“I don’t know. ” He shrugged. “Why? What do you think of her?”
“I don’t trust any of the sirens, but Thea seems the most trustworthy. ” Harper chewed her lip. “I just don’t understand why she gave Gemma the scroll. ”
“She could be suicidal,” Daniel said, and she considered it.
“Penn’s pretty easy to set off. If Thea wanted to die, she could’ve just pissed Penn off, then”—Harper snapped her fingers—“no more Thea. I mean, Penn took Lexi out without a second thought. ”
“Yeah, but maybe Thea wants to get rid of Penn, too. ”
“Like a murder/suicide?” Harper raised an eyebrow.
“Kinda. Except Thea clearly doesn’t want to stand up to Penn or kill her. ”
“Why not? Penn is an evil monster. ”
“Yeah, but she’s still Thea’s sister,” Daniel said. “How bad would Gemma have to be before you plotted to kill her?”
“Gemma would never be like them,” she replied quickly, and shook her head.
“I know, but I’m not asking you about what Gemma’s capable of,” he clarified. “I’m talking about what you’re capable of. Could you ever kill your own sister?”
“I don’t know. ” Harper swallowed hard and stared off into space. She wanted to say no, but deep down, she hoped that she’d be able to do the right thing no matter what. If Gemma ever went off the deep end, she hoped she’d be strong enough to stand up to her sister and protect innocent lives. “But I never want to find out. ”
“That’s probably enough dark talk for one night, anyway,” Daniel said. “I think it’s time we institute a new rule. ”
She looked over at him and tried to shake off her despondency. “So what should we do now?”
“We could watch some TV,” Daniel suggested. “I have a couple episodes of Quantum Leap on VHS. ”
“Daniel. ” Harper tried to scold him, but she couldn’t help but smile. “I thought you were gonna stop getting paid in videotapes now that you have rent to pay. ”
“Hey, Quantum Leap is a viable form of payment,” he insisted. “And I already paid the rent for September. I made out pretty well working on the play. ”
Harper laughed, and Daniel put in the tape. She curled up on the couch next to him, and they spent the rest of the night watching old television shows in grainy, warped VHS. It didn’t sound fun or relaxing, but Harper enjoyed herself immensely.
Everything was going well until she started falling asleep on the couch, and Daniel suggested that they go to bed. Harper changed into her pajamas, which consisted of shorts and a tank top. While she admired herself in the bathroom mirror, she couldn’t decide if she should’ve gone with something sexier or more matronly.
But there wasn’t anything she could do about it now, so she brushed her teeth, took a deep breath, and walked into his room.
Daniel had turned on the lamp on his nightstand, and he stood next to his bed wearing only a pair of boxers. Harper had seen him shirtless before, many times actually, and she’d always enjoyed it.
He wasn’t overly muscular, but there were smooth ripples of abs and indents on his hips from the muscles that started in his pelvis. Not to mention the thin trail of hair that ran from his navel down underneath his boxer shorts that Harper found oddly provocative.
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But as sexy as Harper found Daniel shirtless, that’s not what left her standing nervously in his bedroom doorway. It was the amount of flesh she saw and the very nearness of him. When they were in bed together, she’d be able to feel nothing but him, and the intimacy of it was overwhelming.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah. ” She forced a smile and nodded but didn’t step into his room. “Is that how you sleep?”
“Usually. ” He glanced down at his boxers. “Do you want me to put my shirt back on?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Not if that’s how you sleep. ”
“It is,” Daniel said, then motioned to her. “Is that how you sleep?”
She looked down at her tank top, which suddenly seemed too thin, and her shorts, which had sleeping penguins on them, felt much too juvenile for the moment. She wished she had brought more adult pajamas. Not necessarily sexier, but something a woman would wear, like satin or silk or lace … but that all sounded too sexy.
But maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. She looked back up at the shirtless foxiness that was Daniel and thought that if things got a little hot, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He was gorgeous, and he loved her. There were far worse ways that she could spend an evening.
“Yeah,” Harper said finally, and pulled at her shorts. “These are my pajamas. ”
“They’re nice. ”
“Thanks. ”
“So…” He looked at where Harper stood frozen in his doorway, then back at his bed. “Do you want me to take the couch, and you have the bed?”
“No. Part of the reason I wanted to spend the night was so I can spend time with you. ” She walked into his room and over to his bed.
“Okay. So let’s spend time together. ” He smiled.
Harper climbed into bed and got under the covers. Her natural instinct was to stay at the edge of the bed, but she decided she was being ridiculous. Once Daniel got in bed, she slid over to the middle to be closer to him.
He turned out the light, and the darkness actually comforted her. Something about being hidden relaxed her.
Still, she lay on her back, practically motionless, and she felt Daniel move closer to her. His arm touched hers, and his skin felt too hot. She had no idea how he could even be that warm, especially without a shirt on.
“Is it okay if I give you a good-night kiss?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah. Of course,” she said, in a voice that she hoped sounded normal.
Then his hand was on her arm, strong and reassuring. She felt his stubble first, brushing against her chin and lips. And then his mouth found hers, and when he kissed her, she realized she’d been overthinking everything.
She’d been worried about how far to go and when to go and what he’d think and all of this paranoia. But when he kissed her, all that went away, and she realized it was Daniel. She knew him, she trusted him, she loved him. Things would happen when they were right and not a moment sooner.
When she wrapped her arms around him, she felt her body melting against him. He kissed her more deeply, and his arm went around her waist, pressing her firmly to him. She dug her fingers into his back, pressing into his tattoo and scars.
He’d been lying beside her, but she slid her leg over his hip, pulling him between her legs. His lips pulled away from her mouth as he shifted on top of her, his kisses trailing along her jaw down to the soft flesh of her neck. One of his hands slid underneath her shirt, cupping her breast, and a small moan escaped her lips.
That sound seemed to snap something awake inside Daniel because he abruptly stopped kissing her and pulled away from her. He moved his arms to either side of her, so he was holding himself up, hovering above her.
“Sorry,” Daniel said between gasps of air. “I don’t want to do something in the heat of the moment that we’ll regret later. ”
“No, don’t be sorry. ” She laughed a little, but he didn’t. Instead, he rolled away from her and lay on his back on the bed next to her. “I was having fun. We … we didn’t need to stop. At least not yet. ”
“No, we do,” Daniel said, his voice low and husky. “It’s taking all my discipline to hold back now, and I’m not sure how much longer it will last. ”
She rolled up on one elbow, looking down at him in the darkness. “Then maybe we shouldn’t hold back. I think that no matter when I’m with you, as long as I’m with you, it will be amazing. ”
“Harper,” Daniel said at length. “There’s something I need to tell you. ”
She leaned down toward him, and just before her lips pressed against his, she softly asked, “W
hat?”
What began as a soft kiss grew deeper and more heated, silencing any of his protests, and that’s precisely why she’d kissed him. Harper didn’t want to hear arguments about regret, not when all she really wanted to do was be with him.
His hand cradled the back of her head, and the other gripped her hip possessively, adding more flame to the fire he’d started inside her. Then, abruptly, he tensed and pulled away again.
“What?” Harper asked, and she didn’t keep the hurt from her voice. “Am I doing something wrong?”
“Just the opposite,” he assured her quickly. “But…” He looked up at her, and even in the dark, she could feel his eyes searching her.
“I think we should wait until things are … better. Until we get this stuff with Gemma and Thea and Penn”—he said the last name with disgust—“straightened out. Okay?”
“Yeah,” Harper said. “Absolutely. ”
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to him. She rested her head on his chest, and it wasn’t long before she fell asleep. And though she couldn’t explain, she was certain that Daniel stayed awake for a long time after she had.
SEVENTEEN
Festivities
The glass front window of the Capri Public Library was plastered with flyers. Most of them were for the various summer reading programs, and there were a few newer ones, on bright orange paper, advertising the upcoming fall programs.
Gemma had just been glancing at them as she walked up to the door, but between the papers, she saw her own eye staring back at her. She quickly peeled back the pages in front of it so she could get to her flyer, buried at the bottom and attached to the window with duct tape.
It was from when she’d run off with the sirens back in June, and Alex had made flyers and hung them up all over town. The large black-and-white picture of her face had begun to fade, but the “HAVE YOU SEEN ME?” typed in block letters across the top was clear.
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She balled it up in her hand, preferring not to remember the time she’d spent away from Capri. It seemed like a lifetime ago, a dark blur, when she’d been isolated from the people she’d loved, fighting hungers she couldn’t control, and two men had ended up dead.
Instead of dwelling on it, she looked back at the window and realized that many of the flyers were outdated. She found one advertising the Founder’s Day Picnic, and that had been two and a half months ago. She pulled it down, along with the other older flyers, and carried them into the library.
“What did you do?” Marcy asked. She sat behind the front desk and held a hand up in front of her eyes, blocking the sun. “You’re letting all the light in. ”
“Are you some kind of vampire now?” Gemma asked as she walked over to the desk.
Marcy scoffed. “Like I could ever drink blood. Gross. ”
Children laughed loudly behind her, and Gemma glanced back over her shoulder to see the librarian, Edie, reading a story to a group of toddlers. That had always been Harper’s favorite part of working at the library, and seeing someone else doing her sister’s job made Gemma miss her.
Not just because Harper didn’t live at home anymore since Gemma had just seen her the night before. It was more like nostalgia. The life she’d had before, the one where she was just a swimmer, and her sister just worked at the library, that was over, and it was never coming back.
“I cleared off some of the older flyers for you. ” Gemma turned back to Marcy and set the stack of faded and wrinkled papers down in front of her.
“Yeah, that was supposed to be my job,” Marcy said, and adjusted her thick-rimmed glasses.
“Really? The thing that hadn’t been done in months is your responsibility? I’m shocked,” Gemma replied dryly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m lazy, it’s hilarious. ” Marcy waved her off. “But I was doing that on purpose. The noon sun is ridiculous through that window, so I was making kind of a paper curtain. ”
“Maybe you could get some of the kids to color pictures or something, and post them. ” Gemma pointed her thumb back at the Children’s Circle behind her.
“Meh. ” Marcy picked up the stack so she could throw it in the recycling, but then she wrinkled her nose at one of them. “God, how old are these? Is that one from Christmas?”
“What?” Gemma leaned over the desk so she could get a better look. “No, it’s the Founder’s Day Picnic one. So it’s not quite that old. ”
The words “Founder’s Day” had been written in faded brown ink along the top, but Marcy’d apparently missed that. A caricature of Thomas Thermopolis took up most of the space, drawn to be a rotund man with a large beard. Compared to the pictures of him that Gemma had seen in school, it seemed fairly accurate.
“Oh,” Marcy said. She wheeled her chair back to the recycling bin, tossed the papers aside, and wheeled herself back to the desk. “Thomas Thermopolis always did remind me of Santa. I wish we got presents on Founder’s Day. That would make it a better holiday. ”
“Presents do make everything better,” Gemma agreed.
“So what’re you doing here?” Marcy propped her chin on her hands and looked up at Gemma. “Want me to help rescue you from more sirens?”
Gemma smiled wanly and tried not to stare at the pink scar that ran across Marcy’s neck from when Lexi had scratched her with a talon. Fortunately, early on in the fight, Marcy had been knocked unconscious, so she’d been out of the way and hadn’t gotten that injured, although she had a few bruises.
“Oh, I do have good news for you. ” Marcy picked up her phone and scrolled through it as she spoke. “Lydia’s combing through her great-grandmother’s journals and trying to match dates up with Thalia’s. She thinks it’ll help find the immortal you’re searching for. Look. ”
Marcy shoved her phone right in Gemma’s face, so Gemma had to lean back to read it. The name “Lydia” was at the top, and the text message was below.
Audra kept important stuff coded in her notes, so that not just any Joe Schmo off the street could read it. But I should have Diana’s location figured out within the next day or two. As soon as I do, I’ll let you know.
“This is amazing news. ” Gemma smiled. “We should celebrate!”
“Like how? Like … wanna go to a cook-off in Bayside Park?” Marcy shut off the phone and put it back in her pocket.
“Okay,” Gemma said uncertainly. She’d been thinking of something a bit more adventurous, but if that’s what Marcy wanted, then why not? “Sure, that’s one way to celebrate. ”
“I just saw Daniel across the street, going into Pearl’s. ” Marcy pointed to the front window. “We can grab him, then we can show the people in Capri how we really like to party. ”
“Oh, excellent,” Gemma said, pulling out her own phone. “I’ll text Alex and see if he wants to meet us because he should be just getting done with work now. ”
“You’re back together with lover-boy?” Marcy asked. She grabbed her car keys from a desk drawer and stood up.
“Why do you need your keys?” Gemma asked. “Pearl’s is just across the street. ”
“Like I’m coming back to work later to get them. ” Marcy snorted. “Anyway, are you back with that kid or what?”
“Yeah, I am…,” Gemma replied absently as she typed the text message. Marcy started walking toward the door, so she followed her, but she paused when something occurred to her. “Aren’t you supposed to like punch out or something?”
“Nah, I’m good. It’s easier if I just go,” she said as she pushed open the door. “Fewer questions. ”
“I’m not convinced you do a full day’s work here,” Gemma said.
“Neither is my boss. ”
Once they met up with Daniel at Pearl’s across the street, he and Marcy led the way down to the park since Gemma was moving much slower because she was walking and texting. They’d considered driving down there, and in fact, Marcy had fought for a bit
, but there wouldn’t be parking anywhere near the bay anyway. Traffic was always ridiculous during At Summer’s End Festival.
Bayside Park went right up to the beach next to the bay. It was a lush, grassy area with only a few trees, a small playground, a large pavilion in the center, and a band shell at the far side, near the docks. During the winter, it sat mostly deserted, but in the summer, Capri held all kinds of activities there. It’s where the Founder’s Day Picnic was and where people watched fireworks on the Fourth of July.
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Since it was the last week of summer, Capri was busy, and the park itself was packed. Gemma, Marcy, and Daniel had to wait over five minutes across the street from the park until traffic slowed down enough that they could make it.
“You’re gonna try all the chowders before you cast a vote for Pearl’s, right?” Marcy asked Daniel as they made their way through the crowd toward the pavilion where the cook-off was being held, and that’s when Gemma finally figured out why Marcy had suggested coming down here. She never turned down free food, especially when it was Pearl’s famous clam chowder.
“Yeah, those are the rules,” Daniel said. “But I already know hers is the best. ”
Marcy furrowed her brow. “You seem pretty biased. I’m not sure if you’re qualified to make this kind of judgment. ”
“Oh, I am an expert on chowders,” Daniel persisted. “Nobody is more qualified than me. ”
“We’ll see about that,” Marcy said.
“Do you wanna chowder off?” Daniel turned to face her, pretending to look all angry like he wanted to fight, and Marcy met his fake rage evenly.
“Oh, hells yeah, I wanna chowder off,” Marcy shot back.
“What is a chowder off?” Gemma interjected.
“I have no idea, but we’re going to do it, and I’m going to rule at it,” Daniel said.
“We need to set up some serious ground rules then,” Marcy said.
While Marcy and Daniel debated the rules of their new challenge, Gemma looked around to see what else was going on.
Somewhere nearby, she heard a band playing a weird country version of a Rihanna song. Little kids were walking by with tigers and butterflies on their cheeks, so she guessed a face painter had to be close.
Since she was right by the cook-off, the scent of food should’ve overpowered everything, but she could still smell the sea, like the cologne of a lover left lingering long after he’s gone. She could even hear the waves, calling to her over the crowd and the music and her friends’ bickering.
Gemma closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, hoping that would satiate the hunger inside her somehow. Swimming yesterday with Harper had helped, but her appetite was only growing stronger. Her transformations yesterday must’ve taken something out of her, and now her body was demanding to get it back.
Her only hope was that Diana would have an answer and that that answer would come quickly. She would sooner kill herself than hurt another innocent person. She might not have been able to remember clearly when she’d killed someone, but the image of Lexi’s tearing out Sawyer’s heart was still vivid in her mind.