Elegy

FORTY-FOUR Termination

The car skidded to a stop, nearly driving right into the front of the house, and Harper leapt out. The engine was running, the door was open, but she didn’t care. She didn’t have time to waste.

She wasn’t sure if she did the right thing, leaving Gemma alone with Liv, or if coming here was even the right thing to do. But for the first time in her life, she didn’t care what was right or wrong. She couldn’t let this happen, and she’d do anything to stop it.

“Daniel!” Harper shouted as she ran into the house.

“What is that bitch doing here?” Penn growled from the upstairs loft.

“Harper, get out of here!” Daniel yelled.

She’d started running toward the stairs, ignoring him, but then Penn appeared, leaning against the railings and looking down from the bedroom. She’d slipped out of her dress into a black negligee, and Harper hoped that she hadn’t made it too late.

But even if she had, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. She did not want Daniel to have sex with Penn, but the main thing she needed to prevent, the thing she’d risk her life to stop, was his becoming a siren. And that couldn’t have happened yet, not if Liv was still alive.

“I’m not letting you do this, and I’m not leaving without Daniel,” Harper told Penn.

Penn smiled. “It’s cute that you think you have control over anything that’s happening.”

Daniel appeared at the railing next to Penn. His shirt was off, and a line of red scratches ran down his chest. Jagged dots on his arm looked like bite marks.

“Oh my god, Daniel.” Harper gasped. “What is she doing to you?”

“Just get out of here. Please,” he begged her.

She shook her head. “No. It was stupid for me to agree to this, and I take it back. Leave with me, now, before it’s too late.”

Daniel made a move toward the steps, but lightning quick, Penn was around him and standing in front of him, blocking his path.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Penn asked.

“To get rid of her,” he said, then he slid around Penn.

Harper raced up the stairs, and he met her in the middle. She wanted to throw her arms around him, but when she tried to touch him, he grabbed her arms and stopped her.

“There has to be another way,” Harper said. “A better way.”

“The only other way is death, and pretty soon, I won’t care, and I’ll just kill all of you,” Penn said. “This is starting to prove to be far more work than it’s worth.”

“I would rather die than spend the rest of my life as a siren or see you spend the rest of your life as a siren,” Harper said, her eyes fixed on his. “And I know that you feel the same way. I know this isn’t what you want. We can fight her.”

“The hell you can,” Penn growled, and walked toward the steps.

Daniel turned around to face her and stood in front of Harper, shielding her. “Penn, I’ve got this.”

“You do not.” Penn glared down at him from where she stood at the top landing. “You don’t have anything. You are weak, and you are a waste of my time. I don’t care what you say or what you want. I’m killing her, and I’m doing it now.”

Without waiting to see if she would act on her words, Daniel ran up the stairs. He knocked her back down on the ground and climbed on top of her. He’d straddled her and pinned her hands to the ground, and even though Harper had never fought Penn, she knew that had to be too easy. Penn had let him do it.

“Now this is hot.” Penn smiled up at him. “This is what I was looking for from you.”

Then she lifted her legs, pushing him upward, and did a backward somersault, rolling him so that he landed on his back with her on top of him, pinning him on the ground. He grunted as he tried to push her off, and Harper raced up the stairs to defend him.

She jumped onto Penn’s back, hitting her as hard as she could. But a second later, Penn hit her hard enough to send her flying back into the railing. The wind was knocked out of her, and for a moment, she was too dazed and in too much pain to do anything except lie there.

“I should’ve killed you a long time ago,” Penn said, and she got up to take care of Harper.

She didn’t make it very far before Daniel was up. He grabbed her arm, meaning to stop her, but Penn had had enough. She grabbed him around the throat, so tight that he struggled for breath, and she lifted him off the ground that way, carrying him to the bathroom off the bedroom.

Penn threw Daniel into it, then slammed the door shut. A small fireplace was in the corner, and Penn grabbed a poker from it. With her superior siren strength, she easily twisted it around the door handle and the frame, making it impossible for Daniel to pull the door open.

Harper got to her feet, leaning back against the railing, and she could hear Daniel pounding on the door as he tried in vain to open it.

“Harper!” Daniel shouted as he beat on the door. “Run, Harper! Get out of here!”

“Now that he’s out of the way, us girls can finally have the heart-to-heart we’ve been needing for so long.” Penn walked slowly toward her, and as she smiled, her smooth teeth gave way to rows of jagged fangs.