I took in a huge gasp of air, then let it all go in a sigh of relief as I pulled myself out of the ocean for possibly the last time. Dragging my icy blue tail behind me, I laid back on the sand, letting raindrops collect on my face. 

I had no plan. No home. No friends. No family. Now what, Malik? I asked myself. You’re gonna die here. 

My red blood spilled from various cuts and gashes all over my rich umber arms and torso. My icy blue fish tail had a torn tail fin, and I was missing some scales. I thought I wouldn’t survive, especially when a figure loomed over me. I wanted to move, but I was too numb and exhausted. 

When the stranger held an umbrella above me to block the rain, I became very confused. The man kneeled down, and a beautiful, young face came into view. He had black hair, a chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, full lips, and the red eyes of a vampire. I grew up learning about how cruel vampires were. 

As the man asked if I was okay, my fight or flight kicked in and I quickly sat up, grabbing my sharp turret snail shell from the side pocket in my duffel bag. I swung it at him before he had time to react. I was rewarded with a cry of pain as he gripped his forearm where I cut into his skin. 

I used the moment of distraction to start army crawling away, gritting my teeth as I got grains of sand embedded into my arms, their cuts burning as if I was crawling over hot coals. 

“Wait!” The man called. His voice was like velvet, though I could barely hear it over the rain and waves. Even as I tried to crawl as fast as I could, he still caught up to me. He stepped around my weak body on the ground and now stood directly in front of me. I only had a good view of his fancy shoes, as I was still trying to crawl on my stomach. 

I wanted to bring out my legs so I could run away, but I couldn’t do that until I was dry. With the rain soaking into my scales, that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. 

“Please don’t be afraid,” the stranger spoke again. “My name is Virgil, and I want to help you. How did you end up here?” 

His face seemed vaguely familiar. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was famous. A lot of vampires were. “I don’t need your help,” I spat. He seemed friendly enough, but I wasn’t gonna let that fool me. 

“Come on, you’ll bleed out if you don’t take care of those wounds. I’m getting tired of smelling your blood. Besides, you’re attracting every vampire and every werewolf in the damn city, they’ll tear you apart. Let’s go.” He wasn’t asking anymore, he was demanding. 

“What makes you different from them? You just want my blood all to yourself!” I retorted.

“I don’t want your blood, kid. I don’t drink from live sources, I use blood bags. I’m strongly against using people. Are you coming, or am I gonna have to drag you?” I could tell this man was losing his patience. He tried to be friendly, but this must be the real him. 

I was about to refuse again, when another figure approached from the rainy fog. “I smell blood,” the man called. “Is it yours, vampire? Or can I take it?” As he moved close, he flashed long vampire fangs and crazed red eyes. 

“It’s mine. You touch it, you die.” He spoke bluntly, his words causing the other man to falter before he chuckled. As he kept moving closer, now only ten feet away, I could see how heavily-built he really was. The man supposedly trying to save me, Virgil, as he called himself, was much shorter and smaller, though still muscular.

“What are you gonna do, puny vampire?” He chuckled again, his deep voice sending uncomfortable shivers down my spine. 

“Fuck around and find out,” Virgil looked confident, evident in his cocky smirk and challenging eyes. 

The larger vampire took the bait, taking one more step closer, though he never made it farther than that. With a flick of Virgil’s wrist, the man was down. He felt to his knees, taking in little bursts of air in painful wheezes as he was choked by an invisible source. He didn’t have to suffer for long, as Virgil snapped his fingers. The snap was accompanied by a sickening crunch as the man’s neck craned in an unnatural way. He dropped dead in seconds. 

I had never felt such fear before. There were times when I was escaping sharks, merfolk hunters, giant squids, angler fish. None of that could’ve prepared me for watching a man’s neck snap and bend right before my eyes. I looked away right after his body dropped, grimacing as my mind replayed that awful crunch, over and over. 

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Virgil’s voice was a little gentler now. “If you just come with me, we won’t run into any more issues like him.” 

“I-I can’t move while my tail is out,” I stuttered, my voice trembling pathetically. 

Virgil thought for a moment before he lit up with an idea. “I have towels! Can I carry you to my car? I can’t leave you here alone, it’s not safe.” 

“O-Okay,” I looked up into the stranger’s red eyes, frowning with worry. “I’m choosing to trust you. Don’t betray my trust, or there will be consequences.” I couldn’t do much in my weakened state, but I was a capable warrior. We trained as merfolks, with our tails out and in human form. As a weaker species than some of the others, we had to make up for it somehow. 

I learned in school all about how to kill each different species. I learned about strengths and weaknesses, and where to target each one. I can kill dragons, vampires, werewolves, and any type of cat shifter. 

“I won’t betray you,” Virgil leaned down and picked me up bridal style, as if I weighed nothing. He seemed to be much stronger than he looked, it’s no wonder that other vampire thought he could get away with trying to kill me. 

As Virgil carried me away, I started to feel really dizzy. With the amount of blood I was losing, I couldn’t stay awake and eventually just fell asleep against his shoulder. I hoped he didn’t mind. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I woke up in an unfamiliar room. It looked similar to a hospital room, but more homely. There was a beeping machine sitting on my left. To my right, an IV and blood transfusion machine, with a chord that led to a needle stuck into my arm. I winced as I saw the bruise forming around it. 

“Welcome back,” Virgil stepped into the room. Taking in the confusion on my face, he spoke again. “You passed out from all the blood loss, it’s a good thing I found you when I did. I took you back to my mansion. We kind of run an operation here, for people like you. The ones who are homeless, wounded, and starving, and take them here. We treat them in the hospital wing if they need it, we feed them, clothe them, all for free. It was my husband’s idea.” 

“Husband?” I tilted my head, allowing a faint smile to touch my lips. Virgil was like me. “Is he your soulmate?” I got a nod from the vampire in confirmation. “That’s amazing!” I grinned this time, flashing my jagged teeth. “That means I have hope to get a male soulmate, too. I didn’t even know that could happen, I thought I’d have to be straight for the rest of my life.” 

“You’ve never met a pair like us before? Strange,” Virgil shrugged. “He’ll be coming in here to give you food and water soon, as well as a change of clothes. I have some other patients to tend to,” without another word, he walked away. 

It wasn’t long before the other man showed up. He was much shorter than the vampire, by at least a foot. He had fiery red hair with black roots and bright green eyes with slitted pupils. Stripy ears sat on top of his head to indicate that he was a tiger shifter. He gave me a friendly smile as he brought the supplies in. “Hi! I’m Tristan,” he set down a tray of food on the table to the right of my bed, then some folded clothes on my lap. “Why don’t you get dressed, and then you can eat. I made you some sashimi!” 

“That sounds wonderful,” I gave him a small smile.

“Tristan,” Virgil stepped into the room. “You have a shift tomorrow, right? Should I let Xander know?” 

“Yep!” Tristan bounced over to him. 

“Who’s Xander?” The name sounded strange to me, though I couldn’t explain why. The heart monitor next to me audibly sped up, not enough for the other two men to notice, but enough for me to notice. 

“He works with us, too,” Tristan looked back at me to explain. “We don’t charge people for our services, so we rely on donations. That’s not always enough, so I have a part time job to keep things going. Xander takes my place while I’m working.” 

“Interesting,” I commented. “This is quite the service you’re running,” I smiled at them, hoping they picked up on my appreciation. 

“You’re welcome,” Virgil turned and walked out again. I just laughed softly at his bluntness. Tristan sent me an apologetic smile before he walked away.

Since I was alone, I took the time to get dressed. Luckily, I was able to stand on my own legs. As a merman, I lived in the ocean most of the time. The underwater city I come from is called Leviane. Just south of the city, there’s a spread of islands, twenty-four of them to be exact, though most of them are tiny, so nobody goes there. We have bungalows set up on the main island, the biggest one in the center of them all. Those bungalows are kind of like vacation homes. Whenever the weather is nice, we stay on the surface for a while. That gives us time to train in our human forms, as well as keep our legs strong if we ever need to use them. Most people don’t like the feeling of legs, but they tolerate it anyway. I’m fortunate enough to be comfortable either way. 

Now that I’m fully clothed insead of wearing a hospital gown, I decide it’s time to eat. I practically scarfed the food down, and then drank all of the water. I don’t need to drink water to survive, but it is nice to wash down food every once in a while. 

It was dark outside, so I turned off the light in my room and hobbled into bed, taking the IV machine with me. I laid down on my back and stared at the ceiling for what felt like forever.