Wake (Watersong Novels) (28 page)

She flapped them once, and they created a gust so strong it knocked Gemma down. She crawled back on the floor toward the wall, and stared up at Penn as the transformation went from bad to horrid.

Penn’s face was still shifting. Her eyes first, from their usual black to the golden yellow of an eagle. Her full mouth lengthened and stretched out, so her lips were pulled back, like a bloodred line around her teeth. Her teeth not only grew but multiplied, going from a single row of flat teeth to row after row of razor-sharp daggers, so her mouth resembled that of an anglerfish.

Her skull seemed to expand, growing larger. The silken black hair remained, billowing out from her head like a dark halo, but it appeared thinner and stringier, since her scalp had gotten bigger.

The only thing about her that remained mostly unchanged was her torso. It lengthened and thinned out, becoming more skeletal, so her ribs and spine protruded grotesquely. But her human breasts remained the same, the bikini top barely concealing them, since the growth of her body had stretched out the fabric.

With the transformation apparently complete, Penn stepped closer to Gemma. She tilted her head back and forth, looking like some sort of human-sparrow hybrid, and blinked at Gemma.

“Now,” Penn said, her voice a distorted version of her normal one. “The
real
lesson begins.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Helpless

While Daniel untied the boat, Harper stood at the bow, staring in the direction where the song was coming from. She kept her hands pressed to her ears, afraid of what would happen to her if she listened to the song.

Her hands weren’t completely soundproof, though, and some of the music still got in. It would be impossible for her to ever explain the way it made her feel, but the easiest way was that it dulled her senses.

Her panic over Gemma’s disappearance or even Alex diving into the choppy water almost completely stopped when she listened to the music. If Daniel hadn’t been there, trying to talk sense into her, she might have stayed in the cove forever, or at least as long as the song kept going.

“Oh, shit,” Daniel said, loud enough that Harper could hear him clearly, and she turned back to face him. He stood in front of the wheel, his expression grim. “No, come on, baby, please don’t do this.”

“Daniel?” Harper went closer to the cabin and stared up at him. “What’s wrong?”

“The boat.” He grimaced. “She won’t start.”

“What do you mean, she won’t start?” Harper asked, her voice getting shrill. “Why did you even turn it off?”

“To conserve gas, but she’ll start. She just needs a little loving.”

Daniel hopped down and went around the back of the boat. Harper followed him, wondering if she should just dive in the water like Alex had. He flipped open the hatch over the engine, and while she didn’t understand what he was doing, she heard a few loud bangs as he attempted to fix something. Based on the expletives he shouted, she didn’t think it was going well.

“Daniel!” Harper shouted, her ears still plugged. “I think I should go in after Alex. I can’t wait here like this. Gemma needs me.”

“Harper!” Daniel stopped what he was doing and looked around.

“No, I need to—”

“No, Harper, listen!” He held up his hand, which was covered with black grease from the engine. “The song stopped.”

“It did?” She lowered her hands, and all she could hear was the ocean around her. No more music. “Why? Do you think Alex did something?”

“I don’t know.” Daniel shut the hatch and stood up. “But hopefully I fixed the problem.”

Wiping his hands on his jeans, he ran around to the front of the boat. He climbed up to the captain’s seat, and Harper followed right behind. When he turned the ignition, it made the same chugging noise it’d made back at the dock, but it didn’t start.

“Daniel—” Harper began, but he held up his hand to silence her.

“Come on,” Daniel muttered to the boat. “Just start up one more time. For me.” The boat made a loud clanking sound, followed by the engine roaring to life. “Yes!” As they pulled away from the cove, he glanced down at Harper. “I told you she would start.”

“I never doubted you for a second,” Harper lied.

“Where are we going?” Daniel asked. He steered them in the direction Alex had gone, but that was all he had.

“I don’t know.” Harper shook her head, straining her eyes to see anything out on the horizon. “The only thing that’s out here is Mr. McAllister’s place.”

“You mean Bernie’s Island?” Daniel asked, pointing at the dark shape of the island a ways in front of them.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “The song sounded like it was coming from that direction, didn’t it?”

“I think so.”

“Let’s head there, then.” She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead. “How come that song didn’t make you crazy like it did me and Alex?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head and glanced down at her. “How come it made you crazy? It was like it hypnotized you or something.”

“I don’t know.” She let out a deep breath. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again.”

When they got closer to the island, Daniel turned off the spotlight at Harper’s suggestion. They had no idea what was going on there, but they both agreed that having the element of surprise would probably work in their favor.

He pulled
The Dirty Gull
up next to the dock, and before it had even come to a complete stop, Harper tried to jump over the railing. Before she could make it onto the dock, Daniel grabbed her arm.

“No,” he whispered, his voice low so no one could overhear them. “I’m not letting you go there alone.”

“But—” Harper tried to argue with him, but he just shook his head.

Probably knowing she wouldn’t give him enough time to tie up the boat, he just tossed the anchor over. Daniel climbed onto the dock first, then helped Harper down.

Her feet had barely touched the planks when she heard Gemma yelling. She couldn’t understand completely what she was saying, but it sounded like she was shouting for Alex. Harper wanted to run up to the cabin, but Daniel took her hand, keeping her from running into a dangerous situation like a crazed idiot.

They still hurried along the dock, nearly running, but they slowed when they started up the trail. All the lights in the cabin were on, and they could hear Penn and Gemma talking. The wind blowing through the trees tried to carry their voices away, so they couldn’t understand them.

The front door of the cabin was wide open, so Daniel and Harper ducked off the trail before they could be spotted. Under the cover of trees, they crept closer to the cabin.

Both of them were so focused on the cabin, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening inside of it, that they weren’t watching enough where they were going. Daniel stepped on something and slipped, falling to his knees in a wet puddle.

He’d caught himself from falling on his face by putting his hand out, and when he lifted it, he had something stuck to his palm. It reminded Harper of a dead worm, but it was too thick.

He looked down, and he noticed it before Harper. Daniel jumped, moving away from the dead body as quickly as he could, and wiped his hand clean on his pants. That was when Harper finally looked down and saw Bernie.

Bernie McAllister lay on his back, his stomach torn open, with some of his intestines hanging out.

A scream started in her throat, but before it could escape completely, Daniel had his hand over her mouth. He pressed her back against the trunk of a large oak tree.

“You can’t scream,” Daniel whispered, and Harper nodded, so he removed his hand.

The truth was that Harper didn’t even want to scream. She wanted to sob and run over to Bernie. This was the same old man who had taken care of her during the worst part of her childhood. He’d been nothing but kind to her, and he’d been gutted like a fish.

Thankfully, between Daniel blocking her line of sight and the darkness underneath the trees, she hadn’t been able to get a really good look at Bernie. But she’d seen enough to know he was dead.

Behind them, in the cabin, there was a loud banging, and someone shouting. Harper instantly recognized it as Gemma crying out. That helped her push back the tragedy of Bernie’s killing and focus on saving her sister. She turned to run in blindly, but Daniel kept her pinned against the tree.

“We have to get Gemma
now,
” Harper said.

“I promise I won’t let her get hurt, but we can’t just run in there. They tore open a grown man. We can’t go in unarmed.”

Harper wanted to disagree with him, but he was right. As much as she wanted to burst through the front door that second and grab Gemma, she knew what those girls were capable of. And if she went in unprepared, she would just end up getting Gemma, Daniel, Alex, and herself killed.

Off to the back of Bernie’s cabin was a large shed, and because he lived alone on an island, he never bothered to lock it. Daniel opened it, but it was pitch-dark inside without a light. He felt around for anything he could use as a weapon and nearly stabbed himself with a pitchfork.

He handed that to Harper but continued searching for something for himself. Then Gemma began to scream, and Harper couldn’t wait any longer. She bolted toward the front door of the cabin, and Daniel took off after her.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Pact

Penn stepped back from Gemma, and for one brief second Gemma felt some relief. Then Penn turned around, putting her back to Gemma. Her wings almost eclipsed Gemma’s view. Gemma was crouched on the floor, and she could see Alex lying across the room from her, completely unconscious.

“Leave him alone!” Gemma scrambled to her feet.

She charged at Penn, but Penn unfurled a wing. It swung back, smacking into Gemma with such force that she went flying and crashed into a wall. Seemingly without even trying, Penn had tossed her aside. She was too powerful for Gemma to fight, at least as a human.

Gemma tried to will herself to turn into the same bird monster as Penn was, but she couldn’t. No matter how hard she clenched her fists or strained herself, her form remained the same.

“You have to leave behind your mortal life,” Penn said, turning back to look at her. She tilted her head to the side, and her fangs didn’t completely come together when she spoke. They were too jagged to ever truly close.

“I’ll leave behind anything you want,” Gemma said. “Just don’t hurt him.”

“This is what we do, though. This is part of being a siren.” Using one of her long talons, Penn pointed to Alex. “And since you refuse to give him up, what better way to teach you how to be a siren than by eating him?”

“It’s really not so bad,” Lexi chimed in. She and Thea were standing off to the side of the room, still in their normal human shapes. “It sounds disgusting at first, but it’s really amazing once you start.”

“It’s not about being gross. He’s a person,” Gemma said, trying to remain calm. “You can’t just kill him.”

“Yeah, actually, we can,” Thea said drily. “We have to, in fact.”

“I know, I know.” Lexi made a sad face, like she was empathizing with Gemma about a bad haircut instead of how morally reprehensible murder was. “But people die all the time. They’re so fragile that we’re really doing them a favor. When we kill them, they don’t suffer. They welcome death. And Penn’s right. Most guys are assholes, and they’re asking for it anyway.”

“Alex isn’t asking for it! He never hurt anybody!” Gemma fought back tears, but she was beginning to realize how futile it was to try reasoning with them. “Okay, you win!”

Penn exchanged a look with Thea, then looked curiously at Gemma.

“We’ve already won, Gemma,” Penn said.

“You’re right.” Gemma stepped toward her, staring straight up into her reptilian eyes. “I don’t know how to kill myself. Or you. Not yet. But if you hurt him, if you lay one claw on his head, I will make it my life’s mission to destroy us all.”

Penn narrowed her eyes and made a throaty growl.

“
But
if you leave him alone, I will go with you willingly,” Gemma promised. “I’ll do whatever you ask, whenever you ask, until the end of time. I will join you, and I will be your slave. Just please, leave him.”

Penn seemed to consider this for a moment, then turned to Thea and Lexi.

“It would be nice to have a slave.” Thea shrugged. “And we just ate, so I’m not that hungry.”

Penn let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Very well.”

“Holy shit!” Harper shouted, and Gemma turned to see her sister standing in the doorway of the cabin.

She had a pitchfork in her hand, as if meaning to stab anyone who stood between her and her sister, but she froze when she saw the monster standing there. Daniel was right behind her, and he stood there gaping until Penn turned toward them.

Penn opened her mouth, letting out a loud squawk, and that spurred Daniel into action. He grabbed the pitchfork from Harper and ran around her. Lexi rushed at him. Before she could tackle him, Daniel hit her in the stomach with the handle of the pitchfork, and she stumbled back.

He charged at Penn, but she was lightning-fast. In the blink of eye, she’d grabbed the pitchfork, ripping it from his hands. With her other hand, she backhanded Daniel, leaving three nasty gashes on his cheek.

Daniel fell backward, and Penn lifted the pitchfork, looking as if she would impale him.

“Penn, don’t!” Gemma yelled. She ran in front of her, standing between Daniel and the pitchfork. “I’m going with you! Let’s just get out of here! Okay? You’ve already got everything you wanted from this town. Let’s just leave.”

“Gemma, no!” Harper tried to run to her sister, but Thea elbowed her in the stomach as she approached. Harper collapsed to the floor, holding her belly and coughing.

“She’s right,” Thea told Penn. “We’re just wasting time. The sun’s coming up, and the police are already scouring the bay for more bodies. We should just get out of here.”

Lexi had gotten back up, and she kicked Daniel in the arm. “Jerk.”

“Lexi, come on.” Thea started backing out of the cabin, and Lexi gave Daniel one more disparaging look before she went after Thea. They didn’t move past the front porch, where they waited for Penn and Gemma to follow.