by D. R. Rosier
After twenty minutes or so my mind wandered to my introduction with Harold earlier today. He’d implied I wasn’t a siren, or at least, not just that. It hardly seemed possible. Sure, the races fucked around all the time, lust and attraction didn’t respect those boundaries. But hybrids were still very rare, it wasn’t easy for anyone but a human male to knock up a siren, and just about impossible for an elf to knock up a shifter, or a human.
There were no male sirens of course, and sirens never got pregnant with males. It was a part of our magic, we never even got pregnant unless we wanted to. Which meant… maybe it wouldn’t be that hard for a siren to do, crossbreed with another species besides human, if they wanted too.
I wanted to listen to my own song, which I hadn’t done in years actually, to see if I could figure it out, but now was hardly the time because I would lose my awareness of the outside world while looking inward. I kept having to refocus on listening as sharply as I could with my magic, and staying on subject. I could figure out what knocked up my mother later.
Part of the problem was I knew we wouldn’t be attacked until after the wards were down, and that was assuming it would happen at all. Eventually however, I felt the wards in the building drop. It was a lot like being in a crowded room with loud music, that suddenly stops.
I looked over at Harold, who was back to being his shy self again. I liked confident men, but there was something about him, probably that he was a genius, and incredibly powerful, it made his social cluelessness kind of cute. I could picture him demolishing something and then smiling bashfully about it. Maybe because it was just one more thing that was different about him than the usual men I drew to me like flies.
Harold pulled a bottle of water out of his bag, and then drank it down.
“Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll get the new wards up.”
I smiled, “Don’t rush on our account. That took less time than you said?”
It’d only taken him a half hour, not forty-five minutes.
Harold shrugged and said distractedly, “Your boss does good work, I was expecting more complications,” he snapped his head around and looked at me, “Please don’t tell him I said that…”
I laughed and winked, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
Chad frowned over at me, whether for flirting with a client, or if he thought I wasn’t paying attention, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I ignored him, I was paying attention, so far I felt no one close. As far as the former, it was completely unlike me to even talk with a client, much less flirt. It had to be his whole demeanor, obvious attraction to me, plus the fact my magic couldn’t touch him.
I wondered if Chad would be including it in his report though.
Harold did the same thing again as he prepared to start casting the ward, he stood up straight and looked confident. As he started chanting, I did another weapons check.
I’d been hoping that since Harold’s enemies didn’t attack when the ward fell, that they wouldn’t. But apparently they were waiting until he had been committed to the new spell. He couldn’t stop now, if he did, the magic building in the spell would destabilize. It might do nothing, or blow up the building, there was no way to know. Being a mage wasn’t all that safe, and the stupid ones usually killed themselves when they were young.
Regardless, a couple of minutes in, I started to hear songs with my magic. I identified them as they rushed down the hallway. I couldn’t feel any coming from my side, but I couldn’t leave my post.
I looked over at Chad, “Twenty vampires incoming, and two elves, could be mages.”
Elven mage magic was a little different in methods, but the results were all similar. Twenty-two to one seemed like impossible odds, but they could only come at him one, maybe two at a time once they got the door open, and Brent didn’t hire anyone weak. Lisa was the strongest vampire I’d ever met, most of them were about as fast as I was, and weaker in strength. Lisa was much faster than me, and about as strong. Chad similarly was tougher than most shifters, so he should be okay.
If the elves were mages though, all bets were off that way.
He grunted and pulled out a couple of daggers. A long sword would be unwieldy for doorway fighting. The two blades were just fourteen inches long, and looked wickedly sharp.
I pulled my guns at the same time, nine millimeter rounds. I’d have to be careful not to hit him, since I had them loaded with lead hollow points with silver inserted. A bad shot could easily kill him. It wasn’t likely, I’d been taught very well, and had the strength, speed, and coordination to easily handle them. But Chad was a very large guy, and blocking the doorway they’d be coming through.
I frowned, I might not even get a shot, unless he gets pushed back.
I felt the elves split off to come through my way, as the vampires opened the door and tried to charge in. Faster or not, they had nowhere to dodge as they tried to rush inside. Their plan was to overwhelm Chad, and get enough people past him so they could take him down by numbers. But they failed miserably.
As one tried to dive past him, he struck out with the dagger, nearly decapitating the vamp who fell to the ground in a silent gurgling scream. The second vamp dove at him instead, and tried to dig it’s claws into Chad’s chest. Chad took a step back from the impact, but of course the claws couldn’t penetrate his armor. He struck the vampire through the heart, pulled the dagger, and kicked him in the chest, sending it back into the hallway against his brethren.
At the same time that happened, one of the vampires dove over him, only to catch two bullets between the eyes from my gun. His body made a rather disturbing sound as he hit the floor. Three down, seventeen to go. Chad took a step forward, reclaiming the door.
In the meantime, the elven mages had stopped in the judge’s chambers. I had a choice, either back up Chad, or hope whatever they were doing in there wouldn’t blow up the room we were in.
“Fuck, mages in the next room Chad, I need to get them before...”
He growled, “Go!”
Fuck. I had no choice but to trust he could handle it without backup.
I opened the door and was down the short hallway as quickly as I could move, which was fast, and pulled open the door to the judge’s chambers. Both elves were chanting some damned spell. I raised my weapon and shot twice, the bullets were deflected by some kind of ward. I didn’t have time to swap out mags for iron, which just might make it through their protections, so I holstered my guns and pulled my sword as I raced forward.
I ran into their protections, my steel, silver, and iron enchanted sword cut through it. My target had plenty of room to maneuver, and had I mentioned elves might be weak strength wise, but were ridiculously fast. They won the race speed game by a mile. He dodged my strike, pointed at me and spoke some elvish word before my backswing could come close, and I flew back, caught my foot on the bottom of the judge’s desk, and flipped before I hit the wall face first and upside down.
Fuck, that hurt. But I still held my sword. Fucking mages.
The second elf didn’t stop chanting whatever spell they were building up between the two of them.
I got up and I didn’t really have a choice, I needed to stop that spell, and I started to sing a confusion spell at them. Sleep works when the person is mostly down already, but it’s easily resisted in battle. The second mage faltered as he forgot the words to the spell, the same asshole that threw me also looked confused, but he was able to dodge my sword strike. Rather than stop I rushed passed him and stabbed his partner in the side, and twisted as my continued momentum pulled the sword out.
I squared off with the other guy, still singing the confusion song, while the one I’d run through started to cough up blood and collapsed on the floor. Then the spell they’d been forming fell apart, and released an explosion.
Harold was warding a whole building, with a lot of magic, if that spell went the repercussions would be horrendous. Whatever they’d been casting hadn’t been using nearly as much magic. Still, I felt stiff and
beat up, my ears were ringing, and my eyes were blurry when I stood. I also wasn’t singing anymore.
I heard a few guttural words, and dove to the side into a roll. A small ball of blurry blue fire passed me close enough to singe my clothes, and as I came back up from the roll, I held an iron throwing knife in my hand. I flicked my wrist at the blurry elflike form, and then heard a grunt and a curse.
I picked my song back up and rushed the bastard. This time I feinted a stab, and then did a jump kick in the direction he dodged. He flew back against the wall hard, and when he bounced off, it was to impale himself on my sword. I twisted it around before I pulled it out, grabbed my dagger from his shoulder, and then ran back toward the courtroom with clearing but still slightly tearing eyes.
I felt a rush of relief when I heard Harold’s confident spell casting voice drone on as I opened the door and rushed inside in time to watch Chad’s seven-foot-tall beast wolf form, which had wolf characteristics but was still bipedal, knock a vampire’s head clean off. He must have taken a lot of damage to transform.
I listened for a minute, the area was clear, the only songs I could hear were Chad’s and Harold’s.
“Clear,” I said in a firm voice.
Chad grunted and looked back at me, he was missing a chunk out of his shoulder, but I could see it growing back. I cleaned my dagger and sword before sheathing them, and then switched out my clip for a full one, even though I’d only used four out of the fourteen round clip.
Harold voice broke off, and I could feel the magic settle into the building.
He looked up at me, and then Chad, and his face turned white as he realized we’d been in a hell of a fight.
Huh, he hadn’t heard a damned thing.
“You both okay?”
I smiled, “Fine, just a bit of trouble, nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Exaggeration maybe, but telling the client he almost bought it was against the rules. He packed up and we left after being debriefed by the guard in charge. There were no more attempts made on Harold’s life that night, and although I was curious I didn’t ask what he’d done to piss off two elf mages. It was pretty apparent the vampires had just been hired muscle.
I didn’t heal as fast as a shifter, but the bruises from hitting the wall were pretty much history by the time we got Harold home. He was adorably shy when he said goodbye, but I was a little disappointed the mage didn’t ask for my number, which was a weird thought. Add to that, I was excited by the idea of getting home and seeing Lisa, I’d missed her today, so I was a very confused siren right now. Despite what she’d said I was still intrigued, I could tell it hadn’t been lack of interest on her part when she’d deflected.
A part of me wondered if I only found the idea of them attractive because they weren’t effected by my magic. I was also wondering about my origins again, but I wanted to be in a safe secure place and alone before I delved into those possibilities. I could hear my own song faintly, but I’d really have to block out the world to hear it clearly.
Chad cleared his throat, “I can drop you at home before I return the car and pick up my own. You did a good job tonight.”
I frowned, “Thanks, but I had to use my magic, there was no way I was taking out two elven mages without it.”
Chad shrugged, “Client’s alive, enemies are dead, that means it was a good job.”
I started laughing, “I suppose so. Think we can make that our report?”
He snorted, “Nope, Brent would disapprove.”
I sighed, “Sure, and thanks for dropping me,” I added grudgingly. All in all, he wasn’t that bad today, and he’d kept the orders to a minimum.
If only he’d listen to my opinion on occasion, I think I could work with the guy better…
Chapter 7
It was sometime between seven and eight when I walked through the door. I went straight to my bedroom and stripped off the burnt clothes, wondering if I could get away with expensing them. I examined the curve hugging armor in the mirror carefully, and it looked to be in good shape. I hadn’t been sure if it had taken damage or not from that near miss.
I’d had my hair up, but it looked a mess, and I knew I stunk from the fight, not to mention there was blood splatter in my hair…
I stripped the suit off and got in the shower. The hot water felt good on my remaining aches and I spent longer in the shower than I usually do. I washed my hair three times and soaped up before just standing under the falling water to sluice it all off. I felt much better, and I was coming down off the adrenaline of the night as well. A fight never failed to get my blood pumping.
I threw on an oversized t-shirt that came to mid-thigh, and a pair of panties and went in search of my roommate. The house was a little too quiet, and I couldn’t help but notice while I changed and showered, she hadn’t moved around at all, which was strange for the hyper little vampire minx.
I knocked on her door, and when there was no answer I opened it and peaked in. She was lying on the bed and looking at me with an annoyed face. I listened to her song a little harder, and it was off, her healing… riff, was way too active, and I pushed the door open in concern and walked over.
“What happened?”
Lisa scrunched her nose in annoyance and glared, I thought it was cute but I wouldn’t dream of saying that out loud.
“I’ll be fine by the morning, just… did something stupid.”
I narrowed my eyes, “Define stupid?”
She sighed and looked away, which I took as her giving up, so I sat on her bed.
“I’m too used to fighting with you, I depended on Tad when I shouldn’t have. I didn’t want the target to get away, and one of his buddies was right up my ass. Tad… isn’t you, by the time he realized what was happening, I had a foot of steel in my back.”
I cringed, “Asshole.”
Lisa giggled, “It’s not his fault, but I still don’t want to work with him again. You should have heard the asshole drone on about how it wasn’t his fault, and I was fucking crazy. You know, without the fucking cursing though.”
I laughed and said wryly, “Right, more snooty arrogance, less cursing, got it.”
Lisa waved it away, “So I’ll be fine by the morning.”
“Wouldn’t blood speed that along?” I asked curiously.
She snickered, “Sure, I’d heal in minutes with blood to work with, except I’d probably bleed out if we went clubbing right now.”
I don’t know what made me say it, but I did, “What about mine? Bedside service.”
There was a pregnant pause, and I found myself holding my breath. I knew damn well it wouldn’t stop at just giving blood. I also knew it would change everything, she was my best friend, favorite partner at work, and I loved her like family. It could be disastrous, wonderful, or possibly a little bit of both.
Lisa frowned, “Why now, we’ve been living together for years. I mean, I’ve…” she trailed off.
I smiled, “Maybe I’m just slow. I’d never given it thought until yesterday. Before that, I was just mostly amazed I had an actual female friend.”
Lisa snorted and said in disbelief, “So you’re saying you were clueless about how I felt, or rather feel about you?”
I shrugged, “I’d given up on the idea of relationships a long time ago because of what I am, all the dreams I had as a girl to meet my prince went down in flames when I found out what I was, and sex became just a way to get a little stress relief and reload on energy. I didn’t see it because I stopped looking a long time ago. So yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Lisa growled, “If we do this, and you take it back, I’ll have to kill you.”
I shook my head, “Your death threats kind of turn me on you know.”
I moved my body around so I was kneeling where I’d just sat, and then straddled her leg. It looked like she was about to say something else, but I bent down over her body, careful not to touch her abdomen area, and kissed her tentatively, and softly. A sensual exploration of
her lips.
Her lips were soft, and warm. I felt her arm go around me, and she started to play with my hair, and the back of my neck, as our kiss deepened. I slightly parted my lips, allowing her wet tongue entrance into my mouth, and moaned softly as I pressed my lips a little harder against hers. I slid my tongue past hers and teased her sharp teeth with my tongue, drawing a needy gasp from her perfect mouth. All the doubts and nervousness I’d had just crumbled under our first passionate kiss.
She pulled my hair aside, and guided my head to the side, as she kissed a trail down to my neck. I felt a shiver go through me, as I knew what would come next. There was a sharp sting as her needlelike teeth broke my skin, then a moment of numbness followed. A few moments after that, when she started to draw my blood, I felt a heat shoot through my body, then a feeling of absolute pleasure started to build in my neck, sharpening the sensitivity and pleasure in the surrounding skin.
It radiated down my body in little waves of pleasure, each wave building upon the last and spreading the pleasure farther throughout my body.
“Oh fuck, Lisa,” I moaned into her shoulder.
The waves hardened my nipples on my perky rounded C cups, and they felt super sensitive as they brushed against her smaller, but still very alluring chest. Lisa had beautiful tits I knew, pert, unblemished, and even at B cups, slightly larger than would perfectly fit her small five foot three frame making them seem larger. I loved her raven black hair, and I wondered if her beautiful doe eyes were red right now, while she drank from my neck.
The waves of pleasure continued and I was tingling all over, my core was absolutely moist and ready, and I could feel how soaked my panties were. I moaned softly, and no longer able to take it, I bent my legs a little and ground myself down against her thigh. I gasped and trembled, as the pleasure sparked and sent a current of pure pleasure up my spine. I kept grinding against her leg, putting pressure against my clit, leaving a line of moisture along her leg.
The waves of pleasure continued from my neck as well, and seemed to reverberate against the waves of pleasure from my core, and I gasped into her ear and then cried out as I trembled and came hard, flooding her leg and thigh with my liquid pleasure. It was one of the best orgasms I’d ever had, I’ve been with vamps before, but with Lisa… it was different.