Chapter Two

My mouth worked but there was no sound, like a sea witch had stolen my voice. I couldn't get my feet to move, much less work the part of my brain that made coherent sentences.

Dad stood, setting his paper aside, and pulled me into a hug that instinctually had me reacting. I wrapped my arms around him, resting my forehead on the soft vest that smelled of sea salt and worn cotton. I'd almost forgotten his hugs, hadn't experienced them since mom left and he'd retreated so far into his research that Becca and I were left to fend for ourselves. And just when I thought he was finally coming around, I'd lost him again. Those demons he battled had returned with a vengeance, and he'd gone farther than I could reach as they utterly consumed him.

But the man holding me now, he was the one who'd take me to the aquarium and hold me up to see the jellyfish, who sparked my interest in marine science and bought me a microscope for my sixth birthday, the one who encouraged me to chase every dream I had because he believed I could reach them.

The scuff of sandals reminded me that we weren't alone. I pulled back, finding my dad staring at Kai, a curious furrow to his brow. I led him to the kitchen where Kai was waiting. The smell of fresh pot of coffee brewing wafted from the pot on the counter. Had he made it himself? I stumbled through introductions, "Kai, this is my father, David. Dad, this is Kai, my...friend." I said, the world settling strangely on my tongue.

"Nice to meet you, son." Dad said, extending a hand. Fortunately, Kai knew something about human greetings, and offered his own hand back for a firm shake that had Dad's eyes lighting in acceptance. "How do you two know each other?" he asked.

"He's Cee's cousin." I said, at the same time Kai answered. "She saved my life."

Dad chuckled, and I had to fight to keep my eyes from widening as the moments of surrealness kept piling up, "Well now, I'm sure there's quite a story…" His words died off, and he took a second look at Kai, his voice turning low and contemplative. "You have eyes of the sea."

Dread settled into my stomach. Dad's acute level of observation that made him such a great scientist had also become the catalyst of his negative spirals since the accident. It didn't take much to send him in another rotation, and like clockwork, his eyes began to fog over. He was no longer staring at Kai, but through him, as his past and present wove together. He staggered forward, and Kai, the immovable mountain, actually stumbled as Dad grabbed him by the shoulders. "You have to help me find them. Please, my wife, she's pregnant. I have to find her!" he pleaded.

I tugged Kai back, stepping between them with my hands raised, "Dad, I'm right here. They didn't take us, it's okay!"

"What is he talking about?" Kai asked, looking like he wanted to pull me back himself. I shook off the hand he rested on my shoulder.

"I have to go, I have to find them. Ironheart will kill them! He'll kill my wife, my baby girl!"

"Dad! Listen to me! Please calm down!" He was gesturing wildly, his eyes stained with pure terror. I felt completely useless. I couldn't leave him alone to get his medication. I didn't even know what he was currently taking, if any of it would bring him back from his delirium, nothing.

He stepped around me, his hand knocking a mug off of the island, and it shattered on the tiled floor in an explosion of ceramic. I tried to reach for him, but his other hand caught me under the chin, knocking my head back so fast that stars danced across the blackness that took over. I cried out as I lost my balance, rattling the cabinets I stumbled into.

Then Kai was there, standing before my dad with grim determination set into the hard angles of his face. He caught hold of his forearms, pinning them to his sides with ease. Then an aura of power suffused him in a corona, and his eyes began to burn like a neon sign. I'd only heard the low humming that echoed from the pit of his chest once before, through the crackling speakers of my laptop. But this time words flowed out of him, a silk and decadent honey that demanded to be heard.

"David, look at me. Relax." His voice was soft, as if he wasn't used to speaking when using his power.

Dad obeyed, his eyes still vacant, but listening, attuned to the vibration I was sure was echoing in his mind. A siren's song.

If Kai heard me, he didn't show it, "Return to the present. You are in your dwelling, your daughter is beside you. All is well."

I shivered, the slippery caress of his words had the drugging effect of a sedative, but it glided over my body without seeping into the skin. Dad, on the other hand, absorbed it like a sponge. The fog in his eyes lightened to a gentle mist that soon dispersed altogether.

He shook his head, removing his glasses briefly to rub at his temples with the tips of his fingers, "My apologies, son. Who are you again?" he asked, sounding woozy.

I pushed myself off the wall, rubbing my aching jaw. "He was just leaving. It's getting late."

He glanced at the clock, "Right, of course." he muttered under his breath, "Must've stayed up late last night," Then he shook his head again, starting for the stairs, "I'll be off, then. It was nice meeting you."

Kai nodded. "You as well."

I slung my arm through his, but Dad just chuckled, disentangling us. "Don't concern yourself with me, starfish. I can make it to my room." He climbed the stairs, calling over his shoulder. "You should get that welt on your chin checked out. You've gotta be more careful when you"re swimming."

I listened for the sound of his door opening, then shutting again, before my legs gave out. Kai caught me before I collapsed on the kitchen floor, carrying me to the couch where he sat me on his lap and held me through the tremors. I thought I was too shocked for tears, but they came anyway.

For a moment, I'd had him back, a brief glimpse past the haze of his paranoia. It had been like stepping into the Twilight Zone, into a world that no longer existed. Had he had more lucid moments, ones that I'd missed while hiding at Cee's house? Had he wondered where I was, or asked Becca about me? She'd told me he was starting a new medication. Apparently it was working, but it still wasn't enough to bring him back to us.

No, only Kai had been able to do that.

When my shaking finally subsided, I realized I was snuggling up to Kai like his chest was a heated blanket. I jerked back, but he wasn't looking at me, nor the tears and sniffles that had left a dark patch on his shirt. His gaze was on the stairs, the hallway above lit only by the setting sun creeping in from the shuttered windows. When his eyes finally met my own, there was no pity in them, and I realized he was content to just hold me like this, to comfort me, for as long as I needed. It fractured some stone-walled piece inside me.

"Thank you for helping him." I rasped.

Kai nodded, placing a finger under my chin to tilt my head up. I winced as it pulled on the sensitive skin.

"I'll have to ice it, so it doesn't swell," I muttered.

"Where is it?" Kai asked, shifting me onto the soft couch cushion as he stood. It was cold compared to the heat of his body.

I shook my head, rising as well. "I'll get it. You don't know your way around a human kitchen."

"Teach me," he insisted. I could see that curiosity returning, a look I knew all too well. I showed him the fridge and freezer, pointing out the difference in temperature to explain where the food went. It was bizarre explaining this to someone who, for all intents and purposes, looked like they should know how to work an ice tray. But the only ice he was familiar with was up north and melting faster than you could say ‘polar bear'.

Resting the dishcloth-wrapped icepack on my cheek, I winced, then sighed as the compress eased the stinging pain. Kai's eyes zeroed in on the red splotch like it personally offended him, "Has this happened before?" he asked.

"Not to me, I'm usually at Cee's house. I have no clue if he's clocked Becca, but I doubt it. She's better at handling his episodes than I am."

"Episodes?"

"My dad is…not well, mentally." I hesitated. "He's been to several therapists, CT scans, even a few clinical trials for medication—" I backtracked at his confused expression, "remedies in our world that are supposed to help him heal, only nothing's worked so far." Not until now, until… "What did you do to him?"

"It's another ability of mine." Kai began slowly. "Like my appearance. I can alter my voice, use it to alter the mind, if it is pliable enough."

"That's what you did to those scientists," His eyes glowed like they had on the video, but the power came from his voice. A true siren's song, straight out of the legends like Dennis had hypothesized. I scrunch my nose at that, loathe to acknowledge he was right about something.

Kai nodded. "It is less powerful in this form, as are my other abilities. The effects may not last long, but it should still help."

"Why?" The question was out before I could stop it. And the answer in his eyes was a chisel to my already cracking foundations. I looked away, my conversation with Cee coming to the forefront but I managed to keep my thoughts to myself. Don't get involved, he has to go back, "Well, whatever you did, you helped him. Thank you."

Kai nodded again, a strange grimace on his face. I assumed gratitude was as foreign a concept as his powers were to me. But it was quickly replaced by an inquisitive curiosity. "He said you were taken?"

I was hoping he would have dismissed that as part of Dad's nonsensical ramblings. "No, not really. It was more like a failed home invasion." I was still a free-loading fetus who had no say and certainly no control in the events of that night. We were living in Florida and Mom had managed to fight off her attackers until the cops arrived, but the stress sent her into premature labor. I remember asking Becca about it once, years later, and she said Dad went into panic-mode, packed and shipped us clean across the country to live with her. "It was a long time ago."

"Little star—"

"You should get back to Cee's." I cut in. I was not going to pour out my life story like I was back with my childhood therapist. Though considering the chaotic and potentially traumatizing events of the last forty-eight hours, looking for a new one might not be a bad idea.

A hungry rumbling has us both glancing at his stomach. The tension eased from the room as fast as it had developed, we burst out laughing.

"Okay fine, I suppose I could feed you dinner as a reward for your heroics," I teased.

"Yes I'm quite famished considering the only thing I've had to eat in the last two days is your energy."

I put a hand to my chest. "Was my life force not satisfying enough to sustain you?"

"Oh, it was satisfying, little star." Kai said, running his thumb over his bottom lip. The things he could do with those lips, that I could do to them. If he bit down I was going to lose my mind.

"Let me go check on him," I said, grasping for the railing, and reality, somewhere behind me. "Dinner's gonna take a while, but there are cans of tuna in the pantry while you wait. Just pull on the tab to open the lid."

Damn, I was such a coward, but confronting the feelings that pumped through the traitorous organ that circulated my blood would have to wait.

I heard the pantry door open as I started up the stairs. There was some brief rummaging then, and Kai called out. "The food is in these cans?"

"That's right," I called back. "And there are forks in the metal rack behind you."

I poked my head into Dad's room. He was curled under the covers, unmoving except for the steady rise and fall of his chest. The sun was still on a descent, the rays of light just barely kissing the horizon, and the orange glow crept across the covers, like a lover reaching for his outstretched hand. Satisfied that he was okay for now, I gave Becca a ring to fill her in.

"I'm glad he's okay." She sounded frazzled. Knowing Becca, she was probably holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder, clipboard in one hand, her third cup of coffee in the other. "Did he hurt himself?"

"No."

"Did he hurt you?" she pressed.

"No." I lied, rubbing my chin. The ice had stopped the swelling, but it would still be sore for a few days.

"Alright, they asked me to work a double so I may be missing dinner, after all. You're sure you're okay staying in?"

"Kai and I have it covered, Becca. Don't worry, I won"t burn the house down."

"Kai, huh?" I could hear the smirk in her voice, the same teasing tone.

"Don't start unless you're prepared for retaliation." I warned her.

"You've got nothing on me! Unless Cee has another cousin around my age." Her laughter traveled down the line, echoing my own.

We said our goodbyes and hung up just as my feet hit the bottom of the stairs. I turned back towards the kitchen, stopping short at the entrance to take in the sight before me.

Kai was leaning against the counter, digging into a can of Otto's tuna pate. The orange beast was weaving furry figure-eights between his legs, purring and chittering for his dinner.

"You have a strange creature in your house," Kai commented, spooning another mouthful past his lips.

Scrunching my nose, I muttered. "You have no idea."