Page 60

“Stop speaking in riddles and explain it to me then,” I demand, tired of the witch’s arrogance. She may be ancient and powerful, but damn if she isn’t annoying about it.

Her eyes flash brighter. “Remember your manners, boy. I do not have to be here, and I am not here for you. I am here for my daughter, no one else.”

It is aggravating to be chastised like a child, but I grit my teeth and make myself bow my head in apology. “Forgive me. My impatience got the better of me.”

Cassandra’s eyes narrow. “Just make sure that it does not happen again. I can just as easily leave, and you will not be able to stop me.”

I nod, swallowing my pride. “You were saying?”

The seer’s eyes go misty and distant, as if she is seeing her memories play out before her eyes. “Yes, my love begged to die, and my brother did it. The shock of a siren-bound killing his own siren caused him to perish just a moment after. Her death nearly killed me as well. I was on the floor in agony when Odysseus broke through into the palace, but he was too late. The prize he was after was already gone. The strongest siren to ever live, dead. She had slipped through his fingers. His rage was unlike anything I’d ever seen. A hunter foiled in his hunt.”

“But why was he after Helen?” I ask. “What are the hunters after? What is this all about?”

“What is anything about? Power, of course. Sirens are beings of pure power. Creatures of music and magic, created lovingly by some goddess in her own image. As long as certain conditions are met, they are unending sources of unadulterated magical energy. In the right hands, they could make a god out of someone, and that is what the hunters are after. Fools that they are, they can never achieve a siren’s true potential, and they end up just using them up. A waste of life and potential.”

“What are the right conditions?” I further query.

The young-looking woman smiles. “Love, young man. A siren in love has no end to her power, and she can share it with those she loves, too. Surely you have noticed the benefits.”

Now it is my turn to scoff. “Andi doesn’t love me.”

“No, she doesn't.” Cassandra returns bluntly. For some reason, even though she agrees with me, I feel slighted. She continues, “Not yet. Venus is rising, though, pulling you into each other’s orbits, and Fate cannot be denied. She is drawn to you, attracted to you. That counts, somewhat. A sliver of her power had entered you through her blood. Are you not stronger than you’ve ever been? That is but a taste of what the hunters are after. Magic that overpowers all others and strengthens all it touches. But their tactics are full of force and manipulation. A siren can fall out of love as easily as falling into it, and then her power dries up and her life-force along with it. Like a used-up battery.”

I get a sudden mental picture of Andi, shriveled up, dried out like a mummy, a hopeless look on her face, and growl. “That will not happen to Andi.”

The beauty before me shrugs. “That is not actually up to you. You would not be the first siren-bound to fail in protecting his siren from the hunters. But you will be the last. Andi is the only siren left, the last that the hunters can try to take. And they will stop at nothing to have her.”

“Haynes is a hunter?”

“Of course he is. The Circle of Nightshade is what is left of the Order of Ares, the hunters who once wanted my Helen. Haynes found Andi and suspected what she is, but tried to be sneakier than his predecessors. He wooed her, dated her and tried to trap her that way. He wanted her willingly, a siren at her fullest potential. But the siren hunters are a heartless, power-hungry lot in the end, and he couldn’t help but show his true colors when she didn’t fall in line with his plans fast enough. Now he doesn't care if she loves him. He wants her power just the same.”

“He will not get to her,” I reply coldly. “She is under my protection and the protection of my whole organization. The Circle is nothing compared to my Fraternity.”

She laughs, and it is not a kind sound. “Your arrogance reminds me of my brother, Hector. He thought that with the might of Troy behind us, there was no way that the hunters could take Helen. He was the first of us who died. It nearly destroyed Helen.”

“Are you here to tell me stories and vague warnings, or will you actually tell me how to protect Andi? Do you not care for her as a daughter?”

The air suddenly thickens with magic, so densely that I cannot take a breath. The seer's eyes flash, and her aura begins to glow with white-hot power. She looks every inch an ancient, powerful witch.

“Never question my love for my daughter, vampire. I have protected her since before you even knew she existed.”

I am choking on the force of her magic. Vampires do not need air to live, but we need it to speak. “If you . . . care for her so much . . .” I gasp out, “Why leave her in . . . the dark about what she is?”

The power in the room dissipates suddenly, the air flooding back. Cassandra’s eyes fade back to their startling amber hue, no longer glowing. As they do, her appearance shimmers as if behind some mist, and then she is an old woman in Romani clothing once more. She looks tired and deflated.

“I wanted to protect Andi while she was young and the most vulnerable. Let her keep her innocence and know a life without fear. Besides, her unique power is easy to track. If she had used her powers as an adolescent, the hunters would have found her before she could have defended herself. I saw those possible futures and shuddered at what could have happened to my Andromeda. No, she needed to mature to the point where she could use her powers as a weapon. She needed to find you to inspire her. The only reason that I did not stop her from coming to New Orleans was that I saw, of all her possible loves, you were the most ruthless, the one who would stop at nothing to protect her. And she could only meet you in New Orleans.”

“Of course I will protect her,” I say, a tad bitterly, “I am enthralled to her.”

“Enthralled,” the witch repeats the word with disdain. “That’s what the hunters call it. They spread the word that being siren-bound was mind control and was a fate worse than death, to stop Others from seeking out their prize, from sharing in the power that comes from being siren-bound. From being enamored, which is what the sirens called it.”

“What do you call being bombarded with feelings that are not your own, compelled to be with the siren always? To love them against your will and sense?”

Cassandra shakes her wizened head. “Is that what you think? That sirens can make just anyone fall in love with them? Why wouldn’t they make the hunters fall for them then, so that they would stop destroying them, if it were so easy?”

That gives me pause. Didn’t Andi ask a similar question when I told her the version of the Trojan War that I knew? Why didn't Helen enthrall Odysseus and her first husband?

“Why didn’t the sirens enthrall the hunters, then?” I ask.