It's a Charmed Life

by Selene Charles

  His eyes closed because he already knew all that.

  I pulled his hand to my chest and closed my other hand over it, squeezing hard. “Why does this one matter? We can walk away now, forget it, move on to solving my case or whatever else you have waiting for you. Whatever you tell me now, I’ll believe you.”

  He opened his mouth, and I interjected one final thought.

  “But don’t lie to me, Maddox. What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

  A heavy breath trembled out of him, and his nostrils flared as he glanced to his left, staring at the wall sconces like a man possessed. His voice was flat when he said, “I... I saw something.”

  His eyes closed, and he started to tremble.

  Worried, shockingly more for him than anything else, I stepped forward, forcing him to back up on his heels until he was pressed against the wall, staring down at me with miserable, haunted eyes.

  “When? What?”

  “Three days ago.”

  I cocked my head. That was before I’d gotten here. Suddenly feeling cold all over, I shook my head. “I don’t understand. What did you see?”

  He was gritting his teeth, and I knew whatever he’d seen, he didn’t want to tell me. Suddenly, he reached up and snatched his hat from his head then leaned his head against the wall with a harsh thud and groaned. “You aren’t what I expected, Detective. I thought I knew what it was I’d seen, but this makes no sense to me, and...”

  “You’re speaking nonsense, Maddox. Just spit it out,” I said sharply.

  His eyes were no longer blazing as he looked at me. “I knew you’d be coming before I even got the call. There is only one siren in the GPD. That was easy enough to decipher. But I saw a badge, Elle.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “So? And what? All law enforcement personnel have badges.” I pulled his jacket back a bit to expose his own.

  His hand clamped over mine, holding my hand to his chest. The beating of his heart was a steady drum against my palm.

  “Aye. But not all badges bear the GPD stenciling, and more than that, I saw the proverbial smoking gun. I saw a figure in blue standing over three dead bodies—mine and yours.”

  I stepped back, my grip growing lax. But he clung to me tightly.

  “What are you saying, exactly? We die?”

  “No,” he growled, “not our bodies, but those of our DOAs. I didn’t know you then, Elle. I didn’t know about your dead bodies, so why did I see them? Only once I was given your case file and I read through it did I realize our cases were connected. It’s why I agreed to guide you, why I didn’t just hand this off to Harry. I’m saying this smells. I’m saying there’s a conspiracy. And I’m telling you the GPD is in it up to their eyeballs.”

  If he wasn’t who he was, if I hadn’t witnessed his power for myself, I’d have doubted him. I still doubted him, truth be told. It wasn’t that law enforcement didn’t come with its own dark stain and history, because it did. But I knew everyone in GPD, from the lowliest filing clerk all the way up to the chief, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that they were all clean, all good guys just fighting like the two hells to get by.

  “You’re wrong. And if you’re saying that it’s me, then you can just disabuse yourself of that no—”

  “No.” He lowered his head, shoving his face toward mine. “No, it’s not you. I know that now.”

  I started to think about the things he’d done since I’d arrived, how he would look at me, stare at me. I’d thought it was curiosity or even attraction, but what if I’d been wrong? What if it wasn’t lust that made him study me, but rather distrust?

  “Why are you telling me this? How can you trust me? You say one of my own is corrupt, but yet you tell me everything?” I didn’t try to mask my sarcasm. “What is this? Some sick joke?” I tried to snatch my hand away, but he wouldn’t let me, growling beneath his breath as he held on like a clamp.

  He scrubbed a hand down his face. “This is not a joke. I’m only telling you this because if you hadn’t brought that key up from the pool, we wouldn’t be here now. I trust you, Elle. And I’m worried that we’ve got a noose around our necks and you don’t even feel it yet.”

  I reached for my neck, rubbing at its hollow. “What are you saying exactly?”

  “I’m saying the timing of all of this is suspect.”

  I’d thought the exact same thing, about how my murders and his had seemed so similar on the surface. The sudden appearance of BS only further strengthened Maddox’s case. But I wasn’t ready to believe in a conspiracy, either. I just wasn’t ready.

  “I know those guys,” I hissed, leaning up on tiptoe. “I know them all. We’re the good guys.”

  He frowned and glanced over my shoulder.

  But it was his lack of words and the fact that he refused to fight with me that filled my body with cold dread. Was I wrong?

  Why had my case not been solved ages ago? It was a stain on the royal family to have an unsolved murder on their grounds. Sure, they’d been helpful, to a point. But Crowley showing up and locking down Hatter’s scene wasn’t a coincidence. It never was where BS was concerned.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “Say I believe you.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  I glared at him. “Say I believe you; then you have to trust me. With everything.”

  He was silent, staring at my mouth, nostrils flared, reminding me of a predatory wolf, not sure whether to leave be or take the kill.

  Finally, he looked into my eyes. “Fine.”

  I nodded. “Good enough for me. C’mon.”

  I turned, yanking him back with me toward Pillar’s chamber.

  “What are you doing?” he hissed. “It’s my soul she wants.”

  Back in her chambers, Pillar’s antennae were turned toward us. She was listening.

  I leaned in to whisper heatedly in his ear. “I’ll be damned if she steals more from you. Just take my lead.”

  His fingers clenched mine tight, but it felt more like solidarity than simply needing to stay connected, like he was taking strength from me just as surely as I was taking mine from him.

  My stomach fluttered at the thought, and I glowered, marching back up to Pillar with hurried steps.

  I wanted so badly to threaten and act like a raging, tempestuous elemental. But I’d already screwed up once, and I couldn’t afford to lose my composure again. If it was true what he’d told me, then I had to tread carefully.

  I forced a smile. “I will pay your fee, gnome, so long as your information is good.”

  Hatter jerked, and I elbowed him, telling him silently to shut up and do nothing. I felt him seething behind me, but he remained blessedly still after that.

  She snickered but didn’t stop her scratching on the parchment. “Oh, my information is always good. But it seems we have a problem, princess.”

  My shoulders stiffened, and I clamped down on my tongue. It wasn’t that I thought Maddox didn’t already know who I was—it wasn’t much of a secret anymore—but I hated that title with the strength of ten thousand suns.

  Finally, the she-devil set down her quill and stared at me with her milky white eyes. Her smile was pure venom.

  “You have no soul left.”

  I jerked. That wasn’t true. I had some. I had enough.

  Maddox stiffened, and I was forced to dig my fingers into the top of his hand. There was little in all the realms more dangerous than a siren, except for a siren without a soul.

  I grinned, never letting on how much I was hurt by the emotional wall he’d just demonstrably put up. No one knew the truth. The only one who had known died that night. I was only a tenth of the person I’d once been. But bloody hells, I would cling to that last shred of humanity if it was the last thing I did. It was what he would have wanted from me because he’d been the only thing in all the worlds that could ever love a monster like me. He’d shown me another way, and I would honor his memory in the only way I knew how.

  “I may not have a soul, Pilla
r, but I have other things, as you well know. Things a gnome like you would kill to get her claws on. Am I wrong?”

  She said nothing, only sat upon her little stool trembling like a sapling in the breeze, as her tiny, liver-spotted hand furled and unfurled.

  “On my oath as Princess of the Deep, I will give what you desire, but first, show me your hand. If the information is of worth, you will get what you wish.”

  She hissed, exposing long, pointed silver fangs. Ancient or no, Pillar was still a worthy foe.

  “And how can I trust ye? A filthy siren? Nasty liars, ye all are.”

  I laughed, and the sound was chilling, echoing around the chambers like the haunted cries of the damned.

  “Because I’ve given my oath. If it’s worth it, I will give you what you want.”

  Pillar wet her desiccated lips as avarice filled her gaze, and I knew the temptation was far too great for her. Sirens were killers, but there was more to us than that. It was what made us so alluring and why so many treasure hunters had betrayed, lied, stolen, and killed to get their hands on us, tempting fate over and over again in the hopes that we just might show them mercy.

  She inhaled deeply and then said, “The Goose. Speak to the Goose. Now, give it.”

  Reaching forward, she fisted my shirt in her hand and, using far more strength than I thought possible, yanked me to her, slamming her shriveled lips over mine.

  My powers flowed like living waters through me and into her, ramming down her throat, making her squirm and cry out, making me sing and filling the chamber with the tenor of the most mystic of songs.

  Powerful hands pulled me back, and I gasped, heaving for breath as my powers swelled like a surge inside me. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and Pillar sat in a trance, laughing maniacally as her features transformed, twisting her ancient, withered frame—even if only temporarily—into something more beautiful than it had ever been before.

  Massive wings an electric shade of neon-blue burst from what I’d thought had been a coat and now realized had actually been her flesh. Her limbs grew long, strong, and sure. Hair the shade of deepest chestnut sprouted from her head, and her cheeks pinked with verve.

  Fire raged through my bones and my body. The siren had come alive, and now she needed to feed.

  Chapter 9

  Constable Maddox

  TAKING OUT THE KEY card, Maddox swiped at the air, desperate to get Elle out of there. Instinctively, he knew where to take her.

  She was a siren.

  She’d unleashed the full strength of her charms upon that wee demon, and now she needed to be fed. The lights of the between rolled by so fast that they made him dizzy, but he held her writhing body tight to him as her back arched and snapped, the bones shifting furiously beneath his hands. Her skin was on fire, and she was screaming. She was too wild, too full of the dark power for any but one to handle her safely.

  Squeezing his eyes shut, he whispered to her, though he knew she could not hear him over her screaming. “I’ve got you, siren. I’ve got you.”

  He was clawed for his efforts, but he never loosened his grip on her. By the time they arrived at the Crypt, Elle had nearly gone through her entire metamorphosis. She had long curved black claws, sharp fangs, and lavender glowing eyes. Even so, he found her to be the most alluring creature he’d ever seen in his life.

  He raced from the tunnel toward Alice’s shoppe, banging wildly on her door with his foot. She yanked it open just a moment later.

  Alice stood in shock, staring down at the screaming banshee in his arms, then up at him. A second was all she needed before instinct kicked in.

  All around, the sounds of lustful moans had ceased as dozens of eyes turned on them.

  “Help her,” he pleaded, and she nodded.

  “Bring her to the back. Celestria is on call tonight.”

  He marched behind her, all the while fighting to keep Elle from shoving frenzied claws into the soft meat of his face and belly.

  Her cries weren’t human any longer. They echoed with the haunting tonal quality of a siren’s desperate need. Her skin rippled, glowing with streaks of jagged blue beneath her flesh. Whatever Pillar had taken from her had left Elle in a desperate state.

  “Hurry, Alice, dammit!” he snapped when she turned down yet another hall.

  Her tall heels clicked on the polished white tile, and her sheer nude gown twinkled as the light reflected off the inset gems.

  Finally, Alice reached the very back of all the rooms, the ones reserved for the darkest, most desperate of cases. The ones reserved for Celestria alone.

  She opened the door and stepped aside. The room was dark, save for a pool of reflective navy-blue water at its center. Inside of that was a monster, a beast, a thing of nightmares and unimaginable beauty.

  As if on cue, Celestria’s head cut through the water. Her lips were coral, her eyes black as sin. Her skin looked as though it was formed of pearls, and her hair gleamed like molten gold inside a heated crucible. She licked her lips and reached out, not with hands, but with eight long tentacles.

  Elle screamed louder, higher, clawing at her own face as she bloodied herself, jerking with spasms that ripped his soul in two. What had she done? Why had she done it? What the hells had she been thinking?

  But he didn’t stop to ask her any of those things. Instead, he shifted her heavy weight into Celestria’s waiting reach and shuddered when the tentacles grabbed her tight.

  “Elle,” he croaked, just as the monster snatched her away and took her into the abyss beyond, out of sight.

  The sudden silence was unnerving.

  He looked at Alice, feeling her weighted look on him.

  Her silvery white brows had risen high, a question for which he had no answer.

  “Follow me,” she said with a crook of her finger. With one last hungry look at the pool, he turned and followed her out the door.

  Alice took him to her office, what had once been their office, ages ago.

  “Sit.” She pointed to a tufted leather chair.

  He dropped his weary carcass into it, dropping his elbows to his knees and his head into his hands as he let out an exhausted groan.

  Behind him, he heard Alice pouring drinks into crystal. A second later, a tumbler was thrust at him.

  “Take it. Drink it slowly.”

  Taking the drink, he nodded his appreciation. His head throbbed like the devil, and he knew that she wanted answers. Not about the case. Alice didn’t give two hells about that. She never had.

  After sniffing the rich sweetness of the brandy, he took a long, satisfying pull from it. The liquor began to work its magick in seconds, easing his rattled nerves. He scrubbed at his bruised cheeks, pulling his hand away to note the dark stain of blood on his wrist. It was a miracle she’d not hurt him worse. In her delirious state, she should have shredded his flesh to bloody ribbons. That she hadn’t showed him she’d held herself back. She’d had just enough mental awareness to keep her powers in check.

  He blinked, awed by the knowledge that, even in her pain, she’d not fully given in to the monster’s need.

  Why the hells had she done that? What was she going through right now? He squeezed his eyes shut.

  “She’s got you all twisted up, hasn’t she?” Alice’s words were low, innocent even, but he wasn’t fooled.

  “Alice,” he snapped. “If you’re going to start this now—”

  “What?” she retorted. “You’ll what? Leave?” She laughed, and the sound was grating to his ears. “I hardly think so. Not with your new toy here. Does she know, Maddox, huh? Does she know the bastard you really are? Business and pleasure don’t mix. Or have you forgotten that so soon?”

  He pounded a fist on her desk, rattling the heavy metal paperweight in the shape of a key on her desk.

  “Enough! She’s an officer of the law, nothing more.”

  She rolled her eyes, taking a small sip from her tumbler. “Did I ever strike you as a fool?”

  He clamped his ja
w shut, remembering that once, there’d been better days between them. But those days were gone, and all that was left was the ghost of things that had once been.

  Setting down her half-finished glass, she shook her head. But her eyes said what her lips did not—she hated him then, and she hated him still. Forgiveness wasn’t in Alice’s nature. It never had been.

  “I hope she breaks you. Just like you broke me. The second Celestria is done with her, you take your bitch and leave.” Then she scooted her chair back and left.

  Anger, fury, but also a deep-seated self-hatred filled his bones. He stayed in his seat, slamming back the drink she’d given him along with the rest of hers. Then he reached behind him, took the bottle she’d left, and finished that off too. By the time he was done, he was numb.

  The pain didn’t hurt so much anymore. The memories weren’t like knives, but more like a jagged piece of flinty rock trying to pierce his emotional wall, but it only hurt a little.

  And he was able to forget about her again. About his little butterfly, the only thing he’d ever loved in all the world. Full of innocence and purity, she was the ghost that would forever haunt him and never leave him, and the truth was that he never wanted her to.

  He wanted to remember. He wanted the pain because if it still hurt, than she still lived.

  Detective Elle

  I WOKE UP LYING IN cool water, but not my own. I had been floating in a world of nothingness, feeling as though I’d lost my way, but suddenly, I was back.

  Back to being me again.

  I frowned, not sure what had happened or why. But I felt good in a way I’d not felt in a long, long time.

  I sat up, flipping my tail, and noted what had to be thousands of tiny bruises all over me. Holding out my arms, I saw suction marks there, too, and stared into the abyss, sensing a darkness lingering down, down, down.

  I shivered. What the two hells had been done to me, I’d probably never know, but I knew it was time to get out of there.

  Swimming to the edge of the pool, I gracefully pulled myself out.