A Mermaid's Cry

Chapter 52-A Male is in the Bedroom

Third Person pov
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Marina Costa knew immediately that something wasn't right. The mansion was too quiet for her liking, even as she sat on the third floor balcony, under the light of the swollen silver moon. Barely an hour ago, she left her room and traveled down the hall, now relegated for the governor's surprise guests, to the balcony doors. She had faintly heard the sounds of sleeping Mer, Octavia's snores possibly the loudest of them all.

But now, she did not hear the now familiar tell of deep unfettered sleep. Stepping up from the bench, Costa makes her way over to the glass doors. Opening them emits an almost silent creak of oiled hinges, but it is muffled by the sound of shuffling bare feet upon polished wood.

Curious, Costa steps into the hall and turns her head towards the many sets of feet. At the very end of the hall, she finds Octavia, Adila, and Zola pressing their ears against the white, pine wood door leading to Corintha's room.

"Interesting," Costa drawls, making all three stiffen and slowly turn their heads towards her. "I know Mer are curious little creatures, perhaps you three could tell me what is so important inside your friend's room."

"More like who is the question," Zola snickers, earning an elbow to his side from Octavia.
"Hush up you slippery eel," the white haired Mer huffs, crossing her arms as her brows furrow in anger. "I'm still mad at you, so don't think little comments like that will put you back in my good graces."

"You have good graces?" Zola teases, swiftly ducking as Octavia tries to smack him with the leather bound volume in her slim hand. "Woah now, I was just kidding, have a heart Tavi."

"You shut your trap," Octavia hisses, her teeth lengthening into dagger like points as she corners him against the wall. "Until you get it through that foolish male head of yours to not meddle with humans, you do not get to call me that, ever. Am I clear you miserable hunk of sea sludge?"

Her words bring on a solemn silence to the lad's face, all manner of mischief falling from his gaze. Replaced by hollow eyed regret, and a prevalent sorrowful longing. "Yes Octavia," he murmurs, picking at the fraying cloth of his sling as a knowing grin relights the earthen brown orbs of his eyes. "I understand completely, you darling, vicious little banshee."

"That's it, I've had it," Octavia growls, dropping her book and lunging at him with curled fingers, ready to wrap around his neck.

Faster than humanly possibly, Zola sidesteps out of the way, only for Octavia to switch direction with bared hate written in her furious ice blue gaze. "Quit moving and stand still so I can knock some sense into you," Octavia huffs, making to lunge at the lad again just as one of the doors down the hall opens up, allowing Arcus to make his way into the dim candle lit hall.

The two Mer quit their game of chase as the older male makes his way towards them. His drowsy gaze, behind a hunk of sleep tousled hair, peers in irritation at the gathered group of late night lingerers. "It is the middle of the night," Arcus mutters, growling slightly under his breath. "Why are you three fools outside Corintha's door?"

"I was wondering that same thing," Costa adds, cocking her head at the trio of Mer before them. "And I believe Zola might have an answer to that very question."

At her statement, Adila and Octavia share matching grins, chuckling evilly as Zola is pinned by Arcus's ice melting gaze. "So help me Zola, if anything has happened to my cousin I will put you back in the fountain, and leave you there for the rest of the night," Arcus threatens, his fingers curling slightly, the dim light of the moon shining through the glass windows, glimmering faintly on the sharpening edges of his nails.

"Nothing really bad has happened to her that would cause her harm," Zola begins, calmly walking up to the other Mer lad as if he were a wild boar on the verge of charging him with burly tusks ready for disemboweling his prey. "But then again, she might not be in the most agreeable mood if you interrupt them."

The moment Zola lets the last word past his lips, the air grows taunt like a bowstring as his eyes widen in shock at his blunder. Costa had no doubt that Corintha was alone with the lad Ares, for she had seen the dark haired Mer slip past the closed doors of his companions barely an hour ago. A silent wraith of flesh, that had Costa smiling in amusement when the Mer lad eased himself inside the Dorem girl's domain.

"Them?" Arcus parrots, deathly calm warping his rough voice, swathing it in a furious maelstrom of betrayal and anger. "Are you telling me that there is someone alone with my cousin?!" The taller Mer goes to grab hold of Zola, but is stopped by the even more imposing Adila. The girl's coiled hair, fanning out behind her as she stops Arcus in his tracks, her slender hand coming to rest against the crisp cotton fabric of his night shirt. Her fingers swiftly clutching the cloth in an unforgiving grip, as her gold brown eyes take on their own ferociously cold luster.

"If you don't quit your shouting I will kiss you again, and I'd rather not, considering the fact that I have no idea where that thing you call a mouth has been," Adila hisses, baring her sharpened teeth at him as Arcus's lips peal back as well, revealing his own set of flesh tearing sabers.

"You don't have to go to such measures, you conniving little pirhana," Arcus replies, cocking his head to the side in contemplation of the girl before him. "Just tell me who is in my cousin's room, and then you don't have to worry about the places my mouth has been, unless you wish to know all the tantalizing details."

Adila pushes away from him in disgust, a low snarl ripping past her lips as she steps back from Arcus with a cruel smile of triumph on his face. "Fine, have it your way you disgusting piece of shark bait," Adila growls, jerking her chin up at him in defiance, her eyes glittering with hate and cruel amusement. "That pompous arrogant friend of yours is the one living it up in Corintha's room, and I would bet that Ares is currently warming her bed as we speak."

Costa, with her many years of experience in situations similar to this, and ones with far deadlier results, steps back with calculated grace as the fury brewing inside Arcus lets loose in the quiet hall. "Ares! You are dead, and this time I fucking mean it!" Arcus shouts, striding towards Corintha's room and raising his fist to pound on the white wooden door, just as it is thrown open to reveal a wild haired Corintha, in nothing but a thick fluffy towel reaching from her knees to her furiously rising chest.

Just like her companions, her teeth pull back in a snarl, her enchanting face warped into that of a viscous predator, hungry for the iron like taste of fresh blood. Small drops of water dot her pale skin, a manic light sparking in her eyes, only adding to the seemingly renewed vigor of her tall and deceptively frail body.

"If you dare interrupt us again Arcus, I will personally cut your balls off and feed them to your mother's prized sow," Corintha hisses, making Arcus stiffen as Zola and Octavia gasp in surprise, while Adila descends into a round of cold laughter as Corintha closes the door and quickly slides the iron bolt inside. Effectively locking everyone out.

"Well," Costa sighs, straitening her lace shawl and patting down a few stray locks that have escaped her neatly bound hair. "That is that, now I believe all of you are due back into your respective rooms, and your own beds." With that, Costa leaves the four Mer to bicker back and forth in the hall, whether they all got a full night's rest was not her responsibility. But, she still did worry about them, even though she knew as she settled beneath the soft covers of her bed, that in their own way their dispute would work itself out. But how they would go about it, was another long list of worries all its own.