Sleeping with the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson Read Free Book Online Page B

pit bull once his mind starting chewing on a problem.
    "So all mer -people—"
    "Undersea Folk," the prince corrected.
    Fred resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Well, he could have picked a worse one, like Ben- Varry or Caesg or Meerfrau . Seemed like all of her research on merfolk came up with stuff that was ninety percent outright wrong, and silly-sounding names.
    "Right, right, that's what I meant. All Undersea Folk are super strong, and can see in the dark, and can breathe air and water—how
do
you breathe air and water?"
    "We just—do." Artur looked from Fred to Jonas, puzzled. "Are you not comrades? How do you not know these things about a friend?"
    "Because
Fred
doesn't know a lot of these things. She was raised by humans. Heck, I didn't even know she was a fellow mammal at first, because she's so clammy all the time. You think her mom ever let her near a doctor?"
    "I'm never sick," Fred said absently.
    "Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Fred doesn't have gills. Not even when she has a tail."
    "Never mind her tail," the prince ordered. "And why would she? She is not part fish. She is one of the Undersea Folk. She is one of
my
people."
    "Oh, take a pill, handsome. I'm just making observations, here, and you're getting all touchy." He added, oddly, "Resist the urge to pick me up and shake me like a juice box."
    Artur sighed, the quiet groan of a man picking up a heavy, chattering burden. "We pull air into our bodies when we are on land, and when we are under water we pull air from the water."
    "Okay, that was super helpful. Lemme just grab some clarification, ' kay ? So—like, you get oxygen from the water, how? The cells of your body somehow open up and grab the oxygen and bring it into your system? You're, what, like starfish?"
    Close, Fred thought. It really was difficult to explain. As people didn't think about breathing, she didn't think about water-breathing.
    No, she didn't have gills, and she wasn't half girl, half fish, but a mammal that simply resembled such a creature. A large, hostile mammal whose baseline temp was eighty-eight degrees and whose resting heart rate was thirty.
    She just—just never needed to come up for air when she was swimming. Interesting that even though she had a doctorate in marine biology she never gave much thought to her
own
biology. (Though it had been amusing, picturing her professors' reactions if she had shown off her tail during a wet lab.) Very likely the pores in her skin were able to extract oxygen from the—
    "This is useless," she said, bored with the 'how do you not drown' talk, and annoyed with Pearson's notes. "A bad idea. We should have come during business hours."
    "Oh, sure," Jonas said snarkily . "
That
would have been easy to explain . ' Hi, Dr. Barb, this is the Prince of the—"
    Fred gave him a look. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
    "Sobbingly, no."
    "Well, let's think about this. I'd like to try feeding the fish again, anyway, so I might as well do it while we're here. You—what's your plan?"
    "For what?" Artur replied, looking startled when she pointed at him.
    "For—you know. Waiting until tomorrow to meet the
other
guy who's bugging me about your little problem."
    "I will return with you to your dwelling, of course."
    "What?" she cried. "I don't have the room or the temperament for a royal roommate. And don't wait for an invitation or anything."
    "You are my subject," he said, looking even more wide-eyed. "Of course you will open your home to me."
    Jonas snickered. "Fred, meet Artur . Artur , meet Fred."
    "I do not know what you—"
    "Fred doesn't 'of course' do anything."
    "There's a Marriott right next door," she forced through a tense jaw. "We'll get you a room. You might be in town for a while."
    "The Prince of the Black Sea has an American Express?" Jonas asked gleefully, being more annoying than usual. Then, before Artur could ask what he was talking about: "You got any money on you? Dough? Moolah ? Treasure?"
    Artur's red eyes actually