by Evie Del Mar
Cole stopped in his tracks, his hands raised in surrender. He looked me dead in the eye. “It’s ok, Melody. You’ll be fine.” I couldn’t find my voice. The terror that ran through my body was unlike anything I had ever experienced. My heart raced so fast that I could hear my blood pumping in my ears. The waves began to pick up pace a little, reacting to my panic. They crashed harder against the side of the boat, not causing it to rock too much, but enough for the sound to be heard.
“Now,” Jasper said, clasping his hands. “Like I said, if you would please follow me so we can join the others.”
Ben ushered Cole to go first, and then we followed. He nudged me forward but still held the knife at my throat. I shuffled along the deck slowly, careful not to move my head forward. We stayed close to the side railing but followed it down to the other end of the boat. We passed the small cabin where the captain was stationed. I looked at him in panic, praying he would sense the danger and call for help. He turned to me with a wicked grin. So, the captain was in on this, too. Shit. All hope within me faded.
I could still hear the music as we rounded the cabin. We found Blake, Blair, Lily, and Drake still dancing, completely oblivious to the fact that The Brotherhood was on board the boat. Lily saw me first and stopped mid-twirl, followed by everyone else.
“You can stop playing now,” Jasper told the band. Everything became eerily quiet, except for the waves.
“Cole?” Blake looked at Cole, confused. Cole didn’t answer, his hands still clenched at his sides. Clearly sensing the danger, Drake stood protectively in front of Lily and rubbed his hands together to create a fireball, which he threw at Jasper. Again, his medallion glowed red and the fireball disintegrated. Drake had the same confused expression Cole had earlier. Blake stepped in front of his sister and threw both arms down, his shadow smoke spilling out his palms and flowing over to Jasper, but they also hit the invisible wall and flew upward.
Jasper sighed. “If you want Melody unharmed, I suggest that everyone take a seat, now,” he said through clenched teeth. Everyone looked at me with fear in their eyes, and slowly sat themselves down. I could tell Cole didn’t want to leave my side, but his eyes never left mine. They were the only thing that kept me together. Blair narrowed her eyes at me and glanced at my foot, clearly trying to tell me something, but I was too scared to comprehend. Ben and I remained standing, his death grip around my waist making it harder and harder to catch my breath.
“You all can save your energy. Your powers won’t work against us,” Jasper said.
“And why is that?” Drake questioned.
Jasper laughed. “These aren’t just accessories,” he pointed to the medallions. “When the last Secret Six said they would rather die than tell us how to activate the crystal key, we happily obliged, having no more use for them. However, we didn’t want all that powerful blood to go to waste. With some experimenting, the help of fellow scientists, and the blood of your predecessors, we were able to create a…,” he put a finger to his chin and thought about his next words carefully, “a protection barrier, if you will, against your special abilities.”
Shivers ran down my spine as my blood went cold. Lily’s hand went up to her mouth in a quiet gasp, and Cole’s eyebrows furrowed in anger even more. I tried hard not to gag against Ben’s knife. The thought of experimenting with blood was so morbid, it made my stomach turn. How the heck were we supposed to defeat them when our powers didn’t work against them?
Wait…
Jasper said that they had experimented on the previous generation’s blood because they all died, but my mother hadn’t; she escaped with my father. They couldn’t have experimented with her blood. Did that mean that the medallion was useless against my power? A new surge of hope coursed through me at this revelation, but quickly faded as I realized one major problem: I still had no control of my powers. I couldn’t move water on command, so how was I going to be much help, especially with Ben still holding me? I knew the waves crashing against the boat were caused by my panic, but I didn’t know how to command them to do anything I wanted.
“You won’t get your hands on the crystal key,” Blake threatened.
Jasper rolled his eyes. “We know you don’t have all of the pieces.” His eyes turned to me. “We also know that Melody’s is the final one.”
Through the overwhelming fear, I managed to say, “I’ll never tell you.”
Jasper chuckled. “Oh, we have ways of persuading you.”
“She doesn’t know where it is,” Cole chimed in, his eyes dashing away from me to look at Jasper. “I do. Take me, instead.”
No! I screamed internally. The thought of Cole in the hands of these monsters chilled me to the bone. The boat suddenly rocked to the side as a wave smashed into one of its sides, causing water to spill over the deck. No one seemed to notice, except Blair. She looked out at the ocean and then met my eyes again. She nonchalantly tilted her head back and stomped her foot. She eyed Ben behind me.
A sudden realization hit me as I remembered the words Blair spoke to me in the weapons room on my first day at the academy. “If you’re ever attacked from behind, like someone has their arms around you, quickly bend back and try to hit them with the back of your head. They’ll let go of you to grab their face, and step forward to steady themselves. Then, immediately bend down, grab their leg, and pull it up with you. They’ll lose balance, allowing you to escape.”
I knew if I wanted to get out of here, alive, this would be my best bet. I doubted that Ben would think that I would put up any sort of fight against him; he wouldn’t see it coming. He had apparently been so enthralled with Jasper talking, that he loosened his grip on the knife. It wasn’t a huge difference but I could at least swallow without worrying about being sliced.
“Thanks for the offer, but no,” Jasper mocked. “I have a little something special planned for her, thanks to her mother.” Jasper met my gaze again with pure hatred, like his dark brown eyes saw right into my soul.
Without paying him any more attention, I leaned my head forward and drove it back, ignoring the pain the knife at my throat caused. I was running on pure adrenaline at this point. I collided with Ben’s nose with a loud crack, stars filling my vision. He let go of my waist and grabbed his bloody nose. I quickly shook off the dizziness, swiftly bent down to grab his leg and, with every strength I had, hoisted it up. He fell onto his back with a loud thud.
“Lily! Now!” Blair yelled. I turned to see Blair pull something out of her pocket, and with a flick of her wrist, her Bo Staff appeared in her hand. Next to her, Lily smacked a whip at her side. With perfect grace, Blair used her staff to flip one of the men overboard. Lily lashed her whip forward, wrapping it around another man’s neck. His eyes grew huge as he struggled to breathe. He staggered backward, and fell over the boat’s railing and into the water, but not before Lily’s whip untangled itself from the man’s neck and fell back at her side.
Hearing the commotion, the Captain came out from the cabin and lunged at me. He didn’t get very far before an arrow pierced his chest. I turned around to see where it came from and saw Cole bring his arm down from grasping the string of a Longbow. A quiver of arrows sat on his back, the strap resting across his chest. I sighed with relief that he was unharmed. I started to ask him where the bow and arrows came from, but he stopped me with a shout. “Get behind me!” I quickly ran to him.
Next to me, Blake and Drake stood, ready to fight. Drake had the tear drop shaped weapons, Chakrams, in each hand. The outer rims of both were aligned with sharp blades. Blake held the Kindjal, one side curving at the top to create a fine, sharp tip.
“You’re outnumbered here, Jasper,” Cole taunted. “Powers or not, do you really want to fight us?”
I peeked around Cole and eyed Jasper, figuring he was just as enraged as Cole was. I was not expecting what I saw. The hatred that filled his eyes just a few seconds ago when he looked at me vanished. He almost looked entertained. The remaining two men, one including a bloody-nose
d Ben, moved back behind Jasper.
“Needless to say, I am impressed,” Jasper laughed. “The previous generation didn’t put up this kind of fight. Clearly, we underestimated you all.” He began clapping as we slowly advanced on him, forcing him and his men into the boat’s railing. “I cannot wait to go back to headquarters and tell our commander.”
Commander? He wasn’t in charge of The Brotherhood? I shuddered at the thought of someone more heinous and powerful than what Jasper seemed to be.
Cole grabbed another arrow, cocked it to his bowstring, and raised it, aiming it right at Jasper. “And you won’t get another chance.”
Jasper didn’t even flinch. “I seriously doubt that. You know, we aren’t that much different, you and I.”
“I am nothing like you. Death and chaos follow wherever you go,” Cole scoffed.
“That’s not what I meant.” One corner of Jasper’s mouth raised. “What I meant was we both just want to please our fathers and make them proud.”
Cole stiffened. “You don’t know anything about my father.”
“I know more than you’ll ever know. Ask him about the night your mother died, and then ask him about the deaths of all your friends’ parents.”
My blood became ice. Ever since hearing everyone’s stories about their parents, I had a gut feeling that there was no coincidence they all died in freak accidents. There had to be a more sinister and deeper meaning behind it; I just didn’t know what. Did Tony actually know something?
“He’s lying!” Drake yelled. “We know Tony would never lie to us. Release the arrow, Cole!”
Cole, who had been eyeing Jasper this whole time, didn’t say anything. Sensing his hesitation, Jasper smiled. “I see you have some family business to take care of.” Jasper looked at me again and bowed his head. “Until we meet again.” The three men turned around and jumped into the water.
“Dude, what the hell?” Drake came around and faced Cole. “Why did you let him go?”
“I don’t know!” Cole shouted back. “It doesn’t make sense, any of this!” He took off his quiver and pressed it against his bow. Suddenly, they began to shrink in his hands. My mouth gaped open as Cole placed the set in his pocket. I looked over at Blake, Blair and Lily, who were doing the same thing to their weapons; pressing them down and shrinking them. I turned back to look and watched Drake do the same, after placing the Chakrams together to create a circle. Like the others, they began to shrink, and he placed it in his pocket. I really wanted to ask how that was possible, but knew now was not the right time.
Cole began to pace. “Does no one else find it odd that all of our parents died?”
“Accidents happen, Cole,” Blair soothed. “That’s part of life.”
“Not like that. Something about this doesn’t make sense.”
Blake stood in front of Cole, forcing him to stop pacing. “Do not let Jasper get inside your head. That’s what The Brotherhood does. You know Tony better than any of us.” Cole opened his mouth to say something, but Blake interrupted. “No. Even if it wasn’t a coincidence, then I know there is a perfectly good reason why he never told us. Maybe he’s protecting us from the real truth because it might be too hard to comprehend.”
Cole’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “Maybe you’re right.” He turned to me and wrapped his strong arms around my waist, squeezing me like he was afraid to let go. “Are you ok?”
I breathed in his familiar scent and immediately relaxed. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I leaned away from him, looking up to show that I was fine and wanting to thank him for saving my life, again. He tilted my head further up and examined my neck.
“I think there’s a first aid kit in the captain’s cabin.” He grabbed my hand and led me away, but not before calling over his shoulder. “Blair, can you call Colin and have him come get us? I wouldn’t put it past The Brotherhood to have someone waiting back at the dock.”
“Of course."
The inside of the captain’s cabin was pretty small, compared to the rest of the boat. There was a small ledge that opened up into a storage place and then the steering wheel, accompanied by numerous buttons.
“At least the captain had the brains to put the boat in park before leaving,” Cole joked. He lifted the ledge door and peered inside. He pulled out a blue box that had the First Aid cross on it, and opened it, pulling out Neosporin and a long Band-Aid.
He studied my neck again. “It doesn’t look too deep, so you won’t need stitches.” His eyebrows drew in and he growled. “But the damn bastard drew blood. He’ll pay for that.” A swarm of warmth flooded through me at his protectiveness.
“Cole?” I whispered.
“Yes?” He placed the Neosporin on my cut, causing me to wince at the sting, and bandaged it.
“What do you think Jasper meant when he said that he had something special planned for me, thanks to my mother?” I shivered at the memory.
Cole sighed. “Maybe it had something to do with when she was there and escaped? I have no clue, but I don’t want you to worry.” He placed his finger under my chin and lifted my head. I stared into his deep, crystal eyes, which brought a sense of peace and comfort. “I don’t want you to worry about him, because I promise you, he will not get his hands on you.” He tilted his head down and his lips met mine with such intensity. Unlike the previous kisses we shared, this one seemed more raw. He flicked his tongue against my mouth and I opened it eagerly. I snaked my fingers though his hair, as if I could pull him any closer. He grabbed my thighs and lifted me up like I weighed nothing, allowing me to wrap my legs around him.
We had our first encounter with The Brotherhood tonight, and I knew Cole shared the same fear as I did: the possibility of us being separated. Instead of the fear I had been expecting to feel after meeting them, a new wave of determination rolled through me. When Cole had offered himself to Jasper in exchange for me, the sense of dread almost suffocated me at the thought of Cole at Jasper’s mercy. I hated the feeling of being stuck in the arms of Ben, not knowing how to control my powers or having any sort of weapon to rely on. I felt so helpless. I didn’t want to be the girl who sat in her shower and cried from her fear. I didn’t want to cower behind Cole anymore. I wanted to be fighting beside him.
◆◆◆
We walked out of the captain’s cabin, with Cole clutching my hand like I would suddenly disappear, to see Blair pull her phone away from her ear. “Colin said he would be here soon.”
Blair and Lily ran up and threw their arms around me. Cole reluctantly let my hand go, but not before he gave it a good, reassuring squeeze.
“Are you ok?” Lily cried. “We had no idea what was going on the other side of the boat. We were here just dancing and talking until you and Cole came around the corner.”
“Yeah, we never noticed when the lead singer and one of the guitarists left the stage,” Blair continued.
I sighed a huge relief. “Yeah, I’m ok, just a little nick on my neck. “What I really want to know is where all the weapons came from and where y’all have been hiding them?” I remembered seeing the weapons back at the academy when Blair showed them to me on my first day, but this was the first time seeing them in action. They seemed to have materialized from thin air and then shrank back down when they were finished. I couldn’t wait until we were back at the academy so I could have a weapon of my own.
Blair chuckled. “You see, the previous Secret Sixes never had to worry about hand-to-hand combat because The Brotherhood wasn’t formed, yet. The thought of being captured never occurred to them. After learning about how your mom’s generation was caught and tortured by The Brotherhood, we all wanted to be prepared for anything.”
“So, we asked Tony if a weapons room could be added to the academy,” Lily continued. “He was a little reluctant, at first, because he didn’t think it was necessary, but he eventually gave in. After it was built, the strangest thing happened. We started walking around the room to try out the different weapons when, suddenly, we each felt a gr
avitational pull toward a different weapon. It was as though they were chosen specifically for us.”
My mouth gaped open. “How is that possible?”
“How is any of this possible?” Blake joked. “We gave up trying to guess and just assumed the gods and goddess didn’t want the Secret Six captured again. Our weapons are always in our pockets, ready for whenever we need them, and ready to go back when we’re done. We don’t ask questions, anymore.”
I could barely contain my excitement. “Ok, so tell me more.”
Blake reached into his pocket and pulled his hand out. As soon as he opened his palm, the long blade I saw earlier grew in size. I stepped back as he gripped the large handle and sliced the blade through the air. When he was finished, he placed the knife back into his hand and waited. Suddenly, it shrank down to the size of his palm, allowing him to place it back into his pocket.
Drake held up his Chakrams. “When battling, I can either keep these bad boys together to create one circle,” he demonstrated, “or separate them to have one for each hand. Personally, I prefer to hold them separately, so both of my hands are armed.” He slowly slid a finger down the outside of the Chakrams and gave me an impish grin. “Watch out, they’re very sharp,” he winked. He placed the Chakrams together, and like earlier, they grew smaller.
The sound of a whip cracking broke my attention away from Drake. Lily gleamed as her long whip dangled at her side. Seeing Lily with a weapon was definitely weird. Small, innocent Lily, with her pigtail braids and glasses that always seemed to fall down her nose, had always seemed like the sweet, nurturing sister I always wished to have. Now, she looked like a fierce warrior. “Mine isn’t as sharp as everyone else’s, but it sure leaves a nasty mark.” To prove her point, she lashed her whip out, and demolished a chair. She rolled the whip into a circle, and it too shrank small enough to fit in her pocket.