“I forgot to tell you.” I gasp and jump, twisting quickly toward the door. Dad stands there, the darkness framing his silhouette. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
A movement outside my window catapults my heart once again into a frantic flight. I glance sideways and see Luke’s face just outside the glass. The necklace. I place my hand over it and will my heart to slow down.
“It’s okay, Dad,” I say loudly. “I’m just a bit jumpy.” Luke’s face fades back into the darkness.
Tension exacerbates the lines in Dad’s features, making him look twenty years older than he did this morning. “You and your mother.” He shakes his head with a big sigh. “Tomorrow, I’m going in to the lab. Not many people will be there since it’s Sunday. You and your classmate can come along if you want a private tour. I just have to move some melanoma cells to another medium. My tech called earlier today to say she’s too sick to go in.”
Yes! Something to do tomorrow, something potentially useful. “Great, Dad. Thanks. I’ll call Taylin. Carly might want to come, too.”
Dad lifts his hands up in mock surrender. “Sure, the more the merrier.” Then he looks at me. “But no boys, not right now.”
I try to keep the casual smile on my lips. My fingers toy with the jade dragonfly. I’ve never been comfortable with sneakiness or anything close to being illegal. I’m sure my heart will pound. “Just Taylin and Carly.” As long as I can keep my pulse below a stampede.
* * *
Gentec sits at the back of a deep parking lot, a huge boxy gray monster flanked by brilliant red and yellow fall trees. Dad parks up front in the nearly deserted lot.
“It’s epic of you, Dr. Welsh, to let us come,” Taylin says with a smile. I have to give Dad credit for not blinking at her eyebrow and nose piercings.
“Yeah, thanks, Uncle Max,” Carly says, smiling her girl-scout angelic grin.
“I’m glad to see you young ladies taking an interest in science. Although I think Julietta may still follow in her mother’s footsteps instead of mine.” He smiles. We climb the steps and Dad unlocks the side door with a swipe of his badge. Inside, he uses his badge again to activate the elevator. I notice Taylin watching his every move.
“Jule says you work with blood,” Taylin says. “Cool!”
Dad laughs. “Well, I do work with blood, but mostly with oxygen therapeutics or more specifically, hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers.” He chuckles at our blank faces. “Artificial blood.” The elevator dings on the fifth floor and we follow Dad to his lab. He unlocks it with a hand scan.
“There’s a lot of security,” I mention and feel my pulse starting to pick up at the thought of getting past all of it.
“Yep,” Dad says. “There’s a lot of competition in this area of research. What with HIV and hepatitis contaminating a lot of the world’s blood supply, HBOCs…artificial blood is in high demand.”
“Is it red?” Carly asks. “The fake blood?”
“Darker than real blood, like a burgundy,” Dad answers. He walks to a white, air-tight cabinet with a lock. He slides his badge across a sensor and then punches in a combination. Rows of dark blood-looking bags are inside. “See, darker.”
“Wow,” Taylin says with a side glance to me.
“Are you the only one working on this, Dad?”
“Oh no, there are several labs here working on different components. I’m working on cross-linking parts of the hemoglobin molecule with diaspirin, which is an oxygen-carrying hemoglobin derivative.”
“So cool,” Carly says, and her eyes look genuinely interested. Yeah, she should be pre-med. The sight of all that blood just makes me queasy.
Dad turns to lead us out after he closes the doors and checks to make sure they are secure.
Find another one, I mouth to Taylin, and shake my head as I glance knowingly at Dad’s lab. She rolls her coal-lined eyes. “Um, Dr. Welsh,” she says, shifting from foot to foot. “I had way too much joe this morning. Is there a loo around here?”
“Bathroom, Dad,” I supply.
“Uh, sure,” he points. “Around the corner.”
“Thanks,” she skips off down the long sterile corridor.
“She marches to her own drummer, doesn’t she?” Dad comments.
I chuckle. “You could say that.”
“Well, I think you girls can be a great influence on her.”
Carly and I exchange a knowing glance, and I can’t help but smile. “I think it would take a much more powerful force to influence Taylin,” I joke. Carly giggles and we follow Dad toward his office.
“I need to veer off and change that medium on some cells. I’ll be back in about ten minutes. Just hang out in here. There are sodas and waters in the mini fridge.”
I lean against Dad’s faux-wood desk. There’s only a small cleared area for him to work, flanked by papers and sticky notes. I pick up the picture of me and Mom hugging last Mother’s day. We’re smiling and the resemblance is almost eerie. I set it back in the dark lines left in the dust. Carly pops the lid of a Mountain Dew. The snap is sharp in the muffled waiting.
“Sorry,” she murmurs, and takes a sip.
I haven’t had a chance to talk with her alone yet today. “Did Eric go back to State?”
“Yeah,” Carly says and peeks out into the hall. “I think Dad had a talk with him. Maybe he’ll leave you alone now.”
“I don’t think it’s that easy,” I say and Carly nods, glumly. Her face pinches in that itchy look, and I know she’s trying to remember. “Let’s ask Taylin if she knows a way to pull back your memories.”
Carly’s face relaxes. “That would be nice. It’s like having a tune playing in my head, but I can’t remember the words.”
Time stretches, measured by my fast heartbeats. Luke must be picking up on my anxiety. But he knows what’s going on. I fill my lungs with the antiseptic, white-linoleum office air and exhale. My shoulders relax a notch as I imagine Luke close, probably outside in the woods behind the building. I touch the dragonfly and wonder if maybe the binding spell works both ways. I smile at the thought.
Taylin slides through the door, making Carly jump and grab her chest. “God, Taylin.” Carly breathes and smiles. “Got the stuff?” she whispers conspiratorially to Taylin and giggles. We both look at her like she’s nuts. Carly just shrugs. “Hey, I’m nervous. I giggle when I’m nervous.”
“Okay, Nancy Drew and sidekick,” Taylin rolls her eyes at Carly. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Problem?” My pulse responds to the casually spoken word.
“I can’t get in the other labs.”
“I thought you could…” I flit my fingers around.
“That would be Luke,” she frowns. “I’m all about potions and antidotes, not mechanical movement.” She mimics my finger dance but with a sneer. She glances around the room as if her brother might miraculously appear. “We need Luke.”
“Well, you could have mentioned that earlier,” Carly says with hugely wide eyes and more than a hint of exasperation.
“Luke gave me some pointers,” Taylin mumbles and punches numbers into her cell. “Hey,” she says into the phone. “I couldn’t get in. Yeah,” she rolls her eyes, “she’s fine. But we’re going to need you in here. Fifth floor, west side of the building. There’s a lab number 3718 with white locked cabinets in it toward the back of the room.” She pauses. “No, I haven’t seen any,” she glances up at the ceiling and Carly and I follow her gaze. “But watch out.” She slides the phone shut.
“There aren’t any cameras set up in here, are there?” Taylin asks.
“This isn’t a prison,” I say, but glance down the hall anyway. I don’t see any obvious cameras hanging from the ceiling. My breath hitches. Luke strides casually down the hall toward us like a lean, powerful cougar in his dark leather jacket. My pulse jumps again and he grins. I look in the opposite direction and then wave him in quickly. He’s in front of me amazingly fast, almost as if he just materialized there. “God, you’re
getting faster, aren’t you?”
“I was already in the building.” Luke steps closer so that I have to tilt my head back to meet his gaze. His grin skews into a lopsided smirk, and I try to ignore the spark at the back of his dark eyes. I watch as he inhales, his eyes shutting for the briefest moment as he breathes in my scent. “And yes, I’m getting faster. The curse has its advantages.”
Yeah, advantages so he can hunt and kill his Siren more efficiently. I pitch the thought from me as if it is on fire. “Dad’s going to be back any minute.”
Luke peers closely at me. “Your heartrate’s been accelerating.”
“I don’t like stealing, especially from my Dad. If he finds out,” I shake my head, “I’ll be beyond trouble. And I don’t want him to get blamed.”
Luke slides two bags of artificial blood from his jacket. “I pulled them from the biohazard bag. I think they are considered expired.” He looks at Taylin. “Can you still transform them, or does it need to be super-fresh?”
Taylin grabs a bag and holds it up to the fluorescent light. “Should work.” She squeezes it, and the sight, although darker than real blood, sends a rogue wave of queasiness through my stomach. “It still moves like blood.” She looks at me. “Geesh, sit down or something.”
Before I can even register that she’s talking to me, I’m seated in my father’s chair, Luke beside me. “Thanks,” I mumble. He stares down, his eyes searching my face.
“Don’t look at it.”
“Got it.”
“He’s coming!” Carly screeches in a hissed whisper near the door.
I feel the feather of a kiss along my parted lips and then Luke’s gone.
“Oh, my God,” Carly says, scanning the office. “Did he just…disappear?”
Taylin chuckles as she hides the blood bags in her oversized purse. “He’s just super-fast these days.” She jerks her thumb towards me. “Thanks to Siren Sally over there.”
“Julietta, are you okay?” Dad asks as he walks in through the door. “You look pale.”
I stand up and force a smile. “I didn’t eat enough this morning, I think. I just feel a bit queasy.”
“I wonder if you’re anemic,” he says peering closer at my face. “Well, I’m done here.” He straightens up. “Would you like to see the melanoma lab?”
“Not today, Dr. Welsh,” Taylin says and gestures toward me. “We should probably get Jule home. Thanks for showing us around. It’s fascinating work.” I’ve never heard Taylin talk so much without throwing in a sneer or sarcastic remark. “I should introduce you to my dad. He’s a cardiologist. Loves this stuff.”
She even loops her arm through Dad’s as they walk down the hall. Carly and I follow. Dad talks in more detail about his work while Taylin interjects amazingly intelligent questions. He’s totally forgotten about my ghost impersonation. Hopefully the bag of blood will stop me from becoming a real ghost in the near future.
* * *
“Bite on this,” Taylin instructs and shoves a rubber dog toy at me.
“I don’t think so.” I drop it to the plush pink carpet in Taylin’s bedroom. Pink carpet, black walls. I can guess who picked the carpet and who picked the wall color.
Carly fishes around in her purse. “How about this?” She hands me a pair of thick socks. “They’re clean. Mom threw them in when I told her we were going bowling.”
“Hmmm…bowling instead of changing fake blood into my real blood.” I nod, my eyes wide, as if this is the most normal thing to be doing on a Sunday evening.
Luke stands in the corner, hands shoved in his pockets. His eyes glow softly as he stares out at me. God, he won’t be able to go to school like that. I breathe deeply to calm my pulse. I know the sands are piling up on the down side of the cosmic hourglass. The curse is growing, making it harder for him to control himself. I catch him watching me constantly. I rub my arms to control a shiver. Normally his stare warms me, but what is watching me isn’t completely Luke anymore. I don’t even have to look in his eyes to see that. The outlines of dragons encircle the muscles of his biceps.
Carly points at the socks. “Bite into them when she pricks your finger.” Carly glances at Luke. “We can’t run the risk of you yelling. Maybe you should leave, Luke.”
Taylin sits cross-legged on the carpet. Three ceramic bowls wait in front of her, one with dirt, one with water, and the third and largest one empty. Taylin holds a bag of artificial blood up and I look away. “Won’t matter. If he wants to get back to her, he can be here in seconds now. He can hear her from miles away.” She looks at me. “Just don’t make a noise. Got it?”
“Yeah.” I tuck my hair behind my ear.
I feel a whisper along my ear. “It will be okay. I love you.” Luke’s words sound like the song of brisk wind on a clear fall morning as he whisks past me. I look and he’s suddenly on the other side of the room.
I nod. “Okay, let’s do this.” I bite into the socks and stick out my finger. The faint taste of Downy sits like dry cotton on my tongue.
Carly grabs my hand. “On three,” she says and I nod. “One, two,” she jabs and I bite hard into the sock. “It’s better if you’re not expecting it.” She squeezes the end of my finger until a large drop of blood sits on top. Carly looks at Taylin. “You’re up.”
Taylin pours the fake blood into the third ceramic bowl. I have to breathe through my nose since the socks are stuffed in my mouth. The sharp smell, akin to slightly-old, raw hamburger, almost makes me gag. I try to concentrate on the Downy smell instead.
“Hold her finger over the bowl,” Taylin instructs. She flicks her black-painted fingernail, and the candle next to the bowl lights. I hear Carly choke a bit. Taylin closes her eyes, and Carly holds my finger over the bowl. The fake blood looks black in it.
Taylin hums, a monotone tune in a minor key. It starts small, like a seedling. She breathes deeply and lets the notes grow up from her throat. I wonder if she has a powerful singing voice or if it comes solely from her magic. The song resonates in the room, almost like the vibrations of a gong. I feel a tremor of heat and cold move around and through me. Carly’s eyes are pool balls, wide and round. Luke stands near the window, staring with his cold, glowing eyes.
Taylin’s eyes flash open. She dips one long nail into the fake blood, circling the perimeter. The liquid follows her nail. As she circles, a faster swirl forms in the dark medium. Concentric circles form layers as the liquid spins. Taylin’s song stops. “Dip her blood into the center of the bowl.”
Carly pushes my finger toward the small whirlpool. Taylin sucks in a full breath and releases the song again. The fake blood is cool on my throbbing finger. I look away and imagine it as crystal-clear water.
I realize that the notes coming from Taylin are overlapped by words, as if they have become two different voices, one a solid stream, the other broken into individual words.
“I call upon the forces. The magic of the earth. Sky. Water. Fire.”
The candle flickers, the pink eyelet curtains fluttering as a breeze invades the room from the cracked window. Taylin, her eyes still closed, grabs dirt from the small pile near her. She lets it fall from her fist. The air filling the room scatters it around into fine dust. Blindly, she scoops water up and lets it drip from her fist. The water scatters in the strange wind, atomizing immediately into a humid cloud that hazes through the room like cool, refreshing smoke. I feel the ends of my hair tug up, and watch as the wind lifts it into a swirl above my head.
Taylin sings the words of her chant.
“Fire burns, water melts, air scatters, earth shifts. Elements change the world, transform the world, alter our world. Abeo, novo, mutatio, vicissitude! Blood to blood!”
A freezing prickle straddles up my spine as Taylin’s song swirls with the elements in the room. The candle flickers so violently I can’t imagine how it stays lit. My hair forms a funnel above my head. I drop the socks from my mouth and cough on the dust and humid air enveloping us. I look to Luke, who stands apar
t, legs braced, hands fisted at his sides. His hair doesn’t move, and I realize that the swirling air is centered solely around me and the bowl. I suck in air and cough. Is there oxygen in this crazy magic tornado? The world swims, and I see the bowl down a long tunnel, like one in a fun house.
“Pull her finger out!” Taylin calls. “It’s sucking too much from her!”
Before her words can penetrate my sagging mind, I’m lifted up in strong, warm arms, out of the humid dust storm. My hair drops onto my face, its weight sliding from my cheeks to hang toward the floor as Luke carries me to Taylin’s bed. He settles me on the cloud-like mattress which is so soft it sucks me in. I grab hold of Luke’s arm like it’s a lifeline.
His voice penetrates the fog. “Jule, come back to me.”
I swim up through the cloud and blink. His dark blue eyes stare into mine. Luke releases a sigh and grins. “Tay, have any orange juice?”
“Probably fresh squeezed,” Taylin says with an eye roll and jumps up and out of her room.
Luke continues to stare. “You have a hard time staying conscious, don’t you?”
His grin is infectious and I half-smile back at his gorgeous face. “Not before I met you.” His hair slides over his forehead in casual waves. He tries to run his fingers through my hair, but they snag. I wince. My hair seems to be a ball of dirt and frizz. I struggle to right myself in the bed. “Can this bed be any cushier?”
Luke chuckles and pulls me to the edge. “Taylin’s got a thing for soft.”
“Huh,” Carly says. “Imagine that.” She grabs my wrist and stares at her watch, counting. “Your pulse is a little low.”
“I can help that,” Luke murmurs and leans in to slant a kiss across my lips. Cocky, yes, but totally right. As he gently holds my face, my pulse leaps into the race that’s becoming wonderfully familiar.
Carly’s giggle fades as I lose myself in Luke’s strength. His lips move over mine. He leans against me, and I’m vaguely worried about what Carly thinks of this epic PDA. I feel Luke press me backwards into the pillow-top mattress. The kiss is amazing, delicious, almost primal. I surrender to the heat as I’m enveloped by the mattress and Luke’s powerful passion.
Siren's Song Page 29
