Blood of a Mermaid (2 page)

“Good choice, my old friend,” Demyan said, the wide smile returning to his face. He waved his right hand. Zan turned to see two Arctic mermen swimming away from behind his chair, their long white hair flowing behind them. One carried a long steel blade and the other held a canvas sack secured at the top with a long length of blackened rope. The sack itself was writhing furiously.

Zan took in a long, slow breath, glad he hadn’t met them, and gladder still that he didn’t know what was in the sack. He was certain that if he knew the contents, he would already be dead. “Who are they?” he asked, his voice little more than a whisper.

“Do you know the Arctic mermen have developed some quite innovative methods of…persuasion?” Demyan’s smile widened even further. “I used to think we Adluos were the best fighters in any ocean, but I think the Arctic mermen are better.”

“Better? How so?”

“More subtle. More precise with their movements, so as not to waste time or energy. It’s fascinating to watch them work, really,” Demyan said casually, reaching for another handful of the seeds. “Like artists, they are. The pity of the matter is that they can also be quite overzealous. They keep going, and going, and going. Until really, you wish it would all just end.”

Zan took in another long breath of the crisp Arctic water, grateful to know it was not to be his last. At least, not yet.

Five aluminum soda cans covered in barnacles, three white plastic coffee cup lids, two empty water bottles, one pair of blue goggles with a cracked lens, one orange snorkel filled with sand, and a green plastic sand toy shaped like some kind of fish.

The early morning sun sparkled on the water, dancing like millions of frenzied lightning bugs skimming the surface of the Atlantic. The tide was out and the beach seemed to stretch forever. Small waves quietly lapped along the edges of the sandbars as dozens of seagulls circled overhead, taking turns diving downward to catch the green crabs exposed on the rocks below.

The black dog pranced along the shoreline, kicking up spray in his wake as he chased after the swooping birds. The salty breeze gently blew along the sand, ruffling the dog’s fur and helping the gulls easily stay aloft, hovering just out of his reach.

Shea MacNamara paid little attention to the dog. With one hand cupped over his eyes to shade them and the bag of trash dangling limply from the other, he stared intently out across the water, searching for signs of movement along the ocean’s surface.

To anyone watching him, he looked like a normal teenager, out walking his dog on the beach in the early morning. He wore a plain white t-shirt that clung snugly to his muscular frame, along with cut-off jeans and sandals. His long hair was the color of golden wheat and his tanned skin set off his bright green eyes. He looked like so many other local kids who spent a lot of time along the shorelines of Cape Cod. An ordinary boy. Except Shea no longer fit into that category.

The only thing that might make an observer stop and take a second look was a leather cord hanging around his neck with a beach rock medallion. The rock had a strange hexagonal hole carved through the middle, and the dark rock itself seemed to shine from within. Even so, the gift shops on Cape Cod were filled with jewelry made from beach stones and sea glass. The only question the necklace was likely to raise was, “Where can I get one just like that?”

When people asked, he smiled and shrugged. He told them it was a gift from his mother. Which was the truth. Just not the whole truth.

“Where is she, Lucky?” he asked as the dog trotted closer to where Shea stood. The dog looked up at the boy and whimpered in response, his long pink tongue hanging out one side of his smiling mouth. Not for the first time, Shea wished he could hear the dog’s thoughts as clearly as he understood the thoughts of sea creatures.
Life would’ve been so much easier if Lucky was a fish,
he thought with a smile, reflecting on just how much things had changed since he’d come to Cape Cod.

In an incredibly short period of time, his life had gone from boringly ho-hum-normal to anything but.

Last summer, his biggest problem had been how to get his father to take time off from work on their farm to drive him into Oklahoma City, in order to buy the latest new electronic gizmo or go see a baseball game. That was before the tornado ripped the farm to shreds this spring, killing Shea’s father and changing absolutely everything.

Moving from Oklahoma to Massachusetts to live with his grandmother had been a big shock for Shea. His father grew up on Cape Cod, but Shea had never even seen the ocean and didn’t know the first thing about how to swim. The first time he’d accidentally fallen off the dock, he’d almost drowned. Shea absently brushed the spot behind his ear, his fingers tracing along the soft slits that had formed there on the day of the accident.

Slits that covered his new gills.

It was almost like the old Shea
had
drowned that day, and this new one had emerged. A new and improved Shea, who could breathe underwater and transform his two legs into one powerful tail.

The son of a mermaid.

Finding his mother again had been both the best – and strangest – part of his new reality. The fact that she was mermaid royalty helped explain why she’d been missing from his life for so many years, especially since Shea was apparently heir to the throne. His mom had been trying to do her duty, but also protect Shea from her world until he was old enough to understand.

He tried not to think about that whole heir-to-the-throne thing, happy to know his grandfather, King Koios, still ruled over the Atlantic, healthy again after Shea helped thwart an assassination attempt. Shea wanted more time without any royal responsibilities, time to learn more about the undersea world and its inhabitants… including one very special blonde mermaid.

If only she would show up on the beach this morning, like she’d promised.

Kae had been the one to teach him how to swim, and who had brought him to see his mother for the first time. She was beautiful and thoughtful and kind and funny…and Shea was pretty sure he was totally in love with her. The only hitch was that she worked for his mother, who had already left for the Southern Ocean. Kae had said she’d be leaving sometime soon, and would be gone for the rest of the summer.

He needed to see her again before she left. To hold her in his arms… He didn’t want to have to wait until school started up in September – who knew what could happen between now and then?

Lucky gave a short, sharp bark, and pushed his nose against Shea’s leg, interrupting the boy’s thoughts. “Okay, you’re right,” Shea said, sighing. “We should leave before the lifeguards get here. Or before Officer Tandy catches us again.” Dogs were technically not allowed on the beach, and Shea and Lucky had already had more than their share of confrontations with the local police officers.

Shea turned and headed up the beach toward the metal trash barrel sitting at the edge of the sand, tying the top of his plastic bag as he walked. The dog shook the last of the salt water from his fur, and followed beside the boy. The pair reached the boardwalk and Shea tossed the collection of trash he’d picked up along their walk, just as he did every morning. As he stooped to clip the leash onto Lucky’s collar, a black and white cruiser pulled into the parking lot. “I think we made it just in time, Lucky,” Shea told the dog before standing up to face the patrol car.

A familiar policeman with mirrored glasses and a beaky nose stepped out of the vehicle. “Good morning, Mr. MacNamara,” Officer Tandy said, taking off his sunglasses. “You weren’t thinking of walking your dog down onto the beach, were you?”

“Oh no, sir. That would be against the rules,” Shea lied, smiling at the officer. Lucky gave a short bark in agreement, wagging his tail. “We were just taking a walk through the neighborhood and stopped here to throw out some garbage.”

Tandy nodded. “I like to see a young man caring for the environment. Reminds me of myself at your age.” He looked past Shea out toward the ocean. “Seen your mom lately?”

“She got called away on business,” Shea told him, wondering yet again just how much the police officer knew about his mother, her family, and the underwater world in which she lived.

He knew that Tandy had been friends with his dad growing up, and had known both his mother and father when they were younger. But what else did Tandy really know? And did it matter? Because Shea was pretty sure the guy had no clue what had actually been going on this summer.

As the only daughter of the King of the Atlantic, and whose own mother had been a princess of the Southern Ocean’s Adluo clan, Shea’s mother Brynneliana had been declared Queen of the Southern Ocean soon after Prince Demyan had fled the Summer Solstice gathering. Shea was proud of her for taking on the responsibility of helping the Southern Ocean recover from too many years of war, but at the same time he resented the fact that she had to leave him. Again.

He’d grown up without knowing his mother, and after a few short days of reunion, she’d had to leave. He’d thought they’d have more time, but problems had flared up in the Southern Castle that required her immediate attention. Kae would soon be following in her wake with the rest of the entourage, to help settle the new queen into her new responsibilities.

Until his mom gave the okay that it was safe for him to return to the underwater world of the merfolk, Shea couldn’t follow them. He couldn’t swim with Kae or travel to see his mother’s new castle. He was pretty much stuck right here in Windmill Point, living with his drylander grandmother above the ocean’s surface.

And dealing with Officer Tandy.

“Anyway,” Shea said, “I should get going. I’m sure Gramma has breakfast cooking by now. Nice to see you, Officer.”

“You take care, Mr. MacNamara,” Tandy said, pushing the mirrored glasses back onto his nose. “And stay off the beaches with that dog.”

“Yes, sir,” Shea nodded, tugging on Lucky’s leash. The patrol car backed up and pulled out of the small parking lot, with Shea and Lucky following.

Through the kitchen’s screen door, Shea could hear the sound of bacon sizzling in the frying pan. His grandmother was humming to herself, but Shea didn’t recognize the tune. After rinsing the sand from his feet and Lucky’s paws, Shea went to the door and peered in through the screen. “Is there a towel to dry Lucky, Gramma?” he asked.

Martha MacNamara appeared framed in the doorway a moment later, holding an old grey towel. She wore her usual faded housedress and an apron that was probably once some shade of blue. Her long, steely grey hair was pulled into a severe bun this morning, giving her a no-nonsense air that Shea had come to appreciate over the last month. Nothing seemed to get past her, and she always seemed to know more about everything than she let on. The rising sun glinted on her half-moon spectacles as she pushed the door open and handed it to her grandson. “You were up and out early today, Shea.”

“I was supposed to meet up with Kae, before she leaves to join my mother,” he said as he began to dry the dog. “I have a going away present that I want to give her.”

The sound of the doorbell chimed through the house. “Maybe that’s her now!” he said eagerly, throwing the towel down onto the cement patio. He pulled the back door open wide and raced down the hallway through the house to answer the front door.

A friend waited on the front steps, but it wasn’t Kae.

“Oh hey, Hailey,” Shea said, unable to hide his disappointment. “Come on in. Gramma’s just cooking the bacon.”

Hailey put her hands on her hips and didn’t budge from the steps. She was dressed head-to-toe in black today, from her black t-shirt to her black Converse high tops. Even the headband holding back her thick brown braids was black. The only bit of color was the scorching yellow Batman logo on the front of her shirt. “You don’t look very happy to see me. Are you sure you want to invite me in?”

“Of course I do.” He pasted a smile on his face. “Who else will eat all that bacon?”

Hailey stepped through the doorway, her dark braids swinging around her head and her brown eyes crinkling as she returned his smile. “Who else but me shows up on your doorstep at breakfast time?”

Shea sighed, closing the door behind her and wondering yet again how a girl could eat as much as she did and stay so thin. But Hailey was right. He should’ve expected it was her and not gotten his hopes up.
Maybe Kae left for the Adluo castle already without saying a last goodbye.
He drew in a deep breath. Only eight weeks left of summer until he’d see her again. It already felt like forever.

In the kitchen, Martha was using tongs to pull the bacon out of the frying pan, laying it flat on the sheets of paper towel covering the countertop. “Good morning, Hailey,” she said without looking up. “Would you like some breakfast? You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

“No, ma’am, not technically,” Hailey answered, pulling out one of the metal chairs and seating herself at the Formica table as she unleashed a flood of complaints. It never failed to amaze Shea how fast the words could flow from her mouth. “My mom just discovered those breakfast shakes? You know, the kind that come in all the flavors that sound like they should taste amazing but they taste more like aluminum, which isn’t surprising since they come in a can and all. Somehow they figured out how to make even chocolate taste bad. Who would have guessed it?”

Martha shook her head and made sympathetic clucking noises. “You know you’re welcome anytime, dear.”

“She knows that, Gramma.” Shea rolled his eyes as he pulled out the other chair and plopped into it. “She’s here practically every day already, isn’t she?”

“How is your brother Chip doing?” Martha asked, pointedly ignoring her grandson. “He seemed like such a nice young man that day in June when he brought Lucky home from the docks.” She started cracking eggs into a mixing bowl.

Hailey snorted. “Yeah, he can certainly seem that way around grownups. All like, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and ‘No, ma’am,’ and whatnot. To me he’s just a royal pain in the butt.” Her eyes quickly shot over toward Shea. “No offense.”