The Siren, the General's Daughter Book One by Breanna Hayse

the ledge into the icy cold water of the shark tank. He spread his arms to hold back the other two.
    She sunk to the bottom, still glaring hatefully, as she exhaled air from her lungs. Within minutes, she closed her eyes and rested against the side. Michael hooked up the monitors to the tank, watching the readouts as he dabbed his swollen lip with the back of his hand. “I think we might have a problem,” he said quietly. He handed the strips to the silent men. “It looks like she’s rebalancing. I think we need to listen to her when she says she has to swim. This is the longest she’s been out since the incident.”
    “She showers, drinks… she needs saline?” Dr. Quimby stated, watching his daughter open her eyes. The three men observed the lemon sharks slowly swim by and stroke their bodies against her. Michael beckoned, signaling through the tank to applying the electrodes. Sam nodded, catching them as they floated down and hooking them to where her father pointed. Resting against the lower edge again, she ran her hand over the sharks as they slowly swam past her. Scott tossed the I-band in. Sam secured it around her throat and turned it on. The reading began to fluctuate and Michael bit his lip, pounding the glass.
    “Take it off!” he yelled as the sharks changed their soft undulating to more intense hunt mode. She obeyed, pressed against the glass. The sharks slowly returned to a calm, lazy pace. Without exiting the tank, the girl handed the I-band back to her uncle.
    “That was close. We need to reverse the frequencies.” Scott said, hand on Dr. Quimby’s shoulder.
    “What is going on with her?” the man sounded frightened. He watched as Sam swam to the tank edge and pulled herself out. Soaked to the skin and shivering, the girl allowed herself to be stripped and wrapped in big towels.
    “Feel better?” Michael asked, wiping her face as her father held her tightly.
    “A little. I’m so sorry about your lip. What happened? I feel so strange. Daddy, what’s wrong with me?”
    “I don’t know, sweetheart, but we’ll find out. In the meantime, salt water dunk every three days. Your readings still aren’t normal yet,” he answered, again assessing her. “You seem to be better hydrated. Let’s get a blood sample. Come on, it doesn’t hurt.”
    “It doesn’t hurt you, you mean. Uncle Scott, are you ok?”
    The man was unusually quiet as he followed them to sickbay. “If Mike wasn’t there to intervene, I probably would have blistered you for your behavior. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what would have happened then. I wouldn’t have allowed you in the tank either.”
    “You aren’t the only one, buddy.” Dr. Quimby admitted, making a face when his daughter ‘owed’ the needle in her arm, “I was livid with what I saw. I had no idea.”
    “Guys, listen,” Michael interrupted, “If I didn’t have that weird connection with her, I would have felt the same. We couldn’t have known. I’ll bet her adrenaline level was extremely high too, she was almost impossible for me to hold. I know it’s a lot to ask, in this weather, but I’d like to go out.”
    “No way, it’s too dangerous out there.” Dr. Quimby said. Scott agreed.
    Michael took a deep breath, standing to his full height. “Ok, I hear you. But let me rephrase this. This is an FYI. I’m taking her out, with or without your permission. The only way you can stop me is physically and I promise to hold nothing back with fighting you. I’m asking you politely to get the hell out of my way.”
    Dr. Quimby and Scott stared in disbelief at the young man. Without another word, he gently scooped his sister up in his arms and took her to her cabin to get into wetsuits.
    “Did you hear what I did?” Dr. Quimby finally asked out loud.
    Scott took a deep breath. “Yeah, I did. I think our boy just got in our faces like a man. I just hope he’s right.”
    “I’m still going to kick his ass for speaking to us like that,” the