Bluehour (A Watermagic Novel)

by Brighton Hill

  “No, of course not.”

  “The police could have Agatha’s phone tapped. Sabine and her school could be listening in as well.”

  “How could she do that?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Didn’t Laurent tell you?”

  “What?” I looked confused.

  “When mers focus on a location, they can hear every sound regardless of the distance between them and the emplacement. Sabine probably has her school listening in on Agatha and your parents. She could easily recognize the sounds of the fair if she was eaves dropping on your conversation with Agatha. Mers have acute clarity in hearing. This is probably the only fair going on right now in California. She’ll figure out where we are in no time.”

  My shoulders fell. “I’m sorry. It was stupid of me.”

  “We better go.” Her voice was tense. “Don’t talk. She’ll be scanning the fairgrounds for your vocal sound waves.

  I furrowed my eyebrows, frustrated that I couldn’t speak.

  “Stay with me,” Brigitte demanded. As she took my hand, I noticed her nostrils flare while the fine hairs rose on her sleek arms. I hoped she didn’t transform like she did earlier when we were in the bathroom back at Erma and Willy’s place.

  She led me out of the fairgrounds in silence. We trekked across the huge parking lot, past the horse racing tracks and barns, down a steep hill, and came out onto the beach.

  My stomach got queasy when she started leading me into the ocean. I pulled back. The idea of going deep within the water with her was terrifying. I knew she was on my side and wanted to help me, but I wasn’t as closely bonded with her as I was with Laurent. I sensed that he would rather die than put me in danger. But I hadn’t developed that sort of trust with Brigitte. Maybe she would lose control and tear me to shreds unintentionally. I felt like I was being led into the ocean depths by a shark. Only a fool would comply.

  “You must come.” She pulled me close to her and whispered in my ear. “It’s the only way. Sabine will be listening for you on land. The water is our protection. We’ll take it back to the hotel.”

  There was no way I was going with her. If she let go of my hand deep within the water, I would drown. There were so many possible dangers. I would be out of my element.

  At once, I struggled with all my might. I must have thrown her off guard because I broke free. In a rush, I ran down the beach. My breath was rapid and my heart pounded in my chest.

  But in no time she caught up to me and grabbed me forcefully by the waist and threw me over her shoulder. I was shocked by her strength. I hardly had time to struggle before she ran with me into the ocean and dove under the waves.

  We were moving deep fast. I gave up my struggles. My adrenaline was rushing, but I could breathe easily in her grasp. Once I gave in, she let me swim beside her, only our hands connected.

  “Stay with me, Grace. You are safe.”

  I had no choice but to succumb now. We were too deep. If I let go of her hand, I would drown. And if I was released from her grasp for too long, my body would be crushed from the impact of the depths.

  The water was black around us. I could not see anything. When I lagged behind, losing my momentum, Brigitte pulled at my hand gently.

  “You ok?” she asked in her musical voice.

  “I’m afraid to swim too fast for fear of the dark.”

  “I’ll fix that,” she responded softly. I could tell she was more comfortable in the ocean than on land. Though the tension of our circumstances was still present, her voice resonated more gently. “We’re almost at the ocean floor.”

  I tried to push myself ahead with my free hand held out before me like a blind person. One of my many fears was that I would bump into a predatory sea creature or smash into something hard like a coral reef or a huge boulder.

  Suddenly the ocean floor lit up. Brigitte’s hand was held out before her directing light ahead as we swam. Now the plant life glowed in many vibrant colors as it had with Laurent. A school of dull gray fish swam into the light exuding from Brigitte’s hand. The entire school turned bright blue, orange, and yellow. They were beautiful.

  We were moving faster now, but the scenery was magnificent. I saw purple seahorses, a huge open clam, coral, sponges, sea snails, and so many fish of varying sizes and shapes. A part of me wanted to stop and explore, but I knew my life was in danger and the sooner we made our way back to Erma and Willy’s place, the safer we would be.

  Then all at once, Brigitte stopped. “Shhhh,” she whispered. Her grasp tightened, squeezing my fingers.

  The light from her free hand disappeared and the ocean became completely black. We floated in the still water. My heart was pounding so hard that probably every sea creature could hear it. I got the feeling that she was listening for something.

  Minutes passed. I felt the water moving in wave-like motions overhead.

  “Tiger sharks,” she whispered. “There are hundreds of them ahead. There’s a ship transporting cattle. They discarded a dead cow into the ocean.”

  “Shark food,” I whispered.

  “They are in frenzy. They want more.” She put her hand on my racing heart.

  I screamed at her touch and flinched away, not expecting it.

  She pulled me closer to her. “Slow your heart rate. They can hear it and they want more mammalian blood.”

  My voice was barely audible. “How the heck do I do that?” I held perfectly still.

  “Think of something peaceful,” she whispered. And then, at once, she pulled me down to the surface of the ocean floor. I felt the mud mush between my toes.

  She was doing something in the darkness. It was all happening so fast. I think she was digging into the ground. Suddenly, she pushed me into a hole.

  I fell hard onto a squishy surface.

  “Be perfectly still and silent,” she ordered.

  My free hand and torso fumbled around against a muddy, sandy wall. All the while, Brigitte kept a firm grasp on my hand that was raised now above my head and out of the hole where she was on the level floor. It felt like she pushed the earth all once. Suddenly, the walls collapsed into me and I was completely buried alive.

  I was terrified out of my mind. I could hardly move. But I could breath or rather I could exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, receiving the life force necessary for survival. Brigitte held just the tips of three of my fingers now that stretched out of the grave.

  I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t see anything. Just black. And silence. As natural survival instinct, I tried in desperation to make my way out, but I was completely trapped. All I could do was surrender. I felt Brigitte squeeze my fingertips in reassurance.

  My mind was spinning. I couldn’t believe the circumstances. The feeling of mud and sand completely covering me, filling my nostrils and my mouth as I tried to speak was torture. I kept my eyes closed the entire time, but granules of sand and dirt got inside anyway. It hurt something awful. If I lived to escape this horror, I hoped I wasn’t blinded. I felt like I was going to go out of my mind.

  An hour must have passed like this. Claustrophobia was nearly overwhelming me. I thought the terror would never end. I just kept reminding myself of the hundreds of sharks overhead that wanted to tear me apart and devour me. And that recognition that I was better off gave me strength in my bleakest thoughts.

  But my strongest saving grace was when Brigitte would squeeze my fingers, reminding me that I was alive. A rush of hope shot through my body. She was still there. The sharks would eventually leave and she would dig me out.

  Just at that thought, I felt her hand suddenly jerk away from my fingers. We weren’t connected anymore!

  What had happened? Did a shark tear her away? Was she fighting them off as an attempt to save my life? Or had they overtaken her?

  I couldn’t breathe. All thoughts of anything other than survival vanished. Now that we weren’t attached, I wasn’t receiving oxygen. My lungs tightened. The veins in my body burned. An intense pain grew rapidly in my che
st. It felt like my insides were bursting apart. Oh, God, help me.

  Just as I thought I was about to pass out, Brigitte grabbed my fingers. Instantly I could breathe. The pain slowly began to lessen. Oxygen was circulating through my body.

  She was frantically digging me out. Relief rushed over me. My head was uncovered now. I choked out mud and sand. I blew dirt out of my nostrils. I wiped my eyes with my hands. The water rinsed them clean. They felt better, but I had no idea if I could see. The water was still pitch black.

  There was a flash of light coming from behind her as she dug the dirt away from my body. I could see! But the mer digging me out of my grave wasn’t Brigitte. It was Sabine!

  Ocean Roar

  Sabine lit up the ocean with her hand. My heart was pounding fast against my chest at the horror of acknowledging her presence. I saw her long red hair fanned out in the water beside me. Up close, her face was as beautiful as a porcelain doll.

  “Hello Grace,” she snapped in annoyance. Her leg brushed up against mine as she squeezed my hand too tight. “Never fear; the sharks have swum away.”

  At once, four other female mers and three male mers swam up behind her. Like Laurent’s school, all these mers were stunning with long flowing hair and perfect physiques. Everything was happening fast. I looked around for Brigitte. She was tied up to a coral reef with seaweed. Her mouth was gagged, but her eyes were wide with shock.

  Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar. It resonated from deep within Brigitte’s body and vibrated out of her throat and through her pores. Rocks started to roll and bounce along the ocean floor. The gag couldn’t hold back the pitch of Brigitte’s vocals. It was amazing how someone so delicate looking could make such a noise. The sound waves were causing the ocean to shake. The movement became more rapid by the second.

  In the rush, Sabine held her hand up and brought it back down in haste, slashing my arm with her sharp black fingernails. The sound vibrations threw her back. But blood gushed from my wound. And now that Sabine wasn’t holding my hand, I could not breathe.

  The ocean movement became violent. To my surprise the coral reef came crashing down over Brigitte. Though I couldn’t see her now, the thunderous roar continued to grow in volume.

  My blood flowed through the water. I looked at Sabine and her school. Their faces stretched into horrific creatures, their eyes turning a demonic pale blue as Brigitte’s had back at the hotel. Their teeth elongated and became raiser sharp.

  The sights were spinning around me now. I could hardly think what to do. The lack of oxygen was overtaking me. I felt a hand grab onto me. Suddenly, I could breathe. I turned to look.

  It was Laurent! But his eyes were the same pale blue. His face was elongated and his teeth were as sharp as incisors. “Grace!” His voice was music in my ears. I knew he wouldn’t kill me.

  But before he could say anything else, Brigitte grabbed onto his waist and threw him away from me. I couldn’t breathe again. My eardrums pounded in my head. I tried to swim away, but the water was too rough.

  Brigitte’s roar muffled out most sounds. Sabine and her school came at me. A large boulder flung into them, temporarily throwing the school back. They rolled in somersaults in the current. Laurent came at them with a spear.

  My heart nearly broke. I knew he could not fight Sabine’s entire school even with a weapon. The pain was strangling me.

  Just as I felt my lungs were going to explode out of my chest, Brigitte took my hand and flung me back. I was able to rejuvenate at the brief touch. But as I looked to the side, I saw the most surprising sight.

  A herd of seals came rushing at us. The seals cut Laurent off just as he went for Sabine with a spear. They knocked him to the side and he slammed into a boulder.

  Brigitte quieted and the ocean stilled.

  “I love you, Sabine!” The declaration sounded through the ocean. “He’s not worth it. Come away with me.” I didn’t know who said that. I sensed it came from one of the seals. But how could that be possible? I must have been hallucinating.

  Sabine’s face transformed back. She took her head into her hands and cried. And all at once, she swam away with her school and the herd of seals surrounding them.

  Laurent took my hand. “Hold still,” he whispered. He placed a small glowing stone against my cut. Rapidly, my arm healed right before my face. Relief came over me as I looked to him and saw his electric blue eyes gaze into mine.

  He pulled me up against his chest. I felt as if our hearts were beating as one. Our lips touched and I was in heaven. The kiss was everything I ever dreamed it would be—soft and sensual. But it was over almost just as it started. I knew that if the kiss lasted too long, I would undergo the painful mer transformation and give up my existence as a human being. I wanted that; I did. Anything to be with Laurent.

  But Brigitte swam close to us and smiled affectionately as we turned to her. “Let’s go home,” she sang a little too loudly.

  Our eyes widened as the ocean shook briefly with the vibration of her unexpected intensity. We all burst out laughing. And then everything was calm.

  The End

  (to be continued in book 2 of the Watermagic Novels)

  Thank you for reading the first book of Brighton Hill’s Water Magic Novels. If you enjoyed it, check out Bluedawn (A Blue Myth Novel). It is interrelated to Bluehour. Here is a sample:

  Bluedawn

  A Blue Myth Novel

  Brighton Hill

  ~ Dreamspot Publishing, Inc ~

  1.

  “Do you really need all this stuff?” I said to my mom as I hung up her evening dresses in the motorhome closet.

  Dad was carrying in her gigantic makeup box. “What would Josette Bellerose do without her fancy adornments?” He teased.

  “All right, enough guys,” she warned light heartedly from the kitchen. She was great at concealing her French accent. Most of the time, she sounded very American. “At least I’m not bringing that rhinestone studded bathing suit I wore last time we camped at the beach.”

  “What’s this?” Dad asked as he picked up a silver chain with shells and sea stones.

  “That’s for my waist.” She peaked around the kitchen divider at Dad who was standing next to her vanity table.

  “Oooh, sassy,” he chuckled as he walked over to her and clasped the ornamentations just above her hips.

  She brushed her long golden hair out of her pretty face as she giggled at his touch the way some teenage girls at my high school acted when they had a new boyfriend. Her hands threaded around his big, hulking body.

  “Okay, no public displays of affection please.” I rolled my eyes wondering if I would ever find the kind of love they had. Most boys I found annoying, pimply, and shallow. And the few times that I was interested in a guy, he wasn’t interested in me.

  I think I was the only almost eighteen-year-old alive who had never even kissed a boy. If only I had been blessed with thick, luxurious golden hair and stunning looks like Mom, but instead I was plain with straggly brown locks like Dad that tangled up in the wind.

  The coastal drive from our Orange County home to Carlsbad was relatively short. We stopped once at a rest spot to check a rattling sound on the car we were towing behind the motorhome and to buy candy bars. Most of the travels were relatively uneventful. During the duration of the ride, I mostly stared out the window watching the ocean and palm trees whiz by.

  But on the freeway, Mom sang the whole time which always put me in a sort of hypnotic state making the trip pass quicker. Dad and I joined in occasionally too. As a family, we were geeky in that way. Though Mom had a beautiful voice, Dad and I were severely lacking in the musical department. I was just glad none of my friends were with us to see how goofy we were.

  When we pulled into the woods at the campground, my parents discussed payment and park rules for the site at the ranger’s booth and chatted with him through the motorhome window. I was anxious to start our day, so I rushed over to the adjacent mini-market for some sunscre
en. I knew they could go on and on with their jibber-jabber.

  As I jogged over through the clearing, tiny stones kept getting in my sandals. How frustrating. I tried to ignore the irritation, biting my lip hard as I ran. But once the saturation level became unbearable, I stopped to shake the darn things out.

  That’s when it happened. When I stood back up from shaking out the stones, I saw a crazy good looking boy. This sort of thing NEVER happened to me. My body felt like it was on fire.

  He and his two friends were walking out of the log cabin store. I hardly noticed the other two boys because the one with dark hair caught my attention and made me feel all out of whack.

  He was gorgeous, but as I looked closer, I realized he was staring at me with a sinister gleam in his green eyes. Chills ran up my spine. What was I thinking? I wondered what I could have done to illicit such a glare.

  But before I could turn away, one of the other boys, the shirtless one with sandy blond hair, called over to me, “Hey, cutie. Come on over so we can suck face.” His lips puckered in a kissing sound.

  Involuntarily, my eyes widened in surprise. I looked around for a moment to see if he was talking to someone else. Nope. It must have been me. I was the only one around. What a creep.

  Before I could respond, the guy with dark hair grabbed the blond one by the shoulders and threw him to the ground. “Idiot,” he yelled. And then he kicked him hard in the ribs.

  I gasped and covered my face. Once I opened my eyes to see what was happening, I saw the dark haired boy brush his messed up locks out of his face. His expression was intense.

  Their other friend who had brown hair pulled up the blond guy onto his feet. But while he was helping him up, the dark haired boy punched him once more in the nose. He choked for a moment on the blood that was now oozing from his nostrils, yet he managed to gain his balance.

  “Come on,” the dark haired boy said to the other two.