Chapter Four #2
“Is it some sort of magic, do you think?” Aisling asked Ysolde. “A light spell?”
“If it is, I’ve never heard of it,” she answered, moving forward another step.
A flash of movement to the side had me glancing over to see Gabriel and the others heading our way at a fast pace, the kids herded in front of them.
“What’s wrong?” Drake asked as soon as he got close enough for us to hear over the music. “The Dark One said his mate is concerned about one of the musicians?”
“OK, that mind-talking thing is seriously cool,” I told Ysolde, who nodded.
“It would be so very handy. Baltic, do you see a source for that spotlight?”
The wyverns and vampires all turned to look at the stage. I watched Gabriel as he studied it, his normally placid expression filling with confusion.
“I couldn’t see a source,” I told him softly.
“That’s because it’s not there,” he answered just as quietly.
“Huh?” I asked.
“It’s a glamour,” Christian said with a nod toward the singer.
“Glamours can make spotlights appear out of nothing?” I moved forward to stand next to Gabriel. “I’ve never heard ... oh, wait, the illusion ones?”
“Yes,” Christian said, his eyes—almost as bright silver as Gabriel’s—narrowed on the four band members. The singer hit a high note just then that seemed to soar into the night sky, sending goose bumps down my arms and back as I was filled with a sense of longing and unrequited love.
Instantly, all the men froze. The kids, who were finishing up their cones, were alternately leaping around to the music and throwing glow sticks at one another.
“Is that—it can’t be,” Aisling said softly. “Not another one.”
“Get the children to safety,” Drake told her, immediately calling their twins to him.
“Siren?” Allie said, looking at her vampire in confusion. “What’s that? I mean, I know about the ones who sat in the water and lured sailors to their death, but—really? They’re singers?”
“Take the children inside,” Christian told her, his phone to his ear. “Set the security alarm as soon as you are inside. Do not allow anyone else in but us.”
“Right, in we go,” Aisling said, herding her kids along with Allie’s.
“Is she dangerous, do you think?” I asked Gabriel. Brom had immediately moved over to consult his mother and Baltic, holding Pixie by the hand. She looked as bewildered as the rest of us.
“I think Charity should see this,” Ysolde said, holding up her phone to film.
“Good idea,” I said, and pulled out my own phone, quickly texting Charity to video call me as soon as possible.
“You have history with this siren?” Christian demanded to know of the wyverns. “And you didn’t tell me she was in this area?”
“No, and no,” Gabriel said, obviously reticent to spill the history of Charity and the First Dragon.
My phone rang just as Allie and Aisling came back down the path at a near run, causing both Drake and Christian to bend almost identical stern looks upon them.
“You left the children?” Drake asked Aisling, clearly outraged, a curl of smoke emerging from his nose.
“They’re safe with our nanny, Allie’s nanny, and half a dozen vampires guarding the playroom. Holy cow, can that siren sing. Has someone called Charity?”
“This is her,” I said, answering the call that burbled, Charity popping onto my screen. “Thanks for calling back. I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”
“Actually, you kind of are. The First Dragon has finally gotten the information he needs about the identity of an artificer, but she’s disappeared. He’s getting ready to go out and track her down himself. Is something wrong?”
“Do you happen to know this woman?” I asked, and turned the camera to face the stage. I let her see the band for half a minute, then turned the screen back. Her expression mimicked closely that which all of us wore.
“No, I don’t, but she sounds ... sireny. Is she one? I have no idea who she is. There are only two other sirens, and they are both in protective custody.”
“No one here knows, either,” I answered, pausing when the song ended, and the audience cheered loudly. “But, as you can imagine, everyone is worried, especially due to the children being here.”
“Hang on, let me see if the First Dragon has any insight.” Charity obviously got up, because there were several blurry images of her running through a long hall filled with light and flowers before she stopped, and soft murmuring could be heard.
In the meantime, the band started up with another number, this one a soulful song that simultaneously made me want to weep with the beauty of the singer’s voice and clutch Gabriel to tell him how much I loved him.
“Go ahead, May,” Charity instructed, and I caught a glimpse of the First Dragon looking mildly annoyed.
I murmured an apology for disrupting him before switching the camera to the stage for twenty seconds.
When I turned the screen back to me, it was to see Charity looking to the side, saying, “All right, but are you sure?”
“I hope we didn’t anger the First Dragon,” I said, glancing at Gabriel, who to my surprise wasn’t watching my phone but, like the other dragons and Christian, had spread out to form a loose semicircle around the stage.
“No, I don’t mind at all,” Charity said to the First Dragon, before adding to me, “We’ll be there in a minute.”
“What? You’re coming here? Both of you?” I moved up next to Ysolde, who was standing with Aisling, their heads together, but before I could ask more, Charity ended the call.
“The First Dragon and Charity are coming,” I told them before moving over to tell Gabriel the same thing. I managed two steps before I felt a presence behind me, and spun around to see Charity and the ancestor of all dragons as he stalked forward, his gaze focused on the singer.
All the wyverns—and even Christian—bowed as he passed them, but his attention was wholly on the woman who sang so beautifully.
“I had no idea the First Dragon would take such an interest in a siren,” I said softly to Charity. “I feel bad for disturbing you guys. It’s not like she’s doing anything dangerous.”
The First Dragon spun around and looked straight at me, filling me with an odd sense of both joy and worry. Instantly, Gabriel was at my side, not saying anything, but putting an arm around me.
“You are wrong, child of shadows,” the First Dragon said to me. I froze, not sure how to answer that comment.
“Dragon sire, if May’s call to Charity was inappropriate—” Gabriel started to say, my heart warming at the fact that he was defending me to the most important being in all dragonkin.
“The woman is quite dangerous, although she is not a siren,” the First Dragon said, his gaze resting briefly on Gabriel before he turned back to the stage.
“She is an artificer, one of such high skill that beings the world over have sought her for years without success. She is the only hope we have of saving Yrian from a future that I cannot prevent.”