Mermadia Falcon
Title: Mermadia Falcon
Author: Alsike
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: X-men/Criminal Minds... With Mermaids. Film Noir Mermaids.
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid.
Word Count: 4252
Prompt: Seriously, Vampires or Mermaids? Mermaids, definitely.
Apologies: This probably could be better, but as I need to focus on the paper from hell now, I am going to mark this finished. I probably shouldn't have let my babysitting charges help with the plot, but they wanted to. I also wrote nearly all of this while babysitting, which may account for quality. (I have illustrations by the 7 year old!) (I may have to play this story with Barbies on Thursday. We got them all dressed for it today. I believe the sex will be excised. If so, I'm not totally sure what's left. O.o)
Notes:
Mermaids are mammals. They have mammaries, they thus must be mammals. And my mermaids are generally dolphin based. I.e. dorsal fins and prehensile labia included. And gatling torpedo guns, duh. The society that they live in is also dolphin based, except for the parts that are bad detective story based.
It was never easy, being a mermaid in a merman’s world. You didn’t go anywhere without your gat for one, at least if you were the sort of mermaid to go around on your own. Emily was that sort, and she never went anywhere unprotected, not with the rampaging bulls roaming, ready to corner anyone alone. And Emily didn’t have a pod anymore, not for a long time, not since she had been a little calf, swimming with her mother and siblings and their pod had been attacked. Guns had been rare then, but this school of bulls had them. They had taken her struggling fighting mother, grabbing her wrists, her head, her tail. And Emily had heard them laugh as the bullets from their gats plowed through the water towards them, target practice, nothing else. Emily had hidden in the cloud of blood, too panicked to run, and watched. She had seen the s-shaped hooks of their cocks, as ready as spears, their thrusting tails. They took turns. After a while her mother had stopped calling out. And then, when they were done, one of their cocks snaked around her neck and snapped it.
Emily didn’t have a pod anymore. She had a gat instead.
* * *
The barnacles glittered in the dim light of the setting sun and Emily swam up the gorge towards the surface and her place of business. The lights to the shops and clubs were just coming on. It was a dangerous neighborhood, right up by the cliffs, with some quite suspicious looking merpeople hanging around on the corners, but Emily had lived here for a long time, and she was considered one of the reasons it was dangerous.
Derek was up fixing the sign to his bar, ‘The Drowned Pirate,’ and saw her. He waved her over, kicking down to her.
“I saw someone heading into your place,” he said in a low tone. “Either you’ve got a customer or some other type of company.” Emily nodded, her hand finding the smooth back of her gat. “You want me and Spence to back you up?”
“Just one, right?”
Derek nodded.
“I think I can take one.” She gave him a humorless grin. “Thanks for the heads up though.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He gave her a shoulder pat. “You better come to the club tonight though. And if I hear a shot, we’re heading over.”
It was dark in the lower caves, but there was definitely someone waiting for her. Emily stood in the doorway, exit at her back, and flipped on the light. It was a mermaid, slim and sleek, with the pale coloring of the nobility, a slivery blue back and a pale belly, with a matching pale cloud of hair, nothing like Emily’s black back, white front, and white streaked sides. She was leaning against Emily’s desk, tail curled underneath, the thin silver duster open at the front, showing off more pale skin, the curve of breasts, and chains of glittering shells, wrapped in loops around her neck and waist and tailfins. She was clearly not from around here.
Keeping the stranger fixed in view, Emily glanced to the corners of the room. Everything was open down there, no place for an ambush, and the upper floor, where she lived, was sealed off. She swam into the room, with a slow easy kick and shut the door behind her. She fixed the mermaid with a steady look. The mermaid looked back, eyes narrow and evaluating.
“Who the fuck are you, and what were you thinking, breaking into my office?”
“Sorry if I thought waiting for you in here was a better idea than hanging around outside,” the mermaid drawled, and Emily just tried to get her head around this. “I’m Emma Frost, and I’m here because I have business for you.”
“This is not the sort of place for someone like you. Don’t you know that it’s dangerous here?”
“That’s why I came to you.”
This mermaid, who had just barged into her office, was most definitely not from around here. She was from one of the wealthiest families; nobility basically, and there was absolutely no excuse for her to be here, whatever she said about Emily’s reputation.
“Doesn’t your family assign you bodyguards?”
Emma shrugged. “Spies, you mean? I don’t need my family knowing I came here. But I am willing to pay you, whatever you ask, so don’t you want to hear about my difficulties, detective?”
Emily frowned. “I’m not promising anything.”
“I’m engaged.”
“Congratulations,” Emily said dryly. Emma gave her a narrow look.
“Don’t be to hasty with that. I’ve been hearing rumors that he’s been… cheating. And I want proof of it being true, or proof of it not.”
Emily shook her head, tired and exasperated with this foolhardy request. “I can’t take that case.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, it’s pretty hard to find proof that something isn’t happening. And second, do you really expect me to be able to get near anyone on your side of town without getting broiled?”
Emma’s eyes scanned over her in such a way that made Emily want to zip up her jacket. “Surely you have someone to ask. I don’t think he’s been discreet. I’m not as much of an idiot as you might think. I came to you for a reason, because you’re right, it would be dangerous to go to anyone else. But I think it might be just as dangerous for me in the long run to do nothing.”
Emily groaned. “Fine.”
* * *
Spencer was behind the floating bar, pouring drinks. Derek was swimming around the tables, picking up empties and chatting up the sparse customers. He brought the glasses back and gave Spencer a kiss along with an order for more drinks from the tables. Emma watched them and then glanced away, an impenetrable expression on her face. Emily frowned, but led the way in.
“Emily!” Derek embraced her. “Glad to see you’re alive.”
“Who’s this, Emily?” Spencer looked over curiously from where he was drying glasses, and lining them up.
“My client,” Emily replied flatly. “She decided that she’d rather assist me personally than let me get down to work.”
“How helpful of her.”
Emma snorted lightly and jabbed Emily with an elbow. Emily took the hint, “I thought I’d ask you a few things.”
Spencer looked interested, but Derek frowned, glancing Emma over in a businesslike way. “I don’t think we have the sort of information you need.”
“Long shot, I know.” Emily shrugged. “Give me a drink.”
“You Madame?” Spencer inquired of Emma.
Emma asked for a disgustingly expensive brand. Emily rolled her eyes.
“We’re looking to see if anyone’s heard of the activities of the merman, Warren Worthington Jr.”
Spencer swished his tail consideringly, but shook his head. “Not really part of our town.”
Emily shrugged and gave Emma a sharp look. “I told you it wasn’t going to happen.”
Emma ignored her and sipped the drink, glancing around the half submerged bar, decorated with dreck from the landsmen. She seemed approving, generally, and threaded her fingers through her wet hair, dragging it away from her face.
“Of course, I think I spotted the guru in here tonight,” added Derek. “You never know what she knows.”
Emily frowned, the sooner she ran out of leads, the sooner she could send Emma home. She was safe for now.
“Stay here,” she instructed. Emma gave her a look, but turned to Spencer and smiled. “I like your bar very much. Where did you come up with the decorations?”
Spencer brightened. He pointed down into the black depths beneath the entrance. “There’s actually a sunken landsman whale down there. We just took the bits we thought would look nice. Derek arranged them mostly.”
Emily groaned internally and swam away from them. Spencer could talk about his bar for hours. It was filling up and Emily never quite knew if the guru wasn’t in the cluster or if she had just turned away at the wrong moment. But finally she caught sight of blonde hair and a huge anemone bloom and headed that way.
She wasn’t there yet when she heard the yelling start, she was just far away from the bar. The yelling was coming from outside, but loud enough to echo through the water and the stone walls of the cave. Merpeople were looking up, glancing around worriedly. Emily couldn’t see the bar, and people were blocking the way back. Then the door burst off its hinges.
It was a pod of young bulls, drunk and armed. They charged in, yelling, throwing glasses they ripped off the tables, tearing the decorations off the walls. One grabbed a patron who was trying to flee and beat him about the head with a stave from the walls. He fell into the water, unconscious and sinking like a stone.
That set off the blood lust, and the other kinds of lust too. Mermaids, old, young, ugly or pretty regardless were grabbed. One bull pulled out his gat and started shooting at glasses. The patrons sunk low, trying to get out of range, but the bulls went down too. Emily saw two grab a mermaid by her arms and a third grab her head and then start… he had a pale silver back, and the chains dangling from his neck and arms were too rich and fancy for him to be just any wild bull.
She turned, dodging through the panicked crowd, swimming up roughly towards the bar. The bar had been smashed. Bulls were crawling over it, grabbing bottles, drinking some, and smashing others. Emma and Derek were nowhere, Spencer was fighting, his face bloody, as he dodged and weaved, keeping out of the way of a buck lashing out with a shattered bottle. Emily ducked back under, scanning through the bloody water desperately. And then she caught sight of a pale silver back again, two pale silver backs. Apparently Warren had finished, and he was chasing after another mermaid. Emma’s eyes were wide, watching him, and she didn’t notice the black-streaked bull and the dark blue one coming. Emily pulled her gat. It was a tough shot, but the miniature torpedo thundered through the water. It impacted the blue one’s shoulder and exploded. Emma whirled at the waves, striking the black streaked one in the gut with a heavy tail, and spinning, seeking escape. Emily dove in, grabbing her arm and dragging her down towards the base.
There was a tunnel there, into a smaller cave Spencer and Derek used for storage, and there was a back way out. She darted around a small outcropping, Emma close on her tail, and into the channel. There were shouts, and she couldn’t be certain that there wasn’t pursuit. She couldn’t stop. They swerved through the cave, and up to the tiny door. Emily unbolted it quickly, thank Derek it wasn’t locked, and they were out, in the alley.
It wasn’t safe there. The shouts of bulls and fleeing citizens came clear from the nearby streets. She whirled, looking to Emma who was listening, serious and intent, and grabbed her arm. “Lets go.”
“You’re kind of fucking noble aren’t you?” Emma asked, unexpectedly laughing and swimming close enough to her to brush their sides, as they moved through the back alleys. Emily ignored her, listening to the crashing and shouts as the bulls wrecked the town. They quieted a little as she made it back to her offices, thankfully, and Emily made sure the lower doors were bolted, and then swam up to the higher caves and bolted those doors too.
Only then did she stop to breathe.
The Drowned Pirate was a wreck, but the bulls couldn’t get in here, not into the top cavern at least, she was prepared for that, whatever Emma breaking into her lower cave said about the security below. They hadn’t made it this far yet, but who knew when they would. She just had to batten down and wait for the storm to pass.
She turned to Emma, hovering near the surface.
“It’s not safe to go home tonight. They’re on the hunt in this town, and I hate to say it, but you’re prime victim material.”
Emma rolled her eyes and swished her tail. “I’ve never had a compliment that sounded so much like an insult before.”
“I didn’t intend it to be complimentary.” She didn’t understand this mermaid. How could she be so relaxed after such a close brush, risking what could have been their lives? And her fiancé had been part of the raid. How could she… unless she had already guessed?
“I know.” Emma shrugged. “Fine. I’ll stay, if you’re so desperate to have me.”
Emily sputtered. She definitely hadn’t said that!
“Party favor.” Emma pulled a bottle of kelp liquor out of her jacket and flashed it at Emily.
“You took that!” Emily exclaimed. Stealing from her friends too? Did she have no shame?
“It was going to get smashed anyway. I protected it.”
“Looter!”
“Shut up.” Emma snapped off the cap and glanced around for mugs. She found some and broke the surface, scrambling up onto the rock ledge, and poured out.
Emily shrugged out of her jacket, and hoisted herself out of the water, taking a swig from the mug. Top shelf. This clearly hadn’t been spur of the moment. In the salt air Emma’s hair was clumping as it dripped droplets of water that ran in smooth channels down her shoulders.
Emily unfastened the band that kept her hair back, and shook it out as a distraction. She couldn’t keep looking at Emma, even if Emma was still looking at her.
“Did you know that he was with a pod of bulls?”
Emma flinched. “Maybe. I just… I needed an excuse.”
“For what?”
“I don’t want to marry him,” Emma said awkwardly.
Emily snorted. After seeing that, who would? Still, she didn't have many illusions about what sort of choices mermaids were allowed, no matter how wealthy and highborn. “As long as you stay on your side of town he won’t do anything to you. You’re safe.”
“I didn’t really…” Emma bit off her sentence, and her voice dropped, both in pitch and in volume. “Maybe I’m not that interested in safe.”
Emily looked up. What in the oceans… Emma was watching her intently with those crisp cool blue eyes. Her lips were wet with liquor, her skin… Emily let her eyes drop, almost on accident. The silver white skin of her tail belly was slightly flushed rose. And suddenly the direct hard gaze was humiliating, and Emily felt hot, unable to look. Emma’s face burned and she turned away, trying to turn her stomach too.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily hadn’t meant to embarrass her, and she reached out, almost involuntarily, and pressed her hand against the smooth warm skin of Emma’s belly. Emma hissed in air, glancing back, holding herself stiff, and Emily started to move her hand, stroke softly, and the rose flush brightened. Emily pushed off her other hand, moving towards her until her own front was close enough to touch. She pressed their tails together. Emma was all white and pink; pale skin, flushed cheeks, belly, lips and nipples. And Emily leaned in, cupping her cheek with her cool hand to hold her head in place and pressing their mouths together, lips touching gently, nothing like the heat of their sensitive fronts as they rubbed together, nipples sharp and brushing. Emily’s hand went to one breast, curling around it. Emma was rubbing at her dorsal fin, stroking down her back and up over the smooth curve, almost clinging. And then, slowly, Emily broke the kiss.
“Is that what you mean by not safe?”
Emma was flushed, breathing hard, her chest heaving. Emily couldn’t help reaching out for her exposed breasts, groping roughly, and Emma’s tail bucked up against hers, curling around her. “Yes,” she hissed. And Emily caught her shoulders, pulling her off the ledge and back down into the water.
Once there, Emma beat out with her tail, propelling them towards the wall, and started moving against her. She kissed her, her mouth hot, and Emily let herself be kissed, closed her eyes, and felt Emma’s tongue slip into her mouth. She didn’t want to pull away, but mostly didn’t want to look down, see her own arousal written in red across her front.
And then Emma’s mouth was gone, and she was sliding down her body, biting at her neck, sucking roughly at her breasts, and her hand was moving down, teasing, twisting in her navel, and then farther down the front of her tail, and Emily tried to gasp and choked.
Emma glanced up, hair haloing her face, and frowned, then kicked out, bringing them just up enough so Emily’s head was above water. It was as humiliating as anything, but Emily had never felt anything like that, not enough to make her forget not to breathe. And then Emma’s long slender fingers slipped into her and it was even worse. They twirled around the hot swollen nub, and Emily’s tail thrust frantically into her, and then she slipped down, and Emily couldn’t help pulling her inside, just enveloping her hand. She could feel it so well inside of her, and tightened around it, tugging, grasping and releasing. Emma’s mouth was kissing her navel, tongue inside it, and her hand was so deep, the other cupped around her dorsal fin, and she was shuddering against her, desperate for the air, and coming, so unbelievably hard.
She gasped and then sank under the foaming water, Emma coming up to kiss her, and then smirk. “And I’m victim material?”
The blood, the s-hooks, the shouts from so little before, shocked her, and Emily felt cold and angry. She grabbed Emma’s wrists, shoving her against the wall. Her head snapped back, cracking sharply against it. “Yes,” she said harshly. Emma flinched, and Emily leaned in, biting down on her lower lip until she tasted blood in the water. Her tail was pressed against Emma’s sleek belly, keeping her trapped. But Emma’s tail curled around it, moving roughly against hers, and Emily could feel it, hot and slick and desperate, and she slid her hand down, over the curve of her breast and down her side until she reached the slit on the front of her tail, and with one finger teased inside. It caught at her, tugging hard. Emma gasped into her mouth, asking for more, but Emily pulled it out slowly, teasing. Then another finger, circling her clit, and moving down, and Emma’s tail was humping against her hand, but she still wouldn’t give her more.
“You don’t understand. I might be safe, but being around me isn’t.”
“Stop trying to control me,” Emma hissed, tail tightening around her. “You’re not my father.”
And Emily pushed into her, forcefully, tightening her hand into a fist. It tightened around her wrist, trying to hold her immobile, but she wouldn’t let it. Biting down on Emma’s shoulder she moved roughly and Emma’s arms tightened around her, fingernails clawing at her back.
* * *
It wasn’t just one time. Afterwards, they floated near the top, still and curled up close together. Emma’s head was pressed into her shoulder and her hands slowly moved up and down her body, stroking her back, her sides. Emily let herself relax into her touch.
“I told you that I wasn’t interested in safe.”
Emily looked at her, her bruised mouth, cooling belly, she flexed her hand, trying to forget the feeling of driving it deeply into her. And she remembered too well that cloud of blood, the anger and lust, her own lust. “You should be,” she replied, and swam down to open the door and throw her out.
Emma stiffly made her way towards the door with plaintive beats of her tail. When she was outside, two burly mermen came out of the shadows, and Emily stiffened. But Emma didn’t seem frightened, she just groaned. “I thought I lost you two.”
“Not for long enough.” Her bodyguard scowled and caught her chin. “Your daddy’s not going to be pleased with those marks on you, whore.”
“Shut the fuck up. You going to tattle on me?” She snorted. “I’m not surprised. You always do.”
Emily hovered in the shadows by the doorway, and watched them swim away, guilty but helpless.
* * *
There was nothing in these caves of white stone and living coral that made Emma feel safe. The fact that her father was waiting, swimming laps in the atrium, made her feel even less so.
“We got her,” Trevor growled, and shoved her towards him. Emma straightened up stiffly, pulling her duster closed over her front. There was nothing she could do about the ugly swelling on her lip. Her father looked at her, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze, ducking her head slightly to try to keep the welt out of his line of sight. It didn’t work, he swam closer, grabbed her jaw and jerked her face around until she couldn’t help but meet her eyes. Her pressed his thumb down on the wound and it opened, bleeding again, but Emma held back the sound she wanted to make at the pain.
“Somehow I don’t believe you got into a fight.”
“You should,” Emma snapped back, as well as she could with her jaw restrained. “It was a bar brawl. Warren and his pod started it.”
“Do you usually get teeth marks in your lip from a bar brawl?”
“Why does it fucking matter how I got teeth marks in my lip?” Emma jerked away from him. “Warren is in a wild bull pod and you’re still making me go with him. Shouldn’t I be allowed to do what I please as well?”
Her father laughed at her. He actually laughed. Emma whirled.
“You are allowed many things because he is in that pod.” Her father flashed his teeth. “You are allowed to feel safe because he is powerful, I am powerful. But the moment you step out of our protection, you are worthless, and just as vulnerable as anyone else. If you got out of the bar brawl unscathed, you were lucky, and that’s all you were.”
He looked at her as if he thought that the mark on her face was a sign that she had paid for her escape with her body, but if she had it was a mark of gratitude, not payment. She scowled, not mentioning the detective with the gat who hadn’t just abandoned her. “You’re saying I should be grateful to be a prisoner?”
“Essentially. You have a choice: be a prisoner or a victim. But after this?” He ran his middle finger over her lower lip and she recoiled. “You won’t have a second chance to make that choice.”
* * *
“You were at the Drowned Pirate last night, weren’t you?”
Emma looked up from where she was hastily stuffing things into her bag and spotted her brother peeking in the entrance. She stopped what she was doing and turned to him. He came inside, closing the door behind him carefully.
“I was,” she replied. “Are you going to rail at me too, for being a whore?”
“No,” Christian said softly. He didn’t say he didn’t agree with the summation either though. “Spencer and Derek are good mermen. You can trust them, and those they consider friends. If you’re really going…” he nodded towards the half full bag. “You should go back there.”
Emma touched her lip absently and shook her head. “I don’t think their friends want me around right now.”
Christian looked at her and laughed. “I doubt that would truly stop them from helping you. Here.” He pressed a small gat, easily concealable, into her hand, and touched her arm gently. “Stay safe for me.”
* * *
She hadn’t intended on going there, but she had studied that area better than the others she had never been allowed to go into, and ended up at the door. Spencer and Derek were in the midst of cleaning up, Derek diving for whatever was salvageable from the floor, Spencer sorting out the mess of broken glass that was their liquor shelves. She did feel slightly guilty for taking the kelp liquor, but it really honestly would have been smashed. The bulls didn’t leave a thing behind.
She announced her presence. “Hey.”
Spencer glanced up and gave her a smile. “Nice to see you again.” Derek surfaces and his expression is more suspicious.
“My brother sent me here, Christian. Do you know him?”
Derek nods, his suspicion fading.
And then Emma made the effort. “I was wondering if I could get a job here.”
Spencer laughed. “Sure, take a broom.”
Emily came in a few hours later, a delivery box dragging behind her on a rope. She instantly spotted Emma, sweeping broken glass off the shelves and wiping them clean. She gaped for a few moments.
“What are you doing here?”
Emma didn’t turn around. “I’m not speaking to you right now.”
The exclamation of frustration and fury nearly made Spencer drop the tiller he was mounting on the wall. Derek grinned, taking the box from her and patting her on the shoulder. “We gave her a job. You have plenty of time to win her back.”
FIN
Author: Alsike
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: X-men/Criminal Minds... With Mermaids. Film Noir Mermaids.
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid.
Word Count: 4252
Prompt: Seriously, Vampires or Mermaids? Mermaids, definitely.
Apologies: This probably could be better, but as I need to focus on the paper from hell now, I am going to mark this finished. I probably shouldn't have let my babysitting charges help with the plot, but they wanted to. I also wrote nearly all of this while babysitting, which may account for quality. (I have illustrations by the 7 year old!) (I may have to play this story with Barbies on Thursday. We got them all dressed for it today. I believe the sex will be excised. If so, I'm not totally sure what's left. O.o)
Notes:
Mermaids are mammals. They have mammaries, they thus must be mammals. And my mermaids are generally dolphin based. I.e. dorsal fins and prehensile labia included. And gatling torpedo guns, duh. The society that they live in is also dolphin based, except for the parts that are bad detective story based.
It was never easy, being a mermaid in a merman’s world. You didn’t go anywhere without your gat for one, at least if you were the sort of mermaid to go around on your own. Emily was that sort, and she never went anywhere unprotected, not with the rampaging bulls roaming, ready to corner anyone alone. And Emily didn’t have a pod anymore, not for a long time, not since she had been a little calf, swimming with her mother and siblings and their pod had been attacked. Guns had been rare then, but this school of bulls had them. They had taken her struggling fighting mother, grabbing her wrists, her head, her tail. And Emily had heard them laugh as the bullets from their gats plowed through the water towards them, target practice, nothing else. Emily had hidden in the cloud of blood, too panicked to run, and watched. She had seen the s-shaped hooks of their cocks, as ready as spears, their thrusting tails. They took turns. After a while her mother had stopped calling out. And then, when they were done, one of their cocks snaked around her neck and snapped it.
Emily didn’t have a pod anymore. She had a gat instead.
* * *
The barnacles glittered in the dim light of the setting sun and Emily swam up the gorge towards the surface and her place of business. The lights to the shops and clubs were just coming on. It was a dangerous neighborhood, right up by the cliffs, with some quite suspicious looking merpeople hanging around on the corners, but Emily had lived here for a long time, and she was considered one of the reasons it was dangerous.
Derek was up fixing the sign to his bar, ‘The Drowned Pirate,’ and saw her. He waved her over, kicking down to her.
“I saw someone heading into your place,” he said in a low tone. “Either you’ve got a customer or some other type of company.” Emily nodded, her hand finding the smooth back of her gat. “You want me and Spence to back you up?”
“Just one, right?”
Derek nodded.
“I think I can take one.” She gave him a humorless grin. “Thanks for the heads up though.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He gave her a shoulder pat. “You better come to the club tonight though. And if I hear a shot, we’re heading over.”
It was dark in the lower caves, but there was definitely someone waiting for her. Emily stood in the doorway, exit at her back, and flipped on the light. It was a mermaid, slim and sleek, with the pale coloring of the nobility, a slivery blue back and a pale belly, with a matching pale cloud of hair, nothing like Emily’s black back, white front, and white streaked sides. She was leaning against Emily’s desk, tail curled underneath, the thin silver duster open at the front, showing off more pale skin, the curve of breasts, and chains of glittering shells, wrapped in loops around her neck and waist and tailfins. She was clearly not from around here.
Keeping the stranger fixed in view, Emily glanced to the corners of the room. Everything was open down there, no place for an ambush, and the upper floor, where she lived, was sealed off. She swam into the room, with a slow easy kick and shut the door behind her. She fixed the mermaid with a steady look. The mermaid looked back, eyes narrow and evaluating.
“Who the fuck are you, and what were you thinking, breaking into my office?”
“Sorry if I thought waiting for you in here was a better idea than hanging around outside,” the mermaid drawled, and Emily just tried to get her head around this. “I’m Emma Frost, and I’m here because I have business for you.”
“This is not the sort of place for someone like you. Don’t you know that it’s dangerous here?”
“That’s why I came to you.”
This mermaid, who had just barged into her office, was most definitely not from around here. She was from one of the wealthiest families; nobility basically, and there was absolutely no excuse for her to be here, whatever she said about Emily’s reputation.
“Doesn’t your family assign you bodyguards?”
Emma shrugged. “Spies, you mean? I don’t need my family knowing I came here. But I am willing to pay you, whatever you ask, so don’t you want to hear about my difficulties, detective?”
Emily frowned. “I’m not promising anything.”
“I’m engaged.”
“Congratulations,” Emily said dryly. Emma gave her a narrow look.
“Don’t be to hasty with that. I’ve been hearing rumors that he’s been… cheating. And I want proof of it being true, or proof of it not.”
Emily shook her head, tired and exasperated with this foolhardy request. “I can’t take that case.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, it’s pretty hard to find proof that something isn’t happening. And second, do you really expect me to be able to get near anyone on your side of town without getting broiled?”
Emma’s eyes scanned over her in such a way that made Emily want to zip up her jacket. “Surely you have someone to ask. I don’t think he’s been discreet. I’m not as much of an idiot as you might think. I came to you for a reason, because you’re right, it would be dangerous to go to anyone else. But I think it might be just as dangerous for me in the long run to do nothing.”
Emily groaned. “Fine.”
* * *
Spencer was behind the floating bar, pouring drinks. Derek was swimming around the tables, picking up empties and chatting up the sparse customers. He brought the glasses back and gave Spencer a kiss along with an order for more drinks from the tables. Emma watched them and then glanced away, an impenetrable expression on her face. Emily frowned, but led the way in.
“Emily!” Derek embraced her. “Glad to see you’re alive.”
“Who’s this, Emily?” Spencer looked over curiously from where he was drying glasses, and lining them up.
“My client,” Emily replied flatly. “She decided that she’d rather assist me personally than let me get down to work.”
“How helpful of her.”
Emma snorted lightly and jabbed Emily with an elbow. Emily took the hint, “I thought I’d ask you a few things.”
Spencer looked interested, but Derek frowned, glancing Emma over in a businesslike way. “I don’t think we have the sort of information you need.”
“Long shot, I know.” Emily shrugged. “Give me a drink.”
“You Madame?” Spencer inquired of Emma.
Emma asked for a disgustingly expensive brand. Emily rolled her eyes.
“We’re looking to see if anyone’s heard of the activities of the merman, Warren Worthington Jr.”
Spencer swished his tail consideringly, but shook his head. “Not really part of our town.”
Emily shrugged and gave Emma a sharp look. “I told you it wasn’t going to happen.”
Emma ignored her and sipped the drink, glancing around the half submerged bar, decorated with dreck from the landsmen. She seemed approving, generally, and threaded her fingers through her wet hair, dragging it away from her face.
“Of course, I think I spotted the guru in here tonight,” added Derek. “You never know what she knows.”
Emily frowned, the sooner she ran out of leads, the sooner she could send Emma home. She was safe for now.
“Stay here,” she instructed. Emma gave her a look, but turned to Spencer and smiled. “I like your bar very much. Where did you come up with the decorations?”
Spencer brightened. He pointed down into the black depths beneath the entrance. “There’s actually a sunken landsman whale down there. We just took the bits we thought would look nice. Derek arranged them mostly.”
Emily groaned internally and swam away from them. Spencer could talk about his bar for hours. It was filling up and Emily never quite knew if the guru wasn’t in the cluster or if she had just turned away at the wrong moment. But finally she caught sight of blonde hair and a huge anemone bloom and headed that way.
She wasn’t there yet when she heard the yelling start, she was just far away from the bar. The yelling was coming from outside, but loud enough to echo through the water and the stone walls of the cave. Merpeople were looking up, glancing around worriedly. Emily couldn’t see the bar, and people were blocking the way back. Then the door burst off its hinges.
It was a pod of young bulls, drunk and armed. They charged in, yelling, throwing glasses they ripped off the tables, tearing the decorations off the walls. One grabbed a patron who was trying to flee and beat him about the head with a stave from the walls. He fell into the water, unconscious and sinking like a stone.
That set off the blood lust, and the other kinds of lust too. Mermaids, old, young, ugly or pretty regardless were grabbed. One bull pulled out his gat and started shooting at glasses. The patrons sunk low, trying to get out of range, but the bulls went down too. Emily saw two grab a mermaid by her arms and a third grab her head and then start… he had a pale silver back, and the chains dangling from his neck and arms were too rich and fancy for him to be just any wild bull.
She turned, dodging through the panicked crowd, swimming up roughly towards the bar. The bar had been smashed. Bulls were crawling over it, grabbing bottles, drinking some, and smashing others. Emma and Derek were nowhere, Spencer was fighting, his face bloody, as he dodged and weaved, keeping out of the way of a buck lashing out with a shattered bottle. Emily ducked back under, scanning through the bloody water desperately. And then she caught sight of a pale silver back again, two pale silver backs. Apparently Warren had finished, and he was chasing after another mermaid. Emma’s eyes were wide, watching him, and she didn’t notice the black-streaked bull and the dark blue one coming. Emily pulled her gat. It was a tough shot, but the miniature torpedo thundered through the water. It impacted the blue one’s shoulder and exploded. Emma whirled at the waves, striking the black streaked one in the gut with a heavy tail, and spinning, seeking escape. Emily dove in, grabbing her arm and dragging her down towards the base.
There was a tunnel there, into a smaller cave Spencer and Derek used for storage, and there was a back way out. She darted around a small outcropping, Emma close on her tail, and into the channel. There were shouts, and she couldn’t be certain that there wasn’t pursuit. She couldn’t stop. They swerved through the cave, and up to the tiny door. Emily unbolted it quickly, thank Derek it wasn’t locked, and they were out, in the alley.
It wasn’t safe there. The shouts of bulls and fleeing citizens came clear from the nearby streets. She whirled, looking to Emma who was listening, serious and intent, and grabbed her arm. “Lets go.”
“You’re kind of fucking noble aren’t you?” Emma asked, unexpectedly laughing and swimming close enough to her to brush their sides, as they moved through the back alleys. Emily ignored her, listening to the crashing and shouts as the bulls wrecked the town. They quieted a little as she made it back to her offices, thankfully, and Emily made sure the lower doors were bolted, and then swam up to the higher caves and bolted those doors too.
Only then did she stop to breathe.
The Drowned Pirate was a wreck, but the bulls couldn’t get in here, not into the top cavern at least, she was prepared for that, whatever Emma breaking into her lower cave said about the security below. They hadn’t made it this far yet, but who knew when they would. She just had to batten down and wait for the storm to pass.
She turned to Emma, hovering near the surface.
“It’s not safe to go home tonight. They’re on the hunt in this town, and I hate to say it, but you’re prime victim material.”
Emma rolled her eyes and swished her tail. “I’ve never had a compliment that sounded so much like an insult before.”
“I didn’t intend it to be complimentary.” She didn’t understand this mermaid. How could she be so relaxed after such a close brush, risking what could have been their lives? And her fiancé had been part of the raid. How could she… unless she had already guessed?
“I know.” Emma shrugged. “Fine. I’ll stay, if you’re so desperate to have me.”
Emily sputtered. She definitely hadn’t said that!
“Party favor.” Emma pulled a bottle of kelp liquor out of her jacket and flashed it at Emily.
“You took that!” Emily exclaimed. Stealing from her friends too? Did she have no shame?
“It was going to get smashed anyway. I protected it.”
“Looter!”
“Shut up.” Emma snapped off the cap and glanced around for mugs. She found some and broke the surface, scrambling up onto the rock ledge, and poured out.
Emily shrugged out of her jacket, and hoisted herself out of the water, taking a swig from the mug. Top shelf. This clearly hadn’t been spur of the moment. In the salt air Emma’s hair was clumping as it dripped droplets of water that ran in smooth channels down her shoulders.
Emily unfastened the band that kept her hair back, and shook it out as a distraction. She couldn’t keep looking at Emma, even if Emma was still looking at her.
“Did you know that he was with a pod of bulls?”
Emma flinched. “Maybe. I just… I needed an excuse.”
“For what?”
“I don’t want to marry him,” Emma said awkwardly.
Emily snorted. After seeing that, who would? Still, she didn't have many illusions about what sort of choices mermaids were allowed, no matter how wealthy and highborn. “As long as you stay on your side of town he won’t do anything to you. You’re safe.”
“I didn’t really…” Emma bit off her sentence, and her voice dropped, both in pitch and in volume. “Maybe I’m not that interested in safe.”
Emily looked up. What in the oceans… Emma was watching her intently with those crisp cool blue eyes. Her lips were wet with liquor, her skin… Emily let her eyes drop, almost on accident. The silver white skin of her tail belly was slightly flushed rose. And suddenly the direct hard gaze was humiliating, and Emily felt hot, unable to look. Emma’s face burned and she turned away, trying to turn her stomach too.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily hadn’t meant to embarrass her, and she reached out, almost involuntarily, and pressed her hand against the smooth warm skin of Emma’s belly. Emma hissed in air, glancing back, holding herself stiff, and Emily started to move her hand, stroke softly, and the rose flush brightened. Emily pushed off her other hand, moving towards her until her own front was close enough to touch. She pressed their tails together. Emma was all white and pink; pale skin, flushed cheeks, belly, lips and nipples. And Emily leaned in, cupping her cheek with her cool hand to hold her head in place and pressing their mouths together, lips touching gently, nothing like the heat of their sensitive fronts as they rubbed together, nipples sharp and brushing. Emily’s hand went to one breast, curling around it. Emma was rubbing at her dorsal fin, stroking down her back and up over the smooth curve, almost clinging. And then, slowly, Emily broke the kiss.
“Is that what you mean by not safe?”
Emma was flushed, breathing hard, her chest heaving. Emily couldn’t help reaching out for her exposed breasts, groping roughly, and Emma’s tail bucked up against hers, curling around her. “Yes,” she hissed. And Emily caught her shoulders, pulling her off the ledge and back down into the water.
Once there, Emma beat out with her tail, propelling them towards the wall, and started moving against her. She kissed her, her mouth hot, and Emily let herself be kissed, closed her eyes, and felt Emma’s tongue slip into her mouth. She didn’t want to pull away, but mostly didn’t want to look down, see her own arousal written in red across her front.
And then Emma’s mouth was gone, and she was sliding down her body, biting at her neck, sucking roughly at her breasts, and her hand was moving down, teasing, twisting in her navel, and then farther down the front of her tail, and Emily tried to gasp and choked.
Emma glanced up, hair haloing her face, and frowned, then kicked out, bringing them just up enough so Emily’s head was above water. It was as humiliating as anything, but Emily had never felt anything like that, not enough to make her forget not to breathe. And then Emma’s long slender fingers slipped into her and it was even worse. They twirled around the hot swollen nub, and Emily’s tail thrust frantically into her, and then she slipped down, and Emily couldn’t help pulling her inside, just enveloping her hand. She could feel it so well inside of her, and tightened around it, tugging, grasping and releasing. Emma’s mouth was kissing her navel, tongue inside it, and her hand was so deep, the other cupped around her dorsal fin, and she was shuddering against her, desperate for the air, and coming, so unbelievably hard.
She gasped and then sank under the foaming water, Emma coming up to kiss her, and then smirk. “And I’m victim material?”
The blood, the s-hooks, the shouts from so little before, shocked her, and Emily felt cold and angry. She grabbed Emma’s wrists, shoving her against the wall. Her head snapped back, cracking sharply against it. “Yes,” she said harshly. Emma flinched, and Emily leaned in, biting down on her lower lip until she tasted blood in the water. Her tail was pressed against Emma’s sleek belly, keeping her trapped. But Emma’s tail curled around it, moving roughly against hers, and Emily could feel it, hot and slick and desperate, and she slid her hand down, over the curve of her breast and down her side until she reached the slit on the front of her tail, and with one finger teased inside. It caught at her, tugging hard. Emma gasped into her mouth, asking for more, but Emily pulled it out slowly, teasing. Then another finger, circling her clit, and moving down, and Emma’s tail was humping against her hand, but she still wouldn’t give her more.
“You don’t understand. I might be safe, but being around me isn’t.”
“Stop trying to control me,” Emma hissed, tail tightening around her. “You’re not my father.”
And Emily pushed into her, forcefully, tightening her hand into a fist. It tightened around her wrist, trying to hold her immobile, but she wouldn’t let it. Biting down on Emma’s shoulder she moved roughly and Emma’s arms tightened around her, fingernails clawing at her back.
* * *
It wasn’t just one time. Afterwards, they floated near the top, still and curled up close together. Emma’s head was pressed into her shoulder and her hands slowly moved up and down her body, stroking her back, her sides. Emily let herself relax into her touch.
“I told you that I wasn’t interested in safe.”
Emily looked at her, her bruised mouth, cooling belly, she flexed her hand, trying to forget the feeling of driving it deeply into her. And she remembered too well that cloud of blood, the anger and lust, her own lust. “You should be,” she replied, and swam down to open the door and throw her out.
Emma stiffly made her way towards the door with plaintive beats of her tail. When she was outside, two burly mermen came out of the shadows, and Emily stiffened. But Emma didn’t seem frightened, she just groaned. “I thought I lost you two.”
“Not for long enough.” Her bodyguard scowled and caught her chin. “Your daddy’s not going to be pleased with those marks on you, whore.”
“Shut the fuck up. You going to tattle on me?” She snorted. “I’m not surprised. You always do.”
Emily hovered in the shadows by the doorway, and watched them swim away, guilty but helpless.
* * *
There was nothing in these caves of white stone and living coral that made Emma feel safe. The fact that her father was waiting, swimming laps in the atrium, made her feel even less so.
“We got her,” Trevor growled, and shoved her towards him. Emma straightened up stiffly, pulling her duster closed over her front. There was nothing she could do about the ugly swelling on her lip. Her father looked at her, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze, ducking her head slightly to try to keep the welt out of his line of sight. It didn’t work, he swam closer, grabbed her jaw and jerked her face around until she couldn’t help but meet her eyes. Her pressed his thumb down on the wound and it opened, bleeding again, but Emma held back the sound she wanted to make at the pain.
“Somehow I don’t believe you got into a fight.”
“You should,” Emma snapped back, as well as she could with her jaw restrained. “It was a bar brawl. Warren and his pod started it.”
“Do you usually get teeth marks in your lip from a bar brawl?”
“Why does it fucking matter how I got teeth marks in my lip?” Emma jerked away from him. “Warren is in a wild bull pod and you’re still making me go with him. Shouldn’t I be allowed to do what I please as well?”
Her father laughed at her. He actually laughed. Emma whirled.
“You are allowed many things because he is in that pod.” Her father flashed his teeth. “You are allowed to feel safe because he is powerful, I am powerful. But the moment you step out of our protection, you are worthless, and just as vulnerable as anyone else. If you got out of the bar brawl unscathed, you were lucky, and that’s all you were.”
He looked at her as if he thought that the mark on her face was a sign that she had paid for her escape with her body, but if she had it was a mark of gratitude, not payment. She scowled, not mentioning the detective with the gat who hadn’t just abandoned her. “You’re saying I should be grateful to be a prisoner?”
“Essentially. You have a choice: be a prisoner or a victim. But after this?” He ran his middle finger over her lower lip and she recoiled. “You won’t have a second chance to make that choice.”
* * *
“You were at the Drowned Pirate last night, weren’t you?”
Emma looked up from where she was hastily stuffing things into her bag and spotted her brother peeking in the entrance. She stopped what she was doing and turned to him. He came inside, closing the door behind him carefully.
“I was,” she replied. “Are you going to rail at me too, for being a whore?”
“No,” Christian said softly. He didn’t say he didn’t agree with the summation either though. “Spencer and Derek are good mermen. You can trust them, and those they consider friends. If you’re really going…” he nodded towards the half full bag. “You should go back there.”
Emma touched her lip absently and shook her head. “I don’t think their friends want me around right now.”
Christian looked at her and laughed. “I doubt that would truly stop them from helping you. Here.” He pressed a small gat, easily concealable, into her hand, and touched her arm gently. “Stay safe for me.”
* * *
She hadn’t intended on going there, but she had studied that area better than the others she had never been allowed to go into, and ended up at the door. Spencer and Derek were in the midst of cleaning up, Derek diving for whatever was salvageable from the floor, Spencer sorting out the mess of broken glass that was their liquor shelves. She did feel slightly guilty for taking the kelp liquor, but it really honestly would have been smashed. The bulls didn’t leave a thing behind.
She announced her presence. “Hey.”
Spencer glanced up and gave her a smile. “Nice to see you again.” Derek surfaces and his expression is more suspicious.
“My brother sent me here, Christian. Do you know him?”
Derek nods, his suspicion fading.
And then Emma made the effort. “I was wondering if I could get a job here.”
Spencer laughed. “Sure, take a broom.”
Emily came in a few hours later, a delivery box dragging behind her on a rope. She instantly spotted Emma, sweeping broken glass off the shelves and wiping them clean. She gaped for a few moments.
“What are you doing here?”
Emma didn’t turn around. “I’m not speaking to you right now.”
The exclamation of frustration and fury nearly made Spencer drop the tiller he was mounting on the wall. Derek grinned, taking the box from her and patting her on the shoulder. “We gave her a job. You have plenty of time to win her back.”
FIN