LURE

by Stephanie Jenkins

  He grabbed my wrists. His eyes were just as big as mine and he blinked, like he was desperately attempting to figure out what was happening. “Char . . .”

  The hunter wrapped his arms around my knees. Wyatt’s grip on my arms loosened and as I went under, my chin slammed into the rocks. The hunter locked me into a chokehold and quickly found my chest.

  Tonight my heart would burst.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  The thud of my heartbeat began to slow and break, as my assailant turned me to face him. I take that back, the hunter was a girl. Fun. Matt was a demigod and his crazy ex-girlfriend was trying to kill me. “Surprised?” Eva asked, sneering. She looked like a boy, though, with her crude, self-inflicted haircut.

  I squirmed in agony. “Mostly just disappointed I didn’t figure you out sooner. You were in my house last night.”

  Her mouth stretched into a smirk. “I came to drag you away, by the hair if I had to. Important people want you dead.” A storm loomed under us, but this time, she willed it to pull us down. She spun me in front of her, locking her arms back around my neck.

  “Funny, Demeter can’t be all that important. I just heard of her this summer.” I wondered if my smartass comment was worth the way she squished the shell deeper into my flesh. It seared until I swore I could smell my burning skin, and I decided the barb wasn’t.

  “Are you really that stupid? I mean, is it that hard for you to figure out what’s going on around you?” She pulled my head back until I could look at her face at an angle. “I do nothing for her,” she hissed.

  It was hard to figure out anything while she drained my life, but the one name I dreaded to say slipped from my lips. “For Matt then?”

  She nodded and let my head snap forward. “He owes her, and I want him. She can’t kill him but boy can she really make his life hell. Do you think I can just sit by and watch him suffer?” she demanded, squeezing her cheek to mine. When I didn’t answer her question, she threw her head back and shrieked. “I despise you, siren! Not only does destroying you get me exactly what I want, I’m also doing the world a favor by getting rid of vermin. Once you’re gone . . .”

  Eva had some deep-rooted issues that killing me definitely would not fix. She was more than a little insane, and I wanted to tell her that her bargain with Demeter or Matt or whoever cost her soul. That even if she did kill me, she was screwed once the Solstice came. However, I couldn’t speak. I could barely move.

  “He’ll love me once you’re gone,” she said. Her voice was so broken that it sounded like she was crying. “And he’ll forget about you.”

  My heart had slowed to an excruciating four beats. One . . . two . . . three . . . four. I couldn’t fade away. Not now. Not when I was just starting to realize so much about myself. “The gods don’t care what happens to you,” I wheezed through the pain. She yanked my head back again so I could see her amused face.

  I felt the pressure of her touch as she pulled my chin up. She wanted to see my fear, I was sure of it, and I bit my tongue to keep my face blank. Demeter’s shell made me feel everything physically happening to me. If wasn’t on a quick path to an unmarked watery grave, I would have savored the moment. “Don’t say that, you disrespectful bitch.”

  I tried to come up with something to say—one last retort before I was gone and she held what was left of me in a little shell—but my words came out gurgled and incoherent. I was only half-conscious of another body plunging into the water and knocking Eva off me. Wyatt. Oh god, why did he always have to play the part of the chivalrous boy?

  I sank.

  The sea pulled my limp, frozen body into its depths. It was beautiful and scary and tormenting. This was nothing like death by drowning. Drowning constricted my throat, weighed my body down.

  This just constricted my heart.

  Hands, transparent and strong, pulled me back this time. The souls I promised to lead later pulled me up and several pairs of liquid lips moved in unison, willing me to fight for Wyatt. For myself.

  An unbearable ache slithered through my heart, but I knew I could not focus on that. Not while Golden Boy was trying to be Superman. He was a lot bigger than her, but he was also a gentleman. He would never attack her. Plus, Eva was surprisingly strong for her size. I swam toward them in time to see one flick of her arm send him flailing into the darker depths I’d just come from.

  I never needed a hero.

  But I wanted him.

  I slammed into Eva’s petite body, and the shell slipped from her grip. It began to spiral down, and it would have been lost to the sea if it were not attached to a long yellow ribbon. We both eyeballed it. Her eyes flitted to Wyatt sinking deeper and deeper then back to me. She expected me to save him first. Anticipated it. She anticipated wrong.

  We lunged for the shell at the same time. My height worked in my advantage. I reached it first, securing it tightly in my palm.

  “She’ll just make a new one,” she warned, swimming backwards as I moved close. An edgy glint flashed in her eyes.

  Francesca’s words played in my head as Eva and I circled each other. “This one is different—I don’t think he has a soul,” she whispered as she stared out in fear at the ocean. “If she does, you won’t be around to see it,” I said.

  “You can’t kill me, silly siren. Nymphs are immortal.”

  A nymph. Yeah, maybe Eva was right about one thing: my perception skills were sucktastic. No wonder she trailed after Matt with that infatuated, dopey look.

  “So am I,” I whispered. “I’m just curious about one thing, though.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Why’d you give your soul up?”

  Her already giant eyes widened and she exhaled. She knew her mistake. When she cast a quick glance over her shoulder, at Wyatt, I seized the opportunity. I tackled her and smashed the shell over her heart. “And by the way, letting him use you was a bad idea.”

  She writhed in agony, screaming and pleading for his help as her heart swirled into her own weapon. Its distinctive beat slowed, surprisingly faster than mine did, and her youth and beauty drained away. She looked withered, like an 80-year-old woman. “You won’t win,” she slurred.

  The last few threads of life sifted from her body and into the shell. She was no longer solid. Dragging her fingers down her transparent face, she screamed, and then dissolved into the Atlantic.

  Even though she’d tried to kill me all summer, I couldn’t help regretting her death.

  ***

  As I straddled Wyatt, clamping my mouth over his, the situation was déjà vu. This time, reviving him took a while. When he convulsed and spat salt water onto the front of my shirt, I kept a straight face, even though it grossed me out.

  He jerked my body to his, just as he did weeks before, but his mouth was fierce, demanding, and brilliant. “What happened?”

  “You were very brave,” I said.

  He stretched out in the sand. I lay beside him. He took a few choppy breaths and coughed before speaking. “You’re lying again.”

  “Yes . . . but it’s a good lie.” I rolled onto my side and smiled down at him. “Sometimes it’s better to lie.”

  Our mouths touched, and his hand expanded over my heart. The mark from the shell was burgundy and flamed under the moon. “This isn’t going to be an everyday thing, is it?”

  I sat up, lifting my hand in an oath. “I swear on my honor as a siren that I will never Lure or drown you. You know, unless you really piss me off.”

  His blue eyes were wide saucers, and his mouth hung open. For a second, I definitely thought he would run away. Then he grinned, lowered his head to the sand, and laughed. “A siren, huh?” I nodded. “I think digesting this will take a keg,” he said.

  We both jumped as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky. A crash of thunder followed a second later, and it seemed as if the ground around us shook.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  For some screwed-up reason, maybe the fabled siren connection, I felt the
need to go see Lorelei late that evening. The storm rattled her tiny cottage, and I rushed inside without knocking. She rested, stretched out on the couch, with Cam fussing over her.

  I snorted. “Spoiled much?”

  She squirmed to sit up and winced. “Char! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

  I must have interrupted make-out hour, because Cam frowned. “What’re you doing here?”

  I made a face at him. “I needed to see her. What are you doing here?”

  He grunted. “She said the same thing about you a couple hours ago. You two are like ESP twins. It’s weird.” Thrusting his hand out at her, he dropped two small pills onto her lap. “Here’s your pain meds.”

  She was pretending to be hurt. That was an all-time low for her. Now I had one more lie to maintain, and I made a mental note of remembering that she was supposedly on a prescription. Her green eyes burned a hole in my face. Then she dropped them to my chest, centering in over my heart. “Is everything fine?”

  “For now,” I said, shaking my head. I tossed the shell onto her lap. “I think that belongs to you. Look, it even has a pretty yellow ribbon for you.”

  Her bottom lip quivered. Was she kidding? Francesca’s acting had nothing on this girl. God, I wanted to tell her to suck it up, that sirens never cried, as tears shimmered in her eyes.

  Then I stiffened. Because, sirens could not cry. If I could still feel pain, my neck would have throbbed from the way it snapped to the side. I channeled Dad, tapping my foot as I waited for her to explain the tears. She beamed and for the first time, I noticed her swollen ankle propped up on a pillow.

  Wiggling her foot, she clapped her hands. It was obvious she never had an injury before because her neurotic bouncing suddenly stopped. She squealed in misery. “I sprained my ankle!”

  Lorelei was mortal. She was ordinary, fragile. She could eat real food and stop stressing over not having a soul. She would die someday, and not because a goddess hated her.

  She was absolutely lucky.

  My eyes darted from her to Cam, and though he scowled, I knew he was happy. He had to be. After all, Lorelei recovered her soul. Her heart raced and thumped in her chest. She pointed down at her ankle again, proud of the fact that it was a blotchy, pale blue.

  It looked nasty.

  Cam said four - letter words as he plopped a bag of ice onto her injury. She shivered. “She’s the only one I know who smiles and giggles after tripping and tearing her leg to pieces.”

  “Do you have to be so graphic when you say it?” I asked, planting my hand on my hip. Of course, didn’t I just lock the heart of the nymph who keyed my car into a seashell? I supposed that was rather violent and graphic, too.

  “She’s right, Cammy!”

  Bitter disappointment crept through me. I was a horrible person for being so jealous. She’s wanted this longer than I have. Much longer. I squashed the envy and willed myself to be happy for her, to be ecstatic for them.

  “How did you hurt yourself?” I asked, sliding down into one of the armchairs.

  I hoped the numbness in my voice was not too apparent.

  I should be happy. Mom is free, the hunter is gone, my brother is happy, and Lorelei has what she’s wanted for centuries.

  “Dancing out of the restaurant in those six-inch death traps,” he muttered.

  When he skulked to the bathroom a few moments later, she smiled at me. “Thank you, Charlotte.” She ran her thumb over the ridges of the shell and swallowed hard. “For everything. You’re amazing.”

  And then she started crying again. Loud, irritating sobs that racked her skinny frame and made her lift her leg from the pillow. She motioned me to her and got tears in my hair and on my shirt. Her rambling was a mixture of pain, happiness, and just a drop of former ‘psycho siren’.

  Cam came back in the room for just a second only to turn back around. His groan about hormones was loud enough for Lorelei and me to hear. I pulled away from her and gritted my teeth into what I hoped looked like a smile. “You should probably work on the crying. You know, because most normal humans don’t do that. It weirds people out and you don’t want some random stranger suggesting therapy, do you?”

  “I’m just so happy. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

  Her human heart that had a normal beat.

  “No problem . . . it’s awesome,” I said.

  If it was so awesome, why was I resentful?

  “I have a surprise for you, too,” she said. I cocked my eyebrow and she continued. “Your trespassing ticket never happened. I sort of interfered earlier this week.”

  After my night, the news failed to excite me but I smiled and nodded my gratitude. At least that was one thing I didn’t have to stress over, regardless of how insignificant it was in comparison to the rest of my worries. “It was Eva,” I blurted. “The hunter. She’s a—was a nymph.”

  She said the name slowly then bugged her eyes. “I know her—well, I guess I should say knew her. You do understand that this is a first, right? Demeter doesn’t hire girls, much less a nymph. She considers them just a notch or two above sirens on the Olympus social ladder.”

  “That’s just it. Eva wasn’t hired by Demeter; she said she was doing it for a demigod.”

  Lorelei’s eyes were about to pop out of her head. “Do you know which one?” she squealed.

  “Matt.”

  ***

  His call at four in the morning caught me off guard. I quickly agreed to meet him out at Plum Cove. Maybe it was dangerous, but I had too many questions to brush him off. It did not take me long to throw on a baggy t-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms I plucked out of the dryer. I reached the beach in less than ten minutes and found him looking out toward the sea. He wore jeans and a blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.

  Maybe he thought his tattoos were my weakness or something.

  “You came,” he said, blinking a few times, as if he expected me to stand him up.

  His gaze settled on my face. My hand flew to the spot he touched yesterday. When I brushed my teeth before leaving home, I glimpsed my reflection in the mirror. The mark from his fingertips was still there. Faint, but definitely visible. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  He gestured to my cheek and walked closer. He stopped once the toes of our shoes met. “Thought you’d bolt.”

  “You’re the one who said you were going away to work with your dad,” I softly reminded him.

  “I, ah, am leaving town in a couple days. Something entirely different, though. I’ve sort of been summoned.” He angled his head to one side. “They call, I go.” Avoiding my eyes, he slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels.

  “Doesn’t that make you a tool?” I asked. He did not answer me, and I added, “Eva tried to kill me last night. Thanks a lot.”

  Even though he was staring down at his shoes, I saw the grimace cross his face. Cynical and a little frustrated. “Char . . .”

  “Did you send her after me, Matt?” My words seemed to echo off the tide, ringing loudly in my ears.

  “Yeah.”

  “So, you’ve probably known what I am ever since the first day of summer school.” He shook his head, and I thought back to when I cut my fingers. It made me sick that he knew then I wasn’t hurt, that he made such a big deal about asking me how my injury was doing. He’d only done so to toy with me.

  “And you didn’t say anything? You probably had a real good laugh, huh? Bet you joked with all the other half-gods about misleading the stupid siren.” My voice was shrill now, somewhat maniacal. Mostly just hurt. “Maybe I could have forgiven you for that, but then you sent your girlfriend to kill me. Because, that shit’s normal?”

  “I sent her after you because I didn’t think she’d succeed,” he whispered.

  What did that mean? He turned his back to me and sat down. I was not letting him off that easy. I walked in front of him and knelt down, cupping his chin to make him look at me. The electric current that twisted t
hrough my arm was distracting, but not as much as the desire to know more. “You didn’t think she’d succeed?”

  He maneuvered out of my grasp. Our eyes warred, a silent battle between gray and dark brown. I won because he gave up and spoke. “I owe Demeter. Big time. Eva was one of my attendants and hell, you met her. She was crazy about me. Crazy enough to take over the job Demeter gave me to do.”

  “So you sacrificed her?”

  Matt cocked one of his eyebrows, and the look on his face challenged my remark. “Yeah, and if I had to do it again, I would because”—he brought his hands by his ears and did lame finger quotes—“sacrificing her was worth saving you.”

  I wanted to be flattered that my potential death did not make him giggly inside, but it was impossible. Someone else was dead because of his manipulation. If Wyatt turned out to be a bad apple, I was giving up on boys completely. I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t appreciate it. In fact, I think you’re a shitty person. You do realize that her soul is gone, don’t you? That she has no chance for an afterlife. You just broke, like, a hundred rules.”

  But you were the one who killed her.

  He didn’t say it, but the words hung in the air. He stood up again. I pushed myself to my feet. We watched as the sun started to crawl over the ocean. When the strained light kissed the side of his face, he said, “I called you to warn you.”

  “Warn me?”

  “I skirted around the rules to protect you. You, on the other hand, broke quite a few. Telling your . . . boyfriend pretty much boned you.”

  I didn’t know if I was more scared of being in trouble with the gods or irritated at the disgusted way he said boyfriend. “What kind of trouble?”

  He lifted his shoulders. “Hell, I’m not even supposed to know that.” His grin widened, and he added, “But keep a close eye on your mortal. You know, just in case they decide to mess with him to get to you.”