Wake (Watersong Novels) (15 page)

“Really?” Harper asked.

“No, actually”—Gemma sighed and rubbed her forehead—“that’s what I came in here to talk to you about.”

“You came to talk to me about moisturizer?” Harper raised an eyebrow.

“No, it’s not moisturizer.”

Gemma went over and sat down on the bed next to her sister. She didn’t know why she found it so hard to tell Harper about what was happening to her, except she knew she’d sound like a crazy person.

“What’s wrong?” Harper asked.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Gemma said finally. “But … there’s something wrong with me.”

“This is about the other night, right?” Harper asked. “When you went out with Penn and the girls?”

“Yeah, kinda.” Gemma furrowed her brow.

“It’s perfectly normal to act out,” Harper said, trying to keep her tone soothing. “I mean, it’s not okay. You shouldn’t be out drinking, but it’s not uncommon. And I know I can be hard on you sometimes, but—”

“No, Harper, I’m not acting out.” Gemma sighed in frustration. “There is actually something
wrong
with me. Like on a cellular level.”

Harper leaned back and looked over Gemma again. “Are you sick? You don’t look sick.”

“No, I feel fine. Better than fine, actually.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t.” Gemma shook her head and stared down at her lap. “But something is very wrong.”

A loud knocking came from the front door, more of a demanding pound than an actual knock. Harper glanced at her bedroom door, hesitant to leave her conversation with Gemma. But Brian was working late, and the knocking only got more insistent.

“I’m sorry,” Harper told her sister as she got up. “I’ll be right back. I’ll send whoever it is away, and we can talk.”

“Okay.” Gemma nodded.

As soon as Harper left, running down the stairs and shouting at whoever was at the door to keep their pants on, Gemma flopped back on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to think of how to phrase it to her sister that she thought she was transforming into some kind of monster.

“What are you doing here?” Harper snapped downstairs, and Gemma listened more closely.

“We’re here to talk to your sister,” came the reply, and the sultry baby-talk was unmistakable. Penn was at her front door.

Gemma sat straight up, her heart pounding erratically in her chest. Part of her was afraid, the same way Penn always scared her. But the rest of her felt strangely excited. The sound of Penn’s voice drew her in, in a way that it hadn’t before, almost as if it were calling to her.

“You can’t see her,” Harper said.

“We just want to talk to her,” Penn said sweetly.

“Only for a minute,” Lexi chimed in, in her usual singsong way.

“No,” Harper said, but her voice had less conviction than it had a moment ago. “You’re not her friends, and you can’t talk to her anymore.”

Gemma got off the bed and raced down the stairs, but she stopped halfway. From her vantage point, she could see them at the front door. It was only Penn and Lexi standing outside, with Harper firmly blocking their path.

Looking at Penn and Lexi just then, Gemma realized she’d begun to look like them. Not
exactly
like them, since Penn and Lexi looked distinctly different. But there was a certain quality to them, a preternatural splendor. Their flawless tanned skin seemed to glow, as if they were illuminated by their own beauty.

“Hi, Gemma,” Penn said. Her dark eyes rested on Gemma in a come-hither way that she couldn’t deny.

“Gemma, go back upstairs.” Harper glanced back at her sister. “I’m sending them away.”

“No, don’t,” Gemma said quickly, but her words were so quiet, she was surprised anyone heard them.

“Gemma, you’re grounded,” Harper reminded her. “Even if you wanted to see them, you can’t. But you don’t want to see them.”

“Stop telling her what she wants,” Penn said with just a trace of venom in her voice. “You have no idea what she wants.”

“Right now I don’t care what she wants. Get out of my house.”

“Harper, stop,” Gemma said and descended the stairs. “I need to talk to them.”

“No!” Harper shouted, looking totally appalled by the idea. “You are not talking to them.”

“I
need
to,” Gemma insisted. She swallowed hard and looked again at Penn and Lexi.

They had done something to her. As certain as she was standing there, she knew that they were responsible for whatever was happening to her. That meant they knew how to fix it, or at least how to deal with it. Gemma had to talk with them to find out.

Harper tried to shut the door, but Penn’s arm shot out in a flash and pushed the door back open. Penn smiled at Harper, the menacing smile that revealed too many teeth.

“I’m sorry,” Gemma said earnestly. “But I have to go.” She slid through the gap that Penn had made for her and stepped outside.

“Gemma!” Harper yelled. “You can’t go! I forbid you!”

“Forbid me all you want, but I’m going,” Gemma said, and Lexi wrapped her arm around her in some kind of camaraderie.

Penn stood between Harper and Gemma, and Gemma could see from her sister’s expression that she was considering whether or not to tangle with Penn. Harper turned to Gemma then, and Gemma gave her a pleading look. Harper’s gaze went from fierce to torn.

“Gemma,” Harper said again, more helplessly this time. “Please come inside.”

“I’m sorry.” Gemma shook her head and backed up with Lexi toward a car that idled in front of their house. “I’ll be home later.” She waited a beat before adding, “Don’t worry.”

“We’ll take good care of Gemma,” Penn assured Harper, still with her too-wide smile.

“Gemma!” Harper called out as Gemma slid into the backseat with Lexi, and Penn shut the door behind her.

Thea was sitting in the driver’s seat, like she was waiting in the getaway car for a bank robbery, and Penn joined her in front a few seconds later.

Gemma stared out the window as they pulled away, watching her sister standing on the front step. She looked up at Alex’s house next door, his bedroom window glowing yellow under the darkening sky.

She pulled her gaze away, and her eyes met Penn’s in the rearview mirror.

“What are you?” Gemma asked.

“Not yet.” Penn smiled. “Wait until we get to the bay. Then we’ll show you exactly what we are.”

*   *   *

Gemma had always wondered how Penn, Lexi, and Thea got to the cove, and she was eager to find out. Thea drove the car around the bay and headed to the coast on the other side. Once she parked in a gravel lot behind a patch of cypress trees, all the girls got out of the car.

Gemma noticed that they left their shoes in the car, and she would’ve done the same if she’d even remembered to put them on before she left the house.

Nobody said much of anything as they walked on a beaten path through the trees. The moon was nearly full, shining above them, but other than that there was no light.

Gemma’s heart continued racing, and she wasn’t completely sure she’d done the right thing by going with them. Part of her knew this was dangerous, especially after what had happened last time she was with them.

But she had a feeling that if they really wanted to kill her, she would already be dead. They were the only ones who knew what was happening to her, and she had to risk going with them to find out what it was.

When they reached a rather steep rocky incline, it took Gemma a minute to realize that they were at the back of the cove on the bay. She’d expected the girls to show her some hidden entrance that allowed them to get into the cove without getting wet, but instead they started climbing up the rocky face.

“You expect me to go up that?” Gemma asked, staring at the sheer climb. She couldn’t see anywhere to grip or put her hands, and she’d never been much for climbing anyway.

“You can do it,” Lexi assured her as Penn began the ascent to the top of the incline.

“I really don’t think I can.” Gemma shook her head.

“You’d be surprised what you can do now,” Lexi said with a smile. Then, without waiting to see if Gemma followed, she started climbing.

Penn, Lexi, and Thea were all moving nimbly up the rocks. Gemma debated for only a second, then went up after them. It came surprisingly easy to her. It wasn’t that she was a better climber exactly, but she was faster, stronger, more deft. She still slipped a few times, but she recovered easily.

When she reached the top, Penn was standing at the edge in front of the bay, so the mouth of the cove was below her. This high up, the wind was stronger, whipping through the girls’ hair. A fall from that height, even into water, would be dangerous, and that was assuming she missed the rocks.

“What are we doing up here?” Gemma asked and walked closer to her.

“I wanted to show you what we are,” Penn said.

“What are you?”

“The same thing as you.” Penn faced her, smiling.

Gemma swallowed hard. “And what’s that?”

“You’ll see,” Penn said, and with that, she reached out and pushed Gemma over the edge.

Gemma tumbled down, screaming and flailing her arms.

When she hit the surface of the water, it felt the same as hitting the ground. It smashed into her back, knocking the wind out of her. She went under the water, and her arm bashed hard against a rock. Blood flowed out from it, and salt stung her wound.

Gemma thrashed toward the surface, trying to swim through the pain overwhelming her body. But the fall had made her disoriented, and it was too dark for her to really tell up from down. She didn’t know where to swim, and her lungs burned for oxygen.

But even as she struggled, she felt a change come over her. It was the one she’d felt in the shower and in the pool, only this was more intense. It consumed her legs, fluttering down her skin.

The pain in her arm started to fade, replaced with a tingling sensation not that different from the one she felt going through her lower extremities.

Her body felt good, better than ever, actually, and she would’ve enjoyed it if she hadn’t been drowning. Whatever was happening to her had distracted her, and now she needed to gasp for breath. Her body did it involuntarily, and she expected her lungs to fill with water … but instead, when she took a breath, she breathed in air.

She could breathe underwater.

Gemma blinked. She could even see underwater. Her vision was even clearer than when she was on land.

Then she saw the burst of water as Lexi dove into the cove in front of her. Her body was surrounded by white bubbles for a moment. When they cleared, Lexi swam in front of her, her blond hair floating around her like a halo.

She smiled at her, and Gemma saw that Lexi no longer had legs. She had a long tail, like that of a fish. Her torso was still human, with her chest covered in a brightly colored bikini.

Gemma looked down at herself and realized that she had the same fish’s tail, covered in iridescent green scales. Her shorts were ripped and split down the middle from where her legs had converged, and the fabric sat around her waist like a belt.

It was then that Gemma screamed, and Lexi only laughed.

FOURTEEN

Revelations

“I’m a mermaid?” Gemma asked once she’d surfaced.

She could probably talk underwater, but she thought the night air might clear her head in case it was all some sort of drug-induced hallucination. After all, this wouldn’t have been the first time Penn had slipped her something.

“Not exactly,” Penn said, pushing her dark hair back from her face. She and Thea had dived in the water right after Lexi, so all four of them were floating in the bay. “We’re sirens.”

“What’s the difference?” Gemma asked.

“Well, for starters, mermaids don’t exist, and we do.” Penn smiled.

Thea rolled her eyes, then dove back underwater, presumably swimming off.

“I’ll explain it all to you later,” Penn said. “For now, why don’t you take your new body out for a swim? We’ll have plenty of time to talk when you’re done.”

“I…” Gemma wanted to know what she was,
needed
to know, really.

But she could feel her tail below her, swishing through the water. It felt powerful and fast, and it was almost itching to swim.

At least she knew part of the truth now. She knew what they were, and they weren’t going anywhere. Without saying anything more, Gemma dove under the water.

It was better than anything she’d ever imagined. She moved faster than she ever thought possible. She darted around the ocean floor and chased fish simply because she could. Outrunning a shark would be a cinch, and she almost hoped she found one so she could try.

It was the most amazing, exhilarating feeling she’d ever had. Her skin felt alive in ways she’d never known possible. Every move, every tremble, every change in the current rippled through her.

She swam as close to the bottom as she could get, then she raced up to the surface and leaped, flipping through the air like a dolphin.

“Easy, there,” Penn called. “We don’t need to draw attention to ourselves.”

Penn sat on the rocky shore of the cove. She’d pulled her tail out so it lay bent on the ground. Right in front of Gemma’s eyes, the scales rippled, shifting from iridescent green to the golden tan of Penn’s skin. It split into two legs, and Penn stood up. She was completely nude from the waist down, and Gemma quickly averted her eyes.

“Don’t be shy.” Penn laughed.

She walked away and dug around in a bag that sat by one of the cove walls. From the corner of her eye, Gemma saw Penn pull on a pair of panties and a sundress.

“We have clothes in here for you, too,” Lexi said as she pulled herself out of the water. “You don’t need to worry.”

Thea got out after Lexi, and Gemma waited until all three of them were dressed before she swam over and pulled herself out. She scooted backward up onto the shore, so the rocks scraped her fins. She pulled her tail out, and it flopped on land for a few seconds before the familiar flutter ran through them.

As her tail began to transform back into human legs, she ran her hands over it. She could actually feel the scales shifting beneath her fingertips.