The hunter guy was looking out into the water now, and Sam didn’t want to take any chances, so he dipped down into the wave that was rolling by. He kept his body under where he couldn’t see Whitney and tried yet again in vain to contact her.
‘Whitney, please hear me,’ Sam tried to say to her. He needed her to hear and stay safe.
A flash of blue tail in Sam’s peripheral vision made him turn from the beach. Beside him, Tim sat floating in the water. He smiled at Sam and took off toward the pier further down the beach, away from Whitney at the far side of the deserted part of the shore where the siren often climbed back on land. Reluctantly, Sam followed after his brother. When it came to Tim, his presence was never a good sign.
“Hey, bro, are you swimming a little slow today?” Tim asked from where he sat on the empty, broken-down pier. “You seem a little worn out. Too much training?”
While the old pier looked unable to hold weight, it was all part of the cover. The sirens had used the pier for years. They left it in a bit of disrepair to keep people away, and it worked. It made a perfect landing spot to enter the shore without ever having to worry about people being around.
“I’d ask if you wanted to join me for a stroll, but I know how sensitive you are about your punishment, and I wouldn’t want to upset you,” Tim continued trying to rile him up.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, getting directly to the point and wanting the conversation with his brother done as quickly as possible. There was no love between the two of them. Tim was everything Sam hated in a siren: cruel, self-centered, power hungry.
“What? No ‘great to see you, brother. I can’t wait to catch up. How’s life been?’”
“Fine. Don’t answer.” Sam moved to go under the water and swim quickly back to Whitney. He didn’t trust the boy she was sitting with, but he trusted Tim even less. It was best he get back to watching over her since Tim wasn’t going to give him any information about his intentions.
“Running away. So typical. Isn’t that what you do best?”
Sam froze as he was about to enter the water. Tim was taunting him, but he wouldn’t turn back around. Running away wasn’t part of Sam’s solutions to anything. He was more the kind that liked to address things head on when he found something worth fighting for. Sam didn’t fight things often and it might seem like he was running away, but that was the furthest from the truth. Maybe that was where Tim had the wrong impression. There was very little in the siren world that Sam felt like fighting for.
“Running won’t help you keep that mate of yours safe. You should have been a man and ordered her to stay on the island. It wasn’t like they couldn’t keep telling her family lies. They’d believe anything like all the other weak day humans out there. One little song and they wouldn’t remember her. Her being on land and you being in the water is all your fault. You and I both know it’s possible; it’s just you don’t have enough guts to be a man and keep her safe.”
Sam didn’t turn around. He didn’t need Tim to see that he was finally getting to him. It took a lot for Tim to rile him up, but suggesting that he force Whitney to join the sirens was about pushing it. That was one thing Sam never wanted for her and even now tried to give her back as much of her life as he could. Yes, it would be safer to keep her on the island, but he was in no way going to cage her as he was himself. Tim never wanted off the island and couldn’t understand why it was horrible to be stuck there. But worse was Tim thinking it was all right to force his mate to stay.
“Fine. Don’t admit the truth. We already know that Father knows that much, too. It’s probably why he sent me to go watch over the sirens on land for you. Poor little brother is now ranked as a newbie. Again, I have to clean up your messes. I hope Father finally sees soon what a waste you are and makes the choice of which of us is his heir.”
Sam ducked back into the water. That was all he needed to know. Tim was going to the mainland, and Whitney now had one more problem to deal with as Tim would relish the chance to bother her.
Lunch on the second day without her friends was just as hard for Whitney as it was the day before. This time she tried not to watch as they were subjected to the bossing around by the higher-up sirens at the table, but it was still hard. She already knew the first thing she was going to ask Sam to teach her was going to be how to get her friends out of the blues’ control. And she hoped it was one of those one-time, easy lessons because she needed it to be. Whitney wanted her friends to be safe, and she needed them away from Amber. She didn’t trust the girl who was still glaring daggers at her every time they passed in the hallways, or when they were in class together. The ironic part of all of it was that even if Sam was still on the mainland, he would be with Whitney anyways. Amber seemed to miss that part … or maybe she was delusional about the whole binding act Whitney and Sam had done in front of the sirens only days ago.
“So I guess I assumed you were ignored by everyone like us, but it seems you’ve actually had time to make enemies,” Jax said as he sat a lunch tray on the table in front of Whitney.
She glanced up, surprised to see him.
“I switched lunches to be in this one. Jade is still in line trying to decide whether she wants fish or a salad,” Jax explained.
Whitney nodded. “Salad. Fish will be there again by the end of the week, and at least twice more next week. There’s only so much fish one can eat, and she’ll get plenty of chances.”
Whitney picked up her tuna sandwich. She really shouldn’t be knocking the fish when she was eating it for lunch, too. She blamed it on the mer thing. Never before had she liked the smell of fish, and now she found herself craving it. She knew why they served fish so much, but that wasn’t something she could tell her new friends.
“So, blondie over there really seems to hate you.” Jax continued to watch Amber and her glaring.
Amber didn’t notice or care that anyone else saw she was doing it. Since Sam was gone, she was openly hostile. She went out of her way to try to trip or push Whitney in the crowded hallways. Had Whitney been just a normal human, she would have probably gotten hurt more than once. Luckily her night human skills kept her out of the way from all the attempts so far. She wasn’t sure when it would stop, but Whitney couldn’t wait for Sam to come back to school. At least then she could ask him what was okay to do back to the annoying siren. As it was, Whitney had no clue what was proper protocol and if she could respond without something more happening. Basically, she knew nothing of the siren world and probably should have paid better attention when Sam was trying to explain it the weeks before.
“I think hate just about covers it, but maybe we could add a few more words to truly explain just how much,” Whitney suggested. “What can I say? Not all people love my shining personality.”
Jax grinned at her. With a half-smile, she shook her head at him. He was so much like her old friend Owen it was getting a bit surreal.
“You’re not related to anyone with the last name Malla, are you? I swear you must be my friend Owen’s cousin or something.”
“Does he have a great sense of humor and is a complete heartthrob who should pose on the covers of romance novels?” Jax tossed his chin-length hair over his shoulder—much the way a girl would—and gave a pouty smile.
Whitney tried to not crack a grin at his pose.
“Really? Going for hunk on the cover again? I thought you finally got over that one,” Jade asked as she sat down beside Whitney. “He’s completely full of himself. I mean, you’d never know it, but he’s a complete bathroom hog and takes twice as long as I do to get ready.”
Jax swiped the cookie off Jade’s plate, and she smacked his hand, causing him to drop it. As Jax shook his hand like she had really hurt him, Whitney had to smile at the interaction. Even though she missed her brother immensely, seeing Jade turn into a completely different person with Jax around was great to behold.
“I was just asking him if he was related to an old friend because I swear they could be tw
ins.”
“You purposely had a friend like him?” Jade pointed to her brother. “If I met someone like him, I’d have run the other way. I tried, but since he’s family, I can’t get away from him.”
“Hardy-har-har.” Jax gave an exaggerated laugh. “She loves me, but she can’t tell anyone, or they’ll think she’s weird. You’re not supposed to like your siblings.”
Now it was Jade’s turn to laugh. “They already think I’m weird, duh,” she remarked, pointing to her hair.
Whitney had to give her that one. It wasn’t that she was weird, but with the colored hair, piercings, and tattoos she also wasn’t the typical teenager at their school; most of whom were sun-streaked, blond-haired, blue-eyed merpeople.
“So the friends are still trying to be popular?” Jade asked, nodding her head toward the table where Whitney’s friends were sitting miserably with Amber.
“Seems they haven’t changed their minds yet, but I think they’ll come to their senses by next week at the latest.” Whitney had to hope Sam could teach her how to get them back. It stunk to watch them being taken advantage of all day long.
“Are you trying out for the talent show?” Jade asked, changing away from the depressing subject of Whitney’s friends leaving her.
“Talent show?” This was the first Whitney had heard of one.
“Yeah, the music department puts it together. I need someone to sing a duet with me because I’m too afraid to go on stage myself.”
Whitney’s eyes got big. Jade wasn’t the type that seemed like she’d want to be in a talent show.
“It’s required for choir that she had to participate. If she doesn’t do the show, then she has to do a group thing which will take practice four nights a week after school,” Jax explained. “She’d rather face her fear of auditioning for a show rather than doing the group thing.”
Whitney nodded, acknowledging that it made so much more sense.
Jade stuck out her tongue at Jax, who nicely ignored her.
“So will you try out with me?” Jade asked. “I promise to be your personal slave for a whole weekend if you do. I’ll pick up your room and do all your chores.”
Whitney laughed. First off she didn’t need her room picked up or chores done, but mostly it was the expression on Jax’s face that made her giggle.
“When you asked me to do it last night, you never offered to be my personal slave or do my chores. Not fair. I might have agreed if you’d said that.”
Ignoring Jax, Jade tried to plead with her eyes for Whitney to say yes.
“Sorry. I can’t sing. Just ask my cousin when you see him around school. I am completely tone deaf.” Whitney thought for a second. The reply was so natural for her that she completely forgot she could carry a tune now. It had felt nice that she was able to answer automatically, even if it was now a lie. “I think it was just a couple weeks ago that he actually asked me never to sing again.” Whitney smiled at that idea. She could technically could sing now, but she was going to keep it a secret until she learned more.
Jade pouted and then slowly turned to Jax, giving him her best puppy-dog eyes. She didn’t offer him the same deal, but was choosing to pull a sad face instead to get her way. He ignored her as he stared across the room to Amber’s popular table.
“Seems we’re not the only new students,” Jax added, nodding his head toward Amber’s table while taking a bite of his sandwich. “And he is welcomed with open arms. Just because we don’t look like surfers, doesn’t mean we should be ignored,” Jax complained, but Whitney was more than sure that Jax didn’t want anything to do with the popular table.
Several of the guys were standing and giving high fives to someone hidden from Whitney’s view. It only took one guy moving for her to see who had shown up. Tim had decided to come to school, which was beyond strange since he had already graduated.
“He’s not new,” Whitney told Jade and Jax, hoping that would help deter them from trying to be friends with him. Tim was bad for everyone.
Tim looked past the group of sirens, who were all happy to see him, to make direct eye contact with Whitney. Grinning, he gave her a small wave. Whitney turned away from him, but not before seeing Amber’s usual scowl deepening. Whitney wasn’t happy to see Tim since the last time she ran into him on land he had first tried to kill her friends, and then tried to kill her before kidnapping her. Yeah, he wasn’t on her good list for any reason.
“And you know him?” Jade asked as she caught the exchange.
“I wish I didn’t, but if you ask me, he’s a complete jerk you don’t want to talk to, let alone get within ten feet of. I have no clue why he’s here other than to annoy everyone because that’s all he knows how to do.”
“Sounds like a great guy,” Jax added with a grin. “I’m half tempted to go over there and introduce myself.”
Whitney gave Jax the “really?” stare that she had perfected over the years.
Pretending like he was serious, Jax moved to stand before sitting back down and laughing. “When you described him, was it him or half the school?” Jax added. “I don’t remember the last time we moved some place quite as unfriendly as this one.”
Jade stopped eating a second and searched her mind also. Soon enough she was nodding along with her brother. “There was that school in New Mexico that kind of hated us,” she recalled.
Jax grinned. “Oh no, they hated you, but they loved me.”
Jade shrugged and didn’t disagree. “What about the place in California? That one you have to agree hated us both,” she added.
“Us or Mom. I think they were fine with us, but they hated Mom for sure.”
Whitney smiled as they continued to debate their old schools. Jax and Jade seemed to have lived in almost every region in the US with all their moving, and there were quite a lot of places someone could live that Whitney hadn’t even thought about. It was easy to get lost in her new friends’ banter, and it was great to be able to sit there and not have to contribute to the conversation. Her life was complicated as it was, but being with Jade and Jax made things seem so much simpler. It had only been a year since Whitney had moved to town, but she hadn’t realized how much she missed normal. The school was nowhere near normal, and she knew why even if she couldn’t tell her new friends. She might not technically be normal any more, but she loved feeling that way again.
The week passed by quicker than Whitney thought it would, which was probably because all her free time was spent hanging at the beach with Jade, Jax, or both of them. She had kept her promise and remained out of the water, but that meant long baths at home to keep her siren side happy. Sitting on the beach and hearing the ocean calling wasn’t very easy, but since Whitney wasn’t so new at being a night human, she was able to control it. At least her cousin and aunt didn’t seem to notice or mind her long time in the bathroom even if it was a bit cramped to sit in the tub with her tail. Not being able to swim was slowly driving her nuts, too. Her mer form yearned to dive right into the waves and make a few loops around the state at the rate she was going from denying that side of herself.
While Whitney’s hours had been cut at work, giving her more free time, she found her days were not wasted away wishing for Sam to return since Jade and Jax were entertaining at least. She still thought of him all the time, but her new friends kept her busy enough to not be depressed over it. She missed her friends, Tina and Trudy, but there was still nothing she could do to get them back since she really didn’t know how to be a siren. It would have been easy to order them to ignore Amber, but since she didn’t know how, she had to hope they were doing fine. By the time Friday rolled around, Whitney was excited to show her new friends Sam’s band. They had already bought tickets to go to the show before she could explain that the lead singer was her boyfriend. It would be much more fun if it was a surprise, and she still hadn’t told them as they arrived at the venue.
“So where did you say your boyfriend is going to meet us?” Jade asked as she handed over her t
ickets to the ticket taker at the door.
“I didn’t,” Whitney replied cryptically.
“He’s not the jealous type?” Jax asked like he was possibly worried about showing up with Whitney at the concert.
“Not in the least.” ‘At least not now,’ is what Whitney wanted to add. Sam had no reason to be jealous with the connection they now had. He would easily be able to see in her mind and know he was the only guy for her, ever.
Whitney followed her friends as they walked farther into the crowd, which gathered to wait for the doors to open. She had already been to a couple of Sam’s concerts, but was really excited to be there now. She hadn’t seen him in a week and was relieved to know he was in the building. In fact, she felt his presence before they got out of Jade’s car. He was there, and he had to know she was there also.
“Don’t tell me he’s a bouncer or something,” Jax added, looking at the big guys—who had obviously spent way too much time in the gym—standing at the doors.
He seemed to be really worried about meeting Sam, and that made Whitney have to torture him further as she coyly batted her eyes and pretended she didn’t know what he was talking about.
It wasn’t long before the doors opened and everyone made their way inside. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but as the crowd pushed forward and she tried to stay near her friends, she was caught in the sea of people attempting to get closest to the stage. While there was seating around the edge of the large open floor and more in the balcony, the whole middle of the floor was open for people to stand and cram in closer. Whitney almost screamed when a hand took hers, but then laughed when she realized it was Jade pulling her farther into the crowd. Jax already had a spot right near the front of the stage.
“Front row seats you said,” Whitney told her friends.