“That’s the medallion you gave me in your cabana in Carlsbad,” I reminded Dylan. “I was upset and dropped it on the floor of our motorhome.” I furrowed my brows as I remembered back in time. “I thought you said you found that in the ocean?” I asked him.
He winked and then shrugged. “I just told you that so you’d take it. Wren said she stole it from your mother.” He stroked my hair.
“So you knew it was really my mom’s medallion and you wanted to give it back?” I wanted to make sure I really heard him correctly.
“Yes.” He nodded.
“From finding that…” Marine continued before I could even make an opinion about what Dylan had just conveyed to me, “…Josette guessed that they had stolen you from her as a form of revenge…”
Dylan interjected, “The sirens knew that if they converted Hailey to their kind, it would humiliate the mers. To have a half mer as Hailey is convert to a siren has got to be the greatest revenge.”
“That’s exactly it,” Brigitte agreed. “But what the sisters didn’t realize is that you are now more powerful than them. You have the powers of both a siren and a mer.”
“That means you are stronger than Wren, Lyra, and Gia,” Dylan said to me. You don’t have to come up for air to breath! You have the powers of a fish and a bird.” He sounded very excited.
I rolled my eyes, finding the entire situation overwhelming. My heart kept aching at the mention of my mother’s name. I missed her and my father so much. I had no idea how to use those powers and what I wanted most was to just be a normal, average girl again.
“We love you,” my mother’s cousins said in unison. “And no matter what, we will stick by you.”
“I don’t want to be with the triplets,” I said, trying to keep from crying. “I want to go back home and I want to take Dylan with me.”
They all looked at each other and nodded. “You can leave the sirens, Hailey, but Dylan cannot,” Laurent said.
“What do you mean?” I asked astounded.
He continued, “Because you are siren and mer, you can leave your flock and join in a sacred covenant with the mers if you desire. The covenant will dismantle the energy force that keeps you from leaving your flock by yourself. You have a choice. But because Dylan is purely siren, he is unable to separate from them and the energy field that binds.”
Nausea rushed over me; Dylan’s face went pale. “I can’t leave Dylan,” I said. “There must be another way.”
“There is,” Pascal added staring at us with his intense blue eyes. “If you kill the sisters, Dylan and their other slaves will be freed.”
I looked at Dylan, my eyes filled with wonder of the possibilities. His expression was unreadable. “What should we do, Dylan?”
“You should go with your mother’s cousins. Go back to your family,” he said sternly.
I felt so sick inside. “No, I’ll never leave you,” I breathed as I threw myself against him.
He took my face in his hands and looked me in the eyes. “Your parents need you.”
“No, no…” My heart ached. I shook my head in bewilderment. “I’ll never leave you with the sirens. They’re horrible, horrible… They should be stopped from killing more innocent people.”
“Do mers eat human beings?” Dylan asked my mother’s cousins.
“Most mers do,” Laurent explained. “But we are a particular school that usually does not.”
“Usually?” Dylan asked.
“Sometimes we lose control,” he continued. “Most of the time we feed on raw meat or live sea creatures. That sustains us.”
“Can a siren do that?” I asked anxiously.
“I don’t know,” Laurent said in his musical voice. “I don’t think they have ever tried. But because of your mer ancestry, you should be able to do so with practice.”
“It’s not easy though,” Marine added in her husky voice that came so naturally to her. “We’ll help you though, Hailey. We’ll teach you things.”
“It gets easier,” Brigitte said, touching her long neck lightly. I got the feeling she was remembering back to a time when the challenge was greater. “When I first tried to refrain myself from eating human flesh, I thought I was going to die, but as I practiced the process became easier.”
“But we don’t want to mislead you,” Laurent said putting his fingertips against his temples. “You will always want humans, no matter what.”
I missed my mother and father terribly, but the idea of leaving Dylan was too crushing to bare. “I want to kill the sirens,” I whispered to Dylan. “Then you will be free and they will be stopped from killing more human beings.” I thought about how much I hated them for taking me from my family and tricking me into being one of them. And how much pain they had brought upon my family. They deserved to die. “I know it will be dangerous, but we have to do it.”
Dylan tilted his head back and laughed at the stars. I still couldn’t figure out what was going through his mind. What was he doing? “Not a good idea,” he said to me with a smirk on his stunning face. He sounded almost crazed. “Go with your family. You have a way out.” His eyes looked almost maniacal.
“Come on, Hailey,” Brigitte sang, holding out her hand.
The other mers nodded, moving closer in on me.
“No!” I protested. “Stop it, Dylan. Stop!”
I moved closer to him, but he backed away. “Go, Hailey—I don’t want you anymore,” he growled through gritted teeth.
I grabbed onto him, but he pushed me back. “Go!” he commanded. His nostrils were flared and his eyes widened with anger. At once, his body started to transform.
Laurent and Pascal pulled me away. “Stop!” I screamed.
But then, to my utter shock, the mers faces started to change as well. Laurent and Pascal released me as their eyes turned a demonic pale blue. Their faces elongated and her teeth grew into incisors like that of a shark. I could still tell who they were, but they looked much more like monsters than sirens did!
Before I had a chance to figure out what to do, I realized my body was changing too. It was a natural defense, I presumed.
All at once, Dylan burst out of the water, his enormous stone blue wings flapping. I flew out of the ocean too. I wasn’t going to let him get away from me. In pursuit, I followed behind as he soared through the night sky.
We flew as far as Venice Beach where we landed on the trashcans in and alley. Without hesitation, our bodies transformed back. We jumped down rattling the lids as we landed on the asphalt.
“Why didn’t you stay with the mers?” Dylan asked, his voice tinged with accusation. “I told you to go back to your parents.”
“I said I can’t leave you.” My voice was laced with emotion.
He shook his head. “Stupid girl. Stupid girl.” His nostrils were flared.
“Stop it, Dylan. Please.” I grabbed ahold of his shoulder, but he pulled away gruffly.
“Go,” he demanded, throwing his chin up cockily.
“I’m staying with you,” I insisted, brushing the windblown hair out of my face.
He seemed to ignore me as he stormed away through the alley toward the beach, limping lightly as he went.
I chased after him. “Wait,” I called out without recognition.
He started to run down the boardwalk toward nearby Santa Monica Beach as I pursued him. There were homeless people sitting against the closed storefronts and graffiti covered buildings smoking dope and hanging out. One teenage guy with a spray painted mohawk threw a can at me.
Immediately, Dylan turned around and ran over to the guy, pulling him up off the ground. He kicked him hard in the side and then started wailing his fists into his face. The guy was cursing the whole time, trying to fight back, but his strength didn’t compare to Dylan’s.
“Lay off…Lay off me… I give up,” the guy finally called out as he wiggled his way out from under Dylan, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand as he backed away. But then, the guy’s eyes grew fierce an
d he charged at him again.
The other stoners just sat there staring at him, not even helping their friend. Dylan threw him to the ground and kicked him a few more times until the guy rolled over on his stomach and groaned. With that, Dylan grabbed me up into his arms hardly stopping as he ran.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Don’t want to close my eyes, don’t want to fall asleep, because I’d miss you, baby, and I don’t want to miss a thing –AEROSMITH
Before I could even process fully what had just happened, we were near the end of the boardwalk in Santa Monica. Dylan ran up the stairs that led to the pier. He set me down by the Ferris wheel of the closed amusement park. Nobody was around now except some men just past the rollercoaster at the end of the pier who were fishing.
“I want to kill Wren, Lyra, and Gia,” I whispered.
“Shut up,” he said gruffly. His green eyes were burning with fury. “Just let me think.” He sat down on a bench with his forehead in his hands.
I sat down next to him and put my arm around him. At first he pulled away roughly, but then he pulled me to him and started kissing me passionately.
The feelings rose and didn’t stop. “Please don’t leave me, Dylan,” I begged. Everything within me felt like it was ripping apart. “I would die without you.”
“I won’t leave you,” he whispered, his eyes sharp as he stared into my eyes. “I’m selfish—I can’t leave you.” He got up at once and took me by the hand. “Come. Don’t do anything without me. Just follow my lead.”
I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say. How could I make a promise like that? We rushed along the sidewalks, crossing streets until we reached the hotel.
“Now, just play along,” he directed me as we took the elevator up. “We don’t have to rush anything. Don’t be rash.”
“Okay,” I mumbled as my mind reeled with possible plans on how I could kill the triplets. Aside from the men who attacked me in the alley, I had never killed anyone before. Did I really have it in me to murder them? As much as I hated them, I wondered if I could really do it.
When we walked into the suite, it was dark. Dylan flipped the light switch. It was so quiet. Nobody seemed to be there. But, when we walked into one of the bedrooms, Brenda with her pixie hair, her two girlfriends, and the boys, Aiden, Luke, and Paul, were all unconscious on the two queen size beds. They were arranged in perfect order lying on their backs like sardines in a can.
“Oh, no!” I looked at Dylan. “What the hell is this?” My adrenaline was rushing like mad.
“The sirens must have got Brenda’s friends to bring her back here, so they could kill them.” His hands were balled up in fists. “I’ve seen this before. The triplets drugged them and sent Travis and Blake out for plastic and trash bags.”
I was horrified. “Their saving them for later?”
“Yup.” Dylan nodded. “They didn’t want to leave a mess.”
By now, I was pacing the bedroom. “Then where are Wren, Lyra, and Gia?”
Dylan was staring at the bodies. “I’m guessing they went flying, so they could burn off some calories and work up an appetite.”
“That’s what they do?” My eyes narrowed as I looked at him. “They just fly around until they get hungry?”
“Pretty much.” He stamped his foot. “Damn!” he growled.
“Let’s get them out of here,” I insisted. I hit my fist against the wall.
He dropped his chin in a sarcastic manner as he raised a dark eyebrow. “How do you suggest we do that?”
“Carry them.” My eyes widened sharply countering his sarcasm as I rubbed my hand.
“The security guard and the people at the front desk will see us.” His voice sounded hollow.
I started pacing again. “We can fly them out the window.”
He scoffed. “One at a time, lay them on the beach and hope nobody sees the huge birds carrying people?”
“We can’t just let them die!” I crouched over with my fists against my head.
Just then the front door unlocked. We rushed out to the living room. Wren closed the door behind her as Lyra and Gia walked in first.
“Stupid slave,” Gia said with one hand on her hip. She smacked Dylan on the forehead with the back of her hand. “Where’s your gratitude?” she asked Dylan with a scowl on her flushed face. Her red hair was messed from the wind.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said as he walked over to her and pulled her up against him.
I felt like a knife had just stabbed into my heart, but I tried to remain expressionless. He couldn’t really like her.
“What? Do you think I’m a fool?” Gia coughed as she pushed him away.
Lyra and Wren appeared angry too. Their hair also looked windblown and I got the feeling that Dylan was right—they had been out flying.
“You could have had it all,” Wren said to us.
“What are you talking about?” Dylan walked into the kitchen where he got a bag of potato chips and started eating them. “Are you pissed off that I took Brenda?”
Wren looked at Lyra and Gia. They rolled their eyes. “Traitor,” they said in unison.
All of a sudden and at once, they charged us. Wren and Lyra jumped on Dylan. I couldn’t see what was happening to him because Gia pushed me to the ground. She was kicking me hard and fast in the stomach.
“Stupid bitch!” Gia screamed as she wailed into me. “You thinking you can align with the mers!”
The triplets must have figured Gia could take me down all by herself. But they didn’t know that I was super strong because I had only hours ago fed on the guy in the alley.
I was hurt, but kicked her off with both my feet. She fell to the ground. I didn’t let up. My heart was pounding so fast as I climbed on top of her and started punching her in the face in rapid fire.
I glanced at Dylan. Wren was on top of him, clawing at his face. He threw Lyra against the wall. She fell to the ground.
I wanted to run over to him to get Wren off, but we all started changing. My body arched back uncontrollably as I was hitting her. She knocked me over to the side and we were rolling around on top of each other on the floor. Feathers were growing from our legs.
I pinned Gia’s wrists back as her talons started to grow out of her fingers. In a rush, I kicked her off of me and quickly got to my feet where I grabbed a lamp off of a small decorative table.
At once, I slammed the fixture against the wooden edge and pulled up the wires where the light bulb had shattered. She jumped on me again, but I shoved the top of the lamp down her throat. She gagged as she kicked at me. Enraged, I snagged an open bottle of Vodka off the table and poured it down her choking mouth.
Her body started twitching and kicking as electricity shot through her. Bile foamed up and out of her mouth. I left her there on the floor as I swiped Wren’s legs out from under her.
She dropped to the floor. I tore into her chest with my talons. But she slashed across my stomach. Blood poured.
Dylan pulled her off. I rolled over and saw Lyra’s body strewn backwards over the arm of the couch. It looked like she was dead.
Wren slashed open Dylan’s arms, but he got a good grip on her. At once, he twisted her neck and she fell to the floor.
“Come on,” Dylan called out as he clutched my hand.
We rushed to the bedroom. “Let’s risk it,” he said.
I nodded.
Our anger was still in full fire that we remained in our siren form. “Take the three girls,” he commanded. “I’ll get the boys.”
“I can only carry two at a time,” I breathed.
“Okay, wait.” He pulled at the ends of the girls’ bedspread and eased them atop it onto the floor. “Drag them into the hall. I’ll be right behind you.”
Immediately, I gathered up the edges of the blanket and started pulling their bodies with it out of the room and through the living room. The triplets’ bodies had changed back into human form, but there was a lot of blood mess.
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Dylan was right behind me as I opened the door and looked out. Nobody was in the halls. “Go,” he snapped.
I pulled them out. “Put them in the stairway. Travis and Blake won’t find them there.”
Without hesitation, I dragged them down the hall. Brenda rolled off, so I had to stop to put her back on the bedspread. I was breathing fast. Sweat was dripping off my forehead. If anyone was to see us, it would be shocking to see bird like creatures with unconscious bodies. My hands perspired making it hard to keep my grip. I repositioned and held tighter.
“There,” Dylan said as he ran around and opened the door for me.
He pulled the girls in onto a flat area that extended back before the stairs descended. I dragged the boys and pushed them beside. There was no room for anyone to walk down the stairs now, but most likely they would wake up before anyone found them as most people used the elevator in a fancy hotel like that.
We hurried back into our suite and locked the door. But before we could make a plan, there was a knock at the door. We heard the sound of a CB radio. It sounded like it was the police.
Dylan and I looked at each other wide eyed. He pulled my hand and we started to run for the window. But as we were about to jump out, I looked back and Lyra’s body was in a different spot, like maybe she had crawled over on the couch. And I wasn’t sure, but it looked like I saw Wren’s hand spasm. Had I imagined that?
In a rush we were in the air. Our wings were expanded and we flapped to gain our speed in the blue dawn as the sky turned from black to greyish blue.
***
We stood on the doorstep to my parent’s house in Laguna Beach. I saw that her cousin’s 57 black Ford Custom 300 was parked in the circular driveway. “The mers must have gone immediately to tell my mother what happened to me,” I whispered with fear in my eyes. My stomach was in knots.
“It’s gonna be okay, Hailes,” Dylan said as he squeezed my hand. “Just knock.”
I tapped on the door, but nobody came. Dylan knocked harder. We heard a shuffling around in the house, a pattering of feet, and then the door unlocked.
I inhaled deeply as the door opened. My father was standing there staring at me. His shaggy brown hair was now mixed with grey and was in tousled disorder probably from the stress of losing his daughter. He was quite a bit thinner and the wrinkles around his eyes were more pronounced.
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