Siren Sins Page 2

  “Father says only I can talk to her,” one of the Incubus’ sons reminded my Chinese-Wu-Shanghainese captor.

  He rolled his eyes again, seemingly just as annoyed with the bastard prince as he was of me. “He’s not my father, piyan.”

  “Did you just call me a ‘peon?’”

  Dream Asian-man rolled his shoulders. “No, I called you a piyan. Apparently, I’m surrounded by monolingual morons.”

  Instead of tossing a punch, like I expected, the human born of an Incubus waltzed to my side and gripped my arm, hard.

  Tattoos bulged as the vein on the Asian’s neck throbbed and his eyes blazed with anger. “Did he say that you could touch her, too?”

  His smile sent a shiver of warning down my spine. “I don’t need permission.” His fingers slipped over my collarbone. “If my brother can touch her, I’d say she’s free game.”

  The time I’d spent with Nate was nobody’s fucking business. I was going to find him, Luke, and then get the fuck out of Shanghai. Nobody was allowed to touch me right now. Rage made the Blood Stone at my chest go red hot and he yelped, jerking his hand away as blisters formed across his palm. “The fuck!”

  My tattooed captor laughed with genuine amusement. “Careful, she bites, piyan.”

  “Bitch,” the Incubus King’s son muttered before bursting through a curtain and out of sight.

  “Sorry about him,” my captor said, as if he was going to actually be cordial.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Careful, or I might think you guys are playing ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop.’”

  He smirked. “Hmm, maybe you’re not such a blondie after all.”

  I would have tried to think of a comeback, except I balked when his full array of colorful tattoos swirled across his skin, only to disappear a moment later.

  He grinned at my reaction. “I suspected that if you didn’t know Shanghainese, then you probably hadn’t ever met a Chen Lung Dragon.”

  My gaze snapped up to his, and for a fraction of a second, his irises slit into a reptilian stare, before blinking back to human. I shivered. “Holy crap. No, and I can’t say I’m pleased to meet one.”

  Dragons. I’d known that they were real, as were many mythological creatures vaguely known by mankind, but I’d never expected to meet one. They were rare and not keen on leaving their den.

  He hadn’t looked once out the window, and now I realized why. If he was a dragon, he’d long to transform, to spread his wings and fly home and free himself of the metal encasement and stale air. Instead, he watched me with an unerring stare, keeping to his goal with cold precision.

  “So,” I said, my voice holding a tremor I couldn’t hide, “I guess I should be glad I’m not a virgin.”

  He blinked, momentarily taken aback.

  “Because,” I added, “you know. Dragons always kill the sacrificial virgins.”

  He laughed, and it was the most genuine, beautiful sound. Dragons were charmers, often considered an offshoot of the incubi, at least, that’s what my mother had always said about them. “I think I like you, blondie,” he said with a wink.

  “Stop calling me that.”

  While he grinned, I couldn’t help but feel a dangerous magnetism around him. I was tired of being around supernaturals who had power over me. “Can you turn that off?” I snapped.

  He blinked. “What?”

  I jerked my chin at him. “The… dragon glamour, whatever you’re doing. Stop it. I get enough of that shit with Derek.”

  He gave me the biggest grin I’d ever seen. “Oh, sweetheart, that’s not one of my powers.”

  My cheeks flushed and I refused to speak to him for the next three hours of the flight.

  Unperturbed, he grinned at me the entire time.

  Sunset

  Sarah

  I started walking. Never mind the heat and the unforgiving sun that beat down on me so hard I wanted to swelter into a little puddle and die. No way was I going to talk to a muse.

  “Wait!” he called as I hurried away from him.

  “Nu-uh,” I said. “I didn’t come all this way to Miami to get brainwashed by someone who thinks they’re my long-lost-daddy who can just walk back into my life.” Never mind the fact that he was exactly why I was here. Best not to let him think he had the upper hand.

  He chuckled. “You sound just like her, you know. She liked to run from me too.”

  My shoulders shot up to my ears as I hurried my gait. My mom hadn’t been bashful about letting me know exactly what she thought of my deadbeat dad. A male muse was a rare and powerful creature, one of three that kept my race in existence. A muse could only mate with one of their kind and since there were only three men, they made sure to travel the world and spread the ‘love’ to other female muses.

  In my hurry I didn’t notice that the sidewalk ended. My suitcase careened over the curb and a crack sounded as it landed hard on the steaming asphalt. When I tugged again, it didn’t budge. I’d broken the wheel. “Damn it!”

  He caught up to me and blew out a whistle. “Well that thing isn’t going anywhere.” He gave me a raised brow. “What I don’t get is why you’re out here alone dragging your luggage about like some sort of mortal. You didn’t compel anyone to help you? Why don’t you have a ride?”

  I glowered. “You ask too many questions.”

  He got close to me and… sniffed.

  I leaned back and grimaced. “The hell are you doing?”

  He blinked a few times. “Your powers…” His words trailed off. He straightened and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Look. I’ve got a car. I’ll take you wherever you want to go. I don’t know what happened to you, but Lily wouldn’t want you wandering about Miami without someone watching your back, especially in your… condition.” His eyes dropped to my belly.

  Sweat gathered in places I didn’t even know could sweat as I desperately wished I had another option. A muse lost her powers when she was pregnant, and it was as good an excuse as any to win a sympathy card from good ol’ dad. It was also a lot easier to explain than trying to convince him that a human had manipulated a succubus’ powers to suck out my own and now I was a husk… or human… or something else entirely.

  I flayed out my palm and shrugged. “You got me. Knocked up by one of your buddies.”

  He immediately took my luggage and ushered me to his car. “Let’s get you out of this heat. Poor thing. Do you have any friends here? Did they ditch you? Tell me their names. I’ll have them strung up and beaten!”

  He continued on in a slew of questions and threats for anyone who would dare leave me helpless and alone, not stopping for breath to see if I would have any answers. Ironically he didn’t berate his brothers, had I really been pregnant. Apparently ditching a muse they’d impregnated was standard practice.

  It was just as well. I wasn’t good at lying. I’d never had to be. So I just let him fuss over me and guide me into a comfortable SUV.

  After we’d dodged through traffic and he got the hint that I wasn’t in the mood for talking, he finally shut up. I took the blessed moment of silence to ask some questions of my own.

  “So, what were you doing at the airport?” I asked as I crossed my arms. “I don’t find it a coincidence that you were just wandering around the baggage pickup when I arrived. Plus, you don’t have any bags of your own. How did you even get in there?”

  He smirked. “I’m a muse, darling. And life as a male muse is entirely different than what you’re used to. I need sirens to help me find mates. Procreating isn’t just a necessity for our race, but a magical need I can’t get away from. They’re great at luring other muses here so I don’t have to travel the world to find them. In exchange, I bring them victims.” He glanced at me. “They told me there was a soul of great suffering coming today. They could smell you from miles away. And I’ve tuned my magic to find suffering as well. You reek of it.”

  I frowned. It didn’t make me feel any better that my misery was so apparent to the supernatural community, nor did I like the idea that I was a siren’s idea of a tasty meal.

  As if I literally reeked of sorrow, he rolled down his window and let in the salty air. The blast of heat and rust made me wrinkle my nose.

  “How can you stand it here?” I asked.

  He chuckled as his muse magic sparkled like blue diamonds in his eyes. He could have used his powers on me to force out answers, but he didn’t seem interested in compelling me to do his bidding. Instead he flashed me a charming smile. “Your mom hated it here too. She only fell for Helen’s song once, and after that, she never came back. I had to go all the way to Seattle to see her again.”

  I snorted. “You act like you know her so well. You knew her, what, all of thirty hours of lust before you were out of Seattle and chasing sirens and muses again?” I wasn’t naive enough to think his “alliance” with the sirens was entirely based on an exchange of victims and mates. He was a muse and as he’d so grossly admitted, driven by the need to have sex. Sirens were sexual in nature, and I grimaced at the thought of my father having a harem of them.

  His smile dimmed as he eased onto another road lined with palm trees that seemed to grow like weeds in this place. “It wasn’t like that. I cared about your mother.” His gaze shifted to me as he hesitated. “Didn’t Helen ever talk about me?”

  I flinched at the name. My mother had one best friend in the whole world, and that was a siren named Helen. The fact that she’d lured my mother to Miami to mate with a male muse hadn’t been mentioned, but those were my mom’s skeletons. I wasn’t one to judge.

  “No,” I snapped. “But mom told me everything I needed to know. You left us. She never cared about the ‘future of our race’ or how important it might be for you to impregnate others. Bottom-line was she fell for you, and you left her high and dry.” My lips pinched together at the grating memory of pain when mother had talked about my father. What I didn’t add was the festering hate I had for him that he’d left me, too.

  He sighed and lifted his foot off the gas. We hadn’t arrived at a neighborhood, but eased to a stop at the edge of a long row of shacks lined in front of a beach.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked as I crossed my arms.

  He pointed at the closest shack that had a cardboard cutout of a pinup girl holding a fishing rod. “I’m not trying to read your mind, but I still sense primal cravings. You’ve been screaming for lobster the whole ride.” He flashed me a grin. “May not look like much on the outside, but they have the best.”

  Frowning, I tried to silence my thoughts lest he was secretly reading them. Of course, that only made me think all my secrets louder. I was going to scarf down the biggest lobster I could find and then go get myself trapped by a siren.

  His lips twitched. “If you want to sample the sirens as well, do be careful.”

  I jerked the door open. “You said you wouldn’t read my mind!”

  When I turned to glare at him, he cheerily waved from the open car window.

  I scoffed and stomped towards the shack. “I’ll be here when you come to your senses!” he yelled. “If anyone gives you trouble, just let them know your daddy is Apollo, and he’s right outside.”

  Apollo. My mother had never spoken his name, but now I knew why. What a ridiculous name.

  When I gripped the splintered door to the shack that smelled of fish and beer, I took one last look at my father. He’d slumped down into the seat and had already closed his eyes. Didn’t look like he’d follow, but he wasn’t going anywhere, either. Whether I wanted it or not, I had someone watching my back.

  Entering into the bustle of the popular bar that seemed to be more of a hut than a building, I immersed myself into the excitement and lazy chatter of a place where bathing suits were the evening wear and dogs obediently rested on their owners’ bare feet.

  I found myself a seat in a shaded corner where I could watch the crowd. I’d always enjoyed people-watching. As a muse, I’d been able to blend into the shadows and control the world around me without notice. Now, I settled for being a stranger in a strange town.

  A couple nearest to me swirled ice in their glasses. The guy with a tattoo sleeve and spiked hair flirted with the waitress while his girlfriend frowned. If I’d still had my powers, I would have made the waitress dump the entire tray on him—but now all I could do was mournfully watch.

  When the waitress had gone with a shy giggle, I’d expected the girlfriend with luscious blonde hair to complain. But her frown disappeared, apparently having been caused by her drink going empty rather than jealousy sprouting its green head. The boyfriend pushed his glass to her that wasn’t quite finished and she beamed a smile. To my surprise, she eased closer to him and asked, “Did you see the size of her breasts? We should ask her out with us!”

  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?”