The sun was starting to set when Harper flopped on the couch and called it quits.
“I think we did a good job,” she said.
“Are you kidding?” Daniel asked, grinning down at her. “We did an amazing job. You scrubbed a ring out from the bathtub that I’m certain had been there since that tub was installed. ”
Harper laughed, but she didn’t argue with him. “Hey, when I do something, I do it right. ”
“That you do. ”
Daniel sat down on the couch next to her, closer than he needed to, but Harper didn’t say anything. There had been little moments like this all day long, and she didn’t know how to react to them. When he’d hand her something, his touch seemed to linger a little too long. Or when he helped her lift something, he’d reach around her, nearly hugging her in the process.
She kept telling herself that he was just being helpful, the little touches meant nothing, or it was all in her head. But still, every time he brushed up against her she found her heart beating a bit faster.
There were more than a few times when she’d meant only to glance over at him and she found her gaze lingering. Especially when he’d been working in the bedroom.
The whole bed had been flipped over, the headboard smashed, the dresser completely destroyed. Bernie didn’t believe in AC, so it was about a hundred degrees in the bedroom. Daniel had taken off his T-shirt as he strained and lifted the broken wood, tossing it out an open window before he took it to the woodpile to chop up for the fireplace.
Harper had offered to help him, but Daniel had insisted that he had it under control. She’d been sweeping the living room, and she’d found herself stopping to stare at him far more often than she should have.
There was something about the way he looked when he moved. The muscles in his back and arms flexing as he lifted the dismantled furniture. And that tattoo, which Harper had first thought was evidence that Daniel was bad news, she now found so appealing.
It was a thick black tree, with the roots growing out from the waistband of his boxers that were showing just above his jeans. The trunk grew upward, over his spine, then twisted to the side so the branches extended out over his shoulder and down his right arm.
He’d once caught her staring, and she looked down in a flash, blushing, but he’d only laughed at her. Daniel said that she ought to think about getting a tattoo, and then she hurried off to clean something far away, so she wouldn’t be able to gawk at him.
“Thank you for coming out to help me today,” Harper said, now that they were finished and he’d unfortunately put his T-shirt back on. “Not everybody would want to spend their Sunday cleaning up a house. ”
“No problem. ” He stretched his arms out so one rested on the couch behind her, but it wasn’t exactly around her. “I told you I’m always happy to help. ”
“I know, but I really appreciate it,” she said. “I needed to get out and do something instead of moping about Gemma or worrying about her or talking about her with Alex or my dad. ”
“Well, I was happy to help you keep your mind off her. ” He looked over at her. “And I’ll be more than happy to help you keep your mind off anything anytime you want. ”
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“Thanks. ” She smiled when she looked over at him, but something about the look in his eyes made her smile fall away.
His arm had moved, so she could feel his hand on her shoulder. It felt strong and rough on her skin, and he was holding her, moving her closer to him as his hazel eyes stared into hers. She leaned in to him, and just when she thought he was about to kiss her, he spoke.
“We should probably get going before it gets dark,” he said.
“We should,” Harper agreed when she found her voice.
He turned away from her and rather abruptly got up and walked away, leaving Harper dismayed on the couch.
“I’m going to start carrying the garbage out to my boat. ” Daniel walked away and didn’t look back.
“Yeah, um, I’ll help you. ” Harper jumped to her feet and hurried after him, but he’d already grabbed all the bags by the time she reached him.
When they got on his boat, he barely spoke a word to her.
FOURTEEN
Cravings
Gemma spent the whole morning in the ocean, swimming with Thea, Penn, and Lexi. Penn told Sawyer to stay behind, because she wanted to swim out farther and faster than he could go. And though she hated to admit it, Gemma was glad for that.
Penn led her out farther than she’d ventured on her own before. Gemma had set limits, afraid of enjoying herself too much, but with her new vow to heed Penn’s advice, Gemma let herself enjoy the exploration.
The four of them swam together, flitting between one another like they were performing an underwater ballet. Penn swam quickly, driving them forward, and now they had to be miles from shore. Not only that, but they went deeper down than Gemma had gone before.
The sunlight barely broke through the water, and it was so dark Gemma could hardly see. Fortunately, the iridescent scales of the sirens’ tails managed to shimmer in what little light made it down here, so Gemma could keep track of them.
When they finally surfaced after darting around the ocean, chasing each other and whatever sea life crossed their path, Gemma was relieved. The deeper they went, the colder the water got, until Gemma was nearly shivering. Now the sun warmed her skin as she stared out at the waves around her.
“I told you it was a great day for a swim,” Lexi said, grinning broadly as she floated next to Gemma.
“Everything’s so much easier when you play along,” Penn said, her voice an odd mixture of silk and contempt. “Isn’t it, Gemma?”
“It is,” she admitted, and wiped the salt water from her eyes. “But I think I’m going to head back to shore. ”
“You’re such a party pooper. ” Lexi pretended to pout, but Gemma couldn’t imagine that she actually cared all that much if Gemma stayed or not.
“Sorry, guys. I’ve had enough swimming for today. ”
Penn narrowed her eyes at her, as if trying to decipher something. “You aren’t getting tired, are you?”
“No. ” Gemma forced a smile at her. “I’m just getting a little cold. I think I want to go lie out on the beach. ”
Penn didn’t seem convinced, but she shrugged noncommittally. “Suit yourself. Thea, head back with her. ”
Thea sighed and didn’t argue with Penn, but Gemma thought she looked disappointed. Thea had seemed to be enjoying herself. She’d chased a sea turtle for a while, and Gemma didn’t want to make Thea leave if she was still having fun.
“No, that’s okay,” Gemma said. “Thea can stay with you guys. I know my way back to the shore. ”
Thea and Gemma both turned to Penn, waiting for her response, and at length Penn nodded.
“Fine,” Penn said. “We’ll see you when we get back. ”
Gemma turned and headed back toward the beach house, a little surprised that Penn had let her go. Apparently Gemma had proven herself enough that Penn had begun to trust her. That was probably a good thing.
She stayed close to the surface of the water as she swam, letting the sun warm her back as she headed toward the land.
When she’d said she was getting cold it hadn’t been a lie, but that wasn’t the only reason she’d wanted to go back. She was getting tired. It was hard for her to keep up with the other sirens, and she had a feeling that it had to do with the awful gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach.
Her fins were slow to transform back to legs when she reached the sand, and her stomach lurched. Thea had told her that the daily swims would only hold off her need to feed for so long, but Gemma was determined to put it off as long as she could.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to her feet, though her legs felt wobbly underneath her. When she pulled on the bikini bottoms she’d left on the beach, she nearly fell over. She waited a minute, steadying hers
elf, before slipping on her sundress over her head.
By the time she made it to the house, she felt a bit better. Her strength seemed to be returning, and the hunger pains in her stomach had abated. The transformation had just been unusually grueling today. That was all.
Gemma planned on heading upstairs to her room to lie down for a while, but Sawyer caught her just as she reached the steps.
“Hey, Gemma. ” He smiled at her in a way that had only seemed mildly dazzling a couple days ago. But since yesterday, she’d been unable to completely shake this strange new attraction to him.
To make matters worse, he was shirtless and walking over to her.
“Hi, Sawyer,” Gemma mumbled, and looked away from him.
“The other girls are still out swimming?” Sawyer asked.
She nodded. “Yep. They’re out there. And I was just gonna head up to my room. ”
“Oh, cool. ” He moved toward her, like he meant to walk up the stairs with her. “I was just heading that way, too. ”
“Why?” Gemma blurted out.
Sawyer stood on the bottom step next to her, and it was impossible not to look at him. Or to ignore the proximity. His eyes were so unbelievably blue, and his arms looked so strong. She breathed in deeply. He even smelled like the sea.
“I was going up to my room. ” Sawyer cocked his head, maybe noticing the change taking over Gemma. “Did you want to join me?”
“No!” She hadn’t meant to sound so forceful, but he didn’t seem to notice. He seemed just as entranced by her as she was by him.
It wasn’t lust and it wasn’t hunger, but some dangerous combination of the two. She craved him in a way she hadn’t known it was possible to crave a human being. Her mind was filled with the same thoughts as yesterday, of all the things she wanted to do to Sawyer, but then it all turned into a blurry haze. She couldn’t think, and all she could feel was a blazing heat that threatened to consume her.
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She reacted on instinct, doing what her body told her to do. She didn’t even realize what she was doing until she felt Sawyer’s lips pressed against hers. She’d thrown her arms around him, pressing her body as tightly as she could against the warm contours of his, and kissing him ferociously.
The only reason she stopped kissing him was that she needed to breathe, and she felt his lips on her neck, trailing down her collarbone. Hot tingles radiated through her, reminding her of when her legs shifted into a tail, and dimly she wondered if she was transforming into something else.
Then suddenly Alex flashed into her mind. When the hunger/lust had first taken over her, it had blocked him from her thoughts, but now she remembered him again. She loved him, and she still thought of him as her boyfriend, even if she wasn’t sure that she’d ever see him again.
So this with Sawyer, this was cheating on him. Maybe for a second she’d lost control, and that could be forgiven. But she remembered now, and she had to get back in control before she did something with Sawyer that she’d regret forever.
“No,” Gemma said. She started pushing against his chest, but Sawyer ignored her, still kissing the spot just above her heart. “I said no!” She pushed more forcefully then, and he went flying back, slamming hard against the railing behind him.
“Did I do something wrong?” Sawyer asked in a daze.
“Yes!” Gemma shouted, then shook her head. It was a struggle for her to keep from attacking him again. “No. I don’t know. But I have to get out of here. ”
“I’m sorry. ” He moved toward her in some attempt at an apology, and Gemma jumped off the step, getting away from him before she gave in to her urges.
“Where are your keys?” Gemma asked, realizing the house was far too small for her to stay away from him. Sawyer stared blankly at her, not understanding. “I need to get out of here! Where are your car keys?”
“They’re on a hook by the garage. ”
She turned and ran toward the garage, but Sawyer followed, asking her where she was going and apologizing for upsetting her. She never answered him, though. She just grabbed the keys off the rack and dove into his convertible.
Gemma sped off without knowing where she was going or how to get there, but the wind was in her hair, helping clear her head of the bizarre lust that had consumed her inside the house. She wasn’t sure if she was ever going back to the house, or if she could ever handle herself around Sawyer again. All she knew was that she had to get the hell away from that house as fast as she could.
FIFTEEN
Superstitious
The idea had been Marcy’s, and Harper thought it was idiotic. Harper had woken up Monday morning with renewed vigor and determination to find Gemma. She’d been gone for a week already, and Harper had yet to hear anything from her.
Before going to work this morning, she did her morning routine of making phone calls to everyone she could think of. Alex continued to scour the Internet, not just with his FindGemmaFisher pages, but searching for any news stories that might relate to the sirens at all.
The problem was that Gemma could literally be anywhere. She could’ve swum across the Atlantic, for all Harper knew, which made it impossible to pin down any type of location. So until Harper got some kind of clue or lead, she was stuck making phone calls, searching the Web, and going about her daily life and hoping that Gemma was taking care of herself.
It was while Harper was at work that Alex stopped by the library, and the two of them began lamenting the lack of search options for Gemma. Then Marcy came up with her brilliant idea.
“Why don’t you ask Gemma where she’s at?” Marcy asked.
Harper was standing at the copy machine, making flyers for the new July summer reading program. Alex was sitting in Harper’s chair at the desk, and both of them were completely caught off guard by Marcy’s question.
“What?” Harper asked, and turned around to look at her.
Marcy was sitting on top of the desk, even though there was a perfectly good chair next to it, and was focused on making herself a necklace out of paper clips.
“You keep saying that Gemma could be anywhere, like Spain or Japan or Kentucky. ”
“I never said Kentucky,” Harper corrected her. “The sirens wouldn’t go to the middle of the country. They’d want to be by the ocean. ”
“Well, exactly. ” Marcy bit her lip in concentration as she tried to unhook a paper clip that had gotten bent. “She could be anywhere. So the easiest way to find her is to ask her. ”
“We can’t just ask her,” Alex said. “We have no idea how to contact her. She left her cell phone behind, and I’ve been checking her Twitter and Facebook, but she hasn’t been on them. ”
Marcy rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean call her or drop her a postcard. ”
“Okay…” Harper said after Marcy went several moments without saying anything. “How do you propose we contact her?”
“We use the spirits,” Marcy said.
“The spirits?” Harper raised an eyebrow. “You mean like Capri Liquor Wine & Spirits?” Marcy looked up from her paper clips to glare at Harper.
“Gemma’s not dead, though. ” Alex leaned on the desk and looked up at Marcy. “She’s not a ghost, so we can’t just ask her. ”
“She isn’t,” Marcy agreed. “But that friend of yours is, and so is Bernie. ”
“My friend?” Alex questioned. “You mean Luke?”
“Right. ” Marcy finished her necklace, and she dropped it around her neck. “Both Bernie and Luke were murdered by the sirens. At least one of them has to be a restless spirit, haunted by the fact that their murderers got away with it, and I bet they’re keeping tabs on the sirens, too. ”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Marcy. That’s ridiculous. ”
“You really think that Luke would know where Gemma and the other girls are hiding?” Alex asked, oblivious to Harper’s comments.
“Probably. ”
Marcy nodded. “I mean, if Penn had killed you and ripped out your heart, then run off to frolic in the ocean, wouldn’t you be pissed off and stalk her?”
“I probably would,” Alex reasoned. “So how do we go about this? How would we try contacting them?”
“Alex!” Harper said in disbelief. “You can’t really be buying into this. ”
“Your sister is a siren,” Alex said, looking back at her. “She can turn into a mermaid. But ghosts seem unbelievable to you?”
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Harper crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the copier, but she didn’t say anything. Alex had made a point she couldn’t really argue with, but that didn’t mean she still didn’t think this was all stupid.
“Do I need to get like a Ouija board or something?” Alex asked.
Marcy scoffed loudly. “Ouija. Pfft. That’s all hokum. ”
“Okay,” Alex said. “So how do we contact the spirits?”
“Why don’t I meet you at your house after work, and I’ll bring everything we need?” Marcy suggested.
Even though Harper thought it was dumb, she didn’t have any better ideas, so she went along with it. Alex went home, and after work Marcy went home to get her stuff, then was going to meet them at Alex’s house.
Harper waited outside with Alex, sitting on the front steps of his house. He wasn’t sure what to bring, if anything, so he’d grabbed the video camera he used to record storms and a pocketknife in the shape of Batman’s batarang.
“You really think this will work?” Harper asked, watching him as he flipped the blade in and out of the pocketknife.
“I don’t know,” Alex admitted. “But I don’t know what else to try. I’ve got to do something, and I’m running out of options. ”
“Can I ask you something?”
Alex shrugged. “Sure. ”
“Why do…” Harper tried to choose her words carefully. “You’re really passionate about finding Gemma, and I’m glad. It’s just … it’s a little strangely intense, since you and Gemma haven’t been together that long. ”
“Is that your question?” Alex asked, looking over at her.
“Kinda. I just don’t fully understand why you care so much. ”
“But I’ve known her practically my whole life,” Alex pointed out. “And it’s not like I suddenly started having feelings for her the day we started dating. I mean, I’ve liked her for…” He trailed off, as if realizing he’d admitted more than he wanted to.
“When did you start liking her?” Harper asked.
He shifted uneasily. “I don’t know the exact date. ”
Harper had known that Alex and Gemma liked each other for a little while, possibly longer than the two of them knew themselves. Alex would be over watching a movie with Harper or doing homework with her, but as soon as Gemma came in the room, he could barely pay attention to the task at hand.
That eventually had put a strain on her friendship with Alex. She didn’t mind so much that he liked Gemma. It just weirded her out that they’d be hanging out in her room, and Gemma would be across the hall in hers, and Alex would suddenly get up and go hover in Gemma’s doorway. It was obnoxious, so Harper had stopped hanging out with him as much.