Tangled Ripples

by Erin Thedwall

  Gavin stood and walked around the entire room, examining the walls for any clues as to where he was or a way to escape. Unable to find anything, he pressed his face against the door in an attempt to see through the narrow slits. The vantage point offered a glimpse of the stone wall across the way and the bright lights hanging intermittently from the ceiling. He sighed and walked back to the corner to sit on the blanket and lean against the wall.

  At least Arista is safe.

  A cold fury ignited inside him as he thought back on Kellen’s betrayal. He knew Kellen didn’t care for any of them, but he at least thought Kellen cared for Arista in some way. Otherwise, why would he have traveled that far to find her? Then to be willing to hand her over to Salazar? Gavin hoped Kellen would at least be foolish enough to make a mistake in front of Arista, so she would know not to trust him any longer.

  He heard a key turn in the lock on the outside of the door. Gavin stood, keeping his back against the wall. Salazar glided into the room. The dark hair slicked back across his head reflected the hallway light like freshly poured tar. He pressed the tips of his skeletal fingers together and clicked his cracked and yellowed fingernails against each other. His bushy eyebrows squished together over his black lifeless eyes. He stared at Gavin while dragging the edge of his tongue roughly across his teeth, allowing his razor sharp incisors to draw a small amount of blood to the surface. He hooked his tongue back into this mouth and closed his lips, savoring his own blood as it trickled out. Gavin stared back, his internal fury preventing him from flinching.

  “Tell me more about your mermaid, Arista,” Salazar said, allowing a few drops of blood to escape his mouth and dribble down the side of his chin. Gavin glared in response.

  Salazar stepped closer, pushing one hand into Gavin’s bare chest and driving him hard against the wall. It was close enough for Gavin to smell the stench of death in his mouth.

  “Talking now could save you some pain later,” Salazar said.

  Gavin seemed to consider his words. He leaned in towards Salazar, putting his face only inches from his captor’s and leveled his eyes. “Bite. Me.”

  Salazar’s eyes darkened with rage. He raked his fingernails into Gavin’s chest. Gavin struggled to remain calm, choking back his own anger. Salazar pulled his fingernails away, leaving behind jagged bleeding marks on Gavin’s chest. He lifted his fingers to his mouth, one by one, sucking Gavin’s blood out from under his nails.

  “Have it your way,” he hissed. With a swift ferocity, Salazar lashed out with one hand, slicing through Gavin’s stomach. He doubled over, crying out in pain. Instinctively he wrapped one arm across his injured stomach and streaks of blood appeared where his flesh pressed together.

  Salazar spun around and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Gavin slid down the wall, returning to the blanket as he kept his arm pressed against his stomach. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose as he fought through the pain.

  At least she is safe.

  His thoughts were interrupted by someone calling out from the hallway. “Gavin, Gavin, are you there?”

  He carefully stood, trying not to stretch his abdomen where the blood was beginning to clot. He pressed his face against the narrow slit in the door, but couldn’t see anyone.

  “Who’s there?” he called out.

  “James.”

  “MacMahon?” Gavin said in surprise as he pressed his face harder against the opening.

  “Yes, I’m locked up. I believe on the other side of the wall from where you are,” James explained.

  “How long have you been here?” Gavin asked, leaning against the wall for support.

  “Ever since I was attacked with Arista.”

  Gavin chuckled in response. “By the only person I like less than you.” He frowned as he once again thought of Kellen. It was one of the many situations he didn’t understand. MacMahon was delivering Arista to Salazar, but Kellen stopped him. Then tried to turn her over to Salazar himself.

  “Look, Gavin, I know we’re not friends, but we’ve got to help each other out. You must tell him what you know about Arista or he’ll never let us go.”

  Gavin gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. “You’re deluding yourself if you think he’s ever letting us leave alive, regardless of what I say.”

  “If that’s true, he would have killed me already.”

  “Not if he thinks you could be helpful. Clarissa is still with her, though I’m sure you’ve already shared all relevant details about her. When he finally gets Arista, he won’t need you anymore. He’s just taking his time. You’re dead already. Our only chance is to get out of here on our own.”

  “That’s impossible. You have to tell him what you know and hope for the best.”

  “You’d better start preparing to die then because that won’t happen,” Gavin said with an air of finality. He heard James slump down against his door on the other side of the wall.

  “It’s just a mermaid. Is she really more valuable to you than your own life?”

  “That question is why I never understood what Clarissa saw in you. Arista is not an animal, some thing, a lower being. She’s no less a person than you or me.”

  “That is factually wrong. She is less of a person because she’s not one. I realize that science is a little beyond you, but her very DNA is different from ours, from yours.”

  “And that makes her life worth less?”

  “Doesn’t it? She doesn’t matter. She isn’t real. You can’t pretend to be responsible for something that doesn’t even exist. Think about it, there are actual people at risk here and you are going to throw them away for a fairy tale creature.”

  “Yes. For a fairy tale creature who is living, breathing, smart, and loving. For someone I promised to keep safe. For someone I’m not willing to let go of yet.”

  “That’s what this is about isn’t it? You never got over losing Clarissa so now you’re going to put everyone at risk to prove you can hold on to a worthless mermaid?”

  “That’s enough. I’m done defending this to you. I’m not giving anything to Salazar and you can deal with it.”

  James was silent after that. Gavin heard him shuffle around on the other side of the wall. Gavin retreated within his own cell to sit on the blanket that provided little comfort on the stone floor.

  She’s safe. She has to be safe.

  …

  Arista sat at the kitchen table, idly gazing out the window. Her thoughts kept drifting to Gavin. She hoped he was out of harm’s way, wherever he was.

  They had been debating how to rescue Gavin. After settling on using Arista as bait to lure Salazar, they disagreed on what to do next. The rest of them needed a way to follow Arista without Salazar noticing. Once they found where he was holding Arista and Gavin, they also needed to break them out.

  Arista was getting increasingly tired of sitting around. Every minute wasted was another minute Gavin was on his own. She stood from the table and walked to the window, leaning against the counter as she watched the tree branches sway in the wind. Clarissa joined her a minute later.

  “We’re all worried about him. I’m sure he’s fine though, he knows how to take care of himself.”

  Arista nodded. “I hope so. I hate not knowing what he’s going through.”

  “We’ll find him,” Clarissa reassured her, resting her hand on Arista’s back. “Come on, I think we’re close to figuring this out.”

  They walked back to the table, where Valerie had taken out a book of magic to flip through for inspiration. Kellen leaned his chair against the wall and absently spun his bracelet around his wrist. He looked down thoughtfully at his bracelet, with its soft glow emanating from its center. He thrust his wrist down in the center of the table.

  “We have the key to finding Arista right here. I can track her anywhere. We only need to keep Salazar from knowing we’re there.”

  “Are you sure it’s reliable?” Valerie asked, looking skeptically at the bracelet.

&n
bsp; “I found Arista the first time without even the vaguest notion of where she was.”

  Clarissa nodded in agreement. “That could work. But we don’t know the full extent of Salazar’s power. The nexus is severed and he uses the birds for tracking, but that’s all we know. Is it possible to learn what his full abilities are?”

  “Well, we don’t know about Salazar specifically, but I have found more on the Blood Hunters,” Valerie said. “Assuming his powers aren’t too different, this should help.”

  She took a slow sip of water before continuing. “Vampires hunt through scent — they smell their prey. The blutjagers maintain that ability since they still rely on humans for sustenance. Here’s where it gets tricky. As part of the Ahnenerbe experiments, the Nazis combined vampire DNA with other creatures in an attempt to increase their ability to hunt. From what I’ve learned, they used many magical creatures to varying degrees of success.

  “Hunters created from vampires and werewolves had increased strength and speed, and relied on scent and hearing to hunt. They were the most dangerous and physically destructive, but didn’t achieve the Ahnenerbe’s desire to hunt magic.

  “Another species blended vampires with dark elves. Since dark elves live underground, their sight has unusual abilities. These Blood Hunters could physically see magic emanating from a supernatural creature. They had many physical limitations, however. Although they could easily find magic over a short range, it was useless for long distances.”

  From the corner of her eye, Valerie glanced at Arista before she continued. “They also used mermaids.”

  Arista and Kellen were both shocked at the revelation.

  “Why would they use mermaids? Any they caught wouldn’t have known how to use their magic,” Arista said.

  “But mermaids didn’t lose their innate magical powers, only their ability to control it. How do mermaids find each other despite the vastness of the ocean?”

  “We just do,” Kellen answered impatiently. “It’s like there’s a map in our minds. We all see it.”

  “We call what you do echolocation,” Valerie explained. “Even without being aware of it, you send magical impulses through the water and when they reach another mermaid they bounce back. From that, you instinctively know the direction and distance of other mermaids. You’re using magic, even if you don’t recognize it as such. Magic that finds other magic.

  “These Blood Hunters can find magic over great distances by using the echolocation to track the impulses that bounce back. These Hunters were the most devastating to the supernatural world.

  “It’s believed all wolf blutjagers were killed at the end of the war. They were the easiest to find since they went after humans with as much ferocity as they did magical creatures. The ones mixed with elves were harder to locate. Many retreated underground and some may still exist today. The ones combined with mermaids were tracked down and killed, due to the extreme danger they posed to the supernatural. But they were difficult to locate and although everyone wanted to believe they were all killed, it’s very unlikely.

  “I think Salazar is one of the mermaid blutjagers that escaped.”

  Everyone was silent for a minute, absorbing everything Valerie had explained.

  Clarissa spoke up first. “That makes sense with what we know of him. But if he can use echolocation to find magic, why does he need the birds?”

  “Even though his abilities can cross a long distance, it still has limits. It was probably enough early on when there were more magical creatures around. I still haven’t quite worked out how, but I believe he uses the birds to echolocate for him and amplify his powers. In theory, they fly out farther than his powers allow and when they find magic can bounce it back to him.”

  Arista leaned forward against the table as she worked through her thoughts. “Would it be possible to keep using the barrier then, like we have outside the house? It keeps the birds at bay… I mean, I don’t know how it works, but could something like that hide our magic so nothing bounces off of it?”

  Valerie crossed her arms and frowned, considering the proposition. “That could work. It’s not exactly how we have the barrier set up, but I believe we could pull that off. In fact, it might be easier. Instead of actively blocking his specific power, we just need to hide ours. In fact, something like that should also work to hide Clarissa and I and our…, er, human scent.”

  Clarissa nodded. “That makes sense. We currently have the barrier anchored around the house. It will be harder to control on a group of people, and if it’s only tied to one of us it won’t hide everyone’s various magic… or smells.”

  “No, you’re right,” Valerie said, staring deep in thought at the table. The light on Kellen’s bracelet caught her eye. She snatched up his wrist, thrusting it into the air.

  “Hey,” he yelled.

  “The bracelet,” Valerie announced, ignoring Kellen’s protests. “We can connect the barrier to it, set up a radius around it. As long we remain close to Kellen, it will keep us hidden.”

  Arista solemnly looked around the table. “It sounds like we have a plan.”

  “Well, wait,” Clarissa jumped in. “We don’t know yet how we’ll get you out of Salazar’s grasp. This only gets us to wherever he takes you.”

  “You’ll have to come up with something. Without knowing where he is and how he’s holding Gavin, how can we possibly come up with a plan? We need to go now to help him,” Arista said.

  “We’ll figure something out,” Valerie said, in urgent agreement. “Let’s get my brother back.”

  ˜

  { Chapter 32 }

  Gavin slouched against the wall of his cell. He listened carefully, but couldn’t hear anything from James on the other side. They hadn’t spoken since their earlier disagreement. Not that he minded. His fingers prodded the wound on his stomach. It had finally stopped bleeding, although it threatened to reopen every time he stretched his torso too far.

  As he closed his eyes to doze for a few more minutes, a key turned in the lock of his door. He shifted to face the entrance, but remained leaning against the wall. Salazar walked in, markedly more irritated than he had been earlier.

  “Tell me more about your sister’s powers,” he demanded.

  Gavin raised his eyebrows, still unwilling to budge from the ground. “If I won’t tell you anything about Arista, what makes you think I’ll give up my own sister?”

  Salazar responded with a yell and a swift kick to Gavin’s side, catching the edge of his earlier injury. “I’m growing tired of your insolence.”

  Gavin only grunted in return. Salazar leaned over and forcibly pulled him until he was sitting upright. “Let’s try this again, shall we? Where does your sister’s power come from? It’s not all her own. She’s far more powerful than your mother ever was.”

  Gavin stared at Salazar in disbelief. “You’re just trying to provoke me,” he said. “My mother didn’t have any powers.”

  Salazar smirked at his captive. “Seems you’re not quite as smart as you think. Your mother was most certainly a witch, and your sister inherited the family tradition of sticking her head where it doesn’t belong.”

  Gavin looked away, unable to meet Salazar’s gaze. Part of him refused to believe it, but the rest raced through memories of his mother to see if it could be true. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t think of any time where he thought she may have used magic.

  “It seems you and Arista have much in common with your secret-keeping mothers.”

  Gavin glared at Salazar, still unwilling to take the bait. It could be all lies. “Or you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Salazar raised an eyebrow and lifted a finger to his lips, scratching at a tooth with the ragged edge of a nail. “It’s amazing how you humans can stare at something with your own eyes and still refuse to see the truth. You, with your limited experience, sit there and claim to know what’s real and what’s not and remain unyielding despite what's in front of you. The unwillingness of your
kind to seek genuine enlightenment is what will lead to your demise.” He crouched down until his black eyes were level with Gavin’s.

  “Your mother fought her killer, but she was overpowered in the end. She wasn’t strong enough. Your sister knows this and found a way to increase her power. I need to know what she did.”

  Gavin flinched. He knew Valerie hated to talk about their parents’ death, but could it be possible for her to know more than she had let on? He didn’t think she could keep a secret like that to herself, but a series of doubts nagged at the back of his mind. A vicious punch to the side of his head shook Gavin away from his thoughts.

  “Start giving me answers,” Salazar growled while flexing his fingers to hit Gavin again.

  “I don’t know anything about her powers,” Gavin answered, shifting his head to the side to avoid another hit to his face. “I didn’t even believe she had any until recently.”

  “Arista, what has she told you about coming to the surface?” Salazar asked while baring his teeth. Gavin leveled his eyes at Salazar and this time he remained steady as the vampire delivered another blow to his head. His vision lit up with bursts of light as the hit reverberated through his skull.

  “What has she told you about her mother?” he screamed, fiercely dragging his jagged nails across the top of Gavin’s chest. Thin rivulets of blood bubbled up from the fresh wounds and Gavin felt a hot spark explode inside of him, as though a flame had ignited.

  “Only that she is here,” Gavin answered weakly. His vision continued to waver as more blood pooled on his chest.

  “You have to know more,” Salazar insisted, taking a slash at Gavin’s cheek. Another hot spark exploded inside his head. He struggled to remain upright as a wave of dizziness and flaring pain coursed through him. Salazar pressed his hand against Gavin’s chest, forcing more blood to gurgle to the surface. He covered his fingers in the hot liquid, and then pulled them away to suck on them as he leaned in to whisper into Gavin’s ear.