Thawing His Heart

“What the hell did you say to her!” Nuala was shocked to hear Richella had left.

She knew Richella wasn’t too keen to be in bird form unless she needed to be, so for her to change to get away from her brother meant things were worse than Nuala thought.

“You told me to face my fears. I did, and they flew away.” Nuada said as he sat down.

“The fear the Orikal meant wasn’t Richella, its love Silverlance.” Nuala was tired of explaining.

Nuala sat down on the bed to try to work out what to do next. She was glad her brother had heard her when she explained the Orikal’s words. He would never openly admit he was afraid of love but by the way he rushed out of his room to see Richella was enough for Nuala to know he had heard her. Now she saw she needed to do some work on Richella.

As she was thinking about what to do next the alarms went off in the building. Nuala and her brother ran out into the hall and saw agents rushing towards the board room. They joined in the rush down the halls.

“What’s going on?” Nuada asked an agent as he passed by,

“Richella landed on the back lawn and said to sound the alarms. She’s meeting us all in the big board room.” The agent panted back.

Nuada’s chest got tight and he had to slow his pace to get his breath back. Richella needed the alarms sounded? A thousand scenarios rushed through his head. One thought being of a hunter pointing his gun at a very strange bird in the sky. That thought made him regain his speed. He made it to the boardroom just as Richella did. She looked upset but physically unhurt.

“Are you ok?” Nuada asked on impulse.

“Yeah. You’re going to want to be here for this. I may need you.” Richella answered then made her way into the board room.

The room was packed. The head agents were standing around a long table in the center of the room, with other agents, mostly human, packed in behind them. Maps and various pictures made up the pattern of the table. Richelle slipped in between Krauss and Liz. Nuada found his sister a little ways off and stood by her.

“There is a group of mermaids and selkies who have attacked a fishing vessel just off the coastline.” Richella explained pointing to a location on the map. “I didn’t stick around to get details.”

“Numbers?” Krauss asked harshly.

“Enough. They will have that entire crew at the bottom of the ocean without much effort. If it’s escalating as fast as it was when I left we need to get as many agents as we can out there NOW.” Richella explained.

“Agent Carlos…” Krauss began to give orders.

“No humans.” Richella interrupted. “They will be useless within 100 yard of those mermaids.”

“And your plan is?” Krauss sneered.

“I’ll go in with Abe and try to talk to them. Figure out what the actual issue is, then we will report back to you on the speeder.” Richella explained and pointed to a picture of the boat the BPRD used for high speed chases at sea.

“Very well. To the dock and we will meet agent Richella and agent Abe at the scene.” Krauss conceded.

Nuada could feel Nuala’s worry build as the plan was hatched. No, he was worried too. He cursed the Orikal for releasing these emotions in him. He could have easily blamed Nuala for the worry before the Orikal had challenged him to face his fears. Now he had to admit he was worried for Richella. Mermaids could be vicious and devious. Selkies were usually even tempered but if they were in the fight there was a damn good reason for it.

“I need you to go with Krauss and the others.” Nuada heard Richella say.

He was surprised to see she had said it to him and not his sister.

“Yes they will listen to their king.” Nuada answered absentmindedly.

“No. I need someone on my side. I think this may be more a human violation. Selkies don’t fight for nothing.” Richella’s eyes were filled with worry.

“Of course.” Nuada turned to follow the others to the boat.

Richella was relieved he hadn’t asked questions. The bureau was so use to keeping the fae in check they forgot humans now had rules to follow too. She needed Nuada to throw a fit along with her to keep them from pushing the mermaids and selkies away without hearing their side of the story. She hoped with her getting there first she could work on finding out their story too.

The minute she stepped onto the lawn she flipped shapes and made her way to the ship under attack.

She had been right; the attack was well underway by now. It didn’t look like an attack however. It looked like a love feast. The sailors were all leaning over the edges of the ship helping Selkies onto the deck. A few seal pelts lay on the deck of the ship and the women that stepped out of them found a sailor to distract. The other sailors were listening to the mermaids sing to them as a fellow crewman dropped over the edge of the ship occasionally.

Richella winced as she saw the same blank smiles human men constantly gave her. She found a life boat filled with sailors rowing to meet the mermaids. As she swooped in the men jumped over the edge in horror.

“Veela’s!? We hadn’t even thought to ask you for help.” A blond mermaid purred at Richella.

“Stop the attack and I can help more.” Richella explained as she shifted shapes.

“I can’t do that.” The blonde glared back at her.

“Then find the mer who can and bring her here.” Richella shot back.

The blond flipped a fin annoyed and went off to find their leader. Richella could hear the hum of the BPRD’s boat coming in. They were still a ways off but she needed more time.

“Abe?” Richella called out.

“Yes?” Abe came up from the water.

“Hold Krauss off a little longer. Tell him I’m apprehending the leader or something.” Richella pleaded.

Abe went back under. He would do it. He understood her sympathies towards the fae, plus he may be married to their queen one day so he walked a fine line.

“I’d like to see you apprehend me.” said a red headed mermaid.

“Call off the attack and talk to me. I know you hear the BPRD coming. I can talk to them if you talk to me.” Richella explained quickly.

“I know who you are. You’re that veela raised by humans, turned BPRD whore.” The red head spat back.

“I’m going to pretend you’re not a bitch because I need to know why you’re attacking these humans.” Richella responded.

“Humans? Murderers more like.” The red head snapped.

“That’s a start. Tell me why you think they are murderers and I can have an excuse to bring them in instead of you.” Richella begged.

“BPRD bringing humans in? I don’t think we’re talking about the same police state.” The leader said.

“No we are. I promise I’m just trying to make this process fair. Please!” Richella begged.

The leader glared back at her. Luckily she decided to trust Richella. She didn’t call off the attack but she explained that the humans had over fished their allotted areas. They had then moved into mermaid area and were catching mermaids and selkies in their nets. Not to mention depleting the food sources.

Richella felt the tingle come up her back as she listened to the story. When she had heard enough she let the anger over take her and pushed off into the air. She flew straight to the ship and picked the captain up in her talons. The mermaids cheered and the sailors were temporarily torn away from the seduction happening below. The captain was screaming underneath her but all she could hear were the cries of mermaids killed in fishing nets. She squeezed her talons tighter around the captain.

The BPRD boat was 2 wing flaps away and she dropped the captain on the deck flowed by her own human form.

“This is the reason for the attack.” Richella yelled pointing a newly changed finger at the man.

The captain looked dazed, but was quickly changing his open mouth into a smile as he fell under the veela magic.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Krauss asked.

“The fishermen have over stepped their boarder. They are fishing in mermaid territory and murdering mermaids in their nets!” Richella explained.

“Murder? No they have come to welcome us to their waters.” The captain smiled back at her.

Richella glared at the man. She would love to throw him back to the mermaids.

“We have no proof of those claims agent Richella. The mermaids are in fact attacking this ship in human waters. We must respond to that.” Krauss replied motioning to the men to race into the fight.

“Don’t you dare move.” Richella hissed at the men who had responded to Krauss’ order.

“Agent Richella you are not in charge here. She’s getting to be as bad as agent Hellboy.” Krauss warned.

“This agency consistently ignores the fae’s issues. I will not let you do it now.” Richella hissed back.

“What can you do?” Krauss laughed back.

“Well she’s got an army of mermaids and selkies right over there.” Nuada stepped forward.

Richella breathed a sigh of relief to see Nuada step in. He looked even more handsome to her in her hour of need. He stepped next to her and she felt ten feet taller. She smiled at him then turned back to face the rest of the agents.

“I have been begging you to be more democratic about the issues we resolve since the day I got here. Now we all know I have no special love for humans and neither does Nuada but that is not what this is about. This is about realizing there are rules the humans have to be held accountable to. Only then can we truly live in harmony.” Richella mustered all her strength.

Nuada could only stare. She was sticking up for his people, and it was hot. He had always used might and fighting power to counter the humans, but he could see what she was saying was sinking in better than the threat of a mermaid uprising. Krauss had turned to talk to Hellboy and the other agents. Richella stood tall next to him and he had to fight the urge to step closer and let his arm brush hers.

“We can start an investigation but the attack needs to stop.” Krauss finally turned and told them.

Richella immediately stepped to the edge of the boat and shifted.