by Kaye Draper
Grey blinked at her. “You... missed me?” Sirens didn’t feel emotions like that. At least, they weren’t supposed to. But then...Pontus had hypothesized that carrying a half-human child and spending years living as a human might have changed Arianna. Of course, when he said that he’d also said she didn’t have the human soul to be able to handle emotions like a human. So...Arianna had feelings of some sort for her offspring and had come back to investigate. But it wouldn’t pay to think those feelings were the same thing a normal mother would feel for her child.
And besides, Grey knew there were other motives, no matter what Arianna said. Probably blue, horned, sea serpent-shaped motives.
“Cool,” Grey said with a bland smile. “Great chat. Sorry you have to leave so soon, see you again sometime. Maybe in a few decades or so. Have a nice life.” He lifted his hand to wave. “Buh-bye.”
Arianna gave him an unimpressed look. “You can’t let the gods have the stone, Grey.”
Grey heaved a sigh. “I don’t see where it’s any of your business what I do with it.”
She narrowed her eyes, some of her power surging to the forefront with her anger. “Stop being flippant for one second, child. That,” she pointed a red-tipped finger at Levi, “is a power far too strong for you to control. A full-blooded siren couldn’t hold it. I knew well enough to give it up until I knew more about what it was. And you’re only a weak half-breed. The gods will trick you, they’ll convince you to give it away. Then they’ll use it to wreak havoc on those of us who call the oceans home, to control us and make us live in terror anytime we disobey their wishes, just like the bad old days.”
“Oh. So you came to tell me to do what? Destroy the indestructible stone? Hide the sea serpent from the gods? Give it back to you? ”
She smiled, slow and wicked. “One full-blooded siren and one half-breed won’t be strong enough to destroy the stone. But an entire pod of purebloods? They could do it.” Grey opened his mouth to tell her just what he thought about that, but she held up a hand to stall him. “You have something the sirens want. It’s only a matter of time before they realize that and come asking for it. I suggest you give it to them in exchange for their help with the stone.”
Then she turned and started to flow toward the door, her hips rolling and gold hair shimmering like a curtain of silk.
“Hey!” Grey called after her, wanting her gone, but also wanting some fucking answers. “How the hell do I change back? For real?”
Arianna turned and lifted a brow at her. “You just have to want it. For real.”
She smirked and glanced at Luca. “Did you know the siren’s song works on women just as well as men? It takes a little more effort sometimes, if their gender preferences are strong, but with one who already desires a woman’s touch?” She grinned. “So easy.”
Her song flowed effortlessly, and Grey could feel it finding its target, feel it pushing its sea-cold fingers in around the edges of Grey’s own hold on Luca.
“Knock it off,” Grey snapped. This was just Arianna being an ass. She didn’t really want Luca. Grey knew full well Arianna only got off on dominating and subjugating males.
“You doubt me? I could take her,” Arianna taunted, crooking a finger at Luca. “Come, pet. Let’s see how long it takes to break the mind of Pontus’s favorite child.”
Grey’s own possessive magic rose in response. “Stop it.”
Luca took a step toward Arianna, her eyes going blank and her face taking on an adoring look.
“Luca!”
The sound of her name seemed to rouse Luca and the sprite shook herself, snapping out of it enough to shoot Arianna a pair of middle fingers. “Fuck you, tuna cunt. Stay out of my brain.”
Arianna narrowed her eyes, looking truly pissed-off now. “Why is everyone on this island so stubborn and disrespectful of their betters?” She let out a burst of song that made Grey’s ears ache. Then she smiled. “Ah...I thought I sensed a familiar flavor. Have you taken in my discarded pet now, Grace?” She stage whispered behind her hand. “Kind of tacky, snatching up my leftovers, love.”
A masculine shout and a thud drew Grey’s attention to where Steffen had knocked Mat into the wall and was clawing his way free from the bassist’s grip, trying to get to Arianna. “Let me go! I need to go to her! Please!” he sounded so desperate and broken.
Arianna gave Grey a sad look. “It really is pathetic, the way they spoil when their little brains finally start to break.” Like it was all just a game. All Steffen’s suffering and anguish just the malfunction of a broken toy.
“Don’t worry,” Arianna said happily. “I’ll just keep him sedated enough it won’t show.” She winked. “That lovely body of his will still work just fine.”
Steffen broke free from Mat, knocking Mat’s head into a nearby end table, and dashed toward Arianna. Grey saw red. She felt the magic ripple over her and her body change as she stepped between Steffen and the bitch, her voice made of music and magic as she spoke. “He is mine. ”
Steff stumbled over his own feet, his eyes widening as Arianna’s song broke like waves against a cliff face. Then Steffen hit his knees, sliding into Grey and wrapping his long arms around her legs, pressing his face to her middle. “Get the fuck out and never come back,” Grey hissed, flinging an arm out toward Arianna. Magic sizzled along her arm and danced on her fingertips, blue-violet and darkness.
Arianna took one look at Grey and shrieked. “I was only trying to get you to change back,” she gasped, pawing at the front door as she fumbled to get it open. “Tartarus, what the hell is that?”
Then she was gone.
Grey felt Levi pull his magic back, shuddering as the bright darkness danced along her skin. “You are wrong, child of the blood,” the leviathan said in a deep, scary voice, his eyes still on the door. “I do not belong to you. You belong to me.”
Grey stared into those strange galaxy eyes and wondered just how the hell anything could possibly get any weirder—because she just knew it would.
Then she put a hand on Steff’s shoulder, shoving him back enough to kneel, squeaking when he let go of her legs only to wrap his arms around her neck instead, shoving her backward in his desperation. They landed on the living room carpet, the tall, broad rock-star-turned-model sprawled on top of her, sobbing.
Grey sighed and wrapped her arms around him to awkwardly pat him on the back. “Okay. Yeah. It’s alright, I’m here.”
Levi squatted down next to them, tilting his head as he watched the poor guy come apart. Reaching out, he placed a hand on Steffen’s head and, deep voice cold and serious said, “She will not harm you, shiny one. I will devour her if she tries.” His pretty mouth stretched into a wide grin, revealing his sharp teeth. “And I will ensure it is a slow and painful death, just for you.”
Steff just sobbed harder, burying his face in Grey’s neck, his whole body shaking.
“I’m pretty sure he really means it,” Grey wheezed. “If that’s any consolation.”
Luca sat down at Grey’s head, as calm as ever, and reached out to pat the side of Grey’s arm. “Pontus is gonna find out about this.”
Grey closed her eyes. Damn it.
“Steff.” Mat’s voice was soft and tender. “Babe, it’s okay now. Just breathe.”
Grey glanced up and saw the raw, painful love in Mat’s face and felt like she’d just been stabbed in the gut. She patted Steff’s back one more time, then wriggled. “Up. Let me the fuck up. You’re squashing my tits like pancakes!” Being so squishy was a pain in the ass sometimes.
That got a hasty scrabble upright. Grey met a pair of wide, tear-filled brown eyes as Steffen knelt in front of her. “You saved me again. You saved me and I...I’m...the worst human being alive.” He hunched over and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Grey took in a deep breath, watched how Mat clearly wanted to wrap his arm around Steff but was holding back. Suddenly she was just really, really tired. “Is this about you
fucking my kind-of boyfriend?”
Everyone gaped at her. Well, to be fair, Ethan and Luca’s eye were bouncing between Grey and the two idiots in front of her. But Mat and Steff looked like they’d been punched. “Yeah, I’m not dumb.” She sighed. “Good for you, I guess.”
She shoved herself to her feet and adjusted her now too-tight pants and snug t-shirt, wishing she at least had a damned bra on for this conversation. “I’m going to my room. I feel a headache coming on.”
Mat opened and closed his mouth. Steffen reached out and grabbed Grey’s ankle. “Grey, please. We never...it’s not Mat’s fault. Don’t blame him.”
Grey yanked her foot free. “Dude, you’ve been through a lot. I get it. But keep talking and I’m going to kick you in the face.”
He sighed and dropped his head.
Grey made her way to the stairs, then stopped, pausing to look back over her shoulder. “No one leave the house. I don’t know for sure if she’s gone, and I don’t know who the fuck else is going to show up trying to screw me over or take what’s mine.”
Or what should have been hers.
Grey wrapped her hand around the kleidí and turned away.
Chapter 21
Grey woke up slowly , trying to cling to the lingering wisps of some ethereal dream where she’d been gliding through the water, propelling herself up out of the waves to soar skyward before plunging below the warm turquoise surface once more. She’d been lost in the brief kiss of the sun high above, in the feel of the water flowing over her skin, along her sleek tail and fins....
She blinked open her eyes, unable to recall much of her dream, but feeling this sense of loss...as if something she loved had been taken from her.
Oh...right...that would probably be Matheus. She lifted her hand and pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead, resisting the stupid urge to cry. She should have known better than to get her hopes up. Mat was a tried-and-true man-whore. Why had she suddenly thought he’d just...change his stripes when she came along? How are you this stupid, Grey. And besides...how greedy could she be? Like having two lovers wasn’t enough? Pathetic, really.
A long, slender arm snaked around her waist and Grey soaked in the familiar feel of Luca’s sea sprite aura. “Thanks for the dream,” Grey murmured, turning her head to accept the soft kiss Luca planted at the corner of her mouth.
Luca smiled fondly and brushed the hair back from Grey’s eyes. “What were you dreaming about?”
Grey closed her eyes and tried to remember. “I...don’t know. Something to do with the water and...being free.”
Luca sighed and sat up. “Much as I would love to just let you lounge around in bed all day, we really should talk about what to do about...everything.”
Grey groaned and sat up beside her, leaning against the headboard. “Do we really have to? Can’t I just curl back up in my cocoon and die?”
Luca handed her a mug of hot cocoa and what looked like a fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookie. Grey took a sip of the cocoa—which...oh, Gods, that had to be homemade too! “Wow! What did I do to get you to cook? I must have seemed really pathetic back there.”
Luca gave her a wry look and snatched a cookie for herself off the plate on the nightstand. “I wish I could take credit for this.” Her smile grew teasing. “Ethan made them. And the cocoa. He wanted to bring them to you, but I told him you might have an adverse reaction to anyone with a dick right now, given...things.”
Grey sighed, the warm, gooey, perfect cookie turning to ash in her mouth. “I’m not mad at Ethan . He didn’t do anything wrong.”
Luca arched a brow at her. “Right, and you never lash out at other people when you get pissed off. Ethan’s way too nice to handle you when you’re angry.”
Grey huffed and finished her cookie. “I’m not angry.”
When Luca didn’t say anything, she glanced over to find the guitarist studying her with a frown. “Right.” She sighed. “Look, for what it’s worth, Matheus is sulking like he’s never sulked before. And Steff is still here, since you commanded it, but he’s been sitting in the corner avoiding everyone—including Mat—like we might set him on fire if he so much as moves.” Her dark blue eyes studied Grey’s face. “I know what you’re thinking—hell I thought it too. But do you think maybe you should actually talk to one or both of the asshats? You know what happens when you assume things.”
Grey glared at her. “If you make some stupid comment about how you spell ‘assume’ I will never let you see me naked again.”
Luca laughed and pressed her lips together, eyes going wide as she made a zipping motion over her mouth, locked it, and threw away the key.
Grey put her head in her hands. “So you’re right. I’m pissed off. But I don’t really have the right to be, you know? At no point in time did Mat ever say ‘oh, hey, here’s the list of people we can and cannot fuck.’ And besides...all we did was flirt. Maybe make out like once. It’s not like he made some big commitment.” She sighed. “ I’m the asshole here, making this into some big thing, when clearly it’s not.”
Luca sighed and patted Grey on the back. “Much as I would love to have you to myself for eternity when they all inevitably fuck up...I feel like I have to say, the guys aren’t always the best at just coming out and talking about how they feel.”
Grey snorted. Like Grey was any better?
But Luca just patted her knee and stole another cookie. “Look, I’ve known these guys for years. Heck I was one of the guys for years, even before you came along. Ethan, you probably have figured out by now, but he holds everything back because he doesn’t ever want to rock the boat or make things hard for anyone else.”
Grey nodded. It was something she had trouble remembering sometimes, but yeah, it was obvious when you knew the sweet guy and how he’d taken care of his unpredictable and over-the-top melodramatic mom all these years. Grey told herself to try to remember to ask him things, since he’d never volunteer them.
Luca made a face that was part exasperation and part fondness. “Mat’s a little trickier. He doesn’t just keep quiet, he hides things. Not maliciously—not like that. But....”
Grey gripped her cocoa in both hands. “He pretends. Pretends he’s joking. Pretends everything’s fine. Pretends he’s just a flirt and a degenerate with no real feelings.”
Luca licked her lips. “It’s really not my business to tell you about Mat’s baggage. But...Grey, will you just talk to him?” She sighed. “At the very least, we have a concert tour coming up soon. We can’t have the band all fucked-up because none of us are on speaking terms. And we still have a bunch of new songs to get ready.”
Grey rolled her eyes. “And that’s on top of figuring out what the hell is going on with Levi, and all that shit. I get it.” She closed her eyes in a long blink. This was just what she’d been afraid of in the first place, way back when she was first falling for Luca—that she would destroy Lucifer . And here they were.
“I’ll talk to him,” she said tiredly. “I won’t promise not to kick him in the balls, but I’ll make with the words first.”
Luca patted her on the head. “That’s my girl! Now, for purely educational relationship purposes and not because I’m dying of curiosity and think it’s a little hot—how were things with Ethan?”
Grey blushed and gave Luca a disbelieving look. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”
Luca barked a laugh and fell over on the bed holding her stomach. “Your face! It was good, right? Like really good? I’m not into dick, but I bet he was so sweet.”
Grey rolled her eyes. “We are not talking about this. That’s between me and Ethan.” She smirked. “But he’s not all sweetness, you know.”
Luca grinned up at her. “Can I watch next time?”
And that was about all of that line of conversation that Grey could take. “So are we going to Pontus’s house, or are we just going to let him yell at us over the phone?”
Luca sighed and sat up, forcing a serious expression onto her fac
e. “I already talked to him. He called when he felt her in the water.” She shrugged. “I didn’t tell him about Levi. I feel like that is a conversation that needs to happen in person. But he knows Arianna wants you to give the kleidí away because it’s attached to something powerful that just woke up. He at least promised not to come bursting through the door so we can have a sec to make sure she isn’t coming back, and that Steff is okay after she fucked with him again. I thought we could go talk to him tonight.”
Grey sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was go get yelled at by a know-it-all primordial sea god. But this was her life. “Yeah, okay.”
She opened her mouth to ask Luca about George’s visit. Because of course on top of all the weird, supernatural shit going on in her life, they were actually semi-famous and did have work to do. But before the words could leave her mouth, someone knocked sharply at the door and opened it without invitation.
Mat’s dark head poked around the door and he met Grey’s glare with a pained look. “I know, I’m a giant asshole and you’re going to kill me at some point, and all that but can we put that aside for a second?”
She ignored the knot in her stomach. So, she was right then, if he thought she had every reason to be mad. “What’s the matter now? If that bitch who birthed me is back—”
Mat held up a hand. “Nothing like that. It’s just...I think we broke your sea monster.”
Grey stood, instinctively grasping the kleidí, which was suspiciously room temperature, rather than its usual slightly too-warm state. “What did you do to Levi?”
She was out the door before he could answer, Luca and Mat trailing her down the stairs as Mat tried to explain. “Nothing. We were just talking about what George said—about the tour. He was just hanging out, eating all the cookies and ignoring us. But then he jumped up and got this look on his face and...well, whatever the fuck that is....”