Page 7

Dane

W e follow Duncan and Serenia out the door after we finish the meal Dylan made. Seeing the girls interacting was something else, they really are sisters rather than friends, even if they don’t share blood. They can read each other entirely, and I know this is all going to be fine. Whatever it is that they’re worried about telling us about, it’s not going to destroy us.

I’m sure it’s just about where they lived before they came here. As much as I’ve tried, I couldn’t get Celestia to give me a straight answer on it. She just said she lived near the beach, that none of them felt they fit in, and were glad to get the chance to come explore this week.

I know my girl wasn’t looking for a sugar daddy. She’s definitely not a gold-digger. Beyond that, I really don’t care because I know what’s most important—she’s mine. All mine. Just mine. The rest simply shaped her into who she is now. I get to love her and help her grow into whatever else she wants to be from here forward.

We reach the lake, the girls sharing looks before Dylan pulls Melodia into his arms, cupping her face gently, his eyes filled with worry. The same look is on Duncan’s face as well seeing the uncertainty on Serenia’s, and I know I’m not faring much better as I lift Celestia’s hand to my lips, kissing her palm gently.

“Whatever it is going on, just tell us, angel,” Dylan urges, and Melodia nods taking a step back from him as Serenia gives her and Celestia a curious look.

“This might be simpler,” Melodia tells him as the three girls toss aside their dresses, leaving them in bikinis, and they dive into the water while the three of us are momentarily stunned.

It grows when there’s a glow coming from the water, but before it gets too bright, the three of their heads pop up out of the water. My jaw drops, my heart stuttering a bit and I swear I can’t really be seeing what I’m seeing. It’s not humanly possible but even as I think it, a fin pops out of the water, telling me I really am.

Celestia looks like the night sky has wrapped her in layered clouds, darkened with no sun lighting them, creating a feathery look along her torso and over her breasts, rather than the grey one she had on. She’s absolutely stunning and I love that the others aren’t getting to gaze at her body in her tiny bikini. Even if how it happened doesn’t begin to compute right now.

Similarly to Celestia’s top changing, Serenia’s body looks like it’s wrapped with silken water, blue along her torso with white foam creating a bikini top hiding her breasts, rather than the green bikini she jumped into the water wearing. Melodia looks like she’s wrapped in iridescent gemstones forming an off the shoulder looking top, instead of the pink and purple thing she’d been wearing.

“What the fuck?” Duncan gets out, and the girls turn towards us, as we move down the dock towards them.

“So definitely not an actual angel…” Dylan teases. “I wondered where you could have been living to not know what the internet and TV was but this…”

“Never saw this coming,” Duncan says, and I can’t tear my eyes off my girl to ask what the hell Dylan meant by not knowing what the internet and TV was. He can’t be serious can he? I mean, yeah, we haven’t done much beyond cook and fuck, but who doesn’t know what those things are?

Even with all of those questions flowing through me, I can’t begin to do anything but go to my girl. I slip down onto the dock, pulling her almost out of the water, and kiss her, make sure she’s really still here, not a mirage. I let it linger, kissing her hot and hungrily until Duncan finally lets out a shout pulling us apart. “Dude, can you stop long enough for them to explain?”

“Okay, this might take a bit so…” Melodia pauses with a glance at Serenia and Celestia. They nod then push themselves up out of the water onto the dock with us. A shock hits again when almost instantly, the tail and top disappear, the bikinis returning.

“I like the tail more than the bikini, even if it’s just in front of my friends, angel,” Dylan grunts and I have to agree to that even if it is just silently.

We guide the girls over to the sitting area, and I wrap Celestia up tight after slipping my flannel around her upper body, needing my hands on her to know she’s still real and here with me.

Serenia starts, her words a shock as she tells us, “We’re sirens.”

“Sirens, like the beings that lure sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores?” I question, remembering telling Celestia about love at first sight being a myth and her little grin at the word, and they nod. “I thought they were half birds not…”

“We used to be,” Celestia says making my brow lift even higher because I don’t recall that from my small unit on Greek mythology from high school.

“Sirens once roamed the skies, singing their songs, getting men to follow them, on the sea and on land. Others grew jealous, and when a siren lured a man a muse wanted, they went to Hera and claimed the sirens thought they were the greatest beings in the world. The smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, which also upset Athena, because she felt she was the smartest,” Melodia tells us, resting in Dylan’s hold until he leans back a bit, his brow high as he looks at her in shock.

“Hera and Athena, as in the goddesses?”

“Yes,” she answers him seriously. “To teach the sirens a lesson, they tricked them into a singing competition with the muses. A sirens’ song is only meant to lure, it sounds different to everyone, and not every siren can lure every man at the same time.”

“So, when several siren sing at once, the ones that have no effect sound hideous to the listener. Muses on the other hand,” Serenia says, “are meant to inspire, especially music itself. So, when a group of them get together, it creates the most beautiful sound ever.”

“The sirens were laughed at by the men, and because they won, the muses were able to decide what their prize was. They said they wanted the sirens’ feathers, to make them even more beautiful to men, because ours were the prettiest. Once plucked, the sirens’ wings shriveled and could no longer support them in flight, and they were trapped on the ground to walk on their talons,” Celestia adds, and I can feel the anger that causes her. Hell, it makes me furious to think of someone harming her to the point where she’d be disabled.

“But the men that once were under their spell now mocked them, and unable to fly, they captured all of them and told them to try and put them under their spell when they looked like monsters. They wanted to drown all of them, and so, they tied the sirens’ feet together and threw them into the water. They sank fast, the pressure made their bodies elongate while their legs fused together, their skin turning to scale, and the wings rotated and became arms. The coldness of the water turned them into the true monsters the men called them. Their once lovely human faces became bone and terror, their hair long weeds, and ice flowed through their veins, allowing them to breathe under the water. Horrified of the creatures they created, the muses disappeared, and the men tried to fight. In the water they stood no chance. Several were killed instantly, others, managed to escape, and when the sirens went after them, it was discovered that they could not cross the land because they had no feet or legs to stand on any longer,” Melodia admits sending Dylan’s brows up higher and mine definitely follows.

“But all of you have…and you’re even more beautiful…” he says.

“The beauty was a gift from Aphrodite,” Celestia explains, and that’s a name that’s completely familiar. Though it’s a shock that she’d go against the other goddesses and bestow a gift on the sirens.

“She also gave the sirens the chance to reclaim what was taken from them, freedom to roam the land and sea,” Serenia adds, and a bit of understanding starts to come over me as Celestia’s legs move over my lap.

“But the sirens used their newfound legs to hunt down the men that mocked them, to kill them instead. Aphrodite offered them the chance to find love, real love, but all they could feel was the cold in their hearts, the urge to kill. And seven days after they were given their legs, as they slayed the last mortal man, Aphrodite took back her gift of legs, forcing the sirens back into the seas. For nearly three thousand years, the sirens have used their powers and Aphrodite’s gift of beauty to kill. Not knowing they had another choice if they just ignored the icy cold,” Melodia says. “None of us ever liked the cold, the urges it created within us to kill. Sirens become their most powerful after they turn twenty-one. The bloodlust is said to be unbearable at that point. Likely because that’s how old the original sirens were when they were thrown into the ocean.”

“Melodia discovered a loophole that could keep us from becoming full-sirens,” Serenia says giving her a grin. “She told us about it, and we all agreed it was our only option.”

“As long as we didn’t kill by the end of our twenty-first birthday, we would get the chance to have Aphrodite’s gift given to us. So, we spent our birthday together in the lagoon outside of town, keeping each other from letting the cold consume us, and as the night turned to midnight, we found ourselves with legs,” Celestia states, laughing a bit as I rub hers, my hand sliding onto her hips holding her tighter.

“Serenia was four before she came to live with us, so she knew the most basic things about humans, was able to teach us how to walk, and then Celestia remembered a hidden bag of clothes that also had money in it that would likely be useful. We walked to town that morning, and then one by one, met you all.”

“And spent several days worried that you wouldn’t fall in love with us, and we’d have to go back,” Serenia adds.

“And then worried that it seemed too simple that you did fall in love with us, until Aphrodite joined us in the diner at least,” Celestia says and all three of us guys share confused looks at that. “She walked right into it past you. Said you ignored even her, but it wasn’t a surprise since your hearts were never meant for anyone but us.”

“So, we really were brought here to find you,” Dylan says to Melodia and that thought hits me hard inside. I came here to get away from women—or so I thought. Now, turns out I came here for the woman who’d claim my heart. “And you still were worried it wasn’t real?”

“We’ve spent our entire lives fighting against the cold. You’ve no idea just how powerful it was, so yes, when nothing happened when you told us you loved us, we were worried somehow our powers had gotten you to fall for us, even though you said it happened in an instant,” Melodia states.

“Then Aphrodite told us, it was never your love we had to worry about, it was always us. That you would have fallen for us no matter what, because you were destined to be ours, but if we hadn’t listened, hadn’t fought the cold bloodlust, we wouldn’t have seen it, seen any of you, and ended up like the others,” Celestia adds, snuggling into my hold as I kiss her forehead, loving that the universe or perhaps fate brought me here for this.

“Knowing what it took to get us all here, in this town, and knowing that we all had listened, we knew her words were true,” Serenia says.

“And then she told us she’d given us two more gifts,” Melodia states, giggling a bit as she looks up at Dylan. “Well, she said the first was really for you all.”

“Being that when we transformed back into our siren bodies, we’d have a little more coverage than normal, because sirens only have tails,” Serenia says making Duncan’s brow lift high in confusion.

“And hair for coverage,” Celestia expands on for us, bringing a growl to Duncan’s lips that Dylan echoes as I clench my jaw tight.

“So, the other gift is that you all can transform whenever you want?” I ask her. “Because in the water you had a tail but once out of it…”

“That was part of her original gift for those that found true love not the extra ones she told us about in the diner,” Celestia answers me with a grin that’s pure beauty just like her.

“She did say that we could only transform back into our siren form when in a natural body of water. So, the lake, a river, or the ocean. Pools won’t do it, and neither will the rain thankfully because we’ve kept our existence from humans for thousands of years now,” Serenia adds.

“So, what was the last gift?” Dylan questions.

“You all as ours forever. Sirens are immortal beings,” Melodia tells him, sending his brow upwards a bit and I wait for them to explain that, make sure I heard them right because after losing my parents, the thought of having Celestia as mine forever fills me with peace. “Every soul that the Lycophron consumes, gives us more strength. Even if we didn’t do the actual killing or consuming, the strength is shared by all through the bloodline. Normally, when a siren mates, it’s to breed. When a siren has a man under her lure, it’s to kill, unless she’s ready to breed. Once a siren knows she’s with child, she kills the man, so he has no chance of sharing a bond with the child.”

“That bond gives them strength and sirens hatred of men is as deep as the bloodlust that runs through them. But that strength was just that, strength, not immortality,” Serenia adds.

“But it will be different with us, for us,” Melodia says to her. “Aphrodite told us that when we have daughters, they won’t ever have to fight the cold. They won’t feel it because of your hearts, and with our daughters’ birth, the bond will create a new one for us, where we’ll get to have you with us for eternity. They as well as all of you will share in the strength, her victory over the ones that use her gifts for evil.”

“They won’t be able to kill you even in the water then,” Serenia says to Duncan, her eyes haunted with a look I’ve seen in my own when remembering my parents.

“Until then, you have to swear you’ll stay out of the ocean, away from the rivers or lakes that connect to them, because if our mothers do come, that’s as far as they can go,” Celestia adds, her hand holding tighter to my arm, pressing against my chest as a shudder races through her body.

“Can they try to hurt you?” Duncan asks them.

“They can try, but it would only kill them as well. A siren can’t kill another siren, without killing all of her blood,” Serenia answers. “If our mothers tried to kill us, it would destroy them, as well as our entire lineage.”

“Even if they tried to have Celestia’s mother kill me, and mine kill Serenia, and hers kill Celestia, it would still kill them as well,” Melodia adds giving Dylan a reassuring smile.

“There must be thousands of sirens out there then,” Duncan says echoing my thoughts, but Serenia shakes her head no.

“Sirens can only have one child each, and sirens only have girls,” she tells him, and I glance down at Celestia who gives me a little nod, biting her bottom lip, but I’m not going to argue only having one baby if it means I have her forever now.

“A little you that’s part me too sounds perfect, honey,” Duncan replies.

“Nothing wrong with having more of perfection in the world, that’s for sure,” Dylan agrees.

“I can’t wait to have a little piece of you and me in the world, baby,” I assure Celestia, loving the little grin that hits her now.

“I wonder what our daughters’ powers might be,” Melodia says, bringing curious looks from all of us men her way.

“What do you mean powers?” Dylan asks.

“Well, sirens have powers to lure men,” Melodia states, and he nods. “We have different ways of achieving that, usually they’re enhanced based on who our father is. Mine was a musician, so my song is more powerful than anyone else’s. There was never anyone I couldn’t enchant if I tried. When sirens are pregnant, they can feel what the powers their child will have, and normally we’re named after them in some way.”

“Hence Melodia,” Dylan says, and she nods in return.

“My father was an astronomy professor; it left me with an affinity with the sky. Sailors used to track their positions using the night sky. Others with similar gifts would rearrange a star here and there to confuse them, draw them nearer to their deaths. With new machines, their abilities weren’t quite as useful, so when I was born with the ability to disrupt the force of the moon and stars, they realized I could mess with their machines as well,” Celestia tells us, and my breath stalls a bit at that news.

The sky took my parents from me in a way, but now, it’s given me her, making it up somehow it seems. Or maybe my parents had a sense of foreboding doom, had a glimpse of their fate, and that’s why they insisted I stay home when originally, I was supposed to go with them on the trip. Maybe they somehow knew Celestia was out there, needing me to be here to find her, to give me this love that will last us forever.

For the first time, losing them doesn’t bring on the guilt I felt back then and for so long. Now, I’m thankful I wasn’t on that plane, because if I was, Celestia would have to become something she despises.

“And men know to watch out for rocks as they bring a ship in, and while some of our kind can mask them, no one else could create an entire vision of land so true that men would leave their ship and fall into the vast ocean for the sirens to drag into their depths. My father was a geologist with the Army Corp of Engineers. He managed to escape my mother when she tried to kill him the first time. Found her when she was having me, and stole me, to try and keep me from her, keep me safe. I was four when we moved to a base near the ocean, and she found me. Despite his strength, he was pulled into the depths and drowned when my mother pulled me into the water so I would have my first transformation. At least now it’s not painful,” Serenia says, pulling reassuring looks from the others, and we stay for a bit, letting them talk more, learning more about sirens before Dylan and Melodia head home, and I take Celestia to mine.

I wrap her up in the tightest hug, telling her everything with my parents and the women that led me here, kissing away the tears that filled her eyes hearing it. “Shh, I didn’t mean to make you cry, baby.”

“I know. I’m just so glad you weren’t taken from me and I get to stay with you forever—have a little girl with you we can love and treasure for life,” she promises, and I kiss her until we’re beyond the heavens together, and I know there’s no way we won’t have that little baby in about nine months now. Not with as deeply as we just loved.