Siren's Call

by Cutter, Leah

  “Shit, girl, what’d’ja do to your hair?” Caleb asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Kai said, stuffing her ponytail back in her bag. “What are you doing here?”

  “We’re here to help,” Caleb assured her.

  Both Blue and Jake nodded.

  “But you said bothering with the priests would bring you too much trouble,” Kai said, not trusting his change of heart.

  Blue, the Rottweiler, gave a soft growling ruff.

  If Kai had to guess, she would have translated that as idiot.

  Caleb rubbed the back of his head, looking embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s true. But it was also pointed out to me that having a place to live was more important than any kind of politics.” He gave Kai a cheeky grin. “Sorry?” he said with a shrug.

  “Dumb shit,” Kai said.

  Jake gave a small bark, as if agreeing.

  Kai took a deep breath. She wasn’t alone. Maybe they could do this, could save New Orleans. “So how do we find the sirens?” Kai asked. “Do you have a plan?”

  “Sirens?” Caleb asked.

  “The priests have both sisters, now.”

  “Shit. Well, the best noses in the business here can find ’em,” Caleb assured her. “Do you have a scent we could track? We couldn’t find one, and so ended up tracking you instead.”

  “Yeah, I do,” Kai told them. She dug in her bag and pulled out Gisa’s scarf.

  “Normally we’d follow the magic, but something’s got that all locked down tight,” Caleb said. He held the scarf up to his nose, his dark eyes flashing husky blue for a moment, before he held it out to Blue and Jake to sniff. “This scent’s a physical thing. It can’t be misdirected.”

  Both dogs raised their noses to the air, then nodded and trotted down the larger, arched hallway to the left.

  Caleb handed the scarf back to Kai and they followed after the dogs, moving from the outer hallway to an inner one, and then beyond. The dogs set up a fast pace and they quickly passed into areas of the Summer Palace that Kai hadn’t been in yet.

  “Want to tell me about the hair?” Caleb asked quietly as they walked through a formal sitting room with large wooden chairs and overstuffed pillows. “Don’t get me wrong. It looks cute, but…”

  Kai sighed. “I made a talisman out of my ponytail,” she admitted.

  “Damn, girl, you don’t do things halfway, do you?” Caleb said. “That’s gotta be hella strong. You don’t dare ever lose it.”

  “I know,” Kai said. Even here, with everything dampened, she still felt an attraction to it, still knew exactly where her talisman was, curled up in her bag.

  “Don’t let anyone touch it. Not unless they’re really special. You know?”

  Kai looked at Caleb. He looked back, his dark eyes intent.

  “No,” Kai said. “What do you mean?” She didn’t want anyone touching her talisman, not even Ru Yi after the fox fairy had finished making it.

  “Why do you think I always tell you not to lose my medallion?” Caleb asked. “You’re the only one who ever gets to hold it.”

  “Your medallion?” Kai asked, her voice uncomfortably loud.

  Both dogs glanced back at them.

  “It’s okay,” Kai said softly, reassuring the dogs.

  Caleb’s medallion of St. Martin de Porres was a talisman?

  “Really?” Kai asked Caleb.

  He nodded.

  No wonder it had always made her uncomfortable. The medallion was magic not meant for her. Why the hell hadn’t he told her that there was magic that worked? Of course, that would have meant she’d wanted to know more about the xita, which she never had.

  “Why do you make me wear it?” Kai asked. It didn’t make any sense. Not if the talisman was made for him. He couldn’t feel the same way she felt about her talisman. Maybe it wasn’t a personal talisman, but more like a charm.

  “It ain’t that strong,” Caleb said softly. He turned away, looking forward again. “It’s for protection, you know. To keep you safe.”

  Shit. Was that Caleb’s way of saying that he loved her? What the hell was she supposed to do with that?

  Both dogs ahead of them growled softly.

  “Guess that’s my cue,” Caleb said.

  “Kiss for good luck?” Kai asked.

  “Darling, I thought you’d never ask,” Caleb said with a grin. He drew her close and Kai took a deep breath, holding in his musky scent.

  She’d expected Caleb’s usual passion and fierceness, but the kiss was gentle, teasingly soft and full of restraint. She opened her mouth, hungry for him, but he didn’t do more than indulge with a simple swipe of his tongue.

  “Oh la la, daughter,” came a woman’s voice from behind Kai’s shoulder.

  With a start, Kai turned.

  “Mama?”

  * * *

  Mama wore a beautiful silver robe made of silk, flowing to the ground, with gold dragonflies embroidered on it. Jeweled sticks held the hair on top of her head. Her face was made up to perfection, her skin looking porcelain smooth, her lips blood red and dark kohl outlining her eyes.

  “I approve,” Mama said, looking Caleb up and down.

  Kai hadn’t realized that a blush could make her cheeks so warm.

  “Of both your young men,” Mama added.

  “Excuse me?” Kai asked. Hadn’t Mama wanted her to marry the prince? Or was this just Mama liking how fine her men looked?

  Mama gave an impatient sigh. “This way,” she said, imperiously turning.

  “Mama, what are you doing here?” Kai asked, hurrying after her. She heard the clicking of claws and knew Caleb and his brothers followed.

  “Didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun, did you?” Mama said with a sniff. “Besides, I’ve always hated the Taoists and their smelly potions. I only started working with them when I was about to lose everything.”

  “Are you here to help?” Kai asked. “I thought you wouldn’t help me anymore.”

  “I found a different way,” Mama said dismissively. “The court will have to follow it, once we rid them of these pesky parasites.”

  “And then they’ll have to follow you,” Kai said. Mama would have her power and prestige, one way or another.

  “Not exactly,” Mama admitted. “But that’s not important. We have to hurry.”

  She led them down another empty hall and into a small temple. A large Buddha sat in the corner, fat and laughing, carved out of ivory. The heavy smoke of incense burning on either side of the statue made Kai’s eyes water. Candles lined the walls, their flames hazed by the smoke.

  Caleb growled behind Kai. Then another figure stepped out of the dark corner.

  Orlan.

  “Hey, darling,” Orlan said, giving her a shy smile. He wore his usual white T-shirt and khaki pants. But he also wore a huge backpack, supporting two large black boxes with microphones attached to the top of each, and he wore a harness that supported a computer keyboard in front of him.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Kai asked, coming forward.

  Orlan offered her a hand, which Kai took, leaning over the keyboard to give him a gentle kiss.

  “I found him hanging around the outside of the entrance to the Summer Palace on Royal,” Mama said. “He recognized me, and insisted that he could help.”

  “Help?” Kai asked. “What is all this?”

  “The siren’s call isn’t just magical, right? It’s also physical?” Orlan asked.

  Kai looked to Mama, who nodded and beamed. “It is!” Mama said.

  “So…I brought sound equipment. These are speakers, on my back,” Orlan said. “I can sample the call of the sirens, then produce sound waves with the opposite polarity, canceling much of the effect.” He looked Kai directly in the eye. “They aren’t drowning my home. Not again.”

  Kai nodded, impressed. She never would have thought of that. “But what about the priests?” she asked. “You said you were leaving.” She remembered how starkly cold the night had got
ten after their last phone call.

  “I had to assume they were listening. Maybe even watching me,” Orlan explained. “That’s what I would have done. So I had to make ’em think they’d actually scared me off. As if,” he said disdainfully. “I ain’t never leaving New Orleans.”

  Despite Caleb standing just behind her, Kai still had to lean forward and give Orlan another kiss.

  “Very nice,” Mama said, approving.

  “Mama,” Kai said, her cheeks growing hot again.

  “You want to introduce us formal-like?” Caleb asked, stepping next to Kai.

  “Caleb, this is Orlan. Orlan, this is Caleb. Yes, I am seeing you both, and you both said that wouldn’t be a problem,” Kai told them firmly.

  “What, you think I got a problem with that?” Caleb asked, indicating Orlan. “Could break his scrawny neck in two before he takes a step.”

  “You know, this equipment produces sounds that’ll make a dog’s brain boil, but won’t affect humans at all,” Orlan said in reply.

  Caleb growled at Orlan, deep in his throat, a sound that raised the hair on the back of Kai’s neck.

  Orlan punched in a short command on his keyboard, and the headache that had been bothering Kai increased tenfold. Caleb shook his head and growled again, taking a menacing step forward.

  “Enough! Both of you. Stop it,” Kai ordered.

  Caleb stopped growling and Orlan typed something else. The pressure in Kai’s head decreased.

  “Now, if y’all are finished waving your dicks at each other, can we get down to business?” Kai asked, glaring at first one, then the other.

  “That’s my girl,” Mama said.

  “Where are the sirens, Mama?” Kai asked. “Do you know?”

  “Front greeting rooms of the Memory Hall,” Mama said. “I can lead you there.”

  “And then?” Kai asked, still unsure.

  Mama gave her a smile full of teeth, reminding Kai of the lady in the wall suddenly. “We fight.”

  * * *

  Kai walked beside Mama, letting the boys sort themselves out. The hallways grew wider, the ceilings, taller, as they passed into the richer areas of the Summer Palace. Kai’s headache also increased as they approached, the dampening magic stronger.

  “I like your new hair,” Mama said. “Very Mia Farrow.”

  “Who?” Kai asked. She was relieved, though, that at least Mama seemed to like it.

  “I didn’t think you’d have that power,” Mama said. “I’m glad to see that you’re even stronger than I thought.”

  “What power?” Kai said.

  “You didn’t change your appearance? Through magic? You actually cut your hair?” Mama asked, shocked. Behind her beautiful makeup, her face grew pale.

  “I had it made into a talisman,” Kai admitted.

  “You what? Who did that to you?” Mama asked, furious.

  “Ru Yi,” Kai said. “But I needed a strong enough talisman to get me into the palace.”

  “She could have made your hair into a talisman and left it on your head,” Mama said, still fuming.

  “She said cutting it would make the strongest talisman,” Kai said, not sure why she felt like she needed to defend Ru Yi. “And permanent.”

  “Yes, she’s exactly right,” Mama admitted. “It will be stronger, cut. And if she’d just enchanted your hair, it wouldn’t have lasted. But it would have been almost as strong if she’d just made a talisman out of your ponytail and left it attached.”

  “She didn’t need to cut my hair?” Kai asked, shocked.

  “No. She did not.” Mama still looked like she wanted to hit something. “And now you’re weak. Vulnerable. If anyone ever takes that talisman from you, they’ll be able to control you. Weaken you.”

  “Goddamn it,” Kai said. “She never told me that she could just enchant the hair and leave it attached.”

  “She’s jealous of you,” Mama said. “And it was a clever trick,” she admitted. “But she took advantage of you. I don’t approve.”

  “Is there anyway to reattach it?” Kai asked.

  “No. You’ll have to grow out your tail again.” Mama sighed. “It will take years. I don’t know if it’ll ever be as strong again. We’ll have to take care of Ru Yi later, though,” she added darkly.

  “Mama, I will take care of her,” Kai said, not liking Mama’s tone.

  Mama turned and smiled at Kai. “I approve, daughter.”

  Kai nearly rolled her eyes.

  Mama suddenly stiffened and held up her hand, making everyone stop. “Guards,” she whispered softly. “Just up ahead.”

  Blue and Jake heard her and surged forward. The two gun-toting human toughs didn’t have a chance, not with the muscle and xita meanness bearing down on them. Kai didn’t look at the bodies as they passed, but she couldn’t help but see the blood pooling across the fine tile.

  She told herself that they deserved it, but she knew that she’d found a new avenue of nightmares that she’d be visiting shortly.

  Mama had them hide in an alcove to let the next set of guards pass them, then as a group they slipped into a back hallway. “Fools don’t know this palace like I do,” she growled as they crawled through a skinny passage, walking into a crowded, dark room.

  Winds howled just beyond the door. A low moaning sound circled with them, sending chills up Kai’s spine. She wanted to see what caused that noise, almost reached out and scratched at the door to get at it.

  “Orlan,” Mama said softly.

  Already the sound was dying. Kai looked at Orlan. He was sweating as his fingers flew over the keys, his hands shaking hard.

  The sound was affecting him much more than Kai—maybe it was her other half that was protecting her. The xita half.

  But Orlan stayed standing where he was, though he leaned forward as if just getting a little closer would help, and he did his own magic on his computers, dampening down the sound even more until Kai could think again.

  “Thank you,” Kai said.

  Orlan gave her a sharp nod, his lips pressed together, as if he didn’t trust himself to say anything.

  Caleb stored his clothes in the corner and changed quickly, not even teasing Kai about the view.

  He didn’t ask her to wear his medallion. She wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want to ask in front of his brothers, or in front of Orlan.

  She told herself that she understood, but it still stung.

  “So let’s see what we’re facing,” Mama said. She took out one of her jeweled sticks and stirred the air in front of her.

  More magic? Could Kai do that, too?

  A maelstrom of swirling winds followed, hazy and indistinct, howling with fury at being contained. In the center, Kai could see another room. Two figures were bound to tall stakes, as if they were witches in a medieval painting.

  Rilke and Gisa.

  They barely looked human. Their mouths held rows of sharp, pointed teeth, reminding Kai of the lady in the wall. They’d grown gaunt and looked starved. Even through the winds, Kai could see the waves of heat from the lamps directed at them.

  Rilke looked a little better than Gisa, but not much. Her black-on-black eyes reflected only need. Inhuman muscles hunched across her shoulders, her skeleton subtly other, supporting gills, fins, and razor sharp spikes along her spine. Claws writhed helpless in unbreakable bonds, her wrists tied across her back.

  How were they going to get the sirens out of there? The two were insane with need. Kai didn’t think they’d even recognize her, and would probably slash out and try to hurt their rescuers.

  In piles in front of the sirens lay men and women, helpless in the sirens’ thrall. They seemed pinned to the steps, unable to reach them, instead laying there in torment.

  A couple of human magicians were there, Kai recognizing them by their blood-red amulets. But there were also drug dealers, with guns.

  Demon priests with red eyes and white, white heads stood on the edges of the room, drinking in the despair of the
humans there. Kai felt sick to her stomach, knowing this was just a prelude for the demons.

  Then Bao Deng entered, leading the prince.

  “Shit,” Kai said.

  She couldn’t make out the words of Bao Deng over the howling winds, but she knew what his plan was.

  Bao Deng intended the prince to witness the drowning of the city, then they’d take him, his despair nourishing them further.

  Kai looked up at Mama, who looked determined and serious for once.

  “We have to save him, too,” Kai said.

  Mama shook her head. “He was supposed to be safe. At the court.”

  “He came to see me,” Kai admitted. “After you disappeared.”

  “Ah, good!” Mama said. “Then you, you will save him.”

  “How?” Kai asked. Caleb and his brothers were no match for all the priests there as well as the magicians.

  Mama looked uncertain. “We’ll figure it out.”

  Kai nodded, knowing they had better. And soon.

  Or the city would be drowned, and they’d lose the court as well.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sirens’ call got stronger by the minute. Kai listed toward the door, longing to be in their presence. The noise made thinking difficult, but Kai fought to focus, to keep her thoughts on track, to figure out a plan. Caleb and his brothers didn’t seem to notice, but Orlan had grown pasty white, and he panted, his head bobbing to the rise and drop of their call. At least he had his gear to help, constantly improvising white noise to help drown it out.

  They couldn’t get into the room unnoticed—Mama didn’t have that type of magic. They couldn’t just take the sirens out and make them disappear—no one had that type of magic. While Caleb, Jake, and Blue were fierce enough to take out the priests, they couldn’t handle the magicians, the drug dealers, and the priests, not all at the same time. There were too many of them.

  And Mama was no help at all with planning.

  Straight attack wasn’t possible. Stealing in and out wouldn’t work, either.

  Kai didn’t like her final alternative, but it was something she’d done before.

  Distraction.

  * * *

  Kai walked silently down an empty hall, trailed by Caleb and Orlan. She made herself move slowly, cautiously, so she wouldn’t just go running forward. Her head pounded with the effort, and her hands trembled. Though the air was cool, even the backs of her legs sweated.