Page 38 of Siren Sins
I frowned. “I’m not a murderer. Humans are curious. That’s why muses wipe their memories. Once they catch a hint of a supernatural they just don’t let go,” I whispered under my breath.
Passing strangers glanced at me as I talked to myself, but I pushed them away with a red haze of power.
I followed Nick all the way to the grainy layer of weeds that opened up onto the beach, but I’d already lost him. “Damn it,” I hissed.
Dousing the sudden surge of panic, I slipped out of my flip-flops and sifted through the sands littered with sirens. They squealed with delight as they chased one another. Some had already latched onto their victims and were doing only what I could call “playing with their food.” They’d mute their songs just enough that their human toys began to gain awareness. Shaking their head, intelligence and fear sparked in their eyes. Just when I thought they were going to bolt, the sirens started up their songs again, lulling their prey back into a sense of false security.
I didn’t like it. My fingernails bit into my palms as I shoved past them.
“Hey!” one complained when I bulldozed through the crowd.
I ignored her. A red haze burned across my skin with my rage and was enough to keep the sirens from turning their melodies on me.
I wanted to save the victims, but it would have been a pointless practice. Sirens fed. That’s what they did, just like succubi. The only difference was that I had met one of the soon-to-be victims and if I could spare just one life, it would be his.
He reminds you of David,the Blood Stone acutely observed.
“Shut up,” I snapped, and continued storming across the beach. “David had hair like midnight, and this beach bum looked like a wet dog.”
A hot wet dog,the Blood Stone countered.
I sighed.
Just when I was about to give up, I spotted my target with a lone siren near the shore. She wasn’t taking her time to play with him like her sisters were doing with their victims. The short-haired siren seemed desperate as her song permeated the air and she dragged him to the sea as if she wanted to drown him as fast as she could to suck the sorrow from his bones.
“Wait!” I shouted and broke into the run. My eyes grew wide when I realized that the siren that had snagged Nick was Sarah’s new girlfriend. “Vikki?” I shrieked.
Caught in the strong current of Vikki’s melody, Nick staggered. His legs crumpled as he collapsed into the shallow waters and groaned.
I growled and yanked him by his shirt. “What do you think you’re doing!”I shouted at Vikki. “You’re supposed to be feeding off of Sarah. You don’t need to kill innocent humans!”
The blood drained from Vikki’s already pale face. Tears streamed down her cheeks, illuminating scales I hadn’t noticed before around her eyes that glimmered with emerald greens. “You don’t understand. Ihaveto do this.”
“You don’thaveto do anything!” I growled. “You don’t need to kill. You feed off of sorrow, but now you have Sarah. You should be the happiest siren alive.”
“I’m doing this for Sarah.” She stabbed a finger at Apollo’s villa that illuminated like a soft jewel in the distance. “She’s not just a muse anymore. She’s something new. She feeds off of sirens, and once she figures that out, she’s going to insist that she return to the sea.” She continued on, her words jerking over hiccuping sobs. “I have to keep up my strength to keep Sarah on dry land. If she doesn’t feed on me then she won’t be able to stay here anymore.” Her eyes went wide as she pleaded. “You don’t want that, right? You care about Sarah?”
With a yank, I tossed Nick towards the sands. He groaned. With a flick of my wrist I wrapped my powers around him and instructed him toleave.
He gave us a wild-eyed stare before he scrambled to his feet and got the hell out of dodge.
Turning back to Vikki, I crossed my arms and glowered. “Okay, spill. What do you mean you’re doing this for Sarah? She’s a muse. She doesn’t need to feed. Is it the Tear of the Sea? You should just take it from her. That would solve all of our problems.”
Vikki shook her head and her glittering tears flung from her face. “It’s bonded to her. It’s keeping her alive. I told you, she’s not just a muse. She might have regained her powers, and her legs, but she’s something new this world hasn’t seen before.” Her lower lip quivered as she hugged herself. “I shouldn’t have listened to Apollo. I didn’t know what Sarah was like. All I could think of was this terrible ache of being what I am. I didn’t want to turn into a monster like them.” She sniffled and jerked her chin at the lazy sirens who played with their food. One lured her victim to the shore and I stiffened. “But now I’m worse. Only a few of them drown them. Some just feed on the sorrow and let them go. But now I have to help Sarah, and I can’t keep up anymore. I have to kill to give her what I need.” She jerked me by the arm and squeezed. “Ihaveto.”
The icy magic wrapped around my skin and locked my lungs around a single breath. I wasn’t sure if I should have believed her, but that was before her desperation permeated my chest. My Blood Stone instantly reacted, blasting my body with heat to counteract the invasion.
Vikki’s eyes went wide as her grip languished down my arm. “Wow,” she breathed, drawing closer to me as if by instinct. Her gaze fogged over with the intoxication of my power. “You’re so warm.”
I’d never been close enough to a siren to feel their power, but the impact of Vikki’s touch was like ice lightning, and then there was another more familiar twinge of recognition.
Fuck, she’s one of my seven linked destinies? A damned siren?
The rune on the outskirts of my abdomen throbbed with cool ice, a different sensation than I’d felt before. But it was the kind of cold that was a delicious pain and I found myself leaning into her caress. Before I knew what was happening, her melody surrounded me like a gentle purr and my eyelids fluttered closed.
This is dangerous,my Blood Stone warned.Even if she is one of your seven.
I’d learned that much already. Seven souls were bound to my destiny, four of them my protectors, which left the other three as wildcards. Sarah was my first, a rune I couldn’t shake from my life. Then there’d been Derek, the key to charging my Blood Stone and a dangerous source of chaos that could be my downfall. Now I’d met the last one… a Siren who only wanted to help Sarah.
