Page 14 of Blood of the Sirens
“You’re going to get fired,” Javi breathed out, his hands tangling in his dark hair. If he was accidentally mussing his carefully styled hair, shit was bad.
Tears leaked from the corner of my eyes, hot and burning. “I KNOW!”
His arms came around me, and I sobbed. My life was broken and shattered, and it felt so fucking unfair.
FIVE
Merrick
The restof the males arrived within hours, which meant they’d already been on their way, leaving before my father had agreed to let them come. That meant the other clans and their elders had assumed he’d say yes. If my father noticed this, he said nothing.
Overnight, our village, cut into the deep rock at the bottom of the ocean, had gone from housing fifty members of my clan to nearly two hundred. And there were more to come.
“Mer-ick! Up!”
I flinched away from the little mer, muttering an apology. Where had he come from? His tiny tail fluttered behind him, irritated I wasn’t paying him any attention. I didn’t blame him; normally I loved it when other clans visited with their young.
And there are so few young these days.
“I am sorry, but I’m busy today,” I said.
He sniffed and swam away, likely looking for someone more fun, and less antsy and irritated by everyone around him.
Sighing, I followed the edge of the valley up toward the surface, letting the red algae graze my belly and tail on the way up. The water up here was still quite warm from the hot day on the surface.
I coughed and hacked up seawater as my head burst the surface, the transition from gills to human lungs was always the worst part of going above water. It was night, making my ascent easier as I slipped into the inlet I had first met the siren born in.
She was not there.
That wasn’t surprising. Few humans were on the water at night, since it was more dangerous for them and prime hunting time for predators. The moon shone overhead, its beams shining off the water much weaker than the sun, but still with its own beauty. The muffled shine was more familiar to me; it was how the sun filtered down through the water and mimicked the dull glow of sea glass.
I swam toward the cluster of three houses on the edge, frowning at how dark they all were. Was the female not there either?
The female.
I had a choice to make.
I could sit here and pout and wait for one of the other males to discover her. Or I could go on land, put on the garments, and … attempt to find her. Barretthadgiven me a human garment and footwear a long time ago, which I carried in the pouch I wore around my chest in case of a surface emergency.
Indecision twisted my gut.I would not breed her and leave,I vowed. She deserved better than what our tradition dictated.
Sudden worry flared in my chest. What if one of the other males had already gotten to her? What if that was the reason she wasn’t here?
Red flashed in my vision, fear seizing my chest in a vice grip and not letting go. That decided it for me. I swam to the edge of the shoreline under her dock, and lifted myself on top of it. I strained to pull my heavy tail up after me, but I managed just fine, scooting back until my fin no longer touched the water.
The moment my body felt open air, my scales and fins disappeared, leaving behind only smooth, tanned human skin. The slight webbing between my fingers faded away, and my tail split in half, reforming into legs.
I’d never really practiced with them before. Sitting here in the dark on this crumbling deck, that seemed like a glaring oversight.
I tugged the wet garment Barrett had given me out of my bag, along with the strange footwear. Humans had feet and apparently they were born with a deficiency that forced them to cover them with small shields at all times. Looking at the soft, smooth skin on my new appendages, I could see why. It wouldn’t take much to wound them. Why were humans born wounded? The poor things.
Though, it would be interesting to take a few of these materials under the water and see what I could do with them. Surely Barrett wouldn’t miss an extra pair of jeans, would he? The material seemed very strong.
I lined the holes in the “shorts” up with my new legs, just like Barrett had explained. It was an awkward shimmy, but I got them up around my waist. Humans did not enjoy displaying their private parts to each other, for some reason. Though they were just as sensitive and exposed as human feet, so I understood the need to cover them for that reason.
Human anatomy made no sense.
I rolled onto my hands and new knees, getting a feel for my balance on all four limbs like a land animal. Slowly, I shiftedmy weight back onto my legs, balancing on my knees the way I’d seen other humans do. I swayed back and forth wildly.
