Beneath the Current Read online

  "He's the one who kissed me!" Casey insisted. "I never—"

  Martin nodded understandingly. "Yes, I'm sure you didn't. But some people are very afraid to admit their feelings. Roshan is...well, his family is very traditional. They'd never accept that he might love a man, and it is easier for Roshan to deny that side of himself. Many of the villagers here are very old-fashioned in that way. Thomas..." Martin swallowed heavily on the name of his love, "Thomas and I never let any of them know about us for that reason. It wasn't any of their business. They saw us as brothers taking care of their nephew."

  A tear dripped off his chin as Casey stared at his hands clutched in his lap.

  "I really liked him," Casey mumbled. "He made me feel..."

  Martin abruptly started the car. "I know how you feel," Martin said, his voice firmer as if he was pushing back his emotions again. "I've been there, too. Many teens have had to go through rejection, whether they are gay or straight, or whatever. I'm sorry you had to go through that," he said, patting Casey's leg affectionately before returning it to the steering wheel. "But he fucking used you because you are an outsider and you were safe for him to play around with for a bit."

  Casey grimaced at the harsh words of reality. He'd already come to that conclusion after Roshan had begun to ignore him. Casey desperately wished for his uncle's comfort, comfort that Thomas would no doubt have lavished on him. But he knew that was about all Martin was capable of, and he accepted that. He was glad that Martin had at least understood and not shunned him for being a fool in love as well as the murderer of his uncle. It did make him wonder what Martin had been through when he was younger to suddenly be so compassionate now. But he knew that Martin would never confide in him either.

  "You'll stay on the island when I go into town," Martin said.

  And Casey had nodded his assent. He had no desire to see Roshan or anyone else ever again. Losing Thomas and now losing his first crush, his first hope for happiness since Thomas's death so callously...it wasn't worth the turmoil.

  "Hey," Martin called for his attention as they pulled up in front of the house. Casey paused with his hand on the door handle. "That man used you. He didn't love you and never would have."

  "Yeah, I know—"

  "But," Martin continued, "Thomas did. He loved you very much. Think about that, and not about that asshole."

  Casey smiled slightly, nodding. While the words his uncle said helped some, the words he didn't say had hurt even more. Thomas had loved him, not 'we love you' and not 'I love you'.

  And that had hurt more than Roshan's betrayal, because he'd spent years with Thomas and Martin, and only a few weeks being around Roshan. He flopped his arm over his damp eyes as he wiped away the memories of his brief week-long affair from four years ago. It usually didn't bother him, he'd mostly forgotten it as it was overshadowed by Martin's final words on it. Even though his uncle had been much nicer than he'd ever been for about a month afterwards, it still didn't take the sting out of his omission.

  "Casey! Now."

  Shit, no more time to dwell on the fucking past. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, laying his iPod on his night stand, and quickly padded down the thickly carpeted stairs.

  As Martin Jorss stomped into their two story home, Casey stepped nearly soundlessly into the foyer as he saw his uncle turn into the living room. He watched the man's sharp eyes shoot a look at the huge saltwater tank that was Casey's refuge if his uncle confined him to the house. Casey hated it; it felt like a small cage, but he knew it was necessary sometimes. Storms ravaging the coast or fishermen venturing too close in prime season made it necessary to retreat back into the house. And when the moon called...he had no choice but to obey.

  "I'm here, Uncle Martin," Casey said softly, not wanting to startle the man.

  Surprisingly, the older man looked relieved to see him. Casey frowned, having expected his uncle to be angry over something—even though Casey had no idea what it could be this time, unless his uncle had caught him checking out the new neighbors. Usually, Martin could barely stand to look at him over the last few years, let alone actually be happy to see him.

  "We have neighbors," Martin said brusquely as he stripped off his sunglasses and stepped up so close that Casey had to tilt his head back to look up at his uncle. The man was at least six inches taller than him and had over fifty pounds in both muscle and a little fat, starting to creep into his mid-section, over Casey's lean frame. "I saw a van and a jeep parked over there when I was coming over the bridge. Hopefully, they are only here for a short visit."

  Ahh, so that's what got the man so riled up, Casey thought. He just nodded, not wanting to let his uncle know that he'd been snooping already.

  "I assume they haven't come by here, have they?" His uncle eyed him narrowly.

  "No, sir." Casey shook his head, quickly adding, "And if they had, I wouldn't have answered the door, just like you've always told me."

  "Exactly. You never know what strangers will want, and we can't afford to take any chances," Martin reiterated his often repeated mantra.

  "Of course," Casey agreed automatically.

  "You'll have to restrict your movements on the island," Martin stated, looking pointedly at Casey's collar. Instinctively, Casey's hand went to his throat. His uncle didn't have the control device in his hand, though, so it wasn't like he was going to set it off right now. Casey's eyes darted to the credenza in the front foyer where Martin usually left it in its lock box, so it would be easy to grab if they went out on the boat or on a rare trip into town.

  "Don't worry. I'm not going to narrow down the radius of your collar," Martin admonished, and Casey visibly relaxed. "But this does mean you need to keep to our side of the island. And keep your swimming to the southern cove, where they won't be able to see you. And only in the early morning or late at night."

  "Yes, sir," Casey answered automatically. His heart sank at the thought of his cage getting even smaller. It was suddenly cut in half, maybe even more, now that he couldn't swim the whole perimeter.

  "Good, we can't afford for you to be found out."

  A sad smile flitted across his face. Casey's gray eyes lit with a spark of hope that Martin did truly care for him, deep down, like when he'd let a bit of concern slip through when he'd offered comfort in the wake of Roshan's rejection. He had really seemed to once, when they were a family, when Thomas was there as the glue. But it all unraveled with his beloved uncle's accident, and Casey knew it was all his fault. Martin would never let him forget that.

  The collar was one way Martin said he could keep his promise to Thomas. He could always tell where Casey was, and it kept Casey from wandering too far. Casey accepted that. It was the least he could do in memory of his Uncle Thomas. Thomas would never want him to get hurt, and the collar, the gated cave, and the tank, all helped to keep him safe.

  "Now," Martin grinned, as he held up the satchel he was carrying, "Let's get some samples. I had the clinic order me some more culture tubes."

  Casey followed his uncle to the room at the back of the house. He almost smiled at how Martin actually became a little giddy and more animated when they came in here. It was the man's one joy now—science. And Casey would never deny the man his happiness after he'd taken the only other source of contentment from him.

  The room was crammed now with all sorts of scientific equipment—centrifuges, microscopes, flasks, petri dishes, and test tubes—a bunch of stuff that Casey didn't know what it was and didn't really care. All he knew was that Martin was happy and excited in here. And if Casey had to give up a little blood, or other samples, to make that happen then he knew he was honoring Thomas's memory by making the man's love happy again.

  "The full moon is in two days, so I want to get a couple samples now, and then some more that night," his blond uncle stated. "It's been a few months since we've done a comparative analysis." He stroked the neatly trimmed beard on his chin thoughtfully as he booted up his computer. Casey thought it funny he did that
so often, probably didn't even realize he was doing it.

  Casey sat on the 'exam' table as he had done so many times over the fifteen years that he'd lived here. Years ago, he'd been afraid of this room and the table, but he never quite could figure out why, except that Martin had sometimes scared him with stories of what might happen to him if anyone else found out about him and his secret. Thomas, of course, would growl at Martin for scaring him, but Martin would just shrug, saying that 'the boy needs to know the dangers if he lets his secret out'.

  Thomas had sat with him on the table until Casey had settled enough to know nothing bad would ever happen here. And nothing ever did. His uncles took samples for years as he was growing up, recording and keeping track of his growth and development. He knew it was necessary, a sudden spike or change in any levels could indicate something was wrong.

  "Where will I be on the full moon?" Casey asked hesitantly. He knew Martin preferred the tank inside since it was easier for the older man to access, but the gated cave allowed Casey to see and feel the moon's lunar pull. He so wished that Martin would take him out to sea in the boat again like Thomas used to, but that was a pipe dream. Martin hated going out on the boat at night, well, he hated the boat at anytime, but night was the worse. It was harder to track Casey in the dark, he'd said. And if Casey got too far ahead and swam into a night fishing net...

  "I think you can do the cave this time," Martin said as he readied his syringes. "It's going to rain the next couple days, but it's slated to clear up by that afternoon. So the weather should be calm that night, and I can grab a sample as soon as you shift. Then the night's all yours."

  Casey couldn't contain his smile. Good, at least he'd feel the fresh flow of the tide and the glow of full moon on his skin, and he could forget about Roshan and Thomas's death and Martin's indifference, and even his lustful thoughts of their neighbor. He could forget his human side for a while and just be.

  Chapter 5

  As the next two days passed, Martin watched as Casey itched with the urge to transform each night. Because of the storms, the boy had been relegated to the inside tank, not wanting to risk an undercurrent pulling him out past the boundaries and getting zapped. So tonight, as the weather had finally broken that afternoon, Martin could see Casey was excited to be able to go down to the cove, even if he'd be contained in the gated cave to keep the moonlust from drawing him to the open ocean.

  Martin followed Casey down the rocky path to the southern side of their property. This path led to their boat dock as well as the gated cave he'd made for Casey's 'nocturnal yearnings'. Another path wound down the small rocky hillside behind their house to the sandy beach that stretched out to the west. Of course, he pointed out the fishing boats that were already out on the waters some distance away as a reminder to Casey why he couldn't be allowed to roam free. Just the thought of the fishing boat's nets brought a shiver to the boy's lean frame. Good, Martin thought, he should be scared.

  As they approached the cave, he was glad once again that he'd had the foresight to make use of the crevice hidden within the rocky cove to contain the boy's wandering urges. Even though the full moon offered some light, the darkness of the waters gave him chills now.

  Martin hated being out on the water. He couldn't stand the taste of the salty spray, or the sting of it in his eyes, or the feel of the drying salt on his skin. He'd never really learned to dive like Thomas had. Being stuck underwater if something went wrong scared the hell out of him, especially after Thomas was killed. He only ventured out when he and Casey needed to hunt for pearls.

  So with Thomas gone, he'd been hard pressed to reign Casey in on full moons when he was forced to shift and drawn to the open ocean like so many other sea creatures. To him, it emphasized just how much Casey wasn't truly human and helped stave off the guilt at feeling so little anymore.

  As he watched the ripple of the boy's back muscles in the evening moonlight, he thought back on how Casey had grown. He was still smaller than most men, but he was definitely a young man now, no longer the young scared child that Martin had helped Thomas rescue from that lab table. The brush of sable hair across the boy's neck (hell, Casey would always be a boy to him) made him think of how Thomas used to soothe the kid back to sleep after nightmares. Martin would watch from the doorway as Thomas's strong fingers smoothed back sweaty strands of hair from the boy's face and neck. His partner and lover would lay with the boy until he fell back to sleep.

  That was so not something Martin would do. He'd never been much of a people person, much less a child person. Sometimes he wondered how he'd gotten so lucky to find Thomas, and why the man actually put up with him. Thomas always tried to draw him out, make him have fun. And for a while, he'd been happy living here with Thomas and Casey. The boy had made his lover happy, complete, and Martin loved seeing the joy on Thomas's face whenever he held the boy or played in the water with him. And, he could tell that Casey adored Thomas as well.

  As they approached the bottom of the path, Casey turned those hypnotizing gray eyes on him, and Martin could see that they were bright with the anticipation of his transformation. The boy's body was nearly vibrating with the need already.

  Martin vaguely wondered just how long he could actually hold out before changing. They'd never really tested it after escaping the lab fifteen years ago. Dr. Harris had been sure that Casey would have survived it. Of course, as far as the man knew, Casey hadn't. But would he have, had Thomas and Martin not faked his death?

  At that time, probably not, Martin mused. The child's body was too weak to withstand that. But now? He pursed his lips as he eyed the taunt muscles climbing over a few boulders to reach the gated cave. Maybe...

  As Casey stepped to the side for Martin to release the padlock on the gate, Martin would have sworn that the boy's need seemed to be increasing. The wide gate swung open and Casey jumped down to the boulder just inside. Martin watched as Casey stripped off his water shoes, but he turned slightly as the boy removed his swim trunks and set them on a high ledge away from the water.

  When he heard a splash, he turned around to see Casey in the middle of the deep pool inside the cave, created by the unending battering of the tide against the shore. Martin immediately swung the gate closed and latched the padlock before Casey could transform and try to break out. The kid had tried that once a few years ago, nearly knocked him over when he'd charged the gate. The feral urge to be free in the ocean's wide expanse was unrelenting during the night of the full moon.

  The researchers at the facility had once determined it was because a lot of marine animals, just like many terrestrial animals, were lulled by the forces of the moon. Apparently, Casey's mer side was as well.

  As the tide washed in through the small cove, splashing against the bars of the gate and the boulders inside, Casey surged up out of the dark waters. Martin couldn't help the instinctive step back, almost slipping on the damn rocks. He cursed under his breath as he admired the long tail swishing behind the boy. Martin still found the boy fascinating, a scientific miracle. And he was all his.

  "Arm," Martin demanded, and Casey's small fingers gripped the bars of the gate protecting him from the open ocean. He obediently stuck his arm through the bars as Martin readied an alcohol wipe and his syringe. He waited for the next tide to splash in before quickly swiping the boy's inner arm with the sterilizing pad and stabbing the needle in.

  Casey winced briefly, and Martin had the perverse thought that maybe he'd intentionally been a little rough. Sometimes he just couldn't help it. He wanted this boy to know his pain. To know how his heart ached, how alone he was now that Casey had stolen his love.

  ****

  Casey rubbed his arm briefly where his uncle had jammed the needle in, certain he might have a small bruise from that one. But he knew it was hard for Uncle Martin to be as careful here. With the splashing waters of the tide, the man had to be quick, and in doing so, he couldn't always be as gentle as he was in his office. Casey was barely aware of his uncle leav
ing as he gazed up at the dark sky. The bright moon bathed him in its light, and he stared up at the hundreds of faint stars littering the night sky. It was so clear tonight, the waters calm out past the breakers.

  Casey ached to swim out into the glassy waters and float on his back with the gentle rocking of the currents. That's what Thomas used to let him do, and he desperately missed that peaceful feeling. Thomas had never been afraid that Casey would 'wander' too far with the pull of the moon because Thomas just swam with him.

  "Casey, bud! Wait for me!" Uncle Thomas shouted, laughing.

  A thirteen year old Casey rolled to his back as his uncle's boat powered up near him. Uncle Martin was looking his usual sour self, the moonlight making his features even more dour looking. But Thomas was grinning as he slipped on his flippers.

  "I don't like this," Martin grumbled.

  But Thomas only smiled, his eyes crinkled at the corners with laugh lines. "You always say that."

  "That's because I never like it," the slightly older man shot back, gripping the wheel of the boat. "It's dark, you can't see what's out there. Fuck, what if a shark comes—"

  "Martin, babe," Thomas soothed, wrapping an arm around his partner's shoulders, "It's okay, I'll stay right near the boat, I promise."

  Thomas grabbed Martin by the back of the neck, pulling him in for a passionate kiss. Casey grinned as he watched the two men fight for dominance over the kiss. He felt his own body flare with excitement at the sight and immediately felt embarrassed. He'd sometimes wondered what it would be like to kiss someone, and lately watching his uncles' displays of love and affection had him wishing he could know what it would feel like.

  But he never would. He knew that, deep down.

  Because no one could know what he was. If they did find out, he'd be caged and studied like a lab rat, Martin had told him. Thomas had tried to soften that sentiment, but it still came down to the fact that he couldn't be around others. And therefore would never know another's touch like Thomas and Martin shared.