Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) (17 page)

It was hard to really know what was
happening. I just felt this rage. Their hands were all over my legs
and stomach. My body started changing as I fought them off.
Feathers growing out of my thighs. And the scratching now became
fiercer. My nails tore through their flesh. I heard the ripping and
I felt the blood.

Wide, shocked eyes gaped at me in the dark.
Their adrenaline was up so they still came at me. But now there
were screams of horror. In no time, two of them were dead on the
ground. The other two started to run. In my fury, I tore through
the back of one’s head and down his back. The other kept running,
but I jumped on him and started ripping through his body with my
teeth and claws while he was still alive. Like a wild animal, I
devoured him as he screamed.

Once I realized fully what I had done, I
scurried over to an empty box and curled up inside, shuddering as
my body turned back into human form. Oh, God. I must have stayed
there in shock for about fifteen minutes before I crawled out. I
was breathing heavy. Looking at the dead bodies before me.

At once, I ran out of the alley, across the
boardwalk, and the sandy beach. I rushed through the waves and dove
into the ocean.

I just kept swimming farther and farther out
in the darkness until I felt this pull backwards. It was like I
just couldn’t go any farther. I must have been too far away from
the other sirens. With all my might, I tried to push past, but my
struggles were futile. In despair, I slid deeper into the black
water. I simply gave up. I wasn’t going to fight.

As I drifted farther and farther down, I
heard a voice. It wasn’t clear at first. But as I surrendered more,
I could tell that it was Dylan’s.

I heard a song. It was so alluring. I felt
like I was in a dream, but it was real. The melody mesmerized my
senses.

Blue dawn/The lights are clear/I see you
near/Baby I need you/Oh, I need you/Baby I want you/Oh, I want
you/Blue dawn, blue dawn, blue dawn/Oh, I need you/Baby, baby,
baby…/I do

I started swimming toward the music. The
rhythms pulled me in its direction. The sounds were more
splendorous than anything I had ever perceived before. It was
Dylan’s song.

Oh, Dylan!

I must have swum through the darkness for ten
minutes before I reached him. “Hailey,” he murmured as he pulled me
into his arms.

We shot to the surface, our heads breaking
through the water at once. Our eyes met. Butterflies fluttered in
my stomach. I held tightly to his muscular shoulders afraid he was
going to disappear.

He kissed me tenderly. Oh, my. I could feel
his warm breath twining with mine. His soft lips. The way his
tongue felt in my mouth. I never wanted the kiss to end. This is
forever, I hoped. He held my face in his hands.

Without words we swam hand in hand under the
water to the shore. I was still dressed in my skirt and halter top,
not having bothered to take it off before I dove in. Dylan was also
in his shorts, but his shirt was off. I couldn’t keep my eyes off
his glorious body, the way the moonlight caressed each contour.

It looked like a grin formed on his face.
“Come,” he whispered as he pulled gently at my hand. We jogged over
to the craggy rocks at the far edge of the beach. A lamppost from
behind on the boardwalk gave a warm glow to the setting. He picked
up his t-shirt that he had left there and pulled it on over his
perfect chest.

“Your face—it’s bruised,” he said as he
gently lifted my hair away from my cheeks. He looked concerned. “I
hadn’t noticed before.”

“I’m fine,” I said, embarrassed and then
looking down.

His nostrils flared and his eyes pierced into
mine. “What happened to you?” He looked at my bruised arms.

I couldn’t tell him. I just couldn’t.

He asked harshly, “Did someone hurt you?” His
hands balled into fists.

“No,” I whispered. “I fell down the stairs
after I looked for you at the rooftop pool.”

His jaw clenched as he stared at me for a
moment. “That sounds so human. I didn’t know a siren could be so
clumsy.”

I didn’t think he was buying my explanation.
“Some kids ran down the stairs and knocked me over by accident.”
Even I knew how pathetic that lie was.

He shook his head as he looked at me
suspiciously. “Come here,” he said in his musical voice that made
me weak in the knees.

He pulled me to him and held me in his arms.
“I shouldn’t have left.” His voice was raspy like he was angry with
himself.

“Why did you leave?” I looked up at him,
trying to push down the lump in my throat.

“I don’t know.” He seemed uncomfortable
now.

I was still looking up at his gorgeous face,
but he was looking off now in the direction of the ocean. “What
happened to that girl that went with you?”

“Brenda?” He asked. A crooked grin formed on
his face.

My tone was biting. “Yeah, Brenda.”

He chuckled lightly. “We did it.”

I pushed away from him. “Oh,” was all I could
choke out.

“I’m kidding.” His voice was cocky.

“Then why did you say it?” I was hurt.

He shrugged and walked over to the rocks and
sat down on one of the boulders. “Why were you staring at that guy
in the music store?” He frowned.

So he was jealous. That surprised me, but
kind of turned me on knowing that he cared that much. “It’s not
easy being a siren with all these yearnings and feelings. You
should know.”

He stared at me for a long moment in silence.
“I do know, but I only feel them for you.”

My heartbeat sped up at that. It was hard for
me to respond—my breath was caught in my throat and I didn’t want
him to know how out of control I felt right then.

“I want to take you somewhere,” he said as he
walked over to me and took my hand. “It’s a special place.”

I felt dazed. My mind was whirling. What the
hell was wrong with me? I used to be so normal before I met
him.

While I was trying to regain my equilibrium,
he stepped over to the rocks and leaned his hands down against one
of them. “We’re going to fly there.” He looked back at me with his
hands still on a boulder. “Think about something that makes you
very angry. That’s how you can change into a siren.”

I watched a vein in his neck bulge up to the
surface of his tan skin. His face reddened. At once, he pulled off
his t-shirt and threw it down on the rocks. I wondered what he
could be thinking about that would anger him so much.

He was wrong. I didn’t have to get mad. Just
watching him caused changes in me. It was instinctual. Primal. The
process felt so pleasurable now. The way the wings broke through my
back was indescribable. But I was more focused on Dylan than
myself. I lost track of what was happening to me as I concentrated
on him.

The muscles in his thighs and calves expanded
slightly and stone blue feathers sprouted from his legs. Longer
plumes of the same color pushed out from the waistband of his
shorts. Magnificent stone blue wings expanded from his back. Talons
extended from his toes and fingers. And his teeth grew out of his
mouth like fangs.

He looked at me. His electric green eyes were
lit like the sun. A fiery, rapturous green. He grabbed his shirt
and without saying anything, he flew into the air. Instinctually, I
followed. It was strange. I felt like I didn’t have a choice. It
was like I was a wild bird operating on autopilot, governed by a
natural drive burning within.

CHAPTER EIGHT

We are mere notes in a piece
of music played by the angel Death—heard and lost.
–AUSTIN O'MALLEY, 
Keystones of Thought

We flew high up into the night sky. What a
feeling being up so high, soaring through the clouds above the
ocean. Moments like this made being a siren worth it. I felt so
free. So alive.

We landed atop a thick branched tree several
miles up the coast at the shores of Leo Carrillo Beach. It was a
natural secluded place with lots of rocks, coves, and trees. After
surveying the landscape, in unison we flew down to a hidden spot
behind the tide pools and sheltered by trees.

On our feet now, I followed Dylan deeper into
the woody terrain where we approached a cabana. “How did you find
this?” I asked. Even with my fangs I could still talk as well.

“While you were shopping with the others
today, I toted the sheets and bedding here and built it.” He
grinned slyly.

“It’s amazing,” I laughed as he held open the
edge of a mauve colored silk sheet that draped over the wood
structure. I walked inside. Instinctually, we fluttered up to the
wood beam that ran across the room from one side to the other. Our
talons closed around it, supporting us as we perched side by
side.

We both looked around for several minutes
without saying a word. In the silence, I began to hear his thoughts
faintly. I had to wonder if I was hallucinating because I got the
strong impression that he liked me immensely.

The way I looked in his mind was beautiful
and very different than I saw myself. My feathers were something
erotic to him. The scent of my hair was like perfume. And my chest.
I had to laugh. He liked my breasts. In his thoughts he touched the
dimples in my cheeks. He ran his lips down my neck.

Goose bumps lifted on my arms as my talons
tightened around the perch. The feathers on my legs lifted,
standing on end. I tried to distract myself.

I looked at the ground covered in soft
feathers. He hopped down. For a moment I watched him. But in no
time I followed, hopping down beside him.

He touched the tan skin on my arm, running
his hand down it. To him, my skin was soft. He smiled at the goose
bumps.

I ran the tip of my finger across his lips
and down the sharp blades of his teeth. His breath became louder
for a moment. I leaned in closer to him to breathe in his delicious
essence. He smelled like the wind in the trees.

We were so close, face to face. I blinked,
completely dazed.

He ran his hand down my feathery legs and
pulled me even closer to him. We were chest to chest now. I could
feel his heart beating against mine. I reached for his shoulder,
trying to steady myself. My mind was whirling—I didn’t want to fall
over.

He laid me down upon the feathers beside him.
His sad eyes bored into me. We lay like that for a long while just
looking at each other.

His thoughts became more rhythmic. The words
were indecipherable, poetic in sound. I was his dream. I was that
girl. You are a fantasy to me, my imagination on fire, the balsam
of the river. Burning tears fall from the sky.

His lips touched my collarbone. It was like
tiny pecks on my soft skin, his teeth pricking me lightly. His mind
confused me.

Our bodies shifted back. Our backs arched and
we rolled over to face each other as humans. “Wow,” I whispered
under my breath.

His expression was unreadable, but his eyes
bored into me. We kissed long and sensually. Wrapped in each
other’s arms, we fell asleep.

An hour or so later, when the moon was fully
overhead shining through the trees and through the silk of the
cabana, I awoke suddenly in the bed of feathers. My dreams had been
turbulent.

I looked around. Dylan was gone. I didn’t
know where he was. I started to get nervous. For a minute, I just
listened intently trying to hear if he was outside. But I didn’t
detect anything but crickets chirping and the sounds of the waves
rolling on the shore.

My head ached. I was feeling the pains from
the fight in the alley just hours ago. When I touched my cheek, it
was so tender that the pressure of my fingers caused me to flinch.
And now Dylan had vanished. Why would he leave me like this?

There must be some explanation, I reasoned.
But then, I remembered how he had rushed out of the hotel suite
earlier with that pixie haired girl. Maybe he had gone back to her.
With everything that had happened, I had neglected to ask him about
her. Where was she?

And where was he?

I got to my feet and readjusted my skirt and
halter top. Now that I was a siren, the soles of my feet had grown
thicker, so it didn’t bother me that I was barefoot. I stepped out
of the tent and walked through the woody area out to the coves.

Nobody was around. In the far distance, I saw
the lights of a ship, but that was all. I heard a sudden splash in
the water, but when I turned to look, there was nothing. And then I
heard it again. There was a chuckle.

I looked over across a stretch of sandy beach
and saw Dylan sitting atop a big boulder that extended into the
water. He was throwing stones into the ocean to catch my
attention.

“Hi,” he called out looking at me with a wry
grin on his sexy face.

“Hi,” I responded not feeling the good cheer
he was experiencing, but relieved that he hadn’t disappeared off
somewhere with the pixie girl.

“Come over,” he yelled out.

I put my hands on my hips. “No,” I said
sternly.

He laughed. “You’re missing out.”

“On what?” I yelled. “Throwing rocks?”

His expression looked amused. “I have a gift
for you.”

Something about the way he said that reminded
me of my father. My heart tightened. Usually I wasn’t one to give
into my curiosity so easily, but he got me at that. Mom and Dad.
Their anniversary. A love that lasts forever.

I walked across the sand and stepped over the
black rocks clustered tightly together upon the shore, making my
way over to him. With that breathtaking crooked smile on his face,
he held his hand down and helped me up onto his boulder.

I scooted right up next to him and then
frowned a little too dramatically.

He chuckled again. “Do you really think you
hold more affection for me than I do for you?” he breathed, leaning
closer to my body as he murmured in my ear.