A/N: Thank you all for bearing with me with the long delays! I am super thankful that you've all been so patient with me and stuck with me and that no one has written me any angry messages about the time between chapters, LOL! I really appreciate you guys for understanding. Finals are coming up, and in college we call it "hell week" for a reason. Except… for me, it's more of a month than a week. So thanks for bearing with me! I'm sorry for the delays, but understand that this is an incredibly busy time with research and papers and projects and…yikes, I'm dizzy just THINKING about it! Please know that I am writing in any free time that I have, just for you guys : ] it's coming slowly, but I'm working as best as I can for you guys and I hope I don't disappoint! But anyhow, thank you so much everyone, I appreciate it and hope you'll continue to read!

Thank you guys – in this chapter, the escape is so close. Our friends are back together, but what happens when they are torn apart again and another life is held in the balance? Read, enjoy, review : ]

-

Linda Denman stood on the lower deck of her yacht, grinning as the salt water from the choppy ocean storm misted her in the face. Her long blonde hair was tossed around in the wind as she strolled up and down the length of the deck, sighing contently. She cast her eyes to the door leading off into a room at the side of the deck and grinned. She had built onto that room especially for this occasion. Once the door opened it led to a room small room that dropped straight down about 10 feet into the room below it. Encased in a large steel lockable box was a deep pool of water that could be opened from the room below.

Denman had designed this box herself – it was absolutely flawless when it came to trapping the mermaids and keeping them just where she wanted them until she would personally destroy each of them herself. She smirked and rolled her eyes, thinking back to the first time around that she'd had Cora. She'd managed to get quite a lot of information from the little brat, and between her and the files she stole from Max Thomas's house she'd found that the mermaids couldn't use their powers to effect anything outside of the room that they were in. Of course if they were outside and not confined to a room there was no limit to the chaos they could cause, but once they were held in this impenetrable box they wouldn't have anything to do but wait for death to come.

She grinned and leaned against the wall next to the door and sighed, bored, as the wind picked up and tossed her hair around. The yacht bounced up and down on the water a little more roughly now and she let out a bored sigh. She was more than aware that the McCartney boy and the other two mermaids, Emma and Rikki were somewhere down below on the yacht. That's precisely why she was waiting safely outside – waiting for them to finish wreaking havoc down there, and just when they thought they were finished and free she would take them. Was she worried about what the girls could do to John and Eric with their abilities? No. They had known the risks when they signed up, and if they couldn't handle it then they wouldn't be getting paid. She rolled her eyes again and thought about the boyfriends of the mermaids. The stupid boys were a minor inconvenience, but they were far from being a worry for Denman. Once the girls were secured, she'd get rid of them as well. It wouldn't be difficult or messy – by that time, they would be too far out at sea for any of them to swim to shore in that storm. Dr. Denman smiled and sighed and continued her patient pace across the deck.

-

Lewis

Emma and I had only been searching for a few minutes when we saw an open door at the end of the hallway. The second I saw it I got a weird feeling in my stomach – it didn't hurt, but for some reason it made me nervous. I knew there was something in that room that I didn't want to see, but for whatever reason I kept moving. I looked at Emma who wasn't looking back at me – she was frozen in her spot staring straight ahead at the same open door. I sighed and we came up next to the door silently and I stood in front of Emma, waiting. I listened carefully for a few seconds and couldn't hear anyone or anything coming out of the room but I kept my hand behind my back and let my fingers brush my gun anyway. I closed my eyes for a second and reached out with my free hand to shove the door the rest of the way open leaving Emma and I standing in the doorway.

The nervous feeling in my stomach grew. This room was mostly empty except for a folding chair that was propped up against the wall. I stepped into the room and upon further inspection I felt my stomach flip. Something had happened here – there were cut ropes hanging down around a pipe up against the wall, and the wall itself had a huge hole smashed through it leading into another room. I felt my jaw clench and I moved across the room, picking up the ropes. They had definitely been cut with something – the knots were still in them and these were some of the most complicated knots I'd ever seen in my life, even after 10 years as a boy scout. I hissed a little and knew that this had to be where one of the girls was kept. I dropped the ropes and switched my attention to the hole in the wall and looked through it.

The first thing that I saw made immediately replaced the nerves in my stomach with a boiling burning in my chest. There was blood everywhere; a lot of it. I stepped through the hole and looked at the wall. There was blood around it, blood on the floor, on one of the chairs in the room. There was a cheap plywood table nearby and the entire surface was completely crimson. Through the middle of the bloodstained table were two thin splintered holes. I felt my face blank and my eyes moved to the pipe next to the hole. On this side, there wasn't any rope. On this side of the wall there was a rat's nest of chains hanging off of the pipe and chair. I felt my hands shake and I lifted one up to steady myself briefly before smacking the side of my fist against the wall. There was only one person that Denman's team would go to this much trouble to restrain.

"Cora."

"Lewis…" I heard Emma behind me. I knew she was unnerved by all the blood – Emma Gilbert was not a blood person, "You don't know that it was her…"

I could tell she was trying to calm me down. I wasn't used to being this angry and even more than that, I knew she wasn't used to me being this angry and I think that I had started to scare her. I had honestly started to scare myself, too, so I kept my voice level for both of our sakes.

"I do know, Emma. So do you. She was here… right here," I reached out for the chair but couldn't bring myself to actually touch it, "They're afraid of her abilities; they think she's an animal. She wouldn't hurt anybody even if she could!" I sighed and stepped back into the room that we had come in through. I didn't want to look at what I knew was my girlfriend's blood anymore. I took a quick glance at the cut ropes again, "Cleo was probably here. Denman underestimates her big time, giving her fucking shoddy rope…"

"But that means they've gotten out!"

"What?" I asked. My brain was scrambled and I wasn't thinking straight. She turned away from the blood and looked at me.

"Lewis, look – Cora might be hurt but she's alive. I doubt she'd be able to put this hole through the wall if she were hurt too badly. And you saw it yourself – Cleo's ropes were cut, not untied. They're out on the yacht, somewhere!" She said. Then it dawned on me – she was right. Both of them were out here somewhere, and by this time they undoubtedly knew we were here looking for them. But that meant that we had to move faster in order to find them, now. I sighed, ready to turn around and then heard a familiar voice.

"How did… But she was stuck; they weren't supposed to be able to get out! He'll kill me when he finds out, he'll kill me…"

I turned around and in the doorway I saw a very dazed, very confused Zane. I didn't even realize I was moving toward him but I felt myself shove him up against the wall. Before I knew what I was doing I felt my fist that had been balled up for an hour now come in contact with his jaw.

"What did you do to them, Zane?!" I screamed at him. He was fazed by the hit for a second, flexing his jaw a few times quickly to work it out but the minute he caught his bearings he started rambling.

"I-I didn't want to hurt anybody! But they made me; they made me help! Rikki… where is she? She said she saw her - Is she okay?!" He sounded frantic. He was rambling and not making a lot of sense and he looked sick. I knew that he had snapped, now even worse before, but the urge to take his head off hadn't exactly subsided. I felt my hands clench and my arm drew back again, but I immediately felt Emma's hands on my shoulders, pulling me back and away from Zane.

"Lewis… he's not well. They tricked him badly; it's best to keep him out of trouble for now." She whispered, staring at me. I clenched my jaw and sighed – she was right. As usual. I rolled my eyes and grabbed Zane by the arm, dragging him out of the room back in the direction that we had come from; back towards the closet that we had found Nate in.

"Come on Zane. We'll take you to Rikki."

-

A few minutes later – Cleo

"They were here a few minutes ago… they were just here." I heard Cora say from in front of me. She had stopped walking and we stood in front of a door in a dark hallway now. I shifted uneasily in my spot and bit my lip. Something felt wrong. I had known that Nate had been here; I had felt it just a few minutes ago but now the feeling was gone. That made me nervous. I stayed quiet though and listened, just in case. I thought I heard some rustling from inside the room and I reached out quickly to open the door but Cora's powers wouldn't let me. I frowned and looked at her and she smiled sheepishly. I knew she couldn't control it, but still! She listened for a minute too and after a second I saw one of her pretty banged up hands reach for the handle. In another second the door was open and we were both frozen in our spots.

Zane was sitting up tied into a chair inside the small closet, staring at us. The look on his face was absolutely frightening – in all the years I'd known him I have never seen him look like this. Scared, sick, pale, angry and his nose was bruised and swollen… I didn't know what to make of it. I felt sad looking at him; for as much of a psychopath as he'd turned into, he was my friend once. He'd only gotten wrapped up in this mess because he was trying to keep Rikki and the rest of us out of harm's way, but the second that thought hit me I felt my mouth falter into a frown. There was a weird buzzing at the back of my head and I let my eyes travel down to Cora's hands. Something had gone through them – and Zane had been the one willing to give Cora to Denman in "exchange" for the rest of it. And he was dumb enough to believe that? And Denman said I was the dumb one?! I clenched my jaw and suddenly felt angry. I looked at Cora who stumbled a little the minute her eyes hit him and I realized that she was feeling whatever he was feeling.

"Rikki! You have to tell me what they're going to do to Rikki – I need to know what you saw! How can I help, what can I do to stop them?!" He blurted out. I felt my mouth drop open a little; I had never heard him sound like this. He sounds… terrified, and the fact that somebody had tied him up in here kind of unnerved me. I saw Cora step back a little from him but I don't think she meant to. From what I've learned this empathy thing can hurt pretty bad, so I reached out to help her stand straight.

"Thanks, Cleo," I heard her say and she smiled a little, then stood on her own. The yacht was rocking pretty badly now and I frowned a little, thinking. Because my father is a fisherman, I grew up around a lot of boats. This may have been a little nicer than a fishing boat but nothing should be out on the water in a storm like this. With as rough as this water feels Denman is running a major risk in putting a crack in the hull…

The yacht bounced on the waves again and we held ourselves up against the wall. We stared down at Zane and for a minute and I glanced quickly at my friend. For a second she looked sad, and then she spoke again.

"Zane… listen to me. There is nothing you can do to help Rikki right now. That guy… the one that smacked you before… he's going to be really, really upset when he finds out that we're missing. You need to stay out of the way." I watched her kneel down a little and put her hands on his arms. He immediately stopped fidgeting and stared up at her and for a weird second it looked like he was going to cry. I realized that she was using the empathy ability right now to calm him down and I watched carefully and felt my eyebrow go up; I'd never seen her do it to somebody else before.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry for what we did to you..." He said quietly. She smirked a little and stood up straight again, taking her hands off of him.

"I'm sorry for what I did to your nose. Stay quiet in here, Zane. We'll come back for you." And with that, she closed the door quietly. I stared at her for a minute and she continued leading the way down the hallway.

"He's really snapped now, hasn't he? He's really one of them. Is he the one that did that to you?" I asked. She glanced back at me briefly and smiled sadly.

"He's going to need a lot of help once he gets out of here. He is one of them, but for the wrong reasons… He's safer in there than out here. These guys really would kill him. And it wasn't all his doing. Come on, we can't be too far behind them if they were just here, right?" She smiled awkwardly at me and we kept walking. I looked back at the room we had just left Zane in and shuddered. The ship was rocking a little harder now but I knew that Nate had been here, and I knew that he was still here somewhere – looking for us. I smiled a little at the thought but a nervous knot tugged in my stomach anyway. The buzzing in the back of my head and neck had gotten stronger and I frowned. Most of the people that I loved were here on this yacht. And so is a person who has the means and the intent to kill all of us. I looked ahead of me and noticed that Cora was staggering a little too much even for how rough the water was.

"Hey, are you all right?" I asked, but she kept walking anyway and so I kept following her. I felt a nice warmth start to flood my chest as we approached a door ahead of us on our left and smiled a little – Nate was close, I could feel it. And not just Nate, but the rest of my friends, too! "Hey… Cora, I think… I think they're close. Really close, I mean… to all of them."

"I'm okay, don't worry. And I think you're right, Cleo." She turned a little and smiled back at me and we stopped outside of the small steel door that led out to the lower deck of the yacht and gave me a worried look. Her eyes went back to the floor and I saw her squeeze her eyes shut and lean against the wall a little more. I didn't want her to have to use her hands if she didn't have to, so I started reaching for the door's handle. The second I raised my hand I couldn't move it any further. I sighed and frowned a little, looking at her. Her smile faltered and she didn't say anything to me this time but I saw one of her hands go for the handle and I saw her wince when she pulled it open.

I sighed in relief when I saw that the door led to the lower deck of the yacht. After creeping through the maze of hallways for the past 45 minutes, seeing an open space was a nice change. Cora stepped out first and I followed after her and we stood still on the deck for a moment, bracing ourselves from the rocking by hanging onto the bars against the exterior walls. It was raining badly now and the waves were really choppy. I heard a metallic snap coming from somewhere down below and immediately got even more nervous. That… could not have meant anything good. I looked at Cora who was standing perfectly still with her eyes shut. Her eyebrows were pushed together in concentration and for a second I could feel her mental hold on me break – I could move where I wanted! But that meant that her mind was somewhere else; she had to have been having a vision. I moved around her and started looking around the deck. It was eerily quiet apart from the storm and felt my jaw clench. Something was off, here. I could feel that my friends were here and if I could feel it then I knew that Cora could. And yet, we were standing by ourselves on the deck?

In another split second a few things happened. Cora's hold snapped back over me and pushed me down and around the corner slightly behind a web of ropes. My eyes flew to her. She had just started to come out of the vision and her face had gone from concentration to straight to dread but she was still rather out of it. We weren't alone anymore. Before I could form my mouth around any words at all I saw a tall blonde-haired figure approach my friend from behind.

-

-

On the deck of the yacht

Cleo watched in horror as Linda Denman pulled a thin rope around her still momentarily distracted friend's neck. She tried to sit up as she saw Dr. Denman yanking Cora in the direction of a doorway, and through the doorway Cleo could clearly see what looked like a pool – with no ladders, and no way to get out. She saw a steel latch at the far end of the room and it dawned on her: this room was meant to close and lock, undoubtedly with she, Cora, Rikki and Emma inside.

Cleo's heart raced and she had to think fast. She knew she was no genius but despite Dr. Denman's belief, she wasn't stupid either. She still couldn't move; Cora wouldn't let her move out of her hiding place. Cleo bit her lip and let her eyes dart around quickly as she thought back to what Rikki had told she and Emma about getting Cora to keep herself from being shot and killed in Lewis's 'test.' She had to do the same thing; get Cora to snap into some Defender tendencies – but how? She thought hard about what Rikki had said:

"He told me to focus. Focus really hard on how we couldn't lose her as one of us and the fact that I didn't want the bullet to kill her."

Cleo panicked – could it really be that simple? Cora's Protector gene was out of control and she knew it would be hard to break through but she had to try. Cleo bit down on her lip again and closed her eyes, her face screwing up in concentration. She focused hard but still felt her friend's mental hold over her. Cleo groaned a little and focused harder, letting her thoughts scream out in her head. After the sacrifices that Cora had made for her and the others, Cleo couldn't let her friend down now. She pressed herself further until she felt dizzy and suddenly, as if a rubber band around her had snapped, Cora's hold over Cleo broke. The instant she was free Cleo beamed – it had worked! She opened her eyes and saw that although Cora was struggling and making things rather difficult for Dr. Denman, she was still close to the doorway to the trap-pool. Cleo's face immediately fell and she got up out of her hiding spot quickly. She approached Denman from behind as quietly as possible and grinned when she was a foot away from the blonde scientist. With a quick tap on the shoulder Denman's concentration was momentarily broken, causing her to let up slightly on her grip on the rope around the front of Cora's neck. In that second of distraction Cleo delivered the roughest kick she could muster to Dr. Denman's side, knocking her off of Cora and sending the woman flying to the violently rocking deck of the yacht.

"Who's the stupid one now, Linda?" Cleo hissed at the woman quickly and hurried to her friend, pulling her upright. Cleo blinked up squinting past the deck's ceiling at the rain that was pouring down. With a quick clench of her fingers she pushed the created a barrier that pushed the rain up around she and her friend, and in another second both girls hurried out into the storm and around the corner of the deck out of the scientist's sight.

Linda Denman was only down for a moment, however. John hurried out onto the deck from below it, squinting his eyes from the storm's violent winds. The man was soaked and there was panic in his eyes. He staggered across the deck to Dr. Denman and helped her up.

"Linda… there's a major crack in the hull, it's getting bigger by the minute. We're taking on a lot of water down there, we should try to get as close to land before we take the life-boats—" He began but Dr. Denman cut him off.

"We're not going anywhere, John! I've got these kids and we're not letting them go now because of a crack. Are you a professional or not?!"

"Denman, this thing could sink any—"

"Are you?!" She screamed. The rain soaked her hair and she stared daggers at the man through the water. The man stared at the woman blankly for a second before grunting a little.

"Yes, I'm a professional!" He yelled back at her through the storm. Dr. Denman seethed, casting her eyes to the other side of the deck where she had seen the two girls go. Her mouth twitched up into a grin.

"Good, that's what I thought. Come on." She growled at him, storming across the deck through the rain. Eric followed after her.

Cora

Everything had happened so fast, I had barely realized what had happened until I felt Cleo pull me away.

"Who's the stupid one now, Linda?" I heard Cleo say and in another second we were moving. I perked my head up and blinked down at her; there was so much about what had just happened that I couldn't even figure out where to start.

"You… you broke it!" I blurted out. She'd broken through the mental hold my Protector gene grasped her with. It had only been snapped twice before by other people and I still didn't know how to control it on my own. Either way, I didn't love the idea but I realized that Cleo had been acting on her own Defender instincts – in order to get me to act on mine. I looked at Cleo and she was smirking a little bit.

"Sorry, Cora. I know you hate it, but look – I'm fine, see? And you're fine, too! And hopefully, Denman has a broken rib." Her smirk had turned into a full blown grin. I felt my mouth drop open a little bit. This girl was absolutely unpredictable and it was… awesome.

"You're a life-saver, Cleo. Thank you so much. I'll make it up to you somehow—"

"Shut up, Cora." She cut me off and smiled at me as we moved around to the other side of the deck. I let my mouth hang open but I smiled back. I felt my fingers twitch slightly and winced – my nerves were still in panic-mode from being cut and I shuddered, trying to keep them as still as possible. I glanced behind us briefly just in time to see Denman and her lackey hurrying after us. I made a quick survey of the deck and prepared myself for pain as I started to clench my fingers.

Just then we saw two familiar figures hurry out from around the opposite side of the covered deck. I saw Cleo immediately run for Nate and Rikki stopped at my side and threw her hands out in front of her. In an instant she was supporting a wall of fire splitting us away from Denman and her man. I was thrilled to see the both of them and glad that they were both all right but a knot in my stomach made my face fall – Lewis was still missing, and so was Emma.

Through the flames I was able to see Denman and her minion trying to find an opening in the fire. After a few seconds I heard Denman bark orders at him.

"What am I paying you for?! Go down there and fix it!" In another second, she was facing us alone. Cleo and I had heard something earlier – it had sounded like the bursting of steel, and I didn't need three guesses to know that this yacht was going down. We had already sunk considerably lower than we'd originally been and the waves were only a few feet below us, now. My heart ached a little and my eyes darted around. I had all the faith in the world in Lewis, but I would just feel so much better if I could see him for myself…

"Rikki, Cora! This thing is gonna sink, we need to unhook one of the lifeboats before they go under, too!" Nate's voice broke me out of my thoughts and I flicked my eyes to him and nodded.

"You and Cleo go. Rikki and I can hold her off." I said, exchanging a brief glance with Rikki. Cleo's eyes bulged a little and she stared at me.

"Cora your hands--!" She started, but it was my turn to cut her off. It was too late, however, and Rikki's eyes flicked down to my bloody, swollen, throbbing and generally unattractive-at-the-moment hands and bulged.

"Holy hell – what happened to you?!"

"They'll be fine – hurry up, Nate's right; I don't think we have a lot of time before this thing goes under." I said. The two of them looked at Rikki and I for a moment but nodded quickly and in another second they were off, leaving Rikki and I trying to keep our balance on the roughly rocking deck. I held my hands up towards the fire and flexed my fingers, clenching my jaw hard to keep from screaming. I concentrated on Denman, watching her through the flames. This woman would not be getting through if I had anything to do with it, and if she did then she was going to get an anchor in her face.

Suddenly I felt the knot in my stomach falter and had a warm comforting feeling flood my chest.

"Lewis?" I heard the word slip out of my mouth without realizing what I had said and my eyes darted around. He was here; I knew it. My head snapped in the direction of the door that Cleo and I had come through just a few minutes ago and in that instant I saw Emma leap through it with Lewis following right on her heels. They spotted us immediately and rushed over so fast that I barely had time to breathe before I felt arms wrapping around me and I was squeezed – tightly. I smiled and for a few seconds the pain in my abdomen completely melted away. He was safe, and so was Emma. I let myself cling to him despite the pain in my hands, almost afraid that if I let go, he would disappear. After Lewis let up his grip he kept one of his arms around my waist and we turned, the four of us watching Denman pace back and forth behind the wall of fire. However, she wasn't alone anymore. Another taller man had replaced Denman's other subordinate. I stared hard at him for a second and a very uneasy feeling washed over me; I was feeling what he was feeling, and his rage and ill-intent was even stronger than Denman's. I felt goose-bumps cover my arms. He was driven by greed. This man was just as bad, if not worse, than Dr. Denman. I instinctively felt my mental hold pull over Lewis, pulling him gently just a few more inches away. I reminded myself to try to stay calm but holy crap was that easier said than done. I shuddered a little and Rikki's voice drew my eyes away from Denman's little friend.

"Good to see that at least you two are in one piece," She said, looking at Lewis and Emma quickly. I sighed and silently begged Rikki not to draw any more attention to my hands. She was quiet for a second before speaking again, and for a split-second I could feel worry radiating from her, "Where's Zane?"

I saw Lewis exchange a look with Emma.

"We found him. We thought it would be better to keep him out of the way…for his own good." He said. I felt my stomach lurch and I knew that he was mad. For the moment, I decided that maybe it would be best if I just…kinda… kept my hands hidden behind my back.

'No sense in making it worse, Cora. There will be time for that train-wreck later...' I thought, lowering my hands and slipping them behind me. Lewis looked at Rikki and I.

"Emma and I were down below a few minutes ago - it started flooding, we had to get out of there. There's a huge split in the hull; we're sinking." He said. There was an awkward pause and Emma finally said what we were all thinking.

"Zane is still down there. We have to go get him; we can't just leave him down there."

"Even though he probably deserves it," Lewis muttered, smirking. We all looked at him and I caught an embarrassed blush creep onto his face, "Right, sorry. Harsh, I guess."

"But if any of us go down there we're stuck with tails, and then we're not exactly any good in getting out of here even with tails." Rikki groaned, frustrated. Lewis picked his head up.

"I'll go get him." I heard him say. Rikki, Emma and I froze. I knew that they didn't need my empathy skills in order to know that if he went down there for Zane, Zane would more than likely not be coming back up with him. I bit my lip slightly and picked up one of my hands and rested it on Lewis's back, feeling it throb on contact. Lewis's gun was still in its holster that hung around his back, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't stay there for long if Zane said one wrong thing – which, let's face it, was probable.

"Uhh… Lewis, no offense or anything—" Rikki started. We all felt uneasy and she knew what she was getting at: it wouldn't be a great idea to leave Lewis alone with Zane right now.

"Cora! You won't transform unless you're completely covered in saltwater, right? It's not flooded to the ceiling yet; it was just a few feet high when we were down there – you could get him out of there!" Emma said. I paused and picked my head up – she was technically right—

"No way, are you kidding?! Emma, Zane wants to kill her; he thinks it'll save Rikki and the rest of you!"

"She's right, Lewis. I have to go get him, he'll drown down there."

"I don't want him to have any chance to touch you, Cora…"

"Too late!" Rikki snarled. I sighed and shut my eyes. It figures. Thanks, Rikki. Way to be discrete.

"What?! What did he do to you?" Lewis put his hands on my shoulders and stepped back a little, quickly letting his eyes rove over me checking for injuries. For a second I cursed him for being so smart and he pulled my arms away from behind my back and in another split second I felt him freeze. I tried hard to keep him calm but I felt the flood of emotions hit him hard. His hands came off of my shoulders and I finally gathered up the nerve to open my eyes in time to see his hands waver around mine before finally picking them up by my forearms, bringing them up closer to his face. He was quiet for a second and his face had gone completely blank and I could feel that his hands were starting to shake. His eyes were fixed down on my hands. I watched his jaw tighten and as his anger grew, I could feel it. This was beyond anything I had felt from Lewis. This was overwhelming.

"Lewis…" I started, but he started shaking his head slowly. In that instant it felt like someone had punched me in the gut.

"He's not getting away with this. He won't. Let him stay down there! He deserves it."

"Lewis, I'm fine – this will heal," I began again and started pulling my arms out of his hands. I took another step closer to him and carefully raised my hands. They might not have been the prettiest sight at the moment, but I needed to calm him down. I tried to hold back a wince as I very gently wrapped my fingers around his arms, "Once we're all out of here we'll never have to think about Zane again if we don't want to. But right now, you need to let me go and get him out of that room before it floods. He won't cause me any trouble." I threw in, although to be honest I had no idea if it was true. I hated lying to Lewis, but I couldn't let Zane die today. He had been badly misguided, but he didn't deserve to die even after what he had done to me. I kept my eyes fixed on Lewis's, concentrating hard. I could feel him calming down but not by enough to make a difference even with all of my energy focused on the task. He stared back at me and the look in his eyes killed me – sadness, helplessness.

"We can't be what he is, Lewis! We can't bring ourselves to his level." Rikki yelled from behind us. I watched his face carefully and knew that he was struggling, but deep down he knew that letting Zane die was wrong. We didn't want anyone killed, even if that person had tried to kill one of us.

"I need to go do this." I said quietly, staring up at him seriously. I felt the fear flood his body and I felt my mouth twitch down sadly. I didn't want to leave him up here where I wouldn't be able to see him and the thought unnerved me a little, but I reminded myself that I would do this fast: go get Zane and then get right back up here. I watched his face and I could see and feel that he didn't like the idea, "I promise you, Lewis. I'll come back." Lewis was silent for a few more seconds before finally unclenching his jaw enough to speak.

"Please, Cora… Be very, very, very careful. If he tries anything, and I mean anything—" He began. I felt my mouth turn up into a smirk.

"—I'll give him an anchor in the face," I smiled a little more and thankfully he let himself smirk back at me, "I'll be careful. And you, too… please stay in once piece until I can get back to you." I felt my smile falter a little despite my best efforts to keep it. He nodded once and for a second his sweet goofy smile made my cheeks get hot, just the same as it always does.

"I can do that. Be quick, okay?" He said, and then pulled me closer and squeezed me tightly again, "I love you, Cora."

"I love you, too." I smiled up at him, hoping to reassure him that I was all right. I let go of him gently and glanced at Emma and Rikki, giving them a hopeful smile and with one last look I head around the corner through the doorway, making my way back down into the sinking levels of the yacht.

When I reached the stairs leading down to the hallway that Zane was being held in I froze for a second at the top. The yacht was definitely sinking all right, and as I hesitantly stepped down the stairs and into the water I shuddered. It was up to my hip and rising fast. I bit my bottom lip and reached out to grab onto the ceiling pipe to help myself move faster as I moved down the hallway, trying to maneuver my way around the floating debris. My heart beat faster as I got closer to Zane, and further from Lewis. I had a horrible, sinking feeling in my stomach that I couldn't shake. This wasn't my empathy coming through from someone else's emotions. Something was happening. And it wasn't with a mermaid – I would have been able to see it, I would have been having a vision right now. That was what terrified me. I swallowed quietly and moved down the flooded hallway faster, pushing through the water. The sooner I got to Zane, the faster we could get off of this yacht.

I could hear Zane before I stopped outside the door.

"Help! Is anyone out there?! There's… there's a lot of water in here!"

I bit my lip and lifted one of my hands, pushing it up against the door.

"…Zane? I'm going to get you out of there, just hang on, okay?"

"Rikki?! Is that you?" He called. I sighed and shut my eyes for a second. This poor kid was a wreck. Rikki and I sounded nothing alike – for starters, I'm from CALIFORNIA.

"…Uh, no." I muttered, unlocking the door from the outside. I groaned a little as I wrapped my hand around the knob and gave it a tug – nothing. I froze for a second and tugged again. Nothing. I decided to try it with my other hand; maybe this one was less wounded? I wrapped my other hand around the knob and pulled as hard as I could. It was painful, but apparently not enough. The door remained closed. I bit my lip and groaned, realizing what was going on. The water level out here was clearly much higher than the level in Zane's closet. As a result, the volume of water out here pressing up against the door from this side was creating a force that was too much to pull it open. I frowned. This was basic physics, but it would be a hell of a lot easier to fix if I hadn't had those freakin' knives through my hands. Scientifically, I could fix this by finding a crowbar and prying a wide enough space under the door to let more water through. If the water levels were evened out, the water on both sides of the door would put an equal amount of pressure on the door and would make it easier to pull open. However, did I have time to find a crowbar? No. Could I even use a crowbar with these hands? Probably not, Cora. Not to mention that by the time Zane's closet filled to match the water out here, it could not only be high enough to give me a tail but also high enough to drown Zane.

I waded back through the water and stood up against the wall on the other side of the hallway, facing the door. The science geek in me sure was doing me a whole world of good. I rolled my eyes and shut them. My heart pounded and I raised my hands and slowly clenched my fingers. After a few seconds, I felt a kind of invisible hold wrap around the door. I bit my lip gently and wrinkled my eyebrows, concentrating hard. I gave the force another second or two to peak in strength.

"Zane, get ready for more water…" I mumbled, and with a rough yank of my hands the steel door ripped away from the wall, the bolts holding it in bursting and sending the door flying down the hall. I felt my eyes bulge for a minute – I had no idea that I had something like that in me. No wonder Denman was afraid of me. The thought made me smirk.

The water, overjoyed to have a new space to fill immediately rushed into the closet engulfing Zane where he sat still tied into the chair, apart from his head and shoulders. I sighed and moved closer to him. He started rambling frantically, angrily, but at the second I couldn't listen and instead focused on trying to untie him under the water as fast as I possibly could. The water had risen to my waist.

Then something happened that I had not anticipated. The minute I had the very last knot undone Zane flew up out of his seat, standing up in the water. Before I even saw him, I could feel his radiating anger making its home in my midsection again. I looked up into his face and for a moment I felt my heart stop. I had no time to react before I felt his hands between my neck and shoulders roughly forcing me out of the closet and slamming me into the wall on the other side of the hallway.

"It's you! Denman said that as long as you were still alive, Rikki and her friends were fair game!" He screamed. I felt his fingers digging into my shoulder and winced. I couldn't believe the complete turnaround he'd made in just 20 minutes since the last time I had seen him. But I didn't have time for the patience-game right now. I needed to get back up to Lewis, to the girls, and as much as I wanted Zane to survive I couldn't have him hold us up any longer.

"Newsflash, Zane: I am Rikki's friend, now!" I screamed. I ground my teeth together a little bit. I don't ever get this mad, but at this point? I was pretty sick and tired of people trying to kill me. Without moving my hands Zane was thrown off of me and back across the hall up against the opposite wall. I watched him and he stared back at me, his face stunned. The rage from him that I had been feeling melted away and I could tell that he was thinking about what I had just said even though I didn't expect it to get entirely through to him at this point – I just knew that we needed to move, "Come on, we've got to go…" I started, pushing through the water past him and leading the way back towards the stairs, once again using the ceiling pipe to pull myself along faster. I heard him moving along behind me and sighed thankfully when we reached the stairs. I pulled myself up the steps quickly, happy to be out of the water tail-free. Zane came up a few seconds after me and we head back down the hallway.

I sighed shakily and I could see the open doorway at the end of the hall that led back out to the deck. Just a few more yards and I would be able to see Lewis and my friends. But for some reason, that dread in the center of my gut still wouldn't subside even after Zane had tried attacking me. My face fell and I began to panic and walked a little faster. As we got closer I could hear voices – loud voices, angrily screaming back and forth on the deck. Fighting. My throat felt tight and dry. I could hear Emma and Lewis, and I could hear Denman barking orders at her assistant.

Suddenly it felt like time had slowed down. I heard the familiar blast of a single gunshot and in that instant I felt indescribable pain rip through my side and scorching heat flooded my chest. I gasped and shut my eyes, stumbling and reaching out to catch myself on the wall.

No. No, no… it was too familiar, this pain. This had happened before. I was panting hard but quickly forced my eyes open and looked down at myself. Just as I had feared, no bullet had pierced me. I squeezed my eyes shut again and momentarily forced myself into the minds of Rikki, Emma and Cleo. Feeling no pain from any of the girls' minds I forced myself out of the visions and the overwhelming dread, panic and fear that filled my body almost knocked me over. They were fine, all three of them. This could only mean one thing. I staggered forward and when I reached the open doorway my eyes darted around frantically, looking for Lewis. I took one step out onto the deck and my body froze.

Lewis was lying propped up against the side of the yacht on our side of the fire with Emma crouched at his side, a dark red stain slowly spreading across the side of his jacket.