The siren laughed and came around to face us. With a wave of her hand, sparkles appeared, and a small, pink chair covered in what had to be diamond dust surfaced from thin air.
She brushed her flowing skirts away and sat down. The siren was so beautiful she could cause a traffic jam. With night-black hair, sea-foam green eyes, and a body filled with dangerous curves, one might dismiss her for a gorgeous nymph at their own peril. Sirena was stunning, but she was also graced with a deadly intelligence and years of experience with all the power players in the magical space.
And for some odd reason, she liked us both—as much as someone like her could like anyone. Sirens were a little understood race. Everyone knew their voices were the source of their power, but how it worked was a closely held secret. If she wanted, she could lure someone to their death with her voice. But if she ever deigned to sing, Sirena could lure the entire town into walking off a cliff. People wisely stayed on her good side, us included.
“You’ve been naughty,” Sirena said, her full lips curving as she studied Moira.
“Accidentally,” Moira grumbled.
“Doesn’t matter to me. But you’ve unleashed a power neither of you expected.” Her green eyes flashed. “And for that, you will experience great sorrow.”
I stilled. “Sorrow?” I echoed.
Sirena didn’t look at me, though. All her attention was on Moira. “Tell me, vampire who is not just a vampire, could you feel what you grasped when you held it?”
Moira’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Sirena’s eyes narrowed. “When your hand opened and that power brushed your skin, did you know what you were pulling through?”
Moira slowly shook her head. She swallowed hard. “No. I—I felt something, but I couldn’t stop the power from grabbing it—him.”
Moira’s shoulders slumped. “I can’t seem to control what I touch and…whatever this is just pulls it through.”
Sirena sat back in her soft pink, diamond crusted chair and studied Moira for a long moment before clicking her tongue. “You’ve been touched by the fae.” She took Moira’s hand in her own and ran her fingers over the vampire’s palm. “Normally, a human will brush off such exposure through time, but your magic…” Sirena shook her head. “You already had a touch of the fae in you. Something in your magic craved this power and reached out for it. Whatever happened, it’s permanent now.”
Sirena let go of her hand, and Moira curled her fingers into a fist. “Can I learn how to control whatever this is?”
“Of course,” Sirena said. “But it will take time and effort and extreme will. This magic is greedy. It craves.”
When they fell silent, I asked the question that had been bothering me since everything had happened. “Who did Moira bring through?”
An unamused laugh came from Sirena’s throat. “Who?” She shook her head. “Who is not the question you should be asking. What is the right question?” Her eyes glowed sea-foam green. “What have you unleashed on Joy Springs?”
My stomach clenched.
Sirena’s lips pulled into a grim smile. “You are here to ask me to help you, no?”
Moira nodded. “Or send me to someone who can.”
“No need for that. I will help. For a price.”
I stifled my sigh. Good neighbors weren’t really a thing in fae culture. No fae did a clean favor. They always involved a price, whether or not one could pay. Sirena’s eyes slid to me, amusement sparkling in their depths.
“One day, I will require your assistance. Moira and you, shapeshifter.”
I froze. How could she know the secrets simmering in my blood?
Her lips quirked. “When that day comes, you will ask no questions and come to aid me.”
Moira’s eyes narrowed. “I won’t do anything illegal.”
“No one asked you to,” Sirena said.
“Yet,” I snapped.
Sirena rolled her eyes. “You forget Joy Springs has much different laws than the human world. I will agree that it will be nothing illegal under our laws.”
“And no killing,” Moira added.
