Scarlet Song

Chapter 6

I woke several hours later to Voltair very tenderly dabbing at my forehead with a lightly wet rag, us both in my bed.My eyes weakly flutter open and take a deep breath as emotionally painful as it was. When I locked eyes with Voltair, I knew it really did happen and fell into sobs, practically screaming into his shoulder as he held me against him. Hours went by like that until Voltair leaned back to look at me and brush the tears off my cheeks. "LaRue, you need to feed. I can see it in your eyes and I know how much that took out of you. I know it hurts but, she wouldn't want you to starve yourself and make it easy for Vera." I lock eyes with him and sniffle, nodding. "You're right. I'm going to get dressed and we can go together. Maybe I can tell you more about her. When we return, I should be more helpful in helping you to your crew." He nods and lets me up from the bed as he sitsup himself. "I wanted to wait until you were conscious for us to both deal with that so, that plan works out just fine." I slip into a loosefitting dress and put on one of my black leather corsets over it and sit on my bed to lace up my boots and grab my parasol from next to my vanity. The parasol had a simple. small blade fashioned into the end of it to give it a bit more purpose. He stands and takes my hand, leading out onto the main deck of the ship and he speaks with Arlemis. Arlemis  strolls over to me and my heart sinks as we lock eyes. "M'lady. I heard the news of what happened. You have my deepest apologies and hope for a safe hunting trip for you and Captain LaCrue." While I'm taken aback by his sincerity and kindness, I'm left speechless momentarily before I stop him and stutter. "T-thank you, Arlemis. I must know, are we ok from the events of last night? I wouldn't blame you if you chose to leave after that. That stands for all of you. There's so much more going on behind closed doors now and I don't hold any of you to any debt when it comes to my wars I have to fight." He smiles warmlyy as he takes my hand and shakes it before hugging me. I freeze in surprise and look at him as he lets me go. "Don't ever be so outrageous, Captain. We all owe you our lives for what you took us all away from. So what? I'm left with a battle scar to brag about to the ladies in the taverns. You could've done so much worse but, you kept the worst away from me. I know I've been brash up until this point about inhumans and I may still not like Captain LaCrue but, you two are good people." All I can do is look from Voltair and back to Arlemis and bow slightly in silent thanks. If I spoke, I was gonna sob and if I sobbed I wasn't going to stop. Voltair wanders back over to me and prepares for us to embark on one of the smaller boats. When we load up and make it to the waters surface in the boat, I scoot closer to Voltair as he guides us a ways away so that he was under the parasol with me. I knew it wasn't hurting him bad but, I wanted to protect him in some little way becasue of all of this. After a little bit, he lets the boat guide itself on the waves and wraps his arm around my waist. "So, about Lila?" I look off at the horizon and sigh. "She was one of my younger sisters. Anytime Vera and I fought and didn't get along, she was by my side and always had a way of sunshine and brightness to her. She was truly a mermaid trapped in a siren's body and she didn't deserve the life we were given. She wanted us to be better than killiing humans and slaying other races to mate with them. Even when we were little, she filled my head with ideas of true love and finding the right one and that we put so many limitations on ourselves. It killed me to see those values die off but, she had to hide them once the selection began. The first few years were an absolute slaughter and it killed me enough to take part in any of it, especially since I had to kill to protect myself. When it started to thin the herd, Lila still wanted to be by my side but, I sent her away and threatened to kill her if she didn't follow Vera. I was set on Vera getting Crone so I could go on with my life and I wanted Lila to have the best surviving chance. In the end, I still ended up being the one with her blood on my hands. But, you're right, she wouldn't want me to lose hope over this. I have new reasons that I have to do this and she's one of them. I may have never wanted Crone but I do want her death to not be in vain and I want you. It may not be very much that I know as of now but, that's enough for me." I go to stand up and he aids me as I put one foot on the side of boat and smile at him. "I won't be long." Without another word, I dive below the surface and feel the shiver crawl across my skin as it changes and I dive deep down for my food. Despite how worn down I was, wrestling with the different creatures still came fairly easy to me. After a while, I was left looking around my surroundings and a small smile crept along my face. I recognized this area from when Lila and I adventured. I looked up to the surface as I swam up next to Voltair. He was lounging in the boat with his fingers playing along the surface of the water when I reach up to brush his fingers and he sits up to see me and lean over the side of the boat. I break the surface and smile at him. "Do you trust me?" He nods and smirks, tilting his head. "Of course, why?" I whip my tail under the surface excitedly as I lift my wrist to my mouth. I could tell by the look in his eyes he was going to need more than this soon but, I wanted him to see this. He cautiously lifted my wrist to his mouth as he gently drank and licked the wound. Once he does that, I take his hand and pull him into the water with me and pull us below the surface and point down, shaking myself off to bring my gills out to speak. "I have something to show you. It's a long way down so, I have to take you. I promise you're safe." He smiles and nods as he swims closer and kisses me. I cirlce around him and lace my arms under his and swim downwards, humming a lullaby to myself before stopping short of the spot I was looking for. My tail and body start glow brightly from my bioluminescence and shift into my natural form with my horns and facial changes. "It's going to get very cold here soon. Our bodies can handle it but, you'll love this. Ready?" He nods and kisses my hand in acknowledgement as we dive deeper. Once we break the ice lining, I wrap my tail around him gently and come back around to the front of him and look at him as I glow. "Are you doing ok?" He nods and looks around us and places his arms around me and I put my hands over his ears. I knew it was fine for me to sing around him but, I wanted him to enjoy the full experience of it without my hypnosis. I softly sang and soon, other creatures started to swim around us curiously  in a school, many of them bioluminescent too and I remove my hands from his ears. He watches all of them and I giggle as he smiles huge and holds me close. I let out a surprised shriek when I look behind him and smirk, turning us slightly. What was approaching wasn't seen very often but, down here. It was bigger than most creatures above the ice barrier but, even this creature had a mutual respect for my kind as the other apex predator. "Reach your hand out, Voltair and trust me." He does so and soon, the megalodon swims just past our fingertips, dragging on for what felt like an eternity and I could feel Voltair perk up as he reaslized how big the creature was and his arm tensed around me as I giggled. After a little bit longer of watching the creatures around us, we wander back to the surface and crawls back into the boat, giggling as my tail hung over the side and shifted to my legs again as my clothes from before clung to my body, wet. Even in our laughter he leaned over to lean down and kiss me tenderly and run his hand along my cheek. "That was beautiful, LaRue and so are you. You are my entire world and I was shattered when I thought I lost having you in my life. I know you see a monster for everything that has happened but, I don't see that. I see this beautiful creature in front of me that makes me question every doubt in there being something divine that would bless me with something like this." My heart races as he talks and I can't help smiling as my heart hurts a little less. I pull him in close to me and our bodies tangle in that boat on the calm, night water as we make love and he feeds from me. Afterwards, he guides us back to the ship where he lifts me from the boat and carries me to my quarters and the boat repeats itself over but, more violently. There was moer biting and scratching and payback for the dagger catching him. By morning, I woke to see the bed tossed and the headboard broken from during the night and I could see my daggers on the table next to my bed and bite my lip as I brushe some hair from his face and he opens his eyes and looks at me, smiling warmly.