Authors: Tracy Deebs
I knew he was just trying to help, trying to make me feel comfortable—after all, this had been my favorite homemade dinner when I was human. But since I’d become mermaid—and been forced to eat fish and sea vegetables pretty much every day—I would have much preferred a hamburger.
Still, in the last few months, my dad had been so determined to act normal, to pretend that nothing had changed since my seventeenth birthday—even though everything had—that I’d found myself going along with it. My choices had done enough damage in the last year.
“Are you guys staying in tonight?” he asked without looking up from where he was beer-battering the next batch of fish.
“Actually, Tempe and I figured we’d catch the football game over at school.”
“Oh. Okay.” My dad looked disappointed, and guilt started to set in—I knew he wanted to spend as much time with me as possible—but Moku got in his face, waving his war wound around like a badge of honor.
For a second, just a second, I saw blind panic flit across my father’s face—the same blind panic that I had felt when I’d watched Moku hit that truck. The look was gone almost as soon as it had appeared, but the guilt that was my daily companion drew just a little more tightly around me.
My dad wasn’t one of those high-strung types who micro-managed and was always freaking out about his kids. A kick-butt professional surfer turned successful surfwear company owner and CEO, he was usually pretty laid back about things. But Moku’s injuries last summer had traumatized him as much as they had me, and these days every little scratch my brother got was cause for a momentary freak-out. We both tried to keep our neuroses under wraps, and while I thought my dad generally did a better job of it than I did, he couldn’t hide it forever.
After swallowing a couple of times, my dad asked as casually as he could manage, “What happened to you?”
Moku grinned, showing off a bunch of missing teeth on both sides of his mouth—proof that the tooth fairy had been busy around here this year. “I crashed and burned. It was awesome—totally shredded my hand.” He said it like it was such a good thing that the three of us—Mark, my dad, and I—couldn’t help laughing.
Reaching out to ruffle his hair, Dad said, “That
is
awesome. How’s the pavement?”
“It’s okay,” Moku told him seriously. “But don’t worry. I’ll get it next time.”
That was my brother—sweet and tough and so good-natured it was impossible to do anything but adore him. “All right, future X Games champion of the universe,” I said. “Get over here and let me—”
At that moment, the kitchen door opened from the garage, and I stopped midsentence as
she
walked in. Tall and redheaded with big boobs, long legs, and a smile so sweet just looking at it gave me cavities, Sabrina had been a semipermanent fixture around here for the last few months. And every time I came home it was to find that she was a little more ingratiated with my family, a little more comfortable in what I had always deemed my territory.
Needless to say, I was unimpressed. Especially when everything about her screamed ick to me. And the ick factor only got worse as she announced, “I’m home!”
Ugh. As if. I stared at her in disgust as the idea of this being her home—of her living here and playing at being the evil stepmother to Moku and our other brother, Rio—made me want to hurl. Besides, this was my family and I didn’t have much time with them. Was it really necessary for my dad’s girlfriend to crash nearly every second I
was
here?
Moku didn’t have any of my reticence, however. “Sabrina, Sabrina!” He ran over to her, arm extended so she could see the scrape on his palm. If I hadn’t taken a couple big steps back, he would have run me over in his determination to get to her. “Look what happened.”
“Wow, Moku, that is a serious injury!” She squatted down next to him. “What happened!”
“I fell on my skateboard. It was totally awesome. Tempest and Mark saw.”
“Did they! Wow! I don’t know that I would call that awesome, but I’m glad you weren’t hurt worse! Shouldn’t we get that cleaned up before it gets infected!”
I glanced at Mark, who was obviously trying hard not to laugh. He was losing the battle though—it was hard to take seriously a woman who spoke in exclamation marks every time she opened her mouth.
“I was just about to do that,” I told her, holding out the peroxide and shaking it a little.
“Oh, you don’t have to bother yourself, Tempest! I know how busy you are!” Was there a hint of condescension in her happy-happy tone as she took the bottle from me and shooed me out of the way? “Besides, Moku and I have our own little ritual for boo-boos! Don’t we, sugar!”
Moku nodded, dragging her over to stand in front of the medicine cupboard. I gritted my teeth, tried to bear it, when all I really wanted to do was scream at her to get out. To go find another family because this one was mine.
I glanced at my dad to see if he was as annoyed as I was that his girlfriend had crashed in yet again. I’d been home three days and she’d been here almost the whole time. But he was grinning, a completely besotted look on his face as he watched Sabrina. She had him totally wrapped. Double ugh.
I knew I sounded like a spoiled brat who didn’t want to share her toys, but it wasn’t the fact that my father was finally dating that bothered me—I’d been after him to get a girlfriend for years. It was that he was dating
her
. I knew all he could see was the killer body and sweet smile, but I wasn’t convinced. My dad had notoriously bad taste in women—just look at my mom—and Sabrina was definitely no exception.
I was convinced her sunny personality hid something dark and twisted. Why else would being around her start my powers
humming? She’d been here only two minutes and already I could feel electricity sparking along my nerve endings, heat gathering beneath my fingertips. One good zap and—
Mark grabbed my hand, yanked me back to reality. A quick look at his face and I realized he’d known exactly what I was thinking. Terrific. Because nothing screamed long-term girlfriend material like a mermaid bent on murder and mayhem. It was a wonder he wasn’t running for his life.
Sometimes I hated the power I had, the way it made me different from everyone else. Embarrassed at my obvious lack of control, I flushed a little, ducked my head. Mark just smiled—which hinted that his taste in women might be just as terrible as my father’s—and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. At the contact, energy sparked deep inside me, warming me like it always did. Something about touching Mark made my powers go a little nuts.
“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered in my ear. “I think about zapping her every time I see her too, and I don’t even have your skills.”
I giggled a little despite myself. How did he always know the right thing to say?
“Hey, Sabrina. Hey, Dad.” I looked up as Rio sauntered into the room like he owned the place. “Wow, dude. That’s quite a war wound,” he said, ruffling Moku’s wild curls on his way to the refrigerator.
He shot Sabrina a big smile—the biggest I’d seen from him in forever. He didn’t say anything to Mark or me, but that wasn’t exactly a surprise. Rio had been doing his best to ignore me for the last four months—when he wasn’t yelling at me—and
today was no different. For a second I thought about saying something to him that would force him to pay attention to me, but the last thing I wanted was to get shot down in front of
her
. It was bad enough that my entire family adored her. Making it obvious how bad things were between Rio and me was so
not
going to happen.
I studied him for long seconds, tried to figure out how to get through to this boy I felt I barely knew. At least he looked like the old Rio—his goth phase of the last few months having given way to his normal attire of surfing tees and shorts. At first I’d taken that as a sign that he was starting to loosen up, to forgive me for turning mermaid, but nothing else had changed. He still wouldn’t look at me unless he wanted to tell me off about something. Or everything.
“Look, Tempest!” Moku bounded across the kitchen to me, snapping me out of my funk as he waved his heavily bandaged hand right under my nose. “Sabrina made it look like a serious injury. Do you think I’ll get out of writing in class on Monday?”
“By the time Monday rolls around, I think you’ll be good to go.” I pressed a kiss to the bandage. “Sorry, dude.”
Moku shrugged. “That’s okay. At least I can ride my skateboard some more and not worry about banging my hand up.”
“No more skateboard tonight,” my dad said from the stove, where he was standing with an arm snaked around Sabrina’s waist. “It’s time for dinner.”
“I just love fish tacos!” Sabrina told him. “It’s so nice of you to make them for me two nights in a row!”
I wanted to tell her he’d made them for me, but I couldn’t—at least not without sounding churlish. But then my dad dropped
a quick kiss on her lips and said, “No problem. I love making you happy.”
My stomach actually turned.
I told myself I was being ridiculous—after all, hadn’t I just been thinking that I didn’t want to eat the stupid tacos?—but it didn’t take the sting away. My dad was supposed to make special meals for
me
, not for
her
. He was supposed to want to welcome
me
back, not get in good with
her
. Add in the fact that Rio and Moku were obviously crazy about Sabrina and it was beginning to feel like I was the guest around here. The one who didn’t fit in.
“Hey, Tempest. Can you set the table for six?” my dad asked as he started frying the next batch of fish.
I ground my teeth. I so didn’t want to sit through another dinner with Sabrina—after all, I’d already had that privilege twice in the last two days. Once more might kill me, especially in the mood I was in.
“Actually, Tempest and I made plans with the others to go out after the game,” Mark said as I reached for the plates. “But thanks for the invitation.”
“You sure? There’s plenty.”
Mark shook his head regretfully. “We promised to meet the guys for pizza.” Yet one more reason why I loved him—his uncanny insight into what I was thinking.
“But what about game night?” Moku demanded, his lower lip poking out in an adorable pout. “You promised we’d play Clue and Monopoly this weekend.”
“I’ll play with you!” Sabrina volunteered.
My fingers curled into claws, and for long seconds I had the
urge to rake my nails down her flawless cheeks. Which was weird. I might be temperamental, but I’d never been a violent person—usually just the thought of hurting someone made me sick. But with Sabrina it was different. Part of me would love nothing more than to unleash something awful on her.
The thought left me shaky and a little sick, because I knew I had enough power to annihilate her if I wanted to. But the horror still didn’t take away the bloodlust pounding through me. I took a step back, then another, suddenly afraid of what I might do.
Moku followed me, throwing his arm around my waist. “But I want to play with you, Tempe. You promised.”
A little of the rage dissipated at Moku’s obvious desire to hang with me. “And we will. Tomorrow. We’ll spend all day together, playing games and making cookies. Whatever you want.”
His little face turned up to mine, his eyes shining brightly. “Pancakes for breakfast.”
I softened a little bit more. “You bet. Chocolate chip, even.”
“Yay! And then surfing?”
“And then surfing,” I agreed, ruffling his crazy curls.
He grinned. “Excellent! I want to show you the new trick Dad taught me.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Me neither.” He hugged me tighter, then motioned for me to bend down. When I did, he planted a smacking kiss right on my cheek. My heart thawed out the rest of the way and I kissed his cheek, too. “I love you, Tempest.”
“I love you too, baby.”
When I looked up it was to find my dad and Mark smiling at
us, while Sabrina and Rio glared. When Sabrina realized she’d been caught, her face smoothed out quickly enough, but Rio looked like he wanted to hit me. And when he snorted, telling Moku, “I wouldn’t actually count on one of her promises,” I felt like he
had
slugged me.
“Rio!” My dad’s voice sliced through the sudden tension in the kitchen. “Apologize to your sister.”
“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.” He shoved away from the table and headed toward the stairs.
“Rio!” My dad made to follow him.
I started to tell him not to worry about it, that I was used to Rio’s little fits, but Sabrina beat me to it. She laid a hand on my dad’s arm and murmured something to him I couldn’t hear. But whatever it was, it drained the anger from him.
Which, conversely, only made me angrier. Who the hell did she think she was, butting into my family’s private business? She might be our dad’s girlfriend, but that didn’t give her the right to interfere between him and us. The fact that I had just been about to tell him to let it go as well was completely beside the point.
Mark cleared his throat, made a show of glancing at the clock. “We should probably get going, Tempest. The game starts in less than an hour.”
I could have kissed him. God knew I was more than ready to get the hell out of Dodge for a while.
After disentangling myself from Moku—which was much easier said than done—I left him and Mark settled on the couch watching
Phineas and Ferb
reruns as I dashed up to my room to get changed. Though the homecoming game didn’t start until
seven, Mark and I were supposed to meet our friends early so that we could get seats together in what was sure to be a packed stadium.
I’d planned on a quick change—it was just a football game after all—but once I got to my room, I found myself leaning against the wall and taking deep breaths as I tried to calm down from my intense and crazy reaction to Sabrina. While it was true I didn’t like her, she wasn’t the first person I hadn’t gotten along with since becoming mermaid. And no one else had encapsulated me with such deep-seated fury that my powers spun out of control whenever she was in the room.