Page 2 of Enticing Him

Unlike fully mortal babies, sirens have to be born on land in order to be able to breathe outside of the water. If we’re born in water, we’re nothing more than vicious sea creatures as well. None of the beauty granted to our kind comes through which makes it harder to lure men in to feed upon their souls to survive.

It’s uncommon for more than one siren to birth a child in a year, let alone to have three come on the same day. Serenia was the only one of us that was born on our mother’s due date. I was nearly a month early, while Melodia was a complete surprise and was over six weeks early.

Thankfully, being early didn’t harm either her or me. Our siren half gave us strength and once we’d drawn our first breath on land, we were whisked straight into the water and brought to our home where the rest of the sirens’ powers helped to complete the transformation.

Us being early though left Serenia’s mother with only one of the birthers to support her. Her labor was longer, but easier than Melodia’s mother’s or mine and no one thought there was any danger in leaving them.

No one gave a single thought to the fact that Serenia’s father managed to escape her mother’s first attempt on his life. He was what we would have called a warrior in ancient times, which is what drew her mother to him to start. He tracked her and when she was giving birth to Serenia, he managed to knock the birther out once Serenia was here, and he took Serenia inland quickly, keeping her away from the ocean until she was four. Which meant she didn’t transform fully, had legs and looked like a normal child until then. Her first transformation didn’t happen until her mother stole her back, and when Serenia first came to us, her terror was clear. Something about it drew Melodia and me to her, and since then, we’ve been the best of friends.

Each of us has a different power, ones that the others in the Lycophron want to exploit because they’re greater than theirs—more accurate and likely to work. Until we were teens, we didn’t really understand the full depth of them, of what the others wanted from them, but once we did, we agreed to never use our powers to kill. That it was wrong. That even harming or luring someone made a coldness that we hated attack us.

“So, are we in agreement? The three of us, here, on our birthday?” Melodia asks us and we nod taking our time to get ourselves under control before we leave the lagoon.

I don’t know how hard it will be to keep this from my mother, but I’m going to do my best. There’s no way I’ll survive living like this forever. Sooner or later the desire to kill will be too much to ignore, and I’ll give into it.

No matter how much I don’t want to, how despicable I find the thought of it, even towards those vile men that I’ve heard say awful things to women. I still don’t think I could kill them. Not unless I come across another one that takes a life first. Especially if he’s close enough to the water that I could drag him into it, or his attention can be brought to me, and I can put him under my control.

If I come across someone like that, there’s no telling what I’d be capable of, and it terrifies me. Which is why this has to work. It might just be our only chance to not despise ourselves for all eternity.

Chapter 1

Celestia

Imake my way down the little walking path with Melodia, trying not to get discouraged that it’s been a couple hours since Serenia was so taken with that man at the park that she couldn’t help but leave with him. Neither Melodia nor I have seen anyone that’s made us feel like giving a second glance towards. As quickly as it happened for Serenia, I’d hoped that we’d be the same too. But what’s the actual chance that all three of us will find men in the same place that we can make fall in love with us?

Were we crazy to think it’d be so simple once we were past the worst of the pull of the cold? That we’d just find a man that we could entice and live happily ever after out of the water?

When Melodia came to us, telling us about the loophole to keep from being turned into full-fledge sirens, I’d never been so happy. It seemed simple enough. Make it past our twenty-first birthday—which was yesterday—without killing anyone, and we’d get to experience Aphrodite’s gift. To have legs and walk on land for seven days. All we had to do to keep them, was to make a man fall in love with us,withoutusing our powers on them.

Simple surely? But after seeing all of these men and being unable to even think of going near them, I don’t know how simple that’s really going to be, but I’m not giving up just yet. No, I don’t want to go back to the ocean and eventually be unable to fight off the cold bloodlust that our kind are known for—to eventually kill.

I really hope we all find it, but even if I don’t, I still want my best friends to be free. They’ve always been softer than I was. I don’t know if it was just my connection with the sky—particularly the night sky—that made me feel the urges deeper than for them, but it was a desperate fight to control myself at times. Especially the night I found that man attacking the girl whose clothes we’re now wearing. If he’d been closer to the water, I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have attacked him in return.

I hold back a sigh as I spot a man and woman up ahead of us, almost blocking the walkway. It’s not because they’re blocking it, but because they’re kissing, in ways that I’ve come across lovers doing on the beach late at night when they think they’re all alone.

The ones that were rough, where the woman was calling out to stop, and trying to fight him off, I’d do my best to interrupt. A few times I used my powers to disorient them enough and the woman would run away. I would have to fight even harder to control the coldness that sliced through my body when that happened, making me fear I was just as bad as the others were, and it would be just a matter of time before I took a life.

But the ones that were sweet and kind, even if they were passionate, I would watch and wish for someone like that to come along for me. To want me enough, even if I was a siren and unable to live outside of the water, that we could have a daughter, and he would keep her safe—away from the water other than to come visit me. To let her live the life that I desperately wanted—on the land.

Now, I have one chance to make all of that happen, but in an even better way, because I’d be able to stay with them, live with them on land without fear of what I am destroying my life.

A sweet scent hits the air, and I can’t stop from sighing aloud this time, “Mmm, something smells amazing.”

“I don’t know about that,” Melodia states as I turn down a new path rather than crossing the one ahead of us with the other people.

“No, it’s like heaven,” I argue, my feet moving faster before I turn into a smaller path between two buildings and push open a door making her hiss at me but for some unknown reasons, I just can’t stop.

“What are you doing? This doesn’t look like…” Melodia stops when a deeper voice from inside calls out to us.

“We’re not open to the public back here.”

“Sorry,” I say, drinking in a deep breath that smells like pure absolute bliss, better than anything I’ve ever smelled. “Something just smelled so good.”

“That’s the newest coffee roast we’re making,” the man says coming out from behind a wall, his feet stopping when his gaze lands on me and a little gasp slips from my mouth at the sight of him. He’s gorgeous and big, likely as big as the man that Serenia went with, but his hair is sandy like the beach, whereas the other man’s was dark brown like the dirt. “Would you like to try some?”

“If we’re not supposed to be here,” Melodia says hesitating, and the man’s eyes slip to her for a second before they come straight back to me, making my heart race entirely. Melodia is stunning, soft, and sweet looking with her pink and white hair. While mine reflects the turbulence inside me more with its grayish-blue tone and the pops of golden sage that help keep me camouflaged when I’m resting just on the beach, amongst plants and rocks and sand.

“I own the place so I can make an exception,” he says to me, and a smile slips onto my face that pulls a deep sound from him that simply makes want to get closer.

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