Betrayal 2012 (2 page)

“Ahh!” I screamed in frustration.  The annoying grin on his face told me that I would never beat him in a fair fight.  Palmer was my cousin, my trainer, and also one of the numerous protectors now living at my house.  We’d been practicing for the past two weeks and although I couldn’t hurt him yet, Palmer reassured me that I was improving.

Ever since Lucian Sutherland killed my parents a few weeks ago, the security around here increased.  As the new clan leader, I wanted all of my people to learn how to fight.  No one would be helpless against an attack.  There was a war brewing amongst the various merfolk clans, with my family seemingly taking the lead against the uprising.  It was not a position I’d ever expected to be in, nor ever wanted.  In fact, I ran away from this life for a chance to be with my boyfriend and not be forced into an arranged marriage and clan leadership.  But that all fell apart the moment Lucian and his followers attacked me and my friends and pulled me into the center of the merfolk politics I’d always tried to ignore.

“Do you yield?” Palmer asked while pressing a little too hard against my throat.  I gave him the most deadly look I could muster and tried to push against his mind.  It was futile.  Mermaids couldn’t control each other like that. 

But we could use compulsion on humans.  It was what the clans were fighting over now; the right to practice The Legacy and secure our status of god-like creatures in this rapidly evolving world.  Controlling humans meant directing the stock market, influencing world politics, and dictating numerous other scenarios that I really hated to think about.  Lucian wanted me to join him in his cause to help persuade the Council, our governing body, to allow us to manipulate the minds of lesser species.  I had refused his offer and that had cost me everyone that I loved.

Thinking about this made me angry.  With my newfound strength, I kicked my legs and aimed for any part of Palmer’s body that I could reach.  His arm pressed harder against my throat as he scrambled out of the way, barely avoiding a hit to his most precious area.

“Oh, you’re in trouble now,” he warned.  Palmer’s grip lightened slightly and his free hand moved towards my ribs.  In an instant, he began tickling me so hard that although I tried to resist, I couldn’t.  Tears spilled out of my eyes and I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Stop it!  You’re going to make me pee my pants,” I managed to say in between the giggles.

“That wouldn’t be very attractive,” a new voice chimed in.  Palmer and I sat up instantly and I could feel the heat rising up to my cheeks.

“Good afternoon, Master Matthew,” Palmer said after he jumped to his feet.  I remained sitting on the ground to give myself a chance to recover and to make sure that I really did have control over my bladder.

“Palmer, you can call me Kain,” the new guy said lightly.  Kain was almost six feet tall with an athletic body and sun bleached shaggy blonde hair.  It was growing out a little bit now, and it seemed as though he didn’t quite know what to do with it.  He was my age and a clan leader himself.  His smile was always friendly but I knew that his dark sunglasses hid disturbingly haunted eyes. 

Kain was the fiancé I’d abandoned not long after his father died and he assumed leadership.  We had been promised to each other since we were children but I never really had any intentions of marrying him.  My heart had always belonged to Brendan; my selkie.  Brendan was a shape shifting seal, and with my abilities to control all selkies, no one thought that we should be together.  After the events a few weeks ago, Brendan began to feel the same way and had decided not to return home with me.   I hadn’t heard much from him since he left and often worried that our relationship was over.

Although my friendship with Kain was still on the rocks due to my actions, we were trying to keep our clans united in the face of war.  He was frequently a guest at our house and his budding relationship with Carissa seemed to keep him content.  We never spoke about our almost kiss.  That was probably for the better, although I would sometimes find myself wondering what would have happened had I chosen a different path.  Kain was an amazing guy and quickly becoming a respectable leader.  And I couldn’t help but realize that Carissa was a lucky girl.

 “Sure, Master….um…Kain, sir.”  Palmer continued stuttering out his words as though he was standing in front of a rock star.  “Are you here for practice?”  My cousin looked around nervously.  “I hope I haven’t missed an appointment.”

“Oh no.  I had a water session this morning and I’m spent,” Kain said with a smile.  He had a way of making those around him feel at ease with very little effort.  It was a really great quality and one I wish that I could master.  “I’m actually here to talk to Eviana.”  Kain looked down at me and I couldn’t tell if we were going to have a good or a bad conversation.

I stood and brushed off the sand from my body.  My hair pulled against the back of my head, so I retied my ponytail to keep the long blonde pieces from falling in my face again.  Trying to be casual and confident I threw back my shoulders and faced my cousin. 

“Palmer and I are finished now.”  Turning back to Kain, I added, “Why don’t we go inside so I can get a drink.” 

He nodded and we began to trek back towards the house.  I felt something hit the back of my skull and I spun around to glare at my so-called protector.  He was standing there with a huge smile on his face tossing a small pebble up and down in his right hand.

“Remember your training is never over, Eviana.”  He threw the pebble at me again and I swatted it away.  Tipping an invisible hat in my direction, Palmer turned around and jogged off towards the other guys training further down the beach.

“Jerk,” I muttered under my breath.  Kain laughed.

“That’s pretty tame of you.”

“Yeah, well…see how grown up I am now?  I didn’t bother to call him one nasty name that came to mind.”

He smiled at me.  “I’m impressed.”  My heart did a little flip-flop.  I knew that I had messed things up pretty bad, so any compliment from Kain was encouraging at this point.

We climbed the stairs leading up to the expansive redwood deck my ancestors had built around our house.  Just before reaching the top, a petite figure with long dark hair like my mother’s leaned over the top of the railing and began waving her arms at us.

“Eviana!  Kain!  You need to come inside now!”

“We’re already on our way, Marisol.”  My little sister had also been forced to grow up after our parent’s death.  She and I still didn’t get along most days, but over the past few weeks she seemed to realize that putting our differences aside would be the only way we could live together.  Plus, I was her legal guardian now so she really didn’t have much of a choice.

“Well move faster!” she yelled.  “You need to see this!”

I had no idea what she was talking about.  Maybe she learned a cool defensive move or maybe her new cat was doing something cute.  I didn’t really care to be honest.  She still blamed me for our parent’s deaths and she didn’t hide her true feelings about my promotion to clan leader.  We had a damaged relationship; that was for sure.

Marisol disappeared inside just as we reached the top.  Shaking my head, Kain and I silently continued towards the sliding glass doors that opened up into a large kitchen and dining area.  The television was blasting from the adjacent living room where we had been summoned to.  Quickly grabbing a bottle of water, I leaned around the counter to see that almost everyone inside was gathered in front of the large flat screen, vying for a spot to see the show.  I looked questioningly at Kain, who had waited for me, but his slight shake of the head told me that he didn’t know what was going on either.

“Eviana!” Marisol’s squeaky voice called again, although this time it was tainted with something I couldn’t quite place.  Maybe fear or despair and my stomach dropped at her tone.

I pushed my way to the front of the crowd to see what all the fuss was about.  One of the local channels was on and the words “Breaking News” kept flashing across the top corner of the screen.  Marisol was sobbing and while a female protector tried to soothe her.

“Can someone turn this up?” I asked trying to ignore her sniffling so I could hear what was happening.

The newscaster, a thirty-something year old man with perfectly manicured hair and an award-winning solemn face, began to speak.  “I am standing outside of The Wensler Academy where a student has just been arrested for shooting several others earlier in the day.  Eighteen-year-old Justin Bernard,” he said while reading from his notes, “was detained by police almost an hour ago.  Sources say that Mr. Bernard came to school with a loaded pistol and brutally attacked three female students.” 

Pictures of the injured girls flashed on the screen and I sucked in a panicked breath.  “Kristy Smith, Carlee Robinson, and Mia Sarcowski all sustained serious injuries when Justin opened fire on them without warning.”  The newscaster disappeared and an interview with an eyewitness student filled the screen.                                          

“He kept mumbling the same words over and over.  I couldn’t understand him but it sounded like ‘I must hurt her friends’.”  The redheaded boy shifted nervously and his eyes darted to and from the camera. 

“Do you know whose friends?” asked the reporter.  The boy continued shaking his head.

“No.  I don’t.  It’s just so weird.  Justin wasn’t like that.  He would never hurt anyone.  I…I don’t understand…”  His attention jerked towards the crowd behind him where Justin and the police had just emerged from the building.  The star athlete’s hands were cuffed behind his back and two officers were escorting him by the elbows.  They hustled him to the car, but not before the reporter stuck the microphone in front of his face.

“Why did you do it, Justin?  What was going through your mind?”

I didn’t know Justin well, but from what I could see of him right now, there was something very wrong.  His pupils were dilated and his lips never stopped moving.  He wouldn’t answer the reporter’s questions and instead stared straight ahead as if in a daze.  Just before the police pushed his head into the backseat of the car, the camera man got a close enough shot for me to pick out a few words.

It was only three little words but they sent ice through my veins.  How was this possible?  What could he mean?  None of it made sense to me and when he said “hurt Eviana Dumahl” over and over, the reality of what this could represent suddenly came crashing down.

Two

“No,” I whispered in a state of shock.  Three of my closest friends from school had been shot and I believed it was in an attempt to harm me.  We continued watching the news until the repeating film loops began to give me a headache.  The ticker on the bottom of the screen said that all three girls were in critical condition at the city hospital, but that the doctors were hopeful with their prognoses.

The newscaster added that a few students heard Justin say that a tall blond man told him to do this, but everyone seemed to be passing that off as a delusion.  Certainly Justin was hearing voices.  No one could force another to shoot innocent people.  Right?

Kain and I looked at each other in perfect understanding.  His eyes reflected back the same fear that was now coursing through my bones.  We knew a tall blond man who could force a human to do his bidding.  And he just happened to hate me right now.

“It couldn’t be,” I whispered again, forcing Kain to grab the sides of my arms when I almost toppled over.

“I’m sure there’s another explanation,” he said calmly, but the stiffness in his shoulders gave him away.  Kain thought that Lucian Sutherland was behind the shooting just like I had suspected.

The doorbell rang causing nearly everyone in the room to jump.  Jason, one of the protectors that had been inside earlier, left the living room to greet our new guest.  I heard some mumbled words a few seconds before he came back into the room holding a red envelope, a black flower, and a suspicious look on his face.  “It’s for you, Mistress Dumahl.”