Chapter 6: Siren’s Song

Reyna

So, I guess we’re monster hunters now?

Jed

i guess so 😅

Jed

pulling masks off and shit

Reyna

Next time you shift, I might have to check to see if it’s just a costume

Reyna

😜

Jed

if u pull my fur, i will bite you

Reyna

😂😂😂

Jed

no seriously tho ur lucky ur a human

Jed

all this haze shit doesn’t affect u

Reyna

Yeah…

Reyna

Hey, do you wanna go for a walk?

Reyna

I need to get out and stretch my legs

Reyna

I’m basically on pack house arrest until my dad gets back from his cruise

Jed

yeah im down

Jed

meet me at the river?

Reyna

Sounds good

REYNA

I had flirted with Jed for a while, but our flirtation quickly developed into a friendship. Now I considered him one of my best friends.

He always gave the best advice and, no matter what, he was always there for me.

So why hadn’t I told him about my half-vampire status yet?

His joke about how lucky I am to be human just reminded me that I hadn’t been open or honest with him. I wasn’t sure why.

I didn’t know if he’d understand. It wasn’t like werewolves and vampires co-mingled like humans and werewolves did.

Frankly, the whole idea of vampirism scared me, and I didn’t want to scare Jed off too.

~Still, it would be nice to have someone other than Eve to talk with about it.~

I pulled my car up alongside the riverbank and parked next to Jed’s.

As I got out, Jed was waiting for me. “Hey, Rey! You’re looking good for a prisoner,” he said with a smirk.

I blushed a little, but it was just a joke. ~I’m sure he wasn’t flirting.~

“Yeah, well, since you’re a Millennium Wolf, maybe you can be my probation officer,” I responded, laughing.

“I’m pretty strict,” he said with a wink as we began walking down the river.

I really loved this spot. The way the water shimmered in the sun. The smell of fresh daisies lining the riverbank.

It was so calm and peaceful, unlike most of Lumen.

But I had a feeling there wouldn’t be much calm and peace in my life moving forward.

“This task force is a lot of responsibility,” I said, picking up a pebble and tossing it into the water. The ripple effect was almost mesmerizing.

“I think you’re up for the task,” Jed said, placing his arm around my shoulder.

“To be the protector of Lumen? I’m not so sure,” I replied.

“Don’t doubt yourself, Reyna. You’re stronger than you think you are,” Jed said, facing me.

He started to lean in, but I quickly stepped back. “Jed…what are you doing?”

His face fell, but he straightened up and backed away. “Fuck, Reyna, I’m sorry! It’s just…I’ve been feeling off because of the Haze. It’s making me… Well, you wouldn’t understand…”

I let out a breath of relief. It was just the Haze. At least that’s what I was willing to tell myself.

“Don’t worry about it, Jed. I know how the Haze affects werewolves,” I said, wanting to move on from the fact that my closest guy friend had just leaned in for a kiss.

He growled loudly in frustration. “Jesus. How am I supposed to fight ~anything~ when I can’t even think straight? I’m a fucking mess!”

I wanted to tell him that I actually understood more than he realized. The Haze was affecting me too, albeit in a different way.

I felt stronger lately. More alert. More focused.

Maybe if I shared what I was going through, we could support each other during this insanity.

“Jed, there’s something I’ve been wanting to…”

~THUMP.~

Something bumped up against a little wooden dock at the river’s edge.

~THUMP.~

We walked closer as we heard it again.

“What is that?” I pointed at the large object that was knocking against the dock. I couldn’t tell if I was seeing correctly. It looked like…it had hair…

As I got down on my knees to investigate further, the current flipped the object over, and I screamed.

“Oh my God!” I fell back, scooting away as Jed helped me up.

It was a man’s half-eaten body. His bloated blue head bumped against the dock.

Frozen on his gruesome face was a final, haunting expression…

~Absolute terror.~

EVE

Kimbringe walked ahead of us down the fluorescent-lit hallway of Lumen Morgue.

He pushed open the autopsy room door. “I must warn you—this won’t be for the faint of heart.”

I looked back at Reyna, Jed, and Raphael as they followed behind us.

“Don’t worry, there’s no one like that here,” I said as he led us to a body covered by a tarp.

Given the size of the half-body underneath, it didn’t even need the whole tarp.

We stood around the examining table, and Kimbringe pulled back the tarp.

The victim’s stump-of-a-torso made it clear someone had either eaten the rest or taken it home for leftovers.

“Was this another vampyre?” Raphael asked, a fierce look in his eyes.

“Not likely,” I replied. “Vampyres don’t ~chew.~”

Something had gnawed the hell out of this man.

“Yeah, this wasn’t done by something with two sharp teeth,” Jed said, shaking his head. “It actually looks like they had several rows of teeth.”

“Indeed, Jed,” Kimbringe said, using a gloved hand to display the sinewy guts hanging out of the man’s torso. “You have bigger fish to fry than vampyres.”

“Don’t tell me Lumen has been overrun by some kind of shark people,” Raphael growled.

“Much worse,” Kimbringe responded. “Sirens.”

“Sirens?” Reyna echoed, sounding confused. “What the hell is that?”

“They don’t typically exist on this continent,” Kimbringe explained. “Perhaps they were passing by and the Haze imbalance drew them here.”

I had to admit, even my own knowledge of Sirens was quite limited.

“Aren’t they like mermaids?” I inquired.

“They’re sensual creatures, yes, but they have a mean streak. They lure their victims in with a song, have their fun, then eat the man alive…from the waist down,” he replied darkly.

Jed gulped. “Fish that eat the lower halves of men?”

“Well, don’t let them hear you call them ~fish~,” Kimbringe warned. “But if we don’t find them, they could pose a huge threat to the entire male population of the West Coast Pack.

“How do we deal with them?” Jed asked. “I’m a shit fisherman.”

“We have to locate their ~mother~ and eliminate her first,” Kimbringe replied.

~The mother.~

I had no time to be dealing with some drippy fish mom when I had my own mothering issues. Perhaps it was best if I sat this one out.

***

After Kimbringe finished versing us on Siren lore and myths, I pulled him aside to speak privately.

“You want to discuss Snow,” he anticipated immediately.

“How did you know?” I asked. “Did you see something in your visions?”

“No, Snow hasn’t been in my visions, but I sense that this Haze is affecting her in unpredictable ways,” he responded.

“It is,” I confirmed. “She’s developing new abilities rapidly. I’m not even sure how to help her.”

Kimbringe stroked his chin. “Perhaps it’s her who can help us? These new powers may aid us in our task.”

I felt a fury rise up inside me. “NO!” I shouted, causing Raphael to glance at me from across the room.

I lowered my tone. “I won’t involve Snow in this. I’m not even sure that I want to be involved in this.”

“Like it or not, Eve, Lumen is your home now. You have an obligation to—”

“I have an obligation to ~no one~ except my daughter,” I snarled.

“Not even your mate?” Kimbringe asked, raising his eyebrows. “He’s the one who is responsible for this city and its inhabitants.”

I pushed past Kimbringe. “Fuck this. I won’t be manipulated.”

“Caring for others is not manipulation, Eve,” he called after me. “It’s what gives us strength.”

I didn’t want to listen to his bullshit.

I didn’t need the strength of ~others.~

I had plenty on my own.

JED

I led my squad of soldiers down the embankment, back to the dock where we had found the body.

Eve had opted to stay behind, and Raphael had other issues to attend to, but he had lent me some of the West Coast Pack’s finest.

Reyna was furious that I wouldn’t let her come along, but there was no fucking way I’d willingly lead her into danger.

And with the way the Haze was affecting me, it was hard for me to even be around her sometimes—not that it was her fault.

We reached the dock and my best swimmer dove in first. We waited for him to surface to announce the coast was clear.

I nervously watched the water, praying that it wouldn’t just be half of him that emerged.

Finally, he popped above the water and gave a thumbs up.

“There’s something down there,” he shouted. “Looks like an underwater cavern.”

I nodded and signaled to my men. Their boots left footprints in the mud as they slipped into the water one by one.

As I stood at the edge of the dock, about to dive in, a woman’s face, wet and beautiful, appeared above the surface and smiled at me, lifting her finger and beckoning me to come closer.

~Is that…a Siren?~

I hadn’t expected something so beautiful. Her body lifted out of the water, breasts full and heavy, eyes a sparkling silver.

Then another Siren with small, round breasts, just the right size to cup in my hand, appeared next to her.

She had those perfectly suckable, upturned nipples. Gold hair wrapped around her shoulders. She held out her hand to me.

As she opened her luscious lips, the most bewitching song I’d ever heard swam through the air and into my ears.

It was calling to me, but…

“No, it’s…it’s a trap,” I said, trying to shake it off.

The Siren’s song suddenly turned into a piercing high-pitched screech.

It all happened in seconds.

I was pulled into the water by a pale hand.

As I looked up, the river was running red with blood.

My squad was being ripped to pieces.

Limbs floated in every direction…

And I was dragged under…

Deeper and deeper…

Until everything was black…