Ugh. So confusing.
Shaking off the weird moment, I looked back at Theseus. “Consider yourself a kept man.”
While Ajax and Theseus’s presence helped sooth me some, my heartbeat jumped like a jackrabbit when the car pulled to a stop. The guards hopped out of the front and opened our doors.
I noted how the albino one gave Theseus a low bow as he got out. When the guard reached into the car for me, I flinched and leaned back into Ajax.
“No need to be afraid, miss. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his all too pointy teeth flashing me.
I snorted. That’s what they all said before they locked you in their basement and broke your fingers one by one till they moved to your toes.
“That’s a tad specific,” he mumbled, looking surprised and a bit concerned.
I blinked. Did he just read my mind?
His sexy wink gave me my answer.
That was cool.
I tentatively took his hand and he helped me out of the car. It wasn’t like I could hide from a mind reader, anyway.
“No, not really,” he whispered.
Hip and Percy looked thoroughly annoyed and were shooting daggers over to Calder, who was walking to the edge of the dock.
“Does she know how to fully shift yet?” He called.
We all stayed silent.
“I’ll take that as a no. Callum will carry her, then.” He nodded to the cute mind reader.
“No,” My guys all growled at once.
Calder rolled his eyes. “This will be a lot quicker if one of us carried her, and I’m not allowing any of you to do it, lest you take off with her.”
I looked over to Callum, who was already staring at me with an apologetic expression. I don’t think he was any more comfortable in this situation than we were. He seemed to be giving Theseus a sort of special attention, and he hadn’t joined the other guards in their attack earlier. I wondered what his deal was.
I nodded. “Fine.”
The guys all groaned and grumbled. They sounded like a bunch of disgruntled teenagers who had just been given detention. I couldn’t blame them, they all looked as exhausted as I felt.
I wanted to reassure them somehow, remind them that this wasn't permanent, but with Calder’s guards watching our every move, and now mister mind reader, it wasn’t worth the risk of another one of us getting stabbed.
"No more stalling. As the humans say, let’s get this show on the road." Calder said, and jumped off the dock, clothes and all.
I had expected the guards to follow after him, but they continued to watch us, their weapons at the ready. Particularly, the two dicks I had attacked were studying me with twin sneers on their faces.
"Let's go, miss." Callum said gently, and with his hand barely touching the small of my back, he ushered me towards the ocean.
At the edge of the dock, I halted, staring into the waves, apprehension rising in my stomach. The others stood behind me and the guards behind them.
Theseus stepped up to my other side and took my hand. "Together."
I nodded and took a deep breath before diving off the dock into the water.
Just like with my previous experiences in the ocean since the change, the water below was so clear and bright it was like I was viewing it in the middle of the day instead of in the dark of night. I looked down at my webbed feet before kicking forward with great speed. For a moment, I was filled with joy as I felt the water rush over my clothed body. A sense of freedom loosening the chains around my soul.
Looking to my right, I realized that I still held Theseus's hand. His presence was very comforting.
"Atalanta, breathe." I heard Percy call.
Theseus made the motion of taking a deep breath in.
Okay, I could do this. I had gills.
Slowly I exhaled the breath I was holding, then, preparing for a jump to the surface, I inhaled the salt water. I felt the water wash into my lungs and the gills on the side of my neck open up, filtering oxygen from the water.
I sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to that."
"Took me several years." Ajax said.
Looking over to him, I saw that he and the others were pulling off their clothes. I didn't pull my eyes away this time. Nope, I deserved some eye candy after all this bull. Man, I was not disappointed.
Watching them change was mesmerizing as scales and fins bloomed from their skin. Watching their legs fuse together was freaky, but strangely satisfying. It all happened so fast that I almost wished I could rewind and play it back in slow motion.
Percy hadn't fully shifted, though. Staying in a half shifted form, he looked uncomfortable.
Swimming over to him I said, "Percy, you can’t keep hiding from me."
“I'm not hiding.” He grumbled, not meeting my eyes.
I cocked an eyebrow with him.
His shoulders fell, and after shooting quick, nervous glances over at the others, he let the rest of his shift overtake him. His skin took on an almost bluish tint and his scales, which I already knew were black as the midnight sky, were so beautiful.
Percy wasn't terrifying, but his shift was something that some might consider nightmarish. With the long spines on his back, extremely long and pointed rows of teeth that protruded from his mouth, and luminescence running down his tail, he reminded me of a creature that a deep sea anglerfish and a lion fish had given birth to, before being thrown into a radioactive bath.
But underneath it all, he was still my sweet, thoughtful, judgmental librarian.
Tentatively, I swam closer and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "There, doesn't that feel more comfortable?"
His amber eyes slid over to the rest of our group. "Not really."
I placed my hand on his chest. “It's a step. Be proud of who you are, Percy, because at least you know who that is."
He looked like he was about to say something, but Calder interrupted. "Enough. I'm tired of waiting. Let's get going."
I joined the guys in their grumbling this time and turned around to try and find my 'ride', Callum.
He was waiting several feet away and ho-ly SHIT! “You're a shark!"
“Well, that's a little rude. Don’t you think?"
"But you look like a shark!"
He didn't look like any of my guys. His pale skin didn't look like it was marked with scales, but splotched with gray skin, as was his tail, which came to thick vertical facing points. Starting at his stomach was a more cream-like patch that tapered all the way down where his feet would be, and I bet on his back was the classic triangular dorsal fin.
"Now you're just making me feel self conscious. And I have scales! They are just smaller than the others."
Swimming closer, I could see he was right, his 'skin' shimmered in the light like the rest of ours. Didn't really change the fact that he definitely was more sharklike than the others.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel self conscious. It just surprised me."
He sighed and didn’t answer for a while. Awkwardly, I hooked my arms around his shoulder and hung on tight as our whole group took off. Cutting through the water at speeds faster than a speed boat. I was surprised I could keep my eyes open, or that the force pummeling against my skin wasn’t painful, but I supposed my body was acclimated to things like this, now.
Callum and I were in the center of our entourage. The guys were closest to me with Hip and Theseus ahead, Ajax and Percy behind, and the other guards surrounding us, with Calder leading the group.
“Like you humans, Mer come in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes.” Callum finally said several minutes into our trip.
"Are you also prejudiced against those who are different?"
I hadn't thought much about it until now, but most of the Mer I had met, despite the beautiful rainbow of their scales, were all pretty pale skinned. I was probably going to stand out like a sore thumb, but I wasn't a stranger to being a minority.