by Starla Night
Her heart crumpled into a ball of hollow tinfoil. “I’m sorry. I have to try.”
“There are many gaps. Many types of illnesses humans suffer that mer do not. You received the elixir from Mitch and Faier?”
“Before you surfaced, yes.”
“How much?”
“Ten gallons.” Doctors had tested it for sterility and inserted it via his IV. Because there were no side-effects found with Sea Opal elixir, her doctors were fine with trying it. Her son had even drunk it. The therapy had taken weeks.
“And your son did not improve?”
She shook her head. “The myeloblast count didn’t change.”
“And that is bad?”
“Are you familiar with AML?”
“No.”
“Leukemia?”
“Not at all.”
“Your bone marrow produces three types of blood: red cells, which carry oxygen, platelets, which clot and prevent bleeding, and white cells, which fight disease. Right?”
He studied her as though he was learning this information for the first time.
“Right,” she affirmed, for herself. “Well, a mutation can cause white cells to stop maturing. Stunted cells crowd the bone marrow. Healthy blood cells can’t get made, which leads to problems.”
“Such as?”
“Your kid gets anemia from low red cells and strange bruising from low platelets. Stomach aches from the buildup of immature myeloblasts in the liver and kidneys. Every single cold and flu overwhelms the few mature white cells. And just when you’re on a deadline and out of sick leave, the doctors call you in for the…bad news.”
She couldn’t say death sentence.
Jonah had already fought the blood cancer into remission twice. Less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with AML survived five years. He’d been through chemo. He’d been through transfusions.
“I used to blame Chaz. No one in my family ever had leukemia. But all those stunted cells, like toxic hoarders, have a lot more in common with my upbringing.”
He remained silent.
The long fuzzy silence of the intermittent radio got to her. She flipped channels seeking something good. “Well, there’s personal history you don’t want to know.”
“I do want to know you, Bella.”
“You’ll regret it.” She sighed and rubbed her mouth. “When I grew up, I was going to take care of myself. I was going to have an amazing job and tons of money. I’d never have to use underhanded means to get away with breaking rules or taking advantage of trustworthy people. And instead, I’ve turned into the very person I hate most. Manipulative, money-hungry, poor, helpless. Lying. I hate it. I hate…leukemia.”
Another long silence filled the car.
He broke it. “I do not know leukemia. Mer do not have this illness.”
“You’re half human.”
“It is not one of the one hundred seven illnesses. You called it a blood cancer? We have no cancers.”
“Must be nice to be immortal.”
“We are not. We have no machines to see inside a warrior or to perceive creatures smaller than the eye. Perhaps the technology of humans could ease the suffering of warriors afflicted with invisible illnesses.”
“Our technology hasn’t done Jonah much good.” She tasted the bitterness on her tongue. “If I’m a bride, why doesn’t he respond to Sea Opals? He carries half my genes. Why isn’t that good enough?”
“Many brides have cried over the accidental drowning of their human children.”
Her heart felt heavy.
“I understand that many humans have been resuscitated after drowning,” Balim said. “So you must rely on human medicine now.”
And she was.
To take her mind off their destination, she turned the radio to background level. “What’s it like where you’re from?”
“Wet.”
She laughed, surprising herself. “Tell me something that isn’t obvious.”
“Beneath the ocean, the water is air. Floating is hovering. Swimming is flying. And coming onto land again is unsettling because the ground flies at you, always, with no safe cushion.”
“The ground flies at you?”
“That is the feeling of losing your balance.” He gestured with his hands flat. “The horizon does not remain fixed. You are caught by surprise. Experience betrays you.”
“So the same way sailors have sea legs, mer have ground legs? Cool.”
“It is a normal temperature, I think.”
She snorted again, and they passed several pleasant hours snacking on old packages of goldfish crackers and gummy bunnies and diet cola. They reached the final turnoff into the suburb as the sun descended. Dying leaves clustered beneath large oaks and crunched beneath her tires. She parked and shut off the engine.
Chaz lived on a nice, sidewalk-lined street filled with picket fences, raked-over garden beds, and kids’ trikes. Lights inside his house reflected the cold.
“Okay.” She got out of the car and tightened her warm sweater around her. “Go along with me.”
Balim also exited the car. “Go along?”
“This is my last hope to get a human cure. I’ll play a desperate, grieving mother. You play a rich merman with buckets of Sea Opals.”
He opened his empty hands. “I could have brought these if you had asked me.”
It hadn’t occurred to her. And she’d put hers in Jonah’s bear. “It’s fine. Just follow along.”
“I will not lie.”
“You won’t have to.” She climbed the steps and clanked the big knocker. “I’ll do all the talking.”
Chapter Twelve
Balim had no idea what to expect.
Only the dread filling Bella’s heart, which looked like darkness on her chest, punctuated by bright spots of anger. He tensed for an emotionally devastating fight.
She clacked the metal clapper.
Someone thudded inside the house, and light glowed out the window.
Bella straightened, smoothed her purple sweater, and fixed on her widest fake smile.
Balim braced for combat.
The door opened on a slim, short female with disheveled blonde hair scooped into a messy heap on the top of her head. She wore thick glasses. She squinted through them. “Yes?”
“Caro.” Bella smiled broadly, her lips closed over the tooth gap. “Good evening. Is Chaz in?”
“It’s dinnertime.”
“I’m so sorry. This will only take a few minutes. I’ll be gone before you know it.”
She peered at Balim, but her gaze veered away. “You should really call.”
“I did call. You know how he is about calls. And voice messages. And email.” She maintained her false smile the entire time. “Please. I’ve driven this entire way. It will only take a few moments. It’s about Jonah.”
Caro reluctantly let them in. She walked in socks down the hardwood floor and left them in the subdued living room. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Of course not.” Bella linked her fingers.
Caro eyed her suspiciously and padded deeper into the house.
Small plastic cars and miniature human clothing spread over the room furnishings. On the wall hung photos of two boys posed on human bicycles.
Balim set his feet. “Are the items fragile or booby-trapped?”
“No, she was warning me not to steal.” The false smile tightened Bella’s face as she tried to find amusement in the warning.
“Do you intend to steal?”
“If I could steal what I want, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“Bella.” A man’s voice accompanied his shadow. “Caro says you brought a lawyer?”
Bella glanced back at Balim, her gaze lingering on his dry button-up shirt and jacket Hazel had told him was proper for most situations. “He’s a doctor.”
“A doctor?” Chaz flipped on the lights as he entered the living area. He stared at Balim in confusion. “What’s the meaning of this?”
Caro ling
ered at the end of the hall, close enough to overhear. She crossed her arms over her chest. Her light faded. This man was bright with defensive anger.
Bella put her hand on Balim’s shoulder. “Balim is a merman. He’s chosen me for his bride, and he’s gifted me a Sea Opal worth well over a million dollars.”
Chaz lifted his chin, his arrogance and anger focused on Bella. “Did you come here to brag?”
She was instantly infuriated. Her tone sharpened and her words shortened. “No, Chaz, I came here to ask you again to—”
Two boys barreled around the corner and flew past Caro. They landed in front of Balim and stared up at him in shock.
“Wow,” the older one said while the younger stared in awe. “What are you?”
He squatted to their height. “I am a merman.”
“A what? No way.”
He held up his hand and shifted. The thin skin between his fingers tightened and stretched to make a mitt that would scoop the water. It was the easiest way to show his powers.
“No way! No way, no way! Are you really?”
“Yes. Ask me anything.”
While Balim distracted the boys, Bella spoke to Chaz. “It’s not a brag, it’s a bribe. He has money, Chaz. Money that could be yours. A million dollars. Help me, and I’ll help you.”
Good. He could help her accomplish this and spend time with human children. He had seen more in the past months above the surface than in his entire life beneath the sea. Young fry were innocent and bright no matter whether they were humans or mer.
Balim brushed the hair off the older one’s eyebrow. A scab had formed. “Hmm. You have an injury.”
“He fell off his tricycle,” Caro said defensively. “He rips off Band-Aids.”
Balim patted his suit pocket and pulled out his smallest kit. Removing gel, he smoothed it on the boy’s cut. “Now you will have no scar.”
The child wrinkled his brow, trying to stare up at the gel quickly drying into a bandage. “Wow.”
The younger boy bounced. “I want one too.”
Balim checked his hands. This boy was afflicted with one of the 107 illnesses: small, round growths on his index and middle finger knuckles the mer called Minnow Bites. He’d scratched several, because they jutted up from the skin. “Can you keep on bandages?”
He nodded.
“Yes,” Caro said.
He sprinkled salt into his paste and wrapped a seaweed bandage around each knuckle. “Leave this on for two human days. The growths will shrink into your skin until they disappear.”
The boy rubbed the slick green seaweed with awe.
“Those’ll never last for two days,” his mother said, pulling both her children back and away, and trying her hardest not to look at Bella and Chaz. “He takes a bath, and he just loves running his fingers in the sink.”
“It is better if the bandages remain wet.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.” Balim stood and returned his small kit to his jacket pocket. “I am a mer.”
She blinked, frowned, and ushered her children back to their food. The boys raced around the corner and disappeared into the brighter section of the house. Caro remained near Balim in the doorway to the living room, while Bella and Chaz’s argument grew loud.
“I’m not taking your test.” Chaz cut the air with his hand. “You know how they harvest the marrow? They stick a needle in your bone.”
“Only if you match.”
“No, Bella. I won’t put myself through that.”
“So take the test.” She whipped a paper envelope out of her purse and lofted a small plastic tube. “One cheek swab. If you’re not Jonah’s match, I go away forever.”
He held up both hands. “Get that thing away from me.”
“It’s a Q-tip, Chaz.”
“I already told you no! There’s nothing you can say to change my mind.”
Her chest flared to match Chaz, anger to anger, while her smile only broadened. “Not even for a million dollars?”
The man glanced at Balim and then back to Bella. His greed was piqued. “What are you talking about?”
“If you match Jonah and donate bone marrow, I’ll give it to you. A million dollars. For you or anyone in your family. Or anyone.”
Caro stepped forward. “Chaz already told you no.”
Chaz tapped his lip with his index finger, then jerked his head at Caro without looking at her. “Go back to dinner, Caro.”
Her light dimmed, but she held her ground. “You always get dragged around by her.”
“Caro.”
She sputtered at Bella. “I won’t let you touch my boys.”
“That’s your choice.” Bella focused on Chaz. “They’re only a one-in-a-million chance of matching Jonah like you or any other stranger. Chaz has a one-in-two-hundred chance.”
She got more upset. “And you want him to sell off his body parts for money!”
“For his son. And bone marrow grows back.”
“Quit asking for pieces of my husband.”
Bella’s smile flattened. Her true feelings flared out. She ticked off a list on her fingers. “I have never asked for alimony. Never come after him for child support. I don’t even send you guys a Christmas card.”
“We don’t want one!”
“Jonah is dying. He needs a bone marrow transplant. I have no choice.”
Chaz came to a decision. He motioned Caro the rest of the way into the room and put his arm around her, while she continued to cross her arms and glare. “Bella. I cut you out of my life a long time ago. This is my family now. No more sneaking in a surprise bone marrow registration drive at my church or my workplace. We’re through.”
She tapped the tube against her wrist. “Not even for a million dollars?”
He hadn’t heard her. “Huh?”
“You won’t swab your cheek for your firstborn son for a million dollars.”
He jerked his head back and pressed a hand to his chest. “Hey, I’m not the bad guy here. Your kid has bad luck. I made youthful mistakes, but now I’m the head of a good Christian family.”
“The other members of your congregation tested. You walked right past.”
“Because you won’t manipulate me.” He gestured for her to leave. “Take your blackmail and your guilt trips and get out of here. You’re giving me more indigestion than Caro’s idea of pot roast.”
His wife’s soul light grew weaker with his insult. She squared her shoulders to make herself more in sync with her husband.
Bella stuffed the envelope into her purse. “How insensitive of me for inconveniencing you during dinner. You probably weren’t a match, anyway.”
“Quit your harassment.” He hugged his wife. “Leave me and my boys in peace.”
Bella’s chest light extinguished. She turned and ran into Balim.
He held her shoulders, supporting her. Bella swallowed convulsively, regaining control. She did not show weakness, and the other couple would only see her back straight with pride.
He studied Chaz, irritated and righteous, beside Caro, threatened and scared.
“What are you looking at?” Chaz demanded.
“I do not know,” Balim responded.
“Huh?”
“It is strange.”
“You think I’m strange? You’re the one with scary red tattoos on your face.”
“Humans have so many children, yet such bounty does not increase your joy.”
“Of course not.” He snorted. “We’ve got more mouths to feed. If it’s a choice between my kid and somebody else’s, I’m saving my kid. You’re lying if you don’t treat your ‘treasure’ the same.”
“Young fry are not one male’s or one city’s treasure. They are the future, and therefore the treasure of the mer.”
“Her kid’s not my future. I wasn’t there when he was born. She’s the one who screwed up.”
“That is what I cannot understand. You carry such coldness in your soul.”
Chaz raised a bro
w. “If the only way to save her kid was to hurt yours, you’d hurt your own kid? That’s not love. That’s sick.”
His question struck too close to Balim’s bone. Long-suppressed anger, which had been leaking out along with the other emotions since Bella had first crossed his path, hissed like acid as it ate into his heart.
“You let my son die! How dare you heal your son first? He is useless! Not even a warrior! Now you will die, false healer.”
Balim would never forget that shout. The grief. The screams.
Hard anger made his empty hand clench for his trident.
Bella sucked in a long, deep, calming breath and let it out. Fierce. Strong. She straightened and murmured to Balim, “Thank you,” before once more facing Chaz. Her chin trembled, but her voice remained steady. “That is the difference between you and him. He heals everyone who crosses his path, even a little scrape or hangnail. You won’t lift a finger to save your boy’s life.”
Chaz darkened.
Caro trembled, held on to Chaz’s elbow, and spat at Bella, “Get out.”
Bella’s chest flared. “I hope your sons don’t get sick. Because it’s a long road to travel alone, and as you can see, he won’t even swab his cheek with a Q-tip.”
Caro’s soul light fluctuated. She knew the truth of Bella’s accusation. For the first time, she looked at her husband with a question.
Chaz didn’t notice. “Go, before I throw you out.”
Bella linked hands with Balim and tugged him through the front door.
They had failed to acquire human medicine from this selfish Chaz. Now what would happen to Jonah?
Once more, Balim had gone to war with Bella and failed her. Healing was all Balim had ever been able to do, and now even that was called into question.
Chapter Thirteen
Outside the house, Balim breathed in the crisp air and tried to focus on calming himself. The acid of his memories damaged him, dissolving his usual limits. The night felt strange. Dangerous.
He focused on Bella. “That male must have changed since you chose him to father your child.”
“Chaz was always selfish.”
She brushed empty food packets out of her way and settled into the car again. While he buckled in, she checked messages on her phone, made sure they were both ready, and drove down the road into the city of Buffalo.
