by Giger, S. L.
Heart of Power Box set collection
The complete trilogy of the Urban Fantasy Series
By
S. L. Giger
Table of Contents
Title Page
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Awakening of the Siren
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Rise of the Siren
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Song of the Siren
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Acknowledgment
About the Author
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Awakening of the Siren
Book 1
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
(Joseph Campbell)
Prologue
In Greek mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were beautiful yet dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island (Wikipedia).
I used to be a normal seventeen-year-old girl. Very much average. I wasn’t tall or skinny enough to be a model, and I wasn’t short enough that all the cute guys were taller than me. I had light brown hair which fell a little over my shoulders, and I needed to wear glasses which added at least a shade of brown to my otherwise pale face. I was happy with my existence as a wallflower because I had few but good friends and a loving family. Then, without warning, I lost everything. I boarded a roller coaster of emotions, reaching every possible extreme of sadness, madness, and happiness because this Wikipedia article suddenly became a bit too real. Who would have thought that being one of the most beautiful mythical creatures would be such hard work?
Chapter 1
I tried to open my eyes — blazing light. An incredible pain crept its way through my veins like a rising fever. My chest throbbed with fire, and it felt like I was about to explode. Where was the rest of my body? In my exhaustion, I couldn’t even wiggle my toes. I tried to open my eyes again — black out.
I heard whispers but couldn’t understand what they were saying. I was so thirsty. Every cell in my body was yearning for water. And this pain — it took away my ability to breathe. Somebody open a window, or I will suffocate.
Where was I? I wanted to check, but I was too tired. As if I hadn't slept in years.
“Serena.”
I heard my name and started feeling very light. My fever seemed to trickle off into the solid, cold surface I was lying on. Where was I? Was this a dream? There were more whispers.
This time, it worked. I opened my eyes.
“Oh, we will have to watch this one closely.”
“You looked the same when you woke up.”
“No way. I'd have been scared to death if I saw myself in the mirror like that,” one woman chuckled.
Two women were looking down on me. The one who had spoken first had short hair, which went a little below her ears and was dyed completely pink. If her eyes were bigger, I would have mistaken her for a Japanese anime character. Long, thick, brown curls fell to either side of the other woman’s face, which almost brushed against me as she scrutinized me. Clear green eyes blazed from her beautiful face. Although the two didn’t look alike, there was a connection between them, which made me assume they were sisters.
“Serena, can you understand me?” The dark-haired one addressed me in English. It took me a moment to register what she said since at that time my English had been limited to what I learned at school and during travels.
At first, only a hoarse sound came out of my mouth. I swallowed and tried again.
“How, how do you know my name?” I stammered.
“I checked your wallet. You were in an accident, but you're ok now.” The brown-haired one said and then asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Accident? What happened?” I tried to sit up to get a better look at myself, but I couldn’t move. My hands and legs were strapped to a bare rock table. Until now, I had behaved quite calm and composed, but that was the end of it.
“What is this and where am I? If this was an accident, I should be in a hospital and not in some weird cave laboratory.” All I could see around me were rocks and a few candles lighting up the cave. I tried to wiggle my hands out of the straps. To my dismay, that didn’t work.
The pink-haired woman rolled her eyes and scratched her head. The other one looked at me with the kind smile you’d put on to calm a person who was about to do something stupid.
That just infuriated me the more. “Who are you? I don't like this!” Then, a warning bell went off in my head. “Toby? Where is Toby?”
For a split second, they looked at each other awkwardly and when they faced me again, I could see a dark shadow in their eyes and their smiles seemed forced now.
I turned my head to try to spot an escape route, but I only saw a rock tunnel leading into darkness. What had I gotten myself into? Was I the center of some weird ceremony, offering me to their gods? “What are you doing to me and where is Toby?” I yelled.
“Ok, you have to calm down,” pink-hair said almost amused. “The straps are for your own protection; and if you give us time to explain, you will know why.”
“You don't have to be afraid of us, we mostly try to be nice,” the other one added. “I am Melissa by the way, and this is Roisin.”
A blond beauty with a perfect face like on a b
illboard that advertises makeup suddenly stood next to them. “Oh, she woke up. Right on schedule.” I didn’t hear her come in. Hopefully, she came to my rescue.
“I thought you didn't agree with this,” Roisin said.
“Well, I don't. But it's not like I can stop you.” She scowled at Roisin with such an intensity, I was surprised that it didn’t kill Roisin. Blondies’ face cleared up for a moment. “Besides, I don't want to miss the fun now.” She gave me an evil smile just as I was starting to feel left out of their conversation. I guess she wasn’t there to help me after all.
“So, listen,” Melissa started again. As if I had another choice. “How would you feel if I told you, like I said, you had an accident and you would have died, but we managed to save you and, as a side effect, you now have super powers?”
I blinked. Nope, they were still there. Whatever game they were trying to play; I didn’t like it one bit. “Where is Toby?” I pulled on my straps some more. To my amazement, the strong thread of the thick straps ripped slightly with a scratching noise. Before I could be too happy about it, the three of them stepped in to pin me down. It took them quite an effort. Where did my strength come from? I was anything but a strong girl. I even needed help opening the lid of a honey jar. Maybe my energy was fueled by the fear creeping through my body.
“Sweetie, for your own good, just calm down and listen.” Melissa puffed.
“That might take a while.” Roisin rolled her eyes.
“I promise you, we’ll let you loose after we’ve been allowed to explain,” Melissa spoke again. The third woman just pressed down on my feet and looked as if she had a million better things to do. I slightly relaxed, and they loosened their grip.
“Think back for a moment, what do you recall?” Melissa was completely serene again.
I don’t have a clue. Just let me out of here.
“Does Kuala Lumpur ring a bell?” Roisin asked.
Kuala Lumpur, I thought. Yes, I was on a school trip in Southeast Asia.
“The waterfall...” I suddenly remembered, and a dark sense of foreboding dawned on me. In Kuala Lumpur, the teachers wanted us to hike to a waterfall. We were a group of fifteen students from 11th and 12th grade who had worked on a project to build a school in Malaysia. We built it in the first two weeks of the trip and used the remaining time to see more of the country.
The waterfall was in a lush jungle forest. In total, there were seven drops along the side of a mountain. The whole mountain was covered with forest, hiding all but the highest fall. Our student group and the three teachers hiked along the concrete path, which led us to the first three falls. Their pools were broad, filled with crowds of Malaysians. As we climbed beyond the third fall, the stream thinned, and the jungle closed around us. Our group was pretty much alone in the forest, only a few monkeys trying to get the food in our backpacks. The concrete path stopped at the fourth pool, and we had to continue on a steep dirt path. Our teachers decided that level five was high enough. Everybody settled around the pool for the first ten minutes. I was putting my water bottle back into my backpack when Toby crouched next to me. Toby was a senior with piercing blue eyes, surfer-blond hair, and therefore quite handsome. In my fantasy, he was the guy I’d kiss and perhaps even sleep with for the first time.
“Hey Serena, how about going on a little adventure?” His voice was low and his face close to mine, so that nobody else would hear. Although we had talked quite a bit in the past three weeks, I was still startled every time he addressed me. So, after convincing myself that it wasn’t a daydream, I answered, “Sure, what do you have in mind?”
“We could sneak away and go to the top anyway. The view must be amazing.”
Why he would want to steal away with me was a mystery to me, but I didn’t want to question his sanity. “Okay.”
He headed into the bushes pretending to have to go relieve himself, and I followed a few minutes later. We met again a little further up the path.
The way to the top was very steep. But being from Switzerland and used to mountains we thought that we’d easily make it. After much scrambling on hands and feet, we finally reached the last level. The view of the valley was amazing, and the cold freshwater pool with aquamarine water was a welcome refreshment. I don’t remember ever having been alone at such a beautiful place in Europe. There are people everywhere you go. But here, it was just us standing at the edge of a cliff with the forest below us as far as our eyes could see.
“Wouldn’t this be the perfect location for a kiss?” Toby grinned at me.
I managed a shy nod. Truth is, I’ve never had a real boyfriend. There I was, seventeen, and the only kisses I had gotten were during spin the bottle. How pathetic. I would have liked to know what all the fuss about kissing was about. Therefore, I was ready to do almost anything that he might have suggested.
Toby reached for my hand and pulled me closer. My arm brushed against his side which was drenched in sweat from the hike and the humidity in the air. Excitement rose inside me. It was going to happen; now. Sure enough, he brought his face closer to mine and kissed me. I tasted salt but wasn’t sure whether it was from my own sweat or his. I mostly remember about that kiss that it was wet, and I almost chocked on his saliva. I was slightly disappointed. If that was it, I could easily go on without it, thank you very much.
We sat down by the pool. The water was so clear you could see small fish swimming through the weeds at the bottom. We let our feet dangle into the water and kissed a few more times when suddenly, he started moving his hands up and down the side of my body in a weird way. I moved an inch in the opposite direction.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing. I mean... I don’t want to jump to anything here.” I felt embarrassed right after I said it. What was I doing here? Hadn’t I wanted this less than an hour ago? Now, everything in my body tensed up, and I wanted a train to take me out of there. This didn’t feel right.
“I thought this would be a nice place for a first time.” He moved closer again.
My stomach churned. I had hoped he didn’t know about my inexperience. Why did he have to bring that up anyway?
“I think we should go back,” I said, and when he placed a hand on my waist again and moved closer, I got up and started walking, not bothering to wait for him.
“Hey, where are you going? I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Didn’t mean it like what?” I continued through the trees. Going down was even harder than coming up. I had to make sure that the roots I held on to were secure. Therefore, I was going quite slowly, and Toby caught up with me.
“Look, you don’t have to get all mad and crazy. I thought you wanted it too.” He was breathing heavily.
“Maybe, but not so fast. You should have just stopped.” That’s the last thing I said because suddenly, I heard a cracking noise and Toby go “Oh crap.” A root must have ripped. There was a lot of rustling and then Toby hit me with his full body weight. I tried to grab on to something, but it all happened so quickly, there was nothing we could do. We didn’t even scream, only whine in agony when another branch scratched our skin. We both just kept falling until I couldn’t recall anything except, later, the blazing light and the pain.
“Did I die and through some mistake end up in hell?” I addressed my three captors.
“Would you prefer this version?” Roisin gave me a crooked smile.
Melissa shook her head. “Don’t worry; you are still alive and in a Malaysian forest.”
“We were on the way back from a festival when we saw you falling down that cliff,” Roisin said. The blond woman snorted. Melissa glanced at her alarmingly, and I wondered what that was all about. Roisin continued undisturbed. “The two of you would probably still be lying there, rotting away, if we hadn’t found you. There are not a lot of people passing through that valley.”
“You’d be dead if we hadn’t saved you,” Melissa underlined again. “Any rescue would have come too late. There was only one way
to keep you alive.”
“To answer one of your questions, Toby didn’t make it,” the third woman said matter-of-factly.
“You mean, he is dead?” In my shock, I wanted to sit up, only to be reminded that I was still strapped to a table. “No, no, no, he is too young to—”
Melissa cut me off. “Like I said, there was only one way of saving you, and we needed your friend’s help for that.”
“Welcome to the crazy sister club,” the other woman said in a bored tone and earned a scolding look from Roisin and Melissa.
“Hello, to your new life as a Siren.” Roisin beamed as if she had just announced that I won the lottery.
“A what?”
“Do you know the stories of sailors who were attracted by the beautiful sounds and looks of female creatures somewhere on rocks in the middle of the ocean?” Roisin didn’t wait for my answer. “It is said that these creatures, called Sirens, would sing beautiful songs to attract the Mariners closer to them. When the men were within reach, the Sirens would turn into monsters and eat them alive.” Roisin chuckled.
“That’s not how it really was.” The blond woman disagreed.
“Would you just let me finish or do you want to tell it yourself, Cathy?”
Finally, the third woman had a name. Cathy pursed her lips and fell silent.
Roisin continued, “Okay, so Siren’s never actually ate anybody. But we do live on adrenalin and the human heart is the biggest source for it. So, in the past, Sirens tore the bodies of— let’s call them ‘victims’— apart, to eat their heart.”
“You mean, these Sirens actually exist?”
Roisin laughed, and Cathy looked at me impatiently.
Melissa went on in a kinder tone. “Yes, but we aren’t monsters, and we don’t sing either. It’s just that our ancestors didn’t want to kill healthy humans and therefore banned themselves to the ocean, to only take the adrenaline of lost sailors.”
“But we aren’t on the ocean now,” I stated, just to make sure.
“No, we live in normal houses and instead of killing lost sailors, we take the adrenalin of people who are about to die, caused by accident. We only take the hearts of people who can’t be medically saved.” Melissa answered.
