by Emma Hamm
“You couldn’t have done that a lot earlier?” Burke growled.
“It wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t let you get a few hits in,” Lyra responded. “Gotta save that sensitive masculinity. Eh?”
Truth was, she couldn’t have. Lyra had to get blackout angry for precision like that. Brainwashing and training through pain had given her abilities only when she had tunnel vision.
He grumbled in response as he turned to Wren and started to pat her down. Did he think she had been harmed? Out of all of them, she was the only one who knew enough to get herself out of this situation. Wren shared the knowledge of thousands. Lyra was walking into this blind. She was lucky if she even figured out how to kill things these days.
She watched as his hands lingered upon the high angles of Wren’s cheeks. Wren turned into his gentle touch with a smile as she reassured him that she was fine. She didn’t need his saving but appreciated his concern nonetheless.
Lyra’s heart clenched.
“You okay?”
The deep voice eased a little bit of the ache inside her. Jasper had always been her savior. Had always been her rock. It was only too bad that he was also the closest thing to a brother she would ever have.
“Yeah,” she replied.
“You don’t look it.”
“Do I ever?”
He arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms firmly over his chest. “Yes, in fact you do sometimes look like you are all right. What’s got your panties in a twist?”
“It’s nothing.” She turned away from Burke and Wren. “Are we done?”
“We have to clean up first,” Burke responded. Obviously he wasn’t as wrapped up in Wren as Lyra had thought.
Jasper eyed her carefully before shaking his head. “Not her.”
“Somehow I thought I was the leader of this group.”
“You are,” Jasper added begrudgingly.
“And yet none of you ever listen to me,” Burke grumbled.
“‘Cause you have bad ideas, boss.” Jasper grinned at him and slid an arm over Lyra’s shoulders. She hadn’t realized she had been shaking until she felt the vibration of him against her. Jasper didn’t shake; he never had in his entire life. That meant it was her.
“Home,” she whispered. Jasper would hear her; she knew he would.
It took only a few seconds for Jasper to disappear from the blood covered house and appear back to their home. Haven. The strange place that had been created by the Five to house all of those who were loyal to them.
As Lyra was touching the teleporting Fairy, she disappeared along with him. She kept her eyes open wide as she solidified herself in the space. Her apartment suite had always been a safe place. Warm blue walls and bright lights banished the dark images from her mind.
She blinked. Every time her eyes closed, all she could see was the sight of the woman stretched out on the floor. Nightmares would likely come along with these terrible memories.
“Now, what’s the real problem?” Jasper asked as he stepped away from her. Those blasted arms crossed over his barrel chest again.
“Seriously? You’re worse than a mother.”
Lyra flicked an imaginary piece of dust off of her shoulder and turned towards her bathroom. The apartment was pristine and meticulously clean. Every corner was spotless so that the white, black, and blue color scheme could be easily appreciated. The white leather furniture looked as though they were hardly sat upon. The granite countertop of her kitchen sparkled as the light hit it.
Lyra might not be in her rich family anymore, but she wasn’t going to live in squalor. She had a standard of living that had to be met. Not to mention, she frequently battled with bouts of OCD, which compelled her to clean.
“You can’t hide from me in the bathroom.”
“Yes I can!” she called out. “Unless you want an eyeful of blood covered Siren that is.”
Tossing a sassy look over her shoulder, she slammed the bathroom door in his face. Jasper had asked a long time ago to live with her. She always refused. The last thing she wanted was for him to be hovering over her anymore than he already did.
Sighing, she stripped the dirty clothes from her body. Her shoulders ached. Her thighs quivered. Was she getting old?
She stopped in front of the mirror to check. Her skin was still perfectly smooth with no wrinkles marring her face. Pink bowtie lips curled into a seductive smile as she made certain that her breasts were still perky, her butt was still curved, and her legs still looked fairly long despite her height.
The smile from her face fell, and exhaustion took its place. Sure, she was still just as beautiful as any Siren should be. But that didn’t change the haunting image of the woman on the floor.
Her reflection in the mirror appeared to shudder. As though a small droplet of water had hit its surface, it rippled until it slowly stilled again. Her reflection appeared the same, but she leaned in just to be sure.
Lyra twisted her face into different expressions, watching for even the slightest difference that would make it obvious that magic was afoot. She twisted her lip up. She bared her teeth. All the while making certain that her reflection did exactly what she was doing.
A slight misstep made her notice that it blinked once in a delayed fashion. Letting out an exclamation, she pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at her reflection.
“I’m watching you,” she muttered.
The shower would fog the reflective surface anyways. She supposed she didn’t have too much to worry about. Her life had taken a turn for the worse anyways.
As the water hit her back, she heard the door to her bathroom open and close.
Sighing, she rolled her eyes. “Even in the bathroom, huh?”
“You need to be more honest with me,” Jasper grumbled as he seated himself on her toilet. She could hear the creak as the porcelain groaned under his weight.
“And you need to understand the fact that sometimes I just need privacy.”
“What’s bothering you?”
She squeezed the body wash in her hand too hard. Pink soap splattered all over her shower curtain as the seaweed scent quickly became cloying. “I’m just tired.”
“Tired of what?”
“All of it. I’m tired of fighting for people who are always dead when we get there. I’m tired of not knowing what’s next around the corner. I’m tired of ghosts haunting me wherever I go.”
“You know this is our job?”
“I know what I signed on for,” she replied crossly. And she did. She understood the moment she took this job that there were going to be certain problems that would arise.
Lyra just hadn’t imagined that the problems would be a body count that was quickly rising. The deaths felt as though they were on her shoulders. She had been trained to kill, not to save people. Losing someone was harder than taking a life.
“You have to learn to let it go.” Jasper’s voice rumbled through the steam.
“I don’t want to,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to let them go, because then the deaths are meaningless.”
A long silence bubbled in the space between them. She soaked her hair and body in the hopes that the water would somehow cleanse her soul as well. She knew it wouldn’t.
“Is this the same Lyra I’ve known all my life?” Jasper asked. He always teased her when she wasn’t feeling herself. “You don’t care about anybody other than you. Keep it that way, and you’ll be a lot happier.”
“Well maybe I’m getting soft in my old age,” she muttered.
“You aren’t old yet.”
“Getting up there in years for this profession.”
“You’re twenty-seven!” He laughed. “Hurry your ass up, so I can leave.”
“You don’t have wait for me to get out of the shower to leave.”
“I want to look you in the eye when you say you’re fine.”
“Mom!” she shouted and tossed the body wash over the curtain. A wide grin split across her face as she heard Jasper gru
nt as the sweet smelling soap made contact. “Score.”
“Yeah fine,” he grumbled as he chucked the bottle back into the shower with her. She ducked as it hit the wall and splattered all over the clean interior. “Just promise me you’ll take it easy for a little while?”
“Whatever you say.”
She listened to the sound of the door closing before she let out the breath she was holding. There was so much she couldn’t tell him. So much she couldn’t tell anyone.
The secrets inside her were fluttering. They wanted to burst out of her mouth and fly. She couldn’t let them.
The shower turned off with an angry squeal. Her white towel was perfectly folded on its hanger, and the soft fabric smoothed against her skin as delicately as velvet. At least she still had her material objects. Lyra could be happy about that.
Her hand swiped against the fog on the mirror. She stared hard at the reflection with a morose expression. Her own eyes glared back at her until the last minute when a slow evil grin spread across her reflection. It winked at her.
The damn thing winked at her.
She stomped out of the bathroom while grumbling about curses and ridiculous debts. The towel fell to the floor with a soft sound as she crawled into her bed.
“Noctis,” she muttered.
The lights dimmed as she settled down into the silk sheets. A rattling sound made her pause and reach out into the darkness to wrap her hand around a string of beads hidden under her pillow.
“Jasper,” she whispered.
The beads held meaning to the two of them. They were the first gift he had ever given her. The first time that Lyra had realized she might need someone else in her life other than herself.
She gently wrapped the strand over her fist and tucked it underneath her chin. It would protect her from the nightmares. She hoped.
Chapter 2
20 YEARS AGO
“But I want it!”
“Well you can’t have it.”
“Mommy!”
“Lyra, I’m not going to say it again.”
“But-”
A sharp smack made the little girl silent as a bright red handprint tainted her cheek.
“Enough.”
The woman left her daughter standing at the window. A sullen expression was stuck on her face as she resisted the urge to rub the sore spot her mother had left. Her hands fisted at her sides before she turned back to the window.
It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was just a long cord of beads. Surely it wasn’t worth that much money. But the crystals had been polished until they all glittered in the spotlight.
The little girl didn’t know if it was enchanted. She didn’t even care if it was enchanted. Lyra just wanted the sparkling piece because there was something inside her that needed it.
Her fingers clenched so hard she left half moons on her palms. It was beautiful. It sparkled. Her mouth was nearly watering with want.
She reached forward to press her small palms against the glass. The shopkeeper would likely come out soon to yell at her for leaving her grubby little marks. She couldn’t even think about the beads that should have been hers. Not without getting in trouble.
“Your mum seems like a real B-word.”
Lyra turned towards the voice to cast a sneer at the boy who now stood next to her. He wasn’t dressed well at all. Not to mention his hair was tied back into a ponytail at his neck. What was he trying to be? A girl?
“You don’t get to have an opinion about my mum.”
She wasn’t that bad. Well, not usually. Her mother was simply a little off today because her father was traveling. Lyra didn’t understand what traveling entailed, but she did know that it made her mother angry every time Daddy disappeared.
“I get to have an opinion about everything.” The boy leaned against the glass as he stared at her. “It’s called being human.”
“You aren’t human.” She sniffed. “There aren’t any left.”
“You need to go back to school.”
“That’s rude.”
“That’s rude? I just called your mum a bitch.”
“That’s a bad word.” She scowled at him. “You’re not supposed to say that.”
“Seemed fitting in this situation.”
He was older than her. His voice cracked on the last word, and Lyra laughed at him. She had to be cruel to people like this. It was the only way she knew how to be like her mother.
The boy stuck his hand out towards her.
“What do you want me to do with that?” She glared at the offending hand.
“Shake it.”
“I’m not touching you.”
“My name’s Jasper.”
“Lyra.” She told him her name, but she did not shake his hand.
He took his hand back, but he grinned at her. “Pretty name for a pretty girl.”
She blushed bright red. Lyra knew that she shouldn’t like that at all. Her mother would probably smack her other cheek for talking to the tall boy. But that magical part of her preened that he had noticed how pretty she actually was.
He was handsome in a farmer boy kind of way. She supposed any other person might have found him attractive. The slight roundness to his cheeks was already disappearing to reveal a hard jaw and defined brow. He wasn’t going to be a pretty man. He was going to be one that women fantasized about.
Where had that come from? She frowned. She was only seven, and sometimes she had thoughts that only a grown woman should think.
“You’re a Siren aren’t you?” he asked her.
The blush on her cheeks drained until she was paler than a sheet of paper. “How did you know?” she whispered.
“I have a talent for knowing.”
“You can’t tell anyone.” She frantically pressed closer to him so that no one overheard them. “Mummy will get mad if anyone knows. I’m not supposed to be a Siren.”
“Why would your mum get mad about that?”
“Sirens aren’t respectable creatures.”
She hated that. Lyra thought she was respectable enough. Her mother thought it necessary to remind her every day that Sirens were horrible monsters who weren’t worthy of their bloodline. What had their family done to be cursed with such a creature for a daughter? What mistakes had they made?
The Siren inside her was an interesting enough creature. She even liked it before they had merged souls. Now there wasn’t another voice in her head insulting her mother. Now she was alone again.
“Wow you live in a real strange world.” Jasper shook his head. “So what’s a pretty little thing like you doing here?”
“Shopping.” This was a topic she could speak about at length. “Mummy’s getting a brand new dress for when daddy gets home. She wants to make sure that she looks prettier than all the other women daddy sees.”
Jasper arched a brow. “Your dad sees a lot of different women?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Mummy says so. She said I could even get a new dress if I was good!” At the words, her expression turned dark. “But I wasn’t good.”
The beads were calling to her again. She pressed her little nose against the glass and sighed. Her breath fogged her sight, but she knew exactly what they looked like. Their image was burned into the back of her eyes.
The boy rolled his eyes. “Wow, you’ve got it bad.”
She didn’t respond.
“You know that Sirens can be mesmerized by shiny things, right?” When she didn’t respond, he snapped his fingers next to her ear. “Hey. Kiddo.”
“I’m not a kid,” she muttered as she tore her eyes away from jewels.
“You definitely are a kid,” he said with a laugh. “Why wouldn’t your mother buy them for you?”
“She says I don’t need them.” And really she didn’t. She had so many necklaces back home that they littered her floor. But Lyra grew so tired of them so quickly. The sparkle was never enough to keep her attention.
“Why don’t you just t
ake it?”
“Take it?” Her brow furrowed. “You can’t do that.”
“Yeah. You definitely can.”
She looked over her shoulder at the beads. “I don’t know how. People would see.”
He looked her up and down. “I think someone like you could sneak in and out without anyone wondering what you were doing. You’ve got those big blue eyes. Just bat them at someone, and they’ll do whatever you want. You’re a Siren.”
“I can’t do any of that,” she said quietly. “I can’t use any of the powers or Mummy will know. And keep your voice down!”
“You should be proud of what you are. We all should.”
“Maybe in your world, farmer boy. But in my world there are standards.”
“You don’t think my kind has standards.”
“Not like mine,” she muttered before she saw who was walking towards them. Her mother. “Oh no.”
“What?” He turned to look at her mother before he stumbled as she shoved him.
“You have to go.”
“Why?”
“Stop questioning things!”
“Is this because of your mother?”
“Yes!” she shouted. “Go away!”
Her mother was too close now. Her brow was furrowed as she saw who her daughter was talking to. Lyra could see the anger in her mother’s eyes as she glared at the two of them.
“Are you scared of your mother?” he asked her as he stumbled away.
“You would be too if you knew her.”
Clawed fingers clenched onto her arm. “Making friends with the riffraff, darling? How quaint.”
“No, mother,” she whispered. “He wouldn’t leave me alone.”
She could feel her mother’s nails dig harder into her arm as she was pulled away. Lyra couldn’t help but look over her shoulder at the boy watching her with a strange expression on his face. She couldn’t imagine what was going on in his head. What did he think of her?
Not that it mattered anyways. She was far superior to him. That’s what her mother had always said about people like that, and Lyra had no choice but to believe her. She sniffed and stuck her chin higher in the air.