Page 30 of Siren Sins
“Intuition,” he said with a smile, and then continued swimming.
I growled. Damn intuition was going to get us killed.
I hated water, and it hated me. Salt spewed up my nose and every time I tried to cough it out, I seemed to swallow more of the wretched stuff. Just when it felt like my arms were about to freeze off, Luke slowed down and kept a wary eye on me. His movements were natural as if he belonged in the ocean, which wasn’t what I’d expected of someone who was half-angel and built for the skies.
The final blast at slowing our descent seemed to have had a detrimental effect on my unseen ally. Blood Stone went quiet and only supplied a steady hum of warmth in the center of my chest, enough to keep me alive, but my extremities quickly grew numb against the biting cold of the water. Luke swam on without a shiver, able to rely on his powers of regeneration to resist the cold.
I growled as I tried to keep up with him. It didn’t matter that we were on the outskirts of Miami, a place supposed to be wretchedly hot. The breeze swept over the crashing waves and I was freezing in the midnight air that curled over my shoulders. The cold spray of moonlight only seemed to make things more frigid.
“We’re almost there,” Luke assured me.
I didn’t have the energy to argue with him. My teeth chattered too hard to form a reply anyway. I continued to battle on with the crash of salt and waves with jerky slaps of my arms.
“Stop,” he insisted and gripped my shoulder. “Let’s rest.”
He instructed me how to turn onto my back and let the salt keep me afloat. Water rushed into my ears as I stared at the stars, but I was too tired to kick myself upright again. Once I’d stopped moving, I felt like a shark that was ready to die. “This was a bad idea,” I said, my voice reverberating over the water.
I wasn’t sure if I was referring to stealing a rusted airplane, traveling to Miami through a magical portal, or jumping out of a plane, but I was pretty sure all of those things had been a terrible idea.
“Do you hear that?” Luke asked.
His voice had come to me as a dulled echo through the layers of water intruding my ears. “No.”
He kicked himself upright and trod lightly. “Sh, listen.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you’re trying to scare me—”
He gripped my wrist, yanking me upright, and the fear in his blue eyes told me that this wasn’t a joke.
Then I heard it. A song, faint and mysterious on the winds. It called to me and told me that if I followed, I’d be warm, safe, secure.
My eyes went wide. “Sirens.”
Queen of Cold
Sonya
Iknew why Sarah was in Miami and it wasn’t for the tourism. She hated the sun and the palm trees and all the pink Hawaiian shirts that had nothing to do with Miami. She’d always told me that muses were better suited for crappy weather. She could better capitalize on a human’s potential for passion and creativity when they were all cooped up inside with nothing to do.
No, there was only one reason Sarah possibly had for coming to the most dangerous place in all the world for supernaturals. She believed that she could get her powers back.
The sirens might have helped a powerless muse like Sarah. I felt stupid for not thinking of it earlier. Of course she would seek them out, no matter how dangerous it might be. Sarah wasn’t meant to be mortal. She wouldn’t have lasted a single day being unable to bend people to her will. I wondered what it had taken to get her to change her mind that she had things under control. Maybe one rude customer at the bar where she tended, or just the fact that she couldn’t get a quick ride home without paying a tab.
“They’re everywhere,” Luke said with an edge to his voice that I hadn’t heard before. “What are they?”
“Sirens,” I hissed. “Stay close to me. Men are more susceptible to them.”
He tsked. “If you couldn’t seduce me, then I’m not worried about a couple of sirens.”
I rolled my eyes and yanked him close. “Ididseduce you, even in the presence of angelstone,” I reminded him.
He growled in reply.
The red heat of my Blood Stone zapped at our skin contact. I hoped for its power to come out, to keep us safe, but nothing happened. “Where are you?” I snapped to my Blood Stone. We couldn’t just float around the ocean powerless as sirens closed in.
Still, the Blood Stone was dormant, as if waiting for something. Forms shifted underneath our feet deep in the water and I shivered as goosebumps spread across my skin. I’d had nightmares of this. Sharks and creepy things lingering in the deep as I drifted in the ocean where no one could hear me scream.
One of the forms grew closer until it was a black orb beneath us and I kicked wildly to get out of the way.
