“I rescue people for a living. I’m a rescue swimmer with the Coast Guard.”
“Ah. You ride in one of the big white boats?”
“No, actually I am assigned to a helicopter. Or was.”
“Helicopter?”
It was his turn to tilt his head to the side and look at her confused. “You know a helicopter, flies in the air, can hover above the land or water?”
“Oh, right.” She smiled and laughed, making him almost forget their strange conversation. “Not every man would have helped her, so thank you.”
“If I hadn’t been there, you would have managed on your own. I’ve never met a swimmer as fast as you.”
“My mother would say I learned to swim before I could stand.”
“Crawl…the saying is learned to swim before you learned to crawl.”
“That too.” Again with the smile. Damn, this woman hit him right in the solar plexus.
“So, what’s the verdict, Cyrus?” Sage asked, coming from the cabin with Ms. Davis. Dana smiled at them as she helped Sage escort the woman to the waiting golf cart.
Cyrus said something else to Rekkus before turning to his sibling. “No one senses anything. Probably just a freak rip current. We’ll keep an eye on it.”
“Well then, as long as everyone stays close to shore, we should be all set. Dinner is being served.” She turned to Kaleb and Serena. “Do you two want a ride or would you prefer to walk?”
Serena looked at him, waiting. Like her decision hinged on his. “I think I’ll walk.”
“Me too.”
“Excellent,” Sage answered before yelling for Cyrus who walked back from the water’s edge. But it was Rekkus’s reaction—a near-growl—that brought Kaleb up short; that was the second time he had heard the man make that inhuman sound.
“It’s not excellent, damn it. Sage, you knock it off. Serena, I’m warning you.”
“Consider me warned. I am on my best behavior.”
Had Kaleb not been walking so close to them, he would have missed the “You’d better be.”
“Dana, please do something with your mate,” Sage said with a laugh.
“I try, but even I have my limits.”
“I’m right here, ladies,” Rekkus grumbled before letting Dana pull him back into the cabin.
Getting behind the wheel of the golf cart, Sage winked at them. “Ignore Rekkus. It’s good for him to not have someone jump at his commands. Okay, you two, see you up in the main dining room in twenty minutes.”
What the hell was this place, and how would he find out? Kaleb’s determination to discover its secrets doubled. That was if his body would let him focus on anything other than the goddess next to him.
“So do you work here, or are you a guest?”
“I’m a regular guest here. This is my fifth visit to the Haus.”
“Fifth?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, and you’re here because you want to be?”
“Of course. Aren’t you?”
“I was ordered here.”
Serena stopped walking. “Ordered by whom?”
“My superiors.”
Serena sighed. The action filled her lungs and pushing her breasts up. Kaleb’s fingers itched to reach up and touch her; this lust she encouraged in him was driving him insane. He could not remember ever wanting someone this much. It wasn’t just her beauty or her sex appeal; there was something else, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“My superior is the reason I’m here too, but somehow I doubt your superior is your mother.”
“Um no, and if I called him that I’d find myself scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush.”
“Why would you do that?”
“That is the ultimate question.” He chuckled, moving toward the Haus as it came into sight through the trees. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”
“Yes.” No delay, no thought, just a simple yes.
“Okay, let me go change I’ll meet you in the lobby in ten.”
“Ten?”
“Ten minutes? Where are you from?”
She blushed then turned away. “My home is a bit secluded.”
He rubbed his hands together, stalling for time; he didn’t want to leave, but really wanted to get into his own clothes. “Be right back”
Serena bit her lip and watched him jog away. Kaleb was like no one she had ever met. She had had very little interaction with humans—men especially, for the obvious reasons—but she couldn’t stay away from this one. He pulled her like a siren’s song. Moving up to the main desk, she rang the bell. When no one came, she rang again.
“Serena?”
“Myron, what’s a helicopter?”
“Helicopter?”
“You don’t know either?”
“Of course I know, but why the sudden interest in flying machines?”
“Please, can you tell me?”
“Come around here. It’s better if I show you.”
Serena had never been behind the desk before. She had seen people sitting at the funny box Myron took her to, but didn’t know what it was or why anyone could find it so interesting. “If you’re asking about the helicopter, I assume you are interested in Kaleb, our Coast Guard hottie.”
She nodded. Just thinking about him made her mouth go dry. With a few clicks of the bright-colored shell-like item on the desk, a moving picture appeared on the box and it showed a flying machine. “He jumps from those?”
“I gather.”
Serena watched the videos, as Myron called them, and was so enthralled with what the Coast Guard did, she didn’t notice Kaleb coming back. “You ready for dinner?”
Looking up from the computer, Serena smiled. Nodding, she got up, but stopped when she saw Myron giving her a funny look. “My cards can read you.”
“What?”
“I can read you.”
“What are they saying?”
“Stay away from the lake.”
Serena grimaced. “Is that the cards or Rekkus speaking?”
Myron placed the cards again. “It’s the cards, though Rekkus would say the same thing.”
“Very well.”
“Really. Stay away from the lake. Oh, and have fun.”
What did she mean? Serena looked at the gypsy’s face but couldn’t understand why the woman would be smiling. Walking around the desk, Serena took the hand Kaleb offered her. Her fingers touch his warm rough ones, and she felt a shimmer of electricity run down her spine. “No one’s ever asked me to join them for dinner before.”
“You must be joking.”
“No, that isn’t a joke. I always eat alone.” It was true; no one would eat with her. The vamps wanted nothing to do with her. The shifters, once they had smelled Rekkus’s scent on her, had backed away, assuming the alpha on the island had laid his claim. And although he hadn’t, she had been secretly relieved to be left alone. Having the shifters sniff her was not something she enjoyed. The few elves, changelings, and fae on the island when she visited had such a deep-seated hatred of the merfolk that they had been downright rude in their interactions. Not that she blamed them; ever since the mermen had disappeared, leaving the mermaids to take lives to procreate, only vampires had been truly safe from the mermaids’ songs.
The humans, though interested, had been unable to cross the dark green section of the dining room. Which left her to eat alone. Because, although humans might not know what she was, a Para could sense her a league away.
“Well then, the men here must be blind or stupid.” Pulling her hand up to his mouth, Kaleb kissed her knuckles. The odd gesture left Serena short of breath.
They were late as they entered the full dining room, but there had been no way to prevent it. Saving the woman was more important, and Serena had been willing to risk the wrath of Sarka to do it. No wrath in sight, though, and the only thing Serena could think about was how she would be able to eat with this strange lump in her throat.
The wait staff didn’t even
blink when they brought her meal to her. She ate her fish raw, but tonight they had disguised her usual fare as something they called sushi. And she had to admit she found it delicious.
“What I wouldn’t give for a steak,” Kaleb muttered, pushing the green leaves on his plate around with a fork.
“Why not order one? I know Rekkus has steaks brought to the island for the shif—for the Shifter brothers.”
“I was informed I need to ‘clear my auras and cleanse my inner being.’”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Not sure how much of this green shit I can take.”
“You want some of my sushi?”
“No offense, but no thank you. I would actually rather drink one of Sage’s shakes than eat that.” He wrinkled his nose. It was so cute and out of place on his handsome face, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Come on and try it. It’s quite delicious.” She lifted the seaweed wrap to his lips. “What are you, duck?”
“Duck? I think you mean ‘chicken,’ and no, I just like my meat cooked.”
“Your loss.” She smiled, shoving the whole piece into her mouth with glee.
“What class do you have tonight?”
“I don’t take classes. I have private meetings with the siblings when they say I need to.” She didn’t add it was because she had started singing at a class and had put a spell on all the men that had taken days to wear off.
“How did you get that lucky? I have to see Trixie; she’s supposed to teach me to breathe. I guarantee you that is something I’ve never had trouble with.” He took another bite of salad. “Come with me.”
“To class? I can’t, but I would love to meet you after.” Serena wanted to get back on that computer. She needed to know more about his world, about where he was from.
“It’s a date.”
Serena smiled and vowed to ask Myron what a date was.
Chapter Three
BREATHING CLASS WENT about as well as Kaleb thought it would. He wasn’t into the whole “find your chi” thing, and he definitely wasn’t into finding his inner self. His inner self said he wasn’t crazy. He knew what he saw. No matter what anyone else said, he knew that. That same voice had just come a little too late in telling him to shut his fucking trap.
Trixie, who he privately thought of as flaky, had at least been smart enough not to push him too hard, and when he’d finally said he had enough, she’d nodded and moved on to the small black-haired woman who desperately needed to get some sun. Lying out by the beach, looking up at the clear night sky, had been relaxing if not a bit perplexing. It might be time for him to take another look at the sky charts, because Kaleb could have sworn that the stars seemed out of a place tonight. But he had learned his lesson and he certainly wasn’t about to tell anyone else his suspicions; if seeing a mermaid got him sent here, where the hell would telling someone that the stars weren’t in the right place land him?
A straitjacket that’s where.
Trixie signed his card stating he had fulfilled his class. Yep, that’s nice, like being on probation. No one else had to have their card signed. He looked to his left and saw Rekkus and Cyrus coming his way, standing to the side until he passed. They nodded at him before approaching Trixie. There was more secrecy here on the island than in the CIA.
Picking up his sweatshirt, Kaleb pulled it on over his head, lowered the hood, and moved toward the main haus. He hoped Serena would be waiting. She had said she would, but he couldn’t read her. She went from being a full out seductress to a giddy school girl at hyper speed. When speaking to Rekkus, Cyrus, or any of the other men on the island, she was flirty and almost standoffish, but when she spoke to him she seemed different; she flirted—he figured that was second nature to her—but there was an uncertainty. One that made him want to get to know the woman underneath.
Somehow he knew there was more to her than the sexy siren she portrayed.
Striding up the candle-lit gravel walkway, Kaleb stopped in his tracks to watch Serena through the open door. Seated behind the counter, she was on the computer—he couldn’t see her face, but her profile showed she was intent on whatever she was watching. She turned to the receptionist, who went over and looked at the screen, then typed something before going away again, leaving Serena to stare in rapture back at the computer. She reminded him of his four-year-old niece, who had the same look when watching her cartoons. As if sensing him staring at her, she turned her head and her face lit up with joy, as if she had been counting the minutes until they were together again, and somewhere in his gut he hoped that had been the case—that this woman truly had been waiting for him.
Never taking his eyes off Serena, he strode with methodical steps into the soft light of the building. Kaleb watched her every move as she stood and walked around the reception desk with the grace of a ballerina. Even her dress, which covered very little, seemed to move with her as if it were alive. Kaleb smiled as she greeted him. He so wanted to take his hands, cup her face, and bring his lips to hers, that the need to do so caught him off guard.
“Hi.” Her breathless voice washed over him like a warm breeze.
“Hi yourself.” He offered her his hand. “Shall we?”
“Okay.”
“Do you need to get some shoes?” he asked, looking at her bare feet.
She shook her head. “I hate shoes.”
“Stay away from the lake.”
“I heard you the first time, Myron.”
“Why are we staying away from the lake?” he asked as they walked on the path away from the building.
“I have no idea, but when Myron’s cards tell her something, you do it.”
“Her cards? You mean the solitaire game she keeps playing?”
“She isn’t playing a game. She’s reading people.”
“Like a fortune teller?”
Serena thought for a second, and then nodded. “Something like that. More of a future teller.”
“Right.” Okay, so Serena might be as crazy as he was. And that was both reassuring and a bit disconcerting. Maybe this place with its high-tech security was really a loony bin. And when he’d come ashore, he’d been admitted and was never leaving. Serena said she had been here five times—maybe she just never left. That would explain the tight security, and perhaps the woman he had saved had been a suicide attempt. All that made a hell of lot more sense than the rest of what he was thinking.
That was it. He was at some high-class nut house.
“What are you thinking?”
“Oh, just figuring it all out in my head.”
“What?”
He stopped walking and turned to face her, the moon, though not full, still illuminated her face. “Let me ask you—why are you here?”
“Oh, that would depend on whose side you were listening to.”
“Your side.”
“I’m here to try to figure out how to not be like my mother.”
“Is she that bad?”
“She’s a man-hating, murdering monster.”
The anger and spite that came from those supple lips shocked him. There was no doubt in his mind that Serena meant what she said. “You mother is a murderer?”
“You know what? I’ve never said that aloud but yes, and I hate her. I really, really hate her. I hate what she is, and what she does, and how she lures men into the deep with a seductive song and takes their final breath. I hate her.” Taking a deep breath, she threw her hands into the air, stretching. “Wow that felt good!”
“I can imagine.”
“I don’t know why I haven’t said that sooner. What about you? Why are you here? And don’t tell me because of your boss.”
“I’m here because they all think I’m crazy.”
“Are you?”
“No, or at least I didn’t think so, but being at this place makes me question what I thought I knew.”
“Why do they think you’re crazy?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try
me. I just told you my deepest harbored hatred of my mother. The least you can do is share your deep-seated crazy with me,” she teased.
They had come to the cliffs looking over the ocean. The moonlight lit a runway across the rippling waters below. He couldn’t look at her, didn’t want to see her laugh—or worse, decide he was crazy. “I was rescuing a friend from the waters off the coast of Alaska. That area isn’t kind on the best of days, and this was a rocky sea kind of day. A fishing vessel made a distress call. The ship was taking on water and they had abandoned ship as it sank. We had a man in the water so numb he couldn’t get into the ring, and my buddy Jim jumped in to help. We brought up the man, and I lowered the wire to bring Jim up. Just then a huge wave took the ’copter within feet of the water. Jim reached out to grab my hand, when a woman swam up beside him…and then he was gone under the water, staring up at me for a second before I lost him completely.”
Serena laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
Kaleb gritted his teeth so hard he was sure he’d crack a tooth.
“Mermaids don’t live in Alaska. It’s too cold.”
“Excuse me?”
“Why would any mermaid want to live in those waters? It’s cold enough here.”
Kaleb shook his head to clear it, turned to look at her because no one in all the time he was going through this had reacted like she had. “Let me get this straight: you aren’t arguing with me that mermaids exist, just that they don’t live in the Bering Sea?”
“Well, I suppose they could live there, but I can’t imagine wanting to. I mean there…” She stopped, her mouth forming an “O.”
“You were saying?”
“Nothing. I just don’t think you’re any crazier than anyone else here on the island.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “You’re not very reassuring.”
“Was I supposed to say something else? What did you want me to say?”
This time he did cup her cheeks, his thumbs running along the jawline, feeling the silky softness of her skin. “You said just the right thing.”
“I did? Because with you I feel like I’m always biting my tongue.”
Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus) Page 3
