Page 6 of Siren Sins
I blinked a few times before returning to my menu that was garnished by a painted dancing lobster on the top. If I’d had my powers, I would have fixed something that hadn’t been broken. I could have easily ruined a good time the couple had planned. It was eye-opening, to say the least.
When the same waitress returned to take my order, I desperately wanted to read her mind and find out the truth. But after paying attention to her body language, it became apparent that she was attracted to the couple at the nearby table. My suspicions were cemented when the blonde gave the waitress a flirtatious wink.
After my meal had been delivered, and held up on its promise to be the best lobster I’d ever had in my life, the total came to a modest thirty-eight dollars. My father most likely knew the trendy restaurants with imported crustaceans that charged a ton, and which ones had a team of guys that had regular traps of their own and reasonable prices to match. I pulled out the wad of cash that was the last bit of money I had to my name and put all fifty dollars on the table before I walked out.
I didn’t head towards the door I’d come in, but made my way to the open balcony that descended onto the beach. The sun had set and now the sky bled brilliant reds and pinks as earth’s star drowned into the gulf. Night was a more bearable time for Miami, and even I could appreciate a beautiful sunset.
Lanterns sprung to life across the beach and night-goers gathered around bonfires. I didn’t need my muse powers to spot the sirens scattered among them, or to recognize the soft melody of their songs that drifted on the salty air. They were the women with perfect bodies, most who sported tattoos or piercings, and seemed to float along the beach as they wandered from group to group looking for their prey.
My mother and her best friend had taught me enough about sirens to know that I should keep my distance. Helen had been like an aunt to me, and if she ever found out that I’d come to Miami or what I planned to do, she’d yank me by the wrist and drag me right back to Seattle.
My mother had given up three years of her powers to give Helen what she needed to break her ties with the shore and roam the world without the incessant need to feed on sex and sorrow. I wasn’t blind. I knew that Helen was my mother’s lover, but she’d always respected me and accepted the title of “Aunt” when I’d slipped and called her Aunt Helen one day.
But those days were over. My mother was dead, and Helen and I had a fractured relationship that would never be mended. My mother had been the foundation of our family, and without her, it had all fallen apart. Only Sonya had understood what it was like to lose everything that kept you sane and solid.
I took my time picking out the sirens before I decided which one I would approach. I wasn’t going to change my plans just because my father was out in his car waiting for me, nor would I get overconfident that his name would protect me should I get into trouble tonight. I was going to play this smart—or at least as smart as I could when it came to playing with undead predators of the deep.
“Hi there, gorgeous. You alone?” a siren said as she slipped out of the shadows and appeared in front of me. Mist clung to her legs like sea-foam and camouflaged the sparkle of scales along her calves. I was glad to see that even though I was technically human, I couldn’t be fooled by her mirage. She pushed a wave of magic over me that was clumsy and new. To my luck, she’d been recently Made, and I shook off her magic with ease.
“No,” I said, my voice shaky with the effect of her presence. I knew what she was and the smart part of me was terrified, but I was going to go through with my plan. Still, sensing the enticing song that she hummed under her breath, I was afraid that I was going to fall into her trap before I could get her to agree to a trade.
“Apollo’s in the parking lot. I’m his daughter,” I blurted. It was to buy myself time. I hated to panic and name-drop my dead-beat dad’s name already, but if I’d learned anything about survival, you used the tools you had available.
Her ice blue eyes went wide and shimmered with the kiss of salty oceans and mystery. “Oh?” she said, backing away. “Didn’t realize one of his spawn was coming for a visit.”
I frowned at the term. Sirens didn’t have offspring and found the whole process of pregnancy and birth distasteful. Their existence revolved around pain, suffering, and death. New life didn’t have a place in their world.
I crossed my arms and gave her a sweeping appraisal. A sea-green bikini stretched over her plump breasts and her bikini bottom curved tightly between her thighs in an attractive V-shape. She’d donned a sheer wrap around her waist that added a sparkle of glitter to her movements that was accentuated by a sprinkle of salt and scales permanently embedded into her skin like diamonds. “You haven’t shed your skin yet,” I remarked. Sirens were an off-breed of mermaids. Mermaids kept their tails and broke ties with humanity completely. It was a better existence than what the sirens endured. Those with unresolved ties in their life remained bound to the shore, and thus a siren was Made.
This one was young, and stupidly brave. She eased closer to me, having recovered from the threat of my father’s name. Her hand slipped under my shirt and caressed my stomach. “You’re not showing,” she remarked. “And I don’t sense life in you. Only emptiness.” She didn’t seem interested in learning why I was a muse without powers, but not pregnant. Instead she seemed more interested in why I’d sought her out. Her gaze found mine and she wet her tongue with anticipation. “Delicious sorrow. Have you come to feed it to me?”
My gaze dipped to her lips that sparkled with magic and sea salt. I wanted to taste her, and even though I’d pushed away her magic, I wasn’t immune to a beautiful woman—especially one irrevocably flawed. I had terrible taste when it came to partners.
Steeling myself with resolve, I gripped her wrist and stopped her painfully delightful caresses that were inching higher towards my breasts. “I’ve come to trade.”
Her eyes softened with delight as she curled her fingers through mine, still trapped underneath the thin layer of my shirt. “I’m listening.”
Arrival
Sonya
Our arrival in Shanghai filled me with a flutter of emotions: rage, fear, anxiety, and a dash of excitement. I loved to travel, but I wished it wouldn’t have been as the Incubus King’s captive—much less alongside a cargo of bodies.
The women were rolled out the back of the plane under the cover of night. A single lamp betrayed Derek’s handiwork, and I spotted faces frozen in orgasmic pleasure, their cheeks gone hard as blood languished in their veins.
I’d killed my share of human lovers, but I wasn’t proud of it. And I’d certainly never had so many victims at once. I forced myself to count them now, thirty-four women, all who would have families who would never know what had happened. Even if it was Derek who’d sucked the life-force from their willing bones, I was the one at fault.
“You’ll pay for this,” I hissed, the words coming out forced but true. My Blood Stone burned at my chest as I drew from it to spit the insult. But when Derek waltzed to my side, his features attractive with satisfaction and the blue glow of his power ablaze, I released my resistance. It would do me little good to drain my Blood Stone now, just to throw more insults at Derek’s face.
“You will learn to accept what we are,” he said, his fingers drawing a line down my neck.
I shivered at his touch, my eyelids fluttering closed as I leaned into his warmth and my lips parted.
His fingers ran down my collarbone and rested on the Blood Stone. “Careful with this gift, my succubus. If you drain it again, you’ll force me to have it refilled. I need you, and your mother’s gift, at full strength for what I have planned.”
My fingers clenched at his threat. He’d forced Luke on me, a half-angel who was supposed to be my soulmate. We hadn’t gotten off to the best start, but if we were ever going to have sex, I’d wanted it on my terms. Instead, it’d been rough, orchestrated, and awkward. The deed had only had the goal to fill my necklace with sexual power, and it had felt more like a duty than the gift it should have been.
I’d get Derek back for that, I promised myself.
