Songs and Fins

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “Would I rather?” Sam tugged on her hand and pulled her close to him. There were a hundred things he would rather do than hike way into the dense foliage on the island. With her body pressed against his, those thoughts might have been close to thousands.

  He dipped his head down to meet her waiting mouth. Yes, this was much more what he would rather do. But he had orders to follow. Trying his best to do things the way he wanted didn’t matter since his father had given him an order. He moaned in frustration as he pulled back. Sam was getting closer and closer to asking to be next in line for the throne just so that he could do what he wanted in his life. And right now, Whitney was what he wanted.

  “We need to hike,” he reluctantly added. “I promise that where we are going you’ll like, too, and we won’t have to come back down until tomorrow. We are staying up there the whole time we are on the island.”

  Whitney glanced back at the pathway. Wheels turned in her head, and her lips pinched together as she considered bargaining with him.

  “We’re going that far away to be alone,” Sam explained. That was enough to get her to agree, and she turned and began walking up the steep pathway.

  Sam would do as he was ordered. He would check and see how strong Whitney’s singing voice was and then maybe he would get to do what he wanted to do—and that was teach her how to defend herself. Without being able to be on land, Sam was worried every moment about her. She could keep a secret and stay safe, but that wouldn’t make him worry any less until he could be with her. He had to hope if he followed his father’s orders, then maybe he would release Sam from all the running around he was going through training with the guard again. Once Sam was back in charge, he could stay on land and keep her safe. Until then, he wanted her to be safe, and he would teach her how.

  Whitney huffed and wiped another strand out of her face. While it was no longer misting as it had been on the boat, she was still soaked, and this time from sweat. She hoped there was a shower wherever Sam was leading her because she desperately needed one. As Sam stepped forward and pulled back yet another tree branch from her path, Whitney paused in shock at the sight before her.

  While the beach was amazing, it was just like you could see in almost every travel brochure out there—pristine white sand and green tropical background that complemented the crystal clear azure water. But what she was standing in front of now was breathtaking. Before her was the most perfect waterfall she had ever seen. The high hills were still overhead as the water rushed down in one large path and hundreds of smaller offshoot pathways, creating now a loud rush of sound as the water hit the perfectly blue lake at the base. The cerulean water was clear enough to see the small fish swimming around as well as the clean sandy bottom. Around the waterfall grew large flowering trees and bushes that came in every shade of green Whitney had ever seen, framing the waterfall perfectly.

  Sam grinned and took her hand as he pulled her forward into the lush, soft moss at the edge of the lake.

  “The bottom is more than fifteen feet down,” Sam explained as Whitney looked over the edge. “And the tunnels back on the mainland, near the diner, are nothing compared to what’s behind the waterfall.”

  Whitney could make out openings across the beautiful water. She had just gotten used to the soft melody of the ocean, and now the water in the waterfall was such a different tune. Where she could have described the ocean as a slow song, maybe a night time lullaby, the water in front of her was more of a lively jig, making her want to jump right in.

  Sam sensed her excitement and dropped his pack on the ground at his feet before stepping off the moss-covered rock ledge they were standing on to drop directly into the water below. Whitney didn’t waste a second putting her own bag down and following him into the cool, sweet water. Her head broke the surface, and she looked around at the beautiful underwater world Sam was waiting for her in.

  Farther away, sparse plants floated at the sandy bottom, rocking almost in sync with the tune the waterfall made. Fish darted from where they splashed into the water, and Whitney smiled as their bright white and orange scales sparkled in the patches of sunlight that filtered into the water. Whitney never expected that she would be part of something this magical again. Sam had given that back to her. No matter how she still caught a glimpse now and then that he felt like he had ruined her life, she would never be able to get him to understand that he had made her life beautiful again, and it wasn’t just the sea green eyes staring back at her. It was everything he had given her.

  Sam swam over to her, his blue tail flicking easily to propel him forward until he was just inches from her.

  ‘I think you have it all wrong,’ he said to her mentally. ‘The most beautiful thing in the water is right in front of me.’

  Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her as he had done on shore. Whitney held on while he led them back up to the surface, breaking through with their lips still tangled together. This was the kind of welcome back she could get used to. From the feel of it, Sam had the same thought flitting through his head, too.

  Too soon, Sam pulled his face back and huffed for a second time.

  “And I’ll take that to mean something’s wrong?” Whitney guessed from his huff, and the feelings coming across to her of regret mixed with his extreme happiness that mirrored hers.

  “My father gave me an order, and it included a limit to the amount of time I can kiss you,” Sam complained.

  Whitney grinned. Yes, it was upsetting to have his father dictate to him the amount of time a kiss could last, but the disappointment wasn’t about her—and that alone made her happy. There was nothing she regretted about Sam, and she really wanted him to get over any last regrets he had about changing her back into a night human. She had been one before, and she was glad to be one now with him.

  “So what were your father’s orders?”

  “To see how powerful your song is.”

  Whitney liked that about Sam. Instead of sugarcoating it or pretending everything was something else, Sam was straightforward. By his tone of voice he wasn’t pleased at all with the assignment his father had given him, but at the same time, she hadn’t had time yet to tell him about school.

  “As in you’re going to teach me how to sing to control people?” Whitney liked that idea very much.

  “Um, yes.” Now it was Sam’s turn to be confused.

  “Good, because that’s the one thing I wanted to learn this weekend.”

  Sam’s eyes got big, and then he grinned. “You do know it takes months and months of practice to be able to sing correctly and use the siren in you to do something, right?”

  Whitney shrugged. “I don’t have months. Amber decided that since you were gone and I took you, that she would take my friends. Tina, Trudy, Noah, and James are her personal servants now, and they haven’t been allowed to talk to me all week. I want my friends back, and I think singing is the key.”

  Sam grew angry before he shook his head and his fury ebbed a bit. She had mentioned before that Amber had done that, but he didn’t realize she had done it at the beginning of the week. It was all making a bit more sense, and his dislike of Amber was growing by the moment. She had made it so that Whitney was all alone on the mainland, and for something as petty as Sam not returning. He had told her that he wasn’t going to ever be with her, and even after binding to Whitney in front of everyone, Amber seemed to be delusional.

  “I get that she’s mad, and I might have told her off a bit unkindly, but I don’t regret it one bit. I’ve spent years nicely telling her there was no way I was going to mate with her and she never understood. I didn’t think she would go as far as to take your friends away with her jealousy. I’m sure she’s back on the island for the weekend. She always is. We can head back to the other side before we leave and I’ll order her to give your friends back.”

  Smiling, she shook her head. “That’s nice and all, and I really do appreciate the offer, but no. As I said before, I have to do this myself. I have to
show all those mer back at school that I don’t need you to do things for me. They are never going to accept me as one of them if you do. I have to learn how. So, great and wise swim instructor, I beg you to teach me how to sing. I still can’t pay you in dollars since Mark keeps me off the schedule, and I don’t think money works here, but I can pay in kisses and maybe a few back rubs.” Whitney gave Sam her best puppy dog eyes, and she felt all his apprehension melt away.

  “Of course I’ll teach you to sing. No payment needed … but the kisses and backrub do sound like a fair trade if you insist.”

  Whitney flung her arms around him, causing their fins to bump into each other and they sunk back below the water. She didn’t waste any time with prepayment as she pressed her lips to his. Sam had been way more than a little protective, and she was glad she could convince him to teach her instead of trying to solve the problem for her as she expected. She had been lucky he had pulled her off to a remote location, which was more than likely the reason he didn’t take care of it, and she had time to argue her point.

  ‘There’s no winning in love,’ Sam told her mentally as he was forced to let go again via his father’s orders.

  ‘I wasn’t cheering because I won. I was simply happy you would teach me. I figured I could ask Mark, but since you’re the best, you were my top choice.’

  Sam pulled her back close to him. ‘You aren’t to ask anyone but me to teach you how to be a siren. I’m your mate.’

  ‘Exactly, hence no winning. This is just one favor from one mate to another.’

  Sam’s lips pressed to hers again, and Whitney knew it would be over way too soon. Yes, she needed to learn how to sing to get her friends back, but she was also a little afraid to learn. She didn’t want to have control over someone in the way Sam’s father had over him. From thoughts in Sam’s mind, Whitney knew that he didn’t want to stop their kissing either, but he had no choice. Whitney didn’t care where she ended up on the power end of being a siren, but she promised herself to never force her friends to do what she wanted. She firmly believed in free will, and hoped she could at least give that back to them.

  “I don’t think this is safe.” Whitney began her protest after Sam’s explanation that she would need to learn to sing by actually singing.

  She already knew that it was possible to hurt someone by singing when you were a siren, and Sam was the only one around. She surely didn’t want to hurt him.

  “That’s why I packed these.” Sam pulled out headphones from his backpack next to them. “I will put these on as soon as I start to feel any pain.”

  He wasn’t very reassuring.

  “I don’t know.” Whitney eyed the headphones. He seems to think they’ll be fine, but what if I screw up? What if he doesn’t put them on quick enough and I hurt him? What if something happens?

  “You don’t need to worry. Everyone has to learn sometime, and more than likely you wouldn’t hurt me if I didn’t have them on. I fall pretty high on the siren hierarchy.” Sam was his normal cool, collected self even through Whitney’s self-doubt.

  “I still don’t like just letting you feel a little bit of pain. Doesn’t the bond make me sense everything also? If I cause you pain, then I’ll feel it as well?” She had to try to appeal to his sense of protecting her.

  Sam mulled that one over. A look of contemplation flitted across his face. She had an in now. He was considering what she said. She needed to make him think harder about that.

  “There’s a lag in the pain thing so if I get the headphones on quickly, you shouldn’t feel a thing. And the alternative is to let my father teach you. He’s the only one guaranteed to not be hurt by you. Do you want to hike back and find him?”

  Okay, that was something she really didn’t want to do. The hike was difficult as it was, and now she was lying on the moss-covered stones surrounding the tropical paradise of a waterfall. No, a hike back wasn’t needed. But that didn’t mean she wanted to do anything that might hurt Sam.

  “Okay, if you really insist.” Rising, Sam peered into the grove of trees surrounding them. He nodded and then began to sing in a language Whitney didn’t understand.

  Without knowing what was going on, she watched him instead of the surrounding jungle, and was surprised when he stopped and glanced beside them. She almost jumped when she noticed a rodent of some sort just sitting there staring at Sam. It wasn’t anything she could name, and kind of looked like a cross between a guinea pig, beaver, and a rat.

  “I’m afraid to ask, but what is that?”

  Whitney didn’t move a muscle. Big, scary monsters, she could handle. Wild animals—including the bear her friend’s uncle turned into on the full moon—not a problem. Being told she was now part fish, easy peasy. A rat-like thing sitting at her feet was enough to make her want to run and hide, but instead, she was frozen in her spot.

  “It’s a hutia,” Sam explained.

  “Yes, and what is he doing there? And what did you say to get him here?” She had to assume it was Sam’s doing with his strange song.

  “When we sing in our native language, our domain isn’t just humans, but all creatures.”

  “You can talk to animals?” Okay, that shouldn’t have sounded strange to her, but it kind of did.

  “We can order animals around. Our power isn’t to communicate, but to rule over life on earth,” Sam explained, and then he paused and ran his hands through his hair. “Okay, that’s completely my father’s explanation. I think he spends years drilling that into all the young siren on the island. We don’t really think like that. Well, I don’t. I can’t speak for my father, but maybe I could assume with what he keeps teaching everyone.”

  Reaching up, she put a hand over Sam’s mouth to keep him from rambling on. “Your father isn’t you. I get that. So back to the lesson.”

  Sam smiled as she removed her hand and he took the opportunity of her closeness to kiss her quickly before talking again.

  “I asked for help from our furry little friend here. Since you’re terrified to sing to me, maybe you’ll practice singing to him.”

  “You want me to sing to a rat?” Whitney wasn’t sure she heard correctly.

  “No, I want you to sing to him first to prove it won’t hurt, and then sing to me.”

  “And it can’t hurt him?” Rat or not, it was still a living creature.

  “The most you can do is stun him.” Sam grinned at her like he had everything planned out.

  “And you’ll keep your headphones on to block it so I can’t hurt you?” Whitney had to be sure.

  “Promise.”

  Whitney looked down at the rodent that was waiting patiently for Sam to tell it anything more to do. It seemed like an okay trade-off.

  “Okay. What do I do? How does this work?”

  Sam had won her over and wasn’t gloating. During swim lessons, he often times liked to tell her that he was right when she tried to do something she couldn’t yet. She didn’t mind when he gloated, but she was glad he didn’t now as the rat sat beside her. It was still freaking her out. She was actually disappointed that swim lessons were over. There probably wasn’t much she couldn’t do in the pool, and for a change could prove him wrong.

  “Okay. First, I’ll have you watch through my eyes how to tell him to sit down. I’ll try to show you how it feels as you put strength behind it and make it a command. Then I’ll put the headphones on, and you’ll try it.”

  Okay, that sounded easy enough. Whitney was ready for this. She nodded to him and closed her eyes to better concentrate as he let her into his head. At first, the whole bond thing was strange. She still didn’t know the extent of it, but it did feel natural to be inside of his head, especially when he made it so easy. It was almost like he was taking her hand and pulling her in. She wasn’t sure she could do the same with him.

  ‘The word sounds like too-aw with a hiccup between,’ Sam explained.

  Strange, but it was acceptable in Whitney’s book. Not too hard at all.

 
Whitney listened carefully as Sam spoke with his command. She heard the slight music to his voice and the pull to do what he said now that she could understand what the word meant. Before when he spoke she had no clue and didn’t feel anything with his song. Now she kind of wanted to sit down.

  “Did it make sense?” Sam asked, pushing Whitney out of his mind and back to the reality where they were standing in front of a rat thing that was now sitting and waiting for the next command.

  “Sure,” Whitney replied, but even though she heard it, she wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to do it herself.

  Turning to the rat, Sam said something to him again in his magical voice. This time she didn’t feel the need to do as he said.

  “And that was?” she wondered.

  “I told him to go back to being normal.”

  The rat rodent was now standing and staring at Sam like he was waiting for new orders.

  “I’ll put the headphones on, and you give it a try.”

  He made it sound so easy. Then again, he made it look easy, so it probably was. Sam was pretty straight forward with her in teaching her how to swim. If he said something would take practice, it normally did. Easy really did mean easy.

  Sam put the headphones on and looked at Whitney. He patiently waited.

  “Can you hear me?” she asked, meeting his gaze.

  ‘No,’ Sam answered in her head.

  She rolled her eyes at him. ‘If you can answer the question, then you can still hear me. I’m not doing this if the headphones don’t work.’

  ‘They work; it was just obvious what you asked. Go ahead and try. You’ll see that you can’t hurt the hutia, and then maybe you can let me hear you sing also.’

  Whitney turned from Sam. He was more of a distraction than anything since she believed that he couldn’t hear her. He wouldn’t lie to her, at least she hoped. Well, she would find out if he was sitting at the same time as the rat thing.

  “Okay, little buddy. I’m going to try this, and I’m really sorry if I say the word wrong and you end up going for a swim, or maybe have a craving for pineapple for weeks or whatever else that word might mean.” She was rambling—a good indication that she wasn’t ready, but knew she really didn’t have a choice.