Chapter Three.

Nothing helps settle your nerves as well as seeing the most powerful being you know, looking like I do when I see my Dad come storming out of the house after 'borrowing' his brand new fifty thousand car to go werewolf tracking. Leo formally known as Cain and also Darius, looked that kind of guilty right now; like he knew he was in trouble and I just prayed he knew how to handle Merrow in a way that was nothing like how I interacted with my father.

If he didn't - well I should have just drowned because while all Dad and I do is use our words as weapons, I'm thinking two supernatural beings going at it might be a little hazardous for my already struggling health. So while the pair of them entered a stare down, I managed to actually breathe again and using the back of my hand, rub my eyes.

Things looked a bit clearer after that. For starters, I wasn’t on the island, I had been taken to a ledge on the side of this cave. Secondly, we were totally screwed unless what ever his name is, decides to zap us out of there as the mermaids all floated in front of us - glaring our way while Merrow simply stood on water looking like she was getting ready for a Vogue shoot.

“You’re behind this?” Cain snapped, standing beside me.

Sitting up, I held my stomach; fighting the urge to throw up yet again. Looking down on the dirt around us, there wasn’t anything that could be used as a weapon and then I saw my arm. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt . My forearm looked shredded, with barely any skin left unbroken and a small strip of my flesh hung limp and for a second, I contemplated simply pushing it back up and into place. Then I threw up a saltwater dominated bile and my arm was forgotten.

Merrow answered my rescuer in a language I’d heard before, but didn’t know. Had Dracula spoken it? One of the Warlocks maybe?

Tugging on the dark denim by his ankle, Cain yelled at her before giving me his attention again. “Am I, gonna become a mermaid?”

Despite the raspy stuttering of my voice, he understood my question. “No. What magic of mine remains in you, plus the fact you’re a Hunter will stop any transformation.”

If only being what we are stopped us from being turned into vampires too.

“I have waited too long for this moment, and I will enjoy every second!” Merrow hissed at him, her voice much too horrible to be coming out of such a pretty face.

Cain ignored her.

“Come on, give me your hand.” He offered his and lifting my good arm, let him help me stand.

I felt like something should have happened, there was a weird tingling that ran through my body before vanishing and looking around, Cain only frowned; his wrinkles even more pronounced now.

“What was that?” I whispered.

Merrow started to laugh. “There is only one way out Cain, you yourself made sure of that.”

“Are we going with Cain again?” I ask him, trying to stop myself from freaking out by what she just said.

“For now.” He answered, and again the rush of tingles took over us. “What did you do?”

The ex-Siren shrugged, actually daring to look at her fingernails like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Merrow! I will make losing your crown seem as pleasurable as singing a fucking song, if you do not answer me!” Cain dropped my hand, and almost roughly shoved me back against the wall behind us. I’d never, ever heard anyone - demon or human sound that deadly before.

Half the mermaids vanished.

“As I said, it is your magic that makes this prison. There is only one way out and we all know the dangers that lurk beneath the surface.” She was stirring him up into a bigger rage. “I guess you never expected to be the one falling victim to your own cruelty.”

Then Merrow disappeared and so did the remaining mermaids, leaving the pair of us alone. I couldn’t sense htem nearby anymore and for some reason I’d rather deal with the merfolk than the old man who stood trembling with rage. His fists clenched at his side and the roar he released had the loose rocks in the wall and ceiling fall down, splashing onto the still surface like a sudden rainstorm.

A large piece fell from above me; hitting my already ruined arm and I had no choice other than to scream as the pain took over.

“Shit, Elise, are you okay?” Old man Cain fell beside me, and with a wave of his hand, the avalanche stopped.

All the lights went out, plunging us into darkness and just as quickly, a fireball suddenly appeared to start a small fire beside me. I didn’t realise how cold I was until I felt the heat of the flames and in the orange light, my arm looked even worse.

“Stupid question, I know.” Cain answered since I was speechless and waving his hand over my arm; he healed it up instantly. “There, good as new.”

He offered me a smile that I couldn’t bring myself to return. His round, gentle face only hid the monster within and I wasn’t going to be fooled by appearances. I’d seen angry people, even those blind with their rage, and more often than not, I’d actually been the one to cause it. What was going on now with him, was something else entirely and I was too scared to do anything incase it was the final key in setting him up to explode.

“Elise, I healed you. You’re okay now?” He frowned, sitting down beside me and held my hand. “You’re freezing, here come closer to the fire.”

I only nodded, doing as he said and holding my hands out to the warmth, avoided looking at him too.

“Why are you being so quiet?”

“Um, just thinking.”

He actually smirked; the kind of look I expected on Darius or Leo - but not him. “Oh? What are you thinking about?”

“What’s with this face?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I once decided to become a pirate?” I shook my head. “Well I did, and this was my look!”

He grinned, waving his hand over his face though I didn’t see what was amusing about it. “When Logan called Ailin, word got around what had happened pretty quick. I didn’t know they’d sent you both on a journey where these rodents of the sea resided. I banned those demons from this realm long ago, so just hearing they were back had me coming straight for you.”

“Clearly they all knew you as a pirate?” I ask.

“Indeed, and I had hoped that alone would instill enough fear into their hearts to return from where they came hence the look.”

We went quiet again, until I decided to break the silence. I had a lot of questions, but decided to keep it casual and to avoid Merrow for the time being. “So, were you a real scary pirate captain like I dunno, Blackbeard or more of Jack Sparrow?”

“None of the above, Captain was never my title. I was just a faceless crew member back then.”

“No way!” From what I knew of him, he was always the one in charge. “Why?”

“Felt like it.” He shrugged simply. “Well, that I decided to play human for a few years and how better to do so than by causing terror out on the water. Pirates, at least the ones in that time, are not like any of the ones your films portray.”

“So you still got to get your evil kicks?”

He nodded. “Evil kicks. I’ll have to remember that one.”

“Why did they think I was the Oracle?” The words left me before I could stop them and our friendly chat stopped instantly as he narrowed dark eyes my way.

“What?”

“The mermaids, well Ceana; when we got here she was under the impression I was it and started teasing me about how weak my magic was because despite blocking off the portal to their realm, they were here now. She said it was because your magic was in me.”

Cain said nothing.

“Anyway, how can we get out of here?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.

“I brought you back from the dead Elise. Until your soul has reattached to your body, my magic is what is keeping you here. How ever fit you may be physically, spiritually - your healing isn’t occurring at the same speed. I created the Oracle in a similar manner. Her divine glimpses of the future were courtesy of me, until she learnt to control and develop the power that I gifted her with so in some ways, your essence may appear the same to those who seek it. Annoyingly, three hundred years seems to have served Merrow with the same ability as Portia, which is why she can leave this place and we can’t.” He growled.

“Three hundred- Hang on, what do you mean my soul has to reattach to my body? Why am I just hearing about this now?”

“Minor detail.”

“To you maybe!” I snapped, thinking back to what Ceana had said about death following me. Of course it was, without a soul - what was I? A demon? A zombie with a brain? Even vampires had hold of theirs, it’s why they could still be so, human.

“Portia was one of my favourites. Before those times, she had her own temple where priestess would attend to her while villagers would worship. Like all things, I tired of her after a few years and by then she didn’t need me anyway. Turns out, not needing was different to wanting and she followed me.”

“You and Huntington used to be a thing?” This was just getting weirder and weirder.

“Keep up Hunter!” He scolded mockingly. “Anyway, as I was saying, I became a pirate and life was good until my Captain found himself in a bit of trouble when he, like his men, fell victim to a Sirens song.”

“Merrow?”

Cain nodded. “Indeed. She was a vision, and while the men leapt from the ship into the waiting arms of the mermaids and her sister Sirens, I of course was unaffected and able to enjoy her beautiful melody.”

“Let me guess, you two then had a thing and shit went bad?”

“Pretty much. The love I was fool enough to believe was a lie and turns out she did more than just tempt sailors to their doom. Portia found me, right before I was about to attempt to freeze the whole ocean and seeing reason, I sent Portia into the water as one of them instead; along with a story of how I had granted her the gift of the sea.”

Cain went quiet for a few moments, before he reached over towards the water and waved his hand over it. Something sparkled in the water and he scooped it up, which instantly made my mouth drop. It was a crown that would put the crown jewels to shame. Diamonds and pearls made up the base, and wrapped in silver coils, shells and tiny starfish finished it off. They didn’t really matter, the way the diamonds in each point sparkled was breathtaking.

“Merrow got jealous, and tried to kill her. Of course I went to save her and part of the story was, I got my power from a pendant I wore. She drowned me, stole the pendant and ended up in here. As you know, I am not so easy to kill and so as she slept, Portia took pity on Merrow’s mermaid companions and her fellow Sirens, urging them all back into their realm with a little encouragement from me. She then sealed off the portal.”

“Leaving Merrow here?” I guess.

“Yes. I wanted her to suffer, it’s a flaw of mine. The pendant enclosed her into this cave, and when she awoke, I snatched her crown as that is where all her power comes from and destroyed it. She also feeds off the energy of her mermaids, so by keeping them all separated, she was left weak and alone. Clearly when they were released, she found some power of her own again. I would imagine she goes between the worlds now.”

“So, what are we going to do?” I glance at the crown again - was that Merrows?

“This time I will kill her and if her followers do agree to live as the Treaty dictates, they all die.” He answered coldly.

“Little harsh don’t you think? It has been, what three hundred years? Maybe you could get her to talk and-”

“If she had succeeded and you had drowned, would you still want me to show her mercy?”

I hesitated. “Yes. You have made her suffer enough, at least banish her back to her own realm.”

“Okay, let’s look at it another way. She wronged me. I don’t forgive and for all I care she can spend another three hundred years here. She only pissed me off more by putting your life at risk. After all Dracula put you through, give it a hundred years and he was back, would you be happy to talk it out?”

“That’s a little different.” I argued.

“He wronged you, I doubt you’re going to forgive him and then he returns  and puts your Trackers life in danger. Would you give him a second chance then?” Cain challenged.

“No, I’d kill him.” I mumbled.

“Glad to see we understand each other.” He stands and walks behind me, instantly making me feel uncomfortable and I feel the pressure of the crown on my head. “This might hurt.”

“Wha-” I don’t get to finish as in one swift movement I’m lifted and thrown into the water.

The cold steals my breath, and making a push up - back to the surface, I understand why he said it might hurt. My body twists and bends like I’m having a fit and unable to stop myself, I scream. Surprisingly the water doesn’t choke me, but my lungs are still on fire as my skin feels like it’s being ripped apart. . I start to panic as I can’t move my legs and in the darkness, I have no idea which way is up or down now.

Closing my eyes, when I open them again everything looks, different. Tiny flecks of blue lights dance around me, as I take a deep breath. I must’ve made it back to the surface only as something snake like moves in the distance, the blue pulses form around it to create it’s shape.

Reaching up, the feeling of water gliding over my skin with the movement has my heart racing and sure enough, the crown is still there and unable to be moved. Bringing my hands in front of my face, i can see each digit in the same blue dots, but the webbing between my fingers is new. Holding my breath I lift my legs up to find one, tail like shape greet me.

I’m a fucking Mermaid.

Touching my body, I’m still in my singlet I had been sleeping in, yet waist down has disappeared into a mass of muscle and scales. Reaching up again, I forget the crown and find my hair is still the human kind. I’m not a mermaid after all; I’m a fucking Siren.

Spinning around, I have no idea where to go or what to do and as a flicker of light catches my attention from below me, I take my chances and go that way. The closer I get, the easier it becomes to distinguish and the mermaids turn to look my way. Luckily, I think, there are only two of them and as I stop about ten meters from them, their figures are glowing in the dark and I can see them clearly. One is Ceana.

“How?” She asks, floating closer.

The mermaid moves with greater ease through the water than what I have.

“A warning. Cain did it. He is going to kill you all if you don’t go back to your realm.” I can also now talk underwater.

Handy.

“Merrow will not allow it. The seas are once again ours for the taking!” She hisses at me.

“Right, because clearly he is lacking some power right now.” i motion to my current state hoping she gets the hint and the doubt on her face confirms she does. “What happened last time was nothing compared to what will happen now.”

Suddenly the water vibrated, had we been on land I would expect it to be like a earthquake. Both mermaids looked scared now and in the distance the tiny blue dots began to form together.

“Um, I’m kind of new to this whole thing, but what is that?” I point behind them and Ceana gasps.

“Alert the others, we return to Atlantis now!” She orders.

“That good huh?” The dots keep merging, as another tremor pulses through the water.

“Have you heard the tales of the Triagon, Hunter?” Ceana whispers to me.

“Big Octopus thing?”

“He is no Octopus! He is a demon and I thank you for your warning. Good luck!”

Just like that, she turned and vanished, leaving no sign or trace of where she went. Great, just great. The only thing I had going for me now was that I wasn’t drowning. Think, I had to think. Looking around, everything looked the same. There was no clue as to what was up or down, the beast only seemed to be getting bigger which probably meant it was getting closer and it wasn’t like I had anywhere to hide.

I decided to go down deeper. The water didn’t seem to really have a temperature now I was designed to live within it, and it took me a few goes before I understood the best and easiest way to wiggle around. Being a strong swimmer wouldn’t have helped me at all as it was more about body strength than my arms to get around. Daring to look up, the shadow that went over wasn’t really like an octopus. It was a dragon, with tentacles as legs and three heads.

Something was finally going my way as it didn’t stop to eat me, or even acknowledge me. I had no doubt it was only around because of Cain so, decided to follow it. I soon learned it was moving quicker than I could, and it’s back draft made it so I was fighting against a riptide of a current. By the time I surfaced in the cave, Merrow was at it’s mercy with a tentacle wrapped around her waist, she was dangling over one of the mouths.

“You dare call me weak?” Cain screamed up at her. “I should strip you of your immortality and leave you here to rot!”

“She is not the Oracle. Who is she?” Merrow dared to ask.

“Someone who requested I show you mercy. Defeat the beast and I will leave you be.” He taunted. “My magic does not stop me from leaving, just any I may wish to take with me. She is safe and should have found her way out of here by now, waiting for me to join her.”

“Does she know the monster within the man? You will destroy her like all the others. I am not without friends, I hear the stories.”

One of the heads turned my way and I quickly bobbed back under the water, before catching the end of what Cain had to say.

“Clearly you do not hear enough. Good luck!” Then Cain vanished.

Merrow screamed as the creature threw her into the air, and all three heads focused on catching her. She wasn’t completely powerless, managing to disappear too, only she reappeared on the other side of the cave and collapsed. Instantly the monster pounced and despite everything, I knew Cain was being too harsh. He wasn’t someone I wanted to get on the bad side of, but I was willing push those limits.

“Hey!” I screamed, waving my arms and splashing the water. “Three heads, and not one of them is pretty!”

The creature growled, but refused to give in to my distraction. Either way it gave Merrow enough time to stand and move further away from the edge of the water. “You!”

“I’m trying to help you!” i snapped back.

“He’ll kill you for it. Whether you’re his favourite or not, you don’t defy his orders!” She coughed.

“You talk like we’re in a relationship, we’re just friends!”

“For what purpose. Everything he does has a reason!” She managed to dodge one of the attacks, yet as another tentacle creeped up towards her, it wasn’t looking good.

“Can’t you conjure up a weapon?”

“No, I am too weak.” She screamed as she was caught again and diving over, I grabbed onto the first leg I saw and started to punch at it.

I was merely flung away and racing back, managed to get out of water and onto two legs again. Running over to her, I launched myself onto the nearest head and stabbed it in the eye. Now I had its attention.

“Why are you helping me?” Merrow asked as she found some kind of stick to start hitting the other heads with.

“I have a habit of doing stupid things.”

With that, the creature bucked and twisted, leaving me to fly over to where Merrow was. The roar it released was deafening and the force of the impact left me winded.

“You really do, Hunter.” Looking up, I barely dodged her trying to stab me with the stick, the side of it grazing my side and ripping my shirt. “Nice crown.”

Again and again she tried to hit me and standing, I kicked out at her. She wasn’t expecting it and instantly stumbled backwards- right into the waiting mouth of the sea monster. The creature looked at me for a moment before sinking back into the depths and I was alone.

Holding my side, my hand was soon covered in blood and since my shorts were already torn, I slipped them off and held them against the wound. The salt water stung, but as it stopped bleeding, I slipped back into the water. There had to be a way out of here if Cain was already expecting me gone.

I waited for the water to accept me once more and after looking around, was growing exhausted from all the swimming.

“Please, someone, show me the way out! Ceana? Friendly dolphins? Beasty thing?”

Moving towards where the most blue dots were, they soon started to form shapes and turns out it was a school of fish. Going further, a rocky cavern was found to house three ridiculously large crabs and an eel. Apparently I don’t speak fish as my questions of a way out went unanswered.

“Come on Elise. You can work this out.” I told myself. “Anyone out there?”

Nothing.

Closing my eyes I let the current move me, and after what felt like hours, there was something different about the water. It wasn’t just black anymore, but rather a navy colour that only seemed to be getting lighter as I went.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I enthused, finding a reserve of energy that powered me on.

Instead, something slide against my tail and looking down, the black and white striped snake startled me. It was almost like a baby Annipe, but the creature was not one of my demons. It was maybe two meters long, and nothing about it told me to expect a demon.

“Losssst?” It could talk.

“Yes, do you know where the shore is?”

“Why would, you, be ssseeking the shoress?” It darted around me, it’s tail going around my arm as it slid behind me only to then be staring me in the eye..

“I need to go home. What are you?”

“Sea Snake.”

“You can talk.” I pointed out.

“So can you. If you sing for me, I will take you home.”

“I can’t sing, trust me on this.” I laughed.

“You are a Siren, and I want to hear you sssing.”

Do all snakes have attitude?

“Who is your master?” I demanded.

“No master. Your kind rely on me, your kind like my poissson!” With that he bared his fangs my way.

“You’re not from this realm are you?”

“No Siren and this is not your world either is it?” He let me go and started swimming. “Follow me, but I advissse you sing or I may lose my way.”

I started to follow and all songs vanished from my mind, all but one and I had no idea how I even knew it.

“My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold. There is nothing can console me, but my jolly sailor bold.” I sang, positive that wasn’t even my voice. “ From Tower Hill to Blackwall, I'll wander, weep and moan. All for my jolly sailor, until he sails home.”

I felt each word across the water, and become lost in the only song I seemed unable to stop until the snake and I broke the surface. Looking around, the white sands of the shore beckoned and even better, the all too familiar row of huts sat in the distance.

“Thank you, I can make my own way from here.”

“Thank you for the song.” He nodded his black head and barely left a ripple in the calm morning ocean as he carried on with whatever, talking sea snakes do.

Back amongst the reefs and the beautiful underwater world, I hurried to the place I’d been calling home for these last few weeks. It was early morning, the sun was up but the island was still quiet. Fish didn’t flee from my intrusion now I was one of them, and feeling more comfortably down here now, I moved just as swiftly as they did.

Nearly at my hut I swam around it, smiling at the seahorses that had found home in what grew around the posts that held it in place. I barely glanced up at the viewing window in my living room and hoisting myself up onto the bottom step, I froze mid leap as I was met with the glares of Logan, Jordan and Dad - worse than that, they all had guns pointed my way too.

“What th-” Logan practically fell down the staircase as I dove backwards off the platform, jumping in after me. “You’re, you, you have a tail!”

Forgetting that, I hugged him tightly and managed to keep us both afloat as my brother and Dad clambered down onto the platform, their voices just as hysterical as they made the same observation.

“Neat huh?” I dared to joke, letting Logan float on his own as I swam around him. Mum appeared behind the other two, looking pale and terrified, so I settled down a bit. “Relax, it’s not permanent.”

At least I hoped it wasn’t.

“How, what, I don’t understand!” Jordan groaned.

“The crown does it, I can get out of the water and be normal again.”

Logan swam himself back to the platform and sat down, just as shocked as everyone else. “You’re okay though?”

“Well, I do have these weird cravings for fish and chips though, but yeah Loges, I’m fine.” Leaning on his legs that he kept in the water, I reached up and kissed him. “Though, if you could get me a robe or a dress to slip on, I’d appreciate it.”

“Right. Robe. Got it.” He scrambled up and pushed by my staring family.

“You have a lot of explaining to do!” Dad managed to sound serious for a moment.

“Yeah yeah, go wait inside, I need to human up again.”

Sure enough, as soon as they were inside, Logan was back and after a quick check to make sure no one was around, I jumped up onto the ledge and before putting on the robe, took of my singlet and once covered, lifted my tail up out of the water so it was beside me. My legs returned soon after and Logan helped me stand, nearly crushing me in the process.

“You have no idea how worried I’ve been.” He whispered into my ear. “I’m pretty sure your brother was trying to work out the best way to kill me.”

“It wasn’t even your fault!”

“Wasn’t it? My orders are to protect you and I failed.”

“I’m not a job, I’m your girlfriend and I say you didn’t fail me.” We get inside and I’m so not ready to face everyone. “I’m taking a shower, then I will answer all your questions. Until then, please order me everything on the menu for breakfast and be nice to Logan.”

Once I am in the bathroom, I still can’t get the crown off.

“Allow me.” Cain, who has turned back into Leo, says softly and spinning around, I’m glad I haven’t ditched the robe just yet.

The giant leopard shifter towered over me now and I had to stare at him in awe at what he had the ability to do. If I did one thing before I die, it was to find out what or perhaps who he really was. That aside...

“You can’t just come into my bathroom!” I snap.

He only smirks, and reaching over, removed the crown. Once it’s in his hand, it vanishes.”What took you so long? Ceana sent a helper back for you and he only just returned. I was waiting to close the portal to their realm.”

“I got lost, and the snake took it’s time finding me.” I lie. “I had a tail, it was fun for a bit.”

“You’re lying. I wouldn’t try that too often with me.” He warns. “I know what you did. Did you learn your lesson?”

“Fine, I tried to help her and yes, lesson learned. I’m sorry.” I admitted.

His hand is suddenly up by my face as his tattooed knuckle strokes my cheek. “You’re so young Hunter, so much still to learn. No one can know of my involvement in your rescue.”

I nod, not sure what else to do and thankfully he vanishes as quickly as he came.

“Bunny, you okay in there?” Logan calls out a second later.

“Yup, I’ll just be a minute!”

“Were you talking to someone?”

“No, no one at all.” I lie, and quickly turn on the taps, ready to try and wash away more than just sea water and a bad taste in my mouth, but all my worries that had decided to return. So much for a holiday.