Page 33 of Siren Sins
I kneeled and slammed my fists into the sand, sending grains splattering and the power of my rage rushing around us in a red wave. “You should be more worried about what I’ll do to you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
She trembled. “Apollo isn’t like the other two male muses. He doesn’t want to keep supernaturals hiding in secret forever. He told Sarah that he’s gone to commune with them to deal with the dragon uprising in Shanghai, but actually he’s gone looking for the chameleon.”
Silence strung between us as I narrowed my eyes. “What’s a chameleon?”
She glanced at Luke. “From the sound of it, it’s the guy that imprisoned your boyfriend. Word was that the chameleon had a prisoner that could get Apollo something valuable. It’s unfortunate that Sarah recognized you. Now that the other sirens know you’re here, they’ll tell Sarah’s father that he’s barking up the wrong tree.” She shivered. “He might come back sooner than I’d anticipated.”
Luke bristled and his skin flushed red, as if the mere mention of Detective Anderson made his blood boil. He cursed. “I knew that monster wasn’t fucking human.”
Vikki pouted, and I could have sworn the expression was one of pity. I growled. “Who are you to feel sorry for him? You’re a fucking soul-sucking siren. You know only sorrow and death.” I glowered. “And he’s not my boyfriend.” No, he wasn’t… he was just a lover bound to me by destiny and I’d kill anyone who tried to take him away from me.
Vikki gave me an exasperated sigh. “Whatever. And who are you to judge me, huh, succubus? You kill anyone who gets near you, which I guess is why your not-boyfriend is alive.”
I went for the Blood Stone again, but my fist only grabbed air. My fingers wound across my collarbone. The power of the Blood Stone pulsated in my veins, but it had lost its voice as if my rage had wiped out all its thoughts. “I’m working on that,” I said honestly. “So,” I began, “why does Apollo want Luke?”
Vikki shivered. “He needs the last power stone to complete the set. The other two are already in his control. There’s the Tear of the Sea, which I already have, and the Incubus King promised him a Blood Stone.”
My eyes went wide and I flashed Luke a worried look. “You only made the one, right?”
Vikki blanched. “You guys actuallymadea Blood Stone? I was hoping that was a bunch of crock. Holy shit.”
Luke shook his head. “Derek wouldn’t have let me go if he’d thought that the Blood Stone we were making was the only one. He’s got to be up to something.”
“And the third stone?” I asked.
Vikki shook her head. “I don’t know. The Sky Stone is the last one and it’s said to be the soul of an angel.” She laughed. “Ridiculous, right?”
Luke and I gave each other a shared look of dread. “Shit.”
Retreating indoors, we sat around a wooden table in the beach’s siren bar. We’d ordered our food and my clothes had nearly dried, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was about to go to shit.
Sirens’ magical songs drifted around us, but even the enticing melody wasn’t enough to drain the tension from my bones.
“Derek didn’t come into my bunker in New York just to kidnap me,” Luke said. “The incubus bastard must have gotten the Sky Stone,” Luke continued, his tone turning frantic. His blue eyes bore into mine full of haunting memories of the endless torture he’d suffered. “It’s why I had no control around him. I thought it was because he was the Incubus King, but it’s because he took my soul.”
My stomach wound into knots as I pushed a shrimp around on my plate. “So let’s say that Derek managed to make another Blood Stone, and he also has your soul. If he’s working with Sarah’s father, then that means that Apollo has two of the objects he needs to overthrow the other muses.”
“He’s not going to just overthrow them,” Vikki said as she coddled a strawberry cocktail. I bristled that she chose Sarah’s favorite drink to flaunt in my face. She took a long sip and ran a manicured nail across her lip. “He’s going to kill them.”
“But that would mean he’d be the only male muse left,” I said. The idea sounded preposterous. “He’d be endangering the entire race.” If anything happened to Apollo, then there wouldn’t be muses anymore. There’d be nothing to control the chaos of supernaturals entering into the world. I thought of how Derek liked to run things, and I imagined that if supernaturals came out of the closet, he’d think himself our leader. He’d expect the humans to bow to him. I shivered. “I don’t like where this is going. Demonspawn are only just the beginning. Derek is going to do a whole lot worse than releasing hell on earth. He’s going to become a god.”
Luke pinched his lips together. “The only thing stopping him is Sarah’s Tear of the Ocean. That’s the only stone of power that he or Derek doesn’t have.” He gripped Vikki’s wrist. “You have to convince Sarah to give it back to the mermaids.”
Vikki frowned. “I can’t do that. It’s the only thing keeping her alive. And even if she could part with it, mermaids don’t come near anyone. They live in the deepest part of the unexplored ocean where no one can go. And even if she just threw the gem into the sea, it’d come back to her. She’s its owner now.”
I leaned back into my chair and it creaked with protest. “I’ll talk to her. Maybe there’s something I can do.” My hand spread across my chest. “Or something this power can do. It has to be good for something.”
Vikki gave me a raised brow. “What is that red magic? Did you overfeed or something? It seems so angry and strange.”
I shrugged. “I’m just a powerful succubus.” I gave her a smile. “I guess you better watch out.”
Romance Me
Sonya
It felt weird to make myself at home in Apollo’s beach house, but my hair stuck out at all angles and my breath smelled like crustaceans. Sarah ignored me when I passed her in the living room and made my way to the guest room, but it was progress that she didn’t kick me out. Vikki had invited us, after all. Even if it was just her hoping I didn’t out her to Apollo, it was nice having someone be nice to me.
I paused in the bedroom, wishing I had my cell phone. A single tablet rested on the dresser and I considered if I could try and reach out to Jet. Not that I knew his social contact info. I supposed I could search the internet for “crazy dragon leader,” but that probably wouldn’t go too well.
