Beneath the Courage

Humor

Mellac just shrugged and yawned. "I figured I'd let you have your fun. If you died, then I would have gotten out of bed." 

Wait.

"So you only came out here because you were hoping I was dead so that you could have a turn to play?" I growled. 

When he just grinned, I thought about adding his body to the corpse at the bottom of the pool, but Fri wrapped his arms around my chest, keeping me still. Rolling my eyes, I put one of my hands on top of Fri's head, then blew out a breath to keep calm. 

"I don't think we're going to be safe here anymore." Ocar said, taking the words right out of my mouth. Yes, the two humans sent after us had been idiots, but it only takes one lucky idiot with a gun to get the job done. 

"We need to go to the Cal-Waves facility and end this." I said as I walked out of Fri's arms, taking his wrist before heading inside. "The director is there. I know for a fact that he returns each night after working at the hospital in town." 

"I'd rather not waste my time in that place again." Mellac mumbled on another yawn as he began heading toward his and Jay's shared room. 

"I guess you can just enjoy thinking about the look that will be on your human's face when you end up dead, then. Because the director won't stop until he has the bodies he wants for his experiments. With the females gone due to some weird tracking problem with their chips from what he's said, he's given up on breeding. He wants us now, dead or alive. But Preferably, dead." 

Mellac scowled at me, but I didn't care what he did. We were likely evenly matched, though I knew Ocar would probably help him over me in a fight. 

"Why would he want us dead? There is more to study with a live mer." He asked, not understanding. 

Biting my tongue on a curse, I tugged Fri back into my arms out of habit and growled. "Because, human rules are much simpler with a dead thing. There is no upkeep such as health or wellness, for a corpse. The only thing he'd likely have to prove is that he didn't cause our death... which wouldn't be hard for him."

"Come to think of it." I added, looking at Ocar. "That's probably why he let you out. I wouldn't be surprised if he had sent someone there to try and kill you, or at least make you sick. He must have gotten tired of trying to kill you and just decided to get us all together for something big." 

Ocar crossed his arms over his bare chest and glanced out to the pool area before returning his attention to me. "So those two men?" 

I scoffed. "Idiots. They might be useful against humans, but considering how they came at us, he didn't intend for them to be of any use. I bet we just killed them for him so that he didn't get his hands dirty." 

"So, does that mean he's going to try and lock us up again for what you just did?" Ocar asked, a hint of worry sneaking into his voice.

I laughed outright at him. "No. That was a waste of his time from the beginning. He's going to come get us if we don't go after him." I said. 

"Then we need to go find him." Ocar said with a tired sigh as he ran a hand through his messy hair. 

When I nodded, Mellac growled and turned toward the hallway. "I'm not dealing with this right now. Talk to the humans. I will do what mine wants and help my brother, and that is it." 

Before we could reply, he was gone. 

"I suppose it would be best to wait. Even if we leave, the humans will probably send someone after us or try to get us themselves. Or, at least, you." I said, feeling a slight hint of frustration from that statement for some unknown reason. 

Nodding, Ocar turned toward the patio. "Alright. As soon as everyone is home we'll decide what we're going to do and probably get right to it if they aren't tired, since waiting too long is clearly going to be dangerous. Can you keep an eye on outside? With the back door broken and a hole in the screen, we need to be more careful until we're out of here." 

Was already going to keep watch, like I have been. 

"Yeah." I mumbled as I headed for the kitchen and he headed outside, likely to at least clean up the blood. Grabbing mine and Fri's fish, I passed him the plate before tugging him into my lap on couch. He curled into me immediately and nibbled at the pieces of fish I tore off for him, but I knew that he was likely not going to eat much tonight after what had happened. 

Don't blame you. 

"Get some rest." I whispered when he had finished only one piece of fish and refused to pay any attention to the others. 

"Not until you eat." He said while yawning. I could easily outlast him until he fell asleep, but... Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the piece I'd gotten for myself and ate it in a few bites. When his lips turned up into a smile at that, I reluctantly grabbed the other two and downed them, too. 

They sat like rocks in my empty stomach, but when he snuggled in against me with a soft "Thank you," I realized that I was fucking whipped, and couldn't do a damn thing about it.