Clashing Tempest (Men of Myth Book 3)

by Brandon Witt

  With a sure movement, Sonia stepped from the edge and entered the water. Her naked body was instantly submerged.

  Without thought, she thrashed to the surface, her voice calling out, echoing once more. She clutched at the side of the pool, fingers slipping on the curved edge. With one panicked, powerful kick, she propelled herself out of the water and shoved the rest of the way out of the pool, then collapsed on the cold marble. Before she caught herself, she skittered a few feet away from the side.

  Unnamed fear surged through her. A different fear than the one that lingered over her without reprieve. Her gaze tore across the room, searching for the source of her terror. Still she found nothing. She was the only living creature inside the sphere. Her violet eyes came to rest on the surface of the water, her fear spiking yet again. She started to edge back farther but caught herself, the source of her fear suddenly identified and all too familiar. In anger, she yanked away the wet strands of her hair that were clinging to her face. She ripped with such force, they tore from her scalp in large chunks. Without a thought she tossed the locks away from her, neither noticing the pain at the injury or the dry hair that sprouted and tumbled down the side of her face, replacing what was lost.

  Sharks! She was afraid of sharks. Afraid wasn’t the right word—it didn’t even begin to capture the panic that was suffocating her. As terrified as she’d continued to be the entire time since her transition, this fear was even more distasteful. It was familiar. It was human. It was beneath her.

  She shoved herself to her feet and let out a scream. She screamed until every ounce of fear was replaced by rage. As a human, she’d had a nearly crippling fear of sharks. A fear so strong that, despite being a native Californian, she never went into the ocean deeper than midcalf, and even that she’d avoided at all costs. The realization that she still contained that irrational weakness was beyond comprehension.

  In one effortless motion, she dove over the several feet of marble and sliced into the salt water, plunging deep.

  She forced her eyes to remain open and refused to let her body thrash around to check for encircling sharks. Gradually, she continued to drift farther and farther into the depths, each second certain that teeth would rip through her skin and tear her apart.

  At last her fingers touched the floor of the pool. She remained in the same position, a dive frozen in time. Still she fought with the vestige of a human nature she’d thought had been eradicated. She let out another scream, the sound rushing toward the surface in a torrent of bubbles.

  Rage filled the space the fear vacated.

  When she once again felt like the monster she’d become, she allowed herself to right her body in the water and look around. The same picture met her eyes that she’d seen from above. Not only were there no sharks, there was nothing at all. The pool was a smaller replica of the globe above the surface—perfectly rounded smooth marble. A huge pool, to be sure, but no place for any creature to hide, let alone a fish farm of mermaids.

  Just to prove to herself that she’d slaughtered the last bits of human fear hidden in her body, Sonia continued to rest on the bottom of the pool. She’d not thought of it, but the lack of need for oxygen obviously meant she didn’t need to surface for air. After ten or fifteen minutes in her frozen state, she casually pushed off the floor and began her rise to the surface. She had no idea what Gwala’s point had been, but the fury she’d called into her to replace her fear began to spill over onto the king. She didn’t care if he would be able to serve a greater purpose later on and that he might be the key to destroying her sire. She would find a way to kill him for this. For filling her with pointless hope. She’d been fine before the thought of being able to be in the sun had entered her. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to shake the crushing disappointment now that it had been taken away.

  She was less than five feet from the surface when she saw it, and her hope flooded back one hundredfold. Unlike the room above the water, this globe was not perfectly smooth stone. There was a marble lip at the surface that wasn’t noticeable from above or below. Only now that she was even with it, was she able to see a narrow rectangular hole where the underside of the lip met with the curved walls of the pool.

  One powerful stroke carried her across the space, and she darted into the dark opening without pausing to see what she was entering. She nearly collided with the wall ten feet from the entrance but noticed a light reflected below her in just enough time to pause her trajectory. Peering down, she was able to make out a narrow tube that curved around, hiding the source of the light.

  Without further hesitation, Sonia dove through the water, the sensation bringing flashes of an underground tube at a water park she’d gone to years ago, the sensation of her human life superimposing itself on her present left her unbalanced. This time she didn’t let the panic touch her. At the end, the tube spread out into another spherical room.

  She halted so suddenly that her hair continued moving and wrapped around her face. She swiped it from her eyes and stared, slack-jawed, at the scene in front of her.

  Like the rest of the place, this room was all pink marble, with no other adornment. The only difference was the lighting. Below the water, the gas sconces were recessed into the walls and encased behind clear crystal.

  She didn’t even notice the light source, wasn’t even aware of the light. Her eyes traveled over the scores of mermaids and mermen that filled the saltwater snow globe.

  Like the Vampire Cathedral, the mers were nothing that could be mistaken for human. They were completely otherworldly and beyond anything she could have imagined. She stared at them in uncomprehending wonder, unable to focus on any one aspect before moving on to the next.

  They were of all ages—children, young adults, even ancient-looking mers. Some had smooth tails; others flared with spikes and spiny fins. Some were a solitary hue; others had swirling patterns of brilliant colors. Most of their skin was pale, but here and there were darker tones, all of which glistened like the surface of pearls in the flickering light.

  The majority of the mers were clustered in groups against the walls and stared at her, fear etched over their faces. Several drifted aimlessly in the middle of the space, not concerned with her presence. A pair of green eyes of one of the mermaids that floated out in the middle finally enabled Sonia to make sense of the larger picture. The eyes were dead; no fear lingered in them. Sonia knew the look well—one she’d seen often from the captives in the back rooms of the Square. That look had always saved the human from being Sonia’s victim. She saw no challenge or thrill when the spirit of her prey had been destroyed. When she’d seen such a pair of eyes, she’d looked away in revulsion, disgusted at the weakness the human displayed. This was different, like seeing a bird lying on the ground, simply waiting to die, its wings broken and feathers plucked by some cruel child.

  Sonia tore her gaze away from the dull green orbs, taking in the full picture of the girl. Long, lank brown hair floated around her. She had small, flat breasts, and her yellow tail was dull and muddy-looking. Here and there a scale shone out in its true golden hue, lost long ago in captivity.

  Sonia swiftly searched the rest of the mers in the room, glancing over them, suddenly less entranced than repulsed. Some life radiated from the young mers who clung to one another or hid behind their elders. She needed to find the one she was supposed to drink and be done with it. Maybe later she’d be able to hash over the sensations playing through her as she looked at the pathetic creatures, but she couldn’t afford that luxury now.

  A quick inspection told her no merman who fit Gwala’s description was here. She thought she’d found him when she saw a merman with a neon-blue tail, but then she remembered the king saying the mer she needed had dark skin, and this one was fair enough his skin could have been crafted from moonlight.

  After a few moments, she realized what she was missing. Behind the largest cluster of mers, she could make out another tunnel. The mers scattered as she swam toward them, and she enter
ed without a look back.

  Tunnel after tunnel she traveled, occasionally passing through yet other globe-like rooms, constantly passing mers. At first she expected them to attack and try to hurt her. They didn’t. Even the ones who still had light in their eyes had no fight left. They all simply waited for the time their fate would be upon them.

  When she was about to return to the first room, thinking she had passed the merman somewhere along the way and would need to start over, she came to another sphere. This room was minuscule compared to the rest. It would have been filled to capacity with as few as ten mers in its space. And there he was. The merman whose lifeblood she wasn’t allowed to drain. Golden chains secured him to the wall—clasped around each wrist, his waist, and the narrow part of his tail before his fins flared out. Much like a dog chained up in a yard, the links offered him enough freedom to allow him to swim out a few feet from the wall, but no farther. Sonia wasn’t even sure they were long enough that he would be able to rest on the floor if he wanted.

  The bright-blue eyes that met hers were anything but lifeless. They were filled with such hate that she retreated in the water, before she realized what she was doing and swam forward once more. His lips drew back, baring perfectly straight white teeth. A fierce look, to be sure, but not nearly as impressive as if he’d had a set of fangs.

  She bared her own in return but felt no other need to assert herself. He was chained, and even if he weren’t, she wouldn’t have taken offense. She was glad that one of these creatures had fight left in him.

  That said, if she could have had her pick of mers to eat, he would have been the one she chose. He was the kind she always chose. Handsome, strong, angry, and full of fight. While not huge, the merman had lean muscle, more than he should have had, considering there was no telling how long he’d been bound. His ivory-white skin still glistened with health, and his emerald-green tail sparkled like gems in the light, flecks of blue reflecting from the center of each scale. His long, vibrant red hair spread out around him in the water, making him look like he was on fire.

  Sonia stared at him in captivated wonder. The others had looked so much more than human, but nothing compared to this creature with so much life and anger in him. Obviously, vampires were the superior species, the mers’ captivity proved that, but the merman had something spectacular about him that she’d not witnessed in any vampire. Herself included. Vampires were all just glorified humans. He… he was not.

  She could have easily stayed there for hours, days maybe, simply staring at this creature—studying him, trying to understand the truth of him. Almost angrily, she turned to look at whatever was catching her peripheral vision.

  A merboy huddled in a ball beside the doorway where she’d entered. She must have swum past him without noticing, too caught up in the shackled merman.

  Dismissing him, she looked back to the redheaded merman before the picture of the merboy formed in her mind. As soon as it solidified, she turned and really looked at him. Dark skin, long black hair, dark-neon-green tail, spotted here and there with square teal patches. He had a wildness about him the others lacked. A newly caged animal. Terrified, but feral. This was the one Gwala said would provide her with sunlight.

  She stared at his trembling form, his face obscured behind thin arms. Though small and weak, he was young and healthy. Even so, he was exactly the opposite of any prey she would ever choose. Not due to any guilt over his age or stature, but simply because he would be a waste. He was just fear. No challenge. No anger. No real fight. She was his master. She didn’t need to prove it.

  The chains made a strange drumming sound behind her as the redheaded merman thrashed against his bonds, trying to get to her. She glanced over at him, her hunger spiking at his male ferocity and violence.

  With effort, she refocused on the terrified boy, curling ever tighter into a ball behind his tail. For the briefest moment, she considered leaving them here, swimming away and leaving this doomed race to its fate. She need not see more. A flicker from the enclosed fire caught the scales of the merboy and flashed across Sonia’s face, clarifying the reason for her being here.

  Glancing back once more to the bound merman, drinking in his hate, she descended on the merboy, covering him with her body. Her fangs sank deep into the boy’s neck, below his skull, intentionally biting hard enough to sever the spinal cord. Sonia’s mouth filled with a pungent, spicy flavor as the boy’s blood rushed into her.

  She drank until the blood was gone, and she realized she was sucking marrow out of the shattered bones.

  Flicking her hands, she floated up, suspended over the lifeless form of the merboy, still curled in a fetal position, no longer trembling. Fins now floating slack in the water instead of curled up, offering another layer of protection. Her eyes lingered on one side of the crescent fins that bent at an awkward angle, broken during her onslaught.

  With a final look at the merman, the wonder of him unable to stifle her desire to feed from him as well, she darted out of the room. She swam quickly, returning the way she’d come, easily remembering the way through the labyrinth tunnels. She didn’t look at any of the mers as she passed. She’d gotten what she came for. Despite Gwala’s offer, she had no desire to feed from any other of the creatures. She was not surprised Gwala would enjoy such a passive feast. Not her. She was done here.

  Sonia pushed herself up out of the water and stepped back into the pink marble sphere. She had no idea how long she’d been under, but she was suddenly filled with a rush to discover if the merboy had worked his magic. Perhaps the sun was already up, waiting for her. Maybe she would make it just in time to see the night give birth to the sun, and get to watch the transition for the first time as this new creature. The thought filled her with a spike of happiness, a sensation she barely remembered from her former existence.

  She slipped the soaked dress over her head and let it fall. She had to pull it down, as the wet fabric clung to her curves. Slipping her left foot into the black high-heeled shoe, she flinched when ivory-white fingers curved around her ankle.

  Reeling around, her eyes met those of the green-eyed mermaid looking up at Sonia from the pool. The mermaid’s thin hair was plastered about her face and spread out over the surface of the water.

  Shocked, Sonia said and did nothing, only stared down at the mermaid as her tail’s movement under the water caused the surface of the pool to scatter reflections of light across the room.

  “Please, have mercy.”

  For a moment, Sonia wasn’t sure where the tired voice came from. When the plea was repeated, she realized she was hearing it in her own mind.

  “Is that you? Are you speaking in my mind?” These creatures were even more unearthly than she’d realized.

  “Have mercy,” the voice entreated again, sounding as if on the verge of death. “I cannot continue.”

  Sonia only looked down at the girl. There truly was no life left in her. It was surprising she’d been able to find the reservoir of strength to even follow Sonia back to the chamber.

  Neither woman spoke. Faded green eyes beseeched Sonia. Long moments passed, neither sure what Sonia would do.

  Sonia knelt and leaned over the mermaid, so close that her black hair fanned out over the surface, mixing with the faded-brown strands. Their gazes never wavered from each other as Sonia reached out and cupped the mermaid’s cheeks.

  A quick wrench of the mermaid’s head extinguished what little light had been left, and the mermaid slowly sank below the surface.

  Before the mermaid’s body reached the bottom curve of the pool, Sonia had shoved free of the stone door and nearly flown through the cavernous tunnels, making her way up toward the towers of the Cathedral. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she rushed to meet the sun.

  Seventeen

  FINN DE MORISCO

  Christina was close to getting her driver’s license, and Mom and Dad had both gone with her to practice before she had to take the driving test the next week. Being seven at the time, I d
idn’t realize what a big deal this was, both getting a driver’s license and that she was on the maiden voyage of the de Morisco driving gauntlet.

  Over the following eight years, Mom and Dad repeated the tradition with Caitlin, Cynthia, and me. No driving test dreamed up by the state could rival the obstacle course contrived by Paulette and Wendell de Morisco. I have a suspicion the test got increasingly worse from child to child and that, being the youngest of four, I had to face tortures Christina and the others never dreamed of. My sisters assured me that they had it as bad as I did. Between Mom screaming about careening semis coming at us from our blind spot as we drove from Encinitas to San Diego on the Five, and Dad quietly slipping the car into neutral, the de Morisco children were prepared for any eventuality, no matter how remote.

  Cars were the furthest thing from my mind as Christina tested fate with our parents. The three of them were finally out of the house. Twelve-year-old Caitlin was left in charge of Cynthia and me. Caitlin and Cynthia were making sandwiches with stuff Mom had left out for lunch. The reward for making it through our parents’ driving test was getting to pick any restaurant we wanted to eat at afterward, so the three of us were on our own.

  I left Rugrats playing on the television in the sunken living room and quietly made my way upstairs. I was quite impressed with myself when I made it to the top of the steps. I’d kept my eyes on my sisters all the way up. They hadn’t turned around from where they were arguing about what to pull out of the refrigerator.

  After making it to the carpeted hallway that led to our bedrooms, I took off at a sprint, stopping abruptly at Christina’s door. Checking to make sure my sisters weren’t on to me, I peered over my shoulder, then turned the doorknob. Christina had left her door unlocked, which didn’t surprise me. Caitlin was the only one of the family who locked her door, emphasized with a hand-drawn Keep Out sign lettered in red crayon on black paper.