Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (14 page)

But when I turned, there was nothing
there. No shadows, no bodies, and no enemy. Brendan continued to
lie in a guarded position on the sea floor, so I ventured a few
kicks away ignoring his warning noises. I didn’t breathe
underwater, so my sense of smell was useless. But I could still try
to feel for those electrical pulses and listen for movement at the
surface or through the water column.

However, they were too quick. Three
dark shapes rushed out of the blackness from the side. I couldn’t
tell what they were exactly, but they were large and they were
fast. They swam directly towards Brendan and attacked him with such
savagery and quickness that I couldn’t even react at first. He was
screaming, which is one of the most horrible sounds in the world
coming out of a seal’s vocal chords. I watched him snarl and bite
at his attackers in pure rage. He was larger than they were, but he
was outnumbered. The brutality of the fight seemed surreal until
one of them sank their jaws into Brendan’s already injured shoulder
and yanked a piece of flesh off of his body.

That knocked me out of my paralysis
and I tried to swim to his aide. I only got a few feet when
something sharp and painful sliced into my tail. Screaming in
frustration I whipped around to see what had happened, and found
myself staring into the green eyes of another large
seal.

Stunned, I froze for a moment
absorbing what my brain refused to accept. This was not a regular
seal. This was another selkie and I belatedly realized that’s what
I had smelled earlier on the beach.

His fangs plunged into my tail again
bringing my thoughts back to the present. I screamed and reached
forward to punch him in the face. The force of my counter-attack
must have surprised him because he let go of me and swam back a few
feet. We circled each other like lions ready to fight for their
territory; each one waiting for the other to make the first move.
In the background, I could see Brendan and the other selkies
rushing around us in a game of cat and mouse. But me and my seal
only had eyes for each other. His biggest weapon was his teeth, but
I had arms and hands and I was willing to fight as long as I
needed.

When I heard Brendan’s tortured scream
again, I made my move. Dodging in with a quickness unmatched by any
seal, I reached forward and wrapped my arm around his neck. Trying
to avoid his attacking fangs, I was able to swing around behind
him, effectively putting the selkie in a choke hold. Seals were
typically smaller than me, but this one had a larger than usual
neck, full of muscles and skin, making it difficult for me to get a
good enough grip.

He thrashed and turned, trying to
knock me away. But I didn’t let go. Another piercing scream echoed
through the currents, and even though I didn’t know if it was
Brendan’s, it gave me the burst of energy that I needed.

I squeezed tighter and fought through
my throbbing muscles and injured tail. The selkie at my mercy began
to fade. I wouldn’t be able to kill him like this, but I’d at least
hoped to knock him out long enough to grab Brendan and get out of
the water. Yet before I could finish the job, the three selkies
that had attacked the love of my life swam cautiously towards
us.

My eyes flitted around frantically
searching for Brendan. When I spotted him lying on the sandy bottom
several feet away, my arm tightened around the seal as his friends
slowly encircled me. I may have been able to subdue one selkie
thanks to my experience with Brendan, but I knew that I was no
match for three more. Perhaps they would take my
surrender.

Pushing the nearly unconscious seal
from my grasp and towards one of his buddies, I put my arms up in
submission and slowly started to back away. They looked at me with
concern and fear in their eyes, but they didn’t seem to be inclined
to attack. I realized too late that Brendan had really been their
only target. Two of them grabbed their friend’s flippers in their
mouths and swam him to the surface.

The last selkie watched me with intent
and something else. Maybe fascination or even curiosity. I couldn’t
tell. All I cared about was getting to Brendan. I had moved back
enough now that I was directly over top of my boyfriend’s lifeless
body. Looking down at him took all of my remaining strength. He
couldn’t die here. I needed him too much.

When I lifted my head again, the
remaining seal had disappeared. Spinning around in several circles,
I searched for our attackers with all of my senses, but they seemed
to be gone. I quickly sank to the sea floor next to Brendan. He
wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t in good shape either. He needed to shift
as soon as possible to help heal his injuries. It was hard to see
exactly what had happened to him in the darkened waters although I
could see the blood seeping from his skin. I needed to get him to
shore.

Wrapping my arms underneath his
flippers and holding him in a backwards hug, I picked him up and
started kicking towards the surface. He was heavy and unable to
help much, but eventually we made it to the top. I sucked in a
large breath of air into my stinging lungs, relishing in the shards
of pain that let me know I had needed this air. In contrast,
Brendan’s breaths were shallow and quick but at least he was still
breathing.

Using every last bit of strength I
had, I began to pull us to the shoreline. Once we reached the
breaking waves, I needed to focus on my change. It was hard and
painful since my energy was gone and my emotions were frantic. My
change took way to long and I tasted blood in my mouth from biting
my lip several times as my legs reformed around the scarring
puncture wounds. It would take at least a day for those injuries to
heal.

Looking over at Brendan, I took a more
concise inventory of his wounds. The shoulder tear from before now
wrapped around to the front of his chest. The fur was barely
attached at several locations on his body, exposing pink, bloodied
skin underneath. He had multiple bite and tear wounds all over his
body and a large gash down his face from the bottom of his left eye
to his throat. They were literally trying to kill him. I was crying
while I dragged him through the remaining ocean and onto the beach.
It took a while, but eventually I pulled him in between two sand
dunes where we were protected both from anyone on the beach and the
selkies that had attacked us in the ocean.

“
Brendan,” I whispered
while shaking him slightly. “Brendan, you need to change.” I knew
that was asking a lot of him considering the condition he was in,
and his muffled return grunt let me know that he felt the same way.
“I know it’s going to be hard, but you have to heal.” His response
was just a sigh this time. Frustrated tears were building in my
eyes again. I couldn’t rip the skin from him and force his change;
it just didn’t work that way. “Brendan!”

I could almost feel the ripple of
magic trickle around him. He suddenly let out a wail so
heartbreaking that I cursed the world for not allowing me to do
more for him. His body began to shake violently and the screaming
turned into whimpering. Every time he twitched, I could hear
another snap or crack as his body shifted from seal to human. This
wasn’t normal for him, and I was consumed with the worry that
something might not transition incorrectly. It went on for at least
ten minutes; screaming, breathing, crunching. I knew how painful my
transitions always were, but this was like nothing I could
imagine.

Finally, the seal skin collapsed
around his human body and he shuddered with the last of his
strength. “Eviana…” he barely whispered. I pulled the skin away
from him and gasp in horror as I took in the scene in front of me.
Every wound, every bite, every tear seemed to have been amplified
in his human form. Usually, shifting would help us heal the worst
of an injury. But Brendan’s body was so weak that his energy was
put towards the change and there was nothing left to spare for the
healing. There was no way that I could move him right now without
risking more pain, so I decided that we would stay here and rest
until he could regain some of his strength.

I left him lying on the beach for just
a few moments so I could leave our protected dune and look for any
potential enemies. The calm sea was only interrupted by the
breaking waves and there was no one around for miles. Although I
knew better than to think that we were safe, I thought we could at
least rest for a while without any intrusions.

Making my way back to Brendan, I
realized how exhausted and hurt I was. Both of my legs had been
bitten badly and blood was seeping from the tiny puncture wounds.
There was nothing that I could do about that right now other than
leave them alone. In a few hours, I was sure that the pain would
worsen as they healed from the inside out, but I would survive. It
was Brendan that I needed to worry about.

Reaching down, I lifted the
tattered piece of seal skin that was the secret to his existence.
Tears threatened my eyes again as I looked at the rips and tears.
He was lucky to be alive, and the fact that he had been able to
transition let me know that he was stronger and more powerful than
I had ever imagined. I placed the skin on the dune to my left to
allow both the blood and the water to dry. Brendan was lying on his
side, still in the same position I’d put him in, so I slowly slid
down beside him. Exhaustion was quickly overtaking my body and as I
snuggled up against his back my eyes began to close.
Just a quick nap and then I will get us
home
, I thought. My arm instinctively
wrapped across my selkie’s body, protecting him from whatever else
was out there. They were not going to get him again. It was the
last thought I remember before blackness swarmed into my mind and
closed it off to the world.

I awoke with a start like something
had pulled me from my unconscious state with a purpose. It was
still dark but the hint of dawn could be seen on the distant
horizon. The stars had disappeared near the water’s edge, replaced
instead by a dim sheen of purplish blue haze. We probably had an
hour before sunrise.

I cursed myself for allowing us to
sleep so long. Remembering why we were still here, I rolled over to
study Brendan. His breathing was strong although his wounds were
still prevalent. It looked like the bleeding had stopped, but the
slightest movement might open up the worst of his injuries
again.

“
Evs?” he questioned
through his sleepy stupor. I ran my hand through his hair and
leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“
I’m here,
Brendan.”

“
Are we still on the
beach?” He started to sit up, but stopped suddenly when the pain
seemed to get the best of him. Taking a deep breath, he closed his
eyes and fought to continue. I wanted to help him, but I knew that
he would want to do this alone. He needed to prove something to
himself right now. I would be there to help him later. Blinking his
eyes several times, Brendan’s attention was drawn to the far
eastern horizon. “It’s almost dawn.”

“
Yes, and we need to get
home. Do you think that you can make it to the car?” He nodded
curtly and began to push himself to standing. I grabbed his left
arm to help steady him and for the first time in the disappearing
darkness, I saw the extent of the damage to his back and right
shoulder. The sand grains had embedded themselves into the wounds
and I knew that it would take us hours to clean them out. But for
now, we had to get home and off of this beach.

“
Let me grab our clothes,”
I said knowing that we couldn’t walk back to the car and drive to
our hotel completely naked. Jumping over the closest dune, I ran to
the spot where we had dumped our clothes the night before. I pulled
the sundress over my head and decided that we were lucky that
Brendan had grabbed a loose tee shirt and shorts on his way out the
door yesterday. Hopefully they wouldn’t irritate his injuries to
much.

When I got back to our dune hiding
place, Brendan was standing but walking around in circles searching
for something. “Where is it?” he asked without looking at
me.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
My skin!” he yelled. “I
can’t find it!” My stomach dropped in dread before I could get a
hold of my emotions. I stepped closer to him, fearful that he was
going to lash out again.

“
I put it over here on this
dune,” I replied calmly, pointing to the area behind us. He
stumbled over to the dune, falling twice before reaching it. I had
never seen him like this before and it scared me just as much as it
worried me.

“
It’s not here! It’s not
here!” He was nearly screaming and the panic in his voice shook me
to the core. I ran over to the spot where I had gently laid out the
skin just a few hours ago and saw nothing.

“
No, no, no,” I mumbled.
Scrambling up the dune’s face, I fought against the falling sand to
climb to the top. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but what I
smelled was unmistakable. Interspersed with Brendan’s fur and blood
scent was the aroma of another selkie; one of the seals that had
attacked us. The human footprints were unmistakable and the trail
they laid heading away from the skin could mean only one thing.
“No,” I whispered this time. Why did I let us stay here? I whipped
my head back down the dune towards Brendan who was sitting on the
edge panting and looking up at me with frantic eyes.