Mermaids are Menacing (Book 2) Complete

72.) Searing

The room was a dim hazy red and cold. Shadowed figures littered the floor barely illuminated in the dull red light. I heard a near constant pulsing in my ears.

Lub dub. Lub dub. Lub dub. The lights seemed to brighten slightly and dim with each sound. My head was pounding. I tilted my head to the side and my vision dubbled.

No fear coursed through my veins, only a confused curiosity. An unfamiliar feeling. It was hard to distiguish what was dream and what was reality, or maybe the dreams were just a reality from another perspective. I tried to sit up but felt a sore place.

Lub dub.

I felt a slice in the fabric but no wound. Wet. I was mostly submerged in water. The clothes were soaked and the floor of the entire room was underwater. The inhabitants were like statues, created to pose in different seated positions. Humanoids some with horns, a few with tails, some with both.

Lub dub.

I rubbed my eyes. There was something important but i couldnt remember what it was. The feeling nagged at me. An important thing I couldn't forget. Everytime my mind almost captured the thought it slipped away. The room smelled dank and stagnant. The scent of blood whisped through the air. I leaned forward and felt a pain in my back. It was a searing pain.

Broken. My wings were unmistakably broken and ached terribly. My fangs bared into my lower lip. With the pain a memory sparked. I reached back to feel the pouch above my tail in it i could feel the round stone still hidden there. Satisfaction.

Lub dub.

Despite the feeling the pain in my back only started growing. From the tips of my wings to the base, the pain engulfed the entire membrane. I tried to scratch it but I couldn't feel my finger against my skin. Thats not right. My arms weren't moving. I couldnt move them. The was a raw feeling. This isn't my body, I shouldn't be here, I thought.

"It will hurt, much worse than this." A voice spoke to me from the haze.

"Whose there?" I spoke the words but they weren't audible. I didn't have control of my mouth. I tried to move my head side to side but my vision was already blurred.

"Be strong." The voice called out.
....

I woke with every nerve on fire. Water swelled and fell from my eyes. It hurt everything hurt. My back felt like it was going to burst and I couldn't move with out feeling a shooting pain. I must have been crying loudly, I had no awarness of myself. What ever this pain was it wasn't natural. It couldn't be coming from me. There must be something wrong with Cerastes because it didn't make since for me to be hurting when nothing had happened to my body.

"Dame?" Vihar asked. "Are you alright?"

I tried to respond but instead a whimpering cry escaped my mouth. Saliva dripped out uncontrollably.

"Whats wrong?!" He asked sitting up.

I wanted to respond but couldn't, i didn't want to scare the girls so i slowly tried to crawl further away from them causing the pain to become more unbearable everytime i tried to move my arms.

"I'll go get help!" Vee said jumping out of bed.

"Eeee." I grunted out incorrectly. I breathed light shallow breaths trying not to inhale to deeply. I wanted to feel the cold stone against my skin but trying to roll out of bed may actually kill me. This sharp, swelling, searing pain was the worst I had felt in my life. More than child birth. More than grief. It was all consuming.

With other pain i had felt, breathing through it helped to ease the feeling. Accepting the pain rather than straining against it, allowed the feeling to take on a dull numb quality. Managable.