The Siren's Son (The Siren Legacy Book 1)

by Helen Scott

  As she cracked the door to the studio, she felt like she was intruding and hesitated for a moment, but her curiosity won out. Granddad used to tease that her curiosity would be the death of her. She smiled, shaking her head, happy that even though the grief was still raw, she could think of the fond memories and not just be stuck on the pain of losing him. The window was as large as she had remembered, coming down through a window well. The light almost had a milky quality to it.

  She didn’t look at the easel, as that seemed unfair, judging unfinished work. Instead, she was drawn to the piece on the floor, resting against the wall next to the easel. It was the skyline of somewhere; she didn’t recognize it, but then it wasn’t a big city by the looks of it. The buildings were all no more than a few stories high and were done in reds, yellows, and browns, with a dusting of snow over the rooftops. The detail was truly impressive; there were tiny people coming and going on the shore, as well as a reflection of the whole scene in the water.

  Ellie walked to the back of the room and the stacks of paintings, then flipped through a few more coastal views and some landscapes. She saw one phenomenal seascape where she could almost hear the waves crashing. There was no shore or land in sight in the painting, just the waves and an eerie light in the sky that could have been an oncoming storm or dawn breaking. She wasn’t sure.

  She went over to the last stack. They were all very different from the other paintings—all the major Greek gods and goddesses were depicted, one on each canvas. Hera in particular was breathtaking in her royal gown, sitting on a throne of carved peacock feathers with a lion curled at her feet and a small grin on her face as she looked directly at the viewer. She was almost challenging in that stare, and her smile seemed to convey that she knew she could beat you. Her face was as smooth as porcelain, and her beauty was stunning. He had truly given her the air of a queen.

  Ellie sighed in envy. She had always wished to be able to produce things of beauty like Alec’s paintings. She started to go back to the movie area when she remembered the third door. Curiosity spiked again, and she bypassed the wine cellar/darkroom for the unknown. She opened the door, and it was like walking into a museum.

  She couldn’t tell how far back the room went, but it was lined with glass cases. In the middle of the room was almost another entire wall of glass cases—some were full, some were empty, and some contained ancient-looking items, all of which had been methodically labeled. As she walked farther back, the lights on the top of the cases flickered on. The cases contained things like “Staff that Killed Odysseus,” “Hercules’s Lion Skin,” and “Persephone’s Pomegranate.” The more Ellie saw, the more overwhelmed she felt until she retreated back to the movie room.

  Her heart was racing a bit, seeing all those artifacts. Could they actually be real? She knew what Alec had told her, and in theory, she believed it—she had seen his wings after all. But seeing artifacts from such an ancient world made her head spin with how long he had lived. She must seem so young to him. Ellie tallied that under the column in her head titled List of Reasons Why This Could Never Work.

  Picking one movie out of Alec’s hundreds, if not thousands, was a challenge. She decided on Alien; she had always loved the idea of aliens, although now it seemed she had enough to worry about on her home planet, let alone anyone else’s. She’d been a lot hungrier than she thought. She had finished her beer and most of a second bag of popcorn when Alec arrived with Tony. They came downstairs just as the face-hugger alien jumped out of its egg onto Kane’s helmet.

  “Nice choice.” Alec grinned at her and went to kiss her, but she ducked it. Disappointment crossed his face, but Ellie told herself it was better to be disappointed now than heartbroken later.

  Tony was a big man in every sense of the word; he looked like he had played rugby—or probably American football since they were in the US—once upon a time. He had a shaggy black beard and was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, displaying lower arms and legs covered in all kinds and styles of tattoos.

  Alec’s hand came to rest against the small of her back, sending a tingle of awareness through her and causing heat to pool between her legs. “Shall we go upstairs?”

  “After you, little lady.” Tony stood to the side as she passed, and Alec stayed close behind her, his hand lingering on her lower back, his fingertips changing awareness into a fire blazing inside her that she knew only bedding him again would cure.

  As they settled in the kitchen around the table, Tony readied all his supplies.

  “Now this ain’t so much legal, no one tattoos like this. But these fellas ’nd I gots a special arrangement, if ya know what I’m sayin’, but that don’t mean I need ya runnin’ your mouth to e’ryone ’bout where you got this here tattoo, ya get me?”

  “Our secret.” She smiled at him.

  “Good.” He leaned back to Alec and evidently thought he was whispering, even though he wasn’t. “She’s real pretty. If you get tired of her, let me know.”

  Ellie shook her head. She had never encountered anyone quite like Tony before. He sat in front of her, his legs spread wide to accommodate his belly, sizing her up.

  “Now, where you want it?”

  “On my back.”

  Alec shot her a questioning glance, and she shook her head. She had told him her hip earlier, but that made her a little uncomfortable now that she was presented with the stranger who would actually be doing the tattoo.

  “That’s a big area, care to be more specific?” Tony shook his head, and his double chin jiggled as he chuckled at her.

  “Wherever it will hurt the least?”

  “Shoulder blade work for you?”

  “Sure.” She didn’t have any family alive to protest, so what did it matter?

  “This here is what I drew up based on what the boss man told me.”

  He slid a piece of paper over to her that had the Celtic knot they had discussed with filigree around it as the center, then toward the top was the Norse rune, and below it, mixed with the filigree, was the Eye of Horus. It was so small you could barely notice it.

  “I thought we had just agreed on the top two.” She shot an accusatory glance at Alec.

  “I figured the eye couldn’t hurt, but if you really don’t want it, we can take it out and do another rune there or something like that.”

  “No, it’s fine. I actually like the three of them together. It’s a beautiful design.”

  “Thank ya, ma’am.” Tony tipped his imaginary hat to her. “You’re lucky a waxing moon was close when ya asked, otherwise dis wouldn’ta done much for ya.”

  “Well, then I am glad.” She smiled again.

  “Why don’t ya straddle that there chair, and take your little T-shirt off so we can clean the area and transfer that there stencil.”

  Ellie looked at Alec with worried eyes.

  “Do you mind if I speak with Ellie for a moment?”

  “Y’all do whatever ya need ta. I’ll be here.”

  Ellie hadn’t noticed before, but Tony had brought the popcorn with him and was now snacking on the crumbs. She followed Alec into the hall.

  “What’s wrong?” He crowded her personal space, making her pulse kick up, and that fire he started earlier turn into an inferno.

  “I just didn’t think about having to take my clothes off for a stranger, that’s all.”

  He ran his knuckles down the side of her face, a tender look in his eyes. “I’ll be there the whole time. Besides, once the needle gets going, you’ll forget all about it.”

  “I know. I just wish I had a different bra—maybe one that isn’t almost see-through—with me. That’s all.”

  “Do you want me to go get you one?”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m just anxious.”

  “Well, let me take your mind off it then.”

  Chapter 11

  Before she could register what was happening, Alec leaned down and placed a blistering kiss on her lips. She surrendered to him almost immediately. His passion flared as Ell
ie became supple against him, moving closer so she could wrap her arms around him. Her fingers dug into his back as one of his hands found her ass, pressing her into his erection, grabbing her hard.

  Alec would have taken her in the hallway if he hadn’t been hyperaware of Tony’s presence in his house. It made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to people other than his brothers being in his personal space, and he wanted to get this over and done with so he could bury himself in Ellie again. She moaned into his mouth as he rocked against her.

  When Alec heard a cough from the other room, he was reminded why he wanted to get this done and get Tony out of here. He broke the kiss, and Ellie pouted, which made him nip at her lower lip. She smiled up at him with dazed eyes. That kiss had turned her on just as much as it had him.

  “Come on, just think of that kiss and the fact that I’ll probably have a hard-on the entire time you are getting your tattoo. You’ll be fine.”

  “Thank ye for the confidence boost.” She winked at him as they headed back to the kitchen.

  “Sorry about that, Tony.”

  “No worries. I know how demandin’ ladies can be.” He winked as Alec walked past.

  Ellie sat down, straddling the chair, and pulled her T-shirt off. Alec sat opposite her and tried to adjust himself as discretely as possible, which was a challenge. He thanked the gods she wasn’t wearing a skirt or shorts, otherwise he would have jumped Tony out of there without a second thought and taken her on the table. As it was, he was struggling to keep his eyes on her face. They kept traveling down to the lacy bra she was wearing and the dusky pink of her nipples that showed through the fabric.

  “Is it just going to be black?” Ellie sounded a little disappointed as she looked at the equipment.

  “It’s a special ink, a family recipe actually. My great-grandmama passed it down. It’s used just for protection tats. Oh, and only ever with people who know what’s up. It’s got mugwort and mullein and such in it. All good things for protection. They’re mixed with the actual ink, which makes a second layer of protection that goes with the symbols. Pretty sweet, huh?”

  “Wow, yeah. I didn’t know you could do stuff like that.”

  “It’s all from great-grandmama; she was the first witch in our family who did tattoos. An’ I guess it just kinda continued down the line.” He smiled awkwardly at Ellie. “Now I’m goin’ to put the transfer on, and ya let me know if it’s good, yeah?”

  Ellie felt the paper be applied, sprayed, and slowly peeled off. Alec stood with her as she clutched her T-shirt to her chest, and they walked to the bathroom. The scrollwork and filigree looked beautiful—feminine but not overly so. When they came back, she smiled and let Tony know she was good to go.

  “I’ll buzz the needle so ya hear it, and then you’ll feel it on your skin. Try not to move much. I don’t want to screw this up for you. Them boys’d have my hide if I did.”

  “Okay.”

  Ellie locked eyes with Alec, who took her hands in his and rubbed soothing circles with his thumbs. The buzz started, sounding like angry bees locked in a tin can. It was swiftly followed by pressure that felt like someone scratching her skin, which she guessed was fairly accurate since it was a needle.

  Alec held her gaze captive, forcing her to focus on him. He chatted with Tony while he was working, being a gracious host. Then, before she knew it, Tony was done. There had been a couple of spots where it pinched, and Alec squeezed her hands in support, but other than that, it went a lot better than she had expected.

  “Well, it was nice working on ya, Ellie. Don’t forget to moisturize, and let me know if ya get bored with this meathead.” He winked at her as he shook her hand.

  Alec placed a hand on Tony’s shoulder and looked at Ellie. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Then they were gone, and Ellie was alone again. She was starting to get used to this. She made some more popcorn and resumed the movie.

  Alec came home to find Ellie asleep on one of the chairs in front of a projector that had apparently turned itself off. He hated that jumping with two people took so long, especially when it was a big dude like Tony. The larger the object, the harder it was to jump. He didn’t want to disturb her, so he gently picked her up and jumped them both to the bedroom. He took a moment to admire the way she fit in his arms; even carrying her like this, she was the perfect size for him.

  He laid her on the bed as softly as he could before stripping down to his boxers and climbing in next to her, covering them both with a blanket they had rumpled during their earlier time in bed. A slow smile spread across his face as he looked up at the ceiling, remembering her light show as she climaxed.

  Gods, she amazed him. She barely reacted at all while getting the tattoo tonight, and she’s been dealing with blows left, right, and center that have flipped her world upside down. Through it all though, she hadn’t lost her sense of fun and lightheartedness, which he wished he could accomplish himself.

  As Alec drifted off to sleep, a memory surfaced—one he hadn’t thought of for a long time. He was standing in the doorway of his grandmother’s house. His body was lanky and uncoordinated, that of a youth.

  “Alec? Come here,” his grandmother called to him from the back of the house, her voice hoarse and scratchy as she descended into another coughing fit. He walked back to find her weaving.

  “Grandmother, you should be resting!”

  “Enough of that. I want to talk to you before I cross the river Styx. I want to be sure my youngest grandchild knows what he has to look for, what he has to fight for.”

  “Grandmother, I can hardly be called young anymore. I’m over sixteen summers old!” Alec smiled down at her small frame. She was so fragile now even though her mind was sharper than ever. He knew back in her day she had been one of the greatest oracles of Delphi the world had ever known. The priests and patrons had wondered why Apollo favored her so much, and when she ran away with his grandfather, they called her an ungrateful whore. Anger whipped through his blood as he thought about how she had been mistreated.

  “You’re still young to me!” she croaked, making his anger sputter out, diffusing it into love for his dying grandmother.

  “Fair enough, Grandma. Now tell me what you want me to fight for.”

  She beamed up at him as he took one of her frail wrinkled hands in his and squatted down to face her. “Fight for love, of course! What else is there worth fighting for?”

  He laughed at her spirit; anyone would think she was about to go and fight someone herself, but he knew that wasn’t the case. She hadn’t been out of the house in days now, and the cough that rattled in her breath was only getting worse. She knew she didn’t have long and had been speaking with everyone individually.

  “And what is it you want me to look for?”

  “Ah, well, that is the exciting part. Apollo granted me permission to share part of your future with you.”

  “Apollo?” Alec had never heard her talk of her days as the Oracle at Delphi before.

  “Yes, yes, we still converse on occasion, although it is much harder without the vapors. He really is the most pleasant god I’ve spoken with.” With a shake of her head, she seemed to remind herself of what she wanted to say.

  As she began, her eyes clouded over as only a true oracle’s could. She was the possessor of the all-knowing sight, the blessings of Apollo, whatever you wanted to call it; it made her eyes appear as white as snow. Her voice became sure and deep, resonating through the small house without a hint of the illness that plagued her, almost as though Apollo himself were speaking through her.

  “Alec, when you find the woman with blue fire in her eyes and wings that do not offer flight but are made of power, then you will have found your true love, your soul mate. Though madness will surround you, you must follow your heart and trust yourself. She will bring light, not only to you but to your brothers as well. She will spread hope and joy wherever she goes as long as you are with her. She will be powerful and strong, but her power will be unlike
anything you’ve encountered before. When you find her, speak with Aphrodite; she will guide you.”

  His grandmother’s body seemed to sag as the color returned to her eyes. She blinked up at him.

  “Are you all right, Grandmother?”

  “Yes, yes. Just don’t ask me any questions. You know I can’t answer them.”

  “I know, Grandma.”

  She descended into a coughing fit, and Alec handed her a cup of wine, which she gratefully accepted. The red liquid stained her lips, but after a few sips, she perked up and demanded he send in his brother Hal.

  “Thank you for the prophecy, Grandma. I know it took a lot out of you.”

  “You are welcome, dear one, just be sure not to forget it!” She knew from personal experience how big of a difference meeting your soul mate could make and had never failed to remind them of that fact. He smiled at her as he made ready to leave, and she grinned at him as though she had just shared the greatest secret in the world with him. He supposed, in a way, she had.

  The dream jumped forward to a different time, his grandmother’s funeral. His mother quietly weeping as his father, Nikolaos, bid farewell to the body of his own mother, placing a coin for the ferryman, Charon, on her lips. Alec’s grandmother had died shortly after giving each of his brothers their own prophecy. Her smile as he was walking out of her room was the last time he ever saw her.

  He stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, who was as stoic as they came, and struggled to contain his emotions as he took in the sight of his grandmother’s frail body wrapped for burial with the gold coin winking in the firelight as his mother finished her wrappings. She didn’t even seem to look human anymore; the wrapping so distorted her figure.

  In one of the few moments of care his father had shown him, Nikolaos reached up and squeezed Alec’s shoulder, giving him the strength to hold his emotions inside and maintain his dignity. After all, it was only women who wept openly like that. He wouldn’t dishonor his father that way, not at such an important family event.