Love Comes In Many Dangerous Forms

Startled, I turned around to see Zane with a confused expression on his face.

“What’s wrong Cassie? I called you like seven times,” he tilted his head to the side.

“Did you use you siren?” I asked fearfully.

Merpeople had a special siren that was extremely loud. It was used to lure prey in and keep predators away in the murky depths of the sea.

“Yes, what’s wrong Cassie?” he questioned.

“Zane you need to go, some of the human probably heard you,” I warned.

“What about you? You don’t have your cloak.”

“I’ll go through the forest. Just go Zane!” I ordered as I jumped on Aiden.

I saw that he was way out in the water. I gently pressed my heel into Aiden’s side and he took off into the flaming woods. The purple fire didn’t burn us, but it made me even more afraid. When we pass through it, the air got colder, a lot colder.

I let out a shaky breath, feeling somebody – or something – watching us. Aiden was more on edge as he trotted on the ragged forest floor. I bit my lip looking around the snow coated trees trying to see any sign of danger, but it was dark under the cover of the trees.

I saw tracks in the thick snow; I frowned as I jumped off of Aiden and tied him to a tree branch. I bent down trying to get a closer look at the tracks. There were footprints, but then there was a jagged line – like someone was limping. The tracked led to a cave a few yards away.

I followed them as I wrapped my arms around my abdomen trying to keep myself warm. I glanced back at Aiden who was watching me with fear in his dark brown eyes and he started kicking the tree.

I shivered as the wind blew violently making my hair swirl around me. I looked down at the tracks that were closer to the cave and saw that there was black inky liquid burning through the snow and then singed the grass below.

There was only one thing that could have done that.

Immortal blood.

I flinched away from it; it was the only thing that could turn a human. And it was heard to be worse than the venom of a vampire. All you had to do was touch it and you were destined to be an immortal. It would burn through a mortal’s skin until it got to the bloodstream and it would travel to the heart, and you would die and awaken as an immortal months later.

I carefully stepped over and around the spots where I saw the blood. It would be harder and harder to maneuver around the droplets that soon turned into large masses. And then I could smell it. It smelled like a decaying corpse, very potent as it was disgusting. That was the smell of immortal blood.

I made it to the edge of the cave, and heard something hiss. I took a deep breath as I entered the mouth of the cave and saw two narrowed slits of red eyes glaring at me.

***

(Vera’s P.O.V.)

I sighed as I gave Carly her sippy cup.

I looked over to Zach who looked like he was trying to rip the skin off his face.

“Zach, we’re going to find her,” I assured him.

“Vera, she’s not at the beach, she’s not in the gardens, and she’s not at Jimmy’s parents’ graves. Where else could she be?” he asked.

“Maybe she got lost,” I suggested.

“Cassiel knows everything as if it were the back of her hand, even the forest, she doesn’t ‘get lost,’” he glared out of the window of Cassiel’s bedroom window, “We can even trace her scent.”

“Carly why don’t you go find Jimmy?” I suggested.

She smiled and took off with her sippy cup out of the room.

“This is my entire fault,” Zach sighed.

“It’s not your ‘entire’ fault Zachary. Cassiel has a lot going on right now, her birthday in a month, the wedding is in two months, and her coronation is three months after her wedding. And then there is the thing after the wedding she has to do,” I told him.

“You say it Vera, we all know it. She has to conceive a baby werewolf,” he spat, “Her parents are basically raping her, again.”

“We all don’t like it. But it has to happen or else the humans are left unprotected,” I told him.

“Vera, they are forcing her to have sex with that dog, that is rape,” he stated with venom in his voice.

“Colton’s not all that bad for a werewolf. If you just g-.”

“Stop defending him!” he shouted at me, “and I don’t want to get to know the person who is going to take the one person I have ever loved Vera,” he seethed.

I sighed, “If you loved her, you would let her go.”

“That’s just it Vera. I can’t.”