Siren: A Dark Retelling

by Hazel Grace

  Davina sleeps peacefully a few feet away, and I blink a few times to make sure I’m not seeing things.

  She’s still there.

  My movement toward her rattles my chains, alluding to the fact that even though I was stabbed and possibly have a head injury, they still have me bound.

  But she’s in my midst, and I’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks.

  As slowly as I can and without gasping in pain from my shoulder, I crawl in her direction. The tile digs into my knees, but the light in the room guides me to her easily. I half-expect her to jerk to attention at my closeness, but she lays still, arm thrown over her midsection as her chest heaves in small breaths of air.

  Reaching for her hair, I gradually and carefully pull out one of her bobby pins to work at my lock like she had prior. A few twists, loud cuss words in my head, and it pops open. The loud release stirs her, and since I know I don’t have a lot of time, I seize my opportunity.

  Tucking my arm under her lower back, I tug her toward me. A sharp gasp leaves her lips, but she’s already underneath me, my knees on either side of her while my palms rest on the sides of her head.

  “Hi, Blood,” I greet with a lift of my lips. She smells like the sea and looks so small beneath me that my cock stirs in my pants.

  I’ve dreamt of having her like this, to have her surrender to me. For us not to be surrounded by everyone on this island.

  Without her glaring at me with hatred and disgust in her eyes.

  “What are you doing?” she scolds as I lower my body closer to her.

  For the first time since arriving here, I feel powerful, like myself. Like I have some sort of control of this situation, even though I’m fully aware that she can turn against me at any minute.

  “I told you that I couldn’t wait to have my hands on you,” I mutter.

  She releases a soft scoff. “What are you going to do? Attempt to kill me?”

  My hand finds her smooth neck as I clasp my fingers around it. “I think you’d deserve it, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know,” she claims. “Is that why you stepped in front of that knife for me? Would’ve saved you the trouble if you hadn’t.”

  I clench my teeth together. She’s right, it’d save me a world full of agitation but not from all six of her sisters.

  In their sadness, I’d be dead, and that’d be the end of my story. Though the looming question that she asks is something I don’t have the answer to. Without me stepping in front of her and taking a blade to the back, it would have torn the sisters apart if Rohana had taken my anger and killed her sister with it.

  Would’ve solved my problem, but my death might be a little more painful after that event.

  My fingertips graze the hollows of her neck. “I like to handle my own issues. And you, Blood, are the bane of my existence.”

  “Feeling’s mutual.” Her palms find my chest, but she doesn’t shove me away like I think she’s going to do.

  Instead, she keeps them there like she’s trying to feel what I’m feeling. To gain all the conflicted feelings I’m undergoing right now because I am conflicted. I’m torn between crushing this woman’s windpipe and ravishing the lips I’ve been wanting to touch since I first laid eyes on her.

  “Did you think I was teasing?”

  She shakes her head. “No. You’ve tried already, failed, and now you’re going to attempt to do it again. Can’t say that I blame you, I did kill some of your men in front of you.”

  “Which means revenge in my book, Blood.”

  She gives a light shrug. “It’s called gaining information in mine. From a man who stole from me and thought it’d be okay to step foot here in the first place.”

  “You killed innocent men.”

  “And you put my entire family at risk.”

  “Which means you have to fuck someone in front of me?”

  “Just something I learned from Nesrine.”

  “It was a cheap fuck,” I tell her, curling my hand that lies on the tiles. “He didn’t get to warm you up, did he? Make you burn inside to the point where you were begging for it.”

  She remains silent underneath me.

  Too much pride—I can relate—she’ll never admit how she feels the slight tension between us. The tug and pull, like two magnetic forces of the Earth.

  “Too bad I’m not going to either,” I mutter, tucking my face into the crook of her neck. “I’ve been waiting for this for too long.”

  Her fingers clasp around my shirt. “You need to get back.”

  “You might as well kill me then,” I retort. “Because you’re not getting out from underneath me until you can hear my voice speaking to you when you come. Until you feel me filling you up to erase Tybalt and the pirate that comes to visit you.” I lay a soft kiss onto her flesh that immediately relaxes her body and the fingers clutching my shirt. “How many times has he fucked you?”

  Now, she nudges me back, but not hard enough for my frame to give us any space.

  “None, huh?” I chuckle deeply. “Too bad he won’t be able to now.”

  Davina scoffs. “You have a mighty large amount of confidence, Viking, to think that you’ll be able to do anything to my mind.”

  “You’ve never experienced someone like me before.” Another kiss. “And you won’t again.”

  “So, what, you think you’re going to rape me and then kill me? Sounds very Viking of you.”

  I pull my head from her neck to look down at her. “I don’t rape women.”

  “But I’m underneath you and not by my will.”

  I scoff. “We all know you have the strength of ten men, Blood. I’d be across this room, like I have been before, if you didn’t want me here.”

  Davina leans up until she’s inches from my face. “Just so we’re clear, no one will ever own me.”

  “I want to.” I start laying kisses on her cheek. “I want to hear you scream my name, but what’s unfortunate is that I'll only hear that in my head, won’t I?”

  She turns her head to the side, but I clasp my fingers around her chin, turning her back to me.

  “It doesn’t make you less of anything. The best warriors have flaws. The most honorable leader has a weakness.”

  She lays back down on the hard floor. “What’s yours?”

  “You’re already my enemy, Blood, how much more do you want me to give you?”

  “Everything,” she bleaks. “Why did you take the cuff? It means something more than what you’re telling us.”

  My hand roams up to rest on her cheek. “I told you, it’ll help my people.”

  “How?”

  I roll my eyes. “You have a sturdy man on top of you and all you want to do is ask questions.”

  “It’s imperative that I know.”

  “I can’t tell you.” I exhale a heavy breath. “If I could, I’d tell you everything. But it means too much to my clan for it to get into the hands of the wrong people.”

  “And I’m the wrong people?”

  “I’m trying to convince myself that you are, but you have a soft spot for me.”

  “Do I? I already know that you have one for me.” She brushes a piece of stray hair away from my face and tugs it behind my ear. “You saved me from that fight with Atarah and Brylee.”

  “It was two against one,” I gripe. “Bad shit can happen.”

  The tips of her fingers skim my cheek. “And the knife. You could’ve been killed or worse.”

  I chuckle. “What’s worse than death, Blood?”

  “Not taking chances.”

  “I already took a chance, and it ended me here chained to a floor with a wound that more than likely needs to be sewn up.”

  “It’s closed,” she replies, her index finger yanking softly down on my lower lip. “Rohana felt guilty enough so she stitched it for you.”

  I clasp her hand before it falls away to her side. “I’ll have to thank her for that.” Pressing a kiss to her palm, I feel a faint shutter leave her body. I conti
nue up her wrist, using my tongue to lick a trail to her bare shoulder.

  “You’re beautiful but too dangerous, Blood. So if you don’t want me, you better push me away because when I get going, I’m not going to stop.”

  Her hand comes up to my cheek and brushes away some of the strands of hair that stray onto my face.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She nods.

  “And what?”

  “Don’t be soft with me,” she whispers.

  “I don’t fuck soft,” I inform, releasing her face. “But I’ll make sure you come at least twice this time.”

  “Then show me everything.” Her voice is so soft and therapeutic that I don’t give her another moment to think about it, clasping her lips between mine and savoring the fantasies that are now a reality.

  The nights locked in this room where my mind could freely roam over her. How it’d feel to go balls deep and lose everything that has happened since I’ve been here.

  It’s almost too good to be true. That she’s allowing me to do this, touch her, let her submit to being underneath me. Letting me fuck her out of my system so that I can feel somewhat myself and in control.

  But it’s not lost on me that we both need this. That we both need a release, though, I didn’t think it’d be with me. And I sure as fuck didn’t want it to be her. I didn’t like the pull my body did when she was in the room. How fucked up it was that after killing some of my men and fucking one of them right in front of me that I’d still be so attracted to her.

  It’s the Siren thing.

  It has to be.

  There is no way in hell that without it I’d keep her alive. That I would’ve taken a knife for her and not regret doing so.

  Except I thought Sirens sang their victims to comply to their will. And she hasn’t done that—none of them have.

  Davina’s hands cup both sides of my face, deepening the kiss with her tongue, and an immediate growl escapes my lips. Keeping all my weight on my left arm, I let my right hand roam down the length of her body, passing her ribs and landing at her hip.

  “Lay on your left side,” she mutters.

  “Not this time, I want you right where you are.” Pulling down the bottom half of her garment to her upper thighs, my thumb brushes her clit, releasing a heavy breath from her.

  Working her into a frenzy, I bite down on her bottom lip, letting my teeth graze her skin before releasing it. She captures my lips again, wrapping her arms around my neck to pull me closer.

  Moving her legs around slowly, she tries to work her undergarment further down her legs. I clasp onto them, ripping it off and letting the fabric dig into her thigh to show her how my not fucking nicely needs to be taken seriously. How my dick is begging to be let out so it can sink into her wetness.

  And that’s what I do.

  Keeping my knees on either side of her legs, I yank down on my slacks, letting my cock spring free.

  “Open your legs for me, Blood,” I demand. With some rearranging of our bodies, she does as I request. The moon has shifted its light in the room to illuminate off the floors next to us, casting a shadow to the left side of her face but lightening up the right.

  “You’re the most beautiful creature I have ever seen in my life,” I proclaim. “But I’m not so stupid as to know what this is.”

  “Good,” she sighs when my cocks spreads her opening. “Because you’d be everyone’s fool if you fell in love with me.”

  I chuckle. “We’re safe in saying that I won’t.” And with that, I plunge into her.

  Her tightness, the way she squeezes me inside her, I can barely breathe. I can barely register anything else but this.

  Dragging me back to her again, she kisses me softly and languishly. Almost begging me to fall into the depths of everything that is her.

  Deadly and alluring, the perfect combination to make a powerful man give up everything, including his secrets, just to please her.

  Except I can’t.

  My clan is at risk with such information. People could die with the power that resides in that cuff, and I can’t trust Davina enough to not turn on me.

  Just like I did with her.

  “You feel like heaven,” I mumble against her mouth. “And if the tables were turned, this would change everything.”

  “But you’re in hell,” she replies. “Don’t forget it.”

  I answer her truth with another thrust, as I keep pounding all my frustration and anxiety about the future into the woman who holds my freedom.

  She cared for me before, somewhat I would say. She wouldn't let me go free if she wasn’t afraid for my safety. But if I could make her feel like that again, she might give me a second chance.

  “Hell seems to be a lot more my speed,” I allege, circling her clit with my thumb again. “Sometimes I think I was born from it.”

  “Maybe that’s why we feel this. Because men say we’re the devil.”

  I kiss her lips again. “You may act like the devil, Blood, but you’re a sweet girl who wanted to save a big bad Viking from dying. I think that’s borderline saint right there. And whether you’d like to admit it or not, the only one here to protect me.”

  It’s hard to sound fierce when Dagen is working me into the break of insanity. His driving into me feels like nirvana—beautiful, endless, on a cloud just waiting for release. The weight of his body, the way he’s wanting to pull my wits away, it’s nearing impossible to hold on to.

  He wants to own me.

  I want his report on what the cuff holds for his clansmen.

  Unless things change, we’ll stay at a stalemate. His pride will stay intact with protecting his people, and my fury will end up torturing him to the point of oblivion.

  Except, it’s fading with each passing day, and I can’t hold on to it much longer.

  The respect I have for him, a human that wants to salvage his people but doesn’t want to harm myself and my sisters, it’s a hard feat to keep hating him.

  Besides, all his men are dead from an illness we can’t decipher.

  “Hell or heaven,” Dagen whispers against my cheek. “I’d go through it to be able to do this just one time. Did you sire me to you? Is this why I feel an indescribable haul?”

  “No.”

  “Then what is this?”

  I honestly don’t know because I feel it too.

  I’ve tried to destroy him and, in turn, free myself from caring about him. But his eyes bore into me every time with a twinge of high regard, and I can’t help but sink deeper.

  “We’re just two different creatures that are curious about each other,” I deadpan.

  His tongue laps against my neck, and I release a shuttered exhale. I’ve never felt this numb and alive at the same time.

  “I’m more than curious about you, Davina.”

  I pull my head away from his to look into his eyes. “You called me by my name.”

  His lips inch closer. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

  Just the softness of it off his tongue sends me on a new high, one I’ve never experienced before with anyone.

  “You’ve just never—” He thrusts deeper into me, taking my next words along with him.

  “Never what?” There’s a cockiness in his tone, which gets me to heave my back off the floor so he can take me deeper. “Fuck.”

  “Oh my—” His lips seize my next words, using his tongue to make me start to fall apart inch by delicious inch.

  “I want you to be mine,” he groans. “For just right now.” I hear his words, but they don’t fully register. I’m so much higher than them right now, drifting deeper into the abyss of the pleasure that he’s giving me when he should be wanting to strangle me again.

  “Blood,” he urges. “Say you’re fucking mine...please.”

  “I’m yours,” I hiss through my pleasure. “And I’m going to—” I begin to writhe underneath him, rising as my orgasm hits me like a heavy wave, crashing into my body. His mouth takes mine over
again, and he growls.

  “I’m coming,” he grunts, pumping into me faster. I clutch onto his biceps, letting him ride out his high until he collapses on the floor next to me. Our heavy breathing permeates through the air with thoughts of what I just did.

  What I let him do.

  I told him that I’d never let him own me, and even though it was only for a moment, I still feel vulnerable. Something that feels like a common occurrence with us. But what remains is the truth that I still don’t know and the events that follow him.

  I either kill him or set him free.

  “You’re something else,” he mutters next to me, still on his back. “I don’t think I’ll experience anything like you ever again.”

  He won’t, I’m sure of it. No other woman in this world has the weight of her family and kingdom at risk like I do.

  Moving my hand to sit up, I feel the metal cuff to his chain hit one of my fingertips. “Was it that good?” I ask, giving him something to focus on.

  “Not that I want to tell you this, but you were perfect.”

  Clink.

  I clasp the metal cuff around his free wrist and hear the heavy sigh that breaks out from his lips.

  “It was good while it lasted,” he croons as I push myself to stand. His hand reaches out to clasp my wrist and pull me back toward him. “You’re not leaving me until I get one last kiss, Blood.”

  The muscles of my mouth quirk on their own as I comply with his request, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. Coaxing mine wider, he slips his tongue in once, my body humming to the feel of him again.

  “Good night,” he utters against my lips.

  Zeus, this man.

  I want to take him to bed with me and let him sleep on something more comfortable than the floor.

  Getting to my feet, I grab my discarded pillow and slide it under his head.

  I should just put him out of his misery because if he doesn’t speak the knowledge I need, he’s going to pay with more than what he bargained for.

  Straightening my spine again, I’m gripped on to yet again by the Viking who doesn’t know when he’s pushing it.