terrorize her, and it did. Man, oh, man, she was scared to death. But it also gave her a heads-up, made her aware, gave her a chance to be ready for him, time to thwart him.
“Just try it, you bastard,” she muttered under her breath as she wiped the condensation from the medicine cabinet mirror over the sink and saw rage in her own eyes. Before she’d known she was pregnant, she might have felt more bone-numbing terror, but now it wasn’t just she who was in danger. It was the tiny bit of life growing within her. Small as it was, she would protect it.
Justice Turnbull be damned. She slung her towel over the shower door and made her way to her bedroom.
After slipping into jeans and a sweater, she tossed on a Windbreaker, then slipped her feet into socks and sneakers. At the bureau mirror, she combed her hair straight down, seeing the thin line of light blondish brown at her center part, her grow-out. Dyeing her hair had become almost an obsession. As soon as she’d learned she and Byron were leaving Portland for the area around Deception Bay, she’d panicked inside, felt she had to do something, anything to hide her identity. She’d left the coast years before, to forge a new life but also to distance herself from her family in order to keep them all safe. Justice was a real threat, though not the only one, but he was definitely the most dangerous, the most immediate, the most determined. She’d tried to disguise herself physically in an effort to stay under the radar, but now she saw she’d underestimated his methods of finding her.
She walked into the kitchen, undecided about what her next move was, and snagged her keys from a hook near the back door. She was off work until the following evening. She thought of her family. The locals called them the Colony, and their lodge Siren Song. She had lived with them until her teens and had taken a job at a local market for a while, one foot in each world as she determined what she wanted. Two of her sisters had been adopted out when they were children. Another had simply wandered away. Most were still at the lodge, younger than Laura, under Catherine’s able, vigilant, and near paranoid care.
Maybe not so paranoid, she thought now.
When Justice had gone on his rampage a few years back, the gates, which had already been closed to the outside world, were locked shut. Laura was on her own and with Byron by then. She had sent Catherine a letter, asking if she needed her to come back and batten down the hatches, and had received a note in return that simply said: Stay away .
Then Justice had been caught, and Byron, never suspecting his wife had been in any kind of danger or that her roots were centered here, on the Oregon coast, had taken the position at Ocean Park. At first Laura had wondered if there was some connection that had drawn him here, if he’d somehow understood that she was from this part of the world, but she’d come to realize it was just a twist of fate. And though she’d resisted with all her might, driven by fear for her family, a part of her had been seduced by the idea. She’d spun a fantasy to herself whereby she could be part of her family and live a life with Byron outside Siren Song as well. Why couldn’t she have that? she asked herself. It wasn’t even a difficult request. Most everyone detached from their nuclear family to create their own, and yet the new family kept in contact with the old.
But “most everyone” wasn’t her family. They didn’t share her secrets and history.
They weren’t gifted.
Now she gritted her teeth and headed for the door and her Outback. Gifted. What a joke. Right now she would do a lot to rid herself of this gift.
Except it might be all that stood between her family and total destruction.
CHAPTER 8
H arrison awoke with a start and wondered where the hell he was in the moment before true wakefulness occurred. Then he saw that he was in his sleeping bag. On the floor of his new apartment. And it was
“Just try it, you bastard,” she muttered under her breath as she wiped the condensation from the medicine cabinet mirror over the sink and saw rage in her own eyes. Before she’d known she was pregnant, she might have felt more bone-numbing terror, but now it wasn’t just she who was in danger. It was the tiny bit of life growing within her. Small as it was, she would protect it.
Justice Turnbull be damned. She slung her towel over the shower door and made her way to her bedroom.
After slipping into jeans and a sweater, she tossed on a Windbreaker, then slipped her feet into socks and sneakers. At the bureau mirror, she combed her hair straight down, seeing the thin line of light blondish brown at her center part, her grow-out. Dyeing her hair had become almost an obsession. As soon as she’d learned she and Byron were leaving Portland for the area around Deception Bay, she’d panicked inside, felt she had to do something, anything to hide her identity. She’d left the coast years before, to forge a new life but also to distance herself from her family in order to keep them all safe. Justice was a real threat, though not the only one, but he was definitely the most dangerous, the most immediate, the most determined. She’d tried to disguise herself physically in an effort to stay under the radar, but now she saw she’d underestimated his methods of finding her.
She walked into the kitchen, undecided about what her next move was, and snagged her keys from a hook near the back door. She was off work until the following evening. She thought of her family. The locals called them the Colony, and their lodge Siren Song. She had lived with them until her teens and had taken a job at a local market for a while, one foot in each world as she determined what she wanted. Two of her sisters had been adopted out when they were children. Another had simply wandered away. Most were still at the lodge, younger than Laura, under Catherine’s able, vigilant, and near paranoid care.
Maybe not so paranoid, she thought now.
When Justice had gone on his rampage a few years back, the gates, which had already been closed to the outside world, were locked shut. Laura was on her own and with Byron by then. She had sent Catherine a letter, asking if she needed her to come back and batten down the hatches, and had received a note in return that simply said: Stay away .
Then Justice had been caught, and Byron, never suspecting his wife had been in any kind of danger or that her roots were centered here, on the Oregon coast, had taken the position at Ocean Park. At first Laura had wondered if there was some connection that had drawn him here, if he’d somehow understood that she was from this part of the world, but she’d come to realize it was just a twist of fate. And though she’d resisted with all her might, driven by fear for her family, a part of her had been seduced by the idea. She’d spun a fantasy to herself whereby she could be part of her family and live a life with Byron outside Siren Song as well. Why couldn’t she have that? she asked herself. It wasn’t even a difficult request. Most everyone detached from their nuclear family to create their own, and yet the new family kept in contact with the old.
But “most everyone” wasn’t her family. They didn’t share her secrets and history.
They weren’t gifted.
Now she gritted her teeth and headed for the door and her Outback. Gifted. What a joke. Right now she would do a lot to rid herself of this gift.
Except it might be all that stood between her family and total destruction.
CHAPTER 8
H arrison awoke with a start and wondered where the hell he was in the moment before true wakefulness occurred. Then he saw that he was in his sleeping bag. On the floor of his new apartment. And it was
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