46
"There's newborn twins out front, Mir," Crystal sang as the doors to the kitchen flew open and she backed in with a pile of dirty plates balanced on a tray.
"You can serve them," I said, without turning around. My hands were lost in a sea of bubbles as I scrubbed parts of the deep fryer that couldn't go through the dishwasher.
"Did Phil demote you and forget to tell me or something?" Crystal set the tray down on the stainless steel.
"I didn't demote anyone," Phil said, standing at the stove and ladling steaming hot soup into a bowl. "I suspect she's punishing herself. I already told her Ethan would wash everything up when he's finished his shift at the gas station, but she didn't listen."
Crystal came to stand beside me. "Come on, Mir. They're really, really cute. Fresh outta the oven." She nudged me with an elbow.
I hadn't slept in two days, my father's words echoed around in my skull nonstop like there was nothing else in there. Sleeping next to Nathan had been agony. He was so happy. I had been so happy, too. Now? Now I was caught in an inner battle the likes of which I'd never seen or felt before. Was I an evil being to deceive him in this way? Yet how could I do any different? Wouldn't I be doing him right if I just slipped away in the darkness? He'd be heartbroken at first, but eventually he'd move on. Was I even capable of going against the siren's biological imperative to mate?
"Helloooo," Crystal said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. "Earth to Mira. What is wrong with you?" She lowered her voice. "You've been in a funk ever since you got back from the sailing trip. What happened? Did you and Nathan fight?"
"No, its nothing. I'll go out. I'd like to see the babies," I said, withdrawing my hands from the water and wiping them on a towel.
Crystal put a hand on her hip, not buying my show. I couldn't have gotten an unpaid role as background on a film set let alone fool her into thinking everything was fine.
"Here, they ordered soup," Phil pushed a tray with two bowls of steaming potato and leek soup topped with melted cheese. I picked up the tray and went out into the Sea Dog's dining area.
I froze. The only customers left were a young couple with a pram parked near their table, just like a few months ago. Only, I knew these two: Angelica Butterfield and Chad Wendig.
"You had babies!?" I blurted.
Angelica hadn't heard me, she had her face in the pram and was making cooing noises. Chad looked up. "Sorry, did you say something?" he said in his British accent.
I crossed the restaurant. "No. Here's your dinner." I had been planning to track Angelica down about the silver artifact I had found, but it had seemed so unimportant since the incident with my father.
"Oh great, I'm freezing. It's like March out there, not the end of May," Angelica said, straightening. She unwound the scarf from around her neck and smiled up at me, completely oblivious that we'd ever met before. Her pale skin glowed and her cheeks were full and pink. Her previously short blond hair was now shoulder length.
"Here darling," Chad said, reaching a hand toward her. I stared at his fingertips. I had seen fire burst from those hands before, and been on the receiving end of the scorching pain they could deliver, but right now they showed nothing but care for Angelica. She handed him her scarf and he folded it and tucked it into the hood of her jacket hanging on the coat rack near him.
I peeked into the pram and my heart almost leaped from my chest. The infants were so little. So sweet. So helpless.
"Would you like to see?" Angelica asked, catching my not so subtle snooping. She turned the pram toward me and pulled back the blanket.
"So little," I said, melting into a puddle of want. "What's are their names?"
"Ryan and Gage," said Chad, puffing out his chest a little. His strange black eyes flashed with pride.
One of the babies made a little mewling sound.
"Awwwwwww," the three of us said together.
I cleared my throat. "You're the lady who buys and sells antiques, aren't you?" I asked Angelica.
"I am," she looked up with surprise. "Have we done business before?" She cocked her head like she was trying to place me.
I shook my head, no. "The lady at the antique store told me about you. I have a piece I've been meaning to get appraised," I said. "I have it here, in my bag. Would you like to see it?"
"Absolutely," she said, brightly.
I retrieved the silver piece I had taken from the wreck site, unwrapped the handkerchief from around it and handed it to Angelica.
She pulled a pair of glasses out of her shirt pocket and put them on. She took the silver piece and inspected it. "How interesting. Shame it's broken."
"What is it?"
She took her glasses off. "It's part of a sword. This little bell on the end looks of Spanish design to me, though I'd have to do a bit of research to double check. This part," she pointed to the broken end of the silver rod, "would have had a wooden handle around it at one time and this," she put a finger on the end of the cabinet handle, "was the butt end of the hilt."
"Is it worth anything?" Chad asked. He glanced at me, "She's really good at this."
"To some it might be," she said. She handed it back to me. "Will you bring it round to my office on Pearl street sometime later this week? I'll look into it."
Chad fished out a card and handed it to me. I already knew what it would say - Radar Antiques. I agreed.
47
I crossed the sidewalk in front of Angelica's office just as Nathan pulled up to the curb in his work truck. I opened the passenger door and slid into the seat. Nathan leaned over to kiss me hello.
"Did she buy?" he asked.
I closed the door and he pulled out into the street. "She did," I said, while putting on my seatbelt. "$2500."
"What?!" The truck swerved as Nathan took this in.
I braced my hands against the door and gasped, "Nate!"
The truck straightened. "Sorry, babe. I'm just shocked. You got $2500 for that piece of junk?"
"One man's junk..."
"Is another man's treasure. Right. Geez, we should make a regular thing out of beach combing."
I laughed, but stopped suddenly when a heavy, warm feeling spread through the lowest part of my pelvis. I gasped and put a hand over my abdomen.
Nathan lost his smile. "What? What's wrong, Mir?"
"I'm pregnant," I blurted.
"WHAT?" The truck swerved wildly again, narrowly missing a parked car. "What do you mean, you're pregnant? Helluva time you picked to tell me! Are you sure its not just indigestion?"
His words went fuzzy as my focus went inward. It was the tiniest, most subtle shift in sensation, but I knew without a doubt what it was. I hadn't felt the conception, but I sure had felt the implantation of an embryo into the wall of my uterus. My eyes filled with tears and my heart swelled.
"Mir? Mira!" Nathan's voice penetrated. "Talk to me."
My shoulder hit the door and brought me around. "Nathan! Look out!"
Nathan swerved around a garbage bin propped against the curve. Two sharp yips of a police siren and red flashing lights went off behind us.
"Oh, crap." Nathan pulled the truck over to the curb and put it into park. "I deserved that."
Tears poured unbidden down my face, soaking into my scarf and down the front of my jacket. My deepest desire had come true. My entire body was vibrating with joy.
"Mir," Nathan gasped. He'd never seen me cry before. I had never let him, and for good reason. Siren tears are usually not accompanied by sobs, but they're relentless and heavy. I mopped my face with a mitten. I was so full of emotion I didn't know what to do with myself. My heart felt like a balloon swelling and swelling. I gave a half-laugh, then hiccoughed.
There was a sharp knock on the glass. Nathan rolled down the window.
"License and registration," said the young officer on the other side of the door. His face was stern. "Have you had anything to drink, sir?"
"No, definitely not. I..." Nathan fumbled in the console for hi
s papers.
The officer spotted me and his face went from stern to concerned. "What's going on here?" He gave Nathan an accusatory look.
"Uh...." Nathan looked from me to the officer.
"I'm pregnant," I said, wiping at my face.
The officer's eyebrows shot up.
"It might also be indigestion," said Nathan to the officer, palm up, as though to say 'don't get excited'.
"It's not indigestion," I said.
"You told him, just now? While he was driving?" the officer asked.
I nodded. The warm feeling in my pelvis had only increased.
"She just blurted 'I'm pregnant’," Nathan held his his hands up, helpless.
"Hence the erratic driving," the officer finished.
Nathan nodded. "Sorry about that."
The officer handed back Nathan's documents and patted on the windowsill twice. "Consider this a warning, then. Carry on. A word to the wise, ma'am. Timing is everything. Congratulations and good day."
"Good day," Nathan said. "Thanks officer." He rolled up the window and turned to me.
"It's not indigestion, Nathan."
He made a harrumphing noise, started the truck, and pulled away from the curb. Instead of driving toward home, he turned toward downtown. He pulled into the diagonal parking in front of the pharmacy, put the truck in park and hopped out. Less than three minutes later he came jogging back with a little paper bag. He tossed it in my lap and started the truck again.
I peered inside the bag. "A pregnancy test?" I looked up as he hit the gas and my body pressed back into the seat. "Nate, don't speed or we'll get stopped again."
We pulled up in front of our house, parked, and dashed up the front steps and inside.
"Hurry up, Mir!" Nathan said as I flew into the bathroom.
My hands shook as I held the end of the stick in my urine stream. I popped the cap over it and washed my hands. When I emerged with the stick Nathan snatched it from hands, peering at the little window.
"Says it takes three minutes. Two lines means I'm pregnant."
"Uuugghhhhh," he groaned. "Longest three minutes ever." We stood in the entryway huddled around the stick, watching the little window breathlessly. What if my siren body worked in a different way? I didn't need the stick to confirm what I already knew, but Nathan did. What if the stick didn't work? All of these thoughts raced through my mind as the seconds dragged by.
"Ha!" I cried when two blue lines appeared.
Nathan's face was incredible to watch as it morphed from hope to disbelief to incredulity to happiness. He looked from the two blue lines to me. "You were right, Mir. How did you know?"
I shrugged. The tears had started again. Not only because I was filled with joy, but all of the fears and worrying and doubts I had been wrestling with over the last two days dissolved in the presence of this third little being coming to life and taking root inside me. Nathan and I were fused together for good.
Nathan crushed me in a hug and we sank to the hardwood floor, clinging to each other. Nathan covered my face in kisses and cupped my ears tenderly. His eyes had misted up. "We're gonna be parents, Mir."
I nodded and kissed his mouth. He smiled against my lips.
I drew back. "What?"
"I guess that explains why you were so sick on the plane." He ran his fingers through my hair, unsticking it from my wet face.
I laughed and wrapped my arms around him. My love. My resolution hardened. I couldn't change what I was or what I wanted. So, I was in this for good. I put my hand over the life growing in my womb, Nathan put his large warm hand over mine. Whatever came next, Nathan and I would face it together. The next big question rose like a bubble in my mind. Would it be a boy? Or a siren, like me.
The End
Continue the adventure with Mira by reading Born of Water, An Elemental Origins Novel. A whole new universe of elemental magic awaits you!
www.alknorrbooks.com
About the Author
www.alknorrbooks.com
A.L. Knorr is an emerging author of NA and YA Urban Fantasy. She’s a Canadian who splits her time between Canada and Italy, always with her laptop and yoga mat. Abby loves all things fantasy and has a thing for shipwrecks and nautical history. Check out her Elemental Origins Series for more mermaid and elemental magic, as well as The Kacy Chronicles, her series in the collaborative Revelations of Oriceran universe.
The Pirate’s Siren
Bethany Wicker
The Pirate’s Siren © 2018 Bethany Wicker
* * *
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The Pirate’s Siren
She belongs to two races—and both of them want her dead.
The sirens cast her out. The humans want her dead. With nowhere to turn, Siren-Human hybrid Sera must risk her life once more; this time, with a ruthless pirate named Bloody Steel.
On the run from her own kind, Sera knows to escape on land would mean certain death at the hands of humans who slaughter any Sirens that come to shore.
Instead, she boards a nearing ship, hoping to get as far away as possible from everything. But when she discovers its captain is the ruthless pirate known as Bloody Steel, she wonders if he will heal her troubled heart…or bring about her demise…
Dive into the series that fans of Anna Banks and Pirates of the Caribbean are calling the most addictive new adult paranormal romance of 2018!
1
“Run, Sera,” Mom shouted from behind me. I started to turn my head to look back at her, but she added, “Keep your eyes forward or else you’ll lose your footing. Get to the water and don’t stop. They’ll follow you in.”
My heart thundered to match my pounding steps. Mom was right. I had to stay focused or else they’d catch us. The roaring of adrenaline deafened everything besides my mom’s encouraging yells, but even those were starting to become muffled.
The icy water was more than welcomed as I plunged into the ocean. Now that I could make a swim for it, I took a second to look back. The sirens, who were supposed to be family to us, had Mom in their grasp. She writhed and fought against their hold but they didn’t budge. Mom was half-human and not as strong as the full-blooded sirens.
“Mom,” I breathed and her eyes met mine.
One of the sirens, a male with long raven hair, pulled a dagger from the holder that rested around his waist. Mom and I both knew what was going to happen next.
“No,” I screamed the same time Mom mouthed, “I love you.”
The male brought the knife down and plunged it into Mom’s chest—straight through her heart. They released her and she fell to the sand lifelessly. The group turned their emotionless gaze to me and if I didn’t hurry, I would suffer the same fate as my mom and dad. At least, I assumed they killed my Dad when he was distracting them to give Mom and me a head start.
The biting chill of the water was nothing compared to the pain triggered by watching my mom draw her last breath. I took as deep of a breath of fresh air as I could and dove deeper into the ocean. Sirens could breathe underwater like mermaids because of our two small gills located behind each ear. They were usually hidden by our hair so weren’t typically seen by the untrained eye.
My legs kicked as h
ard as they could as I pressed deeper into the water. The farther I went, the darker it became and it only took a second for my eyes to adjust. Night vision sure came in handy. It was given to us by the gods—most likely Poseidon—to see through the depths of the ocean, but I utilized it for the nighttime while on land.
I kept pushing for as long as I could and drifted closer to the surface once again. A reef stood out ahead of me and it would be the perfect place to hide for now. Nobody was behind me at the moment, but that didn’t mean they’d stop looking. It only proved that I’d avoided them for now.
The coral was rough, but it would have to do for now. I drew my legs into my chest and allowed myself to release a large sob. Tonight would be for mourning my parents. When the sun rises, I need to search for a better hiding place.
It was hard to believe the sirens found us on that island. My parents had chosen it for its seclusion and the distance between it and the siren castle named Siren’s Call. The Siren’s Call was located in an underwater cave and was named by those who thirst for the death of humans. I’d never been there since I’d been in hiding since birth, but I would love to see it one day before I die. Hopefully, my death would be a long time from now even though I could feel its hot breath on my neck.
My tears mixed with the water until there were none left within me. My body shook from the energy the crying zapped. What was I going to do without my parents? They were my life and this would be the first time being on my own, even though I’d been alive for nineteen years.
Where could I go? I didn’t know anyone and humans hunted sirens on land, so I couldn’t just disappear on another island without risking my life first.
What would Dad do if he were here?
Dad had been the leader of our family and would know exactly what to do next. He had been a full-blooded siren and knew every inch of the ocean including each dark crevice, especially the perfect places to hide. Since I only knew the island, the ocean was unknown territory. I didn’t even know the way to Siren’s Call, which made for a terrible siren.
Sirens and Scales Page 103
