Chapter 2
two
BLAIR
The other girls had our minivan waiting on the curb just outside the club. We got in quickly, and Izzy peeled away from the building.
“What happened?” I asked, turning on the seat to look at my sisters in the back. Clementine’s eyes were watering, her pale skin flushed, and her red hair flattened around her face. Zora was hugging her fiercely, though her tan skin was almost as pale as Clem’s. Her curly, cinnamon-colored hair was up in a bun.
And despite my question, I knew the answer as soon as I saw them.
Because on the center of Clementine’s neck, there was a big, bold mating mark.
Starting a mate bond was easy.
Really easy.
All it took was a brush of your hand to someone’s neck, a little spike of magic, and a three-word declaration.
You are mine.
Unless the magic user envisioned a prettier marking, the default one that appeared was a thick, navy-blue stripe that circled your neck like a magical choker. It felt like a new tattoo, barely raised from the skin, but there was no way to remove it.
If the bond wasn’t reciprocated, it would disappear—after an entire year. If it was, the blue turned black and became permanent.
Mating was our society’s version of marriage, but the magical connection was much more than a vow and a signature.
Clementine’s wasn’t one of the pretty, elegant markings I’d seen on the few mated beings I’d met. It was the ugly, basic mark of a man who didn’t give a damn about his “mate’s” throat or confidence.
A basic mate mark was little more than a brand.
And this brand was from a cruel, dangerous bastard who had been chasing my sister for far too long.
“He grabbed her from behind,” Zora said, as Clem’s tears started falling harder. She was shaking—and I didn’t blame her. I would’ve been shaking too. “We pulled her away, but he’d already started the bond. The mark appeared on our way to the van.”
“He’s still in there?” I demanded. “I will fucking kill him.”
“He has too many of his wolves with him. We only got away because he let us,” Izzy said from the driver’s seat. “If you go back in there, you’ll get mated to another one of them.”
“I should’ve been with you,” I said, my fists clenching.
Of the five of us, I was the only one who had been taught how to fight. I’d been trying to teach them for years, but my lessons had happened when I was so young that they were instincts more than anything else. I was a useless teacher.
And signing up for public classes was like telling all of the magical beings in the world where to find us, which was just flat-out stupid.
Sirens were weak, but we were valuable. When we fed on people, it made them feel alive. Helped them cope with their emotions, too. For immortal beings, that was a priceless gift.
One that many of the strongest and worst wanted to claim for themselves.
Hence the arranged matings that were common for our kind.
But our mothers had all been trapped in unhappy mate bonds. They protected us from the same fate, even though it put them in danger and eventually led to their deaths.
My sisters and I had managed to get to the safehouse they’d prepared after they were killed, and we’d basically been in hiding ever since. We’d made it ten years, starting businesses from our home and only leaving when we had no other choice.
But we had to go out to eat.
And that was when the wolves had found us.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of werewolf packs scattered throughout the world, but most of them were fairly small. The main wolf pack was in Mistwood.
And it was bigger than any of the others, by a long, long way.
Because Mistwood was the capital of the magical world, the five most powerful beings (one of every type) were located there. They were basically the kings of our world, though they rejected the term kings and insisted they were called leaders .
All five of them were men, by some obnoxious twist of fate.
Their images circled frequently, and I’d heard that people fell all over them everywhere they went. I’d never paid much attention to the pictures I’d seen of them. Everyone knew their names, though.
Talon was the dragon king.
Curtis was the werewolf king.
Hale was the vampire king.
Kai was the fae king.
And Bane was the monster king.
Curtis was the only one we’d actually met, and people definitely fell all over him. We met him for the first time a few months earlier, at a different nightclub, and had been avoiding him ever since. He’d tried to convince us to join his pack at first, then tried to offer us money in exchange for it. When that didn’t work, he’d proposed mating, for the sake of our “protection”.
Clementine was the best of us, socially. She’d been taught to use her magic to make a conversation go her way. Izzy had too, she just refused to do it.
After we watched Curtis kill a bartender just for making his drink wrong, Clementine had used a lot of it.
Anyway, Clem was the one he’d wanted from the beginning. As much as it frustrated us, there was nothing we could do to change that or stop it. And after we turned him down, he went on the attack.
We’d been hiding from him ever since, but we still had to feed. And apparently, he’d caught us.
“No, you needed to eat,” Clem said quietly, wiping her eyes. “It’s fine. We’ll be okay. Right?”
“Of course we will,” Avery said, nodding. “We’re going to figure it out.”
She looked at me.
Izzy glanced at me in the rearview mirror, turning down a street that didn’t lead to our house.
Because of the bond, Curtis would be able to track Clem’s physical location, so we couldn’t go home.
Clem looked at me, and Zora did too.
Their gazes and our past experiences told me that they expected me to figure it out. My mom had been the leader of our mothers’ group, so I supposed it was natural that the role fell to me, even if I didn’t want it any more than my sisters did.
I let out a slow breath.
We couldn’t go home, and we had nowhere else to go.
Hotels weren’t safe for sirens. People could feel our magic through the walls. And even if that was an option, Curtis could’ve tracked Clem there.
Which left us with exactly one option:
I said, “We have to go to the Manor.”
The Manor wasn’t actually a manor.
It wasn’t even a castle.
It was five monstrous buildings, large enough to house hundreds to thousands of magical beings each, with another massive structure in the middle that connected all of them and housed even more people. There was one building for each type of magical being, ruled by its leader.
Whoever named it the Manor was a moron. Or just didn’t know what to call it any more than I did.
It was basically a city of its own, positioned right at the center of Mistwood.
“There’s no other option,” Avery agreed, her jaw set in a grimace.
“I could go to Curtis. You guys could go home,” Clem whispered. “It’s your best chance of survival. If we go to the Manor, they could hand all of us to him.”
“We’re not doing that,” Zora said flatly.
“Definitely not,” I agreed. “We’re technically ruled by the vampires, since they’re the strongest beings with parasitic magic. Hale will get to decide what happens to us, regardless of Clem’s mate bond. We don’t know him—he could be better than Curtis.”
Or he could be worse.
We had no idea.
Izzy raked a hand through her long, wavy platinum hair. Her skin was light brown, and her eyes were a deep, soulful shade of green. “It’s a risk.”
“Better a risk than a death sentence,” I said.
“Truer words have never been spoken,” Avery murmured.
“Is everyone in agreement?” I looked around the van. It wasn’t the fanciest of vehicles, but it got the job done and prevented anyone from looking twice at us.
“Yes,” Zora said firmly.
Avery nodded.
“I still think you guys should leave me and go home,” Clementine whispered.
“She doesn’t count right now,” Izzy said quickly. “And I’m in too.”
She turned down a street, and the Manor’s impressiveness towered in front of us.
“You’ve been headed there the whole time?” Zora asked, with a snort.
“How many times have I told you to just take charge yourself if you already have a plan?” I grumbled at her.
Izzy winked at me through the mirror. “You’re better at it.”
I flipped her off, and earned a choked laugh from Clementine. That alone made it worth it.
“We should probably hurry, in case he’s already coming after us,” Zora said, as Izzy parked in the lot next to the beginning of the dramatic walking path that led to the Manor’s center. No one could drive there; the kings wanted everyone to take in the expanse of their power as they walked over a mile to their doorstep.
“We don’t need to,” Avery said, her eyes fixed on the buildings ahead of us. “I know his type. He thinks he’s won. He wants us scared and running from him, and won’t feel like he needs to show his face until we’ve had time to fear him.”
Avery was the only one of us who had ever been in a serious relationship before. She didn’t talk about it much, but we all knew the basics.
She had thought he loved her, but he’d been using her from the beginning.
Thankfully, she’d escaped before he marked her. Otherwise, we would’ve been in a similar situation in the past.
“I agree. If he came right after us, it would look desperate, and he doesn’t want his pack to see him that way,” Clementine said quietly. Her fingers brushed the mark on her neck, and pain flickered in her eyes.
Zora quickly grabbed one of her arms, and Avery grabbed the other, telling her she wasn’t alone.
“We should still move as fast as we can without triggering anyone’s chase instincts,” Izzy said, her gaze flicking around us. There were a few groups of people in the parking lot, and I could see more on the wide path ahead of us. “If any of these people realize what we are, we could be royally screwed.”
The rest of us agreed, and headed off.
I was at the front of the group, with Izzy at the back. She watched for anyone coming from behind, and I kept an eye on the front. When she worried about a certain group, she just called my name, and I joined her in the back for a few minutes.
No one made a move against us, thankfully.
It took nearly half an hour to reach the center building at our annoyingly slow human pace. Moving supernaturally fast was a siren gift that we all appreciated—but one that didn’t do us any good when we couldn’t risk anyone chasing us.
I let out a breath of relief when we made it up the stairs and through the massive double doors that opened into the building at the center of the Manor. It was neutral territory, and therefore, should’ve been safe.
Nothing was a guarantee in our world, but that was about as close as we could get to one.
Inside, the building looked like a castle. The walls were a pristine shade of cream, the light brown stone flooring glittering. The art throughout the room looked expensive, and there were large statues and plants placed strategically to create flow in what was basically a wide-open space with thirty-foot ceilings.
Directly in front of us, there was an oversized receptionist desk that could’ve held twenty people comfortably. I only saw three openings in it, so it seemed safe to say it was only actually made for three receptionists.
The man sitting in front of one of them was the only person there at the moment.
Forcing myself to walk with confidence I really didn’t possess in the situation, I strode across the room. My sisters followed.
“What can I do for you?” the man asked, looking bored.
Another group came in behind us, laughing about something as they headed to the right, toward what I’d thought looked like an elevator on the way in.
“My sister was forcefully bonded to a werewolf, and now our safety is at risk. We’re looking for protection,” I said, hoping that was something along the lines of what he needed to hear.
“File a claim with the mate committee when they open in the morning.” He gestured toward a window, still uninterested in the conversation.
“We can’t. We’re unmated sirens,” I said.
Suddenly, I had his full attention.
“I’ll need to see the marking.”
Clementine stepped up to him, and he pulled out a flashlight, running it over her throat. The blue of the dark line stood out more beneath the light, proving it wasn’t yet permanent.
“This happened in Mistwood?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered. “At the Red Ring nightclub.”
He turned off his flashlight. “I’ll need to get in touch with one of the vampires in Hale’s inner circle. They’re the only ones who can decide whether or not to intervene. You can leave me with your number, or wait there.” He gestured to a large section of chairs, lined up carefully.
“We’ll wait,” I said. “How long will it take?”
He shrugged. “The vampires usually answer immediately, unlike some of the other types, but the decision will likely be Hale’s. The vampires have an important competition going on right now, as well as some large-scale renovations, so it could be a few weeks until he sees your request.”
“We don’t have time,” I said. “Is there anything we can do to speed it up?”
“No. I’ll try to convey the necessity of moving quickly, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
“Thank you,” I said, and we made our way to the chairs together.
None of us said a word as we waited.
We watched the receptionist—Johnny—make one call. And another. And another.
An hour had passed when a tall, elegant woman with a mate mark around her throat joined Johnny at his desk. He waved us over, and we all went back.
“I’ll need you to prove your magic,” the woman said to Clementine, not politely but not cruelly either. She ignored the rest of us.
Clem nodded, and I felt the light brush of her power as she put it into the air.
The woman sucked in a breath. “Definitely a siren. Alright.” She looked at all of us. “It’ll be a few weeks before I can get your case to Hale. Sirens usually live in pods, so is it correct to assume the five of you want to stay together?”
We all nodded.
“I’ll make sure to note that on the request. I understand the danger that a forced mate bond can pose to all of you,” she said, then looked at Clementine. “I can give you a room in our wing of the Manor until Hale reviews the situation. Your sisters won’t be allowed in until he makes a judgment, unfortunately. I assume they have a safe place to stay until then?”
She looked at me.
I nodded, though my stomach clenched at the idea of leaving Clem behind.
“The wolves after us are watching the nightclubs,” Izzy said. “We won’t be able to risk feeding there without protection.”
Which meant starving.
I was used to that, but my sisters weren’t. They usually fed every week, like sirens were supposed to.
“I understand, but this is the best I can do until Hale gets a chance to look at everything. You should survive a month and a half without food, right?”
Survive was a loose term, but we could technically do it.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“I will make absolutely sure that it’s handled before then,” she promised. “Now, if you’ll come with me…” she gestured to Clementine, who nodded.
She gave us all quick hugs, then followed the vampire woman toward a set of large doors off to the side of the room.
We all watched them go.
Johnny gave us a case number and his contact information, promising to update us weekly on whether he’d heard anything.
With an entirely new reason to worry, the four of us headed back through the doors and made the long walk back to our van.
Clementine texted us pictures of her new room before we got back, which lifted our spirits a little.
But it would be a long few weeks.