Blood of a Mermaid (25 page)

Kae’s eyelids fluttered as if she were dreaming, her long blonde lashes caressing her still pale cheeks as her father smoothed the curls away from her face. Zan felt a rush of panic, realizing how close he came to losing her again, this time to no fault of Demyan.

He’d meant what he said to Lybio. Life wouldn’t be worth living without Kae in the world. He could tell the father felt the same way about his daughter, and respected him all the more for it. “How is she?” he asked Lybio.

The merman frowned at the question but didn’t look up. “I think she’s starting to come around. No thanks to you. Your tricks back there almost killed her.”

Zan bit back his protests. He didn’t know if Lybio would appreciate knowing Zan blew some of his own magick into Kae to speed her healing process. He took a deep breath of the damp night air and held it, mouth clamped firmly shut, until his lungs burned with the effort. When he finally exhaled, he realized he wasn’t angry. He didn’t care what Lybio thought. The only important thing was Kae would recover.

He also realized he was suddenly exhausted. Expending so much magick in such a concentrated effort left him drained. He’d been tired in the past after big outbursts of magick, so it wasn’t all that unusual. On the other hand, he’d never in all of his seventeen years felt so satisfied with the results of his work. Even though saving the life of a drylander girl was of no importance to him, it seemed to mean a great deal to Kae. What made her happy was enough to make him happy, too. He knew without another doubt that he would do anything to make her happy. Always.

“Xander?”

He smiled at Kae’s use of his nickname. His smile widened when he realized her emerald eyes were open and looking up at him. Not at her father. Not at her friend, the drylander. Looking at him. “Hey, there, welcome back,” he said gently, reaching for her hand. Her skin felt cold to the touch as he rubbed his thumb in a circle on her palm. “And it’s Zan, remember? Glad you decided to rejoin us.”

“Hailey?” she asked, not turning her gaze from him.

“She’s fine. Eyes open and asking questions as fast as she can,” Zan said, his lips quirking into a smile. Kae had mentioned the drylander’s annoying habit during their swim from the Atlantic to the Arctic.
That journey seems so long ago
, he thought.

So much had happened since then. His life before Kae seemed a far distant memory. He’d never opened up to anyone before her, never felt he deserved any friendships for his own sake. Other merfolk feared his power, and gave him their respect. Demyan called him by the name ‘friend’ because he wanted to use Zan’s power to further his own twisted agenda. But real friendship? Never.

Kae was his first friend. The only true friend he’d ever known.

Her next words shocked him to his core. “Zan, you must leave.”

“Leave? Why?” The sudden ache in his heart was more than he could bear. He froze where he was, her hand slipping from his grasp. “You want me to leave?”

“When Prince Demyan finds out all you’ve done, he’ll come after you for punishment.” Her voice was soft, but her eyes were clear, holding him firmly with her gaze. “Swim away and hide yourself.”

He stared into her face unable to process what she was saying. He’d just saved that drylander. He’d given some of his own magick to help Kae recover. And yet, now she wanted to be rid of him as quickly as possible? “I don’t understand. I thought we were…friends.”

Water filled her eyes, making them shimmer in the moonlight. “We are. And I don’t want to see you hurt.”

A small fire of hope kindled in his chest. She still cared. He still had a chance. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, enfolding her small hand in both of his. “There is nowhere I could ever hide from Demyan. His spies are everywhere, in every ocean. I am as safe right here as anywhere.”

“But…”

“I’m not leaving your side, Kae. He’ll come after you as well.”

“The boy speaks truth,” Lybio said, his rumbling voice startling Zan. He’d forgotten the big merman was even there. “None of us are safe as long as Prince Demyan is at large.”

“You’re certainly right about that.”

Zan’s eyes went wide. He knew that voice. Looking to where the waves crashed upon the shore, he saw their little band was no longer alone on this stretch of beach.

Prince Demyan and a dozen of his soldiers were rising from the surf.

Hearing the voice from her nightmares, Kae pushed herself up onto her elbows, hoping against hope she’d dreamed it.

Even in the darkness, she could see she hadn’t imagined anything.

Prince Demyan stalked up the beach, his legs moving stiffly as if not quite sure how to maneuver properly. She figured for someone who hated drylanders as much as Demyan did, he probably didn’t get ashore very often.

In the scabbard hanging from his waist Kae saw rubies gleaming on the handle of a sword, the same weapon she’d seen him wield at Solstice when he slew the Atlantean High Chancellor. The blue-skinned soldiers on either side of Demyan held spears and swords in their hands, walking just as stiffly but pointing their deadly weapons at her father and Zan with grim purpose. Why were the Nerine so far from their own territory?

“Zan, Zan, Zan.” The sneer in Demyan’s voice as he repeated Zan’s name grated Kae’s ears. “I should have guessed I’d find you tucked away on some romantic island hideaway with your mermaid plaything.”

Anger flared through her at his suggestive tone. She opened her mouth to retort, but Zan suddenly squeezed her hand with such force her eyes darted to him instead. He shook his head ever so slightly, indicating for her to remain silent, before dropping her hand. As much as she wanted to tell off Prince Demyan, she knew Zan was right. She pressed her lips slowly back together.
Mermaid plaything? As if!

Both Zan and her father were rising to their feet, facing Demyan and the Nerine soldiers. Zan spoke first. “How did you find me?”

The smile on Demyan’s face made Kae’s stomach twist. “How many sorcerers are capable of creating storms like yours, Zan? Hmm? You are the most powerful wielder of magick I’ve ever known, and yet you think no one will notice when you stir up half the Mediterranean all by your little self?”

“The boy was on a plane, headed for Atlantis. I had to stop him.”

“And where is he now?”

Lybio answered quickly, the sheer anger in his voice shocking Kae. “Dead. The crash killed him. Your boy did his job too well.”

She felt the tears stinging her eyes even as her father spoke. She knew the words were lies – Mrs. MacNamara herself had said Shea survived the crash, and that he swam off to get help from Atlantis. But the mere thought of Shea dying made her heart feel as if it might explode inside her chest.

Demyan saw her tears and laughed out loud at her grief. “Oh that’s a good one, Zan. So caught up in your mermaid fantasies that you decided to kill your rival? Is that any way to win hearts and minds?” His face hardened, the laughter suddenly gone. “I ordered you to bring him to me. What is so difficult about following orders?” He took a step toward Kae and put his hand on the sword’s hilt. “And what did I promise if you failed on your mission?”

Before her father could say another word, Zan planted himself in front of Kae so that all she could see were the tensed muscles rippling along Zan’s back and legs. “Leave her alone, Demyan.” His fists clenched at his sides, but he had no sword to defend himself. Only his magick.

“So we’re on a first name basis now, are we?” The sneering laughter had returned to Demyan’s voice. “What happened to ‘
my Prince
,’ or ‘
my Lord
,’ or even ‘
Sire
’? Need I remind you that you are my creature to command, little Zan? That you owe me your life?”

“I’ve paid my debt to you many times over,” Zan growled. Kae felt the breeze begin to pick up, swirling the sand around her up into the air. She felt the touch of magick all around her, and something inside her seemed to warm and blossom, as if answering some unseen call.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Demyan took a few steps back from Zan as he spoke. “Careful now with your anger. You wouldn’t want to make your little friend bleed out all over the beach, would you?”

Zan whirled to check on Kae, panic written all over his face as their eyes locked, while Demyan snapped quick commands to his Nerine soldiers. Blue mermen rushed forward to grab Lybio’s arms while others pointed swords at the women. Lybio struggled against his captors until the soldier guarding Kae pressed his sword against her flesh hard enough to make her cry in pain. Cursing darkly, Lybio finally stilled. Two of the blue mermen had grabbed Zan’s arms, pulling him backward and forcing him to his knees. One pressed the shaft of his spear against the back of Zan’s neck, crushing his face down into the sand.

The situation under control, Demyan stepped forward again, slowly pulling his sword from the scabbard. Kae couldn’t take her eyes off the rubies that glinted between Demyan’s fingers.

“Now where were we?” An evil gleam lit Demyan’s eyes. “Oh, right. We were discussing debts and promises. My promise to you was if you failed in your mission, I would hurt your little mermaid. Now I can clearly see that keeping her alive is useful to me, but there are other ways I can hurt her.” Demyan spun suddenly to face Lybio, and thrust his sword deep into the larger merman, until Kae saw the point emerging from her father’s back.

“Father, no!” she screamed, as Demyan pulled the sword from his body and Lybio crumpled to the sand. Ignoring the Nerine soldier who guarded her, she jumped up and ran to her father’s side, pressing her hands to his belly to staunch the flow of blood. “You monster!” she screamed at Demyan as she watched her father’s life ebbing away. “You won’t get away with this!”

The madman chuckled as he pushed the bloodied blade back into its scabbard. “But my dear, I already have.”

“Not quite, Prince Demyan.” More mermen emerged from the waves, some sort of soldiers by the look of their weapons, but none of them with the blue skin of the Nerine who came with Demyan. The one who spoke wore a white tunic with gold decoration which shone in the moonlight. “Guards, seize him! Seize them all!”

As the guards rushed onto the beach and overpowered Demyan and the Nerine, another voice caught her attention. “Kae! Are you okay?” All of a sudden, Shea appeared by her side, his big green eyes the most beautiful things she’d seen in many days. He threw his arms around her, enveloping her in a warm embrace. As much as she longed to return the hug, her hands were still pressed against her father’s wound. He quickly realized something was wrong and pulled back. One of his eyes looked horribly bruised and swollen shut, and Kae saw a cut along the bridge of his nose. What happened to his perfect face?

“Father…Demyan’s sword…your face…He’s dying,” Kae knew she was babbling, but couldn’t seem to get her words to work properly or form a coherent sentence. She saw Shea take in the situation, saw that same helplessness she was feeling mirrored in his eyes.

“Let me help him!” She heard Zan pleading with his captors, struggling against the guards who had pulled him up from the sand. The Atlanteans pushed Zan into line alongside Demyan and the Nerine. “I can save that merman if you let me.”

There was no time for arguments. Kae turned to Shea. “Tell them to let Zan go,” she begged. “He can fix Father with his magick, just like he saved Hailey’s life.”

“He saved Hailey?” Shea’s one good eye filled with confusion. “But that’s Demyan’s pet sorcerer. He crashed our plane in the first place!”

“And then he saved her,” Kae repeated firmly. “Get him over here right now.”

Precious minutes ticked away as Shea argued with the merman in the white tunic, convincing him to release the sorcerer. In the end, Shea succeeded and Zan knelt by Kae’s side, his guard standing close behind him. The rest of the guards were busy binding the hands of the other prisoners, but Kae couldn’t care less about any of them. Her only concern was saving her father.

“Keep your hands over the wound,” Zan told her as he took a closer look at Lybio. She noticed tiny cuts covering Zan’s face, from when the Nerine soldiers had ground him into the sand. He wrapped one hand around Lybio’s wrist and put the other on his shoulder, much as he had done earlier with Hailey. Closing his eyes he spoke so softly she had to strain to hear him. “He’s lost a lot of blood and we need to work fast. I need you to help me, Kae. Concentrate. Picture the wound in your mind, and see the skin closing the hole, fusing back together.”

“How is that going to help? She’s not a doctor,” Shea argued. Kae hadn’t realized he was standing so close behind her.

“Shea, let Zan work,” Kae told him without turning around to look at him. “Why don’t you go check on Hailey and your Gramma?” She heard him exhale sharply before walking away. Returning her attention to Zan, she apologized. “I’m sorry about his behavior. He’s just worried.”

Zan shrugged, not bothering to open his eyes. “I can’t do this alone, Kae.”

She closed her eyes and tried to do as he asked, not sure how her visualization would help Zan heal her father but willing to do whatever it took. Again she felt the warmth inside of her as it blossomed. She could feel the magick pulsing from Zan’s hands into her father’s still body. She tried to picture the hole in her father’s stomach getting smaller, with Zan’s magick closing the wound until there was just a seam along his skin, like two pieces of cloth that were sewn together.

“Good, that’s good, Kae,” Zan murmured. “Hold that thought in your head and keep your hands where they are, but open your eyes now. I need to raise your father to close the exit wound as well.”

“Maybe the guard can help you,” Kae suggested, looking behind him for the Atlantean who was supposed to be keeping watch over Zan. The merman had been called away to help subdue a struggling Nerine soldier. They were all alone.

“We can do this together, Kae. You and me.” She watched carefully, keeping her hands in position as Zan pulled Lybio’s shoulder up, tipping him onto his side. From her angle, she couldn’t see her father’s back, but watched Zan’s face as his eyebrows knit together. Removing the hand from her father’s wrist, he placed it along Lybio’s back.