The darkness cast everything in shadows. Even though it was a bright, sunny day, very little light penetrated the thick canopy. I thought I saw movement, a brief burst of shadow, but then it was swallowed by the darkness again and nothing more moved that I could see. I turned away, suddenly realizing I could no longer hear Carissa. The eerie silence around me now seemed almost deafening.

  A bloodcurdling scream smashed through the silence, sending birds up in loud, raucous, squawking flight. I didn’t hesitate, letting every ounce of siren free, flowing from me in waves of power. I parted the trees and ran for my sister. I knew her scream, I would recognize it anywhere. She didn’t scream a lot though, and when she did, it meant she was in trouble.

  Branches and trunks leaned away so I had a clear path. My nature-based power was stronger in the water, but that didn’t mean I had no control on land. Water was part of everything – plants, animals, soil – everything was reliant on water to some degree. So everything was in my control.

  Carissa’s pale blond hair came into sight as I skidded to a halt in a small clearing just before her. It felt as if my heart was going to beat out of my chest, like I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. Finally a burst of air fled my mouth, along with a hoarse cry: “Carissa!”

  She couldn’t turn to me. The creature holding her against his chest had a firm grip on her throat, and if she twisted at all, her neck was going to snap. It wouldn’t kill her, but if he took her head off completely, which no doubt the vampire was strong enough to do, that would.

  “What do you want?”

  I would not show fear. A vampire alone was not stronger than us, but the tall, red-haired, olive-toned male was not alone. He had four other males spread out behind him, each of them silent and still. I felt their adrenalin. I could almost taste it. They were ready for a fight.

  Redhead bared his fangs, his icy blue eyes wide and shiny, pupils very dilated. He was either high on something, or in the midst of bloodlust, neither of which I liked.

  “What the hell do you want?” I repeated, with more force this time.

  My power was snaking away from me, but I pulled it back. I couldn’t risk Carissa. She was caught in a vulnerable position. Even if she used her own powers on him, vampires were so fast there would be time for him to rip her head off. Which was why you could never let them get their hands on you.

  Cold energy from behind, followed by a small breaking branch, alerted me to the fact that my back was vulnerable. I sent my power backwards in one rapid rush of energy, seeking those who would dare to attack. My heat and life smashed against something so dark and formidable that the backlash almost knocked me off my feet.

  Carissa whimpered, and I wanted so badly to turn to her, but I couldn’t remove my focus from where my energy was now tangling with power stronger than I had ever felt before. I knew I was no match for this power, which meant it could only be coming from one source.

  The vampire queen.

  8

  It was all starting to make sense now, the reason so many vampires were surrounding us. The reason they had taken my sister so easily. This was the elite, the queen’s guard, the strongest and best of their breed. I had no idea what was about to happen, and I wasn’t keen to find out.

  Withdrawing my energy, I made a split-second decision and prayed it would not cost Carissa her life. I called for help from an old oak tree, which was just behind the main group holding my sister. In a flash, branches snaked out and wrapped around the vampires, including the one holding my sister. I had asked the tree to immobilize his arms, and I was happy to see it worked. Branches punched through his wrists, hitting pressure points, forcing the vampire to drop Carissa as he howled.

  I was already moving, racing across the clearing. Carissa, who had fallen in a heap, wasted no time staggering to her feet. She turned with a snarl on her face, and before I could stop her, launched herself at the tree, climbing it so she could reach the redhead guy, who was being hauled up by the oak. I heard the snapping of his neck before I could even open my mouth to warn her that the queen was approaching.

  “Shit, Carissa, we have to get out of here.”

  She was still snarling like a caged beast, her clawed hands slashing across his now lifeless face. Like us, a broken neck would not kill him; he would heal. But if I knew my sister, she would not be satisfied with that.

  “The queen is coming!” I snapped at her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to tangle with the queen of darkness. We need to leave. Now.”

  With one final kick to the vampire, still held aloft by the tree branches, she shimmied her way down to land gracefully at my side. “I can’t believe he got the drop on me like that. Fuck!”

  Her anger spilled over as her eyes darkened, turning black as pitch. I linked my arm with hers, dragging her in the opposite direction to where the queen had been.

  We were too slow though.

  “Where do you two think you’re going?” Isadora’s cold voice tightened my gut but I didn’t waste another second. Sending a warm burst of thanks to the trees, and an additional call for help, I felt branches snake out and tighten around my waist. Carissa’s too. Then we were rapidly hauled up and through the trees, somehow not smashing into any major branches. When we popped out the top of the canopy, my sister and I called to the water particles in the air, using them to form steps so we could glide along the top. Our speed as we ran, with the help of the elements, was almost that of a vampire.

  “Why were we just attacked?” Carissa’s cheeks still held spots of red, and I couldn’t blame her. Unprovoked attacks were not common, and almost never happened to sirens. Mostly because we were small in numbers, and didn’t get involved in too much of the politics or dick measuring.

  “I don’t know for sure, but this could be about Axel.”

  The urge to find him and make sure he was okay hit me hard, and I picked up my speed. The edge of the forest was in sight and some of the tension that had been coiling my gut eased. Soon we’d be back on the main grounds, where there would be lots of others around and an unprovoked vampire attack would have more consequences. For them.

  Carissa surprised me then when she said, with all seriousness: “I will stand by you, Lettie. If you choose Axel, we can take whatever the backlash is. Don’t sacrifice your happiness. You deserve it.”

  I took my eyes off the hotel in the distance so I could cast a quick glance to my sister. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say something like that,” I finally murmured, before having to turn away so I didn’t trip.

  She was my twin, true, but we had always been so different. She didn’t believe in love, and would usually scoff at me. So this was a big admission.

  “I’ll always have your back too.” I didn’t look at her again, but she no doubt felt my sincerity. My thanks.

  “We just have to survive this first.” Her words were clipped and I knew why.

  The edge of the forest was near and we could see the line of vampires waiting for us there, the queen front and center. Of course, we didn’t need to drop to the ground, we were already walking on air. Pretty much. She was smiling up at me as I crossed above her head, just this unnatural creepy smile. It set me on edge, but I wasn’t about to stop and ask her what the fuck was wrong with her face. I needed to get out of there.

  “Axel will be disappointed to hear you couldn’t be bothered to prevent his death.”

  I faltered.

  Carissa slowed but did not fully stop. “Don’t listen to her, she’s lying.”

  I swallowed hard, hovering in the air. “What if she isn’t? I’m not sure I can risk Axel.” He was under my skin, he was … I couldn’t leave him behind.

  Carissa’s face looked pale, the ivory almost chalky. “You cannot just hand yourself over to her.”

  I met her wide brown and golden eyes. “Go and get help,” I murmured, too low for anyone else to hear. “Get help, and I’ll stall for as long as I can.”

  Carissa was shaking her head violently, but her feet were already moving. She continued toward the hotel. She knew this was our only option.

  My powers were starting to weaken. I could not stay in the air like this for much longer. It was easier with the trees and canopy for assistance, but there wasn’t enough water out in the open like this. I was going to fall soon. And not be able to get back up. Which meant the vampire queen would have me exactly where she wanted me.

  I had no choice. I stepped down until I was on the ground, about twenty feet from the group of vamps. The hotel was at my back; they had the forest at theirs. Nobody moved, but the vampires could be at my side in milliseconds, so I could not rest easy.

  “What did you do with Axel? The wolves will kill you.”

  She threw back her head and laughed. “I think the wolves might kill you, actually. I wanted to know if what I noticed the other night could possibly be true, and funnily enough, it is. A siren and the alpha, it’s like the start of a bad joke.”

  A few vampires laughed around her, until she turned her dead eyes on them, then they shut the fuck up. She turned back to me, and I was pretty much done with her bullshit. “Take me to Axel. That is what you wanted, right? Me to see him beaten down, or whatever you’ve done to him.”

  I was angry. I wanted to storm up to her, but there was a sliver of sanity inside of me still. A hope that if I could just stall long enough, my sister would be back with reinforcements. Because I could not take on this many vampires by myself, especially since I was drained from the last fight.

  Cold energy knocked into me and I braced myself. Vampires came in from either side of me like bullets, both reaching for me at the same time. With a battle cry, I let loose siren song, but this was not to entice, this was to disarm and stun. My pitch was high enough that more birds took flight, and wolves howled in the distance. The vampires stumbled, which gave me enough time to spin in a quick circle, taking them both down with a roundhouse kick. I was strong enough to crack skulls when I kicked like that, so they would both be down until they could heal. I wasn’t a fighter by any means, but after hundreds of years on Earth, I’d learned a thing or two about protecting myself.

  “Why are you attacking us? Do you want your mate to die?” The queen’s smile was gone, and with a wave of her hand she sent another set of vampires at me. This time there were six, and I knew it was too much. I could feel the hoarseness of my voice, the rapid pulse of my blood. I was draining myself fast, and if I continued to fight like this she would simply best me with numbers. Maybe I would be better off conserving my energy for when she took me to Axel. I would need it to free us both.

  Of course, it’s one thing to want to submit, and another to actually follow through with it. I slammed my fist into one vamp’s nose, followed by my knee into a groin. Unfortunately the knee landed on a female vampire, so the impact wasn’t quite the same. I was just choking out a third, using air particles to fill his mouth, when I was slammed to the ground from behind, my head cracking so hard that everything went black and red in an instant. The weight on me increased, and I felt more than one shot land on my ribs and kidneys as they stomped and punched me into submission.

  As I fought their hold, fought the unconsciousness wanting to pull me under, I flashed back to the last time I had been beaten like this – when the gods decided they didn’t like the sirens and their enticing ways any longer – when the wives hated the way we drew men, and threw us from Olympus. They tore most of our power from us, along with our dignity. They were not gentle, and I had hated the bastards ever since. I could never understand why my sister wanted to go back to them. I would never let anyone treat me like that again.

  A song burst free from me, almost a banshee wail filled with memory and anger and fear. Not just fear for myself, but fear for Axel. Bodies blasted from me. I could feel the weight lifting, but before the last one was gone, something heavy slammed into the back of my skull, and my song was cut off, along with consciousness.

  9

  Normally my body healed quickly, but when I returned to the land of consciousness I was one ball of aches and pain. Something was particularly tender on my right side, around my ribs, and the back of my head felt like it had been caved in. Blinking a few times, I tried to clear my vision. There seemed to be red clumps in my eyelashes, which gave the room a very macabre look as I blinked.

  I didn’t recognize where I was being held. From my limited viewpoint, I appeared to be anchored to a large, white marble statue. A few other statues were close by. Nothing in here was familiar … except for the redheaded vampire against the wall. He was sitting tall in a high-backed wooden chair, his narrowed eyes locked on me. I could see the hatred and anger there; no doubt he had been relegated to guard duty as punishment for his failure in the forest.

  “Where’s Axel?” I demanded. Well, sort of. My words came out a little garbled. My head was pounding so hard it was difficult to think.

  Red’s chair legs groaned as he adjusted his seat, getting more comfortable. A small smirk played around his lips, and I was just opening my mouth to sing a little song when he lifted a small gun up.

  “If even a humming sound comes out of those pretty lips, I’m going to permanently silence you.”

  My eyes locked on the weapon, and I knew without him telling me that they had bullets capable of killing gods. Especially fallen and weak gods. There were a few substances that could kill us. They might be hard to find, but they were out there.

  “Where is Axel?” I repeated, keeping a wary eye on his weapon.

  “Not here. We never had him. There’s no way he’s worth going to war over.”

  I understood the smirk now. “So why the hell did the queen take me? What does she want?”

  Red tilted his head to the side, like I was a stupid bug that he wanted to squish. “I didn’t say she doesn’t want Axel, or at least something from him. But she’s going to be smarter about it.”

  I had a really bad feeling about what he was going to say next, and sure enough…

  “She’s spied on him for many years, waiting for him to mess up and reveal a weakness. But there was nothing.” His eyes glinted as he waved the gun a little. “Then last year he took you. No one thought anything of it. But then he came back.”

  And we’d run right back to each other. Fuck. I’d played right into her stupid trap too, so caught up in my worry for Axel.

  I tried to see more of the room I was being held in, but it was very dark. And cold. Just a small fire burning in a sconce off to the right. From the little I could see, we appeared to be underground, somewhere with crumbling stone walls, and a damp scent to go with the chill. I struggled against the chains around my wrists and ankles, but whatever they were enforced with was more than capable of withstanding my strength.

  “They’re a gift from Hephaestus.” Red’s smirk grew, and I was so tempted to risk the bullet and sing him right into a broken neck.

  I did stop struggling with the chains, though. The god of blacksmiths did not make poor quality merchandise. His cuffs restrained gods of full strength; I had no hope in hell of breaking them. Falling silent, I let my eyes rest on Red, never wavering, waiting for him to let his guard down. If the gun slipped even an inch, I would take the chance.

  There was no way I could wait here so that I could be used to bring Axel down. That stupid vampire queen needed to die.

  We sat for hours, neither of us moving, neither of us losing focus. My injuries were pretty much healed now, but my strength was still sapped. The chains were draining me slightly – something Hephaestus designed all of his hardware to do – which would amuse the blacksmith god. Sirens were a weakness of his. He had been one of the gods obsessed with us. No doubt it was his wife Aphrodite, and Hera, wife of Zeus, who’d started the entire campaign to get us tossed from Olympus.

  “I need to pee.” My announcement startled him slightly and he wobbled on his chair, which he had tilted back against the wall. “If you don’t take me to a bathroom, I’m going to pee right here on the floor.”

  I wasn’t even kidding. Red looked uneasy, getting to his feet. His words were hesitant: “My orders are not to let you free for any reason. Not even if you choked on your own tongue and turned blue.” His voice went high pitched as he mimicked his queen’s orders.

  I shrugged and widened my legs as much as I could with the chains. “Wait!” He held a hand up. “I’ll grab you a bucket, okay. Just … hold on.”

  He dashed into the dark shadows behind where he’d been sitting. I heard his boots clomping away, then a light flashed for a second, showcasing stairs, before it went dark again.

  I’d seen enough to know I was in one of the underground mausoleums. No idea which of the different gravesites, but it was creepy either way. Even though it was useless, I struggled again with my chains. Really yanking them this time.

  I wondered if maybe I could break the stone the chains were hooked to. Surely they weren’t a gift from the gods too.

  Using all of my strength, I wrenched my arms forward and was rewarded with a small crack. I started thrashing even harder. My wrists were bleeding. Pretty sure I had cut them to the bone. But I didn’t stop. I was getting out of here, if it was the last thing I did.

  Another wrenching crack and suddenly I had more room to move. With a deep breath, pushing through the throbbing ache in each hand, I jerked as hard as I could, breaking the stone with my right hand first, and then my left soon after. A metal hook swung out then, attached to both cuffs. Those hooks must have been drilled into the stone; that was what I had pulled free.

 

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