“Jason was right, we should head to our next class. Besides,” I tilted my head towards the door. “Students will be coming in for your next lesson.”
Calder’s smile fell and his jaw clenched. “Of course. I shouldn’t keep you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I’ll see you soon, Uncle.”
Together, Jason and I hurried out of the room.
“Do you know why he’s here, Jason?”
“No idea.” He turned to me and clasped my shoulders. “Are you okay? You seemed pretty freaked out earlier.”
I bit my lip. “Your uncle showed up the other night when I went for my swim.”
His eyes went wide before he straightened, looked around and then dragged me off away from the students and into the men's restroom. There were several guys in there, but Jason gave them all a friendly smile.
“Finish up and get out.” He said simply.
I felt the anger and power behind the words, compelling all the humans to leave. And they did, doing a little jump, zipping up, and walking out with blank looks on their faces, no questions asked.
One guy simply rolled his eyes and took his time finishing up before swaggering out. “You could have said please.”
Taken aback by that, I quickly studied the guy as he walked past, and noticed barely visible gils on the side of his neck. He was also a Mer. I was curious if there was another way I could tell if a person wasn’t human. Maybe like an internal antenna or something that pinged me when I was looking at one.
Jason pulled my attention from the guy when he quickly shut the door behind him and locked it.
"Why didn’t you tell me about this? What happen?” He hissed.
I hugged myself. “I…I don’t remember. Percy only told me when I woke up the next morning. I thought he would have told you. He didn’t give me the all of the details, just that Calder showed up and they had some sort of altercation.”
Jason paced and ruffled his hair before slamming his fist into one of the stall doors, causing it to slam so hard that the hinges cracked.
I jumped, stepping back until my back was flush against the wall. “Jason!”
He froze and turned to me. His eyes had phased, the dark green spread. Scales rippled across his arms and hands which were tipped with claws. I knew if I wasn’t wearing bandages, my own scales would probably be doing the same, my panic responding to his anger.
Jason’s body tensed up before he took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. His features partly shifting back to human, his eyes still alien looking.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, stepping closer and brushing his thumb over my cheek. “I’ll text Percy and find out what he knows. For now, try to stay away from my uncle. If he shows up and one of us aren’t around, then leave. Call me, or Percy, or one of the others.” He ran his hands up and down my arms, as if he were trying to chase away some cold.
I wasn’t shaking, was I?
“I get that your uncle’s a little…creepy…with issues on personal space, but you make it sound like he’s some sort of serial killer or something.”
He sighed. “My uncle’s complicated, but he can’t know that you’re a made Mer, and especially not that I was the one turned you.”
“Why? It’s not forbidden or anything, right? Ajax and your dad were once human.” I pointed out.
“Yes, but you’re different. You're female.” He inhaled and let out a huff. trying to clearly keep calm.
“And?” I pushed.
“And there are several reasons why they would not only want to take you, but also me.”
“They?” I frowned. “The pronoun game, Jason. It helps no one.”
“The council. Not like the elders of the council here in town, but the council that resides in the nearest Mer city and capital of the northern pacific kingdom of Attica.”
I gulped, trying to process the information. “Okay, and the reasons why they would want us?”
“You are not good at just accepting the simple answer, are you?” He chuckled. His smile pulled away some of the apprehension I felt.
I crossed my arms. “I’m a determined woman who likes answers.”
His grin grew wider before falling quickly. “When you turn someone, there’s a pretty low percentage of successful transition. Most of the time, it just kills the human. That percentage is even lower for females, and considering your circumstances, the fact that you're standing in front of me right now is a miracle, which means you're strong.”
“Males of our kind outnumber the females about seven to one, so, women are coveted in our culture. Not only are you female, but a turned female. They will want to collect you, be sure that they can put you within a harem of high breed—of their choosing. Pop out the next great generation of Mer. Gods forbid they find out the whole story, they will probably want to lock you up for safe keeping.”
Holy fucking crap, really? That can not happen, there was no way I would let some weird medieval council drag me into some dungeon and make me fuck some strangers and pop out babies to grow their population.
“And why would they want you?” I asked, afraid to really know the answer.
He looked away from me and rubbed his shoulder. “For several more reasons. The biggest one being that not only has my mother successfully turned someone, but now that I have as well, they will want—“
“To use you for essentially the same thing. Make more Mer babies, or whatever.”
“Basically.” He nodded, looking dejected.
I scoffed. “That’s pretty sick.”
“In their defense, it’s a different culture.” He mumbled.
“That doesn’t excuse turning us into baby machines.” I put my hands on my hips and stood on my toes, getting in his face. “We aren’t cattle!”
He shook his head and held up is hands in placation. “I’m not trying to excuse it, but not only is their culture different, they are a different species all together.”
I leaned back, studying him. “You speak as if you aren’t a Mer.”
His eyes fell and he pulled away from me. “We should get to class.”
I crossed my arms and bit the inside of my cheek, holding back the urge to push him on that. It wasn’t really my business, was it? I mean, I guess it should be, since we were in some sort of relationship. But if I made him tell me about himself, I would need to return in kind, right? Everything inside of me rebelled against that idea. Fuck, this was complicated. Were relationships usually this complicated?
I watched Jason's back as he walked away from me towards his next class, his shoulders tense. I wish Cal had prepared me for this somehow. Despite our circumstances, she had never been afraid to date. She would have known what to do in this situation.
The rest of the day carried the feeling of a crackling storm that was just waiting on the edge of a mountain range. Even with the boys' constant presence between classes, the stares and whispered questions from the other students were extremely grating on my nerves. Small towns were always terrible when it came to rumors and muttering stares, but Argos had to be the worst. Or perhaps it was simply because I had been drawing so much more attention to myself.
Hip almost went ballistic when we told him about the incident with Calder after class and what I recalled Percy telling me about what happened the day before yesterday. Hip then told me the same thing Jason had. “Stay away from the creepy uncle”. Which didn't help my stress at the thought that Calder could be around any corner. By the end of the day, I understood why people took to alcohol.
The last bell had rung and Jason and I were waiting at his car for Hip. Originally, the plan was for Jason to take me straight to Clint after school, but that was before we realized that Hip’s last class of the day was English Lit. So there we were, on our toes, waiting for something.