Terrenia was more beautiful than ever. The death that started with Vincent’s darkness was hidden by new growth now, leaving little trace of the plague that nearly claimed all the worlds two years prior.
“Hello, Dakota.”
His blood chilled, and his mouth went dry from fear. His nightmare stood in front of him, glistening in the moonlight.
“Rosabel, what are you doing here?”
She smiled. “I am so happy she told you my name. It makes things so much easier.”
“Makes what easier?”
“You and I.”
He stood angrily. “There is no you and I,” he told her. “There never will be.”
“But I kissed you.” Her eyebrows bunched together, and her mouth flattened into a tight line.
“I am married. Ana is my wife, and I don’t want anyone but her.”
Rosabel studied him, but smiled and shook her head. “You will. One day soon, I will be the only one you can think of.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, he told me so.”
“Who? Who the hell is promising me to you?”
She laughed, and the sound was like an off-tune melody. There was darkness in it, and it called to something inside him. Go to her, you want only her. Dakota shook his head. No, he wanted Ana. No one but Ana.
“The king,” she told him. “He has big plans for you.”
“Not. Interested.”
“Why must you deny me?” She stepped toward him and ran a finger down his chest. The coolness of her touch sent a shiver through him. By the look of satisfaction on her face, she thought it was desire that caused his reaction to her touch.
“You want me,” she said with the utmost conviction. “I can feel it.” She leaned closer, and Dakota tried to step back but was frozen in place, much as he had been earlier in the house.
“What do you want with the kid?”
Rosabel cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“The boy. You came for him tonight, why?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because you think we’re meant to be.” Use it to your advantage, Parker.
She cocked her head to the other side. “I do not have any plans for the boy.”
“Then why take him?”
“He is my payment.”
“For?”
“I will not tell you anymore until you come to me.”
“Then you’re going to be waiting a long ass time.”
“Perhaps. I suppose we will see, won’t we?” Cocking her head to the side, her solidity vanished, and she turned into a woman-shaped pool of water, standing straight where she’d been only seconds before.
Dakota’s eyes widened, and he clenched his hands into fists, ready to put up a fight if necessary. She going to drown me now?
A moment later, she washed over him. A wave of cold water leaving him soaked and incredibly pissed off on the front porch.
10
Terrenia
Anastasia
Anastasia settled into her favorite chair, lifting the fresh cup of coffee to her lips—
“Am I allowed to come in now?”
She paused, rolling her eyes. “I’m just going to continue pretending you don’t exist,” she said loudly.
He appeared in the living room. “You can keep doing that, or you can let me help you.”
“No thanks,” Anastasia responded, taking a drink.
“This has always been your problem, Anastasia. You’re willing to bury your head in the sand and take the easy out rather than searching for the root of the problem.”
“Excuse me?” She glared at him. “I’d say the fact that I killed your murdering ass proves I’m more than willing to take action rather than simply ‘burying my head in the sand.’”
He shrugged. “It’s going to be your husband’s funeral. Probably yours, too.” He faded away, and Anastasia cursed just as Dakota came into the room.
“Everything okay?” he asked sleepily.
“Yeah. How’d you sleep?”
“Not great.”
She handed him her cup of coffee, knowing he needed it more, and got up to make another for herself. “Nightmares?”
“You could say that.”
She eyed the pile of wet clothes hanging on the line out front. “Do some late-night laundry?”
“Rosabel was here.”
“Again?” Anastasia spun to face him.
Dakota nodded. “She popped up while I was sitting on the porch.”
“Bitch,” Anastasia grumbled. “How do you feel today? She didn’t try to drown you?”
“No, for some reason, I don’t think she wants me dead.”
Anastasia feared she knew what that reason was, but she kept it to herself. “Well, I’ll be putting up barriers around the cabin, just to be sure the little mermaid can’t get back in.”
“You really think she’s a mermaid?”
“I have no damn clue. But it’s about all I’ve got to go on.” She studied his pale complexion. “Why don’t you stay in today, try to get some rest? I was going to go check on Vincent’s kid this morning.”
“You okay doing that?”
“I’m not going to kill it, Dakota.”
“Okay. And he’s not an it.” He ran his hands down his face. “You may be right, though. I’m exhausted.” He yawned, and Anastasia studied the bags beneath his eyes.
“Are you all right?”
“I think so, just tired.”
“Still feeling off?”
Dakota smiled. “I’ll try and get some more sleep. When I wake up, I’ll be good as new.” He set the coffee aside and kissed her softly. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She smiled and watched him disappear back into the bedroom.
“He’s not, you know.”
She turned her attention to Vincent. “Excuse me?”
“All right. Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
Vincent gaped at her. “I don’t even have my magic anymore, and I can feel the difference. It’s a wonder how you’ve managed to conjure anything of any use when you refuse to embrace what you are.” He disappeared, and Anastasia cursed. It was way too damn early to be dealing with this crap.
She turned her eyes back to the bedroom and folded her arms over her chest. Trying to sense something, anything, Anastasia closed her eyes and pushed her power out to the world around her.
When nothing felt off, she cursed. “Fucking Vincent. Still messing with my head even from beyond the grave.” Hands on her hips now, Anastasia closed her eyes and put up a magical barrier around the cabin. At least while he slept, Rosabel wouldn’t be able to get to him. As soon as she got a chance, she would protect the rest of her people, but Dakota came first, since it seemed their new enemy had taken a rather disturbing liking to him.
She stepped out into the early morning sun and smiled as Kaley padded over to her. “Morning, girl.” She patted the cat’s back and continued her walk to the village. Tony sat on the porch, hands in fists on his lap, looking more incorrigible than usual.
“You okay?” Anastasia asked as she stepped onto the porch.
“You mean since you dropped off the spawn of my enemy last night?”
Anastasia threw her hands up. “He was better with Elizabeth than me. I am in no way qualified to take care of a kid right now.”
Tony sighed. “She’s over the moon about him. Has him giggling and making funny faces at her. I just don’t get it. I can’t see anything but that bastard Vincent when I look at him.”
“Join the club.” Anastasia took a seat next to him.
“Anything new?”
“Oh, you mean besides the fact that my greatest enemy has made a return from the dead? Or that my husband has some psychotic mermaid chasing him around?”
Tony let out a laugh. “Yeah, I guess that’s a lot.”
Selena stepped out onto her porch across the way and lifted her hand in a wave. Anastasia r
eturned the gesture and sighed. “What the hell is going on, Tony? Two years of peace and now we’ve got a toddler, a dead guy, and a desperate mermaid on our hands.”
“Strange times,” he agreed, and they watched as the village came to life.
In the time since the final battle, Terrenia had grown to nearly twice the size it was before. They’d had villagers set up a small shopping center where they traded for services or goods, and the town had even elected a board of elders to make decisions and take them off of hers and Tony’s shoulders.
What if that was all going to be put back on the line? What if Terrenia was going back to war?
“What are your plans for today?” Tony asked, pulling her from thoughts of bloody battles.
“Honestly, for the first time in months, I don’t have one. I’ll probably just go talk with my grandmother. See what she knows about what’s going on.”
“So, you’re headed to Texas, then?”
Anastasia smiled. Carmen had moved to the Lone Star State two months after the war ended. She came to visit from time to time, checking in and taking part in family dinners each week.
She said she loved the heat, but Anastasia couldn’t understand why. Texas was beautiful, but damn, was it hot.
“I’m hoping she can tell me something about this thing that’s after Dakota.”
“You think it’s targeting him specifically? Or do you think it’s a coincidence?”
“No, she’s after him. She keeps telling me that he is hers, and that one day they’ll be together.”
“That’s bothersome.”
Anastasia pursed her lips. “More than. Especially since she’s apparently immune to my magic.”
His eyes widened. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“There wasn’t time last night. I blasted her, Tony. Hard. It should have at least hurt her a little, but instead, it just went right through her.”
“Fuck.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “I’d say a trip to Texas is a great idea. Need company?”
Anastasia laughed. “Don’t want to be around the kid?”
He swallowed hard. “Not even a little.”
Tony was not one to back down from a challenge, and she honestly didn’t believe it was the fact that the boy was Vincent’s that bothered him. Tony’s own son had been around that age when he’d been killed along with his mother in a Brute attack.
She couldn’t even imagine the painful memories that must’ve been resurfacing for him. “You are more than welcome to come with me,” she said with a smile as she rose to her feet. “Let me go and let Dakota know we’re going.”
He stood and turned to the door. “I’ll let Lizzie know, too.”
11
Texas
Anastasia
They stepped through the portal and into the chill of winter. January in Texas was as cold as the summer was hot. She pulled her jacket tighter around her and shivered.
“Damn, it’s cold,” Tony complained as soon as the portal closed behind them.
“Seriously, though,” she agreed, beginning the short walk to Carmen’s house. She lived by herself on a ten-acre piece of property. It was secluded and surrounded by trees, so portaling to visit her was easy to do since they didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them.
Her home was a single-story brick house, with burnt orange shutters and a flower bed with a multitude of colorful flowers swaying in the light winter breeze. It was beautiful and peaceful, but again, the weather changes were too much to bear.
They found Carmen sitting on her front porch in a rocking chair, book in hand.
“Anastasia! Tony! So good to see you two!” she exclaimed, rising to her feet to give them a hug. “Is everything all right?”
Anastasia nodded. “For the most part.”
“What does that mean?”
Tony shivered. “Can we go inside?”
Carmen laughed. “Of course, come on in.”
They stepped into her quaint house, and Anastasia knelt to pet the orange tabby that padded over. Unlike Kaley, this one was normal feline size and rubbed against her leg without knocking her over.
“So, tell me,” Carmen nudged, taking a seat at her table. “What’s going on?”
Anastasia relayed the events of the night before to her grandmother, watching as the woman’s face stayed completely neutral until the very end when she confided how Rosabel had kissed Dakota.
“She did what?” Carmen growled, face turning red.
The flash of anger pleased Anastasia since she’d about lost her mind seeing it happen.
“You heard me correctly. She kissed him.”
Carmen leaned back in her seat, face returning to a normal shade. “Mermaid, hmm? I’ve never heard of one. Perhaps it’s just a creature with the ability to take the form of water.”
“I suppose that’s possible.”
“And what of Vincent? You say he appears, but not as a hallucination?”
“I mean, I suppose if I were going crazy, I wouldn’t notice, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. He’s different than he used to be. If I were imagining him, I think he would still be the same psycho from before.”
“He’s different? How?”
“Almost—” She searched for a word to describe him. “Normal. Especially given the fact that he’s a ghost. Which is crazy in itself.”
Carmen shrugged. “Ghosts exist on a different plane then we do, but they’re there.”
“Still wrapping my head around that one,” Tony muttered. “But I suppose after everything we’ve seen, this is just another thing, huh?”
Carmen and Anastasia nodded.
“Vincent is a headache, but he’s not what has me concerned.” Carmen stood to pace. “If this being—this Rosabel—has her eyes set on Dakota and is impervious to your powers, she could pose a considerable threat. I’ll need to do some research and see if I can find something more about who she might be.”
“I could help, you know,” Vincent spoke up from the corner, and Anastasia straightened.
“Vincent,” Carmen growled.
“Where is he?” Tony jumped to his feet.
“Easy boy.” Vincent flickered, and Tony’s eyes widened. “See? Now everyone gets to see me.”
“Want to tell me how the hell you’re here?” Carmen crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes on the newcomer.
He shrugged. “I came to help.”
“Cut the shit,” Anastasia ordered.
“The thing after Dakota is not a mermaid. Those are fiction, Anastasia, something I’d think you would be well versed in by now.”
“Great idea, bring up memories that make me want to kill you all over again,” she growled as images from the Brute stasis he’d put her in two years ago came to mind. He’d nearly managed to convince her that her real life had been a lie, that she and Dakota were actually married with a little girl, and she was an author who spent so much time in her own fictional world, that it had become her reality.
“Is there a point to this?” Tony asked angrily.
Anastasia glanced over at Tony, not surprised at all that he was barely leashing his rage.
“I’ll help you, but I need something in return.”
She rolled her eyes. “There’s the old Vincent we know and hate.”
Vincent narrowed his eyes, eyes that had been silver when he’d been alive but were now a haunting blue. So much like her father’s had been.
“What’s with your eyes?” Anastasia asked.
Vincent’s eyes tightened at the edges for a split second, then his face relaxed. “I want you to keep the boy safe.”
“You want us to keep your son safe in exchange for information,” Carmen clarified.
His eyes darkened. “Yes.”
“Didn’t we do that already?” Anastasia asked. “He’s with Elizabeth in Terrenia right now. We rescued him from whatever the hell that thing was last night.”
“Yes, he is for now, but you two”—he gestured betw
een Anastasia and Tony—“keep talking about getting rid of him.”
“We aren’t going to harm an innocent child.” Anastasia put her hand up to stop Tony from barreling into what probably wasn’t solid to begin with. “So, how about you start by telling us what attacked us last night.”
“Your precious Dakota,” Vincent sneered. “Was attacked by a Siren.”
“A Siren,” Anastasia repeated. “So, mermaids are fiction, but Sirens aren’t? I thought those were the same thing.”
Vincent rolled his eyes. “They are hardly the same thing. Mermaids are sweet, innocent creatures from bedtime stories. Sirens are horrific creatures who would just as soon kill as they would breathe. Which they don’t do, by the way,” he added.
“Okay.” Tony leaned back against the wall. “Tell us about these Sirens. Where do they come from?”
“They come from her world.” He nodded to Anastasia. “But are nearly extinct. They were thought to have been Atlantians once, and the story goes that when they were forced underwater, they sold their souls to survive.”
“Seems there’s a lot of that going on,” Anastasia quipped with a side glance at Vincent.
He glared at her, but Anastasia could have sworn she’d seen sadness flash in his eyes.
“Now, they only exist in the most unpopulated parts of the world. No one has seen one in hundreds of years.”
“So, how do we stop her?”
He shrugged. “As far as I know, it’s nearly impossible.”
“But not completely impossible,” Carmen considered.
“How would Dakota have caught her eye? It’s not like we spend a whole lot of time at the beach,” Anastasia said.
“Not my problem,” he responded with a shrug.
“You had damn well better make it your problem,” Tony growled.
“Do you know how to kill one?” Anastasia asked, putting a stop once again to Tony’s barely leashed rage.
Vincent grinned. “Well, well, well. Did my badass niece meet her match last night?” When Anastasia just glared at him, he continued, “I don’t know. As far as I know, they’re impervious to most magic.”
“But not all?” Carmen asked.
Siren Page 6
