Song of the Sirens (15 page)

Riley attempted to place his hand
against my chest, but natural instinct forced me to fight him. We struggled in
the wide, open water, and I slipped out of his arms. I was one crazy moment
away from ripping out my mouthpiece and drowning just to end the misery when
Riley took control.

He gripped my arms with an abrasive and
firm hold, and held them down and in between our bodies. He kept his grip with
one hand and lifted the other to press an open palm against my chest with such
force that he almost knocked me out of his grasp.

A green glow appeared beneath his palm,
and the water around his hand moved into a circular pattern. He lacked the time
for gentleness. In a quick effort to keep me healthy and on the move, he sped
up the process.

The odd sensation paled in comparison to
the pain. Although, it hit me like a bag of bricks, and pushed aside the
anguish in a matter of seconds. Nausea struck in its wake as Riley’s power
forced itself inside of me.

Nonetheless, I welcomed the iciness and
the numbness because after the initial power crash into my chest, my body felt
nothing. At this point, Riley draped his arm around my waist and thrust my
relaxed body against his. He gathered me into his arms. I wrapped my arm around
his neck, and away we went, dashing toward the surface.

He opened his mouth and bellowed a low
noise, something that sounded remotely like whales. He must’ve summoned his
men, because we approached the waiting crowd.

Riley spoke to them. As my eyelids
fluttered, struggling to remain open, I made out a small circular glow. I hoped
they had the common sense to cure my father of the bends before continuing.

The adrenaline wore off, and numbness
drifted into my mind. I lingered on the threshold of unconsciousness. Movement
and darkness didn’t matter. Everything blurred into one ambiguous blob.

We moved, and we stopped. I opened my
eyes and silently groaned. Space and time no longer made sense. I thought we
moved to the surface, but we hadn’t moved at all. Riley’s men surrounded us.
They floated in front of us as they held my father. They presented him to Riley
as if he were a sacrificial atonement.

I clung to Riley, unsure if I could
float in place if he released me. To my slight relief, he kept his sturdy arms
around me. He reached over to my father and pressed his right palm into his
chest. Riley didn’t waste time in healing Dad from the effects of water
pressure.

Now that the maddening torture and
blinding lack of sensation balanced out, I returned to my senses, and my
worries. Dad seemed to be in the same condition as before: unconscious. Would
the hostile takeover of his mind lead to serious issues once he returned to
land? Would he ever wake up?

When the glow dissipated, Riley
commanded, “Let’s move, but at a slower pace. The human body can’t handle these
speeds under water.”

They nodded, and we continued. Riley
followed closely behind and kept a vigilant eye on the surrounding darkness.

I watched him both impressed and
comforted that such a strong creature watched over me. I glanced up and saw his
lifted square jaw as he concentrated on reaching the surface, and the flash of
fins above entrenched by blackness above us.

The silence of the underwater realm
seemed almost maddening, able to drive one insane with the lack of noise. Since
I didn’t kick and swim, I felt as though I waited for the next scene.

Through the blackness, a murky haze
formed in the near, or perhaps far, distance. I couldn’t really tell.
Disorientation took its toll. If left to my own devices, I probably would’ve swum
downward thinking I swam in the other direction.

The bright lights from the boat welcomed
our party. For the first time since we plummeted into the water, I felt safety
was viable. A wave of relief hit me, but I didn’t get excited too soon.
Anything could happen between here and the boat.

As we neared the rippling surface and
the thrashing waves, the lights intensified. We breeched the water. I pulled my
mask up and over my head, resting it above my forehead. I spat out the
mouthpiece and stretched sore facial muscles. I’d never been so grateful for
air!

The mermen had emerged seconds before
and waited for Riley several feet ahead and closer to the shadow of the boat.

Riley released me. Like a dead log, I
drifted along, waiting for something else to happen, for someone to pick me up
and move me onto the boat. I looked up. The sleek, wet side of the ship loomed
over us like a daunting, taunting, angled wall.

Riley swam toward his men, and I
compelled my body to move after him. Thank goodness they weren’t far.

The near empty oxygen tank and buoyancy
control allowed both my father and I to float without effort. Good thing,
because I ran out of energy.

The mermen didn’t speak to me. Instead
of handing off my father to me, they placed him in Riley’s care, and in turn,
Riley handed my father to me. As soon as the transaction occurred, the mermen
plunged back into the water.

“Where did they go?” I asked
frantically.

Riley moved my arms under Dad to show
how best to keep my father’s head above water without using up so much of my
own energy.

“To keep on alert for any advancing
sirens. We noticed an interference in the currents.”

“So they took the bait?”

I shivered from cold and terror. The
plan worked, but now what?

Chapter Ten

We weren’t in the safe zone just yet.
How would we get back onto the boat or alarm the crew above the noise of
crashing waves and angry storms? Did anyone search for us?

“Where are you going?” I asked, afraid
that Riley would leave us alone.

“I’ll be back, don’t worry. Don’t make
any noise yet,” Riley replied.

He started to swim away when I cried,
“Wait!”

Riley turned to face me without slowing
his momentum. He waved. Maybe he thought that was reassuring enough. He was
wrong.

My shoulders slumped as I glanced around
the insanity. We were going to die, weren’t we?

I held onto Dad, careful to keep his
head above water.

The shadows casted by the boat engulfed
Riley as he dipped back into the water. Complete darkness surrounded the
surface directly below the ship where the light did not reach.

I gulped. I stared after him and glanced
up in hopes the crew searched for us. I floated closer to the boat, to the
metal dock. It hadn’t been pulled up, not even straightened out. It barely hung
from a few chains in the rear, and the broken chains rattled against the wind.
The noise skimmed the water.

Did the crew have any idea what
happened, that we were in the water? I thought I heard a radio reply when in
the sub, but nothing seemed out of normal up there. Or, to my horror, had a
siren landed on the boat and devoured them already?

A strange green movement caught my
interest while I kept watch for any passing crewmen. I hoped to see someone
soon so I could wave my arms and get their attention.

A metallic, shimmering green hue seemed
to serpentine beneath the increasingly agitated waves. I couldn’t decipher if
the creature moved toward us or away from us.

I gulped. Was it a siren? Was this how
they appeared as they approached their prey, like a glowing viper slithering
beneath the waves?

I jerked around, glaring left, then
right, and then over my shoulder. I looked every which way, but couldn’t see a
thing. Maybe the mermen completely deserted us or laid in wait below. I
considered pulling the mask on and looking beneath the water, but I didn’t want
to relinquish the hold on Dad.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.

For one thing, I couldn’t make out
anything to know which way to go or what to do. For another thing, fear gripped
me. Terror sunk its claws so deep into my mind that it latched on and refused
to release.

The endless shivers never ceased. The
wind turned the water droplets on my face to ice, and I felt colder than ever
before. The wind knocked against us, chilling the hairs on my body. We rocked
with the waves, and I clutched onto my father. Nothing could make me let go,
and I decided I would fight the siren if I had to, with or without mermen. I
anticipated doing anything to keep the she-beast’s teeth from sinking into Dad.
The siren expected an easy and unknowing meal, and though we looked like
sitting ducks, we weren’t.

The green tail continued to move,
gaining speed.

I succumbed to vicious quakes. Who did I
kid? I was scared out of my skin. At this point, I only hoped death came
quickly.

The glow intensified when it stopped,
gathered, and moved in a circular motion. Someone breeched the water in the
middle of the watery sphere. As more of their body surfaced, the stronger the
glow became. It lifted the person high out of the ocean.

The creature hadn’t moved toward us, but
away and toward the boat. The figure against the glow appeared to be a man, not
a woman.

I sighed. I thought the creature looked
more like Riley than a siren. Or so I hoped. Survival for us slimmed down quite
a bit if a siren sunk her teeth into the crew.

If I were a siren and knew a large boat
full of sleeping, unsuspecting meals waited nearby, I would go after them as
opposed to wasting time on two measly humans acting as bait in an ambush.

The merman grabbed onto the railing and
swung over the boat. Instead of a tail hitting the deck, a pair of legs landed
and then took off. He disappeared. I didn’t think a weak siren would run that
fast.

The glow dissipated. The maddening sound
of restless waves drowned out the silence. With nothing to look at, nothing to
hope for, my thoughts plummeted back toward what wandered below.

Commotion sounded over the crashing
waves and heavy breeze. Other lights turned on and focused on the water. They
moved from the shadows beneath the nose of the ship to us, stopping once they
detected us. I shielded my eyes from the glare.

Laments and cries cut through the sounds
of the sea.

“Get help!” Riley’s strong voice
resounded. “Men overboard! Men overboard!”

Someone yelled after him, “Riley! Wait!”

I mustered up any lingering energy and
faith and maneuvered toward the boat with Dad close in tow. Saltwater splashed
against my face and neck, a small portion made its way past my lips as I spat
it out.

From the metal dock, I looked directly
up to glimpse movement. I looked ahead when a sore ache cramped my neck.
Speaking of cramps, Riley’s powers wore off and cramps seized random places
from my feet to my shoulders.

Riley, clad in his usual red trunks,
climbed onto the railing. Before anyone could grab him and yank him back onto
the deck, he stood and swan dived into the ocean. I followed his figure as he
gracefully flew overhead in an arch and entered the water behind us.

“Anita!” a crewman cried out above.

I removed my arm from beneath Dad’s
armpit and waved at the men.

“Help!” I croaked. At long last, safety
appeared to be within a reasonable reach.

I yelped and jumped when two cold hands
grabbed my waist. I opened my mouth to scream, prepared to swing around and
claw out the siren’s eyes, but when I turned around, my face hit Riley’s chest.

I seethed and touched my throbbing
cheek, which was hardened from the cold. I half expected it chip off like a
frozen piece of carcass.

“What the heck? Why would you come up
behind me like that?” I shrieked.

“Calm down,” Riley muttered as he pushed
us toward the dock. He glanced up as crewmen crowded around the railing and
peered down. They yelled orders to one another and to us to hang on tight.

“Lower the dock and straighten it out!”
Riley yelled.

I flinched. His booming voice in my ear
added to my already growing headache.

“Pull us back up on it!”

“Hold on!” another man called back.

Riley lowered his tone to normal and
said, “Have to get you onto the dock. I know you’re tired, but you have to
hurry.”

I nodded. With his hands still around my
waist, he pushed me toward the chains and bars. I reached up and gripped the
bar as Riley helped with Dad.

“Hold him for a second,” he called out
over his shoulder as he moved away.

I kept Dad’s head steady above the water
as the crew simultaneously lowered and straightened out the dock. Riley crawled
on, pulling himself up by use of the grates. He rolled over and staggered to
his feet with knees bent, and squatted behind my father.

Riley hooked his arms beneath Dad’s
armpits and pulled as he took one backward step after another. I remained at
Dad’s side to help with the legs, not that I helped much.

Once my father was out of the water, I
grabbed onto the grated planks and wriggled on up. The near empty scuba tank on
my back felt like the weight of a thousand suns when out of the water.