The Siren of the Titanic

Chapter 34: The First

We had been stuck in Ethan's black Jeep for hours. We had all piled into the car the next morning and the sun was already setting. Alto snored next to me in the back while Talon sat in the front passenger side.

"You know you never told me how the hell you guys got from Texas to New Jersey?" Ethan questioned. I sat up a bit listening.

"Well, we had money in the mansion so we packed a few snacks and bought a bus heading North. Once we felt that the pull was closer we simply hoofed it. Thankfully merfolk have high stamina compared to humans. In the water, we can swim for miles at full speed without getting too tired. Land isn't all that different, we simply walked from Trenton. Thankfully you guys were seriously close, only took us two and a half hours to run it."

"Are you serious? You ran from Trenton to Brick? That's like an hour drive!" Ethan looked at him in disbelief, I quickly realized that I was too. He looked between the two of us and began laughing.

"Damn you guys are gullible. Nah, we grabbed a taxi in Trenton and told him to drive where we pointed. He was wary at first but he agreed when we flashed our money in his face." He was laughing pretty hard. I punched him in the shoulder, he only laughed louder. We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Missouri, so we could finally 'bed down'. I smiled as I made myself as comfortable as I could in the back on the jeep. Being surrounded by my best friends and my grandson made me feel safe. I finally closed my eyes with a sigh.

"Morgaina I love you, can't you see that." A man circled Morgiana a large evil smirk on his face. His skin was pale as if he hadn't seen the light of day for years. His long silver hair was braided on the side while the rest was pulled into a messy ponytail. A large full beard floated around as he swam around her. He looked like the mer version of a barracuda. He was a shiny silver, large fang-like teeth glinted in the light like little needles. Morgaina only covered her face and cried.

"I know you love me, but betraying my brother and the very humans that I swore to protect? I simply can't do it, Calder! I love them, I have changed so many to give them a second chance. I can't kill them, Calder, I can't!" She screamed, her beautiful golden eyes flashing. Calder was surprised but only smiled, when she sobbed into her hands once more.

"Well, that's too bad, Morgaina, for you, at least." He grabbed the back of her neck, his long claws digging into her flesh. "I suppose it's a good thing you taught me magic." Her veins began to glow a soft blue as she screamed in terror. Slowly her screaming died out as she changed. Her golden eyes changed to crimson red, her skin and hair darkened into a deep blue, her tail fins elongated similar to Clader's. Once she stopped screaming he let her go and smiled. "I'm suprised even the power of the first kraftig havfrue is able to manipulate the daughter of a goddess." His grin as he looked at her emotionless face startled me.

I woke up with a start, gasping for air. Three worried faces looked at me, reminding me that I wasn't in this alone. We were still at the rest stop, Ethan's door slightly open as if he were about to get out.

After rubbing the sweat from my forehead and calming my breath, I spoke. "I figured out why Morgaina changed, why she went from protector to killer. She's being controlled." After taking another deep breath, I explained my vision to the others.

"So he was a kraftig havfrue as well? Not only that but the first one too?" Talon took a deep breath. "I guess we are going to have one hell of a fight on our hands." The mood of the car was discouraging. We all looked down, thinking about the struggle that we will surely face.

"I'll go get us some coffee and snacks to hold us over until we get into town." Ethan smiled as he left to retrieve the promised items. We all smiled too, his smile was simply too contagious. Talon and I chortled when Alto volunteered to go help him.

"If Gareth didn't think we could do this, he wouldn't have sent us." I said patting my brother on the arm. Talon nodded, agreeing and smiled wider when the other two came back with food.

We drove until the sun was low in the sky. We pulled into a city called Amarillo, blasting country music on the radio, only because it was Talon's 'favorite' type of music. "What? Me and Aria used to sing some of these songs together when we were young." He smiled.

"You know I never asked but was Aria your materu?" I questioned. Whenever he talked about her, it was always with a smile.

"No, but I wish she was, I did love her." He shrugged. We pulled into a hotel entryway. It was a medium-sized hotel with its own garage and we all sighed with relief when Ethan ran in. He came out a few minutes later with two plastic cards.

"Hope you guys don't mind sharing beds? They only had one room left, thankfully it has two beds. So we won't have to cram." He smiled as he pulled into the garage. We sighed as the muscles in our legs stretched. We all smiled laughing as we headed to the hotel.

"Hand over your wallets now!" We turned around to see a hooded figure wielding a knife. He yelled again trying to scare us, but we were mer, we could take him. All of a sudden his eyes widened as he dropped the knife and collapsed. Standing behind him was a woman, twin daggers in her hands.