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Author's Note: Okay, so I had a super busy week and had no time to write a chapter of Snow Angel this week. So, I decided that I'll start posting chapters of a story that I've been working on for a while now on patreon. I'm posting the prologue today and I'll post chapter 1 tomorrow, but then I'll be posting it regularly on Sundays. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Prologue

The man in the expensive suit frowned as he looked over the video footage of the holding tanks. Each of the clear tanks within view of the cameras contained freakish misshapen creatures. Creatures that hadn’t survived the process of changing into whatever monstrous creatures that they were becoming. This was a complete and utter failure. Over thirty more subjects were dead if the screens were to be believed.

This was the fourth batch of failures. Three months of gathering test subjects from the homeless and making his enemies disappear and the only satisfaction that this project had given him thus far was the satisfaction of seeing his enemies die painfully as they mutated into twisted caricatures of life. Three months and he was no closer to his original goal than when he had first found subject alpha seven months earlier.

It wasn’t the loss of life that bothered him, deaths and disfigurements were to be expected. it was why he had used his enemies and their families for many of the subjects, after all. No matter what happened they would no longer be a threat to him and their ‘deaths’ had been made to look like accidents. That and some well-placed bribes kept the police from sniffing around. To him, life was cheap and there were plenty more fish in the sea for his project. He laughed at the irony of that thought before directing his gaze back to the screens.

When he had first found the creature sleeping and sunning itself on an uninhabited atoll in the Caribbean while aboard his yacht seven months ago he had been excited. To all appearances, it was a real, live mermaid. Her upper half was that of a beautiful young woman with sun-kissed skin and long hair that was a mix of gold and orange like a sunset. Below her waist though, instead of legs, her flesh gave way to a tail covered in a mix of bright orange and golden scales.

Its tail was a sight to see, and not just because of the brightly colored scales. It ended in a trio of large translucent orange fins shaped almost like a three-leafed clover with a ruffled look to them. Similar fins emerged from her hips as well, wrapping around her like a diaphanous skirt as she slept. She was beautiful, but it wasn’t her beauty that drove him to have his men tranquilize the beast and bring it aboard.

Edward Pierce was no simpering school child to be awed by such a creature. He had been hoping to capture some rare sea creatures for his private collection, but this was more than he could have possibly hoped for, a creature that most people thought to be a myth. He had imagined that he could make a tidy sum from the creature if it could be properly trained but his mind had been on the legend that eating the flesh of a mermaid would grant immortality.

The creature had awoken while his men were dragging it across the deck to place in the tank that he had prepared for his prizes. The tranquilizer that should have knocked out an adult porpoise for at least eight hours barely lasted a quarter of that time and it was savage when it awoke. It hissed and growled, barbed spines that had been hidden beneath patches of orange and gold scales on the sides of its forearms emerged. It clawed at one of the men holding it, leaving deep gashes in his forearm, and sprang off the deck toward the other man who had been pulling it by the tail, coiling its tail around him and sinking its long fangs into his shoulder.

By the time they had hit the beast with enough tranquilizer darts to put it back to sleep the man’s ribs were cracked and his shoulder a shattered bleeding mess. It was almost a mercy when the toxin from the barbed spines that had emerged from the creature’s forearms had put him out of his misery. That was when Edward realized that precautions would need to be taken while the beast was trained and studied.

In six months they had gotten nowhere. The creature would not take to being trained despite trying negative and positive reinforcement and it was only a danger to its handlers. The studies hadn’t told them much either at first. The creature’s regenerative abilities were impressive, but they already knew that from how quickly it had healed from the rough handling on the ship. It took a while to find something strong enough to sedate it long enough to do x-rays, MRIs, and exploratory surgeries. Its wounds healed faster than a human could dream of and left no visible scars when done healing.

The exploratory surgeries had only confused Dr. Harris and his staff. The creature had a slightly larger than normal liver and stomach but much of its digestive system, or at least the digestive system of a human, was missing. It didn’t appear to have large intestines, an appendix, rectum, anus, or even a urinary tract.

The creature did eat though, usually large portions of the fish and kelp that they had provided it. It also needed to drink to stay hydrated during extended periods out of the water. The current theory was that since swimming required a lot of energy the species had evolved in such a way that what digestive system they did have was ruthlessly efficient, completely breaking down everything that they ate to provide maximum energy.

As for those toxic spines, they were hidden by pouches in the sides of the forearms covered with durable scales and seemed to only emerge when the creature was agitated, so pretty much every time that Edward had seen it. There were actually three long bone-like spines each tipped with a barb that could secrete a powerful toxin, the longest being the length of her forearm from wrist to just below the elbow. The spines were connected to one another and the scales on the arms by a thin and sturdy orange membrane that almost gave them a dragon-wing appearance. It was thought that they weren’t just a defense mechanism but also an extra pair of fins to help with mobility when needed.

It was an underwater predator, and well adapted to its environment. Its scales were as hard as steel, it had powerful jaws with prominent fangs, and its eyes had an extra inner eyelid that not only protected the eyes but also allowed it to see in the dark depths of the ocean. He had had to take precautions while having someone attempt to train it but those attempts had proved as useless as the previous attempts to create more of the creatures.

Studies of the creature’s DNA samples found that it was constantly regenerating for even hours outside the body. The creature might well be immortal and its DNA was extremely aggressive, attempting to take over the body of the lab animals when injected or consumed. Sadly, Dr. Harris and his team theorized that the only way to gain that immortality for oneself was to survive the transformation and become one of them, and it would seem that even the odds of that would be terribly slim. The first three batches had all died, and this one was looking no better. As attractive as the thought of immortality was, Edward would rather not have to become one of those beasts to attain it.

“Are they all like that, Dr. Harris?” he finally asked as he tore his eyes away from the screens and his dark thoughts to focus on the man with him. The weasel-faced man was pale and skinny with receding salt and pepper hair and he wore thick-rimmed glasses and a rumpled grey suit beneath his lab coat.

“N-no, Sir,” the nervous scientist replied. Edward Pierce made Dr. Harris nervous, and with good reason, since he had seen firsthand how he treated his enemies or those who failed him.

“Show me,” Edward said carefully hoping that he could get something worthwhile from this project.

Dr. Harris picked up his tablet and led his employer out of the security room with a nod. They made their way into the room with the tanks and he led them to a pair of tanks near the back. “As you can see, Sir, two of them successfully turned into mermaids. Caroline and Jennifer Holtz. The transformation process was hard on their bodies and they appear to be sleeping it off.”

Inside the two tanks were mermaids, and it was apparent that they were alive by the rhythmic pulsing of the gills on their necks. They were both pale and shared the swept-back long pointed ears of subject alpha. The elder of the pair was extremely pretty and had aquamarine-colored hair and scales. Her fins were sea green, including those on her hips that were tucked around her in slumber. The younger one looked almost androgynous, had scales and hair in a dark emerald, and had only a pair of smaller clear tail fins rather that the brightly colored trio that the other possessed and she had no fins at her hips.

Edward pursed his lips thoughtfully as he hummed in thought. The two girls in question were the daughters of a former business rival, a business that he was now working on taking over in the past week since the apparent tragic death of Gordon Holtz and any possible heirs to his budding yet insignificant telecommunications business. He hadn’t been bothered to remember any specifics about them though so he asked, “Why does the younger one look so bland? What do we know about them? And why them? Was it something genetic? It seems strange that sisters would have survived the process when nobody else did.”

“She is pre-pubescent, it’s possible that the additional fins and some other features develop during puberty,” Dr. Harris explained before quickly referring to the files that he had been keeping on his tablet regarding their captives. “They were out celebrating Caroline’s eighteenth birthday when you arranged for their ‘accident’ and Jennifer is eight years old. They had a twelve-year-old brother as well. I doubt that it was anything genetic that assisted the change, though that may be part of it. If that was entirely the case though, one of their parents would have likely survived as well. I may have a theory on that.”

“Well? Go on, out with it!” Edward snapped impatiently. “Time is money!”

“Umm… well, Sir… going by my notes, it seems that both Jennifer and her sister were suffering from a virus when the test subjects were fed the flesh. They were fevered, weak, and having trouble breathing. I would have thought that they would be the least likely to survive the process,” the scientist replied timidly.

“What is your point?!” Edward roared.

“Well… I was thinking that… uhh… their compromised immune systems may have assisted the transformation process, allowing the mermaid DNA to more easily become dominant. They could have some genetic compatibility as well that further assisted but being sick, their bodies weren’t able to resist the process as effectively as the other subjects. The failed mutations and eventual deaths in the others were likely because the subjects’ bodies were fighting the process, and possibly not compatible as well. Perhaps if we tried using subjects that we know to have a severely compromised immune system…” Dr. Harris suggested, trailing off uncertainly.

“Find some, people who won’t be missed. Preferably males. Since we now have two females aside from subject alpha, I would like to have a means of breeding the creatures. This method is wasting resources and three should be enough for my purposes. ‘Discovering’ an entire pod might arouse suspicion and make them less of a novelty. Hopefully, these can be trained properly,” Edward said with a frown.

“You know that we can’t just kidnap people from the hospitals, right?” Dr. Harris asked uncertainly.

“Of course,” Edward snapped. As much as he hated to admit it, Harris was right and this would have to be handled more subtly. An idea flared to life and a predatory smile graced his lips. “I own a medical research facility; I had been hoping to use any discoveries we made here to further that research but it will be useful. I think that I’m feeling charitable, Dr. Harris. I will send representatives to the local hospitals and offer to transfer some terminal cases to my facility for an experimental new cancer treatment.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: If you haven't read the prologue yet you should probably do that first. It's not entirely necessary but it will help flesh things out a bit. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 1: Deal With the Devil

Sometimes, I wished that I would just die and get it over with. I was sick of the pain, sick of the fatigue, sick of being sick, and at the moment I was really sick of the IVs, the tubes, and the beeping of the heart rate monitor. What can I say? Leukemia sucks. At least I probably wouldn’t have to wait much longer. They gave me six months to live, three months ago.

Chemo hadn’t been effective so far, unless you count it making me feel even worse. The worst part was, I wasn’t even sure why I was still fighting it. I was so tired and every day was just more of the same; more weariness, more pain, more staring at the ceiling of the hospital room, and more meds to keep me ‘comfortable’.

Comfortable and I have never been in the same zip code as one another, not even before the ravages of terminal illness took up residence in my body. Depressing I know, but I’ve always had issues with depression. I guess that’s not really surprising though. Have you ever felt like something is wrong, but you just can’t figure out what? That’s been my life for as long as I can remember.

My body, my entire life, felt wrong and I just had no idea how to make it feel right. It made it hard to feel invested in life; as if I was watching it all play out in black and white in a theater with no subtitles and a broken sound system. Whenever I tried to make myself feel something genuine or do the kinds of things that normal guys are supposed to do it felt even worse though. It wasn’t just the soul-deep pain that I couldn’t explain, it was like everything around me was muffled and distant, like there was a barrier of thick, dismal gray cotton between me and the rest of the world.

I was forcibly extracted from my depressing thoughts by a nurse speaking from the doorway to my room. “This is Jonathon Chan, aged nineteen.” Just great, it was Lindsey. She was young, pretty, friendly, and perky and for some reason that I couldn’t explain, I hated her. “Jon, are you awake?”

I managed to croak out, “Go ‘way.”

“Jon, this is Emily Shaw from the Pierce Foundation, she would like to talk to you for a few minutes. I’ll give you some privacy, just press the call button if you need anything,” my tormentor said in a far too cheerful voice.

“Hello, Jon, it’s nice to meet you,” Emily offered cheerfully. Just fucking fantastic, another pretty and cheerful woman, I wished that I had the strength to reach out and strangle that smile off of her face. She wasn’t as young and perky as Lindsey though and she was dressed in a sort of skirt-suit. “As Lindsey said, I represent the Pierce Foundation, we’re a charitable organization for Cancer research.”

“And I have Cancer, how perceptive of you. I’m sure that the research is going well with people like you on the job,” I retorted sarcastically. Don’t judge me, let’s see how well you do when you’ve been slowly dying for months and snark is your only defense mechanism.

She almost frowned for a second before taking a deep breath and deciding to just get down to business. “Mr. Pierce, the founder of our organization, is very passionate about finding a cure for Cancer. Recently, one of his research centers developed a possible new treatment and they’re beginning human trials. We’re looking for volunteers.”

“And you thought of me, how sweet,” I muttered in my hoarse whisper.

“Jon, you’re only nineteen, you should have your whole life ahead of you still. With this treatment, there’s a chance that you still can. Now, we would usually want to contact your next of kin to have them involved with this decision but your file doesn’t list any,” she said as she looked down at a folder in her hands.

“That’s because I don’t have any,” I snapped. “I’ve never met my father and I only know one thing about him; he fucked off before I was even born.”

“What about your mother’s side of the family?” she asked, a bit too eagerly for my comfort.

“None,” I spat irritably. “Mom was one of those Chinese orphan girls. She came here to make a better life for herself as soon as she was old enough. Some better life, she was shot by some gangbanger four months before I was diagnosed.” Fuck, I didn’t think that it would still be so painful to think about her.

“I think that your mother would want you to live, Jon. We can give you a chance at that. I’m going to be honest here, this could either save you or just make your death that much quicker, but it’s a better chance than you have now. Is there anyone else, anyone at all that you would want to know about this? Anyone that you would like to say goodbye to in case things don’t work out?”

“Nobody,” I lied, “Where do I sign?” I wouldn’t have been able to contact Maddie and her parents anyway. They were all who-knows-where at the moment on some job or another and they were just as likely to be back tomorrow as they were months from now. I never really knew where they were going, what exactly they were doing, or when they’d be back but I was used to that kind of thing from their family.

Madeline MacArthur was like a big sister to me. More like a big brother, actually. She always had been a tomboy as far back as I could remember. My mom worked for her parents since before I was born, first as her nanny and then as a housekeeper once Maddie got older. We grew up together since her parent's work took them away from home a lot and Mom and I lived under their roof. Three years ago, when Maddie turned eighteen and graduated she started going with them and was away from our home in Miami as much as she was there.

In truth, I was hoping that this treatment might just end my suffering. Maybe I was just a coward and didn’t want to let them see me waste away. I hadn’t told Maddie and her parents when I was diagnosed either, I didn’t want to worry them since I was dead anyway. I just toughed it out until they went on another of their work trips two months ago.

Thanks to Mom’s savings and insurance policy, I had enough put away to cover what my health insurance couldn’t when I woke up in the hospital six weeks ago after passing out and falling down an escalator in the mall. I didn’t think it would be long now and they wouldn’t know that I was gone until after they got back. It was better that way.

I felt bad as I signed the forms for the Pierce Foundation and the ones to get me discharged from the hospital and put into their care. It wasn’t just that strange feeling that I had just made a deal with the devil either. I felt bad for not telling Maddie and her parents and even worse for breaking my promise to her. After my mom died we had promised to always be there for one another, we had sealed it in ink, and I couldn’t keep that promise. That guilt faded away along with everything else as they sedated me for the trip to the research center.

My head was fuzzy and I felt like I was floating. I kind of felt healthy too, for the first time in months, but strange too. I felt weird sensations from all over my body but they were dulled. It was like I was coming down from some really good drugs. I was tired and lethargic and as fuzzy as my head was, I couldn’t remember where I was or how I had gotten there at first. It took a moment for me to get my mind working enough to remember what had happened.

I had been taken to a research center and there were almost forty other Cancer victims like me. It was kind of strange because there were only guys, not a single girl in sight except for a couple of women among the group of people in labs coat who had come to bring us something to eat and feed those who were too weak to feed themselves. The food was some sort of sushi and steamed veggies with a bottle of a green liquid that I was told was a vitamin supplement. As nice as it was to have something that wasn’t hospital food, the sushi tasted strange, it wasn’t like it was going bad or anything, just not like any that I had tasted before.

Maybe I had been wrong about it not going bad because within the hour I had been doubled over in agony. The pain started in my gut and seemed to get worse and worse as it spread through my body like a raging wildfire. Mercifully, I must have passed out at some point, and right now I was feeling no pain. What kind of drugs did they have me on anyway?

I smelled or maybe tasted something strange, I wasn’t quite sure which. There was a cacophony of noises around me; beeping, movement, bubbling, and machine sounds coming from all around me. It was making it hard to focus on the one thing that caught my ears that I actually wanted to hear. The sound of voices and they were coming closer, two men if I was hearing right. Maybe my fellow patients?

“…ly two survived, Sir. Jona… other is Dylan Gre… state pri… victed for rape and aggravated assault,” I caught from the first voice.

“Why… this one…” I barely heard from the second voice. I didn’t like the sound of him. He sounded cold and uncaring.

“I don’t know, Mr. Pierce,” The other replied as I tried to filter out all of the other sounds and focus just on the voices. “The process seems unpredictable.”

The second voice seemed to snort in disgust before replying, “All the more reason to quit while we’re ahead, this is a waste of resources. Give these two more of the sedative, it looks like they’re waking up. Put the females in the large pool together but cuff them so they can’t use those spines. We want our stars to be used to socializing and I want to bring in a proper trainer for them. The marine park in Orlando will be ready to open in two months and I want them tamed and ready to perform before we transfer them there. I’ll have to have my PR people come up with names for these creatures, something whimsical for the children.”

“And what about the male?”

“The male we’ll use for breeding,” was the reply. “Extract samples from it and then put it in the solitary pool with subject alpha, it’s been a week since the most recent extractions and the beast should be mostly healed, and if we can get it pregnant then it will be useful for something. Hopefully, the male will retain its aggressive instincts and teach subject alpha its place.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 2 of Children of Naethari. Yay, new characters! I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 2: Panic

I awoke on what felt like a hard surface but for some reason, I still felt as if I were floating. I felt groggy and I had a headache from whatever it was that I had been drugged with but the general weariness, constant pain, and weakness that had plagued me for the past couple of months were gone. I felt healthier and full of energy, despite my head feeling like someone had stuck it in a blender.

For a while, I just lay there and considered the implications of that. Was I really cured? And what about the strange things that I had heard earlier? Had that been a dream? It had all seemed so real and yet, in a way, disconnected. As the grogginess and pain in my head began to subside I began to take mental stock of my body.

I certainly felt healthy, and strangely comfortable in a way that I had never experienced before. There were unusual sensations throughout my body that I couldn’t quite define though. My throat felt tight, but not uncomfortably so and there was this odd rhythmic pulsing sensation on my neck. I felt an impression of motion at my hips that my brain couldn’t seem to parse for some reason and my legs and feet felt strange. It was as if they were moving all wrong when I tried to bend my knees or wiggle my toes.

There was this feeling of pressure inside my forearms that I couldn’t seem to find a release for, and that made me notice that there was a slight pressure on that part of my body, like I was being restrained. That confused me a bit. I could seem to move just fine, even if everything below my waist felt weird. I raised my arms and opened my eyes to see what was up with them and when I did so my brain just froze under the weight of everything that I experienced in those brief seconds as I opened my eyes.

Even in those seconds before my eyes opened, I was aware of something strange and different. First, there was a slight resistance as I moved like I was underwater or something. My hands brushed something delicate and almost feathery that sparked a strange and faint feeling at my hips that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Then my biceps brushed against something soft and fleshy as I raised them from my sides, a sensation that I felt not only in my arms but in my chest as well.

My eyes snapped open and I found myself staring at an unfamiliar pair of arms and hands with near-golden skin that was closer to my mother’s skin tone than my usual pasty coloring. The arms were long and slender with well-defined muscles, at least from what I could see in the upper arms. The forearms though were covered in some sort of tight-fitting metallic bracers with rings at the ends, which explained the feeling of being restrained. Those arms weren’t mine, at least not the ones that I was familiar with, and neither were those delicate feminine hands that were tipped with something that at first glance resembled manicured fingernails but actually seemed to be sharp-looking claws with a slightly pearlescent sheen.

My gasp of alarm brought another realization as bubbles burst from between my lips. I was underwater! I started to panic, frantically trying to kick my way up to the surface of the pool that I was apparently in but my legs didn’t seem to want to work properly. I was barely aware of the motion in the water until I felt a pair of arms pull me into a sitting position and wrap themselves around me as a soft voice whispered in my ear, “Shhhh! Calm down, it’s okay, you’re not going to drown. I… don’t think that we can drown.”

The voice and its words were slightly distorted from being underwater but I could feel my racing heart slowing as she spoke and my panic beginning to subside as if she was infusing me with her own calmness. She was right too, I wasn’t drowning. I wasn’t gasping for air or having water filling my burning lungs as I had feared. That strange pulsing feeling at my neck had quickened briefly but that seemed to be slowing as I began to calm down.

“Wha…” I began to ask, but I stopped cold at the unfamiliar voice that had escaped my lips. Even underwater and with just that one hesitant syllable to go on I could tell that that wasn’t my voice. It was lighter, feminine, and almost musical in and of itself. Panic and confusion surged through me once more and I wasn’t sure what was setting me off, the sound of the voice or the strange feeling of joy and rightness that it had filled me with.

Whoever was holding me, speaking to me in gentle whispers, finally released me once she had calmed me once again. She pulled away to give me some space and as she did I got a good look at her. She was slightly pale and long aquamarine hair haloed around her head in the water. As weird as it sounds, it must have been her natural hair color because it was matched by the delicately arched eyebrows perched above her large eyes. Even those eyes were aquamarine in color with flecks of sea green and long and thick lashes.

The face that held those amazing eyes was elfin; beautiful and angular with a cute button nose and full pouty lips and her ears completed that image, long and pointed but swept back against her head rather than pointing upward and sticking out. She was gorgeous and it wasn’t just her face. Her neck was long and slender, although the slightly pulsing slits that I figured to be gills to either side were a bit unnerving.

Her arms and shoulders were slim but with well-defined muscles beneath her soft-looking flesh and she wore a pair of metal bracers like my own over her forearms. Her bare breasts were on the large side of average, probably a bit more than a handful with silver dollar-sized pink areolae and nipples like pencil erasers. She had a trim tummy with muscular abs and her waist was almost too thin before flaring outward into wide hips.

Wide hips that had a large set of four translucent and ruffled-looking sea-green fins emerging from them, larger even than the width of those hips themselves. Hips that were covered in bright aquamarine scales from just beneath her navel to the tip of her fish-like tail. The fins at her hips were gossamer thin but easily six inches wide at the base and nearly three times that at the ends as they flared outward in ruffled pleats that swished in the water to steady her as she kept herself still and watched me. There were three large fins at the tip of her tail as well, in a sort of clover shape, each the same color as those on her hips and with a similar gossamer-thin yet ruffled appearance.

She watched me and remained still and silent for a moment as I took it all in. “Y-y-you’re beautiful… I mean you’re a mermaid!” I finally managed to gasp out and once again I was confused by the sense of euphoria that seemed to accompany that voice speaking my words, not to mention how strange my mouth and teeth felt.

The mermaid flushed slightly, her large eyes looking everywhere but in my direction before a sad look settled over her elfin face. It was like she was the bearer of really bad news and she was still looking carefully away as she emitted a bubbling sigh and told me gently, “Umm… yeah, so are you. I’m pretty damn certain that none of us was born this way though.” For a brief instant, I wondered why she said ‘none of us’ rather than ‘neither of us’ until the rest of what she had said made me look down at more than just my strangely different arms.

The first thing that caught my attention was the tail where my legs should have been, but then it was pretty hard to miss. In shape and size, it was nearly identical to that of the girl who had tried to calm me down with the same trio of fins at the end and the same billowing fins at the hips as well. My scales were a bright magenta though and my fins a soothing lilac, my two favorite colors, something that Maddie had teased me about a lot as we were growing up. My hips were wide and just below my navel bright magenta scales gave way to soft-looking light golden skin covering toned abs, a waist as slim as that of the girl in front of me, and a pair of breasts that may have been just a little larger than hers with prominent cocoa-hued nipples and areolae.

I just stared for I don’t know how long down at my body, reaching out uncertainly to touch it. I could feel it, it was real, and that caused a hurricane of emotions to build up inside of me; shock, panic, awe, horror, confusion, fear, uncertainty, and for some strange reason that I couldn’t comprehend, euphoria. I could understand everything else, but why in hell was I happy?

The mere thought of living my life as some half-human half-fish freak science project was more than enough to make me sick. That’s what we were. Pierce had changed us somehow, turned us into what we were now, and hazy memories told me that he planned on parading us in front of an audience like some sideshow attraction. My heart raced and the rapid pulsing of what I had to assume were gills on my neck didn’t help matters as I started to freak out.

I felt the arms of the young woman wrap around me as she tried to calm me, whispering things that were probably meant to comfort me but I wasn’t really paying attention as I continued to panic. It was sometime later that I managed to calm down again, listening to the gentle reassurances of the person holding me as she ran her fingers through my hair. Wait, my hair? That had started falling out from the chemo.

I pulled away uncertainly and tugged experimentally at the hair on my head, grabbing a lock and following it to the end as I brought it in front of my face. It was the same bright magenta as the scales on my new tail and it was thick, luxurious, and really long. It was probably past my butt, if I still had a butt. Once again I felt that strange feeling of euphoria building up in my chest and my heartbeat quickened.

“Are you okay now? I… I know this is weird as fuck and I was freaking out too when I woke up. I think that was a couple of hours ago but it’s hard to tell time here. It’ll be okay, we’ll figure this out, we just need to stick together. I’m Kara and that’s my little sister Jenny over there.” She was babbling a bit trying to put up a strong front for myself and the girl that she had just gestured to, all while being very careful to maintain eye contact with me. Maybe she thought that I was skittish.

The other girl was a short distance away and she couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old with dark emerald hair and scales. She didn’t have any fins at her hips though and only a pair of small clear ones at the tip of her tail. She also looked at least as freaked out as I was. It made me furious. That sick bastard had experimented on a child?!

I tried to push that all down deep inside because like Maddie’s mother, Clara, always used to tell us, “Anger only makes things worse. If you’re angry or too emotional then you’re not focusing on the problem at hand. Problems don’t solve themselves while you’re getting pissed off, they just tend to get worse. Problems only get solved when you push aside those feelings and solve them yourself through cold and calculating determination and a steady hand.”

Or as Maddie’s dad, Max, would say, “Don’t get mad, get even. And remember to bring plenty of ammo.” Uncle Max was a very scary man sometimes but he had been like a father to me growing up. They were both right though, I needed to think calmly if we were going to get through this. Being a bundle of volatile emotions wasn’t going to help anyone.

It took me several minutes to calm down enough to speak and I could feel my cheeks flushing with embarrassment as I mumbled, “I’m… uh… Jon.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 3 of Children of Naethari. Ooh more background! I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 3: Floundering

Kara’s eyes widened in surprise and it was a moment before she managed to say, “Umm… no offense, but you don’t exactly look like a ‘Jon’ at the moment. Unless that’s some sort of Asian girl’s name?”

“None taken, and no, it’s not. I’m only half Chinese and I didn’t exactly look like this before the treatment, or at least I don’t think so. I was a lot paler for one thing, and one hundred percent less… female. I don’t still have a guy face on this body, do I? Because I think I’ve about maxed out my allotted level of weird shit for the day,” I countered while trying to ignore my mixed feelings on my current situation.

On one hand, I felt healthier than ever but on the other hand, it seemed that I was a girl and a mythical creature now. What was really throwing me for a loop though was that the girl part of that equation didn’t bother me near as much as I felt that it should have. My crack about having my old face on this body was more upsetting for some reason. It was actually causing my old friend, Anxiety, to make its presence known again as a whirlwind built up in my chest. Why did that random thought upset me so much?

Okay sure, I was no Mr. Universe before and I wasn’t near as interested in guns and explosions as Maddie was but I was born a guy so I thought that this whole situation should be upsetting to me, not just bits and pieces. The tail and gills and stuff were freaking me out so why wasn’t the rest of it? Instead, there was that little simmering feeling of happiness inside me and my heart fluttered whenever I looked down at myself or my long hair and ignored the fishy parts. It wasn’t bad or nervous heart flutters either, I’ve had those before, these felt…good? At least it had been good until I freaked myself out with my random sarcastic comment.

I was drawn out of my near existential crisis as Kara said, “No, you’re like, really pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. And your voice… wow. I’m not sure if any of that will make you feel better or worse though. If it’s any consolation, I think that Jenny is the only one who looks anything like her old self, though she looks a little more androgynous. I almost didn’t recognize her with the green hair and eyes though, and she didn’t believe that I was her sister until I convinced her. What treatment?”

I shrugged my shoulders and tried not to let the odd shifting of my chest, or the strange bubbling happiness that her confirmation that I was pretty caused, distract me from answering her. “Uh… thanks? I was dying from Leukemia and some lady from the ‘Pierce Foundation’ offered me a chance at an experimental Cancer treatment. If the way I’m feeling is any indication it looks like I’m cured, now I just need a cure for ‘Mermaid’ and I’ll be set.”

“Pierce Foundation? As in Edward Pierce?” she asked with a scowl.

“I think so,” I replied with another shrug. “They weren’t exactly forthcoming with the details, and they seemed awfully concerned about whether I had any next of kin. Call me suspicious but I’m starting to think that there might be something fishy about the whole deal, like maybe it was a red herring and they were working on something else entirely. And I was desperate enough to take the bait hook, line, and sinker. On the upside, I never knew anything about my bio-dad before, he was just some white dude my mom dated. Now I’m pretty sure that I’m half Chinese and half Finnish.”

Kara grimaced, though her pretty face made it seem more like an adorable pout. “Are you kidding me? Fish puns at a time like this?” I could see Jenny nearly cracking a smile from where she sat watching us though.

“This is the perfect time for fish puns! Can’t you sea that?!” I countered indignantly. “If I tried to pony up the seahorse puns, I’d just make an ass of myself. If you really want me to stop though, I’ll clam up. I’m beginning to flounder anyway, and the sole porpoise was to lighten this depressing atmosphere.”

“Fuck, you’re weird,” Kara muttered and nearly smiled, damn did I want to see her smile. Jenny chortled though, causing a stream of bubbles to emerge from her mouth. The younger sister seemed to figure that I was safe and awkwardly pulled herself toward us along the floor of the pool. I guess that I wasn’t the only one having trouble controlling my new appendage.

“Jenny laughed! I’m off the hook!” I exclaimed triumphantly. As a result, I finally got the ghost of a smile from Kara. Even that small smile lit up her face enough to make my heart flutter. It was too bad that she probably wouldn’t be interested in me like this.

“How can you be so annoyingly upbeat at a time like this?” Kara asked with a sigh as her smile faded.

“I have a big sister, I’m used to suffering,” I deadpanned before grinning as I offered Jenny a high five. Jenny seemed shy but she was a good kid, she didn’t leave me hanging and even returned my grin with a hesitant one of her own. She was understandably scared but we all needed to get past that so we could get through this, thus why I was trying to lighten the mood.

“We’ve been experimented on, we aren’t even human anymore, we’re in a pool god-knows-where, and you’re a girl, Jon!” Kara snapped in frustration. “Who knows what that asshole Pierce has in store for us next!”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” I said wryly as I looked down at myself again. Once again I felt that strange contented euphoria as I looked at my human parts, even her calling me a girl didn’t bother me for some reason, it almost felt right. It actually hurt though when she stressed my name afterward. I felt like I was on the cusp of having an answer to what felt wrong about me my whole life, but I didn’t have time to think about that too deeply at the moment, especially since the tail and fins felt weird. Not necessarily wrong, just really weird and disconcerting after having legs my whole life. They were also a blatant reminder that I was no longer human.

I sighed and gave the elder sister a serious look. “Kara, I do realize the gravity of the situation, and I am appropriately freaking out about it, on the inside.”

“Maybe there can only be girl mermaids,” Jenny suggested in a quiet voice.

“No, Jenny, I kinda overheard some stuff while I was supposed to be unconscious still. They’re as stumped about why I’m a girl as I am, I just didn’t know that it was me they were referring to at the time. There was another dude who lived in my group and he stayed male, Pierce is apparently planning a breeding program and put him with ‘subject alpha’ to start,” I told the pair, shuddering as I imparted that last part.

Kara mirrored my shudder with one of her own. “I just don’t know how you can be so calm about this, you just said that they’re planning on breeding us like animals. You are aware of what that would mean for you as the female of the species, right?”

“I was dying before and that kinda gives a person a new perspective, I think,” I informed her gently. “And no, I don’t know what that means. We know jack shit about Mermaid biology, we could lay eggs for all I know. If we’re going to get out of this situation though we need to keep level heads, we can’t help ourselves or each other if we panic. We need a plan. The way that Pierce was talking to his minion, he thinks that we are dumb animals. Hell, he’s planning a marine park in Orlando where we’ll likely be center stage. He’s bringing in people to ‘train’ us. He doesn’t seem to think that we’ll retain our intelligence and that gives us an advantage.”

Both sisters’ eyes widened at my revelation. “So, what?” Kara asked. “Do we just try to talk to whoever he sends in here to train us?”

I considered that for a moment and shook my head. “I’m not so sure that I want to rely on the moral compass of anyone that Pierce hires. Even if they were somewhat decent people, do you think that they would want to cross him to help us?”

A horrified expression briefly passed over the faces of the sisters and Kara shook her head. “No, we know all too well what he does to his enemies. He wanted to buy out Dad’s company, but Dad refused. Pierce doesn’t exactly have the best reputation in the business world. We were out celebrating my eighteenth birthday as a family and he had some goons snatch us on the way home. We woke up in a cell and Pierce went all Bond-villain, monologuing and shit.”

Kara went on to explain how Pierce bragged about faking their deaths and that nobody was going to come looking for them. With none of the kids to inherit, the business would go to their uncle Lucas. Apparently, he had a gambling problem and Pierce was sure that he could convince him to sell. He even bragged about how he was going to use them in genetic experiments that would likely either kill them or leave them horribly disfigured.

Kara and Jenny both said that the next couple of days were a bit hazy as they came down with the flu that their brother had just gotten over, and that on top of being locked in a cramped cell only made things more miserable. They weren’t certain, but they were pretty sure that their brother and parents had been killed by whatever process turned them into what we were now. They had nobody else on the outside except school friends who probably wouldn’t recognize them, grandparents in a seniors’ home, and their uncle, who they didn’t think that they could trust.

We talked over our plans then. None of us would speak in the presence of humans to let them think that we were the ‘stupid beasts’ that Pierce seemed to consider us. It would give us opportunities that we wouldn’t have if they realized just how smart we were. That, and if he did find out that we could talk, none of us would put it past Pierce to drug us and have our vocal cords removed. We would play along for now and look for opportunities to contact someone that we could trust to help us.

Things weren’t looking good though. They had nobody that they could trust on the outside and we didn’t think that we could trust anyone on the inside either. I told them that I had technically lied through my teeth when I talked to the Pierce Foundation lady though. I might not have any official family on paper but Maddie was like a sister, we grew up together. Aunt Clara and Uncle Max had never treated my mom like a servant either and had been like extra parents to me when they were at home with us.

I sighed as I thought about them. “They were family to Jon though, not whatever I am now. There’s no way that they would recognize me like this, even if I could manage to get a message to the outside, unless… Kara, can you look at the back of my neck?”

The aquamarine-hued mermaid looked confused for a moment before nodding and moving behind me. I tried my best to gather all of my long hair up and away from the area so she could get a good look. The fact that my hair was so long and my favorite color brought a smile to my lips. I guess that this situation did have some good points and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t dying anymore, so that was another check in the plus column.

I felt fingers tentatively touch my neck behind the slits of my gills, moving any stray strands of hair that I hadn’t gathered. “Whoa, you have a tat?! I guess you’re cooler than I thought,” Kara’s voice teased.

“Yeah, what does it look like?” I asked, hoping that it hadn’t been deformed by my transformation.

“It’s like a cartoon cat-girl? Her fur is almost the same color as your fins, I think, and her hair matches yours. She’s wearing some kind of bikini and it’s a bit small to tell but she’s got a big gun and maybe a bandolier with little balls on it?” she said hesitantly.

I could feel myself smiling again. “They’re grenades, not easy to draw at that size you know. Maddie and I were really close and I designed this tattoo for Maddie myself, so she would have something from me with her when she wasn’t at home. She kinda insisted that we both get it, and in the same place, as a promise that we would always be there for one another when I decided to go to school to study art rather than join the family business with her and her parents. She suggested the back of the neck since I kept my hair shoulder-length, so I wouldn’t have to worry about guys razzing me for having a girly tattoo.”

“Okay, so if she sees this then she would at least talk to you to find out why you have it?” Kara asked. When I nodded, she added, “Do you have a way to contact her? Would she be willing to help us?”

“Not in this pool, I don’t. And we can’t exactly walk out of here to go to the local electronics store,” I said with a sad shake of my head. “If they’re not in the country, they could be in communications blackout mode, but if that’s the case I know some backchannels that I can use that they check regularly. I’d need a computer, or at least a phone, and a way to make sure that nobody knows I’ve used it afterward. And I can hardly do that in here or without arousing suspicion. If I can contact them though, I’m pretty damn sure that they’d help us.”

“Communications blackout? Backchannels? What kind of family business do they run?” Kara asked as she clumsily swam back to join her sister and they both turned to stare at me. I really needed to get her to tell us how she was swimming, sure she wasn’t great at it yet, but Jenny and I were both getting frustrated by our inability.

I found myself looking down at my tail as I answered her awkwardly. “They’re… umm… private contractors. They do private security, bodyguarding, espionage, hostage rescues, and… uhh… the occasional wetwork. They’re not bad people! They’re very particular about both their clients and their targets. If they found out what Pierce was up to, they’d probably kill him for free.”

“If they can kill the bastard that did this to us and killed our family, then I’m on board. We need to find a way to get you a phone or something,” Kara grumbled darkly. “What’s our first step?”

“Ha! Leg humor! And you thought that the fish puns were inappropriate,” I teased. She blushed as she realized what she had just said, she was adorable when she blushed. “Ironically, our first ‘step’ is that you tell me and Jenny how you’re able to move your damn tail so we can do the same.”

“You’re weird, it’s a good thing that you’re so pretty,” she stated, though she was cracking that ghost of a smile again. Until she seemed to realize what she had just said and quickly looked away with her face bright red. “I… uhh… had some time to practice before Jenny woke up. I didn’t think about kicking my legs I just sort of closed my eyes and tried not to consciously think about my tail, just moving. I guess my instincts took over and it gave me a feel for how the tail and fins are supposed to work. It’s actually easier if you don’t overthink it.”

With that, we began to practice swimming, but tails and fins come with a steep learning curve when you’re trying to use them consciously. Instinct was great and helped us to get a feel for them, but we were going to need a lot of practice if we wanted to have any real control over our movements. I’m not sure how long we practiced, alternating between instinctual movement and conscious control, but I was starting to get tired and hungry when we heard the scream.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 4 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 4: Visitors

The three of us turned to look at one another for a moment as if to make sure that the scream hadn’t come from any of us. Seeing that it hadn’t, we all began swimming as quickly as we could manage toward the edge of the pool closest to where the sound had seemed to originate. The pool was large, probably Olympic-sized, and that gave the three of us enough space to swim without feeling crowded, but that also meant that it took our still awkward new swimming technique a bit longer to get to the far end of the pool.

The moment that we broke the surface and leaned forward on our cuffed forearms to support ourselves on the edge of the pool I felt a strange sensation. The subtle tightness in my throat was gone, my gills sealed up tight with a slight splash of displaced water, and I was breathing air again. It felt so strange and yet familiar for a moment that I almost forgot why we had surfaced in the first place.

The room that the pool was in was massive, it had to be, and it had no windows. The only light was coming from florescent ceiling lights high above us. There was a pair of diving boards nearby, one about three feet above the water and another much higher, and there were two sets of double doors, one of which was off to the side and partially opened with a woman backing out in a hurry, still screaming frantically.

She was a slightly short and skinny brunette with her hair up in a bun and she wore wire-framed glasses and a lab coat with casual clothes and sneakers underneath. We got a pretty good look at her since she had to pass by our end of the pool after frantically locking the doors she had exited from and heading for what I assumed were the main doors as quickly as she could. As she passed she turned enough to see us leaning against the edge of the pool and I tried to give her a big friendly smile.

This decision proved to be a poor one, as she shrieked and bolted for the doors as fast as her legs could carry her. As soon as she finished fumbling with some sort of keypad and card and had exited the room we could hear the click as the doors were locked once more. Looking quickly around to make sure nobody was around as I heard her footsteps receding, I motioned for the others to join me back under the water in case there were any listening devices or cameras in the room.

As soon as we were submerged, I could feel my throat tighten slightly once more as my gills flared at the sides of my neck. Once we were back at the bottom of the pool I near-whispered, “What in the world was her problem?”

“I… think something scared her,” Kara replied uncertainly.

“Maybe she woke up and found out that some asshole experimented on her and turned her into a mythical creature,” I suggested sarcastically. “Oh, no wait, that’s us.”

“Not so mythical anymore,” Kara muttered before shaking her head. “I mean something scared her shitless in that room and then she turned and saw us and that fear spiked. I could sort of sense it happening.”

“Maybe she freaked out because Jon was showing off her fangs,” Jenny proposed timidly.

“I was smiling!” I protested. “It’s not my fault that she… wait, we have fangs?”

“Duh, how could you not notice that?” Kara confirmed, looking at me like I was an idiot. “It was literally the first thing I noticed, I nearly cut my tongue on one when I was waking up.” Then she opened up wide and displayed a set of upper and lower canines that would give a vampire an inferiority complex. And how the fuck could she open her mouth that wide? It was like she unhinged her jaw or something.

“Yup, me too,” Jenny quickly agreed as I was gaping.

“But everything felt weird when I woke up and I kinda got preoccupied with having boobs and a tail,” I argued weakly before carefully running a tongue over my teeth. Damn, fangs confirmed. “How was I to know that my mouth and jaw wasn’t just feeling weird because of more gender-swap shenanigans? I guess this is still shenanigans, just more of the species-swap variety.”

“They’re probably meant for rending flesh and gripping prey,” Kara offered quietly. “Our jaws seem able to open like twice as wide now too, probably because we’re supposed to kill and eat fish and other seafood and probably grab them with our mouths. Having our arms in front of us would increase drag in the water and that would be detrimental while chasing down food. I’ll bet that we have some serious jaw strength too.”

“Good stuff to know,” I granted with a sage nod. “Now what did you mean that you could sense her fear spike, Kara? That was kinda obvious from the way that she turned and ran.”

“I… well…” she began nervously before asking, “Have either of you felt anything weird since waking up?”

“I’d have more trouble thinking of anything not weird since I woke up. Seriously, we’re going to need a new definition for that word after today,” I grumbled.

“Have either of you been feeling things… emotions that you don’t think are yours?” Kara quickly clarified with a blush anointing her cheeks. “It’s like there’s this aura around people sometimes, and I can’t quite see it, but when I try to focus on it I get hit with these strong emotions. With Jenny, it’s mostly fear and uncertainty and with you Jon, it’s a huge mess of emotions; uncertainty, fear, anger, guilt, determination, and these little surges of happiness. That lady was scared, and when she saw us that fear went through the roof and it hit me really hard.”

“I haven’t felt anything like that, Sis,” Jenny said, shaking her head. “Maybe you’re just tired or something? Jon has been telling jokes and stuff to try to cheer us up so maybe that got stuck in your head?”

Kara looked uncertain but shrugged and conceded, “Maybe? I guess that fear and uncertainty would be to be expected in this situation. Jon probably has the least reason to be happy about this situation but she has been trying to look like she’s cheerful and she’s been joking a lot.”

“Yeah, I can’t think of any reason why this situation should make me happy,” I agreed with a frown. So why in the hell did I keep getting these little rushes of euphoria when I glanced at my upper body or my hair, or when I heard my own voice. Why did hearing them calling me ‘she’ make butterflies flutter in my chest? It made me happy but at the same time I felt like I should correct them because, despite my current body, I wasn’t a real ‘she’, just a convincing fake. The mere thought of doing so, telling them to call me ‘he’, caused a whirlwind of anxiety in my chest that threatened to blow those butterflies away.

I didn’t realize that I had closed my eyes until I felt a hand take mine. I opened them to see Kara gripping my hand tightly in her own. I realized that my hand was smaller than hers and just as feminine, and her touch made me feel warm inside. As she pulled me in close and hugged me tightly I realized that she was the biggest of the three of us, she probably had at least a few inches on me but it was enough to be noticeable and it sort of felt like when my mom used to hold me when I had a bad dream, it made me feel safe, it made me feel protected.

“I’m a man, despite what Pierce’s ‘cure’ did to me, I should be the one protecting her and her sister, not the other way around. What the fuck is wrong with me? Why can’t I just man up for once in my life?” The thoughts bombarded my mind and I couldn’t shake them. “New body, new species, and I haven’t changed at all. I still can’t be the man that others need or expect me to be and I still use self-deprecating humor to deflect problems. The only change is that now I can use fish puns. I should have just let the Cancer kill me, I just drag everyone around me down. Maybe I was never meant…”

“Jon, breathe. Calm down, please. I’m sorry, I should have kept my stupid mouth shut.” Kara’s words barely reached me as I got lost in my anxiety-fueled thoughts. She was still holding me close, tenderly yet protectively and I suddenly came to the realization that I was sobbing and my gills were flaring rapidly as I struggled for oxygen in my anxiety attack. Let’s blame the hormones for that.

I sniffled and had to stop myself from taking a deep shuddering breath as I remembered that we were underwater. “I… I should be the one apologizing. I can’t be the… All I can do for us is deflect with crappy humor. I can’t even get us out of here… what kind of escape plan is ‘try to contact my more masculine sister so she can swoop in to our rescue’? I’m so fucking useless.”

Kara pulled away and cupped my face in her hands, those beautiful aquamarine eyes of hers staring intently into mine. “You are not useless. You’ve been keeping us from freaking out, you’re the one who told us that getting all emotional wasn’t going to help us, and at least you have a plan. We don’t need some macho jackass who would throw themselves into danger without thinking, we need you, Jon. The three of us only have one another and from what I’ve seen so far you’ll have our backs. Let us have yours too, this burden will be easier for us all to bear if we do it together. If you ever need to talk… about anything, I’ll be here for you.”

She pulled her hands away, her fingertips briefly brushing along the flesh of my cheeks and eliciting small shivers and sniffles from me. I was trying to help but, if I was so helpful, how come she’d already had to pull me out of two panic attacks since I woke up? In the awkward silence that followed, we could hear the door unlocking, followed by footsteps, four or five people from the sound of it. At least our weird elfin ears seemed to be useful for something. I tried to shake off my brief lapse in self-control and motioned for the others to follow me back to the surface.

The lady was back and she had another woman and a man in a lab coat with her, and two large men that just screamed security. The other woman was a tall, fit, and tanned blonde in perhaps her mid to late twenties who wore casual clothes and carried a medical bag. The sciencey man was pale and skinny with a weasel-like face and salt and pepper hair that looked to be starting a mass migration away from his head, and he wore thick-rimmed glasses and a rumpled grey suit beneath his lab coat. One of the larger men was African American and the other was a blond Caucasian, though they both sported crew cuts, some sort of jumpsuits, and belts with what looked like tranquilizer pistols and cattle prods hanging from them.

I was wary of the weapons but there was no way that I was going to try and snatch one for a daring escape attempt. The whole idea would have been ludicrous. We needed to be patient and let them think that we were dumb animals, that was the plan until I could figure out a way to get a message to Maddie. Also, we could barely control our bodies in the water, I didn’t want to think about how bad we’d be getting around on land without help. Fish out of water, anyone?

Lab coat lady was frantically reporting to the weasel man. “...male wasn’t moving and there was blood everywhere, Dr. Harris! Subject alpha tried to attack me when I went to check on them and when I came out the other three were on the edge of the pool and the pink-haired one snarled at me!”

Snarled? I was smiling dammit, trying to be friendly, not threatening. They all turned to look in our direction so gave it another shot, but not quite as big so I wouldn’t be showing any fangs, as the two large men reached uncertainly for their cattle prods. Look, see, I’m just a dumb and friendly mermaid. “Did it hiss at you?” weasel-man asked. Then he turned to the two large men. “Tranquilize subject alpha so Dr. Emerson can check on the male.”

“No, but it had its fangs bared!” panic-woman answered his question as the pair of large men left to follow their instructions.

“If it was threatening you it would be hissing, its posture more aggressive, and it would likely jump out of the water to attack, Miss Paris. They seem to be instinctual creatures and we’ve learned a lot about their threatening behavior from subject alpha. These three and the male were discovered recently though and seem more social, see how they’re grouped together. Perhaps it’s just being ‘friendly`. That one was dying when we brought it in and returned it to health, so maybe it remembers that on some level and is grateful. They are probably curious about us and their new surroundings as well,” Dr. Harris told her.

“She’s smiling!” the one who I had to assume was Dr. Emerson squealed in excitement before, to everyone’s surprise, she walked closer and crouched in front of us. Kara pulled herself closer to me, gripping my shoulder and watching the woman warily. “The biggest one is being protective of the others, and look how the youngest is shy but she seems reluctant to leave the side of the older pair. They’re so human-like, it’s interesting to see one in person. I was fascinated when Mr. Pierce told me about them and showed me the photo.”

“Are you crazy?! They might attack you!” Ms. Paris snapped.

“Nonsense, they’re not being aggressive. I just need to let them get to know me first,” the other woman said, slowly moving her hand toward me, almost touching my nose before I gasped in surprise. I found myself opening my mouth wider as I got hit with a variety of floral scents, starch, perspiration, antibacterial soap, paper, ink, and a few things that I couldn’t really define. “See, she’s scenting. According to what I’ve read so far of the research notes that I was given, they have powerful scent glands in the roof of their mouths, like a cat. All of their senses are very acute, probably to help them track their prey underwater.”

Color me surprised. I was so shocked by what happened that I barely noticed Kara’s curious look beside me as she gripped my shoulder protectively. Which was when Dr. Emerson decided to offer her hand to Kara as well, so I gave a subtle shrug to indicate that we should play along. Once Kara had ‘gotten her scent’ too, the woman reached out and softly stroked Kara’s hair and one of her ears. “There’s a good girl.”

Kara hummed slightly and even cracked a smile and then it was my turn for affection. Having my hair stroked felt surprisingly nice, very soothing, and my ear was extremely sensitive. I found myself humming pleasantly as well, only to have it stop suddenly as Dr. Emerson giggled. “Oh my! Aren’t you the musical one?! Such a lovely voice you have.”

At that point, one of the guards returned to let her know that subject alpha was unconscious and she left to check on the pair. It was probably fifteen minutes later when she returned with the pair of goons, and the lab coats were still keeping their distance despite Dr. Harris’s earlier assurances that I was friendly. Dr. Harris immediately asked, “What’s their condition, Dr. Emerson?”

The more casual doctor, who I thought was probably a marine biologist, shook her head. “I’m afraid that the male is dead, Dr. Harris. And I had to treat the female for numerous lacerations, but their rate of regeneration is remarkable. If I had to guess, he tried to mate with her and she fought back for some reason. Possibly they were fighting for dominance, I don’t know enough about their species’ social structure or mating behavior to be sure. His gills were shredded and he was drowned, so she probably held him beneath the water during the struggle before his gills could heal. She should be removed from that pool while it’s properly cleaned.”

“Pierce isn’t going to be happy about this. At least we thought to keep semen samples,” Dr. Harris said and sighed as he looked back toward the doors that Dr. Emerson had just come from. He turned to the guards and ordered, “Bring subject alpha out here while she’s still unconscious, and restrain her for now so she can’t try to hurt the others while I find someone to clean the pool properly and deal with the body. Dr. Emerson, I’ll leave your new charges in your care and we will let you know when a trainer has been found for them.”

With that, he left the pool room with the skittish woman close behind while the two guards headed back toward the other set of doors. Dr. Emerson turned to smile at us. “You must all be hungry. I’ll go get you some dinner and be right back.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 5 of Children of Naethari. Subject alpha is joining the party. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 5: Not Mermaids

The pair of security goons returned before Dr. Emerson and the promised meal. They unceremoniously dragged another mermaid out and dumped her in the corner of the pool about fifteen feet away from us. She seemed to be wearing metal bracers like ours, but there was a thick chain connected to the rings over her wrists, effectively handcuffing her. Another chain, no more than ten feet long connected to that chain was secured to a large metal ring at the corner of the pool with a padlock, restricting her range of movement.

I felt bad for her since there wasn’t enough length in the chain to reach the bottom of the pool, she would just sort of be held up by her arms like the denizen of some medieval dungeon without being able to rest properly. As soon as she was secured, the pair of jerks left the pool room by what seemed to be the main exit, locking it behind them. Once they were gone the three of us swam to the corner to check on the other mermaid and get a closer look at her.

She looked to be close to the same age as Kara and me. She had lightly tanned skin and her hair and the scales on her tail were both a striking mix of orange and gold, with pale, translucent, and ruffled orange fins that were identical to mine and Kara’s in size, shape, and location in relation to our bodies. The tail ended in the now-familiar clover-shaped trio and the four large ones at her hips were currently wrapped around her protectively as she slept, almost like a skirt. I wondered if that was the default for adult mermaids and if Jenny just didn’t have them yet because she was still a kid.

She was unconscious from whatever tranquilizer that they had hit her with and she had many cuts and bruises that were healing practically before our eyes. A couple of spots had large waterproof bandages applied. If her wounds were healing that fast, then I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know how bad they’d been before Dr. Emerson had gotten to her.

I wondered whether she was a real mermaid or if she used to be human like us. What little I’d overheard while I was still supposed to be unconscious indicated that Pierce thought her to be savage, which was probably why they thought that we were all little more than animals. I was pretty sure that Pierce was an arrogant dick though and that our former merman probably deserved what she did to him. I was willing to give this new arrival the benefit of the doubt since she was in the same boat as us but, to be safe, I felt that we should probably keep our distance at first.

That was when Jenny swam awkwardly toward the sunset-hued mermaid before I could voice a warning, a confused expression on her face. “Jenny…” Kara said in warning, reaching out to grab her sister by the shoulder.

“I… she’s hurt… I can’t… I need to…” the younger sibling said, almost in a daze as she shook free of her sister’s gentle grip and placed her hands on one of the new arrival’s many visible cuts, which were now little more than scratches. It was about then that I noticed that Jenny’s hands were glowing bright gold and that glow spread from her hands to cover the other mermaid when Jenny made contact with her skin.

I let out a gasp of surprise, bubbles escaping from between my lips. I had thought that ‘subject alpha’ was healing quickly before, but it was nothing compared to how quickly she healed while encased in that golden glow. The visible cuts and bruises healed almost instantly but it was a moment before the glow finally faded and Jenny removed her hands from the older mermaid with a look of shock and confusion on her face. “Wh-what did I just do?”

~ You used your aetral, child. You have my thanks, for healing my wounds and removing that foul substance from my body. I am Kieshala. ~ The golden and orange mermaid had her eyes open and locked on the three of us, and despite hearing an unfamiliar voice, I couldn’t see her lips moving or any telltale bubbles as she spoke.

I was so confused that I just sort of gaped at her as Kara asked, “Aetral? Is that some kind of mermaid magic?”

“Not mermaid!” Kieshala hissed audibly, baring her fangs in anger before seeming to realize what she was doing and making an effort to calm herself. Then in a calmer tone and again without moving her lips, ~ I apologize. Please, do not call us that. That is a human word and humans have taken everything from me, from all four of us. We are Naethari; people created by the Natrir and bound to the primal magic of our world long before humans walked the earth. The aetral is an expression of our souls and of our bond to that primal magic, and every Naethari has one. They are a Healer. ~ The last was said as she pointed toward Jenny with one of her manacled hands.

“I hate to break it to you but we are humans, or at least we were,” I told her carefully in my musical voice.

~ Oh! A Soulsinger, how wonderful! ~ she said with a smile that lit up her face. After a moment though she seemed to realize what I had just said and gave us all a sympathetic look. ~ I am afraid that you must put your human lives behind you, there is no going back now that you have fed on my flesh. You are all fortunate that you had a spark of magic within you and did not fight the process or you would be dead. ~

“Fed on your…” I started to ask before I remembered the strange sushi that had been my last meal as a human. I had eaten a person or at least pieces of one. “I think I’m gonna be sick.” Kara and Jenny didn’t look much better than I felt, both were looking a little green around the gills, if you’ll pardon the expression.

~ Be glad that you were not on my end, ~ the gold and orange Naethari retorted. ~ You are Naethari now, you must learn our ways and we must escape this place. ~

“We’re working on that. We’ll need to be patient and pretend to be the dumb animals that they think we are so they underestimate us, while I find a way to contact some friends on the outside to help us,” I told her absently. I was still trying to figure out what was bothering me so much about how she was talking to us, other than the fact that she seemed to be in our heads.

It was like she was speaking directly into our minds and even though I was pretty damn sure it wasn’t English or Chinese, I could understand her perfectly. “That’s… not English. How can I understand you?” Kara asked uncertainly, seeming to come to the same conclusion.

~ It is the language of our people of course. Obviously, you have all passed the age of your first metamorphosis. Two of you have passed your second metamorphosis, so of course, you can understand me, ~ Kieshala said as if that explained everything. Seeing that we were all still confused though she sighed and offered, ~ Do not speak aloud, just direct your thoughts to who you are speaking with. Our minds were created for this and the Naethari language is what you might call a racial memory, it comes instinctively once we have passed our first metamorphosis. ~

~ What is the first metamorphosis? ~ Jenny asked, seemingly following the older Naethari’s instructions. It was probably a good idea for us to get used to that since it would give us a way to silently communicate.

~ I will explain later, one of the humans comes, ~ Kieshala said as we could hear the doors being worked.

~ It’s probably Dr. Emerson with our dinner. We should all go up and be social. Maybe if you can convince her that you’re friendly with us and won’t hurt anyone, then you won’t be put in that room alone again. ~ I suggested as we all made our way to the surface in the corner of the pool.

When we surfaced, Dr. Emerson was rolling a cart with five large metal buckets on it toward the pool. As she got closer she seemed to realize that we weren’t where she had left us, and the moment that she saw us clustered around Kieshala her scent became tangier and sharper somehow. She approached cautiously, calling out. “I have food for you, girls. You really shouldn’t get too close to her, I’ve been told that she’s feral. Oh, she’s awake.”

~ She keeps her calm well, for someone who stinks of fear, ~ Kieshala commented casually as Dr. Emerson seemed to brace herself and continued her approach holding her hand out in front of her. ~ What is she saying? I have been learning the language of these humans but it is slow, I still do not understand much of it. ~

~ She doesn’t call us ‘it’ either, ~ Kara remarked. ~She’s worried about us; I think that asshole Pierce told her that you’re feral. I don’t think she sees us as stupid, probably something close to dolphins, intelligent but not quite human. And the way she’s talked to us so far, it’s almost like how some pet owners talk to their fur babies. ~

~ We are not pets to be owned, ~ Kieshala hissed.

~ Let’s keep the act up though, she seems nicer than the other people here but I’m not sure if we can trust her with how smart we really are yet. We can’t just stay quiet though, we have to look like we’re actually communicating with one another. Kieshala, you should probably make a show of getting her scent at least. I know it’s probably going to be hard being friendly with a human, with the way most of them treat us, but can you at least try not to be outright hostile until we can escape? ~ I suggested as the elder Naethari had placed herself between us and Dr. Emerson, giving a warning hiss and baring her fangs.

The elder Naethari made an obvious display of taking a deep breath to get Dr. Emerson’s scent and calmed down as she turned to us and emitted a series of clicks and whistles. ~ I will teach you all to speak porpoise, it is an easy enough language to learn, and I will attempt to control my anger unless we are directly threatened. Are you certain that your ‘friends’ will help us? ~

~ If I can convince them of who I am and of what’s happening here, yeah. It’s the only plan we have at the moment, ~ I replied as Dr. Emerson seemed to lose some of her fear. She was mumbling excitedly about language and dolphins as she began to bring the buckets off the cart close enough for us to inspect.

All of us except Kieshala looked dubiously at the buckets. One was practically overflowing with seaweed while the others contained raw shrimp, clams, and whitefish in ice water to keep them fresh. A final bucket contained some oranges. ~ It’s raw, ~ Jenny stated with obvious disgust. I don’t think any of us were happy about the idea of eating raw fish so soon after being told that our last meal had been mermaid sushi.

~Of course it is, it would be better if it were something that we caught ourselves though. Eat, you will need your energy, ~ Kieshala told us, following with a series of whistles and clicks from her mouth. None of us were too happy about it but she was right. We were all hungry and practicing our swimming had used up a lot of energy. So we followed the elder Naethari’s lead and ate.

Kieshala showed us how to properly pry open the clams with our claws and suck down the meat inside and made sure that we all ate a bit of everything, whistling and clicking her instructions even as she spoke them mentally. The clams and fish weren’t bad but I found the shrimp especially tasty. The kelp had an odd taste and was a bit salty but the oranges were pure heaven, even if Kieshala insisted that we eat them with the peels intact when I tried to use a claw to cut one open. It made sense, I guess, since we were playing dumb animals and I heard once that the peels have even more vitamin C and fiber than the inner fruit.

Dr. Emerson backed off a bit while we ate and watched us in interest. After a while, she produced a cell phone from her back pocket. That was really tempting but I needed to wait until we had her trust and the others could distract her for long enough for me to slip it away somehow and make use of the opportunity. The moment that she said, “Hello, Mr. Pierce,” I became very interested in eavesdropping with my amazing hearing while we ate.

Pierce was not happy that his breeding stud was dead but she pointed out that ‘subject alpha’ was injured and that they knew nothing about the social behavior or mating practices of ‘mermaids’. She might not have even been ‘in season’. He became very interested though when he found out that Kieshala not only hadn’t attacked Dr. Emerson or any of us but also seemed to be trying to teach us.

It was pretty obvious that they didn’t think of us in the same way. She mostly gushed about how fascinating we were, how she was starting to develop a relationship of trust with us, and how eager she was to learn more about our social behavior. He, on the other hand, was hoping that the growing bond between us and Kieshala could be used to finally tame her and train us all properly.

Finally, the call ended with Pierce deciding that he wanted to see this behavior firsthand. He would come the next afternoon before dinner to observe us and assess the situation. If he found that Dr. Emerson could indeed handle us as well as she claimed, he would allow Kieshala to stay in the same pool as us and remove her chains. Any of us who attacked anyone would be separated from the others though until the behavior could be ‘corrected’. Great, now we just needed to put on a show and hope that we could all keep our cool enough to not try to kill the motherfucker on sight.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 6 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 6: Naiya

Dr. Emerson continued observing us after dinner, while some people came to clean the small pool in the other room and remove the body. Once the cleaners were finally finished she left with them, taking the cart and the now empty buckets that had held our dinner with her. Even though she seemed nice it was a relief when they were all gone and the lights in the room went out for the night.

With her watching us we couldn’t really talk about anything serious since we had to stay focused on the act. About the only thing that we could do was give Kieshala our names mentally and attempt to grasp her impromptu lesson on the porpoise language. We had about a million questions that we wanted to ask Kieshala though and, now that we were alone, we returned to the water where she promised to teach us about the Naethari and answer any questions that she could.

The first thing that she addressed though was one of the elephants in the room. She had seen our wary glances toward her as the body of the male Naethari was unceremoniously removed so that the solitary smaller pool in the other room could be cleaned. We all had very good eyes and it was not a pretty sight.

We could even see well with the lights in the room off as she told us with a carefully neutral expression, ~ I was defending myself. I tried to speak with him at first, as I did with you upon waking, but he was savage and wished only to mate with me. Even had I allowed it, it would not have produced a child under any circumstances. I did not wish for my first time to be like that. Naethari bond for life and more than the simple act of physical coupling is required to forge the bond between true mates. ~

She had tried to keep any emotion out of her face and words but Kara saw right through it. ~ I can’t imagine how much you’ve been through before we got here. You… had a mate at home, didn’t you? ~

~ No, not yet, but there was someone that I was hoping… ~ Kieshala replied sadly, seemingly unable to finish the thought before taking a moment to steel herself. ~ He was a childhood friend and I had hoped that we would bond but we had a fight over something that seems so silly now. I wanted some space so I used my aetral to get some. I am a Spellweaver and I had found a place where the veil between worlds was thin, where our world touched upon another. I created an opening and passed through to have some privacy to get my thoughts in order. I fell asleep on a beach and when I awoke the humans were attempting to cage me. ~

I felt bad for her but we needed questions answered and she had just brought up another one so I asked, ~ Spellweaver? Does that mean that you can use magic? If so, why haven’t you already escaped? ~

She shook her head and took a moment to think before answering. ~ We can all use magic, just in different ways, ways that reflect who we are inside. You are a Soulsinger, when you sing you can entrance the hearts and minds of other living creatures, so long as your will is strong and your intent clear. Jenny is a Healer; I should think that self-explanatory. And from the weave of magic within her, I believe that Kara is an Empath; all Naethari can use our natural senses to detect particularly strong emotions but Empaths go far beyond that, they can see the emotions of a living being and project their own when necessary. As a Spellweaver, I can gather the ambient mana around me to do anything that I can properly imagine, but for that, I need mana to gather. ~

~ There’s no mana here? ~ Kara asked in concern.

~No, at least not in this location. ~ Kieshala replied solemnly. ~ Mana is created by the primal magic of a world, which is tied to nature. The influence of the Lantir is keenly felt in this world. The humans here care not for nature; they poison the water, the land, and the very air that they breathe. They take every resource that they can and they give nothing in return. This world is dying and they care not that they are the ones killing it. I would expect that only the most remote areas on this world produce any mana now, and even those would be weakening due to the slow death this world is suffering. It is likely why, despite having a spark of magic before being changed into one of my kind, you never realized that magic existed. ~

~ Do we need to gather mana to use our aetral? ~ Jenny asked timidly. ~ I used mine without realizing I could do it and it sounds like Jon could probably do the mind-control thing to get us out of here. ~

~ No child, my aetral is what allows me to do that but the aetral themselves are powered by the weave of magic within us and the food that we eat. It will take many moon cycles, perhaps entire rotations, before any of you are ready to control your new gifts consciously at that level. Born Naethari come into their aetral after their first metamorphosis and have most of their childhood to develop them. You will all need training, and using your aetral so much will be physically draining, ~ the sunset-hued Naethari explained.

~ Well, I guess that we’re sticking with plan A then, ~ I said with a bubbling sigh. I had gotten my hopes up for a moment. There was another burning question that I needed an answer to though, so I tried to ignore the furious beating of my heart and the flaring of my gills as I asked, ~ Why… did I become a female Naethari? ~

For a moment Kieshala looked at me in confusion before asking, ~ Were you not female before? ~

~ No, I was born… male. ~ I blushed and couldn’t face Kieshala as I spoke and had trouble getting the word out. Why did saying that cause me such pain? What was wrong with me that this body felt so right? Even the fins and tail were starting to lose some of the weirdness I had felt when I first awoke and looking at my hair or my feminine body still brought those little surges of happiness that I couldn’t comprehend.

When I was finally able to make myself look at her, Kieshala looked horror-stricken. Of course, she was. I was some guy pretending to be a girl and one of her people, how could she not be? So I was somewhat surprised when she awkwardly put her manacled arms around me in the closest thing to a hug that she could provide. ~ Oh, you poor girl, having to live your life in a body that did not match your soul, it must have been torture. ~

The way that she called me a girl, the easy acceptance that it was who I was regardless of what I had been born as had my heart racing and my brain running around in circles. Was I a girl? Did I deserve to be called that? Why did it feel so damn good when I was? What was this whole thing about my soul?

I was sobbing now and I wasn’t even sure where the heart-wrenching feeling of grief that was causing it came from. As Jenny and Kara joined in the hug, Kieshala said, ~ I am sorry, but my exposure to humans before coming here was somewhat limited. Naethari are not born male or female as you humans are; we are born genderless. We do not develop gender-specific traits until our second metamorphosis. Like our aetral, our adult bodies are reflections of our souls. Your body is female because your soul is, and that is how you will be most comfortable. Every aspect of your new appearance reflects a part of you; your true gender, favorite colors, and your ideal appearance. ~

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t stop sobbing in their arms, but in a way, it felt good. I felt free for the first time in my life. I was a girl, and I was being accepted for that, and that validation made everything that was Jon crumble like a poorly built house of cards. It explained my self-hatred and depression, and my jealousy of Maddie despite how close we were. Now I knew why I had felt so wrong all of my life and why I couldn’t engage in anything, it was all being filtered through the mask of Jon, the expectation that because I had been born male I must be male. Now I knew what ‘right’ felt like.

I was almost cried out by the time I finally managed to process things and accept that I wasn’t really Jon, I never had been. That brought up an interesting question though; if I wasn’t Jon, then who was I? ~ I need a new name, ~ I said, almost afraid that the others would refuse the idea, even as supportive as they were being.

~ Had you and Kara been born Naethari you would have both chosen your adult names by now, ~ Kieshala told us gently. ~ Naethari leave our childhood names behind during our second metamorphosis, choosing something that we feel suits the person that we have become or are in the process of becoming. ~

~I kind of already did something like that. My birth name was Caroline, but I never really felt like a ‘Caroline’ so last year… rotation I asked everyone to start calling me Kara instead. It felt more ‘me’, ~ Kara said.

~ Good, I will continue to call you that then, ~ Kieshala said with a nod of approval as she broke the hug and turned her golden gaze upon me. ~ We do need a name for our Soulsinger though. ~

~ I… don’t know, ~ I replied nervously. I couldn’t just choose a new name at the drop of a hat and I couldn't really think of anything that would suit the new me, whoever she was.

~ If I might make a suggestion, how about ‘Naiya’? ~ Kieshala asked before explaining further. ~ It is a type of songbird that lives on the islands near my home. Your coloring reminds me of them, they are quite striking and have a beautiful song. ~

I barely heard her explanation because the moment that she said the name it was like I was hit by a lightning bolt. It was pretty and exotic and it felt so right. It felt so much more ‘me’ than the names Jonathon or Jon ever had in all my years of living as a human. I found myself nodding eagerly, too breathless to speak physically and my thoughts too focused on the rightness of that name to spare the processing power to say anything mentally.

Kieshala smiled and nodded in return. ~ Very well then, it is a pleasure to meet you, Naiya Soulsinger. ~

I was vaguely aware of Jenny and Kara repeating her words and each instance brought a euphoria that threatened to make my heart burst from sheer joy. Sure, we had all spoken to one another before but now it felt like they were actually talking to me. I was Naiya, I was a girl, and for the first time in my life, I felt truly happy. Happiness without self-doubt, self-loathing, or negative emotions that I couldn’t figure out threatening to overwhelm it.

I was still trying to come off the cloud that I was riding as Kieshala gave the three of us a primer on the Naethari people. Some of it was stuff that she had referred to in passing earlier but she felt it important that she tell us what important details she could think of. Since she seemed serious, I tried to calm myself down and listen.

The Naethari live on a world that they call Totha and were created in ancient times by the Natrir and bound to the primal magic of the sea. The Natrir is apparently a triple deity of the sea. They have a male aspect, a female aspect, and a third androgynous aspect that is neither male nor female and yet both. There was a second species called the Lantir, who were created similarly by other gods and bound to the land as the Naethari were to the sea.

The Lantir were clever and industrious and in time they built a great city that they called Atlantis. They were never happy with what they had though. They always wanted more. More resources than they needed, more food than they could eat, and always more power. They abused their power, abused the island they lived upon, and lost sight of those who created them and why. They became arrogant, turned their backs on the gods that created them, and eventually thought themselves greater than those gods.

And so the gods punished the Lantir. They were stripped of their power, made mortal, and their island nation was taken by the sea. Those few who survived to tell the tale were banished from Totha and sent to another world. Apparently, they were sent to Earth. From what Kieshala was able to tell us, there was intermittent contact between our worlds throughout history as Naethari explored and some seafaring humans lived on some of the islands near her home after befriending her ancestors. They had been there for hundreds of years now but still lived a simple life from what their islands and the sea provided them.

After the history, our teacher briefly touched on some social points. Mostly just a few of the social dos and don’ts, like only hissing and baring your fangs if you were ready to back it up with a formal challenge. At least these were never to the death and usually settled matters. Another interesting point was that Naethari don’t have family names. They usually use their aetral as a sort of title and the name of the clan that they were born into. Kieshala said that for us that would be the Moonreef clan, so I would be introduced as Naiya Soulsinger of Clan Moonreef.

Next, she went into Naethari biology. Naethari are born completely sexless, having no sexual organs and appearing androgynous until their second metamorphosis. That explained Jenny’s appearance and Kara and her sibling were both a bit weirded out about the whole thing. Children are encouraged to explore and find themselves from an early age. Somewhere around one and a half to three rotations (years) old they experience the first metamorphosis.

The first metamorphosis is when they start developing language skills and their brains start to physically adapt to telepathic communication. They get a high fever for a week or two and once they’re over it, their instincts take over and it’s damn near impossible to get them to shut up because they want to learn about everything. It is usually after the first metamorphosis that they start to discover their magical gifts as well.

The second metamorphosis is basically what the Naethari call puberty. It takes just as long and happens around the same age range as with humans. Children will start developing into their adult forms as their outer body changes and their sexual organs start to form and then grow.

The sex organs are hidden within slits between the scales at the groin that will only open during times of heightened desire. Apparently, there is no other reason for those slits to open because Naethari don’t have to go to the bathroom and females don’t get periods. That was another good thing about our transformations, I guess. To be honest, I would have felt weird about swimming in the same water that I had done any of that in.

As I discovered, the second metamorphosis is always gender-affirming and Naethari develop the type of bodies that they will be most comfortable with. It’s when they start to discover who they are and choose the name they will take into adulthood. It is also at the end of this time when Naethari stop physically aging. Kieshala was over thirty rotations old and she claimed that we could live for millennia so long as something doesn’t violently kill us. She warned us though that the ocean is a dangerous place.

During the second metamorphosis, males become more muscular and masculine in appearance. Their hair color and most of their scales remain dark and their jutak (large brightly colored dorsal sails) grow from their spines from between their shoulder blades to their tailbones. Their eye and fin color will change to match the jutak and some of their scales as well, forming eye-catching patterns in their otherwise dark tails. Their twin tailfins grow slightly but remain plain and utilitarian in appearance.

Females will become softer, more feminine-looking, and shapely, and they start growing breasts much as human women do during puberty. They also start growing their shalkai (the quartet of large ruffled fins growing from their hips) and their scales, hair, eyes, and fins become brightly colored. Their tailfins also change; they become larger than a male’s, a third grows to create the clover shape, and they take on a more ruffled appearance.

Some Naethari going through their second metamorphosis will remain androgynous in appearance and develop hermaphroditic sexual organs. In these cases, their coloring and fin development can vary depending on their personalities and personal gender expression. These Naethari are called toma.

Naethari mate for life and although they develop all of the sexual characteristics of their preferred gender during the second metamorphosis, they are effectively infertile until they have bonded with their chosen mate. This bonding is called the third metamorphosis and it is when their reproductive systems adapt to their chosen mate. After that, the bonded pair will become fertile but only genetically compatible with one another.

Within days of the bonding, the couple will feel their first kima’tah (mating heat). For five to seven days they will feel a warmth inside them, increased sexual desire, and develop a faint rash on their bellies. Whether or not they attempt or succeed in mating, once the kima’tah has passed couples will need to wait for roughly five rotations for their next opportunity. They could still make love but there would be no chance of producing offspring until their next kima’tah.

Following the third metamorphosis, the bonded pair’s bodies will change slightly to reflect their bond. The patches of scales on their forearms that conceal the pouch that their vuhac are concealed within will change to reflect the color of their mate’s scales. The vuhac are apparently sharp spines with webbing between them and toxic barbs at the tips which are hidden in our forearms and are useful as an extra set of fins or for defense. Well, that explained the metal bracers and the sensation of being confined.

By that time the three of us who were once human were beginning to feel sleepy. It had been a long and eventful day and it looked like the next day was going to be stressful with Pierce coming to act like he owned us. The worst part was that we all knew that we were going to have to play the part if we wanted to survive and get through this. Despite that, I had a smile on my face after I said my goodnights and everyone had responded with, ~ Good night, Naiya. ~

“That’s me,” I thought to myself giddily as I started to doze off, snuggling up with Kara and Jenny for mutual comfort.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 7 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 7: Awkward

When I awoke the next morning, for a moment I wasn’t sure where I was or whose arm was wrapped around me in a protective embrace. I almost panicked again when I realized that I was underwater, until my sleepy mind dredged up the memories of the day before. Once I had, it was easy to push those fears aside. I was Naiya, and I was a Naethari now so I had no reason to fear the depths, at least not in this pool.

It was Kara whose arm was wrapped around me protectively, almost possessively, as she slept. It was funny, I had thought that it would be her sister that she would be holding like that, and Jenny was on the other side of her. Maybe she got turned around in her sleep or something. I certainly wasn’t going to complain. Kara seemed nice, she was beautiful, and it was nice being held by someone and realizing that that was okay. I didn’t have to put on the act or hide behind Jon’s mask any longer and that realization made me sigh happily and snuggle closer.

So until the others awoke I just enjoyed the contact. A look toward the nearby corner of the pool showed that Kieshala seemed to be still sleeping as well, hanging from her manacled forearms several feet above the floor of the pool. That couldn’t have been comfortable. I hoped that we could con Pierce into thinking that we were good and obedient little mermaids and that Kieshala was ‘under control’ so he would at least remove the chains.

Kara was the first of the others to wake, and after a curse muttered under her breath she attempted to remove her arm from around me without waking me. Did she have to? It felt so nice being held by her. Rather than letting her know that I was awake and enjoying her holding me like a total creeper, I pretended to stir as she removed her arm.

Almost immediately she spoke into my mind, probably so as not to wake the others, and I could sense her embarrassment in the projected thought. ~ Sorry. I… must have moved around in my sleep. ~

I turned around to face her, carefully replying, ~ It’s okay… I mean we were all sleeping in a group so it’s not…surprising. ~ Her face was bright red and I could feel my own cheeks flushing as she looked away. I had almost said ‘unwelcome’ but I had changed the word at the last moment so I wouldn’t make her feel weird or anything. “Letting myself crush on her would only make things uncomfortable for all of us,” I told myself firmly.

Female Naethari or not, I was still attracted to girls, and she was definitely a catch. Get it? Ah, fish humor is never going to get old. Seriously though, from all her embarrassment and awkwardness at our situation when waking she probably wasn’t a lesbian and I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable around me. I mean, if she was into girls she’d be totally okay with that, right? Maddie was the only lesbian that I really knew but she was always super forward and really touchy-feely with the girls that she was interested in.

~ Oh. Okay then. Well, as long as it wasn’t… bothering you… ~ She trailed off as she looked over her younger sibling and Kieshala, both of whom were still slumbering.

~ N-no! ~ I protested, perhaps a bit too vehemently. I needed to do some damage control. ~ I mean, it’s okay. It’s not like you… meant anything by it, right? You were asleep, after all. Besides, I’ve been a girl and a Naethari for like a day. What do I know about proper social behavior? This was kind of like a sleepover situation, right? We’re all girls here and all that? ~ Way to go, Naiya, make things more awkward.

Kara seemed uncertain and even a little sad. Did she suspect that I was attracted to her? She seemed to brighten up a bit as I tried to reassure her though. ~ Yeah… like a sleepover. We’re all girls here… so it’s okay, I just didn’t want to upset you, Naiya. ~

~ Who has two thumbs, magenta scales, and lilac fins, and is totally not upset at all, in any way? This girl, right here! ~ I told her with as big a smile as I could manage without showing my fangs and pointing at my chest with my thumbs. Ouch! I misjudged and poked myself in the breasts, still not quite used to having the girls around yet. Thankfully, I had managed to do so with the pads of my thumbs rather than my claws.

What I said was true though, I wasn’t upset, with her anyway. I mean it wasn’t her fault that I found her attractive and couldn’t stop gazing at her every time that she looked away. At least the feeling of euphoria that I got from looking down at myself or when I heard her speaking my name prevented me from staring at her. Poking myself in the boobs made it all seem more real and permanent too and I couldn’t help but grin at that. Now that I realized that I was a girl inside, everything that said ‘girl’ on the outside made me giddy.

Fortunately, the other two Naethari awoke around that point and the awkwardness was over, for now. We discussed how we were going to play up the dumb animal act and yet still look cooperative enough for Pierce. We decided that we were going to have to start establishing ourselves more when Dr. Emerson came with our breakfast. We needed to make it look like we were bonding with her fast, but not too fast. Until then, Kieshala continued our lessons on the porpoise language.

At first, I didn’t think that we would be able to reproduce those sounds, many of them couldn’t even be heard by humans. Kieshala taught us a few tricks though, and it was starting to get easier. Apparently, Naethari have really good memories too so she told us that we should be able to learn and retain knowledge much faster than if we were mere humans.

Finally, we could hear the door being worked, the lights in the pool room came to life, and Dr. Emerson’s footsteps approached the pool along with the slightly squeaky wheels of the food cart. The four of us returned to the surface as if curious, only our eyes above the water for a moment as we watched her watching us watching her. After a moment, Dr. Emerson began setting buckets by the side of the pool and called out cheerfully, “Good morning, girls.”

Once she had spoken, that was our cue. Kieshala, Kara, and I made a show of sniffing the air and going to inspect the buckets while Jenny trailed behind, playing shy. Breakfast was much the same as dinner had been the night before; fish, seaweed, shrimp, clams, and fruit. This time rather than oranges though, it was a bucket of fruit salad. I think I liked the cherries most, which was weird because I never really cared for cherries before. I guess it was to be expected since my taste buds had probably changed along with the rest of my body. I mean, I certainly never liked raw shrimp before but it was easily my favorite among the seafood that we had been offered.

As we ate, Dr. Emerson alternated between looking over a tablet and watching and talking to us, mostly about how eager she was to get to know more about us. Jenny, as part of the plan, kept glancing at our new caretaker as if curious but hesitant to approach her. If anyone was going to believe that Dr. Emerson was some sort of Mermaid Whisperer that afternoon, then we needed her to think that all of us liked her and Jenny was the only one who hadn’t ‘gotten her scent’ yet. We needed this to seem natural though so Jenny couldn’t just go up to her and start sniffing.

Kara’s younger sibling had been shy the evening before because she was unwilling to get too close to anyone connected with Pierce, with good reason. Kara and I had managed to convince her of the need though. We were all going to have to do things that we didn’t like, and if Kieshala could try to stop herself from killing her tormentor then the rest of us needed to put out the effort too. So we all had personae to play.

Jenny’s role was the simplest, she was the child. It would give her a lot of freedom to just be herself, or so I hoped. Kieshala was the nurturing and protective one, which would pair well with Jenny and allow her to act protective of us, so long as we didn’t think that doing so might further endanger us. As for me and Kara, she was the cautious and stubborn one and I was the friendly and curious one.

We all attempted to establish ourselves in these roles as we ate and afterward as Dr. Emerson observed us. It was as we were all letting our morning meal settle that the good doctor tried to approach Jenny. “Not too sure about me, huh?” she said with a smile as moved closer to the youngest of us, holding out her hand as she moved slowly forward. “You’re probably scared of us humans and wondering what your friends see in me, aren’t you? I won’t hurt you, I just want to get to know all of you better. My name is Natalie.”

Jenny took in a deep breath, making a show of getting Dr. Emerson’s scent, and then allowed her to stroke her hair and ears for a bit. While Jenny was keeping ‘Natalie’ busy I made my way out of the water and toward the tablet that our caretaker had been looking at occasionally while we ate and had placed on a folding chair out of splash range. I wasn’t actually going to try to do anything with it, just establishing my ‘curiosity’ about human things. I wouldn’t have been able to get past the password or fingerprint lock yet anyway.

I had already made my curiosity about the tablet apparent to her, watching her using it as I ate, and I had slid a good distance along the floor toward the device by the time that Dr. Emerson took her attention away from Jenny enough to notice my land-based movement and probable intent. She laughed and walked over to pick up the tablet. “Curious, huh? I can’t let you play with that though, it’s fragile. This contains a lot of names, and I’m supposed to choose one for you and your friends. We should probably do that before lunch, shouldn’t we? Mr. Pierce could arrive anytime between then and dinner.”

I watched as she swiped the screen and typed in her password. Good, password only, no fingerprint lock. That would make things a lot easier. I didn’t quite catch the complete password but I hoped that what I did commit to memory would be enough to extrapolate the rest with a bit of time. If nothing else, it would narrow it down in combination with the number of taps that I had counted.

“No time like the present. I’m warning you though, that a lot of these names are either terrible or pretentious. Some are both,” Dr. Emerson said with a slight sigh and a roll of her eyes. “Aphrodite? Really?”

I may have scowled a little at the thought of being given a name like some pet when I had finally discovered who I really was. I couldn’t really speak up and say, “My name is Naiya,” though. It was one of those distasteful things that we all knew that we were going to have to put up with when we decided to play along until we could escape. Still, that didn’t make it any more palatable.

It seemed that Dr. Emerson had caught my scowl because she laughed and stroked my hair. “Yeah, I don’t like that name for any of you either. Let’s see if we can find something that suits the four of you though.” That was a close call, I was going to need to be more careful about keeping up the act.

~ What’s wrong, Naiya? You looked pretty gloomy over there for a minute, ~ Kara asked in concern.

~It’s just sinking in what we are now, what we have to pretend to be. ~ I projected back to the others, letting out a physical sigh that I hoped Dr. Emerson would take as contentment. She was getting stuck into her task though so I extricated myself and made my way back to the water as I explained what was bothering me. ~ She has to choose names for us and I’ll admit that the hair-stroking and ear caresses feel kinda relaxing and she seems nice enough but we’re still being treated like dumb animals. ~

~ We are also acting the part, Naiya. This was your plan and you said that we have to commit to it, do not get stutter-fins now, ~ Kieshala replied. Whatever stutter-fins was, she was probably right, and she was the one who had the most reason to be against this plan.

~ I know, ~ I admitted as I made my way back into the water to join them. ~It’s just… I just discovered who I am, and I’m happy being Naiya, but now I’m going to have to have a new name and I have no choice in it. ~

~ Kara suggested that I think of it as a secret identity, ~ Jenny offered, trying to console me. ~ All those people will just see Diana Prince, none of them will realize you’re really Wonder Woman. ~

~ Thanks, Jenny, I’ll try that, ~ I told the younger sibling. I could see why Kara used that analogy for Jenny but I wasn’t really feeling it.

Kara was suddenly face-to-face with me, cupping my face in her hands and giving me a serious look. The touch was electric and the somewhat intimate contact made my heart flutter and my cheeks flush as my gills began to pulse faster. ~ You will still be Naiya. You’re smart and beautiful, and you have a magical voice. They can’t take any of that away from you. They can’t take away who any of us are inside either, and we’ll all still call each other by our real names. Everything we’re showing them, it’s an act. These will be stage names, nothing more, and it is only until we can escape, ~ she told me, looking deep into my eyes.

I wished that I could be half as strong, confident, and determined as she seemed to be. Sure, I came up with a plan but it wasn’t a great plan, just our only real option. If anyone was going to keep us on task long enough to finish it though, it was probably Kara, not me. I tried to think about that instead of how nice her touch felt and how it seemed to linger before she realized what she was doing and pulled away. ~ I… thanks, ~ was all that I could manage to get out.

~ Yeah… anytime. I… we can’t have you all broody after all. You’re supposed to be the friendly one, ~ she answered awkwardly.

She was right and I suddenly felt bad that she had to try to cheer me up, especially since it looked like I had somehow made her uncomfortable. Jenny and Kieshala were giving us strange looks and I realized that I must have embarrassed Kara again somehow. Did I miss something important because I didn’t grow up as a girl? I needed to get the attention off of Kara’s part in whatever social blunder that I had just made so I mentally blurted out, ~We should practice our swimming! ~

I had given up on getting a chance with the tablet unsecured for the moment since Dr. Emerson was using it and I figured that practicing swimming with Jenny and Kara would be a good idea. Kieshala couldn’t join us, being chained up and all, but she was able to give us some advice on how to improve our technique and move our tails and fins more naturally. Apparently, our excess fins are for maneuverability and course control in the water while males are built more for raw power and speed. We could get some decent speed too though, as long as we tucked our arms in and wrapped our shalkai tightly around us to reduce drag.

We were playing a game of underwater tag when a sharp whistle got our attention. The three of us had been so busy playing that we hadn’t noticed how much time had passed, or that Dr. Emerson had apparently left and returned with our lunch. We joined Kieshala at the corner of the pool, where Dr. Emerson was offering her what looked like a raw tuna steak, holding it very still and being careful to make no sudden motions. “Here you go, Lorelei, nice and gentle please.”

The elder Naethari looked at her uncertainly for a moment. ~ I guess that Lorelei is supposed to be your name. She’s trying to get you to take the food gently. ~ I advised.

~ Probably trying to start reinforcing our new names for us too, ~ Kara added.

Kieshala delicately took the tuna steak and then started to eat, holding back the disgust and low-key anger that was evident in her mind voice as she sent us, ~You had better be right about your ‘friends’ being able to help us, Naiya. This is humiliating. ~

“Good girl, Lorelei,” Dr. Emerson told her, gently stroking her hair.

We each had our turns, gently took the steaks, and submitted to affectionate hair stroking as Dr. Emerson spoke to us gently and reinforced our new names. Kieshala was Lorelei, Kara was Nixie, Jenny was Marina, and I was Melody. None of us were too happy with the new monikers but I guess that mine at least sort of suited me.

With that task completed, we were allowed to dig into the buckets for the remainder of our lunches while Dr. Emerson took to her chair and watched us as she ate her own. As much as I liked the shrimp, I was going to get sick of raw seafood and seaweed so fast at the rate we were going. I could have really gone for a BLT like she had. At least it filled our bellies, and the fruit was always a nice treat after the rest of our meal.

When Dr. Emerson went to return the cart and buckets to wherever they came from we had another quick lesson on the porpoise language from Kieshala and then went back to ‘playing’, as we tried to improve our swimming abilities. To our surprise, Dr. Emerson actually came back in a swimsuit and got in the water with us. She had even brought along some pool toys and tried to teach us some basic games. Not that we made it easy, we couldn’t look too smart after all. All of that ended though when we heard the barrage of footsteps outside the room, followed by the door being unlocked. Pierce had arrived.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 8 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 8: Smoldering

~ Holy disposable lackeys, Batman, ~ I mentally muttered once the door was opened and the group of people entered. At first, I couldn’t even see Pierce behind the wall of plus-sized goons in security jumpsuits who had preceded him. What the hell? Was he genetically engineering these guys? Actually, since I was human a few days ago, I probably shouldn’t put it past him.

There were eight of them, and they were all built like linebackers and had tranquilizer guns and cattle prods hanging from their belts. My assessment was interrupted as Kieshala asked in confusion, ~ What is a ‘Batman’? Is it some form of God that humans worship? ~

~ No? Not really. I mean, maybe some of those really intense comic book geeks. That’s not really important right now though. Let’s just say that there are certain cultural phrases and ideas that probably won’t translate well to Naethari, ~ I replied. ~ I was just sarcastically pointing out his small army of disposable meat shields. ~

Kieshala’s anger and disdain were evident in her mind voice as she told us, ~ He is an arrogant fool, but one who knows that I would kill him if given the opportunity. He stinks of fear and with four of us now he is smart to hide behind others. I would happily see that man dead. ~

~ Take a deep breath, Kieshala. Focus on us and the plan, not on him, ~ Kara said soothingly.

~ I shall attempt to quell my fury, for now. Not that I can do much, restrained as I am, ~ she replied mentally as she physically took deep breaths to calm herself.

~ Showtime, girls, ~ I mentally muttered. ~Kara and Kieshala, stick together. Jenny, act scared and hide behind them until Dr. Emerson calls us. ~

~ I don’t need to act, ~ Jenny responded as she darted behind the others, her mind-voice tainted with fear and anger.

I pretended to be curious and started to swim closer to the edge of the pool, and that was when I got my first look at Pierce. He was a middle-aged man who time had not been kind to; he looked to be of average height, a bit overweight, and his blond hair was turning silver and starting to recede. He had cold grey eyes and scowled as he looked over us as if we were cuts of meat on display in a butcher shop that wasn’t quite what he was hungry for. The men with him watched us intently and I was suddenly very aware of my nakedness.

Kieshala let out a series of whistles and clicks in Porpoise as if warning me. I paused, looking from the group to back to where Kieshala was placing herself protectively in front of the others, suddenly wishing that I hadn’t chosen to be the curious and friendly one. My warring thoughts were interrupted as Dr. Emerson reached the side of the pool and said, “Good afternoon, Mr. Pierce.”

“Well, have them do something. Show me that you can control them, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes,” Pierce snapped impatiently.

“Sir, with all due respect, they’re scared,” Dr. Emerson replied with a glance toward us. “You can’t expect to come in here with a large group of men displaying aggressive posture and expect them to suddenly obey you. You need to gain their trust and establish a bond if you want their cooperation.”

Pierce’s eyes seemed to grow even colder. “I don’t require their trust, that’s your job. I require them to be able to follow instructions and turn a profit. If you can’t get them to do that then I will find someone who can.”

Dr. Emerson sighed and got up to sit on the edge of the pool and called out, “Melody!” At her call, I let out a quiet sigh of my own and swam over to her. She immediately began to stroke my hair and said, “There’s a good girl. They’re quite intelligent and are already starting to recognize their names, Mr. Pierce. Let’s go join the others, Melody.”

For my part, I tried to smile like I was happy and then followed her as she walked along the edge of the pool and grabbed a bucket that, from the smell, probably contained some shrimp in ice water to keep it fresh. It sloshed slightly as she grabbed it and moved over toward where Jenny and Kara were sticking close to Kieshala in her corner. Once she had gotten there, Dr. Emerson once again sat on the edge of the pool offering me one of the shrimp.

I took it gently from her hand, careful of my claws, and then popped it into my mouth with a smile. “Good girl, Melody,” she told me as she briefly stroked my hair and ear. At least that felt nice, so my smile and happy humming were somewhat genuine. Then she turned to look at Kieshala and said soothingly, “It’s alright, I won’t let anyone hurt you or the other girls, Lorelei. Here, I have a treat for you. Take it gently, please.”

~ Remember the plan, you need to smile and look like you’re bonding with her. Ignore Pierce and the goons and focus on her, ~ Kara advised.

~ Yes, I know, ~ Kieshala replied with an impatient tone at odds with the smile on her face as she delicately took the shrimp from Dr. Emerson’s hand and then submitted to her reward for being a good girl.

“How did you… That beast attacks anyone who gets too close!” Pierce sputtered in confusion and anger. Anger? Where was that coming from? Because Dr. Emerson had tamed the beast that he couldn’t?

Dr. Emerson’s voice was carefully controlled as she replied, “I’ve been letting them get to know me and building a relationship of trust. It takes patience and a gentle hand. Like with any animal, if you just rush in and start manhandling them and expecting them to listen to you, you’re going to get bitten. Animals don’t care how much money you have, if you mistreat them or scare them, their instincts are going to make them see you as a threat. If they trust you and you treat them well, then they will generally treat you well in return.”

Pierce snorted derisively. “I don’t care how it’s done. Just make sure that these creatures are ready to perform and interact with people before my marine park opens in two months. I have an animal trainer from Australia coming in to work with them in a few days. Give her the keys, Joe.” With that, Pierce spun on his heel and left the room followed by his platoon of guards. One of those guards, wary of getting too close to us, tossed a set of keys toward Dr. Emerson before turning and following the others and his boss out of the room.

Our caretaker snorted and reached over to snatch up the keys, waiting until the doors were closed again to grumble, “God, what an asshole. I probably should have listened to Danica and not gotten involved with him but getting to work with you girls was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I mean, a species that comes right out of myth and legend, and you’re so similar to us. There’s so much that we could learn. Anyway, let’s get you out of those chains, Lorelei.”

There were two keys on the keyring, one for the padlock securing the chain to the metal ring at the corner of the pool and another for the one securing the chain to Kieshala’s metal bracers and keeping her handcuffed. Dr. Emerson opened the one on the cuffs first and once Kieshala was freed she unlocked the one at the corner of the pool as well before tossing the chains as far away as she could in distaste. “There, now you can go for a swim while I go and sort out some dinner.”

Kieshala didn’t need to be told, even if she could have fully understood what Dr. Emerson was saying. She dove under the water and took off for the other end of the pool, enjoying what little freedom she had with those chains removed. The rest of us quickly joined her, and as soon as I was under the water I breathed a sigh of relief. ~ Well, part one was a success. Now we just need to keep playing nice with Dr. Emerson and whoever this trainer is that’s coming. Are you feeling better now that your arms are freed, Kieshala? ~

~ Much better, Naiya. Come, I can teach you all to use those tails and fins of yours properly now that I can move around with you. ~ Kieshala said both mentally and in Porpoise. Well, I assumed that’s what she was saying in Porpoise since we were still beginners with the language. For all that I knew she could have been saying, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

Still, she was serious about teaching us. From what she said, she wanted to teach us as much as she could while we had the time. She wasn’t really familiar with the oceans of Earth and wanted us to be able to survive out there together until she could find a place where she could draw on some ambient mana and then find a place where we could pass between worlds to get to Totha.

Usually, Naethari don’t stray too far from their clans and the four of us were going to have to be able to count on one another in the likely event that we had to cross a lot of ocean. Not only would we have to be wary of the dangers of the depths and ready to defend ourselves but Kara pointed out that we would probably have to avoid fishing boats and other human traffic on the oceans as well. Learning to speak Porpoise would not only help us look like we were communicating in our own language to the humans but it would also let us communicate with some of the smarter ocean denizens.

Swimming though would be important for our survival. We needed to build up stamina and learn to swim as fast and maneuver as well as a native Naethari. It would give us an edge against any other deep-sea predators. Kieshala was much faster and more agile in the water than the rest of us since we were still getting used to our new bodies. With that in mind, she darted around us as we swam, correcting our tail movements, fin positions, and even our posture while she assessed us.

Our main problem seemed to be that our movements were still awkward, which wasn’t surprising since we still had trouble properly controlling our tails and fins. We had only had them for a day from our perspective after all. Kieshala had to correct our movements a lot and, by the time Dr. Emerson returned with dinner, she finally decided to just have us start exercising our fins and tails without actually swimming to familiarize ourselves with them and how it felt to use them. She figured that our swimming wasn’t going to start improving until we were used to our new bodies and could control them without having to consciously think about it all of the time.

We had the usual raw seafood and some peaches for our dinner while Dr. Emerson had a few take-out boxes that smelled deliciously familiar. I didn’t need to see the chopsticks to tell what she was eating; beef fried rice, sweet and sour chicken balls, and wonton soup. I barely paid attention to my own dinner once she settled down in her deck chair to eat and watch something on her tablet. As quietly as I could I used my arms to pull myself along the floor until I managed to pull myself up so that I was sitting on my tail beside her. Our tails were actually fairly long, roughly twice the length of human legs from hips to fins, and really flexible below the hips. One of the exercises that Kieshala had us doing was coiling them like a snake’s.

She was intently watching the video on her tablet, what looked like someone training dolphins. She had just picked up a sweet and sour chicken ball with her chopsticks and was about to pop it in her mouth when she noticed me beside her and jumped with a yelp. “Melody! You scared me.”

I wasn’t really listening though because I was busy snatching that falling chicken ball out of the air before it could hit the ground and popping it in my mouth. ~ Mmmm, sooo good, ~ I thought toward the others with a smile as I licked the sauce off of my hand.

~ You’re a brat, Naiya, ~ Kara said with a mental giggle.

~ What? I was curious, ~ I shot back playfully. ~ And it smelled delicious. ~

Meanwhile, Dr. Emerson was trying to both chastise me and not laugh. “Melody, we can’t be sure if that’s even safe for you to eat. I suppose it’s my own fault for not paying attention though, especially with such a curious and mischievous girl around. Now back to the water with you and eat your own dinner.” The last was added as she tried to stop smiling, put a stern expression on her face, and pointed to the others eating out of the buckets.

I gave her my very best sad face and looked pointedly down at her wonton soup causing her to sigh. “Oh, fine. One, and then you go eat your own dinner. It’s a good thing that you’re a mermaid because you’re too damn cute. Between that and your voice, if you were human, I imagine that you’d have me wrapped around your little finger in no time.” She picked up a wonton with her chopsticks and held it out, telling me, “Take it gently, Melody.”

I gingerly took the wonton from her chopsticks between my thumb and forefinger and popped it into my mouth before nomming on it, swallowing the tasty treat, and then giving her a big smile. I liked Dr. Emerson, she seemed like a good egg. I think that she had to remind herself that we weren’t human sometimes because she was starting to talk to us rather than around us like others did, especially after choosing our names. It was like on some unconscious level she thought that we would understand her. Or maybe she was just like that with all of the marine animals that she cared for.

“Go eat now,” she told me sternly, though I could see her still trying to hold back a smile as she pointed to the others. “If that didn’t make you sick, maybe I’ll bring all of you a treat later this week.” I held back my smile and pretended to be chastised as I made my way back to the others to eat my dinner.

~ I call being ‘curious’ if she ever brings in chocolate, ~ Jenny said with a giggle as I settled in to eat with the others.

~ I’ll distract her for you, ~ I promised with a grin. Jenny deserved some sweets, they were a good kid and had been through more shit than any child should. ~ I’m a brat after all. ~

~ And a terrible influence on my sis… sibling, ~ Kara agreed.

~ You don’t need to dance around pronouns and stuff with me, ~ Kara’s younger sibling said, her mind-voice carrying her determination as she looked at the three of us in turn. ~ I’m a girl inside, I’ve always been a girl, and I don’t want to be anything else. ~

Kieshala reached out to put a hand gently on Jenny’s shoulder and smiled at her. ~Then that is how we will refer to you, Jenny. Many of our kind are drawn strongly to their chosen gender even before the second metamorphosis, it is why we encourage self-discovery. It just would not have been proper of me to address you as either male or female until you made your feelings on the subject known to us. Now you had all best eat as much as you can, you will need your energy because after the human leaves I will begin training you to use your aetral. ~

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 9 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 9: Training

That evening, after Dr. Emerson had left for the night, Kieshala was as good as her word and began training us to use our magical abilities. The only one of us who was close to consciously using her ability was Kara but the auras she sensed only appeared infrequently and she couldn’t hold the connection to a person’s aura for very long when it did. She couldn’t actually consciously summon the ability though.

Jenny had used her ability once, but she hadn’t been consciously doing it. She had seen that Kieshala was injured and her instincts had kicked in but her aetral had basically used her rather than her using it. Kieshala told us that if we wanted to master our gifts then there were two things that we needed to do.

Firstly, we needed to find out what it felt like when we used our aetral so that we could not only use it on command but control it to do exactly what we wanted it to, and how much magic we used to do it. The magic itself was the other side of the equation. We had to find the weave of magic inside ourselves and summon it consciously. We wouldn’t be able to use it much or for very long at first but our magic was like a muscle and exercising it was important to our development. The more that we trained at summoning our magic and directing it, the stronger our magic would get and the longer we would be able to summon it.

Kara and Jenny had already used their aetral so they had a general idea of how to use it. I hadn’t yet, so the plan was for me to try to trigger it by singing. From what Kieshala was able to tell me, Soulsingers like me focused their ability through singing or humming. Our physical voices are made for that, which was why mine was so naturally clear and musical. She literally just had to hear me speak to know what my aetral was.

She didn’t really know much more about my aetral than that though because Soulsingers are rare. Having one in your clan could elevate the clan’s status but Moonreef Clan hadn’t had one for ages. So she couldn’t offer me any advice except to sing or hum as much as I could get away with until I could accidentally trigger my ability. Healers like Jenny were nearly as rare but at least she had an idea of what using her aetral felt like. The pair of us would be a huge boon to Clan Moonreef if we could ever get free and stay alive long enough to find them.

As for finding the weave of magic within ourselves, that was basically just assisted meditation. We had to feel for the warmth of the light inside ourselves. This was easier said than done. I had never been good at the whole meditation and introspection thing. If I had been good at it, I would have probably figured out that I was a girl inside without having to become a Naethari first. So, it came as no surprise to me when I didn’t find it that night. The only one of us who had was Jenny.

As we all curled up together on the bottom of the pool to get some sleep, I tried singing lullabies. I was the last to fall asleep, but probably not because of any magic or anything. At least I didn’t feel anything that could have been magic. I was pretty sure that we were all just tired from a very long day. It wasn’t long before I joined the others in slumber.

For the next couple of days, we settled into a pattern of sorts. We would start the day by eating our breakfast while Dr. Emerson observed our behavior and then ‘play’ with her until lunchtime as she socialized with us and tried to teach us various games adapted to playing in the water. After we ate lunch, Kieshala would take us back to the bottom of the pool to work on tail and fin exercises, and meditation, and then we would alternate between working on our swimming and trying to extend the time that we could summon our magic and use our aetral.

Dr. Emerson would then return in time to give us dinner and then observe and socialize with us for a while until it was time for her to leave. I wasn’t sure what she was doing with the off-time in the afternoons. She could have been writing a book about us or running errands for all that I knew. I think that she was trying to give us some time to just socialize and play with our fellow Naethari though. It was like she didn’t want to overwhelm us with too much human interaction until we were comfortable with her and our environment. Especially since Kieshala was making it obvious that she was trying to teach us things.

Every lesson under Kieshala was spoken in both Naethari and Porpoise so that we were learning the new language as well as whatever else that she was having us work on. I was actually starting to understand a bit of it and she was encouraging us to try to speak it as well. We were getting better with our fins and tails each day too. I just wished that the lessons on how to use our aetral were going as well.

Both Kara and I had managed to find our magic on that second day of trying but I was still no closer to triggering my gift than I had been when we had started. I was getting a lot of singing practice though and I found myself really enjoying that, especially now that I had a voice that I didn’t hate. I could only really practice when we weren’t under observation though, and underwater as well, to try to avoid any possible cameras or listening devices in the room.

We were also getting to know one another and becoming more comfortable with each other. Kieshala was kind of like a mother hen and quickly took on the older mature sister and teacher role. She was almost motherly, though it was hard for us former humans to think of her like that since she looked around the same age as me and Kara. Jenny was quickly becoming the kid sister I had never had but always secretly wanted. She was a sweet girl and could be so energetic and playful at times when she was relaxed. She was even starting to show that side around Dr. Emerson once in a while.

Things with Kara were complicated though. I liked her and I could see us being great friends. She was smart, thoughtful, caring, and goal-oriented. She had actually wanted to study marine biology when she started college the next year, which explained some of the observations that she had made about Naethari biology. We probably would have been best friends if I wasn’t so attracted to her. It was making me act awkward at times and I was sure that everyone could see right through me.

To make it worse, she would sometimes say or do things that would have made me think that she was interested in me if I was still a guy. I had no idea how girls our age interacted with one another either, so that wasn’t really helping things either. Three mornings in a row I awoke with her arm around me and I just felt so safe and wanted while in her embrace that it was making my feelings for her even worse and I was crushing on her big time.

When she awoke in that position it made things awkward for me because I couldn’t dare tell her how I felt. Trying to look like I hadn’t been enjoying it too much made me feel and act awkwardly because she was obviously embarrassed by it and that just made her act awkward as well. For her sake, I tried to just wave it off as girls being girls.

It wasn’t really a surprise when I woke up in her embrace on our fifth morning of captivity. This time though, I managed to slip out without waking her and put some distance between us so I could start on my fin and tail exercises. A sad look passed over her face and she reached out in her sleep as if for a lost teddy bear. I so wished that it was something more than unconscious reactions making her reach out for my absent form like that.

I managed to put it out of my mind briefly while I exercised and then did a few laps. The others were all still asleep when I heard the door opening and, expecting that it was breakfast time, I gently woke them. They were all rising sleepily to the surface to join me by the time breakfast was served.

Things went about as normal as our new normal was until mid-morning. Dr. Emerson had been playing catch with us but she was getting a bit tired and was sitting out for a bit while we continued to play. Kieshala was having us use our tails and fins to try to keep as much of our upper bodies out of the water as we could and it proved to be a very good exercise for us and was helping to develop our strength, stamina, and fine control over our new lower bodies.

Kara had gotten a bit too exuberant with a lob and it sailed over my outstretched hand to land on the tiles at the edge of the pool and bounce away. It got about twenty feet away from the pool before it had rolled to a stop. I decided to climb out of the pool and made my way over to get it and was most of the way there when Dr. Emerson noticed what I was doing and laughed. “You know, I could have gotten that for you, Melody.”

It was about then that I heard footsteps and men’s voices approaching from outside the room, though I couldn’t make out most of what they were saying until the lock clicked and the door opened. I turned my gaze there, wondering what was up. An Australian accented voice was saying, “… don’t understand all the secrecy, mate. I’m used to safety waivers in my line o’ work, but confidentiality agreements?”

“Mermaids,” the other voice replied. “They’re terrifying though; fangs and claws, and poisonous spines coming out of their arms. I saw one of them kill a man before he even realized what was happening.”

That was when one of the guards that I thought was ‘Joe’ entered the room with an unfamiliar man dressed in board shorts and a muscle shirt with deck shoes on his feet, and a tranquilizer gun and cattle prod hanging from his belt. He was tanned with short brown hair and looked like he worked out too much, having a physique closer to a bodybuilder’s than a swimmer’s. “Crikey! You must be puttin’ me on, mate.”

That was about when Dr. Emerson stood up and called out, “You must be Trevor Dane, our new trainer. I’m Dr. Natalie Emerson, the girls’ primary caregiver, and doctor. This is Melody, one of our mermaids. I’ve been working on building trust with them, so if you take some time and let them get to know you, hopefully, your job will be a lot easier.”

He was staring at me and it made me really uncomfortable. It was taking everything that I had not to bare my fangs and hiss at him. I was about to drag my naked self back to the water when the man let out a derisive snort. “Listen, love. From what I’ve been told, that there is a predator. I’ve worked with a lot o’ predators and I’ve never gotten anywhere by playin’ nice with 'em. What you need is a display of dominance, show ‘em who’s boss.”

“Now, listen here. I’ve been observing and interacting with them. I know them better than anyone,” Dr. Emerson countered, trying to keep her voice calm and level.

The Steve Irwin wannabe wasn’t listening as he stomped toward me threateningly. I barely had a chance to try to back off before he drew the cattle prod from his belt and jabbed it into the still wet flesh on my left side ribs. “Get back in the water!”

I think that I may have screamed as I fell to the ground like a limp noodle and started convulsing. ~ Naiya! ~ the other Naethari called into my mind in concern.

~ I’m going to kill him, ~ Kara practically snarled. She was the last one that I expected to lose control and I would have been worried about her actually doing it if I hadn’t just gotten electrocuted.

At the moment all that I could do was spasm and watch though as Dr. Emerson reacted faster than any of us expected, especially Crocodile Dumdee. Her face was a mask of fury as she snatched the prod from his hand and gave him a taste of his own medicine, right between the legs. As he went down twitching, she snarled, “Was that dominant enough for you, Asshole?!” Then she turned her glare to the guard. “Joe, get him out of here, he’s fired.”

~Jenny, wait here, I do not wish for you to get hurt if this gets violent and we cannot risk you healing Naiya in front of the humans, ~ I could hear Kieshala saying.

“But Mr. Pierce…” Joe started to argue with Dr. Emerson.

“I know that Mr. Pierce hired that idiot. But since I doubt that Mr. Pierce wants this project to fail spectacularly, I’m firing him. I’ll deal with Mr. Pierce,” she told Joe flatly.

Joe seemed uncertain for a moment but then quickly grabbed the spastic man by the arms and dragged him out of the pool room. It could have had something to do with the two very angry Naethari that were now out of the water and gathering protectively around me. “Idiots,” Dr. Emerson muttered bitterly. Then, seeming to realize that she was still clutching the cattle prod, she tossed it toward the doors and looked cautiously toward us. She held out her hands and tried to make no sudden movements as she moved slowly toward the deck chair she had been seated in before this started. “I need to get my medical bag so I can take care of Melody.”

Kieshala watched Dr. Emerson carefully. ~ I knew that we couldn’t trust these humans. ~

Meanwhile, Kara took my hand in hers and tried to make soothing sounds as she looked down at me in worry. ~ Are you okay, Naiya? ~

~ It only hurts when I breathe or try to move. ~ I answered, though it was taking a bit more concentration than usual to form the words in my mind through the pain. ~ We can’t trust all of them, Kieshala, but I think that Dr. Emerson is one of the good ones. Did you see what she did? ~

~ Yes, I did. It is the only reason that she is not dead now.~ the elder Naethari said, trying to calm herself.

~ She’s going to try to treat Naiya’s injury, we should let her approach, ~ Kara suggested as she gripped my hand in hers and gently stroked my hair. When Dr. Emerson approached with her medical bag, she and Kieshala made a point of being protective but they let her approach after scenting the air.

Dr. Emerson knelt down beside me and winced as she looked at my side. “He really jabbed it in there, didn’t he? That’s a nasty electrical burn and I don’t have anything to treat that. It’s not something that you see often with marine animals around here. He could have stopped your heart if he had jabbed you any higher. The best that I can do is bandage it, keep an eye out for infection, and hope that your natural regeneration helps to heal it properly.” She got a large piece of gauze and placed it over the burn, quickly securing it in place with medical tape.

She listened to my heartbeat with a stethoscope and checked my head for any possible injuries, once she was able to convince Kara to give her the space to do it. As soon as she finished treating me she went to her chair to extract her cellphone from her purse. Then she walked nearly to the doors, probably to give us some space before making a call. I assumed that she had called Pierce because she had to wait quite a while and then the conversation got really heated. She wasn’t close enough for me to hear Pierce’s side of the conversation but we could all definitely hear her side.

“Mr. Dane will not be staying on this project… Because I damned well fired him!” she snapped angrily. The woman had a backbone, that was for sure. “He was here less than five minutes and he probably set back any progress that I’ve made here by a week or more! …Well, he damn near killed one of your precious mermaids just to stroke his own goddamn ego! …Check the security feeds if you want, I don’t care if you believe me… What? None? But you said…”

There was a short pause from Dr. Emerson before she sighed and started speaking again. “I know, you want them to be friendly, cooperative, and gentle. Melody has displayed all of those qualities and we were making real progress, and then he came in here, didn’t listen to a word that I said, and electrocuted her for no reason while she was being social with me. Now I need to regain their trust! …No, I’ll look into a new trainer myself so you don’t need to worry about wasting your time. I’ll have a shortlist for you by the end of the week.”

When she was done she placed her phone back in her purse. Then she cautiously approached us once more before checking my heart rate again. “I’m so sorry, girls. I should have been faster. I’ll make sure that your new trainer is trustworthy, I promise.”

What I did next was probably impulsive and reckless but as she removed the pad of the stethoscope from my chest, I reached up to take it in my shaking hand, pulled it up to my lips, and spoke so quietly that only the other Naethari would have been able to hear it without assistance. “Thanks, Doc. Please… don’t say anything… or react visibly. We need your help, and I need to borrow… your tablet.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 10 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 10: Commitment

For a moment, Dr. Emerson just stared at me in stunned silence. Then she sputtered. “Y-y-you just spoke…I… what? How? I was beginning to suspect that you were sentient, but to speak our language so quickly…”

“Quiet please,” I told her. “I don’t want to risk any listening devices or hidden cameras picking up this conversation.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” she responded, shaking off some of the wonder and confusion that was showing on her face. “There are none in here. Mr. Pierce told me when I called him. This is part of a converted luxury bunker beneath his mansion. The room where Lorelei was before is just a sauna and plunge pool. The hallway outside, and the rooms that I’m not allowed access to, are heavily monitored, I’ve seen the cameras out there. He never thought to have any put any in here though since there’s only one way in or out, that way out does have security, and it’s not like you’re going to walk out of here.”

“Well, at least that’s one thing in our favor,” Kara muttered.

~ She said that there is nothing in here to watch or listen to us, can I try to heal Naiya now? She looks like she’s in pain, ~ Jenny asked Kieshala.

Our elder Naethari sighed, looking uncertainly at Dr. Emerson for a moment before finally giving her consent. ~ Go ahead, Jenny. Remember to focus on calling your magic to you first. You must control it, not allow it to control you. Even I must admit that this human has treated us far better than the others in this world. She may be a useful ally when we attempt our escape if she can be swayed to see our plight. ~

Jenny quickly swam to the side of the pool and then pulled herself up and along the tiled floor to join us. “I’m going to try to heal her,” she told the human among us as Dr. Emerson looked from me to Kara and then to Jenny in shock.

Her shock only intensified as Jenny started to glow with a bright golden light. The instant that she touched me that light surrounded me as well, along with a numb tingly feeling, like when you have a limb fall asleep. I let out a sigh as the pain lessened and by the time the glow faded and Jenny had removed her hands, I was feeling better than I had since realizing who I truly was. Even my muscle aches from us pushing our bodies so hard were gone. “Thanks, Jenny,” I told her with a smile.

“You… what… how?” Dr. Emerson stammered, seeming to have temporarily lost her ability to speak.

“Magic,” I replied simply. “There is more to us than anyone here suspects, Dr. Emerson. We need your help. I need to contact my family so they can help us to escape, so I would like to borrow your tablet.”

“You… Do mermaids use computers? You seem so knowledgeable about our society.” It seemed that she could speak again, but that look of wonder was back in her eyes.

“Not Mermaids… Naethari,” Kieshala corrected. She was visibly trying to hold back her angst at the human word for us but managed to at least say it somewhat calmly.

“Not all of us were born Naethari either,” I added. “Those rooms that you’re not allowed to access are probably where we were being monitored while we changed. I’m Naiya, that’s Kara and her sister Jenny, and that is Kieshala. Only Kieshala was born Naethari. Pierce changed us by feeding us Kieshala’s flesh. I had terminal cancer and thought that I was being offered a cure.”

“Pierce kidnapped our family and faked our deaths,” Kara contributed. “Our brother and parents didn’t survive the process. And if you thought that Aussie asshole was bad, he was downright sweet compared to how Kieshala has been treated since being captured. She couldn’t even protest because she didn’t know our language so she had to try to fight her way free. She’s still learning to speak English, and teaching us Porpoise.”

“Even if she was able to talk to him; I doubt Pierce would have treated her any differently. Except maybe removed her vocal cords. They would have just regenerated in time though,” I pointed out candidly.

As we spoke, Dr. Emerson’s face contorted more and more in anger and disgust. She had to visibly calm herself as she turned to Kieshala. “I am sorry for how my kind has treated you, all of you. Oh shit! I treated you like animals! I’m so sorry about that! You are intelligent people and don’t deserve any of this. There is so much that we could learn from you, Kieshala.” Then her fists clenched in anger. “That bastard! He experimented on unwilling people, children even! I’d quit right now if I didn’t think that it would make things worse for you!”

“Not to mention what he’d do to you if he didn’t think that he still had some control over you,” Kara pointed out. “Best case scenario, you’d be joining us here on a more permanent basis.”

“If she survived the process,” I added bitterly. “There were close to forty of us in my group and only two of us survived the process. I’m going to bet that any other groups he tried were the same. He mentioned this becoming a waste of resources and Pierce seems like the kind not to give up so I’m guessing that only Jenny and Kara survived from their group, and there was probably at least one other group with no survivors.”

We had been translating and relaying the conversation for Kieshala’s sake and the sunset-hued Naethari sounded even more bitter than me as she said, ~ I was ‘harvested’ five times since being captured. ~

I shuddered to think about that and sighed. “Yeah, Kieshala says five groups. So that means roughly a two percent or less survival rate. We only survived because we were too sick to fight the process and we had some latent magic potential.”

For a moment Dr. Emerson looked wistful before pointing out, “As cool as it would be to become one of you and learn all about you, I would hardly be able to help you then and I wouldn’t do it if it meant being Pierce’s trained animal. I love the ocean and I love learning about the creatures that inhabit it but I want to protect them too. It’s why I became a marine biologist. If anyone needs protecting right now, it’s the four of you. I would assume that if you had any magic that you could use to escape you’d already be gone and not asking for my help.”

“You would assume right,” Kara agreed. “And unless Kieshala can get to some kind of remote natural place with enough mana, and then to a place where our worlds intersect, we won’t be able to get her home to her clan either. Whether we have to arrange a rescue or could somehow just magically grow legs and walk out of here right now, that wouldn’t change. But Naiya has family that she thinks can help us.”

~ Our clan, ~ Kieshala corrected after getting the translation. ~ You will all be welcomed. And there is little left for any of you here. As for finding mana, if we can find a place that is remote enough, even if there is no mana the four of us may be enough to encourage some to form, but it would take time, perhaps many moon cycles. I am afraid that only a Shifter would be able to change their form though, and none of us here has that aetral, that I know of. ~

I think that all three of us who heard her response were a bit confused. ~What do you mean? ~ Jenny asked.

~ And what about this, ‘that I know of’? ~ Kara added.

~ Naethari are bound to the primal magic of the sea. It is why we were created, ~ Kieshala patiently explained. ~ We radiate primal energy to foster life and growth. Were we not in this stone prison beneath a city of humans that has been all but drained of any natural life we would see life around us beginning to thrive, and with abundant life comes mana. Most of the energy that we receive from our meals is converted to primal growth energy, a much smaller portion gives us the energy to swim and go about our daily activities, and the rest powers our aetral. ~

~You haven’t explained the ‘that I know of’ part yet, Kieshala. ~ Kara insisted.

Kieshala let out a sigh that was both physical and mental. ~It is rare, but sometimes Naethari can possess more than one aetral. Kara and Jenny, the weave of your magics are clear to me. You are an Empath and a Healer, I have seen both at least once before so the weave is familiar. I have not seen a Soulsinger before and I am certain that Naiya is one from her voice alone. I am unfamiliar with their weave though so it is remotely possible that she may have more than one aetral. It could be why she is having trouble using hers as well if that is the case. We cannot know for certain until she manifests an ability. ~

While we were all having our little mental confab, Dr. Emerson was off getting her tablet from her deck chair. “Here you go, Mel… Naiya.”

I turned onto my belly and took the offered tablet, which she had already graciously unlocked for me. “Thank you, Dr. Emerson. This means a lot, to all of us. If you’re not sure about this, I don’t have to do this, I can find another way. If Pierce finds out that you’re helping us…”

“I’ll probably wish that he’d killed me,” she finished with a grim nod. “And call me Natalie, or better yet, Nat. That’s what my friends call me. I’m here for the four of you, not Pierce. I have been since I saw the picture of Kieshala. If you have to run, metaphorically speaking, I’ll run with you. It’s not like I have much of a life here. My family wants nothing to do with me since I came out of the closet after graduating last year and my girlfriend broke up with me when she found out that I would be working for that bastard Pierce.”

“You’re going to have to be as committed to this as the rest of us,” Kara warned. “That means treating us the same as before if anyone else is around, and using those ridiculous names for us. Kieshala has said that what you’re feeding us isn’t too different than what our kind usually eat, Naethari supposedly love fresh fruit when they can get it, so that should stay the same too.”

“We wouldn’t mind if you could occasionally sneak in a treat for us though,” Jenny added wistfully before giving a cheeky grin. “Naiya promised to help me distract you if you ever brought chocolate in. And we all could see how much she loved that Chinese food.”

“Noted,” Natalie said with a conspirator’s wink. “I might just have Chinese for dinner tonight. It would be a shame for it all to go to waste if I accidentally got too much. I’ve been having a bit of a sweet tooth lately too, so maybe I’ll stock up on some chocolate. Maybe pizza tomorrow night? I don’t think I could eat an entire large one myself but I could save some for later, maybe enough slices that some overly curious ‘mermaids’ might get their hands on.”

“Oh hell yes! Please no anchovies though. I could kill for a meat supreme,” Kara said with a moan of desire that made my heart do funny things. Then she turned to me. “So, how are you going to do this, Naiya? You mentioned back channels and stuff before right?”

I didn’t realize how close she was to me before, and when I turned my head we were practically nose-to-nose, with her warm breath blowing gently against my face with each exhale. If my heart had been fluttering before, now it was doing an Olympic gymnastics routine. She reached out to brush a stray strand of hair from my face and grazed my cheek and I practically stopped breathing from her touch. Oh my Goddess, why was she torturing me like this? Do all girls act this intimately with their friends?

“I… well… I mean… I … umm…” I couldn’t seem to put words together. That was when she seemed to realize that her fingertips were brushing my cheek and she pulled her hand away as if burned. Noooo! Don’t stop, put it back!

“I… yeah… sorry. I thought your hair might… uhh… be in the way,” she stammered breathily as she looked away in embarrassment. Shit! I’d done it again, I had embarrassed her somehow with my awkwardness.

“I… well… thanks,” I said, trying to look anywhere but at her right then. My eyes fell upon Natalie, who was giving us an amused look that both confused and embarrassed me further. I took a deep breath and focused my scattered brain on the tablet instead. I had work to do. “There are message boards and other places I could leave messages for her but I’ll try logging into my Skype and calling Maddie first. It’s unlikely that she’ll answer unless she’s back in Miami, but I guess it’s worth a try.”

I logged in and hit her number. Oh shit, that was the video call icon, oh well, no worries it wasn’t like she was actually going to… “Omigod! Jon?! You had us worried sick! What… the hell?! Who the fuck are you and why are you calling me from my brother’s Skype account?! If this is some kind of ransom thing you have fucked with the wrong family!” Her pretty face was distorted in fury and almost as red as her short-cropped and punk-styled ginger hair. Her bright green eyes focused on me with a malevolence that I had never seen from her before, even in combat training.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 11 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 11: Embarrassed

“Fuck! Fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck! I didn’t expect her to actually be States-side to answer it! Oh shit, Maddie looks really pissed! What do I do? I need to… yes words, I can use those! Maybe. Deep breath, friendly smile, not too friendly though. You don’t want to smile too big and freak her out with the fangs. Carp, I mean crap, I’m still panicking. Heh heh, those fish puns will never lose their a-lure though.” At that point, I managed to calm my thoughts enough to take that deep breath I had been planning on and tried to look friendly. “Okay, I really wasn’t expecting you to answer but I need you to just calm down for a minute and watch the screen while my friend shows you the back of my neck.”

I handed the tablet to Kara, who brushed my hair out of the way with one hand while aiming the tablet with the other. Then I heard the telltale click of a photo being taken before it was handed back to me. When I looked at the screen again, I saw that the photo had been sent and my sister was gaping at the screen. “How did you get that tattoo?”

“It’s simple Mads, I was the one who designed it for you. We got them together after my mom died. We promised to always be there for one another and I drew this for you so you’d always have part of me with you. You insisted that we both get them since I was going to art school instead of joining you and your parents for an exciting life of shooting people and blowing shit up. You said that we’d always be together this way if we got them in the same spot. You suggested the back of the neck so guys wouldn’t razz me for having a girlie tattoo, because I always wore my hair long,” I told her as patiently as I could with my heart hammering in my chest.

“No… you can’t…”

“It’s me, Mads. I’ve been through some changes though. Ask me anything,” I encouraged while she was still speechless.

Her eyes narrowed and she asked, “If you really are Jon then you’ll know this, what’s your favorite sports team?”

She just had to go for my weak spot, didn’t she? “Goddammit, Mads! Of all the stupid questions to ask! You know damn well that I hate sports, all sports! I hate watching them, I especially hate playing them! I wanted music lessons, but oh no, you begged me to join the little league team with you! It was a disaster and then there was you, our top hitter and star pitcher! The only reason that I ever wore that stupid Dolphins jersey was that we live in Miami and it was a gift from you, and you know it! If I still had fucking legs I’d walk out of here, find you, and smack you upside the head!”

For a moment after my rage-rant, she just sat there gaping at the screen. “Jon? How? What? I… nobody goes on an anti-sports rant like you do.” Then the end of my rant seemed to catch up with her. “What do you mean by, ‘If I still had legs’?”

I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Okay, Mads, this is all going to sound crazy as fuck, but I, and some other girls, have been turned into ‘mermaids’ by some Bond villain wannabe. We’re being held captive and he plans to train us to perform in some marine park. And could you call me Naiya, please? It’s what I’m calling myself now since I no longer look like a Jon. It turns out I wasn’t really your kid brother all these years, I was your kid sister, I just didn’t know it. I never realized what felt so wrong until I woke up like this.”

“Wow, this is not how I expected you to come out to me,” I heard her mumble.

“Wait, you knew?!”

“I suspected,” she clarified. “I thought that you’d come out to me when you were ready. I never expected ‘Oh, I’m a girl and a mermaid now and being held against my will.’ That didn’t even make my top one hundred scenarios.”

“Well, it does seem a little unlikely,” I agreed.

“I’m assuming that you’re calling because you and your friends need our help, Sis? You did mention a Bond villain and being held captive,” Maddie said to try to get back to the subject at hand.

Omigod, she just casually called me Sis. Not Bro, or Jon, or Jonny. I felt like my heart was going to explode with happiness. She not only believed me, but she also accepted me and that meant everything to me. I had to try to fight back tears while I began to explain everything to her. I told her that we were Naethari, not mermaids. I told her about how Pierce had captured Kieshala and how he had been cutting her apart and using pieces of her flesh to change people. I told her how he had kidnapped Kara, Jenny, and their family, how few of us survived, his plans, and our plan. Finally, I told her the most difficult part of all, how I had gotten into this mess.

She was angry, but then, she had a right to be and she was already pissed about our situation, to begin with. “Naiya, you should have fucking told us! We could have been there for you!”

“How?! What could you have done?! Watched me waste away?! Felt helpless because there was nothing that any of us could do?! I didn’t want any of you to have your last memories of me be like that!” I practically shouted back at her in frustration.

“So you shut us out?! You took away our choice?! Never do that again, Naiya! We promised to be there for one another forever and I’m going to damn well keep my end of the bargain, so I expect you to as well!” She took several deep breaths to calm herself down. “You know what Mom and Dad say, this isn’t the time for anger. You and your friends are in danger and if we’re going to get you out then we’ll need to think calmly. Mom and Dad are going to be just as pissed at you when we have you safe and sound though.”

“You’re right, and I probably deserve it. I was a shitty brother,” I admitted.

“No, you were a shitty sister, but I think we can work on that,” my sister said, cracking a faint smile. “I already suspected that you had gotten deep in some bad situation, Sis. We got home almost a three weeks ago and when you weren’t answering our calls for four days straight we got worried and started checking hospitals. We found where you’d been taken not long after you were released into the care of an Emily Shaw, representing the Pierce Foundation two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks? But I’ve only been here like five days,” I argued.

~ The transformation process of a human into one of our kind can take up to half a moon cycle, Naiya ~ Kieshala pointed out. She was still having trouble with more complex words and phrases, especially slang, but it seemed like my outburst was simple enough for her to understand.

Maddie didn’t hear that though, of course. “I dunno, you did say you were drugged for a while and I’ll bet that a transformation like that doesn’t happen in a few hours, Sis. Anyway, it was all bogus, Emily Shaw doesn’t exist and Pierce has the reputation of someone who I would very much like to put a bullet into, even before I heard about this. We contacted the Pierce Foundation and they said no such cancer treatment exists. We tried tracking the van that took you from the hospital using traffic cameras but it didn’t go to the medical research facility mentioned in the paperwork, we lost track of it in a residential area.”

“Not surprising since all of this is going on right beneath that bastard’s mansion,” I told her.

“Extracting you while you’re there is going to prove difficult,” my big sister explained. “We could probably loop the cameras and get you out without anyone knowing it’s us but there would be a lot of bodies if he has as much security as I suspect. Maybe some of them are just working stiffs with no idea what’s happening down there. And carrying out four people is just begging for someone on our side to take a few bullets too. I’d rather not risk that. The best time to get you out would be at the marine park or better yet, to intercept you en route. Which means that we’re going to need an inside man, or woman in this case.”

Dr. Emerson had been watching the conversation over my shoulder and quickly said, “I’m your girl! I want to get them out of here safely and you may need someone to help if any Naethari-related problems crop up.”

“Okay, I’m going to need you to contact me when you’re off work, so keep Naiya’s Skype account loaded on your tablet, Dr. Emerson. Or we could meet somewhere for dinner so we can get to know one another and you can give me more details on the situation,” Maddie suggested with a smile.

“Oh my Goddess, Sis! Stop flirting, this situation is serious!” I sputtered in frustration. “You don’t even know if she’s interested!”

“Who says I’m not,” Natalie countered. “I happen to have a thing for butch redheads, and you can call me Nat. Unlike some useless disaster lesbians that I know, I can admit when I’m into someone.” Wait, was that directed at me? Is that why she looked pointedly at me and Kara?

“Dinner tonight then, Nat?” my sister shamelessly pressed.

“I could maybe manage an hour before I have to come back to feed the girls,” Nat teased right back. “I promised them some Chinese take-out tonight for a treat. Do you know Sun Chi’s?”

“It’s one of Naiya’s favorites. What time should I meet you there?”

“Four o’clock? We can eat something light and talk business. If things go well then maybe we can meet at my place later tonight for dessert,” our caretaker offered suggestively.

“I do like dessert, sweet thing. I’ll see you at four then,” Maddie replied with a grin, winking at her over my shoulder.

“Lalalalalala. I’m not hearing this.” I would have covered my ears but I was still holding the tablet.

“Oh grow up, Sis, there’s nothing wrong with being open and honest about being attracted to someone. How else are you going to see if you’re compatible without giving things a try?” she chastised me before looking behind her. “I gotta go now so I can talk to Mom and Dad, and try to convince them that this crazy story is the truth before meeting with Nat. Take care of yourself and the others, Naiya. Love you, Sis, and don’t worry, we’re gonna get you all out of this.”

As soon as she disconnected the call I let out a long sigh. “Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would when she picked up.”

“It did, I even got a date with a hot redhead out of it,” Nat teased.

“Please, she’s not hot, she’s my sister,” I grouched as I wondered if brain bleach was a thing.

“Your hot sister,” the fit blonde human among us said with a grin. Then she gave us a serious look, more specifically, she gave me and Kara a serious look. “I’m going to go fish up some lunch for you girls, I’ll be back shortly. Before I go though, Naiya and Kara, there’s something I want to tell you. You two seriously have to stop awkwardly dancing around one another. I only caught onto it after you started talking to me but it’s already painful to watch.”

“Huh?” we replied almost in unison.

“You two are hopeless! I’m eight and I got it!” Jenny suddenly announced while rolling her eyes and huffing in frustration.

“See, it’s obvious to everyone but the two of you, you just need to kiss already. You two are into one another but you’re both so worried about being rejected or scaring each other off that you’re missing the signs or dismissing them as something stupid. I probably would have seen the signs days ago if I had been thinking of you as humans but I was still trying to figure out your social behavior in the context of ‘mermaids’ so I missed it. I’ll be back with your lunch in a few minutes, just think about what I said,” Natalie said as she turned and headed for the exit.

“You… I… umm…” I tried to speak as I turned to look at Kara but words were so damn hard. I wasn’t like my sister, I couldn’t just jump in and start flirting. It was as I was fumbling with those word things that Kara pulled me in close and our lips met.

Her lips were so soft and tasted of saltwater but they were somehow gentle and insistent at the same time as they pressed against mine, their warmth melding with my own. My lips, my everything, tingled as she pulled me closer. It was like my very soul was singing and, oh Goddess, I wanted so much more. Seriously, if kissing people was supposed to feel this good how did people ever get anything else done?

Kara held me close with one hand as the other tenderly stroked my hair, lightly brushing against my elfin ear and causing even more shivers of pleasure to erupt within me. When her tongue probed my lips I offered no resistance but instead met it with my own until our tongues were dancing and darting over and around each other with increasing fervor as our kiss became more and more passionate. We lost ourselves in that kiss for I don’t know how long. All that I knew for certain was that I wanted more, as much as she was willing to give.

The way that she held me, the way that her lips crashed into mine with a bruising need, or that her tongue entwined with mine as she lovingly caressed me; the whole experience was one of the most amazing things that I had ever felt. It was easily in the top two and when the other was that feeling when I discovered who I really was and found my real name and gender, that’s some pretty heady company. I felt safe, loved, and genuinely wanted in a way that I had never felt before.

Our marathon lip lock was finally brought to a close when we heard Kieshala laugh and say, ~ I must agree with Natalie. It is about time that you two started to properly court one another instead of getting stutter-fins every time that the other sends an obvious signal that she is interested. I have never seen two people so awkward about their attraction to one another. If this goes any further you might want some privacy though. ~

We broke apart, gasping for air, and Kara’s face looked as red as mine felt. ~ I am attracted to you, Kara, I just thought… that you were attracted to men. I didn’t want to make things weird by pushing for something that you probably had no interest in. I was afraid that I was doing things to make you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. ~ I admitted.

~ Seriously? ~ the aquamarine-hued hottie holding me in her arms asked with a dumbfounded look on her face. ~ I was trying to flirt at first and I kept finding myself doing things without really thinking about them. I was feeling the same way though, and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I’ve been crushing on you since you first spoke to me. I thought that maybe if I gave you some time to figure your new self out that things might happen eventually. ~

~ We’re both oblivious then, ~ I said with a sigh. ~ I like you, Kara, and I find you very attractive. I’d like to see where this goes and if one of us starts to make the other uncomfortable then we should just speak up, okay? ~

~ Okay, Naiya. I’d like that, ~ she replied with a grin before pulling me close and kissing me again.

I was giddy when she finally relinquished her hold on me. ~ Neither of you seemed too surprised by this. ~ I mentioned, looking toward Jenny and Kieshala.

~ You were both being so obvious, even to a kid like me. And I knew that my sister was attracted to girls, she came out to the family on her birthday and explained things to me. We thought that was the biggest surprise we’d get that night and then we all woke up in a cell. ~ Jenny pointed out, her tone turning bitter toward the end, causing Kara to scooch over out to hug her sister tightly.

~ Jenny is right, you two were being obvious. Same-sex mates are not uncommon among the Naethari either. Love is what makes mates, not the physical forms, and among our kind two females can still have children together. Physical sex is unimportant; our bodies adapt to those of our chosen mates to be able to produce offspring during the third metamorphosis ~ Kieshala pointed out. I really wanted to know more about that, the whole mating bond thing, but that was when Natalie returned with our lunch and our conversation was set aside so we could eat. Jenny and I were both pretty hungry since she had healed me.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 12 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 12: Reassurance

After lunch, we spent some time talking with Natalie, trying to get to know her a bit better. She insisted that we call her Natalie or Nat rather than Dr. Emerson. I found myself liking her after the way that she had reacted to our former trainer’s treatment of me. What really convinced me that she could be trusted though was the way that she reacted when she found out that we were actually intelligent, and that most of us used to be humans who were changed against our will or through deception.

Jenny had lost some of her shyness with Nat since she could talk to her as a person rather than having to pretend to be an animal but I had noticed that she had signs of social anxiety and had trouble dealing with new people in general. I recognized those signs because they were the same things that I did when dealing with new people. I had noticed her observing our behavior to get a read on us before socializing more than absolutely necessary, and even then she thought about things before she spoke a lot of the time, as if worried about saying the wrong thing.

She had been forced to accept me and Kieshala, much as I had been forced to put on the false confidence act at first because we were all stuck in a pool together. We were both starting to lose that uncertainty with our fellow Naethari though, we were becoming a family of sorts. Jenny only saw Nat in doses though while my role had insisted that I take a more active role with her from the start. Her observing and hesitance made her seem shy but I found myself feeling more protective of her now that realized the problem. I also promised myself that I would take the time to have a heart-to-heart with her about social anxiety since I knew all too well how alone it could make a person feel.

It was hard to tell how Kieshala felt about Nat. She was hard to read sometimes and the humans on our world had only caused her suffering. I couldn’t blame her for hating them but she needed to see that not everyone was like Pierce and those working under him who had manhandled, hurt, or experimented on her. Natalie’s treatment of us and her defense of me seemed to be a step in that direction. She obviously didn’t trust Nat entirely yet, but it seemed that she was at least willing to give her a chance to prove herself. I thought that that was the best that we could hope for.

Of us all though, I think that Kara and her bonded the most. They actually had a lot in common with Kara wanting to study to be a marine biologist and Nat having only recently graduated. They both had this interest and sense of wonder about the sea and its denizens. They were both especially interested in learning more about Naethari biology, history, and customs. I thought that Nat may have actually been a little jealous of us on some level though.

We might be limited with what we could do on land now but once we were free, we’d be able to explore the oceans in ways that Natalie had probably only ever dreamed of. We wouldn’t need diving gear, oxygen tanks, or any other bulky equipment to do it either. We could just wander the waters wherever we pleased with no real limitations. And there were probably lots of species in the Naethari homeworld that couldn’t be found on Earth too. It would be a dream come true for someone as interested in marine life as Nat seemed to be.

Around what I guessed was mid-afternoon, Nat left to go prepare for her ‘date’ with my sister. It seemed like they were moving a bit fast with her going out for dinner with her after one video conversation. In my head, I knew that a lot of their conversation was going to revolve around us, and the plan to free us, but then there was that offer for my sister to come to her place for ‘dessert’ later. I liked Nat well enough but Maddie tended to move fast and had gone through a lot of girls looking for Miss Right. It seemed like Natalie was the same way and I really didn’t want either of them to get hurt.

“I was thinking about that as she left and I was suddenly surprised as Kara put an arm around me, “Come on, we should get more swimming practice in and try to work on developing our aetral. You still haven’t managed to trigger yours yet.”

“Yeah we can practice swimming,” I agreed with one last look at the doors before we turned and half-crawled and half-slithered our way back to the water. “I’m not sure that anyone wants to hear me butchering whatever songs I happen to know well enough to sing again though.”

Once we were back in the water and submerged she gently turned my face toward her and softly stroked my cheek and ear before kissing me deeply. Once again, the moment that our lips met, my heart took flight and I just couldn’t believe that this beautiful, sweet, and smart person was interested in me. I also discovered one of the major benefits of being Naethari.

With our gills doing the breathing rather than our mouths and noses while we were underwater, we didn’t need to come up for air. We could just keep kissing and kissing and it was making me shiver in pleasure as I practically melted in her arms and vigorously returned her affection. And then there was the other benefit, we could hold entire conversations without needing to break it off either as Kara proved when her voice slipped into my mind, just as gentle and loving as the embrace she held me in. ~ Stop that, Naiya. ~

For a moment I was confused. Because here she was telling me to stop but she was still holding me close, still stroking my ear, and still kissing me with everything that she had. That was making me very much not want to stop as I managed to send back, ~ Huh? ~

~ Don’t put yourself down, Naiya. I realize that you’re used to not liking your body and that must have done a number on your self-esteem but you’re not Jon anymore. You’re Naiya now. You’re smart, and beautiful, and you have an amazing voice. I like listening to you sing, and I’m pretty sure that the others do too. You sing those songs better than the people who recorded them. You are my lovely little siren and nobody gets to mistreat or insult you while I’m around, especially not you, ~ she told me in a stern tone as she unexpectedly broke our kiss and backed off to gaze into my eyes.

I found myself wincing, not just from the vehemence in her tone but for another reason as well as she backed away. I had tried not to do so visibly but Kara noticed regardless. ~What’s wrong? ~ she asked, her expression turning to one of concern.

~ It’s nothing, really. You’re right, that’s a bad habit and I should stop it. ~ Kara gave me a look like she didn’t quite believe me and I sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t give up until I told her. I didn’t want her to feel bad though so I tried to joke about it. ~You should put a warning label on that mouth of yours, or at least give me a little warning if you’re going to pull away like that. I nicked my tongue on your fang. No bleeding, but ouchie. I never knew that kissing a girl could be so dangerous. ~

She stared at me for a moment before breaking down into a fit of giggles. ~ Ah yes, the hazards of making out with a Naethari, something we’ll both need to get used to. I can honestly say that I’ve never had to worry about that before. ~

~ Me either, but then, you’re the first girl that I’ve ever… ~ I trailed off, my cheeks bright red.

~ I’m the first? You’ve never… not even once? ~ she asked, looking at me in disbelief. ~ I… that’s hard to believe, you’re such a nice person. ~

~ I was always on the small side, and I wore my hair long and people never really knew what to make of me. Sure, I had friends in high school, a lot of girls felt that I was ‘safe’ I guess. It wasn’t just that other people weren’t interested… I wasn’t either. I hated myself, I was terrified of interacting with people I didn’t already know, and the thought of being with a girl with the way my body was left me feeling sick, I just didn’t know why. I wasn’t really relationship material, and I knew it, so I didn’t try, ~ I admitted.

~ I’m happy that I was your first then, you’re not bad for a first-timer, ~ Kara offered with a grin. ~ I think you’ll need more practice though. I’ll be more than happy to help you out. ~

I blushed again but smiled at her. ~ This is so much less awkward now that I know you’re interested in me too. ~

~Less awkward is good, ~ she agreed as she smiled and gently caressed my cheek.

That was about when Kieshala decided that we needed to get to work on our training. Our swimming had been improving steadily under her watchful eye but she felt that we still had a way to go before our technique would be as easy and flawless for us as it was for her. We also needed to build up our stamina and more fine control of our tails and fins. Soon she was pushing us hard while giving instructions and tips in both Porpoise and Naethari.

Once we were too tired to swim any longer she set us to training our magic and the aetral that it fueled. I could feel the weave of my magic but I couldn’t try actively using it for anything until I figured out how to use my aetral and I was still going nowhere fast on that front. I felt kind of useless, still being stuck on the starting line while Jenny and Kara were off to the races.

So I tried to work twice as hard, singing and doing voice training exercises that I remembered from my short stint in the school choir before my voice started changing and I began to hate it, and myself. I said twice as hard, right? That’s because I was multi-tasking and doing my tail and fin exercises at the same time. I was determined to improve at something, at least.

It was while we were doing our magical training that I heard the doors to the pool room open and ceased singing midway through a verse of Katy Perry’s, I Kissed a Girl. Fortunately, once the door opened it was a single set of footsteps accompanied by the telltale squeaky wheels of the food cart. It seemed that Nat was back with our evening meal.

The buckets she pulled from on top of the cart weren’t as full of seafood as they usually were and I could see why once Nat pulled two paper bags from the enclosed underside of the old catering cart that was meant to keep things hot or cold as needed. She then extracted takeout containers, paper plates, and chopsticks from the wonderful-smelling pair of paper bags. She had made good on her promise of Chinese food! We Naethari could eat a lot, so that explained why she still brought our usual fare, but there was enough in those bags to feed four or five human people.

She had brought all of my favorites too, so Maddie must have told her what to get. There was wonton soup, sweet and sour chicken balls, beef chow mein, shrimp fried rice, and mu shu pork. Nat also got some sweet and sour shrimp since she had noticed how much I seemed to enjoy shrimp during our daily meals and she thought I might enjoy it.

She had only eaten lightly with Maddie so she sat down cross-legged at the side of the pool to eat with us. It was nice eating something that felt normal and even Kieshala seemed to enjoy it, though she and the others had a bit of trouble with the chopsticks at first. She did insist that all of us, except for Nat, eat a healthy serving of our regular seafood though since she wasn’t sure if the human food would be robust enough for us.

We polished off everything and as we ate we talked about how her dinner meeting with Maddie had gone. Apparently, it had gone well since they were meeting up at Natalie’s place later that evening. She, in turn, asked what we had done while she was gone. She was happy that we were practicing swimming and trying to get used to our tails and stuff since we would be training with someone soon and who knew when Pierce might decide to do spot checks on our progress.

“So what’s with this magic training though? I mean, I saw Jenny heal Naiya but you can all do that?” Natalie asked in confusion.

After a quick mental confab with Kieshala to make sure it was okay to tell her, Kara shook her head. “No, we all have different gifts. I guess that Kieshala will be able to use hers to get us all to her homeworld eventually, and she can do other things with it as well. Me, I guess that I’m an Empath. I can see auras around people and sense their emotions from them, but I’m still working on using it consciously. Just like Jenny is with the healing thing.”

“Kieshala thinks that I’m something called a Soulsinger,” I added, “though I haven’t been able to use my ability yet, even accidentally. I’m supposed to be able to influence people and other living creatures to do what I want by singing. She’s only really going from my voice though since they’re supposed to have naturally musical voices like mine. They’re supposed to be rare though, and she hasn’t seen a Soulsinger before so we can’t be sure.”

“What? So, like mind control and stuff?” Nat asked, her eyes going wide.

“I dunno, maybe?” I replied with a shrug. “I don’t think I’d want to use that against a person though unless there was a good reason. Something like that could be easy to abuse.”

“Do you think that your reluctance might be preventing you from using it?” Kara asked.

~ That is possible, ~ Kieshala conceded once she was caught up with the translation. ~ Your aetral is a part of you, a reflection of your soul. It is unlikely that you would have a gift that you would be unwilling to use though. ~

“Could just be that I suck at magic,” I countered with a sigh. “I mean, the situation that we’re in now is one of those times where I would use it. Our lives and freedom are on the line and I’d love to be able to just whammy Pierce into having his men take us and drop us in the ocean.”

“That’s probably more likely,” Jenny agreed. “You do have an awesome voice though, Naiya.”

Kieshala put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. ~ Keep trying, Naiya. I doubt that you would be able to train it enough to use it reliably before we have to make our escape, regardless. And there could be other reasons that you’re having problems using your aetral. All that you can really do is keep singing and hope to trigger your ability with one of us. ~

I nodded and sighed and tried to shake off my dour mood about it. I had just eaten some of my favorite foods, we had an ally, and my sister accepted me as Naiya and was coming to save us, so this was no time to be a grumpy-gills. “I will Kieshala. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” I started to sing as I felt my smile returning.

“No! Now that song is stuck in my head!” Kara said with a laugh as she pretended to cover her ears.

“It’s been great spending time with you and actually talking, I feel kind of bad for not seeing through your act so we could do this sooner, actually,” Natalie said with a smile as we finished cleaning up the mess from dinner and she placed the buckets and the bag with the empty takeout containers on and in the food cart. “I should get going and let you get to your practice again before you sleep though. But before I go…” The marine biologist went to grab her purse and reached inside to extract a plastic shopping bag, producing five chocolate bars and a small sealed waterproof bag with a pink smartphone inside.

“What…” Kara started to ask as Nat handed the phone to me.

“Maddie’s parents sent that along for you, Naiya,” Natalie explained. “She says that it’s encrypted and highly water-resistant but they figured that you should keep it in the bag just in case while in the pool, we don’t want anyone finding it up here so try to keep it close. There are actually two of them. We’ll switch them every day and I’ll take one home with me so one is always charged. You’ll need to set them up for security but our numbers are already programmed in. You should be able to do whatever you might need to online but keep quiet about things until you’re all safely out of here. This is mostly so you’ll have a way to contact any of us if I’m not here, things go sour, and you need a rescue or something.”

“Tell her thanks for me, and… give her a hug for me?” I asked, trying to wipe away tears. Maddie, Aunt Clara, and Uncle Max were on the job. They would get us out of here and make sure that Pierce paid for what he did, I just knew it.

“Gladly, I’ll do more than just hug her, but that’ll be for me not you,” she teased. “As for the chocolate, there’s one for each of you and two for the munchkin because Jenny needs a treat after what you’ve all been through. When you’re done with them, just leave the wrappers in the shopping bag and place that on my chair so I can get rid of it tomorrow. Good night, girls, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

With that, our caretaker left us for the night, pushing the cart out and then turning off the lights to leave us. For the first time since I had woken up with tails, fins, and gills I actually felt hope that we were going to get through this okay. Until now, I had been faking it until I could make it, and I thought that Jenny and Kara had been doing the same, but now we were all smiling as Kieshala set us to training again. Even Kieshala seemed to have a sliver of hope in her eyes that hadn’t been there before as we trained. I kept the phone close and couldn’t stop smiling as Kara held me in her arms when we finally cuddled together on the bottom of the pool to sleep.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 13 of Children of Naethari. I hope you all enjoy. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 13: Oops

I looked at the clothes on my bed and scrunched up my tiny face with distaste as my mother stuffed my swim trunks and towel in the beach bag and then reached for the shorts and t-shirt. I didn’t like any of the clothes and I resisted her attempts to dress me as only a stubborn child could. “I dun wanna wear that boring stuff. I wanna wear a pretty dress an’ a swimsuit like you an’ Maddie.”

My mother looked down at me sternly but then paused as a smile lit up her face. “Of course, you can, Naiya. Let’s find you something pretty to wear then.”

She found me a cute one-piece magenta swimsuit that matched my hair and had the cutest lilac ruffles at the hips. On top of that, she dressed me in a beautiful white sundress with bright magenta flowers on it and then helped me to put on a pair of white sandals. I smiled as I swished the skirt of the dress from side to side and felt so pretty as it spun around my legs and I got the occasional view of my dainty little toes peeking out from my sandals.

Wait… toes? Legs?

Maddie came rushing into my bedroom smiling brightly and wearing a big white sunhat that obscured her long red hair and a white sundress that seemed a match for my own, except that the flowers on hers were a dark emerald color. “Beach! Beach! Beach! Let’s go!” she exclaimed exuberantly.

“Wait…I must be dreaming,” I thought. “I remember this day and the dresses that Mom and Maddie are wearing. It didn’t happen like this.” I was four years old and my mom was going to take us for a day at the beach. I told my mother that I wanted to wear a pretty dress and a swimsuit like her and Maddie but she told me that I couldn’t, that I was a boy and that boys don’t wear those types of things. I got upset and I was inconsolable for hours. It ruined the whole day and I think that it was after that was when I started feeling empty inside.

“I should enjoy this, I get to make a new childhood memory, a happy one this time,” I told myself. The pleasant dream was probably due to the feelings of happiness and security that I was feeling from falling asleep wrapped up in Kara’s arms. I mean, despite our captivity things were going right for me for the first time ever, and the girl that I was crushing on liked me back. Okay, I might be stuck as a Naethari but I was seeing a lot more positives than I expected about that, and I was a girl. I finally knew what was wrong with me all those years and now that problem was in the past. A tail instead of legs was a small price to pay.

The dream was starting to fade as I started to wake up and I tried to just hold on to it for a few more minutes. It was such a nice dream, Mom and Maddie were there, and at least in my dreams, I could still have legs. And so I resisted, trying to eke out as much time as I could get running down the beach and feeling the sand squish between my toes alongside my sister. I savored the movement and the sensations until I realized that I couldn’t breathe.

There was a tingling sensation all along my skin as my eyes shot open but that, the release of weight and pressure on my forearms, and the distant distorted sound of something heavy hitting the floor of the pool were all secondary at the moment. I needed air! I frantically pulled myself from Kara’s embrace and kicked my way to the surface as fast as I could.

I started sputtering the moment that I broke the water’s surface, desperately gasping for air. It was only once I was breathing again that I realized that I had kicked my way up. A moment later Kara, Jenny, and Kieshala all broke the surface to stare at me. They all looked so big. ~ Well, this is an interesting development, ~ the latter said as she easily picked me up in her arms and swam me to the side of the pool to place me on dry land.

~ Naiya? ~ Jenny asked uncertainly as she reached out to pinch my little toes in disbelief. Even she seemed huge to me right now and she was easily the smallest of us, being only eight. It wasn’t them though, it was me. Looking down at myself, I found that I was the same three or four-year-old human version of my girl-self that I had been in the dream.

~ Yeah, it looks like Naiya, just way younger and human and since I don’t think Pierce is a prankster, it’s got to be her. Her hair and eye color haven’t changed but omigod! She’s so adorable! ~ Kara exclaimed as she pinched my cheeks.

“Could you pwease shtop tha’, Kawa?” I asked with a sigh. It was weird having my potential girlfriend treat me like a kid. Even as I was complaining though I felt that strange tingle all over my skin again. Over the next minute, everyone got rapidly smaller until they were all back to their regular size, at least from my perspective, and instead of tiny little legs and feet I once again had my tail and fins. ~ I guess that I’m not a Soulsinger after all. ~

~ I still believe that you are, Naiya, you merely have two aetral. ~ Kieshala insisted. ~ It is probably why you have been having such trouble with your magic. I have seen plenty of Shifters before, my older sibling is one, but the weave of their magic is different than yours. For future reference though, you could have looked human without shifting your gills away, you merely need to picture human legs in place of your tail. You could probably change your hair color and other features as well. I am surprised that you could manage that complete of a change though. ~

~ I wasn’t exactly thinking about what I was doing, Kieshala. I was dreaming and it was so nice that I didn’t want to wake up. Then I woke up like that and I couldn’t breathe, ~ I pointed out.

~ At least now that you have used one of your abilities you will have a starting point for training your magic. You will not be able to hold a shift for more than a few minutes at first, most likely. Once you can use it consciously you will have to work on duration, whole body shifts, and partial shifts, and eventually, you will need to expand the range of creatures that you can use as a basis. ~ Kieshala replied.

I looked at the sunset-hued Naethari dubiously as I asked, ~ And just how do I do that? ~

~ To expand the variety of creatures that you can use as a basis, you will have to physically touch one of them. You have had physical contact with Natalie before, so naturally, that allowed you to have use of the human female base form. The fact that you remember being a human child is likely what allowed you to appear so young, though that was probably pushing your size limit. My sibling is exceptionally gifted and they can only increase or decrease their mass by roughly three quarters. You were close to that. As for the rest, it will come with calling on your magic, remembering how it felt to change, and practice. ~ she explained.

~ I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we may have a problem, ~ Kara interjected as she pointed to where I had my hands clasped in my lap. ~ I mean, it’s great that Naiya can shapeshift and all, and it might give us an advantage later if she can get good enough at it, but what are we going to do if Pierce or some of his goons decide to drop by for a visit and notice that Naiya has lost her cuffs? ~

I looked down at my arms and realized that the metal bracers were gone, they must have slipped off while my arms were so tiny. Patches of magenta scales covered the outsides of my forearms with a slit that apparently hid razor-sharp spines tipped with venomous barbs that popped out even as I thought about them. The three spines looked to be made of bone with sharp tips and edges. The toxic barbs at the tips were so small that they were barely visible and the bone blades were connected to each other and the inside of the slit by lilac-colored webbing that matched the color of my fins and almost made the connected spines look like a dragon’s wing.

Having them out made me feel safer somehow but as nice as it was to have them unrestrained, Kara was right, this could pose a problem. ~ Shit. If we want to keep our advantage, we can’t afford to let Pierce or his goons find out that one of us can slip out of our cuffs. That could be our ace in the hole in case things go bad and we need to improvise an escape before my family can extract us. ~

That was when we heard footsteps outside the room and, just to be safe, Kara practically threw me back into the pool. Fortunately, it was just Natalie with our breakfast and the moment that she had the cart inside and the door was closed behind her she called out, “Good morning, girls. Did you have a good night? I hope you all enjoyed the chocolate.”

“It was awesome, thanks, Natalie,” Jenny said exuberantly as she climbed out of the pool with Kara and Kieshala behind her. We had all enjoyed our little treat, especially Jenny. Even Kieshala seemed to like it, saying that she had never tasted anything like it before. She had given half of hers to Jenny though after seeing how much she had enjoyed the two that she had. It was sweet of her and Jenny deserved to be spoiled a bit after what we had all been through. No child should have to endure what she has.

“Thanks, Natalie, that was the best night that any of us has had in a while. I… uhhh… may have made progress on the whole magic thing this morning too, but there’s a teensy problem,” I admitted self-consciously, unsure whether I should leave the water.

“I had a great night last night too, Naiya. Your sister… wow,” she said, her grin practically making her glow as she set out the buckets for us. I really didn’t want to hear about that so it was a good thing that she caught on to my nervousness as I said the last part and turned to look at me in concern. “What’s the problem, Naiya?”

“Well, I have an unexpected second ability and I may have accidentally shapeshifted out of my cuffs while I was dreaming. I almost drowned myself too,” I said with a blush as I displayed my arms.

Natalie’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “What? How? Shapeshifted?” she sputtered as she stared at my forearms and their deadly spines.

“Yup, she turned into a human kid version of herself, maybe four years old, and she was freakin’ adorable!” Kara offered boisterously. “Turns out she’s not just a Soulsinger.”

~ I would advise even after we have made our escape and returned to my world that you keep your additional aetral a secret from others. Share it only with those that you trust. Introduce yourself as Naiya Soulsinger only. Not all clans live in peace with one another and it gives you an advantage if you face someone hostile that you cannot charm with your voice for some reason, ~ Kieshala suggested.

Meanwhile, Natalie had come closer and was looking at one of my vuhac in fascination. “So that’s what those cuffs were covering up. Are they for defense?”

“No! Do not touch!” Kieshala called out, causing Nat to yank her hand away. ~ She must be careful, Naethari are immune but even a scratch would be enough to kill an adult human. If she got a full dose from all three spines it would kill her quickly, within moments. A scratch would be a slower and far more painful death. ~

“They’re… umm… really sharp and the barbs at the end are poisonous. Kieshala says that even a scratch could kill you and it would not be a pleasant way to go,” I relayed to our caretaker.

“Definitely for defense then,” Nat said with a grim expression, backing off a bit more. “Can’t you just shapeshift back into them?” she suggested uncertainly.

“The first time was an accident,” I countered as I hopped up onto the side of the pool to eat. I was staying near the water though in case any unexpected guests showed up. “I have no idea what I’m doing and it’s probably going to take me a while to figure it out.

Nat looked pensive for a moment before replying as she considered the problem. “Okay, as soon as you’re done eating, head down below and bring up the cuffs and the phone. We’ll have a look at the cuffs to see what we can do and I’ll exchange the phone in the bag for the fully charged one.”

As soon as we were done eating I did as Natalie had asked and fetched the bracer-like cuffs and the waterproof bag with the phone in it. The other phone was the same model though it was purple instead of pink so we knew that we were switching out the correct one. As for the cuffs though, I wasn’t sure that we would be able to put them back on easily. They were meant to fit tightly and we had noticed when trying to find a way out of them on our first day of captivity that they were secured on the underside of each arm by three small padlocks.

Natalie got some bobby pins from her purse and tried to pick the padlocks but sadly she didn’t have much luck with that. My hands wouldn’t go completely through the cuffs either, and I really didn’t like the idea of dislocating my thumbs to try to slip back into them. Since Kieshala wanted us to practice with our magic anyway, eventually we decided to get back in the pool to see if I could manage to summon my aetral for long enough to try to shift my hands or something.

As I’ve mentioned before, I suck at meditation and introspection, so it came as no surprise that I wasn’t having much luck. I wasn’t sure how long I had been at it but I was starting to get extremely frustrated when we heard the doors to the pool room open. My heart rate sped up further at the sound. Natalie was already in here with us doing stuff on her tablet and there were five sets of footsteps. The blood froze in my veins as I heard Natalie asking as casually as she could manage, “Good morning, Dr. Harris. What brings you all here to visit this morning? And what’s with the stretcher?”

“Mr. Pierce wants us to… run some tests on the adults,” he replied in a clipped tone that made it sound like he was not happy to be there. “Call them up and as soon as they’re out of the water we’ll sedate them all. This won’t take long and we’ll take them to the lab one at a time for safety.”

Shit! This was not good. Kara was looking frantically from me, up to the surface, and back to me again. I was vaguely aware of Natalie arguing with Harris as I tried desperately to focus on shifting my hands so we could get those cuffs back on me. “Come on, deep breath, Naiya. You can do this.” I felt for the weave of magic inside of me and started to coax it out toward my hands as Kieshala had suggested and concentrated on that tingling feeling that I had felt when I had changed. Wait… I could feel it; my hands were tingling. I just needed to focus on changing them into something that we could easily slip the cuffs over.

I pictured in my mind, my hands changing into small and flexible fins, I was a part fish so I was hoping that I could at least manage that. They were changing but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold it for long and as tense as I was I was fighting to have to keep my vuhac inside their pouches, which wasn’t helping my focus any. I heard Natalie whistling and my concentration broke in my panic, just as Kieshala and Kara thrust the cuffs over my hand-fins and into their former positions on my forearms.

I let out a bubbling sigh of relief as the tingling subsided and my hands returned. A brief inspection showed that the locks were properly on the underside of my arms, just like the others. ~ Omigod that was a close call, ~ Jenny sent as she breathed a sigh of her own. ~What do we do about those jokers though? ~

~ The only thing that we can do is go up and get sedated, ~ I said with a frown though none of us were too happy with the idea. ~ If we don’t, they’ll think that Nat doesn’t have as much control over us as she’s letting on and Pierce might decide that she’s not worth it. We need Nat where she is, who knows what our next caretaker would be like. Probably not trustworthy enough to entrust with our secret or kind enough to want to help us. ~

“Melody! Lorelei! Nixie! Marina! Come on up sleepyheads!” Natalie called nervously from the edge of the pool as she looked down at us. I figured that she had probably come to the same conclusion that I had.
Even Kieshala had to agree that we couldn’t let that happen. We had to play ball for now. So, we did the only thing that we could do, we all rose to the surface and pretended to be sleepy but happy to see her as we looked toward Natalie and gave the goons a clear shot at us. When the dart hit me in the shoulder I only had a moment to silently curse Pierce and his minions before everything went black.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 14 of Children of Naethari. Warning: This is a dark chapter so I'm gonna have to put a big ole trigger warning up on this one for violence, torture, mental and emotional abuse, violation, and transphobia. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 14: Tested

I awoke with an ache where my crotch would be if I still had legs. I was groggy and woozy from whatever they had knocked me out with so, for the moment, I just remained as I was with my eyes closed. Not that I could have moved anyway. I seemed to be strapped down and since whatever I was lying on was more comfortable than the cold hard floor, I assumed that I was on the stretcher that Dr. Harris and the goon squad had brought in.

I could hear voices. “This is stupid; we should be taking it back to the pool now that we’re done with it, before it can wake up and try to kill us. That tranq is going to wear off soon,” one voice pointed out nervously.

“We won’t have to wait long,” another said. “Harris said that that hot piece of ass that the boss is fucking wanted to see this one when he was done with them. Do you want to tell Pierce’s trophy girlfriend that she can’t look at the freaky fish girl if she wants?”

“Fuck no,” the other replied bitterly. “That bitch would have me fired for sure and I like this job. Well, I don’t like it, but it pays a hell of a lot better than being some mall cop and has health and dental coverage. I’m willing to keep a few secrets and take orders from assholes for that.”

They were quiet for the next few minutes until I heard faint footsteps, followed by a door being opened to my left. There was the distinct smell of cigarette smoke in the air as Dr. Harris’s voice then said, “You two can wait outside, we won’t be long.” Footsteps retreated and then the door opened and closed once again. “Only two of the specimens that you recruited survived the process, Miss Hart. One was killed by subject alpha but this one seems to be healthy.”

“Yes, this is the one. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the video of that little shit slowly changing in his little fish tank,” the woman replied gleefully, and I could practically hear her sneering. I also realized that I recognized the voice from somewhere. “I’m so glad this one survived. I’ll teach this thing to respect its betters.”

A long and frustrated sigh sounded from Dr. Harris. “I keep telling you, Miss Hart. It probably won’t remember you, or anything. Its brain was completely restructured just as its body was, it’s doubtful that any of its memories or personality survived the process intact. From the MRI scans that we ran on subject alpha, their brains are radically different than those of humans. Given its curiosity and the instinctual social behavior observed by Dr. Emerson, it is likely that the ones we created artificially are blank slates mentally.”

“Well, I’ll just have to make it remember me then,” the woman replied testily. The sharp sting of a slap hit my right cheek and I barely managed to keep from yelping and school my expression into one of curiosity with a slight bit of fear as I allowed my eyes to flutter open. The fear wasn’t all that hard since I was strapped down with a mad scientist and some psycho bitch as my only company. A psycho bitch that I unfortunately recognized.

Bleach blonde hair, fake tan, and designer clothes, though she didn’t look near as sickeningly perky as when I saw her last. It was that Emily Shaw woman from the Pierce Foundation who had been pushing to recruit me as a lab rat. If she was here, then she probably knew damn well what that fake Cancer cure would entail for me, and others like me, all along. This was twice as likely, given that my sister said that Emily Shaw didn’t exist and her real last name was apparently Hart. Ironic since I doubted that she had one.

I had to carefully control my thoughts and expressions so that I didn’t give anything away. As pissed as I was with her, getting angry would only give me away, and probably the others as well. I couldn’t let that happen. I tilted my head as much as I was able and gave her my best ‘curious and a little afraid’ look before doing the same for Harris and then looking around the room itself. I was definitely in some sort of lab, though I couldn’t recognize any of the equipment.

You know, a great actor can always tell when someone else is acting. Fortunately for me, Miss Hart was not a great actor. She had almost lost her composure with me in the hospital room and I had been pretty sure that something was fishy with her and her deal from the start. I just didn’t care back then because I was hoping that the ‘treatment’ would kill me. Funny how things turn out sometimes, huh?

“Hello, Jonny, are you enjoying your new life? Do you… Fucking pay attention to me when I’m talking to you, you little freak!” A burning sensation caused me to scream as the bitch put her cigarette out on my left breast.

The name had hurt even more than the burn. I let my nature take over, hissing and baring my fangs at her as I strained against the leather straps holding me down. “Yeah, you’re so fucking brave while I’m strapped down and can’t fight back,” I thought angrily. I could feel the tingle of my magic but I quickly stifled it. Now was not the time, I couldn’t afford to give away our potential ace in the hole. It was better to just endure whatever torture that the bitch had planned, for now. If the opportunity came up when we escaped though, I was going to kill her myself.

“There you are, Jonny! There’s that hostility that I remember,” she said with a smug grin as I snarled and hissed at her. “Come on, where’s the sarcasm now? Where are your witty little insults?”

“It doesn’t remember you,” Dr. Harris said with a sigh. “You hurt it and that’s how their kind responds to threats or danger.”

“It’ll remember me after this,” she snapped, looking me over as if trying to think of a good way to fuck with me. Her eyes settled on my tail and she smiled evilly. “You have such a pretty tail, Jonny. The scales are so shiny and such a pretty color. What can you tell me about them, Doctor?”

Dr. Harris groaned as if he didn’t really like where this was going, especially with me hissing and snarling at them, but he knew that it was probably better just to give in. “They’re thick and as hard as steel, and the exposed edges are very sharp, Ms. Hart. We had to use a power bone saw with a special diamond-tipped blade just to cut through them to do the exploratory surgeries on subject alpha. Though these creatures seem to have qualities resembling both fish and snakes, their scales are similar to those of fish, not growing from the epidermis, but from deeper in the dermis.”

“I think that I’d like to take some home with me, so we can both remember my little visit,” Miss Hart said with a smile that I didn’t like at all. I was struggling against my restraints and my magic once again trying to rise to the surface and make itself known when that bitch called one of the goons in and had him yank out a scale with a pair of pliers from where my outer right thigh would be if I were human. It was the most intense pain that I had ever felt in my life and I screamed in agony.

The bitch took my scale from the goon and examined it before practically shoving it in my face to make sure that I saw it as well. It was half an inch wide and close to twice that in length, and it would have been oval-shaped if not for prongs that had held it within my body like some sort of pulled tooth. It was dripping blood and I winced as I saw it while trying to catch my breath from my screaming. She wanted to make me afraid whether I remembered her or not, this was some sort of petty vengeance for me talking back to her at first instead of graciously taking her offered ‘help’ like a good little peon back in the hospital. To my shame, I was afraid as she smiled savagely again and said, “I’m going to need more than this.”

Not long after I had hit puberty, Uncle Max and Aunt Clara had insisted on teaching Maddie and me the basics of how to hold up under torture. Even if we weren’t going to be part of the family business, and even if we might not know anything useful, they made enemies in their line of work, enemies who might someday come after one of us. It was for the same reason that we were taught to use guns and various other skills that we had learned growing up, to keep us safe or, barring that, give us a way to fight back.

There are several ways to hold up under torture and most of them require a good deal of mental fortitude and techniques to distract the mind from what the body is going through. One is to resist, and refuse to give an inch while waiting for rescue, death, or the enemy to give up. Another is to annoy the fuck out of them, which is probably where my use of snark as a defense mechanism came from. The easiest way though is to make the enemy think that they’ve gotten what they want.

That was especially the case in this situation. This torture wasn’t to get information out of me, it was because she was a sadist and wanted me to hurt for no other reason than to see the pain and fear on my face and make herself think that she had power over me. She wanted me to fear her. I wasn’t going to do anything to make her think that we were smarter than we’d been letting on or that I actually did remember her but fear I could give her. Once she got what she wanted, hopefully, it would be out of her system and she would lose interest.

What followed was me using every single mental technique that I had been taught to valiantly hold back from either screaming anything that might be construed as human speech or using my magic as the goon yanked out scales one by one with the pliers. I did scream because the pain was excruciating, I just kept it to general screams of pain rather than cursing her name. It was not easy.

Hart watched the entire time and sometimes contributed with a cigarette burn to change things up, seeming to take great satisfaction in my agony and in calling me ‘Jonny’. I refused to give that bitch the satisfaction of making her believe that I might actually remember her on some level but that was why she wanted me to remember this, it was a catch-22. I was hoarse from screaming and had counted over a dozen scales in my mind before losing count. By the time I felt like I was going to lose my voice completely from screaming I thankfully passed out from the pain.

The sting of saltwater on my wounds as I was tossed in the pool woke me up. I became aware of sudden movement in the water, arms being wrapped gently around me, hurried footsteps and the sound of wheels rapidly retreating, and then the doors to the pool room closing before I had the energy to open my eyes. Kara was holding me in her arms with a look of concern on her face.

Concern turned to fury as she saw the state that I was in. ~ What the hell?! Are these cigarette burns?! ~ She held me closer and I winced as the right side of my tail brushed against her, causing her expression to become worried again. As she looked down to see the cause. ~Shit! A bunch of scales are missing on her right side too. Jenny, Naiya is hurt. Can you heal her, please? ~ I could already feel the burns healing and the scales starting to grow back but I didn’t argue. It hurt too damn much to refuse the near-instant relief that Jenny could provide.

~ On it, Sis, ~ the younger sister confirmed as she dove into the pool with us, a look of concentration scrunching up her young face as she swam toward us. As soon as her hands touched my marred tail, a golden glow enveloped us both and I could feel the warmth of her magic flowing through me and healing my injuries. By the time that she pulled her hands away and the glow faded I felt much better, physically anyway. The burns were gone and my scales had fully regrown from that bare bloody patch on the side of my tail.

“What happened, Naiya?” Natalie asked in a hushed tone once we had joined her and Kieshala back on the surfaces at the side of the pool. “You were in there a lot longer than the others.” She looked confused, but I was pretty sure that Kieshala had been following what Kara had said when she came to check on me because the other Naethari looked pissed.

“They fucking tortured her, that’s what fucking happened,” Kara snapped. “She had healing burn marks all over her and a big patch of scales were missing.”

“Jon’s past sarcasm came back to bite me in the tail,” I admitted self-consciously. “It turns out that the bitch who was pretending to work for the Pierce Foundation and offered me my cure is Pierce’s trophy girlfriend and they’re a match made in hell. I guess that I made an impression on her and she wanted to make sure that I remembered this meeting. I managed not to shift or give anything away, I think.”

A horrified expression settled on Nat’s face. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I lied, looking down at my tail before abruptly changing the subject. “Any idea what tests they wanted us for?”

“Tests, my ass,” our human caretaker spat. “When Kieshala and Kara were brought back the scales covering their vulvas had been pried open. Judging by that and the fluid I found, I’m pretty sure that you were all turkey-bastered. They’re probably hoping that it takes with one of you and you’ll have a boy they can use for proper breeding later.” Just great, I’d been violated and tortured on the same day.

~ A useless endeavor, ~ Kieshala said with a sniff of disdain once we had translated for her.

“Kieshala says that isn’t going to happen, not that that makes me feel any less dirty,” Kara told Nat, looking and sounding as sickened by the thought as I was. “From what she told us before none of us are even fertile, and even when we do become fertile we’ll only be genetically compatible with our chosen mate.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I’m sorry, I tried to at least make them bring me along for any tests as your primary caregiver but they refused,” Natalie said with a frown.

“Yeah, but they said that they would handle it and she was supposed to ‘stay here and keep the guppy out of trouble’,” Jenny added with a similar expression.

“You’re just our caretaker, Nat,” Kara said with a shrug. “Even if they trust you to do that, as far as they know you’re not in the know about the mad science portion of this operation, and they’d probably like it to stay that way.”

None of us were too happy as the conversation broke up and Nat left to grab our lunch. The meal was a quiet affair and then we were back to training to improve our swimming with Nat and Kieshala’s assistance and the coaching of the latter in both Naethari and Porpoise. The games were a nice distraction that I sorely needed at the moment as I tried to focus on anything but the memories of my morning introduction to Miss Hart.

After a couple of hours, we were starting to physically tire so while Kieshala set us to work on practicing how to summon and control our magic, Nat went out. Her job didn’t really have any set hours so long as she fed us three times a day, encouraged us to socialize with her, and saw to any other needs that we might have. So, she was free to go talk with my sister and have dinner while they talked strategy and other things.

I was more focused than usual when we worked on our magic stuff. Since I was still starting, calling on my magic and trying to make it do what I wanted still required enough focus and concentration on the task that I was able to filter out less desirable thoughts. I was putting everything I had into it and doing my fin and tail exercises as well to focus my every thought on my body, getting to know every inch of it and then trying to change parts without actually looking at them. I didn’t manage anything as big as my first shift but I did manage to temporarily change the color of my hair. At least it was a start.

I was both mentally and physically exhausted by the time Nat returned with our usual dinner. She had kept her promise to Kara too, producing a box with a large meat supreme pizza inside that only had two slices taken from it. It was good but I couldn’t really show as much enthusiasm for it as the others. I only ate one piece and quietly hurried through the rest of my meal, not even able to enjoy the shrimp or the fruit salad in my current mood.

My silence and withdrawal did not go unnoticed but, in retrospect, I guess it was pretty obvious. They just weren’t really sure what to say or do as I took the phone that Maddie had sent and threw my focus into finding possible locations for Kieshala to either draw on or produce some mana after we made our escape. Finally, Kieshala came over to join me, placing a hand gently on my shoulder. ~Naiya, I think that we need to talk. ~

It was she who did most of the talking. She told me about everything that Pierce and his morally bankrupt employees had done to her. The sedatives that they used on her at first didn’t work very well, it took them a long time to find something that would knock a Naethari out for more than an hour at most. She had been awake through most of the exploratory surgeries, and the first time that they had ‘harvested’ her with nothing to dull the pain.

It made me feel sick, but it also made me realize that what I had gone through could have been a hell of a lot worse. It didn’t make me feel any better about it or any less traumatized about the whole affair but it did put it in perspective. ~ That… must have been awful for you. ~ I finally said in the long silence that followed.

~ It was, Naiya, but it is also in the past and there is nothing that I can do to change it. The physical wounds have long since healed. All that I, or you, can do is not let it rule our minds in the present. You have been wise to distract yourself but that is only a temporary solution, ~ the sunset-hued Naethari advised gently.

~ What do I do then? ~ I asked hesitantly. ~ I… every time I close my eyes I have to push those memories away. What if she tries to do something like that again? ~

~ Do what I do. Face this, face your fear of it, and tell yourself every time that fear rises that you will not let something so small break you. If you keep doing so then it will become the truth in time, ~ she told me candidly. ~ Allow it to make you stronger, not weaker. You are Naethari. You are Naiya Soulsinger of Clan Moonreef, and you will not be diminished by such suffering. You are destined for great things; I could tell the moment that I heard your voice for the first time. This is merely a break in the current. We will escape, and we will get our vengeance for the way that we have been treated. I have faith in the Natrir, in myself, and in you and the others. You should as well. ~

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 15 of Children of Naethari. Warning: This isn't as dark as last chapter but some of the same themes are discussed. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 15: Mad(die)

My talk with Kieshala had helped but Nat and the others were making it pretty obvious that they were worried about me. When Kara told Nat exactly what condition I had been in before Jenny had healed me, our caretaker looked ready to murder someone. Not only had there been a hand-sized patch of scales ripped out of my tail but Kara had counted fifteen burn marks in various stages of healing, most of them on my breasts, face, and torso. She couldn’t even be sure if she had actually found all of them since it was just a quick look and some might have already completely healed before I was brought back with our rate of regeneration.

So that night before leaving, Nat had another heated conversation with Pierce, asking just what their tests had involved. She told him exactly what my condition was when I was returned to the pool and how pissed off she was about it. She also exaggerated a bit by saying that I was withdrawn and unusually timid, defensive, and jumpy around her all day since being returned. It really wasn’t too much of an exaggeration though.

She was really worried about our safety until Maddie, her parents, and people that they trusted could break us out. So she gave Pierce both barrels. She was furious that this was the second time in as many days that I was tortured by people here, that she was worried that I might be scared of humans now, and it was once again impeding her progress in getting us ready for his marine park on schedule.

In the end, Pierce was convinced by the possibility of huge monetary losses to talk with whoever had been responsible and ensure that it wouldn’t happen again. He really wanted that park ready to open on schedule with his main attractions on site. Nat had figured out pretty quickly that if she wanted Pierce to listen to anything that she said, she would have to frame it in a way that made it look like it would cost him time, money, or both. He might not have liked Natalie calling to yell at him but he hated the thought of a potential failed business venture even more.

I wondered who was going to get the brunt of Pierce’s anger; Dr. Harris, the goon who provided the muscles, or that Hart bitch. To be honest, I was hoping for all three of them, it was certainly better than having it focused on us. The video cameras in the lab probably had the whole thing recorded and if any of them thought to erase that footage, the fact that it was missing would still probably be enough to convince Pierce that Nat was telling the truth. Still, I couldn’t help but worry that this complaint was going to come back to bite us all in the collective ass somehow.

I was comfortably settled in Kara’s arms and hoping for sleep that wouldn’t seem to come. Despite my talk with Kieshala, every time that I felt like I was about to drift off I would get a flashback of my time in the lab. I could see the smug look on Hart’s face as she called me ‘Jonny’, I could feel the burning of her cigarette against my flesh, but the worst by far was the shadow pains in my tail as I relived my scales being ripped out one by one.

Not for the first time, I attempted to reassure myself with my new mantra. “I am Naethari. I am Naiya Soulsinger of Clan Moonreef, and I will not allow this to break me. I will get through this and, as soon as I get the opportunity, that bitch will pay for what she did in kind.” After several repeats of the mantra in my mind, I felt ready to try to sleep once again, only to start in surprise as the phone in the sealed bag began to light up and vibrate on the floor of the pool.

Once again, I tried to slow my heart rate as I reluctantly extracted myself from Kara’s arms. She tried to hold tighter to me in her slumber but I managed to escape, grabbed the bag with the phone, and made my way up to the surface. It took a moment or two to get comfortably seated on the edge of the pool but at least I could see well enough in the near pitch darkness of the room to extract the phone from the bag and unlock it. Hooray for Naethari vision, honed to see even in the darkness of the ocean depths.

The time on the phone said 23:47 but growing up with Maddie’s parents, military time was like an old friend. There was a notification about a missed call, of course, and it was from Maddie’s number so I called her back. “Naiya?” my sister asked, sounding worried.

“Yeah, I wasn’t sleeping yet and saw that you called,” I answered simply.

“We’re getting you the fuck out of there tonight,” she said, her voice suddenly hard and angrier than I had ever heard her before. In the background, I could hear her loading magazines as she spoke.

I sighed. “I guess that Nat told you what happened, huh?”

“Damn straight she did! I’m coming for you, Sis, and then I’m going to find Pierce and that bitch who tortured you and put a bullet in both of their heads!” Yup, she was understandably pissed but she obviously wasn’t thinking clearly either.

“Mads, you need to calm down and think clearly, remember what your parents taught us about anger. Have you talked to them about this? What did they say? You know damn well that cowboy shit can get you killed, a rescue operation takes time to plan if it’s going to succeed. How are you going to get four people who can’t walk out of a heavily guarded estate?” I didn’t really care if she answered me or not, I just needed to get her thinking clearly.

“They fucking tortured you, Naiya! They’ve been holding you against your will, experimented on you, and now they fucking tortured you too! I promised to always be there for you! I promised to protect you!”

“And how are you going to do that if you’re fucking dead, Mads?!” I snapped back. “If you come here alone, guns blazing, you’ll either end up dead or in prison! You can’t help me that way and I don’t want to lose my goddamn sister! Work out a fucking plan with Mom and Dad, something we can all live through!”

There was a long silence and Maddie’s next words were a surprise. “You… called them Mom and Dad.”

I was about to argue that I hadn’t when I replayed what I had said in my head. “Holy shit… I did.”

When they were home from missions while we were growing up they had always treated Mom as a friend or more rather than as a servant, and they had treated me no differently than Maddie. They had been parents to me as much as my own mother had until she died, and even after they continued to treat me like their own kid. Max had been like a father to me, the one I would have wanted to have, and Clara was a little sterner than my own mother but she had filled that role just as much.

I had always thought of Maddie as my sister but I thought that was because she called my mother ‘Mom’ just as she had Clara. Sometimes I had thought it was just because she thought it would be cool if we really were siblings, that she felt that close to me. She did feel that close but there was something that she used to say when I was little too. She said that we had the coolest family in the world, not just because her parents were teaching us super cool stuff that other kids didn’t get to learn but because we were lucky enough to have a great dad and two great moms.

There were times that I had wanted to do the same as my sister, to call Clara ‘Mom’ instead of ‘Aunt’ and to call Max ‘Dad’ instead of ‘Uncle’ but I wasn’t their real kid, I didn’t think that I deserved to do that. But they also taught me that family wasn’t just about blood, it was about those who cared for you, loved you, and would fight for you if needed. I already knew the answer, but I had to ask. “Do you think they would be upset? Y’know, with me calling them that?”

“Don’t be stupid, Sis, they’d be happy. We’re family and, until now, you’re the only one who never seemed to realize that because you were too lost in trying to pretend to be someone you weren’t. Mom and Dad just never suggested it because they didn’t want you to think they were trying to take your mother’s place. She was more than just a servant or even a friend to them you know, we all miss her as much as you do.” I could hear her sniffling on the other end and then Maddie took a deep breath to steady herself.

“I know. I miss all of you so much but I don’t want any of you getting killed trying to come in here without a plan. Are you calmed down now, Sis?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so. We do have a plan to get you out but when I heard about… I just kinda lost it. We’ll stick to the plan but I’m worried about you, and the others in there with you. Nat cares about all of you and I think she’s a good judge of character. I know that I just met her but I like her a lot. Tell me one thing, Sis, are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.

“Liar,” she replied in a near-whisper. “You were tortured, of course, you’re not fine. That shit stays with a person.”

“Okay, I’m not fine, but Kieshala talked to me and I’m working through it. I can hold on until you can get us free. I’ll be even better though when I kill that Hart bitch with my own hands,” I replied more honestly.

“I thought you didn’t want to join the family business because you were leery about killing people, even those who deserve it,” she pointed out, her tone suddenly sounding concerned.

“I’m starting to see the appeal,” I retorted. “Besides, Un… Dad always says, ‘Don’t get mad, get even. And remember to bring plenty of ammo.’ So if there’s an opportunity when we escape, that bitch is mine.”

“Sounds like revenge, Sis. I can get behind that, I just never thought that you could.”

“Yeah, it’s revenge or at least part of it is,” I admitted. “There’s more to it though. I never really thought that true evil existed until I woke up here. Pierce and Hart, that’s what they are. If someone doesn’t do something about them, they’re just going to keep grinding people under their heels and making them suffer. If I can get payback and make sure that they can’t harm anyone else, then I think I’ll be able to sleep just fine at night.”

Maddie’s voice trembled slightly as she replied, “Okay, Naiya, I’m just worried about you. You’re my sister and my best friend. I don’t want to lose you. We almost lost you once already.”

“You’re not going to,” I told her with all of the determination that I could muster. “I’ll be waiting when you come to break us out, no matter what I have to do. We promised to always be there for each other right? Well, I don’t intend on breaking that promise.”

“Good. Just hold on until we can break you out, Sis, I’ll be seeing you soo…” Her voice trailed off for a second and then she whispered, “Shit! Mom and Dad just got home and they’re gonna flip if they see the small arsenal I was packing.”

I could hear her scrambling in her room and then, “Madeline, Natalie called us. She said that you were angry and took off, she was worried about you. Are you o… Madeline Catherine MacArthur! Why are you hiding an RPG under your bed?!”

The image in my head was so hilarious that I couldn’t help but giggle. “Oooh, busted! Maddie got in trouble,” I sing-songed into the phone.

I could practically hear her wince. “Uh… hey, Mom. Yeah, I kinda maybe flew off the handle a little. They were torturing Naiya though! She… uh… kinda talked me down. Oh! She’s on the phone and she totally called you Mom and Dad! You should talk to her! I’ll put her on speaker!” Wow, that was bad, trying to shift attention to me like that, she had to know that wasn’t going to work, right? That hadn’t worked since I was five years old.

“We’re still talking about the weapons, Madeline,” that familiar voice said sternly before asking in concern, “Jo… Naiya, are you alright?”

“Yeah, Au… Mom. I’m as good as can be expected. I miss all of you and my new body is taking a bit of getting used to but aside from the captivity and torture I’ve actually been happy about this. It feels so good to be in a body that feels right, I even kind of like the tail and stuff now, and I can do some pretty cool stuff too. I did what you and Dad taught me. They can torture me but there is no way in hell that they’re gonna break me,” I told her, tearing up a bit from hearing her voice.

“That’s our girl,” Dad said sounding both grim and proud at the same time. “Madeline told us what was going on. It was a little hard to believe at first but she and Natalie were very convincing, and the pictures helped. Hang in there, Kiddo, we’re working on a plan and recruiting some friends to help get you and those other poor girls out of there.”

Mom quickly interjected, “Speaking of which, Madeline, Jack has everything set up through his contacts. There’s a temporary apartment, car, and burner phone, as well as a convincing history and all of the necessary documentation, credentials, online presence, and fake IDs. Everything should stand up to even government scrutiny.”

“Way to go, Uncle Jack! I knew we could count on him!” Maddie practically squealed, referring to a friend of the family who was the living embodiment of having friends in low places.

“There’s a folder with everything you’ll need on the kitchen table. You won’t have long to familiarize yourself with the details but you should pack what you need and get settled in the apartment as soon as possible to study for your role. Take a few weapons too, but nothing that you can’t conceal. They’re for emergencies only,” Mom advised Maddie.

“You got it, Mom! I gotta go, Sis! Hopefully, I’ll be seeing you in person real soon though. Love you, Sis,” she babbled as I heard her rummaging around her room. I thought that I had an idea of what they were talking about and if she could pull it off I might just be seeing Maddie again sooner than I thought.

“Love you too, Mads. I should probably go try to get some sleep again anyway. Umm… Dad… Mom… I probably haven’t told you this as much as I should but I love you both too. You’re just as much my parents as Mom was and I should have let you know that I felt that way a lot sooner. I hope that we can see each other again soon. Goodnight,” I sniffled as I wiped away tears with my free hand.

“Sleep well, Sweetheart. We’ll see you as soon as we can. We’re coming for you and nothing is going to get between us and one of our girls,” Mom said firmly.

“Not if they know what’s good for them,” Dad added in a cold tone. His tone warmed up though as he said, “Get some sleep, Kiddo. If you need anything, even just to talk, call us. I don’t care what time it is, we’re always here for you.”

I was crying happy tears as I placed the phone back in the bag, sealed it, and jumped back into the pool. Kara looked at me in concern and wrapped her arm securely around me as I snuggled close to her. ~ Is everything okay, Naiya? ~

~Yeah, I think it is, Kara, ~ I told her as I snuggled closer. ~ This day really kinda sucked but it just ended on a high note. I’m still a little worried about falling asleep though. I… I don’t want to see or feel what happened again, but at least there are some good things to think about along with the bad. ~

Kara leaned over, turning my head to kiss me tenderly as she looked unwaveringly into my eyes. ~ I’ve got you, Beautiful. You’re in my arms and I’ll keep you safe for as long as I can. I won’t leave your side and I’ll be here when you wake up. ~ Despite my fears, I was soon lulled asleep by the warmth of her embrace and the safety that I felt in her arms.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 16 of Children of Naethari. Warning: This isn't as dark as the past couple of chapters but some of the same themes are mentioned. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 16: The Sound of Silence

I awoke from nightmares several times that night and had trouble getting back to sleep after reciting my mantra and calming down. I kept dreaming about what had happened in the lab and waking up in a panic. I woke Kara up every time and I felt terrible about it as she held me close and whispered reassurances in my ear while I tried to get ahold of myself. I felt so… damaged, and some remnant of Jon wanted to keep it all bottled up inside to avoid appearing weak.

I was Naiya now though, and Naiya was giving that remnant of Jon the finger. Kara and the others were well aware of what I had been through, Kara had seen the damage personally, so what would be the use in trying to hide that and pretend that everything was okay? These people cared about me, and I cared about them. They wanted to help and to be there for me, and not letting them wouldn’t be fair to them, or me.

Still, I didn’t think that I would be getting to sleep anytime soon, so once Kara had drifted back into slumber, I extracted myself from her embrace. If I was going to be awake anyway then I figured that I might as well make use of the time. With that in mind, I began exercising my tail and fins and attempted to practice using my magical abilities. I couldn’t really practice my Soulsinger ability with nobody awake to sing to but I did work on my voice exercises while I practiced my shapeshifting.

First, I focused on tapping into the weave of my magic, drawing out that tingling sensation and pushing it toward my tail and fins. Once I felt that tingling sensation settle into place, I pictured myself with legs and thought about what it felt like to walk, run, and feel the ground beneath them. Suddenly the tingling sensation intensified and my lower half shifted to that of a human woman, long slender legs kicking in the water.

Unfortunately, I was only able to hold the transformation for a few minutes. It was a start though, and if I kept working at it I might just be able to get a handle on at least one of my aetral. I switched back to my tail and fin exercises and vocal work for a few minutes before drawing on the weave of my magic once again. I continued like that until Natalie arrived with our breakfast and it was time to wake the others, switching between shifting some part of my body and working my voice, tail, and fins. When our time came to escape, I wanted to be ready.

Over the next few days, we didn’t have any visitors other than Natalie and fell back into a pattern of spending time with her and training hard to improve our swimming and master our new magical abilities. I continued to have trouble sleeping and kept putting in extra training before the others woke up and Natalie brought our breakfast. As a result, my abilities were steadily improving.

For one thing, we were all getting much better at swimming since having tails and fins was starting to feel normal and we were starting to be able to use them without thinking about it consciously. I was almost as quick and agile as Kieshala now and Kara and Jenny weren’t far behind, we just needed to work on our stamina now. We were also beginning to understand the Porpoise language better and were slowly starting to speak back to Kieshala in it, even if it was a bit haltingly.

With all of the extra time that I was putting in while the others were asleep I was getting progressively better with my aetral too. I was able to call on the weave of my magic more easily, shift more easily, and hold the shifted features slightly longer, even if I hadn’t had any success yet with my Soulsinger abilities. I wasn’t about to let my limited success make me lazy though, I continued to work hard every spare moment that I had so that I would be prepared when our chance to escape arrived.

Despite my progress, the others were concerned about me. I was barely sleeping and I was jumpy, especially if anyone happened to touch my tail. Kara was getting a lot of practice using her empathy with me, especially in the projective aspect. Whenever I got flashbacks she would project her calm and her feelings for me and usually, that would bring me out of it enough that I could start mentally reciting my mantra and calm myself completely.

Those feelings that Kara projected were amazing. There was this fierce protectiveness, worry, affection, awe, and a giddy warmth that seemed to infuse me and matched the warmth I felt bubble up inside me whenever I looked at her, talked with her, held her hand, and especially when we kissed. Was this love? I knew that I was passing far beyond crush territory with her and it seemed like she was feeling the same for me.

I felt bad for worrying her, for worrying all of them. My fear was controlling me, and I hated that, but as much as I wanted to I couldn’t just get over it. Kara’s empathy, distracting myself with training, and even my mantra were all temporary, and their effects were fleeting. I needed some sort of resolution before I could start to put what I had gone through behind me.

We were just finishing lunch three days after my torture session with Miss Hart when we heard footsteps outside the room, a lot of them. My breath caught in my throat and I started to tremble as the door opened. I took deep breaths, trying to get control of myself but that only ended up bringing a variety of scents into clear focus. One scent stood out from them all though, a mix of too much perfume and cigarette smoke, and it only made my shaking worse as I hissed in the general direction of the doorway and dove into the pool to get some distance.

“Miss Hart,” a familiar voice was saying in barely disguised hostility as the group entered the pool room. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe in mermaids. Is this some sort of practical joke? I don’t appreciate having my time wasted. If Mr. Pierce was so damned eager to hire me, then shouldn’t he be the one showing me these animals that I’m supposed to be working with?”

I only barely caught part of a response from the bitch, something about being busy with meetings, as the others watched me and Kara’s concerned voice entered my mind. ~ Naiya, what’s wrong? Oh shit, that’s her, isn’t it? The bitch who tortured you. ~

My mind and heart were both racing too frantically for me to respond as Hart approached the pool with eight guards and a young woman who sounded suspiciously like Maddie. “Dr. Emerson, this is Erica Winslow, one of the trainers that you recommended to Edward. She’ll be training these beasts to perform.” I could taste the hostility in Hart’s scent as she said Natalie’s name, as much as the cigarette smoke on her. I knew that Nat reporting my torture was going to cause issues.

“It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Erica. I’m glad that Mr. Pierce decided to take my recommendation and that you accepted his offer,” she said, smiling at Maddie and completely ignoring Miss Hart. Then she gestured to each of us Naethari in turn and added, “These are our mermaids; Lorelei, Marina, Nixie, and Melody. It seems Melody is a bit skittish right now though.”

~ I wonder why? ~ Jenny remarked acidly as she and the others glared at Hart and started hissing.

“It’s… umm… nice to finally meet you in person as well,” Maddie replied with a stunned expression that she didn’t even have to fake as she stared at Kieshala, who was closest to Natalie. It was one thing hearing about the Naethari or seeing my new face on Skype, but seeing actual Naethari and seeing that we really were what we had told her was another thing entirely.

I was surprised too though, I barely recognized my sister. She was dressed casually in a pair of jeans, a dark green t-shirt, and sandals but that wasn’t unusual for her. She looked completely different. Her hair was long and dyed electric blue and I figured that she had to have gotten extensions, Mom and Dad said that Maddie complained constantly whenever she had to wear a wig as part of a disguise. I thought that she was wearing makeup too, and it subtly changed her overall appearance. If I hadn’t heard her voice, even I might have had a problem recognizing ‘Erica Winslow’ as my sister.

Hart spoke up with barely concealed hostility. “I’m afraid that I can’t stay long, I have other things to do and the mermaids don’t appear to like me very much.” As much as she was bristling at being ignored, her fear was spiking from three very angry Naethari looking ready to pounce on her as she backed toward the goons who weren’t quite sure what to do.

“It could be something that you’re wearing or the fact that you’re a bitch. Probably both,” Natalie snapped back, not even bothering to try to hide her dislike for the woman. That was when I noticed what Hart was wearing. Along with her black silk dress and pumps, she was wearing a necklace and matching earrings, their magenta color standing out against both her bleach blonde hair and black dress. That fucking bitch was wearing my scales as a trophy, flaunting what she had done to me.

My fellow Naethari weren’t the only ones who looked ready to kill her where she stood. Maddie had to visibly remove her hand from the cattle prod she had been issued as she took a couple of deep calming breaths. Natalie’s fists were clenched tightly by her sides and she took a deep breath of her own before assuring the guards, “They’re not going to attack unless provoked, they’re just warning Miss Heartless away.”

The guards eyed the Naethari uncertainly and backed off for the moment, though they continued watching Kieshala, Kara, and Jenny warily with their hands on their weapons. I was still shaking as I watched from the pool, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest as the situation got tenser and Hart shouted, “How dare you speak to me that way! Do you have any idea who I am?!” Every word from her shrill voice set me further on edge, reminding me of her taunts when she tortured me, her calling me ‘Jonny’, and just how much I hated her. She just loved the sound of her fucking voice, loved taunting and torturing those who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, talk back.

I was barely aware that I had started humming as Natalie snapped back, “No, how dare you! Coming in here after torturing one of these poor girls just to flaunt it by wearing her scales as some sort of sick trophy! Yeah, I know exactly who you are, bitch! You’re a slut with delusions of grandeur, sleeping your way to the top. That doesn’t make you important, just pathetic!”

Hart was furious but I wasn’t paying any more attention to the vitriol that was spewing from her pretty little maw. I was lost in the song, humming The Sound of Silence as the tingle of my magic settled in my mouth and throat. As Natalie and the blonde bitch shouted back and forth, nobody but the other Naethari and Hart seemed to notice my humming. Hart’s eyes were locked on me now as I felt the magic connect my mind to hers and time seemed to stand still.

I was lost in the magic now, using it instinctively. I was so focused on making her pay for what she had done to me, and probably others who couldn’t stand up for themselves as well, as I hummed the last bars and focused my desire on her now pliant mind. ~ You think that you have power over others while you torture those who can’t speak in their own defense. Let’s see how much power you have when you can’t speak for yourself. You have lost the ability to speak, you will never utter another word again for the rest of your days. Communication is beyond you; you can’t use any form of language, but you can still understand them. You can’t write, but you can read. You can’t speak, but you can hear. That is the price for my scales that you now wear. Enjoy your silence, I know I will. ~

I blinked in surprise as the last note of the song left my lips and I could sense the geas taking hold. Natalie still hadn’t finished yelling at Hart yet and the guards looked like they would rather be anywhere but where they were right now. Hart’s eyes fluttered and then locked on to stare at me as our caretaker seemed to finally realize that Hart wasn’t yelling back anymore. Hart tried to speak but nothing came out and she glared at me in fury and realization as she left her guards and stormed toward the pool.

She found herself cut off by Kieshala and Kara, who hissed angrily at her and bared their fangs. Maddie seemed to have gotten enough control over her own anger to turn to the guards and snap, “She’s upsetting the mermaids and their caretaker, get her out of here! Don’t let her come back either! We can’t work with them when they’re this upset!”

The guards seemed to realize that if they didn’t get Hart out of there that somebody was going to get hurt. Likely Hart, and possibly some of them as well, if things were allowed to keep escalating. Hart was still glaring balefully at me as they escorted her from the room, with her fighting them every step of the way.

In the silence that followed, the other three Naethari were staring at me as I swam back to the edge of the pool. They had sensed the magic, just like I was starting to whenever they used theirs. Kara broke the silence as she asked, “Naiya, what did you do?”

“I… think I shut her up. Permanently. I was… scared and angry, and I wasn’t really thinking about what I was doing. I just… wanted her to pay for what she put me through, I didn’t think that it would actually work. I took away her ability to speak, to… communicate at all in any meaningful way. Fuck… I’m a bigger… monster than she is.” I stumbled over the words as I felt suddenly sick to my stomach, tears filled my eyes, and I started shaking again. It wasn’t just what I had done that made me feel that way, but now that the situation seemed to be over for the moment everything was catching up with me all at once.

As I closed my eyes against the tears I felt myself being pulled out of the water and wrapped up in a strong embrace. A finger reached out to wipe away my tears and Maddie’s voice spoke softly next to my ear. “You are not a monster, Naiya. I don’t know much about this magic stuff but you’re my sister and I know you. You wouldn’t harm anyone who didn’t deserve it and believe me, she deserved far worse than what you just did. You feel bad about what you just did, while she tortured you for her jollies and probably slept just fine at night.”

“You’ve been severely traumatized, Naiya, we can all see it,” Kara said as I felt a second pair of arms wrap around me. “You haven’t been sleeping, you’ve barely been eating, and I can’t see those flashbacks that you’ve been having but I can feel what they’re putting you through. Fuck her. Don’t give her that kind of power over you. That bitch doesn’t deserve your remorse for something that you did while terrified and stressed out from the trauma that she put you through. I was having trouble not killing her while she was in reach.”

~ As was I, ~ Kieshala added gently, having understood at least the last part of what Kara had said. ~ Do not worry yourself so over her welfare, she would not do the same for you. ~

“Hell, I was ready to electrocute the bitch, but you all need me and Nat on the inside with you and that might have gotten me fired,” Maddie grumped in response to Kara.

It took a while for everyone to calm me down but, in the end, I figured that they were probably right. I had given that bitch what she deserved. The weight that I had been carrying for days seemed slightly lessened, though I feared that it would never be completely gone. I also worried that this would not be the last we saw of Hart. Even without the ability to communicate, I had seen in her eyes the hatred that she felt for me and a thirst for vengeance.

When I was calmed down, Nat encouraged me to try to finish my lunch and Maddie sat there and made sure that I did while Natalie handled the real introductions between her and the other Naethari. As I ate, Maddie put her arm around me and pulled me close. “Damn, it’s weird seeing you like this up close and knowing that it’s you in there, Sis.”

“Same here, Mads. I love the hair,” I teased, managing to smile honestly for the first time in days.

“It’s too long but we were worried that Pierce might have former mercs as guards and I didn’t want to risk anyone recognizing me,” she replied with a sigh. “Nobody is going to look at me and think of Maddie MacArthur. It’s worth it though. I’m here for you now, Sis, and I won’t let anyone hurt any of you again.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 17 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 17: Hatching Plans

After my lunch had settled and the others thought that I was sufficiently calm, we all got down to work. The first order of business was to discuss our escape plans. Unfortunately, Maddie had gotten a good look at the security in place when she arrived and she was worried that trying to get us out while we were still in our current location would be a problem.

To do that the rescue team would have to enter the grounds, then Pierce’s house, followed by making their way down here into the bunker. The pool room itself wasn’t monitored but every step between it and our freedom was, by both electronic means and people. You would almost think that he was up to something fishy down here. The team could likely deal with the electronic security measures easily enough but there would also be a ton of guards to deal with.

If they had to do it that way, we were most likely looking at an extended firefight on both the way in and out. From what she had learned, and what Kara had mentioned, it sounded like Pierce also had someone high in the chain of command for the police department and several officers in his pocket as well, so we could probably count on police involvement on our way out. It could be done but it would be messy, and it was practically guaranteed that there would be casualties on both sides.

Maddie was fairly certain that there would be high security at the marine park as well so we would face similar issues there at night. Pierce would not want to risk losing his investment and his one-of-a-kind mermaid exhibit, so that place was going to be guarded like Fort Knox when business hours were over. It would be near impossible to free us during the day with crowds of people constantly watching us.

As Maddie had guessed before, the best time to free us was likely going to be when we were being transported from Pierce’s home to the marine park. Depending on how Pierce decided to transport us, they could either strike on the road between Miami and Orlando, or on the way to the airport. Maddie was hoping that by making themselves instrumental to our care and training, she and Nat would be kept apprised of the transport date and hopefully be with us. My sister would keep our parents apprised and they would make several plans on when and where to strike based on the information that we could gather from the inside.

Until then we would have to keep up the act, and it would have to look like Maddie was actually training us in case Pierce sent someone or came in person to check on our progress. We had no doubts that that was going to happen sooner or later since he wanted weekly status reports from our new trainer. With that in mind, Natalie loaded up various videos of acts involving dolphins and other forms of marine life on her tablet and we watched as Kieshala tried to figure out what we might be able to do or adapt in some way to impress Pierce when he eventually checked in.

It wasn’t easy since Kieshala’s English was still very limited and Jenny, Kara, and I ended up having to act as translators between the pair of humans and our fellow Naethari. Kieshala was able to find or improvise a lot of showy tricks that we would all be capable of with a bit of training from her, we would just need to work on learning to do them and work on the timing. It would also have to look like ‘Erica’ was calling the shots, so we were going to have to come up with various prompts for Maddie to use to let us know which trick she wanted us to do.

The planning lasted until dinnertime with Nat going out to get dinner while Maddie and the rest of us tried to come up with things that would be entertaining for others to satisfy Pierce while being somewhat fun and not impossible for us. My sister tried to defer to Kieshala’s knowledge and experience as a Naethari as much as possible in terms of what we might be able to pull off. The elder Naethari had been warming up to Natalie over the past few days and seemed to be accepting Maddie fairly quickly.

When Nat returned with our regular dinner and a pair of medium pizzas, work was put aside so we could all eat together. One of the pizzas was Maddie’s favorite, Hawaiian with olives, while the other was a meat supreme since Kara and the others seemed to enjoy it last time. Unlike when we had pizza a few days ago after my torture session, this time I was able to enjoy it, and we Naethari quickly polished off our shares before going back to our regular seafood, kelp, and fruit.

I was still not in the best mental state, and I knew it, but I did my best to try to shove and dark thoughts or memories of my torture aside and just enjoy this time with the people that I cared about. I was nervous about what had happened with Hart earlier though too and worried that she might retaliate in some way, she was not the type to take this lying down. Realistically though, there wasn’t much that I could do about it except to remain on guard.

I was understandably distracted as we ate our seafood and I was munching on some shrimp when Kieshala interrupted another round of grim thoughts. ~ She is your sister? ~

I once again shoved my dark thoughts aside and followed her gaze toward Maddie. ~Not biologically, but she is in every way that matters. We grew up together and we’ve always tried to be there for one another, ~ I replied as I gazed at my sister. She looked so different with that makeup and long blue hair.

~ I like her, ~ Kieshala said with a nod and a faint smile. ~ She and Natalie treat us as people but they acknowledge our differences. Some humans are not so bad, perhaps she and the others you mentioned will be able to help us after all. ~

~ They’ll do everything they can, or die trying, ~ I promised.

For the next month, it seemed like we were working non-stop between training our aetral and learning the various performance tricks that Maddie and Kieshala had decided on. Kara, Jenny, and I had gotten used to our new bodies enough that we could swim as well as Kieshala now and the constant training had really helped our endurance. Some of the things that we were trying to perfect for our ‘performances’ were challenging but we were managing to get better each day and even having fun doing it.

Pierce had checked in on our progress weekly with a platoon of guards and seemed satisfied with how we were coming along. I wouldn’t say that he was happy with it, but then he wouldn’t be happy with us until there was more money lining his pockets. He was still terrified of us too, especially Kieshala. We could smell it every time that he came to the pool.

We mostly tried to ignore Pierce when he came and just focused on Maddie’s signals and what we were supposed to be doing, otherwise one of us, probably Kieshala, would have tried to kill him regardless of the guards around him. He had made no secret that he loathed us and that he thought we were just dumb animals who had better turn a profit if we wanted to live. I didn’t know how Maddie and Nat could keep the act up, there had been a few times where I thought my sister might just kill him then and there.

I was still getting the occasional flashbacks and nightmares about my special time in the lab with Hart. I was also worried about retaliation of some sort from her but so far, things had been quiet on that front. I wasn’t sure how strong the geas that I had placed on her with my Soulsinger ability was but I had a feeling that it was both permanent and powerful. If she couldn’t communicate with others, then any plan for revenge that she did come up with would be mostly dependent on herself.

Speaking of my Soulsinger ability, Kara, Jenny, and I were all gradually improving with our aetral as well. Jenny was getting plenty of practice healing, what with all of the minor injuries that we were getting as we worked to perfect the tricks we were learning. Even Kieshala had ended up with strained muscles or other minor injuries once in a while. Kara was able to consciously summon her aura sight as well, though it still strained her using it for long periods. She was able to hold it a little longer each day though and was working on projecting her own emotions in addition to sensing those of others while her aura sight was active.

As for me, I was working hard on training both of my aetral. Now that I had used it, my Soulsinger ability seemed to be the most natural to use though. It was easy to do things by accident if I happened to get lost in the music and magic. As a result, what I needed to work on the most for that was my self-discipline. The geas I had placed on Hart had happened because I got lost in not only the music and my magic but in my anger and desire for vengeance as well. I needed to make sure that kind of thing didn’t happen again and remain in control of my thoughts and power.

Training my shapeshifting ability was going better, probably because I was training with it instead of going back to sleep whenever I had nightmares, which was often. I had really improved at both partial shifts and full-body shifts but I was having issues with strong emotions sometimes affecting that gift as well. When I kept myself calm and had a clear picture in my head of what I wanted to do though, I had very good control over it. Just after the four-week mark of our captivity, I was able to put my shapeshifting to the test.

Kara had made the mistake of telling Maddie about my first change while I was half-asleep into ‘little Naiya’ and, of course, my sister and Nat had wanted to see it. I only slightly strained myself by doing such an extreme shift and much to everyone’s surprise, I had been able to hold it for nearly an hour and a half. Maddie and Natalie gushed over me nearly the entire time and, after putting her spare t-shirt on me to protect my modesty, my sister took a bunch of photos with her phone to send to our parents.

Kieshala seemed impressed that I was able to hold such a shift for that long only a month after becoming a Naethari. She thought that I was becoming a natural with my magical abilities now that they had shown themselves and Maddie figured that they would be useful if for some reason we had to go to Plan B for our escape. Kieshala did feel that I needed to work on controlling my emotional states though with how they could affect both of my abilities.

Kieshala was doing well too. With Maddie and Natalie speaking English so much around her, Kieshala’s was quickly improving. She was even starting to contribute to conversations as she gained confidence in using the language. She had the rest of us Naethari working hard on learning Porpoise too and we were getting to the point where we could understand almost everything she said and respond in kind.

Overall, things were going well for us, if you didn’t count still being captives and having to deal with Pierce on a weekly basis. Kara, Jenny, and I were comfortable and happy with our new selves, Maddie and my parents had gathered volunteers and were finalizing our escape plans, we were doing well with our magic training, and Kara and I had passed out of crush territory and into full-on love for one another. Then, three weeks before we were due to be sent to the marine park in Orlando, the unexpected happened.

Camille Hart was furious. While that wasn’t exactly something new for her, this was a boiling fury that had been simmering for nearly a month, an anger that she couldn’t give voice to. She couldn’t give voice to anything, and it was all the fault of that freak. Jonathon Chan, the name alone made her want to kill someone, especially the boy-girl freak itself. Dr. Natalie Emerson was the second name on her shit list and the name infuriated her nearly as much as Chan’s did.

Teaching Chan a lesson for disrespecting his betters had been the most fun that she had had in ages. The freak was under her control, he feared her, and she had loved every moment of it. She had been looking forward to further sessions with her new toy but then that Emerson bitch somehow convinced Edward to ensure that wouldn’t happen. He had been furious at her and Dr. Harris for ‘risking the success of his business venture’ and had forbidden her from physically tormenting the freak any further.

Emerson actually cared about those creatures but Edward was willing to see past that and listen to her because she was able to control them. He might be able to look past her disrespect for the promise of profits but Camille had been furious with her interference. Then she got the opportunity for a little payback when Edward was busy with meetings and needed someone to escort the mermaids’ new trainer to the pool.

That had been an unmitigated disaster. At first, it was going well. Emerson had stared in horror at her new jewelry and Chan was terrified of her. Then that bitch Emerson started yelling at her and treating her like something she had found on the underside of her shoe, the mermaids looked ready to attack her, and then during her shouting match with Emerson, she heard that song.

Harris had told her that Chan and the other mermaids couldn’t possibly remember their past lives but then that freak started humming a familiar song that she just couldn’t put her finger on. It was hypnotic, and she couldn’t look away from the pink-scaled creature. Not until she felt that strange sensation and heard that musical voice speaking to her in cold fury. It was Chan, she knew it was, and the freak had dared to claim a price for wearing his scales. That price was Camille’s voice.

At first, she had just stared in disbelief. She wanted to shout, to point out to the guards with her that the beast had spoken but nothing had come out. The freak had cursed her and she would make both him and Emerson pay, even if it was the last thing that she ever did. She might not be able to speak but she would find a way to tell Edward that the creatures were smarter than they were letting on, that Chan had cursed her.

Since that day, she had tried everything. First, she had tried to use her phone to text Edward. She could still read and recognize letters so she felt that surely she must be able to write as well. As soon as she tried to form those letters into words, it was like they all looked the same and she couldn’t think of what to say or how to form the words. She had tried for hours before throwing her phone against the wall in frustration.

She had the same trouble with writing and every other attempt that she had made to communicate with others. She had even tried learning and using sign language or Morse code but the results were the same no matter what she tried, things that she recognized while on the receiving end were impossible for her to replicate. If she tried to use them herself, her mind would just draw a blank before she could. Even answering simple yes or no questions seemed to be beyond her now. She would hear the question but as soon as she thought to answer it with a nod or shake of her head, she just ended up staring at the person in confusion.

The doctors couldn’t explain her loss of speech except to say that she had suffered some sort of trauma. Edward thought that the incident with Emerson and the mermaids had made her snap though he didn’t truly care one way or another, in fact, he made it clear that he preferred her this way. He felt that his woman should be seen and not heard. She was pretty and good in bed and that was all that concerned him. If she couldn’t talk back or nag him, it was all the better in his line of thinking.

And so she hid in her room, avoiding people who could speak while she couldn’t and alternating between crying jags and unbridled fury. She only ventured out when Edward wanted her in his bed. It was disgusting, but such was the price of luxury. Besides, she would need to stay with Edward if she ever wanted to get her revenge on Chan and Emerson.

In her thoughts, she planned out various ways to make Emerson and Chan suffer for what they had done. She killed them a thousand times in her mind, pulled out every last scale on that freak’s body, and took everything from them that they held dear. It wasn’t enough, it wasn’t real. She would make it real, no matter what she had to do. With that thought in her mind, Camille began to plan.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 18 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 18: Bombshells

It had been another hard day of us Naethari training both our bodies and our magic. The marine park in Orlando was on schedule to be opened in three weeks on Saturday, May the sixth. That was three weeks away and we would likely be moved a couple of days before opening, though we still weren’t sure exactly when or how that transport would take place. Pierce either didn’t have the plans finalized yet, or he was being paranoid and didn’t want to reveal them until the last moment.

We, on the other hand, had plenty of plans. We had one plan in case he decided to send us by truck and another in case he was going to send us by air. We also had plans in case Pierce didn’t tell Maddie and Nat what the travel plans were until the last minute. In that case, each of us Naethari had been equipped with tiny tracking devices so our rescuers could follow us. Just in case Pierce decided to split us up for some reason, we had each been given a separate one that Nat had tied into our long hair to hide them.

That’s not to say that Pierce wasn’t making any preparations for our expected trip to Orlando. Last week he had had Natalie go upstairs to the house above the bunker to pick up a package. Since the marine park couldn’t have topless mermaids and still be considered kid-friendly the package had contained bikini tops, three for each of us that matched our hair and scale colors. He had wanted plenty of time for Nat and ‘Erica’ to get us ‘beasts’ used to wearing them, and to someone putting one on us every morning before we arrived at our new home/prison.

So every morning Natalie would give us a clean bikini top to put on and take it back for washing before she and Maddie left at the end of their work day. Each of the tops had the logo for the new marine park on the left breast but I wasn’t going to complain since it allowed me to cover up my nakedness during the day. I didn’t mind being bare-breasted in front of the other Naethari, Maddie, or Nat but it made me feel more vulnerable when Pierce and the other humans that served him were around. I think we all felt that way, except for Kieshala. She found the tops constrictive, not that that was surprising since she had told us that Naethari usually don’t wear anything other than occasionally decorative jewelry.

We hadn’t heard a peep from Hart yet unless you counted the baleful glare that she had subjected Natalie to when she had gone upstairs to get our bikini tops a week ago. I was worried about that too since she didn’t strike me as the most patient of people and she definitely had a mad-on for me after I took her voice, possibly Natalie too. I sighed and once again tried to clear my mind of all the thoughts and worries in an attempt to go back to sleep.

I had had another nightmare of my torture and while they had been becoming less common as the weeks passed, their effect on my psyche hadn’t seemed to get any better over time. I was about ready to give up and start practicing with my shapeshifting again when Kara’s voice slipped into my mind. ~ Another nightmare, Babe? ~

~ Yeah, but there’s no need in us both not getting any sleep so I’ll just quietly practice with my aetral on the other side of the pool so I don’t disturb anyone. Go back to sleep, Sweetheart, I’ll see you in the morning, ~ I told her as I kissed her tenderly.

I was on my way to the far side of the pool where I wouldn’t disturb or wake anyone when I realized that Kara was following me. She continued to tag along to the far side of the pool and I was about to tell her that she should get some sleep when she wrapped me up in her arms and planted a kiss on me that would have curled my toes if I had still had them. She also pre-empted my advice by saying. ~ How can I sleep when I’m worried about the girl I love, Naiya? If you need a distraction to get your mind off of the nightmares, then I offer myself. I’m sure that I can do something to distract you, and then we’ll both get some sleep. ~

Her kiss became insistent and my heart began to race as her hands joined in. One hand lovingly caressed my right cheek and then my ear as her other arm pulled me in close. She hesitated when her fingers touched my tail and she briefly broke off the kiss, looking into my eyes. ~ If you’re uncomfortable at any time we can stop. ~ She was asking permission and letting me know that a word from me would stop what we were starting. She knew that I still froze up sometimes when people touched my tail, and she didn’t want to freak me out.

My breath hitched in my throat as I sensed the love and desire in her mind and I gave the barest nod. Her fingers caressed my tail for a moment as if to reassure me that she would never do anything to harm me before gently stroking the base of my shalkai and sending new pleasurable sensations up my spine. Then her fingers traced their way agonizingly slowly up to my navel, causing me to shiver in pleasure. Finally, the shivers that she was causing increased tenfold when she cupped my breast and started to tease my nipple.

I was barely aware of the soft moan that I had let slip out under her touch, a moan which was silenced by her lips once again devouring my own in love and desire. My dreams were forgotten as I kissed her back just as eagerly and my hands began to roam, eager to reciprocate the feelings that she was instilling in me. Aside from the feelings that her touches, kisses, and caresses were producing on their own, there was also a pleasant warmth building up in my loins that was quickly spreading to my belly and beyond, filling me with sensations that I had never realized existed before.

The more we kissed and ran our hands lovingly over one another’s bodies, the more sensitive my body seemed to become until even the lightest touches made me moan, gasp, or roll my eyes back in ecstasy. Soon we were a tangle of probing and caressing hands and twitching tails, trying to eke ever more wonderful sensations out of one another. I had sensed the shifting of scales at my groin but I hadn’t really realized consciously what that might mean until Kara’s hand moved down there.

Her mere touch was like I had been hit by lightning but that was only a prelude to what was to come. Once she actually started moving her fingers down there and slipped one inside of me, I lost the ability to think straight. When I finally climaxed, it was as if I had fallen into the sun, my entire world seemed to have been narrowed down to the heat within me and the incandescent light filling my mind. It was like bathing in light and joy.

After I recovered, my focus was narrowed to only three things; the girl that I loved, the amazing things that she was making me feel, and trying to make her feel just as amazing. I felt that my efforts were probably clumsy and inexperienced compared to Kara’s though. After all, she had known that she was a lesbian and probably had experience with her own body, while I had only been female for a month or so and never had any kind of sexual experiences before this.

That didn’t stop me from trying my best and attempting to reproduce what she was doing to me though. In fact, it made me even more determined to give as good as I got. I loved Kara, I trusted her, and I wanted to show my feelings for her. I wanted her to sense my feelings for her not just in my mind as we whispered sweet nothings but in the way that I touched her and brought her to climax as well.

We climaxed several more times and each time it just seemed to spur us on further until things had reached a fever pitch. We were kissing passionately, caressing one another frantically, and our tails were entwined and coiled tightly around one another’s as if we were both afraid to lose one another if we were to let go. We were almost one as our exposed vulvas were pressed tightly together, the coiling of our tails and constant movement rubbing them together instinctively, causing us both to climax one final time and sink to the floor to fall asleep, our tails still possessively entwined.

It was the shrill whistle that woke me the next morning. I didn’t want to get up, I felt warm and cozy, and everything seemed right with the world when I recalled what had happened before I fell into that pleasantly dreamless sleep, and I opened my eyes to find Kara and myself still locked in an embrace with our tails coiled around one another’s. Even the cramps in my nether regions didn’t bother me.

Kara’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled sleepily at me. ~Did you sleep well, Babe? ~

My answer was to lean in and plant a kiss on her. ~ Better than I have in a long time, Honey. That was… amazing. You are amazing. As much as I don’t want to let go of you right now, we should go join the others for breakfast. ~

~ We probably should, ~ my lover agreed with a nod, and we carefully uncoiled our tails so that we could extract ourselves from our embrace and go eat. Wow, it was strange to think of her that way, to think of anyone that way in relation to me. I had a lover, and just thinking about her and what we had shared last night warmed my heart.

Kieshala and Jenny were already eating as we climbed out of the pool and made our way over to the buckets with our breakfast. Kieshala glanced over at us and had trouble keeping the smile off of her face as she said, “Good morning.” Her English was really improving with all of the practice talking to Maddie and Nat but I was suddenly worried that we had woken her and Jenny up with our late-night activities. Jenny didn’t seem to be reacting though.

I was more worried about my sister and Natalie though. Maddie was wearing a tight-lipped frown while her girlfriend, who also happened to be our caretaker, looked upset about something. Natalie was quiet and withdrawn throughout our meal and then excused herself as soon as we were finished. “Sorry girls, but Maddie will be doubling as your caretaker for the next few days. I have some… things to take care of.”

“Is everything okay?” Jenny asked, her face looking as concerned as I felt. The others did too, we had all sensed something distinctly wrong as we ate and her scent was different enough to tell that something had really upset the blonde marine biologist.

Natalie just shook her head despondently at first. “No, not really. I’d… rather not talk about it right now. I have to go but I showed Maddie where to get your food and she’ll take good care of you.” With that, she gathered her things and then left with the food cart.

Kieshala frowned as we all watched her go but waited until she was gone to voice her concern. She had become close to Maddie and Natalie since my sister had come to act as our trainer and it seemed like she was worried about her friend. “Her scent… there is such… grief.”

Maddie shook her head sadly. “Nat’s parents died last night. They were trying to come to terms with her being gay and drove here from Coral Springs to meet with her for dinner and talk things out. On their way home, their car went off the road. There were no witnesses and the police aren’t saying anything yet but Mom and Dad drove out there and had a look. They’re pretty sure that Nat’s parents were run off the road.”

“One guess who,” I spat bitterly. “Have you told her yet?”

“Yeah, the chances are good that it was Hart,” my sister agreed. “She’s been openly hostile to Nat since you silenced her. I haven’t told Nat yet though, we’re waiting to see what the police say first and she has enough on her mind right now. I think that she might already suspect it anyway.”

“She should be with those who care about her during such a difficult time,” Kieshala said sadly.

“She should, but she’s an only child and she needs to make the funeral arrangements and deal with everything related to declaring them dead and dealing with their estate. I’ll try to help her once you’re all done with dinner tonight. Mom and Dad are going to tail her from a distance for the next few days to make sure that there are no more ‘accidents’,” my sister told us.

“Well, at least we know someone is keeping an eye on her until you can get out of here tonight,” Kara said with a sigh. “I wish we could help her somehow.”

Kieshala nodded solemnly, switching to speaking Naethari as she turned to look at me and Kara. ~ It is a shame that what should be a joyous day has been tainted by such tragedy. We should be celebrating today. Natalie is like a part of our clan, she should be here to celebrate with the rest of us. We could always put off the celebration until she can be here with us if the two of you are willing. ~ As good as she was starting to get with English there were still a lot of words that she didn’t know in it and subjects that were easier for her to speak about in Naethari.

“Umm… what celebration,” I asked, so confused that I hadn’t even thought to ask in Naethari.

“To… celebrate?” she paused, asking for clarification on the word before continuing at Kara’s nod. “To celebrate the two of you becoming mates.”

The comment was so well timed that Maddie sprayed out the sip of fruit juice that she had just taken and broke down into a coughing fit. As for the rest of us; Jenny, Kara, and I were all staring at her wide-eyed. “M-m-mates?” Kara finally squeaked out.

“Yes, I could smell it quite clearly when I awoke,” the sunset-hued Naethari said with a nod.

“W-w-ell yeah, we had… umm… we spent time together last night while you and Jenny were asleep but you said that it takes more than just the act of… you know… to become mated.” Kara sputtered uncertainly in reply while keeping an eye on her sister.

“I thought something smelled weird this morning,” Jenny said turning to look at us. “So the two of you…”

“Mated,” Kieshala agreed with a nod. ~ Yes, it does take more than the mere act of sex to become true mates. It requires mutual love and trust. If you both share such feelings when mating, then it is likely that you have bonded. There is, of course, one way to be certain that you are going through the third metamorphosis. ~

I tried to ignore the knowing looks that my sister was giving me as Kieshala took hold of my hand and peered at what few scales were peeking out from under my manacles. They weren’t magenta like the ones on my tail anymore, they were aquamarine, like the scales on Kara’s tail. Hers had seemed to change to match mine as well. ~See, you are mated. You may feel some discomfort for a few days as your reproductive systems become active and grow the internal organ that will allow your fluids to impregnate one another but you should feel your first kima’tah within the next few days. ~

“Congratulations, Sis. Mom and Dad aren’t going to be happy that you went and got married without telling them though,” Maddie teased with a grin once she had been caught up. Thankfully, she didn’t tease us about the fact that we’d both be going into heat sometime over the next few days.

Kieshala looked thoughtful. “They are not married yet but perhaps you are right. We should save the celebration until both Natalie and your parents can be with us.”

“We’ll have more to celebrate then too, like your freedom,” my sister agreed.

I was barely listening. Kara and I were too busy gaping at one another. We were mates for life, a potentially very long life. It wasn’t that that was a bad thing, in fact, I couldn’t think of anyone who I would rather be mated to but it was all so sudden and it made things that Kieshala had mentioned before very personal and real for the two of us. I was a mix of happy and nervous and I could sense the same feelings from Kara as we pledged ourselves to one another in the privacy of our thoughts.

Kieshala did make us listen when she delivered a warning and the talk turned serious though. She said that the first mating heat could be very overwhelming, especially with Naethari who were barely adults, like the two of us. It was going to be extremely difficult for us to focus on anything aside from sex or eating during that whole time and one or both of us might become pregnant as a result. Naethari pregnancies last roughly thirteen moon cycles but even the thought of that happening to any of us made it even more important that we gain our freedom as soon as possible.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 19 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 19: Heat

When I awoke on Monday, two days after Kieshala had informed me and Kara about our mating and what that meant, the cramps in my abdomen were thankfully gone. From what Kieshala had said, this meant that my third metamorphosis was likely over and I was now a fully fertile Naethari. Our teacher of everything Naethari had told us that it could take a few days to finish but we were all thankful for the timing.

Pierce had come in for the weekly inspection of his investment the day before and, while the cramps had made me and Kara uncomfortable, focusing on giving a good performance under the direction of our ‘trainer’ allowed us to ignore the discomfort. None of us wanted to give Pierce any reason to be unhappy with us. That would have been considerably more difficult if Kara and I had started our first kima’tah and had nothing but sex on our minds.

Our first mating heat was supposed to begin soon after the completion of the third metamorphosis and was supposed to last anywhere from five to seven days. Kieshala said that it was going to be easier for us to resist the urges to procreate during the last day or two when our hormones began to balance out again. Hopefully, Kara and I would be at the tail end by the time that Pierce came for his next inspection so we could concentrate well enough that he wouldn’t become suspicious. Tail end, get it? Because we have tails.

Kara didn’t particularly care for that joke when we were discussing things over breakfast. Jenny liked it though, she always liked the fish jokes. To be fair though, Kara just might have been distracted and a bit irritable if she was feeling anything like I was. Sure, the cramps were gone but we both had a very irritating rash on our bellies that had Maddie concerned until Kieshala told her that it indicated that our mating heat was beginning.

Heat was right. I was getting warm all over, especially in my nether region. I could resist the sexual urges, for the moment, but it was getting more difficult with each passing minute as we finished breakfast, and Maddie and Kieshala put us to work on our training. That didn’t last as long as it normally would have though as Maddie decided to have us all break for lunch an hour earlier than usual. “Is it noon already?” Jenny asked in surprise when Maddie called for us to stop.

My sister looked pointedly at Kara and me and shook her head. “No, Jenny, but it’s pretty obvious that our sisters can’t stay focused. They’re too distracted, and if we keep trying to push it right now someone is going to get hurt.”

I looked down at my magenta-scaled tail in shame. I had been trying to focus, really I had. Kara smelled so good though and I was having trouble keeping my thoughts on anything other than entwining our tails right there and then and showing her how much I wanted and needed her, how much I loved her. There was this burning need eating me up inside to make love to her until neither of us could keep going any longer.

It wasn’t just being horny; it was a bone-deep instinctual need that was doing everything that it could to overwhelm anything else not of immediate importance to my survival, or Kara’s. I desperately needed to mate with the woman I loved and to make damn sure that at least one of us ended up pregnant. I needed her to bear my child and I needed to bear hers as well. It was a strange feeling.

“I’m sorry,” Kara and I said in unison. She looked like she felt as bad about it as I did but she also looked like she was fighting just as hard against the urge to just ignore the others and start going at it then and there. The only thing really stopping me was how awkward it would be doing that in front of our respective sisters, especially since Jenny was so young. Given the glances that Kara kept casting toward her kid sister, I figured that we were on the same page mentally about that as well.

~ There is nothing to be sorry for. I have never been through the kima’tah myself but I have seen others go through it and I was taught about it when I was going through my second metamorphosis. This is your first kima’tah, you are both young and are still getting used to being Naethari, so it is understandable that this will be difficult for you, ~ Kieshala said sympathetically. Then for Maddie’s benefit, she added aloud, “It is only going to get more difficult for them until the heat has passed.”

Maddie let out a long sigh and nodded. “It’s not that big of a surprise, I guess. I’ve been talking with Nat on the phone at night. I let her know about the situation and I’m trying to keep her updated. She was worried that it might be difficult for the two of you to think of much aside from getting laid while going through this. She’ll probably have all sorts of questions about it when she gets back from Coral Springs.”

“How is Nat holding up?” I asked, feeling guilty about being too distracted to think of asking about her earlier. Kara was gently stroking my shalkai and a soft moan escaped me, seeming to get everyone’s attention. I turned bright red and Kara quickly pulled her hand away. She looked as embarrassed as I felt. Damn, did we need some alone time.

“Nat is in rough shape emotionally, I think,” my sister admitted while frowning at us both, once she was sure that we were paying attention. “The funeral and will reading are tomorrow and the local police said that her parents were likely run off the road, but with no witnesses, they can’t be sure whether it was accidental or not. They’re keeping an eye out for vehicles being brought into nearby body shops that could have been involved. Mom, Dad, and some friends of the family are keeping an eye on Nat twenty-four hours a day until she’s back here. Mom and Dad have been helping her with packing up her parents’ house and selling off everything but a few small keepsakes too.”

“She’s selling everything? I don’t think I would have been able to do that with our home and everything,” Kara put in sadly. It pained me to see her with such a sad look on her face. Maybe I should try to make her feel better? I could think of so many ways to make us both feel good. Dammit, Naiya, focus on the conversation, not sexy times with Kara.

“Nat knows that there is no use in keeping anything. With Pierce’s money and contacts, anyone who has a hand in breaking you girls out will likely end up being on the run for the foreseeable future. Having a stash of ready cash on hand will be far more important if any of us are going to live under the radar,” Maddie explained.

I nodded in agreement. “Mom and Dad always told us not to get too connected to our home. It’s just a place and we could have to give it up at any time if things went bad on a job. I guess that they’ll be doing the same thing?”

“Yeah, they’re selling off everything but a few photos and keepsakes, and the combat gear, of course. It’s already in the works. Mom and Dad’s team worked for an investor once, just before I started working with them, they saved his daughter when she was taken hostage. I guess he also buys houses to renovate and flip. He’ll buy both places and the furnishings for market price, no questions asked, and he’ll pay cash. They’re going to transfer all the funds from our accounts to Aunt Carmen too. She’ll do some ‘cleaning’ and drop off the cash in untraceable bills to the usual drop-off point after a few days.”

Aunt Carmen was a former mercenary of Argentinian descent who had worked with Mom and Dad until taking a bad leg injury. She was muscular, intimidatingly large, covered with tattoos and scars, and looked every inch the mercenary that she had once been. Since ‘retiring’ she had gotten into money laundering, not because she needed the money but because she was bored and clean funds were sometimes a necessity for others in her former line of work. Even though she was kind of terrifying to people who didn’t know her well, the woman had a heart of gold.

Speaking of women with hearts of gold, my mind and eyes once again drifted toward Kara. My mate was so wonderful and beautiful, and damn did she smell good. I moved closer to kiss her, caress her, and show her just how much I needed her at the moment when I was vaguely aware of Maddie saying something else before our lips and bodies could make contact. I shook my head to clear it as I tried very hard to focus on something other than my mate again. “Huh?” I asked.

“Dammit, we’re not going to get anywhere with you two until this is over,” Maddie said with a frown. “I was just asking Kieshala if there’s anything that I should know about this heat thing.”

“It will get more difficult for them to think of anything but mating, or occasionally feeding, as the heat grows,” Kieshala told us with a serious expression. “They could get violent if anyone unfamiliar or hostile gets too close while they are in a mating frenzy. They should be fine if any of us or Natalie approaches, but our captor, his guards, or anyone with an unfamiliar scent could be attacked.”

“Dammit, when I told Nat about this mating heat thing she was worried that something like that could be a possibility. Let’s hope that both of them are over the worst of it before Pierce’s next visit or we might have to get creative. Worst case scenario, we might have to improvise an early escape,” Maddie grumbled.

“Couldn’t you just tell him they’re sick?” Jenny asked.

“We could run the idea by Nat but it could go bad in a lot of ways. Pierce would want those assholes in the lab to look them over, and possibly check if they’re pregnant as well, after what they did last time they took them to the labs. That’s the last thing we want and I’m not letting them near any of you if I can help it. If they somehow take the girls’ currently elevated hormone levels as a sign of pregnancy then Pierce will have people watching you girls more intently, which would complicate any escape plan,” my sister explained with a shake of her head. She let out a sigh and shook her head again. “I’ll go get your lunch and then give Nat a call. She should know about this, and I want her opinion before we do anything.”

Maddie discussed things with Natalie through most of lunch. Once we were finished eating and my sister had disconnected the call, she let us in on what had been decided, though I was finding it hard to concentrate on anything but Kara now that my belly was full. The plan was to place me and my mate into the plunge pool in the sauna room until our kima’tah had passed or we were able to think somewhat clearly again.

She and Nat felt that this would give us some privacy during this time. If Pierce or anyone else asked about it then Natalie would deal with it. Her idea was that they were isolating us from the others because we had a cough and fever, and were displaying heightened aggression while sick. So Nat was going to check on us regularly and treat us until we were feeling better. After all, there was no way she would trust the people in the lab to do it after I had come back tortured.

With that in mind, Maddie unlocked the sauna room that hadn’t seen use since it had been cleaned up after Kieshala had joined the rest of us in the big pool. It was a good thing that neither Kara nor I could think clearly enough to remember what had happened in that room before that as Maddie led the way inside and we half-slithered and half-crawled after her. There was nothing to remind us either, as the room looked and smelled fairly sterile.

Both the room and the pool were clean and kept at a comfortable temperature and the pool was circular, roughly twelve feet in diameter, and eight feet deep. While that wasn’t enough space for the usual daily use of a pair of Naethari, Maddie and Nat thought that it should serve well enough while we were in heat. It was intimate and nothing else really mattered to Kara and me at that time.

The rest of that week was kind of a blur, disjointed hazy memories of making raw passionate love to Kara, only really stopping to sleep or to eat the food that Maddie and then Nat had set out for us. By Saturday afternoon, Kara and I were merely very horny and able to think somewhat clearly again so we were back in the big pool with the others. Thankfully, we didn’t have to worry about Pierce’s weekly inspection the next day since he was supposed to be on some sort of business trip for the weekend.

That business probably wasn’t all on the up-and-up from the sounds of it. Mom and Dad had apparently been monitoring the estate and from the number of goons that had left with Pierce, the business either wasn’t strictly legal and he wanted some protection, or he was planning on using some muscle to intimidate someone into seeing things his way. That, or to make someone disappear. Given what had happened to Kara and Jenny’s family so Pierce could buy out their father’s company, the latter was a distinct possibility.

I thought that it was a shame that Nat and Maddie had finally been informed about how and when we’d be moved and that we had already planned the escape around it. This would have been a good opportunity to make a break for it, with Pierce out of town and a skeleton crew guarding the estate and the bunker beneath it. I wasn’t going to complain though since Kara and I were still going through the tail end of our kima’tah and didn’t feel like doing much, other than having sex.

It was late Saturday night, probably close to midnight if my internal clock was somehow still accurate after the week that I had had. Kieshala and Jenny were fast asleep and Kara and I had just finished another session of making love. I was wrapped tightly in Kara’s embrace and for a time I didn’t move, content to just stay there in her arms with her tail wrapped possessively around mine as we began to drift off to sleep.

A distant and sharp cracking sound caught my attention, adrenaline swiftly bringing me completely awake. That sounded like a gunshot. After a moment, the sound was repeated and slightly closer this time. I was already shaking Kara and starting to move, even as she snuggled closer and mumbled, “What’s wrong, Babe? Your heart is racing.” The sound of the door being unlocked woke my mate up in a hurry; we both knew that nobody should be visiting this late. Once the door was opened, I caught the scent of our visitor along with the familiar scents of blood, gun oil, and gunpowder.

Kara must have caught the scents at the same time as I did because we were both instantly in motion. While she was trying to uncoil her tail from around me, I was focused on shifting my hands to slip out of my cuffs before our unexpected visitor could find the light switch and get her bearings. As soon as I had slipped my cuffs, I made my way toward the edge of the pool and got out of the water as quietly as possible as I once again summoned the tingling sensation of my magic, pushed it into my tail and fins, and concentrated on having nice familiar human legs and feet.

~ Kieshala, Jenny, you need to wake up, ~ I heard Kara telling the others as my tail and fins finished shifting and I made my way as quickly and quietly as I could manage toward the door. Thank goodness for Naethari vision, not to mention the other senses. While she was still fumbling in the dark for a light switch, I could still see as well as I could in daylight. By the time her fingers touched the light switch, I was halfway to her.

Camille quickly gathered her things and threw them haphazardly into the duffel bag on her bed; a couple of changes of clothes, her purse, passport, other documents, and over a hundred thousand in cash and various valuables that she had been secreting away since she had started screwing Edward. The keys to the Mercedes SUV were already in her pocket. She figured that Edward owed her at least the money and the vehicle for being such a lousy fuck and such a stingy asshole.

It would take Edward a while to realize that they, and Camille, were missing. He hardly paid her any attention these days anyway and he hadn’t even noticed the damage to the Jag yet, from when she had run that bitch Emerson’s parents off the road the week before. By the time he did realize, she would be long gone and would have her revenge.

Killing that bitch’s parents had been so satisfying, seeing the heartbroken look on her face when she arrived at the house the next morning. She wanted Emerson and Chan to suffer. She wanted to take away everything that they held dear. Emerson’s parents had been a good start but she knew how to get her revenge on both of them now. The mermaids and their trainer. Both Chan and Emerson seemed to care about them.

Until now, thoughts of trying to maintain her relationship with Edward had held her back. She might not be able to communicate, but she could still watch and learn. What she had learned was that not only was Edward eyeing other women, but the mermaids were to be moved to their new location in less than two weeks. Her window of opportunity was closing. If she wanted her vengeance, then she needed to get it tonight while Edward and most of his guards were out of town.

She had hoped to kill the blue-haired mermaid trainer since it seemed that she and Emerson were now in a relationship but she was too alert during what few opportunities had presented themselves, almost as if she was constantly expecting someone to try to murder her. It didn’t matter, she had already taken out Emerson’s parents, and killing the mermaids would hurt her too.

It was Chan that she wanted to make suffer the most anyway, and she knew just how to do it. She would kill the pink-haired freak’s fishy friends one by one before finally killing Chan. Maybe once the freak was dead then this curse that she was under would die along with him. And she had just the way to do it. She doubted that even those mermaids could survive a bullet to the head.

She shouldered the bag and then picked up the gun and the spare bullets that Edward kept inside his nightstand, putting the latter in her jacket pocket. She wasn’t sure what type of gun it was but it wasn’t the first time that she had used a firearm. Her father had been a firm believer that women should carry a gun for defense and know how to use them. It was the only thing worthwhile that the old bastard had taught her before he and her mother broke up when she was sixteen, he took the family fortune with him, and left them destitute. Scratch that, he’d also taught her the value of an ironclad prenup.

Other than the guards patrolling the grounds outside, Camille would only need to deal with the two inside the bunker itself; one in the bunker’s security room and the other guarding the hallway to the labs and the pool where the mermaids were kept. She had overheard them talking earlier, complaining about being short-staffed that night and she knew that the bunker was soundproofed enough that nobody should hear the gunshots. By the time anyone realized what she had done she would be long gone.

She made her way into the basement where the thick metal door to the bunker sat, though it took some effort to get it open on her own and then close it behind her. The security room that monitored the cameras was just inside the bunker doors. It was some sort of converted broom closet or something and there wasn’t much space inside, where Phil was half asleep at the desk. He started to stir at her approach but she didn’t give him a chance to do more than that before shooting him in the head, his blood and brains splattering all over the desk and the security screens.

Without another thought, she headed down the hallway where Gary was scrambling to get out of his chair beside the lab and trying to decide whether to draw his tranq gun or his cattle prod. “Miss Hart, you…” A second bullet cut off whatever protest he had been about to make and Camille walked past his body, careful to step around the pooling blood.

She didn’t want blood on her shoes, they were Jimmy Choo originals. She had to be careful not to get any on her dress either as she crouched to snatch Gary’s keycard. That potential crisis was averted easily enough though and her outfit was unspoiled as she approached the door to the poolroom to swipe the borrowed card. She couldn’t be sure if Edward had changed the access code, but cards for security didn’t need one, in case they needed to get inside a room quickly.

The poolroom was dark, too dark for her to see clearly, the damn pool didn’t even have any lighting beneath the water. Since she had only ever been there when the mermaids were already awake, she had to search for the light switch. It felt like forever that she was fumbling around before she finally found the switch. The light half-blinded her and by the time her eyes had adjusted, she saw Chan halfway between her and the pool and running toward her. Camille was surprised that the freak had legs for a moment before her survival instincts kicked in and she frantically raised her gun to fire.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Again, a note that my posting on BCTS will probably be light until after Christmas. Working retail before the holidays sucks. Anyway, here's chapter 20 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 20: Heart to Hart

I shielded my eyes as Hart hit the light switch and ran toward her as quickly as I could. There was no mistaking her scent; I doubted that I would ever forget it after what she had done to me. There was no mistaking her intent either; she was here to kill me, probably all of us. She had come when we would normally be asleep, while Pierce was out of town, and she had a gun. From the smell of it, it had been fired at least once already and the blood that I smelled from the opened door to the hallway probably meant that she had already killed the guards.

I needed to take that bitch down, not only to protect my fellow Naethari and myself, but also to give me some sort of closure. Sure, I had stripped her of her ability to communicate but that had been done largely on instinct while high on my magic, it hadn’t been something that I had consciously decided or acted upon. I hadn’t exactly expected it to work either.

It seemed that she hadn’t learned her lesson though. We couldn’t prove it, of course, but we were all pretty certain that Hart had been the one responsible for the death of Natalie’s parents. She clearly had no interest in self-reflection, considering why she was in her current situation, or that being the type of person that she was might have contributed to it. She was all about the revenge. Well, I could do revenge too and this time, if she lived through it, she would learn to never fuck with me or those close to me again.

She recovered too quickly from the change in lighting and I knew that I wasn’t going to get to her before she could get a shot off. I jinked quickly to the side as her finger squeezed the trigger and I’m not sure if she had rushed her shot in panic or was going for the center of mass, but the shot that probably would have hit me in the chest instead grazed my shoulder. I hissed in pain and gritted my teeth as I kept moving toward her, ducking and weaving in an attempt not to give her an easy target.

Hart squeezed off another shot and I was pretty sure that this one had been aimed at my head. Making my movements unpredictable and keeping one eye on the barrel had helped me to avoid it, but the closer I got the harder that was going to be. It looked like she had some experience using a gun too. I jinked to the side again and grabbed one of the wooden deck chairs that Maddie and Nat liked to relax in when we weren’t training. As soon as I had it in hand, I used all of my considerable Naethari strength to throw it at Hart.

Her eyes widened and she dove to the side as the chair crashed into the spot where she had been standing a moment before. That gave me all of the time I needed. As she was diving to the side and recovering from landing on the hard tiles, I put on a burst of speed to close the distance between us and tackle her. She let out a wordless scream as I batted her wrist aside hard enough to break it and send the gun flying out of her grip.

I shifted my legs back into my tail, coiled it around her legs to immobilize her, and pinned her with my greater weight as I held her down by the wrists, taking great pleasure in the pained expression on her face. “What’s the matter, Hartless? Cat got your tongue? Oh, wait. No, that would be me.”

The look of pure seething hatred in her eyes communicated more than I would have thought possible. I shook my head sadly. “You know; I didn’t even consciously know what I was doing when I placed that geas upon you. I probably would have even reversed it if you had used your time of silence to reflect upon what you did and showed genuine remorse. But no, you doubled down. You killed Nat’s parents and you came here now to kill us all. You’re an evil bitch, and now you’re going to die in long and painful silence.”

I released her broken wrist and freed my vuhac from their pouches in my forearms. Then I slowly brushed one of the barbed spines that were glistening with poison across her chest, just enough to leave a very small scratch. As I was pulling my arm away though, the bitch lunged and bit my hand. I smacked her across the face and grabbed her injured wrist again, slamming it against the tiled floor and eliciting another silent scream. Thankfully, she hadn’t taken a chunk out of me, she barely managed to leave a bruise and draw a little bit of blood.

I looked down at the scratch on Hart’s chest and gave her a cold smile. “Oops. It looks like I scratched you. You know those spines are poisonous, right? If I had cut you deeply with all three, you would be dead in a matter of minutes. Your suffering would have been short. A scratch like that is still fatal but it can take weeks to kill an adult human, leaving you in burning agony that will get worse and worse as the poison weakens and overwhelms you.”

The look of horror on her face as she realized her fate did nothing for me, nor did the expression of agony that followed. I had expected to feel satisfaction when I delivered her death sentence but it felt hollow. It just didn’t feel like it was enough for all that she had done to me, and to Nat. And yet, I still felt terrible for doing it. I was still trying to find some measure of satisfaction when Kara said from behind me, “I called your sister, Naiya. She wants us all to get ready to move, and she’s getting everyone available ready to break us out now. If we don’t take this opportunity, Pierce will only make things more difficult later.”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I figured that we were going to have to do it now. But since we can’t have Hartless here interfering, I’m going to sing her a little song first.” I felt for my magic once again, moving it to my mouth and throat as I began to sing a languid song. I hadn’t really been sure what I would sing, what would be appropriate, but the words just seemed to come to me.

You look up at me with hate in your eyes
Blind to the wrath that you’ve incurred
You’re just too self-absorbed to realize
And you glare ‘cause you can’t speak a word.
I’ve taken your voice, now I’m taking your life
So now they both belong to me
You’ve been walking the edge of a knife
And you’re too close to your fate to flee

Has anyone told you, you’re heartless?
Vain and selfish ‘til the end
Your soul is filled with darkness
And you don’t seem to comprehend
It seems that even while dying,
You can’t look at yourself and reflect
There’s no remorse and no crying
But what else could I expect?

The world doesn’t revolve around you
You’re a minor character, at best
And I think that it’s time that you knew
You’re selfish, bitter, and obsessed
But thanks for your obsession
Your need for revenge brought you to me
I’ve punished you for your transgressions
And now you’ve set me free

Has anyone told you, you’re heartless?
Vain and selfish ‘til the end
Your soul is filled with darkness
And you don’t seem to comprehend
It seems that even while dying,
You can’t look at yourself and reflect
There’s no remorse and no crying
But what else could I expect?

I’m thinking maybe I should thank you
For coming here to set us free
I know it’s not what you meant to do
But that matters not to me
Save your strength and close your eyes
And think about this too
You’ve helped me to realize,
I don’t want to be heartless like you

The song’s magic had seemed to connect with Hart the moment that I sang the first notes. Her eyes didn’t leave mine and she couldn’t move, so she just continue glaring balefully at me, when her face wasn’t contorted in pain. As the last notes started to flow from my lips I could feel her mind becoming pliable again as I gained control. ~ You will remain still until after we have left and someone arrives here to find you. Until that time, you will reflect upon your actions and the kind of person that you are. If you truly care about anyone, then once you can move again, take the time to say your goodbyes and settle your affairs before the poison finishes you. ~

For a moment after I was finished, I just stayed there looking down at the woman who had tortured me, who had killed my friend’s parents and come to kill all of us. I knew in my head that she deserved what I had done, deserved the long and painful death that I had delivered, but I felt only guilt and emptiness. I expected that I would feel that way for a long time to come whenever I thought about how I had ended things here.

Even if I could change her death sentence now, I wouldn’t though. I couldn’t afford to. I couldn’t afford to remove the geas that kept her from communicating either. Doing either would only place us all in danger again. Hart had proven that she wasn’t about to give up easily. As I extracted myself and went to retrieve Hart’s gun, I tried to tell myself that it was better this way, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe it.

It was just after two in the morning when my phone rang and interrupted my brooding. Seeing my sister’s number, I quickly picked up and tried to sound cheerful. “Hi, Mads, having fun storming the castle?”

“Just calling to let you know that the guards patrolling the grounds outside have been taken care of, Sis. Uncle Jack has disabled the security system and cameras, so all that we should have to deal with is anyone in the house and the bunker,” Maddie said. “Is everything okay there? You sound tense.”

“Everything is great, Mads. Hart is dying a slow painful death and she’s out of commission until we’re long gone,” I told her, trying to keep my tone positive. “We don’t have to worry about any guards down here either. I took a look around; there were only two and they were both dead. From the look if it, Hart came down just after shift change and blew their brains out on her way here to try to kill us. She brought us presents too. There’s the gun, and there’s a bag full of money, valuables, and some clothes that I might be able to wear.”

“Revenge isn’t as sweet as people say, is it?” Maddie asked, apparently seeing right through me.

“It’s actually more bittersweet,” I admitted sadly.

“Yeah, and taking a person’s life can be hard the first few times, even if you know that they deserve it. Think of yourself as an agent of Karma, you didn’t do it because you wanted to, or even because you like it, but to protect those you care about and make the world a slightly better place,” she advised.

“I guess,” I replied without much conviction. “She’s in a lot of pain and it’s going to last a long time. I can’t make myself watch.”

“Pain that she has more than earned,” Maddie said sternly. “If you can’t think of it as revenge for yourself then think about it as protecting yourself and the others, and avenging Nat’s parents. We’re entering the house now, we’ll be there soon. Love you, Sis.”

With the call disconnected, I stuffed my phone in Hart’s duffel bag and extracted some clothes, carefully avoiding touching a very familiar necklace and earrings. I was determined to walk out of this hellhole and if anyone was going to carry Kara out of here, it was going to be me. Maybe it was because we were still in heat, even if it was almost over, but the thought of anyone else holding my mate upset me. I was hoping that the couple of hours that I could hold a shifted form now would be long enough.

With that thought of carrying Kara out of this place at long last firmly entrenched in my mind, I shifted my tail back into a pair of legs and got dressed in a pair of black yoga pants, black leather sandals, and a Barbie pink poet’s blouse. I wasn’t going to touch Hart’s underwear, except maybe to burn it later. Since Hart was taller than I was the clothes were a bit big on me, at least until I focused on my aetral and shifted further to grow into them.

I tried not to think about how weird it felt to wear clothes again, and called out to the others to get ready, when I heard sounds coming from the hallway beyond the opened doors. I gripped the gun tightly, ready for anything, when I saw movement. The movement turned out to be Maddie, along with four other very familiar figures dressed in combat gear.

Mom looked like an older version of Maddie, muscular yet graceful and moving with confidence even though she was the smallest of the group at five foot four. Maddie’s hair might be long and electric blue right now, but she got her bright red hair from Mom who wore hers tied back in a braid. She was alert, her assault rifle following her emerald gaze as she looked around for danger while they traversed the hallway.

Slightly behind Mom, Dad was as imposing as ever, a six-foot-two wall of muscle. His greying brown hair was cut in his familiar buzzcut and his handsome features and strong chin made him look like a stereotypical military man or a superhero. He liked to try to get people to believe that his appearance was the whole reason that he joined the military and later became a mercenary once his first tour was over, that he was leaning into the stereotype.

Limping along behind Mom and Maddie was a woman that I would have recognized anywhere. Aunt Carmen was as welcome a sight as Maddie and our parents, but the last person that I was expecting to see. The large Argentinian woman was as muscular as I remembered, and it looked like she may have added a couple more scars and tattoos to her collection since I had seen her last.

Her husband, Uncle Jack, was just as much of a surprise. He was tall and wiry, and he got a lot of vampire jokes with his pale complexion, jet black hair, and reluctance to leave his office. He was originally from London, and he usually worked behind the scenes, using his contacts to get documents, information, or other things that the team might need. On the rare occasions that he did take jobs, he stayed in a nice safe observation van.

Once they were sure everything was safe, Mom and Dad rushed toward me and practically crushed me in a group hug. I tried to hold back the tears that threatened to make themselves known as I hugged them back. “It’s good to see you, all of you.”

“Our daughter needed an extraction, where else would we be?” Mom said as she kissed my forehead. “You’re even more beautiful than the pictures that your sister showed us.”

“Let’s get you girls out of here, Kiddo. You’ve been here long enough,” Dad added. “Natalie is keeping the van running. Unfortunately, this is everyone that we could get on such short notice.”

Once my parents had let me go, I saw Aunt Carmen and Uncle Jack trying really hard not to stare. Not just at me, but at the other Naethari approaching from the pool as well. “I’ve been aching to do something other than playing with people’s money for a while now. I’m still having trouble believing that this is our little alma gentil, but damn does she look like her mother, in the face anyway. She is familia and she and these other girls were in danger. I can’t think of a better reason to come out of retirement,” Aunt Carmen finally said as she leaned over to ruffle my hair.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I should believe this whole thing… but seeing it with my own eyes. Fuck, I have so many questions,” Uncle Jack said, shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s good to see you alive and well, even if you’re not like we remember you. You had us all worried when you pulled your disappearing act, Love. We should get moving though, I can’t guarantee that one of those guards didn’t manage to call the police before we took them all out.”

It was quickly decided that Dad would carry Kieshala, while Aunt Carmen carried Jenny. I had of course insisted on carrying Kara, earning a smirk from Maddie. Kieshala interrupted our discussion though, her eyes on Hart and a concerned expression on her face. “Naiya, did this one draw blood during your struggle?”

“Uh… she bit me, it only left a bruise and drew a couple of drops of blood before I started healing though,” I told her, wondering why she seemed so concerned about the bitch who had tried to kill us.

~ She is starting to change, Naiya, ~ the elder Naethari told me grimly. ~ She has the spark of magic within her and humans do not need to feed on our flesh for the change to occur, as Pierce believes; only a few drops of blood are needed. With your poison weakening her, she will become one of us. It is how we change those humans who have earned the right to become one of us; feed them a few drops of blood and deliver just enough poison to weaken them. If they do not have the spark of magic, then one of us embraces them until their changes are complete so that they can absorb the primal growth magic that we radiate. ~

Jenny’s eyes were wide as she asked, ~ She’s becoming a Naethari? ~

~ Can’t we just leave her here? I mean, it would serve her right to go through what we’ve been going through, ~ Kara suggested bitterly.

~ No! ~ Kieshala said, hissing angrily. ~ I will not leave one of our kind to such a fate, not even her. A decision must be made. We must either take her with us or finish her here and now, before she is truly one of us. ~

Our conversation had been mental, but Kieshala’s angry hissing caught the attention of the non-Naethari in the room. As much as I hated to admit it, I had to agree with Kieshala. I couldn’t leave someone else here to live as a captive and spend their lives performing for treats like some animal. But if we brought her with us, she would only become a danger to us all.

While Kara caught the others up, I let out a sigh as I looked down at Hart for a long agonizing moment before I pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger. Then I put the gun into the duffel bag, slung it over my shoulder, and picked Kara up in my arms. I tried to ignore the lump in my throat and the heaviness in my heart as I choked out the words, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 21 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 21: Escape

Despite my eagerness to get myself and the other Naethari out of our prison as soon as possible, it seemed that we had some things to do first. While the rest of us carried Naethari toward the bunker exit and Maddie stayed on guard, Mom and Uncle Jack quickly got to work. We had to wait a few minutes for them and as we did, Kara looked back down the hallway toward the room where we’d been held captive. “Not that I’m unhappy about finally getting the hell out of here, but does this feel too easy to anyone else?” my mate asked with a concerned frown on her face.

“It is,” Maddie agreed with a sigh. “There were plenty of guards outside but practically nobody in the house and only two guards down here? From what I’ve seen of Pierce, he wouldn’t risk so little security unless he had something up his sleeve. Unfortunately, we had to risk moving you tonight after Hartless made her attempt. It made things easier getting in and Pierce would have made things more difficult to extract you later.”

“Well, it’s about to get harder,” Uncle Jack said with a grim expression as he and Mom returned. Mom’s backpack looked significantly lighter and she was sticking C4 charges to key spots along the walls in the hallway as they made their way toward us. She also had a keyring and as soon as she got to us, she started trying keys on the locks that held Kara’s cuffs in place as Uncle Jack explained, “The police are en route, including a SWAT team. ETA twelve minutes. I was worried that one of those guards might have gotten a call off. At least we kept our faces hidden while we were dealing with them.”

By the time that Uncle Jack had delivered his news, Mom had found the proper keys for the padlocks securing the cuffs on Kara’s forearms. Once the cuffs had clattered to the ground, she tossed the keys to Dad who quickly unlocked Kieshala’s next and tossed the keys to Aunt Carmen before picking up Kieshala again and frowning as he considered the news. “We’d better get going before they can get here and set up a perimeter. Is everything in place?”

“Of course,” Mom said with a nod. “Charges are set all over the lab; I got everything that looked important. Timers are set for fifteen minutes and counting down as of now, so we’d better get moving if we don’t want to be here when this place gets cleansed,” she offered as she tapped the screen of her phone.

“The virus is uploaded to the local network too,” Uncle Jack added as Maddie opened the bunker door and Aunt Carmen finished removing Jenny’s cuffs and picked the youngest Naethari up. “Most of the data on the drives will be useless by the time that the charges go off. I’d rather have pulled the drives or set charges directly on them to be sure but this is the best we can do right now.”

The rest of us followed as Maddie, Mom, and Uncle Jack led the way through Pierce’s home to the front doors, their heads and guns on a swivel the entire way. Once we got to a lavish-looking and somewhat gaudy foyer, Mom quickly spread out the four remaining C4 charges she had left and set them for ten minutes. With that done we stepped outside, and waiting for us in the long driveway was a simple black cargo van with Natalie sitting at the wheel.

The moment that our blonde friend saw us, a look of visible relief washed over her face and she got out to open the back doors. Nat was wearing the same black tactical gear and combat boots as everyone else in the rescue party, along with a pair of disposable latex gloves. Everyone else was wearing the gloves too, and Nat quickly handed out pairs to the rest of us before we could climb into the back of the van. “We don’t want to leave fingerprints behind when we catch our ride and torch the van,” Maddie explained for the sake of the others.

Dad and Uncle Jack took the pair of seats in the front while the rest of us got into the back, where a white canvas sheet was spread across the floor. We were all just getting settled when Dad floored the gas and we lurched forward. Natalie struggled to run some sort of scanner over the Naethari among us, starting with me, as the van crashed through the gates to Pierce’s mansion.

When Natalie passed the device over my right shoulder, it beeped, causing my sister’s girlfriend to frown. It beeped in the same location when she scanned the other Naethari as well. “I figured as much,” Nat muttered. “Pierce tagged all of you with subcutaneous trackers so he could find you in case something like this happened and you managed to get away. It’s similar to the kind of trackers that we use to track sharks, dolphins, and other marine animals.”

Mom sighed but nodded. “Those trackers will have to be removed if we don’t want Pierce finding us. Oh well, it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve had to perform emergency surgery in a moving vehicle to remove something that shouldn’t be inside a person. Usually, it’s bullets though. It won’t be long before we get to the boat so I’ll wait to do it there.”

“Pierce can use these ‘trackers’ to find us?” Kieshala asked, her brow furrowing in thought.

“As long as they’re activated and inside of you, yes,” Natalie replied with a frown. “We’ll have to remove them. Then we can either deactivate them or attach them to fish or something to keep him off our trail.”

“Yes, remove but do not deac…” Kieshala frowned as she stumbled over the last word. “Pierce will follow them to a place of our choosing, and then we shall have our vengeance.”

There was an awkward silence in the van. Everybody knew that our freedom should be enough and I could see Mom and Aunt Carmen contemplating how to tell her that, to tell her that trying to get revenge would only put us all in danger again. I broke the silence before either of them could. “Pierce isn’t going to stop until he’s found us. He won’t rest until we’re in that damn marine park and he’s gotten payback on anyone who helped us escape. We’ll need to stay in one spot if we want to create enough mana for Kieshala to open a path between worlds to get to Totha. We can’t do that if Pierce has people out searching for any signs of us.”

“He’s put Kieshala through so much,” Kara added, putting an arm around Kieshala in support. “He… he killed our parents and our brother too. He took everything from us. Maybe being Naethari isn’t so bad and I’m happy with my new body, my beautiful mate, and my life but… we need to make sure that he never hurts anyone again.”

“It would be dangerous. Pierce won’t be coming alone; he’ll probably have mercenaries of his own. I don’t want to put any of you in danger when we only just set you free,” Dad said from the driver’s seat. He seemed torn on the idea though and his words earned a nod of agreement from Natalie.

“Naiya said that you are mercenaries and that you try to only kill bad people. Pierce is a very bad person. We could hire you…” Jenny said with pleading eyes. I could see Aunt Carmen’s resistance fold right there.

“You couldn’t afford to hire us, dear girl,” Mom said with a sigh before looking over each of our faces. “But you are all right about Pierce, and you are family, so I guess we’ll be doing this one without being paid.”

“I can pay you, with my blood,” Kieshala insisted. “You seem to be good people for humans; you risked your lives to set us free with no promise of gain. Natalie and Madelyn are like members of our clan already and Naiya trusts you. If you help us, I will help any of you who wish to become one of our kind, to enjoy the long life and the benefits of being Naethari.”

Maddie grinned. “Oh, what the hell, I’ve been wanting to kill that motherfucker since before I met him. And since I know my sister well enough to know that she’ll probably try to do this with or without our help, you’re probably going to need a decent sniper to back you up when you spring your trap.”

Maddie, our parents, and the others, including Natalie, were all convinced by the time that we had made our way through what I later learned was La Gorce. All of us in the back had been jostled around whenever the vehicle took a turn since we had no seatbelts, which was why Mom wasn’t going to risk removing the trackers yet. Those of us with sensitive Naethari ears could hear sirens approaching the area as we made it to the water and the van came to a stop. “Let’s move,” Dad said once the back doors were opened, motioning to a small 50-foot yacht docked in the shadow of a luxury yacht that was three times its size and considerably more ostentatious.

~ I… recognize the large craft, ~ Kieshala said, her mind voice suddenly agitated. ~It is the craft that Pierce held me captive upon before bringing me to the underground prison. ~

“It’s okay Kieshala, nobody is ever going to hold us against our will again,” I told her, clenching my teeth as I glared at Pierce’s yacht. “And we’ll be taking care of Pierce soon.”

Maddie and Uncle Jack started emptying jerry cans all over the interior and exterior of the van as the rest of us followed my Mom and Dad or were carried onto the small yacht where we placed Jenny, Kieshala, and Kara in the cabin. It was as we were stepping inside that we heard the sound of a distant explosion. Dad placed Kieshala in a chair and said, “I’ll go get this boat started up. I want us ready to cast off as soon as Madelyn and Jack are onboard; our exit window is closing fast.”

With that, Dad left us to go do that while I stood on the deck for a moment to keep a lookout. I could hear sirens heading the way we came from, and a few that seemed to be getting closer to us as well, but I didn’t see anything concerning until the lights in the distant sky started to get closer. “Shit, they’ve got a couple of police choppers out searching the area,” I muttered as I felt and heard the boat’s engine coming to life.

A moment later Jack and my sister were finished with the gasoline and ran to get on board the yacht. I had thought they were going to light it up immediately but I was glad that they hadn’t since the flames probably would have gotten the attention of the helicopters. “We’re on board, Dad,” Maddie called out as she tapped her earpiece. “Charge is set, five minutes until the fireworks.”

“Maddie, we have searchlights coming this way,” I told her.

“Yeah, they’ll probably have boats in the water soon too, if they don’t already,” she agreed as the boat started moving. “We’re monitoring the police bands and we have a small window though. There are a lot of good cops on the force here who aren’t in Pierce’s pocket, some who know he’s crooked and just can’t prove it. We have a few friends among them, and they’ll try to keep the window open for us for a few minutes if it’s going to hurt Pierce.”

It hurt like hell having those trackers removed from our shoulders. Mom and Nat had to cut us open and then reach in with a pair of needle nose pliers to get them out. What made it worse was that none of the painkillers we had available would work on Naethari. At least we couldn’t get infections, and had Jenny there to heal us afterward. Watching the young girl go through her own turn at surgery was another type of torture altogether though, especially since there wasn’t anything that any of us could do for her.

Despite our desire to get vengeance on Pierce, Mom and the others managed to convince us to destroy the trackers. They felt that Pierce following us could turn bad in any number of ways but that destroying the devices would open up other opportunities. Pierce would have no idea where we were and knowing him, not having that control was going to piss him off. They felt that he would make a mistake in his anger, and they were right.

It was two days after our escape and we were staying in a beach villa just outside Havana. Dad said that Cuba was a good place to hide and Uncle Jack had some contacts there who were able to help us with some fake documents. So now, all of us who were human, or could shapeshift into one, had fake IDs including passports, driver’s licenses, and other supporting documents.

Another good thing was that Pierce would also be limited in how many armed goons he could bring with him without pissing off the locals. The local criminal network much preferred it if people hired local muscle so they could get their piece of the action. Uncle Jack however was doing his best to keep the local toughs from getting involved, at least with Pierce. The money he’d spread around since we had arrived would ensure that they were on our side.

While the humans felt out the city and looked into possible more permanent isolated locations for us to set up shop once Pierce was dealt with, we Naethari were staying mostly at the beach house. Kieshala wanted to take us to hunt our meals so we could start learning to survive in the ocean but we didn’t want to risk being seen and drawing Pierce’s attention before we were ready. We were spending a lot of our time keeping an eye on the news and the internet, and the use of Pierce’s name as a keyword led to the discovery.

The explosive renovation that his home had received had made the news in the States and the Pierce was offering a ten-thousand-dollar reward for anyone who could provide verifiable information on the whereabouts of Camille Hart, Erica Winslow, or Dr. Natalie Emerson. He was offering two million to anyone who could bring one of them in alive. He even had photos of Hart, Natalie, and Maddie with long blue hair.

Pierce had tried passing it off it as concern for employees and his girlfriend, who might have been taken during the attack on his home but it came across as tone-deaf and we all knew exactly what it was. Anyone who could read between the lines would know that he was really placing a bounty on their heads. “Good luck bringing Hart in alive,” I spat.

“Well that does answer a few questions,” Mom said as she looked over the news. “The C4 did its job so nobody will be finding Hart’s body, or anything else in that bunker, for quite a long time. The fact that only the three were mentioned, and that it was Erica Winslow on that list, means that Pierce isn’t sure who might be involved and Madelyn’s cover stood up to scrutiny.”

“It also shows that, while he’s mad, he also knows that he’s going to need whoever is involved alive if he wants you girls back. If this was just about revenge for crossing him, he’d be asking for you dead or alive. Putting a public bounty on your heads, even disguised as concern, is amateurish though, and the number of crackpots with false information is only going to frustrate him more. This could actually make springing our trap quite a bit easier. We have just the person to get his undivided attention,” Dad said with a grin.

“I’m not going to like this plan, am I?” Natalie said as everyone looked at her.

Maddie had already removed the extensions and washed out the electric blue hair coloring, so she was back to looking more like herself again. She gave her girlfriend a sympathetic look and a kiss. “Sorry, Babe, but you’re the only one of us still around and identifiable.”

Six hours later Natalie was ‘tied’ to a chair in the basement and had a gag in her mouth. Some creative use of makeup made her look like she had been roughed up and Aunt Carmen was going to be playing the part of her captor. Natalie did her best to look scared as Uncle Jack turned on the camera and Aunt Carmen put on her best intimidation act. I knew that she could be the sweetest woman when she wanted to be but she could also be damn scary, like when she faced the camera and started to speak. “Hola, Señor Pierce. My name is not important; you can call me Rosa. As you can see, Señor Pierce, I have something that you seem to want.”

Uncle Jack turned the camera from Aunt Carmen to Natalie, in her chair and looking terrified. There was a lot of theatre in this but I thought that they both were really selling it, not that it was hard for Aunt Carmen to look like someone who you wouldn’t want to mess with. With the camera now on Nat, Aunt Carmen delivered her ultimatum. “If you want this Dr. Emerson alive, then be in Cuba and at the included address in Havana at noon on Saturday, May sixth. Bring my money in American dollars and come alone. Any funny business and she dies like the blue-haired one did.”

That was Maddie’s cue to hold her breath and play dead. Uncle Jack turned the camera to a spot on the basement floor where she was laying down in a small pool of fake blood. She was wearing a long electric blue wig, torn and bloodied clothes, and makeup that made it appear as if she had taken a serious beating and been slashed and stabbed several times. He kept the camera on Maddie just long enough to get a shot of her face before turning the camera off. “And… cut! Smashing job, ladies. I’ll upload this and send it using the disposable email account. Let’s hope he takes the bait.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 22 of Children of Naethari. Further chapters are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 22: Pierced

Edward Pierce silently glowered at the city of Havana from the deck of his yacht. The past two weeks had been frustrating beyond belief, and the time and events had taken a toll on him. Not that he would let that show to others; he was still clean-shaven, wore a clean and pressed suit, and kept his demeanor businesslike. He couldn’t afford to show weakness; he had learned early on in the business world that businessmen were either predators or prey; and those who showed weakness were prey.

It was beneath the surface that the recent events were beginning to affect him. Two weeks ago his mansion had been half destroyed and the luxury bunker underneath was inaccessible, if it was still intact at all. His men guarding the premises had been subdued by masked figures that they hadn’t been able to identify, but the former mercenaries among them had been certain that whoever had done it had been professionals and had come for a reason.

The reason had been obvious enough, they had come to steal his mermaids, and that meant that someone had betrayed him. He could think of three people who might have betrayed him for the mermaids, though Camille Hart likely would have killed them and wasn’t clever enough to realize how valuable they really were. He had felt that it was most likely to be Dr. Natalie Emerson and that animal trainer that she had had him hire, Erica Winslow. They both seemed to care about the beasts and while that should have been a warning flag, Edward had chosen to ignore it because they were getting results.

When all three women had turned up missing in the aftermath, Edward had decided to expedite the search by offering a reward for any information on them, and a larger one for their capture. Informants had started coming out of the woodwork but there was nothing that could be confirmed. Then the assistant that he had placed in charge of the project forwarded him an email with an attached video file from some woman called Rosa in Cuba.

The video was authentic and the woman had Emerson and Winslow, though only the former seemed to be still alive. Cuba was a likely location to flee to and their presence in Havana had been confirmed by several tips that arrived claiming to have seen the pair in the city. ‘Rosa’ had insisted on him coming to deliver her money in person though and, worse yet, on the day that his new marine park was due to open to the public.

Why did she choose that day? How much had Emerson and Winslow told the woman under torture? From the look of Rosa, she was no stranger to getting what she wanted by any means necessary. Edward could respect that, in fact, she was the type of person that he would usually hire to get what he wanted. She was intimidating, wasn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty, and she seemed to get results.

He needed to get Emerson so he could figure out how much she had told the woman and, more importantly, where his mermaids were. He would have just let the bitch die but the trackers that he had Dr. Harris place in the creatures had seemingly vanished and that made Emerson the only person with any clue where the beasts were now. He was furious at having to delay the opening of his new attraction, which promised to be extremely profitable and more than make up the money and resources that went into creating and training the creatures. Now though, he would have to delay the opening and find a new trainer and caretaker for the beasts as well, if he was able to get them back at all.

That alone would have been enough to put him in a foul mood, but things had gotten worse since the Cuban bitch had contacted him with her demands. Several of his businesses had suffered from cyber-attacks and had sensitive information leaked to the public, most of his people in the Miami PD were under investigation by internal affairs, and two three-letter government agencies were investigating him, his business dealings, and how he had acquired some of his recent business acquisitions.

He downed the remaining contents of his large snifter of brandy, placed it back on the bar, and then returned to his cabin to retrieve the briefcase full of money. He needed those goddamn mermaids back. He needed to recoup his losses from their creation and generate some positive press. He had no choice but to meet Rosa’s demands and meet her in person. It was probably better to not be in the States anyway, while those investigations were ongoing.

He would have been a fool to go alone though, so before leaving the yacht he had instructed Joe and the half dozen mercenaries that he had hired to follow him and keep him in sight in case this Rosa tried anything or he needed them. Joe had suggested hiring locals for the job but Edward wasn’t about to trust two-bit thugs with his life when Rosa might already have them under her thumb. At least with mercenaries, he knew that he could buy their loyalty. He would have had more of his regular men do it but he needed some of them to guard the yacht and he had left most of his men at home to ensure the destruction of certain sensitive documents and information from the remains of his home and several of his businesses.

The taxi dropped Edward off at a small open-air café near the water that matched the address he had been given. His frown from having the driver taking the scenic route to inflate the fair flipped into a smile as he saw the place. Good, he was still a few minutes early and this was a very public place so Joe and the mercenaries would be able to keep him in sight easily enough. Since he didn’t see Rosa yet he ordered a coffee and took a seat that would give him a good view of anyone approaching the café from the street. He smiled again once he saw the pair of dark grey SUVs with tinted windows that he had rented for Joe and the others park down the street.

I was sitting with Natalie and looking at Pierce’s yacht through a pair of binoculars out the window of the ancient VW minibus that we were sitting in. I had been worried that Pierce wouldn’t take the bait but Uncle Jack had had some other locals send in photos showing Natalie and ‘Erica’ in Havana to make him sure that we were here. He had also been making things hot for him at home with increasing cyber-attacks on his businesses and releasing various information that Pierce did very much not want to be made public to the right people. “He’s back on the deck with a briefcase and he’s on the phone,” I reported.

-= Yeah, he’s calling for a cab, =- Uncle Jack’s voice replied via my earpiece. -= I’m sending in our guy. Carlos promised to take him on the scenic route. They should be reaching you roughly five minutes after pickup, Max. =-

=- Affirmative, Jack, we’ll be ready for them, =- Mom’s voice promised as Natalie started the van and we headed to our next destination. -= We’ll take care of them and then make for the café. =-

We had had someone watching Pierce’s yacht and following him around since he had arrived in port two days ago, so we already had a pair of SUVs that matched the ones that Pierce had rented the night before. We had been expecting him to try to hire some local muscle and were ready with counter offers but he had brought a small group of mercenaries instead, along with his head goon, Joe. That was good news for us and bad news for them since the local criminals were more than happy to help us deal with the foreign mercenaries on their turf.

I would have almost felt bad for the mercenaries but Mom and Dad told us that they knew the risks every time that they took a job, especially in a foreign country. They were also very familiar with the mercenaries in question; they had been on opposite sides on a few occasions and their leader, Garret Kline, had tried to kill Dad at least twice during those times and had done some really shitty things for really bad people. Dad was more than happy for a bit of payback and a chance to take down an old enemy once and for all.

-= Kline is getting soft and lazy, taking all these civilian protection jobs. If it were me, I would have had a pre-arranged driver and route set up, and I would have hired a couple of locals to fill out the numbers and make sure there were no hard feelings, =- Dad grumbled over the radio.

-= He’s half-assing it for the big payday, =- Aunt Carmen agreed. -=I wonder how much Pierce offered him, not that it could compare to our bonus for this job. =-

“Bonus?” Natalie asked in confusion from beside me as she drove.

-= We’re doing this for you girls because Naiya and Maddie are family. They care about you and see the other Naethari as family, and that makes you family too, Love, =- Uncle Jack clarified. -= We want you all safe and happy, that’s our payday. What Kieshala offered us is great, but it’s just a bonus. =-

-= I’ve got the SUVs in sight and the taxi just turned the corner, firing now, =- Maddie called out. -= Okay, the lead vehicle is down. Dad and Mom, you’re free to move in. I have you covered from on high. =-

-= Good, we’re moving in. everyone return to comm silence until I give the word, =- Dad ordered.

As Natalie drove us past the area where the ambush had been planned, my sharp Naethari eyes could see that everything seemed to be going mostly to plan. The first of the SUVs had been flipped and rolled and was a mess of dented gray metal, plastic, and shattered glass after Maddie had taken out the driver. The crash of the vehicle had blocked the narrow and little-used alley that they had been driving down and that was when some of the local muscle had moved in with Dad and Mom to cut off the escape of the other SUV and finish them all off. It looked like a massacre in progress.

Natalie and I had taken a shortcut and quickly arrived at the rundown motel near the waterfront, not too far from the café. It was a seedy place that served the needs of the local prostitutes but there were no cameras and the manager hadn’t asked any questions and took cash when I had rented the room earlier that day, shifted and dressed to look like the type of young woman who would normally frequent the place. By the time Nat had parked our stolen van in front of the room, Dad let everyone know that the locals were taking care of the cleanup and giving the police something to chase. Mom, Dad, and Maddie were all on their way to catch up with Carlos’ taxi in the other SUVs and they estimated that I had five minutes before Pierce showed up at the meeting place. With that in mind, I started getting ready.

I focused my mind on the form that I wanted to take, gathered my magic, and pushed it out toward my skin. Once the tingling stopped I took a quick look at the hand mirror that I had brought along to make sure that I had gotten the look right. Damn, the ears were a little off again; human ears were a little hard to get just right, even though I had been working on trying to perfect them for over a week now. Before that, I had never really tried to change my ears since I kept my appearance mostly the same, except for having legs, and my hair usually covered my ears. Now though, I needed to look completely human.

I re-summoned my magic and made a quick correction until I was satisfied with the appearance of the girl looking back at me. She was Latina and looked roughly eleven or twelve years old with long and somewhat messy black hair and brown eyes. With the right look achieved, I got into the back of the van and quickly changed into the underwear and other clothes that we had acquired earlier in the week, a slightly dirty and worn yellow dress and sandals. “How do I look?” I asked Nat as I shrugged into the oversized navy blue backpack and rubbed some of the dirt that I had brought on my face and bare arms and legs.

“Like a street kid in dire need of a bath,” my sister’s blonde girlfriend replied with a thumbs up.

-= Pierce is sitting on the patio and watching the street, =- Mom reported. -= From the smug look on his face, he thinks that we’re his backup. You’re up, Naiya. =-

“On my way,” I replied. Then I gave my earpiece to Nat since we didn’t want Pierce getting suspicious, left the van, and trotted off toward the café. Meanwhile, Nat would be entering the motel room, where Aunt Carmen was already waiting with Kara, Jenny, and Kieshala.

“Good luck, Naiya. See you soon,” Nat said as we parted ways.

Once I arrived at my destination, I made a point of looking around before finally approaching Pierce and doing my best to look like a scared kid rather than a Naethari who really wanted to get her claws into him. When I spoke, it was in a local accent that I had been practicing all week. I also tried to sound fluent in English but like it wasn’t my first language. “Hola, Señor. Are you… Señor Pierce?”

He gave me a look that could curdle dairy products. “What is the meaning of this, brat? I’m here to meet Rosa.”

I stepped back in false fear. “Sí, Señor, Rosa, she send me. I am Naiya. I take you to her? Please, Señor, do not… angry. I come muy quickly, as Rosa tell me.”

“Hmmmph,” he snorted dismissively. “Take me to her, time is money, girl.”

I made a show of looking down at my dirty feet before fishing around in my backpack and coming up with a photograph of me and the other Naethari chained up in a small pool doing our best to look miserable. “Sí, Señor, I take you there. Rosa, tell me to ask… how much you pay for this?”

Pierce’s eyes widened as he saw the photo and he smiled in a predatory way. He looked like he was about to get everything that he wanted, handed to him on a silver platter, as he half pushed me along out of the café’s patio area, glanced at the grey SUVs, and made a quick motion for them to follow. “Take me to Rosa, brat.”

“Follow me, Señor,” I said. I was glad that I was in front of him so he couldn’t see my smile as I thought, “Hook, line, and sinker.” Then I took off as only a kid can, leaving him struggling to keep up.

Pierce could hardly breathe by the time we reached the motel with the SUVs following at a discreet distance. I opened the door to show Natalie, looking as if she was tied up on the twin bed, as Aunt Carmen sat in the room’s only chair and looked up at the sound of the door opening. Pierce shoved me aside to step into the room, drawing a gun from underneath his jacket as he did so, and demanded, “Where are the mermaids?”

As he brazenly strode into the room, the three Naethari inside made their presence known with angry hissing as they came out from hiding behind the bed, behind the door I had just opened, and in the bathroom. “Looking for us?” Kara asked, looking ready to pounce.

I was already shifting again and had changed back into ‘Little Naiya with legs’ as he seemed to realize that not only had one of us spoken but that this was a trap. He couldn’t decide exactly who to point the gun at as Natalie sat up on the bed and Aunt Carmen stood up, looking just as intimidating as my fellow Naethari. He waved the gun around threateningly and started backing out the door, probably hoping for his goons to jump in and lend a hand. I was already singing as he backpedaled and bumped into me, the words of Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight flowing melodiously off my tongue.

He was fighting me, but it wasn’t surprising with the size of Pierce’s ego. He had turned around and was gaping at me in sudden confusion and fear so I locked my eyes on his and tried to smother his will with my own. I could feel when it happened and my magic started to take hold, and as I sang the last notes and felt him become fully pliant I commanded, ~ Drop the gun, you don’t know how to use one. The knowledge eludes you. ~

I could have ordered him to do far more but this wasn’t my fight. Kieshala had suffered far worse at Pierce’s hands than any of us and we had all agreed that his life was hers to take. I just wanted to make sure that it was a fairer fight than she had gotten the first time, and that one of us wouldn’t get shot in the process. I did block the door to keep him from escaping though. I may have remained small to not burst out of my clothes, but I still had the strength of a Naethari.

Kieshala sprang upon him with no hesitation as the gun fell to the floor, coiling her tail around him. I could swear that I heard bones cracking and popping from her crushing grip as he screamed and she brought him to the floor and pinned him under her weight, her vuhac leaving a long gash across his chest as he struggled against her. All too soon, he was too distracted by the pain of the toxin to struggle and she leaned over him to get in his face as she hissed.

“Your bones are broken, you are bleeding, and my poison will soon kill you. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, Edward Pierce. You hurt us, tried to control us, and thought yourself superior to us, but you are nothing to one of our kind. We could save you from the poison, mend your broken bones, and even give you the immortality that you crave… but we will not. You know why. Think about that and how inferior you are as you die,” Kieshala said with a tremor of long-held anger in her voice as she drove all three bone blades of the vuhac on her right arm deep into his chest.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's the finale of Children of Naethari. Further chapters of Book 2 are available on Patreon.~Amethyst.
 

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 Chapter 23: Plans

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.”