Little Mermaid, BIG problem...

Cereus nearly attacked me. "What do you mean she’s gone to the surface?"

Now came the hard part. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. "She took a potion and now she’s…" I swallowed painfully not daring to meet Cereus’ crazed eyes. I couldn’t say it; I couldn’t say that awful, awful word… "Human." It oozed from my lips.

Then, right then as if triggered by the terrible, terrible word; a high-pitched screaming, screeching, ear-splitting alarm went off. The sound tore through the mall and right through my brain. The dim mall lights began to flash red and blue, casting eerie flickering shadows down the length of the dark hall.

The sonic and obviously magically enhanced blast made Cereus and I buckle to the floor. "What is that?" I screamed over the noise, my scales rippled from the magical vibe in the water.

"It’s the mercurity system," Cereus answered in a thunderous but calm voice. "My dad helped design it; it has magic sensors that go off when there is an ocean wide eMERgency; when our safety is breached or our cities are invaded, or when the secret of our existence has been compromised…"

We looked at each other; we were both thinking the exact same thing. We said it aloud, in unison: "Abatina."

                                                                       ***
           
             *Sixteen year old Calandine Undercurrent thinks she has her life figured out. With her supportive family and her bright future she’s one lucky mermaid. Calandine thinks she has it all under control, that is until her reckless best friend, Abatina Jetstream gets them both into trouble when she convinces Calandine to help her save a shipwrecked young human who just happens to be a prince! It’s love at first sight for Abatina and nothing but trouble for Calandine, especially once Abatina decides to become human and go in search of her prince, thus triggering the eMERgency of the century! Now it’s up to Calandine and Abatina’s charming twin brother, Cereus Jetstream to set things right again, even if it means becoming humans themselves. But can Calandine operate with her world turned upside down and her plans in shambles? Can she function with everything out of control, even her own feelings?...


*(Synopsis as seen on back cover of book) 　

Book Excerpt: Going Overboard

  

We both stared at him, waiting for him to breathe, but he didn’t.  I quickly grew impatient; Abatina began to whimper again.  I was fed up, but just as I was about to try slapping him again, his body lurched, and he made a terrible gasping sound, right before he started breathing. 

“You’re brilliant!” Abatina exclaimed, throwing her arms around me.  I was too relieved to respond, but I was thrilled, really.  Abatina released me and turned her attention back to the human as he coughed up the remaining water in his lungs, burying his face in the sand as he did.

 I glanced around, watching him breathe only made me crave water more.  I noticed that the storm seemed to be passing, and in the distance I could see that the ship had managed to stay afloat.  “Abatina,” I said, “We should go, before he gets back in his right mind and notices that we’re mermaids.”  Just as I said this, the man finished coughing, and then his ragged shoulders collapsed and he went limp again, pressing his nose in the dirt.  Now was our chance to get away.  Abatina gently flipped the sailor onto his back.  His eyes were shut and he was out again, but at least he was breathing normally.  “He’ll be fine,” I said, “he probably lives up somewhere near the castle.  The rest of the sailors will find him when they dock.” 

 I quickly realized that Abatina was paying no attention whatsoever to me.  Instead she was leaning over the sailor, just staring like he was the most fascinating thing ever.   To me he looked like a drowned rat.  And then she touched him, on purpose!   She slipped her fingers into his dull, curly brown hair.  “He’s so handsome,” she murmured.  I took another look at him; he was young, a few years older than us at most, and he was alright looking, for a human.

 I shrugged.  “Abby, we’ve got to go; the other sailors can probably see us from here…”

Still, she paid no attention; still, she ran her fingers through his mop of hair.  “Look,” she instructed, pulling it back off his forehead to reveal a gold ringlet set around his brow. 

I leaned in to inspect it closer, realizing that there was also a gaudy ring on his index finger.  Then I noticed that his clothes, no matter how torn up they were, were not the clothes of a normal sailor.  “Neptune,” I breathed shaking my head as it hit me.

 “He’s a prince,” Abatina said unnecessarily, “The prince…  He doesn’t live near the castle; he lives in the castle…”  She reached out her hand to touch him again, but I batted it away.

“Leave him be!” I scolded, now I was really beginning to worry, a prince?  What if he remembered what happened?  What if he decreed it to all his people?  What if he put a price on our heads?  I glanced around, suddenly paranoid, my tail tingled.  It was still dark, but in that moment I swore I saw a figure standing down on the beach far to our left.  I grabbed Abatina’s arm, “We’re going.” I commanded.  I had to drag her away.

“Wait!” she cried jumping back to the prince’s side, “I don’t want him to forget me…”  I watched in horror as she slipped off one of her sea glass rings and slid it onto his pinky.

I grabbed her arm again, this time sure not to let go.  “Well, he’d better not remember this.” I muttered.  We made our way down the beach with Abby glancing back at every second.  Soon we were swept back into the waves...

Book Excerpt: Nice To Eat You...

I darted out of the way as he came at me, just fast enough to get him really riled up. His teeth rang together horribly as they clamped around empty water; that made him especially angry and he lunged at me again. Using all my speed, I zipped around him so that I was hiding behind his tail and for a moment he couldn’t find me. I held my breath as he looked to the right and to the left but he couldn’t spot me; he started spinning in frustrated circles, I spun with him remaining beside his tail so that I didn’t fall into his line of vision. He got bored of this quickly enough and stopped circling, while I, caught in the motion continued to spin, right into his snout.

It surprised both of us but I actually managed to recover first. I shot away from him as fast as I could. Then we played tag for a while, just for the fun of it. The shark was always on my tail, snapping at it with those awful teeth. I darted around weeds, and sand dunes and piles of sunken treasures but I just couldn’t escape him. I was faster, but I was also wearing down…
With the last of my energy I shot as far ahead of him as I could and dived behind a large junk pile. I waited for the shark, catching my breath and lifting the only weapon I had- my shoulder bag. I wound it up, waited for him to come around the bend, and then clocked him, right in the gills. I heard a crunch and was almost certain that it was my shell phone being crushed inside my bag, but that was the least of my problems.

The shark bounced away from me, more stunned than injured, but he quickly regained himself. He made that weird growly sound that runs your blood cold and ground his teeth together. He approached me again, this time advancing slowly; I saw blood coming from the wound I had given him. I knew then that things had gotten personal; and that that wound would most likely be the last and only point I’d get in the battle. He was so close I could count the millions of rows of razor sharp teeth in his gargantuan mouth; they shone like pearls, only far less blunt. I backed up against the trash heap behind me; I was boxed in- done for. The shark snapped his jaws at me as we both prepared for the final blow. I closed my eyes…