CROSSING RIVER (B×B×B..) *COMPLETE*

Chapter 32- Cross The River

“Science magic”, Destan answered as he looked at bloodied creature his brother had dragged with him who smelled more or less like Rhael. Zale made disgusted expression then his eyes finally darted to the ashy blueish white Meras with pink patches of scales all over the body. “Is that your claim brother? Well Mine’s here, he claims to be Rhael”, he pushed Brandon to the Centre.

Brandon’s skin had torn on his way here as he was dragged by the demon. He looked mix of beluga white with blonde patches of scales. However, his entire body was covered with black dots. Brandon heaved badly as he was finally able to calm down from the excruciating pain. His eyes also cleared a bit and he saw two familiar figures floating with one other Creature. It was Olivia and Riley, so the other must be Erina, he thought.

Then his eyes went wide as he realised ‘if they were here!’ Brandon used his tired body to move his head and his blurry eyes landed on a unconscious Siren and his heart tightened, “Ri-v-er”, he managed to say through scratchy voice. The black spotted creature crawled towards River but was stopped just by a sentence, “I didn’t tell you to move”, his body seem to have mind of it’s own as he stopped without wanting to stop.

Destan groaned, “You sired a creature! Have you gone mad? And you did it when there was a possibility that he could have been Rhael?!”, he snapped at his brother who just shrugged then swam towards River, “What happened to your Rhael? Why do you think he’s the one? Just because of the smell? There’s literally other four with that smell here”, he pointed out.

Destan ignored his question and instead asked, “You could have killed this creature! Mother will never allow him to stay in Meridia and he will be thrown back here! How do you suppose he would survive on his own without his creator?”, he was beyond angry.

“Then he will die. Who told him to lie to me about being Rhael? These two smell more or less like each other. Did Mira had twins?”, Zale spoke not caring about the depth of the situation. “I will have this one, you can have him”, he said as he pointed River for himself and Brandon for Destan. The calmer among the brothers swam in front of his brother, blocking his way to River.

“Don’t be ridiculous! He has his own mind to decide things for himself. He’s not a toy and no longer is he a imagination in our minds. The one you found is definitely another product of science magic which you messed with and turned into one of us while this one is real Rhael but that’s not the problem here”, he took deep breath in then pointed towards three Siren in black crystal bracelets.

“They claim to be his family and this one along with another creature marked Rhael”, he spat heatedly. Zale who until now seemed like a douchebag, stiffened and finally showed a bit of complicated emotions. He turned to Riley who held his breath, ready to get scratched or punched but soon he didn’t care for it as River finally stirred and groaned in pain.

When River’s eyes opened, he saw way too many people around him. He noticed being watched as all their eyes were on him. He finally saw familiar faces and relaxed a bit only to panic when one of his family was missing. The green eyed boy jolted up then tried making sense of his surroundings, he didn’t know where he was and what was going on around him.

He tried swimming towards Riley but was stopped by the Beluga guy and when he snapped his eyes on the guy, he saw two of them. They looked so similar but different at the same time. His eyes finally landed on one Creature on the floor who seemed to have been stuck there.

River nonchalantly looked at the Creature for a while then his eyes widened when he thought it looked like Brandon ' but that’s not possible’ , he reminded himself then he saw the Creature give him a weak and tired smile. His heartbeat escalated upon seeing that smile and he shoved Destan then swam towards Brandon.

“What?.. You! Fuck! What happened to you? Shit! Brandon, you were supposed to stay away from all this! Olivia, you said this won’t happen!”, he gave variations in his sentences. If Destan looked at his brother he could see the guy was a bit panicked upon seeing River’s state. For the first time in his life, Zale was nervous. He slowly whisper, “Move”, and the invisible hold on Brandon lifted and he hugged River as tightly as he could.

“Thank god, you are safe! I tried keeping trouble away from you but you have just become magnet for it these days”, he managed saying with his raspy voice. River tightly held his best friend because he was very glad to see him. When they had bid farewell, he had felt like his heart was torn apart but he didn’t know what was that feeling. Now however after admitting his feelings for Riley and Wayde, he knew what he felt about Brandon.

River was cursing himself for being a hoe who had zero to no feelings before and now he was distributing it like Oprah Winfrey who gave away gifts to her audience, “You get one and you get one”. He then remembered where he was and slowly patted Brandon’s back, “You look weird but it kind of suits you”, he softly said to Brandon and the boy managed a smile.

River lifted himself up and helped Brandon then looked at Destan, “Where’s Wayde? What have you done to him? I swear to god I will fight all of you even if it leads to death, if a single scale on his body is out of place”, he threatened and Destan felt like he was being stabbed by sharp blade. He couldn’t handle being hated by his promised mate like this.

Zale noticed his brother’s pain and stood in front of him, “He didn’t do anything, I told them to take that thing away. Anyways, you don’t have time for all these science magic, we are taking you home, to your real family. Your mother is waiting to see you, in her eyes you are still an infant so imagine her pain when she finds out you have created yourself a family and are being hostile towards your partners”, he said confidently but never did his eyes met River’s.

“Don’t bring up my mother to make me do things that you want me to do. I was on my way to find... The home she had shown me anyways with my family and partners”, he said then continued, “So, let them go and we will go there on our own”. Zale finally met River’s green eyes and he looked pissed.

“We didn’t give away our youth and heart all these years just to meet you already marked by others. You are betrothed to us, it’s a blood promise! You going against your mother’s word will make two kingdoms to go in war and it won’t be good for your kingdom where the numbers of Meras have decreased over the years. We will bring all of you and let our family decide what to do with your new family”, he spat then, “Move away from him and tell other warriors to come here with his ... Friend”, he ordered Brandon.

River narrowed his eyes at the guy and was about to stand up for Brandon when he saw his best friend listen to the guy without saying anything. River revealed his spine needles then barred his fangs at Zale who looked mesmerised instead of intimidated. “What did you do to him?”, River raged which even made the warriors cower but the one it was pointed at had calm expression.

“I thought I made him a hybrid but seeing how he had your blood in his system, you wanted to make him like yourself? Now both of us are at equal fault in siring him”, he shrugged but looked pleased at himself for pointing it out because River looked conflicted.

“He never changed for all these years, how can it be my blood? Are you vampire? How can you sire a Siren with blood? What’s the science behind that? Is such thing possible Olivia? If I bit a human will they become like us?’, he asked and the scientist shook her head.

“Stupid science has nothing in compare to our blood’s magic but maybe yours is weak because you are mixed blood between old and new world”, Zale said nonchalantly. Before River could spit fire, Brandon came in with others. He saw Wayde in bracelets all over his hands and rushed to the boy. Wayde was hugged and only after feeling the warmth and smelling the scent, he knew it was River.

His eyes were blurred and his entire body was numb from being zapped continuously. River checked him all over and tried pulling the bracelet off but was stopped by the warriors. He hissed at them and they looked at the twins for orders. River followed their eyes and glared at the brothers, “Let them go! Tell your minions to take off their bracelets!”, he yelled.

“Take him over there with others”, Zale ordered and they dragged Wayde to others and when River tried to follow he was stopped. He used his claws and tails to fight but was blocked by Brandon. “Bring him here”, Zale told Brandon and the guy gritted his teeth as he followed his command.

River thrashed to get free from Brandon’s hold but the grip on him was very firm. He remembered what the demon had said then he ordered, “Let me go, Brandon. Go fight him instead, you are probably angry just by his existence now”. The hold on him lessened and Brandon darted towards Zale who looked surprised but still managed to stop him.

“See, we are his creators. If you try killing me, he will die with me and if something is to happen to you, same goes to all of them who you have sired using science”, he said proudly. River looked at three members of his family and they looked back at him with surprise. Destan was depressed but still slapped his brother on the back, “Stop antagonizing him”, he whispered.

“Take off their bracelets, we all are going into same place why keep us hostage? You both could have made yourself seem much better in front of me if you had approached with no hostility. Promises made many years ago can suck ass, what matters is how I see you now and to be honest, I hate you both”, he said.

The twins visibly flinched from River’s choice of word and felt their heart aching. Destan swam towards River in hurry and said, “Please don’t say that. You have to see this from our point of view. We were told of you since we were small, we were trained since then to find you and fight anything that stood in our way. We spent every day thinking about you, how you looked like, what you liked, disliked. What we would do if we met you, what you would think of us. All of this really matters to us. Our fate has been sealed since before our birth. Just imagine how would someone like us feel if what they were promised and made to think about was claimed by someone else? We are just displeased that’s all”, he tried convincing River.

Zale hmphed, “Do you think you not liking us will matter to our elders? They will kill each other if you decline to take us as partners. You are our responsibility and we are yours. You—“, he paused as he watched River with conflict. Every one’s heart skipped when he stopped speaking, they thought he was angry with another thing now.

“You are glowing”, he said in aww and only then did everyone noticed the light glow in River’s scales. River had known for a while and had tried his best to keep his body cool but it had been scorching hot for sometime now. He had been feeling it since he woke up but it had just escalated. The warriors and the twin’s eyes widened when they realised what it meant.

“You are a carrier!”, they exclaimed together and the happiness was far than just knowing than they can fill him with their babies, it was genuine relief as if they had found solutions for huge problems. “Now whatever you say, you cannot escape from this union. You are heir to Tridia and since you have been here, all your people have been through hell. We should hurry Destan! Let’s go charge up the border! We can’t delay his return”, Zale said then took some warriors out with him.

They took off everyone’s bracelet and left with Zale. Only River, Riley, Wayde, Erina, Olivia, Brandon and Destan remained inside. All five of them rushed towards each other and hugged River as relief washed over them. They finally let go of the boy and looked at Brandon.

“I guess our world is same now”, he said to River who smiled and nodded. The blonde guy explained them how he ended up this way and they all told him about their capture. Destan felt very bitter inside from seeing such harmony among them.

“What happens now?”, River asked him and the guy looked surprised from being noticed. He thought about it and said, “We will take you through the borders and we will enter our kingdom first and after passing through everyone, we will reach your kingdom. In our kingdoms, royal babies are exposed to sacred crystals which represents our kingdoms, it magnifies our abilities to protect our people. There Time flows differently from here, only hundred years have passed since the discovery of the new world for us while here our ancestors have been extinct for thousands of years. It’s like the new world only started operating since our people moved in, now the time is similar here and there but still our world is only hundred years old”.

They took all that in and just kept open mind about new things. Before River could ask another question, Destan said, “Since your disappearance, the power in your kingdom decreased and they were scrapping things from your mother’s abilities while she was comatose, she only woke up three years ago and the condition improved a bit. However there have been no children born since twenty years and its not just your kingdom but ours as well. We slowly were finding out that our kingdoms only covered part of the world while there’s more that was not explored for hundreds years. New creatures started attacking us through air and land”, he explained.

“What kind of world is it? All water with less land? Any trees or hills or mountains?”, Erina asked the guy. At this point every one could tell that Destan was easy to talk to and had more charms when talking with others than his twin, Zale did.

“It’s similar to this world, I think. As I said we haven’t explored more than the two kingdoms. Elders in our kingdoms told stories about our ancestors who were close to extinction after helping the Meras with human war. The last remaining Meras of our race managed to find the barrier and came through it to this new no creature’s land. It is believed the world is full of healing abilities and it healed our God mother, the first Meras in new world. She is worshipped by us, we heard stories of how this new world allowed her to birth other Meras on her own, Us Meridians and Tridians. Soon she birthed more and the numbers started growing. Two kingdoms were formed on each borders that we know of, one leads to human world while the other is unknown. No one has been able to pass that border which lies in Tridia. Battles were fought for more territories between two kingdoms and it only calmed down when the promise was made to form a union between two kingdoms through.... Us”, he explained as he looked earnestly at River.

Riley and Wayde inched more closer to River when the Beluga guy talked about the union. “So this new world is still in early age. No technology, no weapons, well non magical weapons. It’s similar to dark age here in human world”, Olivia concluded.

“Those of us who came here and lived among humans for two years, we have seen how backwards our world is in compare to here but we have magic and we don’t have humans. At least, We Haven’t had any for all these years. We have been so occupied with battles among ourselves then losing warriors to this world to losing him that we never explored or travelled out of the two kingdoms. Then everything changed in recent years, attacks from air and areas close to lands then our people becoming barren”, he sighed as he remembered the chaos in his world.

“So the Sirens behind those borders will force River to be with two of you?”, Riley finally spoke as he wrapped his hand around River. Destan saw the gesture and curled his fingers but remained quiet. He then looked at River with soft gaze, “Is that the name you are given? River?”, he smiled and said, “The barriers or borders, they look like stream falling from sky which forms River that leads to our kingdoms”.

“Well isn’t that just strange coincidence? Buckle up River because we are ready to cross THE river”, said Zale from behind them.