Smitten: Part I-Zerrin

by Patria L. Dunn

  **********

  “Eat you food please,” I asked again, nodding to the half full bowls of soupy oatmeal sitting in front of the twins.

  Roman had been avoiding me since the bus arrived, leaving his backpack on the front porch, before heading out towards the cow pasture. I watched out the window until he became a dark spot against the snow, wondering if he was leaving me here, like he’d thought I left him. My nerves were shot, snapping at the twins through their homework, and now through dinner. I had nothing else to offer but the last scoop of oatmeal, which I’d watered down to make enough for the two of them. My stomach growled uncontrollably now, tiredness and hunger sapping away at energy I no longer had.

  “Can’t we have chicken again…?” Shelly asked, plopping her spoon down into the bowl so that some of the liquid splattered on the table in front of her.

  “That was probably a one time thing. I’ll figure out something else for dinner tomorrow,” I promised with a wary smile, nodding to Thomas to take a bite of his own food.

  His face balked at my instruction, but his eyes lowered from mine as he picked up his spoon to take a small sip of the liquid. I looked to Shelly, silently begging her to do the same without an argument.

  “If I have to eat oatmeal again tomorrow I’m going to scream,” Shelly announced as she shoveled a spoonful into her mouth, pretending to gag on the flavorless oats, some of it dribbling down her chin.

  Had Martin or Jo been sitting here, I might have laughed at her proclamation, agreeing with her wholeheartedly. But my stomach was so empty; I would have killed to have a bowl of the murky liquid to fill it with.

  “Finish up, I’m going to go grab a washcloth, so I can get you ready for bed…”

  “But I want a bath,” Thomas whined now.

  “And I have to pee!” Shelly chimed in, her eyes narrowing as she looked past me, down the hall. “Why can’t we go in the bathroom Lana?” she asked for the fifth time since I’d banned them from going in there this afternoon.

  “I told you it’s broken, and I’m waiting on Roman to get home so he can fix it,” I explained with a sigh, standing on shaky legs to stretch out my aching muscles.

  “But I just have to pee…”

  “You can use the other bathroom then,” I insisted, grabbing Shelly’s arm as she jumped from her chair.

  “We’re not allowed…”

  “You are tonight. Just this once…” I added as Thomas’s eyes widened at my mention of the “other” bathroom.

  The only other bathroom in the house was in the Pernickle’s bedroom, and none of us were allowed in there. They, just like Roman and I before this week, had never seen the inside of the Pernickle’s bedroom and had assumed that we would never live to tell about it if we ever did. I watched as Shelly’s eyes lit up at the prospect of going somewhere forbidden, relieved that her attention was now away from the “broken hallway bathroom”. Thomas, I left to finish his dinner while I led Shelly down the hall, holding my breath in anticipation of the foul odor that would certainly be stronger now that I’d closed all the windows and doors. Her nose wrinkled as she looked up at me, her gaze briefly holding on the bathroom door as we passed, but she didn’t question the smell.

  “Hurry,” I instructed as I let her into the Pernickle’s bedroom, pointing towards the opposite end of the room, in the direction of the bathroom.

  I waited until she went in and shut the door before heading to our bedroom to grab pajamas for both of them. I needed them sleep as soon as possible so that I could go check on Jonas and talk to Roman when he got home. If…he even comes home… The thought settled heavy and panicky as I went about my nightly duties, tucking Thomas in, on his cot, and then Shelly. Ranger was spending yet another night at the babysitters, still sick with a high fever. I knew she doubted my ability to take care of him, and I didn’t argue when she called again today, explaining that it would be better to keep him out of the cold. It was one less headache for me, even though I couldn’t help but miss him. I’d pretty much become his mother here at home, and this was the longest I’d ever went without seeing him.

  Halfway into the second bedtime story, I finally heard the familiar thump of the front door closing. The twins had fallen asleep before the end of the first book, but I’d continued reading, hoping my presence in the room would help them stay asleep. Thomas, I never had to worry about sleeping through the night once his eyes closed. Shelly was the lighter sleeper, often waking up two or three times, after I put her to bed, just to make sure I was in the room. I could hear Roman pad into the kitchen, his boots apparently left at the door, so as not to make any noise. His next stop would probably be the bathroom, and I scrambled now, hoping to head him off before he reached it.

  “What is that smell?” he asked, his hand over his mouth as I met him in the hall.

  “Where did you go? I was worried,” I answered, ignoring the question as I pointed towards the kitchen. “I owe you an explanation…” I gestured, hoping that he would turn and let me follow him to the table.

  “Lana…” he sighed as he pulled on my outstretched hand, leaving me with no other choice but to take another step towards him.

  Cold clung to the damp clothing he still wore, sending a chill down the narrow hallway as he shifted from one foot to the other, his hair falling across his eyes as he looked down at me.

  “You look…awful…” he whispered with a slight smile, his chocolate brown eyes sweeping my face in concern. “…And beautiful,” he added when my mouth opened to protest, his index finger on my lips as I closed them in surprise at his words.

  My belly flip flopped as he pulled me into the kitchen behind him, away from the awful smell in the hall and the bedrooms. Something had changed since the morning, and I almost wished that he were still mad at me.

  “I’m sorry you were worried,” he murmured as he turned around, pulling me into his arms.

  “You’re in a good mood,” I tried to joke as he did a tiny slow dance number with his feet, causing us both to sway from side to side.

  “All this time…all we’ve had is each other. If anyone understands me, and knows what I’m going through…it’s you. Sure I’m younger than you…by this much,” He joked now, heat flooding his cheeks as he struggled to get the rest of what he wanted to say out.

  “Roman…don’t…”

  “I love you Lana…” he blurted out before I could stop him, his eyes closing as he let his head fall back. “I was so angry with you because I thought you’d left without me. But…you came back, and it took me all day to realize that you came back…for me…for us…” Roman trailed off as his head lowered again, his eyes shining as he caught my gaze, his hand tightening around my waist.

  “Roman…I do love you…but…”

  “I love you too Lana,” He whispered, his mouth covering mine in an awkward kiss that I tried not to push away from.

  My hands slid to his chest and stopped, my body almost betraying me at the feel of his hardened muscles beneath my fingertips. I pressed firmly, but my head was locked into place by the hand that had somehow crept up my back and behind my neck.

  “Roman!” I exclaimed when he tried to deepen the kiss, his tongue pressing against my lips, searching for an opening.

  “You said…”

  “I do love you, but like my little brother Roman…” I whispered, my hand covering my mouth as he gave me a pained looked.

  “That’s all I am… Your little brother?” he spat out, his brown eyes growing cold as he gave me a once over.

  “You’re more than that, and you know it. Roman please…” I grabbed his arm as he tried to move past me, tears dotting my eyes as he whirled on me.

  “What the hell is that smell?!” he demanded now, changing the subject, and causing my heart to leapt even harder in my chest.

  “That’s what I was going to explain to you. In the woods yesterday, I found a man…a boy. Well I mean…he was hurt…he needed me…but I couldn’t tell you until now, but I didn�
�t think this was going to happen…” I stammered, my words tangling together as I fought to keep my hold on his arm.

  “Wait…you found a boy? A little kid…a teenager… He’s here? Is that the smell?” Roman demanded answers now, his eyes finally resting on the blackish blue marks smeared across the kitchen floor.

  “Roman…please don’t be angry…let me explain…”

  “He’s in the house?!” Roman roared now as he jerked away from me, his eyes following the trail from the kitchen, down the hall.

  “Wait don’t!” I cried as I ran after him, scooting under his arm, so that my body blocked the bathroom door. “Let me explain first…” I pleaded, my hands on his chest, useless as he pushed past me to try the locked bathroom door first.

  I’d locked it from the inside, but the knob could be picked with a simple bobby pin, definitely not as complicated as the lock on the Pernickle’s bedroom door. Roman’s key was a toothpick he had tucked behind his ear, my desperate struggle, no match for the strength he had in one arm as he held me aside.

  “Oh god!” he choked out before the door had opened fully, the smell overtaking the tiny hallway in a rush of warm air.

  I slipped in front of him as he doubled over, dry heaving a few times before trying to straighten, his mouth and nose now covered by his shirt. The smell wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been before I’d cleaned Jonas up, washing out every wound, and changing the slime filled water of the tub several times before I was satisfied I’d done the best I could. I braced my right hand on the edge of the sink, the other gripped firmly on the door as I took a stance I hoped looked intimating.

  “You’re going to listen to me first…” My voice trembled, as I chanced a glance over my shoulder towards the tub.

  What I saw there startled me, my arms going slack as Roman took the opportunity to push me backwards into the bathroom by my shoulders.

  “What the hell is that?!” he exploded, jumping back through the door, his arms reaching to pull me with him.

  “Roman, Roman, Roman…Please!” I cried as he ran to the Pernickle’s bedroom, already knowing what he was going for.

  He would kill him before I even got the chance to explain! Tiredness gripped the thought, my effort to shut and lock the bathroom door, thwarted before I’d gotten my hand on the knob good. Roman burst in, knocking me to the floor as he cocked Martin Pernickle’s loaded shotgun we’d found behind their bedroom door during our search.

  “He’s not dangerous, he can’t hurt you!” I screamed now, scrambling across the floor to throw myself over the tub, so that Jonas was blocked from the tip of the barrel.

  “LANAAAGH…!” Roman’s voice was raw now, his teeth gritted as he roared my name in frustration.

  “Roman…Please… Please just listen to me!” I begged through an onslaught of tears, panic shooting through me as Jonas stirred beneath me.

  “Get away from that thing Lana before it kills you!”

  “He’s my friend! He’s not going to hurt me! He’s my friend…!” I repeated through a throat numbing sob as my hands slipped into the water, my fingers curling in remembrance of the feel of Jonas’s essence on my skin. He lived!

  I hadn’t gotten more than a glance, but I knew the moment I saw him, that he wasn’t going to die. He lay soaking in a pool of electric blue, brighter than what I’d first witnessed in the creek. His scars, still very much visible, had lightened around the edges, blackness receding away from the opening of each cut. Somehow…I’d saved him…Somehow I’d…

  “You found him Lana! He’s not even human! He’s a freak!” Roman screamed as he jabbed the tip of the gun against Jonas’s tail causing it jump from the floor on reflex.

  “Don’t do that!” I shrieked now, throwing myself at Roman in a tumbling roll, my wet arms dragging well behind my propelling body.

  I had nothing left, but I was ready to fight Roman for Jonas. He’d somehow become a part of me. In the span of the last twenty-four hours: finding him, saving him, watching and waiting, praying for a miracle…I’d heard my own song. My parent’s death had killed something inside of me I hadn’t realized was dead until now. I needed to live again… I needed to let go, so that when I got out of this place… I could live again.

  BOW!

  The gun fired and I collapsed, my scream lost somewhere in the noise as the room shook from the explosion.

  “Oh my God Lana!” Roman’s voice called from somewhere beyond the ringing in my head. “Lana!” Roman’s screams were muffled, his hands mauling my body as he tried to flip me over when I didn’t responded immediately.

  “I’m fine!” I croaked when he grabbed my face, my eyes opening slowly to find him straddling me, his nose inches from my own.

  “The kids…” I whispered as Shelly’s cries reached my ears, Thomas’s following almost immediately.

  I watched as he nodded, pushing aside the gun we’d accidentally set off in our struggle.

  “Jonas!” I cried now, trying to sit up despite the full weight of his body pressing against me.

  “…It’s fine..” Roman muttered as he gave Jonas a once over, his eyes holding over my shoulder, instead of looking back at me.

  “Roman…?”

  “Do you love him?” Roman asked suddenly, pushing his weight back so that he knelt on either side of my legs.

  I saw in his face that he felt betrayed; he thought the worst of me.

  “Roman…it’s not like that…I promise…” I whispered, pushing myself back and away from him as I sat up.

  His eyes lowered so that his hair covered his lids, hiding the tears I’d already seen.

  My gaze slipped to Jonas’s face, holding and staying there as the room went suddenly still. The old and current aches of my body disappeared, leaving me feeling weightless when I turned my body so that I was facing the tub.

  “It sure looks like that…” Roman muttered, rising to a stand before backing out the door.

  I never heard it slam, but I knew that it did from the whoosh of air that hit my bare feet. I wanted to explain… I wanted him to understand…but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t go after him…I didn’t want to. My fingers reached without me telling them to, the tips brushing the smooth baby skin of Jonas’s face.

  “Hi…” he whispered, his eyes glowing a brilliant blue as he caught my wrist lightly.

  Warmth swelled through me at his touch, his essence trickling along the bare skin of my arm and disappearing under the sleeve of my shirt. My mind had frozen, unable to form any words other than what he’d just said.

  “Hi…”

  Allies

  “How is this possible…?” I managed to whisper as Jonas’s fingers trailed along mine, smearing the blue color of his essence in thin spiny lines along my skin.

  Where his tail had once been, most of it flopped over the edge of the tub onto the floor, long muscular legs sprouted from the now opaque water, pale white and hairless, each cocked at an odd angle. I watched a smile touch his lips, his eyes leaving my face for a moment as he took in his new appendages.

  “Legs…” he murmured in wonder, shaking his head as his toes wiggled back and forth.

  “Roman…my brother…” I sighed as I looked around the bathroom for the first time, noting the spray of silver pellets imbedded in the wall behind me.

  “He fears me…” Jonas stated, his gaze now holding mine as I nodded slowly.

  “I didn’t get a chance to explain how I found you, and why you were here. He was just trying to protect me, but I thought he was going to kill you… I attacked him and….”

  “The noise…”

  “The gun,” I supplied as his brow wrinkled in confusion.

  “I remember the woods…and then nothing…and then salt…not like the salt of the sea, but I could feel it running through me…strengthening me…”

  “Celtic sea salt blocks…” I nodded, pointing to the unopened one I’d stashed in the corner. “My foster dad uses them to lure deer in. He hunts them,” I ex
plained, realizing by the expression on his face that he had no idea what I was talking about. “I put it in the water…I didn’t know if it would work…”

  “I have a lot of healing to do, but my essence is building again,” he smiled now, letting his fingers drop into the thick blue liquid he soaked in.

  “Is it like blood? You’re losing a lot of it…” I pointed out, my eyes settling on what had once been clear water that filled the tub.

  “When injured, our bodies push our essence out through the wounds, healing them from the inside out. It regenerates on its own, but I have to be in salt water for that to happen…”

  “You were in the river…fresh water…” I murmured more to myself than to him, trying to piece together his story.

  “There is a lot I must tell you,” Jonas sighed now, his head resting against the wall of the tub.

  “Do you have to stay in water now that you have legs?” I asked, smiling as he unconsciously wiggled his toes again.

  “In my world, human legs are only in the story books. I’ve never known another merman who’s made the change and come back to tell about it. This is all new to me too…” Jonas admitted, his shoulder drooping. “I was trying the spell when I heard the noise. My grandfather is a mersorcerer…the only one of Altonia. He’s been training me since birth to take over for him. He taught it to me when I was a child, but forbade me ever to use it. I couldn’t remember the words, and then…it’s like something exploded around me…jolted it into remembrance. The next thing I know my tail was gone and…” He paused, his injured hand lifting from the water to gesture at his feet.

  “I removed it…cut it off actually,” I explained as he took in the deep grooves the mesh trap had left along his forearm.

  “I would like to stand…” he said suddenly, a twinkle in his glowing eyes as he looked at me. “I don’t know how long the spell lasts, and I want to at least be able to say that I walked once,” he laughed now, the tone low and melodic as if he were humming.

  “I have a bed ready for you…but wait!” I cried now, the fog clearing from my head as he tried to lift himself from the water.

  “You’re…you’re naked…” I blushed now, my cheeks instantly hot as I averted my eyes from his bare thighs. “Plus, I doubt you know how to walk…it’s not as easy as it looks,” I reasoned, trying to hide my embarrassment.

  “Do you not look at each other’s skin?” Jonas asked, his eyes curious as he searched my face, his gaze dropping to my clothing.

  “It’s not that…” I trailed off, wondering how I would explain such a simple thing to him. “Here,” I changed the subject, grabbing the towel I had ready from the sink. “I’ll turn around and you hold on to me. Pull yourself up, and then wrap this around you waist,” I instructed, blushing again when his fingers brushed mine.

  I didn’t know what waited for us beyond the bathroom door, and I motioned for Jonas to stay quiet once he was up and out of the tub. Roman had left the shotgun behind, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get another weapon and come back. The hallway was clear, my bedroom door closed from the twins prying eyes. I assumed that he was in there with them, so I wasted no time getting Jonas from the bathroom to the Pernickle’s bedroom, halfway carrying him most of the way. It was going to be a long night. I needed him to explain how he’d come to be lying under a dock in the Kennebec River, dying, and he needed me to help him survive while he was here. We were allies.