Wake (Watersong Novels) (27 page)

“I think it’s those girls’.” She turned to face him and held the bag out to Daniel, as if he’d know what to do with it. “Those horrible girls have done something to her.”

“You don’t know that.” Daniel tentatively took the bag from her. “Just because somebody else crashed here doesn’t mean that she has anything to do with them.”

“But where is she?” Harper asked, tears filling her eyes. “She’s not here. Where could she be?”

“Gemma!” Alex resorted to yelling her name since he didn’t know what else to do. He stood at the edge of the cove, shouting out at the bay. “Gemma!”

“Maybe we beat her here,” Daniel suggested. “We got here pretty fast, right?”

“Do you think?” Harper stared up at him, her frantic eyes searching his.

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Or is there anywhere else you can think of that she might go?”

“No, I…” Harper trailed off, her face twisting with confusion, and she tilted her head, listening. He opened his mouth to say something, and she silenced him by putting her hand on his chest. “Do you hear that?”

“What?” Daniel asked, but then he heard it, too.

Very faintly at first, but the wind was carrying music out to the cove. A song unlike anything Harper had ever heard before, but it was one that Alex was all too familiar with.

“It’s Gemma,” Alex breathed.

“What?” Harper asked, but now without the incessant panic that had been gripping her only seconds before. Her entire expression changed, the tension melting away to a bizarre serenity.

“Harper?” Daniel asked. When she started walking toward Alex at the shore of the cove, he put his hand on her arm to stop her. “Harper? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Her brow furrowed momentarily at that, as if she realized that what she was saying wasn’t quite right, and she turned to Daniel. “Were we looking for something?”

“Yeah. Your sister.” He took both her arms and made her face him. “What the hell is going on with you?”

“She’s calling me,” Alex said to no one in particular, and then he dove into the water, swimming out of the cove.

“Alex!” Daniel yelled. “Alex! What are you doing? We have a boat!” He ran to the shoreline. Alex was furiously swimming away, and Daniel wasn’t about to jump in after him. “Alex! Just get back here in the damn boat!”

“Something’s wrong,” Harper whimpered, and Daniel turned back to see her looking as if she were about to cry.

“No shit, something’s wrong.” He went back over to her, apparently deciding that Alex was a lost cause, at least for the time being. “Do you know why Alex just took off?”

“No.” She ran her hand through her hair and looked up at him. “Gemma is missing, and I can’t…” She shook her head and covered her ears with her hands. “It’s that song, Daniel! It’s trying to make me forget about her, but I won’t!”

“The song?” Daniel certainly could still hear it, but he sounded as if he didn’t know what Harper was talking about.

“Can’t you hear it?” Harper asked, shouting because she’d plugged her ears.

“Yeah, but I’m fine,” he assured her.

“We need to go towards the song!” Harper told him. “That’s where Gemma is!”

Daniel thought about arguing with her, but something really, really bizarre was happening, and they probably didn’t have time to question things anymore. He took Harper’s hand, dragging her over to the boat so they could go after Gemma while they still had a chance.

All the while, the song floated through the air.
Come now, weary traveler, I’ll lead you through the waves. Worry not, poor voyager, for my voice is the way
.

TWENTY-SIX

True Form

“What are you doing?” Gemma asked, still struggling against her urge to join in the song with Lexi and Thea.

“What needs to be done,” Penn told her. “I’ve tried to reason with you. I’ve given you everything you wanted. And you still won’t see logic. So now I’m going to make you see.”

“I don’t understand.” Gemma glanced through the doorway where the other two sirens sang. “What do you have to make me see? Why can’t you just let me go?”

“Because, Gemma, we only had until this full moon to find a new siren, or we all die. And you might be ready to throw in the towel, but I don’t give up so easy. I didn’t survive the past several millennia just to be finished off by a spoiled little brat.”

“Exactly!” Gemma latched on to a point. “I’m horrid. You don’t want me. Let me go, and pick someone else.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Penn said, and she sounded as if she really meant it. “The potion doesn’t always take. You’re the third girl we’ve tried, and the first that’s turned into a siren.”

“What do you mean, the potion doesn’t always take?” Gemma asked.

“After you drink it, one of two things will happen. One, you’ll turn into a siren, as you did.” Penn gestured to her. “Or two, you die.”

“What? Why?” Gemma asked. “How come I turned and other girls didn’t?”

“We don’t know exactly. A siren needs to be strong, beautiful, and connected to the water.” Penn shrugged. “Some of the girls we picked just weren’t strong enough.”

“But … you’re running out of time. If I died, you would all die?” Gemma narrowed her eyes at Penn. “What’s stopping me from killing myself?”

“You don’t know how to, for one thing. Sirens aren’t mortal. You can’t just drown or throw yourself off a building,” Penn said. “And the other thing is on its way right now.”

Before Gemma could respond, Lexi shouted from the porch, “He’s coming! I can see him! He’s already on the dock!”

“Good.” Penn smiled. “You can stop your singing now, before we summon every man near the bay.”

Penn stood in between Gemma and the doorway, but now she stepped to the side, allowing Gemma to get by.

She ran to the doorway, rushing past Lexi and Thea. She didn’t know whom they’d called or what exactly they planned to do with him, but Gemma knew whatever it was couldn’t be good. She had to send him away before the sirens sank their teeth in him.

When she saw him coming up the trail, walking like he was still asleep, she stopped cold in her tracks. It was worse than she’d feared.

“Alex.”

As soon as his name escaped her lips, Lexi was on him, putting her arm around him and leading him up the trail. Thea grabbed Gemma, holding her arms behind her back so she couldn’t fight.

“Alex!” Gemma shouted, but he barely glanced over at her. His gaze was too focused on Lexi, who hummed a song in his ear. “Alex! You have to get out of here! Alex, run! It’s a trick! They’re going to kill you!”

“Shut up,” Thea growled and started dragging her up the path to the cabin. “If you would have just come with us, none of this would be happening. It’s your fault we’re in this mess.”

“Please!” Gemma begged. “Please, just leave him alone.”

Penn was laughing when they entered the cabin. Gemma fought and kicked at Thea, but it was like fighting against granite. Thea was a three-thousand-year-old demigoddess, and it showed in her strength.

Alex had followed Lexi willingly into the center of the room, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She circled him slowly, and he turned his head, following her. Lexi stopped in front of him, caressing his face, and he leaned in to kiss her.

“Alex!” Gemma shouted, but he still tried to kiss Lexi. If Lexi hadn’t moved her head away at the last second, he would’ve. “What have you done to him?”

“Actually,
you
did it.” Penn stood off to the side of the room, watching Gemma’s misery with a look of intense satisfaction. “He wouldn’t have gotten here so quickly if you hadn’t already put him under a siren spell once before.”

“What are you talking about?” Gemma asked. “I never did anything to him.”

“Oh, but you did.” Penn smiled. “You
sang
to him, calling him. Thanks to that, he’s more susceptible to our charms. It’ll be harder for him to resist our commands.”

“It’s our song,” Lexi explained. She stayed next to Alex, his arms around her as he stared adoringly at her, but so far she’d avoided all of his attempts at kissing her. “We put men in a trance, make them follow our every order and lust after us. It works a little on women, too, but it’s not nearly as powerful.”

Gemma wanted to argue that she’d never sung to him, she’d never tried to put a spell on him, but then she remembered. Right after they’d turned her into a siren, she’d been singing in the shower. Alex came over, and that was the day they’d had the intense make-out session that neither of them could explain.

“This really is all my fault,” Gemma whispered.

“It’s all right,” Lexi said, her voice sounding too cheery for the situation. “We all make mistakes. But we can learn from them.”

“Lexi makes an excellent point.” Penn walked over to Gemma, stopping right in front her. Thea still held her back, but Gemma had stopped fighting. “And you’re going to learn a lesson tonight whether you like it or not.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Gemma said. “Penn, please don’t do this.”

“Lexi, let’s see what we’re working with,” Penn commanded, but she kept her eyes on Gemma.

Lexi slid down low, keeping her body as close to Alex’s as she could without touching him. She grabbed the bottom of his wet T-shirt, and in one smooth move she pulled it up over his head, leaving Alex half naked in the center of the room.

“That’s better.” Lexi smiled at him and admired his shirtless torso. “He’s pretty cute, Gemma. You have good taste.”

“What are you doing?” Gemma asked. “Why are you doing this to him?”

“You think he loves you?” Penn asked. “He doesn’t love you. He’s about ready to pounce on Lexi there and have his way with her.” She glanced back at him. “Aren’t you, Alex?”

“She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Alex said, his voice flat and faraway. Lexi took a step back from him, and he tried to follow her. She held her hand up, keeping him at bay.

“She has a spell on him!” Gemma insisted. “He can’t control his actions. He would never act like that.”

“But if he really loved you, it would overpower the spell.” Penn kept her eyes on Gemma, but motioned to where Lexi and Alex stood. “He would see he loves you. But he doesn’t. He can’t. He won’t.” She stepped even closer to Gemma, nearly speaking into her ear. “Mortals are incapable of love.”

In front of her, she could see Alex using all his restraint to keep from running to Lexi. She stood a few feet from him, tempting in a way that was driving him mad.

Gemma’s stomach twisted, but not with jealousy. The spell that Lexi had over him was making him do this, and that spell had to be hurting him, too.

“Fine, you’ve made your point.” Gemma squirmed against Thea’s arms, trying to pull away from her. “He can’t love me, and he never will! Now let him go!”

“Don’t you see?” Penn crossed her arms and studied Gemma. “Everything he’s told you has been a lie. Everything’s he’s done has been to trick you, because he wants to possess you and sleep with you, the way all men do. He never cared about you. He only cares about himself.”

Gemma took a deep breath, and as much as it pained her heart, she realized that what Penn said might be true. Alex hadn’t even really looked at her since he’d gotten here, and she was a siren, too. Maybe that meant he didn’t care about her.

But he was still the same guy that she was falling for. Even though his hair was dripping wet, a lock of his bangs managed to stick up a little. The way he’d kissed her and held her, that might be all be fake or temporary, but he wasn’t. Deep down, Gemma knew without a doubt that he was good and kind and worthy of her love.

“I don’t care!” Gemma glared at Penn. “It doesn’t matter because
I
love
him
!”

Penn narrowed her eyes at her, and Gemma saw that weird moving thing happening to her face again, like something underneath was shifting. But it stopped just as quickly as it started.

“Let her go,” Penn told Thea.

As soon as Thea loosened her grip, Gemma ran away from her, rushing over to Alex. When she ran in front of him, he tried looking around her, because he didn’t want to take his eyes off Lexi.

“Alex,” Gemma said.

He strained to see past her. She grabbed his face, forcing him to look into her eyes. At first he tried to fight it, but then something changed.

The daze in his mahogany eyes began to clear, and his pupils dilated. He blinked a few times, like a man just waking up, then reached out and touched Gemma’s face. His skin was cold and wet, and goose bumps covered his bare flesh.

“Gemma?” Alex asked, sounding confused. “Oh, my God, Gemma, what have I done?”

“You didn’t do anything.” With tears in her eyes, she laughed a little. “I love you.”

She stood on her tiptoes and stretched up to kiss him. His mouth felt cold and wonderful, and the kiss shot through her like lightning, spreading heat all over body. It was real and true, and nothing the sirens could say or do would ever change that.

“Enough of this!” Penn roared, and suddenly Alex flew away from Gemma.

Penn had come up and grabbed him, then threw him so hard into the wall behind them, he fell unconscious on the floor. Gemma wanted to run to him, but Penn stood in front of her. The rage burned so brightly in her eyes that Gemma didn’t dare cross her without a serious plan, lest Penn destroy everyone in the cabin.

“You’ve only seen two forms of the siren,” Penn said, and as she spoke, her voice began to change from the silky baby-talk to something distorted and monstrous. “I think it’s time you see our true form.”

Her arms began to change first, growing longer. Her fingers stretched out several inches, ending in sharp hooked talons. The skin on her legs shifted from smooth, tanned flesh to something appearing dull gray and scaly. It wasn’t until the feet changed into bird’s feet with long claws that Gemma realized Penn had grown the legs of an emu.

Penn arched her back and let out a scream that was more like that of a dying bird than a human. The sound of tearing flesh and rustling feathers filled the room as two wings tore out from her shoulder blades. When they unfurled, they were nearly the length of the room. The feathers were big and black, shimmering in the light.