More than a Mermaid (Shifty Book 4)

by Sara Summers

  Marley spoke about grizzly shifters, about how they valued respect and family bonds. She didn’t say much, but what she did say made an impact.

  Beau went up after her, speaking even more briefly than she had.

  We continued to move down the line.

  Kennedy sat just before Sav and Jordie, and I noticed that Sam sat up and watched her closely when she went up to the podium. He wanted to see what his friend’s soulmate was like, I guessed.

  “Hi everyone, my name is Kennedy and I am an otter shifter.” She pulled her hair over her shoulder and rested her arms on the podium. “I love my parents and siblings, we were all close while we were growing up. Um, otter shifters are different than other types of shifters because we’re water animals. We play and have fun in lakes and oceans, and our culture values family more than anything.

  “We promote individuality, being yourself and doing what you love. For me, that’s art and history. I don’t paint or draw very much myself, but I love to see the beautiful creations made by the hands of talented humans and shifters. I dream of running a gallery or museum. I love humans and shifters, and both of our histories.

  “Anyway, that’s me.” She smiled out at the room. “Thank you for listening.”

  She sat down, and Jordie made his way to the front of the room. He spoke about his job teaching second grade, about how he noticed human kids treating shifter kids badly, and how it needed to change. He said,

  “We need to teach our children to respect the differences between us. They are what make each of us special, and no child or person should ever be made to feel like they are worth less because they’re unique.”

  When he sat down, I noticed a bunch of heads nodding.

  Sav went next, talking about the power of our words, about accepting each other and respecting the different worldviews that each of us has. She explained the way panther shifters felt and how the way people saw and expected them to be was harming them. When she sat down, it was my turn to get up.

  I felt eyes on me as I walked up to the podium, wearing my white V-neck t-shirt and the colorful skirt Sav had brought.

  When I stopped at the podium, I adjusted the microphone down a little (Sav was taller than me) and looked out at the crowd.

  “I’m sure most of you are curious about mermaids. As I said last night, we’re different. For one, we’re the only type of shifter that doesn’t change completely into an animal.

  “There’s more than that, however. Mermaid and merman shifters are raised on the land, the way any other humans or shifters would be. We leave our parents and our people when we are young, being raised by our grandparents. We believe that there is no greater responsibility than raising a child, and because of that, we give the task to the wisest of us.

  “Our culture focuses on traditions and working together to make the ocean a more beautiful place. We love exploration and growth, both as a group and individuals. Mermaids and mermen are different than humans and other shifters, yes, but why is being different a bad thing? Humans emphasize embracing differences, so I ask you to please accept ours. Thank you.”

  Sam got up as I sat down. He walked up to the front slowly, and for a second, I was terrified that he might say something to give away the fact that he had been a human up until three days earlier.

  “Thanks for coming to this summit.” Sam started. His words were awkward, but then, I doubted he had ever needed to worry about public speaking before. “I don’t have much to add, but I will say this. Shifters aren’t humans. We turn into animals, or into half-fish if you’re a mermaid or merman.”

  A few people chuckled.

  “While shifters aren’t humans, we’re still people. Like everyone else was saying, we have desires, hopes, struggles, and pain. We go through life just like everyone else does. We might not be humans, but we’re still people. Thanks.”

  Sam sat down next to me, and I saw a bead of sweat on his neck.

  “You did great.” I assured him, in a hushed whisper.

  “Thanks.” He whispered back.

  A few human leaders stood up next, taking their turns to speak about why everyone should accept shifters. They emphasized the points we had already made a little further, going on to focus on the concept that Sam had brought up—Shifters are people too.

  When we finally stopped for lunch, Sav called in our orders for sub sandwiches. We hadn’t been notified, but everyone was expected to provide their own lunch for the day. That saved us from coming up with an excuse as to why we didn’t want to eat the food anyone else provided, so that was nice.

  Our sandwiches got there ten minutes later, and we were all eating them when a woman wearing a housekeeping uniform came up to us with a pitcher of some sort of punch.

  She poured a cup and handed it to Sav.

  “Here you go.” She smiled brightly. “The president sends his regards.” Her voice was too cheery. Besides that, I could tell there was something strange about her. She seemed… fake.

  “No thank you.” Sav shook her head. “I’m off sugar.” She excused herself.

  The woman held it out to me.

  “Sorry, sugared drinks make me sick.” I told her. Sam echoed what I had said, and she moved down the line to someone else.

  Everyone came up with some excuse or another as to why they couldn’t drink it. The woman looked more and more frustrated as she reached the end of the line.

  When Leah told her she didn’t want the drink, a man behind her stood up.

  “I would love a cup of that.” He held out his hand.

  The woman hesitated.

  “This is a summit in favor of equality. Surely you wouldn’t have a drink made only for shifters.” The man scoffed.

  She handed him the cup of liquid, and he swallowed it before any of us could say anything.

  He made a face.

  “That wasn’t good at all.” He handed her back the cup.

  All of my group turned to watch the man. We had to see how he would react, if he would react.

  A moment later, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.

  His wife screamed, and my eyes jumped back to where the housekeeping woman had been a minute ago. We had to grab her, to stop her, but when I looked for her she was gone.

  “Someone call 911!” Brooke shrieked.

  “Mermaid—Ava!” his wife turned to me, her eyes frantic. “Didn’t you say you could heal people?”

  I was surprised, but I nodded quickly.

  “Please, do it!” She begged.

  I climbed over the chairs to save time, leaning over the man.

  “Don’t touch him.” I warned her.

  There wasn’t a real reason why she couldn’t, but I knew she would probably get in the way. Telling her to stay back would hopefully prevent that, so I told her.

  I placed my hands over his chest and closed my eyes. As always, when I focused it, my mind could see the problems in his body.

  The poison was working its way through him, harming him in a way I couldn’t understand. Rather than trying to remove it, I persuaded his body to fight it. His body could see what the poison was trying to damage in a way that I couldn’t.

  With my urging, his brain and body started to work in overdrive. They fought the poison, stopping it in its tracks before discovering how to completely take care of it.

  When I saw that his body understood and was now equipped to deal with the challenge it was facing, I pulled my hands off the man and stood up. All eyes in the room were focused on me, and they were all wide and surprised.

  “He’s going to be okay.” I announced.

  It was like the whole room remembered to breathe at once.

  “Thank you.” His wife took my hand and squeezed it.

  “No problem.” I smiled, going back to my seat.

  The ambulance got there a minute later, just when the man was coming-to. The paramedics took him to the hospital to be safe, but they didn’t seem too worried.

  As soon as they
were gone, someone started clapping, and in a matter of seconds, everyone in the whole room was clapping. After a moment, I realized that they were all staring at me.

  “You’re a hero.” Sam told me.

  “I did what anyone would do.” I shook my head.

  “They want you to say something.” Sav whispered.

  “Oh.” I stood up and forced myself to smile out at everyone. “All I did was save a human, just as I would hope any of you would save a shifter who was hurt or in trouble. As I said, I believe in peace and equality.” I sat back down, and the clapping subsided.

  Everyone went back to their lunches. My friends chatted with each other, but Sam and I just sat at the end of the row and ate our sandwiches.

  “Your speech went really well.” I told him, then dropped my voice down to a whisper. “Thanks for playing along.”

  Sam shrugged.

  “It’s fine. Thanks.”

  Sav and Jordie pulled Sam and I into their conversation, and the rest of the lunch hour flew by. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were relieved to have lived through lunch.

  Chapter 19

  “I thought it would never be over.” Brooke groaned. She and Jazz were in front of me and Sam.

  “You and me both. I’m all for equality, but how many different ways do we have to restate it?” Jazz agreed.

  “Seven hundred, apparently.” Brooke muttered.

  We stopped in the lobby, at the place we had been planning on meeting Alena and Marie.

  “They’re probably just running late.” Sav figured. Leah sat down on one of the couches, and I folded my arms.

  “Is tomorrow going to be like that too?” Sam asked, grimacing.

  “Probably.” I sighed. “It’s for a good cause though, so it’s worth it.”

  “Yeah, it’s just boring.” Sam shrugged.

  “So where are we going to eat?” Leah wondered.

  “I was thinking IHOP.” Sav admitted. “I know we already ate there today, but it’s close and Lyssie at least ate a little.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Brooke yawned.

  “Me too.” Marley nodded.

  Everyone agreed, so that was decided.

  “They should be here any time.” I looked down at my phone. It was 4:05, so they weren’t late enough to worry yet.

  “It can be hard to get Lyssie out the door.” Jordie reminded Sav, who nodded. She sat next to Leah and folded her arms.

  A few more minutes went by, and I looked at the time.

  4:09.

  I had a bad feeling about it.

  “Can you try calling Alena?” I asked Sam. He nodded, pushing a button then handing me the phone. I held it up to my ear, and it rang.

  When it went to voicemail, I handed the device back to Sam.

  “We need to go up there.” Sav stood up. I nodded, hurrying to the stairs.

  When Sav started sprinting up them, my bad feeling turned to sickness. Jordie and I were running with her, moving as fast as we could.

  Sav shoved the handle to Alena’s room down, but the door was locked. She banged on it with her fist, her cheeks red.

  “Alena! Open the door!” Sav yelled, not caring about anyone who may or may not hear her. “Marie! Alena! Let me in!” She demanded.

  “Here.” Sam moved the three of us out of the way. “I’ll break it down.” he said.

  He stepped back, then charged toward the door.

  Before he hit it with the shoulder he had pointed forward, it swung open. Marie held the door for us, but we could all see the gun someone had resting against the side of her head.

  “Come in.” a woman said from behind Marie, though it was more of a threat than an invitation.

  Sav pushed her way past Sam, she and Jordie entering the room first.

  When Sam and I went in, Marie shut the door behind us. She didn’t let anyone else into the room, not any of our friends.

  Though they banged on the door and yelled our names, we couldn’t answer. Standing in front of us were three assassins. Two were men, one was the woman who had tried to poison us earlier.

  One man had a gun pointed at Alena, while the other had his gun to Marie’s head. The third trained her gun at the four of us.

  “Where’s my daughter?” Sav stepped forward, unfazed by the gun pointed at her chest.

  “Savvy?” Lyssie peeked her head over Alena’s shoulder. “Mommy?”

  Sav let out a sigh of relief.

  “Lyssie, get back down.” Alena whispered.

  The little girl hid once again.

  “What do you want?” I asked the gunmen, though I knew why they were there. They had been sent to kill us, obviously.

  “We want all of you dead.” The woman said, simply. “But we’ll settle for a few.” She smirked.

  Marie caught my eye. She tilted her head just a bit to the right, pointing to the man whose gun was focused on Alena. Marie then tilted her head toward Sam and gestured to the woman.

  I took Sam’s hand, which surprised him, but I squeezed it hard so he wouldn’t turn to look at me.

  “If you kill us, you will be executed, and it will likely be in a very painful manner.” Sav told them. “It might not be okay based on human standards, but in the shifter world, anyone who murders someone innocent is an immediate target.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we’re human, isn’t it?” The woman sneered.

  “Maybe it would be if we weren’t such high-profile shifters.” Sav folded her arms. “If you kill Ava or Sam, the rest of the mermaids will come for you. You won’t be safe no matter where you go.”

  “I’ll take the risk.” One of the men growled.

  With everyone focused on Sav, I was able to point mine and Sam’s conjoined hands toward the woman. Sam nodded just a bit, and we were good to go.

  My eyes jumped back to Marie.

  “You see, a human war against shifters is exactly what…”

  Marie mouthed the word,

  “Now.”

  And I lunged for the man on my right.

  I used the water in his body to throw him against the wall, knocking him unconscious almost immediately. Turning, I saw Sam wrestling the woman. With the water that was inside her, I yanked her to the floor hard enough that she was stuck to the carpet.

  Sam punched her in the face, knocking her out as well.

  As I turned to face Marie, a gunshot rang out.

  My heart stopped.

  My eyes jumped to Alena and Lyssie, crouched behind the nightstand. They were fine.

  My heart dropped to the floor as I looked at Marie. She was on the floor, on top of the gunman, and blood was pouring from both of them.

  I pushed past Sav and Jordie, jumping over Sam and racing to Marie.

  I put my hand on her chest, closing my eyes to try to solve the problem inside her.

  “Ava, it won’t work.” Marie put her hand over mine, and my eyes opened. I felt tears pool inside them, felt my throat fill with a lump of pain or sorrow or whatever I was feeling. “It’s my time.” She gave me a small smile as the blood, the life, leaked out of her body.

  Though I knew what she was saying was true, I couldn’t accept it.

  “Stay with me.” I choked out the words, closing my eyes to try to heal her once again.

  “I can’t.” Marie’s voice grew weaker. “Don’t let the council rule for you, Ava. You are the queen, and you know what is right for our people. Take Alena to the city with you. Take care of each other.” She opened her eyes, and they focused on something above me.

  “No.” I cried out, closing my eyes again. I tried to force her body to heal, tried to make it get better. But it was no use; she was dying. As she said, it was her time to go.

  “Marie!” Alena shrieked, dropping to her knees beside me. She grabbed Marie’s hand, and I pulled her close to me.

  “Shh.” I tried to calm my sister while tears poured down my face. I had to be strong for her, had to be the support she needed.

 
“She can’t die.” Alena cried.

  “I know.” I held my sister like the lifeline she was, in the moment. “I know.”

  We cried together, sisters who had only just met, losing the only mother-figure that either of us had ever had in our lives.

  The police got there a few minutes later, and some men tried to take her away on a stretcher or body bag. I wasn’t sure what they wanted, I couldn’t understand them with my mind being such a whirlwind, but I stood up in front of her body.

  “We do not bury our people the way you do yours. She will be returned to the ocean, not stuffed in a jail of dirt.” I glared at the men.

  One of my friends stepped in and got them to leave the room for a few minutes.

  Sam took my arm, his touch and voice as gentle as could be.

  “Can I drive her to the ocean?” he asked softly.

  I hesitated. He wasn’t a mermaid, he didn’t understand our culture. He didn’t know Marie like Alena and I, nor did he want to be my soulmate like he was supposed to.

  But I didn’t want to drive, and I didn’t want to be alone in having to support Alena. I couldn’t do it all.

  I made up my mind but couldn’t get out the words, so I nodded.

  Sam would take care of it—he would have to take care of it, because I couldn’t. I wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t tough enough, and wasn’t prepared enough.

  While I wasn’t enough, he was. He had the strength I didn’t possess, and he… he cared.

  And I loved him for caring.

  Chapter 20

  Sam held my hand through the drive to the ocean. It wasn’t a romantic gesture, I don’t think, but one meant to calm me while I was in such terrible pain.

  If we were becoming anything, it was friends. We had started to trust each other, and that was a blessing even if that was all we could have.

  I didn’t look behind me during the car ride. If I looked behind me, I knew I would see Alena crying. I could hear her sniffling, I could hear the pain she was feeling, and even just that hurt me.

  So for the ride, I let myself hurt, let the shock sink in, and held Sam’s hand.

  When we stopped at the same place we had the night before, I slid out of the car. My bare feet touched the dirt and rocks below, and I remembered that this was still the same day as the summit. We were still there, still fighting for peace.