Voices of the Sea (4 page)

The cafeteria teemed on the verge of chaos, as usual, and the building seemed even tighter than usual. She couldn’t hear the song of the ocean in the cafeteria, either. Even when it lay empty, the thick brick walls made it impossible for sounds to get in or out. In the cafeteria, Lora spent most of her time yearning to leave.

Jason Talbot and his crew sat at a circular table in the middle of the room. Most of them were athletes who only associated with people who could throw, catch, or kick a ball. And although Lora held her own in P.E., she didn’t quite meet their standards. Interspersed were girls—several blonds, redheads and brunettes, who cooed over the athletic boys. A few of the boys had asked her out over the years, and invited her to sit at their table to fawn over their accomplishments, but she hadn’t been interested. They only liked her because she had an exotic face, as her father called it, one that drew men in. They didn’t understand their attraction to her power, of course. She could put them under her thrall with one musical note, but after seventeen years, Lora noticed how men’s bodies tensed as she grew near, sensing her sway. Deep inside the recesses of their minds, they perceived her power over them.

And Lora loved the power.

Too bad the Clan had forbidden her from using her abilities, an order which she tried her hardest not to follow. Pretending to be human clashed with her core. Being human made her ordinary, which she detested. In a few short months, she would become a potential Guardian, which would give her the freedom she so longed for. Her mother ocean would bless her with gifts she could only dream of, gifts belonging only to her.

The jocks were discussing an upcoming party this weekend. Jason’s best friend, Douglas Housman, made a suggestive gesture and all the guys began to hoot and holler while the girls acted disgusted. Douglas gave Jason a masculine high-five and punched him in the arm, which led to a bit of testosterone-induced wrestling. Mid strangle-hold, Jason looked up and made eye-contact with Lora, lifting his eyebrow in a coy expression. Lora hurried away from the table, eager to avoid their childish behavior, and made her way toward the back of the cafeteria.

Will’s cousin, Fiona, and her boyfriend, Eric Tomlinson, were sitting at the back corner of the lunchroom, heads close together. Lora skipped the lunch line, her stomach soured from the morning’s events. The couple barely glanced up when she plopped on the hard bench.

“Foul mood again, Lora?” asked Eric, tearing himself away from Fiona.

Lora winced. She had many reasons to be in a bad mood today, but hesitated to tell them the truth right away. Easing into a conversation about the dead Siren body she had found might freak them out, especially if she told them about the Sons of Orpheus. So she stuck with her least important problem.

“Boys are stupid.”

Eric narrowed his eyes. “I take offense to that.”

“Me too,” Fiona agreed, kissing Eric’s cheek. “I can think of at least one exception to the rule.”

Lora rolled her eyes. The couple had been inseparable from the age of six, and though she loved to see them happy, deep down a searing jealously existed because she hadn’t found someone of her own. “Sorry I said anything,” she muttered, reaching across the table to grab a handful of French fries from Eric’s tray. “Are you doing anything this weekend?”

“Stephen Rowing is having people over tomorrow to watch a movie. And,” Fiona said, winking at Eric, “he said his parents are out of town for the night.”

“Perfect. I can sit alone while all the couples make out,” Lora mumbled, popping a French fry into her mouth.

“Or,” Eric said, pulling his tray closer as she reached for more food, “you could always bring someone along. I bet Will would be your date.”

Lora almost gagged on her food. “Will? You’ve got to be joking.”

Eric shrugged. “I don’t think he’d say no.”

“Of course he’d say no!” she protested. “What a weird idea. He’s like my . . . well, we don’t have a romantic relationship.” The words sputtered from Lora’s mouth, and she tried her best to not sound indignant, but her excuse sounded stale, even to her ears.

“Not that I want to think of my cousin in a relationship, but I like the idea,” Fiona said, and Lora avoided her gaze.

They could be more than friends. It’s not as though she hadn’t considered the thought, either, at one point. Will Newton’s gray eyes and tempting facade hadn’t escaped her notice, and she cared about him better than anyone else in the school; but Lora decided some time ago she didn’t want their relationship to change. She loved their friendship enough to ignore the occasional pangs of longing she had when she saw other couples.

“Well,” she said, staring down at her feet, “I’m not exactly his favorite person right now. And, I don’t think Devin will be too keen on us having a social life for a while.”

Fiona frowned. “No social life?”

“Is that all you’re worried about?” Lora answered. “Aren’t you curious why?”

Eric shrugged. “I’m more interested in why Will is mad at you.”

Lora let out a hesitant sigh. “I sorta brought up . . . well . . .” She stared down at her feet in embarrassment.

Fiona gasped and her blue eyes opened wide. “Lora, why?”

Lora’s face reddened. “I didn’t mean to, exactly. It just kind of came out before I could stop myself.”

Frowning again, Fiona shook her head. “That’s really mean. Did you tell him you were sorry?”

“He’s still pretty messed up about the whole thing,” said Eric. “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be more in tune with our feelings? I thought Guardians were perceptive.”

“I’m not a Guardian yet, and you don’t have to tell me,” Lora said with a sigh. “I feel awful. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, but I’ve had a rough morning.”

“He’ll forgive you,” Fiona said after a pause, reaching across the table to take Lora’s hand. “Will never stays mad for long, and you’re his best friend.” Fiona squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. “How did it come up, anyway?”

“Long story,” Lora muttered, stuffing another French fry in her mouth. “But it explains why boys are stupid.” She glanced up to find Fiona staring at her with a serious expression. Fiona was quite intuitive, despite her boy-crazy tendencies, and Lora felt violated. Sometimes, Fiona could see through her. Right now, Lora wondered if she knew about the dead body and about her conflicted feelings toward the Clan. Uncomfortable, she shuffled her feet and pretended to stare at two students arguing over a hamburger.

“Lora, what happened?” Fiona asked quietly. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

A sick feeling grew in her stomach again, and she turned to face her friends. “It’s worse,” Lora said, accepting the bad news herself. “Much worse.”

Chapter Five

L
ora spent the rest of the afternoon in a haze. Her mind felt foggy, and her teachers admonished her over her lack of attention. The shock, which should have set in when Lora saw the pale body lying in the ice plant, finally appeared during lunch while she told Eric and Fiona about the murder. She now tried to distract herself from the horrifying images plaguing her mind.

Pleading sickness, Lora excused herself from the volleyball game in P.E. and sat in the corner, knees drawn to her chest. She could faintly hear the ocean singing, which gave her comfort. Her ancestors would not have been afraid. They would have used their song to become powerful, to tap into the magic living within them, and to demolish their enemies.

In Lora’s opinion, history didn’t give Sirens a fair shake. The legends were not entirely untrue, of course, but she certainly didn’t sit on a rock in the middle of the ocean and lure unsuspecting sailors to violent deaths.

She could, if she wanted to. But she didn’t.

The historical accounts of her ancestors were largely inaccurate. Sometimes they described Sirens as birds with the head and breasts of women.

The stories always mentioned their breasts.

Other times they were hideous beasts with claws and wild hair who masked their unsightliness with the beauty of their song. And while she didn’t have the long legs or perfectly sculpted eyebrows of a model, Lora hardly considered herself heinous. Or a beast.

Although the oldest accounts likened Sirens to birds, sometime before the seventh century Sirens ceased to be bird-like and instead became more like fish, such as mermaids, or humans with fish heads. Although the Clan couldn’t pin-point when this change from bird to fish occurred in texts, they believed it happened during ancient translations, when scribes mixed up the words
wing
and
fin
, which were similar in the Greek language.

Regardless of what the Sirens used to resemble, however, most people had heard the general story. Probably, Lora decided, because English teachers around the world insisted on cramming incorrect tales down the throats of innocent high school students.

In
The Odyssey,
sweet, innocent Odysseus, who repeatedly cheated on his wife but remained true to her in his heart, prepared to pass the Sirens: evil temptresses who wanted nothing more than to kill him and his crew. As he drew near, three Sirens sat on the rocky shore of an island and sang a bewitching song. Sometimes they played various instruments as an accompaniment. But ultimately, they hoped to entice sailors on passing ships. Once a sailor heard their song, he jumped off his ship and swam toward the island, only to perish in the sea. Abandoned, the ship would hit the rocks and sink into the ocean’s depths.

Mean, nasty, ugly Sirens.

The sorceress Circe warned Odysseus of the danger. Odysseus’s men tied him to the mast so he could hear their song without succumbing to it. His men stuffed their ears with wax and they escaped the Siren’s wrath. But, to be honest, Lora wasn’t certain if the tale had any truth to it. The myth encompassed her legacy, sure, but history wasn’t one-hundred percent accurate. Personally, she had a hard time believing a higher being, like a Siren, would waste her time sitting on rocks waiting to kill stupid sailors.

Although the tale of Odysseus dominated the English curriculum, Lora preferred the tale of Orpheus. Orpheus and the Argonauts, who comprised a ship’s crew, were the only other humans to escape the Sirens’ wrath. Although human, Orpheus had extreme musical talent, and he played his lyre, singing as his ship sailed past the Siren’s waters. His song was enchanting and overpowered the call of the Sirens for the first time in their existence. Fated to die if someone heard their singing and passed unharmed, the Sirens threw themselves into the furious ocean to perish against its jagged rocks and in its angry depths.

But one Siren survived.

This was the part of the story only Lora and her clan were aware of.

A young sailor in a passing ship took pity on one of the Sirens and saved her life. By casting herself into the waters, the Siren’s soul had become pure, losing its desire to force men into a watery fate, and the sailor fell in love with her. Pledging her life to the human, the two married and had children, thus passing the Siren blood to their kin.

Although the sailor and the Siren had tried to keep her identity a secret, Orpheus discovered she survived. Remembering her as she had been, a monster longing to kill him and her crew, he vowed to destroy her. Demeter helped Orpheus, granting him immunity from the Siren’s song, and he trained his sons to track down the Sirens. This continued for generations, creating The Sons of Orpheus. One could not reason with them. Years of learned hatred marred them against the Sirens.

The P.E. teachers blew their whistles, signaling the end of the block, and Lora joined her classmates as they left the gym and moved toward the locker rooms. She changed, locked up her belongings, and left to meet Will. As she dodged students in the hallway, Lora’s mind wandered to her half-blood ancestors. All this time, people had believed Sirens were a myth. Homer created the story to frighten sailors and bring them home, safe and pure, to their families.

They were hated then
.
But if humans realized we exist now, they might treat us differently.
Maybe humans would help protect them from the Sons. Unbeknown to most, a small number of Siren clans still existed. And they were no longer only female.

Will stood next to his car, arms crossed, face pensive. He didn’t notice Lora until she stood directly in front of him.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yup,” Lora answered. She slid into her driver’s seat, rolling down the windows so she could hear the ocean’s music whip around the car as she drove. She noticed Will kept his car windows up. He was so uptight.

Lora started her car. She pulled out of the parking lot and onto the two-lane road leading toward her neighborhood. Expecting to see Will following, Lora glanced in her rear-view mirror. To her surprise, a white SUV blocked his turn and roared up behind her, driving dangerously close to her bumper. She glanced in her mirror again, hoping to get a glimpse of the bad driver, but the windows were tinted. She couldn’t make out the person behind the wheel.

Lora moved to the left lane, hoping the SUV would pass her, but it swerved behind her car, still following too close. Muttering to herself and calling the driver a plethora of four-letter words, Lora slowed down, hoping to annoy him so he would stop following her. She could see Will’s car far behind, struggling to catch up.

But the SUV did not leave her, and a cold fear washed over her body. Lora gripped the steering wheel and took a deep breath. If the killer drove the car, as she suspected, he couldn’t get her if she stayed in her car.
Unless she died in the car.
Gritting her teeth, Lora checked to make sure there were no vehicles in the right lane. She jerked the wheel to the right, toward a small street which looped around back to the main highway.

She whipped around, confident he couldn’t follow her. Her heart pounded a steady rhythm within her breast, which created its own beat. Lora glanced in the mirror and gasped when she saw the SUV making the turn to follow. It had reversed in the middle of the highway and roared forward; Lora feared the driver intended to ram into her car. She smashed her foot against the accelerator, and the car jumped forward like a gazelle fleeing from a predator.

Lora desperately struggled to concentrate on the road. Car chases were not as fun as they appeared on television. Even her hands were pale and sweaty from fear. Grasping her phone, Lora started to dial 911, but hesitated. She’d just found her dead Siren sister. If she called the police, they might start making connections that could endanger her Clan. Frustrated, she dropped her phone back into her lap and gripped the wheel harder.

Her car sped down the narrow road, but the SUV stayed close behind. Lora jumped when her cell phone rang, and she grabbed it and flung it open.

“Hello?!”

“Lora? Where are you? Are you okay?” Will’s voice sounded uncharacteristically frantic, which made her hands sweat even more.

“A goddamned SUV is following me. What the hell am I supposed to do?” She checked her rear view mirror again, but the SUV had not left her tail. It revved its engine and lurched forward.

“Go to the police station!” he screamed at her.

“There is no way I’m getting out of this car so a psycho can cut open my neck,” Lora yelled back. The SUV still followed close behind, and both cars weaved dangerously in and out of traffic. “I’ll lose him.”

Lora dropped the cell phone in her lap and pushed her car forward. Ahead, two cars paced each other, with barely one car length between them. Jerking the steering wheel, Lora maneuvered the car between them and increased her speed. As she had hoped, both cars hit their brakes in response to her crazy driving, trapping the white SUV behind them. Lora drove through the stoplight ahead the moment before it turned red and veered left into a familiar neighborhood.

After driving for another twenty minutes with no SUV in sight, Lora decided she had lost him. She pulled into the parking lot of a small Chinese restaurant and turned off the car to rest her shaking hands. Heart still pounding, she let her head sink down, placing her forehead against the steering wheel.

In one day, her life had gone from boring and mundane to something out of a thriller novel. Lora dreaded to contemplate what the driver of the SUV wanted. But if the driver was the killer, why would he attack her so brazenly in the middle of the day? She pondered her question for a minute. The driver hadn’t actually tried to kill her. He had followed her very closely, as if he didn’t want to lose her. As hard as she tried, Lora couldn’t come up with a logical explanation.

She picked up the phone and dialed Will’s number.

“Are you okay?” he asked without saying “hello.”

“I’m fine. I lost the maniac about twenty minutes ago.” Her breath came fast as she spoke.

“Where are you?” he asked, his voice hard. “I’m coming to pick you up.”

Lora shook her head and sighed. “Don’t bother. I’m going home to talk to my Dad. I don’t want him to freak out.” She really didn’t want her father to hear about this, especially when he acted so angry about her behavior this morning. She had no desire for another lecture from him.

Will kept silent, and Lora’s stomach felt hollow. “Please tell me you didn’t call my Dad.” No answer. “Will?”

“I called him.”

Lora swore and for once, Will didn’t admonish her language. “I’m surprised he hasn’t called me yet.” As she spoke, the call-waiting kicked in. Her father, of course.

“Go ahead and take the call,” Will said. “Call me later, okay?” He hung up before she could answer. With a sigh, Lora answered the other line.

“I’m fine, Dad.”

“Where are you?”

She paused before answering. “In Pacific Grove. I said I’m fine.”

“And I asked where you are, Loralei.” His voice had a hard edge, and Lora cringed at the sound. She gave him the name of the restaurant, and he told her in no uncertain terms she should remain in the parking lot with the car doors locked.

Her father’s car pulled into the lot ten minutes later, and he motioned for her to get into his vehicle. Grabbing her backpack, Lora reluctantly shut the door, locking her car behind her. The sea’s musical swell greeted her, and she hummed in sad reply before joining her father. There was no music playing in his car. She only heard silence.

To her surprise, her father pulled her across the console and enfolded her in his arms. She took in his scent, warm and familiar, and she let her head rest on his shoulder. She felt like a young child who had skinned her knee.

“You’re okay?” he asked, his voice quivering.

“I’m fine,” she said. “He didn’t hurt me. I lost him before he got the chance.”

He pulled away from her, taking a deep breath as he pulled the car out of the parking lot.

“What about my car?” she asked as they drove away.

“I’ll come back with Will to get it later,” he said, his voice low. It appeared his initial concern had disappeared, replacing itself, instead, with anger. He had dark hair, darker than hers, which suited his mood at the moment. “And you may not drive alone anymore. Will can give you a ride.”

Outrage overcame her. Why did her father punish her for the actions of a crazy driver, rather than placing the blame with the maniac who tried to run her off the road?

“Why are you mad at me?” she asked. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You almost got yourself killed,” he said. “Will said you were driving like a maniac.”

“I drove defensively so I
wouldn’t
get killed,” she answered. Couldn’t he see reason? She did the best she could in a crazy situation, but he still showed no pride in her actions. Lately, she couldn’t do anything to please him. “It’s not like I sent a maniac an invitation to almost run me off the road,” she added. “What choice did I have?

“You could have gone to the police. In fact, that’s what you should have done. Instead, you decided to play detective movie and have a real-life car chase. You made a very poor decision, Lora. You could have . . .” he trailed off, but she finished the sentence for him.

“Died? Like Mom, right? Jesus, Dad, this is a totally different situation.”

Her father didn’t answer, but a small vein in his forehead pulsed to its own beat.

“Mom died in a car accident. A crazy SUV driver didn’t hunt her down.”

“Enough!” he yelled, making her jump. “I won’t discuss your mother right now.” The car pulled into the driveway, and he turned off the engine. “You heard what I said. No driving alone. No biking alone. No being alone outside the house. Period.” Without another word, her father lurched out of the car, slammed the door, and strode into the house, leaving the door open behind him. “Get inside!” she heard him yell. Lora followed him in, but her heart was empty and silent.