Water and Blood Read online

  “How far away this time?” Leo asked, almost like he was complaining.

  “If I was driving? We could be there in three hours, but you know how Mr. Max drives. It will probably take him at least five hours to get there,” Mark complained.

  They were going somewhere, but where was the question. Whitney couldn’t afford to let Sam escape. What if he didn’t come back?

  There was a thunk from the other side of the bus that made Whitney curious. She whipped her phone back out and looked around the vehicle. The guys were all packing something into the storage spots beneath the big bus. They were definitely going somewhere and taking large bags with them.

  “This would be much easier if we’d just let them send a crew to load all our stuff up,” Mark replied. For as smooth as he was when talking to Whitney, she was surprised to see the complainer side of him. Nothing at work seemed to ever bother him.

  “But we all agreed not to. It is safer for us this way,” Sam reminded his friend. “So we pack.”

  All three guys headed back into the gray, worn-down building. Whitney didn’t think, but used their absence as an opportunity. If the guys were going somewhere on the bus, then she was going with them. The bus was big enough. She could just hide in a row of seats and hope they didn’t walk by. Whitney climbed up the stairs and ducked down as soon as the door opened to the warehouse again. Pressing her back against the panel, she held her breath, hoping they wouldn’t come up inside the bus where she wasn’t even close to hidden.

  They talked more as they packed and soon enough the door to the warehouse opened and shut again. Whitney tentatively stood up, trying to hide as much of herself as she could under the windows. Finally looking around the bus, she was confused by what she saw. She had expected rows of seats. Instead, she found two benches against the windows on either side of the bus, with doors at the back. Whitney half walked, half crawled toward the other end of the bus. She would need a good hiding spot.

  Beyond the benches in the first door on the right was a bathroom—basically a small closet with a toilet and sink. Not a good choice for hiding spots. On the left side was a door that led to a shower. The door appeared to open right into the shower; it was a possible hiding spot, but since the bus would be moving, a slippery shower wasn’t ideal. She would keep searching.

  Whitney glanced out the windows and saw the guys come back out with more equipment. That was just another mystery. Hiding space first, figuring out what was going on would have to be second. Whitney slid down and hoped they hadn’t seen her.

  Voices came through the open bus door as they packed, but instead of coming up, they headed back in. She was safe for now, so she hurried to the back of the bus and stopped in shock. There was what looked like a bathtub in the back of the bus. Prying off the corner of the cover confirmed what she thought it was—a hot tub big enough to fit several people. Certainly not a good hiding spot since any sort of water turned her into a fish. There were bench seats also in the back, but that wouldn’t work as she would be in plain view of the bus driver.

  Making the way back to the front of the bus, Whitney continued to try to find a hiding spot. She didn’t want to get off the bus. She needed to talk to Sam, and if he was going somewhere, she was going with him. Think, think, think, she told herself as she tapped her head. While a natural blonde, Whitney was anything but dumb, regardless of all the jokes she had heard over the years. She needed somewhere to hide.

  The guys came back out the door, and she dropped to the ground next to the bench seat. This was never going to work out if they found her. She turned her head and waited as she listened to them talk. Hopefully, they weren’t done, as she needed more time to search the bus. There had to be a way to hide. Whitney turned her head toward the bench seat as she listened more. Then she saw it: the bench seats had a cloth running down the front and sides to make them look like solid seats, but they weren’t. They were empty underneath.

  Whitney scrambled to the end of the bench and pulled up the fabric flap. The guys still hadn’t gone back inside, which wasn’t good news. She slithered under the seats and luckily they were long enough that she could fit by lying straight as a board. Whitney reached down and grabbed her phone, turning off the ringer just to be safe as she smashed herself as far away from the front of the seat as she could.

  Her hiding spot was perfect and perfectly timed as someone came onto the bus. Whitney sucked in her breath and plastered her body as close to the wall as possible, trying to make sure that if the cloth moved a little, she would still be hidden. Three sets of shoes walked past her.

  “Where is he?” Mark complained.

  “He was just inside. Did anyone tell him we were almost packed?” Sam replied.

  “Yeah, yeah, you brats already told me. Can’t an old guy take a few minutes longer to get on the bus?” a gruff voice complained as the speaker slowly, but loudly, walked up the stairs.

  The seat bounced a little as someone sat down.

  “Don’t take all day, old man,” Leo said to him teasingly. “We still need to perform tonight, and the opening act won’t last all evening.”

  “I’ll have you guys there by eight, don’t worry about that,” the older man replied, shutting the door to the bus with a clank and turning the engine on.

  The noise rumbled beneath Whitney, and she could no longer make out the words of the guys. If they were going on a four-hour bus ride, she sure wasn’t going to be home by curfew. She needed to make a few texts to make sure she didn’t get in trouble. It wasn’t like her aunt really would notice. She was probably working, but Whitney didn’t want to take the chance she would actually be home and call the cops. She had done that on more than one occasion for her younger cousin. Tina would lie to her aunt and say she was there. Heck, if needed, Tina actually did a really good impression of Whitney that could even fool her aunt.

  The bus lurched forward, and Whitney braced herself beneath the seats. It was going to be a long four hours, but at least she would get an answer to one question. What the heck was Sam up to with his friends?

  CHAPTER 3

  Sam wiped the sweat off his face as he exited the stage. He was hungry and all the control he had to use while singing made it worse. He’d probably have to head right out to sea as soon as they got back to find something to eat. Human blood was preferred and most never strayed, but Sam found he could bear any type of mammal blood if needed. At least the guys understood, or rather tolerated, Sam. Well, they understood that the singing was hard, but heading out to feed would make them upset as always. He was pretty sure they had more than a few treats waiting to ride the bus with them. Sam just didn’t feel like feeding on some strangers. Who he really wanted to feed on was a stunning blonde, but she wasn’t an option. He had already fed on Whitney that week before when he had to rescue her in her swim lesson. He was limited to drinking blood only once every two weeks from her.

  Singing for money wasn’t Sam’s first choice of professions. He would have been much happier washing cars or being a lifeguard. But those jobs didn’t pay nearly as much as singing. And singing kept him off the radar of the hunters. They would never expect him to be a siren since he could sing on stage and not affect the audience. Sam was lucky he had the control. Leo and Mark didn’t. Good thing they could play backup, and their manager hired backup singers once Sam had convinced him that Leo and Mark couldn’t sing.

  “The bus will be packed up in fifteen,” Clark said as he tossed Sam a towel. “If you’d let my guys go back with you, they’d have it unpacked just as quick.”

  Clark, their manager for the past two years, always offered to send someone back. That was really just code that he wanted to see where Sam and the guys lived and recorded their music. Sam couldn’t let him do that. He’d see that they didn’t exactly record in a rundown place like he thought. Being a siren did have it’s perks, like people willing to donate large amounts of new equipment if you asked nicely, or maybe sang them a song or two. Sam didn’t feel like it
was right, but then again, at least they didn’t kill the day humans to get the equipment, and it wasn’t his fault day humans fell for their songs.

  Sam climbed up into the bus to wait and stripped off his shirt in the process. He was still drenched in sweat from being on the stage, and the towel around his neck wasn’t keeping his shirt dry. They were almost finished packing, and he should have stayed down to make sure everything was packed correctly, but he didn’t want to stick around all the day humans who were hanging out and screaming his name. It wasn’t exactly safe at the moment now that his hunger was growing.

  He could smell the day human guests the guys brought on when he walked on the bus, and ignored them as he sat down in the front. It was going to be torture, four hours of it to be exact. One of these days he was going to have to leave his morals at the door and join them, but not today. He still had enough control to make it home.

  Leo walked on the bus behind Sam with his own day human groupie hanging on him.

  “Going to join us in the tub?” Leo asked as the girl beside him giggled into his chest. She didn’t look like she was old enough to be out as late as it was. Sam raised an eyebrow to Leo, who smirked and wiggled his own eyebrows in return. No, she probably wasn’t.

  The girl finally noticed Sam where he sat, and she swooned at the sight of him. Sam rolled his eyes at Leo who tried to keep her from falling by pressing her into a hug.

  “There’s plenty of food if you want to join us,” Leo added. “Mark always picks up at least three.”

  “No thanks,” Sam replied, waving Leo through the bus to the back where the hot tub was.

  Leo shrugged and ushered the girl in his arms to the back of the bus. He turned to ask Sam one last time, but Sam just stared back at him, giving him the look that said to keep their feeding safe. The only way Sam even allowed Mark and Leo to feed on the bus was if they made sure their girls wouldn’t die and bring attention to their group. Mark had agreed as he was used to Sam and his no-kill policies, but Leo took some arguing with. When they met a hunter at their first concert, Leo seemed to agree that draining their dates was off the table. It was a close enough call for him to reform, at least in front of Sam.

  Sam wasn’t against killing day humans in particular—they were food after all—but he took his job very seriously. He was responsible for the sirens living in his town. He hated to have to go fight with the hunters. They were trouble and had killed two of his older brothers when they were the head of the guard as Sam was now. By enacting the policy where they wouldn’t kill day humans once he came to land at sixteen, Sam had made the sirens on land completely safe. They hadn’t had a hunter in town in over eighteen months. Everyone hated the policy, but they agreed it was the best idea. Sam was there to protect them, but he couldn’t protect everyone at every moment.

  Lying back against the window, Sam let his mind drift. He wouldn’t fall asleep on the bumpy bus, but he could daydream a bit. His daydreams went instantly to her as he knew they would. Whitney had been at school today, and since lunch, with his brother showing up, he had noticed her attention on him. He hoped that wasn’t because of Tim. Girls always fell for Tim. Sam knew Whitney wasn’t like most girls, but she was still just a day human girl. Tim’s charms probably would work on her and that kind of upset him. Tim could never be the guy for Whitney. He was rotten to the core. Whitney deserved more than that.

  Whitney’s new attention on him got him thinking. Part of him wondered if she remembered anything from her swim lesson, but that was impossible. She was almost dead. If she remembered anything, she’d think Sam was part angel. Sam snuck a glance or two at her each time he saw her during the day. Was it possible that she looked more beautiful and alluring than before? She was just a day human and playing tricks on him. It had to be the lack of blood. He needed to take on a few more students to feed from. That’s what he needed.

  The bus started up, and Sam realized he hadn’t noticed the bus driver, Mr. Max, come onboard. Anyone could have come on the bus, and they would have been in trouble if it were a hunter. He was going to have to quit all his daydreaming. He would fail at his job if he was too busy thinking of a particular blonde who invaded his every thought.

  Sam sat up as the bus pulled out of the parking lot and turned to head toward home. The boys in the back with their girls were splashing around in the hot tub. He wasn’t about to join them. The water splashed again, and Sam stood up. He couldn’t risk feeding on the girls, but he could take a shower. There was enough water in the system for two showers, and if he took one long one, he would feel better. His skin had been itching since the afternoon.

  One of the girls giggled as Mark began to sing. It was only the first time of the ride they would be feeding. Sam really didn’t need to stick around to hear that also. It was bad enough he was craving blood and a certain blonde girl that would never be his. Life overall sucked for the time being. His father wanted him to come home, and he couldn’t live the life he wanted if he did that. Yep, life more than sucked. Sam needed a miracle and something to keep him distracted from his life.

  Opening the door to the shower, Sam just stood and stared. He had asked for a miracle, but he hadn’t really expected one to be waiting there. Sam wasn’t one for organized religion, but perhaps that was about to change. He reached forward and touched the girl in his shower. No, he wasn’t just imagining it. Whitney was really there.

  Whitney’s mouth hung open in shock. She hadn’t had time to hide back under the seat after the concert when Mark showed up with two girls in tow. She figured they would need to pack everything, but she saw Mark coming as soon as she was on the bus. She was lucky she made it on at all, and that would have been majorly awkward if she had to get someone to drive up in the middle of the night to get her. She still didn’t know exactly where she was. Once on the bus, Whitney ducked into the shower, hoping to move once the coast was clear. Mark had walked on the bus and hadn’t left. It was either the shower or the bathroom. She was sure that the bathroom was the more used room, and since none of the guys used the shower on the way to the concert, she took the only chance to make it home unseen. Well, that didn’t exactly turn out that way.

  Sam didn’t say a word as he stared at Whitney. She didn’t know what to say either. Was he going to tell the other guys?

  Stepping into the already small space, Sam shut the door behind him. His wide shoulders almost touched both sides of the walls at the same time. The plastic walls rattled, and the water perched above Whitney began to fall. She heard the water move just as she had at lunch, but now there was nowhere to go. There was barely enough room for the both of them as it was.

  The water fell from the corner above her head, and Whitney only stared at Sam as it happened. She regretted that she was fully dressed and turning into a night human. She was going to have to walk home naked after she dried off, and it was going to be completely humiliating as it was just to turn back in front of the guys. She didn’t need to look; she could feel her legs melt together. What she needed was for Sam to tell her what the heck was going on. From the expression on his face, he was shocked, but not the kind of shock like he hadn’t seen a fin or two before.

  “Care to explain?” Whitney asked from her seat in the shower. How nice that the shower had a small bench seat. She didn’t have to tip over like she did in her own shower when it first happened.

  “Crap,” Sam replied. That wasn’t an explanation at all.

  “Buddy, you’re missing all the fun,” Mark yelled, pounding on the door. Sam had locked it behind himself, but the flimsy plastic wobbled.

  Sam put a finger to his mouth for Whitney to be quiet. Even though she had no idea what was going on, she nodded. For some crazy instinct, she trusted Sam.

  “I’m not hungry. I plan to shower and use up all the water,” Sam told his friend. That must have been a good enough answer since he seemed to relax, like Mark was now gone again.

  Sam reached past Whitney and turned the nozzles to the shower.<
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  Whitney would have “eeked” at the cold water that was shooting out of the shower head, but it didn’t feel cold at all. It actually felt nice. Sam moved closer into the small amount of room in front of Whitney and looked down at her. Bracing his hands on either side of her head, he moved his face beside hers.

  “I’m going to pick you up and set you on my lap,” he explained in a calm voice, like he might upset her.

  Whitney didn’t like to be manhandled, but then again, there wasn’t much she could do with a fin, and since he turned the shower on, the fin wasn’t going anywhere.

  Sam easily picked her up and maneuvered himself to the seat beneath her with her back on his lap. Whitney grabbed around his neck to not tip over as he moved her. She relaxed while the water beat down on the both of them. She was pissed, as she was sure he knew something, but the water felt too good. It felt like it washed away her anger the longer it touched her. And the itching she had felt since she boarded the bus was completely gone.

  Whitney stared at Sam, sitting eye level with him on his lap, his broad arms wrapped around her, keeping her from falling over as the bus turned.

  “We have about ten minutes before the water runs out,” Sam stated, breaking their eye contact as he looked at her fin. “After that, we can’t talk without the guys hearing us.”

  “And that would be bad?” Whitney had to jump to conclusions. Sam wasn’t explaining much of anything.

  “Yes, very bad,” Sam replied, holding her steady with one arm and reaching forward with his other hand. He touched her fin gently, right where her knees would have been.

  It was a strange and very new sensation. When she had turned into a part fish the night before, she poked and prodded the whole tail as she tried to make it go away, but having Sam touch it was so much different, a bit intimate. The ends of her tail flickered when he touched her finned knees. Sam grinned.

  “Glad my new tail makes you happy, but you have a lot of explaining to do,” Whitney scolded him as best she could, but she was still sitting wrapped in his arms. It was a lot less effective from that point as he protected her from every bump and turn of the road.