “I’m not leaving with you. I’ve already made my decision. I’ll stay.”

  “Then I’ll stay, as well.”

  “You can’t.”

  “And why can’t I?”

  Verona let out a frustrated squeal. “You don’t belong here. You don’t know anyone. It’s difficult living on land.”

  “I know you, and you can teach me.” Bailey’s voice remained monotone, even as he continued down the steps.

  Logan remained sitting on the stairs between the second floor and the attic, not quite sure of how he needed to respond to this. A stranger had just walked into his house, staked a claim on Verona, and refused to leave. Over and over again. But Verona was also right. This guy didn’t belong here. He couldn’t stay. But if they put him outside when he couldn’t return to the water, what would happen then? Would the witch come after him? The guy didn’t even have any clothing. How could Bailey possibly protect himself from the witch when they’d barely managed to save Verona from her?

  He let out a slow breath. Benji climbed the rest of the stairs and jumped up into Logan’s lap. Verona and Bailey continued to argue as she followed him around the house. Absentmindedly, Logan began petting the Jack Russell Terrier. “What am I supposed to do here?”

  Benji gave a small whine.

  Logan looked down at him. “What would Mama Wend want me to do right now?”

  Outside, gray spread across the sky as the first rays of sun announced the coming of morning. Logan exhaled again and set Benji down on the steps. He brushed off the bits of dog hair that remained on his pajama pants and then started down the stairs. The two of them were in the foyer by the front door.

  Verona stood with her hands on her hips in one of Logan’s white t-shirts and a pair of pink sh
orts. Her wavy hair fell about her shoulders and shined in the light of the glass fixture above. Meanwhile, the naked man next to her stood with two wet towels in his hands. Logan frowned. Then finally, he said, “Look, Bailey. If you’re going to stay for a while, the first thing you are going to need is to get dressed. Come upstairs with me. And bring the towels.”

  Then Logan started up the stairs. Behind him, large, heavy footsteps slapped against the wooden steps. Light footsteps followed along with the clacking of Benji’s nails. Logan didn’t need to look back to know that everyone followed him up to the attic. Once he got there, he opened a few drawers. Bailey was about the same size as Logan, maybe a bit thinner. It gave the guy the illusion that he might be taller, but when Logan found him standing next to him at his dresser and looked in the mirror, he discovered they were pretty much the same height. He handed the guy a shirt, shorts, and underpants. When Logan walked over to the bedroom door, he met eyes with Verona who stood in the doorway with Benji in her hands. Slowly, he started closing the door on her.

  Her wide eyes met his, her brows furrowed. “He’s not my mate, Logan. He decided I was without ever asking me.”

  When there was little more than a crack left between the door and the jamb, Logan nodded. “It’s okay. I believe you.”

  And then he closed the door the rest of the way.

  Verona

  Verona paced in the small hallway in front of Logan’s door. Her heart squeezed in her chest, and her stomach twisted. Nausea gripped her. What was she going to do? Was Bailey really stuck here for a month? Would he really stay here on land forever until she promised to go back with him? Could she even return to the sea in another month? She knew she needed to survive and the most danger for her was until the full moon that passed last night. But now what? Too many questions plagued her, and the only people she knew might have the answers were the two doctors on the Eastern Shore. The last thing she wanted to do was go off the island again.

  Then her heart sank toward her stomach. Mama Wend. How could Verona even say she didn’t want to leave the island when Mama Wend was in that hospital, alone right now?

  Honestly, Verona wanted to visit her. She didn’t know if she could stay on the island and stay away from Mama Wend when the grandmother needed her. Verona held her breath for a moment, pressing out her cheeks and then blew it all out hard. This was too much to think about. And then the pain in her leg began to grow. As she paced, she began limping to try to keep the weight off it and use the muscle in her calf less. The witch had thrown a knife into her leg. The blade had only been about three inches or so long, but it had been enough to cause enough damage that the doctor on the island had suggested flushing the wound and keeping triple antibiotic in it twice a day rather than doing stitches. Logan would need to help her with that. All she really wanted to do was soak it in the saltwater of the sea. That’s how she’d always kept infection out in the past. But she needed to think of the antibiotic as a salve, similar to the ones she had back home in the Bermuda township.

  After several minutes, the door to Logan’s bedroom finally opened. Logan stepped out with a fully dressed Bailey. Somehow, he looked awkward in Logan’s clothing. She didn’t like it. She wanted him to give Logan’s stuff back and go home, but there was really nothing she could do about it right now. The sun had risen. Bailey was stuck on land until the next full moon. Logan didn’t smile much, and his eyes had a distance to them that hadn’t been there since the first week Verona had stayed with him and Mama Wend. She hated it. It pricked at her heart and made her wonder if the feelings she thought he’d had for her were just a figment of her imagination.

  With hooded eyes and a tired expression, he asked, “Anybody want breakfast?”

  She couldn’t stand how tired he looked either. Hadn’t he come home in order to get some rest for Mama Wend’s sake? Now he’d spent most of the night awake, and it was her fault. In the few moments it took for her to have those thoughts, both of the guys had already made it halfway down the stairs. She followed after them and then rushed forward to grab Bailey by the arm. He turned back to her. It seemed so strange that his skin had taken on the pink, human tone and lost the patina he always had underwater. He lifted a brow toward her grip on his arm. She released him and shook her head. “Look. Mama Wend and Logan are extremely kind people. Do not take advantage of their kindness and do not start any trouble while you are here.”

  His brow furrowed. “I believe you are the one who causes trouble.”

  Her heart pricked, and her shoulders fell. “You’re right. And this is all my fault, too. But please do not make it any worse for them than it is.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that now, if I were you. If you want life to be easier for them, then just return to the sea with me at the next full moon.” He turned about and continued down the stairs.

  Verona tucked in her chin and gaped at him. How could he be so confident, so certain all the time? Things were definitely not going according to her plan on this. Not that she ever really had much of a plan. All she knew was that she wanted to stay with Logan and Mama Wend and help them any way that she could, because even if they didn’t need her, she needed them. And that’s how she’d finally come to the decision she’d made the night before under the full moon. Now, she doubted whether that was the right decision. How complicated would things get now that Bailey was here, too?

  She chewed her bottom lip as Benji wiggled in her arms. Then she continued down the stairs after them both.

  2

  Logan

  Logan could hardly keep his eyes off the young man who sat across the kitchen table from him while they ate their breakfast. When Bailey had tried to eat the scrambled eggs with his fingers, Verona hissed at him and then showed him how to use a fork. Aliens. In a way, they were like aliens. They were foreign, didn’t know the customs of the humans on land, and didn’t have any means to support themselves. Though Logan wasn’t keen on taking care of this stranger who suddenly showed up in their house last night, he knew that he couldn’t just abandon him. He blinked as a thought occurred to him and frowned. “Wait a minute.”

  Both Verona and Bailey stopped their arguing to look at him.

  “After we took you to the hospital, Dr. Tide called the sheriff’s office and said they’d found your parents. She even had identification for you and all that.” Logan furrowed his brow. “How did she do that?”

  Verona shook her head. “She knows what I am and there’s a system in place to do that here on the island, I suppose.”

  “Does that mean that you have places to stay as well?” he asked, his heart squeezing in his chest. As much as he’d like to see this Bailey person gone, he didn’t want for Verona to go.

  “I’m not going anywhere that Verona isn’t going. If she’s staying here, then I will stay here too,” Bailey said and returned to trying to figure out how to stab pieces of egg with his fork.

  Stalker. Logan’s shoulders tensed. What could he do about it? He couldn’t go telling the police about the guy. If they looked into him they would find out that whatever identity Dr. Tide “found” for him was false, then they might look into Verona’s as well. Shoot. Even Dr. Tide could end up in jail over this... this... conspiracy. Or maybe Logan would just end up in the psychiatric ward at the hospital. Honestly, he was beginning to wonder if he might not be a bit crazy.

  He scratched at his neck and found a crusty area where a scab had formed. It itched and he couldn’t remember exactly how he’d been injured there. The muscles ached in his shoulders and neck. He couldn’t get much sleep the night before as it felt like the moon was just bearing down on him in his bedroom. The light from it shined right in his face, and something about the fact that Verona was affected by it stirred his soul. It had been the reason he’d picked up his guitar and started playing. He’d poured his soul into the music, and it had felt good to do it.

  “Are you finished?” Verona said from over top of him.

  “Hmm?” He blinked at h
er. How long had he been zoning out? Bailey still sat across the table from him, not exactly looking smug, but studying him in a way that made Logan feel as though he was being measured.

  Verona pointed to his plate. “I’ll do the dishes. Did you want to finish first?”

  Half of Logan’s eggs still sat on his plate, but he had no appetite for them. He pushed his plate toward Verona. “I’m finished.”

  She nodded and took his plate away. After dumping out the contents into Benji’s dish, she pulled on Mama Wend’s apron and began humming as she cleaned up the kitchen. She was humming the same tunes that Mama Wend did when she cleaned up. Once, Logan had wondered if Verona had been some kind of robot, she seemed to do everything that Mama Wend asked from her and learned whatever it was that Mama Wend wanted, quickly. Additionally, Verona even copied some of his grandmother’s mannerisms and now the humming. But this time, he wasn’t freaked out by her behavior. Instead, he found comfort in it.

  Cancer. Mama Wend had cancer.

  Would she ever come home again?

  Fear, like an ice-cold rock settled in his stomach and froze the eggs he’d been eating. He didn’t want to think that way. He didn’t even want to consider that his one living relative might just leave him alone in the world. Not that she wanted to. Cancer was a cold-hearted monster that consumed the best of people, the healthiest—the good, the bad, the young and old indiscriminately. It didn’t matter if the person was needed, if the person was kind, if the person was rich or poor. Logan had known all these things before, but now, the monster seemed even more real, even deadlier than it had ever been to him before.