Surface

by Jody Morse

  I gulped. “Do you think we’re dangerous?”

  Scarlett looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully and when she looked back at me, I noticed a look of sadness pass through her eyes. “We have the potential to be dangerous once a month, but it’s not our fault.” She met my eyes. “Chances are, whether you like it or not, you will kill someone. You are going to live eternally, after all.”

  “Yeah, about that,” I began. “Are you sure absolutely nothing can kill us? I mean, I know water can’t do anything to us, but can we still die in a car crash or if we’re caught on fire?”

  Scarlett looked up at me. “Well, there is one way we can supposedly die . . . but I don’t know for sure because as far as we know, it’s never happened.” She took a deep breath. “According to the legends, our fate is death if a mortal man ever crosses our path without being affected by our song.”

  Chapter 17

  The sun was only just starting to set when I arrived at Angelica’s house. House didn’t even begin to describe it; it was a Spanish style mansion that sat high on a hill with large rocks surrounding it. It was absolutely stunning from the outside. The way it was situated reminded me of the lighthouse.

  I could see the ocean in the background, but it wasn’t that close. I got the impression that whoever Angelica was, she didn’t like having neighbors. The next house down was about a half mile away.

  As soon as I extended my hand to knock on the front door, someone swung it open for me.

  “Hi, Felicia!” Gabby said excitedly. “I’m so happy you decided to come.”

  “Me, too,” I replied, smiling at her. I was starting to like Gabby. She was definitely the nicer of my sister’s two friends . . . or sisters, if that’s what they thought of each other as. Crossing my fingers, I hoped that Jasmine wouldn’t be home today. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with her attitude. It was bad enough knowing that I owed my life to her.

  “Scarlett’s upstairs in the powder room,” Gabby went on. “If you want, I can give you a tour of the house.”

  Powder room? No one I knew actually had a house fancy enough to have a room that they referred to as a powder room. “Sure,” I agreed, realizing that I was about to see where my sister had been living during all of these years she had been estranged from us.

  Gabby led me into the living room, which had Victorian era furniture, sage colored walls that were covered with paintings, and tray ceilings. There was a widescreen TV, which looked sort of out of place in comparison to the elegance of the rest of the room.

  Walking through a set of French doors, Gabby said, “And this is the kitchen.”

  The kitchen closely resembled many that I’d seen in normal homes, with granite countertops and an island, except I’d never seen one that was so huge before.

  Gabby’s flip flops clacked against the hardwood floors as she led me into the dining room. It had one of those incredibly long dining room tables you see in movies where the person who sits at one end seems miles away from the person sitting on the opposite end. There was also a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

  Gabby turned to look at me. “This is where we eat when we have guests. And only if they’re human, since we don’t actually have to eat, you know.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you have human guests a lot?”

  “Occasionally,” Gabby replied, turning on her heel and opening a door that led us to a tiled room. Inside was the most exquisite wooden spiral staircase I had ever seen.

  As we ascended the steps, Gabby pointed at a large portrait of a woman with dark curly brown hair and a blonde woman with an upturned nose, who I couldn’t help but think looked like a snob. “Those are our great ancestors.”

  “Oh, are you and Jasmine somehow related?” I asked. I had assumed that they were just friends, but I supposed that I could have been wrong.

  Gabby turned to look at me with a confused expression on her face. “We’re sisters. Scarlett’s our sister—and so are you now, too. The people in the portrait are our siren ancestors, not our actual blood relatives. None of us communicate with them anymore.”

  “Oh.” I looked down at my feet as I continued to follow Gabby up the stairs. I realized that I had a lot I still needed to learn about being a siren.

  “This is my bedroom,” Gabby said, opening the door to reveal a room that looked out of place in this house. The walls were painted a shade of pale pink, and the comforter was Easter egg yellow with light blue and pink polka dots. There were throw pillows in various shapes scattered across the bed.

  Gabby’s bedroom wasn’t overly elegant; it looked just like a bedroom for teens that would be featured in JCPenney catalogues. I was pleasantly surprised. It made me feel like Gabby was a normal teenager.

  Stepping into the room, I glanced at the large bookcase next to the computer desk. There were books from every genre; I spotted many of the same books that I had grown up reading. “You must like to read,” I commented.

  “It helps me pass the time,” Gabby shrugged. “I also have a private bathroom. Actually, we all do. I won’t show you that right now, though. It’s kind of a mess.”

  Leading me out of the bedroom, she continued down the hallway. Opening the next door, she said, “This is Jasmine’s bedroom.”

  “Oh, um, I don’t really think Jasmine would want me snooping around her bedroom,” I pointed out. “She doesn’t really like me.”

  Gabby’s face softened. “It’s not that she doesn’t like you. It’s more complicated than that. There’s a lot that you don’t know yet.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “It’s not my place to tell you,” Gabby said, shaking her head. “I’m sure Angelica or Scarlett or someone will fill you in on it really soon. Don’t worry. Now, aren’t you the least bit curious about what Jasmine’s room looks like?”

  Shrugging, I glanced into the doorway. The room was painted a light shade of purple, and her bedding was a soft shade of green. For some reason, I had been expecting something more loud and vibrant—something that would better suit her personality. But her room was, for the most part, calming.

  I didn’t go into Jasmine’s room like I did with Gabby’s. It felt like that was a barrier that I just shouldn’t cross—a barrier that I wouldn’t want her to cross if it were my room and she was the one looking inside. I didn’t want to invade her privacy any more than I had to.

  “So, where is Scarlett’s room?” I asked Gabby, feeling curious about my sister. Even though I could tell there were things about Scarlett that were still the same—like her love for confetti milkshakes—I didn’t know all that much about my sister. I was kind of curious about what her current bedroom decor taste was like.

  “Come on, I’ll show you,” Gabby replied. As she opened the door across the hall from Jasmine’s room, she added in a lower voice, “Don’t tell her, though. Scarlett doesn’t like us going in her room.”

  I whispered, “Not much has changed. When we were kids, she made us put tape down the center of our bedroom. For, like, a whole week, I wasn’t allowed on her side. I outsmarted her, though.” I chuckled at the memory. “I realized that she had to cross my side if she wanted to get out of the room. Let’s just say, her master plan to keep me out of her side didn’t last long after that.”

  “That sounds like Scar.” Gabby chuckled. “Well, this is her room now.” She pointed her chin into the room, and I tried to contain my excitement.

  Scarlett’s bedroom was nicer than both of the other girls’ was. It wasn’t only larger, but it also had a large sitting window. Glancing around the room, I looked for clues that might reveal some part of my sister’s life that I wasn’t yet aware of. I had been expecting pictures of trips to Italy or Hawaii or maybe pictures of her with a boyfriend (even though she could kill him with her voice, sirens dated, too—or at least Gabby had mentioned having a boyfriend once).

  The walls were completely white, without any posters or other décor. My sister’s bedding was wh
ite—which matched the white throw rug that covered the hardwood floor, and the white dresser and desk, which appeared to be empty except for the white laptop that rested on it.

  The room was just like a blank page in my sister’s life; it told me absolutely nothing about her.

  “Are you ready to see your bedroom?” Gabby asked from behind me.

  I whirled around, quickly forgetting about the plainness of Scarlett’s room. “My room?”

  “Oh, no one’s told you yet.” Gabby’s face fell. “I didn’t mean to ruin the surprise, I just figured Scarlett would have mentioned it by now.”

  “No, she didn’t,” I replied. “I have a room here?”

  “If you want it, yes,” Gabby replied. “You’re welcome to stay here whenever you want.”

  “We also expect you to move in with us when you’re ready,” a voice said from behind us.

  I turned around to find a woman standing at the top of the staircase, staring back at me intently. Her pale, silky blonde hair fell past her heart-shaped face, over her shoulders, and her silvery gray eyes pierced through mine. It wasn’t the beauty that was radiated from her fair skin or her eyes that I found most unsettling.

  What startled me the most was that I recognized her from somewhere. I knew I’d seen her before; I just wasn’t sure where.

  “Hello,” the woman said in the most delicate voice I had ever heard. “I’m Angelica.”

  Chapter 18

  I stared back at Angelica. From the way she wore her makeup and her clothes, it was easy to see that she was trying to dress older; she had on a pencil skirt and a suit jacket with a silk camisole, and she was sporting a sultry shade of red lipstick.

  Somehow, I could tell that underneath it all, the woman wasn’t nearly as old as she was trying to present herself as. Physically, her body had to be about twenty-five—at the most. My guess was that she was probably even younger than that when she had been turned, though.

  “And you must be Felicia,” Angelica continued. Her voice soothed my unease.

  I glanced away from her, breaking our gaze for the first time since she’d come into the room. “Yes, I am.”

  “Splendid! I have been anxious to meet you,” she said.

  “I’ve been looking forward to it, too,” I lied. I hadn’t really been anxious to meet her; if anything, I had felt just the opposite. But it seemed like the polite thing to say, and for some reason, I knew it was best to stay on Angelica’s good side.

  A long silence passed between the three of us. It was finally broken when Angelica said, “So, has Gabrielle showed you the pool?”

  I shook my head. “No, no one told me you have a pool.”

  “Of course we have a pool. We are sirens, aren’t we?” Angelica stared at me with a horrified look on her face.

  Gabby turned to her. “We haven’t explained the whole water thing to her yet.”

  “Water thing?” I asked, feeling out of the loop.

  “All sirens need to be around water frequently. And not just any water—it has to be salt water. It’s an important source of nutrients and vitamins for us—nutrients and vitamins that humans don’t need. You may have noticed by now that the water you normally drink doesn’t taste right anymore,” Angelica explained.

  I nodded; I wasn’t even able to drink water by itself any more, usually choosing tea or soda instead because it was far less repulsive.

  The woman stared at me intently, studying my face. I shifted on my heels, feeling uncomfortable about the way she just stared at me.

  “That’s because your body needs salt water, even to drink,” Angela went on. “We can drink and eat other things without harming ourselves, but it won’t taste right.”

  Gabby turned to me. “We can’t live far away from the beach. That’s just not healthy for us.”

  From behind her, Angelica nodded, still eyeing me. “This is true. Living away from the beach would make us feel ill. We must stay within a certain radius from the ocean at all times. And since our home isn’t located directly on the beach, we have a salt water swimming pool to use when we need to replenish our salt water levels.” She paused before hesitantly adding, “Our need for salt water increases during the full moon.”

  Great. So, not only would I end up killing guys around the time of the full moon, but I would also need to be around salt water more during that time. I supposed that was why most guys drowned on their way to find a singing siren; it was like a curse to need salt water around the time we should probably stay away from the ocean the most.

  Angelica pointed to a room at the end of the hallway. “The bathroom’s that way. I’ve laid out several bathing suits for you to choose from. We’re all going for a swim.”

  I glanced over at Gabby, ready to protest, but she said, “I’ll change into my bathing suit in my bedroom.” She scampered off, and Angelica started back down the stairs, probably to change into her own swimsuit.

  Once I was in the bathroom and had closed the door behind me, I found that four bathing suits had been laid out: a pink sequined string bikini, a sporty-looking zebra print bikini, a purple strapless bikini top with a short frilly matching skirt, and a bright orange fringe bikini with string bottoms that I knew would never look good on me.

  All of the bathing suits were brand new with the tags still on. I wondered if they kept these suits for when they had guests, or if Angelica knew all along that I would be coming here.

  I didn’t even feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit in front of that woman. Hopefully, Jasmine wasn’t planning to go swimming, too, but even if she was, I knew what to expect from her. She might make a snide comment about my body out of pure bitchiness. But at least she didn’t look at me as though she were sizing me up like Angelica did for whatever reason.

  None of the bathing suits were something I would feel comfortable wearing, but I opted for the least revealing.

  Once I had changed into the zebra print bikini, I glanced at myself in the mirror. My eyes looked lighter than usual. Deciding that it was probably because of my summer tan, I opened the bathroom door to find Gabby waiting for me on the other side. She was wearing a yellow bikini that hugged her curves. When she saw the bathing suit I had changed into, she wrinkled her nose. “That was my least favorite suit. I tried to talk Scarlett out of picking it out for you, but she insisted.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Scarlett chose these bathing suits?”

  “Only that one,” Gabby replied, leading me down the stairs. “Angelica chose the rest.”

  I smiled. It made me happy that my sister had known that I wouldn’t feel comfortable in any of the bikinis that Angelica had picked out for me. It also made me wonder if I appeared that unconfident to Scarlett that a less revealing bathing suit had seemed like a necessity.

  Once we went outside, we found that Angelica and Scarlett were already in the pool. Scarlett was gliding across the water, and Angelica was lying on a pool float.

  As I descended the cement steps into the pool, Scarlett glanced over at me. “Felly!” she squealed. “I’m so glad you came.”

  I smiled, happy that my sister finally seemed excited to see me. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Once I was in the water, I stretched out my legs and arms. I hadn’t noticed any tension in my body before, but it suddenly felt like the water was helping me to release all of the stress within my body.

  “She thought you might be intimidated to meet me,” Angelica answered, pushing her float closer to me. As she got closer, I saw that she was wearing a monokini, and it was really low cut. It looked to me like she was trying to flaunt her curves, though I didn’t understand why, since it was only us girls in the pool. I began wondering if she was one of those sirens like Scarlett mentioned—the type that holds their sexuality over men.

  “We’re glad you’re here, though,” Gabby said as she climbed into the pool after me. “You’re all I’ve heard about since I became a siren.”

  I decided not to ask what they’d said about me. Scarlett h
ad made it clear that she’d talked about me quite a bit to her sisters since she’d became a siren. “Where’s Jasmine?” I asked.

  For a moment, no one spoke. Finally, Scarlett said, “She said she didn’t want to come in the pool if you were going to be in it.”

  “Oh.” I ran my hands through the salt water, allowing it to be absorbed into my skin. For the first time, I noticed that I could smell the salt; the scent was intoxicating.

  “She doesn’t hate you, just so you know,” Angelica spoke up in a soothing voice. I met her silvery eyes. “She’s just not happy about you becoming a siren.”

  “Why?” I asked. “She, Scarlett, and Gabby are sirens. Why’s it so different for me to become one? We all had fathers who were killed by one.”

  “It’s very complicated,” Angelica began. “It all has to do with Phorcys.” When I stared back at her in confusion, she explained, “He’s a God. God of the sea, to be exact.”

  “There are Gods?” I asked incredulously.

  Angelica nodded. “There are. They live and walk this Earth. They’re immortals, just like us.”

  “Wow,” I whispered. I hadn’t considered the possibility that there could be Gods, but I had also never considered the possibility that there were sirens—or that I could one day become one—before, either. “So, what does this Phorcys guy have to do with Jasmine not liking me?”

  “It all goes back hundreds of years,” Angelica explained, her voice softening. I tried to break my gaze from her, but I couldn’t; her irises were the palest shade of silver I had ever seen, and they captivated me. “When I first became a siren, in 1792, Phorcys became rather obsessed with me.” She paused, her eyes clouding over with the memory that she was about to reveal. “I was a young siren, and this was back before we lived in civilization with humans. Phorcys lived at the ocean. He’s similar to a mermaid; his tail can be seen when he’s in the water.