81: Save thy enemy

What Meera had said left me disorientated, and the moment I hit the water, I was far from prepared. In fact, I hadn’t even taken a proper breath of air, and felt almost helpless and deflated. Liam still had my hand in his, and he yanked at it, pulling me further into the water. I gasped and finally looked towards him, and he gave me a pointed gaze before pulling me towards him and placing his lips on mine. But it was no ordinary kiss. As Liam’s lips met with mine, he let a breath of air out of his mouth and into mine. I suppose it was a way to get my head back into the game, and it worked, because the moment I felt the air entering my lungs, my previous state of disorientation seemed to melt away. Liam then pulled away from me and arched an eyebrow as if to ask whether I was feeling better. I nodded and motioned for us to move forward. Liam nodded and turned around to make sure Xavier was still with us. Once he was satisfied, he began swimming forward. We followed, keeping as close to each other as we possibly could.
The water was much colder than I thought, and despite half of myself being cold and lifeless, the werewolf side of me shivered in protest at the icy water. There were so many ways for me to die in here, but the more I thought about the premise of the game, the more I began to recall what Lucretia had said. I was immortal. In essence, nothing here could *kill* me, but everything here could hurt me. I wondered if Meera knew this as well. The entire time I’d been assuming that she’d organised these games in efforts to kill me, all forgetting something crucial- we were both immortal. She was the only person, the only *thing* on this Earth that could kill me. If she knew this, as she seemed to know almost everything- which was understandable given the number of centuries she’d lived to retrieve her memories and find out more about the soul magic used to resurrect the both of us- then she was doing this to torture me. Unfortunately, Meera knew me more than I cared to admit. Back when I was Diana and she was Katherine, she literally knew me from the time I was born. She knew more about me than I possibly did, and that was the problem. She knew I’d make attachments; she knew that I cared about others, she knew I was soft hearted and sensitive. In essence, this game was a form of torture for me. I’d possibly have to watch my friends die and get injured and although I hoped to keep all of them safe, I knew deep down that the harsh reality was that I could not save everyone I wanted. It was well played and well thought of on Meera’s part, that is, if she did know about our shared immortal status.
I found myself so lost in my weariness regarding Meera that I hardly noticed the soft flashes of shimmering scales and the immediate change in the current of the water. It was only when I physically felt the force of one of the notorious merfolk passing me by, that I was once again snapped back to reality.
Xavier, who had been next to me and, as such, also felt the force of said merperson, immediately turned towards me and spared a glance of concern. It was adorable, to say the least, especially considering that out of all four of my lovers, Xavier had this habit of hiding his affection with aggression and insults. I gave him a reassuring smile. Xavier then tapped Liam on the shoulder and lifted his finger which he twirled around twice. Liam nodded and then motioned for us to move even closer together. Now, aside from the occasional glint of scales here and there, the only thing Liam, Xavier and I had seen while we were in the water were a few fish and sea plantation, some of which grew on the floor and underwater rocky surfaces. We hadn’t seen a single other vampire… until now. Up ahead, struggling against not only the water, but the merman that had passed Xavier and I as well, was Darren. His brother, Kyle was floating down to the ocean bed. He was unconscious.
Liam and Xavier, who, by now had seen the struggle of the noble twins ahead of us, paid them no mind and instead began swimming closer to the bottom of the ocean. I, however found myself unable to take my eyes off of the struggling pair. I was, conflicted, to say the least. Part of me wanted to continue on along with Xavier and Liam and completely ignore them, and the other part wanted to save them. Yes, I hadn’t exactly gotten along with the twins in the past, but could I really afford to be petty when there were lives at stake? Then again, a world without noble vampires like Darren and Kyle would be a world better off.
Despite the violent conflict brewing in my head, my body began to move on its own accord, and the decision it had decided to make for me, was to save the two idiots.
If Liam and Xavier could have spoken, this would have been the time that they’d yell for me to come back. Perhaps then I would have stopped myself from saving the two people I’d tried to kill about a day ago. However, the only attempts at stopping me that I received from them, were faces of disapproval and shock, and then Liam and Xavier followed after me in hopes of catching me and convincing me not to follow through with my plan. But I was faster than they were, and so I got to the scene of the attack way before they could.
Up close, the beauty of the merman had me almost astounded, it contrasted starkly against his vicious, jagged, stained teeth, his clawed fingers and that deadly, hungry look on his face. He held on tightly to Darren, with his jaw open wide and his teeth bared as if to prepare to take a bite out of him. Darren held onto his shoulders in an effort to push him away, but as I’d mentioned before, we were out of our element, and the merfolk were in theirs. And so, the distance between Darren and the starving merman began to shrink at an alarming rate.
With all the urgency I could muster up, I dove towards the two with such a force that I managed to break the two apart. You would expect Darren to be grateful that I’d just saved his life, but when I looked up, all I saw on his face was annoyance. But I had no time to dwell on his lack of appreciation, because another problem began to occur. As Kyle sunk to the bottom of the ocean, the merman began to change his course, opting for easy prey which was the very much unconscious Kyle.
I pointed downward towards Kyle and Darren followed my finger with his eyes. It was then that his facial expression transformed from highly annoyed to extremely concerned. Within a heartbeat, he began swimming hurriedly towards his sinking brother, and I followed behind him until about halfway where I surpassed him.
Despite me being faster than an average noble, I was still far from being fast enough to catch up to the merman, and soon, he had Kyle in his clutches. Watching the merman getting ready to bite out a chunk from Kyle had my stomach lurching. I didn’t want the poor soul to die. And as I thought this, I noticed something I could only describe to be sickeningly cruel. Not too far away from this horrific display was a camera which floated from side-to-side. Sanguis was literally filming Kyle who was about to be merman food. It was undignified, and quite frankly I couldn’t believe anyone who valued any form of life would be entertained by such a display. In fact, I was sure that they’d be just as horrified as I was. And so, my determination to save Kyle only increased and I pushed myself harder. But I was still nowhere fast enough, and the closer I got to the two, the closer the merman got to devouring Kyle.
The merman just about had his teeth in Kyle’s flesh when, suddenly, out of nowhere, a different body collided with the merman, knocking him off of Kyle. It took a moment before I was able to discern the owner of the colliding body, and I was surprised to see that it was David Trest, the young vampire Felicity was in love with, and rightfully so. The usually shy young man was nothing if not lethal and it took him a matter of moments to completely destroy the merman. Blood began to float in the water and eventually, the shimmering, tailed body stopped moving.
---
I'm honestly really enjoying writing the "Games" section of this novel! I hope you enjoy reading it!
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!💕