by Amber Garr
Kain’s arms shook but his face was filled with determination. One by one, Kain and Abhainn subdued or ate the remaining ratchets while the rest of us sat back and watched in awe. No amount of training could ever prepare us for something like this. Although it did appear that Kain had been practicing his skills. Perhaps the contract with the water fairies could be altered to include water control sessions for all of the merfolk.
When the last of the enemies were no longer a threat, Kain let out a breath and dropped his arms. The wall of water fell so suddenly it caused a miniature tidal wave to wash up on shore. We tried to jump out of the way, but it proved futile. The wave swept up past our waists and nearly dragged each one of us back into the sea. I stumbled against Kain and we both crashed into the water. His hand wrapped around my upper body, touching parts it shouldn’t, while my knees came awfully close to hitting areas sensitive to him. It was one of the most awkward moments we’d ever shared. My gaze met his face and I started to giggle. He quickly joined me and soon we couldn’t stop laughing, even after the wave subsided and we lay on the beach like two broken bodies.
“That was pretty awesome,” I said, my mouth pressed against his chest because of the way we fell.
“Huh?” he mumbled while detangling our limbs and rolling off of me. “The water trick or the synchronized swimming?”
I blushed a little even though I knew he was joking. “The water trick,” I groaned. “Someone’s been practicing.”
“Well, I can’t let you be the all-powerful-one on your own. What kind of co-leader would I be then?”
“A jealous one?” I teased and that earned me a poke in the ribs.
“Very funny.” He pushed up to his knees and reached a hand toward me. “Come on. It’s getting dark and everyone’s staring at us.”
I turned my head to the side to see that yes, in fact, everyone was staring at us. I even saw Palmer wink at me. Rolling my eyes, I allowed Kain to help me up off the ground. I brushed the sand away the best I could even though soaking wet. Despite the fact I spent half of my life in the ocean, I still hated to wear wet clothes.
“He’s gone,” Kain said beside me.
“Who?”
“Abhainn. He’s gone.” I followed his eyes to look out at the spot where the sprite’s giant head had managed to consume eight of the twelve ratchets. Chills swept through me thinking about how dangerous those creatures were. And I wasn’t just thinking about the ratchets.
“Where are the bodies?” I asked.
“Swept away,” Palmer answered. “Almost like you two.”
I glared up at my cousin. “I can handle a wave, Palmer.” When he glanced quickly at Kain and back to me, I knew he wasn’t exactly referring to being swept away by the ocean. He was implying a different kind of danger.
Ignoring him, I stared up at the house. In the growing darkness, everyone on the porch looked like a silhouette against the back lighting of the indoor illumination. I thought I counted five or six people standing up there.
“Who’s guarding them?”
“Troy, Julian, Aleksey, and Quinlan I think. Julian stayed with the youngest two.” He was referring to Aleksey and Quinlan although I had a feeling Julian stayed nearby to discourage any type of relationship from developing between the selkies and the two forbidden merfolk.
“So one protector and three selkies,” I confirmed.
“Yes, why?” Palmer asked hesitantly.
“Just wondering how many came down here.” I didn’t really know why that mattered. It just seemed to be important at the time. With three selkies up at the house, it meant most of them had come to the beach. I think we’d had a dozen here for dinner tonight.
“Well, I’m going to go change,” Kain announced as he began walking toward the stairs. When he glided past the protectors and selkies on the beach, they inundated him with high fives and pats on the back. His smile stretched from ear to ear. It was nice to see him get credit for saving the day. He certainly had.
“So, how are you holding up?” Palmer asked, jerking my attention back to all of the things I didn’t want to think about. Okay, the one thing I didn’t want to think about.
“I’ll be all right,” I said perhaps a little too harshly.
My cousin slipped his arm over my shoulder and squeezed. “I know you will. You’re tough.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled as we began to move closer to the rest of the crowd.
“Hey! Anyone up for a practice session?” one of the younger selkies asked. “I am way too hyped right now.”
A chorus of “Yeah!” and “Me too!” followed and I chuckled. Men. They’re all adrenaline junkies.
“I’ll catch up with Kain,” I told my cousin.
“Let Troy and Julian know, will you?” he called, running away from me to the array of men ready to pummel each other.
“Maids versus selkies,” the young man yelled.
“We’re not maids,” I heard my cousin argue just before someone grunted and thumped into the ground. I shook my head and jogged up to Kain.
“Why are you all so Neanderthal?” I asked.
“We aren’t all like that,” he said but I could tell he was smiling.
We only made it a few more steps before a wave of nausea passed over me and I stumbled. Kain reached out to steady me and then sucked in his own breath.
“What is that?” he asked.
“You felt it too?”
“Yes.”
“I have no idea.” I stood and tried to clear my head. The headache that had been haunting me all day appeared again with a vengeance. I was forced to push the heels of my hands into my forehead to keep from screaming.
“Eviana!” It wasn’t Kain. Someone from the beach yelled my name. “Eviana! Agh!”
Kain and I ran back toward the men who continued to spar with each other. Someone called my name again and even though it was dark, I was able to identify him as Caleb, one of Palmer’s closest friends. He was fighting with a large selkie but regardless of the size difference they seemed to be evenly matched.
“Eviana! Help us!” Caleb yelled just before his opponent landed a hard punch to the side of his head. He fell to the ground but caught himself quick enough to roll away and avoid the kick aimed at his ribs.
“Hey!” Kain shouted and charged Caleb’s attacker. He engaged the selkie in a show of hand to hand combat I didn’t know he was capable of. He wasn’t winning, but he seemed to be holding his own. Someone moaned close by.
I looked around and saw the body again. Only this time I knew exactly who it was. “Palmer!” I cried and fell to my knees beside my cousin. He was barely conscious. “What happened to you?”
Something slammed into my back and sent me sprawling out over top of him. With my breath knocked away, my face landed hard in the packed sand. The muffled sounds of men grunting and punching echoed above my head. I was trapped until someone finally removed the heavy object from on top of me.
Jumping to my feet, I tried to take in the situation. As far as I could tell, all of the selkies were fighting the protectors, but there didn’t seem to be any rules. This wasn’t how their training sessions usually went and something inside of me trembled.
Two more bodies slumped to the ground before I was able to move again. I ran toward Kain, who still fought with the same selkie. Both of their faces were bloodied and they panted like dogs, but neither of them would drop focus.
“Kain! Stop this!”
“Take back control, Eviana!” he said as he ducked to miss being hit in the nose.
“What?”
“They’re attacking us. Someone has control!”
I froze. This couldn’t be happening. These were our selkies. Our friends. They wouldn’t attack us unless…
“Lucian,” I whispered. Whipping my head around, I looked for the merman, expecting to see him lurking in the shadows.
“Eviana! Umph!” Kain’s plea was cut short by a foot in the gut that sent him flying to the ground. I watched in
horror as the selkie stumbled over to him and raised both hands in the air. He clasped his fists together and positioned himself above Kain’s head. With a sickening realization, I knew he intended to kill him with his bare hands.
I threw out my powers and forced a silent command to match the vocal one. “Stop! Come to me. Now!”
At once, the evening fell eerily quiet. No more sounds of fists pummeling skin or bones breaking on impact filled the air. All I heard were the shuffling feet of selkies moving toward my side. They fell to their knees in front of me and stared up into my eyes like lost souls. Not all of them were here, and when I looked around, I knew why. Palmer wasn’t the only one in serious condition.
Something crashed through the glass up at the house and my sister screamed. The sound pierced through my skin and it was all I could do not to run up there this instant. But I had to finish what I’d started first.
“You are under my control now. Do you understand?” A handful of bloody selkies nodded their heads; quite the gruesome sight. “Take your fallen comrades and bring them up to the house.”
One by one they slowly began to stand and wander around the impromptu battlefield. Another scream from the house sent my nerves over the edge.
“Move faster!” I winced at treating my friends like this, but I couldn’t worry about their feelings right now.
I ran to the house, afraid at what I might find. The sound of muffled shouting carried out over the beach and my stomach dropped in trepidation. I took the stairs two at a time, not really having a plan and not really looking out for danger. When I got to the top of the deck, it seemed as if the danger had already passed and we were now stuck in the aftermath of its destruction.
My sister and Daniel crouched down next to someone who’d apparently been thrown through the sliding glass doors. Quinlan and Aleksey seemed to be having an argument or a serious discussion with Julian. And Troy, one of our eldest protectors, lay unconscious on the deck.
I ran over to him just as he started to stir. “Troy! Don’t move!” Grabbing his head, I forced him to stay still. His hazy eyes looked confused, and when he tried to touch his head, he groaned.
“What happened?” he asked. Before I could answer my sister yelled for me and I knew something went horribly wrong.
“Quinlan, come here and help him.” I didn’t know if my power still forced the command or if Quinlan just wanted to assist, but he ran over to us right away and propped up Troy’s head in his lap. “Don’t let him move too much until he’s fully awake.”
He nodded and I ran into the kitchen area where my sister cried and Daniel was whispering to the body on the floor.
I stopped breathing for a moment. At first, I was paralyzed by the sight of blood and glass and bloody glass shards lying all over the floor and embedded in the body. Then I was stunned into shock once I realized who it was. Uncle Andre had been tossed through the door and now he was dying.
“Please no,” I cried and slid down to the floor next to my sister. She held his bloodied but limp hand in hers. His eyes stayed closed and Daniel brushed his hand through my uncle’s hair whispering something over and over. With a jolt, I realized my uncle wasn’t dying - he was already dead.
Tears flooded my eyes and I moved so I could be closer to his face. I wanted him to hear what I had to say, yet when I saw the blood pouring from the gash in his neck, I stopped myself from getting any closer.
“What happened?” I finally asked.
“It was Julian,” Marisol whispered. “And Aleksey….and…Quinlan,” she choked out.
“Everything was fine and then all of a sudden they turned on us and attacked,” Daniel finished explaining. His young face was covered in blood, tears, and bruises. He must have fought back.
“They took out Troy first,” Marisol sobbed. “Julian hit him so hard I swear he was dead.”
“And then they attacked your uncle,” Daniel continued. “We tried to fight them off, but Quinlan and Aleksey came after us and we had to defend ourselves.” He reached across my uncle and grabbed my hand. “Why’d they do this?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I think it was Lucian.” The look in Marisol’s eyes nearly made me lose my nerve. She was so fearful of that man and I wished we could be done with this once and for all. “He forced the selkies to attack us on the beach just after we got rid of the ratchets.”
Suddenly it all made sense. The ratchets had been the distraction. They never actually attacked us. They’d just separated us. And that meant Lucian had to be somewhere nearby.
“How is he?” Julian asked from the hole in the door.
“He’s dead! You threw him through a glass door!” Marisol screamed at him. “What did you think would happen?” That last question was barely audible over the sound of her sobs. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her back into my lap. Surprisingly, she didn’t fight me.
“Mistress Dumahl,” Julian whispered. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I…we...” He shook his head and began to cry himself. “I am so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” I told him just as I heard a phone ringing in the distance. It sounded like my ringtone, and in a daze, I stood to try and track it down. The song got louder and louder until I discovered my phone sitting on the kitchen counter. “Hello?”
“Eviana! Oh good,” the caller breathed. “I’m glad I got you.” The British accent was easily identifiable.
“Graham? Why are you calling?” I looked past the kitchen island, over my uncle’s dead body, and outside to where the wounded were being carried up from the beach. “Now’s not a good time.”
“Look, I…we think Lucian is coming after you tonight. I don’t know what he has planned but -”
“Too late,” I interrupted.
“What?”
“You’re too late.” My voice cracked making it difficult to swallow the tears.
“Dammit!” Graham yelled. “Are you okay?”
“I am, but my uncle is dead and several others are hurt badly.” I watched as the selkies carried my cousin up the stairs and placed him on the deck. “Look, I really need to go.”
“Eviana, wait. I don’t think you should meet up with him in Montana tomorrow.” Graham’s words hit me hard enough that I didn’t feel so sad anymore. Now I felt angry.
“Are you kidding me? This has to stop, Graham. We aren’t changing plans now. He just attacked my home. He killed off another member of my family!” When my gaze passed to the deck with my wounded cousin, I felt like I need to amend that thought. “Maybe a couple of members…”
“All the more reason for you not to go! He wants you to suffer and he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”
“And what does he want? Why won’t he tell us what he wants?” I screamed at Graham, and although I knew I might feel bad about this tomorrow, tonight I needed to vent my frustrations on someone.
“He wants you.”
“Why?”
He sighed. “I…we don’t know.”
Suddenly a ton of commotion broke out on the deck and I moved closer to the door to get a better view. Someone stumbled up the stairs by themselves and then collapsed to the floor with an audible thump.
“Graham, I need to go.”
“Please don’t meet with him tomorrow…”
His words were lost in the background as I made my way to the pile of people assisting the injured person. I met Daniel’s face and when he looked up at me with a deep-rooted fear in his eyes, I knew something was dreadfully wrong.
They lifted the man and carried him toward me. His limp body hung at an awkward angle as three selkies tried to maneuver him onto one of the tables where, just a few hours ago, we’d had a wonderful family dinner. His blond sun-streaked hair was unmistakable and I almost collapsed when I saw who it was.
“Kain!” I yelled, temporarily forgetting I was on the phone.
“Eviana? What’s happening?” Graham still tried to talk to me.
“I have to go.” I hung up and
tossed my phone on the ground. Lucian had destroyed so many, and now it looked like he was about to take one more.
“What happened?” I asked anyone who would answer. Kain’s beautiful face contorted in pain as he tried to control his breathing. My gaze drifted to his side where dark blood began pooling and seeping out past the hands that held his wound. With a start, I realized one of those hands was mine. I must have instantly put pressure on the injury without even realizing it.
Kain was still conscious and he turned his head to look up at me. “He was waiting in the water.” His voice sounded so soft, I needed to bend over right next to his mouth to hear. “He waited until I was alone…” Kain coughed and winced in pain the instant he moved. I felt my hand warm as more and more blood pumped out of his body.
“Shh…don’t talk.”
Besides, I already knew what happened. Lucian had been behind all of this. When I took back control over the selkies, he’d waited until one person was alone. He must have been just offshore laughing at us all while we battled the ratchets that never intended to hurt us. And as we fought against those we called friends. The anger boiled inside of me again. I was tired of dealing with this man. He had hurt his last person.
“Eviana…” Kain whispered but he never got to finish. After another cough, his eyes closed and he passed out from either the pain or the blood loss. Or maybe it was from both.
“Please call the doctor!” I yelled and Daniel slipped in next to my side.
“He’s already on the way and he’s bringing Dr. Burgess, too.” Dr. Burgess was human, but he’d worked closely with our clan doctor for a long time. He knew how to keep our secret and in exchange he got to learn all he could about shape-shifter physiology.
“Okay, that’s good.”
I didn’t really know what else to say. Instead, I stared down into Kain’s pale face and realized it would literally break apart the rest of me if I lost him, too. Brendan was already gone and my uncle was dead. He’d been the only tie left to my mother and with his death, I felt a huge void in my stomach. If Kain died too, I really didn’t think I’d recover. It was just too much.