Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) (11 page)

I recognized the vibrations of the sounds.
“I’m here!” I waved my arms.

Never could I forget such a beautiful voice.
I started swimming toward him. It was Dylan. His desirable face was
flushed and wet from the ocean. He had come to rescue me.

I could see him clearly even though we were a
considerable distance apart. My vision must have improved immensely
in the transformation. I felt my pulse pounding now. My breath
became short and rapid.

He gazed at me from across the expanse, his
familiar eyes boring into mine. My body tingled all over. I got the
feeling that he could see as clearly as I could with my newly
advanced vision. With so many emotions rushing through my mind, I
couldn’t help but glance away from the intensity of his stare. When
I looked back, he grimaced.

My heart sank. He must have seen the changes
in my appearance. Was he repulsed? But then he started swimming
toward me. My heart pounded even faster now. I couldn’t help
it—when he reached me, I threw myself into his arms. He held onto
me, probably out of pity and looked at my face.

“Oh, Hailey.” He held me tighter and brushed
his hand over my long hair. “What have they done to you?” he said
again, his expression falling.

“I’m a monster now,” I mumbled, my voice
shaking as I spoke.

“No.” He shook his head and then took my chin
into his hand. “You could never be anything other than perfect.” To
my surprise, he ran his fingers down my cheek affectionately.

And now he chuckled. I wondered what he could
possibly be laughing about. But then his mood shifted and his
expression seemed angry.

“Why did you rush off to the island?” He
breathed, pulling me away from him.

“Why do you think?” I responded, miffed. My
legs were strong in the water now after the transformation. I
hardly had to work at all to hold my head up.

He looked away again, and then glanced back
at me through his thick black lashes. His emerald green eyes were
blazing. “I told you not to go.”

“You should have been clearer about it,” I
responded, sternly.

His expression looked pained and then he
scoffed. “They would have killed you right there.”

I looked down, feeling embarrassed. He had
tried to save me I realized. “You wanted to hurt me, so that I
would run back to my parents, right?”

He seemed cold and indifferent now. “Maybe,”
he mumbled with a devilish glint in his eyes.

I studied his expression, trying to figure
out his angle, but he was unreadable. “I wish I would have taken
the cues.”

“Do you?” His eyes appeared to narrow
slightly.

His implications surprised me. “What? Do you
think I enjoy being tortured against my will?”

His nostrils flared, but he held a grin with
some effort. “What you receive in return far exceeds the
discomfort.”

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. But he
was right on some level. Most girls would die to have the beauty
and power of a siren. “I love my parents,” I said, tears welling up
in my eyes uncontrollably.

“Come here.” His velvet voice softened as he
pulled me to him. “I’m gonna kill Gia, Lyra, and Wren for doing
this to you.”

My body tensed as I looked up at his
breathtaking face.

His jaw clenched as his mind seemed to reel
in torturous thoughts. “They are going to pay for what they did to
you.”

I shuddered at his intensity, fearing he was
planning to put his life in danger on my behalf. “Can sirens die?”
I asked hesitantly.

Looking inward, he mused slyly, “We are
eternal creatures, immune to natural diseases, but we can be
killed.”

He held me tight for some time. I could feel
his heart beating against my chest. Every breath he took sent
sensations through my body. I never wanted the moment to end.

“I’m sorry, Hailey.” With his fingers, he
brushed my hair out of my face. “I tried to stop them. I tried to
save you, but the other slaves grabbed me and tied me up. It kills
me to know what you went through.”

“You’ve experienced the same.”

He glanced down at me with troubled eyes.
“They converted me too, but the conversion of a slave is less
excruciating because we are not natural killers, but
scavengers.”

“Come.” He stroked my wet hair again. “Let’s
go.” His lips lifted into a wry smile. “Sirens are great swimmers.
They only need to come up for air about every twenty minutes. We
are similar to dolphins in that way.”

I loved swimming and the idea excited me. We
swam underneath the dark waters back to shore hand in hand. The sky
was a greyish blue and the earliest hints of morning were
approaching. I heard a long howl and I knew it was the wolf
greeting me as I lifted from the sea.

We crossed the sand and stopped at the stairs
at the bottom of the hill that led up to the campground. When I
looked up, I saw there was a police car parked at the top with its
light swirling.

Then I heard my mother calling my name from
the campground. There was panic in her voice. I yearned to run to
her and assure her I was okay. My mind reeling, I stared upwards
contemplating what to do.

I couldn’t help it—I started to cry once
again. Hatred lifted in me toward the triplets for how they had
destroyed my family. My poor mother and father.

“You can’t go back to your parents,” Dylan
warned. His dark eyebrows knitted together in worry.

He was right. My stomach churned with that
acknowledgement. A tight knot grew in my throat.

“It will terrify them if they see your face.
You are recognizable, but not the same.”

I knew I must have appeared as striking as
Wren, Lyra, and Gia now. It was almost an ethereal look. Dylan was
correct. I knew I could not explain what had happened to me. They
would be so terrified at my sudden transformation that I’d probably
give them heart attacks.

“I can’t imagine never seeing my parents
again,” I whispered somberly as I draped my long wet hair over my
shoulder.

“Like you said if you go to them now it would
be too shocking. In time you can visit them on occasion. They will
think you grew into a striking young woman believing your changes
were natural.”

His advice comforted me. It would be painful
for my parents now thinking that I disappeared, but in maybe a year
I could come back to visit them. That would comfort them knowing
that I was alive.

As much as my heart ached, I knew the
decision was for the best.

Dylan took me into his arms as we stood there
on the shore. “I will take care of you, Hailey. Please don’t cry.”
He brushed his finger across my cheek, wiping away a tear.

As sad as I was, being in his strong arms
comforted me. Dylan was everything I wanted and more.

He leaned over and kissed my forehead
lightly. The warm touch of his soft lips sent electricity through
my body. The feeling was even more powerful than I could have
imagined. He held his cheek against mine. My feelings grew in
intensity and I knew that he was my one and only true love. I hoped
he desired me as I did him. Together we could soar to great
heights.

And then I heard it. The song. It was loud in
my mind. “Do you hear that?” I asked Dylan.

“I do,” he breathed, resting his hand against
my heart.

The sky was growing lighter. “We have to go.”
My back grew in pleasure now. I reached around and touched between
my shoulder blades. There was a bulge moving under my skin like a
soothing massage.

He held out his hand and we jogged toward the
ocean. The hump broke through my skin as did his. I let out a loud
wail as I ran. Our feet started lifting from the ground. Our wings
were huge and expansive. They pulled us up into the grey blue
sky.

The song was so powerful, a splendorous
beckoning. Dylan’s heartbeat was entwined with mine. I heard the
sounds of his body rhythms like they were my own. I wanted to be
with him forever.

Wren, Lyra, Gia, and the gorgeous slave boys
were high in the sky. They were calling us and we had no choice but
to join them. As we flew up, we took hands with the flock
acknowledging each other.

A part of me wanted to tear them to shreds
for what they had done to my folks. I wanted them dead. They should
pay. But the other part of me, the instinctual part, yearned to be
with them. We were of the same flock and as much as I hated them, I
was them.

We dropped our wings. They folded into our
backs and we dived through the air, soaring downward in a great
free fall right into the blue shimmering sea.

CHAPTER ONE

There are things known and
things unknown and in between are the doors.
–JIM MORRISON

The music at The Highbar nightclub in Las
Vegas was loud and entrancing. I could feel it in my veins.
Everything within me wanted to sing, to cry out my passions, but I
held in my pain. Palm trees lined the rooftop swimming pool,
swaying in the hot night wind. Young people with the odors of warm,
coursing blood chatted on lounge chairs, in standing clusters, and
from the overlooking hotel balconies. I dug my fingernails into the
cushion of my chair.

Dylan and I were sitting outside at a round
table watching everything. We had perfect seats with great views of
the surroundings. At present I was trying not to attack the girls
in platform shoes and sparkly costumes who were dancing on the bar
top to the side of us. It was quite a show like hot juicy steaks
before the face of a predator in starvation. They were doing cancan
kicks in a line now with their arms connected to each other. They
were taunting me.

I didn’t know how many weeks had passed since
I was converted into a siren. My mind hadn’t been straight since.
Nightclub after nightclub, endless festivals and revelries. Much of
what had transpired, I had blacked out, sleeping much of the days
away, hiding away in corners, closing my eyes at every horror, but
now I was finished with all that. I wanted to live.

I tried to distract myself from my hungers
and the dryness of my parched tongue by looking out onto the open
air dance floor where Wren, Lyra, and Gia were dancing with some
rich high school guys they met at the poker tables in the lobby.
The boys had some big wins and were footing the bills for all of
us. Nice guys actually. Out of towners like we were.

In my opinion, Wren, Lyra, and Gia were
getting too into the dancing. I hated them. They were all over the
boys, pressed right up against their bodies as they moved to the
rhythmic beats. I wanted to rip them away. A part of me wanted to
feel the heat of a boy’s hips and torso the way they were. I wanted
to feel hot human breath on my neck. I yearned to devour them.

But the sirens were too overt. They had to
stop. They shouldn’t flaunt their hungers publically. Everyone at
the bar didn’t have to know what was stirring inside of us. I
ground my teeth.

In annoyance, I looked across the rooftop
toward the swimming pool. The slave boy with sandy blond hair,
Travis and his brown haired side kick, Blake, were hanging out on
the lounge chairs by the pool. Travis was the bitch who upon seeing
me for the first time at the campground mini-market, said he wanted
to suck my face. Faggit.

And Blake was the guy who helped Dylan beat
him up. I wished they would do it again. Now the idiots were
hitting on some college girls who seemed to be going for their
advances even though the young women were obviously older than the
boys by a few years.

One of the girls was petite with cute “girl
next door” looks. So innocent. She was running the side of her
finger down shithead’s face. I just knew he must have sung to her
to get her to move on him that quickly. He had no patience and even
though he was extraordinarily good looking, his personality was too
crude to appeal to women naturally.

Blake was less aggressive. He leaned back on
his lounge chair and talked casually to the squirrel faced chick
with a leaner, meaner physique. Though she was looking around the
bar, she sat on the edge of the chair facing him most of the
time.

“What do you think?” Dylan asked as he nodded
toward the slaves. “You think Blake is going to sing to her?”

I rolled my eyes even though my breathing
sped up at just hearing his voice. He was hot in a way a human
never could be. “I get the impression he likes to win them over
naturally.”

Dylan looked at me darkly. “Let’s bet on
it.”

“What?” My eyes widened.

He leaned into me. “If he sings to her, I
win.”

My heartbeat sped up. “And if he doesn’t?” I
wiped the palms of my hands on my black short skirt.

“You win.” He looked at me through his thick
lashes.

I clutched onto the edge of the table. “What
do I get if I win?” My tone was suspicious.

His green eyes gleamed under the lights.
“I’ll go with you to see your parents.”

I moved away suddenly, my back flat against
the chair. “Wren would kill you if you did that.” Sirens were
physically unable to leave the flock alone for more than a half
hour at a time. We had to always be within close proximity to at
least one other siren, so I would never be able to see my mother or
father again unless one of the other six went with me.

“I said I’d do it,” he responded seriously.
“But you have to win and you won’t.” A crooked grin lifted on his
perfect face.

I bit my lip. “What if you win? What do you
get?”

“You’ll eat tonight.” His eyes narrowed.

I got the feeling he was studying my face.
“You know I won’t do that.” I just wished he would kiss me. Oh,
that first kiss. Our mouths pressed together. What would it be
like?

His cheeks paled. “You can’t starve yourself
forever.”

My head shook involuntarily. “You’re not very
good at setting a bet. I couldn’t live with winning or losing.”