Philip

Tiberius rushed over soon enough with a young girl. I had sent for him with a vampire call, a method created by our ancestors to access our kind in imminent danger and all we had to do was focus on the recipient, establish a connection and then send the message. 

The healer looked disheveled and out of place, she must have rushed here with Tiberius' vampire speed. 

"Quickly, come he's over here." I led the way to where Philip laid sickly, the couch. Ralyne wasn't saying a thing. 

The girl laid a hand on his temple to check his temperature. "He's burning up, we need to cool him down." 

I nodded and ran to get a bowl of ice cold water and a towel. I soaked the towel in the cold water and squeezed a little before massaging his temple with it. The girl wasn't lying, his body was boiling. If he kept going at this rate, his heart would combust. Vampires were cold creatures, we weren't accustomed to heat. I stopped squeezing and began to just drench the towel in water and then rub his skin, immediately water touched his skin a sizzling noise sounded and I could see steam. Wow. It was that bad. 

"Why isn't he cooling down?" Ralyne rushed out in concern. Her grasp on his hand clearly became tighter. 

The girl took off her overcoat and began to set up her little kit on the floor. "Mermaid venom. He's been poisoned." She pulled out all sorts of apparatuses and materials from her bag. 

Mermaid venom? 

"What?" Ralyne gasped. "H-how is that possible?" 

"Most likely through ingestion, by the looks of it." She pulled out a needle from a small box and dipped it into a small vial. "How long has this been going on?"

"A few months." Tiberius responded sombrely. 

"What have you been doing all this while? He could have died in the first three months." The girl almost yelled at us as she reached for his hand and began to rub the hand gently. She sunk the needle into a visible vein, and left it there hanging on skin. "Take off his shirt." She instructed Ralyne and she complied. Damn. The heat from the body was radiating unto us. He was in serious heat. She rubbed his left pec and sunk another needle in. Philip yelled out in pain. His veins began to pop, and turn blue. Something was moving in his veins. 

"Oh my, is that the poison?" Ralyne heaved. 

Some veins looked black and others ink blue. 

"Mermaid venom. Only way's to trap it in one place and bleed it out. Or, find the antidote." She paused, "Mermaid blood." 

That was impossible to get. Mermaids didn't even like our kind, we were enemies alike. 

The venom seemed to be gathering in one location, his chest. That was too dangerous because his heart was there but we had no choice, we just had to be quick enough to bleed it out once they all gathered. 

"We'll need more water, this is about to get painful." She hadn't finished when Philip's grunts turned to screams of pain. Rania must have heard because she zoomed in soon after, and burst into tears upon arrival. Tiberius held her tight and sped out of the house. 

I brought more water despite the anxiety I felt. Everything was happening too fast, everything. I knelt beside him to soak his skin with more cold water and let off more steam. Philip broke out into sweats, the healer was piercing him with more needles and I could see the venom more visibly now while Ralyne kept on trying to calm her father down. 

Tiberius came back. 

Sweat rolled down my back and my coat was getting in my way so I yanked it off and bent forward to wipe his skin again. I stopped what I was doing when I sensed eyes on me. It was the girl. She was staring at a spot on my skin, where my tank top had ridden up a bit around the back of my waist. I knew what had caught her attention, the scales on my back. I reached behind me to pull the clothe back in place but she stopped my hand. 

I met her eyes. She was surprised. Her lips shook slightly like she couldn't find what to say. She swept a look at everyone present before settling back on me. Even Ralyne had noticed her action and probably the shift in her emotion. 

"How close are you to them?" She cooly muttered. 

The girl was asking me. 

That wasn't even a question.

"They're my family."

"Good." She yanked me up and girl, she was too strong. "You shouldn't mind then." 

Her words stunned me. 

Mind what? 

But she was already digging for something among her kits. She pulled a scalpel out. 

What the hell was she thinking? My survival instincts kicked in. If she wanted a fight she'd get one. 

Ralyne must have read me. "W-what is going on?" Her voice shook slightly. 

Tiberius pulled me behind him like I was a child. I frowned but a part of me also felt warm at the gesture. 

"What are you trying to do?" His firm voice questioned amidst Philip's sounds of excruciating pain. I bet he was heating up really fast now since everyone had abandoned their duty. 

"Getting the antidote." She stated simply like she was talking about normal everyday weather. 

She noticed our confusion. "What?" Her lips widened, "don't tell me you don't know," we just exchanged looks, "you have scales on your lower back." 

"So what about it?" I bit out, if she was insinuating that I was a freak she was going to get it from me. 

"How do you know that?" Tiberius asked before noticing my ridden up top. "Oh." He glared at me but I didn't care. "So what about it?" He reiterated my exact words defensively. 

"Do you not realize the implication of that? You've been in mermaid waters before." 

The only sound now was from Philip. 

Then I choked. "What?"

I was the most curious. I mean, I had to be. I had almost no idea about myself so every little thing I discovered made me feel better. The scales on my back was on the list of things Tiberius and I kept from the council. And trust me, there was more. 

"You've been in mermaid waters." She repeated. "At some point in your life, you lived or visited mermaid waters so your blood automatically qualifies as antidote since you have a touch of mermaid."

That wasn't good and I didn't know what to feel. Vampires and mermaids were sworn enemies, if the council found out then I was a sure goner. I wheezed. 

"Oh fuck." 

That wasn't me. It was Ralyne. And yeah she was right. 

Fuck.