Water Games

by Juliann Whicker

  There was a lot of stuff there. Stuff Junie apparently didn’t want to talk about.

  “And going into journalism instead of law.”

  She winced. “Yeah. She keeps threatening to withhold my college fund unless I get my head straight. What she doesn’t know is that I have my own fund from working with your husband. One more year of that and I can pay for a whole degree.”

  “He’s not my husband,” I said in a low voice, leaning close to her so Sean couldn’t hear. It was so embarrassing. Flop also still talked about the time in the hospital when Sean had accidentally called me his wife in front of Junie’s aunt. Junie shouldn’t find it hilarious.

  “I’m your fake Vashni husband.” Sean kissed the back of my hand and winked at me. “I have the tattoos to prove it. Feel free to give me another any time.”

  I tried not to see the swirling marks on his throat that symbolized his commitment to me as his Vashni spouse. “I seem to do that after experiencing trauma.”

  “You call good music trauma? How strange. It must be the Siren in you.” He looked at me like that, part challenge, part teasing. He liked the Siren in me. His neck was so beautiful, and there was still a lot that I hadn’t marked.

  My stomach flipped and I tried to focus on Junie. I disentangled my hand from his and stood up. “Right. I’ll go and ask Dean if he’ll give us a ride.” I walked over to my dad, Dean, Spyguy, and Lucien where they manned the grill. They were close to the back door of our shabby house.

  “Hey baby,” my dad said, pulling me against him in a side hug. “Graduating on the honor roll. I’m so proud of you.” He kissed my forehead and I shifted feeling weird with everyone staring at me. I turned my face into his shoulder and inhaled deeply. I would miss my dad more than anything else.

  “Thanks, dad. Sean thinks I should go to the party tonight at Ceramic lake. It’ll be full of idiot teenagers. Are you going, Dean? If so, can you give me and Junie a ride?”

  Dean finished chewing his hamburger before he nodded. “I can do that. What about Tuba? I’ll call him.” He backed away and dialed him up on his cell.

  Lucien smiled at me, his nice brown eyes crinkling around the corners. He looked so human. “Your mate wants you to go to a party without him? Why would he do that?”

  “He wants to see if I can manage to not kill everyone. It’ll be fine.”

  He nodded. “I’ve been to a few human parties in my time. Don’t drink anything in an open cup, and stick to a buddy. Tuba probably. Dean’s going to try and take advantage of the chaos to get close to Junie.”

  Dean was still talking to Tuba, frowning and nodding.

  “I wish he’d get it over with,” Spyguy said, going for another burger. How many had he eaten? Did we starve him? You know, over the last few months of vegan and Vashni food, we kind of did. I went for a burger too.

  “You don’t like watching human mating rituals?” Lucien asked with a slight smirk.

  I held up my hands. “I’m too young for this conversation.”

  Spyguy nudged me. “What are you talking about? You’re an old married woman.”

  “Fake married.”

  He laughed. “Those tattoos are not fake. Although that display today, him showing you his position, authority, the attractive, strong males that he controls and their bare chests, that was definitely a mating ritual. I’m just not sure what species it’s supposed to be. Lucien?”

  Lucien put a big bite of hamburger in his face and chewed. Me too. Mmm. “Soremni do a little bit of that, but I think they picked it up from the Grimny. He’s been working with them. That Akker, if we could get him on the team.”

  “I like Sylvie.”

  Lucien grinned at Spyguy. “Don’t tell Akker that. Don’t tell her either, come to think of it.” They both laughed and I was left feeling distinctively weird.

  “Right. Anyway, that’s my point. No one does mating rituals after they’re married, right?”

  They exchanged glances. Lucien excused himself, leaving me with Spyguy and my dad who wasn’t paying attention to our conversation while he frowned at the burgers.

  “Well?” I asked again.

  Spyguy gave me a sharp smile. Shark. “That depends how much mating is going on.”

  I should have known way better than to ask that kind of question. Then again, who else could have this conversation without blushing? “What about Sirens? What are their rituals?”

  He raised his eyebrows. He’d thought that last bit would scare me away. “You sing to him. You sing to the ocean when you can’t sing to him, calling it to bring him to you. You touch him as often as possible. You do his laundry. Badly. I’m not sure if that’s a Siren thing or if you’re just a strange girl.”

  “Probably just a strange girl.”

  He nodded. “Probably. You mark him. That’s decidedly Vashni, but it comes from a genuine instinct in you. Maybe from your Vashni grandfather. The way you follow him wherever he goes, that’s Soremni. I should do a PhD dissertation on you.”

  I stared at him. “Yeah. No.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Spies don’t do PhD’s. When are you going to admit that he’s your mate and stop trying to be human? This internship is an idiotic idea. Gerveeg is one of the most obnoxious half-breeds in the world. If you bred with Takeo, you’d be much less likely to kill everyone.”

  I smacked his chest. He blocked it, catching my wrist between two slender fingers that I knew could snap my bone in two. Instead, he squeezed it and let me go.

  We stared at each other for a long moment, him acknowledging that I could kill him with my voice, me acknowledging that he could kill me in a lot of other ways. “One more question. What’s a squiggy fish?”

  “It’s like a teddy bear for gill people.”

  “Ha! I knew it! Sean said it was a viper you had to squeeze the whole body of to kill.”

  He nodded. “That’s true. Some cultures give their children squiggy fish so they can practice strangling techniques. It serves the same purpose psychologically as a teddy bear to a youngling, but has the benefit of training defense. I had a squiggy fish when I was young. It had red eyes and purple fangs.”

  I sighed. “I see why Trainchain thinks I’m his squiggy fish. It all makes sense. Where is Trainchain?”

  “She’s taking a few days off to visit her family before Cierdeep. She’s not going to be with you in Terramore.”

  Terramore. That was the small underwater village near Sean’s ocean house. What would that be like, staying with him in an underwater house for a few days without anyone else I knew? Haverre would be in Cierdeep getting ready for the games, settling in the monsters, my dad would be here. Spyguy would be taking Sean’s aunt to wherever.

  I looked over at Sean where he sat beside Dean. He’d apparently taken my chair when I’d been distracted by humiliation. Dean and Junie laughed while Sean smirked. He glanced at me and I felt hot and cold. I tugged on a strand of hair. Was that some kind of mating dance thing? I put my hands down and couldn’t think what to do with them. Hamburger. I got another one, taking my time before walking around the carefully planted beds Lucien had laid out with my mom. Flowers for Mother’s Day.

  I stood beside Sean’s chair and wanted to sit on his lap. Was that a mating ritual?

  He grabbed my leg and pulled me down. He took a big bite out of my hamburger and brushed my nose with his.

  “Go ahead.” I shouldn’t have gotten another one. I wasn’t used to eating so much meat. I was going to be sick.

  He gobbled it up in a few bites. “All right. What’s going on in your head? Are you worried about tonight?”

  “No. It’ll be fine. I can definitely handle a lake and a couple of stupid teens. So, we’re going to Terramore for the summer, right? Is there anything I should know about it?”

  He smoothed his hands over my head. “It’s been in my father’s family for generations. It’s a bit immense. If you get lost, you can call a servant.”

  “There will be servants? So, it won�
��t be just the two of us?”

  He stared at me, his thumb brushing my cheek and his lips pursing. “No. They’re also Soremni, so Vashni marriage customs won’t hold a lot with them. We’ll have rooms at opposite ends of the house.”

  My stomach sank and the sun didn’t shine quite so bright. “Oh. How big is the house?”

  He snort-laughed and brushed my nose with his. “Very, very big. We’ll sit at opposite ends of the dining room as well. It will be extremely civilized and appropriate.”

  “It sounds terrible. Are you sure we can’t go to the beach instead?”

  “You need to get used to it,” Junie said over Dean. “You’re going to be watched all the time. You need to really nail the Vashni persona and get used to all of the Soremni customs. They’ll teach you the language and you’ll get to really watch how they interact. I get the idea that Leslie isn’t the best representative of the average Soremni female.”

  “Neither is Claristia,” Sean said, pulling me against him. “It’s okay for you to be irritated with their customs. Channel it into icy disdain.”

  And there went my dreams of me, Sean, no shirt. Sigh.

  Chapter 4

  It was like the last time I went to a party at Ceramic lake. Nope. It was completely different. Cole raised his red plastic up and yelled, “Yo, Vee!” Junie and Dean argued about the purpose of this sort of social experience in the greater cycle of human existence, Flop and Fred held hands and gazed at each other adoringly, and Tuba stood beside me, slouched.

  “So, what are your plans for summer?” I asked even though I knew that he was working at a band camp and getting ready for college in the fall.

  “Gen, can I ask you a question?”

  I turned to smile at him. “About tuba music?”

  He touched my arm. “About this. About all the bruises, the scars, the people living in your house, and the tattoos on Sean’s neck. Junie’s in on it, Flop, Fred, even Dean, everyone but me. It’s something weird, right? Something sci-fi and impossible. Like werewolves or aliens.”

  I stared at him. “I can’t tell you. I mean, I could, I guess, but you don’t really want to know.”

  He nodded, face grim. “Right. That’s cool. What do people do at these things? Get drunk, right? Do you want to?”

  I stared at my friend, brown haired, soft-eyed, totally frustrated. I grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the groups of people sitting around fire pits and laughing hilariously. I went towards the water, gripping his hand like he might try to run away, but he only clasped it back like I was one of his friends. I kicked off my shoes and waded in, glad I’d worn a dress above my knees. He followed, abandoning his shoes and walking in with me, getting the hem of his long shorts wet.

  “So, I’m a Siren.”

  He blinked at me. “Excuse me?”

  I shrugged. “I’m a Siren. Sean’s trying to keep me from killing myself, or being killed, or…” I shrugged.

  He pulled his hand out of mine. “What are you talking about? Killing yourself? Being killed? What do you mean?”

  I shrugged and crossed my arms. “Some people are afraid of things that are different. Some people want to study things that are different. Some people want to eat my lungs for their magic restorative properties.”

  He gripped my arm over the lash mark from the San Francisco drama. “Someone attacked you?”

  “Sort of, yeah. Also, the ocean. You know how water was always trying to kill me? It’s kind of real. I can handle it now, most of the time. Still, water is a big deal.” I trailed my fingers in the water, swirling over the surface. It reflected the dark sky and the bright bonfires. The distant laughter sounded strange and otherworldly.

  He gripped my shoulder. “You’re being honest with me? Seriously?”

  I shrugged. I stirred the water and hummed under my breath. The water formed into a ball, rolling over my hands in a very not normal way. Tuba inhaled sharply and put out his hand, feeling the water tension as it fell over his palms.

  “That’s insanely cool. What about Sean’s tattoos?”

  I exhaled. “It’s complicated. Mostly he’s just being rebellious, sticking it to his old man, who hates me.”

  “Does Mr. Fielding know what you are?”

  I hesitated then nodded. “Yeah. He put me in a tank for ten days. That sucked.”

  He shook his head and took a few steps away from me. “Ten days? And then Junie and everyone went and broke you out. She couldn’t tell me about it, about what you are. Why are you hanging around with Sean’s dad? How could he do something like that? You need to report him. Not tell about you, but… who would believe that Reeve Fielding did something like that? I can’t believe it. Except that I can. There’s always been something a little bit off about Sean, cold. So his dad’s some psycho scientist and his son is a product of the lab.”

  I laughed. “Something like that. You have to admit, Reeve is a mad scientist with epic skills to come up with someone like Sean. Hey, don’t talk about it, okay?”

  He glanced at me. “You mean with Flop and Junie?”

  “No, they’re okay, just not with normal people.”

  His eyes widened. “Junie and Flop aren’t normal?”

  “No. I mean, they are normal. They’re human anyway. They’re not normal humans, because they’re weird, but normal weird. Anyway, don’t talk about me, okay? It’s already bad enough. There are these Portermutt crazies who want to collect parts of me to sell on the black market.”

  “Because you’re a Siren, and myths go for really high prices these days.”

  I shrugged. “I guess. There aren’t a lot of us. Like me. That’s pretty much it.”

  He ran his hand through his hair a bunch of times, but he didn’t say it was crazy. “Why did you tell me?” he finally asked.

  “Well, I trust you. Spyguy is always telling me not to trust people.”

  “Is he a real spy?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. I think he’s just a waiter, but it’s hard to tell.”

  “He’s creepy.”

  I nodded. “So creepy. He’s always happy when I accidentally kill someone.”

  “You killed someone?”

  “Sh. Keep your voice down. It was an accident. And self-defense.”

  “How can it be self-defense and an accident. Either you meant to defend yourself, or you didn’t.” He sounded more like Tuba, normal.

  “I don’t know. I’m magic. I don’t have to make sense.”

  “Wait, you’re a Siren, like a real Siren, compelling men to adore you mindlessly?”

  I blinked at him. “Sometimes.” Oliver adored me mindlessly. Oliver. Oliver. Oliver. Focus.

  “So, is that why Sean is acting like that? Did you compel him to adore you?”

  I focused on the water, cool in my hands, smooth, silky, like Sean’s chest coated in gleaming mucous. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. It seems like the only explanation, though.”

  He nudged me. “Not the only reason. You’re pretty cool, Watergirl. Even without this whole magic siren thing, you’ve always been cool.”

  I grinned at him. “Thanks, Tuba. You too. And here we are at the last high school party, totally cool together. Seriously, you’ve taken this whole thing well.”

  He shrugged and smiled. “I knew it had to be something weird.”

  “Hey Vee, Tuba, you wanna play chicken?”

  I turned to see Cole coming towards us, followed by a couple of cheerleaders and football heroes.

  “Talk about weird.”

  I took a step away from the group, getting my hem wet. Were those the same jerks who wanted to dunk me the last time I’d tried to party like a normal teenager?

  “Okay,” Tuba said.

  I stared at him. “You want to play chicken?”

  He shrugged and pulled off his shirt. “Why not?”

  So many reasons. First of all, the girl stalking over to us at the first sign of conflict was Leslie, the Amazonian valedictorian. She had a burly
guy with her who probably wasn’t human.

  “I’m in,” she said, nodding at Cole like he wouldn’t dare refuse her.

  Cole grinned back. “Swimmers vs. Players vs. weirdos. Sounds like the high school experience. Come on, Cheryl. You’re the fiercest cheerleader.” He picked up the blonde with perfect centerfold proportions onto his shoulders while she squealed. Her bikini was super cute.

  I had a red swimming suit under my dress. I glanced at Tuba who was kind of big and burly himself. Chicken. What a stupid game. I grinned at him and turned. “Unzip me.” It took him a second fumbling, but soon it was unzipped. I pulled it off, tossed it on to shore and then climbed on his shoulders. It was ridiculous. I kept laughing, and he kept telling me to be serious while I struggled to find a foothold on him. Finally, he picked me up under my armpits and put me on over his head. I inhaled sharply as I balanced, so high up. The water gleamed around us and Leslie was now perched on her big guy friend. He winked at me when he caught me looking. I glanced sideways at Cole and tried not to feel weird. Balanced on Tuba’s shoulders. Not weird at all.

  “So, we just try to push each other over, right?” I asked.

  Cole grinned and stepped towards me. “Let’s go.”

  The next few minutes was a flurry of splashing and squealing and trying not to grab onto Tuba’s hair while he careened wildly, trying to get away from Leslie’s attack while Cole and Cheryl got between us, messing up Leslie’s trajectory.

  Tuba and I went down first, mostly because Tuba stepped back, off a ledge underwater and lost his balance at the same time Cheryl elbowed me in the ribs. It was hilarious because Cheryl had just been trying to keep her balance, blocking Leslie. Anyway, I hit the water and for a second let my gills do my breathing for me before I came up. I laughed at Tuba while he splashed, arms wheeling as he tried to get his legs under him.

  I pushed him upright and towards shore. “The high school experience is now complete.”

  He turned and smiled at me, such a nice Tuba smile that I gave him a hug.

  “Hey, be careful,” Cole said, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Tuba. “Don’t get too close to someone who isn’t your boyfriend. And, you know, who you might accidentally kiss.” Cole’s smirk wasn’t quite right as he let go of me and turned to Cheryl. He gave her high fives and slung an arm around her wet shoulder. “The night is young. Let’s dance.” Apparently, Leslie had knocked her over shortly after I’d gone down.