Page 35 of The Scent of Salt & Sand

The shimmering specter lumbered forward, the man’s writhing body carving a blood-soaked streak in the dusty floor behind her.

Melody sucked in air. “Rhapsody.”

Rhapsody had made the shift to her true predatory self. Her jaw expanded, hanging low and heavy, too big to belong to her golden frame. Thin, needlelike fangs jutted out from her puckered, scaly mouth, while blood-soaked whiskers hung limply, vibrating with her breath. Her vocal cords constricted by her True Form, she emitted a series of clicks and high-pitched shrieks before shaking the man’s body from the long, daggerlike claws she used as skewers.

Red gushed from the bite in the man’s neck. It pooled around his head and shoulders as his body shuddered and he gasped impotently for air.

Melody dropped to the floor and frantically covered his neck with her hands. She had to stop the bleeding. Blood as warm as Ghirardelli’s hot chocolate pulsed against her palms. He tried to speak, but only burbled scarlet froth. His frightened, pleading eyes stared up at her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, unsure whether blood or tears were warming her cheeks.

Soon, too soon, the waves of blood stopped crashing against her hands, and his expression went slack. Glassy doll eyes stared up at her as the last bits of life seeped from his body.

“What are you?” Rhapsody was on her, jerking her head back by a fistful of her hair. Rhapsody’s face was human again, but just as frightening. Blood dripped off of her teeth to join the rivulets sliding down her chin.

“I’m different! I tried to tell you before!”

Melody’s neck was exposed, and Rhapsody’s ferocious gaze seemed trapped on her pulsing jugular.

“Please don’t kill me,” she begged.

Rhapsody opened her mouth and dragged a bloody claw across her tongue. It left a glossy crimson streak on her taste buds. “Be still.”

Melody was rigid, each inhale shallower than the last in fear of making any unwanted movements. A damp finger swiped her uninjured cheek, rubbing harder and harder until her flesh was raw and bruised.

“Well, well, well, that is a pleasant surprise.” Rhapsody released her fist from Melody’s hair and beamed a nightmarish smile. “You have no makeup on.”

“No, I don’t,” Melody said softly.

“You’ve been here a month. You should look at least a decade older than you do.”

“I know,” Melody said miserably.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about this, you foolish girl?”

“I—I…” Melody scrambled for an explanation that wouldn’t further infuriate the enraged Siren, but fear muddied her thoughts.

“You know, you’re exactly what we have waited centuries for.” Rhapsody leaned in closer, blood hanging metallic on her breath. “You’re the beginning of our salvation.”

Chapter Fourteen

Melody’s stomach churned. “No.” She shook her head. “I’m no one’s salvation.”

Rhapsody’s laughter lacked real humor. “Do tell, then, why aren’t you aging like the rest of us?”

“Something happened to me on the way to this realm, and since then I’ve been having memories of a different life. A human life,” she blurted.

With inhuman strength, Rhapsody lifted Melody to her feet and pulled her to stand before a dirty window where their reflections stared back at them.

“Change into your True Form with me. Now!” With a flick of her head, Rhapsody’s human face shifted to reveal the Siren again. When Melody hesitated, she hissed a warning. Her breath sent waves of nausea coursing through Melody.

The young Siren stared into the mirrored glass, drew a deep breath, and opened herself to the fear and anger Rhapsody uncovered within her. She clung tightly to those vulnerable and violent emotions, and by doing so found her True Form.

Her skin shivered and Melody’s reflection quivered and changed, but she didn’t look like the creature lurking beside her. In her True Form, Melody’s body was the same emerald as her eyes, just as Rhapsody’s True Form reflected the honey gold of her irises. And like Rhapsody, Melody’s face took on an aquatic look. Her eyes had doubled in size, and her teeth were sharper. Her hair had changed to long, undulating coils of copper that moved as if they were submerged in an invisible ocean. Her neck had lengthened, and grown small gill slits, but it hadn’t thickened like Rhapsody’s. And except for the emerald scales that covered all of her skin, and the delicate webbing between her fingers and toes, her body hadn’t changed at all.

“Ssssssssssshift!” Rhapsody screeched and gnashed her teeth together.

“I did! This is as far as I change! Rhapsody, this is my True Form.” Melody choked back sobs. “I told you something happened to me. I’m no one’s savior—I’m broken.”