CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

A figure appeared to him from the mysterious light that loomed above. Nyphenia, he recognized her as when she came closer. The mermaid goddess who had occasionally been appearing to him. Her beauty was as phenomenal as always: her hair swayed gracefully like clouds; emeralds gleamed from her irises; skin white as pearl and sooth as silk, it was impossible to look away. On top of that significant exterior, there seemed to be power oozing out of her - he could feel strong and unyielding invisible energy just by looking.

She showed a reassuring smile and held out her hand. Inviting.

"You wish for the power to protect?" Her voice. He heard it in his head.

She reached out a little further. The question repeated itself in Snow's head, but this time it was his own doing. You wish for the power to protect?

'Desperately' was the answer. He took the woman's hand the same time his body took merman form. Nyphenia's gaze remained serene and unmoving as she guided him across the water toward a circle of swirling white light. Light from the moon. Energy seemed to exert out of it into the swirling pool. He could actually feel it like a gust of warm wind coming his way. The weird thing was, his chest seemed to vibrate with it.

The goddess brought him into the center of the circle. She flashed a genuine smile. "Go. Embrace everything that you are. May the strength of the seas help you wash away the obstacles set in your path and bring you closer to what is sought... child of the ocean. Never lose sight of the world you can see." Those were her last words before she disappeared. He was slightly startled by the last part in her sentence. The moonlight started glowing brighter. Snow wasn't sure how it was possible, but every passing second the light grew stronger as it swirled with the waves like... magic. His chest fluttered, but that didn't draw his attention. It wasn't the bright waves that were cornering him where he stood either. It was something else. Something that he felt snaking across his abdomen and chest. He looked down...

Gasp.

Two swirls of red matter was moving in perfectly harmonic motions down both of his arms. The moving light made it a bit hard to see, but he recognized them as blood. Blood from Diego and Kylie. And his own blood as well. It snaked downward almost like they were strings of cloth. At the end of his hands, they swirled past his thumbs, swam toward each other and collided. He watched how the blood gathered, then spread out to form a circle. No, not a circle. There was a five-pointed star inside it. A pentacle. The light enveloped him and the waves picked up its pace as it surrounded him like a tidal pool, though the surface didn't open. Snow felt his heart pulse a few paces faster. Did it know what it wanted? But how could it when his mind had no idea what was happening?

The goddess' words repeated again. "Embrace everything that you are."

Embrace. The word branded into his mind. He closed his eyes and raised his arms. "Come."

Something soft - he realized was the blood pentacle, crashed into his bare chest with little to no physical impact and sunk in through his skin. The subtle impact, on the other hand, had a much more powerful effect; the blood seemed to mix with his tissues and then it traveled through his veins into a place he didn't know existed inside the heart. The way it traveled through his armor of flesh and bone sent a sudden jolt of shock to his system. He didn't have time to catch a breath, because something else happened right then. The blood formed a sort of energy around his heart and when it touched that vital organ, something leaked out.

What is it? He wanted to ask. He couldn't understand it. Even by a little amount, he felt the incredibility of it. He finally realized what it was when his palms started warming. It was the power that he begged for.

The blood now yanked at the heart, allowing the whole lot to escape. It traveled in all directions and spread throughout his body. The surrounding moonlight and water reacted; they somehow reached in to his tissues and pulled the power further out like men pulling ropes. Soon it covered him entirely - his torso, his arms, his tail, his face - and branded into his flesh. It wasn't painful though. In fact, it was exhilarating. It was like finding a long lost part of himself. A vital part that he never knew existed. And now that side had been unleashed; a body dug up from the grave. Every ounce of cell filled with the sensation.

Before Snow realized it, the spiraling water had twirled away from beneath. But gravity didn't claim him. He found himself above the surface, floating several inches over it and ascended slowly. From the docks six feet away, the gangster members all became frozen statues with eyes opened so wide they might fall out of their sockets. This was what they hadn't counted on. The element of surprise. Snow realized then that they were now at a disadvantage. If only he knew how to turn the tides correctly. The vamp leader, his grip still around Miranda's throat, pointed the pistol forward. Snow instinctively pointed his hand forward and willfully sent a strong gust of wind in their direction. The wind shrieked against trees in the nearby area like a tornado, sand blew up in circles, water splashed against wooden poles. It seemed different than the times he summoned the wind in some ways. Everyone shielded their eyes with their hands and backed away a few steps. The leader lost his grip on Miranda, but still had his gun. Snow instantly raised his left hand, sensed energy come from it before the sky exploded with a roaring sound that reminded you of a thunderstorm. Except there weren't many clouds around. The sky was as clear as before. That didn't stop him from thrusting his hand and witness a bolt of lightning strike down on the vampire leader. It missed by only a few inches and hit the ground instead, but the electrical impact had him staggering several feet back and his gun dropped to the ground in the process.

The shifter with the blue highlights recovered his composure before the others. His eyes glowed of ruby fury. Sparks started forming around him - Snow knew by now that he was shifting - and then an eagle the size of a mini-boat appeared in his place. It flung up in the air with wings flapping wind and dirt at his complaining comrades and charged at Snow. Claws stretched out, it prepared to incapacitate him. Snow instinctively redirected his hand and willed the eagle to stop its movement in midair. It flapped its huge wings violently and let out an angry shriek, looking like it was in struggle with something it couldn't see. Snow wasn't sure what he was doing with the shape-shifter when something else traversed to his palm and invaded the invisible cage. The bird only had time to flap its wings widely for half a second before that something else kicked in and attacked him in the form of golden sunlight. Snow only had a second to feel the befuddlement before he willed the light to vaporize. Then the shifter fell into the water like a rock.

The warlock held out his hand, brightened his surroundings with a ball made of fire and threw it at Snow. Snow counteracted with a hand gesture that sent a horizontal wave of water straight into the flaming orb. Water collided with fire and vaporized together. The warlock stared with a petrified expression and his body seemed to have gone stiff. In that moment, Snow realized just how much the tides had turned in his favor - how much advantage he had over the situation, and allowed himself to enjoy the idea of winning with a wide smug smile. The weres and vamps were either unwilling to admit defeat or too stupid to see their disadvantage, because they all screamed high-pitched snarls with eyes glowing dark orange and bloody ruby before they all leaped over the edge at once, with arms outstretched to push him down.

The same energy rushed back up Snow's palms like electricity, then the same light instantly exploded. Every vampire, every werewolf, they all writhed and spasmed upon exposure to it, then descended into the ocean. But Snow wasn't finished yet. He raised his arms, willing the water to run together in a spiral. Some of the vamps and weres resurfaced and struggled to swim away as the whirlpool drew them in as though it was alive. Snow allowed himself to enjoy the scene for a short second before he thrust his arms up in the air, effectively willing the whirlpool to turn into a geyser that shot fifteen feet high up in the air, water and screaming supernaturals combined. He then clenched his hands into fists and crossed his arms to form an X and then thrust them in two opposite directions. The motion controlled the geyser like remotes that effectively turned it into a round sphere about the size of a minivan. The vamps and weres tugged tightly inside struggled to reach open air as they gagged for oxygen. Their efforts were thwarted when the sphere suddenly blew apart at Snow's thrusting motion, sending them all flying in different directions. Water splashed all over his skin, temporarily obscured his vision to the last opponent - the warlock. Whose legs now were shaking like a toddler learning to walk, or a thief who had been cornered.

Snow found a small space in his mind that relished the idea of him possibly peeing his pants. The moment was cut short when his warlock opponent regained his steady composure and, with a simple hand gesture, blew out bolts of lightning from both his palms. Snow reacted instinctively, feeling the first touch of fear, and blasted back with light just in time to protect himself. Blue and yellow energies collided that resulted in small sparks of explosives that struggled to win destroy the other. The warlock scrunched his face while continuing to take the upper hand. Snow strained to keep it at bay. He could feel infinite power pour out from a long hidden abyss in his core, and it just kept letting out more. His insides breathed in the new sensation like the purest sense of air ever existed, like everything that was strained and dulled had suddenly become refreshed. More and more of it flooded up to his palms to fuel the blinding light. More sparks exploded. Snow flexed his fingers with some effort and poured out more power. Finally, the light ray extinguished the electricity and shot right through the warlock's body. He had his hands to the sides and writhed painfully loud.

"Just a little more and he's dead," Snow thought cheerfully. It was that cheerful tone that made him hesitate. What was he doing? He was many things, and right now, he felt like a god, but killing wasn't who he was. He invertedly battled the desire to kill, winning with a medium degree of effort and cancelled out the light from his palms.

The warlock fell. Snow only had a second of silence before someone peeked out from around the corner behind the small cottage several feet away from the docks. Miranda.

Kylie.

Diego.

He turned back to the docks and saw their limp bodies. The sight of their lifelessness yanked his terror right back up from the bottom of his heart.

"Miranda." He pointed at Kylie and Diego.

The little witch darted out from her hiding place to reach them. Snow was unsure how to move his body off the air, so he tried the first thing that came to mind and stroke as though he was in a swimming pool. The movement worked effectively. He flowed forward until he finally reached the floorboards and twisted to stand with his... His thought broke apart as soon as he lost his footing on the solid surface and fell.

"How are they?" he asked Miranda, ignoring the pain that throbbed in his arms and struggled to crawl in between Diego, Kylie and Miranda.

The little witch sobbed soundlessly as she frantically caressed her unconscious friend. Blood had tainted her clothes and the floorboard, and her cheeks looked pale like ash. His heart dropped to the bottom when he turned to the equally pale Diego.

He couldn't be... Snow snapped the image out of his head, then he put himself in a sitting position, lifted Diego's head on to his lap and checked his pulse. It didn't even occur to him that vampires may not have a pulse. A minor throb touched the tip of his finger, giving Snow a small sense of hope. He reached over to check Kylie's. Hers barely beat, but at least it was there.

"We have to get them to a doctor," he said.

Miranda shook her head slowly. "I don't think there's time," she disagreed disbelievingly and frantically. "If we get off the island now, there's no telling how long it'll take before they die. We have to do something. Wrap something around their wounds to stop the bleeding, o-or find a medi-kit. Or..." she trailed off.

Snow fought to keep the panic at bay, and he was losing the battle badly. Seeing Diego like this was like being stabbed in the heart and the knife was twisting to make it more painful and irreparable. He had to do something... they had to figure something out. But what...? He turned looked at Miranda again.

"You're a witch, can't you do a healing spell or something?"

She started sobbing louder. Tiny drops of water slipped from under her eyes down her cheeks. "I can't." She hicced.

His heart skipped a beat, and again, and again. Looking down at Diego made it malfunction. Tears started blurring his vision.

No!

No, he wasn't admiting defeat. He couldn't. Not yet. They had come too far to give up. There has to be something they could do. Something to save them. "Please, you gave me the power to save them. Please tell me what to do," he prayed.

A flash of light flickered in the distance. He reluctantly looked at the reflection of sunlight in the watery mirror. Just looking at it allowed a new sensation to cut through the pain. An image appeared in his mind. A memory.

Snow wasn't sure how it worked, but there was really no other choice. He reached out with his hand and magically summoned a handful of water out of the ocean, then reached out with his other hand and split the sphere in two and placed them over Kylie's and Diego's wounds. He closed his eyes and thought healing thoughts, tried his best to believe. The spheres slowly sank from under his palms and he lowered them to follow until he touched fabric and leather.

Opening his eyes again, Snow looked at Diego and gasped in amazement. His abdomen was clear of any penetration. The only evidence of the gunshot was the round hole in his shirt and the blood stain that ran down to the boards below. Someone else gasped weakly. He recognized the voice. Kylie's. He turned just in time to see her eyes slide open. Miranda laughed/cried over her revived friend and rested her head on her chest and wrapped her hands around her face.

"Oh, my God, you're -" Gasp. "You're okay!" More tears ran down her cheeks as she cried joyfully.

Snow didn't blame her. He was glad Kylie was alive too. It was then he realized how much this girl come to mean to him.

He looked back at Diego. His eyes were still shut. He touched Diego's cold cheek, which was always cold, but something else felt off.

"Diego?" He gave his head a light shake. "Diego?"

He didn't so much as stir.