Read Shifting (Swans Landing) for Free Online

know what. I had never changed form before, so I don’t think the ocean had the hold on me that it does now.” She frowned. “I guess now I can’t go too far from the water, can I?”
    I shook my head as the water slipped across the sand, foaming around my toes. It called to me, begging me to go in and swim. “You’ll feel like you’re drowning on air if you try to leave the ocean. The earth’s essence can sustain you for a short time, but the water will always call you back.”
    “How far inland have you gone?” Mara asked.
    “I used to go see a doctor on the mainland when I was a kid,” I said. “But it hurt too much and I told my parents I wouldn’t go anymore a couple years ago. I don’t leave the island very often anymore.”
    Mara lowered her camera, her eyebrows raised. “But you could go to the other islands, couldn’t you? You would be able to survive traveling along the coastline.”
    “I don’t really see the point. I’m still stuck.”
    Mara opened her mouth, but voices caught our attention. A group of people broke through the heavy fog along the shoreline. As they drew closer, my stomach clenched and my body tensed.
    Elizabeth walked with Jackie and Kyle, and another guy, Mark from school. Kyle had his arm slung around Elizabeth’s shoulder, keeping her body tucked close to his. Apparently, that little thing between them was back on again.
    My teeth ached with how hard I grit them together.
    They caught sight of us when they were only a few feet away and their expressions changed to hostility. Elizabeth looked at Mara, her eyes never glancing my way, as if she could pretend I didn’t exist and the time we’d spent together had never happened.
    “What are you doing here, shark bait?” Jackie sneered.
    Mara ignored them and studied her camera. “Let’s go somewhere else,” she said to me. “Somewhere a little more private.”
    Elizabeth’s eyebrows drew together in a tight scowl at Mara’s words. “There’s no such thing as privacy around here,” she said. “This is Swans Landing. Everyone knows what you do.”
    Not everything, I thought, suppressing a smug grin.
    “We’re not doing anything that concerns you,” I said. “Go somewhere else to do whatever it is you’re doing.”
    “This is our island, Fish Boy,” Kyle said, stepping toward me. “Why don’t you go off and swim with the crabs?”
    Jackie and Mark laughed, but Elizabeth glared at me with apprehension etched into her features. What, did she think I’d spill her little secret to these guys? Like I wanted Mara to hear about it. Maybe if she hadn’t been there, I’d take pleasure in seeing the fury on Kyle’s face when he heard it had been me with my hands on Elizabeth the day before. But for now, I’d keep my mouth shut and my secrets to myself.
    “Clever,” I told him. “Did you think that up all by yourself?”
    Elizabeth grabbed Kyle’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go somewhere else. They’re not worth it anyway.” She cast a sneer over her shoulder at Mara.
    “Oh, no, please don’t go,” Mara said, rolling her eyes. “What will we do without your company to remind us what scum we are?”
    Elizabeth’s gaze finally met mine. She kept my gaze for a long moment, then finally turned, pulling Kyle by the hand behind her. “Come on,” she ordered. “Let’s get away from the stench. I can’t stand fish.”
    Mara scowled as they walked away. “I’m aching to punch her in the mouth again,” she muttered.
    I kicked at the sand under my feet. “Maybe she’s misunderstood.”
    Mara stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Oh, please. It doesn’t take much to figure her out. Spoiled, self-centered brat.”
    I resisted the urge to look back to where Elizabeth and her friends had disappeared. We were from two different worlds, and we had no allegiance to each other. I didn’t care who she messed around with.
    “Maybe she’s like us, but is too afraid to step outside the