Halcyon (The Complex series Book 0) Read online

  "Stardust. That's what they want you to think. Ceyx discovered we could and he died to protect his secret." Allie finished her slice of pizza and reached for another. "It doesn't matter, anyway. She won't live long enough to surface."

  "You mean be born?"

  Allie shook her head. "Surface. Cross-race children are always female, born to swim. Mer give birth in the water, and the first thing she'll learn is to surface, closing her gills to breathe through her lungs. Later, she'll learn to turn her tail so she can walk like us."

  Galen couldn't help laughing at the image that popped into his head. "You mean our daughter will be a mermaid?"

  "Galen, don't get attached. In a few weeks – "

  Galen pressed a finger to her lips. "I'm not an expert in genetics, but you said your husband was. If you say his genes made you miscarry because you're too closely related, that doesn't mean mine will. In fact, a couple can't get more diverse than the two of us."

  Allie didn't pull away this time, as his eyes held hers. "We're not a couple any more," she said. "You've made it abundantly clear that you hate me for what I did to your family."

  "No, I haven't. You're the one who told me I was worse than my father because of what I nearly did to the city." Galen grasped her hands. "I don't care what you did in the past. I love you because of what you've done for me since I met you here. You've saved my life, stopped me from doing something incredibly stupid, and made every day I spend with you a pleasure. Even the ones where I don't get to sleep with you. I love you, Allie." He pressed a hand to her still-flat belly. "And I'm going to love her, too, when she's born. Even if she has a tail."

  "But what if – "

  "I'm going to take such good care of you, nothing will hurt this baby. I'll pay every S-Co I have to keep a doctor at your side round the clock until she's born." Galen swallowed. "If you'll let me. I mean, I'm under house arrest. I can't be with you every moment, even if I want to be."

  For the first time in weeks, Allie actually smiled. "Actually, Lennox never said it had to be your house you stayed in. You could come live with me. There's more than enough space for two at my place. Maybe even three, if she survives."

  "She will," Galen swore. "I'll start building her a crib in the workshop tomorrow on my lunch break. What else will you need? Just tell me and I'll do it."

  Allie blushed. "Actually, there's one thing that's different about this pregnancy. Something I never experienced before. When I'm not feeling ill, I crave sex like you wouldn't believe. Alone at night in my apartment, so many nights now, I imagined I was with you once more and…it's not the same, a poor shadow of the reality, but I want…you."

  "I'm yours if you want me," Galen said. "Now and forever. Halcyon…Allie, I love you. Anything you want, you just have to ask."

  "Stay with me, Galen. Sleep with me. Love me like…like I love you," she said.

  "As my lady wishes," he replied. He hoisted her in his arms and carried her to his bed. As he set her on the mattress, Galen said, "You know, there's an old Human saying that would be perfect for us. Make love, not war."

  Allie laughed and pulled off her shirt. "Yes, Galen. Make no more war. And love…it's such a strange phrase you Humans have. I never thought of love as something you can make. It's created, yes, but born out of so many things shared between two people. You make me feel love for you, and I want to…we would call it joining, where two people become one so completely it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. When you make love to me, there is only us, and a universe of stars."

  Galen crossed the aquaculture farm to the temporary apartment he shared with Allie until her time came. Any day now, the Mer doctor had said, and Allie had agreed. She looked ready to burst, and she'd taken to spending more time in the water than on land. He was fairly certain that's why the Intra had lifted his house arrest early. Not that he liked to be away from Allie for long, but when she got cravings for things, he'd scour the Main City to get her what she needed.

  Today it was chocolate, which he left on the counter in their empty apartment. She must be in one of the pools again, or in the Mer habitat proper, where they lived underwater. Allie had invited him in there a couple of times, giving him a rebreather so he could stay under for as long as she did, but he didn't feel comfortable in what he felt was nothing but a giant fish tank. Not to mention the Mer were a bunch of hippy nudists, which he wasn't sure he'd ever get used to.

  Galen stripped down to a pair of board shorts. He wasn't ready to join the nudists, but he did want to sit with Allie in the water.

  He spotted Leukosia as he passed the tuna pools. "Have you seen Allie?" he asked.

  "Try the birthing pool," she said.

  Allie had gone into labour already? Galen broke into a run.

  The birthing pool was warm, wide and shallow, filled with Mer bodies of every colour. Every colour except orange.

  "Where is she?" he asked urgently.

  "I'm here," Allie's voice said, sounding strained.

  Now he saw her – looking like a naked Human woman, not a mermaid, in the middle of the pool.

  "She's coming, Galen," Allie cried, reaching for his hand as she gritted her teeth through a contraction.

  The Mer women made space for him, and for once he didn't notice their nakedness. He had eyes only for Allie.

  "She's crowning. Push again!" one of the Mer women said, peering intently between Allie's legs. She swished her tail impatiently. "Now. Push hard now!"

  Allie screamed until she ran out of air, but still she pushed, panting for breath.

  "Again!" the Mer doctor ordered.

  Allie obeyed, but the look of agony on her face as she cried out to the stars above tore Galen's heart in two.

  "You need to give her something for the pain. Can't you see how much this is hurting her?" Galen demanded.

  No one listened.

  "One more!"

  Allie squeezed Galen's had so hard he wanted to cry out, but he stayed strong for her. He had to.

  "Oooh!" the surrounding crowd sang, as something small and rust-coloured shot between Allie's legs in a cloud of blood.

  One of them caught the baby and brought her squirming to her mother's arms. Her tail made her look like a salmon, shimmery silver-pink, but her eyes were the colour of sage.

  "Her name!" the Mer chanted. "What is her name?"

  Galen ignored them, reaching to stroke his daughter's cheek. "She has my mother's eyes," he said softly, finding it hard to swallow.

  "Then her name is Panacea," Allie said.

  Galen knew he'd never told her his mother's name. Lennox' words came back to him then – Allie might have killed hundreds of people during the war, but she knew every name. Allie was many things, but not a monster. And because of her, Panacea Tasker lived again, sired in the impossible union between two races that might one day learn to live in peace.

  In the future, they would call times like these halcyon days, where peace reigned and no storm raged. For sometimes the universe needed a halcyon, a siren who could both call and calm the storm.

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from The Complex!

  All reviews are appreciated.

  If you would like to read more from The Complex series, please click on the link below:

  The Complex Website

  (http://www.thecomplex.info/)

  Author's Note

  Halcyon isn't my first book about sirens or mermaids – far from it. If you'd like to get a bundle of books for free, including three free mermaid books, go to: http://subscribe.demelzacarlton.com/Halcyon

  Or you could click on the picture below.

  Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.

  She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.

  Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Au
stralia, the shark attack capital of the world.

  The Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed her suspense thriller Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn't leave her alone.

  Want to know more? You can follow Demelza on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or her website, Demelza Carlton’s Place at:

  www.demelzacarlton.com

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