The Merworld Water Wars - Finned Part 28

The next thing I saw was the deadly tip of a trident pointed directly between my eyes.

Chapter Nineteen.

Rundown.

"Move, and I will spike this through your skull," growled Kyle Zale, touching the tip of his trident to my forehead. "And I'll do it slowly because, let's face it, it's more fun that way."

"Let me go, creep-face!" I yelled as he yanked me inside his mermobile.

"That's right. Give me a reason to off you. I love offing," he sneered. "Bad move, having you stand next to the little prince during a live broadcast."

Kyle finally s.h.i.+fted his devil eyes away from me. With a great roar of his racer, we blasted through the dark waters. I needed to find a way out, a way to get help. I stared at Kyle's face, wondering how someone as kind as Treeva could love someone as cold as this man. Then it dawned on me. TREEVA! She can sense Kyle's warped love!

"You're a big faker, you know. All this 'Oooh, I'm a big, bad Zale with greasy hair and abnormally large pores.' Please. I know you still love Treeva," I said, working to steady my wobbly voice.

His eyes darted sideways, and he s.h.i.+fted in his seat.

"A love that deep never fades, does it?"

"Shut up," he growled. His temples throbbed. Kyle Zale feels.

"It's not too late, you know. True love can survive even your hideousness. Possibly, anyway. Maybe if you-"

"You trying to give me advice?" he asked, laughing.

c.r.a.p. If I have any chance of Treeva sensing our location, Kyle must feel hatred. "My bad. Reckon I wasn't thinkin' straight. Yeah, you totally disgust her. Your face makes her want to gauge her eyes out. The idea of your skin against hers makes her cringe. Pretty sure if she had the chance to kill you...she would." It worked better than I hoped, considering how hard he pressed his trident against my face.

"I hope you enjoy pain as much as I relish giving it," he said, digging the trident in a little deeper. "Burn."

The trident's point blazed against my skin. Not wanting to give Kyle any more satisfaction by screaming out a lung, I drove my nails into the palms of my hands, trying not to faint from the wretched smell of burning flesh...my flesh.

There should be a law against driving while trident-burning. The smell and pain neared the unbearable mark. I-couldn't-take-much-more.

Then, just when I thought my skin might melt off, Kyle screamed angrily in Mermish, bringing his racer to a hasty halt. Out of nowhere, orcas and armored dolphins formed a tight circle around Kyle and his henchmen. Among them, at the very head of the circle, were two familiar mermobiles: Troy, his eyes radiating hatred, and Treeva.

"I'm what they want. Just let me go, and nothing will happen," I pleaded.

"Normal-hugging dolphins, a few fatty whales, an ex-girlfriend, and a pretty boy prince-we should make quick work of them. RAWARGE!"

"Noooooooooo!" I screamed as the circle of defenders closed in.

Screams, dolphin cries, and snaps of deadly purple and blue rays rang out on every side of us. CRACK! CRAs.h.!.+ WHAM! The mermobile racer rolled over and over. Clinging to the roof, then the floor, then the seats, then the roof again, I lost all sense of where I was...until one ma.s.sive bang split the racer in half, leaving me floating without direction. While narrowly avoiding rolling whales, darting dolphins, Kyle's goons, and purple and blue strikes, I frantically searched for Troy.

"Marina!" I heard him shout from somewhere behind me.

His face and form were formidable, but fear shadowed his eyes. I desperately navigated through the battle to reach his arms. Troy, while pus.h.i.+ng through the unsightly dolphin-shark clashes, kept his gaze fixed upon me, breaking only to fight off Kyle's men one by one.

"Marina," he breathed.

Our hands were only inches apart when something fastened around my neck and towed me away.

"Troooooooooy!"

He screamed my name, but it was too late. A wall of great white sharks moved between us.

The thing around my neck dropped me in the middle of nowhere, far from the action; the whales now looked like little toys.

"Good boy, s.n.a.t.c.h." Disgust flooded my brain when I heard her voice. How I hated her. "How do you like my little baby, Marina?" Katrina tenderly stroked a malevolent-looking eel. "He brought you to me like a good little boy, yes he did." Katrina cooing at anything was terribly disturbing.

"Perfect choice of pet for you, Kat. Adds a sort of symmetry to your personality."

Smirking devilishly, she said, "So, Troy actually brought you to our world. Hope you enjoyed your visit."

"I did, but for this little snag," I said, gesturing the fight in the distance. "I look forward to visiting again."

Her eyes flashed red for a millisecond. "Do you? See, I'm thinking you've dirtied our world long enough."

"If Troy wants me here, I'll come here...and I can tell you, he wants me."

"Funny thing is...I don't," she growled, her b.l.o.o.d.y red strands reaching for my neck.

In one swift move, she ripped off her gaudy red pendant and stabbed it deep into my stomach. I hardly saw it happen. Blood started pouring from me, and I knew the sharks would descend at any moment.

For someone who had just succeeded in stabbing her enemy, Katrina looked oddly unsatisfied. "What, not dying quick enough for you?"

"Impossible. You're supposed to lose it," she whispered.

"Maybe, but, then again, I'm not you."

Katrina and her eel quickly disappeared.

Strangely, I couldn't feel any pain. My insides felt loose, detached in a way. I just floated, watching the blood gush from my open stomach. For a moment, I didn't feel like myself; I felt distant, almost empty. The thought of death didn't alarm me. I truly had no feeling for anything.

Then I heard his voice in the distance, and my feelings returned. I cared. I wanted to live.

"Dolphs, to Marina!" screamed Troy.

The dolphins arrived just in time to block me from a horrifyingly large group of bull sharks.

"T-ree," I muttered when Treeva appeared by my side.

"It'll be okay. I've got you now," she said, holding me in her arms.

My head felt like a two million pound whale. No longer able to hold it up, I let my head hang and rest against Treeva's shoulder. When I did, I saw something moving beneath the protective circle of dolphins-something with jaws the size of the Grand Canyon and teeth as sharp as Poseidon's trident.

I tugged on Treeva's arm with what little strength I had. "You're gonna need a bigger fin."

Treeva glanced down, horrified. "Son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

Just before the colossal beast closed on us, Troy descended, shoving the mighty shark off course.

"I love my brother," whispered Treeva.

"I-lo...too," I moaned before pa.s.sing out.

"You stubborn a.s.s! We need to get her to him fast, Troy, and Manakel can get her there the quickest." Treeva's voice sounded very far away.

"I'm sure he's handier than a mini-trident, but I'm not letting her go alone with this down comforter." Troy sounded stern and perturbed.

"So I can go back to my cloud, then? I have a deliciously s.h.i.+mmering treat waiting for me," said Manakel.

"Move, cherub, and I'll kill you," said Treeva.

"What part of 'I'm already dead' is unclear?"

"Then I'll pluck your feathers one by one."

"Promise?" said Manakel.

"T-roy?"

"Marina! Can you hear me?" Troy asked anxiously, stroking my hair.

"She's had her gut sliced like a naughty shark, Fishy. Her ears haven't been lobbed," said Manakel.

"Can hear you...all of you, even the frisky, feathered maybe-foe," I said before coughing up my tonsils. The pain in my stomach shot straight through to my spine. Clutching the wet sand beneath my hands, I screamed in agony.

"I resent the implication that I have some s.h.i.+ny skinned Sheila all b.u.t.tered up on my cloud. Not that it's any of your business, but my treat is a 1930 Storm Breweries bottle of fine hurricane rain."

"Just shut up," said Troy angrily. "What happened, Marina? Who did this to you?"

Unfortunately, the only answers I could give were earsplitting screams.

"b.l.o.o.d.y drungo. Making her talk speeds up the 'Oh My G.o.d she might effing die' mentality," said Manakel.

"Troy! Just let him take her to Hambury House! Trust me!" Treeva pleaded.

"Fine. But if anything happens-"

"Nothing will...with me," said Manakel, taking me into his arms.

I felt a brief breeze, but little else as my eyes closed once again.

"Marina," said a man's voice. "Marina, I need you to look at me."

Struggling, I willed my eyes to open and found a familiar face: it was the man I saw in the study the night Manakel rescued me from a wall-smash death. But there was something else about him...

"Princ.i.p.al Jeepers?"

"By day, yeah. Can keep an eye on my enemies that way...at least as much as they'll let me. They pretty much think I'm unstable and only in the job because of some grand-merman clause, which, of course, I crafted. Fools. Now, where was I? Ah, yes...by day, I'm the princ.i.p.al, by night...I'm Dracula," he said, smiling. "Only kidding. He's a popinjay. Anyway, you can call me Doctor David Tenly, or just David, Tenly, Doctor David, or even Doctor. Now, what color eyes do I have?"

Despite the slightly manic look in his eyes, Doctor Tenly defined handsome. How I could recognize this factoid at this moment befuddled me.

"B-brown."

"Well, they're actually chocolate brown with a sprinkling of gold flecks, but I'll give you brown," he said airily.

Clearly, he was either insane or a big time Rhett. "H-how can you look so y-young? You're ancient. Got a portrait in the attic?"

"Eh, let's save the story of good genes and my minor tweaking of genetic molecules for another day, shall we? Right now, I need to know what caused this really disgusting slash," said Doctor Tenly, gently brus.h.i.+ng his fingers over my wound; I unleashed a G.o.d-awful scream when he did.

"What do you think, Doc?" asked Manakel.

"I'm not sure," he said, tasting my blood on his fingers.

Definitely insane. If I hadn't been in so much pain, I would have hurled. "It's like Close Encounters of the Cuckoo Kind."

"I do have a thing for mashed potatoes," said Doctor Tenly, knocking on my head.

"I'm not a knock-knock joke!" I screamed.

"Doctor! What's wrong with her?" Troy rushed in, kneeling by my side.

"Well, for starters, she's been stabbed," said Manakel.

"David, is it our Ma.s.sive Fear?" Treeva asked, touching his arm.

"Can't be sure just yet. It's not a typical wound...that much is certain. No trident or shark caused this. By the way, what color would you say my eyes are, Tree?"

"Chocolate brown with a sprinkling of gold flecks," said Treeva, biting her lip.

"See, that's what I thought, but she just called them plain old brown. I don't want boring brown eyes."

"Can we focus on Marina, here?" Troy asked testily.

"Ah, yes, of course. Marina, I need you to focus for a moment. This is very important, now. Can you tell me...the color of my hair?"