I could still hear myself screaming even after we stopped. Elliot rolled his eyes and placed his hands over my mouth then kissed my neck. That cooled me down.
"Easy, didn't you say you were ready?"
"That's not funny."
My heart was beating hard. I was sure Elliot could hear it but he said nothing. I realized why when I looked towards the underwater city. It was breathtaking. Colorful fishes ruled the waters and stone made roads indicated the paths.
The houses were nothing like ours. They were short and of different unwordly colors. Their windows were just child-made holes in senseless areas of the buildings. The houses were small but because they lived underground too, there was no need to build tall buildings like ours.
The doors were made of different things, nets, coral bars, strings of beads and pearls, the weakest rotten wood... The shops and stalls looked like they were designed by children. I wanted to call the place a village until we reached the deeper parts of the city.
Neon lights filled the streets, the houses were not as good as ours but better than the last. The road was tiled with smooth material like marble and the ocean tasted saltier and felt warmer. There were big supermarkets, malls and eateries.
I never wanted to leave the place. Their voices were peaceful while the children's voices were monstrous. There were different sounds from different corners but what surprised me was that there wasn't an iota of darkness to be seen anywhere. It felt like paradise.
"You okay? You've been staring at that dress for a while now."
I clicked back to life and took my eyes off it. It was hard to believe that mermaids wore clothes but the dress was gorgeous. It was pink and had white pearls around it. Yellow strips of different shades encircled the skirtish-gown. The top of the gown that was connected to the skirt by a thick pink and yellow strip were cup bras formed from golden seaweed.
It sounded crazy but it looked beautiful.
"I'm fine. We should find the girl."
Elliot had a face on that told me the matter wouldn't end there. "She lives with her parents in a burrow..."
"Is that what they call their houses?"
He looked surprised at my question and that turned me off. "You're a princess. You should know this."
"Can't someone not be attentive in class. You were saying?"
"The burrows of the council members are not too far away from the main council burrow. We have to find out where she's living."
"How?"
He held my hand as we swam towards the only dark place I had seen so far in the city. It was a dark burrow that was secluded from every burrow and... building in the city.
Elliot's POV
I could sense that Alexa didn't like the idea of entering there but it was safer than leaving her outside alone. Liam was still out there and I didn't want to take any chances.
"What's in there?"
"Evil mermaids who get drunk at day and steal at night."
She moved closer to me. The touch of a single hair of her skin on mine made my demon growl. It was difficult to control myself from eating her up.
"I thought mermaids were all good?"
I let out a short laugh. "That's as stupid as calling me Silly Elli." She frowned, her cutest yet. "Stay behind me."
She was about to argue when I spreaded my hands with great force and the iron door of the burrow opened.
"How convenient," she said as I smirked.
I swam inside with her behind me. The guards startled and pointed their battalions at me. Battalions were dangerous and deadly electric shocker weapons made from eels that mermaids used to defend themselves.
They attacked but I raised my hands and their shots backfired. I destroyed everyone opposing me on my way till I reached the deepest part of the burrows.
I could scent their drugs, alcohol made from puffer fishes and stone fishes as well as their cigarettes that were coated with the skin of a specially tanned blue-ringed octopus hide.
I faced the man I wanted to meet. He was a man who had been living under the sea for many years. The merpeople around called him the sea devil. On ordinary land he was just a man but in sea water, he could control anyone he wanted with the power of his deadly tongue.
Anyone but the devil and royal blood. I wondered why he hadn't taken over Seareign yet.
"We meet again, Lot."
"That's the devil to you."
There was a black mermaid behind him. She was smoking on a blue ring cigarette as black liquid escaped her mouth. She looked toxic and wasted.
"She's gone. I need new blood. I like the one behind you." He licked his tongue.
"Don't you dare!"
The sea devil stood up and walked closer to us. "Oh, I must have stepped on the devil's tail." Alexa held me tighter. She was frightened. Anyone would be in his presence. "We're like brothers. We can share."
"Enough! I have an uncompleted deal. You have to assist me today."
He eyed me but I was not moved. "It's been 200 years, you have great memory."
"I helped you now it's your turn."
He stepped back and dropped on his previous seat. He leaned towards the wasted mermaid and stretched his tongue into her mouth before breaking her neck and killing her. Alexa's blood movement increased, I could feel it, so could Rex.
"To never see you again, I'll do anything." Rex picked a cigarette and coughed every time he sucked it in. "What do you need?"
"Mernap Carmana Weeder and bring her to the gate of the city."
He coughed again before answering. "You will rape her to death like the last one?"
Alexa let go of me and looked at me with fear. I ignored her but her stares were piercing through my soul.
"Just business. Do it before the water gets colder."
I swam outside holding Alexa tightly but Rex said something that made my blood boil. "If you don't need her again, I won't mind taking a sip of her."
Alexa wanted to face him but I held her hand tighter, shaking my head.
I led her out of the burrow and swam towards the gate but Alexa didn't budge when she was sure she wasn't close to the burrow anymore.
"What did you do, Elliot?"
I took a deep breath, I was ready to answer but not to her face. "I've done many things. I'm not all good."
She held her throat. "You raped an innocent mergirl to death!"
I was losing my words. "It's not what you think. I..."
"You what?! There is no justification to what you've done!"
She was gaining attention from the other mermaids and that was the least I needed. I grabbed her hands and took us to a less crowded area.
"I have no control over what Lot does."
"You are taking advantage of your powers. I thought you were different from what people and the books said you were."
That hurt, it hurt to think that she thought I was a monster but I couldn't show my weakness. Enemies had ears in the waters and on land and air. "I guess you were wrong."
I swam forward, leaving her behind. I could feel her saltier tears mixing the the ocean's salty tears.
She hesitated but eventually swam up to me, maintaining a distance.
***
It had been three hours since we had been waiting at the gate but she didn't say a word to me. It was killing me but I was so egoistic. She didn't even look to my side. For someone that talks too much, she really knew how to stay mad at someone.
"Aren't you hungry?" There was no answer. "I could easily get us a fish or two." She was giving me the silent treatment. Not hearing her voice for so long murdered me. For the first time I decided to face her and tell the truth even though she might never forgive me. "200 years after you died, I was tired of waiting for you. I searched for you on land and on air but I couldn't find you. I came into the water when I stumbled on my long lost brother, Rex."
At that stage, she looked up to me in shock. "R-rex is your... He's your brother."
I made a nod. "When a brother becomes the devil, the other either dies or becomes one himself. He had a choice so he made it. He was in search of a black diamond and in the process, he came across the overthrowned sea devil. I was there to save him but an uncompleted deal had been hanging in our minds."
"Tell me why you did that to that girl."
I bit my lip and let my words out. "I was about to leave when I didn't achieve my goal when..." I looked up to her, reading her mixed emotions. "...I saw you."
Her eyes shone. "W-what do you mean?"
"I went towards you but I couldn't control Lot. He took over and-and..." My fingers were shaking. The horrible memories of that day came back to me. "He raped you just to find out that it wasn't your scent. It wasn't you. He was so mad that he killed her." She whimpered, looking at me in horror. "I know you hate me for this and I understand but..."
Before I could complete my words, I felt two smooth beautiful hands hug me from behind. I threw her to my front. I was surprised she could still look at me.
"It wasn't your fault, it was mine," she said crying. "If I hadn't killed myself, so many bad things wouldn't have happened."
"It's not yours. I should have control over my demon but I don't."
"Everyone has a demon within them Elliot. It's hard to control them sometimes. You've been holding many things in because of me but not anymore."
I agreed. I stripped off the ugly tail that hid her beautiful hips and curves. I carried her and placed her on my waist, with her exposed laps tied around my legs. I placed my lips on her and made my way into her gates.
She moaned but I left her lips for her neck and kissed my mark on her. She scratched my back. I went for the next target when...
"What a surprise! Can't you two get a room?"
I let go of Alexa and placed her behind me. "You're here so soon. I thought you'd be on a merb***h."
"Speak when you're not guilty."
"She's my mate. I don't sleep around with godforsaken..." I took a deep breath. I wanted to end the matter there. I knew we could argue on for days, we did so even before we became what we were. "Where is she?"
He snapped his fingers and a mermand with a dark blue tail and mad abs brought forward a tied young mergirl.
"She's yours. After this, I don't want to see you in my waters, thoughtless of my city."
He turned around to swim away with his goons but he paused when he heard my voice.
"You won't, as long as you stay in your boundaries."
He snickered and swam away with his goons until they were out of sight. Alexa swam up to the girl but I told her not to do anything. We only had one night because in the morning, the city would be full of light. I went to her and untied her and brought her face up to mine.
"What now?"
"We wake her up."
Lena's POV
"And how do you suppose we do that?" I asked, raising a brow.
He smiled, guessing I was too innocent for his ways of doing things. That was just what he thought. "Easy."
He snapped his fingers. The mergirl startled awake. She started to itch her body, screaming in pain. Her skin started to turn red and I was full of horror.
"Elliot, what did you do?!"
I couldn't stand to see someone so innocent in undeserving pain.
"Wait a second."
"Don't tell me to wait! Stop this now!"
In a matter of seconds the redness of her skin disappeared and the itching stopped.
"It was a ten-second flea spell. She's fine now."
"We could have just poured waste on her face."
He laughed. "Looks like you've forgotten where we are."
'Oh,' I thought when I remembered that we were in the ocean itself.
She rubbed her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. The mergirl's beauty was unexplainable, just like any other growing mermaid. Mermaids were ugly as children, when they grew older into their teenage years they had a weird but beautiful look. As they attain the age of adults, their full beauty came up.
Just like the tale of the ugly duckling.
But she looked familiar, like her met her somewhere else.
She had dark pink eyes, it reminded me of Elliot... No, Lot's eyes. Her lips were tangerine orange which complemented her carrot orange tail. Her shape was out of this world and her tail pattern was wavy.
She had long pink hair and long eyelashes. Every mermaid had a beautiful voice, even at their young age, so it was expected of her.
She wore orange starfish earrings and a green seaweed headband that matched her seaweed bra-like top.
"Who are you and what do you want with me?! Stay away! I'm a member of the council and if you..."
Elliot snapped his fingers again and the mermaid's lips locked. She couldn't say a word.