Voices of the Sea (15 page)

Chapter Seventeen

W
ithout Ryan and Will to keep her company, the next few weeks would have been excruciatingly lonely. Her clan had disbanded. Most of the surviving families headed to the Midwest to live near the Great Lakes, desperate to be close to any form of water. The lakes could not speak to them, of course, for they had no song. But in some ways, Lora supposed, it might remind them of home.

She missed Fiona most of all, missed having a female confidant with whom to share her growing feelings toward Ryan. She didn’t feel comfortable telling Devin how she fantasized about Ryan all the time lately, longed to have him next to her, to see his comforting smile, to kiss his neck and feel his body close to hers. Those were feelings better shared with a friend. But now all her female friends were gone. The Sons of Orpheus had driven them away. They’d already stolen so much from her; how much more would these sadistic murderers take away?

She had said goodbye to Fiona exactly three weeks ago. Lora had gone to her house early in the morning, the fog still lingering among the Cypress and Eucalyptus trees encircling the home. Fiona’s house was lonely. Some furniture still remained, but most of the belongings were already in the moving truck parked at the curb outside the house. Will stayed in his room. He also refused to run away and instead locked himself upstairs.

Fiona sat on a chair in the living room, crying. Lora knelt beside her and hugged her tightly

Fiona, still crying, hugged her back. “I feel like I’m never going to see you again,” she said. “For as long as I can remember, we haven’t been more than a half-mile down the road from each other.” Fiona pulled away, her cheeks tear-stained. “You might as well be my sister, and now we won’t see each other for . . . well, it feels like it might be forever.”

Lora fought back tears and hugged her friend harder. “I love you, Fiona,” she said with a tender laugh, “but you’re being too dramatic. We will see one another again, and probably sooner than you think. Don’t even think otherwise.”

She had been forcing the happiness in her voice, however, because she couldn’t be sure they
would
see one another again. After all, Lora stayed behind to fight the Sons of Orpheus. The outlook didn’t seem very promising, but she’d be damned if she admitted this to her best friend.

Sniffing, Fiona had leaned back in the chair. “I’m worried about you,” she said, her voice almost a whisper, as if she were afraid their enemy could hear them. “You are going to be the new Guardian, but our song won’t stop them.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lora said, but Fiona interrupted.

“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything!” The whisper left and her voice developed a shrill, almost hysterical note. “You are fighting this all by yourself! They might kill you, Lora. And I couldn’t bear it if . . .”

This time, Lora had cut her off. Her friend’s hysterics would only upset her more, and would probably have made her cry as well. Ryan, Devin, her father and Will were staying to support her, which was enough. It had to be enough.

“I don’t want to talk that way, Fiona,” she said to her friend. “I just came to say goodbye.” She glanced around the empty, lonely room. “It sure is strange in here without all of your parent’s things.”

Fiona bit her lip and nodded.

“Fiona?” Mr. Lias stood in the doorway. “It’s time to go.” He had enveloped Lora in a warm hug. “Take care of yourself, honey,” he said.

Mrs. Lias said nothing, but held her for a very long time, stroking her hair like a child. They were her clan, her family, and they were leaving. Maybe for good. She pulled away and hurried out the door, down the driveway, wiping away warm, salty tears on the walk home.

It seemed ages ago since they’d left. Per Devin’s instructions, they were to have no contact with any members of the Clan until the danger had passed. She believed keeping their whereabouts a secret would protect them. Three weeks felt like an eternity. And if she were to fail, the eternity might become permanent.

Although she attended school during the day, her mind drifted elsewhere, wandering from the call of the ocean to the Sons of Orpheus, who continued to haunt her dreams. She’d dreamed of Victoria again, as she had many times over the past few months. The dream always started the same: she found Victoria lying, pale and bloodied, in the ice plant bed, the same morning she discovered the Sons of Orpheus had returned. But as a scream rose into Lora’s mouth, Victoria opened her eyes. She rose, as if from the dead, moving toward her with outstretched, pleading arms. Each time Lora woke, her body trembled, sweat covered her forehead, and damp pajamas clung to her body even though the room felt chilly.

Every bump, every loud bang of a door, every shrill scream of a classmate, made her jump. Every corner presented a danger to her now. She kept a knife and mace in her purse, ready to defend herself should the Sons of Orpheus seek her out again. They recognized her, could hunt her, so why weren’t they coming for her? This question troubled Lora most of all. They were biding their time, but for what? Why not ambush her? Catch her off-guard at school? Show up at her house and kill her in her sleep?

The idea made her shudder.

No, there must be some reason they were avoiding her. She’d killed one of them, since there was no way he could have survived her assault. The vision of his gaping neck tormented her dreams. She’d proven herself capable of self-defense, and they would be more cautious the next time. There would be a next time; Lora was certain.

Having given up his ruse, Ryan stopped coming to school. He’d graduated last year, he said, so going to classes when he could be keeping his eyes open for leads to the Sons around Pacific Grove seemed pointless. She missed seeing him in the hallways, and yearned to go home each day to find him sitting at the computer in her living room, pouring over papers with her father, searching for information which might lead them to anything related to the Sons of Orpheus. He’d glance at her, his dark eyes shining, and her heart would flutter in response. After the ocean and the impending threat of the Sons of Orpheus, Ryan consumed her thoughts.

Lately, they spent a great deal of time together, especially because he had moved out of the hotel room which had been his temporary home, and moved into Lora’s house. But, to Lora’s chagrin, they never had time alone. Someone—her father, Devin or Will—always lingered nearby, tagging along, and she could only day-dream about snuggling next to him beside the ocean, singing along with its chanting.

A hand tapped her shoulder. She turned to find Will behind her, smiling. “School’s over,” he said. “Not that you even noticed. Where are you, anyway?”

Lora sighed and gathered her belongings.

“A million places but here,” she answered. “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe I have to come to school when I should be finding a way to stop the Sons of Orpheus.” The frustration she’d been feeling all day mounted, the classroom becoming smaller and more confined. She wanted to get out, to commune with the ocean for a while to relieve her tension. Although there had been no more killings during the past three weeks, there were also hardly any Sirens left to kill. So she really couldn’t play the odds. She, Will, Ryan, her father and Devin had been extremely careful in their day-to-day activities, and never traveled anywhere alone. Lora often found herself pacing the living room floor, back and forth, trying to chase away the exhausting tedium.

“I actually watched Gary Martin pick a scab off his face for the entire fifty minutes,” she said, standing. “I never realized picking a scab could be gross and fascinating at the same time.”

Will chuckled. “Well, at least it got your mind off everything else.”

“Not really,” she answered. “It just made me happy I wasn’t his scab.” They both laughed together, and Lora remembered a time before the Sons of Orpheus came to Pacific Grove. A time when she desired to show off her powers to other people, to let humans learn Sirens existed and the mythological monsters they believed in were real, but changed. Now she realized how foolish she had been. The danger was real. It had always been real.

She’d been naïve then. A child. She couldn’t imagine how she had grown up so much in such a short amount of time.

Her breath created white puffs in the air, even though May was here and summer quickly approached. Side by side they left school and walked to Will’s car, not speaking, both lost in their own thoughts. She remembered an earlier conversation with Will, about how the Sons of Orpheus brought the cold with them, which was no myth. Clouds had been a permanent fixture for several months now, leaving her spirits dampened. She missed the beautiful sight of a sun-sparkling sea.

From far away, she heard someone calling her name. She turned toward the sound. Nicholas ran across the parking lot on awkward legs. He waved his arm back and forth to get her attention. Lora sighed. “Wait here a minute,” she said to Will, and hurried toward the flailing boy.

“Hi!” he said, stopping to hold his side and wince in pain. His breathing came hard and heavy, and Lora couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Hi,” she replied. “What’s up?”

Nicholas gave her a sheepish grin. “I wanted to say sorry,” he said, staring at his oversized feet. Lora frowned.

“For what?”

Obviously gathering his courage, Nicholas raised his head to look at her. “You told the school about my knife.”

Lora sighed. After all the other occurrences lately, she had completely forgotten about ratting him out. “Nicholas,” she said. “I—”

“No,” he said, stopping her. “I shouldn’t have brought it to school. I’m sorry I acted weird.” His cheeks reddened and his face fell, embarrassed and dejected.

“I didn’t do it to be mean,” she said. “I was worried about you.”

“I know,” the boy whispered, staring back down at the ground. “Thanks for caring.”

Lora sighed. He really wasn’t a bad kid. He only had a little growing up to do. “No problem. I hope you didn’t get in too much trouble,” she answered, patting him on the shoulder.

Nicholas shrugged. “They suspended me for a couple of days, but went easy when I told them Douglas was bullying me.” Nicholas snickered. “He got suspended, too.”

“Lora?” Will’s voice called to her from across the parking lot, which was probably mostly empty by now. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” she called back. She faced Nicolas again. “I’m glad it worked out. I gotta go, Nicholas.”

He cleared his throat, not moving his eyes from the spot on his shoulder where her hand had been. “Sure,” he said. “See ya.”

“Bye,” Lora said, and turned her back to him as she returned to Will. He gave her a questioning glance. “He wanted to talk about the knife he brought to school,” she said. “I think he feels bad about it. Poor kid. He doesn’t really have any friends. It’s too bad people aren’t nicer to him.”

Will only nodded. “So, where am I taking you today?” he asked. “Devin’s house? Home? I thought we could create a map and mark where the Sons of Orpheus have struck. Maybe we could get a better idea of where they are.”

Lora felt her face blush red and she squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable with the question. She hadn’t mentioned her budding relationship with Ryan, yet. Both of them had taken great pains to hide it because they didn’t want to be a distraction to the others. But if Lora were to be honest with herself, she was afraid to tell Will. He’d been acting so different lately, jealous almost, and she worried about how he would react.

“Actually, I’m busy,” she said, “so I can’t today.” Seeing the confusion on his face, she added, “But it sounds like a great idea, and I’ll help you with it tomorrow, if you want.”

Will frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you going off by yourself.”

“Oh,” she said, squeezing her hands, “I won’t be alone.” Several moments passed with no response. Lora started to sweat during the uncomfortable silence. The heat bearing down upon her felt oppressive, so she rolled down the window to let the frigid air into the car.

Although he must have guessed the answer, Will said, “Are you doing something with your father?”

“No,” she said, wiping the sweat on her hands off on her jeans. “I’m going out with Ryan.” Lora had hoped the threat of the Sons of Orpheus would bring the two men together, help them form a bond which would erase the tension existing between them, but that bond had never materialized. They continued to have a strained rivalry which refused to dissipate.

“You’re fighting a war, Lora. This isn’t the time for dates.”

Lora bristled. “It isn’t a date,” she snapped back. “He’s taking me to the ocean to help me work on my developing powers.”

Will’s face crumbled before her, and he averted his eyes, staring intently at the road. “I would have helped you,” he said, turning onto her street.

She couldn’t resist the sadness in his eyes, and Lora softened. “I know,” she said, touching his arm. “And it isn’t that I don’t want your help, but Devin suggested this. I think she doesn’t want him to feel left out, so she asked him to go with me.”

To her surprise, Will pulled his arm away. “I guess if Devin orders it, then none of us have a choice.” His sharp tone made Lora shift away from him, toward the door. The car pulled into her driveway, and she exited as soon as it came to a stop.

“He’s just trying to help,” she said through the open door. She’d been excited, anticipating this moment all day. The chance to be alone with Ryan again made her skin pebble with fervor and her heart beat faster. She wouldn’t let Will ruin this for her. Ever since Ryan came into town, Will had been acting like a jealous boyfriend, except, they’d never been involved romantically. She resented his envy, considering she didn’t belong to anyone but the ocean, at least not for now, anyway.