Songs and Fins

by B. Kristin McMichael

  Whitney was concentrating so hard she didn’t notice when the plants had wrapped around her ankles, but she was quick enough to throw her hands out when she was pulled into the water, her feet right out from beneath her. Jax turned around at that exact second, and though she didn’t see where he got it, a knife came out of his hand, landing into the water behind her. The plants let go of her with a screech, and Whitney stumbled to stand and pull herself out of the water in time to see a reddish-orange fin flick as the merperson dove deeper into the water. Jax was now standing thigh-deep without fear as he watched the mer get away. Once he was sure they were gone, he came back over to Whitney where she lay, catching her breath on the shore.

  “Well, that was an interesting walk in the water,” she said to Jax as he leaned over her and blocked the bright sun from her eyes.

  Kneeling down, Jax picked up a leg to examine her ankle. There was nothing wrong with her besides getting pulled into the water. The plants had actually moved and wrapped around her feet, but they hadn’t hurt her, or at least she thought. Nodding, he set her foot back down.

  “Looks like I got them quick enough to not put their tentacles into you,” Jax observed.

  Whitney wasn’t sure. She had felt the prick as she was pulled. She didn’t know that plants had tentacles. Likely it did bite her, but her healing abilities kicked in, and thankfully Jax didn’t notice.

  “I’m sorry about making you get in the water. I’ve never heard of them attacking someone who wasn’t alone. We’ve been watching them for two weeks now, but all our notes say they go for lone people to feed on. If I had thought for one minute you would be in danger, I would have never made you go in.” Jax seemed to believe himself completely at fault for it.

  Whitney pushed herself up. The shoulder that took the brunt of her fall felt better already even though she was still soaked. The siren healing skills were gratefully appreciated.

  “So not your fault,” she told Jax, patting the sand beside her. “I’m not quite up for playing bait a second time today. Guess we should go back to watching since we know there’s at least one of them near. But I’d prefer to stay out of the water for now.”

  Jax gazed out over the water. He nodded, but didn’t seem as convinced. The reality was that she wasn’t that convinced, either. The creature had swum away pretty quickly, and was probably gone at this point. She still didn’t feel completely safe.

  “And that was my favorite knife,” Jax finally added. “Couldn’t the thing have the decency to leave it behind?”

  Whitney laughed, and as strange as it was to laugh after almost being taken by an unknown mer, it felt good. Her life was all sorts of mixed up. Just moments before, she was about ready to jump in the ocean and go find out herself what was going on. The sudden attack at least squashed that thought. For now, she would sit patiently with Jax and wait. If they were offshore and wanted to eat her, she was more than willing to sit and be the bait where Jax would have a better shot at fighting them. But something still just wasn’t adding up. She was a siren, and pretty sure at the top of the siren food chain. Was it possible someone was trying to out her to the hunters? In that case, maybe Amber was involved after all.

  Jax walked Whitney home and refused to leave. He was worried that somehow she would have been marked by the mermonster and it would come after her. He was bound and determined to keep her safe, especially since he blamed himself. When Sam finally showed up, Jax still didn’t want to go because he was afraid that a normal human couldn’t keep her safe.

  “Jax, really,” Whitney said as she pushed him out the front door. “I’ll be fine. Sam will make sure of it. He’s like a karate, kickboxing, street fighting expert. He could face a night human and come out alive, or at least hold one off long enough for me to call you.”

  Jax glanced over her shoulder at Sam, who was sitting on the couch with Ben, flipping through the TV channels.

  “I’ll be fine and will see you in the morning at school.”

  She gave him another nudge toward the stairs. Jax seemed reluctant, but with a wave from Sam on the couch, he finally left.

  “When’s Aunt Marissa coming home?” Whitney asked. That would be the time they would have to pretend Sam had left.

  “I think her shift is until ten tonight,” Ben replied, not looking away from the TV. “But if you move his car now, she won’t know the difference.”

  Smiling, Sam tousled his hair. “I knew I liked your cousin for some reason.”

  Whitney took Sam’s hands and pulled him to the staircase while Ben just continued to watch TV.

  “Let me move my car first,” he said as he hurried out the door.

  Whitney watched through his eyes as he went to his car. Jax was standing there, leaning against it.

  “Leaving?” Jax asked suspiciously.

  “Nope, just moving it, so her aunt doesn’t see.”

  Jax nodded. Then out of nowhere, he threw a punch at Sam’s back. Sam sidestepped it and let his hand hit the car before turning back to him. Jax nodded as he shook his now hurt hand.

  “You’ll do,” he said before turning and leaving himself.

  ‘You know, you really do attract the strange ones,’ Sam told Whitney over the bond.

  ‘What does that say about you?’

  Sam didn’t answer as he drove down the street and turned to the next. He rounded around and parked in front of their backyard neighbor’s house before sneaking through their yard, to where Whitney was waiting with the back door open for him.

  “Start talking,” Whitney ordered as he came inside and was climbing upstairs with her.

  “I heard from someone what had happened. Why the heck did you go in the water? I told you not to go in the water.” He was changing subjects.

  Whitney had no response. He had told her that. Maybe part of her didn’t really believe him, but she did now. All she could do was apologize. Whitney hung her head and nodded as he continued to scold her.

  “I get it now. I’m sorry,” Whitney told him when he paused to take a breath.

  Sam stopped his raging and appeared confused. Whitney normally had a reason why she did something, but this time there was no witty comeback. She knew that there was much more that could have happened. She had caught a glimpse of Sam’s mind of the mer that was trying to get her. It didn’t look like any fun and seemed a lot more dangerous than she ever expected. She had learned little of the mer growing up, and all the stuff in books and movies made them out to be nice creatures. So far she had found more dangerous mer than nice ones.

  “I didn’t think anything would be in the shallow water, or that it would be after me. I’m a siren. I belong with the sea just as much as the next creature. I really didn’t know it was that bad.”

  Now that his anger was lessening, Sam tugged her into his arms. “You scared the crap out of me,” he told her as he rubbed her back. “There’s much of the mer world you don’t know about. I wish I had time to teach it all, but for now, it’s gotta be like a crash course. Please just listen to me.”

  Whitney nodded. He pulled her back less than a foot, and pushed her chin up with one finger as he stared into her eyes. Whitney wanted to continue to look at the floor, but instead met his gaze.

  “Promise me you’ll stay out of the water unless I am with you,” Sam begged of her.

  “I promise,” she whispered.

  That seemed to make Sam’s heartbeat return to normal, and his anger was completely gone. Instead of saying anything more, he pulled her to the bed while kissing her. Whitney found it was easy to get lost in kissing Sam, but knew that there was more they needed to talk about.

  ‘Later,’ he told her mentally as he was reading her mind again. ‘I promise.’

  It turned out that later meant another day. Sam spent the night, but Whitney forgot to ask her questions and just enjoyed being with him. She wasn’t sure how long it would last this time, but she was positive he was going to be leaving again. Sam didn’t explain anything, but then aga
in, she didn’t ask.

  Whitney wasn’t excited to go back to school. All Sam did let slip from his detective time was that there were mer who wanted her dead. He made her promise, again and again, to stay with her hunter friends—which said a lot about the mer in general. The hunters would kill her if they knew what she was, but he felt safer leaving her with them than with the other siren. She didn’t blame him too much, as it was like being caught between a rock and a hard place. She didn’t trust the siren at all either, and since she had been doing well so far, she was willing to take her chances with the hunters.

  Sam disappeared from the mainland by the next afternoon, and the silence was strange. She would just get used to having him around, possibly eavesdropping in her head, and then he’d be gone. She wished she had more control of the bond and could eavesdrop into his mind. She could only get strong feelings from him so far.

  The week continued, and he still wasn’t back. Whitney wished she could have stopped kissing him for a moment days ago and asked the questions she had. Now it was too late, and she’d probably not want to spend time talking when he finally returned again.

  The only relief she got from her boring days was spending the afternoons with Jax searching for mer. They stayed near the shore, which was tempting, but she remembered her promise. Jax kept her entertained with stories of his childhood and all the places he lived. Thankfully, she didn’t need to go back to their place and didn’t have to face their mother. While she looked like a soccer mom, Whitney knew that in her case looks were very deceiving.

  As they headed out of school on Friday night, Jax stayed back to watch over Amber. She was being normal Amber and ordering around Whitney’s friends. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but Whitney still couldn’t do anything about it. She was looking forward to the day she could put Amber in her place. Hopefully, after another weekend on the island, she would have enough control … that was if she was going to go to the siren island for the weekend.

  “Oh, no,” Jade said as they walked to her mother’s car.

  Whitney looked up, expecting to see the super hunter mom in the car. It was empty.

  “What?”

  “You have your sad, lost in thoughts look again.” Jade bumped her shoulder into Whitney’s to get her attention away from the car which she was still inspecting.

  “Just haven’t heard from Sam yet and it drives me nuts,” Whitney replied.

  “He could at least call you back. What sort of boyfriend is he?”

  Jade was great to have as a friend and willing to have her back at any moment. That in itself made Whitney sad. As soon as Jade found out the truth, they’d be on different sides. A friendship that came easily would be lost just because of what Whitney was, and it wasn’t her choice to be a mer.

  “Um …” Jade seemed confused, which made Whitney laugh.

  “Yes, exactly. What sort of boyfriend is he?”

  Jade looked relieved that she had spoken correctly. Looping her arm through Jade’s, Whitney pulled her toward the hopefully empty car.

  “So Jax is off watching over you-know-who. What’s our assignment?” Whitney asked, changing to a much better subject, and yes, Whitney was on board with chasing innocent-killing mer even if they were her own kind. She didn’t care what sort of night human you were; you shouldn’t have to kill people to get blood. There was more than enough food to go around.

  “We get to go sit on the beach. Jax says you’re a pro at it,” Jade teased, letting go of Whitney and going to the driver’s side door.

  “That’s for sure,” Whitney muttered under her breath as she climbed in the car. When she had first moved to Florida, all she did was sit on the beach. She had told Jax a bit about how boring and lonely it was, and she was sure that was why he was calling her a pro.

  “Your choice. Do you want to go to the north side of the pier or the south?”

  There wasn’t really much of a choice. Whitney hadn’t spent much time on the south beach now that the rock formations jutting out of the north side made her feel like Sam was closer. In reality, it wasn’t closer either way, but since he had shown her his secret little cove only weeks ago, it still felt like their spot.

  “North.”

  “Then north it is.” Jade started the car and peeled out of the parking lot. While she was a tad slower than her mother, Whitney was sure who taught her how to drive.

  It only took minutes to make it to the diner. Jade pulled to the back of the parking lot and hopped out without locking the car.

  “And then the teacher looked at Ricky and told him that the answer was wrong. You should have seen his face.” Jade had been telling her a story the whole way there, but the song of the ocean was too distracting to listen very closely. Registering that she should reply, Whitney smiled at her friend.

  “Ricky was wrong? Not possible,” she pretended shock. Ricky was one of the smartest people in the school. It would have been fun to see him turned down by a teacher after all the classes Whitney had with him when he delighted in making the teachers and other students feel dumb.

  “I know, right? It was perfect. I wish I had my phone out. I would have recorded it and put it on the Internet.”

  Opening up the trunk, Jade tossed her book bag in the back, and Whitney did the same. Jade never locked her car, but you needed the keys to get in the trunk. She explained that locks could hamper a getaway or a chase, so that was why they left the doors unlocked. But it could lead to stuff being stolen if they forgot to put it away.

  “I don’t know how you handle having so many classes with him. I have just one, and have only been here a few weeks, and he drives me nuts.” Jade led the way through the trees and down to the beach.

  It was still sunny and warm—a perfect day to just sit and watch the water. Whitney was happy Sam had fed her before leaving, otherwise, between the water and the songs running around her head, she would have thought Jade looked tasty.

  Yep, there was one more lesson to add to the list. She needed Sam to teach her how to get her friends back, how to put Amber in her place, the history of the mer and scary creatures in the water, and also how to safely feed. Not too long of a list, but she was sure she was forgetting something.

  “Earth to Whitney.” Jade tapped on her head. “You really don’t do well without him around, do you? Man, you have it bad.”

  Whitney felt a blush creeping into her cheeks. There wasn’t anyone she had been friends with long enough that realized how bad she really did have it for Sam. She was able to keep her thoughts away from him before they were mated, but now it was hopeless. She did need him, and also a vacation from the siren … oh, and the merworld, too, would be great if it were possible. She had a feeling it wasn’t.

  Whitney finally shrugged at Jade’s stare. “I never thought I’d ever find a guy I wanted to be with forever. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t shying away from guys, and I’ve always loved to flirt, but I just didn’t think there would ever be a serious boyfriend for me.”

  Jade gave her a sad ‘aw’ face.

  “Do you know anything about the skinwalkers?” Whitney asked. That was probably one of the best parts of hanging with Jade. She didn’t have to hide everything from her. Yes, she had to hide the mer side, but not the night human world.

  “They are defenders of day humans, and thus not our problem,” Jade replied. “I’ve never been in any of their territories because we’ve never had a problem in that area.”

  Whitney chuckled. There was a problem called the clan of wendigos who liked to feed on day humans, but the skinwalkers kept them in line, so the hunters had never been called.

  “Well, skinwalkers always mate with the day human witches in town. I happened to be the only female skinwalker, and until I met the witch that took my night human from me, I had never met a male witch. I was certain I was going to be alone because of what I was. Moving here changed that all for me, so yes, I’m a little caught up in Sam. I can’t help it. I never thought I’d get to have the who
le love thing.”

  Saying it out loud made it all the more real for Whitney. She was completely head over heels in love with Sam. That the feeling was mutual, she was sure of, but it didn’t make it any less hard to be apart from him.

  “Aw, that’s sweet. Okay. I get it. Pine away for him and let me get your back. I’ll scold the crap out of him the next time we see him for leaving you alone too long.” Jade grinned at her, and that made Whitney grin back. That’s what friends were for, after all.

  “Did you hear that?” Jade suddenly stood, dusted herself off, and walked near but not into the water.

  “Um no,” Whitney replied. The ocean sounded normal to her, with the waves melodically hitting the shore and making her want to take a swim. There was nothing else.

  “It’s like a song or something coming from the water.”

  Now Whitney strained to listen better. She still didn’t hear anything different. And there was no way possible Jade could hear the tune of the water—she was just a normal day human.

  Jade walked closer to the water, dipping her feet in. Whitney followed her friend and stood just outside the water, waiting to pull her back. Something was going on, and she was getting goose bumps as her internal radar was yelling, warning her.

  “Jade, come back here,” Whitney called to her friend even as she was stepping forward into the water. She didn’t want her to ask why, or think she was weird, but she was getting a strong feeling that something was going on. Whitney still didn’t hear anything, but if Whitney shouldn’t be in the water, she doubted Jade should either.

  Ignoring her, Jade continued to wade further into the water. Whitney chewed on her lip and debated what to do. She had promised Sam she wouldn’t go in the water, but Jade was acting too funny to leave her alone. It would have been nice if she could reach Sam and get some help, but that wasn’t an option. She was still finding silence when she reached across the bond.

  Jade was now knee deep in the water, staring at the horizon. She had stilled and was no longer talking. Whitney didn’t have to see her face to know it would be a vacant expression. It wasn’t much, but she felt it now. She could hear the ocean well enough to know they weren’t alone. Something was in the water along with Jade.