Dark Oceans (Ocean Series Book 1)

by Rhonda Nelson

  But being approached by two vertically (and horizontally) challenged elves...that kind of ruined the atmosphere. She looked behind her at the peaceful waves of the ocean...it didn't look so bad – apart from the fact that she feared heights. Yeah...the great Kelsie Grace scared of heights. Or maybe it was the fear of falling – she hated the way her gut left her whenever she fell...now that was scary. Kelsie looked back at the elves, who had their dangerously pointed swords pointed at her chest. She took a slip second decision. Falling or being tortured? It was hard to decide.

  She bit her lip; it was so far down...what if her head exploded from the impact? A nasty image entered her mind. Probably better to go feet first. "So sorry to leave you at such short notice," she told them sweetly. Before her mind could stop her, she flung herself off the cliff. Her only thought. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! And then in a tremendous splash of white frothy bubbles she plunged into the ocean, deeper than she had ever gone before. The salty water entered her ears and mouth, her hair splayed around her head in the sea. Suddenly, there was a tug on her foot. Something cold wrapped around her ankle. She tried screaming but couldn't make a sound at the depths of the ocean.

  Claws dug into her skin making her wince in pain. Violently, she tried turning around to see her attacked, maybe the elves had jumped in after her. But instead, a hauntingly beautiful woman gazed ravenously back at her...but where her legs meant to be melded into a sleek dark green tail.

  Kelsie gasped. No. This could not be happening. She tried yanking her foot away, but the mermaid was dragging her away, her mouth opened to scream but she choked on the water. Her head suddenly caught on rock on the seabed floor, spots danced before her eyes as she fell unconscious yet again.

  Ben raced down towards the dead horses; pity welled up in his heart. Arrows stuck out of their heads, shot by someone with a very cold heart. All around him was a complete tip, blackened crates were tipped on their sides all around him, and some had fallen apart completely. Whatever was in them were destroyed. Unconscious elves were scattered limply around the trees, like there had been a small battle here. A love heart shaped leaf lay hidden between strands of burnt grass, Ben looked at it closer, picking it up gently as if it was going to explode any minute.

  The leaf thrummed with vibrant energy in his hand. He pocketed it and gazed around him, noticing the empty wooden cart that sat still in the dirt road. Footprints were engraved in the mud to the side of the road, there had obviously been a chase here. Ben sped off following the footprints, the cool air refreshed his mind. Up ahead, he saw two figures arguing with each other – maybe they were involved with the ferick leaf scandal. Probably, they seemed pretty angry about something. He hid behind a tree, listening to their conversation.

  "What the hell do we do now? Huh? We don't even have the girl and there's no way I'm jumping in that after her," one shouted, his ponytail swung behind his head. "Well neither am I, there could be mermaids in there for all we know!"

  The other one scoffed. "Mermaids? What next? Fire breathing Chihuahuas?"

  "Whatever – so we've got nowhere to run – that girl still hasn't come to the surface yet, I bet she's been eaten alive by mermaids."

  "Stop with your nonsense speak, it's getting really old-" Ben stepped out from behind the tree, that girl they were talking about could be being eaten right now, for all he knew.

  "Well look who it is," one of them sneered.

  "Benjamin Jackson from the Millay."

  Ben pointed his sword at them, his eyes piercing into their souls. "What girl are you talking about?"

  The pony tailed elf looked resentfully at him. "Like we would tell you, peasant." As soon as he had said it, he fell to the ground screaming in pain, clutching his head like his life depended on it.

  "I'll ask again, what girl are you talking about?" The elf silently screamed on the ground; tears streamed out his eyes. Ben stabbed his mind again, with hardly any effort. The elf yelled out torture.

  "Stop, stop! It's Kelsie Grace – daughter of Devlin! Please stop!"

  Ben released his mind, though he still carried on whimpering like a child. What was Kelsie Grace doing here? Maybe she was involved with the poisoning at the banquet? But why would they be against her then? He took once last glance at the two elves, quickly he cast a memory wipe spell on them both. The elf lying curled up on the floor fell asleep suddenly, his companion toppled over on top of him, snoring just as loudly.

  Ben looked hesitantly at the sea from the edge of the cliff. If he completely submerged himself in the water...the girl might see his true form...and that might not be so good. On the other hand, it was better than being eaten by a blood thirsty mermaid. He took a deep breath and neatly dived off the cliff, cutting through the air perfectly streamline as if he had been doing it his entire life. The water churned underneath him as if sensing his presence and then all at once he dropped down into the deep ocean. Ben felt the change already happening, his legs started tingling and molding into a powerful tail...his eyesight was sharper, and his teeth were more pointed. Without wasting a second, he flicked his tail, shooting towards the dark shapes across the sea floor. Corals and glowing anemones past him, shoals of fish swan across his path but he didn't slow down. If he wasn't in a hurry, he would have appreciated the beautiful scenery around him, but his eyes were entirely focused on the two figures in front of him.

  A black-haired girl lay unconscious by a pile of rocks, a mermaid leaned over her, her fangs bared, and her claws aimed at her neck. Before the mermaid could even touch the girl, Ben flung himself at her and they both flew through the water at the momentum. The mermaid's dark green eyes stared at him in complete and utter shock. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at him.

  "What are you?" she hissed at him. "You are not one of us."

  "It doesn't matter what I am, and I don't think you're going to be around long enough to find out," he shot a beam of blue light at the mermaid, sending her tumbling through the water.

  She recovered quickly and sent back a powerful column of light, crackling with raw energy. He retaliated with a shield molded out of magic and then lunged towards her, digging his claws into her flesh. The mermaid growled in anger, throwing a wave of icy shards into his mind. He stopped them, but it slightly depleted his energy. He shot back a burning wall of fire into her mind, making her arms tremble from the pressure of holding it back. She suddenly leaped forward, slashing her talons at his chest breaking the skin. Ben gritted his teeth, he felt poison entering his chest from the mermaid's claws. But it wasn't enough to kill him...unless it got infected.

  The water around him stained red from his blood. Drawing up his energy he blasted the mermaid with a thick wave of pure force, she tried to dodge it, but she was too slow. The mermaid tumbled backwards, her head crashing down on a pile of rocks on the seabed floor. Ben swam closer, her figure was limp and unmoving. Though it could've been an act, but this time he didn't think it was. For the first time in his life, he saw a different side to mermaids.

  The healthier side to them...a peaceful side. The mermaid in front of him looked so serene and calm with her furious eyes shut, a gentle expression graced her beautiful features. He couldn't bring himself to kill her, it felt wrong...like killing an innocent animal or child. Ben struggled to battle his heart and his mind. If he killed her now, that would be one less mermaid to go around killing elves...but even the thought of killing her made him feel like a murderer. She was, of course, one of his species.

  Sighing, he swam away from her. The girl who he had been saving was still unconscious thankfully, Ben looked at her closer. Wait...he knew her. The same girl he had brainwashed...she had been scary. Tenderly, he picked her up and propelled them up to the surface. Blood still dripped from the three slash marks on his chest, but he tried to ignore it. There was nothing he could do about it now. Maybe when he got back to the training camp, he could find some bandages.

  Although usually mermaid wounds always healed up on their own, leaving no scar behind.
He swam up to the shoreline, carrying the girl in his arms. Once he pulled himself out of the water, his tail shimmered and disappeared leaving not a trace of being in the sea. His hair was perfectly dry, and his clothes appeared back on him. Gently, Ben rested the girl behind a group of rocks so no one would be able to find her. He'd leave it to her to figure out what happened.

  Alyssa sat on her bed, hugging her legs. It was late afternoon now, but she still hadn't moved from her bedroom. She felt stiff from sitting still for so long and her face was sticky from the earlier tears. Her memories of this morning haunted her, making her feel small and insignificant. But most of all, she felt weak. Triston had literally forced himself upon her, she was too helpless and feeble...there was nothing she could do. It wasn't like anyone actually cared though.

  If she told her father, he would scold her for being so pathetic. Kelsie wasn't here to go to; she had abandoned Alyssa for a wild adventure with a hobgoblin. That definitely didn't feel comforting. Ben flooded into her mind...he wasn't here to help her at all. He hadn't come to check on her all day, even though he usually did. She hugged her legs tighter and buried her face in her knees. There was a knock on the door. Alyssa weakly lifted her head up.

  "Come in," her voice was cracked and small. The lock unlatched and a familiar boy stepped into the room, he smiled at her happily, not really picking up on the mood. Seaweed brain.

  "Hey, Alyssa, you ok?" he sat down next to her on the bed. She didn't reply, the words wouldn't come out of her throat.

  "What's the matter?" Ben asked with concern.

  Bitterness rose up in Alyssa. "Nothing happened, ok? Not like you'd care for me."

  Ben's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "What did I do? I thought you said you weren't going to get angry."

  "I'm fine," Alyssa half shouted at him, she didn't know where the anger had come from. But it felt good to let it loose. "I don't need you to always be here comforting me, I can look after myself."

  "No, you can't. Look, you're not 'fine' and I was only asking what the matter was!"

  "I told you I'm fine," Alyssa retorted, glaring at him. "It's none of your business anyway."

  Ben sighed. "We've already been through this, it is my business because I'm your friend, remember?"

  "Friend," the word tasted strange in her mouth. "You could just be saying that, how do I know you're not? Huh?"

  "I promised," Ben protested.

  "Promises are made to be broken," Alyssa hissed.

  Ben gripped her wrists. "No, they're not, and I promised you that you can depend on me – and I'll always be here for you. I'm not going to break it."

  "Then where were you this morning? Where were you when Triston found me alone, then?" tears threatened to spill over her cheeks.

  Ben's face paled. "Triston? Alyssa what did he do to you?"

  Alyssa gulped. "I-It's o-ok, I should have known he was going to do it. P-please don't kill him."

  "Alyssa! He freaking raped you!"

  Alyssa flinched at his voice. "So what? You can't just go and kill him because of that – he is my fiancé; he was going to do it anyway – either before or after the marriage."

  "You can't seriously just let this go?" Ben asked in disbelief.

  "Yes! And don't you dare say otherwise," she practically screamed at him, hysteria rose in her voice.

  Ben shook his head, as if he couldn't believe she was saying this. "You're mad to let this go so soon."

  "I don't want to make a fuss out of something so small," she retaliated.

  "Then how come you've been sitting on your bed all day – obviously crying the entire time?"

  Heat rose in Alyssa's face. "I haven't! And maybe if you had visited me sooner, you could have stopped him."

  "Well, I'm sorry – but I can't always be around you every single second. Why didn't your bodyguard stop him?"

  "I don't know! I haven't seen him at all today." They were nose to nose now, her stormy grey eyes stared valiantly into his. She expected to see anger in them, but all that was there was concern. Pure concern. Her heat thumped softly again, gazing at his face made all her cares and worries leave her suddenly. The tension had vanished. Neither of them said a word. Alyssa could smell his refreshing sea breeze scent, it felt like coming home. Slowly she leant forward, closing her eyes.

  A spark racked through her as she felt his lips touch hers. A feeling of security and happiness destroyed every single bad emotion. His hands wrapped around her waist, as he deepened the kiss. For a moment, she was in absolute bliss. But suddenly the hands around her waist withdrew suddenly. Ben pulled away, not meeting her eyes. She could hardly stop the tears from falling at the rejection.

  "I'm sorry," he muttered, not looking at her. "I can't do this."

  "Benja-"

  "I'm sorry," he said, getting up off the bed. He took one last look at her and then fled from the room. Alyssa stared after him, her moment of happiness destroyed. Pain tried to tear at her heart, and then she fell back on the bed...burying her face in the pillow. But no more tears came out, only a hollow tortured feeling inside her.

  Chapter Thirty

  Kelsie woke up shivering; she was drenched head to foot with sea water. Her head ached like hell and she had no idea where she was. The sun had fallen into the horizon and a thick cloud of darkness hung in the sky; the bright stars twinkled mischievously at her. Slowly she got up, hugging her body trying to protect herself from the cold. The memories of yesterday seemed all jumbled. Suddenly her eyes shot open. There was a mermaid attack – she remembered now! They actually existed. The proof was staring smugly right at her, she would be a fool if she denied it. But how on earth did she survive it? Didn't she pass out? She thought that she should be dead right now...even just thinking about that made her breath stop in her throat.

  She was so close to dying, it scared her. The roar of the stormy ocean to the right of her was getting louder. Louder. Louder. Like the sea itself was having a civil war. Wind blew around her clothes, and the rain plummeted down in sheets. Her eyes were half closed as she started running towards the forest, water droplets caught in her eyelashes and her hair. Her teeth chattered painfully from the cold and rain, she took cover underneath a large beach tree, its many leaves protected her from most of the rain. She breathed in and out deeply, regaining her breath. She still didn't understand how she had survived, though whatever the reason was, she was grateful. The trees looked familiar now – she knew that she had taken this path before.

  Up ahead, she could make out a broken cart lying battered in the weather. Crates were scattered over the ground, blackened like the raging sky. Kelsie smiled. She had accomplished what she had come to do. There was no trace of the ferick leaves, which must mean that they disintegrated in the fire she had used. Kelsie continued to run through the night air, through the storming skies and rocks full of moss and dirt. She found her horse, tied to a tree where she had left it. She felt bad for leaving it for so long. Without wasting any time, she fumbled with the knot and climbed into the saddle.

  Quickly, they raced down a dirt path towards the sleeping city of Alltalos. Even at nighttime, sparkling green lights shone from turrets and windows. Its usual misty glow hung in the atmosphere thicker than normal. Her hair was stuck to her head and hung down in knotted spikes, her fingers felt frozen on the reins of the horse. She cantered over the drawbridge and entered the spacious lower citadel walls. People walked around as if it was still the morning, drunks stumbled out of an inn and a storyteller was whispering menacingly in front of a burning fire to an engrossed audience.

  Kelsie received many stares from the nosy passersby; they stared at her in amusement and whispered to their friends excitedly. She ignored them and made her way into the higher citadel and took the horse back to the stables. Quickly she ran down the rusty iron staircase into the dungeons, her shadow following her smoothly on the wall. The only source of light was the cold hue of the green fire that flickered in a dim hearth. She looked down the corridor to the r
ight of her; a cool breeze seemed to surround her. A strange sense of longing filled her. Shaking her head, she hurried back down to Dimitri's chambers in the dungeons.

  Her clothes stuck tightly to her body from the heavy rain, and her ears felt unaccustomed to the deep silence. Pushing open the door she poked her head into the large room, it was completely dark, and she could hear light snoring emanating from a chamber. Kelsie stepped forward, careful not to trip over any random object that threatened to make her fall. She hurried into her room and swiftly changed her clothes and then stuffed the soaking wet ones in a leather bag. Without making a sound, she flung all her possessions that she had into it and hefted it over her shoulder.

  "Kelsie?" She spun around suddenly, her sword already out of its sheath. The person yelped and crashed backwards into a pile of test tubes. "Wait! It's me! Luke!"

  Kelsie narrowed her eyes at him, trying to see him in the darkness. He looked taller...his figure broad and sturdy...nothing like the Luke she knew. "Really?" she said sarcastically, pointing her sword to his neck. She heard him gulp.

  "Yes! Please don't hurt me!" She sighed...yes, that was the Luke she knew. No one else could have that petrified voice.

  "Fine, in that case, pack up your stuff and we're going."

  "What? But we won't even get to say goodbye to that nice physician!"

  "It doesn't matter," she hissed at him sternly. "We've got more important things to do."

  "But-"

  "Let's go!" Kelsie told him impatiently, grabbing his hand and half dragged him out of the door.

  "But I've left my peppermint tea in my room!"

  "No time for that!" Kelsie insisted, shutting the dungeon door behind them. She pulled him quickly down the dark maze of the dungeons, the still air whistled as they flew by.