Nota bene: the chapter features mature content!
I couldn't find my shoes anywhere. They just disappeared. I looked even under a dusty wooden box that had stood long before my coming there. I was in a small hidden alcove under the rainbow shaped bridge.
I didn't really feel cold under the water, but on the surface I was chilled to the bone. I jumped a little bit to warm myself before getting out of my extemporize clothesroom. Two siblings kindly proposed me to enchant the alcove, so that none of the humans can find it or see me inside even if they were one arm away from me. Just a simple rune, but what an incredible effect it has.
I looked around one more time hoping my shoes would probably forgive me and return. The place was dark and cramped. No doors or screens just an archway that was probably built to create a tiny romantic nook, but ended up as a free public toilet and a canvas for urban art. We cleaned it, and I started using it every time I needed to be ashore, keeping there some essential items as clothes, keys or a wallet.
I can't stay in or under the water twenty four seven. Being the creature of two worlds, once in a while I crave for some walk. It was easier to remain my disguise centuries ago. My visceral aura is capable enough to change some of my features like ears or hair. It wasn't even a problem to change my skin tone, making it a little bit darker or lighter to blend in among the locals. They had no passports or records; I could literally be anyone! I used to come to a settlement or a village pretending to be a simple country servant-maid who was looking for a job. I moved from one place to another and burnt all bridges when time was right. I had numerous invented stories about my life: not sure how many times I was a waitress and worked in taverns; a helping hand for herbalists; a fisherwoman; once I was even a fortune teller. Sometimes I teamed up with witches or witchers to everybody's advantage. It might be dangerous, no doubt, to trust them blindly, but without them the life of creatures outside "safe zones" could be almost impossible.
Nobody noticed me standing in a coat and a hat but barefooted. They didn't care, running their errands, busy with their problems. Yellowish leaves of birch trees were scattered around like golden coins on damp asphalt. I didn't want to stay there any longer, for it was the very spot I saw Marina last time.
It was so nice to enter a cozy warm cafe and feel the smell of coffee and fresh pastries. Human food was not good for me, but the smell I didn't hate. I had couple of hours before my shift, and I wanted to devote some time to finding anything to put on my feet. A surly and indifferent coworker was standing at the counter.
"Where's Vera or Alex?" I asked.
He looked at me as if he stepped on a sea urchin.
"Break room."
I was about to thank him, but looking at his face made me change my mind (poor little loser was unable to forgive my refusal). I just smirked and headed to the door with a sign that said "STAFF ONLY". I entered without knocking and immediately regretted. The picture behind the door was not a big surprise, I must say, yet rather disturbing. I have been dealing with witches since the moment I found myself at the edge of the crystal waters. Witches took a peculiar niche in our society: immensely powerful and mortal they resemble humans more than any other creatures. They could be devoted friends or lovers, but their magical methods could be beyond all norms of our world. Being curious and ruthless at the same time, witches and witchers investigate all facets of magical arts. They don't mind even the most inappropriate, sinister, or lethal tools. Even if the tool was a female human.
I saw Alex and a longlegged blond in a provocative pose. Alex's sister who was standing in front of them in a circle of herb branches was singing a long spell. The stranger seemed to be unaware of the ritual; her eyes were glowing unusually like candles that had been placed on shelves, lockers, and a highly flammable floor. I heard her moaning with pleasure while Alex was investigating her body with his hands and lips.
I quickly apologized and escaped like a gust of wind. I was sure they didn't care about my presence in the room: I might have said or done literally anything there with the same zero result. Frankly speaking, the thing that troubled me most at that moment was the absence of my shoes and Marina.
Ten minutes later the beauty flew out the break room. She walked by me with a dreamy expression. I immediately recognized her. She was the girl my stupid coworker had been trying to have his way with after some cheap attempts to seduce me. I laughed: that human took her to a sexy beast himself and still expected her to stay with him. He smiled and tried to flirt with the girl, but blondie has already got a sweet bite of satisfaction. No doubt, witchers could be magical in bed.
I've not known siblings long. Maybe fifty or sixty summers, but they proved themselves as trustworthy friends with some kinks, though. They gave me one of big rooms in their tremendous apartment where I might stay during my "walks" and a shift in their cafe they owned just for fun, for I was sure they were incredibly rich as any other witches. In human terms they looked like they were in their early thirties. Dangerously beautiful with beach-ready bodies, white water lily skin and silver pearl hair they swim among humans like predators. There is not a single second in the day that I don't think when they might cross the line with their aura experiments.
Following the girl, Vera noticed me and beckoned with her hand; another hand was holding my shoes by their laces.
"I didn't know you like watching your own brother banging just anybody. Was it really worth it?" I couldn't help commenting while tying my shoelaces.
"I didn't know mermaids have turned into puritans," fenced Alex who was already dressed and adjusting his expensive tie.
"Touché," I did lots of things during my life I was not proud of: maybe it was my payback for all I did with humans. I sighed, having flashbacks of my disastrous date with Marina, two disastrous dates, to be more precise. Vera squinted, probably connecting the dots, but didn't say her assumptions about me aloud.
"Here is the potion; it might help you," between her index finger and thumb she was holding a glass flacon with a substance resembling liquid honey. "Two drops in her coffee would be enough."
"Enough for what? For whom?"
"Enough for your pet human to love you," Alex grinned.
"It's freshly made: you've seen the process yourself. We guarantee the result," Vera was grinning too. In candlelight they resembled me two dark reflections of one person.
"I don't need it. I would never do it to Marina," I said it carelessly, but inside I felt like a crybaby.
"Her name is Marina, Alex. I told you so. Someone is in love!"
"I'm not in love. Even if it was so, I don't need any spells or potions to make her mine. I'm gorgeous enough to dazzle her or anyone else."
"Good luck, my dear limnetic, but who's that young spicy hipster standing next to her just right now?" Alex opened the curtain showing me the most terrible scene. My heart sank. I didn't know it could be so painful watching her with someone else. That's why she was so embarrassed in astral travel; that's why she was so politely cold with me in the street. Her heart belongs to someone else. And that someone was standing next to her smiling, and she was giving her beautiful smile back to him brushing a loose strand of her soft brown hair. I would give all my immortal life just to become that human male, so that she could look at me the way she was looking at him with her bright Caribbean blue eyes. "What if my coin found a wrong person? No, that's impossible," I was murmuring to myself.
Siblings seemed to be sorry for me, but you never know what was behind those inscrutable black eyes.
"Give me that stupid stuff!" I hissed through my teeth.
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