Serpent's Storm Part 16

As much as I would've loved to stay in the water and ignore all the craziness swirling around me, it was time to go back to the real world.

"Starr," I said in a booming sea serpent voice I hardly recognized as my own. "I need to go to the city. Can you take me back?"

I was intrigued by the way sound traveled in the water, the milliseconds of time delay between the eliciting of words and the arrival of these same words to the listener's ear. It was a very different way of hearing, one that took me a few sentences' worth of talking to get used to.

The Siren, still easily matching my speed even though I was much bigger than her now, nodded then shot ahead of me like a bullet in the water, her billowing green fish tail giving her the edge over any human feet.

"Where are you going?" she asked, swimming around me like a giddy puppy dog. "Can I go, too?"

I'd spent enough time in Starr's company to know it was easier to placate her than to tell her a truth that would only incense her.

"Sure," I said, in what I hoped was a casual manner, "you can come with. That's, uh, fine by me."

Starr giggled, blowing air bubbles out into the water as she clapped her hands together happily.

"You're the best!" she said, tickling the side of my ma.s.sive sea serpent head. "I knew Hyacinth and Sumi were wrong to doubt you."

I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I didn't like the implications.

"Doubt me?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

Starr shrugged, continuing to loop around me like a high-strung mutt.

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do," I said. "Explain."

"I don't want to," she said, and then she suddenly stopped swimming, instantly falling behind me. I slowed my forward progression, hoping she'd catch back up with me, but of course, she wasn't at all interested in making anything easy, so after a few seconds of floating and waiting, I turned my whole bulk around and swam back to where she was treading water.

When I finally reached her, I found her howling like a waterborne hyena, her head thrown back in the current's wake, blond hair swirling around her head like a halo. The laughter ceased with a calculated abruptness as soon as she saw me, and she pursed her lips.

"What's so funny?" I said, working hard not to show any annoyance. I wanted her to talk to me, not clam up and refuse to volunteer information that might prove to be important.

"You!" she cried, pointing at me and repeating the whole laughter/howling thing all over again. "You really think anyone but me is gonna help you?!" she cried, pointing at me and repeating the whole laughter/howling thing all over again. "You really think anyone but me is gonna help you?!"

Apparently my situation was knee-slappingly funny to the Siren.

"And why are you you helping me?" I asked. helping me?" I asked.

She snorted, blowing air bubbles all around her face.

"Because I have to. It's the law."

She tossed her hair so that it rippled behind her.

"I don't understand," I said, and it was the truth. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"It's the law of the sea." She sighed. "I have to help you because you released me from the spell and because you're part Siren and-"

"Back at the house you said I was Anglo-Saxon trash on two legs."

"Oh, please, Little Death, grow a set." She yawned, her usually twinkling voice flat with derision. "I lied to you. Big whoop."

I decided silence was the appropriate response.

"Actually," she continued when I didn't rise to take the bait. "Frank did did leave me in the house on purpose, so he was either trying to ditch me . . . or maybe he was just giving you a little under-the-table help." leave me in the house on purpose, so he was either trying to ditch me . . . or maybe he was just giving you a little under-the-table help."

"Because he knew that by the law of the sea you would be forced to help me?" I asked.

Starr nodded.

"Who is is Frank?" I asked, realizing the only things I knew about the guy were that he worked for Sumi and he didn't mind eating jellied sardines-not much info on a guy who might or might not be trying to help me survive. Frank?" I asked, realizing the only things I knew about the guy were that he worked for Sumi and he didn't mind eating jellied sardines-not much info on a guy who might or might not be trying to help me survive.

"Oh silly, Little Death," Starr burbled, putting a shapely hand on my scaled flank. "They give you a wish-fulfilling jewel and all you wanna do is swim around like a big baby and ask ridiculous questions, when you should be asking smart smart questions." questions."

Who did this Siren think she was? I made twenty of her and I had no qualms about giving her the boot with my tail if she didn't learn some manners.

"I don't want to swim around in the water all day getting my jollies off," I said. "And what 'smart' questions are you talking about?"

"Don't be mad," Starr said abruptly, giving my taut flank a wallop with her palm. "I like you anyway."

I could handle a G.o.ddess like Kali who lived in a perpetual state of PMS, but Starr was giving me emotional whiplash. She was the most mercurial creature I'd ever encountered. One minute, she was t.i.ttering, helpful mermaid girl; the next, she was an annoyingly smug Siren who enjoyed making me feel small and stupid. I hated women who behaved like that, who always prefaced their digs by announcing, "I don't mean to be rude, but . . ." and then saying the rudest thing humanly possible.

"We were discussing Frank," I said, soldiering on. I decided that ignoring her ruder comments was the easiest course of action.

"He's n.o.body," she giggled. "Not royalty like Watatsumi or your Valkyrie friend. Just a guy with lots of magical ability, that's all-now no more information for you, Little Death."

I had my suspicions that there was more to the story than Starr was letting on, but I didn't press her. The Siren was like an oyster, taking a piece of sand-or in her case, information-then layering a whole lot of nacre over it until you didn't know what was real and what was just expensive c.r.a.p.

"Look," I said. "I appreciate your help, but I think I can find my way back to Manhattan without you. So you're free to go on your way now. I discharge you from service. Go be free and multiply."

"But we were having fun," she said, narrowing her eyes at me. "I don't want to be 'discharged.' I wanna stay and play with you! Besides, you said I could go with you, and if you do a takeback now, well, then you're nothing but a big fat liar, Little Death."

To my surprise, she began beating on my elongated neck with her girlish fists, almost like a small child having a temper tantrum. In the back of my head, I remembered someone saying if I freed Starr, it would be at my own peril; that I'd be responsible for her until I could return her to where she belonged-but they couldn't have meant I was supposed to babysit babysit her, could they? The dull thumping I felt on my scaled body said otherwise. It looked like I might be stuck with the Siren for the time being. her, could they? The dull thumping I felt on my scaled body said otherwise. It looked like I might be stuck with the Siren for the time being.

"Look, you can come with me as far as the sh.o.r.eline, Starr," I offered, trying to appease her. "But I have to go back on land and I don't think it's really possible for you to go with me-"

She stopped thumping me and c.o.c.ked her head curiously, her eyes wide as she digested what I'd just said.

"Why not?" she asked, putting a long finger in her mouth to suck on. More and more she was becoming like a spoiled, human child.

I inclined my sea serpent's head in the direction of her fish tail.

"I don't think it's physically possible to walk on land with a fish tail. So . . ."

I trailed off, thinking I'd done a nice job of dissuading her, but when she grinned up at me, a fiendish look in her eye, I knew I'd screwed up.

"You have the jewel," she said, batting her long, feminine eyelashes in my direction. "You can wish me a pair of legs."

s.h.i.t, I thought I thought. Somehow I walked into playing the Tom Hanks role in a very unfortunate remake of the movie Splash Splash.

"Look, I just don't think it's a good idea. What if you got hurt?"

Starr merely rolled her eyes at me-which was the first time I'd experienced an underwater eye roll-then shrugged.

"You don't really care if I get hurt," she pouted. "You just don't want to do what you promised."

"Honestly," I said, letting the cold current roll over my body, "you're right. I don't want to be responsible for you, especially when I don't even know what I'm doing right now. I know Heaven is the next destination, but as far as my ultimate fate is concerned, well, I'm totally clueless."

"Well, you can't just be a wuss and let everyone push you around-"

Like what you're doing right now, I thought, not amused. I thought, not amused.

"Fate is an important thing," she continued, moving her tail in lazy circles. "But you have to make your own destiny, Little Death. You aren't just a will-o'-the-wisp. You are a strong, powerful woman who has to live her life like she's large and in charge."

I sighed. I'd been hoping to use this opportunity to disengage myself from the Siren, but it seemed like Starr was in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Besides," she added mischievously, "your mother would kill me if I let you wander off all by yourself."

"Hold on, are you saying-"

But Starr didn't let me finish the question.

"Yup, that's Auntie Starr to you, pip-squeak."

eighteen From the look on my face, Starr must've sensed that she'd opened a Pandora's box. Since she'd been hanging up on a wall for G.o.d knew how long, I guess there was no way for her to know my mother had been pa.s.sing herself off as a human being since she'd become the Grim Reaper's wife. Sure, there'd been rumors that with her ridiculous beauty and slim physique, she had had to be part Siren, but she'd always laughed them off. to be part Siren, but she'd always laughed them off.

Still, it made sense that she and Starr were related: they both had the same stunning facial structure, liquid blue eyes, and pale, spun gold hair. Starr's face was rounder than my mother's and her pale pink lips were fuller, but otherwise the similarity was remarkable.

"Achelous is father to both your mother and I, but while I was born from a sea nymph, her human mother died in childbirth," Starr said, her demeanor serious now that she'd realized what an impact her little bon mot of information had had on me. "Your mother was raised in a human orphanage and knew nothing of her birth parents until she was sixteen. Achelous found her and told her of her parentage. She came and stayed with us for a while, but the sea was never really your mother's home, so she left and returned to land."

My sisters and I had never been privy to much information about our mother's family history. She'd always been pretty cagey about her past: to the point where the only thing we knew about her was that she was an only child who'd lost both of her parents when she was very young.

And even that turned out to only be a half-truth, I thought. I thought.

"Why don't we get to land, and then I promise I'll explain myself more fully," Starr said coaxingly. This mellower version of Starr was a marked improvement on the impulsive Siren I'd first encountered back on land.

"Okay," I said, waffling. Every time I thought I had a handle on my family, they turned my world upside down all over again.

"This way," Starr said, pointing north with a long, girlish finger. She shot out into the current, her tail pin-balling away from me as she streaked like lightning through the murky depths of the water. When she realized I wasn't following her, she stopped.

"Aren't you coming, Little Death?" she said curiously.

I was torn.

Part of me wanted to follow suit, to slalom through the blue sea after the Siren . . . but then another, more persistent voice-one that spoke in a clipped British accent reminiscent in tone to the late Jarvis de Poupsy-begged me to stop looking to other people to solve my problems, insisting that my downfall would always be listening to others rather than following my own instincts.

It wasn't a hard call to make. Not after I took a moment to really think about it.

"I can't go with you, Starr," I said suddenly.

The Siren stared at me, her blue eyes hard to read.

"You're not a very nice niece," she pouted.

"I promise when this is all over, I'll make it up to you," I said.

The Siren perked up at that.

"Really? You promise you'll make it up to me?"

I nodded my big sea serpent head.

"If I had a pinkie, I'd pinkie swear it."

Starr clapped her hands together happily.

"Goodie!" she trilled then she threw her arms around my scaled flank, hugging me tightly to her breast.

"Be safe, Little Death, and ask yourself the smart questions," she murmured. Then, using my flank as a starting block, she pushed off and shot out into the deep, dark sea.

I waited until Starr was only a tiny speck way out in the distance then I turned around and I swam back the way I had come.

somewhere in the back of my mind I had an uneasy feeling about leaving Starr to fend for herself. Frank's warning about becoming the responsible party for the Siren if I let her go free echoed in my head. Still, I tried my best to put those thoughts away as I swam through the shallow waters leading back to the strange island I'd just left behind me. back of my mind I had an uneasy feeling about leaving Starr to fend for herself. Frank's warning about becoming the responsible party for the Siren if I let her go free echoed in my head. Still, I tried my best to put those thoughts away as I swam through the shallow waters leading back to the strange island I'd just left behind me.

I circled around the shoals until I reached the island's far eastern side. I didn't know if I would find what I was looking for this far east, but it was better than going back and getting caught by Evangeline and the Bugbears. Just the thought of leaving Daniel to shoulder all the heavy lifting made me feel terrible, but he'd sacrificed himself in order to get me out of there-and the best thing I could do to thank him was to go to Heaven and secure G.o.d's help.

As the water got shallower, it became almost impossible for me to navigate in my sea serpent form, so I wished myself back into my normal body. It felt odd to swap out the power of the larger animal body in favor of my much weaker human shape, but I was glad to be small again as I dog-paddled closer to the sh.o.r.e, my feet dragging across the bottom of the sand bar. I could've swum farther down the coast, beaching myself in a more desolate setting, but I needed something only the inhabited part of the island could provide.

I made my way along the beach on foot until I found an unmanned dock and clambered up the weathered wooden ladder. It was still dark out, but morning and the sunrise were fast approaching, so I knew I had to get where I was going soon or else deal with the onset of the human morning, which was about as appealing as eating a plate of sea slugs. Having to weave in and out of morning commuters in my dingy clothes while they sipped their coffees and checked their BlackBerrys was not how I wanted to spend my morning.

The dock I'd climbed on to was deserted; a boarded-up bait-and-tackle shop and a CLOSED FOR THE WINTER sign on Betty's Fried Oyster Shack gave evidence as to why. My feet squelched in my shoes as I walked down the empty boardwalk, the sea breeze making the gooseflesh on my exposed skin stand at attention like little hair follicle soldiers. My teeth decided to get in on the freezing action, doing nothing to warm me as they chattered away in my skull. I decided I was much better suited to warmer environs-so long as they weren't of the h.e.l.lish variety. I'd spent enough time in h.e.l.l to know I could do without the type of heat the Devil employed down there: namely, the kind that made you sweat out body oil, rather than just plain old salt.w.a.ter and electrolytes.

I stuck to the boardwalk, following the curve of the sh.o.r.eline rather than turning off onto one of the residential throughways I pa.s.sed. As amazing as a warm bed and a cadged bowl of cereal and milk sounded, I wasn't skilled enough in the criminal enterprise of breaking and entering to give one of the houses a try. And being of the klutzy persuasion, I could easily imagine myself caught in a half-open window, my a.s.s hanging out in the breeze for the whole world to see, while inside, a lady in a brown housecoat smacked me upside the head with a toilet brush. Besides, the boardwalk appeared to be where all the commerce in the village happened-and that was where I'd find what I was looking for, if it existed at all.

After a ten-minute walk, though, I was no closer to finding what I sought than when I'd begun.

I was starting to get annoyed with myself-and the part of my brain that'd told me to go with Starr was now lobbing self-recriminations at me. I was in the middle of nowhere, looking for something that probably didn't exist, it was cold, and I was wet and I smelled like old leather and fish. Definitely the kind of aroma that would get you killed out in the wild by a pack of feral dogs.