Page 57 of Siren’s Mark (The Siren’s Mark Duology #1)

AVA

The scent of coffee and toast wakes me from a deep sleep. I stretch my arms above my head and my joints pop like they’re made of bubble wrap.

Ow.

I reluctantly roll myself out from under the covers and onto the floor, letting out a groan when my body thunks onto the floor less gracefully than I intended.

Ow.

I pull myself off the ground and make my way to the kitchen, where Zane is standing in his boxers and pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Morning, love,” he says, leaning in for a quick good-morning kiss. “Long night?”

He looks at me with a mischievous grin, clearly recalling the sexy little prank I played on him last night. I smile to myself.

“Nope,” I say, stealing a slice of toast from his plate. “You?”

He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me in until my chest is flush with his.

“Cheeky girl,” he says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I smirk at him and innocently bat my eyes.

“Of course you don’t. You definitely didn’t try to distract me last night or anything of the sort.” He playfully rolls his eyes and smiles.

“Well, I mean, you are a Siren—God’s gift to women and all that—so I’m sure you can’t possibly be distracted by little ol’ me.”

He gives me a playful spank.

“Yeah, maybe I did deserve that,” he says. “But you know, the only reason my ego is what it is… is because I won the only girl that really matters.”

He places a soft kiss on my lips. Even without the effect of the venom, his kisses send shivers down my spine and through to my fingertips.

I’ll never get tired of this feeling.

“You know, there’s just one problem with your plan,” he says. “Now that I know I can feel it when you touch yourself… I know it will work in reverse too.”

I blush as he thrusts his hips forward, grinding himself into me. A soft moan makes its way past my lips, but we’re quickly interrupted by the sound of our doorbell ringing.

“Oh crap,” I say. “What time is it?”

I look at the clock and see it’s almost noon. I told Jen she could come over at 11:30 and I’m still in my pajamas.

“Are you expecting someone?” Zane asks.

“Jen,” I say. “I woke up so much later than I thought.”

Zane steps away to put on clothing while I make my way to the door. As I open it, Jen bursts in with her usual enthusiasm.

“Ava, light of my life!” Jen yells, throwing her arms around my neck and pulling me in for a hug. “I’m so glad you’re doing better! Never do that to me again, okay?”

I hear a low growl from Zane and turn to see him with his eyes slightly narrowed and his arms tightly crossed. It looks like he’s still working on the extra possessiveness brought on by the mark.

“Zane, other light of my life!” Jen exclaims. She runs over to Zane and gives him a big bear hug. The expression on his face is of pure confusion as she squeezes him and rocks him back and forth.

His eyes widen as he looks to me for an explanation. The last he had heard, Jen was still pissed at him for our short-lived breakup.

“I explained to Jen how your family friend was able to get me that experimental treatment for my liver failure,” I say with a bit of a wink.

“Yep,” she says, releasing Zane from her hug. “You are responsible for saving my boo over there, so you are officially one of my favorite people ever.”

He continues to look skeptical but nods nonetheless.

“Happy to help,” he says, giving me a knowing smirk.

“So are you not feeling well?” she asks, pointing out that I’m still wearing pajamas.

“No, I’m actually doing alright today,” I say. “I just slept late.”

“Well, good,” she says. “Then you can give me a proper tour this time.”

“Okay,” I say. “But let me get some actual clothes on first.”

“Well, this place is fucking amazing,” Jen says as she plops herself down on the couch in the living room.

“I know, right?” I say. “I feel like such a poser living here.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a gold-digging ho.”

I giggle and sit down in the armchair beside her.

“Thanks for bringing me to the hospital, by the way,” I say. “I never really got a chance to say thank you.”

“Oh hon, no thanks required. You’re my favorite person on the planet; I’ve always got your back.”

“When I got my chart back there was a note that said the person who brought me in was ‘distraught and has potential for violence.’ At first, I thought they meant Zane, but they also said it was a woman.”

We both laugh.

“Well they wouldn’t let me see you or know what was going on. I came this close to slapping a bitch, but Zane showed up and I just told them he was Mike,” she says.

“Oh god, why?” I ask.

“He was the only person they had listed as a contact for you—you should really change that by the way. They were so close to calling him, despite me telling them a million times that you weren’t together. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

“I totally forgot I had him listed on my records there,” I say. “I haven’t been to that particular hospital in ages. That would have been so embarrassing.”

“Speaking of Zane,” she says. “Where did he disappear to?”

“Oh, he’s probably taking a nap. He’s been dealing with some stuff lately and it just wears him out.”

What’s the right way to say he’s experiencing my symptoms and he has to take breaks to deal with it?

I feel a tightness around my heart as I try to ignore the feelings of guilt.

He would be fine if it weren’t for me.

Stop it, brain.

“I’m fine,” Zane’s voice says as he emerges from the other room. “Just took a nap.”

He walks over and sits in the chair next to mine.

“So what’s new with you?” I ask Jen. “Anything exciting?”

“Not really,” she says. “Shayna has been super busy at the bar lately and working a lot of long nights, so we haven’t gotten to see each other much.”

I try my best not to react to her statement, but I immediately wonder if Shayna’s affair with Kieran is still ongoing.

I am a horrible friend. I need to tell Jen and I need to tell her soon.

“And we may have discovered a new element at the lab,” she adds.

“A new element?” I ask. “What does that even mean?”

“Well, we don’t really know yet. But you know that murder at Pike’s the other night?”

Her comment immediately catches Zane’s attention and he leans further toward her, listening intently.

“Well they found a vial of clear stuff in the victim’s purse, and they sent it to us for testing,” she says. “But all of our results have been inconclusive. Its spectral signature doesn’t match anything in our database. Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Zane’s eyes narrow and he purses his lips.

“A vial?” he asks. “Are you sure that was part of the Pike’s case?”

“Yeah, it’s definitely that case. I remember because this lady had a crocodile-skin Berkin bag and there was trace evidence of crocodile scales on everything. Why?”

“Oh uh, no reason,” he says. “I just thought I remembered hearing about the case on the news and there was nothing about a vial.”

“Well, that’s probably because someone lost it,” she says. “We requested another sample of the liquid for re-testing and they told us several items from the evidence box had been misplaced—which is usually code for some dumbass put them in the wrong box.”

“Several items?” Zane asks. “What else?”

“I’m probably not supposed to tell you this, so don’t mention it to anyone, but it was like an old necklace, the vial of liquid, and a folded piece of paper with a drawing on it.

Even the photographs of the items went missing, so all we have to go off is the written descriptions.

We can’t even re-test the liquid, which is super frustrating because we used the original sample up during the first round of testing.

Personally, I was quite looking forward to naming my own element. ”

“Jenium?” I ask.

“I was actually thinking ‘Jubileenium,’” she says.

Of course . Only Jen would name an element after a comic book character.

“What’s that?” Zane asks.

Oh, now you’ve started something you’ll never be able to stop.

“Jubilee is only the greatest superhero of all time,” Jen explains. “She can shoot fireworks from her hands and blow shit up and she’s Chinese and she can do sick backflips and…”

I look over to Zane, who seems to be struck with the realization that he’s just committed himself to listening to the entire elaborate backstory of Jubilee.

KAMI

There’s a loud thumping at my front door.

Why is it that no one ever uses the bell? This estate is giant. If I weren’t a Siren, there’s no way I’d be able to hear a knock, and yet people refuse to push the big glowing button next to my door.

I walk down the corridor and open the door to Zane. He looks like he’s in an unusually bad mood, and walks past me without even saying hello.

“Wow,” I say. “Okay, Z, just let yourself in why don’t you.”

“We need to talk,” he says. His voice is stern and rough.

“Um, okay,” I say, closing the door behind me and following him into the foyer. “What’s going on?”

“The case documents you gave me from Lola’s murder… they’re incomplete.”

Shit.

“Oh,” I say. “Are they? What’s missing?”

“Really?” he asks.

Shit shit shit.

“What are you getting at?” I ask, doing my best to maintain a sincere tone of voice.

“You know exactly what I’m getting at,” he says, a rumbling growl emerging beneath his words.

Until he tells me what he knows, I can’t let on anything.

“No,” I say. “You’re going to have to tell me.”

“Well, first off, I’m missing a page from the evidence inventory,” he says. “I’m also missing the part where you stole evidence that you didn’t fucking tell me about!”

Shit.

My shoulders pull inward, my head lowers, and I back up as he steps toward me. I’ve never been afraid of Zane before, but I find myself shaking slightly.

“I kept trying to think to myself, why the fuck would Kami take evidence from a police case?” he says.

“I mean, why? Because you don’t work for the Council yourself.

You’re not trying to protect the Immortal world.

That’s not your schtick. You sure as hell wouldn’t protect Kieran.

And if you needed something, you would just put it back once you were done, not steal it outright.

No, the only reason you’d get rid of evidence—and the only reason you’d hide it from me—is if it would implicate you . ”