Siren's Mark

Chapter 5

"I don't..." I start to say. "I mean, I didn't like her. I made a mistake. I shouldn't have, but... she needed a ride home and I gave her one, then she came up to me like she was going to kiss me, and I just had a moment of weakness."

"You?" Kieran says. "You lost control? The big bad Iron Siren? Mister Will Power—Mister Don't-Get-Involved—suddenly lets a human seduce him?"

"It was a kiss, alright? One lapse."

We each take a seat on either side of his rust-colored sofa as Kieran switches the TV off with the remote.

"You reek of arousal," he smirks.

"Oh, piss off, mate."

"Still, dude. This is big. You've never had a relationship. I've never seen you show any interest in anyone. I know you've had a few flings in the past with other immortals, but..."

"Calm down, mate. I'm not gonna marry her. I'm probably never even gonna see the girl again."

"Can you even have a relationship with a human?"

"No," I say. "But I wasn't going to."

"Do you just make them perpetually lust-crazy or what?"

"After a while, in theory, a Siren's kiss can drive a human insane."

The thought sends an uncomfortable feeling to my stomach. I mean, I don't want a relationship with this girl. This is just a fluke. I just don't like the idea that it would be impossible.

"Ahh," he says. "That's right. Going mad, crashing their ships into the coastline and whatnot."

"In theory," I say. "I've heard it as a rumor, but I've never known anyone who has tried to stay with a human for very long."

"How much credit can you really give those nonsense old legends, anyway? Didn't they also make you all out to be sexy ladies with fish parts?" he says with a laugh.

I roll my eyes. The mermaid thing just won't die. Sirens have had wings since the dawn of time, yet somewhere along the line some wanker saw a manatee and had to rope us into his weird fish tales.

"You're supposed to be a three-foot-tall, furry elf," I say with a smirk.

Kieran lets out a laugh.

"Touché," he says.

I spend the next twenty minutes explaining what went down after I left the bar: Finding Ava after her fight with her boyfriend, driving her home, the kiss.

"So, what makes this girl so special, then?" Kieran asks.

"Nothing," I say.

Liar.

Everything about her seems special to me. Her grey eyes. The way she walks the line between being tough and sensitive and doesn't seem to care what anyone has to say about it.

"So you just kissed her, got her all lust-crazy, and then bailed?"

"I mean, that's not exactly how I'd put it, but yeah."

"You got her all worked up, and then you left her there. Alone."

"Yeah," I repeat. "So what?"

"You do realize the boyfriend is probably going to come back, right? And now she's all dosed with Siren venom and good to go."

My heart stops.

"Oh, bloody hell."

Kieran breaks out into a fit of laughter.