Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) (10 page)

“Would you like to have everlasting beauty?”
Lyra asked taking my attention away from Gia. I noticed the chain
of diamonds fastened just above her hips. Her shiny black hair was
also blowing beautifully in the wind. I liked her so much better
than Gia.

I laughed at her question. My mind felt
slightly clearer now. “That’s a bizarre inquiry.” I shrugged at the
thought as I sat down at the edge of the cliff. A smile lifted on
my face as I considered it.

“What if you could make any guy fall for
you?” Gia asked in a cold tone as she glanced over at me.

I wasn’t sure if she was even interested in
my response because she was fixated on the lights of the distant
ship now. She was probably just messing with me because she sensed
I liked Dylan.

“Yes,” Wren said placing her delicate hand on
her heart. She sat down beside me, joining me at the edge of the
cliff. “Would you like that?”

I imagined Dylan falling madly in love with
me. That’s what I wanted more than anything. “I don’t need a whole
bunch of boys swooning over me,” I mumbled back at them. “One
guy…you know… one boyfriend would be fine.”

They looked at each other with scowls on
their faces.

“How boring,” Gia retorted as she pushed a
rock with the side of her bare foot off the cliff.

Lyra sat down on the other side of me. “What
if you could be as hot as a supermodel?” she asked sort of
giggling. “Would you like that?”

I chortled at that question and shrugged
again. “I guess that would be pretty cool.” Something about their
implorations made me uncomfortable. Maybe it was because they were
so otherworldly and could probably get any guys they wanted. Were
they just trying to make me feel bad for being average?

I think Wren sensed my discomfort. “Oh, you
must be tired,” she said in her maternal voice. She pulled me
closer to her perfect body and hugged me to the side with one arm.
Her golden locks partially blanketed my shivering skin.

“How did you rescue me in the ocean?” I asked
now that I was gaining better mental clarity. I had this eerie fear
of falling off the cliff, but I kind of liked the thrill of looking
over the edge of it.

Lyra moved closer to me. “After you ran into
the waves, we tried to catch up to you.”

“We were swimming all around trying to find
you,” Wren added.

“I was worried you had drowned.” Lyra shook
her head in sadness at the memory. “It was a miracle we found you
when we did.” Her sparkling eyes were wide with wonder.

Her explanation made me feel a lot better. It
didn’t seem natural how they discovered me. It’s difficult to see
people in the ocean and especially at night. At least now I knew
they recognized the improbability of it. I felt more at ease
knowing that they were as shocked as me. “It really was a miracle.
Wasn’t it?” I was smiling now.

“Hey why don’t you become blood sisters with
us?” Wren asked heartily. Her expression looked playful, almost
childlike in enthusiasm.

“What?” I nearly shrieked. The idea sounded
juvenile. I remembered how as kids my best friend and I pricked our
fingers and rubbed them together so that we could be joined in a
blood bond. It was silly and fun at the time. But now that I was
almost eighteen, it seemed ridiculous to engage in such a silly
endeavor.

“When people experience a miracle like we
did, it bonds them for life,” Wren explained. “I think we should
make that tie official. Make a statement that we are sisters
forever.”

“That’s a great idea,” Lyra agreed
excitedly.

I liked the thought of having sisters. As an
only child I always longed for siblings. I wasn’t so sure I wanted
to be related to Gia, but I couldn’t very well exclude her from the
ceremony. She was triplets with Wren and Lyra. They wouldn’t take
kindly to me rejecting their own birth sister. And she did save me
too, after all. “Let’s do it,” I answered. “I wanna be sisters with
you guys.”

To my surprise, Gia looked happy with my
decision, maybe even more than the others. She walked away from the
edge of the cliff and sat behind us. “Turn around,” she commanded
in her low, husky voice.

We turned and moved closer to her making a
circle with our bodies.

“So how should we do this?” Wren asked wide
eyed in a naïve tone. “I don’t know much about this sort of
thing.”

I was surprised how clueless she sounded. It
almost seemed like she was putting on a fake dumb blond act. I
couldn’t help but wonder why. She was the one who came up with the
idea.

“It’s fun,” Lyra said matching Wren’s ditsy
tone. “No big deal. Here everybody just hold out your wrists.” She
giggled as she turned her arm over and held it out in in the center
of our circle to show us what to do.

We all held out our wrists.

“Get ready for the show to begin,” Gia added
sarcastically.

Then all of a sudden Lyra reached out and
scratched my wrist wide open with her fingernail that was
shockingly sharp and hooked like a claw.

“Oh, God!” I pulled back in horror, but Wren
held me down. She was unbelievably strong. By now blood was gushing
from my wrist. It was just pouring out. I was struggling to get
away, but Wren wouldn’t let up.

“Everlasting beauty, every boy will love you,
superhuman strength…” Gia laughed.

Lyra reached out and scratched her sisters’
wrist. They loved it as the blood poured forth from their
bodies.

“Hold still,” Wren commanded me.

I was screaming and crying by now. I urinated
on myself and then threw up on Wren.

“Get ahold of yourself,” Wren sneered as she
slapped me in the face.

I struggled to get up and almost made it to
my feet, but Lyra pulled me back down.

“Sisters for eternity,” the three girls
sang.

Lyra forced my bloody arm up in the circle
and the triplets held their bleeding arms against mine.

I gagged and vomited again.

Strange tingling sensations began to rush
through my body now. I feared this was the first stages of death. I
thought I was going to die from blood loss. I knew slashing a wrist
was the cause of death for many successful suicides.

Were these girls trying to kill us all? They
were losing just as much blood as I was, but they seemed excited by
it. I continued to struggle to get away though my efforts were
futile. They didn’t let up on me and kept my bleeding wrist pressed
against theirs.

“Blood sisters,” they said at once. It was
like they were of one mind knowing just when to talk aloud in
unison.

I started to feel terrible pains in my feet
and legs. It was like my innards were reforming—stretching,
twisting, turning.

Lyra let go of me and I fell on my back to
the ground. “Just give into it, sweetheart,” she said softly.

“You will thank us later,” Wren sighed.

Gia got up. “I hate this part.” She walked
over to the cliff as I watched her, my eyes wide with horror.

It felt like knives were stabbing through my
back. The sensations of millions of needles penetrating my pours
and twisting through the membranes shocked my senses further. I had
never imagined death would feel like this. The pain was
excruciating. I felt like my bones were being stretched and then
like I was being run over by a car.

While it was happening Wren started
explicating the history of their miserable existence. I think she
was addressing me. “Gia, Lyra, and I are Pisinoe, Aglaope, and
Thelxiepi,” she said. “We are the children of the Greek river god,
Achelous. Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility, turned us
into sirens after she discovered we did not stop the abduction of
her daughter and our dear playmate, Persephone. We were just too
scared. That’s all. But Demeter would not listen…”

If only I could find the strength, I would
tear Wren apart. I wanted her to pay for what she had done to me.
Hatred burned through my veins.

She wouldn’t stop talking, “We are sirens.
The boys playing the drums by the bonfire are our slaves as is
Dylan.”

My body was writhing on the ground. Foam was
coming up from my throat and out of my mouth.

“We are the most seductive creatures in the
world,” Lyra added enthusiastically. “The world is your oyster
now.”

“Just leave her alone,” Gia mumbled in a
pained voice.

“Stay out of it then—she needs to know what
she is becoming,” Wren reprimanded her sister. “You will have
eternal life.”

“You will be extraordinarily beautiful,” Lyra
added.

Wren continued, “All men will fall in love
with you. Super strength will be yours by land, water, and air.
Your voice will enchant. The world is yours…”

My entire being felt more animal than human
now. I just wanted to kill. “Shut up,” I said through gritted
teeth. But my mouth didn’t feel normal. I felt the tips of my
canines protrude from my lips in sharp points. Was I in hell? I
felt like I was reforming into some kind of wild animal, maybe a
monster. “What the heck is a siren?” I coughed out the words as I
rolled onto my stomach.

Wren laughed. “Our food is the flesh of boys
and men. We will tear their bodies apart ravenously and feast on
their flesh. No more will we be treated like objects, used and
discarded for their pleasure. As sirens, they are ours…”

I thought of the teenage boys that had been
found by the coves up north, their torsos torn to shreds. The pains
in my body were subsiding now, but I felt too weak to get up. “Did
you kill those boys that are talked about all over the news?”

“Aiden, Mike, and Mark?” Lyra asked.

I nodded lightly.

“We know you found my bikini and Mark’s
wallet in the woods. Those boys were tasty, but not as delicious as
DJ, Logan, and Jeff.” Her voice was soft and reminiscent. “Give it
time. You will learn to love our ways. The transition is startling,
but you will give in. It is your nature now.”

“The fishing ship is just yonder. It’s time
to play,” Gia called out to us. Oddly, I heard her voice both in my
mind and in my ears. It was like a telepathic transmission.

Gia lay at the edge of the cliff stretching
out her gorgeous body in a tantalizing pose as she held up her lyre
and began to strum it softly. Lyra took a similar seductive
position beside her sister, draping her long black hair over her
bikini top and plucked the harp in rapturous tune. The lovely music
vibrated through my very essence as I lay on the ground. The girls
were glorious sights and the sounds were breathtaking.

Wren joined beside them singing languorously
the most heartfelt song: “Come ye sailors to our shore…” the vocals
drew out long and slow.

Flood lights shined on them presumably from
the ship’s deck. I could just imagine the lonely seafarers watching
them through their binoculars. Their yearnings for the alluring
young women must have been great.

I wanted more than anything to join my
sisters in song, but I held back as the burning in my throat nearly
choked me. I felt like fire was going to come out of my mouth.

“We call you now; we want you more. Come ye
sailors to our shore…” Wren’s voice mixed with the instrumentals
was the most beautiful sounds the men could possibly fathom. It was
like the song of angels.

The melodies continued for some time. And
then I heard a loud crashing sound. The cliff shook. I knew what
happened. Horror filled my thoughts. My memories of Homer’s
Odyssey
came back to me.

They had lured the boat’s crew to the craggy
shore by hypnotizing them with their bewitching songs. The ship was
sinking and the men were swimming toward the rocks to their
enchantresses. I knew this was true; I knew the legends of these
creatures now.

My body started to stretch and change. This
time the process was pleasurable. I rolled on my side and watched
my sisters transform as I was into half women, half birds. My teeth
elongated into sharp incisors as did theirs. Our legs and feet
transformed into that of predatory birds with long talons for
tearing flesh. Great wings tore through the skin of our backs. The
long feathers were the stone blue color of the ocean. Feathery
plumes extended from our tailbones. What beautiful, dangerous
creatures we were.

I thought of my mother and father and cried.
I thought of Dylan and my high school friends. All my hopes and
dreams were shattered. I had become a terrible monster.

Wren, Lyra, and Gia flew off the cliff. Their
upper bodies were of human form but their lower halves as well as
their teeth and wings were of wild terrors, birds of prey.
Magnificent wings soared downward. I struggled desperately not to
join them. My hunger was nearly overwhelming, but I held out for
now.

At once, I heard the screams through the
thrashing of waves, the tearing of flesh. I wanted to kill. But not
my sisters. I wanted to rip through masculine skin and organs and
taste the blood of my victims in my mouth. My talons dug into the
ground as my torso shuddered in disgust with my longings.

There was a cold stillness now. The ocean
quieted like it was full. The screams were silenced. I looked up at
the stars and my body changed back into that of a girl, a beautiful
girl now, I presumed from looking down at my hot, sleek physique.
Though I had no mirror, I knew what I was, a dangerous seductress,
a forever young diva of heartbreaking power.

I dragged myself to the edge of the cliff in
repulsion and threw myself off. I wanted to die. My body tumbled
through the air like a falling rock that crashed into the ocean.
For some time, I must have been unconscious. I awoke and lifted my
head out of the sea.

I wanted to drown myself. I didn’t know if it
was possible, but before I could, I heard someone calling me.

“Hailey!” A male voice yelled out into the
blue dawn. “Hailey, can you hear me?”