Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus)

by Dominique Eastwick

  “Serena?” Serafina’s voice sang in her head.

  “Were-sharks have attacked a woman. I can’t get close enough to find out why; there are too many pets.”

  “My favorite sport,” came the voice of her youngest sister

  Serena moved through the water toward the circling bull sharks. They were dumb, but extremely aggressive and mean; she needed to be careful. But she had to lead them out of the barrier. If her youngest sister was out there, then there were others; she never went anywhere alone.

  “We have the three out here pursuing us. Now get us the ones in there,” Serafina said with a bit of a smile to her voice.

  Serena knew the best way to get their attention. She swam to jagged rocks in the deepest part of the alcove and scratched her hand across the sharp edge until specks of blood drifted into the water. She was unprepared for the first bull shark ramming her in the side with its blunt snout. Shaking it off, she just got her bearings back when the second shark aimed its attack at her. Pushing to the surface, Serena crested as the beast snapped its jaws. With an upshot of her tail, she knocked the bull back a few feet before diving deep again to move through the barrier. As expected, the fish followed only to be sideswiped by her sisters, knocking the sharks unconscious. Two more mermaids pushed the animals to safe spots to avoid them flipping over.

  “Thank you,” Serena said, heading back through the barrier “Stay close. I’ll be bringing some Were-sharks you don’t need to be as careful with.”

  “We can come in and just kill them there.”

  “No, no one must die in the Wiccan Haus.” Serena knew enough about Cyrus to know he had seen too much death, and she would do what she could to keep the island a kill-free zone. That was, if the sharks played nice.

  As she swam away she relayed her memories of her chats with Yavonka, assuring her that these Were-sharks would never make it much past the barrier alive. Time was running short to prevent disaster from happening either by shark or tiger.

  Swimming close to the shore, Serena bided her time. In human form, Were-sharks’ senses were weak, but their bodies were physically strong. Rekkus was just reaching the beach. Lifting her head just enough to see what was going on, she saw a war about to erupt. Eight Were-sharks in human form guarded their alpha, who had Dana in his grasp—the same brute who had ordered Yavonka’s arm removed. The asshole held a large shark’s tooth to Dana’s neck. Already, trickles of blood dripped down her fragile skin.

  “Well, well, well, the great Rekkus. It seems we each have something the other wants. Come on, kitty, face me like a man.”

  Rekkus, normally never one to take an order, shifted back into human form, his rage radiating from him through the water with every step he took deeper into the surf. Serena could feel his anger growing into a storm of its own, pushing two of the Were-sharks back a step. “Let go of my mate.”

  “You give me mine and I will give you yours. No?”

  Serena sank back under the water; too many people on the beach now, someone was bound to give her presence away. She could still hear the conversation, but one of the un-shifted Weres had moved deeper into the water. She could sing to an unmated Were and still affect him. Coming up just behind him, she started to hum softly so only he could hear. He tried to struggle, but her song stayed the shift, leaving him defenseless and human. Pulling him along, she used her powers to allow him to breathe—something she had never done before. These powers were ingrained in her as a mermaid, but Serena had never used them, too frightened that she might kill someone. Now it didn’t matter if these Weres died; after what they had put Yavonka through and the fear they were causing Dana, she was going to let her family at them. Keeping the Were entranced, she led him to her waiting sisters.

  “Seven more.”

  Kaleb stood behind Rekkus, waiting for the word for him to strike. Rekkus was focused only on the creature with his wife. But Kaleb and Cyrus were watching the others around them. Lakshmi, the massage therapist, had shown up and shifted into her lioness form—that should have surprised him, but it didn’t. Sage and Sarka had stayed back to ensure Yavonka wouldn’t come down and put more people in danger. Cemil was at the other end of the beach, heading off anyone that came that way.

  “Weren’t there eight of them?” Kaleb whispered.

  Cyrus nodded and looked off to the side for a split second. Following the direction of Cyrus’s gaze, Kaleb saw her then: Serena. She came up, got the nearest man-shark’s attention, and within seconds, the man was gone. Kaleb shuddered to think where. But all Kaleb knew now was the numbers were even. Six to six.

  “Perhaps, tiger, my aim is in the wrong place.” Dana’s eyes grew wide as he moved the tooth from her neck to her abdomen. “Perhaps if I threatened to remove your cubs and feed them to my pets, that would motivate you to bring what is mine.”

  And then all hell broke loose. Rekkus shifted and lunged at the shark’s neck. Rekkus and Dana fell in the water with the Were-shark in a splash, while the other sharks moved onshore, each going on the attack. Their only thought seemed to be getting to the Haus to get their alpha’s mate. Kaleb had no idea what everyone else was doing, but he did know that this big freak before him didn’t have a brain cell to spare.

  “You might be king of the sea, but this is land, asshole,” Kaleb said as the creature with hands the size of blacksmith’s mallets moved in to pulverize him. The Were-shark was slow and awkward, but Kaleb knew if the man hit his mark, he’d put a hurting on Kaleb.

  Kaleb managed to out maneuver, until finally the taller man paused for air. Kaleb punched him in the chest, following with a roundhouse kick to the face. The man looked at Kaleb for a minute before his eyes rolled into his head and he fell with a thump.

  Looking around, Kaleb took in the chaos surrounding him. Everyone was involved. One of the Wiccan Haus guards was severally injured and the other was doing her best to fight off the Were-shark coming at her. The Rowan brothers were holding their own scattered across the beach, and there were more Were-animals fighting the “sharks” than he had been aware were on the island.

  In the distance he could see one of the thugs trying to sneak up on Rekkus, not something that would normally work if his attention weren’t on his wife. Kaleb was just about to jump in after the Were trying to get to Rekkus when a large tail came out of the water and smacked the shark almost hard enough to knock his head off.

  Serena surfaced and looked at him. “Help Lakshmi.”

  Kaleb turned to see the lioness backed into a corner. Her dark eyes were the same in both human and lion form. Grabbing a piece of drift wood, Kaleb pulled back and swung at her aggressor. One strike took him down, the board cracking in two.

  Only then did he see Cyrus pulling Dana from the water. She was bleeding, pale, and looked ready to pass out. Rekkus and the shark leader were nowhere to be found. The water was eerily quiet for the next few seconds as everyone held their breath. Then Rekkus surfaced in human form, hitting the surface with a fist. “Damn it!”

  “Get out of the water!” Cemil yelled.

  But it was too late. Everyone saw the gigantic dorsal fin surface with the caudal fin swishing behind. Rekkus closed his eyes, bracing for the impact. What happened next seemed to play out in slow motion: the shark rammed into Rekkus, pushing him through the water as the big man beat the shark on the head. But just as Rekkus was pulled under, two mermaids jumped out of the water like dolphins in an amusement park show and dove back in. One was Serena, and the other Kaleb recognized from the lake the day before. The water churned wildly, pink with blood. Kaleb was waist-deep in the water before he knew it, the only sounds seeping in were Dana’s screams as she fought to get free of Cyrus and back to Rekkus.

  Swimming full speed toward the war happening just below the surface, Kaleb pushed through the commotion only to have the water go immediately calm as if nothing had happened. Turning, he scanned the water but saw nothing—no shark, no tiger, and no mermaids. He looked to the beach and shook his head, tr
ying to block out the cries of despair coming from Dana. Kaleb was vaguely aware of Sage and Sarka coming down the path at full speed.

  And then all was quiet. Moments later, Rekkus surfaced next to him, gasping for air. Kaleb wrapped an arm around Rekkus, who was bleeding but conscious.

  “Don’t fight me.” Kaleb pulled Rekkus back against his chest.

  “Can’t—”

  What seemed to take an eternity to reach the shore was made worse by the fact that neither of the mermaids had surfaced. Cemil and Cyrus grabbed Rekkus, who did no more than take a few steps before collapsing at his mate’s feet, blood pouring out of his leg from the shark’s bite. Dana fell to her knees, hysterical. But Rekkus just placed a hand on her belly and pulled her head down. “You. Haven’t. Seen. Smothering. Yet.”

  A relieved laugh came from Dana, who broke down in a sea of tears all over again.

  Kaleb turned to scan the water just in time to see Serena crest and spin in the air before diving back into the water. Kaleb stood at the water’s edge as she approached. As she switched from swimming to walking, her fins disappeared and her legs split, a dress covering her as though the ocean had created it.

  She was so beautiful.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Me? I wasn’t the one luring sharks away one by one.” He grated out before pulling her into his embrace. “I’m okay now.”

  “Dana?”

  “Seems fine, but will never have a minute’s peace again.”

  Kaleb put his arm around Serena and led her over to where Rekkus and Dana sat still on the beach, covered in blankets, Rekkus’s head in Dana’s lap. Sage was wrapping his leg the best she could with him still lying down, and she packed the wound with herbs.

  “So when were you planning to announce the happy news?” Sage demanded, a hint of actual anger in her voice.

  “God, if he was smothering me, why would I tell the whole island? I could barely breathe as it was,” Dana said, but there was no conviction to her words, not any more. And Kaleb understood. She had felt safe here, and now she wasn’t. Although she had mated with a Were-tiger, she had never grasped that her life was in danger because of who she was with. “I am so sorry, Rekkus.”

  “Shhhh, give me a few hours I will be good as new.” Rekkus looked up at Kaleb and Serena. He motioned for them to come forward.

  “Thank you, both of you. I owe you my life. And more important, I owe my mate’s life and our unborn cubs to you too.”

  “It’s what I do,” Serena said, too choked up to say anything else, but her eyes were on Kaleb. He could see she was on the edge of a breaking point and held her closer. “My sisters have taken the sharks far away. They will deal out the justice so you won’t have to.”

  Rekkus nodded, but he was already falling into a healing sleep. Within a few seconds his shift happened, leaving the large tiger in the human’s place.

  “Damn, ain’t no moving him now,” Cyrus cursed as he started to gather wood. “We need to build a fire to keep him warm.”

  “We’ll need to create the circle too. I need everyone not picking up sticks to grab as many stones as possible,” Sarka ordered as she placed a few rocks around the couple. Serena grabbed a few and handed them to Cemil who smiled and placed them where they needed to be. For the next few minutes, all hands worked together until a ring of stones surrounded the tiger and his lady.

  Sarka held the last of the stones in her hands. “Cyrus, in.”

  “What?”

  “Get your ass in the circle.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Sage stepped forward. “We’re weak without Rekkus, and someone is likely to know that. You’ll be safe within the protection of the stones.”

  “And Rekkus won’t truly enter the healing sleep if he’s worried about you,” Cemil added, nudging Cyrus forward.

  Once Cyrus entered the circle, Sarka placed the last rock and began chanting.

  “What if I have to pee, damn it?”

  Still chanting, Sarka handing him a cup.

  “Are you kidding me?” Cyrus, who had never lost his cool in the time Kaleb had been on the island, took two steps forward, hit the ring barrier, and fell on his ass. “So help me, Sarka, when you let me out of here…”

  Kaleb had no wish to watch any more of the lunacy. Rekkus lay unconscious next to the bonfire, Dana curled next to him, petting him. Kaleb could see her shoulders shaking and knew she was crying tears she didn’t wish anyone to see. Cyrus circled the bonfire, looking for a flaw in the ring. All while cursing his sister. The rest of the siblings and a few more staff members had joined in the chanting, and Kaleb and Serena were no longer really needed.

  Pulling Serena back toward the cabin, he needed to wrap his arms around her, feel her against him. Everything had changed in a matter of forty-eight hours. Serena, a mermaid he had believed to be a monster, had put her life at risk to help people who didn’t like them, all to save a woman who was in danger. That was not the act of a monster; that was the act of a hero.

  She stopped. “You don’t hate me?”

  “I love you.”

  “But—”

  Looking into her eyes, watching them swirl with life, he understood so much now; small pieces that had been missing suddenly fit into place. “There is no ‘but.’ It’s that simple.”

  Sadness filled her, and Kaleb could almost feel it as it were his own. She looked toward the sea. “You threw the tear away.”

  He sighed, pulling back a little. “I acted in anger. The world as I knew it had shifted on its axis, and I went a bit crazy. If I could find your tear, I would never take it off again.” He stepped away from her, looking over the bay where so much had happened and where he had thrown her gift in a fit of rage. A gift only now he could fully appreciate.

  “Perhaps the tides haven’t taken it just yet. You threw it out here?” Serena put a finger in a motion for him to wait. She was only a few steps in when another mermaid emerged from the dark water and made her way toward them “Serafina? What is it?”

  “We didn’t say farewell and I wanted to meet your man.” Serafina looked at her sister the same way Kaleb’s family looked at him. Warmth and protection, mixed with a good deal of compassion. Serafina smiled at him before turning back to her sister with expectation.

  “Serafina, please meet Kaleb, the most honorable man I have ever met. Kaleb, this is my oldest sister, Serafina.”

  Kaleb nodded, but maintained his distance. One of the things Cyrus had insisted on teaching him the night before had been the best ways to stay safe when a mermaid was in the area. Step one, always carry earplugs. Failed step one. Step two, never get near the water. Passed step two. And step three, never, ever, get involved in a fight between mermaids. That was just common sense—any man knew not to get in the middle of ladies fighting. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Serafina.”

  Serafina looked him up and down and turned to her sister, looking perplexed. “Are you sure?”

  “More sure than I have ever been in my existence. I’m finally living.”

  Serafina smiled. The same smile Serena had, but without the sucker punch effect hers always hit him with. “Then I think he might have lost this.” Holding out the necklace with the sea glass, she put it in Serena’s hand. “Take care of her for us. She’s the special one.”

  “I plan to.”

  “Good.” Serafina nodded her head toward the bonfire on the beach. “I’m just going to let them know where we have taken the sharks. The alpha is dead; we made sure not to kill him within the barriers of the island as you asked. I will miss you, sister.”

  Serena hugged her sister goodbye one more time before turning to hand Kaleb his necklace back. “I will ask Sarka to fix the clasp in the morning.”

  “I should have trusted you and my gut. Instead, I let my ego and my anger overrule my instincts.”

  She pulled his hand to her mouth, kissing his knuckles. “I don’t blame you for being angry. I would have been angry myself.”

&nbs
p; “I was afraid you would never come back.”

  “I was afraid you had left.”

  Kissing her forehead, he pulled her into the cabin and closed the door. “I’m not leaving; they offered me a job and I took it.”

  “Here? I don’t understand.”

  He laughed “No, not here exactly. More all over the place. But I can make my home here if you want. I have family in Alaska, but now that I know better, I don’t think Alaska is a good fit for you. I understand the water may be a bit too cold.”

  She blushed. “Really? But I can’t stay here forever.”

  “Actually, I think if you talk to the siblings they have something figured out.” Stifling a yawn, Kaleb turned off the lights in the front room. “But tonight, if it’s all the same to you, I would just like a hot shower and to go to sleep with my arms wrapped around you.”

  “Just sleep?”

  “God, do you Paras ever run out of energy?” It felt weird to say Para, but Kaleb figured it would get easier with time.

  She laughed, kissing him softly on the lips. “Sleep sounds like a nice idea. I still can’t believe you don’t hate me.”

  “I can’t believe you’re a deadly siren. I wish you’d told me the truth, but I suppose the bigger the secret, the harder it is to let someone know. And I can’t blame a whole race because of what one individual did, now can I?”

  Placing a hand on his arm she looked into his eyes and, her voice full of passion, said, “I love so you much it hurts.”

  “Perhaps tomorrow when I have some energy, I can love you so much it feels good.”

  Pulling her into the shower, Kaleb kissed Serena with every bit of emotion he had and swore he would never let her go again.

  Chapter Nine

  SERENA AWOKE LONG BEFORE DAWN. Kaleb’s light snores filled the room as she took a last glance at him before leaving the cabin. The sun had yet to peek over the horizon, but there was much she needed to do. The beach was empty, although two security guards stood on either side of the door to Rekkus’s cabin. They acknowledged her with a slight nod but said nothing.