Chapter 4 #2
A hand lands heavily on the back of my neck, and I’m forcefully shoved through the house until I find the room that smells like me. It’s tiny compared to the rest of the house.
“You’ve been in here the whole time?” Reed shouts.
The ocean outside slams into the shore. I hear it, and my heart speeds up. I try to edge away, but the hand on my nape tightens until I let out a whine and hold perfectly still. God, don’t let them find my weakness.
“Three months we’ve been hunting for her! Wasting time, wasting what we have, and she’s been right here, under our noses?”
I frown and reach up to adjust the bandages over my eyes. My fingers touch a rune on my cheek that turns icy. I memorise the feel of it before I bring my hand down.
“I’m going to kill her now and end this once and for all!” Reed hisses.
He rushes towards me.
I draw the rune in the air on impulse. I don’t have a clue what the runes will do, just that the right one tingles, burns, or feels cold depending on the situation. This is a gift from the one who sired me; even my mother didn’t understand it.
The rune explodes in the air with a flash of ice.
And a pissed-off Grim slams down onto the kitchen table in front of us. I hear the explosion of wood and the chairs breaking and hum in regret. I liked that table. It was nice to lie on.
“Oh, shiiiiiit!” Lirin whispers, and I can hear the Sirens rapidly back peddling.
I cock my head to the side, feeling the Grim get up, his tail lashes, slamming into cupboards, his growl growing in volume.
“I’m going to eat you all!”
I throw my head back and laugh.
“PUPPY! No eating!” Becky’s voice slides into the air around us. I cock my head to the side, wondering how she made her voice come from everywhere. Neat trick.
The Nightmare King slides out of the shadows, unseen by the stunned Sirens. But I would feel the King in any darkness. He is too powerful, too deadly. Stix has the intelligence and dangerous aggression to make him a fierce foe. We have never had to fight each other, and I hope that day never comes.
Ice spreads across my skin as the Fae Prince appears.
A wild thrill of terror skitters up my spine, a voice deep inside urging me to run, a fear that I recognise as Wilder.
I don’t know them well, but I know that the Sirens are as old or older than them and twice as dangerous.
What people have seen of them here has only touched the surface; they could boil the oceans if they wanted.
And then she arrives, with her mix of all their worst traits and the sharp tang of the omega in the air, something that has been growing increasingly strong in my wild scent.
Sharp, bitter fear slices through me, but I push it deep, refusing to be drawn into it.
I will not fall into the omega trap. Never.
The hand leaves my nape.
The glass doors shatter and Diablos, stinking of sulfur and cum, drags his musky human mate into the house with him.
We have crossed paths a few times. I am aware that they have been hunting me, but so far, I’ve managed to evade them all.
Until now. Oh, well, the cat’s out of the bag.
That’s another fascinating human saying.
Why would you put a cat in a bag? Sounds like a deadly and stupid way to get killed.
I let out a wild giggle.
I can feel everyone’s attention snap towards me.
“Who stole my Grim?” Becky thunders, her nails drag along the wall as she walks inside, carving her fury into the drywall.
No one says anything. So much for chivalry.
I clear my throat and shrug. I open my mouth and close it, trying to come up with a plausible explanation.
Nothing comes to mind.
So, I just raise my hand and point at the Sirens. “They made me do it.”
Five snarls of pure rage hit me, and I laugh again. Oh, this is fun.
Something dark approaches, something bigger and more frightening than anything that has come before. It’s like a distant danger, a threat; it gets louder and louder in my head until I can’t feel anything else.
I turn to the ocean, listening as salt hits my face. What is that? Ooh, ooh, this is really exciting!
“Who summoned him?” Ronit hisses.
“I didn’t,” Canto says with eerie calm.
“No,” Brio expels the word in a rush.
“Wasn’t me,” Lirin murmurs and moves away from the Grim.
“You think I did?” Reed hisses.
What is that? I move closer, dancing across the space, unable to stay away.
The Grim roars. Leaping towards the ocean, snarling a war song in his dog gibberish. I duck out of the way as the Siren’s surge past me to meet it.
“What is it?” Becky shouts.
“It’s the ocean’s teeth!” Diablos hisses.
Curious. Will it eat the Sirens and save me the trouble of killing them later?
“No fish!” Puppy roars. “That’s the rule, no fish!”
“Oh, shit. We really needed to have that conversation about the toys,” Becky snaps, and I have no idea what that means, but I don’t care.
Wilder snorts a laugh. “Too late now.”
“Puppy, I’m not going to fuck it!” Becky shouts.
No, but I might. A hungry thrum of awareness is waking inside me. Whatever that is, I want to roll on it and with it.
“Send it back!” Ronit shouts.
Oh, no, the cage is broken. They have no chance, and good.
I snort a laugh, which sends me into a fit of hysterical giggles as I lean over, clutching the walls. Rain pours down; everyone I know is readying for war. I summoned the Grim, and I summoned something else. I love mysteries.
What is it? What is it?
A dark, slumberous part of me wakes up, rising to dance with this beastie of the deep.
“Don’t worry, he’s a pet!” Ronit says from just outside the house. The wall has disappeared. How did it do that?
He no sooner finishes speaking than a tentacle that I can see in my mind, glowing with teal power, sends him flying out into the depths of the ocean.
I hear the powerful Siren hit the water with a fleshy slap. My mouth drops open.
“That was awesome! Do it again!” I cheer.
“RONIT!” Canto shouts.
“What do we do? What do we do?” Hartley screams in human gibberish.
I laugh so hard I collapse against the wall.
“What is so funny, Healer?” Stix hisses, yanking me up by the upper arm. “Did you have something to do with this?”
I lick my blood-stained lips, tasting the demon’s blood I spilled, and I grin wildly up at the Nightmare King, whom I really should learn to obey.
The roar of the ocean gets louder and is suddenly drowned out by something massive and furious.
“WHAT DID YOU DO, STREGA?” Reed roars.
“Oops. My bad?”
He growls at me and shoves me away from him and away from the Nightmare King, who is still panicking. I land on the floor, still laughing.
This is the most fun I’ve had in months.