Page 44 of Siren Sins
A blush broke out over my face. I chose to ignore his comment. He was a muse and had the power to rummage around in my brain. It was a threat, no doubt, that he could tell Sarah and Luke what Vikki and I had done. “I don’t react well to blackmail.”
“Oh but I’ve invited other supernaturals,” he continued, ignoring my protest. “There will be a few witches, werewolves and vampires—”
My eyes bulged. “What?”
He openly laughed. “See? My brothers stifle the supernatural community so badly that even our own don’t know about one another. How many species have you believed were myth, I wonder?”
I shivered. I’d always joked about vampires, but to hear they were real made my head spin. Werewolves just sounded too impossible to be true. “Who else will be there?” I managed to ask.
He grinned. “A special guest, but you’ll have to come and see to meet her.”
Apollo was up to something and I didn’t like the feeling that he had me right where he wanted me.
“It’s going to be okay,” Luke said in his softest voice as we walked down the boulevard towards the Apollo Hotel. It irritated me that the muse’s party was in a place he’d named after himself. But I’d still gotten dressed in the finest sequin black slip that Luke had offered me from one of Apollo’s many closets. I’d dolled up, played the part, but my mood was even worse that we couldn’t go in powers blazing. I hated playing along.
“Hey, slow down. You’re going to break an ankle in those heels,” Luke said as he caught up to me.
I continued to click my way down the sidewalk. “I’m just tired of feeling like I’m constantly being manipulated,” I complained. “First Derek uses my powers to get his wife pregnant with a freaking demonspawn, then he tricks me into helping him make a Blood Stone, and now he’s teamed up with a rogue muse to take over the world.” I growled and sped up my pace. “I know Derek’s bad, but Apollo is probably worse. This guy is such a douchebag. He abandoned Sarah when she was a baby and left her mom to raise her by herself. Then when she lost her powers and came to the sirens for help, he took advantage of her. He made sure she got him the last stone of power he needed to overthrow his brothers.”
Luke gripped my wrist and forced me to stop. I hadn’t realized that I’d nearly broken into a run and tiny red flames had erupted over my skin. He glowered as I won us some curious stares. “Listen. I’ve lived my whole life with some stupid prophecy hanging over my head. I hated the idea that fate had it in for me. I was supposed to rescue you, and if I didn’t, the world would come to an end.” He gave me a light shake. “You know what I think? I don’t think that prophecy isn’t literal. It’s not my job to keep you out of danger, even though I’ll die to protect you. I think it’s my job to save you from yourself, because if you lose your grip, the world is going to go tumbling with you, as well as those of us bound to your fate.”
I swayed as I digested his words. I wasn’t sure what surprised me more, the fact that Luke just admitted that he’d die for me, or that he thought I was so important. “I know your mom showed you some screwed up prophecy, but I don’t believe in that stuff, okay. Our future is what we make it, and I’m not afraid to admit that I’m losing my grip. There are some powerful supernaturals in this world and I’m only twenty-two. I can’t keep up.”
He shook his head, his brilliant blue eyes sparking with very real power and excitement. It was hard to miss the change in him. I wasn’t the only one evolving. “You don’t have to believe. I know that you’re the key to whatever is coming.” He pointed down the street to the towering hotel that glittered with lights winding up its walls. “We’re going to go in there, and we’re going to figure out what Apollo has planned. It doesn’t matter if we’re doing exactly what he wants. As long as we stick together, we’re the ones who are going to come out on top.”
I hated how confident Luke sounded, as if we were some kind of team. He jerked me towards the hotel but I resisted. “Luke, there’s something I have to tell you.”
The glitter in his eyes faded when he saw my face. “What is it?”
I swallowed. There was no way I could have Luke looking at me like I was some kind of savior. He had to know that he couldn’t count on me. “I fucked Vikki. It was before we had sex. I—”
Before I could ramble on, he squeezed my hand. “I know.”
Entering into the hotel without guilt weighing me down, I finally felt like I might be ready to take on whatever craziness Apollo had in store for us tonight.
No one took notice as we passed by the guards, a couple of Derek’s incubus sons who I’d recognize from a mile away. Their harsh jaw lines and slick black hair, as well as striking eyes, reminded me of Nate. But their amused, arrogant stares as they waved us inside made me want to punch somebody.
“Easy,” Luke murmured as he took my hand and wound it through his arm. “Don’t get all tense on me yet. We need to sum up our enemy first.”
Glowering, I leaned onto him for support and tried my best to look bored. It was hard to do in the grandeur of the Apollo hotel. After a short entry hallway decorated with jewels and gold, we were ushered into a marble canopy filled to the brim with supernaturals. A long dance floor spanned out with a covered object in the center blocked off by velvet ropes. “Is he going to give away a car or something?” I asked with a smirk.
Luke shrugged. “Who knows, but I doubt there’s anything good inside that thing.”
I tried not to stare at the box guarded on all sides by strange supernaturals. Men dressed up in suits and eyes that glinted red against the light made a shiver run up my spine. “Are those what I think they are?”
Luke tugged me to the bar. “I don’t even want to know.”
I swallowed and tried to match the vampires’ stares. I relaxed when I realized that they weren’t looking at me, but rather at the group of rowdy men parading around the alcohol, each with girls perched on their hips.
I smirked when I guessed we’d come upon the werewolves. “These supernaturals look more my type,” I said, and nodded at the bartender. “Whiskey, neat.”
Taking my drink, I sidled up to one of the empty chairs and pointed to the other side of the room. “There’s Sarah.”
Luke took a sip as he peered through the crowd. Sarah and Vikki danced to the delicate jazz thrumming through the air. A band swayed behind them as if the music was all for them. Knowing that Sarah was Apollo’s daughter, it likely was.
“I hate Jazz,” I complained.
Luke smirked. “Don’t get your panties all in a bunch.” He jerked his chin. “Look, there’s Apollo, and he’s arrived in style.”
