Black Magic (Howl #4) (21 page)

An excerpt from a new young adult paranormal romance series by Jayme Morse and Jody Morse:

Surface (Siren’s Lullaby, Book 1)

Awakened from a dreamless sleep, I sat up in bed and looked around. The soft pink satin sheets clung to my skin, which was drenched in sweat
from the heat of the mid-August
night.

Something was wrong; I didn’t know what, but I could feel it.

Glancing across the room, I saw that the twin-sized bed next to me was empty, the daffodil yellow sheets illuminated by the light of the full moon.

Scarlett was gone.

I flung myself out of bed and ran out of our shared bedroom, peeking into our mother’s room across the hall. She lay sprawled out across her queen-sized bed, our Jack Russell Terrier, Mickey, curled up at her side. Scarlett hadn’t left our room to climb into our mother’s bed after another bad dream.

I poked my head into the bathroom, living room, and kitchen. I even checked Scarlett’s favorite hiding place, which was inside the hamper. My sister wasn’t anywhere to be found.

That could only mean one thing: Scarlett must be outside. Again.

I ran to the bac
k sliding glass door and opened
it quietly so that my mother wouldn’t wake up.
I knew she hadn’t been sleeping
much lately, often getting up in the middle of th
e night to brew a cup of coffee
that we both knew she wouldn’t drink. I would fee
l bad about waking her up when,
chances were, Scarlett was
just
trying to do something to draw attention to herself.

She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, ever s
ince our father had died. Last
week, she had pretended she had broken he
r wrist after she fell off her
bicycle.

Once I was outside, I scanned
our
sandy backyard for my sister.

That’s when I heard a voice.

The melody drifted through the air, filling my ears. I had never heard my sister sing before, but I now discovered that her voice sounded as sweet as a songbird’s.

I followed her voice to the dock she was perched on. Her back was to me as she sang, overlooking the bay. Her red hair, a beautiful coppery auburn color that I had been jealous of ever since we were little, c
ascaded around her shoulders in
waves, catching the moon’s reflection.

“Scarlett! What are you doing out here?” I hissed at her. I glanced down at my bare legs; goose bumps had risen on my sun-kissed skin. The hem of my nightgown fell just above my knees. There was no way I could be cold in the humidity of the Georgia summer night. It had to be that nagging feeling that something wasn’t right creeping up on me again.

The song broke into silence, and Scarlett turned to look at me. Her bright green eyes were crazed, her expression aloof.

“What are you doing out here, Scarlett?” I repeated. “Mom’s going to be worried if she wakes up and we’re both gone. Come inside with me!”

My sister turned away from me, gazing back at the water.

The singing began again, but this time, it sounded like it was further away. The song was sinfully sweet, and I found myself fascinated by it, as I wondered where or who it was coming from.
I watched fearfully as Scarlett leapt, head-first, off of the dock in front of me. Without thinking twice, I ran to the edge of the dock and peered into the water.

All I could see were thousands of bubbles rising to surface of the water that my sister had just disappeared into.

“Scarlett!” I screamed, unsure of what to do. I looked around quickly and, then, deciding there wasn’t another soul around that could hear me, I plunged myself into the bay after her.

Salt water stung at my eyes as I searched the black, murky water for my sister.

I recoiled, panicked, as my hand grasped at something slimy, but I calmed myself, realizing it was just a fish.

Swimming further under the water,
my arm brushed
up against something warm.

Scarlett’s arms reached out to me, flailing as if
she were trying to swim up to
the surface,
but it seemed as though she were
frozen in place. I gripped one of her arms with both of my hands and tried to pull her closer to me to swim us both to safety.

She wouldn’t budge.

My chest ached. Hungry for air, I quickly kicked up to the surface. I took a deep, ragged gasp of breath before plummeting myse
lf back into the depths of the
water.

At the right of my sister, I saw a bright glowing explosion of blue shining light. The force of it jolted me away from her. I scrambled to reach her again. Scarlett stared up at me, with a scared, helpless look in her eyes. I kicked hard, pushing myself through the water, closer to her.

Just as our fingers interlocked, I felt something grab me around the waist, prying me away from my sister.

I fought hard against the strong arms that were
trying to pull me closer to the
shore, but it was no use. The person was stronger than me.

As I was pulled from the water, I watched
as Scarlett became farther and
farther away from me. I could see her drifting deeper into the bay.

As soon as I felt
the fresh air hit against my face
, I took a few deep breaths, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of salt water.

My head bobbed in the water. Without turning to lo
ok at the person who was still
tugging me to shore, I screamed, “Let me go! We need to save my sister!”

My head was throbbing, and I couldn’t see clearly.

“Ain’t nobody under that water but you,” the elderly man said, beaming his blue-tinted flashlight across the water
,
as if to prove it to me. “I saw you come up for a minute and that’s when I decided to come help you. It looked like you were struggling. I was just down there looking for you.” The man paused. “You shouldn’t go off swimming in this bay at night, anyways. The sharks’ll get you.”

My chest hurt, but I started screaming, “Help!” If he didn’t believe me, I needed to find someone else who would.

I heard footsteps running across the dock and voices coming closer to where we stood on the shore, but I didn’t turn to see who they belonged to. Everything had turned into a big blur.

The melody that I had heard earlier turned int
o a sorrowful tune; it was the
last thing I heard before everything went black.

Jody Morse and Jayme Morse are sisters that reside in the Poconos. They write young adult paranormal romance and suspense novels. To connect with the authors, please visit:

http://www.jodymorse.com/

http://www.jaymemorse.com/