West (A Darkness Series Novel)

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “You are even more disgusting than he was. You killed the boy I loved for your own greed and need for power.”

  “Love?” Morweena laughed. “You are still living in a fantasy. Sirens don’t love. We can’t.”

  “You can’t,” Rez volleyed back. “After my father broke your heart, you never let love touch you again. Even for me. You get off finding men who are in love and killing them. It’s your revenge for what he did to you.”

  Whoa. Father? Everything suddenly clicked. It probably would have sooner if my brain wasn’t half drowned.

  “Deep down, you killed Philip because he loved me, and you wanted to destroy that. Make me feel the same pain.”

  “You can believe what you want, Mareza. I only wanted to protect you.”

  “I think I am better without your protection, Mother.”

  And there it was. My gaze darted between the two women with new awareness. The similarities were so strong I realized why I thought Morweena had been Rez from a distance.

  “I don’t think you are, my girl.” Morweena tilted her head, her gaze flashing to me, her eyes drilling in so deep I felt turned inside out. “I know you are in even more trouble.”

  Morweena’s words hurt even more than the icy wind whipping off the rocks and slapping our faces. Rez rubbed at her arms, glancing at her toes, the unforgiving rocky beach not appearing to hurt her feet.

  “You two need to walk away from each other now.”

  “You know nothing about what is going on,” I finally spoke up. She was with Lars. It wasn’t even a consideration.

  Morweena let out a silky laugh. “Sirens can see to the deepest, most hidden parts of your soul. It is how we lure you.”

  “What?” I peeked at Rez.

  “Only in our truest form,” she responded. “When we are taking someone to their death. Otherwise we can’t.”

  That really didn’t make me feel better.

  Morweena stepped to me, her head leaning back to take me in. “I saw you, Dark Dweller. I know what you are hiding from your family, and I know what you are concealing from yourself.”

  My body stiffened and muscles clenched with the need to fight. I wanted to tear something apart when I felt vulnerable in any way.

  Rez reacted quickly, grabbed my arms, and hauled me back. I let her. If I didn’t want to be, she wouldn’t have been able to use a bulldozer to budge me.

  “Mother, stop. It’s not wise to piss off a Dark Dweller.”

  “He’s struggling with even calling himself that anymore. If the beast is lost, then so is he.”

  My growl vibrated the loose stones underfoot.

  Morweena only smiled. “Is this why you are coming for the treasure? To release the beast from his prison?”

  I froze. “Wh-what?”

  “The Spear of Lugh. Surely it is why you are here.” Morweena tucked her arms beneath her breasts and circled us. “Rumors travel fast in these parts. And when talk of the spear connected to the Unseelie King occurs, you take notice. Even more when his mistress and henchman land on the island.”

  “I am not his henchman.” My gaze tracked her moving around us.

  “Really? What do you call someone who does the bidding and serves the King?”

  “Trapped.”

  Humor pinched at her mouth. “I see.”

  “Mother, what do you know about the spear?” Rez pulled her drying hair over to one side to keep it from blowing around.

  “After you left, I came here and started a new home. It wasn’t long before I became the leader of the group of sirens here. That was when I was told about the treasure, where it was hidden and what lengths we go to protect it.”

  “It’s really here?” I needed her to confirm it.

  “Yes. My clan guards the treasure. Anyone searching for it would either never find it or be killed if they got too close.” She came nearer to us, her arms still crossed in front of her. “We have taken extreme measures to protect it. It is guarded by things even a Dark Dweller would fear.”

  “I doubt that, sweetheart,” I snapped back.

  “I already sense you will disregard my warnings.” A smug expression formed. “If you proceed, you will sincerely wish I had taken your life.”

  She didn’t strike me as an empty-threat kind of lady.

  “But you will allow us to go down and search?” Rez asked, her tone full of skepticism.

  Morweena lifted her hand toward the ocean. “Be my guest.”

  “What do you want in return?” Rez stiffened.

  “Nothing, daughter.”

  Rez folded her arms tight around her body.

  “I miss you, but I think you are perfectly placed with the demon king. I am happy you found true happiness. Don’t mess it up.”

  Rez shifted her weight.

  “We can search in your sea for the treasure and you want nothing?” I asked. It was a setup. No doubt about it. She wouldn’t so willingly let us go after a treasure they had guarded for centuries. Not unless she was completely convinced we would never reach it. But I still couldn’t walk away from the chance. “You and your people will let us be. We can go after it freely?”

  “I swear none of my clan will touch you.”

  “Or sing, talk, whistle, or hum?” Always cover your bases with fae. Tricky bunch. “You won’t come anywhere near us?”

  “Correct.”

  Damn. I hated knowing I was heading straight into a trap and still understood it was a better option than showing up on Lars’s doorstep empty handed.

  I looked at Rez. Her furrowed brows mirrored my worry, but she shrugged and nodded. No other option remained for either of us.

  “Then I guess this is goodbye,” Rez said to her mother, not making a move toward her.

  “I hope not for good, Mareza.” Morweena’s voice was beautiful, but I realized it held little if any love. “You have grown into a stunning woman. I am pleased.”

  “Thank you, Mother.” From a glance, the women looked like sisters, perhaps five years apart. But the loss of heart, of emotion, aged Morweena. Life laid heavy on her shoulders and deep in her eyes.

  “My advice, Mareza. Let him go.” Those ancient eyes flashed at me before returning to Rez. “You will only find pain in that future. Leave him in the depths…it will save him from what is ahead. You are doing him a favor.” With those words, she turned, walked back into the sea, slipped in the darkness of the water, and disappeared.

  Rez set her lips in a grim line, staring at the place where Morweena vanished.

  Awkward tension filled the air between us. What did she mean Rez should let me go? Pain in that future? A future with me? My brain quickly shut down the thoughts, pushing them away. No. That was completely impossible. The only way I dealt with uncomfortable silences was with humor.

  “So…that was mommy dearest?”

  “Yeah.” Rez sighed, still keeping her eyes from me. “Never thought I would see her again, especially here.”

  “Didn’t sound like you guys had a warm, fuzzy relationship.”

  Rez chuckled. “That is an understatement. Instead of nurturing and loving her daughter, I became competition and a commodity to trade. She constantly compared our beauty, or the number of men she could lure to mine. The older I got and the more my looks evolved, the more difficult she became. She struggled between being jealous to wanting to use my beauty to snag eligible men. So her lessons for me were relentless and cruel. I found escape on land…away from her.”

  “Where you met this Philip?”

  “Yes. He was my first love. My first everything.” Rez blushed, a slight smile on her mouth at the memory.

  It came like lightning. Jealousy. Why the hell did I feel envious of some twat human kid? The twat who first got to love her, touch her body, know her taste, the sounds she makes.

  “After she killed Philip, I couldn’t take it anymore. Any of it. The arranged marriage, the mental abuse from her. I left. Never looked back.” Rez moved closer to the waterline. “My desper
ation to never have to return was what made me easy prey for someone like Vadik. I was willing to do anything to make it on my own. Deny what I was and hide behind the haze of the opium. Until it became the nightmare I was trying to escape.” She dipped her toes into the cold water and her shoulders relaxed.

  “Is she why you don’t seem to like what you are?”

  Rez clung to herself harder, her feet wiggling in the water. A flash of pain crossed her features.

  “She was the reason at first, the grief of losing Philip tore me apart. Especially when I knew she was right. I was young and couldn’t control my powers. I probably would’ve killed him eventually.” Rez took in a deep breath and looked up at the moon. “You know why I’m barely ever away from the compound? Why I need to live so structured?”

  I tilted my head to stare at her, feeling the sorrow bleeding off her.

  “Most addicts replace their addictions with another. Gum-chewing, smoking, sex.” She rubbed her arms. “Mine was death. When Lars got me clean, I went back to accepting what I was. Finding a release in being a siren again. I got addicted. Had no off switch…” She swallowed, her lids blinking. “I killed every night. One was not enough, I started taking down groups at a time, getting such a high off them…I couldn’t stop.

  “It got so bad it made the national news. Lars had to step in. He realized I needed rules. Boundaries to keep myself in control.” Rez turned to me. “It’s why I’m so fanatical. Why I freak out if things go off plan.”

  “You think you will lose control.” I nodded, more puzzle pieces clicked in. Rez’s depth unraveling another layer for me.

  She nodded. “Just like being a siren, I’ve recognized the extreme side, the addict will always be part of me. I will continuously have to keep it in check.”

  “And seeing your mother…influences that?”

  “Normally, I would say yes.” Her gaze clicked on mine. “But having you here helped.”

  I tried not to react, to take it more than face value.

  “What’s sad is I know everything my mother does comes from her pain. She fell in love with a captivating pirate who stopped in port. A double no-no to our kind. We don’t fall in love, and we especially don’t fall for someone not fae. But she thought he felt the same so she broke the rules.” Rez exhaled. “He didn’t.”

  “Did she kill him?”

  “No. He simply pulled up anchor one night and left without a word. It was the night she was coming to tell him she was with child. It destroyed her. I think when she saw my naiveté and wistful ideals…”

  “She saw herself.” I nodded.

  “And all the pain resurfaced. It also didn’t help I have some of his features.” Rez tapped at her face. “I used to see so much anguish when she looked at me. Then she tucked her emotions away and became cold. Cruel.”

  “Do you know who he is?”

  “No. Mother wouldn’t talk about him. My grandmother told me he was a fae pirate stopping in Greece on his way to the Orient. She said he comes from both Asian and Spanish ancestry. With his almond-shaped eyes, tanned skin, and high cheekbones, no one—not even a siren—could fight his charms.” Rez snorted. “Even my grandmother blushed telling me about him. But that’s all she would tell me.”

  “Fae? Your father could still be out there.”

  “He’s not my father. Merely someone who impregnated my mother and left without a word.”

  “He didn’t know about you.”

  “You think it would have changed anything?”

  “Maybe.” I clutched her arms, turning her to look at me. “Listen. I lost my parents, and there isn’t a day that passes I wouldn’t love the chance to see them again, especially my father. You might have the chance.”

  “No. I have lived quite happily without him. I’m not going to dredge things up that are better left buried.” She yanked out of my grasp. “Now, let’s focus on why we are here. So I can return to where I belong. To my real family. To Lars.”

  She twisted back for the water and dived in. The sting of her words broke over my chest like waves, crushing my lungs. But I shoved it away and followed her toward the sea, where a trap was set, ready to annihilate me.

  Hell. I might be okay with that.

  “Rez?” I hollered when my toes hit the waterline. “We need a plan.” In the dark it was hard to make her out in the obscurity of the waves.

  “I’m going to check it out. See if I can find the shipwreck and I’ll come back. Be ready with your oxygen tank.”

  I was about to put it on before Morweena showed up and tempted me into the water. Even if I had it on, she probably would have convinced my brain I didn’t need it. I would never underestimate a siren’s power again.

  Strapping the tank on my back, I waited for Rez to return. I hated being the one to wait, dependent on someone else. I danced on my feet, fidgeting with agitation. This was her strength, and I had to give it to her, but it didn’t calm me. Even with my clan, I preferred not to rely on anyone. I couldn’t have done this mission without her help, and my stubborn nature took a hit when I realized that.

  Time ticked by, my legs pacing back and forth across the rocky beach.

  “Screw this.” I popped in the mouthpiece, switched on the tank, and waded into the water. The ocean was so dark my little torch didn’t penetrate the murkiness past a few feet, but I dived deeper.

  Swimming farther and farther down, in what felt like a vast alien world, I was uncomfortable, claustrophobic, restricted. My beast hated the suffocating feeling of water on all sides and ached for earth between my toes.

  I was about to call it quits, when a hazy glow rose from the bottom of the sea, fifty yards out in front of me. The luminosity moved and glided through the water like a fish.

  Please be Rez. I can’t take another siren.

  My arms and legs cut the water as I swam to her. The closer I got, the more her light reflected off objects, like metal and glass. Human-made items. Deep in the ocean valley against a ragged rock, pieces of an old wooden pirate ship lay half buried under the seabed. There were a lot of shipwrecks along the coast, but I sensed exactly where Rez was heading. Magic was thick here, seeping through despite the spell cast to hide it.

  She almost reached the object of her focus when something crossed in front of her, her light bright enough for me to see. I squinted to see what the object was that moved. It didn’t make sense...it looked like toes. Boulder-sized toes.

  Rez’s body jerked to a stop as a blistering roar broke through the water like a shockwave. Water pushed me back, rolling and twisting me with its power. I finally slowed. Rez’s light let me lock on to a focal point to decipher up from down. When I steadied my vision, I saw her swimming toward me, like a speeding train. Then movement behind her took my gaze away from her. My mouth fell open, the mouthpiece slipping out. Holy shit!

  I had been right. Those had been toes—attached to what looked like a five-story monster. My mind took in his muscular legs as it stepped over the shipwreck, its heavy steps hitting the seabed, billowing sediment and debris creating murkiness. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see it anyway.

  “West, take my hand, we must head to land,” her siren voice sang to me as she raced up. My mind suddenly forgot why I had been scared, all I could focus on was the woman before me. Her voice was so exquisite, her face so ethereal and stunning I wanted to cry.

  “West! Snap out of it before we become a mishap.” Her eyes were wide and huge with fright, but all I saw was their beauty. A sharp sting to my cheek jolted me back in surprise, clearing me from Rez’s siren trance. I shook my head, waking myself up.

  “No time.” She shoved the mouthpiece between my lips, grabbed my hand, and swam toward the surface. The water thundered as the beast headed for us.

  Now I was awake.

  I didn’t even try to swim on my own; her speed and agility in the water were supreme. I kicked as hard as I could to help her, but it probably did little.

  I glanced over my shoulder, seeing o
nly arms swinging through the loose silt. He did not seem to be giving up the chase.

  He bellowed again, pushing us farther to the top as the sound broke through the water. The glimmer of the moon gave the top of the water a patchwork effect, glittering and simmering. If I weren’t being chased by a giant sea monster, I would have found it serene, especially holding Rez’s hand. But I was nowhere near relaxed. Everyone pees in the ocean. Don’t judge.

  Rez and I broke through the surface and scrambled for the shore.

  “What the hell was that?” I tore the air tank from my back, getting the weight off me, letting it fall next to my feet.

  “Not what but who.” She turned her body to face the water, her body trembling. This time it was not from the cold.

  “Then who the fuck was that?”

  “That was Balor.” Rez panted, dripping with seawater.

  “What?” I swung toward her. The snapping of the wind and roar of the water cascaded up from below. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  My jaw slackened in disbelief. “Balor? As in Balor, the dead demon king?” All fae grew up hearing the legends of Balor. In the Celtic-Irish mythology, Balor was the god of death and the king of a race of giants. He had a third eye, which he kept closed because anything he looked at would die instantly.

  “Not so dead.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “We fae can’t seem to stay dead.”

  “Clearly,” I exclaimed. “All right, so what you’re telling me is the Celtic high demon king, who can kill and destroy everything in its path by simply opening its third eye,” I stabbed at the space between my eyebrows, “is guarding the spear?”

  “That’s the one.” She nodded. “I heard rumors a Druid brought him back.”

  Only a Druid could. “And you forgot to mention this?” I bellowed as the head of the giant poked out of the water. Fuuuuuck.

  “They were simply mumblings underwater. Old stories no one took seriously. I mean, it is impossible magic…bringing someone back from the dead. It shouldn’t be feasible.”

  “It looks pretty possible to me.” I waved toward the beast, whose shoulders had now breached the waves. “And I don’t think it’s a coincidence Balor, Lugh’s grandfather, whom Lugh killed, happens to be guarding his grandson’s weapon. One of the most powerful objects ever created.”