Thea stood up, moving between Penn and the staircase as if preparing for Penn to run upstairs and attack Lexi. Penn wanted to do just that, but she stayed where she was, seething.
Her temper was barely under control, and she felt her fingers begin to elongate. Her gums had begun to itch as her teeth shifted into fangs, and her vision had already become clearer as her eyes changed into those of a bird.
“Does she have the scroll?” Thea asked Lexi, her voice calm.
“I don’t know.” Lexi shook her head, and Penn could see tears pooling in her eyes. That only enraged her more, and it took all her strength to keep from flying up there and ripping off her head.
“You’re going to get us all killed!” Penn roared. The monster had taken over her voice, shifting it from silk to something much more demonic.
“Nobody’s dead yet!” Thea held up her hands to calm her sister. “Gemma might not have the scroll yet. Lexi will go look for it, and if it’s there, she’ll bring it here for us to guard personally. If it’s not there, then we’ll go kill Gemma.”
“Why don’t we just go kill her now?” Lexi suggested. “Then it won’t matter if she has it.”
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” Penn asked, narrowing her eyes at her. “You wanted to leave now, so you’re trying to make it so we have to.”
“No, Penn, I swear, it was just an accident,” Lexi said.
“Penn, stop,” Thea said, her words as sweet and melodic as she could make them. “Think. You don’t want to kill Lexi right now. It’s hard enough finding the replacement for one siren, let alone two.”
Penn knew she was right, so she took a deep breath and pushed the monster back down. Slowly she felt her fangs pull back, but her eyes stayed changed. She couldn’t put her anger completely to rest, nor did she want to.
She kept her power with the sirens by letting them know she’d do whatever it took to keep the power. She’d had no problem destroying anyone who stood in her way or went against her, and she wasn’t about to stop now.
“Lexi, go find the scroll,” Penn commanded, and her voice had returned to its normal saccharine tone. “If it’s there, bring it back to me. I will take care of it.”
“What if it’s not there?” Lexi asked.
“You better pray it is, but if Gemma finds that scroll, you’ll be the first one to die,” Penn warned her. “Do you understand?”
Lexi nodded. “Yes, I understand.”
She ran down the stairs, and when she raced by Penn, she gave her as much room as she could. Penn was tempted to give chase and attack her, but it would be better if Lexi retrieved the scroll sooner rather than later.
Thea waited to speak again until after Lexi had gone out the back door. They watched through the window as she dove off the cliff behind the house, where she’d land in the water crashing below them.
“What’s your plan if Gemma doesn’t have the scroll?” Thea asked.
“We’ll stay for now,” Penn said, still staring out the back window as the setting sun reflected off the bay. “I don’t want another Gemma or Lexi on my hands, and the more time I spend being sure that Liv is the right choice, the better off we will all be.
“But we can’t stay that much longer.” Penn turned back to Thea. “It’s only a matter of time before your precious Gemma finds the scroll, so we’ll have to kill her first.”
NINETEEN
Inebriated
Two doors down from Pearl’s Diner was a bar frequented by the dockworkers. Harper had never been inside before because she wasn’t yet of the legal drinking age, but judging by how it looked on the outside, she assumed it was a dive. Her dad had gone there from time to time, and everything he’d said about it had confirmed her suspicions.
When three men came tumbling out of the battered front door of the bar, yelling and swearing, Harper hadn’t thought much of it. They made enough noise to disrupt her kiss with Daniel, but that was all.
Or it would’ve been, if Harper hadn’t seen the source of all the trouble. Two of the men were there just to pull the third one out of the bar. They tossed him onto the sidewalk, where he’d hit his head on the cement, and that was when Harper saw who it was.
“Alex?” Harper asked. She put her hands on Daniel’s chest to push him back a bit, but he’d already started stepping away.
“I’m fine!” Alex had gotten to his feet and was yelling. “That other guy was being the dick, not me!”
Harper rushed over to him, getting there just in time to catch him from falling back again. Unfortunately, he was too heavy for Harper, so he nearly took her down with him, but Daniel grabbed his arm and hoisted him back up.
“Is this a friend of yours?” one of the guys from the bar asked.
“I don’t have any friends.” Alex tried to push Daniel away, but Daniel kept his grip firmly on Alex’s arm. “I don’t need any friends.”
“Yeah, we’re his friends,” Harper said, ignoring Alex’s protests. “And we’re sorry about any trouble he’s caused. He’s just been going through some things.”