Water and Blood
Book One
The Merworld Trilogy
By
B. Kristin McMichael
Water and Blood
Book One of The Merworld Trilogy
Copyright © 2016 by B. Kristin McMichael
All rights reserved.
November 2016 KU Edition
Lexia Press, LLC
P.O. Box 982
Worthington, OH 43085
ISBN-10: 1-941745-81-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-941745-81-6
Cover design: Jessica Allain
Editors: Kathie Middlemiss of Kat’s Eye Editing, Melissa Ringsted of There for You Editing, Ashton M. Brammer
This book is licensed for your personal use only. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means without written permission of the author. All names, characters, and places are fiction and any resemblance to real, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Summary: Whitney was looking for a fresh start, and that was what she thought she had got. Until she finds out about the not-so-human people that call her small town home when they aren’t in the water.
Table Of Contents
Other Books By this Author
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
Sneak Peek: Book II – SONGS AND FINS
Carnelian: Chapter One
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Other Books By this Author
Other Books By this Author
The Night Human World
The Blue Eyes Trilogy (Series One)
o The Legend of the Blue Eyes
o Becoming a Legend
o Winning the Legend
The Day Human Trilogy (Series Two)
o The Day Human Prince
o The Day Human King
o The Day Human Way
The Skinwalkers Witchling Trilogy (Series Three)
o The Witchling Apprentice
o The Wendigo Witchling
o The Witchling Seer
The Merworld Trilogy (Series Four)
o Water and Blood
o Fins and Songs (coming 2017)
The Chalcedony Chronicles
o Carnelian
o Chrysoprase
o Aventurine
o Chrysocolla
Standalone Books
o To Stand Beside Her
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CHAPTER 1
Sam didn’t look up from his phone as his student swam her laps. He’d been teaching Whitney for over a year now, and she had picked up swimming like she’d been born in the water. He didn’t need to watch her; she would be doing the strokes perfectly, as usual. By now she had to be on at least her tenth lap. He doubted she would tire before she got to twenty. For such a scrawny girl, she sure had some muscle.
Whitney made it to the far edge of the pool before Sam snuck at a glance at her. She was far enough away to be safe from his desire to bite into her. No other human had been even half as enticing as she was to him. He had to use all his willpower not to drain her dry each time she had a lesson. Whitney slid through the water effortlessly and was coming closer to where he was seated. Sam had to look down again.
Water splashed a little as Whitney made it to the wall and turned around to go the other direction. Sam pretended there was something on his phone more important than watching her. He didn’t need to make any mistakes, like getting obsessed about a girl he could never be with. He was only a senior, but he had been hoping to stay around at least another five or ten years on the mainland. It was expected he would return home to his family eventually, but he wasn’t in a hurry to get back to the pressure of all that.
It was taking all his self-control to sit on the side and not jump into the water. His kind wasn’t especially known for self-control, either. Sam pressed the buttons on his phone aimlessly.
There was no one calling him, nor would there be. Sirens preferred the island, and not many stayed shoreside for long. Everyone used the excuse that they needed to head back for something every chance they got. His only other friends were busy with their after-school jobs or getting ready for their next gig. It cost a lot to live on your own. While they pretended to have parents with them, Sam and his friends were really alone, fending for themselves. His second job was at night, and since he didn’t need much sleep, it was a good fit.
Sam thought of home to distract himself. It had been over two weeks since he had been back, and he was going to have to make a trip there in the next week or so. They would never let him go too long without checking in. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the island—it was really pretty perfect—he just wanted to get away. That wasn’t possible there. Everyone knew everyone and was in their business. Eventually, he’d have to live there. At some point, the day humans around him were bound to notice he wasn’t aging once he turned eighteen in a couple weeks. But until then, he planned to stay on shore as long as he could. It might take moving around a bit, but he was positive he could pull it off until he was at least twenty-five, maybe even thirty.
Whitney splashed again as she turned around and began going the opposite way, her body just breaking the surface as she moved forward and away from Sam again. Sam gripped his phone a little tighter, willing himself to sit still on the bleachers. He couldn’t put his finger on why he wasn’t able to stay away from this one day human. She was beautiful, but then again so was everyone where he came from. Sirens tended to be as beautiful as the most popular movie stars. It helped when you pretended to save someone in the ocean. Boaters were always much more likely to trust a beautiful face over an ugly one.
His phone beeped as he got a message, and he could concentrate on something other than the human swimming before him. It wasn’t much to keep his attention, but he’d read it over a dozen times just to be sure. It outlined the time and place of their gig Friday night. Maybe he could look up where it was. Not that he needed to know; their bus driver would get them there in time. But it would keep him busy for at least another lap. Sam typed the address into his phone and zeroed in on the place. It wasn’t too far, only a few hours north. They would be home before sunrise. An easy night. Then again, their manager would want them in the studio if they weren’t pulling a late night to record their next album.
Tipping his head back, Sam stared at the clouds. Life would have been much easier if the other night humans knew about the sirens. They would be free to stay on land as much as they wanted, and he would have access to blood banks and not have to trick day humans into swimming lessons to feed himself. And his job of keeping the land sirens safe would be so much easier if they weren’t running around hungry all the time. He hated the way everything had turned out. He understood it, but that didn’t mean he had to agree.
The splashing in the pool had stopped. Sam looked down to see whether his student was taking a break or she was done for the day. She wasn’t at her twentieth lap yet. By his calculations, she was only at fourteen.
Jumping up from his seat, Sam dove effortlessly into the pool and across the width of the lanes without surfacing for breath. Yes, some wandering day human
too close to the pool could have seen, but it was an emergency. Whitney was floating face down in the pool, and she wasn’t just holding her breath.
In one swift motion, Sam lifted Whitney’s lifeless body out of the water as he emerged from below her. He immediately jumped out beside her. Without hesitating, Sam began to breathe into her mouth. Her heartbeat was slowing. He didn’t need to feel for a pulse; his senses told him that much. Sam blew into her mouth again, trying to get air to her body.
With her blonde hair matted to her, Whitney lay there limp and unresponsive. Sam stared at her. Even on the verge of death, he was pulled to her, but now his siren instincts were taking over. He had seen his share of people dying from drowning, and they all looked as appetizing as she did when she swam. Now as she was dying Sam realized he didn’t want to feed on her, he wanted to keep her alive.
He didn’t stop to think about what he was doing as he bit down on his wrist. Blood began to drip down his arm. Placing his wrist over her open mouth, he let only a few drops fall into it. Night human blood was powerful and held healing capabilities for day humans; his would be enough to keep her from dying. At least he hoped so. He had only known of two people ever that used their blood to heal a day human. It had been successful in both getting the human healed and the siren exiled from the island. Sam knew there could be a price if anyone ever found out, but that didn’t matter to him. For some reason, keeping the fragile day human in his arms alive was worth it.
Whitney began to cough, and he quickly turned her to her side as she puked out the water stuck in her lungs. Sam licked away the blood on his arm and was thankful for his quick healing abilities as there wasn’t a mark left on him.
Wiping her hair out of her face and into something a little more stylish, Whitney pushed herself up to sitting.
“I thought I was taking these lessons so I wouldn’t almost drown,” she complained.
Sam shook his head. “Then how about next time you come up for a breath instead of trying to make it all the way down the pool like some sort of fish?” Sam replied, easily bantering with her as his own heartbeat slowed down from the excitement. Relief flushed over him, but he pretended like everything was normal.
That was what had happened the last time she almost drowned, except this time technically she did drown. However, Sam wasn’t about to correct her. The less she knew, the better.
Whitney ran her hands through her hair again and gave it an easy, perfect twist.
“Fine. I guess I’m not a fish, but wouldn’t swimming be much easier if you didn’t have to breathe while doing it?”
Sam smiled as she stood up. How true that was.
“Done for today?” he asked as she made her way over to her towel on the sideline.
“Yeah, only one ‘almost drowning’ per day for me. I’m up to what, four dinners now?”
That was their deal. Since Whitney didn’t pay Sam for the lessons, the school did. The first time she had almost drowned, Sam was in the water with her and just had to push her to the edge. That was the first week of class when she thought she was ready to jump in the deep end. She promised to buy him dinner to make up for his saving her. That was five times ago. She was getting better. In fact, it had been months since the last ‘almost drowning.'
Whitney wiped the water off her thighs and then her legs. Sam was disappointed. He blamed his siren side, which seemed to be more attracted to women drenched like wet cats than the ones made up with perfect hair and makeup like he had seen on the girls he’d taken on the few land dates he had gone on.
“I think that was six,” Sam corrected.
Whitney wrapped her towel around her, completely hiding her body from his view. Sam kept his expression in the normal smile that hid all his thoughts. It was an especially good trick for dealing with her. He focused on her eyes, which were blue, just like the sky. It was harder to keep his gaze from roaming, but everything seemed harder when dealing with Whitney.
“Fine. Six dinners. But you’re going to have to wait. I just started my new job, so I won’t get paid for two weeks.”
“Guess you’ll have to stop trying to drown.” Okay, he couldn’t help that one. It was like Whitney was there to give him a challenge, either in the water or just in a conversation.
“Well, maybe I need a teacher who can show me how to swim without needing air,” she kidded back. She was never going to get a new teacher. Only four students at the school taught lessons; he had made sure none of them would agree to teach her so that she had to come to him instead. He would never admit it to another night human that he had a crush on a day human, but by being her teacher, he could spend at least a little time alone with her without any suspicion from anyone.
“Or maybe you’ll finally realize you aren’t a fish and learn to breathe like everyone else when they swim.”
Whitney smiled at him, and Sam would swear it sparkled in the sun.
“You just wait. One of these days I will swim the length of the pool in one breath. You just wait, buddy.” Whitney tapped a finger on his chest as she challenged him before turning on her heels and walking away. She gave him a wave as she walked back toward the gate that led into the school locker rooms. She didn’t even turn around.
Sam watched her hips sway as she walked. If any other human made that statement, he would have laughed, but Whitney… she was different. It was very possible she would do just that.
The door to the locker room shut, and she was finally out of his view. Sometimes he wished he was a djinn instead of a siren. Then he would grant his own wish and turn Whitney into a night human and he could keep her to himself forever.
Whitney hit the snooze button on her alarm for the tenth time or so. She was beyond tired. Her new job started, and she wasn’t yet talented enough to multitask as a waitress. She was going to have to stop dropping stuff and stop talking so much with customers. At least it had been her first week of work, and people were forgiving. Next week might not go as well if she didn’t step up and do better. It stunk that her inheritance was locked in a bank account she couldn’t access until she was twenty-one. She had to work for any spending money for the next three years.
The alarm beeped again. Swatting at it, Whitney managed to turn it off. She was having a good dream, and the noise was completely ruining it.
Whitney waited for the slumber to come back. She was warm and cozy; it wouldn’t take long.
“Leaving in five,” Ben, Whitney’s younger cousin and ride to school, called from the other side of her shut door.
Her eyes shot open, and she looked across the room at her second clock, which was supposed to have gone off an hour ago, forcing her to get out of bed. It was blinking midnight. They had lost power again, and she still didn’t have batteries in it.
Quick mode was going to have to work. Whitney jumped out of bed and slipped into the closest polo shirt she could find in her closet and the khaki skirt from yesterday. One nice thing about a dress code was picking out her clothes was easy when it needed to be. Her hair was a mess from sleeping on it wet after swimming the night before, but that would have to wait. She didn’t have time to shower and blow-dry her hair. She barely had time to put on lip gloss as she heard her cousin march by her room and jump down the steps outside her door two at a time. She grabbed her backpack and her shoes to chase after him. He had been threatening for weeks to leave without her, but she didn’t want the day she woke up late to include showing up in a thrown-together outfit that was all sweaty from having to jog to school.
Ben walked through the kitchen to the garage and Whitney followed, grabbing an apple on the way. She would rather have time to sit down, eat and maybe even drink some coffee to wake up, but an apple was going to have to do for now.
Out the door and hopping in his car, Ben didn’t look back to see if she was there. Whitney kept up with her younger cousin and jumped in the passenger side as the car purred to life.
“I swear you sleep more than a cat,” Ben muttered as she sat bes
ide him.
Whitney grinned. She was kind of fond of cats, but that was back when she lived with her family. Her grin faded as it always did when she thought of the home she no longer had.
“Rough swim lesson or rough day at Bingos?” Ben asked.
Whitney had returned home from swimming to get dressed and head right to work. If she had to pick, they were equal in difficultness since she had almost drowned in her lesson right before heading to work.
“Both,” she replied, biting into the apple and holding it in her teeth while she reached back and pulled her hair into a sloppy—but would work until she could find a mirror— braid.
“You do know if you’d just go on a date with Mark, I’m sure he’d be easier at Bingos,” Ben suggested.
Mark was a senior in their school. He’d been working at Bingos for almost four years and was now an assistant to the manager that ran the place. He had let Whitney know that he was more than willing to date her, but she just couldn’t bring herself to say yes. It wasn’t his fault. He was cute, with blond, wavy hair that was sun-streaked from hours of surfing, and crystal blue eyes. They would’ve made a cute matching couple, what with Whitney’s own blond hair and blue eyes, but she still couldn’t do it. She just didn’t see him as boyfriend material.
“Mark isn’t the problem,” Whitney replied to her cousin. I am, she thought.
Ben shrugged. “Either way, it wouldn’t hurt anything to just try.”
Whitney glowered at her cousin as he drove. He was on Team Mark since he practically idolized the senior who was the captain of the swim team Ben desperately wanted to be on. Ben spent almost all his free time following Mark around like a puppy, and Mark didn’t seem to mind at all. At least Mark was nice enough to put up with Ben, but that didn’t make her want to date him either.