Page 66 of Blood of the Sirens
And that was a kick in the teeth, wasn’t it? Where was my family? The grandparents who owned this house would kick me out the moment they got a whiff I’d been expelled, and my mother (the only one who might have answers about any of this) was far away in freaking Ohio.
I needed to call her.
I’d never met my bio dad.
Why was my family so … I don’t know, fucked up?
Then again … which family wasn’t?
Even Javi’s seemingly perfect family had issues–an uncle constantly in prison, and a fifteen-year-old cousin who’d gotten pregnant.
Maybe family isn’t about what you do or what happens–but how you all respond to it.
I went to the freezer and yanked the door open, grabbing the rocky road ice cream and a spoon from the drawer. Plopping down next to him at the bar, I stabbed the spoon into the textured cream and took a large bite. I’d probably burned off enough calories flouncing about in the ocean to earn it.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this ... mermaid stuff is true,” he tried carefully, eyes tracking the movement of the spoon to my lips. I slurped up the mint chocolate chip with a flourish.
I snuck a peek at Javi, whose face was still tight with apprehension. I offered him the spoon, but he harrumphed, crossing his leg over his knee.
“Well, that would explain why all of them disappeared in the water miles out from shore, with no bodies washing up. They were all … mer people too, then. Do you know how insane Mike went, thinking we’d killed an entire boat of guests? He’s taken a sudden vacation down the coast, waiting for me to give him the all clear. Wait until he hears this!”
My lips parted in shock. He believed it, then?
Javi threw his hands in the air at my surprise. “You’re the most sensible person I know. You wouldn’t lie to me about this. And something was definitely off about those guys. Mer people, huh?”
I nodded and he put his hands behind his head, leaning back against his hands, whistling.
“Wonder if Archie might be one of these ... mer people? He’d fit right in, after all …” he murmured darkly.
I shook my head vehemently. Some people were just pieces of shit. Not everyone needed a valid excuse to be one. I’d already discounted this possibility.
“So ... Can you like ... transform and shit?”
I rubbed my face with my hands tiredly, then nodded. Javi clapped his hands in excitement, and I cracked a grin despite everything. His child-like wonder stirred something inside my chest—the same something that kept me working at the museum and with the children who fell in love with the sea like I did. It was the same something that had pushed me to come out here in the first place, and dedicate my life to the ocean.
Javi stared at me for a hard second before putting one finger in my face, breaking my reverie. My brow furrowed as he hopped off the stool and rummaged around my kitchen, shouting in triumph as he found a pen and a notebook. Primly he arranged himself back on the stool, holding his notebook and pen like a journalist ready for the big press conference.
“I’m going to ask a lot of questions. Yes or no. Tell me everything.”
Two hours later,I was exhausted from an interrogation that wouldn’t have been out of place by an FBI operative. Using yes or no questions, I think Javi got the gist of what was going on. I was just thankful he believed me.
“So lover boy is one of these mer guys, but a good one. That’s a relief. I liked him.” Javi paused, his pen hovering over the heavily marked notebook paper. “And he’s in some kind of trouble, but trouble that’s more dangerous than the other mersbeing on his ass? And your ass, for that matter?” His eyebrows waggled suggestively.
I nodded, weary, slumping on my stool over the counter. I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes.
“Well, do you think you know where he is? I could probably bully Dario into taking his boat out on a Sunday, though our mom would give us hell for missing church. Sounds like it’d be worth it, though?” Javi eyed me skeptically, and I lifted my head up to think.
Could I find Merrick?
If I still had access to my abilities, I knew I could. I’d be able to scent him and follow it. But now? If I couldn’t shift, I likely couldn’t access anything else either. I was just another human on the surface, deaf, dumb, and blind to everything going on underneath the waves.
My head dropped back to the counter in frustration.
“OK, so that’s a no,” Javi began carefully. “Do you have any other allies that are … er, under the sea to help?”
I went to shake my head no, then realized that wasn’t quite true. Caspian had saved my life by yanking me away from Calypso and getting me to the surface. The sea witch certainly hadn’t ordered him to do that.
Hope flared in my chest. If Caspian had free will, that meant all might not be lost with Merrick.
