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Serenia

M y heart races a bit as we move into the park. It’s still early out and there aren’t many up and about right now, which I definitely don’t mind. I’m still trying to make myself believe that this is really happening. I have legs and feet again. Something I haven’t had since I was four and drug into the ocean by my mother to turn me into the very thing my father did his best to protect me from—sirens.

I was still so young that a lot of it didn’t make sense back then. Only the pain of everything truly registered. Especially the physical pain that tore through my body when my feet and legs merged into a tail, and the ice cold of the water sliced through my lungs. I swore I was going to drown, but then, somehow, I was able to breathe through the water just as if I were above it. The only difference was with every breath, ice attacked the rest of me, making me fight to not scream at the pain of it.

Even now, it still hurts to breathe underwater. Maybe that’s why I tend to stay near the surface as much as possible, and why despite being a morning person like Melodia, I missed her sneaking out to the ancient city to search for a way for us to avoid becoming killers—to stop from becoming full-fledged monsters.

Celestia on the other hand, is a night person completely, but that’s when her powers are most prevalent, so it makes sense. It also makes sense why I’m more drawn to the morning as well though. After all, what weary sailor wouldn’t love to find a beautiful sight in front of them after a long night on the open sea? And what better sight than them believing they’ve found land—or made it home to land?

That’s my power whereas Celestia’s are to manipulate the sky, the moon and stars, and disrupt even the best of the human’s tracking systems. Melodia’s powers are those that most would associate with sirens—a siren song. But unlike most sirens, no man can resist Melodia’s song, which is why our mothers and the elders in our Lycophron want us to use our powers so much.

Some men can resist the lure of other sirens, but none have ever been able to resist any of ours—mine, Celestia’s, and Melodia’s. That’s also why we wanted to find a way out though, because none of us want to be the reason men die. We don’t care about becoming more powerful, stronger. We’re immortal beings whether we consume the lifeforce of our victims directly or not. When sirens consume their victims souls, it strengthens the entire Lycophron, not just that single siren because we all share blood, and a bond that lets us communicate with one another without a word spoken aloud.

Our voices sound distorted under water and some words that sound similar can’t be distinguished easily there, so we communicate telepathically with one another.

For Melodia to have been able to keep her trips a secret, let alone keep anyone else from overhearing her thoughts regarding all of it took considerable strength. Something Celestia and I learnt the last few weeks since Melodia told us about the loophole that could potentially keep us from turning into full sirens.

On the surface it seems simple enough. Make a mortal man fall in love with us in a week and we get to stay a humanlike being. We’ll get to keep our feet and legs. Live as a human on the land, but if we ever feel the urge to go for a swim, we’ll be able to transform in the water into our siren forms, but the urge to kill shouldn’t exist.

The problem with all of that? We can’t use our powers to make them fall in love with us. Which means talking to a man. Something I haven’t done since my father died—was murdered by the Lycophron as my mother drug me into the depths of the ocean to turn me into a siren like her.

I’ve always hated her for it, but even more, I hated myself for it too. It was my fault he died. For four years he kept me away from the ocean, but something about it called out to me and I snuck away from our new house one night to see what was so special about it. We’d only been in that seaside town for a week after spending most of our time on inland army bases. My father was a geologist with the Army Corp of Engineers. He started out as a soldier but discovered his passion for geology and engineering while with them. He got his degree and became one of their experts in knowing whether or not a spot was suitable for building.

He managed to get away from my mother the first time she attempted to kill him, shortly after knowing she was pregnant with me. He came back as it neared my due date, finding her giving birth with just one other siren there to act as her birther.

Sirens have to be born on land, or at least fully out of the water, so we can breathe out of it. Sirens that are born in the water don’t receive the ability to breathe above the surface and they also don’t receive the gift of beauty that Aphrodite blessed us with, because it can’t penetrate the cold darkness of the water since it’s Poseidon’s territory.

My father managed to knock the birther out, then took me before my mother could reach the water with me and went as far inland as he possibly could. Since sirens don’t transform when on land, she couldn’t follow as there were no interconnected waterways.

Becoming a siren was my fault. I disobeyed my father. Got him killed and then became a monster in the making.

If this chance doesn’t succeed. If I don’t find someone to fall for me in the next week. I don’t know what I’ll do. The bloodlust is growing deeper. The urge of the cold to kill snakes through my body at all hours. It was the deepest I’ve ever felt last night and if it weren’t for Celestia and Melodia being with me, I don’t know if I could have resisted.

“So, do we just wander around until we find some men we like?” Celestia asks, bringing me out of the depressing and sad thoughts.

“I’ve no idea. Do you think we’re far enough away from the ocean to keep the others from interfering or should we keep heading further inland?” Melodia asks in return.

“There isn’t any way for them to get near us here. There aren’t any waterways in town,” I assure them with a glance at the trees ahead of us. “As long as we don’t go to the beach, they shouldn’t be able to bother us.”

“Alright, so what do you do you think, stick together at least for now?” Celestia says and Melodia and I nod in agreement. “Then which way do you think we should go?”

“I’m thinking we go through those trees,” I tell them, and Melodia lifts a brow my way curiosity in her eyes because for once, my tone isn’t hesitant. “I don’t know, I just feel drawn to head that way for some strange reason.”

“Then let’s see why you feel that way,” Melodia suggests, as we move through the trees and out into a space with more open fields.

My feet stop short, my breathing tightening as I stare at a man next to a truck. There are dozens of trees and plants in the back of it, but that’s not what’s calling to me. It’s him somehow and I have to fight to stay still as Melodia lets out a little giggle.

“Are you okay?” Celestia asks me as she and Melodia move up next to me.

“I don’t know. I feel…strange,” I admit glancing their way. “It’s…it’s like a memory. This feeling. Like I’ve felt it before but it’s not possible to be something I felt at home.”

“What about before that? When you were with your father?” Melodia asks, and I can’t stop the shocked gasp that comes as the man’s attention turns towards us.

“Oh yes, yes,” I whisper, as emotions and hunger flow through me. None of them are like the anger or bloodlust or cold that I feel in the ocean. It’s all warmth and hope and a hunger like I’ve never known that hits as the man drops the tree that he was pulling out of the truck down next to it, pulling gloves off his hands before he starts heading our way.

“What is it?” Celestia asks.

“What we’re here for,” I tell them, giving her and Melodia a grin before my feet moves me towards the man.

I stop just out of reach, almost afraid he’ll disappear if I get any closer. This pull towards him is more intense than anything I’ve ever felt. Even the bloodlust never touched me this deep.

“Hi there beautiful,” he says, his tone low and a bit gruff sounding, but there’s a tenderness beneath it that fills me with hope so deep I can barely contain myself. “You’re not from around here are you?”

“No,” I admit swaying towards him.

“Can I show you around then?” he asks, inching closer to me and my feet move me the last foot so I’m almost touching his chest.

“I…”

“I promise to take care of you, honey,” he states, his hand sliding around my waist, pulling me up against his chest entirely and I only hesitate for a fraction of a second before I relax against it, letting him support my weight as my knees weaken, tremble a bit. “I always take care of the most delicate and precious things, and you are more special and beautiful than all of them, I know it. Come with me. Let me show you that.”

I glance back at my friends, wanting more than anything to go with this gorgeous, tall man with golden brown eyes—the same color as when the sun shines down on the earth making it sparkle with dimension. His hair is a deep earth brown, like the richest soil that grows the most amazing flowers. My head barely reaches the top of his shoulder, and I want to lay it on them and never let go.

“Go,” Melodia mouths and Celestia nods, giving me a grin in return letting me relax enough to look back at this amazing man I somehow can’t resist.

“Okay,” I tell him, earning a smile that makes my knees weak all over again, but before I have time to question anything, his hand is pressing gently against my back leading me over to his truck. Inside it smells even more like him and I let out a soft little moan as he moves to the back, putting the tree back into it before coming around to the driver’s side and gets in.

“I’m Duncan, by the way,” he says, giving me a grin that makes my breath stall, and then my heart race when he leans towards me, his eyes twinkling as they roam over my face. “Seat belt, honey. Can’t risk you getting hurt—not ever,” he adds, his hand reaching behind me and with a click, the buckle slips into place, bringing memories of my dad buckling me into a car seat to mind and warmth floods through me even more for some unknown reason.

“Thank you,” I get out on a soft whisper as he leans back into his seat.

“Where would you like to go first, beautiful?” Duncan asks as he puts the truck into gear. “You look like you’re dressed for the beach. I can show you around some of the spots that only the locals know about,” he offers, and my heart tightens with absolute fear and dread at the idea of going anywhere near the water right now.

“No, not the beach,” I say quickly, hating the high pitch of my voice as the panic tries to overtake me. “I…we have beaches where I’m from. I’d rather see anything else but them.”

“I won’t argue about that, honey. Truth be told, I never liked the beach much myself. I honestly don’t know how or why I ended up in a seafront town. As soon as I got here it just felt like it was where I was meant to be. That was ten years ago, but the beach has never grown on me to the point that it’s where I want to go on a day off,” he says comforting me because if he doesn’t like the beach it means he won’t argue about staying away from it—even if he doesn’t realize it’s so he stays safe. “So where would you like to go? We have a lot of great little shops we can browse through.”

“Mmm,” I sigh not really interested in that, not compared to places like the park that we just left. “What about your plants?” I ask when his brow lifts at me, a grin on his lips that I want to taste, to feel against mine.

“I’ll drop them off at the greenhouse. We had a little storm come through a few nights ago that damaged one of the sections in the park, so I was going to put in the new tree and shrubs, but I can send one of my guys to do it instead.”

“One of your guys?” I ask, curious as to what that means.

“Yeah, I own the greenhouse and run a landscaping business. I have a contract with the city to maintain all of the parks. It’d be too much for just me, so I have employees that help out wherever I need them,” he says, his eyes even brighter and I swear, I fall completely for him in that moment.

“Could we look around the greenhouse then? I love parks and plants and fields of flowers and the forest and mountains…” I rush out with stopping short when Duncan’s hand reaches over and takes mine, his fingers slipping between mine and I feel a shaky ache all throughout my body.

“Whatever you want, honey,” he states, lifting my hand to his lips and I squirm a bit as it makes me feel hot and heavy in my lower belly. “There’s no need to be nervous with me…”

His eyes turn my way, a little furl between his brows and I realize I never told him my name.“Serenia,” I eek out as waves of heat roll through my body the longer he holds my hand.

“Serenia, beautiful name for an incredibly beautiful girl,” he says with a hungry smile my way, and oh my gods, I want to see that look on his face every day for the rest of my life.