Siren's Kiss (Seraphine Thomas Book 5)

by Erin R Flynn

  Alena threw back her head and laughed, making me focus on something more than the cake. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she gestured to all the men around us. “They are more turned on at watching you two moan over cake than Lillie jumping around bare breasted.”

  Simone pointed at me with her fork. “It’s her. She eats dessert like people do porn, and she totally doesn’t know she’s doing it.”

  “It would be disrespectful of the cake to not give it my complete focus,” I defended, cradling my plate.

  “The fact you can say that with a straight face and so seriously is too damn adorable,” Jason teased, smiling as he opened his mouth for some.

  I gave it to him as I glanced at Jacqueline. “You should make marriage proposal cakes.” Jason choked on his bite, some of it landing on my shirt. “Not for us, dickhead. You only wish I’d keep you.” I looked back to an amused Jacqueline, Simone, and Alena. “You were telling us about the secret chamber in the cakes where you’re putting in sprinkles for the girls. That would be an awesome way to get an engagement ring. Cut her a slice and the ring comes sliding out.”

  “That is an excellent idea, Alpha!” Jacqueline gushed, moving closer and kissing each of my cheeks. “I have never known a more loving Alpha who so genuinely cares for their pack’s happiness and wants them to succeed, and not because of the tithe but because you want us to have good lives. I might have run from a mating I did not wish to have, but the gods blessed me by following my heart and doing what was right by leading me to be one of your wolves.”

  She walked off, humming to herself on the way back to the kitchen, leaving me blushing at her praise and affection. “It was just a cake idea.”

  “No, it was more than that, and you know it,” Simone chastised lightly. “You have a good eye for things and think of all sides. You’re not in business, so you don’t think like a business woman but a customer and client. It’s helpful, and you do really want your wolves to be happy. You’re a great Alpha, Sera, no matter how much you worry you weren’t right for the job.”

  “Thanks.” I frowned. “I was thinking she could fill it with penis candies for bachelorette parties too since most of the penis cakes are just tacky, but that would be funny to think it’s a fancy, elegant cake and penis candies come spilling out. I’m not sure she would have been so happy with me then.”

  “Yes, I would have,” Jacqueline sang from the kitchen.

  I snorted, shaking my head. We had way too much fun even in the middle of crazy.

  13

  As if to prove my point, minutes later as Alena and I were discussing how we planned to hunt, Jared came racing into the restaurant with Eva trailing after him. I blinked at him, not having caught his costume at first, but realizing it was him by smell.

  He stopped in front of our table, put his fists on his hips to pose and stuck out his chest. “I’m Batman.”

  “You sure are,” I chuckled, taking in his “outfit.” He had been wearing black underwear, but Gayle had painted on the yellow tool belt, along with spraying him gray, besides the emblem and even giving him a bald cap to add to his black mask she’d painted. The best part was how she’d accented his stomach to make it look like he was ripped along with some lines on his thighs and arms.

  “Your wolf is very talented,” Eva complimented. “We worked out plans for tonight, and Jared asked how much it tickled, and she offered to mask him so he’d feel safe.”

  “Speaking of safe, I would suggest we have shifted wolves sweep the parking garage,” Reagan said as he approached me with Hagan. “It would be how we’d attack, as there’s lots of dark corners, and with no guards during the day, it would be easy to sneak in a bomb. Even a little one could take this whole place down if placed just right.”

  “Do it,” I agreed, watching him leave before glancing at Hagan. “You’re both taking a proactive role. Why?”

  “Because we’re your Betas, not just soldiers anymore,” he muttered then followed after his twin.

  “They have both spoken with Zeno about their failings. He has assured them that there was a lot to fix when you took over and they had to handle a lot. While they were so busy with that, and you tireless working in areas they were not involved in, space grew, and like men do, instead of addressing it or figuring out steps to fix it, they blew everything up.” She gestured to Brian. “I believe you are familiar with how idiotic men can be in stressful situations.”

  “I deserve that, and I like you, Alena, but I hope we’ll limit the digs in front of my people, right? I’m on the clock.”

  “Of course.” Her lips twitched at the chastising, but she took it in turn. Alena wasn’t a bully, and her point had been Hagan and Reagan, not to make Brian squirm.

  “Can I speak with you a moment?” Brian asked, gesturing me to step off to the side away from the commotion of Jared’s costume and even the humans working. I tapped my ear that the paranormals could still hear us, and he nodded but didn’t move, so he wanted away from the humans. “Since when have you been okay with going to these levels, Sera?” The confusion I was feeling showed, so he tried again. “You never would touch people to get answers. Isn’t this—”

  “Completely different,” I assured him, rubbing my arm. “I didn’t not do that because I felt bad about it maybe not being fair. I did it so I never drew attention to myself. I met a clairvoyant once, only once and at Quantico. The guy made me want to slit my wrists at the idea I could ever become like him. He shook the whole time he spoke. He was beaten, Bri. I meant, completely a shell, and the FBI did that to him using him like a damn magic ball.”

  “That’s not the only reason,” he pushed, studying me closely.

  I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not a good one, okay? I couldn’t focus like that guy talked of. I could get all kinds of shit and probably none of it useful but would keep me up at night. The only time I did was personal to keep myself safe and that kidnapping case right after I finished training.” I swallowed down tears. “But that cost me, Bri. I couldn’t sleep—what I saw haunted me because I see it like I’m them.”

  “I didn’t realize it was that hard on you. I’m sorry. I’m not judging you or lecturing, but you’re worried you’re not you anymore, and this is a line I thought I understood.”

  I shook my head and rubbed my arms again. “Bri, I have no problem digging in someone’s mind if I knew how to control it. I haven’t since I was almost placed with a foster family who had a dad that was a pedophile and liked to molest the foster kids they got. But this is different than rooting around in someone’s mind. It’s power and control, like I did to Damon Marks to make him answer your questions.”

  “But they’re not wolves. Will it work?”

  “Yeah, it should be easier because he was fairly strong or at least strong at shielding other people’s powers.”

  “Yes, I wish to know,” Eva told Alena, her tone agitated, and I realized they’d been having a conversation that I was sure piggybacked off of ours, so I turned to focus on them.

  “Seraphine has always been a clairvoyant. That is what they are discussing.”

  “Ah, the generation skipping curse. I did not know this.”

  My feet were moving before I even realized it. I grabbed her arms and shook her, shocking everyone. “What do you mean by that? Are you saying it wasn’t my fault? It’s not some kind of birth defect or mental impairment? What do you know because I’ve searched everywhere for answers, but no one knows why or how I ended up like this?”

  “Granddaughter, calm yourself,” she murmured gently, understanding I was freaking out and not just from my tone or my volume went up. It was probably why she forgave me for being so aggressive and hysterical with her. “Yes, it is genetic.”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” I rasped, my knees buckling. She easily kept me on my feet and helped me to sit at the nearest booth. “It really wasn’t me? I wasn’t defective?”

  “Why would you ever think that?” she whispered, tucking my hair behind my ear as s
he knelt in front of me. “You are a wondrous woman, Seraphine.”

  “Her birth family abandoned her because of her clairvoyant tendencies,” Alena explained gently as she pulled up a chair and sat near me, patting my knee.

  “Humans can truly be terrifying,” Eva sighed, shaking her head.

  “Not all humans would have done that or abandon their family,” Brian argued.

  She met his gaze head on, and I was a bit impressed with him that he didn’t even flinch at the look he got. Then again, he couldn’t feel her power as we could. “No, but shifters never do such things. A child is a gift, a miracle, as our taking a child to term has less than a fifty percent chance no matter how powerful we are. I have never known a wolf to abandon their child.”

  “Nor I a panther or any cat, as they’re crazy protective of their offspring,” Simone added. “It’s against our basic biology on two fronts, Brian. It’s just not done. Eva’s almost a thousand years old, and she’s never heard of it. I think that’s pretty clear it doesn’t happen. I’ve thought the same thing. Humans might fear us, but sometimes the things they’re capable of terrifies us because any people who could abandon a child would do much worse to strangers they don’t understand.”

  “Fair enough,” he conceded, looking as if he didn’t like the generalizations, but it wasn’t worth poking at since he couldn’t speak to shifter ways.

  “So my grandparents were clairvoyants? You said it skips a generation?” I asked, bringing the conversation back around.

  “I did not know that either,” Alena confessed. “You are the first I’ve ever met.”

  “One of your grandparents or both were clairvoyants for you to have some abilities. Can you touch people and get images but never objects?”

  “No, I only get it when there’s high emotions, or some people are just loud, like Harris. But I normally don’t get anything off anyone unless touching and they’re agitated or I am.”

  “That explains so, so much,” Jason chuckled, pushing his hand over his forehead and hair. “I mean, you were a virgin, but yet, you seemed to know what I was thinking. And you just—you always knew how to make it better or what I wanted or just—”

  “Yeah, she does,” Brian agreed, frowning that Jason was part of the club in that way. “I’ve never been with someone who could always fulfill every need or—”

  “Sitting with my mother and grandmother,” I chastised them, my cheeks heating. “And I didn’t do it on purpose. I’d get the images, feelings when I’m so close with someone. It makes it hard to sleep with people too because I can see their dreams instead of mine and it’s not sleep then.”

  “But you said you never got anything off Tristan,” Brian pushed. “You could sleep next to him. And right away. I think that bothered me more than anything with him.”

  “I think it was the bond. Vampires are harder for me because when they get agitated, they tend to go more possum than like Harris who moves and talks a mile a minute. I don’t get anything from Noah anymore. I think the bond protects them and me from it.”

  “I cannot answer all the questions I see in your eyes racing around your head,” Eva informed me gently. “But for that level, one or two of your grandparents had the ability. But you were human, even with it.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Because you could be infected with our strain of lycanthropy,” she answered easily as if I’d missed a pretty large point.

  “I never thought of that, as she considered herself not fully human,” Alena muttered, taking my hand in hers. “It makes sense though.”

  “It does, but it’s also a mystical ability,” Brian challenged.

  Yes, it did make sense. Vampires couldn’t become wolf after getting a scratch. Fairies couldn’t. I wasn’t sure if witches could, but I’d never asked because it seemed to be taboo for magical people, even Remington who was a necromancer.

  “You—and most—think of it as a mystical ability because you did not start in our world. You were alive longer thinking none of us were real than you have lived knowing about us,” Eva explained, her tone not taking offense, but firm, knowledgeable.

  I bet she was an excellent teacher.

  “You have to turn the viewpoint to fit in with us. You are thinking of it as magic, something you cannot do. However, you can no longer hear certain frequencies of sound, but you could as a child. It was a sensitivity you lost when your body changed.” She turned, standing so she could face most of us. “We are what we are by our DNA. It’s an infection according to your biologists, but it’s not an illness. It’s a changing of blood, blood we have from birth.

  “And there are different species. No matter how you look at the science or genetics, there is a bit of magic in us and what we are. No amount of cellular difference between us and humans can explain why we turn into wolves.” She waited for most of us to nod. “High IQs can be hereditary. It is why smart people tend to mate with smart people, as it’s in their building blocks and something they want to pass on.

  “As their brains can compute questions and answers faster than the rest of us, it is said they can use more parts of their brains. Blood flows differently or more to areas. I doubt they have studied too many clairvoyants or telepaths under modern machines, as they’ve been hunted almost to extinction.”

  “What?” Brian asked with a whoosh as if she’d punched him in the stomach. I kinda felt the same.

  Eva shot me a sad look. “You are rare, Granddaughter, even having any trace of blood of a clairvoyant. Many, many centuries ago, when paranormals found out about humans having such gifts, such intelligence and insight that could out us, it was agreed across the species that they were to be killed immediately if found.”

  “That’s insane!” Brian hissed, moving closer to me as if ready to protect me from Eva.

  “Is it?” she challenged, her voice firm. “A human who could discover us? Who could out us and our families as monsters no matter how we behaved? Would you risk such a thing when your children’s lives were at stake?”

  “You’re assuming they would or would say what they were that could bring crap down on their own head as being witches.” He seemed so sure about it, and I kind of agreed with him. I wasn’t sure I would have told anyone if I had found out about paranormals earlier, as I would have been thrown in the same bucket with them.

  “You need a new lesson in history, child,” she snapped, finally losing her cool with him. “It was not Christians the Roman Empire hunted, but shifters. The madness so widespread because of their tales of incest among Christians, their way of claiming whole packs as family members and thus, incestuous. Or their claims of bestiality, as we are both animal and people, but most wouldn’t believe that. So let the charge be we were intimate with animals.

  “The pope at the time of the Spanish Inquisition was a clairvoyant of immense power. Remember, I was alive then, so I do speak of what I know. He could find names, faces, and whole families simply by touching a person who knew one or be in public facilities where one touched anything. The only way it happened in Spain was it caught us off guard and we were unprepared for such an outright attack.

  “Packs, clans, and even covens banded together to keep other countries from that influence or Catholic desire to infiltrate to find more. Even during that time, it was written as something completely else and humans bought it because the masses allow themselves to be lied to, as it was not as scary as us being among them. After that, none of us ever doubted the lengths humans could go—would go—in their genocide and madness.”

  “So why am I alive?” I whispered, realizing I was looking down at my hand in Alena’s. “I’ve met lots of paranormals now, and someone had to know that it was the rule to kill clairvoyants.”

  “We are out and not in fear of our lives in this country,” Vlad answered, letting everyone there know he’d known of this rule and hadn’t killed me. “That was smart when we were all in hiding. Now if you out someone, they might lose their job or their bus
iness, as too many humans still disagree with allowing paranormals to prepare food or practice medicine.”

  “I actually agree with that last one,” I admitted, feeling the tension in the room and disapproval. “I’ve been to ERs where hospital staff got hurt or cut. All it takes is one cut or crazy drunk and a shifter loses it and scratches someone. People who can’t infect aren’t different.”

  “You dislike Riley being a nurse around humans. That is why you never fully gave yourself to him as you did Tristan,” Alena commented at a level only we could hear.

  I gave a slight nod after a moment. I’d never realized it, but she was right.

  I was left with only one question as I tried to process such a huge batch of information and what it meant for me. “Do I have to worry about you, Grandmother? You seem to believe all clairvoyants or telepaths should die.”

  “I have not for many years. Not since we became public as Vlad said. Before, it might not have been right, nor fair as your Brian is correct and not every telepath or clairvoyant used their gifts against us, but to protect my family, our whole pack of thousands, I would never take that chance. You are my family now, Seraphine, and I am never a threat to you.”

  “Okay, good,” I murmured and slid out of my seat, needing a bit of air.

  Shocking, right?

  “Let her go,” Alena said to someone.

  I wasn’t sure who and I wasn’t sure I really cared in that moment. I walked into the kitchen, ready for something happier and the goodness I smelled coming from there.

  “Okay, so now you’ve seen how to mix batter in the big floor mixer, grease and line cake pans, and finally weigh out the amount of batters before oven and timing and temps. Any part that confused you?” Jacqueline asked.

  “No, but I don’t think I would be okay doing it on my own without being involved a few more times,” Jared confessed as I quietly pushed open the swinging door. It seemed to be the consensus of her group, which also included two early twenties wolves who wanted to help her for her private business for pay, and a young hawk who had told Noe she really wanted the chance to learn from someone as talented and well trained as Jacqueline.