Call of the Siren (Obsidian Cove Supernatural Academy Book 1)

by Jarica James

  Each mile that flew by led me further from my trapped boyfriends and closer to... nothing. Trees and the sea were all I could see, no homes or buildings to speak of. Fuck, of course they took us to the most remote and creepiest part of the island. Finally, I stopped running, collapsing onto the damp earth as I tried to figure out a new plan. Each moment with them trapped was another moment I felt like I'd lose them.

  Walking toward the sea, I tried to glance down the coast, but startled when I realized the vast expanse ahead of me was not as long as it should be. The moon glimmered off the surface of the Obsidian Sea, the crashing of waves against the shore visible. I just ran from the other end of the shore, this can't be right. Panic welled in my gut as I realized the ugly truth of our situation... this wasn’t Obsidian Cove.

  Ignoring the warning he’d given before, I tried to reach out to Tristan. 'Can you hear me?' Silence was my answer, and I knew that meant I was too far away. Wanting to get a feel for the land I was on, I ran in the opposite direction, straight into the heart of the island. Even a secluded island would have a port... right?

  Wrong. The only thing that greeted me was more vegetation and heartbreak. It had been at least an hour since I’d left them, and the moonlight and fog surrounding me was like a thick, suffocating blanket. The soft hum of something caught my ear, and I froze. I recognized the noise moments later as a drone. Oh, fuck. Hurrying to a thicker copse of trees, I reached into the damp earth and covered every visible part of me in mud as quickly as possible, the thick, cool substance caking on my skin and making me itch. The siren side of me was not pleased that I was covered like this. I saw this in a movie once… it has to work, right? Natural camouflage and all that.

  Twisting my hair into a bun, I secured it with a twig before lathering on even more mud. I'm sure I looked like the Swamp Thing at this point, but that was what I was trying to achieve. Moments later, the drone entered the thicket of trees, approaching easily. Clearly, its navigator had done this exercise many times, perfecting the proper distance and path to fly his mechanical pet.

  Taking a determined breath, I dropped, hoping the mud was enough to mask my form among the weeds and bushes. Keeping my head covered and peeking around slowly, I watched the white drone fly nearby. It didn't even hesitate, which hopefully meant I was going to be okay. As the drone flew away, I finally untucked myself from my hiding space, trying to come up with a new plan. If they saw me jump into the ocean, would they come after me? With no evidence of a port, Doc was clearly able to travel underwater, so swimming away wasn't exactly an option. Fuck, what do I do?! I babbled to myself as I clutched my hair in my hands and crouched down. I knew I was taking too long, but my options were far more limited than we’d expected. This felt like something out of one of my favorite books, being hunted to the death for sport.

  Doc's voice drifted toward me, amplified by a megaphone or something to project through the island. Soon after, the sound of engines rumbling caught my ear and I froze. "I'm going to find you, you can't run. My partner is in the sea, and my men are on land. You and your little boyfriends are no match for this island. I see all and hear all here," he bluffed, because if he did, they would have already found me. The fact that he hadn't found my guys filled me with relief, giving me back just a small glimmer of hope among this mess.

  Staring down a thick tree in front of me, I didn't focus on any certain magic to mimic. Remember what Lilah told me- don’t overthink it, just do it. I quickly pictured what I needed to do and ran for it. Claws formed on my hands as I climbed, digging perfectly into the trunk to propel me upwards. My gasp was audible, but I didn't stop to appreciate the badass change. Pulling the shadows to me, I settled on a thick branch, hoping the shadows, mud, and leaves were enough camouflage.

  "We will find you, you can't hide out here. I know every single square inch of these woods, Subject 1. Don't underestimate me," he called again, his grating voice making me flinch. I shuddered in my spot and prayed to anyone that would hear me, to send help. But I knew the truth... the only help I will have out here is myself.

  "Come out, come out, wherever you are, little fishy," a man's gravelly voice echoed through the trees, the laughter in his tone amping up my fear even more. My pulse thundered through my veins as his vehicle stopped and his footsteps squished in the soft ground.

  "Don't make this more difficult. He won't hurt you... much?" a second voice added, cackling at his lame attempt at a joke.

  I barely took a breath as I waited, hoping they wouldn't spot me in my hiding spot. They didn't give up easily though, stalking from one spot to the other and splitting up to cover more ground, giving me no chance to make a break for it. They have to give up eventually, right?

  May ?

  Night

  Tristan

  Forcing Lennox to run away was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. The fact that we saw the guards start to search for her not long after she escaped, made it even harder. We had to eventually close the window and hide, not wanting them to find us here. Upstairs, it grew quiet as the others left, but I didn't see the sadistic doctor at all. Which meant we weren’t alone here, despite the lack of noise. Was he waiting for us to make the first move? Watching property cameras?

  "She's going to be fine," Aeson mumbled, like a mantra to himself. I held on to his hand, hoping all three of us would be. I had never been more terrified in my life, the two people I loved most were trapped in this hell with me, and I couldn't control it or help from down here. A grinding of metal echoed in the room as an opening above slid free, then a bag of trash fell down, joining the pile. We let out a collective sigh of relief as the hatch slid back into place.

  "I feel like a fucking loser just hiding down here. I'm done. I'm going to go back up there while he has no protection and see who else he's got trapped in here," I growled, grabbing two guns from the pile and checking for ammo before sliding a knife into my boot. When I looked back at Aes, he wore the same determined look.

  "I was just about to suggest the same, love," he agreed, a determined smile forming on his face. He clearly wanted revenge, and he was not afraid to work for it.

  "I still can't read anything here," I grumbled, trying my powers yet again. Maybe Lennie was out of range by now, but there was no reason I shouldn’t have been able to hear Aes.

  “You’re probably just exhausted," Aeson muttered as he secured his knife. "Shout out to our girl for being smart enough to grab these."

  "Let's go," is all I answered with, ready to get out there. "He must think we're with her, or some of those goons would have stayed behind. So let's do this."

  My hand shook as I reached for the door handle, turning it gingerly and listening for any sound. He likely wasn't back in the room we came from, but I remembered seeing an office just down the hall from it. If we could get to a phone, I could call the Dean for extraction, or the council. Anyone.

  A faint scream echoed down the hall, but it was one of rage, not pain. We definitely need backup. Trying to remember which way the office was, I hurried down the hall, and opened the door quickly with my gun trained inside. My pulse thundered in my ears as I swept the room, pulling Aes inside with me as soon as I knew it was clear. He clicked the lock on the door and turned to me, the fear in his pale blue eyes making my heart clench and strengthening my resolve. I will get them out of here. Our kidnappers seemed to be a huge fan of this cat and mouse game, but I was done. Hang in there, Lennie.

  Aeson skirted around me and went straight for the phone. My gaze zeroed in on the computer, and I smirked. That I can work with. Sitting down on Aeson's knee, since he’d already taken the desk chair, I got to work on trying to crack the password. My powers were a little less dampened in here, so I rested my hands on the keyboard and tried to pick up any psychic imprints. An image of the asshole who hurt Lennie popped up, and I watched his finger movements and unconsciously mimicked them. The irony of it wasn’t lost on me as the computer unlocked with a cheerful ding. I guess he didn't want
his powers dampened in his own office.

  Searching through the desk, I spotted a USB device. Pulling it out, I downloaded his document files and images to the drive, hoping we'd have time to do something with it later. My attention was split between listening to the conversation Aeson was having, and reading through the files I was copying. Lennox's name was easy to spot among them, but the part that had me shaking in anger was the date and year. They were dated a few months over eighteen years ago, meaning she had been born here. How the fuck do I tell her that her whole life was a lie? Who were the people she called her parents?

  "Yes sir, we will. No, we don't know our coordinates, but we will send a huge magical burst for the radar," he promised. My eyes closed in defeat. It was a suicide mission. For Aeson to create a big enough burst, he'd drain his entire reserve and his energy right along with it. A selfish part of me didn’t want to be left alone in this godforsaken place.

  The ding of the drive pulled my attention back to it, and I slipped the USB into my pocket and shut the computer back down. Rising from his knee, I walked over to the window to look out, my eyes flying wide in shock as I took in the towers of the academy over the trees... across the ocean from where we currently were. That meant this fucker had taken us to one of the outlying islands.

  "We're on an island. I can see the school across the ocean, to the east," I reported, Aeson's jaw clenching as he processed and relayed the words. With one last affirmative, he hung up.

  "Does the window open?" he asked, walking over and pushing the blinds aside. We ran our hands over the edges to find some sort of lock, but the window was sealed shut instead. "So we break it and run. I'll use just enough energy to do that, then we can leave. We have to get help. It's been too long, and we still haven't heard from Lennox. She might need us."

  Without waiting for me to agree, he sent a blast of icy magic at the window, freezing it over, but nothing else happened. The blast wasn't even big enough to bust through. Looking at him in confusion, I noticed he was already grabbing a large paperweight off of the desk. I ducked out of the way, shielding my face as he threw it, the window shattering easily thanks to the ice. I grabbed a leather bag off the doctor’s coat rack and emptied the contents so I could use it to clear the glass. Aeson jumped out first before turning to me, his face going from accomplished to horrified at the same moment a hand wrapped around my ankle.

  "Leaving so soon, boys?" the doc asked, a needle piercing my ankle as Aeson yanked me out of reach, thankfully before he could plunge whatever it was into my body. I yanked out the full syringe and threw it on the ground. Fucking, psycho! Aeson pulled me close and fired a shot into the broken window, the scream of pain letting us know it found its mark, before he pulled me into the trees.

  May 5th

  Morning

  Evander

  It had been 72 hours since we’d woken up and found the others missing. I faintly remembered whispered voices, but nothing else, the crash was too violent. We had been searching everywhere for them, but the problem was I couldn't sense them, and neither could Lachlan or Calev. I'd never seen Calev so broken either, which didn't help morale.

  I blinked my eyes open slowly, pain blooming along my arm and head. Thankfully, the vampire genes were healing me, albeit slowly. I looked around, but all I saw was Lachlan in his bear form, limping around and sniffing the ground. Calev hovered overhead, shielding his eyes from the sun as he searched the area.

  "They're gone, there’s no sign of them," he reported as he landed on the ground next to our destroyed SUV, smashing his fist into the door and crumpling it into a contorted mess.

  "Fuck, what do we do?" Lachlan said, mid shift. His bear was too close to the surface for a full shift, causing him to look like a ridiculously scary, hairy man.

  "What do you mean, they're gone?" I said stupidly, trying to process their words. "Who the fuck took them? How did just a crash knock us out?!"

  "That part I can answer. I found this under the hood," Lachlan said, picking up a container with a clawed hand. It had some sort of timer on the end that blinked zero. "They gassed us with something, then hit us at the same time. Probably to play it off as an accident.”

  "We've called the Dean. As part of The Regency, he can get help," Calev muttered, pacing back and forth with his wings out, cursing under his breath as he struggled to keep his anger contained. He smashed his hand into the SUV again and again, the grinding of metal filling the air until a procession of SUVs pulled up, the Dean and the rest of the Head Regency guards stepping out.

  Shaking myself out of reliving that nightmare yet again, I hurried back inside. I needed air at first, but now I needed to be around the others, to hear them discuss options. Well really, I needed to be out there again, searching. But we'd scoured the entirety of Obsidian Cove on our side and the human side, coming up empty at every turn. There were no tire tracks or cameras out here to find anything.

  "Van!" my name echoed down the hall from the conference room, and I sped in as fast as my vampire ability could take me, startling everyone in the process.

  "Aeson called in, they're on one of the outer islands," Calev explained before turning to the Dean. "Sir, this would probably be a good time to tell you that she's not just an average supe... she's a mimic. I don’t want to leave anything else out, in case it could help us narrow down the search."

  "Excuse me, son? A mimic... those are real?" he questioned, looking suspiciously at Calev. "You boys knew and kept it to yourself?"

  "We only just found out and were heading into the school," he defended. "She wanted a handle on her powers before coming to the academy."

  "Our academy has trained every one of you, plus every elite member of our society, and you thought that we'd harm a girl for being rare?" he said, a hint of horror and shock in his voice, properly chastising all three of us.

  "Sorry, sir. She just led a shit life and didn't need all of the fanfare that would come from being an urban legend," Lachlan challenged, more of a growl than necessary.

  "I see," said the Dean, a slight disbelieving chuckle escaping. "We've got things to deal with that are quite a bit more pressing, but we will come back to this." The promise in his tone had me wincing as he mobilized the guards and they called in a fleet of boats. He doesn't play around.

  "Do we have any idea who the men are that took her?" I asked, noting the dark look that came over the Dean's face. We’d already caught him up to speed on the attempted kidnapping and the fight before we were all knocked out.

  "I have an idea, which means we need to go... now!" he rumbled, motioning everyone on. They didn't even bother trying to leave us behind, knowing we'd find a way to follow anyway. It's an unspoken rule within our community... you don't get in the way of mates. From the realization in his eyes after Lachlan’s possessive growl, I’d say he knows we’ve already claimed her.

  "Let's go get our girl and our brothers," Lach growled, but we didn't need his encouragement. We were already sprinting ahead of the guards and towards the ships.

  I'm coming, Doll.

  May 5

  Morning

  Lennox

  My body ached from being contorted atop the thick branch I had found, but the search went all night and into the early morning, so I couldn’t climb down yet. The sound of glass shattering had the guards sprinting back to the front of the island, leaving me in welcome silence. I wasn't sure how soon they'd be back, so I took the opportunity to roll over in my spot and stretch my abused limbs. My mind played over every option I could think of to get help, knowing it had been way too long.

  The sound of someone running toward me almost startled me enough to fall out of the tree. I barely caught myself and got back into position before I heard who it was. "Lennie?" Tristan hissed, the sound of his voice like music to my ears.

  "Tristan," I sobbed, sliding down the branch. My claws didn't extend this time, leaving me to slide down the tree awkwardly and fall to the ground in a heap. "I'm so sorry, I tried so hard."
<
br />   "Shh, baby, it's okay. Help is coming," Aeson reassured me, but the sound of boots hitting the wet mud told me it wasn't soon enough.

  "So is someone else. Close your eyes and take a deep breath," I hissed, using vampire speed to hide their bright hair and bodies with mud. I fumbled at first, but managed to control it in my desperation. This was a better option than shadows after the failed attempt during our kidnapping. "Go!" I hissed, ushering them up the tree with me. We all managed the climb, the guys pulling me up with them as the men came into view.

  "Now, we fucking know you're in here, little fishy. I see that your friends are here too. You're lucky Doc has a way to heal, but now he's mad. Don't expect him to go easy on you," the nasally guard called. His voice was imprinted on my memory after the night I had.

  "Well, I'd say she has it a bit easier than some. Remind us to take you on the tour," the gravelly guard yelled, their laughter echoing around and sending a shudder through me. How do people like this manage to find like-minded fuckers? Is there a villain's matchmaking site? 'Yes, I'm Brett, and I love long walks in the woods to torture young maidens. Murder count sixty, and I'm a Libra'.

  The sound of boats approaching mixed with the sound of the comm, "Evacuate order, 626. Now!" Doc's voice echoed through the loudspeakers before they gave a loud feedback screech and cut off, the drones and lights shutting off with it.

  "Fuck, go!" the gravel-voiced guard yelled, both of them retreating. Sounds of gunfire rang out immediately, before the crackling of fire caught my attention. No! There may be others inside! Without a second thought, I hurdled down the tree and sprinted for the building, ignoring the gunfire from the other side as I burst in, throwing open doors and breaking them down when I needed to. I moved so fast the building was a blur, but I found no trace of anyone else. I covered my body in frost before bursting into the thick of the flames, praying I wouldn't find only corpses beyond this point. The building splintered and creaked around me as I ran through the embers, the flames licking every surface ahead of me. Suddenly, someone wrapped their arms around me. I yelled, taking in a lungful of smoke before Evander's voice calmed me.