Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

He thrust forward, readjusted, and thrust again. She moved against him, like a woman trying to get wet so the man could slip in. His next thrust was wild, and she flinched, her hands moving from his cheeks to his shoulders, the classic “That hurts, and if you don’t get the hint from my lightly pushing, I will buck you the fuck off.”

Their lips came apart, and I could feel the disappointment emanating from them. His fingers relaxed, but he didn’t let go, keeping his touch on her. They floated for a moment, his dick starting to retract, looking into each other’s eyes. Sorrow shone brightly in her gaze, and frustration glittered in his.

Not a match, then. When merpeople mated, clearly it required more than attraction and the desire to bang. Interesting. I wondered how many of these trysts failed before they found their true mates. Did they date on shore and then try their hand at mating season? That would be a letdown if you loved someone in real life, but when you tried to fornicate in the deep sea, nothing happened.

The couple startled, their heads jerking my way. I drifted merely three feet away, staring intently.

Realizing I had been caught, I gave a thumbs-up. “Better luck next time,” I yelled through my bubble, not sure if they could hear me. “It’ll be okay. More merpeople in the sea, as they say. Question—do you guys just go looking for someone else right now, or is that it for the season?”

The guy’s junk snapped the rest of the way into his fin pocket and he pushed the woman away. His meaty chest swung around, and suddenly I remembered that not everyone was like vampires. Some people weren’t cool with voyeurism.

“Sorry!” I hovered my bubble backward and held up my hands. “Don’t mind me. I was just passing by.”

He rushed toward me, and I threw up an air wall, just as effective in water. He slammed into it, and I hightailed up to the surface.

Intruder, he thought, fighting against the air shield. What is this thing that traps me?

“Don’t fight it. You don’t want to add injury to insult in regards to your ego, know what I mean, bub?” I called through the water, still not sure if he could hear me. It didn’t seem like it.

It struck me that they hadn’t been thinking at all during their exchange. I would’ve known. That had to mean it was definitely something other than attraction, and they were acting on biology or something. So very interesting.

I wondered if shifters were like that? Vampires certainly weren’t. I’d have to ask Roger, even though he definitely wouldn’t want to answer. He got prickly whenever I pried into his sex life. Which I had been doing an awful lot since we’d brought our dragons to his secret residence. He had a couple of drawers full of women’s lingerie, in two different rooms! He clearly brought a few special ladies over, maybe two at once, and had a good time of it. Would he give any details, though? No!

I crested the surface and kept rising, catching sight of Penny nearby on the back of our boat, her hands on her hips as she stared at Garret on the MLE captain’s smaller fishing boat.

“Oh no,” I murmured. He looked smug, and a smug Garret was the absolute worst thing in all the worlds, and that was saying something, given I’d been tortured by elves.

I pulled away the air bubble and sucked in a fresh gulp of crisp sea air as I lifted over the waves. Then, because I didn’t want to cock-block Free Willy for too long, I released him from his air prison before I continued on toward Penny.

A splash was the only indication I had that something was amiss. Thick, wet arms wrapped around me from behind, dragging at me. I startled and turned, whipping the merman around behind me, clinging to my back as I hovered.

“Dude, you gotta let this go,” I hollered, swinging around again. “Dang it, get off. This looks ridiculous.”

“You are not permitted here,” he ground out in rough, sexy tones. A spice of his magic coated my skin, prickling my nipples pleasantly. Heat wormed through my core, suddenly pounding.

“Oh wow, is that part of it too?” I gripped him with air so he couldn’t get spooked and fall off. Still hovering, I drifted toward the boat, working at this next piece of the puzzle. Two birds, as it were. “You’re making me horny even though you’re mad at me. Do mermen make their women horny on land, too, or just in the water?”

“What are you?” he asked, looking down at the water he was now floating over. He kept his firm hold on me, though, jerking, trying to take me down into the depths with him. Courageous, this merman. Gallant, too. He was likely doing this to protect the woman who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, open her lady bits for him.