Page 50 of Blood of the Sirens
Until another older mer pushed in front of him. “This differs from the spring break ritual. This is a real siren! He can’t be allowed to have her to himself. If we shared—”
Anger flashed through me, and before I knew what had happened, I raced forward and struck Mr. Salt-and-pepper Beard on the face. Or I tried to. Instead, new instincts guided my fingers as they dug into his skin and pulled, leaving long lacerations that bled freely into the water around us. I drew back, shocked but trying not to show it.
The merman screamed as if I’d just yanked his balls off, but it knocked the others out of the zombie lust they’d been staring at me with. One with greenish-brown hair and the same nose as the old guy I’d bloodied up shot me an angry look and ripped a bunch of those healing jelly packs from the small bag strapped to his back.
I automatically moved toward the older merman with the long dark hair and beard—the one who still looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. That one, I trusted not to do anything too stupid.
“Father, back away.”
Oh shit, black-beard was Merrick’sfather? I supposed I saw a few similarities in the nose and the eyes. And they were both kind.
Part of me paused, and I just stared.
A father. An actual father.
“Come here, siren,” cajoled one of the younger ones, snapping my concentration on Merrick’s dad.
My eyes narrowed, and I hissed at him, since it seemed to work well with the others.
It didn’t work with him.
I raised my new claws in front of me threateningly, but his eyes pinned to mine. “I never dreamed I’d see one …”
I was regretting this whole mermaid thing. There were sixty other mers, and they were all inching in toward Merrick and me, pinning us against a rock.
It was Archie all over again, but this time Merrick couldn’t beatalltheir faces in.
Merrick jerked as my fear tinged the water again, and one desperate thought cycled in my head over and over again:I don’t want to be here. They frighten me.
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe, and my hands shot to my neck. My gills disappeared. My tail split into two legs, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut as harsh salt water blurred my vision and everything went dark.
Panic shot through my body as the world around me exploded. I flailed uselessly as Merrick cried out, but I barely heard him through the thickness of the water. He hooked an arm around me and shot toward the surface, or I hoped he had. I couldn’t see. I had no sense of direction.
All I could feel was the burning in my chest as my body strained and pulled. I fought the urge to breathe in, knowing it was the quickest way to kill myself.
Merrick will save me. He always has.
There was another explosion, then nothing.
SIXTEEN
Merrick
Protect Jesse.Get the others away.
I was still in shock, but my body was acting on autopilot, which was a good thing because there wasn’t time to stop and dwell on how Jesse had come to be a full blooded siren in front of me and then back again—not when her tail suddenly split back into two legs, and the gills on the side of her neck disappeared. Panic bloomed in her eyes as her head tilted toward the surface, which was much too far away.
I grabbed her around the waist and raced up, up, up. The other mers shouted and followed behind me, but I couldn’t think about them. Every second was precious, every moment a matter of life or death.
Don’t breathe in,I willed her, but she knew the consequences as well as I did. Jesse was strong. She wouldn’t give in. My own breaths were too panicked; I wouldn’t be able to give her any of my oxygen when my body struggled to get us up.
The surface was so far away, even as the water around me grew warmer and brighter, the sun from the surface bending down and reaching its arms out to us.
An explosion came to the rescue, propelling us the rest of the way. I broke through the surface first, dragging Jesse behind me, crystal drops of water raining down on us. She wasn’t breathing!
Adrenaline fueled my tail as my muscles burned. There was nowhere to go with only the open sea around us. Waves crashed over my head as we bobbed up and down wildly.
“Help!” I called out, choking and coughing as my gills transitioned to my lungs. I don’t know why I bothered. No one was around.
