We all watched Pierce’s last moments, but they were far too brief and I don’t think that any of us got the closure that we were looking for, not even Kieshala. She had wanted him to suffer from her poison and die slowly but we needed to sanitize the site and move on before things could get hot. “We’re free, relatively safe, and we know that Pierce will never be able to come after us again. That will have to be enough,” I told the others as we got down to business.

Aunt Carmen nodded, “Sí, and now that we are done with him, we should check that briefcase of his.” She ran a couple of devices over the exterior of the briefcase before nodding. “No bugs and no explosives, it’s safe to open.”

As Aunt Carmen was putting the devices away Natalie opened up the briefcase and we all whistled at the stacks of bills inside. “Nice, Pierce is dead, and with this added to our funds we should be able to buy a nice remote place to stay until we can get enough mana for Kieshala to do her thing,” Nat said with a grin.

“Speaking of people doing their things, we should get out of the way so this place can be sanitized,” I pointed out.

“Sí, come on, pequeña esmeralda. Let’s get you girls in the van so Natalie can drive you back to the villa,” Aunt Carmen agreed as she scooped Jenny up in her arms. “None of you know how to help with the sanitation and you’ll have a harder time getting away safely and without casualties if things go to shit while we’re doing it.”

Jenny let slip a squeal as Aunt Carmen gathered her up and tickled her sides, though she kept it fairly quiet. Aunt Carmen and Uncle Jack had taken to Jenny and Kara right away and Aunt Carmen had been as eager to watch Pierce die as we were, furious that he had experimented on children. Kara had tried to insist that she was eighteen but Aunt Carmen considered all of us except Kieshala to be children still, and she was going into full mother hen mode.

It wasn’t all that surprising since Aunt Carmen and Uncle Jack had wanted children of their own someday but the closest they had ever been able to get was being an aunt and uncle of sorts to me and Maddie while we were growing up. I had a feeling that Aunt Carmen especially was going to mother both of the Naethari sisters for the foreseeable future since the pair had lost their parents. Neither Kara nor Jenny was quite sure what to make of the pair of mercenaries practically ready to adopt them but both Uncle Jack and Aunt Carmen had been slowly getting to know them since our escape, and even Jenny was starting to relax and lose some of her shyness with them.

I quickly shed my clothes, shifted my features again to something that wouldn’t get much attention, and changed into a dress from my backpack. Then I stuffed the dirty kids’ clothes in the pack to replace the dress and stepped outside the room to take a quick look around. Seeing that it was clear, I motioned to the others and opened the side door of the minibus.

With the all clear given, I went to pick up Kara as Aunt Carmen placed Jenny in the van. Meanwhile, Natalie grabbed the briefcase full of cash, rushed to get in the driver’s seat, and put on a long black wig to hide her blonde hair. By the time I got Kara settled inside and Natalie was finished with her quick disguise, Aunt Carmen was already bringing Kieshala outside and placing her in the back with the sisters.

Once the side door was closed and I was settled into the front passenger’s seat, Natalie turned on the van and we pulled out of the parking lot. As we were pulling out, Mom, Dad, Maddie, and Uncle Jack piled out of the gray SUVs with garbage bags and equipment in hand to scrub the hotel room. I had wanted to stay and help as well, but they knew what they were doing and I was a bit tired from all of the shifting that I had been doing.

The plan was to pack up Pierce’s body and make sure there was nothing left of it to be found. They already had a place set up to do that and Aunt Carmen would be taking care of it while Mom, Dad, Maddie, and Uncle Jack took care of the motel room. They would clean the place from the imitation hardwood floor up, to remove anything that could point to what had happened.

We had all been careful to wear gloves in the room at all times, except for me when I led Pierce to the motel but I had been careful not to touch Pierce or anything in the room since we had arrived. Still, to be safe they would be painstakingly getting rid of any prints or any possible DNA from things like hair, skin, blood, or our scales. They wanted to be done with it before the working girls who usually used the motel started bringing in clients. They figured that they had at least a few hours for that since it wasn’t even one pm yet though.

We didn’t return straight to the villa but made a few stops first. We drove to an underground parking arcade where we switched to one of two white cargo vans. Only after we had quickly cleaned the VW minibus as well as we could did we drive back to our current home base. Later that night the two grey SUVs would be joining the minibus and a phone call would tell someone from one of the local chop shops where they could reclaim the vehicles that we had borrowed. Well, we didn’t really borrow them since we had paid them well to provide the vehicles, and for their silence.

The other stops were to get something for lunch since we were all starving. We got some fast food first since it would be enough for Natalie and tide us Naethari over until I could get us some seafood at the fish market where we stopped next. Thankfully, that didn’t take me too long and we were soon back at the villa.

The others returned from their tasks safely before it was time for dinner and then we had a serious talk about our next steps. “We need to find a place where we can help some mana to grow, and a place where the veil between this world and my own is thin. Then I can give you the gift I have promised you. With more Naethari it will take less time to grow mana,” Kieshala said.

“I have an idea of where we should start looking,” Natalie replied with a smile. “When Pierce told me about you after I accepted the job, he let it slip that he found you sunning yourself on an atoll off the coast of Belize.”

“Belize is fairly sparsely populated,” Uncle Jack said thoughtfully. “I’ll start looking for properties that we could buy there to have some privacy.

“And from what you’ve told us, Kieshala, with the barrier reef there it might be a good place to encourage some mana to develop. We’ll need to avoid divers and other people though,” Nat added. “We don’t want anyone seeing any of you, let alone getting pictures or something.”

Mom looked thoughtful as she looked at Kieshala for a moment before speaking. “You said that with more of your kind that it will take less time to get enough mana. So, how long do you think it would take and how do you plan on changing us? All at once or one at a time?”

“It could take many moon cycles, even with ten of us,” Kieshala answered thoughtfully. Then she looked at Kara and me since she still wasn’t sure enough of her English to give technical details.

“From what she’s told us before, we may be able to change two of you at a time but no more than that, and the process will take a week or more for each of you,” I offered, taking up the explanation before turning back to Kieshala to ask, “Do any of them have latent magic potential?”

The sunset-hued Naethari shook her head sadly. “No, none of them have the spark of magic.”

“That means that one of us will have to stay intimately close to you at all times until the changes are complete, so you can absorb the primal growth energy that we give off. We’d have to feed you, keep you hydrated, be ready to get you in water once your gills start forming, and other stuff too, and Kieshala said it’s a painful process. We were drugged through the whole thing and probably had IV tubes, oxygen masks, and stuff, so you might want to consider stuff like that before we start,” Kara clarified.

“That’s a good idea, we’ll look into medical supplies before we leave Cuba,” Dad agreed with a thoughtful nod. “I think that Natalie and Madeline should be the first that you change though. The rest of us can still go in public if needed but there is a chance that, even with different hair colors and styles, the two of you might be recognized and someone might try to claim Pierce’s reward. I’d have preferred to leave his body to be discovered to take that heat off but we couldn’t risk people looking into how he died.”

“It’s going to take some time and money for me to get the kind of medical supplies we would need, not to mention a sizable amount of morphine for the pain, especially if I don’t want questions asked. We’re not talking about stuff that I can improvise for in the field here, we’re talking quality medical grade stuff,” Mom pointed out.

Uncle Jack nodded. “It’s going to take me time to find a suitable property and close a sale as well.”

We all stayed up late into the night discussing our plans and doing research. Well, almost all of us. Jenny fell asleep at some point and Aunt Carmen picked her up and carried her to the Villa’s pool to sleep. Kara and I were the last up and for a while, we just snuggled on the deck watching the ebb and flow of the ocean waves lapping at the shore and enjoying the moment. Pierce was gone, we were free, we had one another and our family, and things were looking up.

Dr. Alan Harris was nervous. It wasn’t that surprising, given the large and intimidating man seated across from him. General Warren Carmichael was the lesser of two evils though. Pierce had seemingly fled to parts unknown and certain agencies were vigorously questioning anyone associated with him. They wanted to know exactly what kind of work Harris had been doing for Pierce and if the FBI found out that he had been involved in kidnappings and experimentation on children, Harris would be going to prison for a very long time.

He had needed an out, so he had contacted an old colleague who worked in military research. Most of the research data in the lab beneath Pierce’s home might not have been retrievable but he still had the data that was stored on his tablet and he was hoping that it would be interesting enough to the man sitting across from him to earn him some protection. The gruff-looking military man had scoffed at first at the idea of mermaids but Harris had shared all of his findings, video clips, photos, and Dr. Emerson’s observations on their behavior and intelligence.

The General was indeed intrigued. Creatures that were adapted to living underwater, that could be trained to follow instructions, came with built-in weapons and a deadly neurotoxin, and that were damn near unkillable and possessed a natural killer instinct. He could think of uses for such creatures. He took a deep drag from his cigar and puffed it across the table into the scientist’s face. “And where are these mermaids now, Dr. Harris?” he asked.

“Pierce… uhh… thought that they were stolen by their trainer and caregiver, and their trackers were disabled. It’s why he has a reward for any information on the two women,” Harris answered after his coughing fit from the cigar smoke had ceased.

“So, they’re in the wind,” he said, giving a long drawn-out pause before adding, “and you’re not useful to me.”

“No! Wait! I discovered that they emit an unusual type of energy! I may be able to use that to find them!” Harris pleaded frantically.

“You better hope that you can and that my people don’t find them before you do,” General Carmichael threatened. Then he motioned to the pair of soldiers standing to either side of the door behind him to approach. “Lieutenant Hawke, see what you can find out about the trainer and caregiver and start running facial recognition searches. Private Keller, take Dr. Harris to the labs, he has work to do.”