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Lila
I MUST HAVE FALLEN asleep on the beach blanket, because I was startled awake by the sound of waves breaking. When I opened my eyes, I saw the shiny blue fin before his longish blonde hair and sun-kissed skin came into view.
Ty.
As excited as I was to see someone—anyone—here, I couldn’t help but feel confused, too. For some reason, when Sebastian had said that I wouldn’t come across any vampires at the Shore of Tranquility, I had just assumed that also applied to mermaids.
“Hey, love!” Ty called out to me. Even from where I was sitting, I could see the huge grin that had crossed his face.
I frowned. I had a hard time trusting him, which sounded completely crazy. He had saved my life from Kara and Rosie when they’d planned to devour me. But there were so many things that didn’t add up, things that I couldn’t just ignore.
Ty was the one who had sent me, blindly, into the deadly, vampire-infested forest. He was the one who had told me to come to the Stark palace. He had to have known what was waiting for me here... didn’t he?
Rising to my feet, I crossed the stretch of sand that separated us. “How did you know to find me here?”
“I didn’t know you were here. I could smell a human on the beach from a mile away, but I had to no idea it would be you until I got here,” he explained. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m hiding from the vampire princess who wants to kill me,” I replied, not even trying to hide the bitterness from my voice.
“Let me guess. Princess Alessandra?” Ty asked with an eye roll.
“So, you do know about the vampires, then,” I realized out loud.
“Of course. Everyone in Deadwood knows about the vampires.”
“If you knew about them, then why did you send me straight for them?” I shot an accusing glance in his direction.
He sighed. “It’s a really long story.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’ve got all day.”
“Okay. So, I knew from the first moment I met you who you were,” Ty began.
“How?” I questioned.
“I’ve never met someone named Lila before. The fact that you were just lying there in the middle of the ocean, and a Seeker didn’t bring you here... Well, I just knew.” He shrugged. “I know how important you are to this world. I had to keep you protected, but I didn’t have the means to protect you myself. See, I knew that if Rosie and Kara put two and two together about who you were, they wouldn’t have been so easy for me to fight off. I know it may sound completely crazy, but I thought the safest place for you would be with the Stark Coven.”
“So you sent me through the woods where you had to have known I had a good chance of getting killed,” I said. “That makes perfect sense to me.”
“Actually, I made sure that you would be okay in the woods. Mermaids are like witches, in some ways. We, too, have magic,” Ty explained. “As I was helping you get to shore, I did a spell that would hide your scent to keep you protected just long enough for you to get through those woods.”
So, that was why I had actually made it through the woods without any vampires trying to attack me the first time around. It was all beginning to make sense now.
“Why did you think the Stark Coven would be the safest place for me?” I questioned. “Didn’t you think I would end up getting killed, considering my blood can help someone become the world’s most powerful vampire?”
“No. I didn’t think that for even a second,” Ty replied, shaking his head. “I do believe that’s what would have happened if you had gone to any other vampire coven, but I knew you would be safe with Sebastian Stark. I know he comes off as a jerk sometimes, but he’s really a softie... especially when it comes to pretty girls, like you.” He smiled up at me, his light eyes sparkling in the sunlight.
I blushed. I seemed to do a lot of that around Ty.
“Why did you care to keep me safe?” I asked. “I mean, I understand everything about the prophecy, but... what does any of that have to do with you?”
Ty stared up at me from his place in the water. “You might want to pull up your blanket, love. This is going to be a longer story than I originally planned for it to be.”