“Of course.” She inhaled sharply and as she exhaled a smile pulled at her lips. Gold and light blue scales rose across her collarbone and trickled down her breasts, stomach, arms, and legs.
“It doesn’t cover your face,” I said. “Mine doesn’t either.”
Elaine reached out to run a finger over my back. I fought the urge to pull away. I willed bark façade to the surface of my shoulders, across my chest and down the rest of my skin. She jumped and laughed. “Didn’t expect that to happen.”
“It’s new to me,” I said. “Sometimes it pops up right away. Other times, not so much.”
I peered at myself in the mirror. I’d never seen my reflection in this state. My skin echoed the tree I connected to the most: an evergreen. Pride filled my heart and threatened to burst it wide open.
Elaine touched my arm and glided her scaled knuckles over my bark. “It’s rougher at your lower back than your arm,” she said.
“That’s because my back is actual bark and this is only façade.” I reached out to glide my fingers along her blue scales. They weren’t slimy like I’d assumed they’d be. “They’re so soft,” I remarked.
“Faline.” Gabrielle knocked on the bedroom door and the three of us jumped. “If you’re ready, my sisters are gathered to hear what you’ve come to speak to us about.”
Her words reminded me of the wise woman and the war I was supposed to start. In a snap my bark façade melted into my skin and I stood in the bathroom in only black panties and a patch of bark on my back, beside a blue scaled brunette and a naked red head. Only in Wilds land.
“Can you let Gabrielle know that Elaine and I will be out in a few minutes?” Sarah asked.
I nodded and left the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. I pulled on my jeans and black cami. I grabbed a dagger from one of the boots and carefully slid it through my jean’s belt loop near my lower spine. So what if they caught a glimpse of my weapon. I’d be dumb not to bring it. I had to stay alive for Shawna. I didn’t know these mermaids, or really, any mermaids.
I left the room and made my way down the long hallway toward Gabrielle. She wore a flowing linen halter top dress.
“They’re waiting down by the water,” she said as I neared her.
From the house we took a steep path down a rocky cliff. Salt water slammed into the side and sprayed toward us. “How many are waiting?” I asked.
“Oh, probably around twenty-five. Some are still out hunting.”
In the moonlight, females gathered along the sandy beach. Some were talking, others were basking, naked, in the moonlight. Others still, watched the two of us make our way to them. I eyed the sheer number of mermaids before me and racked my brain for what I knew about the way mermaids killed their prey.
We reached the bottom of the cliff. Moist sand squished between my toes. Mermaids drowned their prey in the sea, and as the last breath of life pushed itself from their prey’s lungs, the mermaid placed her mouth over her prey’s and stole it. I suddenly wished I knew more about my own power and how to use it to defend myself. What was I walking into?
Fourteen
I counted twenty-three mermaids lounging and chatting along the shore. Not only was I the only non-mermaid, but I was the only Wild wearing jeans and a dagger.
Their hair colors ranged from blonde to black, but none had my pale skin. And most wore a smattering of scales sparkling along their flesh like jewelry. I walked through the group and scanned the crowd for numbered identification tattoos while pretending to look where I walked. Dozens of smooth bodies glittered with perfection, none marred by Hunter’s marks.
Did mermaids have mind numbing abilities? Were they able to make their prey feel at ease? Because while I was so incredibly outnumbered, I didn’t feel threatened in the slightest. That in itself made me uneasy.
“None of us lead our shoal,” Gabrielle explained as we made our way toward the tide and I found myself moving a little slower to keep from reaching it. “Some are older, and we certainly respect their wisdom, but the younger members get an equal say.”
Rather than seeing mermaids of similar age groups, like I would among a huldra coterie, I saw what looked like mermaids from every age—young adult to grey-haired. “You do not control your procreation—regulate and schedule it,” I said, not as a question.
Gabrielle laughed and a few snickers joined in. “No, we don’t have much in the way of regulations.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed Sarah and Elaine walking from the waves onto the beach to join the others.
We stood by the water, out of reach from the rising tide as it strolled up the sand and receded into the waves. An awkward silence hung in the air despite the howling wind. Clouds eased apart to reveal the hint of a full moon. Gabrielle closed her eyes and inhaled as dark emerald scales rose from her tan skin.
When Gabrielle showed me to my room earlier, she’d assured me I’d get my questions answered once she gathered her sisters. Well, the mermaids were gathered. “I would like to begin our discussion now, ask my questions, so that I can be on my way,” I said.
“Are you not a Wild Woman?” A grey-haired woman stood from the hushed crowd. She strode over to us as though she walked on wind. She didn’t give me time to answer. “Are you not female? Are you not a descendant of a high priestess who had the breath of her goddess breathed into her to enable her daughters and her daughter’s daughters?”
I turned to address the older mermaid. Her orange-red scales draped down her body as though she were on fire. Her words burned with familiarity in my mind. “I am, but a lot has changed since those days,” I said, wondering why the Hunters hadn’t taught that part of our history. I got to the matter at hand. “You’ve been trying to recruit Wilds for your war, but I wonder if any have answered your call. A succubus in particular.”
Everything in me wanted to ask about Shawna. If they had their proverbial fingers on the pulse of everything Wild, there was a chance they’d have heard something about a missing huldra. But I didn’t know the mermaids from any other potential Wild enemy, and mentioning my sister, showing my urgency and absolute need to find her, would be like playing a hand of poker with my cards fanned out for the whole table to see.
“We know it will take time for other Wilds to trust us enough to heed our call.” The older female quickly introduced herself as Azul and continued, “This is where you come in, huldra.” Azul reached toward me and I moved back. Her scales multiplied, growing up her neck and down both her arms.
I put my hand in the air between the two of us. “I’m a little lost here. Marie, leader of the Oregon succubi galere, sent me. Where I come in is to find out if her sister ever made it to this island, to join your army.” I paused a moment, unsure as to whether or not it was time to show my cards. Impatience wore down my resolve. If I were looking for a bail-runner, I’d have no problem keeping my cool to play a mind game. But my sister’s life hung in the balance, so I got to the point. “And, also, to seek any information you have on who could have taken my own sister.” I dug my toes into the moist sand. Eager to don protective bark, my skin prickled from the rising frustration of having to put myself in a place of enough vulnerability to ask strangers for help in finding my own sister.
Gabrielle and Azul took two steps back.
“The point is that you came as the wise woman foretold,” Gabrielle said.
“The point is that while you and your sisters moonbathe, other Wilds are disappearing.” I swallowed down my urge to blame them for their life of ease and selected my next words carefully.
But when I opened my mouth to speak, Azul cut in. “Your anger is deserved. The rot of garbage that has been covered with sod, with their lies, is now peeking through the surface and its stench is unbearable.”
A deep exhale that I had been holding for days left my lungs as the threat of tears blurred my vision. She hadn’t given a name to the garbage, the rot, but my intuition knew. Finally, what I’d known, what I feared, was validated.
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I’d realized the possibility that night in the Oregon hotel, when I saw how easy Wilds were to locate based off their surnames. But it wasn’t possible, was it? Could it be that it wasn’t the succubi who took my sister, who ordered my attack? It wasn’t the mermaids. It was those who claimed to be our protectors? Those who wore the veneer of security and strength to cover rotten motives.
“Hunters,” I breathed into the wind.
“It’s happened before,” Gabrielle said. “Twenty years ago, Wilds from all over went missing. But seeing that Wilds didn’t communicate, they thought their incident was singular to them. We had waited for a huldra to come to us, as was foretold, but she never did. This time, when the disappearances started again, we decided we couldn’t stand by and watch any longer. We took matters into our own hands.”
“Your Wild army,” I said.
“Yes, but the division of Wilds is proving too large an obstacle to overcome.” Gabrielle lowered her head.
Azul gently touched Gabrielle’s shoulder. “It is still early,” she reminded.
Gabrielle peered at the older mermaid. “But we have Faline now. She can unite the Wilds. Our wise woman’s words can come to pass.”
My gut instincts aside, this made no sense. “Why the Hunters, though? Why not just trap us when we check in? Why covertly abduct us when we have to answer to them anyway?”
Azul answered, “When the Blessed Ones, or as we now know them, the Hunters, first rose in power they saw us as a threat and tried to annihilate all Wilds. But we banded together and fought back. Above all they sought power. And I believe our power impressed them, so much so that they no longer chose to be rid of us, but to rule over us.”
“That’s a new version of our history,” I remarked, remembering how the Hunters insisted we were too wild to control ourselves so they bravely stepped in to do the job for us.
“You’ve learned history. Now hear herstory.” Azul continued, “Why does anyone rule over another? Because there’s something they want from those they rule over, something of value. The fact that we cannot surmise what it is does not mean it isn’t there.”
“Again, why not take it by force?” I asked.
“Do you know how the Wilds lost against the Hunters?” Azul asked.
“Through politics, religion, and wealth they separated the different groups. Divide and conquer,” I said.
“Precisely. To divide is to conquer. To allow the groups to come together as one would be the Hunters’ demise.”
“So you’re saying that if they took Wilds by force during check-ins they’d be blatantly behaving in a way that would cause us to not only question their motives, but to know their motives. They can’t run the risk of us getting fed up enough to revolt.” I gazed at the many Wilds on the beach, listening, and returned my attention to Azul and Gabrielle.
Both females nodded.
“And if my sister is being held by the Hunters, then rescuing her would start a war.” The pieces fell together in my mind. The mermaids hadn’t stacked the deck, hadn’t set any of this up. They’d only known how one hand would be dealt—mine. My mind sifted through the new facts presented and began forming a plan. “Shawna, my sister, is probably at the local Hunter complex.” Goddess, and here I was hundreds of miles away. I shook my head, wishing I hadn’t been so naive. “That’s why John met me in their parking lot—walked from the training building at that hour and shut the door behind him. Why he was short with me. Why he acted like there wasn’t much he could do to help. Shawna was there, probably in the training building, ten feet away from me.”
My legs weakened and I fell to my knees. Moist sand received my forehead as my tears met with the remnants of high tide. I had to think, had to plan. But my mind refused to focus enough to quiet the tornado inside.
Azul stood above me. “My sisters, we have prepared for this day. Our goddess Atargatis has protected us well with the help of our Chumash sisters and brothers. We’ve grown in numbers and mastered our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Each of us feels Her call in our bones, Her call to join Her sister goddesses, that we may join their daughters. What do you say, my sisters? Shall we help this huldra begin a war to free all American Wilds so that they too may live in their power?”
My huldra responded to her call. Shivers of anticipation replaced sobbing, pulling me to sit up on my knees. Mermaids, tall and short, thick and thin, stood and ululated into the night with arms raised to the moon. Their voices wove into a choir of power with acoustics to challenge any opera hall. A knot formed in my throat as I stood in the presence of solidarity so strong and so giving toward me, toward Shawna and Heather. Like trees swaying together in a storm, sharing the force of the wind so that all would survive.
I raised my own hands toward the sky in abandon, thanking Freyja for sending help, for sending a renewed hope. It would all be okay. Everything would be okay.
Another sound caught my attention. It started out as a quiet hum but quickly grew in intensity. I first looked out over the waves and then searched the night sky.
“A helicopter!” I yelled. “I hear a helicopter!”
I looked toward the sound, but no lights shone down. They didn’t want us to know they were here. The mermaids quieted and turned toward the sound. Wind shifted and the hum became deafening.
“Wind, sisters!” Gabrielle called out. “We need wind!”
Other than the sounds of nature and the nearby helicopter, the beach grew silent. Mermaids kept their arms raised and tilted their faces up as though they asked for assistance from the moon. Gusts of wind picked up and whipped my hair into my shoulders and cheeks. Waves crashed violently to the shore and more so against the rocky cliffs.
My huldra shook within me, begged to come out and join the mermaids, to stand in my power alongside them. But I had to control my huldra. Blacking out at such a time would benefit no one.
The helicopter’s motor whirred, fighting the wind, and it changed course. I wished I could see the machine work to stay in flight, but the cliff obstructed my view. I hit the cliff base at a dead run, pushing myself to make it up the steep incline. I was halfway when a lightning bolt unfurled from a clustering of clouds and whipped down to the earth, missing the helicopter by what look like mere inches.
The brief snap of light lit the bone dagger painted on the helicopter’s side.
“Hunters,” I shrieked.
Another crack of light bolted from the heavens, this time hitting its target. Smoke billowed from the machine as it plummeted toward a jagged cliff and exploded on impact.
The mermaids cheered, but not for long.
“They’re here, on the island!” Azul called out.
From the side of the cliff, I viewed the others lower their arms and freeze. Gabrielle caught up to me.
“How does she know more are here?” I asked, still trying to listen for and smell their presence. Only salt water filled my nose.
Gabrielle stood as still as a statue as she spoke, her muscular legs planted into the sand. Hair blew into her face, but she did nothing to remove it. “We absorb the water in the air, and while in the sea, we absorb the air in the water. That’s how we breathe. It’s also how we smell or sense who’s nearby. I’d bet if you tried, you could do something similar.” She paused in concentration. “The wind is bringing the scent of males to us, large, strong non-human males.”
“Hunters,” I said again, still in disbelief. There could be only one reason they were here: to end the uprising. Unless, of course, they had come to kidnap more Wild Women. It seemed unlikely they’d do so in an outright attack. If it was them behind the disappearances, then this wasn’t their method.
She nodded.
“I thought they didn’t know about you, about your home,” I yelled over the commotion.
“They didn’t.”
Goddess, had I somehow led them here?
She closed her eyes and inhaled. Deep green scales multiplied across her body. “They’re coming closer. They kn
ow we’re down here.” She opened her chestnut eyes and looked me over.
“How?” I asked, searching the top of the cliff for Hunters.
“They dropped them onto the island before the helicopter went down. They must have infrared goggles.” She gestured toward me. “Why aren’t you donning your bark?”
“Why would I? There’s no trees to hide in.” I looked around to make sure I hadn’t missed any growing out of the side of a cliff.
“It lowers your body temperature, makes it impossible for them to see your heat signature. The heat signatures of trees are nothing compared to that of a body.” Gabrielle ran down to the beach, toward the others. They gathered in a tight circle. Each mermaid wore a different variation of scale color as they glinted in the moon light.
“Faline,” she called to me.
I jogged to the circle. I pulled the dagger from my belt loop. “How many of them?”
“Seven, maybe ten?” another female answered.
“What are you doing? Put your bark on,” Gabrielle said with urgency. “They’re coming.”
The Hunters were really here to attack us? This all felt so wrong, so against what I’d grown up knowing. “I can’t, not all the way. It may let my huldra out.” I glanced behind us and eyed the top of the cliff again. The crashing waves and salt water disorientated my senses.
“Then we will welcome her and be thankful for her help,” Gabrielle said. She pivoted into the circle.
Mermaids whispered plans. Some offered to hide in the cliff crevices for surprise attacks. Others offered to swim around to another beach and climb up to ensure the safety of their house.
“What about the children?” I asked, remembering what I’d been told earlier about their odd procreation patterns. I couldn’t stand to see a small child taken.
Gabrielle paused from strategizing. “They’ve been deep in the underground caves with a few elders and a couple of mothers since you arrived.” No, the mermaids were not naive.
Wild Women Collection Page 11
