“So tell me more about Oceanids,” she said to Ken.
“No,” Sam commanded, using his siren power and grabbing her arm to pull her out of the house.
Whitney would have protested but he was fuming mad, and it was best to let him get off his chest whatever he was thinking. She could always talk to Ken later.
Sam slipped his hand from her arm and into her hand and began walking. She kept pace with him and waited for him to speak. They walked back through town, and she didn’t worry about the meeting. Sam was still linked to his father, and they would find out everything.
When they finally got back to their house, Sam went all the way through and back to the water. She knew his short temper tantrum had nothing to do with needing a soak, but she sat down on the edge of the pool anyway. Slipping into the water as a siren, she waited for Sam to join her. He kicked off his shoes and jumped right in, surfacing just inches from where Whitney was. Floating with her head out of the water to feel the sun’s rays on her face, she drifted with her eyes closed, but knew he was quite close.
“I can’t let you do this. They might figure it out and know that it’s you. Then they would have you. I have no idea what Tim would do with you now that he can’t have you. I’d do anything to keep you safe. You know that. I’d give away the whole island just to have you. If you want to keep the mer safe, then stay here. Don’t put yourself out there.”
Whitney flipped around and found herself in his arms as his lips touched hers and they sunk down into the water.
‘I know what you mean, Sam. I’d do anything for you, too, but those siren deserve a chance. They will be killed easily if no one is there to warn and protect them. They’re just teens, and they are innocent. If I can go there and help, then I need to try. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if Trudy was killed and I could stop it. You know that.’
Sam pulled his face back and rested his forehead on hers. He was listening to her words.
‘If you do this, you will come back to me. There’s no world without you in it. You understand?’
Whitney didn’t smile as she had won the argument. She knew she had him at innocence, as he felt the same way about the mer. Whitney was getting herself into something, and even though she wasn’t sure if it was going to work, she had to try. She was right when she said she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try. Trudy was her friend, and Whitney did not believe in giving up on friends, especially when they needed you the most.
‘And you don’t go rushing off until we have every detail mapped out with at least three backup plans. Promise me.’
‘I promise.’
CHAPTER 2
“Sam, I get it,” Whitney said for like the tenth time, annoyance seeping into her voice slightly.
Sam cringed. He knew was starting to drive her nuts, but just the idea of her leaving was hard enough. It was actually time for her to leave, and he was having a bit of a hard time with it. Okay. That was a lie. He was having more than a bit. He was having a really hard time with it.
“Sam’s just trying to keep you safe, little sister,” Nic said as he patted her head.
“Little sister” was Nic’s new way to show Sam he wasn’t interested in the least in Whitney. It didn’t help much right at the moment, but it was a nice gesture from a brother that had been anything but kind to him growing up. Not that it was Nic’s fault. They had all been like that before recent events, and Sam was more used to their mean ways.
“With the water tricks I’ve taught her, I’m sure they won’t recognize it’s her,” Ken added as he stood beside Nic in the tree line, hidden from the water’s view.
Recognize her? As a brunette, even Sam would have had trouble recognizing her if he wasn’t her mate. She looked like a completely different person with deep brown hair, so much that she didn’t recognize herself either. She was no different inside, but Sam had to more than once do a double take with her new ‘do.
Whitney smiled as thoughts went across the bond.
“Feels like you’re cheating on me, right?” She raised an eyebrow.
Actually, it kind of did.
“Get them to a safe place and then get them back to the transfer island. When we finalize our attack, the protection wall will go down, and you then can join the fight,” Nic reiterated Whitney’s orders, and in doing so brought both her and Sam back on track.
How little did they really know about her? Whitney wasn’t one to follow orders, but good luck getting her to try. Sam wasn’t about to correct them on that one.
Whitney smiled at Sam as his thoughts had accidentally drifted across the bond again. She winked at him and gave Nic a serious nod, like she was going to follow his orders. Fat chance on that. Whitney still stared at Nic, and Sam’s last thought stayed private. Sam was going to have to work on getting back his control as he kept slipping with her. He was letting his feeling leak too much across the bond, but it was hard not to. His mind was preoccupied with worry for her safety.
Nic nodded to Whitney, and Ken did, too, before both of them left. Sam was alone standing just inside the trees. They were on the other side of the island, across from the siren’s main city. They’d decided that if she came from the side that the Caesg were now protecting she’d have the best chance. They were one of the newest to join, and the most level-headed. They would likely not attack her first since she looked different, they’d probably question her and allow her to talk to them. All she had to do was play her part perfectly, and she’d be fine. And she had to be fine. Sam was two seconds away from yanking her back to him and running off to lock her in a safe space.
“You can always change your mind,” Sam told her as Whitney melted into his arms. He knew he had to let her go, but man was it hard.
“Never,” she replied as she buried her face into his chest. There was worry right below the surface, but she would never show that to anyone. Whitney was strong. Always was, and always would be. Sam really liked that part about her.
Resting his chin on her head, Sam took a deep breath. She always smelled like the tropical flowers on the island. It was going to be torture for him to be around any flower while she was gone, as the reminder was going to drive him nuts. It was unfair that she was the one risking herself to save the siren. That was his job. He was supposed to protect everyone, and he was especially supposed to protect his mate. Now he was doing neither. He would sit on his protected island and wait for her to come home, braving all the danger by herself. Yes, it was completely unfair.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” Whitney told him, but it didn’t ease his worry. “And the guys were right about the hair. No one will know me … heck, not even Tim will know it is me. I just hope Trudy recognizes me.”
“They said it should come out after like fifty washes,” Sam replied, gently touching a brown strand of her hair; blond or brown she was still his Whitney, after all. “You can just go home to your aunt’s first and wash your hair a zillion times to get back to blond, but I kind of agree that brunette should keep you safer since Tim is still out there.”
Sam pulled her tighter. It was killing him to let her go, and yet he had to. He knew it, but he didn’t have to like it.
“I’ll be back before you know. Then we just have to deal with this whole war crap.” Whitney smiled up at him and batted her eyes.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. War crap.
With one last kiss, she finally made her way down to the shore, alone. It took every bit of self-control in him to not chase her and pull her back to the safety of the island. With a graceful leap into the water and a flip of her pink tail, Whitney was gone, and he was left to worry.
First part was done. She was able to walk away from Sam. It was much harder than Whitney had expected. Their past few weeks together made it almost physically impossible for her to do so. She thought that after the initial “happy to be back together” period the bond wouldn’t still be pulling them together, but it wasn’t that way. Even now as she swam away
, she could feel the draw of Sam. He wasn’t in the water, so she couldn’t hear his thoughts, but she could feel him, like she was a compass and he was north. She knew where he was. Trying to break free of the thoughts that kept drifting back to Sam, she reminded herself that she needed to focus on her escape from the island.
As she swam into deeper water, she knew there would be mer waiting for her. She was ready to play her part and hoped it wouldn’t come down to a fight. Luckily, she was trained for both scenarios, but she’d rather avoid the whole “kill another person” option if possible.
Something came toward her, and she dashed to the side to let it pass. She had to guess it was some sort of weapon as the chain it was attached to was only feet away. A second one came from the other direction, and this time, she used her training to not just dodge, but to go find the person wielding the weapon. Ducking down, she used her water abilities to stir up enough bubbles and dirt from the floor to obscure her so she could get closer. She noticed the brown-spotted tail first and was tempted to drag the mer up to the surface by it, but since there was a second, she needed to use him as a shield. Maneuvering herself behind the first while both of them searched for her in the muddied water, she was able to get behind the Caesg and lock him in her arms. With a push from the water, she bolted them both to the surface. Three more heads popped up at the same time.
“May I ask why you attack an unarmed merperson?” Whitney said to the guys, both looking at her now. The one in her arms was way stronger than her, and it was only by surprise that she was able to get him and hold him in place. Thank goodness for pressure points.
“Siren aren’t allowed to leave the island,” the guy in her arms replied. He was obviously upset with being held captive. Or it might have been being held captive by a girl. Whitney didn’t know or care either way.
“Then why did you attack me? I’m not a siren. I’m an Oceanid, daughter of Oceanus.” Whitney spoke as regally as possible. They had to believe that was who she was.
Suddenly, the fierce faces turned to dismay. The guy in her arms was the only one that couldn’t see her or her pink tail.
“Impossible,” the guy grunted out.
Now it was time to use a few tricks. Ken had explained that there were a few hot springs around the island in the ocean. She just needed to direct that water to where they were now. She pictured where Ken said they were. Creating a stream, she flowed the water to their location. Keeping her free hand hidden by the bulky mer, she reached down and pulled out the glitter she had with her. Ken was sure glitter, of all things, would be enough. He claimed that all mer like shiny things and little bits of glitter would enhance her trick. As the warm water licked her back, Whitney let go of the glitter and forced the warm water to hold on to it. Swirling it around in the sea in front of her, Whitney drew the symbol that Ken found for her. They were lucky at least one of the siren brothers was big on book learning. He knew the symbol for the Oceanid, and obviously, these other mer did also.
The men across from her dropped their weapons as did the man in her arms. She released him and pushed him toward his fellow mer. His mouth hung open in shock as he viewed her now, also. At least he was over being taken by a girl.
“I’ve been woken from my slumber by the congregation of non-siren around the siren island. When my father created the mer, he gave each kind their own part of the ocean. Why now do you all encircle the siren? This is their part of the ocean.”
The Caesg she had captured seemed to be the leader as they all turned to him.
“We mean no disrespect, great Oceanid. We’re here because our king commanded us to be,” he replied. “The mer do not want to be ruled, and the siren refuse to let us live as we want to. We’re here to end the siren and then return to our homes to live our lives as we wish.”
“While that may be, why you are here personally? I’m here to figure this all out and report back to my father. As I see, not all of the mer families are here, so I must talk to the others to get their take on it also. My father wants to be sure to punish the ones that are causing this unbalance in the water that woke me.”
The men seemed to agree with everything she was saying. With a nod to them, Whitney ducked back into the water and just swam away, leaving the gaping Caesg in her wake. As she swam, she missed the connection with Sam. She wanted to show him how it worked perfectly. Not a single person followed her. But she knew she was alone now. Sam wasn’t going to be allowed to connect with Whitney until she made it to the shore, as their connection could easily be seen by the mer.
While she wanted to swim back to her hometown and just walk out of the ocean in the spot where Sam first took her to be a siren, she knew she couldn’t. The other mer seemed to have found his secret spot near shore also, and it was no longer safe. She was going to have to take the long way around, which was good because as much as the men had believed her, she had a couple of them tailing her that she had to get rid of.
Whitney tried not to enjoy her game of hide and seek with the mer, but she couldn’t help it; being in the ocean just made her happy. She could have only been happier if Sam was there with her. Whitney ducked and disappeared into the sea grass as she waited to lose her last tailing mer. With her ability to breathe underwater and her control over the water itself, she could easily wait all day. But it wasn’t going to take that long. The mer completely missed her, and after ten seconds, she crept back the way she came to find the shore and one of the safe houses that would have a waiting car for her.
After a drive across the state—thank goodness Florida was a peninsula, so it wasn’t days of driving—Whitney made it back to her hometown. She hadn’t had time to wash the brown out of her hair, but she didn’t care. She needed to get to the siren before someone else came for them.
Whitney parked the large van she was driving at the school and went inside. School would still be in session for a couple more hours, and she needed them to leave now. As she walked to the front office, she stopped before opening the door. Her sixth sense told her to wait. Voices within were clear enough for her to make out what they were saying.
“We need to see our niece,” a gruff male voice said. “Family emergency.” Whitney could feel something was off with the guy. She didn’t know who he was, or what he was doing, but it just felt off.
“Let me see here,” the kind, older secretary said as she typed away. “Callie happens to be in Phys Ed right now. I will message the teacher, and she will send her right here.” That seemed to appease the guys as they sat down with their backs to the frosted office window.
Whitney felt the urgency to get to her friend and knew where to find Trudy. Quickly, she passed the office without being seen and headed toward the classrooms at the school. As she passed the gym, a girl she had never met came out. It took only a second to realize the girl was a siren. She had such a better sense of the siren and mer in general now.
“Callie?” Whitney asked, making the girl pause. “Do you have an uncle here on land?”
The girl did a double take at Whitney like she was confused to why a day human was talking about something like that.
“Shoot, I’m Whitney, just different color hair,” Whitney quickly explained. She could see the realization dawn on the girl’s face.
“Um, no uncles here. None of my family comes to land ever. I think my parents haven’t been here since they were teenagers.”
Just as Whitney suspected, it was more than urgent to get the siren out of the school. They already had mer there hunting them. If Whitney had left the island even five minutes later, then the siren in front of her could have already been dead.
“We need to leave now, and we need to get everyone left here at school. The island has been surrounded, and I have a feeling the ‘uncle’ that’s waiting isn’t here to take you home.”
The shocked girl just stared at Whitney. Whitney rubbed her forehead. She really didn’t need this. Grabbing the girl’s arm, Whitney hauled her down the hallway to Trudy’s classroom.
Without waiting, Whitney opened the door to the room, interrupting the teacher as she talked.
“What are you—” the teacher demanded.
“Trudy is coming with me, and no one knows where she went,” Whitney ordered the room. Everyone nodded along with the teacher, and Trudy stood up to follow her. Outside the room, Whitney tapped on her friend’s face to get her out of her trance. She would have rather snuck her friend out, as her control wasn’t complete yet with her siren voice, but they didn’t have time.
“Um,” Trudy said as she looked at Whitney.
“We need to gather the last siren at school and leave now,” Whitney told her, motioning to young siren, Callie. “Someone is here that’s looking for you guys, and it isn’t safe.”
Realization dawned on Trudy as she finally recognized Whitney.
“Man, I’ve missed you.” Trudy threw her arms around Whitney.
Whitney patted her friend’s back. “I’ve missed you, too. But really, Trudy. The island is surrounded, and only I could leave to get to you guys. No one else can leave there right now,” Whitney said, trying to explain and get them to move all at the same time.
“You’re serious about being in trouble?” Trudy finally got the not-so-subtle hint.
“Yes. Get everyone to the back door by the computer lab. I have a van that will fit everyone. I’ll go get it and meet you.” Whitney didn’t wait for her friend to agree. She needed to double check that the strange guys weren’t walking around the school yet.
Whitney hurried back toward the front office and could see that the men were definitely getting impatient. They were now standing by the desk again, and she could hear the office lady making a phone call. Rushing by the door before they could see her, Whitney ran out to the van she rented since Sam’s safe car was not going to fit everyone. Hopping in, she drove it around the building to meet her siren before the guys went looking. She was getting better at hand-to-hand combat, but Whitney found it could be hard to fight someone twice her size due to weight differences alone, and those men were both at least twice her size.
Scales and Legends Page 3
