Page 11 of Ensnaring Him

“Okay, this might take a bit so…” Melodia pauses with a glance at Serenia and Celestia. They nod then push themselves up out of the water onto the dock with us. A shock hits when almost instantly, the tail and top disappear, the bikinisreturning. I really don’t know if I like all the skin it shows still, but my girl is definitely hot regardless of it it’s in it or with a tail.

“I like the tail more than the bikini, even if it’s just in front of my friends, angel,” Dylan says, echoing my feelings and I can see in the knowledge that I feel the same in Serenia’s eyes as she looks up at me. There’s a bit of hesitation still that kills me. I don’t know what the hell is really going on, how she’s not fully human, but I’m not running away from it. Not a chance. She’s mine and I’m keeping her for good.

I guide Serenia over to a lounge chair, pulling her into my arms and press a soft kiss to her temple, holding her to me tightly as the others settle in around us. My jaw’s almost on the ground when Serenia tells us, “We’re sirens.”

“Sirens, like the beings that lure sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores?” Dane asks and they nod. “I thought they were half birds not…”

“We used to be,” Celestia says making his brow lift even higher but mine goes right along with it, because sure, I’ve read about them before but never imagined finding they really existed. Let alone that I fell in love with one.

“Sirens once roamed the skies, singing their songs, getting men to follow them, on the sea and on land. Others grew jealous, and when a siren lured a man a muse wanted, they went to Hera and claimed the sirens thought they were the greatest beings in the world. The smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, which also upset Athena, because she felt she was the smartest,” Melodia tells us, resting in Dylan’s hold until he leans back a bit, his brow high as he looks at her in shock.

“Hera and Athena, as in the goddesses?”

“Yes,” she answers him seriously. “To teach the sirens a lesson, they tricked them into a singing competition with the muses. A sirens’ song is only meant to lure, it sounds differentto everyone, and not every siren can lure every man at the same time.”

“So when several siren sing at once, the ones that have no effect sound hideous to the listener. Muses on the other hand,” Serenia says, “are meant to inspire, especially music itself. So when a group of them get together, it creates the most beautiful sound ever.”

“The sirens were laughed at by the men present, and because they won, the muses were able to decide what their prize was. They said they wanted the sirens’ feathers, to make them even more beautiful to men, because ours were the prettiest. Once plucked, the sirens’ wings shriveled and could no longer support them in flight, and they were trapped on the ground to walk on their talons,” Celestia adds.

“But the men that once were under their spell now mocked them, and unable to fly, they captured all of them and told them to try and put them under their spell when they looked like monsters. They wanted to drown all of them, and so, they tied the sirens’ feet together and threw them into the water. They sank fast, the pressure made their bodies elongate while their legs fused together, their skin turning to scale, and the wings rotated and became arms. The coldness of the water turned them into the true monsters the men called them. Their once lovely human faces became bone and terror, their hair long weeds, and ice flowed through their veins, allowing them to breathe under the water. Horrified of the creatures they created, the muses disappeared, and the men tried to fight. In the water they stood no chance. Several were killed instantly, others, managed to escape, and when the sirens went after them, it was discovered that they could not cross the land because they had no feet or legs to stand on any longer,” Melodia admits sending Dylan’s brows up higher and mine definitely follows.

“But all of you have…and you’re even more beautiful…” he says.

“The beauty was a gift from Aphrodite,” Celestia explains, and that’s a name I know even if I’m not some scholar on Greek mythology—that suddenly doesn’t seem so mythical now.

“She also gave the sirens the chance to reclaim what was taken from them, freedom to roam the land and sea,” Serenia adds, nodding at me when my brow lifts her way a hint as I glance at her pretty legs still bare beneath my shirt she’s wearing.

“But the sirens used their newfound legs to hunt down the men that mocked them, to kill them instead. Aphrodite offered them the chance to find love, real love, but all they could feel was the cold in their hearts, the urge to kill. And seven days after they were given their legs, as they slayed the last mortal man, Aphrodite took back her gift of legs, forcing the sirens back into the seas. For nearly three thousand years, the sirens have used their powers and Aphrodite’s gift of beauty to kill. Not knowing they had another choice if they just ignored the icy cold,” Melodia says. “None of us ever liked the cold, the urges it created within us to kill. Sirens become their most powerful after they turn twenty-one. The bloodlust is said to be unbearable at that point. Likely because that’s how old the original sirens were when they were thrown into the ocean.”

“Melodia discovered a loophole that could keep us from becoming full-sirens,” Serenia says giving her a grin and once more, it’s like I can feel what she’s feeling. The relief, happiness, joy that it really happened, and I hold her closer. “She told us about it, and we all agreed it was our only option.”

“As long as we didn’t kill by the end of our twenty-first birthday, we would get the chance to have Aphrodite’s gift given to us. So, we spent our birthday together in the lagoon outside of town, keeping each other from letting the cold consume us, andas the night turned to midnight, we found ourselves with legs,” Celestia states, laughing a bit.

“Serenia was four before she came to live with us, so she knew the most basic things about humans, was able to teach us how to walk, and then Celestia remembered a hidden bag of clothes that also had money in it that would likely be useful. We walked to town that morning, and then one by one, met you all.”

“And spent several days worried that you wouldn’t fall in love with us, and we’d have to go back,” Serenia adds, and I just hold her gaze because not loving her is impossible.

“And then worried that it seemed too simple that you did fall in love with us, until Aphrodite joined us in the diner at least,” Celestia says and all three of us guys share confused looks at that. “She walked right into it past you. Said you ignored even her, but it wasn’t a surprise since your hearts were never meant for anyone but us.”

“So, we really were brought here to find you,” Dylan says to Melodia, echoing what I felt once more, and she nods his way. “And you still were worried it wasn’t real?”

“We’ve spent our entire lives fighting against the cold. You’ve no idea just how powerful it was, so yes, when nothing happened when you told us you loved us, we were worried somehow our powers had gotten you to fall for us, even though you said it happened in an instant,” Melodia states.

“Then Aphrodite told us, it was never your love we had to worry about, it was always us. That you would have fallen for us no matter what, because you were destined to be ours, but if we hadn’t listened, hadn’t fought the cold bloodlust, we wouldn’t have seen it, seen any of you, and ended up like the others,” Celestia adds, snuggling into Dane’s hold as he kisses her forehead.

“Knowing what it took to get us all here, in this town, and knowing that we all had listened, we knew her words were true,” Serenia says, giving me a smile that I feel even deeper now.

“And then she told us she’d given us two more gifts,” Melodia states, giggling a bit as she looks up at Dylan. “Well, she said the first was really for you all.”

“Being that when we transformed back into our siren bodies, we’d have a little more coverage than normal, because sirens only have tails,” Serenia says making my brow lift high in confusion.

“And hair for coverage,” Celestia expands on for them, bringing a growl to my lips that Dylan echoes.

“So the other gift is that you all can transform whenever you want?” Dane asks her. “Because in the water you had a tail but once out of it…”

“That was part of her original gift for those that found true love not the extra ones she told us about in the diner,” Celestia answers.

“She did say that we could only transform back into our siren form when in a natural body of water. So the lake, a river, or the ocean. Pools won’t do it, and neither will the rain thankfully because we’ve kept our existence from humans for thousands of years now,” Serenia adds, nodding at me with a grin like she knows I was thinking sirens were total myths earlier.

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