The island was peaceful in the hour just before dawn, before the humans woke. The vampires had all settled in for the day, and except for the sounds of the waves on the beach, everything was quiet. As she reached the top of the hill, Serena watched the sunrise reaching like fingers into the morning sky.
She was surprised to see Myron at the front desk so early. Myron smiled as she put on whatever name tag was in the drawer. Tina today. “Sage is in the office. She would like to talk to you.”
Serena had prepared for this. She took a deep breath and went in. Sage sat at the desk, yawning into the back of her hand. She smiled and waved Serena to sit as she leaned her head against the wall. “I can’t believe you’re up so early.”
“I don’t need a lot of sleep.”
“Well, I do. But I need to wait until Cemil wakes before I can take a nap.”
“Myron said you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, I was hoping Cyrus and Rekkus would be here to talk with you too. But I think they’re raiding the kitchen.”
“Rekkus is up?”
“And a sourer mood I have never seen. But I suppose it’s to be expected; his pregnant wife was nearly kidnapped by sharks. He’s limping, but I am sure will be right as rain by evening.” She yawned again. “Anyway, I hope you don’t think me too forward, but Kaleb has requested that his home base be here on the island. We don’t usually allow that, but for the two of you, we’ll make the exception. We would love to have you come on the staff here.”
“You want me to work here?”
“Yes. We thought you could assist with hydro-therapy. Yavonka still needs you—”
“And I need someone on security to deal with the underwater threats as well as help track that odd rip current off shore,” Rekkus said, limping into the office. “You’re the obvious choice.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you worried I might hurt someone?”
Sage shook her head. “The only person at risk of being hurt by you is Kaleb. And he seems willing to take the risk.”
“So?” Rekkus asked with a knowing smile.
She nodded. “When Kaleb isn’t on missions he can come back here?”
“Through the portal,” Sage acknowledged.
“Am I allowed to sing?”
“Don’t push your luck,” Rekkus said, but there was no bite to his words.
An hour later, Serena walked out of the office with an amazed sense of purpose to her life. Myron never looked up from her cards, but then Serena didn’t expect her to. She found Kaleb in the dining hall, devouring eggs, bacon, and sausage, with an empty plate beside his full one. She hadn’t thought about the fact that everyone had missed dinner the evening before, but this was one of those times where it just couldn’t be helped.
As Serena approached, Kaleb stood, kissed her, and then returned his focus to his food. She watched him eat while waiting for her meal, feeling a peace she had never felt before. He knew what she was and didn’t care. He saw her worst and loved her anyway. He chose to be with her. It was a powerful revelation.
Finishing the last of his eggs, he sat back. “Sorry; starving. Where were you?”
“I am now a staff member of the Wiccan Haus.”
“Congratulations, honey.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, this time letting his lips linger.
“You knew.”
“I had a suspicion.” He looked around at the still-empty dining hall. “Marry me.”
Serena looked up, her mouth forming an “O” shape.
“It can’t be that shocking. When two people love each other they get married.”
“But—” Serena’s heart swelled; she wanted to say yes, wanted to be his until forever. By Poseidon’s crown, she wanted it more than anything. “I can’t marry you.”
“I know all about your reasons not to. Cyrus filled me in: I know you’re afraid of killing me; I know you can’t have a baby with me unless you take my soul for the baby; I know you’re two hundred years old at least—which, by the way, makes you a serious cougar—”
“I am not a Were-cougar.” Why would he think she was a shifter?
“Cougar, honey, is a lady much older than the man she’s with.”
“That’s a silly name.”
“You’re getting us off track here. Look, I know all the cons. But the only thing that matters to me is the pro.” He cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look into his eyes. “I love you. That is all the matters.”
“I can’t.” Serena felt the day’s brightness fade with that declaration. “I love you too much to do that to you.”
“I won’t give up.”
“But you don’t need to marry me.”
“No, but I want to. I want to bring my family here to the island to meet you and get to know you, and I want to see you wearing a wedding ring on your finger that tells everyone you’re mine.”
Serena’s food came and Kaleb released her from his embrace to let her eat. He didn’t seem mad or frustrated, just determined, and that scared Serena more than anything else.
So a pattern started at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kaleb would propose and Serena would refuse. Until the night before he was set to deploy for the first time. Both had been quiet that night. Serena was nervous about his coming assignment; not that she had a clue what it was, but he would be gone for a month. Kaleb had requested that they be allowed to dine alone at their cabin, since neither of them were guests of the Haus anymore.
She purposefully had lined up as many people to work with tomorrow as possible. Kaleb would be leaving via the portal in the morning and each second of the clock was a cruel reminder. He was quiet, and when they got the part of the meal where he always popped the question, he remained silent. Pensive, even, and a sadness that perhaps he had given up on asking filled her. She ate the food, but it tasted like sand. The music playing in the background only grated her nerves.
She looked up to find him standing over her, his hand outstretched. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Don’t question, just come with me.”
She placed her hand in his and let him lead her out to the water’s edge. “No.”
He stripped down to his skin; the only thing he kept on was her tear. “You have never hurt me, and I don’t think you ever would. Why can’t you have the faith in you that I have? Just a swim.”
As she watched him walk into the water under the full moon, his well-sculpted back and ass disappearing in the dark seawater, Serena closed her eyes and searched for the willpower to say no. She had used that word so often that it seemed to be the only one she said. But this time she couldn’t find it. She needed this; she needed him. So, taking the step to follow him, she let the water surround her as it always did, letting it come alive around her before diving in. Feeling the water glide over skin that turned to scales and feet that merged into a fin, she surfaced just next to him.
His smile drove her crazy with the need to kiss him. “Show me what you are.”
“What?”
“I trust you. Show me your world. Show me the world I could never see without you.”
She grabbed his hand. “I am so scared of hurting you. I’m scared…”
“Shhh. No fears. Just show me…I want to know everything about who you are.”
She nodded, letting him pull her toward him. This was the first time he had touched her in mermaid form. His hands ran down her back, over her scale-covered backside, and he looked up at her, shocked. “The scales. They’re so smooth, like glass. I didn’t expect that.”
“Just wait,” she said and smiled. She brought her lips to his and let her tongue play with his full bottom lip. “Take a deep breath.”
He did, and as Serena kissed him hard, he fought for air for just a second as she pulled them under the water. She pulled away from the kiss and blew an air bubble at him that surrounded his nose and mouth. With a smile, she tightened her hold on his hand and took off, taking him to the opening of the island’s barrier.
Telepathically, she told him of the turtles to the east, the school of sword fish that was heading deep out to sea, and the mermaid in the distance that thought she was being stealthy even though Serena could sense her a league away. But then he turned to her, all sense of fun gone as he pulled her to the water’s surface. “Sing to me, siren. Sing me a song.”
“Kaleb, I can’t.”
“You can, and then we’re going to make love and I am going to prove to you that you aren’t going to kill me.”
“I can’t. Please don’t ask this of me.” She turned away, tears filling her eyes. “I just can’t.”
“Look, I trust you. Myron even agreed this is the only way. She says the number three has been surrounding me since I arrived. Perhaps the three meant three battles I needed to go through. One, your mother; two, the sharks; three, your demons. Sarka has her doubts. And Rekkus, he thinks I’m nuts…”
“How many people did you tell you were going to have sex with me tonight?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I think you’ll find since I already love you, your siren’s serenade will have no effect on me.”
Serena took a deep breath; should she lull him into a trance like before, she would take him back to the island and this would all be done. She wouldn’t have to worry about him doing this again. But—and it was a big but—what if he was right? Just what if…
Come, men of the land,Come and meet me on the strand.
Your hearts they grow weary and my eyes are all teary
For the man I need is away on the sea.
Come, men of the land,
Come walk in the sand.
Your soul is now mine and like the fish on your line
The man that I need is now one with the Sea.
She finished singing and waited, watching as Kaleb looked at her for a moment before blinking and saying with a smile, “Your voice is the most beautiful voice I have ever heard, and if you need to take me all this way out to sea for me to hear it, I will come every time.”
“It didn’t work?”
“Of course not, silly.”
“Why did it work before?”
“Cemil has a theory that when you sang to me the last time, while I thought I might have loved you, I didn’t really know who or what you were. So I couldn’t be truly in love with you. Now I know you, secrets and all, and still I love you. So you can’t enthrall me with your song.”
That made sense, and it gave her strength to move on to the next part of his plan. “I am not sure how this works, exactly. I have never dragged a man down to the depths to have sex with him.”
“Well that’s nice to know. I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Kaleb said, but there was a catch to his voice. For all his tough guy posturing he was still nervous. But he was taking this chance for her. “But when this is all said and done, I am going to ask you to marry me one last time. And you are going to say yes, understand?”
She nodded and would have said more, but his mouth descended on hers, his kiss punishing and passionate all rolled into one. Her head spun, and had they been on land, he would have swept her off her feet. But they were at sea, and the siren within her took over.
Serena spun them in a circle until they were fully submerged. Never breaking apart, they kissed as they sank to the sea floor. Then she pulled back, her body tingling, and when she let out a breath, she created a bubble that surrounded them both. The water receded from the bubble, and her scaled fin disappeared until she lay naked beside Kaleb.
Reaching up, he kissed her again, trailing his lips down her neck, over her collar bone and to the first pert nipple he came to. His hand caressed the other until he could lavish it with the same attention as the first. He pulled her beneath him onto the soft, fine sand, careful to push away any shells or debris. He didn’t say a word—not that she expected him to. No sounds came from them or the ocean around them. Just serene silence.
Kaleb didn’t stop his descent at her breast, but continued down over her stomach to nibble on her hip. Only then did he ease back to look at her sprawled open to him. He grinned before placing one of her legs on his shoulder and nudging her other leg to the side. He stared down at her, and she was in awe of how passionately he looked at her. He eased down to her apex, his tongue working over her clit, each stroke making it harder to breathe. The air rushed from her lungs as her legs started to shake. Serena supported herself on unsteady elbows, wanting to watch every minute of him as he feasted upon her.
Only when her orgasm overtook her, and only when the shaking had eased, did Kaleb stop his assault. His eyes burned into her, never leaving her face as he got to his knees. Still coming down from the climax, Serena didn’t fight him when he pulled her into his arms and drove his cock deep inside her. His hands kneaded her ass as he controlled the rhythm. Over and over, he pulled out to thrust back in her, until she could take no more and fractured all over again in his arms. Pants and cries lay silent in the abyss; not a sound was heard.
He quickened his pace. Kaleb had never been this frenzied before; laying her back onto the sand and driving into her, he seemed harder, larger. Serena dug her heels into the sand and met his thrusts, trying to help him achieve the orgasm he was striving for. For what seemed like eons, they pulled each other close while still pushing apart. Until, as his seed rushed into her womb and drained him of his energy, the bubble around them burst. Water rushed in, and Kaleb, unable to move, pinned her to the sand, her legs apart and unable to mold into her fin.
He looked at her through the dark water for a brief second before his eyes closed. Pushing him, Serena let out a high pitch screech as he fell unconscious on her shoulder. She could feel the life draining from Kaleb and struggled, frantic to get out from under him.
No, not like this, not now…
And just when she had given up hope, a hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her out from under Kaleb. Free, her legs fused instantly. Only then did Serena turn to try to fight off whomever was there.
Her mother, in all her beauty, smiled. “Go. Take him to the surface.”
With a push from her mother, Serena pulled Kaleb to the surface. Not caring if it was too quick for his body to take, she moved forward, faster and faster until she broke the surface like a killer whale, pulling him with her into the air, landing with a smack on the water.
Hitting the water again was enough to shock Kaleb out of his trance and have him cough up water, gasping for air all at once. “Oh, thank Poseidon.”
Kaleb floated on his back, pulling deep breaths into his lungs. Serena helped, holding him above water. It was then she sensed her mother behind her. Turning, Serena prepared herself for a fight, but there was no fight in her mother, just a funny kind of sadness.
“Mother, why? Why did you help me save him? You could have gotten everything you wanted.”
“Because his soul would never have been your baby’s.”
“I don’t understand. He was seconds from death.”
“It’s because my soul belongs to you.” Kaleb pulled himself into a treading water position.
“Kaleb?”
“You’re my soul mate. Any babe of ours can’t take a soul already given.”
Serena looked to him, and then to her mother who nodded. “I wish you only happiness, my daughter, and perhaps when you are ready to ascend to the throne, you will be a more open-minded queen than I.”
“I have no interest in your throne.”
“That’s good to know, as I have no interest in abdicating any time soon. Now, if you will excuse me, I will leave you to take him back home. And may I suggest in the future, when you desire to mate at the bottom of the ocean—l
et her be on top.” And then she was gone as quickly as she had appeared.
“Let’s go home. You wore me out,” Kaleb said with a wicked grin.
Serena laughed before pulling him into a kiss. She was finally free to love him as she wanted to love him. She felt free to be herself. And as they swam side by side back to the island, she sang to him of love and joy.
As they reached the beach, Kaleb stopped her when she would have walked straight into the cabin. Getting down on one knee, he looked up at her.
“Serena, will you marry me?”
And for the first time in her life, Serena did what she wanted to. She said yes.
Epilogue
Five Years Later
SERENA LOOKED UP FROM her seated position on the beach to see her husband walking down the path to their cabin. He paused only for a second before picking up the pace. It had been three months since he had last been home. Moving on feet that had a mind of their own, Serena ran and threw herself into his arms. Luckily, he braced himself, or the two of them would have ended up horizontal on the ground. And horizontal almost always meant naked.
Dropping his bag, Kaleb picked her up into his arms and carried her. Looking around, he listened for a moment. “Where’s Coral?”
“Your daughter is swimming in the lake with Dana and the cubs.”
“Do you think that’s safe?” he asked, moving into protective father mode. It never ceased to amaze her that the second he was home he didn’t think that she had managed without him all those months.
She pushed out of his arms, hands on her hips. “You don’t give Coral enough credit. Your daughter is a damned good swimmer and you know that. Hell, she swims better than either of us.”
Pulling her back into his arms he laughed. “Silly woman. I was worried about the cubs, not our daughter.”
“Oh. Well…”
Kissing her into silence, Kaleb led her back to their bedroom. Both cabins had received remodeling as the families had grown. Though it hadn’t happened the first night in the sea, Serena did get pregnant a few months after, right after they had been officially married by Cemil on the island. Kaleb’s parents had made it, as had Serafina. Her mother, still being banned from the island, had agreed it would be best to stay away.
Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus) Page 9