by L. B. Carter
Well, he did, as that made it harder for them to procure what they’d wanted all along. “Sirena is,” Nor butt in, “the specimen.”
Reed’s jeep jerked to the side and pulled to a squealing stop on the gravel on another pine-lined road that looked like every other one in this town.
“What?” his brother choked out, his skin as pale as the day they’d lost half their team.
By the time they pulled back onto the road, Reed was gripping the wheel the way Nor had done on the ride home from the beach. The jeep was more robust than the old red truck Nor borrowed from Tom: no likelihood it’d break and they’d lose the ability to steer.
“That fucking… kid.” Wow, that was pretty tame. “That asshole is not only a fucking stalking bitch, but he steals information from the hospital and got goddamn into university due to blackmail and baiting and murder? Jesus fucking Christ. The world just keeps getting darker. Maybe it’s for the best if mother nature and her climate change plague wipes humans out.” He shook his head and Nor worried his lip for a moment.
Reed’s moods were shifting to more and more despondent. He was losing Mother’s vision. Father’s vision even. Maybe he needed a vacation. Nor wasn’t sure Reed could handle any more negativity and death, not after last time when it became personal.
“Yep.” Nor popped the p, not any happier than his brother. His mood was more pissed than dejected.
“So Mr. Tate might actually be a suicide. But we are still fumbling around like idiots in the dark when it comes to our mysterious client. And fighting against a literal child over another literal child who’s some kind of science experiment. This is fucked up.”
They pulled into a small one-story house in a residential cul-de-sac. The red front door was decorated with an autumnal leafy wreath that had miraculously survived the storm. There were two small red tricycles scattered, abandoned across the lake of a lawn. The front door swung open and Kayna peered out, one of her little brothers on her hip, the other clutching her leg.
Nor thought of when one of the little boys had sat on his lap and gazed into his soul at the coffee shop. He was an innocent, a civilian, they had to protect and keep out of things. And so was Sirena, no matter what Stew claimed she did. Why she was a science experiment was a whole different matter. She was the job, why they were in a podunk town, the damsel he had to rescue, even if she could rescue herself and him.
Chapter Fifteen
The second time Rena woke, the first thing she noticed was the mask on her face that dug in to her cheeks painfully. The second, as she attempted to inhale, was a mouthpiece wedging her lips open uncomfortably, through which she got a lung-full of air. Exhaling, it streamed out of her mouth, pushing between lips and the plastic. The bubbles floated up and Rena panicked. Underwater. She was underwater.
Immediately she became lightheaded and tried to take a measured breath in only to find, suddenly—nothing. It was like sucking on a shake straw with a chunk of ice caught in the end. Rena spun in the water, green hair wisping in her vision as she grappled for the tube that led up from her mouthpiece. It was broken, clogged! She couldn’t breathe. Heart racing, she pulled herself easily hand over hand following the last of her bubbles to the surface.
A vision passed in front of her eyes. Not her usual dream; a new one.
Waking up underwater. She recalled having been tossed into a rock after towing Grandpa, who had his good arm around an unconscious Nor and a severe bump to the head, up the inlet, to the site where she’d first woken and gone back to look for Gil. A riptide had grabbed her, tossing her about, and smacking her into debris from a previous weather tantrum. She didn’t know how long she’d been out on the seafloor when she woke up to see Nor, and reacted without thought again, triggered by his blue eyes. Her hero. Always in the right place at the right time—for her. Lungs screaming, she’d latched on without thought.
Where had Nor gone? Had he given her the scuba mask? And why wasn’t it working? Rena had only the direction of her last bubbles to go by. The rest of her air was locked tight in her chest, tighter than her mental box. Kicking hard, it was only a moment before Rena’s head collided with a metal clang that echoed mutely underwater. Her hands reached out, abandoning her umbilical cord that was useless anyway, to walk across the smooth metal, searching for an opening, an escape. Was this the tugboat? The collapsed bridge further up the inlet? Her shoulder crashed into a wall and she jerked back. Her vision was starting to blacken on the edges. Rena hadn’t realized that would be her last breath. Where was she?
She spun in the water column, squinting hard and finally noticing mirror-like walls that made her look like some ethereal mermaid—a drowning mermaid. Shrimp! The floor was metal too; dull. Each direction was a separate piece, all held together, according to her probing finger tips, by some kind of plaster like hot glue, keeping the water in—keeping Rena in.
She pulled herself up the tube again, to the edge of the lid. Lid! It was a lid. She reached across to be sure. Hinges. Leveraging with her legs, she shoved at the wall, trying to swing the lid up. Either it was too heavy or there was a lock because it didn’t even shift. Rena tried sinking to the bottom and then using her knees to propel her to the top. That simply rewarded her with a thump, pain in her head and shoulder, and a loss of some of her precious air. The bubbles drifted mockingly away.
As if impacted again, Rena’s vision swam and she shut her lids. No Dad, no JT, no Nor to steal oxygen from here even if she’d let herself.
He’d been willing. Nor had let Rena take his oxygen, kissing her back. It had been his response—not fear, but an offering—that had slackened her mouth, awakened her to what she was doing, and allowed her to resist. Her legs had unwrapped from his waist. He hadn’t let her pull back though. He’d smiled with lips still rosy and then took her hand and towed her toward the surface. He was alive because he’d been willing to give her his life.
She sank to the bottom, forlornly losing a bubble at a time, watching them go free longingly as her father had. Tides had turned. In reality, she’d known the ocean would win as soon as she set foot on that tugboat. But had she saved the others first?
◆◆◆
Rena was dreaming again, or rather having a nightmare. The blue irises were so real, wisps of green threading through them. Whether it was her recent experience or the initial nightmare, she didn’t want to relive it. Wake up, wake up. She couldn’t breathe. Not again. Terror slid through her. It was going to happen. The lips above her were pink, puckered as though for a kiss.
“Shhh,” the lips said, instead. Aloud. No water. It was a hand covering her mouth. Not water. In through the nose. Rena’s eyes followed his as they looked around them. The sharp acidic smells, beeps and bland green-and-white colors were of a hospital room, reaffirming: no water.
They were also alone. “Don’t make any noise, okay?” The hand pulled back and its owner stood back to full height. The cuffs kept her from following him up into a seat. He was wearing a full set of scrubs, even had one of those floppy green hair nets over his messy hair, like a surgeon. “I’m going to get you out of here,” Nor whispered, attacking her cuffs with vigor.
He shouldn’t save her. He shouldn’t have saved her underwater. He’d almost died. He shouldn’t save her now. “Don’t,” she whispered and he froze. He left her feet, coming back up to her head.
“What?”
She shook her head, trying to keep her lips sealed.
He let air out through his lips on a sigh and she turned away. “Sirena, I’m sorry, I know you’ve been through a lot, but I have to take you with me. We need to leave town.” She flashed back to him. Leave town? “You’re not safe here.” He wasn’t safe with her. “People are watching you.” Yes. They. They watched her constantly. She was their fun lab rat. This was nothing new. “We have to go. Please. I’ll explain once we get out. Kayna’s mom is clearing a path for us but we have to move now.” Kayna’s mom? Was Kayna in on this? He glanced anxiously at the clock on the wall
, ripping off the last cuff on her wrist, before meeting her eyes. His palm remained warm on hers. “Please. Trust me. We have to go before Kayna’s mom gets caught. Before we get caught.”
That made her move. She’d done enough damage to these people’s lives. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and was about to ask a question when he cut her off. “You, quiet.” Then he snorted. “Didn’t think I’d ever have to say that to you.” Before she could defend herself, he lifted her with ease and deposited her in a waiting wheelchair. He pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around and over her head. “Gotta cover your defining feature.” Then he was whisking her through hallways, down an elevator and seemingly too easily out the front door into the night. They ran into no one.
Crickets chirped. How long had it been since the storm? Nor’s truck was idling by the sidewalk. The wheelchair got left behind, in a small pool of light, abandoned by a bed of flowers and they were off. It felt oddly reminiscent, sitting on the worn leather in silence as Nor took off, tension gripping his fingers around the steering wheel.
Then the questions spilled out. “Who are you? Who am I?”
It was her fault. It all had been. That’s what Nor was telling her. He’d been in town for her. He’d almost died because of her. No not because of her—because she was some kind of specimen …that people were fighting over?
Well, she didn’t feel all that precious. Unique, sure. She was an abomination; she’d killed, even with her one-for-one achieved. This only confirmed that They were right. Not only was she psychologically messed up according to Dr. Spelmann, but evidently, she was a biological anomaly too.
JT had been right. She was a freak. Not a ghost though. He hadn’t gotten that wish. She was still there.
The ocean should have taken her. She wasn’t worth all these deaths. Deaths she hadn’t even known were her fault. Those who’d tried to get her to safety. Those who’d tried to find her. Those who’d tried to protect her. Tears welled up again as she thought of Grandpa.
She gazed at her hands, the cab in silence again, feeling like she didn’t even know her own body, like it was a dead cat sitting before her in an anatomy lab to poke and prod. Just like They did. Well she couldn’t blame Them now, could she?
Rena shoved her hands under her hospital-gown clad thighs, and stared out of the window watching the green pines flash past, with blobs of red and gold. The leaves were preparing for the cold of winter.
They missed the turn off to Grandpa’s old cabin. Nor seemed to read Rena’s mind. “Told you, we need to get you out of town fast.”
She shook her head and plucked at her pale green medical dress, mouth opening.
He glanced over at her outfit then back at the road with a clenched jaw. He cut her off. “We can’t.”
She begged with her eyes wide when he glanced over again. Rena didn’t even really want clothes. She’d be quick—didn’t want to look too long at the empty chair in the living room. But she wanted to grab that buoy he’d been working on. The lighthouse. A memento.
He sighed. “I’d hoped to avoid more bad news but… the house is gone.” She blanched. “Collateral in the storm. Most of the coast got undercut by the storm surges, and what didn’t got smashed by the boats washed in from the marina.”
Rena swallowed hard. Gone. Washed out to sea. It was like Grandpa had just vanished overnight. Leaving town suddenly seemed a lot easier.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a low tone, truly sounding it. “Earth doesn’t discriminate her revenge.”
She was just like any other climate refugee. Like Liam and Tilly and Kayna… What would Kayna do now? Go back to normal? Sit at lunch with Liam and Tilly and… Not Stew. Turned out he also only wanted Rena to kick off his science career. It had all been a lie. Stew had never had a crush on her. He had been stalking her.
“What about Stew? Is he going to get away with this? He’s been following me around like a… like a fucking—” She flinched. Sorry, Grandpa. The harsh word felt great, spoken aloud, and deserved, but Grandpa was gone and it felt a little like lifting a middle finger at his memory. “—like a freaking stalker. He tried to drown me.” Though she’d gotten revenge for that with her weird ability, now she knew it wasn’t JT at the beach. “You said he tried to kill you!”
Nor shook his head, either baffled by her heated outburst given that he hadn’t heard her ramble before—those tirades had always been in her head—or in answer to her question.
“Which is it?” she asked and realized he hadn’t heard her internal monologue. This out-loud thing was hard. “Are you telling me no? Or are you shaking your head at me? ‘Cause I have to warn you, Mr. Hero, I’ve got a lot of things to say that you might not like and I’ve been building them up for months.” He shot a grin at her and her temper flared. “What’s so funny? You think I won’t?” He shook his head again. “What?” she demanded, frustrated. He laughed aloud at that. “What?”
“The silence getting to you?” he asked, his calm tone contrasting the urgency fueling her blood. “You have been a complete mystery to me since I got here. That’s nothing to do with your physical traits,” he cut off her rebuttal with tactful phrasing. “I couldn’t figure you out. I welcome whatever words you want to throw my way, as many of them as you have built up.” He grinned again, keeping his eyes on the road as he slowed at a stop sign and then made a left.
Main street came in to view, and she shifted her gaze to the coffee shop, the grocery store, the hairdressers. Barb’s was down the end and up a side street a ways. This small town was all Rena really knew as home. Now she was going to have to add it to her mental box.
“And to be honest, yes I was laughing at your words.”
She swung back at him, her hands sliding from under her thighs and balling into fists. Give her a pair of gloves and she’d remind him what she could do to his nose.
He glanced over and saw the wrath headed his way and explained further. “Mr. Hero. That’s what you called me. Without even thinking, too, like you’ve maybe called me that before,” he conjectured with a raised brow.
She blushed.
“My mother would have loved to hear it,” he commented forlornly. “But I’ll assume it was sarcastic.”
She looked away.
“And I have to agree with that,” he said mildly. “I am no hero. You are.”
The bluntness of his statement hit Rena. Was that what he thought?
“I thank you for saving my life.” He glanced over, his eyes catching hers. “I guess we’re even now, right? A life for a life.”
She supposed they were. That meant she wasn’t a heroine. She had just repaid the favor. She certainly wasn’t a hero when it came to all the other lives she’d ended—all four of them, even if it turned out it wasn’t her father.
“You know that means we’re bonded for life, right?” Nor added seriously. She started. “Kidding.”
Rena wasn’t so sure that comment was serious. Were they bonded now? Or did their equality mean they were even and didn’t owe each other anything?
“The point is, I took too long to really see you, which is why Reed is going to kick my ass and then Father will murder me and why I’m no hero. I overlooked you as a spectre, just like those popular kids.”
Rena flinched back from the word and her fingers slid around her wrist, feeling for the missing elastic band, then detoured to her neck. Generously, the ocean had let her keep her necklace as well as her life.
“Where are you taking me?” Why hadn’t she thought of this before? All she’d thought was out and away. Inland, like she’d originally planned, since she was an object to be collected. Nor and his family’s organization was doing the collecting now. Supposedly to keep her safe. From whom, he couldn’t answer. “How do I know you’re the good guys, that you are the heroes?” Her voice was quiet. She wasn’t used to the sound yet. It was bizarre, hearing all the pitches and the moods it conveyed. She felt exposed. He looked over, surprise widening his ocean blue eyes a
nd wrinkling his forehead. “You were stalking me just like Stew,” she accused, without heat. “Are Tom and Barb even your uncle and aunt?”
Nor pulled into a dirt drive in front of a pristine white house, next to a large black jeep and behind an old blue sedan. She assumed the sedan belonged to Barb. So, the jeep was Reed’s. It looked pretty decked out with lights on top and a big grill on front and… was that a snorkel? Rena so was not going anywhere with water. Ever again. Maybe not even baths.
Nor turned off the engine and faced her. Rena glanced over and saw too much pity in his eyes. Not again. She hated that. Hated that her words brought it on as much as her silence had. Would she never escape those looks and the uncomfortable feelings they gave her?
“You don’t,” he stated simply. She blinked. “You don’t know. I have been stalking you, yes, I guess—unknowingly, in my defense. Although that’s not really a positive in my Father’s eyes. And by the way stalking is something you’d have to press charges for. It seems to me that you don’t like doing that.” He gave her a scolding look.
She looked away. It didn’t matter; it would have put someone innocent at fault. Somewhat innocent.
“You don’t know,” he repeated. “You have to trust me.”
Rena snorted.
“Do you, Sirena?”
When she looked over, she found all his attention on her, his eyes waiting for her answer, imploring her. She gave his words some serious thought. Did she trust him?
He had saved her first. Not on the pier—that had been his own damn fault—but on the beach. She’d been relieved when he’d shown up, comforted by his stability and strength brushing up against her side in the ride home afterward. She remembered his eyes gazing up at hers as he crouched in front of her ruined vase in pottery, his hands on hers. She looked down at her palms now. Then she looked up into his oceanic irises again.
