Riyah’s Song

Riyah twisted in front of the floor-length mirror, admiring the inky black dress. The sleeveless satin bodice hugged her torso while the long skirt billowed around her. Her 3-D printed pistol loaded with silver bullets and a silver knife were strapped to her leg, hidden beneath the heavy material. A Kevlar layer in the bodice and an underskirt designed to deceive a metal detector added to the weight. A pair of black stilettos finished off the outfit.

“Wow, just wow. You look stunning,” Seraphina said as she leaned against the doorframe. “I mean, you always look amazing, but that dress suits you.”

“So it looks better than when I’m sitting around watching football wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt?” Riyah laughed as she tucked a lock of her raven hair that had fallen from the updo behind her ear.

Her lifemate shrugged. “You look sexy in anything you wear, but especially the yoga pants.”

“It's the siren blood,” she insisted.

“It's you,” Sera said, kissing her cheek.

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a man wearing a severe expression. He unlocked the case cuffed to his wrist, opening it to display a diamond necklace and earrings that were probably worth more than Riyah’s annual salary.

“Are we sure this is necessary?” Riyah asked nervously. “I can't afford to replace these if something happens to them.”

The man gave her a tight smile that didn't meet his eyes. “They are insured, but it could potentially affect your pension if they were to be lost or damaged.”

Riyah gently touched the necklace as it glittered against her honey-colored skin. It was beautiful, but not her style. She preferred her opal and black pearl choker. It was a powerful gift from her grandmother that Riyah rarely wore, but she cherished it all the same.

“Well, I guess this is it then,” she said, trying to convince herself she was ready for the mission. Riyah had served on the Fae Police Force for years, mainly investigating crimes committed against the various Fae Folk living in the human world. It would be her first time going undercover.

Riyah’s biggest flaw was second-guessing herself. Was she really going to be able to hobnob with the wealthiest people in the city and convince them that she was an heiress?

Seraphina smiled at her. She could read Riyah’s moods and always lifted her up. “You got this. You’ll be fine.” She pulled her FPD cap on and double-checked the fit of her bulletproof vest. “I’ll be right outside. You’ll have a mike and earpiece. If it all goes to hell, say the word. You know, I’ll be the first one there.”

Riyah nodded and grinned at her. She didn't know what she had done to deserve someone like Sera. They meshed so well together. More often than not, they spent their time off lounging on the couch. Sera preferred to wear sweats and baggy t-shirts when she wasn't in uniform. When they did go out, she donned a knit hat or diligently styled her light brown hair to cover the points of her ears. Not even the oversized clothes could hide her ethereal Elven beauty.

Sera gave her a quick kiss before leaving the room. With Seraphina at her back, Riyah knew she would be fine. She was the most accurate sharpshooter on the force.

As the limo drove toward her destination, Riyah reviewed the details of the assignment in her head. The aquarium seemed a strange place for a fete, but the facility’s largest benefactor took a particular interest in it. So much so that the FPD heard whispers of a secret special exhibit deep in the bowels of the aquarium - one that involved the unlawful trafficking of Fae sea creatures. Riyah’s instructions for the night were to gain access to the hidden display and report back.

Riyah walked up to the front doors with more confidence than she felt. She had to smile at the last of the visitors trickled out, faces displaying varying degrees of exhaustion and astonishment.

One little boy, in particular, was talking rapidly about the sharks while his younger sister cried inconsolably, wanting to watch the fishies more.

Riyah took a deep breath as an attendant led her into a room full of people in the finest attire. The bluish light from the surrounding floor-to-ceiling fish tanks gave an eerie glow to the party. She would much rather spend the evening watching the multitude of colorful tropical fish than make small talk.

She received some looks of appreciation and many stares of downright jealousy that turned into near worship once the attendant introduced her as the heir to a shipping mogul.

It was exhausting interacting with everyone there, and her feet were killing her, but it paid off in the end. Crispin VonHargut, the subject of the investigation, took a special interest in Riyah and her family’s shipping business. She found herself one of a handful of people invited to take a special tour.

Riyah followed the others into the shark tunnel, now only illuminated by emergency lighting strips along the floor. Flashes of grey moved around them in the dark blue water. Riyah, so apprehensively entranced by the predators surrounding her, nearly missed the rest of her party slip through a darkened doorway.

The door led into a glass tube elevator that traveled down through the water. Riyah was both terrified and exhilarated, as well as a bit claustrophobic. That surprised her. She had never been bothered by enclosed spaces before.

Riyah was relieved to step out of the elevator but soon found herself fighting back the tears. Fae creatures trapped behind glass surrounded her.

A green-scaled mermaid approached Riyah. Several other merfolk swam listlessly behind her. She must have recognized Riyah as a fellow Fae. She pressed her fingers to the glass with a pleading look in her black eyes. Riyah forced a mildly curious expression on her face and turned away.

There was another display only half filled with water. Riyah was shocked to see a red-haired man sitting naked on a pile of rock and sand. He glanced at her mournfully before wrapping an animal skin around himself and diving into the water. The man transformed into a seal before her eyes.

“A selkie!” Riyah exclaimed just loud enough for her mike to pick up. Sera was among the voices in the undetectable earpiece uttering swear words.

Riyah turned her attention to the conversation ahead of her.

“You have Nessie?” one of the men said in a giddy voice. A long dark shape floated in an enormous tank.

VonHargut bellowed out a deep chuckle. “No. No. We haven't been able to get our hands on the Loch Ness Monster - yet. No. This beauty came from a lake in Chile.”

Further down the aisle, yet another talk held an impossibly large squidlike creature.

“I don't believe it. A Kracken!” an older woman said with a delighted grin.

“Well, that’s a baby Kracken,” VonHargut replied with another hearty laugh. “We’ll need to expand quite a bit as that one grows. Not to mention the space we’ll need when Miss Kensington’s ships start bringing us more specimens.”

Riyah forced out a small laugh. “Well, they are still my father's ships at the moment, but he makes a hobby of searching for these monstrosities when he's out on his yacht.” Her stomach clenched as she uttered the words. She hoped that none of the captives could hear her. “I believe he would be amenable to joining your venture.”

“What's in this tank, Crispin?” another of the guests asked. “It looks empty.”

VonHargut turned away from Riyah. “Ah, that is an undine. She’s a shy one. If you look closely, you’ll see her in that corner. Anytime she's in the water, she becomes nearly invisible.”

Riyah could barely make out a female form as the water gently flowed around it. The undine’s hands covered her face as if she was sobbing in despair.

She remained quiet for the remainder of the tour as the group wound their way through the tanks of water sprites and faeries. Riyah was surprised to see a kelpie in the collection. It would have been a difficult and dangerous feat to capture the water horse.

Later, Riyah kicked her shoes off with a sigh as the limo drove away from the aquarium. The FPD officer in the driver’s seat nodded at her through the open screen.

“Sounds like it was quite the party,” he said.

Riyah rubbed at her eyes, but she could no longer hold back the tears. “I am going to get every single one of them out of there if it's the last thing I do.”

“Your job was to gather intel. Let Special Forces take over from here,” he replied.

“I didn't rise through the ranks to become a detective by letting others do the hard part, Frank. I'm going to request to be a part of the extraction team.” she insisted.

Riyah was not a patient person, especially when it involved Fae abuse. The time it took to get through the red tape and move in to arrest VonHargut was excruciating.

Sera grabbed Riyah’s shoulders as she paced restlessly. They finally had the clearance to go in, but it felt like everyone was moving in slow motion getting their gear together.

“Deep breaths. You need a clear head going into this.” Seraphina said.

Riyah closed her eyes, trying to tamp down the anger. She felt like she was filled with ire since venturing down into the secret aquarium. “You didn't see them. They were suffering. Everyone thinks the Fae are dangerous, but it's humans who are evil. They brought us to this.”

“You know that's not entirely true. There have been plenty of innocent humans who have been victim to the wiles of less scrupulous Fae. But no one deserves to be held and put on display like that.” she replied.

Riyah sighed and let Sera double-check her tactical gear. She fingered her pearl choker. It wasn't something she usually wore for work, but her grandmother had given it to her for a reason. Riyah felt that she might need it for this operation.

The FPD Special Forces would split into three teams. One would go to VonHargut’s palatial home to make the arrest. A second team would go to his office for the same purpose in case he wasn't home. Even keeping the man under surveillance, there was always a chance he had slipped past them. The third team would infiltrate the aquarium to rescue the captive creatures. Riyah and Sera were in the third group.

There was no way they could take an extraction team into the aquarium unnoticed. As expected, there was a flurry of activity as the panicked patrons fled the building. Once it was clear, Riyah led the team through the shark tunnel.

Riyah had to smile when she heard Sera whisper, “It would be sharks.” She knew her lifemate had a deep-seated fear of the razor-toothed fish.

“You might want to close your eyes for this next part,” she replied while a child-sized faerie used his control over electricity to negate the passcode on the nearly invisible door leading to the elevator.

“VonHargut is a sadist,” Seraphina exclaimed as they slowly descended into the watery depths.

Riyah felt a breathtaking pain as a bullet slammed into her vest as soon as the elevator door opened. VonHargut was standing there with a gun pointed at them and a crazed look on his face.

“You!” he hissed. “I’ll have to admit; I didn't expect you to be the mole.”

A second bullet zinged past her, narrowly missing the rest of the team to wedge itself into the frame of the elevator before he turned and fled. They were lucky. An inch further and the glass would have shattered.

Sera and the others surged out of the elevator in pursuit. Riyah followed, still trying to catch her breath. She found them with VonHargut cornered near an environmental control panel.

“You might have caught me, but you’ll never take them out of here alive,” he cried, aiming his gun at the panel.

Sera shot VonHargut in the heart, but not before he pulled the trigger. He fell to the ground with a fiendish smile even as the light faded from his eyes.

Riyah thought VonHargut’s shot had missed at first, but she soon realized the water temperature in the tanks was rapidly rising. If they didn't get the Fae out, they would be boiled alive. A crazy idea came to her. She had one chance, but if it worked, not everyone on the team would survive it.

“Leave him!” she shouted. “I need all of you out - now!”

“Riyah?” Sera began to ask.

Riyah shook her head. “I’ll be fine - I think. Just go back upstairs and get out of the building.”

As soon as the last of them disappeared up the elevator shaft, Riyah took a deep, albeit painful, breath. She reached up to caress the opal in the center of the choker. It would work to amplify her power.

Then Riyah began to sing. The glass tanks started to shake as her voice rose higher and higher. The pipes above her burst, sending torrents of cold water into the room.

She sang on as cracks appeared in the tanks. Riyah turned her focus on a weak point in the aquarium’s outer wall. That would create access to the ocean. She could feel the temperature difference as the water from the tanks joined that from the pipes, now reaching her chest. One last surge of her voice and the wall crumbled.

Riyah changed her song to one of serenity to calm the captives in the chaos. The selkie took his human form and helped her herd the others through the hole in the wall to freedom.

The pressure of the water became too much for Riyah to fight. The force of her song left her too tired to hold on. She let the flow carry her down into the waves below. She wasn't scared. Sirens could breathe underwater as well as any of the creatures she had freed.

Riyah soon discovered that her bulletproof gear was too heavy for her to swim to the surface. Her fingers fumbled to undo the straps. Suddenly she was surrounded by merfolk. The female who had pleaded for rescue smiled and began helping her remove the vest. The others unlaced her reinforced boots. Once Riyah was free, the female hugged her before swimming with her toward the daylight filtering through the ocean.

Riyah clambered onto the rocks and flopped onto her back in exhaustion. She could see the rest of the extraction team carefully descending the cliffside, Seraphina in the lead.

“I am Bahari. Thank you for releasing us,” the mermaid said in a lilting voice.

“I was just doing my job,” Riyah replied. “There’s no way I could leave any of the folk in that situation. I'm sorry it took so long.”

“All that matters is that you cared enough to succeed. You will always have our gratitude. Any time you find yourself in need of help in the seas, we will answer your call.” Bahari said, handing Riyah a conical shell before sinking back into the water.

Riyah sat up as the kelpie surfaced in her place, cautious of his intent. Still, she’d always wanted a kelpie when she was a child. She grinned when he craned forward to nuzzle her. Riyah threw her arms around his neck. “You're welcome. Oh, I wish I could keep you, but I live In the center of the city, too far from the shore.”

“Oh wow,” Sera’s voice came from behind her. “Aren’t you majestic?”

The kelpie shook out his watery main proudly after Riyah released him. He dove back into the ocean and disappeared from sight.

Riyah looked at Seraphina. “Before you start, I’m fine, aside from the massive bruise I can already feel on my chest. I know the bullet would have been much worse, but even with the best, it hurts like hell when you get hit.”

Sera kissed her with more passion than usual in front of their coworkers. “I am so proud of you. A little terrified, but so very proud.”

As they made their way back up the cliff, Riyah saw the selkie raise his hand in gratitude before plunging into the waves.

A few days later, Riyah stood at attention before her boss. Sera was by her side in solidarity.

“Do you know how much damage you caused? The aquarium will be closed for repairs for months.” Captain Jada Lopez growled.

Riyah didn't take Jada’s tone to heart. She was a werewolf. Most things she said came out in a growl. “Yes, Captain. I’m sorry. I couldn't see any other way to save their lives.”

The Captain sighed. “At least there was minimal damage to the tanks on the main level. It was mostly some cracks in the shark habitat. None of the fish or other sea life sustained harm.”

Riyah nodded but chose not to say anything else. She wanted to see where this was going. If the Captain was going to reprimand her, she was willing to take any punishment doled out, but she would not apologize for her actions.

She was surprised when Jada gave her a wolfy grin. “Despite that, my superiors have decided to promote you. Congratulations, Sergeant Isandi.”

The smile Sera shot her said she knew this was coming. She looked on proudly as Captain Lopez pinned her new rank to her dress uniform. Riyah was then dragged to the reception waiting for her. As happy as she was to be surrounded by her friends and colleagues, the whole experience paled compared to what she had felt watching the captive Fae swim away.