The Siren's Heart

by Helen Scott

  “Does it hurt?” Aster said as she examined the mark.

  “Burns a little, but that’s it.”

  “Let me go get some ice. Stay right there.”

  She hustled back into the kitchen, filling one of Thad’s bar towels with ice. The black cloth was already cool under her hands as she made her way back to the patio and applied it to Ellie’s leg.

  “Can you hold that there while I start to clean up?” Aster was anxious about getting the mess cleared away before Thad and the other brothers got back.

  “What needs cleaning?” Dem’s deep voice came from the other room.

  Too late.

  Chapter 27

  Aster cringed at the sound of Dem’s voice before she sighed and shook her head. She should have known that nothing was ever going to go to plan for her ever again. As she stood and squared her shoulders, she said, “We made a small mess outside. Nothing to worry about.”

  He had made it to the door before she could make it inside. Fury contorted Dem’s features. Right behind him were Thad and Alec who, upon seeing the markings on the patio, both looked pale, as though they’d seen a ghost.

  “What did you do?” Dem’s voice was low and carefully moderated, as though he was trying not to betray the anger that was as clear as day on his face.

  She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back slightly. Before she could respond, Alec had pushed past Dem and Thad and was on the ground in front of Ellie. She watched as his eyes roamed every inch of the woman he loved, assessing for damages. She wished someone would look at her like that.

  “Aster . . .” The warning in Dem’s voice was enough to send a ripple of shivers down her spine.

  “We summoned Phobetor.” The words seemed to suck all the air from the immediate area.

  Thad’s head whipped around to glance at the kitchen counter where the crystal and scroll had been sitting when they’d left. When he looked back at her, it was in pure shock. She could have heard a pin drop, it was so quiet. Even all the birds and woodland animals that lived on the island fell quiet, as if they couldn’t wait to see how this unfolded.

  “What’s going on, guys?” Cin’s voice came from just behind Thad’s and Dem’s shoulders.

  The brothers parted like a pair of doors as she walked through, bringing Ben with her. Aster groaned inwardly. Great, now she had an audience.

  “Your sister summoned the god of nightmares,” Dem said as he mimicked Aster’s pose, except his arms were huge, making it a lot more effective than when she did it.

  “She did what?” Cin shouted, wheeling on Aster.

  She wouldn’t back down, knowing in her heart that she’d done the right thing for her and her baby. “I summoned Phobetor, and we had a chat. He’s not going to bother me anymore.”

  “What kind of dumbass deal did you make with him?” Dem had moved away from her and was pacing. Meanwhile, Cin just stared at her with her jaw slightly agape.

  “When Cin takes Leonard to the Underworld, I have to let him know, and he gets to send the bastard nightmares.”

  “Wait, what? How do you know Leonard’s still here? I told you I already took him to the Underworld, and why am I suddenly involved in this?” Her sister was flustered as she pushed the purple locks from around her face.

  “I’ve known he was here for a long time.” She felt the blush race up her cheeks.

  “You can never play poker,” Cin muttered, before adding, “And how do you know he’s still here?”

  “Because I’ve been paying him some visits. Sitting alone in a cell is exactly what he wants, so I went down there and chatted his ear off. I may have also punched him a few times, but I think he damn well deserved it.”

  “I’m going to go get a drink,” Cin announced, before turning to meaningfully look at Aster. “We’ll catch up on everything else later.”

  Aster nodded at her sister, who disappeared into the house with Thad in tow.

  Alec had helped Ellie stand at some point, and she was now resting comfortably against him. “We’re going to head home,” Alec said, looking between her and Dem. “Don’t kill each other. Oh, and Aster? This”—he waved his free hand at the markings on the ground—“was not cool. You endangered yourself and my soulmate. Do you know what it does to us to lose our soulmates after we’ve found them?”

  A fire burned in his eyes, and she remembered what Dem had said about Isa, and the snippet of memory she had seen. She went to nod, but he was already barreling on.

  “It drives us crazy. When Ellie and I split for a while, I had to be locked in the cage. I was a danger to myself and my brothers. Souls aren’t meant to be reunited only to be torn apart again.” His words were raw with emotion.

  Ellie patted his chest before reaching her hand up to cup his face. “I’m fine, love.”

  “Do not pull that shit again. Either of you.” He glanced down at Ellie on the last bit. She gazed up at him and drew a cross over her heart.

  “Sorry, Alec,” Aster said before the two of them disappeared.

  Now, it was just her and Dem. And Ben. Shit. She’d forgotten he was there. The man might as well have had a bag of popcorn on his lap. He was eating the drama up.

  “Aster, will you come and talk with me a while?” Dem asked, anger still lacing every word.

  Ben stood and ambled over. He was boyishly handsome with a devilish grin when he decided to show it.

  “Why don’t you take a breather, big guy?” Ben said as he stepped between them.

  “Fat chance,” Dem muttered before turning to Aster. “You scared me. Please, let’s talk.” His voice softened, and the pain in his eyes radiated out for a moment before he locked it away.

  So much had happened, she didn’t even know where she would begin. She turned to Ben. “We’re fine. Why don’t you go and have a drink with Cin and Thad?”

  “Why don’t you join me?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows at her.

  Before she could respond, Dem was in front of her, grabbing Ben’s shirt and lifting him until they were eye to eye. “Let’s get one thing straight. Aster is my girl until she decides otherwise, so you keep your distance. I don’t want to see your leathery wings around her unless it’s a family event. Clear?”

  Ben nodded. He was pissed, but he knew he stood no chance against Dem. The man was an ancient warrior who had been fighting, in one way or another, most of his life. Ben, on the other hand, was a thirty-year-old bartender. Instead of putting the man down, Dem tossed him in the pool.

  A smug grin covered his face. “Ready?”

  “I can’t just leave this mess,” Aster said, looking at the ground while the sounds of a sputtering Ben filled the air behind her.

  Wind swept around her then and seemed to scour the patio tiles, picking up all the salt and chalk and shards of crystal before depositing them into the trash can that sat next to the grill.

  Her eyes were wide in amazement. She knew that Dem had some control over weather. She just had no idea how fine that control was. At least, not until that moment. When he looked at her, satisfied she could give no other excuse, he held out his hand. Placing her hand in his, she was amazed at the size difference between them. It wasn’t that she’d never noticed; it was just that every time they were together, she noticed it all over again. Right before they jumped out, a gust of wind burst over the patio, and she heard the sound of Ben ending up in the pool once more.

  Once they were at Dem’s house, the conversation became a lot more awkward. She could sense Dem’s anger and fear like two caged beasts prowling in front of her.

  “Are you okay?” His voice broke with emotion as he spoke.

  Was she? She honestly had no idea. “We should sit down and talk. You might want a drink.”

  He looked at her like she was about to do something extraordinary, which in a way she was, but Aster was willing to bet that he would never guess what she was about to tell him. They walked over and sat in the same seats where he’d told her about Isa and that he couldn’t b
e around her. The irony was not lost on her. What she was about to tell him would bind them together for as long as she lived. At least, if he wanted to be part of the kid’s life.

  “Dem, I . . .” Aster faltered. Should she just say it? Should she confess her feelings for him? Should she tell him what happened with Phobetor in more detail? Should she tell him the dream with the little girl? The questions swirled around in her head.

  “Aster, just breathe, and start from the beginning.”

  So that was what she did. She told him about the dream first, and then about her conversation with Cin after she’d gone over to Thad’s house. “I just . . . I couldn’t take it if that dream became a reality. The problem is that I can’t stop some of it from happening.” She took a deep, steadying breath, allowing the scent of him to fill her nose, and her eyes to drink him in for just a moment. She tried to memorize him, just in case it was the last time she was this close. He smelled of saltwater and spices. Black stubble lined his jaw, highlighting his kissable lips, and his deep blue eyes bored into hers while the tousle of almost black hair went every which way on top of his head. “I’m pregnant.”

  The two words she had dreaded saying tumbled out of her mouth, leaving her feeling nauseous. He blinked a few times, but there was no other reaction. Was he in shock?

  Finally, after a few moments of him not freaking out, she felt a cautious hope. Her heart just about shattered as she bit the bullet, sharing the scariest part. “It’s yours,” she whispered.

  “Mine?” The word was almost a prayer as it slipped from his lips.

  She couldn’t look at him, didn’t want to see the look of betrayal on his face, so she picked at imaginary dirt under her fingernails while she spoke. “I swear I didn’t lie to you that weekend. I really was on birth control. It’s just that when they took me a couple days after you left, they didn’t grab my pills as well, and apparently, since my grandmother is the Roman goddess of childbirth, Vivienne thinks that it all added up to be the perfect storm, so to speak.

  “I know you didn’t plan this, and neither did I. I know you probably don’t want kids, but I would like for you to be part of the child’s life, if you want to be. We don’t have to be together, but if possible, I would like our son or daughter to grow up knowing who their parents are.”

  She paused, and then the words she’d just spoken slapped her in the face. Taking another breath, she decided to own up to the other elephant in the room. “Not that I don’t want to be with you—I do. You probably don’t want to hear this, but I love you. I have since our weekend together. That sounds crazy, and I get it, but you’ve made me feel. You’ve opened up this world of emotion and physical pleasure to me that I’d never really experienced before. At least, not fully. It’s like knowing about the ocean versus swimming in it. And I know you’ve got baggage, but so do I . . .” She trailed off, having run out of steam.

  “Aster, it’s okay.” He reached out and took both of her hands before he shifted to the floor to kneel in front of her. “You’re right. I didn’t plan this, but stuff happens, and who said I don’t want kids? I just didn’t think they were an option before. When this child is born, you can bet I’m going to be part of its life. I wouldn’t want anything else.”

  Tears pricked her eyes. Her big curmudgeon was such a softy on the inside.

  “You’re beautiful, you know that?” The pad of his thumb wiped the tears from her cheek. “One question, who the hell is Vivienne?”

  He smiled at her then, and it was the sun breaking out from behind a cloud, warming her skin. She smiled back. It was a little shaky, but it was still there. “That’s your question?” Aster snorted. “She’s the daughter of Nivetta, who Alec knows, apparently? Alec and Ellie went to her to get something to figure out who the father was, because I didn’t know with everything that they did to me at The Farm, and I needed to be sure of who the father was. But Vivienne is an obstetrician, as well as a certified midwife, and she has some magic of some kind. I think she’s as old as you.” She grinned tentatively at Dem, who smiled back. “She took some blood and is running some tests, and she did an ultrasound.”

  “They can do that already?”

  “I guess.” She shrugged. “Do you want to hear something cool?”

  When Dem nodded, Aster fished her phone out from her pocket and pulled up the video she’d taken of the ultrasound. She pointed out the fuzzy gray blob that was their baby, and then she hit play and his whole face changed. The small heartbeat sounded through the speakers on her phone, and as they both listened in silence, her heart swelled. Dem’s eyes were filled with awe, and his mouth hung ever so slightly agape. He truly was happy about the situation. She placed her free hand over her belly. They wouldn’t be able to feel any movement for a while, but just touching her belly felt like she was passing her love on to the little bean. Dem lay his hand on top of hers, and she started crying again.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered. Waves of shock had been hitting her all day. This was just the latest one.

  “Aster, I . . .” He paused and frowned, pulling his hand back.

  She knew it was going too well. Here was the door to smack her on the ass on the way out.

  “I need you to know that I can’t sing for you.” The words sounded choked as he spoke.

  The statement shocked her. She hadn’t expected him to, and she hoped that she hadn’t implied that she wanted him to. The thought churned in her gut.

  “If I put Isa through hell and she wasn’t my soulmate? If I found something like that out, then I think it would break me a little. I need there to be a reason for what happened to her, and if I sing for you and you’re my soulmate? I just don’t think I could handle it. I’m sorry.” Dem was sitting back on his heels, eyes downcast.

  The somber expression on his face after it had so recently glowed with happiness broke her heart. “Want to know a secret?” She paused for a moment before finding the right words. “If you sang for me and we were soulmates, then I would feel trapped. I can’t take being tied down or imprisoned again, and in some ways, I feel like the bond between soulmates could be seen that way. I love you, but I don’t need to be your soulmate.”

  “I love you too.” He looked at her, and his eyes blazed with emotion as he leaned forward, cupping her face between his massive hands and kissing her. It was the most delicate kiss she’d ever received, like he revered her. When he started to pull away, she grabbed two handfuls of his T-shirt and kissed him back, but she wasn’t gentle. She ran her tongue along the seam of his lips, and he opened for her, their tongues twining around one another while she pressed her body against his.

  After a second or two, he pulled away again. “Wait a minute. I’m still mad at you for summoning Phobetor, and you still haven’t explained what happened.”

  “Don’t you see? Once I knew I was pregnant, I had to. Confronting him was the only way I was going to get him to listen to me, and it worked. I will protect our baby no matter what. If that means standing up to the god of nightmares, then so be it.”

  “So he’s backing off?”

  She kissed the corner of his mouth. “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  “I bluffed. Told him we had another summoning crystal and a cave where he could stay forever and ever.” She grinned and knew that it looked slightly evil from the way Dem narrowed his eyes. “Plus, I think once he knew I was family, I wasn’t such a threat anymore, and something about me scared him a little bit. I guess that makes me a badass.”

  “Baby, you’ve been a badass since the moment I first saw you.”

  “Shaking my tipsy behind does not make me a badass,” she scoffed.

  “No, but throwing a drink in a guy’s face does. I saw you long before I got the courage to say hi to you.”

  Aster’s face got serious then. She’d only ever thrown one drink in one man’s face, and that was almost a year before their weekend together.

  “Between you and me, I’ve never spent
as much time in human bars as I did trying to get up the courage to approach you. You’re goodness and light,” he said, running his fingers through her hair. “I’m dark and stormy. I never thought asking you to dance would result in this.”

  She frowned then. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry! I didn’t mean it like that.” He sighed and held his hand out to her. “Would you like to dance?”

  His blue eyes studied hers, and when she nodded and stood, he placed his hands on her hips, holding her in place. Dem looked at her belly for a while before pushing her T-shirt up and laying the softest kiss on her stomach. All of her insides froze at the contact. She knew he’d said the words, but seeing him kiss her stomach was something else.

  “Hello in there. I’m your father. I’m going to protect you and your mom until my dying breath . . .” Dem paused, his voice caught in his throat, and added quietly, “I love you.” He kissed her belly once more before looking up at her. His eyes shone with unshed tears, and her heart constricted before expanding even further. She never knew that she could love so much. She’d always thought she just wasn’t built that way, but Dem and the little peanut had opened her eyes and her heart in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

  Tears streamed down her face as he stood up and kissed her, the salty water mingling between their lips, leaving her breathless all over again.

  “Dance with me,” he murmured against her lips.

  He took her hand and led her onto the open patio where she’d danced the other morning. There was no music, unless she counted the steady lap of waves on the shore below, or the birdsong that filled the air. He placed his hand high on her back and held her other hand out away from their bodies in a classic ballroom dancing pose. He surprised the hell out of her by doing a waltz. Dem was a good dancer—his movements were fluid, he had great posture, and he could lead like nobody’s business. They glided across the patio, and her years of dance classes took over. Her posture corrected itself, and she turned her head elegantly to the side.