Page 47 of Siren’s Mark (The Siren’s Mark Duology #1)

AVA

I stare at Zane with my mouth agape.

“What?” he asks.

“Really, Zane?” I ask. “You don’t just casually offer your girlfriend immortality!”

“I didn’t consider that particularly casual. Besides, I wanted to have a clean slate, be open and honest with you. Like you wanted.”

“Okay well, yes, technically I did say I wanted that but… I didn’t expect the secrets you were keeping to be, ‘Oh hey, by the way, we’re soulmates and I can make you immortal.’”

“I… fuck… I don’t know. I’m trying to do this right.”

“Zane,” I say with a sigh. “You don’t have to commit to this whole mark thing because you think you have something to prove to me. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m not,” he says, pinching between his brows and closing his eyes. “I’ve known for a long time that you’re the one for me.”

His eyes open to meet mine and he brushes a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

“I’ve been around a long time,” he says, lightly brushing my jaw with his hand.

“What I feel for you… it’s so different—so much more—than I have ever felt for anyone in 200 years.

Being without you and knowing that I hurt you, even for the few days we were apart, I couldn’t stand it.

I could hardly bear the pain. I knew taking lethe was stupid, but I was so desperate to make it go away. ”

I blink at him, struggling to find an adequate response.

“You are, without a doubt, the love of my life,” he says, his voice shaking slightly. “There is no pressure for this. Honestly, I don’t want you to do it. I’m not sure it’s safe. But, it’s a decision that affects you, so you should be involved.”

“I… I don’t know, Zane. This is a lot. We just got back together. Last night I was on a date with another guy and th-”

Zane interrupts me with a low, rumbling growl. His eyes turn bright green. His jaw tenses and he attempts to regain his composure, taking a tight breath through his clenched teeth. He swallows hard and his eyes narrow.

“Sorry, er, go ahead,” he says, the green in his eyes slowly fading.

“It’s just a lot to think about right now.”

“You don’t have to decide now, love,” he says, running his fingers through my hair.

“What does it even do?” I ask. “I mean, what’s the process? How does it work?”

“Er… It’s a little grotesque, but basically, inside a Siren’s wings there are… hmm… it’s kind of like the supernatural equivalent of stem cells. They have the power to make human cells immortal, linking them in a way to the original Siren.”

“So I’d be a Siren?” I ask.

“No, you’d still be human, you just wouldn’t be able to age or die as long as I was alive.

Unfortunately you’d still be sick, and my powers wouldn’t work on you anymore, so I wouldn’t be able to help make your pain go away.

Kami thinks you might heal faster, but I’m honestly not sure. Not a lot of people do this.”

“Why not?”

“Because Sirens don’t often fall for humans, and in general the whole cutting off your wings thing is a big deal for some…”

Okay, hold up. WHAT?

“ What??? ” I shout. “You’re telling me you’d have to cut off your wings for this to work?”

“Oh uh, yeah,” he says, as if we’re having a normal everyday conversation. “I mean technically you only have to cut off one, but that would be really awkward and you can’t use one wing anyway. Most Sirens go for both.”

“I’m not letting you cut off your body parts for me, Zane,” I say. “Just so I can live forever? No thanks.”

He smiles slightly.

“What are you smiling for?” I ask.

“I’m kind of glad,” he says. “I don’t want to risk your safety. Even if your concern is for me, I’ll take it.”

“Oh, thanks,” I say sarcastically. “What happened to you being certain I’m your soulmate?”

“Love,” he scolds. “You know I don’t mean it like that. I would happily give up any body part you happened to need.”

He pulls me in for a hug and kisses me on the neck.

“Oh yeah? So you’d sacrifice your penis for me?” I ask with a giggle.

“You want it? Because I’d be happy to give it to you,” he says with a devious smirk, grinding his hips into me.

“Pervert,” I tease, sticking out my tongue at him.

He opens his mouth to say something but the vibration of my phone interrupts us. He grabs it off the bedside table and hands it to me.

It’s Jen.

Oh boy.

“Heeyyy!” I say as I answer the phone.

“Don’t ‘heeyyy’ me, girly,” she says. “Where the heck did you disappear to last night?!”

“I told you I was heading home.”

“Yeah, but whose home?”

“I, um…”

“Are you at Zane’s?” she asks.

“No, I’m at Kami’s.”

“You bailed on us to go over to Kami’s house? Why?”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to bail on you guys but I wasn’t feeling… quite myself… and I had to talk to Zane.”

“Girl, tell me you didn’t.”

Yep. I did.

“Um…” I say, having no response other than guilty silence.

“Oh my god, Ava!” she says. “You really are my little whoreball!”

“Shuuttt upppp,” I whine.

“Well, this must’ve been one hell of a talk!”

All I need to do now is manage to explain this without using the word Siren or talking about his dead girlfriend or having to explain why he was alive in the 1800s.

Yeah. Simple.

“I found out about something personal that happened to him and… I can’t really talk about it, but it explained some of why he is the way he is.

Why he made the choice that he did and he thought he was doing the right thing.

It’s really complicated but I…” I pause, realizing Zane is right behind me listening to me talk about him.

I look over my shoulder to see Zane sitting up on the bed, his shoulders slumped and head hanging low. I mouth the word ‘Sorry’ and shrug my shoulders, unsure how else to address the situation. He gives me an understanding nod and gestures for me to continue talking.

“It’s really hard to explain,” I say with a flustered sigh. “Can you just trust me and not kill Zane the next time you see him?”

“So you’re back together?”

“Yeah. We’re back together.” I look back to see Zane with a big smile on his face.

“Okay, hon,” she says reluctantly. “I guess if it means that much to you, I won’t kill him. For now.”

“Why thank you,” I say with a giggle.

“But I know somebody’s gonna be real disappointed.”

“Huh? Who?”

“Dreamboat Dave, of course!”

I hear another low growl from Zane. Apparently he can hear both sides of our conversation. I give him a quick glare and he shrugs in response. He walks over to the couch in his boxers, presumably in an attempt to give me more privacy, even though it’s just a few more feet away.

“He was definitely smitten with you last night,” she says. “He couldn’t stop talking about you after you left. I didn’t realize things were still possible with you and Zane, so don’t be mad but I gave him your number.”

A loud crack rings throughout the room and I turn to see Kami’s marble coffee table split down the middle. My eyes widen at Zane but he won’t look at me.

“Uh, that’s okay,” I say.

Zane turns around and looks at me with his eyes glowing green and one eyebrow raised.

“I’ll handle it,” I add.

I need to return the poor guy’s jacket, anyway.

Zane seems to relax and turns back around, stretching out on the couch.

Personally, I’m less concerned with Dave and more concerned with how I’m going to broach the subject of Shayna with Jen. It’s probably not the kind of conversation we should have over the phone; I need to time this delicately.

“Hold on,” Jen says. “I’m getting a page from work.”

“Okay,” I say.

“Oh holy shit,” she mumbles under her breath.

“What is it?”

“My boss is saying I need to come in to process some priority samples from a murder scene.”

“Well, yeah, Jen,” I say. “That’s what your company does. Why does that surprise you?”

“The body was found behind Pike’s.”