Thea groaned and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“Where’s Bernie?” Gemma asked.

“Who?” Lexi asked.

“Bernie.” Gemma brushed past them to check out the bedroom in the back. She pushed open the door, but only found more of the mess she’d seen in the rest of the cabin. “Bernie? Mr. McAllister?”

When she didn’t see him, she turned back to the sirens. Penn and Thea just watched her, but Lexi played with her hair and looked at the floor.

“Where is he?” Gemma asked. “What did you do to him? Did you hurt him?”

“He gave us the place.” Penn shrugged. “You know how persuasive we can be.”

“Where is he?” Gemma repeated, her voice getting harder. “Did you kill him the way you did those other boys?”

“I’d hardly call that old man a ‘boy,’” Penn said, her tone teasing.

“Stop it!” Gemma yelled, and Lexi flinched. “You said you told me the truth, but you didn’t. I know you’ve been killing people, and you didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t lie,” Penn scoffed. “I never said, We don’t kill people, Gemma.”

Her stomach dropped. “So you admit it.”

“Yes. I admit it.” As she stepped closer to Gemma, she smiled and tilted her head, her voice silky and sweet. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But it’s only one little detail.”

“One little detail?” Gemma stepped back. “You’re murderers!”

“We’re not murderers!” Lexi said defensively. “At least, not any more than a hunter is, than you are when you eat a hamburger. We do what we have to do to live.”

“You’re cannibals?” Gemma’s jaw dropped, and she kept stepping back. She wasn’t looking where she was going and nearly tripped over a book, but she caught herself on the wall.

“That’s why we don’t lead with that,” Penn explained in a way that sounded so reasonable, so logical that it sent chills down Gemma’s spine. “We have eternal youth and unmatched beauty. We can change form into magical, mythical creatures. So we survive on mortal blood. What’s that one little thing, when we get so much in return?”

“One little thing?” Gemma asked, laughing darkly. “You’re monsters!”

“Don’t.” Penn pursed her lips and shook her head. “I hate the word monster.”

Gemma stood straight and moved away from the wall so she wasn’t leaning on it anymore. She met Penn’s dark eyes. “I just call it like I see it, and right now, standing in front of me, all I see is a monster.”

“Gemma,” Lexi said, her voice quavering slightly. “Don’t push her.”

“You really have no idea what you’re messing with,” Thea agreed.

“It’s okay.” Penn held up her hand toward Thea and Lexi but kept her eyes locked on Gemma. “She’s just forgotten her place. She’s forgotten that she is one of us now.”

“I’ll never be one of you.” Gemma shook her head. “I will sooner die than kill anyone.”

“I’ll be more than happy to arrange that for you.”

“Then do it.” Gemma raised her chin defiantly. “You said if I don’t go with you, then I’ll die. And I’m not going with you.”

Penn’s jaw clenched, and Gemma could see something happening underneath her skin. Almost like a current running over her face. Penn’s eyes even changed color, shifting from dark brown to a yellow-green.

Then all at once the shifting stopped, and her eyes went back to their usual soulless black. When she opened her mouth to speak, her teeth were visibly sharper.

“You’ve given me no choice. I’m going to have to show you exactly who you are.” Penn looked back over at Thea and Lexi. “Call for him.”

“Who?” Lexi asked.

“Whoever answers,” Penn replied.

Lexi glanced uncertainly at Gemma, then back at Thea. Thea sighed but began singing first. Her voice was beautiful in its own husky way, but it wasn’t until Lexi joined in that Gemma felt the full enchanting power of their music.

They were singing the song that Gemma had heard before, the one she herself had sung in the shower. As soon as they opened their mouths, Gemma knew all the words, and she wanted to join in. She actually had to bite her tongue to stop herself.

Thea and Lexi turned and walked out of the cabin, standing on the porch to sing their siren song, calling for someone to come join them on the island.

TWENTY-FIVE

Poor Voyager

“Harper!” Alex shouted, and she snuggled deeper into her bed. “Harper!”

“What?” Harper muttered into her pillow, but by then she was awake enough that she heard the panic in his voice. She sat up, looking around her dark bedroom in confusion. “Alex?”

“I’m outside!” Alex yelled, and Harper looked out her window to see him standing there, shouting up at her.

“What are you doing?” Harper asked. “What’s going on?”

“Gemma ran away. I tried to stop her…” He trailed off for a moment, then continued. “I think she went down to the bay, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Dammit.”

Harper lunged out of bed, scrambling around in the dark to put on her clothes. Alex kept talking outside, but she hadn’t really heard much of anything after he said that Gemma was gone. She was pulling on her sweater as she ran out the front door, and Alex was still standing below her now-empty bedroom, talking up to it.