To Seduce A Siren

To Seduce A
Siren

Southern
Sanctuary – Book Four

Jane Cousins

Copyright©2014. 
All rights reserved by the author.  Do not copy or re-distribute.

This
is a work of fiction. 

Front
cover design; Fiona Jayde

To
you guys.
 
For taking the time to read my
books and letting me know how much you like them.
 
Thanks for visiting the Southern Sanctuary.

Prologue

A
look of horror settled over Charisse Bright’s face as she leant closer to the
mirror.  Was that another pimple?  How embarrassing.  Quickly
she scrabbled through her small cosmetics bag in search of her acne
ointment. 

“You
coming, Char?”

In
the reflection of the mirror, Charisse met her cousin Hadleigh’s gaze.  Hadleigh
was twirling her hockey stick like it was a baton, her lips set in a grim line,
a look of unsettling, blood-thirsty eagerness in her clear grey eyes. 
Poor Hadleigh, Charisse was pretty sure her cousin had grown even taller since
the last time she’d worn her sports uniform,
a mere week ago
.  The only alternative reason that she could
no longer tuck her t-shirt into the waistband of her skirt was if Hadleigh’s
boobs had gotten even bigger.
 
Just the
thought made Charisse hunch over defensively, praying desperately to the
Goddess above in the hope that she was just a late bloomer. 

Once
more she critically eyed her reflection, trying not to outwardly wince. 
“You go ahead.  I’ll be along in a few minutes.”

Charisse
smiled as Hadleigh raised her stick like a battle club, let out an ear-piercing
war cry and left the change rooms at a run.  Charisse pitied the boys’
team.  It was only a practise match this afternoon but it was pretty much
guaranteed that one, or more, would be going home via a short visit to the
hospital thanks to Hadleigh’s enthusiastic, for want of a better word,
competitive spirit.

Heaving
a sigh she applied the spot cream, then just to be cautious, dabbed it on three
more suspiciously faint red marks.  Goddess, when would her skin clear
up?  And whilst she was making wishes she might as well pray for boobs and
all her puppy fat to disappear.  Ooh, puppy fat… even the term was
disgusting.  But it was that or chubby, neither term particularly
flattering.  It wasn’t like she was without hope.
 
Occasionally she caught a glimmer in the
mirror of her potential, especially in the last few months, ever since her
Siren powers had started to kick in. 

Talk
about another embarrassing topic. 

Were
her powers supposed to arrive in fits and starts?  Like the equivalent of
her male cousins as their voices broke?  Absently she brushed her long
auburn hair into a pony-tail, securing it into place with a rubber band.
 
Being a Siren sucked when your own Mother wasn’t
allowed to share any details of what it entailed… not that it did involve a
tail, of that she was pretty sure. 

But
there was definitely some sort of secret handshake, Siren clubhouse going
on.  All her mother could tell her was to be patient and her time would
come.  But Goddess, how much more patient did she have to be?  She
was fifteen and three quarters for pity sake. 

Absently
she rubbed her side, where mysterious aches had been coming and going for the
past four months, ever since her voice began to do funny, uncontrollable things
occasionally.  Though, when it had happened earlier today, it had been
kind of different, not embarrassing as such, more bordering on the weird. 
That short jolt of power, it had been kind of… exhilarating. 

But
poor Mr Jeffries, her biology teacher, he’d suddenly looked as if he might
hurl.  All she’d said was his name, but it had come out kind of low and
throaty.
 
Charisse found herself flushing
at the memory, even to her own ears it had sounded sort of… sexy.  

Mr
Jeffries had frozen in place, staring at her like a rabbit eyes a lion, his
face pale, his forehead sweaty.  Then without any sort of excuse the man
grabbed his things and shuffled out of the room, clutching his jacket tightly
in front of him. 

Five
minutes later, Mrs Permony, the vice-principal, arrived to take over the
lesson.  Telling them all to open their books and start reading and that
there was to be absolutely no talking.  She’d eyed Charisse, in
particular, as she imparted those last words.  Goddess, over-react much?

Zipping
up her cosmetics case, Charisse winced as she bent over to put it away in her
bag.  Ouch, what was going on with her side?  It had ached
occasionally in the past but never like this gnawing. Where was the appendix
again?  If this kept up, no way was she going to be able to play
hockey.  Dropping into a crouch she tried to work through the pain, deep
breaths, slow deep breaths.  Goddess, it had never lasted long in the past
but this time was proving to be different.  Come on, go away stupid pain…
ah, it was lessening.  Almost gone now, she started to straighten up.

Goddess
damn, she flinched as a bolt of hot stabbing pain shot through first her left
side, then her right.  Okay not the appendix, she was pretty sure the pain
didn’t travel around that fast.  Maybe she should… she inhaled sharply as
another jolt came, that time it really, really hurt.  Goddess, she
definitely needed to get some help.  She opened her mouth to call out… but
no sound emerged.  Tears welled in her eyes; she was starting to get
really scared now.

There
was an abrupt vicious sharp tug, the world seemed to go sideways and just like
that, she found herself staring down at solid rock under her hands, what the…?
 
Oh Goddess, what had just happened? 

Slowly
she rose from her crouch.  She was in so much trouble.  Where in the
hell was she?  Okay, even she could answer that, she was on a rock, a very
large rock, out at sea by the looks of things.  Seagulls coasted on the
afternoon breeze overhead and the tang of salt water filled her lungs. 

Looking
back over her shoulder she released a small sigh of relief.  Not only
could she see the coastline from here, it was a familiar one; the beach, the
bay, the cliffs.  She could even see the huge gothic spiral of the Southern
Sanctuary Council offices in the town square above the roofs of the shops and
houses lining the shoreline. 

Charisse
had always loved to swim, had spent a lot of time in this water in fact, but
she couldn’t recall such a large rock being out here, what five, maybe six
miles from the main beach, and maybe only two, perhaps three miles, from the
private beach cove belonging to her Great-Great-Uncle Maurice with its looming,
cliff-top monstrosity of a house. 

Had
the rock always been here? 

She
slowly walked around it and then crouched down to place her hands on the sun
warmed sandy rough surface.  Breathing in deeply as the power contained in
the rock flowed through her.  Goddess it was like coming home. 
Happiness flooded her, as if the rock were welcoming her.  Pure joy
swamped her, making her dizzy for just a moment.  Whoa, this whole thing
was intense. 

She
couldn’t keep the smile off her face, this feeling, it was almost too much but
at the same time it made her feel potent, powerful and untouchable. 
Without thinking she gave in to an overwhelming impulse, opening her mouth, she
began to sing.  Around her the rock thrummed and pulsed with sheer
elation. 

Charisse
was sure she’d never heard the song she was singing before, it was almost as if
the rock were feeding her the words.  It was beautiful, full of promise
and love, yearning, need and desire.   And her voice!  Goddess,
was that really her singing?  Husky yet clear, melodic and
arresting.  Who knew she had it in her.  I am Siren, hear me sing! 

She
flung her head back, her arms wide, letting the winds carry her voice. 
This was amazing!  She never wanted the experience to stop.  Who
cared if she was a spotty, flat-chested, chubby teenager, dressed in an
ill-fitting sports uniform with one sock falling down.  Out here, there
was no one to see, no one to care.
 
Above
her the seagulls fell silent as if they too were in awe of her amazing
talent.  The surrounding sea began to grow choppier, waves cresting and
crashing against the lowest edges of the rock more frequently than before she’d
commenced singing. 

Wow,
she never wanted to stop, never wanted to return to her old life as a mere
schoolgirl.  Out here, well, out here she was powerful, connected in
wondrous ways to the rhythm of the ocean and the winds.  Out here she was
a Siren
.

The
horrendous screech of tearing metal meeting jagged rock decimated her little
daydream instantly.  Opening her eyes, Charisse stared up in shock and
horror at the grey coastguard vessel that had somehow managed to slam into her
rock, becoming lodged.  She snapped her mouth shut, the song finished, but
still the notes of it… the power of it, seemed to linger on the ocean
breeze.  Why did she feel so weird?  Like her life had suddenly
shifted on its axis? 

She
jumped in surprise as a man popped up, leaning over the railing of the bow of
the boat to stare across the rock at her, then a second man, followed by a
third, all staring at her kind of intently… strangely.  Shouldn’t they be
seeing to the boat or something?  What numb nuts for crashing in to a
rock. 

She
was about to ask if they were okay when the first guy, who was old with grey
hair, smiled at her kind of dopily and said.  “You’re really beautiful.”

What!?!

“I
saw her first.”  The second man said.

“Well
I love her more.”  The first man retorted, giving his colleague a hard
shove.

All
the while the third man kept rubbing his hands together in front of him, the
glint of a gold wedding band catching the light, his mouth opening and closing
as if he didn’t know what to say, or how to put it into words.

The
second guy, reared back from the first.  “She’s mine.  I saw her
first.”  He pulled back a fist, punching his shipmate hard. 

The
two of them dropped from sight, locked in a struggle.

This
just left the third man in view, who finally seemed to have recovered his power
of speech.  “You’re so lovely.  Your eyes are like gorgeous green
pools of shimmering water and your hair is like…”

She
couldn’t hear the rest of his compliments over the sound of running footsteps
along the deck and loud shouts as several more men arrived on the bow. 
All clamouring it seems, to get a glimpse of her, as they waved, beckoned her
closer, pushing each other out of the way roughly, several of them with their
hands clasped to their chests declaring their love.
 
For her?  The teenager in the sports
uniform with the bad skin, chunky waist, flat-chest and socks that refused to
stay up?

Oh
Goddess, the realisation hit, she had caused this.  What had she
done?  It was horrible.  How could she have been so irresponsible, so
reckless?  She’d been drunk on power.  A wave of self-loathing filled
her, battling with several other emotions; giddy elation, smugness and supreme
satisfaction. 

Except
those last weren’t her emotions, she stared downwards in horror, no, on no;
those emotions were coming from the rock. 

A
sudden realisation clicked into place, the rock was sentient and it was
female.  Somehow, prior to the boat running aground, the rock had managed
to mask its true self, its emotions from her.  But the boat ramming the
rock had acted as some sort of catalyst, the moment it had hit, a bond had
snapped into place between her and the rock.

Oh
Goddess, she was connected to the rock, she could sense the bond now as clearly
as she could feel her own hand. 

Another
wave of emotion hit her, travelling through the bond, threatening to engulf
her… an overwhelming, bordering on suffocating feeling of possessiveness. 
And something else… something much, much, worse… hunger… pure unadulterated
hunger.

Goddess
damn it, being a Siren quite literally sucked… she was a fricking straw for a
ravenous rock.

Charisse
grit her teeth in determination, unconsciously pulling up first one drooping
sock, then the other… we’ll just see about that bitch.