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A sick, twisted smile spreads across my face.
“It didn’t work,” Henry says. He looks pale, and his eyes fall to the dead man in his arms. I laugh. It’s a chilling, seductive smile. I want to use my song on him, but I can’t. My compulsion won’t allow me to. As if he can tell what I’m trying to do, Henry swallows audibly. “James!” he snaps, his eyes never leaving mine. “Why didn’t it work?”
The sorcerer hurries to Henry’s side, his wide, terrified eyes trained on me. “I don’t know, sir. The spell is ancient, but I swear I did everything correctly. Perhaps it was missing something that has been lost over the millennia.”
“How do I get her back?”
Aziel’s voice sounds tired and angry when he says, “You probably can’t. She is lost to her darkness. The safest thing to do now, and the kindest, would be to kill her.”
Henry’s eyes flash red, and he snarls a “no” at Aziel.
“She is no longer herself,” Aziel says. “And she would not like hurting people.”
He is wrong. I am myself. I am finally everything I was meant to be. I am strong, and beautiful. Deadly grace. And I would love nothing more than to take every man in this room under my control. I could have them all. I want that.Needit.
“Nora…” Henry’s voice is strangled. “Come back to me.”
I lean forward. I can’t attack him. Can’t use my song on him. But I can still taste him. I lean forward and bury my face in his neck. He smells delicious. I lick his salty skin and shiver with pleasure. “Mine,” I whisper.
Henry pulls me back to look into my eyes. He’s shocked. “You must be in there somewhere, love. Come back to me.”
I cackle again. Why would I come back? This version of me is so much more powerful. It feels too good. “Release me,” I purr, tracing my finger across Henry’s chest. My fingers stop over his heart. I can feel his life force, and it’s beautiful. This man is so powerful. So strong. So full of life. I try to grab hold of it, but I can’t. My fingers curl against his chest, and I hiss again. I don’t like being contained.
My fingers become clawed, and I shake with rage. Henry shakes his head, and I watch his heart break. The devastation in his expression is so satisfying. “Nora,” he croaks.
He starts to beg me again, but the words never make it from his mouth because the front doors of the chapel burst open and a troll in full rage mode roars loud enough to shake the building.
I flinch at the sight of him, but not because I’m scared. There’s something about him that has me curious. My siren likes this man, this giant. He is hers, but not to devour. He is hers to protect.
While all of the vampires in the building stare at the troll and try to back out of his reach, chaos erupts in the room. All of the boarded up windows are smashed open, and creatures pour into the room. Wolves, fey, even a few more trolls. A vicious fight between the newcomers and the vampires breaks out. It’s madness.
I can’t be bothered by the violence happening around me. My eyes are still trained on the troll. What is it about him?
Something else pricks at my heart. There, deep inside my chest, is a strange sense of panic, and also relief and hope. The feelings aren’t mine. I concentrate on these feelings, and it’s almost as if I can feel where they’re coming from. I look to my left. There’s a man fighting a vampire with a sword. Like the troll, there is something about him that calls to me.
“Nora!” Another voice calls out to me. A vampire and two huge wolves are fighting through the crowd, trying to get to me. “Nora!” the vampire calls again.
I know these men. I mean, I don’t, they’re strangers, but something deep inside meknowsthem. What is it about these men? I try to think, but the more I do, my head starts to hurt again, and I collapse. Henry catches me.
He shakes me to gain my attention, but my eyes are fastened on the vampire, the wolves, the troll, and the fey that all call to me. I gasp when a vampire jumps on the back of one of the wolves and sinks his fangs into its neck. It’s almost as if my soul felt the bite. I clench my chest because it hurts.
Something inside me snaps. No one can touch what is mine! Rage fills me, and I let out a scream, but before I can charge the vampire, Henry grabs me by the arm. I try to attack him, but again the compulsion stops me. My siren tries to ensnare him, but she can’t. I try to step aside for her, but my power is locked. “Let go of me!” I hiss.
“Nora! You must stop this! Use your song on our enemies! Stop them from killing our vampires!”
My siren rejoices at the freedom and starts to grasp every man in the room that isn’t a vampire. But when they all freeze, the vampire attacking the werewolf swipes his claws through the wolf’s side, and my heart jerks. My soul squeezes painfully tight. It’s as if we’re tied together.
I release my hold on them. Henry compelled me to stop my enemies, but those men are not my enemies. I don’t know how I know that, I just do. My heart calls to them all.
My siren rages inside me. She’s mad that I stopped her from using our gift, but she can feel it, too. Those men are ours.
“Nora!” Henry snaps. “I asked you to stop those men. Use your song!”
I glance at Henry. My body wants to obey him—needsto obey him—but everything inside of me is screaming at me to not listen. My head starts to pound so hard I grab fistfuls of my hair and fall to the ground with a scream. There’s a war going on around me, but there’s an even bigger battle going on inside my head.
I don’t want to obey his order. I don’t want to hurt those men; I want to hurt Henry. I want to destroy him for asking me to kill those men. For making me think they are my enemies. I know, now, that I have been compelled again. I don’t remember those men, but I know them. The gaps in my memory make sense. Henry has compelled me to forget them. I’m sure of it. And they are mine. I’m sure of that, too.
“NORA!” Henry shouts. He takes me by the arm and shakes me. “I gave you an order! You will use your song on your enemies. You will do it now!”
