Siren Nights (Series Part 1) (The Lure) (4 page)

***

Claire’s face broke into a smile when she
saw me. “Hey! Good to see you again! How was the book?”

“Couldn’t put it down,” I lied with a
smile. In truth, there had been little time for reading in the rush of planning
that had followed.

“Back for more, then?”

“Sure, maybe.”

Actually, I’m here to kill your brother.

I examined her closely. She was
light-skinned with a tinge of red in her cheeks, but that could be makeup. The
morning sun shone through the window, but none of it was actually touching her.
Was she a vampire too?

For some reason, that thought almost
bothered me more than Jason’s identity.

I made a show of browsing before I moved
back to the counter. “By the way, is Jason around?”

“Not for a while, he’s out on a job. He’ll
be back tonight, though. Around eight.”

In my hands I held a book named Duchessa of
Dawn, the sequel to the book I bought earlier.

“Please.” I said.

“Sure thing. By the way, the mob giving you
any trouble?” She blinked innocently.

I caught her meaning and laughed. “No, he’s
been behaving.”

“Good. Let me know if he gives you any
trouble.”

I frowned. “Sorry?”

“I’ve got a few connections that’ll make
any man ‘reconsider’ harassing you,” she replied. “If you’re a friend of my
brother, you’re a friend of mine.”

I couldn’t answer directly past the sudden
lump in my throat, so I only nodded. I wasn’t sure what was more surprising,
the fact that she offered to help me over something so trivial or the fact that
she called me a friend.

I was a horrible person, I thought,
fighting back tears. Was I really going to kill her brother? If she was a
vampire too, was I really going to kill her?

I turned and fled with my purchase, without
even a word of thanks.

***

“How’re we doing?” asked Tara as I hid in
an alley, panting.

“Not great,” I said, moistening my parched
lips. “I uh..wasn’t able to set up a date. He’ll be back tonight.”

“Well, make it up as you go then,” she
said, sharpening her nails on knife. “You’re the Siren, just shake your cans or
something and he’ll follow you anywhere.”

I flushed. “I don’t think it works like
that...”

“Oh? Can’t just bend over in that skirt and
seduce ‘em like you did with Tony and Brett?” she asked acidly.

I blinked. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t play dumb. They’ve been drooling
over your ‘assets’ ever since you joined,” Tara said.

I looked down at the floor. Why was that
somehow my fault?

She sighed. “Look, I don’t mind as long as
it’s not a distraction to the team. But then you have to use your powers for
good and not just evil, okay?”

“I’m not ‘trying’ to be distracting,” I
said, teeth clenched. And I didn’t know how or why my “powers” attracted
vampires either. I didn’t turn it “on” or “off.” They just kept attacking me.
Tony and Tara killed them and Brett tracked them. I suppose we made a good
team, but I felt out of place. It wasn’t a “talent” that let me stand with them
as equals.

“Whatever.” Tara pushed off the wall and
started walking down the alley. “Anyway, just don’t forget your purse…Unless
you want to die.”

***

I waited in the open air of a late-night
cafe, sipping an iced latte. I glanced at the clock above the door; it was
seven forty-eight. The sun had been down for about an hour and dusky haze
lingering in the west was fading away to blackness.

I saw him on the other side of the street,
walking by. I stood up and waved, “Hey, Jason!” I wore a bubbly, excited smile
- a practiced smile.

He saw me and crossed the distance. He
moved confidently with a long stride and unhurried pace, stopping and leaning
across the table. “Hey yourself. Seems like we’re running into each other a lot
nowadays.”

“I suppose we are,” I said with a small laugh
I hoped was flirtatious. “Care to join me?”

“Why not?” He said with a shrug, “Just got
off of work. You?”

“Likewise,” I lied back. Actually I had
woken up with a message on my phone to not bother reporting in today. “And what
have you been doing all this time?”

“Contract work,” he said with a grimace.
“Consulting.”

I hadn’t pegged him for an office worker,
but appearances were deceiving. “Sounds well paying, at least.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” he smiled at
me. “My sister’s the real breadwinner, though.”

That was interesting. “I didn’t think
independent bookstores were big moneymakers.”

“Well, that’s only a part-time job, really.
She also sells books she writes herself.”

“Oh? What kinds of books?”

Jason shrugged, “Mostly old history stuff,
about the Middle Ages and things. We moved here because a fan club sprang up
here for one of her series.”

“Wow, a fan club.” I shook my head. “So
she’s famous then?”

“I wouldn’t say so. Doesn’t take much to
have a fan club these days, especially on the Internet.” He held my glance for
the briefest of moments then turned away.

It was then that I realized Jason wasn’t
looking at my face at all or even my body. He was always looking at shops
across the street or the sign above the cafe. When he did look at me, he would smile
slightly, then shift uncomfortably and look down before returning to gaze at
the scenery.

We talked for what seemed like ages and I
waited for... anything. But he kept his hands to himself and I regularly
checked my phone to make sure I was still thinking clearly. I was.

He was handsome and kind, but that was it.
I felt nothing towards him, no sense of worship or longing. If anything, it
simply felt relaxing to be around him. I felt I could say anything to him.

Jason couldn’t be a vampire, I thought,
before I looked at his hands again. He still wore gloves, I saw with a sinking
heart.

I checked my phone and saw it was almost
nine. The cafe would be closing in less than an hour and he still made no
attempt to get me alone.

I stretched and watched his reaction. His
eyes remained steadily on mine. “I’m getting a little cramped sitting here.
Shall we take a walk?”

“Sure.”

As we got up from the table, I pretended to
stumble against him.

“Whoa there,” he said, steadying me, before
freezing.

Heartbeats passed before he let go quickly
and turned away. I almost felt insulted. Was my touch that off-putting?

But he had felt something, I realized as we
walked off. Was he avoiding contact with me on purpose?

I had watched a few movies about vampires,
including movies where the vampire was the hero, a good guy. They restrained
their bloodlust, hunted other vampires, and protected humanity. But Tony and
the others told me they were just a myth, propaganda produced by the vampires
themselves.

What if he were wrong, I thought with a
pang of guilt. What if I was leading an innocent man into a trap?

“Jason...” I began, before he cut me off.

“Hold that thought,” he whispered,
stiffening slightly but continuing to walk at the same pace as before. “Don’t
look now, but we’re being watched.”

I froze. “I said, don’t look,” he said, a
little louder.

I hurried to catch up with him. “Take my
hand,” he said. “I’ll try to lose them.”

I did, tentatively, and the moment our
hands touched we took off, down the dark and empty streets.

As we ran, he raised his other hand and I
saw something like smoke fly from it. The streetlights flickered once and
dimmed. They still were visible, but the streets were suddenly dark, as if the
lights had lost their power to illuminate anything other than themselves.

I stumbled in the sudden darkness. “Stay
close,” he said in response and I felt him steering us between cars I could no
longer see.

“Left coming up,” he said and turned
sharply. I felt a breeze pass my face and my knuckles scraped brick briefly. We
were running through an alley again.

Each turn was precise, made without
hesitation; the darkness was clearly no obstacle to him. I realized that even
if Brett and the others were tracking us via infrared scanners, there was no
way for them to follow quickly. Not in this total darkness. Where was he taking
me? I thought, scared but unable to let go or stop.

At last, we stopped, and I nearly fell
over, lungs burning. He, however, seemed fine. Vampires didn’t get out of
breath, I supposed.

As I straightened, I saw we had stopped in
front of an apartment building. And the streetlamps were back to normal,
casting a flat, deathly fluorescent light on the streets before us.

“Sorry, gotta take a short detour here,”
Jason said, letting go of my hand. “I don’t know who was following us and I
think I lost them, but I don’t think it’s safe to part just yet.”

I nodded in relief and followed him through
the door and up the stairs.

He knocked on room two twenty-eight; the
sign on the door read “Evans.” “Sis, open up!” Jason barked.

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” a voice
replied, Claire’s. “Keep your shirt on, pretty boy.”

Claire opened the door.  “Oh, it’s you,”
she said, arching an eyebrow when she saw me. “Mob again?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said quietly.

Catching his serious demeanor, Claire’s
smile fell off her face. “Okay then.” She quickly shut the door behind us.

It was then that I realized that the entire
side wall was covered in clocks - cuckoo clocks, novelty clocks, schoolhouse
clocks, and even one enormous grandfather clock. Other than that, it seemed a
normal enough apartment, with a bookshelf and worn armchair the only pieces of
furniture and a few paintings. The largest painting, twice the size of the
others was of a sobbing woman wearing a red dress, sitting on the floor, while
a man in black stood over her. His face was stern and he appeared to be saying
something.

As we entered, the grandfather clock
chimed. I turned to look at it; it read nine twenty-three.  That was odd... why
was it ringing?

Claire’s eyes narrowed. “Hold on. I think
something’s trying to track us. Sit down, please.” She headed for the hallway.
I awkwardly took a seat in the only chair in the living room, while Jason sat
down at the two-person dining room table.

She emerged from the back, holding a pair
of long metal rods, bent near the base at a ninety degree angle. “Hold on. This
is gonna seem crazy, but bear with me for a moment.”

I nodded. My mouth was suddenly dry again.

She stopped in front of Jason and waved the
rods over him with no visible reaction. Then, she turned to me.

As she approached, the rods swiveled in her
hand to point at me of their own volition -- or more importantly, at my side.
Uh-oh, I thought nervously. Before I could react, Claire crossed to my side and
ripped open my purse.

Brett’s spy cam, in all its hideous
electronic glory, stared back at us.

***

I dreamed about the night I lost my
virginity. I was thirteen.

The door in my mind swung open and there
was darkness beyond. I lay between a smooth cotton sheet and a down comforter.
I pretended to be asleep.

Crossing the room in swift, sure strides, a
man sat down beside me, laying one hand on my side. I still pretended to be
asleep.

He knelt beside me and whispered my name. I
managed not to react.

He turned me on my back and kissed me on my
lips. This time, I couldn’t ignore him so I pretended to be rudely awakened
instead. I flailed my fist and hit him on the back.

“Relax,” he said, grabbing my wrist. “It’s
me.”

That was the problem, I thought, squeezing
my eyes tightly. I had known it was him from the second the door was opened.
No, from the moment my mom had left the house and told me that her boyfriend
would be over soon to look after me and my brother.

Pretending otherwise made me feel better.
So after I couldn’t pretend to be asleep anymore, I just pretended to be
someone else.

It was someone else who he was kissing. It
was someone else’s hand whose hand he was grabbing and moving to grab something
“she” didn’t want to think about. It was someone else who he was undressing and
whose legs he was spreading. It was someone else who pleaded with him to stop,
only to be told that he just loved her so much.

It was someone else so I could wake up now.
Yes. I could wake up. I could vanish away the memories as quickly as they
appeared.