A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21)(31)

The newcomers gathered around the table, and surprise registered in some eyes as they noticed Sofia’s and my missing seats. Before we could be hit with a wave of questions, I cleared my throat and spoke up, “I don’t know what happened here. It is something that I must investigate later.”

I was about to begin recounting our voyage when the door blasted open. Saira’s huge werewolf form bounded inside and skidded across the floor. Riding on her back were River’s two sisters, brother and mother. River entered the room after her. She was soaking wet and shivering.

“Merfolk,” she gasped. “There is a whole swarm of them on the beach! One almost kidnapped my mother just now!”

“What?” I breathed. My eyes shot to Ibrahim. “Did you not get rid of those two merfolk Ben and River brought in on the sub?”

“A lot’s been going on, Derek,” Ibrahim replied. “It’s only since you left that I even had an opportunity to see to the task. I got the help of two other witches, but searching the water, we found neither the mermaid nor the merman. I thought that perhaps they’d grown tired of these shores and left the island for deeper waters. Otherwise, they were sneaky enough to avoid our detection. Whatever the case, we were unable to find them.”

“There are way more than two now!” River urged. “There’s like a whole wave of them, and they were surging toward the island.”

“This meeting is postponed.” I looked around at the witches present in the Dome. “We must all head to the beach at once. Which beach exactly?”

“Near the Port,” River replied, shakily.

“I killed one of them,” Saira growled. “It was the quickest way to free River’s mother. That seems to have angered them greatly. I haven’t the first clue as to what they’re doing on this island, but they are not happy. Really not happy.”

“My mother cannot walk well,” River said, looking anxiously back at Nadia. “Her back was injured in the attack. She needs—”

“Shayla,” I called, stalling the short witch as she was about to vanish to the beach with a group of vampires. “Please stay with River’s mother and tend to her injury.”

Shayla nodded and, leaving the group of vampires, approached Nadia, who was still perched awkwardly on the back of the she-wolf.

“You stay with your mom, River,” Sofia said, eyeing the girl. “And here…” She reached around her shoulders and removed her shawl before handing it to River. “You’re freezing, put this on.”

“Thank you.” River looked at her gratefully.

I turned to Ibrahim, who was still standing beside me, waiting for my order. Except for Xavier, the rest of the room had emptied by now, witches having transported everyone to the beach. Now it was time for us to leave.

Vanishing from the Great Dome and arriving at the beach, I was shocked at the sheer number of merfolk arriving at the beach. There must have been over a hundred. And surprisingly, they didn’t stop at the border of the ocean. On reaching it, they dug their hands into the sand and began crawling out of the water, their long, heavy tails trailing behind them like snakes. I was amazed by the speed at which they were able to travel, almost as though they were amphibians. I didn’t know how long they could survive out of water, and strangely—although many of them had started wheezing—they maintained their pace. It appeared that they were heading for the woods that lined the beach.

No. We can’t have an infestation of these monsters. I’d seen how devilish these creatures were—my wife had firsthand experience during our quest to vanquish the black witches.

“Oh, God. Look!” Sofia clutched my arm and pointed further along the shore. I turned just in time to catch sight of a cluster of tails disappearing into the woods. All our witches were tied up with tackling the mermaids squirming along the sand in droves.

“They must not enter the island!” I bellowed. I lunged forward with Xavier and Sofia after the merfolk, who seemed to think that they’d escaped anyone’s notice, even as I continued to rack my brain as to how these merfolk could have gotten here. First of all, why were they even in this area? How had they discovered The Shade, and how on earth had they managed to get inside the boundary?

I could only guess that somehow, the two merfolk already inhabiting our water had sent some kind of subaqueous signal and they’d come swarming in. And perhaps the pair Ibrahim had failed to catch were also the ones responsible for leading them in through the boundary.

Although the merfolk were fast, we were of course much faster, and they made a lot of noise as they scrambled through the undergrowth. We quickly caught up with them, grabbing hold of the ends of their tails—still slimy even after crawling across land.

They rolled onto their backs to face us, flashing their fangs and screeching. They lashed out, trying to maim us. My grip tightened around the tail of the merman I was tackling. Seeing that this guy wasn’t going to play ball, I distanced myself from Sofia and Xavier and began hurling the merman round and round, picking up speed until he lifted off the ground. Then I knocked his head against a tree trunk.

That did the job. There was a dull thud as his head made contact with the wood. He fell limp instantly. I could see that he wasn’t badly injured—there was no blood spilling from his head. I’d only wanted to knock him out.

Xavier followed my lead, tackling his merman in a similar way, while Sofia fought with a mermaid. Both of them knocked the creatures’ heads against trees, rendering them unconscious.