Tidal Wave - Book Two

Into The Storm

It was peaceful and quiet. Alberto held Maria in their sleep. Relaxed. No problems to disturb their peaceful bliss. Maria opened her eyes and blinked a few times before sitting up and stretching. She looked down at Alberto, who dried and was in his human form, and smiled. He seemed more calm when he's asleep. She got up out of bed and got dressed and placed some new clothes for Alberto next to him on the bed so when he woke he could get dressed. Maria walked out the shack to a bright, sunshiny day. She looked around and saw that everyone was upset about something. Maria saw Giulia, Luca, Simon and Jason worriedly talking and walked over to them. "Is something wrong?" She asked, "Your friends just caught two people. They blew up part of the military base!" Simon said sternly, "What!? Who?" Maria asked, "Go see for yourself." Simon said pointing to one of the cabin homes in the left corner. Maria walked over there and noticed some of Ryn's tribe was outside like they were waiting for their leader's instructions. They too were stern and worried, someone had said something to them. Maria barged into the cabin only to see Ryn talking to a tall woman with a shorter one next to her. "Tia...?" Maria exhaled, "So, it's true. You have returned from the dead." Tia said mockingly. Maria hissed at her, "Why is SHE here!? I thought you had finished her!" "I did." Said Ryn, "A stab wound can easily be healed with just the right medicine." Tia said,

"Why have you come back?" Maria snarled "And what have you done to the base?"

"Something that needs to be done. Now." Tia said,

"And what is it that needs to be done?" Helen asked,

"Revolution." Said Tia "We need to destroy the humans once and for all before they kill any more of our people."

"It wasn't the military that's done this!" Maria shouted

"Oh really? Then tell me... Who was it other than them?" Tia growled as she got in Maria's face,

"It's an organization that's been slaughtering us. Visconti." Said Maria.

Tia backed away slowly still eyeing her, "And how exactly do you know this organization?"

"Because me and my mate have been captured by them once. Their leader is Ercole Visconti. He's the trigger of the massacres. The trigger of the mercenaries. He will stop at nothing until we are all wiped from existence." Maria said,

"How did you escape him?" Tia asked,

"My mate, Alberto, got us out." Said Maria,

"The Sea Monster? How interesting. And what makes you so sure this Ercole won't try to turn the tides on us?"

"Like what?"

"Like having the power to force every human to work for him? To send in spies to find us and notify him of our presence?"

"Not the military! They probably don't even know about the Visconti mercenaries!"

"How do you know? You have no idea what humans can do. Visconti probably has some of them working for him and we don't even realize it!" Tia growled.

"And what do you suggest we do about it? Create a massacre of our own on them?" Maria yelled,

"We cannot harm these humans. They haven't done anything wrong. We've been at peace for years." Said Ryn,

"Well, it seems the peace treaty has been broken, hasn't it?" Tia mocked,

"We are not about to start another war with them because of your stubbornness!" Maria shouted,

"We don't have to. We're already in one." Tia scolded "And what are you gonna do about it? Continue to sit around doing nothing while more of our kind gets slaughtered? While their blood leaks out and flows into the waves of the ocean?" Tia said while getting into Maria's face again. "Maria!" Simon called while running inside the cabin, "We got a problem outside the gates!" Maria and the other sirens looked at each other before racing outside to see some military guards at the gate talking to some of the villagers. "See, Tia? Look what you did! Now they're gonna suspect something about us and probably kill us!" Maria yelled.