Song of the Sirens (5 page)

I tucked wild strands of hair behind my
ear, not that it did any good because the wind extracted them and they danced
around my face.

From the darkest parts of the water,
something
appeared. Something resembling a face formed beneath the lapping waves. I
gasped. The face returned my stare for a moment, blinked, and then dropped back
into the water.

I trembled and held a breath. When I
exhaled, I shook my head and rebuked my frail mind for falling for such
ridiculous things. I had to get away from the water.

Turning to make a quick dash back
downstairs, I shrieked. I clasped my palms over my mouth. My heart lurched up
into my throat until I swallowed the lump back down. I stared wide-eyed at
Riley.

He made a curious face. “Are you all
right?” he asked slowly, as if trying not to startle me again.

“Mm, hmm,” I hummed with hands firm over
my mouth.

Riley stared, unmoving and a bit
worried. With cautious motions, he took my wrists and lowered my hands.

He seemed to want to lean around me and
peer over the edge. I stepped away. He could have at the water, if he wanted.

My intuition proven correct, I watched
as he gripped the wooden railing. Riley glanced into the ocean. He stiffened
his jaw, pressed his lips together, and pushed away.

Without another word, he turned and
stalked off.

I jogged after Riley but immediately
slowed down. The deck was slippery beneath my tennis shoes. An accident was the
last thing everyone wanted. I regained balance and a steady momentum, and
walked after him.

Riley ducked into the galley and
disappeared.

I groaned. Placing hands on my hips, I
looked around. The cook prepared meals without a sign of Riley. Once the cook
caught sight of me, a slight smirk fell on his face. He jerked his chin toward
the sink.

Good lord, there was a mountain of
dishes waiting for my poor, arthritic hands to wash. I groaned again. Didn’t he
know that the boss’s assistant did not wash dishes?

“None of that,” Kent muttered. “You
can’t sleep and eat here without earning your keep.”

I sneered and opened my mouth to correct
him. I wanted to snap back that my daddy paid for his wages, but that seemed
childish. I sucked it up. I removed my raincoat, tied the arms around my waist,
and went to work.

Since I was here, Kent asked for my help
with dinner. He slapped three giant fish onto the cutting board. Their black
eyes stared at me with remorse. I held my breath. I couldn’t gut them. I
couldn’t slice through them while they watched me, and I couldn’t clean them. I
was not a fisherman, or a butcher.

The instant I gagged, Kent pushed me out
of his kitchen. “You better make it to your room,” he called after me as I ran
around the corner.

The gagging was real, but I didn’t mind
the smell of fish corpses. I wanted to find Riley, but he’d disappeared. He
wasn’t in his room, or anywhere where I had access to. He did this a lot, and
it was frustrating. Screw this. I’d rather speak to Dad.

Unfortunately, an audience held him
captive in the large room set aside for the research team and their equipment.
I stood in the back and listened until dinner started. Dad locked in the
coordinates to Atlantis. They burned into his mind. Nothing would keep him from
traveling down tomorrow morning, come hail or high sea.

“Except that storm is growing. We have
to head back,” Captain Jack argued.

“We’re right about the city. We can’t go
back now,” Dad replied.

“It ain’t up to us. If the weather
remains like this through to morning, or worsens, the coast guard will call us
in.”

Dad growled beneath his breath.

“Dinner!” Kent called through the
intercom system.

I cringed. I couldn’t eat the fish who
stared at me an hour ago. I felt like an animal, a barbarian, and the fish a
lost soul who vowed vengeance from the sea.

“No thanks,” I said when the cup of fish
stew passed me across the dining table.

We rocked with the boat. Each man kept a
loose hand on his cup. I kept to my rice, but that swirled up something nasty
in my ever-growing nausea. If the weather kept up, I would barf up slivers of
rice any moment.

“Where’s Riley?” the captain asked from
his prestigious chair at the head of the table like some sort of ocean king.

We looked around the table and focused
on the empty seat near the end.

“Ah, I think he said he wasn’t hungry
tonight, went to bed early,” David answered in a slight Irish accent.

I finished the petite portion of rice
and soy sauce, pushed back my seat, and excused myself. I avoided Kent’s eyes
for fear of having to do the dishes again. The men didn’t pay much attention to
me. They continued sketching out a game plan for tomorrow while the captain
looked on with disapproval.

I walked through the halls in search of
Riley. He was not in his room, nor did I find him on deck. The water tempted me
to return to the edge and peer down, though I knew I would not find Riley
yakking it up with a mermaid. The very thought shoved me back downstairs. I
went to my room and waited for Dad.

Time slipped by as boredom pushed along
the minutes. I climbed onto the top bunk to lie down. I almost dreaded
returning to the realm of horrendous dreams. After convincing myself I had
nothing to fear, I allowed my eyelids to slip closed. When my mind yielded to
the darkness, the whispers returned.

I gasped and fought to open my eyes.
They didn’t budge. As if sealed tight, the lashes clamped together. I opened my
mouth to call out for help, but my mouth followed suit of my eyes. My heart
plummeted into my gut and then pounded against my ribs like a jackhammer. The aching
paled in comparison to the throb in my skull. The whispers screeched and
dragged my thoughts into the bloodcurdling domain of nightmares.

Chapter Four

“What the hell?” I asked aloud.

I glanced around the prison in my mind.
I
knew
I dreamt. Vividly aware of standing trapped in my thoughts, unable to wake
up, unable to control my mind, I stiffened.

The voices summoned, and like an
obedient muse, I obeyed.

I stepped forward in the sand and
inhaled, taking in the smell of salty sea air and beach plants. A light wind
swept through, and I shivered. Goosebumps formed. They raced down the length of
my body in several waves. I trembled with a strong breeze.

The abnormally large full moon hung low
and heavy. It hovered above the sea in a clear sky. It lost its common gray
features and donned a blood red color. Even a harvest moon could not have been
so eerie and captivating as tonight’s moon. It displayed clear and deep
craters. Seldom and slender clouds slithered by with the breeze. Tiny sparkles
from distant stars twinkled here and there.

The moon pulled the water in
ever-growing waves, which crashed against the beach. The sound enchanted and
filled the night air. In a hypnotic trance, I wandered across the beach behind
our beach house as fog formed all around and encircled my feet.

I continued to walk ahead and denied any
further attention to the mesmerizing world. My body no longer belonged to me,
but to the sweet whispers of the ancient song. It rose from the ocean, now
hidden by mist, and swam to me on the currents of the breeze, danced through
the air, and seeped into my mind where the whispers took refuge.

The words were foreign, but I knew they
beckoned me to the icy water.

I paused at the shoreline. Foamy, white
waves broke on the beach at my feet, sprayed my jeans, and filled the air with
salt.

The whispers didn’t command me to walk
into the ocean, but to walk along the pier and across the expanding dock into
deeper waters. I complied, took a sharp left, and climbed up the wooden steps
toward the dock, which stretched as far as the eye could see over the water.
The fog parted, revealing only the wooden planks in a narrow pathway over an
unseen ocean below.

A creak accompanied every step and
echoed in the darkness. Silence surrounded me except for the faint whispers
that commanded my legs to move. After only a few steady steps, I glanced over
my left shoulder. I gasped as a wall of thick, gray fog concealed my sight. The
mist inched closer, pushed me along before it consumed me. When I met the wall,
I refused to look away. It reached out, taking the form of wispy fins and, with
gentle force, smacked my chin so I would move ahead.

Irritated, I allowed the incorporeal
entity to maneuver my actions, but I didn’t budge other than that. With a deep
inhalation, I turned again to face the direction of the beach. This time, the
fog refused patience. The entire wall jerked and shoved me. The wisps of fins
slapped me with such ferocity that I nearly fell.

My heart raced deep within my chest,
pounded against aching ribs. Heaving and sniffling ensued. Terror gripped me,
but thankfully, or perhaps woefully, I unwillingly yielded control of my limbs
to my mind. Since the whispers controlled my mind, the song controlled me.

I swallowed hard. I trembled and cowered
away from the looming fog behind me. My legs moved without consent again, and
slowly took me to the dock’s end where it parted into a T-formation.

The wind picked up, adding to the icy
bite in the air. The fog parted ahead and revealed the vast blue sea drowned in
darkness. The reflection of the blood moon created a haunting glow, which
bounced against particles of mist and illuminated the entire view.

The whispers swelled with strength. I
jerked my chin toward the ocean and its expanding view.

The whispers morphed into shrieks and
drove me to my knees. I dropped to the dock and curled in on myself. I clenched
my eyes and teeth, and clasped both palms over my ears. The sharp shrill
penetrated the air, and ripples from its vibrations sliced through the moon’s reflection.

Pounding rocked the wooden planks
beneath me. I stumbled to my feet and stared down, ignoring the cries that
vanished in the distance.

The floorboards jolted with every pound
until cracks formed, and splinters flew up to create gaped openings.

I leaned over one of the four breeches
in the barrier. I couldn’t make out anything in the darkness, so I leaned
farther. The movement startled me, and I jumped back with a cry.

A stringy hand lurched up and swiped at
my feet. When it missed, another popped up beside the first and went for my
ankles. A yelp escaped my lips. Yet another missed attacked.

I screamed, hopping from one location to
another to avoid capture. Two hands a couple feet ahead grabbed onto the sides
of the tattered hole and pulled up the remainder of a body.

While I focused on the being, another
hand behind me grabbed onto my left ankle and yanked down. I gasped as my foot
went through the opening, and cringed when the sharp fingernails ripped through
my pant leg. The talons scraped against the bare flesh beneath. A sharp sting
trailed down my shin and calf, followed by moist trickling.

The deadly grip pulled, and I fell to my
knees. I grunted. I kicked the creature off, and attempted to crawl away as
fast as I could in my ever-increasing sluggish movements.

The creature’s hold didn’t budge. While
the other hands dropped back into the water, I felt a rubbery, slender tongue
lick the moist trails on my exposed legs. I flinched and froze. Two more
tongues lapped at the bleeding cuts. I shuddered.

Reasoning set in when I emerged from the
momentary shock. I kicked with sudden and brutal force, forcing the beasts to
release their hold in the unexpected counter-attack. I crawled away, scraping
my knees, huffing and heaving all the while.

I struggled toward the hole straight
ahead. It was in the direct escape path. I scurried to my feet when a pair of
pale gray arms with peeling flesh lunged out of the water and up through the
gap. The frail hands clutched onto my shoulders and yanked down as the creature
fell back into the water.

My face hit the splintered edges of the
hole. Pain throbbed across my cheeks and neck. Steadying myself on my knees and
using every muscle in my back and neck to keep from falling into the water, I
grabbed the hands and tried to pry open the amazingly strong hold. The fingers
curled into my skin and pressed, embedding into my flesh. I winced and hissed.
The sharp ends dug deeper under the pressure while the creature used me to
hoist itself up from the darkness.

I jerked down as the full weight of the
beast clung to me. I knew at any given moment, the other water beasts would
gather around and latch onto me. Their faces remained hidden in shadows beneath
the tops of thin and tangled beds of hair. Black night concealed the remainder.

“Release her,” a deep and commanding
voice ordered. I recognized that voice.