---Cain's POV---

Shallow, raspy breaths interrupted the silence of the room, as Orion seemed to struggle with the simple task of filling his lungs with the life giving oxygen. His lips were pale and cracked, dry no matter how many times I wiped a damp cloth over his lips.

It was his only source of water, as any attempt to feed him small mouthfuls had resulted in him coughing and choking, too weak to swallow the liquid.

My eyes trailed down to his shoulder, the former pale skill now red and swollen, a dark bruise that blemished his form. The teeth marks were sharply visible, the skin around the wound threatening to burst at the lightest touch.

Biting back a growl, I glanced back at the backroom when I heard a door open, seconds before Archer walked out with a nearly unconscious Elijah in his arms.

The mer gave a halfhearted smirk, eyes heavily lidded before they widened when Archer put him on his feet and gave his ass a smack.

"Go on then. I'm quite certain you'll be able to help Orion out now." Elijah cursed under his breath, rubbing at his abused ass before shooting Archer a mock glare as he slowly stumbled to Orion's side.

I gritted my teeth as the Mer opened his mouth, settling his tongue against Orion's mark and laved sloppily against the skin. A small hiss escaped my poor treasure when Elijah's teeth sank into his barely healed wound, mouth dropping open in a silent snarl.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as I growled, yanking Elijah away from Orion before he could do anymore damage.

"What the fuck was that? Why did you have to fucking bite him again?" I snarled in his face while Elijah merely raised an immaculate eyebrow and smirked arrogantly.

"How else am I supposed to mingle the pheromones in my saliva with his blood? Did you expect me to carve him open and bathe him in my saliva, human?"

The need to punch the mer in the face was ever so slowly growing and no doubt my right hand had noticed, because not a second after Elijah finished speaking, he hissed again, nearly jumping forwards from the sharp stinging swat against his ass.

"You could've informed the captain of that before you bit Orion." Archer replied in a slight condescending tone, making Elijah pull a face as he mimed along with Archer before adding, "But where's the fun in that?"

I was half tempted to punch him in the face, for the fun of it, but paused when I noticed that the dark bruise around Orion's bitemark seemed to slowly diminish, ever so slightly.

My fingers traced over his wrist, the skin already feeling softer and cooler to the touch. His chest was still heaving to catch shallow breaths, gills flaring with every wheeze but it didn't hold the same rasping sound to it as before.

It didn't sound like he was slowly dying anymore.

Gritting my teeth, I looked Elijah in the eye before giving him a respectful nod. Besides a slight cocky twitch of his lips, the mer didn't react, slowly inclining his head before glancing back at Archer with a sigh.

"Look, my mark on him wouldn't have killed the Siren. Maybe if he had been an elderly human but even then, Marks aren't designed to kill."

The mer sighed, groaning as he stretched his arms above his head with a satisfied grunt when his back popped. He nearly stumbled on his feet before Archer wrapped his arm back around Elijah's hips.

"So Orion..."

Elijah tiredly rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "The siren will make a smooth recovery and just needs to sleep off the venom. All it did was mingle with his pheromones so other Mers know not to lay a hand on what's mine."

A slightly annoyed expression slid over Elijah's face as he leaned more of his weight against Archer, waving his hand in the air. "Of course, my mark on him barely means anything anymore, seeing as some human couldn't keep his teeth to himself."

I glanced at the impression of my teeth against his skin with boredom before I scoffed. "It seems someone overrode that claim countless times, don't you think?" I asked rhetorically, eyes flitting back and forth over the multitude of marks.

A clear sign of Archer's own handywork.

Elijah's lips twitched at that, the satisfied glint in his eyes heating up as he glanced back to the human. "Hmmm... I suppose there are worse fates than being marked by a mere human."

Archer smirked back, equally satisfied and tired before glancing back at me. "So, what do you say Captain? Shall we go back to the ship with these two or wait for a day more until Orion wakes up?"

I sighed, scratching the back of my neck as I thought it over. If all Orion needed now was some rest, we didn't need to be on land any longer than we needed to.

Not only would it be unwise to linger on shore where people might alert the guards if they suspected us to be pirates. It would also give people the time to work themselves up simply because they had a black man in their obviously white settlement.

It had happened before, where the townsfolk had spouted bullshit reasons to get me off their turf. Random baubles that suddenly went missing only to miraculously surface as soon as I left the premises.

And I wasn't going to sit here and wait to find out if all that negative attention would find it's way to Orion, especially in his weekend state.

A thought crossed my mind, making me turn to Elijah, who was barely standing on his wobbling legs. "Would any of the other mers still follow?"

His heavy eyes seemed confused for a moment before a slow smirk curled his lips. One impeccable brow raised slightly as he sighed, "Depends, really. As long as we make sure there aren't any traces of Orion for them to find in the couple of weeks, he should be fine."

The mer's eyes lazily flitted towards his mark still blemishing Orion's skin. "They don't have a way to track him down. In all honesty, you should thank me. My mark on your boy is causing my pheromones to mask his scent."

Frustration bubbled underneath my skin as I fought with myself to not punch the smirking bastard in his smug face. Instead, I gritted my teeth and spat out a reluctant, "Thank you."

Elijah's smirk widened as his eyes glinted with amusement. "Any time, really." Archer caught the look in my face and pulled Elijah back. "Alright, enough with antagonizing the Captain before you'll get yourself in trouble."

A snort escaped the Mer as I turned around to lift Orion in my arms. "What is he going to do? Keelhaul me?" Elijah snickered slightly before quieting as I replied, "No, but I can order Archer to stop fucking you until he has explicit permission to do so."

Silence rang behind me as I lifted Orion in my arms, turning to see that Elijah's high spirits had dropped, right along with his infuriating smirk.

Archer was standing silently behind the mer, eyes flitting between our forms before he sighed. "Don't worry 'bout Elijah, Captain. I'll make sure he doesn't bother you one bit."

"Good. Then I suggest we all prepare to go back to our ship and put as much distance between us and those mers." Turning around, I nodded at the healer and gave Archer a pointed look, to which he ruffled in his pockets before handing her several gold pieces.

"That should about cover the costs for having us over." Archer said before flitting to the backroom, flushing the slightest bit as he added a few more coins. "Errr... sorry... about the mess..."

The doctor flushed scarlet, huffing slightly as she crossed her arms. "Now I feel even more as if my house has been used like a brothel. Goodness gracious, just.. just get out already!"

Archer nodded, lifting Elijah in his arms, who let out a surprised squeak before grumbling at Archer's laughter.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that with Elijah on board, the mer would be grating my nerves every step of the way. And like he so boldly pointed out, most punishments won't work on him.

Any human sailor out there would be terrified to be keelhauled for their crimes, but the Mer would probably enjoy it.

With his ability to breathe underwater, he wouldn't be starved of oxygen at all. That only left the superficial cuts due to the barnacles attached to the ship's hull, or the bruises from occasionally colliding with the ship.

Even those would be almost instantaneously healed with their damned healing.

The only thing I could threaten him with, was the one thing he had seemed to show the most interest in. The fact that Archer would suffer the same punishment was a lucky side-effect.

I doubted that Archer would willingly let Elijah risk the punishment, as he himself would suffer under it. So my righthand man would make sure that Elijah's behavior was acceptable.

Orion groaned softly, gills flaring as he let out a deep sigh before relaxing further in my arms. My eyes flitted over my treasure, lingering on his bared throat.

At least the mark that blemished his skin seemed to be healing somewhat. Just from holding my angel in my arms, I could feel that his temperature was decreasing slightly as well.

The trip to my ship was quick, filled with anxious glares from the townsfolk. Undoubtedly some of the more bitter folk were already alerting authorities on the so called kidnapping that was happening at the moment.

"Double the guards at night to make sure none of the Naval fleet manage to sneak up to us." I commanded quietly, giving the gathering in town a pointed look.

Archer nodded instantly, chuckling when Elijah groaned and flipped off the townsfolk. The mer shot upright when Archer pinched his ass though, glaring down at him.

"When will Orion wake up from your so called mark?" I interrupted what would be the next argument between those two, which would undoubtedly lead to flirting.

Elijah huffed, puffing out his cheeks as he thought for a moment. "Like I said before, human, he'll need to sleep it off. However long that takes, is up to him. Judging from his physical condition, he'll need a day or two, at most three."

The mer yawned, showing off sharp-looking teeth as he looked over Orion's scar and sighed. "He'll be fine, all he'll need is some food in him when he wakes up, and perhaps a swim to take care of his skin."

My eyes followed to where he was looking, sighing guiltily when they landed on the flaking patches of his skin. It even seemed that part of his skin seemed to be giving way for his natural scales, which too seemed to look dry and cracked.

"I'm afraid that'll have to wait till we're sure none of your people are still lurking around." I bit out, making Elijah chuckle as he nodded. "True. In Orion's current state, he'd be no match for any of us."

His tongue flicked obscenely over his teeth, leaving no doubt about what would happen to Orion if he went for a swim after he woke up.

For now, he'd have to make do with moist rags, because I wasn't willing to put Orion's safety in Elijah's care. Who knew what that mer would do to my treasure when both of them were in the ocean, unsupervised?