Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) (12 page)

Dylan shrugged and lifted his chin in the
direction of Blake and the squirrel faced girl who was now kissing
him on his lounge chair. “Can you hear that?”

In my mind, when I concentrated, I faintly
heard Blake singing between kisses. “He sang—didn’t he?” I asked
despondently.

“Yes.” Dylan leaned back in his chair and put
his hands behind his head. “I guess you’ll eat tonight.”

“Hell no!” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I didn’t agree to the bet.”

He shook his head without responding and sort
of gazed off. I wasn’t sure, but his eyes looked sad like he was
awaiting some impending doom. I felt a constriction in my gut like
someone was twisting my gizzards. I looked under the table. Dylan’s
fists were balled up tightly. A vein in his arm was lifting from
the blockage of blood flow as his nails dug into his palms. His
pain was my pain and I experienced it as if it was my own.

Lyra and Gia and their two guys, Evan and
Jasper, walked over to us. They were both tall and thin soccer
players. Evan was cute with light brown short hair and a tattoo on
his arm that said, “Golden Rule,” which means love your neighbor as
yourself.

Jasper had a short army hair cut with average
looks but his appeal was still apparent in his generosity and
sensitivity toward others. In many ways, they were the kinds of
guys you hoped your little sisters would marry—appealing, but good
and stable with promising futures.

Lyra released Evan’s hand and leaned on my
chair. Her long black hair fell over my shoulder.

I wanted to smack her.

“Let’s go,” she breathed. “We’re going to our
room to watch movies.”

I looked over at the swimming pool and saw
Wren directing Travis, Blake and the college girls over to us.
Travis appeared anxious and Blake seemed slightly annoyed though he
gave the impression that he was trying to hide his agitation. I got
the feeling Blake liked the girl he was talking to a lot. He had a
tendency to get attached.

The girls acted dreamy eyed and willing to do
whatever the boys said. The squirrel faced chick was staring into
Blake’s eyes lovingly. And the cutesy girl was kissing Travis’s
hand. But, in no time, they were all over at our table.

Once we got out on the street, the flashing
Vegas lights were too bright on my eyes. I threw my head onto
Dylan’s chest and let him guide me. The warmth of his body soothed.
I hoped I wasn’t bothering him with my closeness.

Our suite at the Grand Golden Hotel was just
about one half of a block away on the main strip. When we stepped
into the lobby, everything felt alive around me. I could hear the
mixing of heart beats, the patter of steps against the stone
floors. The shuffling of cards in milky white hands.

We stepped into a glass elevator. Gia pressed
a button. Number thirty lit up, the floor of our suite. I looked up
at Dylan trying to read his blank expression. It was useless. He
was good at covering his thoughts like that.

Wren’s boy, Nolan, who had sweet brown eyes
and a stockier physique than his friends’, squeezed her hand
gently. She leaned into him with more passion. I felt his breath
hot on Wren’s mouth like it was my own as the elevator shot
upwards. A part of me wanted to gag, but the more animal part of me
wished I was her. I loathed myself for that.

When we walked into the suite, Nolan stopped
kissing Wren briefly. His eyes widened as he looked around. “What’s
all this plastic for?” He pointed at the clear plastic covering the
couches and the floor of the living room.

Lyra took her lips off of Evan. “We were
hired to paint murals for the hotel, so we laid down the plastic to
keep the paint off the furniture and marble.”

“Oh.” Nolan nodded as Wren led him over to
the entertainment center.

Lyra ran her hand over Evan’s tattoo. “What a
curious concept,” she whispered to Evan. “Who cares about your
neighbors.” She giggled.

His eyebrows furrowed. “My parents died when
I was a kid and the last thing my mother said to me before she
passed was, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Now, I try to live by
that rule as best as I can.”

Lyra gazed at him sweetly. I wondered if she
regretted what she said. “You are beautiful inside and out,” she
murmured as a comeback in his ear. “I wish I could have known you
then to help you through that.”

He smiled lightly, but I saw pain in his
eyes. “Yeah, it was a long time ago.”

Gia and Jasper sat down on the loveseat while
Wren and Nolan picked out a movie. I looked down the short hall and
saw Blake and Travis leaning up against the wall kissing their
girls in the dark. Dyaln and I were just standing there watching
everyone, sort of separated from them as we usually were.

“Come sit on the couch with me.” Lyra led
Evan to the sofa.

Evan chuckled lightly as he sat down on the
plastic beside her. “It’s strange how people forget about you after
you die. Nobody at our church even talks about my parents anymore.
But me and my little sister will never forget.”

“At least you have each other,” Lyra said,
trying to sound reassuring.

“Yeah, I don’t think we would have made it
without each other.” He ran his fingers through his short brown
hair and looked up at the ceiling.

The slave boys led the girls to the doorway
of an adjoining room. They were singing lightly, “Let’s dance, our
dance, tonight. Oh, I want you, Oh, I feel you, in my arms—just
right… So let’s dance this final dance tonight…”

The cutesy girl smiled brightly, opening her
little mouth of pretty white teeth. I could just see her on a
tampon commercial. She was that cute. “You have such an awesome
voice. I want my uncle to hear you. He’s in the music industry; I
bet he could make you famous.”

She looked over at her friend. “Aren’t they
good singers, Tammy?” The squirrel faced girl appeared so dazed
from the song, one might have thought she was lost in a heroin
high.

“Yeah, they’re good,” Tammy mumbled. She
swayed a little like she was about to fall over.

Travis opened the bedroom door for his girl
and Blake and the squirrel faced girl followed suit. And as he was
closing the door, I heard the cutesy girl say, “Plastic on the beds
too?”

A sickened feeling nearly overtook me as I
walked into the kitchen with Dylan. I wanted to run out of the
suite and call the police, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to
convince the law enforcement that the girls were acting against
their will and were hypnotized. They would just say I was crazy,
especially considering how enamored the young women were with
Travis and Blake.

I looked at Dylan and whispered under my
breath so that Wren, Lyra, or Gia who were sitting on the couch
with their boy toys wouldn’t hear me, “Did you used to do what
Blake and Travis do?”

He shook his head. His eyes narrowed. “Before
they hooked up with the sirens, they were virgins. They couldn’t
get a girl to even look at them. At first, after the conversion,
Blake didn’t use his powers to seduce girls, but on his own merit
he was a complete failure.”

I rolled my eyes thinking about how Blake
really wasn’t that appealing even with his perfect physical
features. He was nice, but too needy.

Dylan’s eyes looked sad now as he continued,
“Eventually, Blake succumbed to his natural inclinations as a
siren.” He leaned his hand on the granite countertop.

“What about Travis?” I whispered as I looked
at Wren who was straddling the boy she brought back with her while
they watched the movie
Jaws
.

“He was always a dick. Once he was converted,
he became a madman.”

I could tell that Dylan couldn’t stand him.
“Did you know Blake and Travis before the triplets converted
you?”

He nodded, his gaze lifting upwards like he
was thinking back in time. “We were school buddies hanging out one
night on the beach when we met the sirens.” His eyes blazed at the
memory. I sensed an inner rage within him.

Gia must have sensed it too because she
looked over at Dylan. I feared the way she watched him. It was too
intense and entirely different than the way she looked at the guy
she was making out with.

“You don’t want to talk about it?” I asked
hesitantly.

He shook his head. “No.” His gaze fell to the
marble floor and Gia turned back to the television.

“I don’t want to be here,” I whispered,
pushing down the lump in my throat. “I just want to leave.”

“I know.” Dylan touched my fingers with his.
I looked at his perfect face and saw him staring blankly, coldly at
the wall.

We must have stood there for five minutes
listening to the horror music of
Jaws
as the great white
tore the first victim to death. “Let’s go out onto the balcony,”
Dylan finally said.

I followed him outside the sliding glass
doors. The hot wind was blowing through my long hair as Dylan
threaded his arms around my waist. I shivered at his touch
wondering if his intensions were just of friendship or if he felt
as I did. “This isn’t going to be forever,” he said as he ran his
hand over my bare arm.”

“How could it not be? Sirens never die.” My
stomach tightened.

His hands fell from my waist and he took me
by the shoulders. “I’m going to find a way out of this for us.” His
stare was icy.

“Could we just throw ourselves off this
balcony?” I asked suddenly.

But before he could respond, I heard
screaming coming from inside. We rushed in. Wren had transformed.
Her beautiful face was hot and passionate. Nolan jumped off the
couch and fell onto the plastic covering the floor. His eyes
widened in horror. At once, she reached out her arm swiftly like an
animal and tore off Nolan’s face with her talons.

So much blood. I held to Dylan as our bodies
changed. My legs stretched and tore open. Talons projected from my
feet and hands. I felt the most pleasurable massage in my back. A
hump grew and stretched and wings tore through my flesh. I folded
the wings at my sides. My legs were bird shaped, but my upper body
was mostly human and beautiful aside from my talons and sharp
incisors.

Evan jumped on Wren and tried to fight her
off of Nolan, but Lyra grabbed him from behind with her long nails
as she was in the process of transforming.

He fell to the floor. “My little sister needs
me,” he gasped, choking on his own breath. “Please…”

At once, she started tearing away at his neck
and torso. His flesh ripped away in chunks as her wings broke
through her back. There was the breaking of bones and the
eating.

Meantime, Jasper ran for the door, but Gia
chased after him and threw him across the way, back onto the
plastic. She pounced on his head. He struggled beneath her body,
but she was too strong and fierce.

I wanted to join in desperately. The hunger
was nearly overwhelming. The smell of blood and torn flesh. Screams
and pain. The fear in their eyes. Their beating hearts. It all only
added to my yearnings. But I held back cowering in the corner,
loathing myself.

The triplets ran into the bedroom. There were
girlish screams. Crying. The blood thirst was great. Begging and
pleading. And then it stopped.

There was silence.

And then the slaves scavenged for the
leftovers. They weren’t killers, but they had to feed to survive. I
couldn’t watch. My body transformed back into that of a human. In
horror at the gruesome sight of blood everywhere, I ran back out
onto the balcony. I climbed up onto the ledge and looked down at
the moving cars so far below.

Tears streamed down my face. At once, I threw
myself off.

CHAPTER TWO

Death is a natural part of
life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the
Force.
–YODA, 
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

When you are about to die, time slows. Every
second is like an hour. Thoughts overlap. Images of your life pass
through your mind in speed time.

As I freefell off the hotel balcony, tumbling
through the night air past each hotel floor, I seemed to process
everything at once. Quick visual flashes of my mother. The same of
my father. How ashamed they would be of me.

My heart pounded in my chest. My face was hot
like fire. Dylan. Oh, Dylan! What had I done? He was my life.

Horror of my fate overtook me. I had to live
for him even if I was unworthy of even a breath of life. What if
the positions were reversed and he killed himself, leaving me alone
with the sirens for all eternity? He needed me.

I gave up too soon. I wanted to live! Help
me. My breathing accelerated. At once, I tried to concentrate on
transforming into a siren. If only my wings would project from my
back, I could keep myself in flight and land safely.

But nothing happened. I was still in human
form. Only feet away from smacking onto the ground, I was about to
die.

Terror strangled me. My body stiffened to
meet death. Oh, God!

I saw my head was about to hit a moving car.
Blood and guts would be everywhere. Suddenly, arms wrapped around
me. My body was yanked upwards. I was in shock.

My mind was halfway in hell by now. I felt
warmth surround me as I looked up into Dylan’s face. His sweet
face. My love.

I couldn’t speak. How could I say
anything?

He flew with me up straight into the air over
the rooftop of the hotel. The wind shifted. He took its natural
course and soared eastward and down into a shallow canyon hidden by
trees. His landing was graceful as he perched on an oak’s limb and
set me down beside him on the thick, stable branch. My legs dangled
limply over the side, but his talons dug into the wood.

He still had blood on his face and on his
sharp incisors that protruded from the sides of his mouth. But I
didn’t care anymore, even if I should have. “You saved me,” I
finally managed to whisper. My body felt weak from not eating and
my eyes welled up, but I was determined not to cry. My stomach was
concaving inward.