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4 entries this month
Hard Lessons (Prolog)
17:20 Jul 16 2010
Times Read: 623
CAUTION~~READ THIS!~~
This story is posted with adults in mind. It is erotic in nature...(though greatly edited so not to be blatantly erotic).
WARNING~~READ THIS!
Therefore with this in mind, it is not suitable for small children to read...
(even edited I would prefer no one under 18 reading this material, PLEASE! It would really bother me if I found out I was ignored in this...)
MEANING NO CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED!
ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS MADE TO ANYONE!
(Off colored areas signify dreams, memories, or 'visions' in this story line)
It is always the same. I lie half-awake in my bed, alone but not alone. I find that I never wish to leave it; for he is here, when I am at the edges of sleeping and waking. Perhaps I am insane to believe it anything other than a dream, but he is too real to be a phantom of my imagination. He doesn’t come when my mind wanders into dreaming. He is here when I lie down and gone in my sleep, yet there again when I wake. Perhaps it is the only time my mind is open to his. Not awake and not asleep. Yet he is here…
I have pillows thrown all around me, but when he comes they are not pillows at all. I feel the softness of it at my back only in my head it twists into the slide of a muscled abdomen. I know he has to be real. I would never dare to dream of an old-world warrior in my bed for those muscles are way too big for my imagination. I am far more a nerdy boy type than a huge warrior that should be riding horses and swinging broadswords. The arm that wraps my soft stomach and pulls me back into him is just as huge and thick. It is coppery and warm, tan from the heat of a sun that I never feel on my pale skin. His hands are big, holding along my ribs and stroking them thoughtfully as he sleeps at my back. I know he sleeps, restlessly and angry. I can even feel a corded thigh sometimes press between my own. Does he realize I am even here?
Today I am nearly asleep. I have kept myself from fully dreaming just to lie in his arms for a while longer. It won’t last. He is always sleeping. Eventually, he will wake even if I do not slip into slumber myself. He is a creature of the light. I keep to the shadows of night. We have little in common it would seem. Why is he here then? I feel a soft sigh, a prelude to his waking. I feel a gentle kiss and nuzzle at my shoulder and he breathes in deep against my neck and hair.
His other hand slowly moves beneath me to lift me back and up for a proper kissing. I feel the hand clasp a breast as if he owns it. My breath leaves my chest as I feel his whisper over my cheek searching for my mouth even as he is waking. He never makes it. He disappears. I groan helplessly. That is one hot male no matter whom he is, I decide, as I allow myself to finally succumb to the sleep of the day.
Silvern woke grumpy and groggy as usual these days. A sigh and he was rubbing his face to banish the seductive scent from his head. One of the other guys bumped him and he nearly snarled at him until he recognized the silver hair so much like his own. His dark eyes met darker ones that were smiling at him in sympathy.
“That dream again, Silv? You aren’t likely to find a lady here,” his friend sighed longingly.
“Yeah, I know…I just can’t shake how real she is,” Silvern complained bitterly. “Damn, I will never get her scent out of my nose…”
“Well, you had better if you want to stay alive,” Sil’lance grumbled darkly before handing him a cord attached to a black runic stone. “Here, put this on.”
“What is it?” The rune was ancient and the stone pulsed with energy in his palm.
“Something to keep your ass out of danger,” the much larger male answered with a grin, moving through the stone walled room. The other males moved out of his way unconsciously.
All of them were warriors. Silvern was the smallest, but his muscles were quick and fluid. The other males were varying degrees between him and Sil’lance. They were the only two males with silver hair though, a fact that made the much larger male watch over him protectively.
Silvern smiled and threw the pendant over his head. He saw Sil’lance nearly smile as he wandered away. It would be soon. They would be expected to move swiftly and return just as fast.
Silvern shrugged into a few light items he always carried when traveling. Most of the males had thick leather straps that attached swords to them. Silvern only had a few daggers amidst the other items, so he didn’t need the thick harnesses the others wore. The daggers went on each wrist and ankle. A thin cord went around his neck with the pendant to tie off around his waist. It would hold what few other items he felt he should always keep at his side. None of the males bothered with dressing. It would only slow them down when they were told to go.
Sil’lance was between the door and the men when they came down. “You know what to do,” a soft hiss instructed them as something was pitched into the room. Sil’lance took the scrap of cloth as the door was locked again. He brought it to me as the metal door on the other side of the room began to grind open.
“You know what to do,” Sil’lance teased as he held the thing up between us. It reeked of fear and rot. I flinched away from it in distaste.
“I got it,” I snapped. All of the males were leaving the stone walled area for the fresh air outside. I wanted it too and followed them eagerly. Sil’lance moved in behind me expectantly.
The suns were bright today. I watched them for a moment as I reached for the magic beginning to swirl around us all. It wouldn’t take long. I felt the itch of growing hair as ghostly white fur flooded out all over me. The tiny spot-in-spot of black and rust never failed to amuse me. It was the reason Sil’lance couldn’t keep his damn eyes off of me. He liked them. I fell to four snowshoe feet and shook out my fur eagerly pointing my ears to listen to the world around us.
Sil’lance was the next to fall to his huge, powerful paws with a roar that made even the others shifting nearby jump away with restless sounds. He arched his back stretching and yawning as he flexed his claws. I watched him. He knew I was watching. I was just as amused by his own thick black stripes with bright, crimson lines down the centers.
The huge cat moved up near me. He had the least equipment, two short swords kept only on one side. He used to tease that he had to leave one side free to guard me. I was so tiny I could hide beneath him, and I had…often. The huge beast was three times my height.
He bumped up against me yawning again as his eyes looked out to the trees warily. It was time to go. We were always the first of the party to leave. I was grateful for Sil’lance. I had hated being left on my own to track our prey. I danced out front and began to race away. I was small, but fleet. No one could keep up when I raced swiftly ahead. Sil’lance was tall enough to keep up, but he was the only one and he made certain to lag behind quite a bit. The rest would follow us, but Sil’lance would keep me safe.
A thrill of fear washed over me as I hit the trees. Our prey today was not the usual one. It was a normal escape, but that is where the similarities fell short. There had been talks of an army nearby. If the traitor was a part of that mass, or fell into it accidentally, we would have to face them. The males were eager for battle. Sil’lance had been acting strange all day. I was nervous, but mostly untouched by the fear and eagerness. I was just grateful to be free for a while.
It was a long run. I was actually relieved when the tracks began to slow. I had to work twice as hard as the others to cover the same amount of distance. They wouldn’t be winded when they got here. They didn’t run full-out to find the creatures fleeing us as I must. They only followed me at a discreet pace until I told them where to come. I used to have to run back for them. Sil’lance made that an option I was not forced to use any longer. I wasn’t able to fight most things on my own, but with him at my side…I was no longer worried about revealing my presence to the prey I tracked.
I stopped, panting for a moment to catch my breath, and felt Sil’lance brush up against me while his eyes scanned the forest alertly. The creature resembled a tiger, but he was the size of a very tall horse. I knew he had wings that had been taken from him. The two substantial lines of scarring weren’t very obvious in his deep fur. Me, I just looked like a very odd mix between a cheetah and a snow leopard in animal form. We were nearly the same height as men, but Sil’lance was still twice or more my size in bulk.
I began to creep into the trees more carefully and using the plush fur on my feet to silence my footfalls. Sil’lance stayed where he was watching until I was gone, straining his ears as I snuck up on what lay ahead. I could hear him breathing. I was glad he had chosen to remain where he was and far more nervous about going ahead on my own. I lay down on a slight rise beneath a thorny bush looking out over a camp twice the size of the males behind me. We were in for a serious fight today. It was die here, die when they over-threw our home, or die when we failed to do our jobs and someone else did it for us. Or not, we might win, I thought with a shudder.
I crept back to Sil’lance and moved off in another direction. Our traitor had not gone into that camp. I moved off into the trees silently with Sil’lance stepping very carefully in behind me. He gave me several feet before he trailed in careful pauses and steps. I listened and watched and sniffed. It was close. We stopped at a dry riverbed. The tracks disappeared. I frowned, narrowed my eyes and looked straight down. A scrap of cloth in the dirt…
Sil’lance bumped against me heading back into the trees behind us. Did he want us to wait for the others? That wasn’t like him, but I didn’t see how we had any choice. We couldn’t call them, or we would alert that army to where we were, and the certainty of death at their heels. If Sil’lance led them away from the army, I could flush our prey out and we could take it back without too much noise. It would have to be quick. Any sound and we would have to fight.
I gasped in shock when a great roar rent the silence around us. Sil’lance…calling in the others, I thought in dismay. He didn’t have to do that. He was going to get them killed. I jumped down into the river bed and turned on the runaway. A little movement, not attacking but hiding, and I reached in to tug out what at first seemed to be a child. It was young, but no child. I yanked it out and glanced quickly over it to see there was nothing that could harm anyone. Where was Sil’lance?
In minutes, we would be overrun with the men from that camp. I couldn’t keep this traitor alive and fight without it escaping again, or worse. It could get captured and tell the enemies all about our home. More would die…I heard a noise in the woods. Someone was coming in fast. I yanked the young thing into the trees on the other side of the riverbed and shoved it into a tree. No time to consider if it was male or female, that wasn’t Sil’lance or he would have told me. I began to wonder if the great beast was betraying me after all. Was he determined to escape? He couldn’t do that without taking out the tracker.
I placed a dagger at the throat of the individual who had started this chase. I heard those feet slow before reaching us. “Who is there,” I called in warning. The young person against the tree made a scared whimper that had me glancing at it. I had accidentally nicked it. The blood…my eyes widened as I moved the blade off of his throat carefully. “Sil’lance…”
“It is me,” the wary male stated softly. “I don’t guess you will let me come any closer this time, huh?”
I frowned in confusion. “You can’t escape here,” I whispered. “I told you. Everyone tries. Everyone fails. It is impossible to leave. Why would you do this?” I heard the silent warrior take a few steps closer.
“I listened to you, Silvern. The hunting party is gone. You are all that remains of it. We can flee now,” Sil’lance stated firmly. I closed my eyes in disappointment.
“He will never allow his own son to leave, old friend,” I whispered. “He will bring the guards themselves to find us. You can’t fight them.”
“I won’t have to fight, Silvern. All I need to do is hide…”
The boy twisted in a way that got under the knife swiftly. I had to move fast to contain him. I would be in trouble if he were gone or even injured, I knew. I dropped the dagger and caught him, but as we fell to the ground I felt a blade slip to my own throat. I didn’t let him go.
“Are you with us or against us Silvern,” Sil’lance asked sadly. I laughed humorlessly. I would die either way. I was out of chances, out of options. The only things that had kept me alive this long were my abilities to track. “Don’t make this hard on yourself,” he said softly up near my ear. I shivered. I really did like him. Too bad, I thought. I hadn’t seen this one coming. “You have been having dreams, Silvern. Come with us. You could find her before going home if that is what you want to do.” I could find her before I died. That way, she could die with me. I held on tight. He didn’t cut my throat. Worse, he knocked me out with the hilt of the sword.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious. It was nearing morning when I heard them talking. The boy was asking questions. Where are we going to go? How are we going to evade them? Things that Sil’lance only answered softly or vaguely, until the boy asked one that was answered only with silence. How did you know he wouldn’t hurt me? I shuddered. Good question. How had he known? I knew what Sil’lance would tell him before he opened his mouth to speak, but that didn’t answer my question.
“He is your brother. Both of you share the same father,” Sil’lance told him sharply. “So try not to think so many bad thoughts about him. I don’t think he has had it easy.” That was an understatement. I found myself wishing for clothes since I didn’t have my weapons. I was used to one or the other.
“That is even worse! How could he betray us? How could he hunt us knowing what we ran from? He would have taken me back,” the boy snarled bitterly.
“I doubt he had a choice,” Sil’lance stated harshly.
“You like him,” the boy whispered.
“He is your brother. You had better get used to it, because it is rare to have family. You should be grateful he is still alive not whining about the only way he knows to survive! He doesn’t trust easily.” And yet, despite that fact, I had trusted Sil’lance. I felt hopeless. I was tired of fighting. I wasn’t a fighter. Where were we? I glanced around cautiously. It looked like the old ruins. I hated this place. Why here? I felt like rain. I felt like crying. I felt the wind begin to gather. “Silvern,” the huge warrior whispered in warning as the wind caused a thumping nearby.
Sil’lance bent over me just as the dagger rolled into my hand and I twisted to plant it into his ribs. The big guy looked surprised. Hadn’t he thought I could hurt him, or had he not realized I would? The day began to darken around us as clouds gathered. It hurt. I hated looking into his eyes as I pushed him off of me. He wasn’t dead and I couldn’t finish the job. I pulled the knife out and stumbled away from them as the wind nearly took me off of my feet. I didn’t go far.
I knew this place. I fell to my knees beside a few lone headstones, markers of the people who had once lived here…so long ago. There was a lake nearby. I could hear the rain hitting the surface of it as I touched the dark stone, dagger hitting the ground beside of me. Why here? I leaned my head down against it and shuddered as the rain soaked everything, hid my pain. I loved the sound of raindrops on the lake. I could remember my mother singing to me as she held me on the upstairs balcony listening to that sound. It had been so beautiful, centuries ago and I remembered it so clearly. Why here? Of all the places to take me, this one hurt the most. I could remember her brother and father playing a game in the background laughing and complaining good-naturedly as she rocked me to sleep. I remember the lake singing back to her until even the game was forgotten as everyone listened each night.
Well, not everyone would listen. My father had not often been home to hear her sing. Had never heard the lake sing back even when he was there. I had often noticed how it was quiet when he was home. It had puzzled me then, but no more. Everyone had known he was evil. The lake had retreated when he was near to hide its secrets from the land-walkers that didn’t know what it held. The lake had been silent since the day he killed her. I had tried to get to the lake that day. I had tried to escape him, but I hadn’t then. I wouldn’t now. I would never be free of him again, but I missed the sound of her singing to me.
“I am sorry mother,” I whispered. “You should have known the only reason he came back was for me.” I hadn’t known it then. No one had realized what he was. They had known I was different, but not why. I used the tiny cat when I was hunting with her brother. I used the other shape when I was with her. They had known that was unusual. They had hid it.
I had learned to disguise my scent first off. I touched the stone of her father. He had taught me that. I touched the stone of her brother. He had taught me to track. Now, the only piece of them that remained was me. The house was a few standing stones, arches and windows. The staircase led into the sky. The balcony was gone. It was all gone. Only the lake remained and it was forever silent to me now.
I heard a harsh gasp of pain and turned to glance behind me. The boy was holding his hands pressed to the wound. Sil’lance was hurting. I held my breath as the boy tried to heal him and only managed to slow some of the bleeding. Damn, why was nothing easy? I got up and went to them. “Move,” I hissed at him as I placed my hands down on the blood. I drew more energy from the storm. I sent it into the silver in the hole and it came out. I sent more power in and the tear began to knit. I didn’t heal it entirely. I wanted him to hurt. I healed it enough he wouldn’t die and took the silver poisoning out of it too. I owed him that much, but nothing else.
The boy stared at me in horror. I didn’t like him already. I took my other dagger and went back for the one I had dropped. “You two idiots have gotten me killed,” I growled dangerously. “Why did you bring me here to die?” I didn’t expect an answer.
Sil’lance took a few deep breathes and whispered, “It is the only place he doesn’t go. He avoids it.” I touched the headstones and laughed. I doubt it was sentimental reasons. He probably didn’t wish to be reminded of how he had to be kind to them long enough for them to raise his son…a boy who had betrayed him once too often.
“I avoid it too,” I growled angrily. “I don’t like to be reminded any more than he does.”
“What happened here,” the boy asked sounding like fearful prey.
“He killed them,” I stated sarcastically. “What did you think happened?” Sil’lance put a hand to the boy to keep him from saying something stupid to me. The wind howled in fury, my fury, and Sil’lance knew I was more upset than I appeared. At least, the creature wasn’t brainless.
“You are a great deal older than I thought,” Sil’lance stated respectfully. “These ruins have been empty for nearly five hundred years.” I shrugged. What did age matter? Our kind didn’t die easily and it hurt all the worse when they did. “You know he is coming, don’t you? You called a storm and he knows you are here right now, doesn’t he?” The boy gasped in fright when I nodded. I walked down to the edge of the lake to wait for him. I wanted to hear it sing again. I hummed my mother’s song softly touching the still water lightly as I watched the raindrops move along the surface like dancing waves. Something glittered down below. My heart leapt into my throat just as I blacked out. “I am sorry, Silvern.” I knew the bastard had snuck up on me again. I resigned myself to having a severe head injury when I woke the second time. That one had been a great deal harder than the first one.
I woke under a pile of trash in an unused alley of a metal-on-metal transport hub. It was like a small bustling city that had no outside access. The only means in or out of it was by magical portal gates. They were used for trade of illegal goods and hidden from the worlds. People came and went so swiftly that tracking here was very nearly impossible. Scent after scent washed away the few traces left quickly. I pushed away the refuse to find my daggers tied to me securely. That had been rather polite of him. I put my face to the metal floor and snarled in distaste. I hated the scent. It burned my nose as it did all trackers, which is why few could track here. I ignored the sting taking in only light sniffs as I followed it out of the alley. Not many people had walked over it in here. I ignored the rush and movements of people around me, practically crawling out on my belly to keep the trail fresh in my nose…step by step. It was embarrassing if I thought about it. I still had no damn clothes on and people were starting to stare at me.
As it would happen in an instance like this, some smart ass had to stop and comment. “Lose your clothes, did you,” he stated with a wicked leer and a menacing stance. I glared at him letting my eyes flash silver as an animalistic growl warned him to keep moving. He backed up a step warily. After another thoughtful moment passed, he went around me and disappeared. Ports like this were known for slavery. A weak creature was a sold one. It would possibly cure my current situation, but better the evil you know, I decided. I continued to ruin my nose in short bursts hoping to find them before the scent of the metal burned it out entirely. How had they gotten this far?
“No, no…that creature is tracking someone,” I heard a male hiss nearby. “Leave it be…”
I ignored them all. It wasn’t easy while keeping your senses alert to potential dangers. I had to block out most of that to concentrate a time or two. It was very faint in spots and hard to follow, but I did. Sil’lance wasn’t too much farther away. It had only been recently that he had come this way. Had he stashed the boy some place safe before coming back to check on me? That was his mistake. My eyes darted around. He was close. I would have to be careful. I followed the scent another few feet and looked right up into his face, sitting at a food stall.
“You aren’t easy to lose, are you,” Sil’lance sighed. “Give up.”
I got to my feet slowly. “I can’t. You know why.” He sat there casually as if we were the greatest of friends. The owner of the shop shifted nervously as I took a step closer.
“You are not a fighter, Silvern,” Sil’lance reminded me. He had clothes. That wasn’t fair.
I narrowed my eyes. “Haven’t I made it clear I can fight when I have to?” His eyes widened. Then, he nodded with a little amused smile. “Where is he?”
“I can’t tell you,” Sil’lance whispered sadly. I nodded. I hadn’t expected him to tell me.
“I can find him on my own, then…”
Sil’lance moved towards the blade at his side cautiously. “I wish you wouldn’t,” he said warily. The shopkeeper backed away from the counter nervously. I flicked a glance between them both disdainfully.
“Planning to belt me over the head again,” I snarled touching my own daggers.
“I could have left you alone and without those,” Sil’lance stated softly. “I could have left you somewhere far worse than an alley hidden from sight.” I tilted my head. He could have. I bet he was wishing he had done something far more permanent right now. “I don’t want to hurt you, Silvern.”
“I am thinking you might not have a choice,” I stated firmly as I took a step closer.
“Silvern,” Sil’lance growled with a throaty animal sound. “I am warning you. You know I will win. Back off. Don’t do this!” I took another step. His eyes changed. They were so filled with sorrow. It hurt to look. “Do I have to keep you chained to me to keep you from stalking me?”
“That would work,” I stated dryly. “I have to stay with you. You are now just as much a traitor as that boy you stole. I go back and I die. I don’t catch you and I die.”
“Find somewhere new to make a new life,” Sil’lance urged. “You don’t have to do this. Not now, I got you out of there. Get lost in a world of your own choosing. He won’t find you.”
“Yes, he will. You have no idea…” I drew my daggers and he stood with his swords drawn also. People fled quickly. This was common in places like this. “I am sorry.”
“So am I, my friend…so am I,” Sil’lance whispered as he swung the first strike.
I am fast, but so is he. I am light on my feet, but he is unshakable. It was inevitable that I would lose in a long battle. We were evenly matched except for his strength, but I had to try. His heavy blows left me weak and tired, but I had no choice to defend myself from them. I avoided them whenever possible. There was no water or wind in this place. He had picked his battlefield carefully with my weak points in mind. He cut me. I went down.
It wasn’t a bad wound, but it made me flinch for a moment. It was poisoned with silver. I concentrated to shove the metal taint out before it could swiftly weaken me, only to have a collar snapped across my throat the second I cleaned the cut. There was a silver burn on it. I yanked in horror, but it wouldn’t come free. There was a silver thread worked into the leather. It was enchanted to prevent removal. I had seen them before. They were sold here actually. He truly had chosen wisely. I sank to my knees as he removed my daggers slowly.
“You leave me no choice either, Silvern. I didn’t want to do this to you,” Sil’lance whispered.
“Do you plan to sell me now? I am sure you could get a good price,” I growled as my eyes flashed angrily.
The huge warrior shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t have you trade prison for prison.” Another man walked up to us and Sil’lance glanced at him. “Take the boy and get out of here. I will take care of this.” I memorized his face and scent while he nodded in agreement. Stupid move, I thought to myself. Sil’lance jerked the collar and forced me to my feet. I hissed at him, but he met my eyes calmly. His bulk came in handy as he bound my wrists and pulled me into the crowd. “You sure are a loyal pet, baby,” he teased sarcastically. I winced at his choice of wording. He had done it deliberately.
I was none too thrilled to be shoved face first into a bed when he dragged me into the room he had rented for them. “Are we doing this the easy way, or the hard one?”
“I would prefer easy,” Sil’lance mocked cutting away the straps that I kept so perfect at all times.
“You just ruined easy. I loved that damn harness,” I growled fighting him as he held me down.
It isn’t easy to fight someone who weighs far more than you do when you are feeling dizzily weak and tied up. The collar cut off my breathing when I strained too hard. I knew what he was doing. It was one of the few ways to incapacitate one of us. He was wearing me down, purposely weakening me until I couldn’t fight anymore. It wasn’t the first time someone had done it and I was terrified to think of what he planned to do with me when I could no longer move to stop him. There are far worse things than being raped, I knew already. I could only hope for something short and humiliating as compared to painful and permanently lasting, or death. I wanted to live. He shoved my face down into the sheets hard enough to drown out most of the air the collar allowed me. My energy was fleeing fast. The silver in the collar was draining me far more quickly than I had anticipated.
Still, I refused to give in. Sil’lance leaned close to my face and I turned to bite him. He snarled, “You asked for it.” I jerked as a steel blade was shoved up hard into my shoulder. It hurt. I shivered as pain rushed through me. Sweat broke out along my brow. “I don’t want to do this to you,” he whispered.
“Too late,” I breathed almost soundlessly as I gasped to fill my lungs. He hadn’t pierced anything vital. I would heal eventually if the collar came off. I groaned as it was removed slowly. It was a long, deep wound. He hadn’t just grazed the skin at the top. He had gone under the shoulder blade from the bottom up. It hurt to breathe; it hurt to move. My arm twitched in reaction to the damage. I almost laughed as he pressed a bandage to the hole he had created. “You sure are a charming executioner. Do you plan to doctor all of my wounds as you kill me?”
“I am hoping I won’t have to kill you, Silvern,” Sil’lance growled angrily as he controlled the bleeding and tied it off. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed yet,” he added sarcastically.
“You have no choice. Either you kill me, or I turn you back in to him,” I whispered painfully. “If I get a vote…I would choose: you letting me do my job.”
“That is not going to happen,” Sil’lance stated firmly. “Pick again.”
I thought for a minute. “How about you not hurting me anymore and we wait for him to decide?”
“Wrong, I don’t like that either.” Sil’lance pulled me up to the pillows gently. “I know this won’t keep you long before you shake it off and try again. I will stab you again if I have to, Silvern. Don’t force me to hurt you? I don’t like it.”
“You have a choice. Hurt me and wait until you are recaptured…or don’t hurt me…and wait until you are recaptured. You decide,” I whispered as I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.
I hated being weak when there was an enemy near. You never knew what they would do to you, a fact that was proven when I woke up. “You prick,” I snarled. A hand rested on my stomach drawing me back into his bare skin in warning. He slid a thigh between my own and used his other hand to lift my leg. I growled at him.
“It is not the first time. You were getting it often enough before I came around to stop them,” Sil’lance reminded me daringly. It had been sheer hell until he had come to us. I had to admit, having him there had made life so much more pleasant. It would be worse this time…if I went back. That knowledge kept me still as his hands teased along my skin. It would be unbearable if I returned again…without him.
“Why are you making this so difficult for me,” I whispered raggedly. “I can’t leave. I can’t. If he finds me and I don’t have both of you…” I shuddered and he felt the fear eating at me. I had suffered torture before. I would live, but it wasn’t something to go into willingly. I couldn’t see a way around it. “Gods, just kill me!”
I felt Sil’lance move against me as if his entire being protested my words. He was petting me like his favorite little kitten, making soothing noises and stroking me. I tried to get away. He was making me feel worse. I knew he liked me. I knew he wanted to help me, but he couldn’t. The discomfort right below where he was rubbing his very interested dick wasn’t making me any happier. Why protest when he had already done the deal?
“Just how damn big do you get when you are hard,” I snapped wriggling away from it.
“Sorry, you haven’t exactly had any lovers recently,” Sil’lance drawled lazily as his weight pinned me in place. He moved closer and I tensed up. “Relax, Silvern…This is far more pleasant than selling you to a slave trader. I have actually considered it, you know. I have to get away. I have no choice, so use that little mind of yours and figure out a solution before something unpleasant happens that we both regret.” He got up and I shivered at the sudden lack of heat surrounding me.
I glared at his retreating backside. “What is more unpleasant that waking up with your ass hurting?” There were a great many things, I knew. I was lucky that was all he had done.
“I would imagine the company I paid to come visit us in about ten minutes,” Sil’lance threw over his shoulder as he went to bath quickly. I was scared. I could imagine some seriously bad things. I slid to the floor yanking when I found my wrists were chained to the metal slave loop at the top of the bed. It didn’t take him long. I was a nervous wreck when he came back. He didn’t like it.
“Let me go,” I begged.
“Why? So you can chase me again and again,” Sil’lance answered softly. “I can’t do that, Silvern. We are past that option. You won’t stop and I need you to let me go. I really don’t want to do this. I don’t like hurting you.”
I shivered as I felt someone outside of the room. “You are going to hurt me,” I decided knowing he really didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t think of anything short of killing me that would allow him to leave without me being able to find him. There were a great many insufferable things he could do, all of which would make tracking him easier for me as I would hate him for it later when I was stuck back on his trail.
“Unfortunately, I have little to do with things at this point. You are determined to return to him and I am determined to avoid being tracked down like a dog off of his leash.” I winced at the imagery. “I know of only one way to incapacitate you long enough to get free. It may even keep him from killing you,” Sil’lance stated sadly. “Granted, it may take a while, but I am good at running and hiding and fighting for my life. I have the time to spare. The boy will be safe and I can always find him.”
I looked at the man walking into the room with us. He didn’t seem ‘put off’ by our lack of apparel. In fact, he smiled as he looked his fill. “This is the creature,” he asked approvingly. “Are you sure you don’t wish to sell him to me? I could find so many uses for it.”
“No, I think he is a bit tough to serve at dinner,” Sil’lance retorted sharply. “Just take the blasted collar off and do it. I want to get out of here.” I jerked and tried to get away. Both of them had to hold me down as the silly leather strip on my neck was unsnapped. I screamed. I had no idea what magic they planned for me, but I wasn’t sitting around waiting to see.
It was worse than I had imagined. Sil’lance knew what I was. The creature he had hired was a psychic. The magic he intended to use against me was my own. I met his eyes in horror at what he planned to do. My brother must have told him. I felt the creature enter my mind even as I resisted. Fighting him would only make it more painful, but I was terrified. I felt the shift begin and screamed. I couldn’t stop him. It took less time than I would have thought. I was shaking as the collar was latched back into place.
The asshole leered in pleased contentment as he got up to leave. “You may want to be careful. If anyone sees you walking around with that,” he warned snidely. “The worlds are a dangerous place for those things.” I saw Sil’lance react. He was furious. “Yes, I know. I have worn out my welcome. I will be seeing you.”
“I seriously hope not,” Sil’lance growled as he shut the door behind him and returned for me. “Are you going to be okay,” he asked me softly. My widened eyes turned to him. No, I was not going to be okay. He had told a very powerful creature what I was. He was about to drag me out into a hostile environment where I couldn’t defend myself, change back into my usual form, or keep every creature in a hundred miles from knowing what I was.
There was a reason my kind was disappearing. There was a reason I chose to go home every day. Sil’lance was about to exploit all of those things and I would be very lucky if I lived, or unlucky. “Kill me, Sil’lance,” I whispered. “Right now, that is the kindest thing you could do for me.” I hated the sound of my voice. It was all wrong. I glanced down bitterly.
“You are beautiful,” Sil’lance said sounding like he didn’t believe it. I was a damn female. It wasn’t right. The bastard psychic had seen to it that I was more lovely than imaginable to look upon. I glared at Sil’lance until he looked uncomfortable.
“You fool,” I hissed. Gods, he didn’t even understand what he had done. “You think you are going to get me pregnant and throw me back at my father? You won’t get the opportunity! They are going to kill you and take me.” Sil’lance frowned as he started to protest that he was a powerful warrior and could keep me safe. No one is safe from a man that can tell you to lie down and let him kill you and would beg him to hurry. “You have just hurt me worse than anything you could have thought of on your own. Kill me. My father’s torture of me would be a breeze compared to this!”
“Silvern, you are overreacting. If you would just calm down, we are leaving right now. The longer you fuss about this, the longer it is going to take to get out of here.” Sil’lance dressed keeping his swords close as he listened for anyone who paused outside the door.
I hissed. “The greatest fear of my kind is to be enslaved to a psychic! That is what you have done! You don’t even know it, you idiot.” I yanked at the chains binding me to the wall at the bed’s headboard. “Think of all of the terrible things that are done to our people, male and female. Add to that every horrible, unspeakable act you could do to lesser animals. You still wouldn’t grasp what he is capable of! You don’t like me; don’t ever say that to me again.” Sil’lance started to protest. I was past listening to him anymore. “I can only hope my father gets me before they do…”
“Which still wouldn’t solve my problem,” Sil’lance snapped. “He would let you go and I would die.”
“Don’t let them take me, Sil’lance,” I whispered nearly begging him. “Gods,” I would beg to keep from going with them. I jerked the chain again anxiously. Why was he just staring at me? Didn’t he realize how soon we would both be hurting? “I will help you get me pregnant if you will just let me call my father before they get their hands on me! Or kill me…those are the only two options I am willing to go with right now!”
Sil’lance unchained me. “We have to get out of here. We will discuss this later.”
“There won’t be a later,” I argued. “You have no idea how excruciating it is to be raped by a creature that can make you the size of a two year old just so he can play with you! I am begging; don’t let them take me!” Sil’lance stared in horror. Had he not thought of that one? There were worse things, far worse. “I hear my kind taste nice, but I don’t guess they told you the meat on the table was alive and screaming. Or that it would be left to heal so it could be carved up all over again...endless enjoyment.” He paled.
Sil’lance left the chains, unbound my wrists and threw the cover around me, but he didn’t remove the collar. I was helpless. I was helpless and due to his ignorance, I was about to face something I had only ever been threatened with before. We wouldn’t get away, but I tried desperately to help him do it.
2009, (Jenna Karro). All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
Hard Lessons (Chapter 1)
17:13 Jul 16 2010
Times Read: 627
"Silvern,” a familiar voice called. I did not want to wake up. I remembered nothing but pain. Why did I have to wake up? “Silvern…” I shuddered as that voice called soothingly to me again. I knew the voice, but no one I knew was nice to me. Nice words and gentle brushes only meant to expect some more horrifying torment to come. Only it sounded like two voices calling my name at the same time. That wasn’t right. I did not want to wake up. Why were they making me wake up? Why the hell didn’t these fools ever manage to accidentally kill me? The Gods only know…they got close often enough.
“Silvern, you will wake up this instant and stop ignoring me, boy!”
Oh, shit, I thought in horror as my whole body went up in shocked terror. I was awake. That half of the two voices was very clear. “Father,” I hissed in fear…and a sudden sharp sense of gratitude that brought tears to my eyes. “Oh, Gods…thank you!” I hugged him tightly around his waist. I don’t know who it surprised more. He allowed it as thoughts crossed his face. I knew what he was thinking: How best do we use this new-found burst of familial affection to our advantage? Honestly, for once in my life…I didn’t care. Whether he killed me or not, it had to be better than the hell I was forced to endure now. “Sil’ance betrayed us,” I whispered softly. “Or rather…he betrayed me.” I looked up with a hard look in my eyes. It was a look he had tried to put there often enough to recognize it for what it was. It was victory. He had won, but not by his own doing. “You were right. He is my brother’s companion. Neither of them can be trusted.”
My father looked puzzled. I think he was so shocked he was swiftly revising all of his plans. “Will you track them for me, Silvern,” he asked softly.
I didn’t stand up. I was too damaged for that. I let go of him and looked around at the carnage. How had I missed the smell of so much blood? “You did this?” He nodded slowly. I savored every detail around me. Usually, I would have flinched at the tortures inflicted before so many had died, but this time…I relished it. “I cannot track, Father,” I told him softly. “I am too damaged. I am useless to you like this.” The words put more tears in my drying eyes. Gods, I would murder an entire planet to kill Sil’ance and I couldn’t…I couldn’t. I laughed ruefully. “I finally have someone I would gladly kill for you, and I can’t do it.”
There was a strange look on that face, so like my own. What had made him into a monster? What betrayal had torn out his heart until he felt nothing more than hatred? I bet he remembered it. I would never forget mine. “You will heal, Silvern. There is always time…for creatures such as we are.” I felt several hands lifting me.
I screamed as a shock of pain washed over me. “You will kill me,” I managed to cough…spraying blood.
“No, boy,” I thought I felt a gentle touch of his fingers along my chin. If he had done that, if it was not my imagination, he would give me a chance to prove I wanted revenge. Not because he cared a damn lick for me, no…but because I was useful to him.
Father wanted Sil’ance as dead as I did. Father wanted my brother home where he could be punished for this very first betrayal, but that was not an option I would give him. Father would barely punish him for a first offense. The boy had betrayed me far worse than Sil’ance. Sil’ance had not known how bad he would hurt me…My brother had. That meant he must die. I would kill Sil’ance quickly, because he had caused this and I could not work up enough feeling to stop myself from it.
However, the boy would suffer…as I had suffered. I would show him what he had condemned me into before I allowed him to die. I wanted him to understand. The pain of being moved made me pass out. I had no idea what Father would do with me. I didn’t care. As long as he gave me a chance to track my brother and kill the brat I had tried to die to save…once.
2009, (Jenna Karro). All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
Hard Lessons (Chapter 2)
17:13 Jul 16 2010
Times Read: 628
Singing woke me. I smelled something that was quickly fading before the moist soil around me smothered it out. I hadn’t had time to figure out what it was I had smelled. The wetness was quickly making the wide earthen rectangle turn into a muddy hole. Father wouldn’t have known the water would help me, so it must be pouring down a flood up there. I heard a melody that told me instantly where I was. I called out. I knew they would not hear me, but those voices were a bittersweet ache. I couldn’t imagine father burying me here, but I knew he intended to come back for me. I could feel the weight of the chains upon me. None were silver-laced, thank the Gods, but I could not dig my way up. I was weak and what little strength I had was trying vainly to heal me.
For a time, I listened. It was so beautiful, a sound I had never expected to hear again. The lake was singing. Only the words and the kindness in those songs ate at me. I was suffering. My body was wracked with pain, and they were making the anger in me fade. I began to scream. The anger was the only reason I was still alive. I would heal. I would get out of here. I would track Sil’lance, and I would kill my brother. Those things I would do. No amount of kindness was going to change that. No amount of beauty could erase what they had done.
Eventually, I couldn’t scream. I was forced to listen to them. It broke my heart. Five hundred years plus however long the slavers had kept me at their mercy. The wound was as fresh as the day my father had come to destroy her. I couldn’t even smell the decay of bones anymore. She was gone. I wanted to hear the rain. I knew it was raining up there. I could feel the storm. Would father think it was my rage and gloat? I could feel the magic in the atmosphere, but if I hadn’t called it…had they? The voices in the lake sung to me so softly. I could barely hear them at all. How far under had he buried me?
I felt a hand burst through the soil and coil in my hair against my right cheek. The nails on it were long and lethal. I knew it was not my father returning for me. The hand stayed as if the owner couldn’t believe what it was touching. There were sounds now. Someone was digging me out. Water and soil cascaded down into my hole as the gap around the arm began to widen. I heard a shrill call. Someone was calling for help. The digging didn’t stop.
Eventually, it got more frantic and others had joined the first. The hand never left my hair as if the owner of it was afraid I would disappear if they lost that simple connection to me. I was almost grateful. Being buried alive didn’t scare me; I knew my father would come for me. The gratitude was only because I knew the owner of the hand cared about whether or not I was frightened. If strangers were about to dig me up, that was a good thing to know. It beat back some of the fear inside of me.
I screamed for them. The hands caught and drug me out of the hole. The chains rattled around me. The rain was so hard it blinded me in the darkness. It must have been night. Tiny flickers of light revealed small bits of quick movements and blurred faces around me. The hands were trying to undo the massive chains. I was being drug a little at a time, but I screamed every time they pulled me over the wet grass.
One of them leaned close to me…the owner of the hand in my hair…whispering, “Don’t move, Silvern.” I wasn’t moving. They were moving me. “It is okay now. We have got you.” It wouldn’t be okay. Nothing would ever be okay. Not after what they had done to me…never again. “You will be alright…You will heal…The pain will stop…as soon as we get you into the lake.”
I loved that sound: more than the singing in the lake, more than anything, even the sound of my mother’s voice. The steady beat of the rain. The sloshing of feet in puddles and against wet grass was suddenly loud. I strained to hear what I loved the most. I passed out from the pain before they even got me near to the sound of the rain striking the lake in the distance.
I woke screaming. Gods, the pain…Someone was touching me, a lot of ‘someone’s. I nearly panicked. A hand against my head and a voice calmed me instantly. “Easy, Silvern…We are almost to the lake. Don’t fight us.” I stopped struggling. I wanted the lake’s soothing water around my mangled skin. I needed it. I would submit to them to feel that. “You are not going to be harmed, Silvern. Do you not remember us?”
Remember, I thought bitterly. Oh, Gods, I remembered. My family was dead. The only ones alive were evil things…as evil as I had become. I was consumed with hatred. All I could think about was the many ways I wanted to torture my little brother for what he had done to me. I knew the people around me could feel that anger. I knew they all felt my intent. If they healed me, I would kill them both...my brother and Sil’lance.
I screamed again as another tug felt like it was ripping me in half, but I also felt the cool water of the lake hit my back. Instantly, the agony began to tickle until I was writhing in their arms. It was neither pleasure nor pain I felt. The feeling was too intense to classify as any one thing. Water covered my waist and half of my chest. I threw back my head panting hard and feeling the sudden heaviness of my hair. Hadn’t they cut my hair? Why was it still long? Had it really had time to grow back? Gods, how long had they tortured me? The tickle ended at my middle thighs. It itched and twisted all over me, but it didn’t pass the middle of my thighs. There is where the worst of the pain had been. A flash of light caught me looking. What had they done to me? I screamed. I must have passed out.
I panicked when I opened my eyes again. “Easy, Silvern…” I blinked. It was the same voice that had calmed me outside of the lake. I blinked up at him. He had his hand on my chest keeping me from trying to get up, which of course was impossible. I had no legs to stand on, did I? They had cut off my legs. “You will heal, little cousin. We will help you.”
I had to close my eyes to calm myself, but when I opened them I looked around carefully avoiding my body in the inspection of my surroundings. My head was in an air bubble, which shouldn’t have been necessary. I was being propped up against a very smooth rock that was acting like a lounge chair. Bubbles of air kept replenishing the air around my head as I breathed it. Bad air was bubbling up away from us. I was hidden down in a kelp bed which not only kept me from being seen, it kept me from seeing anything also. Silver sand cradled me like the softest bed in the worlds, but again…it only cradled me so far. I wanted to look. I was terrified to look, so I shifted my eyes to the male holding me down.
“I am doing no such thing, Silvern,” the creature muttered in annoyance as his hand left my chest to prove the point. Mer People could read thoughts, especially when touching you. He glittered faintly. Glittered? Yep, he really did glitter faintly all over his human-like upper body. He was pale, almost white but there was a light touch of blue tint to his softly, luminous flesh. The glitter was like pure silver. Perhaps he was related to me, I thought in amazement. I had never seen a Merman glitter. His fingernails were a dark blue, as were his lips and his ‘too large’ eyes; the pupils were enormous. He looked ethereal. His hair ruined the effect. It was total black. To see his scaled lower section, I would have to look at the ruin they had made of me.
I felt a hand brush again into my hair almost absently. It felt nice. I loved it when people rubbed my hair. It must have been the cat in me, because I instantly forgot that I didn’t want people touching me when he did it. I let my eyes drift back closed. I didn’t want to accidentally look down. Once had been too much already…I felt calmer with his hand on me. Was that the cat, or the Mer? My eyes fluttered back up to him in distress. His eyes looked just as worried. “I am not hurting you, Silvern,” he whispered scared that I would panic just because he was touching me so gently. He was right. He wasn’t hurting me, so why did that hand on my head suddenly terrify me? Maybe because I had been tortured by a psychic, I thought snidely at him. The hand disappeared.
He gave me a hurt expression before he looked up at the kelp bed expectantly. Another male parted the dense plants and flashed sparkling fins as he circled over us for a minute before settling on my other side. He didn’t glitter. He was a normal looking Mer male, only his scales threw back the little light coming off of their own bodies to illuminate them. They looked the same age, but I knew that didn’t mean much. Only really young creatures looked really young. Everyone else looked my age. This one was the color of kelp and twilight. His hair was a dark, purple gray; his skin held a light, coral pink coloration and his scales were dark blues and greens in an assortment that dazzled your eyes if you stared too long. His eyes were the color of the kelp itself. I was startled to see his fingernails were a nearly scarlet pink with only a hint of purple in it.
A distorted sound reached my ears. I frowned. The glittery male touched my cheek and the next time the pink Mer spoke, I understood him. “How is he doing?”
“He won’t talk to me. He is scared, angry, and…very antagonistic,” the one touching me complained softly. “I don’t think he knows us, grandfather.”
“Well, he was young,” the other Mer stated with a shrug. “He has suffered a great many traumas. It is not surprising that he would forget. He never thought he would see me again.” The pink male looked down at my body with a stern expression. “Landers do tend to make a mess out of things, don’t they? I thought what they did to one of my children and two of my grandkids were bad enough, but this…Patri, are you content to stay with him?” The glittery male nodded solemnly. I knew that name. I didn’t remember ever seeing a glittery Mer, but I did remember my grandfather talking about a Patri. His sister’s child, I think. Shit, that would make the pink Mer my great grandfather, and the leader of the Mer tribe in the lake. I had never met either of them. That news did not comfort me. Patri took a necklace from his grandfather and the pink male swam away.
I allowed the necklace to be settled around my neck. I knew what it was. It was a special item to honor the few Landers that came below to visit. It should not have been necessary. I felt better the second the air bubble dispersed and pure water flowed down into my shifting lungs. Gills broke out along my neck. It wasn’t what I was used to, but it would work. It felt odd breathing through my throat. The necklace could not shift my feet into webbed things to help me swim, but I felt the thin membranes tickle between my fingers. Why hadn’t I shifted when I hit the water? I should have, even unconscious. A new form of panic washed through me. A sweep of a gentle hand in my hair and I was already starting to get calm again.
“What is wrong with me, other than the obvious,” I asked carefully.
Patri shrugged and let go of me. “We didn’t want to force you to shift into a shape of our choosing. I could not find a memory of your Mer form. Without it, I did not think you would appreciate being changed. Was I wrong?” I shook my head. No, I was tired of psychics playing with me. “Besides, it was agreed that your…legs…would heal quicker in this body. More water touches them in this form, so…” I nodded in agreement feeling sick as I remembered what was left of my legs. I closed my eyes to keep from glancing down. “I am sorry, Silvern. I have failed you so often, haven’t I?”
“How,” I asked heavily as I looked at his stricken face. “I know I have never met you.”
“I was supposed to keep watch the night your family was killed.” I didn’t say anything. I had not known the Mer had kept watch on us when we were out of the water. “I didn’t get help fast enough. If I had not tried to go for help, I could have at least saved you. I got back only to see them drag you away from the lake. You were trying to reach us, and I failed you.” Hell, I was stunned that anyone had seen that.
“I felt your presence again once after that.” I studied Patri in solemn silence. “I would have left the water and followed you, but I…it was forbidden. I tried to come to you. I saw you.” The flicker of light in the lake had been him? “Some guy who made it look a little bit like you had a twin at first; the water distorted him down to only colors, but as I drew closer…” He had seen Sil’lance? “You were both bleeding and he hit you.” I felt faint. “I would have killed him, but he dragged you too far away from the bank before I could get up to you.”
I had not known Sil’lance would betray me. Would I have allowed him to die? Would I have woke up and been upset? This guy had tried to save me. All of my life I had felt betrayed by the people in the lake. “By the time I surfaced, you were out of the limits of where I was allowed to follow. If I had broken the rules, we wouldn’t have lost you again. I had to go ask grandfather if I could follow you and by the time we tracked you down, you were gone. Just like the first time…”
“You tried to follow me the first time?” I knew he felt my shock, but I couldn’t hide it from him.
“We knew it was useless to try. Your mother had warned us against it, but we couldn’t just let them take you.”
I was horrified. I knew what would happen if someone had attacked my father. “How many of you died?”
“All of them,” Patri whispered. “I wasn’t allowed to go…too young…and grandfather had just lost so much of his family. He would not risk it.” So perhaps father had known all along about the Mer in the lake, I thought bitterly. He had played us all for fools up until the very end. “Grandfather had hoped the silver man was another of the cat people. He thought perhaps you would be safely away from here…with him.”
“There is no safely away for me,” I whispered. “Father will come for me when he is sure I am healed enough to do my job. If he knew about the Mer, then this was never an option for me. He would have found a way to take back even if you had helped me.”
“You cannot go back there,” Patri snarled. “I will go with you! Anywhere you wish…” I looked as surprised by the offer as he did. He looked embarrassed. “I owe you a debt that can never be repaid,” he whispered.
“You owe me nothing,” I told him softly.
His dark eyes met mine in agony. “Perhaps not, but I cannot bear to think about you going back to any of the places I see inside of you! Please, let me help you.” Dark, blue slime spread throughout his eyes. If you didn’t know Mer People it would look strange, but I knew it meant he was close to tears.
“How can you help me?” I didn’t just want to just tell him ‘no’. It would be a foul way to repay someone who had tried and failed to help me so often, but there was nothing he could do.
“I can help you save my people,” Patri stated softly. “You know as well as I do that your father will kill everyone in the lake when he comes to get you.” That was an offer I hadn’t expected to hear.
Patri curled his hand into my hair fondly, but I wasn’t worried. Mer People were not allowed to have sex with anyone except their mates, so the worst that touch could mean wasn’t allowed for him. “I could break the rules,” Patri stated solemnly, “for you.” His meaning confused me. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about sex or running away from the lake with me in tow. He could mean either, and that bothered me. I saw him grin and shake his head. “Do you always think the worst of people, little cousin?”
“Why do you call me that if you are my uncle?”
Patri looked startled. “Oh, no…not that Patri,” he whispered. He looked embarrassed again. “I am his son. Grandfather adopted me when my parents died. You really are my cousin, Silvern.” I sighed. I was tired. My eyes drifted closed. Patri took advantage. He did it gently so he would not annoy me too much, but he definitely took advantage. He leaned in to rub both hands in my scalp and I could feel his lips along my forehead. I felt too calm to protest. “You are so low on energy. You really do need to rest.” I knew what he was going to do. I could have panicked again, but I couldn’t have stopped him. “You will heal faster…if you…sleep.” I felt the ‘push’ he gave me to send me into instantaneous slumber. I also felt his guilt. I found it amusing. He felt bad about helping me, because he had ‘seen’ the memories. He knew his abilities terrified me. I found it comforting that he was trying to help me without scaring me. I also found it comforting to know he was roughly the same age I was. I don’t know why.
At first, I was thrilled to have him back. I could feel those warm, muscular arms wrapping around me. I could feel him breathing so contently into my neck as he slept. I could feel the huge chest and the press of him against my back and thighs. At first, I was so happy to have him back that I didn’t realize something was wrong. He slept so peacefully, but I could feel the terror lurking at the edge of his awareness. It had always been there in small traces, but now it was true terror held back by a very thin barrier. I felt that it could give and wash over me at any second. Where had he been for so long? Why had he suddenly returned?
Someone else touched my hair, and it almost startled me out of the half dream, but I could feel that it was as insubstantial as the male curled into my back sleeping so deeply. I didn’t open my eyes, but I used the half formed awareness of the dream to look up. The man standing over me in concern was clearly a fish man. I had met several before, so I was not surprised by his odd appearance. I had not seen him before, so I was surprised that he was invading the dream. Who was he? Why did he look so troubled?
Then, another thought hit me with a trace of alarm attached to it. A Mer in my dreams could mean something else entirely. Perhaps he had not followed my dream company at all. I whispered to him swiftly as I began to wake, both in my mind and out loud, “Does Anton need me?”
I woke to Patri swimming around me busily. It annoyed me until I realized I was chilled and it was making me ill-tempered. Not to mention the dreams of that strange girl were really starting to bother me. At least this time, I wasn't drowning in her scent. There was a dark, blue-green slime all over me from the neck down and it was, in a word, cold. I knew what it was. My mother had once used it to heal a broken rib when I had fallen out of a tree following my uncle around while he was hunting. It would help the salt water heal me. It was a medicine the Mer People made out of kelp, and from the motions of Patri…he was adept at making it.
Scaled bags of the stuff surrounded us. He had dug a little hole in the sand to hide his cache, but he was busy making more. Obviously, I would need a great deal since even the bones of my legs had been removed. It wasn’t so unbearable to look at the stumps with the slime coating over the mangled skin. He had another bag fastened around his neck that appeared to be full. When the last of the fish-scaled bags was filled, he swept the sand over the extra bags and noticed me watching him a bit guiltily. His eyes warned me not to mention the extra bags, but I had no idea why he would be hiding them.
“You should be healed by this afternoon,” Patri stated softly with his hand touching my cheek. “Well, almost…” He glanced down at my legs sadly. “Did you have pleasant dreams?”
“I don’t remember having any dream,” I sighed wearily. Why had I woken up? I was still so tired.
“I can send you back to sleep,” the glittery male offered softly, “but I thought you might not like waking up without knowing what had been done to you.” Patri began to wrap long sticky, slick clumps of kelp and some other plant around my coated body. I was being wrapped up like a mummy. I glanced at him in fright. “You will be healed by this afternoon. I will remove it then. You will be…free.” I suspected there was something he was not telling me, but I nodded in agreement. “There is a storm brewing above. It may toss you about a bit. I am going to wrap up in a sheet to keep you from getting sand in your face. He was half lying. I didn’t know why, so I didn’t protest. It could mean anything or nothing at all.
“Then, put me back to sleep. I will not like being tied down with my face covered,” I told him carefully.
“The bag cannot be seen through on this side, but you will be able to see through it. It is magical. We use it to store and transport things often. It makes good camouflage too when we are out hunting,” he teased lightly. “Do not worry so much, little cousin. I will take care of you until you get back on your feet again.” I didn’t out loud that it would take a long time for that to happen. He knew better than I did how long it would take to heal. His sad eyes met mine as he continued to wrap me in the strange plants. “You had better go back to sleep.”
I hadn’t even felt the ‘push’ that time, I thought as I woke up. I was indeed in a bag. I smelled…fish and plants. Not unusual since I was still covered in the mess. The water looked bright and clear around me. That was odd. There wasn’t sand beneath me either, but something hard and slick…like stone. I could see the filmy glitter of the bag I was inside around me; it floated off of me rather than lying on me cloyingly. I was grateful for that. The water temperature was also much warmer. Perhaps Patri had felt my annoyance at the cold and taken me somewhere closer to sunlight. That would explain the brightness around me and the stone beneath, but where was he? Patri wouldn’t leave me, would he?
I heard something above me. Was he outside of the water? I thought that was forbidden, but I could almost see what looked to be the shimmer of the surface right over my head. I could vaguely see Patri’s hand reach into the water to grab a rope and I was carefully hauled up towards him. I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. Patri had wrapped me up to my nose, so I couldn’t make much use of my mouth. Oddly, he had left my throat bare, but I remembered the gills along it allowing me to breath. The only reason I could think for him to wrap my mouth was to keep me quiet, so I didn’t say what I was thinking.
I held still as the Mer carried me over his shoulder. Gods, we were in a slave port! I almost panicked. The bag I was in shifted and I felt scaled bags swirling all around me. It was the medicine he had made. He had hidden the extra bags because he had intended to leave the kelp bed without telling anyone we were leaving. It was forbidden to leave the lake without permission. I knew he had probably chosen the illegal port to hide his escape from the Mer who follow us. They could not track him here. He had tried to tell me earlier. I tried to relax. I was safe. No one knew the Mer carried anything but extra food in his strange bag. Oddly, I was surprised the bag kept the sea water inside and kept the bag itself off of me even being carried around like this. I didn’t relax until Patri passed through a portal out of the slave port. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t care as long as no one found me or sold me again.
We entered another port, but this one didn’t seem as crowded or as sullen. I was not surprised when Patri took me inside another room after speaking quickly with another male. The male followed him inside and they spoke in rushed, hushed tones as Patri placed the bag down on a table gently. I have no clue what he was arranging, but I saw him pay the merchant before he nodded and left quickly.
Immediately, Patri took me to a back room and set the bag down in a hole in the stone floor. He opened the bag and let out the water inside as he pulled it away from me. He noted my sour expression quickly enough and didn’t remove the plants from my face first. In fact, Patri quickly began releasing everything except my face and lower thighs. I narrowed my eyes at him angrily in warning. “I know. I know…You are mad at me. I get that, but I can’t have you sulking when he gets back. He will not be gone long, and the less he knows about you the better I would think.” He checked my skin and looked satisfied by what he saw.
I glanced down in amazement. There was no scarring. How had he done that? “I am taking you to the most dangerous planet in all of the worlds, Silvern. I think you will be safe, but that is not the only reason I am going there. It will hide us until no one is looking. I think it is the best thing for you, honestly. I wouldn’t risk it otherwise. There are Mer there. The guardian likes Mer, so I am going to pass you off as one of us. I know you are…sort of…so I am not lying.” That was a half truth. If the guardian sensed his lie, it would not go over well. “It will give you time to heal. You will heal fast there.”
I had a bad feeling about this. Patri heard something as he finished his task. I yanked the kelp off of my face as he disappeared back into the other room. I wasn’t about to announce my presence to anyone. I could hear them muttering now, something about clothing and appearances. The merchant was telling him how to dress and look to blend into the population where he was taking us. He was explaining also that Patri did not look ‘normal’ enough in his current guise to blend even dressing like the regular people.
Patri sighed heavily and asked if he had an item with a spell to correct the problem for him. They had obviously moved closer to the room I was in because I could now hear them more clearly. “I would have asked, but most Mer People can do all sorts of watery illusion spells. I didn’t know if you could, or not, but I thought it best to warn you. The Sieve gets all testy if we don’t. I don’t want a personal visit from that one. You will have go to him first off anyhow, or one of his people. I will handle it. Don’t freak out about their tactics. They are psychic, so if there is anything you don’t want him to know tell me now. I wouldn’t suggest going if there is.”
“No, there isn’t anything. We seek safety and…something else. I am sure he will not mind allowing us to enter his home,” Patri whispered nervously.
“You don’t sound sure,” the merchant stated cautiously. “I can’t stress enough the importance of not messing with vampires. If you doubt yourself, don’t go.”
“Vampires,” Patri asked sounding startled. “There are vampires there too? Are you sure of this,” he asked sounding more certain than ever of his decision.
“Yeah, a couple thousand live right under the Sieve’s house,” the merchant stated firmly. “You look like I just saved your life. You are looking for a vampire, are you? Well, that is the place to go then. I will get you a bracelet with that spell on it. You just need it for the skin and eyes mostly.”
“Will silver hair be noticeable? I have…a friend joining me,” Patri asked cautiously.
“Well, you might want to hide it. It isn’t real normal there, but you could explain it away as a dye job…a really expensive one. You will have to hide how long your hair is too, unless you plan to jump into the ocean as soon as you get there.” The merchant was heading back to the door. He said he would bring two bracelets just in case we needed them and he would get one of the Sieve’s people to come help us out. Patri thanked him, probably paid him again and brought clothing into the bedroom to get dressed in quickly.
“He won’t be gone long. We have to hurry! I don’t think they like to be kept waiting here for long. He will want to take us there to question us, maybe. I don’t know. I just don’t want to piss him off,” Patri mumbled as he yanked on strange pants and shoes. He winced and complained about the discomfort as he slid into them. The silky shirt didn’t get a complaint.
I waited in silence. He carefully rinsed me off. That was sarcasm. One moment I was lying there in drying salt and seaweed, and the next I was being doused from who knew where. He jerked the necklace off as soon as he had me out of the water. I choked up liquid out of my lungs and stopped holding my breath as air filled them once more. “Sorry, I forgot the necklace.” Patri smirked. “Kept you quiet, though.”
I was dry and getting a replacement bandage of fresh medicine and strange plants when someone knocked on the door. Patri went to answer it and I pulled a scrap of the sheet over my waistline and…thighs. A shirt on the bed was close enough to reach and I began pulling it on when I heard male voices entering. I probably still smelled like fish, so I wasn’t too worried about them knowing what I was. I probably looked stupid lying flat on my back buttoning the shirt when the guy walked into the bedroom to look at me intensely. Patri was terrified, but he waited at the door. I glared at the guy. I didn’t care who he was, I didn’t want him near me. Of course, he ignored my wants.
The guy was very pale. All I could think of was light. He looked like an angel made out of sheer light. It was blinding. I couldn’t get a good look at him, so I didn’t try. It would only disturb my eyes. Still when he came to the edge of the bed and set his hand down on my lower abdomen, I grabbed his arm intending to remove it. I could feel the softness of his two smallest fingers on that hand under the sheet and shirt touching my skin. I couldn’t force myself to pull his hand away. Panic began to bloom, but he calmed it. I closed my eyes as deep down the terror in me began to surface to the wall of that fake calm he had planted within my mind. I felt him lifting the sheet where my legs should have been. I felt his shock and horror. I felt him let it fall back over me as he began to back away.
“I will take your request to Anton. I will be back in the morning probably. If I am not, I do not know how long it will take to return,” the stranger stated coolly. “Time between my home and the other worlds is often unreliable. I will be back as quickly as I can. Will you be safe until then, or should I take you now?”
“Anton,” Patri asked softly. I felt a moment between the two. I could read Patri’s face. He looked hopeful.
“You are coming with me,” the angel decided solemnly. “I will have to take you to one of the quiet rooms. They are not very friendly, but you should be safe there.”
“Thank you,” Patri whispered. I didn’t have time to protest anything being done or decided around me. I didn’t like it. Patri hadn’t really told me anything about what he was doing. I didn’t know him very well, so I wasn’t so sure I should trust him, but what choice did I have?
I felt the angel lift me. I didn’t like it. Patri slipped something over my thighs and butt while I dangled in his damn arms. How big was this thing? I wrapped my arms over his shoulders and purposely put my weight on his hair. If I was going to be uncomfortable, so was he. I think he laughed at me. It made me feel childish, but I hung on tighter in sullen irritation. “Gather your things,” the angel told Patri softly when the cloth shorts were in place. “I will get your sulky friend.”
The guy sat me back on the bed and looked me directly in the eyes. I nearly flinched, but his warm brown eyes were very friendly and not trying to control me at all. “Is there a way you want to do this, because you are not walking to the portal on your own? I don’t think Patrick can carry you easily. You are much bigger than he is.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you asking me? I haven’t had much choice since…” I was going to say since the slavers got their paws on me, but my father hadn’t really given me any choices either. “Well, hell…I don’t guess I have ever had much choice about anything,” I whispered softly not wanting to meet his eyes anymore. I was sure he knew what I meant without saying it. The angel tilted my chin up. He had a pretty jaw line, I think. I couldn’t really tell.
“I would say this is your choice. If you do not wish to go where your friend is taking you, tell me now. If you want to go, but you don’t want him there with you…same applies. As far as I can see, it is your safety and your search that he is asking of us. So this is your choice to make. What do you want to do?”
I was slightly stunned. Patri panicked. “He cannot protect himself like this!”
The angel turned to him slightly saying only, “The Sieve will protect him.”
Patri let out a hiss of anger that ended in, “but I am healing him!”
“The Sieve has healers,” the angel stated softly.
That only made Patri more upset. He let out a sound of sheer agony. I met his eyes and he was so close to tears. “But I don’t want to leave him,” Patri whispered. “He is my cousin.”
The angel turned back to me. “That is his choice to make now,” he informed us both.
“Silvern,” Patri begged. “I know I didn’t tell you what I was doing. I am sorry, but if I had told you…Grandfather would have known.” That was true. “I couldn’t tell you, or he would have followed us! Your father would have found you through him. You know this is true. I was protecting all of us!”
“There is nowhere my father cannot go to find me, Patri,” I whispered sadly.
The angel perked up. “That is not true,” he stated happily. “Anton will not let him touch you if that is who you are hiding from. It will be part of his rules if your father asks to come to our world. If he breaks the rules, Anton will kill him. Of course, the same thing applies to you.”
“If my father cannot take me back, or touch me in your world, I would gladly go there to heal,” I sighed.
“Just to heal,” the angel teased. “What if you like it there?”
I could not imagine liking anything but being free to live my life. I didn’t even have a clue if that was possible, but if this guy was offering it. I would accept. I had never imagined a Guardian would guarantee my father would not harm me. It sounded like an illusion I was almost too afraid to believe in, but I had little choice. If I said ‘no’, my father would kill Patri for trying to help me. He might still destroy the Mer in the lake if he thought they were hiding me, but I was pretty sure he would know where I was. He would wonder how I had gotten here with no feet…in chains. He would know someone had helped. I couldn’t leave Patri to face him. It would go harder on me if he found us, but the stupid man was trying to help me. Damn it all. Why did people have to keep trying to help me? Didn’t they know they only made things worse?
“Patri has to come if I go,” I decided. “My father will kill him now just for helping me.” The angel smiled as if he approved of my choice. Patri turned away, but not before I saw the streaks of thick blue-green fluid fall slowly down his cheeks. He had really thought I would tell him to go to hell. Shit. I didn’t like this. I had been betrayed by every person I had trusted since my mother had died…and every betrayal had hurt me worse.
“Alright, Mr. Silver and his aide, Patrick,” the angel stated with his tongue in his cheek teasingly, “right this way.” I was picked up more carefully. This time I didn’t pull his hair. It was pretty hard for him to get a good grip with no legs to work with. “On the good side, it makes you lighter.” I could have hit him for that. He laughed in merry disregard as he carried me through the port with Patri trailing like a meek attendant. The merchant met us before we got there and handed Patri the bracelets with an odd glance at my missing legs. Most people were staring at my missing legs actually. My father would have no trouble tracing me here. Few would. My father did not need the added help. “He could have your location marked on a map and it wouldn’t do him any good once we cross this barrier,” the angel whispered in my ear just as he stepped over the portal gate.
I almost wanted to believe him. I tried to believe him. I felt a part of me relax that I hadn’t known was tense. I wasn’t as angry. I wasn’t as afraid. I imagined it was probably the angel brainwashing me. It would probably get me killed. I felt him laughing silently as he sat me down on a fairly comfortable chair. It was a pure white room, magically warded to seal anything inside…well, inside. It was a prison cell, small and square. I hated it.
“Can I get the two of you anything while you wait for me to find Antonie? Salt water,” the angel teased with a serious look at Patri. The Mer nodded his head. “For his legs, I presume. I will bring a pitcher too. You look exhausted from caring for him. You should rest and drink something. I will ask a healer to look in on him while you are here and…perhaps…I will help also.”
The angel fell to his knees and placed his hands on my bare thighs. I didn’t like it, but I felt a swift spike of energy tingle down from them to the stumps. “A little warning would have been nice,” I growled just before I hissed in a sharp breath as I felt agony erupt. It was all I could do to fight off the screams. I didn’t want to scream here. I think I was making little whimpers of pain and losing the fight, but…thankfully, I passed out.
Someone was petting me. Literally, I felt a hand brushing down my head and starting all over again. I snuggled into it without thought…until it struck me that Sil’lance used to do that to comfort me. I woke with a snarl. Patri was across the room. I was in a bed. It was comfortable and my little stumps felt all nice and slushy where someone had bagged them in saltwater. Yeah, to that, I thought sarcastically. Patri looked terrified…again.
I was slow to look at the reason why he was afraid. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. The black and gray suit didn’t really give me much of a clue. He was slim and short. I had no idea why Patri was scared of him. The guy was so small. He made me feel big. I was used to being the smallest warrior in the pen, but this guy was no warrior. He was just tiny and cute…Okay, he was supernaturally gorgeous, but that wasn’t the point. He looked like a spoiled and pampered pet, not a warlord. I would have ignored him altogether if not for the fact that I seemed rather unnaturally drawn to him. I relaxed and let him go back to petting me, but I gave him my suspicious eyes and a boat load of wariness. It seemed to amuse him. I wasn’t tired. That was strange all by itself. My body should have been burning up magic and energy to heal the wounds, but I wasn’t tired. The only thing I could see that would be causing it was this frail little male petting me. He did have an energetic aura.
He was also pale, white pale not tinted with any color at all. He had the most beautiful, friendly brown eyes I had ever seen in my life. That instantly put me on my guard. No one was that friendly to someone they didn’t know. His hair was like the richest wood spun into silken strands. It had hints of brown, black and even a touch of dark, deep red. It was quite lovely. It framed him with straight falls, no tangles and no frayed ends. I would have placed him as someone’s toy except for the very expense of his outfit and…the stillness. There was a stillness coming off of him that was not normal. Even with the hum of his aura tingling into me from where I touched him, there should have been a rolling energy off of the rest of him. There was nothing. His eyes were also still…ageless. Great, I was being cuddled up by an ancient and I hadn’t even felt him. That was a bad sign. People got more powerful with age, not less. If he could hide his aura, he was not someone to be messed with. Now, I could see why Patri was terrified. He had already known. I was slow. That could have meant my death.
“You are not at your best, my dear Silvern,” the male chuckled. Both his words and his voice caused me to shiver. Shit, another psychic…ancient and psychic, it was almost unfair. At least, he was not a warrior too, or perhaps I should be wishing he were a warrior. Was this the male who intended to keep me safe? Hell, my father would chew him up and spit him out. I was going to die when he found me this time.
“So pessimistic,” the male sighed. “You will fit right in here, I am afraid. Yes, I am Anton. I am the Sieve Gadoma, or Earth Guardian. You are under my protection, and have nothing to fear so long as you are here. However, I have some rules you must obey. They are very simple. Do not allow anyone to discover your true nature unless they are not human. Do not harm, kill, sell or abuse one of my humans unless they agree to it beforehand. If you break my rules, your life is automatically forfeit unless a human claims responsibility for your actions. In such a case, you will get a fair hearing, possibly a second chance, if they are not being mind controlled or a rather sick individual themselves.”
I felt those dark eyes scorching down into my soul. “I will have to add one rule to you, I see, my dear Silvern. At no time while you are on my world, will you attack or try to harm in any way…Sil’lance.” I felt such fury wash over me that I could barely contain it. He was here? “I have also allowed him to seek refuge here.” I felt a sharp stab of pain. “Careful, Mr. Silver…You would not wish to anger me. However, I suppose we could use some rain. The lake was beginning to dry up.”
Patri caught what he meant and went into instantaneous protests. “Don’t let him! He can’t afford to waste his energy on such a stupid display of childishness. He needs it to heal himself!” I didn’t feel tired. Hell, I didn’t even feel drained by starting a storm brewing. My eyes met those brown orbs above me suspiciously. Was he giving me energy on purpose?
“I have offered to allow my healers to look in on the both of you from time to time. I doubt it will take very long to heal your friend even if he is stubborn about it,” Anton stated firmly.
“It took over a dozen to get down to his knees! Damn it, Silvern! Stop being stupid,” Patri warned me. “You can’t afford it.” I pushed up and looked down. Hell…Amazing. My legs really were there…down to my non-existent knees. Mid thigh to just above the knees, how long had I been asleep? That should have taken centuries.
We were taken in a limo to a hotel. Patri sat up front talking to the driver while I was sleeping in the back. I woke up to the two of them setting up some type of metal and leather object next to the door where I would be getting out. I was barely awake enough to realize it was a wheeled seat of some type with handles before Patri picked me up and belted me into the thing. It wasn’t uncomfortable and it wasn’t less restraining than him carrying me the entire way inside. I decided I rather liked the strange thing, but I would rather have full use of my legs than be pushed around by an attendant.
The driver spoke to the people inside and handed them something. They nodded and sent someone to show us to the inside of a metal box with a sliding door. Great, another prison cell, I thought with a sigh…only this one moved. My eyes widened, but Patri very nearly panicked. The driver smiled and comforted him with a small touch of his hand. I assumed we were safe since he wasn’t trying to get out. The doors slid open to another area and we were shown to our room.
It was nice. There was some strange sound playing. The driver touched a few buttons on a wall panel and it changed to ever more strange sounds like metal grating, people hissing at one another and musical instruments. I gave him an odd look and he laughed. The guide left us and the driver showed Patri around.
I was hungry. There was a bowl of something that smelled fruity on the table, so I picked at them while I waited. Some of it was rather sweet and delightful. When the driver noticed, he showed Patri how to use the odd contraption with a guy’s voice coming through it. He showed him a ‘menu’ which listed food items upon it and told him one to go with until he got brave enough to try other things. That didn’t sound too tempting. Patri was also given a long list of things that were ‘seafood’ items. He said we would need to know those right off. Patri looked grateful, so I assumed he had needed to know. He also told Patri that he could buy ‘sea salt’ in large quantities at stores in case he wanted it for drink or bathing or just to add to regular food. The Merman looked relieved.
When the driver left, I had to ask. “Did you really need to know all of that about sea salt and sea food?”
“Yes, and it is something you should remember if you intend to keep up the pretense that you are a Merfolk. We cannot live long without some type of sea salt in our diet. Aquatic animals are the only real thing that feeds us too. We can eat other stuff, but it just isn’t as good for our systems. There are some types of plants he added here. It says they have kelp. That is good. It is my favorite food and I might need it to replace some of my medicines later on if I run low using it on your...legs. Speaking of which, I should get you back into the water.”
“I am getting water-logged already,” I complained. I knew better. He was only trying to help me, but I wasn’t tired yet and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my time healing in a pool. “I am sorry.” Patri looked upset. I hadn’t meant to do that to him. “You are helping me and I am being a bastard, Patri.” The Mer attempted a shaky smile at me, but he wasn’t sure of his welcome.
I hadn’t really made him feel comfortable around me…and he was risking everything to save me. “You shouldn’t have done all of this, but…I hope it all works out the way you planned. I gave up on saving myself a long time ago. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I am just scared and expecting the worst. If my father finds us, he will kill us both.”
“I don’t mean to spoil your pity party, but only a completely suicidal idiot would come here and challenge Anton. You don’t know who he is, do you?” I shook my head. I had never heard of him before. “An’dunn Iere…the Cursed One…Antonie Dunner Mierre.” None of the names rang a bell, but that ‘Cursed One’ comment didn’t sound too appealing.
“So he is a Dark Clan, I suspected that when you said there were vampires here,” I drawled in annoyance. I hated to feel like I was an idiot, but Patri’s shocked expression said I should have known this one.
“Didn’t your dad teach you anything? I am sure your mother told you bedtime stories about the Thirteen.”
“The Thirteen,” I laughed ruefully. “Oh, come on…none of that stuff is real.” My comment was scathing only because I had been a very innocent child once. I had loved those stories. They taught us that we could be anything we wanted to be when we grew up, but they were all lies. The Thirteen had never existed. They were the beginning of our kind. They had taken the magic that all of us possessed and done things with it that were completely incredible. Not impossible I knew, because people said having two forms to change into was impossible and I could do that. “Legends are just fairy tales, Patri,” I stated sadly.
“Really,” Patri looked amused. “Some people think changelings are fairy tales, and you exist.”
“I can turn into a Merman and a cat, so what…”
“Yeah, so what…” Patri shook his head and began looking around the room as we waited for our food to show up. He looked amused and tickled to be here with me, but he had tried to hide it until now. “Can you teach me to be your uncle’s cat too?” He sounded hopeful and glanced at me as he spoke.
“I don’t know. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just…happened. I was very young. I don’t have any idea how I managed to change at all. Even my mom was stunned and they all freaked out over it. They said it shouldn’t have been possible. I didn’t hear why. They all had some big argument about it, but they did it where I couldn’t hear them.” I knew my voice sounded dull. I had stopped trying to figure that one out too.
“How old were you,” Patri whispered looking nearly as upset as my mother had. He knew.
“I think I was four…why?” His face screwed up in a face of painful derision. “God that is the same face my uncle made. Either tell me or shut the hell up!”
“Your dad used to visit, I take it?” I nodded, but I had no idea what he meant. I realized with a start that it had been right after my changes that everyone had begun to treat my father as if he were an evil bastard. I had thought they were simply hiding what I was from him, but it was more than that. “As old as you are, no one has told you how they come into their magical abilities?”
“Well, my family tended to keep a great deal of secrets. I spent a small time at my father’s household, but none of it was pleasant. I had other things to worry about at the time than learning things I should have already known,” I stated sarcastically. “After I was thrown into the dungeon…well, talking to others wasn’t really high on the list of things to do. It tended to nearly get me killed, so I didn’t get around any of them. They weren’t big on talking…just raping me, and I was too little to defend myself.” Until Sil’lance had come…He had kept me safe and his betrayal cut me bitterly. The hurt of it wasn’t something I could hide.
Patri wisely ignored the look on my face as my thoughts turned inward and went to answer the door. I was pretty sure he would use the distraction to forget telling me. I didn’t really care. I didn’t want to talk about my father, or Sil’lance. The food smelled good and we ate it in total silence. Patri didn’t look at me. I think he didn’t want to feel guilty that he hadn’t answered my questions. I didn’t mind. I probably didn’t want to remember whatever he was about to bring up. Obviously, my dad had done something he shouldn’t have done, but I didn’t know what it could have been. My dad had been great when I was young…before they had all turned on him. He had always pretended to be so nice to us…after he came back…but before he left. Had he been pretending? Or had he really cared for us? It was vague in my memories, but I don’t think he had been pretending. Had my mother, my uncle and grandfather turned him against us? Against me…
“I think I am ready to get back into the water, Patri. I am sorry I snapped at you. I am more tired than I realized. I guess I should just listen to my doctor and stop being such a bad patient, huh?” Patri looked stunned. Then, he grinned and got up to help me get into the pool. It was in another room. It was unlike any I had ever seen before and it was warm, swirling in thick currents that felt wonderful against my skin once he helped me get the shorts off. I took my own shirt off. I didn’t want to look entirely helpless. Patri was gentle picking me up. I saw an odd look on his face and he was almost hugging me instead of lifting. “Patri, don’t go all sentimental on me,” I teased. He laughed in embarrassment and dropped me into the water with a heavy splash. Shit! I went under and felt myself shifting in automatic reaction to the shock.
Patri was kneeling by the water when I came up to look at him. I couldn’t talk to him right now. It wouldn’t sound right as he was using air and I would be using water. Patri looked startled and pleased. I barely understood his muffled, “Damn, you are pretty.” It embarrassed me, so I allowed myself to fall back into the water. I checked to make sure the bandage had survived the shift, but obviously it had been designed for such things.
My body from lower stomach down to the bandage looked like scales molded from diamonds. There was a flash of silver from within the centers of each, but pure white light pulsed up from me to glow out of that jeweled perfection. They were sharper and harder than they looked. A sea creature had tried to eat me once and cut its mouth so badly it had never tried again. It was much longer than I thought it would be, but not finished. You could still tell where my body had literally been chopped off. My upper body glittered like diamond dust had been used to form me. Until meeting Patri, I had not known that any Mer could glitter…just me, but I was unusual enough that I had thought it was just my own oddity that had caused it. My hair was still silver, but now it had thicker ropes hidden within it that were deadly when I needed them to be and just thick, soft fleshy hair when I didn’t. My gills were decorative rows along my back with diamond hard scales protecting them.
Settling down on my stomach and arms, I sighed and relaxed. This felt much better than being in the lake. It was fresh water, but that had never made a difference with me. There had been a little stream near the house. My grandfather and mother didn’t go there because it was not salt water. My father had made it our ‘special place’ where he would take me every morning and evening for a bath. He would laugh and play with me. I could still hear his laughter and it pained me. He had loved that damn little stream. He had loved being there with his son. I knew he hadn’t been faking it, because I had never heard the sound of his laughter the same anywhere else. I had once loved him. He had once loved me. I knew that. Why had it changed?
2009, (Jenna Karro). All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
Hard Lessons (Chapter 2) *Second Half*
17:12 Jul 16 2010
Times Read: 629
‘The tiny baby screamed and giggled as his father held him under the steady fall of cool water. “Tickles, daddy,” the baby shrieked laughing as the water hit him between the legs.’ It didn’t just tickle, but felt…strange. There was a little stone basin where the stream fell down a rock wall. Father had always bathed me here. He had always laughed himself silly watching my eyes get wide as the water fell down there like it was the funniest thing in the world to see. ‘The baby’s father kissed his cheek and kept the baby from squirming free of the water. “I know. Got to get you clean,” he said. It was what he always said. The baby squealed and laughed and he chuckled in delight. “Tickles, daddy, tickles…” Father had burst out laughing. “Silly little one, of course it does. Why do you think I always hold you here? Don’t you like it?” He hugged the baby up close and growled along its neck as he nibbled at that delicate throat dangerously.’ I knew he could bite there and I would be so dead, but the baby laughed in delighted pleasure.
‘A noise made the father turn with the baby at his back protectively as he searched the dense trees for an intruder. The baby was still and silent. It knew to be quiet when there was danger. The father narrowed his eyes and sniffed. “What are you doing out here,” he asked suspiciously and sounded offended to be spied upon during his ‘father and son alone time’.
The baby’s uncle stepped out of the trees looking just as suspicious, but the baby squealed and held out his hands happily. The father took the boy out of the basin to hold against his chest with a heavy sigh as he reached for the cloth to dry him off. The uncle’s eyes got huge as he teased, “Whoa, watch where you point that thing?”
The father glanced down and chuckled affectionately. “He will grow up fast,” he stated proudly. “Did you need something, Taylor?” The baby was looking up at his father trying to touch his face and getting only his chin. Father looked irritated, and the baby didn’t like that. The father dipped his head down and snagged the baby’s fingers between his lips playfully. The baby giggled happily. Father pretended to growl and shook his head with the fingers held gently. The baby giggled some more. Father smiled for his son as he let him go.’
I remembered an odd moment where I glanced back at my uncle to see if Father amused him as much as he did me. There was a look on his face that I hadn’t understood. It was obvious now. Taylor had been looking at him with a look of utter jealousy on his handsome face. Father had pretended to not notice, but I remembered him always being slightly irritable near my uncle.
‘Taylor shifted nervously. “There is a man from your castle. He just arrived and he is asking for you. I will take the baby and put him to bed for you. If you aren’t back in the morning, I will bathe him for you.”
Father sighed. “Yeah, I am sure you would love that. Alright, Taylor…You are in charge of his safety until I get back. You be good for your uncle, Silly.” The baby chuckled as his father nibbled all over his throat and made growling noises before kissing his cheek lovingly. “I will see you tomorrow,” he stated.’ He sounded just as sad as I felt about him leaving.
My uncle had taken me and the drying sheet. He had waited until Father was entirely gone before he set the sheet aside and put me back in the basin. I hadn’t laughed for him during bath time…ever, until he purposely stuck me back under the stream and carefully held me where it ‘tickled’. There was a strange look on his face that would have scared me if I had understood it. He made a few noises about ‘getting clean’ as he touched me where the water fell. I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but…I didn’t like that look on his face.
I don’t remember how long we ‘played’ in the bath. He smeared a cream on me as he dried me off. It was nearly dark when dad left and it was dark when I was laid in my bed to go to sleep. The house had felt deserted. I didn’t know if my mom and grandfather were asleep upstairs or if they had gone with my father. I remember being sick that night, tossing feverishly and getting very little sleep. I was crying weakly when my uncle came in to get me the next morning. He avoided the vomit when he picked me up and took me out to the stream. I was smelly. I remembered being upset by the vomit, but not the sweat, or other things. My uncle carefully washed my legs of shit and slime. He washed my stomach and face of the vomit and sweat. He let me rest in the water for a long time to regain my strength. When he finally took me back into the house, he let me sleep that whole morning while he cleaned and aired out my bedroom and bed.
My dad wasn’t there to wake me. My grandfather pulled me out of my bed annoyed at my uncle for letting me sleep so much. My uncle had shrugged and said something about me not looking too good when he came to check me earlier, but not knowing what was wrong so he had let me sleep. They took me out onto the balcony to wait for my mother and father to return. My uncle shifted into a cat like he usually did to play with me, but this time…when he shifted, I felt the energy swirling around him and shifted too. My grandfather had gone utterly still as he held me in his arms. That wasn’t when the fights began. The two had tried to ignore it and play with me. When my mother had come home alone and saw me as a kitten curled up against my uncle’s side, they had started yelling. I hadn’t been allowed near my father again without someone there to scowl at him.
I had never once thought he might have been set up. I remember his confusion when they hadn’t allowed him to see me when he came back. I was always the first person he went to and I had cried when he had been drug away by my grandfather, leaving me with my uncle, as my mom followed them angrily. My uncle had bounced me merrily as he had waited for them. There had been a vicious smile on his face. It had never occurred to me that no one had ever put cream on me after my bath, or that my uncle had been responsible for that miserable night. It seemed so obvious now. Why hadn’t I remembered that night before? What had he done to me? I had been alone all night. My uncle hadn’t come in once to check on me and I had screamed and cried for him often.
‘The young boy pulled at his father’s arm begging him to follow him. The uncle waved at the mom as he came along behind the pair. “Daddy, come play!” Father followed reluctantly, but he was not happy and he was confused.
The boy knew something was wrong, but he was determined to make his father smile again. It had been so long since he had seen Father smile. The boy pulled him to the stream and lifted his arms up for his father to pick him up. Father did with an odd expression. The boy pointed to the water basin and giggled, “Daddy, play!”
“Yes, Daddy,” Taylor drawled lazily. “Why don’t you play with your son?”
Father looked back at the uncle with confusion in his eyes, but it changed into a horrified look. He glanced at the little waterfall doubtfully and then down at his son with a strange, puzzled expression. Father set the boy down looking ill. The boy thought he might be getting sick and was worried that Father had caught what he had spent the whole night vomiting with feverishly. His father told him to go away quite angrily. The boy looked so stunned as his little face pinched with hurt and tears. Father had left him standing there with his uncle as he disappeared into the trees looking sick and furious.
Uncle had laughed as he left, laughed and said cruelly, “He doesn’t want you anymore, Silly, but I do.”
The boy had followed his uncle into the trees. The kitten couldn’t climb quickly, but he could smell his uncle’s scent and follow him even if he left him alone in the trees. A noise distracted him and the kitten climbed out on a thin limb to see his father sitting against a stone crying his heart out. It was disturbing. Father looked up with a snarl as the kitten moved slightly to back up on the thin limb. The kitten had been trying to get away without being seen, but a heavy rock snapped the limb. Father was gone and the kitten refused to cry out as it fell out of the trees. Thickly padded feet tried to slow his fall, but at the last second the kitten hit a limb and tumbled to the side. It hurt. It hurt so much, but the kitten remembered only the look of pain in his father’s sobbing before he disappeared. He hadn’t seen him. Surely, he hadn’t seen him, had he?’
I remembered my uncle finding me. I had never told anyone that my father had broken that limb. I hadn’t seen him again for years after that. Had he seen the kitten? Had he felt betrayed that I would shift into my uncle’s form? Or had he looked up with tears blurring his eyes and only seen silver spots and smelled cat, thinking my uncle had come to torment him again…only later to learn that his son had broken his ribs falling out of a tree?
I think someone had lied to everyone. I think my uncle had forced my father out of my life. I had always suspected it was an argument between the two that turned Father against me, but I rarely dwelled on it. Remembering that I had once loved him hurt; I had always shoved the memories away when they surfaced. Had Patri’s innocent questions stirred them up this time? I still didn’t know what my uncle had done to me, but I suspected that night of misery was what had caused me to access my abilities. I had always assumed everyone spent a night in hell as their magic was unleashed. Was I wrong? Was I the only one who had gotten sick?
I spent weeks in the bath and at the dining table. It was slow healing such a grievous wound. I spent a great deal of time wondering about my father. I suspected he would be here by now wondering where I was and how to get me back. Oh, he would know where, but he would pretend he didn’t. There was a connection between us. My father always knew exactly where I was located. I had knees again. That was joyous news, right? Weeks of healing and I had my knees back. I had been here nearly a month and I was beginning to hate being in this damn hotel room. I was lucky to be healing as fast as I was; I knew that, but boredom said other things.
Today, we had visitors. I was suddenly thrilled to answer the door. A long line of males walked into the room. I knew they were here to torture me later, but right now I didn’t care. “Well, what has my father said?” Several of the men looked at each other in surprise.
“How do you know your father tracked you here already?” I growled in disgusted annoyance. “He wants you home,” the angel sighed. It wasn’t the same as before. I didn’t see him among the guests.
“He wants to know why Antonie is not allowing him to see his son when he is so…helpless to take care of himself,” a Merman stated uncomfortably. They didn’t seem to know his dad was faking the fatherly concern. “He is afraid someone has kidnapped you and is hurting you again. He is worried just as any father would be when his son went missing right after being rescued from slavers and tortured so…ruthlessly.”
The men gathered around my chair. They lifted the little sheet that hid the oddity of the Mer bandage and medicine from prying eyes. “This is healing well. You have a good touch, Patrick,” one of them bragged.
“Are you ready, Mr. Silver?” I glanced down at one of the sympathetic Mermen who touched my left leg lightly. “You have two choices. We can do both legs as we did last time. Or we can do just one of them and possibly give you the use of one leg, quicker than the other one. It will still take a long time, and not just one session, but…” He shrugged as if to say he would go for the one leg over not having a leg any day of the year.
“Taylor,” I stated unhappily. “I was named after my uncle. So my name is Taylor Silverg’nosis. The one leg is fine. Did you see my father?”
The Mer looked up at me and nodded. “He looked upset, but not too badly when Antonie explained he had healers taking care of your wounds. He told him that you would heal faster here than anywhere else in the worlds and he would make certain you were safe until it was done. It made your father look very relieved.”
“I am sure he likes the idea of me being on my feet quickly,” I assured him. “He is just concerned that Anton will not give me back to him afterwards.”
“I am sure Antonie will do what is best for everyone involved. He has a knack for sorting out people’s problems,” the Merman teased. “Brace yourself; this is going to hurt. Someone seal the room so he can scream without the humans calling the cops on us.” I felt a magical barrier just before pain exploded in my left leg. Someone pulled me out of the wheeled chair and gently laid me on the floor as they worked. I actually remembered most of it this time which was not a good thing.
I woke up under water with the necklace on and gills on my throat. Obviously, I didn’t shift naturally when I was so weak. I wonder how Patri had explained that to the other Mer People. I pulled myself out of the water with only my hands doing the work and sat on the edge as I got the necklace off of me. I shifted back and sat there catching my breath for a minute. The room was quiet. The bathroom light was on, but the rest of the suite looked dark. I wondered if Patri was sleeping. I knew he needed to be sleeping in the water, but it was fresh and not salt. Besides, it wasn’t big enough for two, full-sized Merfolk. We got bigger when we changed.
I looked down. My left leg was almost down to the ankle. A few more inches and they would have had it, but I suppose without Antonie to keep them charged up they had probably expended a large amount of energy to get this far. The limb was thin. It would take me forever to regain the muscles in my legs. The healing was only giving me a bare minimum of flesh over bone. The skin looked new and soft as if anything would break it. The upper legs were getting a little more meat on them, thankfully. I rubbed them and the skin didn’t feel as baby fresh and fragile. I sat there and braided my hair as it dried…as all of me dried. It took a while. My hair was back to its usual lacy fall down to where my knees were located if I was standing up. I draped it over my shoulder and pulled myself into the living area.
The bedroom was silent. My clothes were lying on the couch. New ones, I noticed. Maybe they were for Patri…Patrick, but I pulled on the gray, silk shirt and darker, charcoal vest. It was pretty. I carefully hauled myself into a silky pair of shorts and the black linen pants that had dark charcoal thinly striping down it. There was a matching overcoat that I added last only after I had managed to pull myself onto the couch next to the phone. I called down and asked for someone to help me into my chair without waking up Patrick. They agreed. I was hoping they could open the door without assistance and they did. The man walked in without a light and set up the chair. I was placed into it very carefully to keep from making noise. The little sheet was placed in my hands as he pulled me out of the room and locked the door behind us. He waited until we were in the elevator before he helped me pull the sheet over my legs.
“Thanks,” I sighed. “I was getting crazy being trapped in that room for so long.”
“There is a restaurant downstairs in the lobby if you would like to eat there, sir,” the attendant stated with a sympathetic smile. “I will tell them to charge it to your room. If you need anything at all, just remember your room number and ask them to charge it to that. They will be happy to help you, sir.”
“That would be great.” I pushed myself, but he guided me to the exact table. There was a nice view of…a river. Lights glowed all over the city reflecting in the black water. Well, at least Patri had a nice view. I knew he ate here often, and now I understood why. “Is this the menu for the place?”
“Yes, sir…If I might make a suggestion,” the guy asked hopefully.
“Only if it isn’t anything Patrick would order,” I growled in annoyance. The attendant tried to suppress a laugh, but failed miserably. “Sorry…Patrick has been great, but…”
“I fully understand, sir. I think you might like to try the steak. Your friend hated it.”
“That sounds perfect,” I sighed as he went off chuckling in merry amusement at the amount of relief in my voice. He placed my order for me and they scurried off to make it as fast as…humanly…possible.
I studied the little people around me. They didn’t look very different from me, but I sensed how very fragile their lives were. Who would claim them as pets? Why would you claim them as pets? It was like owning a flock of tiny, little birds only they could mimic you perfectly. I was struck by how easy it would be to forget they were not our kind. Perhaps that is why Anton had grown so fond of them, I thought. They were like us as children only we didn’t look like adults when we gave off such a fragile feel.
A tiny little girl came running up to me and put her hand on my chair. I looked down at her thoughtfully. She touched my braid with her other hand and whispered, “You…pretty.” I smiled for her and said ‘thank you’ as her mother apologized and took her away. The tiny girl was staring at me over her mother’s shoulder as she waved ‘good-bye’. I wiggled my fingers and she giggled. It made me laugh. I could almost hear my father whispering ‘silly’ as he kissed my cheek.
Why the hell did I keep remembering that stupid nickname? It hurt. My father hated my guts.
I stared out at the water. I barely paid attention to the waiters bringing the food. I ate in silence. I don’t remember leaving the hotel, but I was on a bridge staring down at the water when I felt Patrick walk up beside me. “Hey, there…You weren’t planning to go for a swim without me, were you?” I glanced up at him. I had to blink a few times to really see him, though. “The hotel staff thought you planned to ‘jump to your death’. I guess they thought the fall would kill you.”
“They probably thought I would drown, Patrick. It is difficult to swim with only your arms,” I stated dryly.
“Oh, yeah, that might have been it,” Patrick whispered as he looked out over the river. “It is beautiful.”
“Yes, it is. Did Antonie tell you why he sent us to this particular hotel?”
“Ah, yeah…but I don’t think you are ready to go chasing down the answers just yet,” Patri evaded. “Some idiot came to tell me you were missing your dad. Boy, does he not know you!” Patri laughed shaking his head at the stupidity of some people. I felt a cold chill race down my spine. How many psychics could Anton have in his employ? I mean, most Mer are naturally born with the gift and Anton did have a great deal of them, but not all of his staff was Mer, right? Being saved from one and walking into a nest of hundreds was not exactly my idea of an improvement. “If I saw your dad right now, I would probably die of fright! Just knowing he is on the same planet scares the shit out of me. What do you think he is doing right now?”
“I could tell you if you really wanted to know,” I stated ruefully. Patrick gave me a strange expression. “He put a spell on me when I was a kid. He always knows exactly where I am and if I concentrate…I could tell you where he is also. It isn’t just ‘where’ either. It is hard to explain. I just ‘know’…I see it.”
“Tell me,” Patri said with a horrified tone in his voice. “What is he doing?”
“You will have to make sure I don’t tip into the river,” I warned him. “I won’t exactly be here for a few minutes, so you will have to watch over me.”
‘I was sitting in Antonie’s study drinking a glass of some very fine Sil’Embray Wine when I heard him scream. There were several men containing him as they came through the huge front doors. Antonie stood up to great his ‘guest’, but I knew how he would react if he saw me. I stayed in the shadows of the room as Antonie walked out to speak to the person screaming in serious agony in his hallway. What in the worlds had Antonie done to cause him to scream like that? I could not help turning slightly to watch them out of the corner of my eye.
Sil’lance was dropped to curl up into a ball at Antonie’s feet. He was sobbing. Thick streams of tears were choking him and he held something in his hand. I had to turn for a better look. The poor fool couldn’t possibly see me like this. It was a glass ball in his hand. He held it like it was fragile, but I knew it was not so easy to shatter. It was a viewing globe. What was inside of it? Antonie was patient as he waited for the creature to speak first. He didn’t get to close. Smart man, I thought. Sil’lance was a fantastic warrior, very quick.
“Where did you get this? Where is he?” Something close to despair coated the cat creature’s voice. Was he talking about Silvern? It seemed highly likely. How cute, the big guy still liked the boy.
“I was under the impression you sold him to the people who did that to him,” Antonie stated softly.
“Who would have told you that,” Sil’lance whispered shuddering as he glanced down at the globe. “I had no idea this would happen to him…Hell, I would have killed him if I had known he was right!” Killed him, I thought with a flare of fury. No one kills my son. A streak of possessiveness almost made me get up and slap the son of a bitch, but instantly calm swept through me. I knew Antonie was telling me to be silent.
“How did the slavers get him,” Antonie asked carefully, “if you didn’t sell him to them?”
“I had no choice,” Sil’lance whispered with a touch of doubt. “I had to bring him with me and I had to find a way to hide him too. They came after us. He said they would, but I thought…I thought I could protect him.” Protect him? What kind of an idiot had my son chosen this time? “Have you seen him? Is he alive?”
Sheer fury threw off the calm that had been impressed upon me. I stood up with a growl of anger. “Protect him? Any fool knows you do not tell a psychic! You do not bring one to a changeling unless you want it to die! How could you that to him?” Antonie glared at me. It was enough to wash the anger back in a moment of sheer shock. I had pissed him off.
It gave Sil’lance a moment to stumble away in horrified fear. That moment only lasted as long as my stunned silence. Then, all hell broke loose. A scream of pure rage rent the room and Sil’lance was tearing his claws into me screaming, “You bastard, I did that to him because of you! You made me do that! You made me do it!” I was too stunned to fight back. Honestly, I hadn’t considered that.
Sil’lance was sobbing when Antonie threw him off of me. He didn’t try to get up again. Gods, the conniving bastard really loved my son. This was tearing him apart. I sighed and walked back into the lounge in disgust. Let Antonie clean up the mess. I straightened my clothes as they mumbled about something I pretty much ignored. What the hell did the boy see in these fools? I threw back the rest of the wine and poured another glass. Was he right? Was it my fault those slavers had tortured Silvern: my fault…that they had cut him up like a side of meat?
Sil’lance began screaming again. For once in my life, I didn’t want to hear it. Damn, I still hated that prick.’
I was shivering when I came out of the ‘vision’ or ‘what-the-hell-you-call-it’. “Shit, shit, shit…” Patrick was hurrying me back into the elevator and we were almost back to our room, but I couldn’t stop shaking. I rarely did that because being inside of my father’s thoughts was…just creepy. He didn’t think right. There was something…missing from him that was inside of most people.
I knew he was ancient. My mother had tried to explain what it felt like being inside of his mind to me when I had first done it, but it never made sense. Ancients did not ‘feel’ like normal people? What was that supposed to mean? It was like a black hole in his head, but there were thoughts lingering in that dark emptiness. Emotions when they came were swift and sudden, and unlike anything I had ever felt before. They were too powerful and encompassing to be called emotions. It was a sudden stab of ‘whatever’ and then it faded into the silence again with the effect of an earthquake that only lasted a second but almost destroyed the world. It was scary. Except for those swift moments, he felt nothing…less now that mother was no longer sharing her youth with him.
Patrick got me into the room and locked the door before he looked me in the eyes. “Silv, are you alright? You were screaming. Then, you started cursing and shaking and…whimpering,” he added uncertainly. “What the hell was that all about?”
“Sil’lance, Anton and my father,” I said feeling as if my skin was numb. The feeling began to return very slowly. I hated that. It was like I turned into a block of ice when I stayed in his mind for too long. “They are all together.” The ‘vision’ was starting to confuse me now that I was back to being myself again. There had only been two emotions in it…swift anger and hatred, but both were directed at Sil’lance. No there had been an undertone of other emotions, I thought. I was almost sure I had felt shock and grief beneath the possessiveness that had rose into fury, but the hate…that had felt deep and eternal.
Patrick got me undressed while I was still shivering in shock. “I suggest you do not ever do that again,” he whispered in concern. I tried to smile at him, but I was wondering how Anton would manage to keep those two from killing each other while he watched. I was also wondering why he would care if they did.
I saw the pool and helped Patrick put me in. I shifted as I went under, but I didn’t tell him that I intended to finish what I had started. Something about that conversation was beginning to feel…wrong, more than usual.
‘I was seriously getting drunk. I stared at the flicker of the fire in sullen silence, sullen if you called feeling like I should be throwing this expensive liquor in Sil’lance’s face and tossing him into the fire…sullen. I didn’t want to look at him, but I did and found him staring at me with his heart in his eyes. I hated that. He glanced away quickly enough, but I had caught him staring. Wasted, I needed to get wasted. That would feel better than this…too bad no amount of liquor would heal what ailed me. I would have pitched it into the fire, but there was no reason to waste good poison. I drank it.
“Gods, how can you drink that stuff? You used to hate it,” Sil’lance growled. He got up to pace the room. Antonie stood too close to the fire to risk throwing the glass at it. Why did I always have the urge to do serious violence around these two?
“Things change…love…hate…everything changes, whether you want it to or not,” I sighed wearily. I stood up and felt him shove me over the damn couch. Well, hell…at least I wasn’t the only one feeling frisky. I caught myself as if I had purposely rolled over the damn thing and stood back up laughing at him coldly. “Was that supposed to hurt? You had best try harder.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Sil’lance snarled. “Damn it!” He turned around and stalked the room like a caged tiger which is exactly what he was. “If he wasn’t standing there waiting to tear my head off, I would gut you!”
“Likewise,” I stated almost pleasantly as I poured another glass. I wouldn’t have done it, but the hurt expression on his face as he heard the ice move was worth another drink. “Want one?”
“You know I would rather eat a maggot infested carcass,” Sil’lance snapped, “to hell with you!”
“I have already been there. Thank you.”
“I didn’t…” Sil’lance growled and Antonie raised his hand to stop the conversation.
“Both of you sit down,” Antonie stated sadly. “You have been bickering ever since I met you. Now, for the Gods’ sakes, sit down!” Neither of us moved. Neither wanted to admit Antonie scared us. “Unless you would rather I forced you to have sex with me while Sil watches us,” Antonie drawled angrily. I sat, quickly.
Sil’lance burst out laughing. “Aww, Antonie…that isn’t fair! Why do I get to only watch? You know how long I have been trying to get into your pants.” He sat down, but he was staring at Antonie almost hungrily. I didn’t like that. I really didn’t. Sil glanced at me and his expression changed into startled amazement.
Stupid liquor, I thought as I pitched it into the fire. It licked up at Antonie. I sucked in a shocked breathe. I think Sil’lance did too, but Antonie didn’t even twitch. He simply glanced down as the fire engulfed him harmlessly. I closed my eyes and swayed in relief. Gods, he would have killed me if that had burned his damn clothes. I rubbed my face in my hands and wanted out of this room. I had no idea why the fire hadn’t burned him. I was grateful, but as far as I knew Antonie was an Earth Elemental…the same as me. That should have scarred his entire back and destroyed all of that beautiful hair. I was drunk. I knew better than acting like some brat child.
When I heard Sil’lance gasp a second time, I looked up. Damn, that would explain the fire. “Hello, Ifrit.”
“Justin is what I go by these days,” the man standing against the door facing stated casually watching the two of us with a trace of amusement in his eyes. “Still feuding, I see. What a waste of a good friendship…” If I had thought Sil’lance had stared hungrily at Antonie, it was nothing to the way he was watching ‘Justin’. The fire bird had always been pretty, birds usually were, I thought jealously.
Justin was even prettier than the last time I had seen him, actually. He didn’t have the bulk of a warrior. He was tall and as thin as Antonie, his silky hair falling around him like a scarlet veil. He didn’t even have his usual golden tan and gold glitter skin that marked him as a royal-blooded Phoenix. He was pale, with a hint of fiery pink to his thin skin. He looked fragile, but this creature was the deadliest thing alive. He was the first of the Thirteen to bend magic to his will and shape shift. Therefore, technically he was the father of our kind. All of the others had followed in his footsteps.
“I think you have me confused with a bedtime story, old friend,” Justin stated with a casual flick of his eyes to Antonie. I had to laugh. How the hell did he hide what he was from anyone, much less a psychic? Of course, he was the most powerful one alive, so he could ‘change’ what people remembered. “And since you will force me to do so when I hate it so much with this particular one, how have you been?”
“Good, Ifrit,” I whispered nearly nervous in his presence. He chuckled, both at me and at Sil’lance before he left the room again as silently as he had come. “You live with…him?” I couldn’t hide my shock, so I didn’t even try. I had no idea how much Antonie would remember. Antonie gave me an odd…vague frown as if he were fighting to remember what had just happened. I dropped the conversation. The confusion died in his eyes.
“The next time you want to set one of my glasses down, I suggest you simply hand it to me,” Antonie stated with a touch more anger than was normal for such an incident. I bit my lip. He would know he had missed something, but not what. I seriously hoped he didn’t take it out on me.
“I will do that,” I whispered glancing towards the door where ‘Justin’ had left us to deal with his interference. “That is one hell of a guard dog you have,” I stated nervously. He had to know Justin had stopped the fire from burning him. Antonie glanced at the door and frowned.
“Yes,” Antonie sighed. “We have been friends for as long as I can recall. He has a strange way of following me around,” Antonie stated grumpily. “Annoying since he won’t let me in his pants,” he added glancing at Sil with a sly smile. Sil’lance laughed. I was shocked. Hell…The man I knew would have leapt at the chance. Had he changed so much in the last few thousand years? “If you know something about Saint Justin that I do not, I suggest you don’t remember it. He is very picky about what people think of him,” Antonie warned. Since when…I decided I might need to go up and talk to him before I left. I knew his room would be on the top floor. Little Bird liked to roost up high. I wouldn’t even be surprised to find a balcony that overlooked a high cliff. Antonie narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously. Since I was probably right, perhaps I should take his advice and think about something else.
How about the angry glare in Sil’lance’s eyes as he obviously guessed what I was thinking about? “Is there any food? All of that alcohol is making me stupid.” Instantly, I felt worse drunk…I waited a heartbeat as I nearly passed out and felt all of the drunkenness fade away. “Guys, don’t fight over me! Seriously, if he doesn’t want you to know it won’t matter if I tell you, or not!”
Antonie snarled and went to slam the door closed, but he gave up on prying into my brain and I wasn’t stupid drunk any longer. That was good. I had drunk too much before seeing Sil’lance and far more than was smart afterwards. Antonie sat staring at the door in silence. I imagined he was going to the source and left them to fight amongst each other. Sil’lance didn’t. He used the distraction to plop down into my sofa. I scooted away and he came nearer. I narrowed my eyes, but I really did not want Antonie to look back this way again while he was angry. What the hell…
“You still want me,” Sil’lance whispered in amazement. I wasn’t about to bicker back and forth with an ‘I do not’, ‘You do too’ conversation that would leave us both looking stupid.
“You fucked my son, Sil,” I stated softly with all of the anger those words could inflict. He leaned back with a confused look. “That boat has sunk.”
“Like you have a right to bitch,” Sil’lance stated bluntly. “He has been ridden more than the village whore.” Sil’lance laughed bitterly when those words made me wince. “I would know, too. She was a good lay until you married her. Shit, if you cared at all about the kid what were you thinking?”
“He hated me,” I whispered.
“You threw him in the pit! What did you expect?” No, I thought sadly. He hated me before that, but I didn’t want to tell Sil’lance he had been right all along. I didn’t want him to rub my nose in it. “They had nothing to do day in, day out than fuck him until I got there. Centuries of being the only bitch with a pack of wild dogs…” Sil’lance was good at rubbing things in. “Hell, even your wife couldn’t claim to fuck as good as your son can.”
Rage…Sil’lance made a scared sound that barely drew me out of the anger. I looked down and he was so close to being dead. I could have killed him. I could have killed him before I even knew what I was doing. He was on the floor under me and he was terrified. Gods, at least he remembered what he was baiting when it was too late to save himself. How stupid did you have to be, you fool? Had Antonie stopped me? Did I owe him for Sil’s life?
I moved my aching hands off of him and was breathing hard. It was a struggle to force myself off of him when all I wanted to do was tear out his heart and throat and squish it in my hands. I wanted him dead, and I would hate myself if I killed him. I backed up and turned to leave the room. No time like the present to go talk to Justin. I could barely move I was so angry, but those doors were looking like a good thing. Antonie opened them to let me out. Thank the Gods, thank you…Antonie. He nodded as I passed him.
Sil’lance made a sound of pure pain behind me. I didn’t want to hear it. “Wait,” he whispered. If he begged my forgiveness right this second, he would die. I was tired of ignoring his cruelty. “I didn’t…Moese!”
I ran. I ran up the stairs and instantly knew where I was going. There was a set of huge double doors ahead and they were glittering gold. I hated that I was running. I didn’t even want to delve into why I was running. I just knew I had to get away from him before I finally killed him…for being right. Hell, I couldn’t even call him a liar. Everything he said was true. It was always true. How could he twist the truth into such painful words?
Justin opened them and I was instantly in his arms. I didn’t say a word. He knew. He always knew. That was what I liked the most about him. He just held me without protest and drew me into his room. I didn’t look at it. Some things changed; but others did not. Ifrit liked his room the same wherever he lived. I knew what it would look like. I had once lived with him for nearly a hundred years…and unlike Antonie…I knew what it was like to get into his pants. I looked up helplessly into those gray-green eyes apologizing even as I begged for comfort. Justin hugged me close and it felt like home. I had missed him.
The doors shut before I could begin screaming. I knew they would be magically sealed so anything in this room was protected from outsiders. Gods, it hurt. Everything always hurt. I was so mad…so mad it hurt.’
I burst out of the water shifting and sliding as I tried to stand on one leg and there wasn’t enough of it to balance properly. Patri ran in and caught me before I drowned myself. “Calm down, I have got you!” I clung to him suddenly glad I wasn’t alone. Huge, choking sobs burst out of me before I even knew I was about to cry. Patri had no idea what was going on, but he was perfect. He hugged me and rocked me and made soothing noises. I was a real shit heel for treating him so poorly. I let him dry me off and drag me to bed with him still trying to hug me. I cried harder like a lost puppy dog when he tried to let go of me. Finally, he sighed and just settled in for a long night. He fell asleep long before my crying stopped.
Eventually, I felt numb. Numb was good. It was better than hearing Sil’lance sneer that he had fucked my mom and she was the village whore. It was better than hearing his last taunt that had nearly bought him a swift death, or being reminded that I had spent centuries being endlessly raped.
I was only allowed to escape them when I had prey to track, and it felt more like running from the hounds than it did tracking runaways. They couldn’t catch me when I was free to run, but I always had to stop and call them. They always caught me and the escaped prey. I suffered a worse fate than the runaways, so I couldn’t really feel sorry for them. The chase always made their blood run hot. I could run all I wanted, but it always ended with the worst gang rape ever. Then, it settled back into ‘ones’ and ‘threes’ until the next chase.
They never gave me a break. I would even wake to it when I passed out. Hell, there were so many of them, and Sil’lance was right…what else did they have to do but fuck? They were locked in a rock room. Warriors didn’t bend to anyone. They fought, but the ones that were not fighting were always on me. Sometimes I wondered why my dad hadn’t just killed me, and sometimes I knew. It wouldn’t have hurt as bad if he had killed me. That was kind of the whole point to throwing me in the pit and forgetting that I existed.
I forced myself to think about something else. I wasn’t sure thinking about Sil’lance was a good idea either. That didn’t leave much to wonder about. I didn’t care about Antonie, but this new guy was…interesting. Had my dad said he was the first of the Thirteen?
Ifristice Femurin…the Fire God, had always been his favorite fairy tale. My mom would tell me stories of him all of the time. Usually, dad looked out the window while she told bedtime stories to me while he held me. Not when the stories were about Ifrit, though. Father would always chuckle and make snide comments in my ear when she wasn’t listening. Sometimes she caught him at it. I couldn’t remember what had been story and what had been his sneaky commentary, but I had known my dad had loved the ancient legend of Ifrit. He had given him a personality until I could practically picture him in my mind doing all of the things in mother’s stories. Father always made him sound like a fun-loving, mischief maker with an eye for all the kids…and I mean, eye…as in he slept with everyone’s sons and daughters, but only after they were a few hundred years old. He would always laugh at the end of the stories and tease my mother as they put me to bed, kissing her and demanding she hurry with ‘the little monster’ so she could put him to bed too. Maybe that is why she liked the stories; even though, he rarely listened to her version of them.
One night when mom was gone and dad was holding me as he stood at the balcony railing, he told me a story. I slipped into slumber thinking about that night. ‘The baby could feel how much his father missed his childhood. Father rarely ever told stories of his past. “I was fighting like an old world gladiator in this huge, stone ring for a king’s entertainment,” Father told me wistfully. “Won every match too; I was quite good even back then,” he bragged. The baby giggled.
“In fact, I was having the time of my life. Not many could keep the king entertained for very long. I knew it would be over when the veterans entered the ring, but as long as it was just the young officers and seasoned recruits I would win. That is when this guy standing on the highest stone, where no one could possibly have reached without flying there, caught my eye.” Father grinned and shook his head in amusement.
“It was bad timing, to be sure. I mean, it was bright and the sun was distracting enough. Not half as much as the flash of fire on the upper stone arch, though.” Father said it ruefully. The baby’s eyes got wide. “Never get distracted in a fight.” That was the first rule of fighting. Father always said it. “My opponent almost beheaded me, which was expressly against the rules,” he made sure to mention so mother wouldn’t later fuss at him for scaring the baby. “He hadn’t expected me to just stop in the middle of the ring.”
“We fought for a while longer. My opponent was good. We were actually friends outside of the ring. I think we fought harder because of it. We knew where the other’s strengths and weaknesses were. We would push each other hard and then back off laughing. Then, I was blinded again by red-gold and…” The baby stared at his father’s thoughtful face. When Father noticed, he laughed and flushed. “The man was crouched on the stone staring at me with the most intense eyes. It was too far to see him so clearly from where I was standing. Impossible to see his eyes from so far away, yet I had known looking at him that they were gray and green. It was like he was less than a yard away staring at me.”
“Yes, Silly…I got knocked flat on my ass. Humiliating; the whole stadium was laughing at me. Everyone there except the king. I glanced at him and he was watching the flashing fire on the top stone arch. He had known I was distracted and had seen why I missed defending that last blow. Who do you think was standing on the arch, Sil? It was the Fire God himself watching me fight. He was so beautiful.”
“The king, did I mention he was the Water God? I used to have such nice friends,” Father teased as he tickled my ribs and made me giggle. “His name was Genesis and he was a water dragon, some say more dragon than sane, but I liked him. He called Ifrit down from his perch teasing him about throwing the fight in my friend’s favor. Well, I was embarrassed. It was bad enough to know I had lost. He did not have to tell everyone I had lost because this gorgeous God was watching me. My face was redder than his hair when a ball of flame landed beside me. Gods, he was even lovelier up close. He had gold glitter in his skin…kind of like you, Silly.”
“I glitle…”
“You do,” Father stated solemnly. “You glitter in the moonlight when I hold you up after your bath…like a little God of the Moon, but you ‘glitle’ like a little diamond…Silver instead of gold. I think I like the silver better on you, Sil. It suits you.” Father winked at the baby and it laughed. It would never forget that line. “You are so beautiful to me, Silly. I never expected to have a kid like you.”
“Someone told me I would have a kid once,” Father whispered softly, “but he said if I didn’t kill it…it would kill me.” The baby thought he was joking, but Father looked at the boy with an odd face. For a moment, he was sad. Then, he shook his head and laughed. The solemn mood was shattered. The baby giggled when he tickled it to death. They both laughed like crazy people until the starlight distracted Father again.
Father had sighed and leaned back against the wall humming a tune the baby had never heard before. The baby had kept his eyes glued on his father’s wistful face in awe. The baby boy was wishing he glittered in the moonlight right now, so his father would think he was just as beautiful as this God that he kept remembering so fondly. The baby didn’t want to talk while Father was humming. The song was too pretty. Why did mom never hum this one? The baby touched his father’s chin and gradually fell asleep listening to the lovely tune and the sound of his beloved father’s voice. Before the boy closed his eyes, Father’s laughing eyes were staring at him like he was the most precious thing in the universe. The child was happy.’
I woke feeling restless. It was still dark, but the room was gradually beginning to lighten. Patrick was still sleeping soundly. I knew already that I glittered like silver and diamond dust because I had waited all of my life for the change to hit me. I had wanted with all of my heart to glitter like a little God in my father’s eyes. I had always wanted to please him, and he had walked away from me. I loved my mother, but it was it was a vague reflection beside of the love I had for him. He was my hero. I practically worshiped him, because he had loved me so much and I could feel it. I meant the world to him, so he meant the same to me. What had they said to him to make him turn his back on me? What had the said to break his heart? Because I knew now, they had shattered it. That is why he eventually came back and killed them all. They had destroyed him.
All of the good in my father had died the day he had come back to the house and killed my mother. He had stared at her forever before Taylor had found him. Taylor…the jealous uncle who had hated him so much had walked in on him before the rage could completely die out of his eyes. I didn’t know if it was Taylor, or him holding onto me, that had caused the fury to flare up a second time. I had screamed as this huge beast had fallen on Taylor with teeth and claws and roars of fury unlike anything I had ever heard before. Grandfather pulled me out of the house and pushed me towards the lake. I turned back around and saw it. Huge black wings blotted out the sun and blood had hit me in the face. I flinched wondering where Grandpa had gone. Then, I saw him…dead at the feet of this creature that looked like it was about to eat me next.
I turned and ran, but I didn’t want to go into the lake. I wanted my father and I knew he was in that house. I hadn’t seen him for so long and now he was here and I couldn’t go to him. I didn’t understand why he had left. I didn’t understand why he had killed my mother. I could understand my uncle. I never even wondered at him. I had sat down and cried. I hadn’t tried to run into the lake. I could have made it, but instead I screamed for my ‘daddy’ and I didn’t stop screaming for him. I could even understand why he killed Grandpa, Grandpa would have taken me into the lake and he would have never seen me again. I smelled smoke. I huddled there by the lake and I saw it beginning to glow with a deep, blue light. I was sniffling and watching the light as I heard my father’s footsteps behind me. He picked me up by the collar of my shirt and twisted me around almost painfully by the neck to look at me. He rubbed at the dried blood on my face.
I could still remember it so clearly. His eyes had been dead while he stared at me. “I am a fool not to kill you too,” Father had whispered before dragging me back to his castle. He had not thrown me into the pit on that day…no, not then. I had earned that punishment. What had he meant? Had he really thought I would grow up to hate him? Is that why he had believed it so easily? I had thought he would try to get me back. I had thought he would tell me why he had left if I was a big enough brat. He never had. He just slowly gave up on me with those dead eyes of his. Nothing made him angry, except one or two things. I learned them well. It was the only time those dead eyes ever changed. His eyes scared me like that. I would rather angry than dead. It was like he had committed suicide when he had killed my mother. I didn’t like what remained. The thought worried me. I had seen more emotions from him in the ‘vision’s than I had since her death. There had to be a reason I was tripping down memory lane. Perhaps Anton had planted a ‘suggestion’ to remember my father’s good side. It made me want to check in on him again. Had he calmed down from last night’s killing rage?
‘I was drowning in the scent and feel of pure heaven. I laughed as Ifrit cuddled against my back for just a moment of stillness. I felt his lips against my right ear and looked up at him through the fall of glittering gold light spilling into the window through his red hair. He was gold all over. He was back to the huge warrior God I adored so much. The red hair was now glittering just like the rest of him and twisting in curls instead of straight like before. Muscles made me feel tiny as he hugged me closer. I felt him slip *away from* me carefully and sighed. Hell, I was content. He could finish or he could just tease me for an eternity. I did not care.
“Your wife is dead,” Ifrit whispered nuzzling my neck uncertainly. I nodded. Even that could not touch me in his arms. Nothing mattered. This was heaven. I felt him run his hand down my spine and was breathless at the pleasure it sent through every inch of my body.
“God, how do you make me feel like that,” I gasped and laughed back at him. I turned to stare up at him and he settled down against me until all I could see was his waist up, but he was still so beautiful. I didn’t mind a hint of modesty. He used to let me look my fill and I remembered it well.
Ifrit gloated with a ‘cat eating the cream’ grin that I loved so much. That was the Ifrit I knew. “You were young when we first did this.” Yeah, like my son’s age…Bullshit, I was not young. “I took the memory of every sensation and embedded it into your thoughts. Every time we were together, I added that pleasure to it. If I kissed you five times, the sixth time you would feel all six kisses…and so forth.”
I held my breath at his explanation. “That is cheating,” I whispered feeling dazed and overwhelmed. “So every kiss…every touch…every moment,” I growled glaring at him as he laughed at me. It was embarrassing. Well, hell…no wonder he was an excellent lover. “That is cheating!”
“Do you want me to stop,” Ifrit whispered as he nibbled my ear and I felt my brain turn to mush. His breath on my neck stole the air from my lungs. When I opened my eyes and looked into his, I could have stared at him forever and been happy. I needed nothing more than this, but I didn’t like that frown starting to grow between his eyebrows. I tried to wipe it away, but he caught and kissed my hand. “Mosin, who do you share a psychic bond with? I sense one. Do you have a companion again?”
“Hell, no…You are the only one who has ever resurrected dead companions, Ifrit. Have you resurrected the asshole? Do I have someone else wanting to kill me?” My teasing didn’t change the frown. “My oldest son,” I answered with a sigh. “I took the spell you gave me off of Sil’lance and put it on Silvern. Why?”
Ifrit kissed my forehead the way he usually did before telling me something I was going to hate. I braced myself for the bad news as he rolled off to the side a little. “He is spying on you.” I was off of the bed and across the room before he had time to laugh at the look on my face.
“Shit, Ifrit,” I growled. I concentrated and felt him inside of me…just a hint of his shock. I was mortified. “Shit…” I heaved a huge sigh, but I felt panic screaming up through me. There was no running from this one. Why was he spying on me? How often had he done it without me knowing? Ifrit wrapped his arms around me from the back before my knees buckled. “Shit, shit, shit…”
“Shh,” Ifrit whispered as he turned me around. “Right now, he is thinking of how he misses you. Stop worrying so much, Mosin. I felt him. I wouldn’t have stopped, but he was worried about you. I could have simply thrown him out, but he loves you,” Ifrit whispered. Ifrit kissed my cheek as he spoke. I wanted to believe him, but the words hurt worse than what Sil’lance had said yesterday. “I wanted to know who he was.”
“He has spent an eternity hating me,” I told him shaking my head and pulling away from him. Ifrit did not let me go. He pulled me back into him again and I held still as his arms wrapped my waist and he breathed in against my hair.
“He doesn’t hate you right now, Mosin,” Ifrit whispered. I shivered. The sun was gleaming on the ocean beyond the window. Gods, it was so pretty. There was a lake below…a lake and a cliff that dropped down to the ocean hundreds of feet below. “He doesn’t hate you right now,” Ifrit repeated softly as he kissed my neck. “I told you once you would have a son that killed you. I didn’t know you would have two. It isn’t Silvern, Moese.”
I felt something inside of me break. If he hadn’t held me up, I wouldn’t have withstood it. Somehow, that made everything both better and worse. I didn’t know why the idea of Silly killing me was worse than the other one. “I never hurt the other one,” I whispered feeling so utterly confused.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ifrit whispered pulling me back towards his bed. “I am sorry I told you. I didn’t want you to die, Moese, or I wouldn’t have said a thing.” I was drowning in him. Gods, the man was hard to ignore. “If I had known you would have two sons, I would never have said a word to you about it.” And I could have died…Ifrit had so few friends left from when he ruled the worlds. It must be lonely to watch them all die. “I have hurt you, Mosin. Forgive me?”He was pulling me down onto his lap as he lay back on the bed. I don’t know. That was a pretty big hurt. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered while I was in his arms.
Ifrit nuzzled my neck as he rolled me under him. I felt like laughing at his playfulness. He had taught me to play when my life had been nothing pleasant. I stared up into his gray-green eyes, so concerned for me. I traced his chin with my fingers and smiled. “Silly, I will forgive you anything,” I whispered. The significance of the familiar words was lost on him. He kissed my knuckles and I swallowed hard. I had always said that to Ifrit. Had I named my son after Sil’lance…or Ifrit?’
I jerked awake. “Damn,” I whispered. I didn’t feel chilled this time. I felt energized like I had just stuck my finger in a light socket and it was not pleasant. My nerve endings were screaming at me.
Justin, as Ifrit now called himself, had shoved me out. I had felt him do it, but he had gotten the point across. Maybe it wasn’t Anton who had planted the ‘suggestion’ to miss my father. I don’t even remember seeing Justin in the house during my first visit. Obviously, he had not needed to see me to correct a mistake he had made. Justin was giving me a chance to forgive and forget. If I didn’t take it, that was my problem. He was explaining and giving me a second chance. I had a feeling I did not want Justin for an enemy. Especially, when it was obvious he cared about my father’s feelings enough to let me see a side of him few apparently saw.
My leg itched. I looked down at it and swore again. “Patrick,” I screamed. He scrambled in through the door and stopped. “What did my leg look like when you got out of the bed?”
“They were the same as when you went to sleep,” Patri muttered.
We both stared. I had both legs, both feet. From the knees down, they still looked thin and new. From the knees up, they looked as normal and whole as ever. I moved my toes and gasped. “I can feel them and everything.”
“Water,” Patrick whispered quickly and certainly. “You should get back in the water.” I stared at him like he was insane. “They will get bigger with more healing. You can’t walk on them yet; they are just skin and bones!” He bit his lip and added, “But maybe I will take you for a swim in the river,” when he saw my crest-fallen expression. I grinned hopefully. I could change into a full Mer now. I wouldn’t be strong swimming, but it would help regain the muscles and the water would continue to heal them. The river was far more water, and therefore more magic than the bathroom. It was a good idea.
2009, (Jenna Karro). All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
~~Try to remind me and I will post Chapter 3, or 4 maybe, next month!~~
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