The Breath Of His

21. This one was going to make me have sleepless nights, for all the wrong reasons.

I looked at Vann in confusion. I had no idea who this River guy was, or why his father had cooperated with River's decision, but Vann did not say anything except for nodding his head at me to trust him.

As if wanting to clear the bafflement, West from the side added, "you can relax now, Priestley. That is one of the harmonies' fathers and if he is ready to welcome you in, you can trust him to keep his words."

I had no idea what that meant, so I looked at Vann for confirmation, still very much puzzled.

"You don't need the validation or confirmation of others," River spoke as he walked back to stand before me before he continued, "whatever you need, you can feel it in here."

He tapped my forehead lightly.

"You are built to feel it as your sixth sense. And as much as you would want to be suspicious of us, know that, I am here for my daughter and her brothers will not harm the one who has the potential to save us all," River's words made me frown.

"Daughter?" I looked at Vann's father. For all I knew, he had said that there would be no female sirens, then what was this about having daughters?

"Halflings, girl," the old man explained, "our daughters are halflings. Apart from having the barrier to protect themselves from the curse of the firstborns and immunity to majority of psychic powers of the sirens, they are the only ones that can give birth to the full-fledged sirens."

"It's another topic that sirens may or may not fall in love with the halflings, the ones with the knowledge of the existence of halflings, tend to quickly get a child with them and disappear before they get attached to the halfling. It's another thing that my sons were naive enough to let the attachment form before they know it," the old man explained.

"How is that even possible? As far as we know, Carlene was always on her toes, ready to make a run," Dylan grumbled.

"That's because, your intentions were to drag her into the depths of the sea," River barked furiously, his eyes flashing making Dylan to flinch visibly.

"The killing intent enables the barrier stronger than necessary around the halfling. When your only aim is not harmful, just the offspring, the barrier is not as strong and nor does the halfling always try to make a run for it. That is how none of your mothers could hold me back like how his daughter is holding Wasser's heart," Vann's father tsked in disappointment.

But my head was stuck at another piece of information that they had shared, "Carlene? You are Carlene McLeish's father?"

River gave a tight-lipped smile towards me. No wonder why he felt so familiar...

As far as I knew, Carlene only lived with her single mother.

"Does she know you are here?" I asked another question making him sigh in resignation.

"It would be better if she didn't. We don't want to make things complicated here," River rubbed his face in exhaustion.

"Why?" I couldn't help but ask. She was his daughter for crying out loud!

"Right now, we are on the verge of a war against some three harmonies," River started, "and I would definitely not want to drag my vulnerable daughter into it. If she knows what our relationship is, I will not be able to keep her away from all this."

"Then you are dragging me into this because I am not your daughter?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

"No, we had to drag you in this because we need another ally," Vann's father replied this time.

"And there seems to be another hidden harmony leader around here," River continued as he added, "someone that is related to you."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. If they hadn't been attached to my forehead skin, they might as well have joined my hairline.

"And we need your help to reach out to him," Vann's father added.

This was all so messed up that I ended up groaning. There seemed to be a history to my family that I had no idea about.

This one was going to make me have sleepless nights, for all the wrong reasons.

******

The ride back to school had me lost in the thoughts, so lost that I did not even mind that I was sandwiched between Vann and Dylan this time around. There just had been so much that it was hard to not think. Sometimes I even felt if it was really something that I had heard or just made it up in my head? They couldn't probably be trying to pull some sick prank on me, right?

Well... taking in account of all unexplainable things that I had witnessed, and all the new things that were happening to me, all the information that they had disclosed made a lot of sense now.

I had lost track of time, not even realizing that I had missed multiple periods of the classes and my parents might have even received a call from the school inquiring about my absence.

As soon as the realization hit my brain, my eyes widened as big as saucers and an involuntary, "s**t," came out of my mouth, grabbing all the attention from the vehicle.

"What happened?" Vann asked after a moment of dead silence.

"Don't tell me your periods started," Dylan grimaced earning a death glare from me.

"What? I don't want this car to smell like a fish for the rest of my rides in it," Dylan shrugged.

"You do know that you are more of a fish too?" Kai commented from the driver's seat.

"Right now, I'm human though," Dylan retorted back.

"Will you just shut up please?" West growled from the front seat, irritated.

The car went all quiet again for a few moments, until Dylan opened his mouth again, "okay, false alarm."

Everyone ignored him as Vann asked again, "what happened?"

"We were gone for a long time now, the school must have called my parents at home. Uncle Ted must have even called in police claiming I went missing or something!" I whisper-yelled entering into panic mode.

The boys looked at each other as the car came to a stop. We were back in the parking lot of the school that now had no-one in it apart from the cars parked.

"Umm..." Vann started, "you don't really have to worry about that part."

"Huh?" I asked confused.

Vann scratched the back of his head as he continued, "Orwell and Amanzi had taken care of it."

"What do you mean?" My confusion only seemed to be getting more and more. What did he mean by Orwell and Amanzi were taking care of it?

"Why don't you head inside and have a look at it yourself?" West offered making my heart thunder inside my chest.

I don't know what was happening inside the school, but I sure knew that I would not like it one bit.