To Seduce A Siren

2. Actually A Big Problem

Raz watched his target from the shadows.

Such a fuss for such a small creature.

Currently, she was sweet-talking a man. Poor guy wouldn't know what hit him. The siren would have been hard to resist even without her powers. With her sleek dark hair and those electric light eyes that all of her kind had, she was a hard woman to ignore.

Everyone here was watching her from the corner of their eyes. Taking in her slender form in tight-fitting jeans and a shirt that dipped ever so slightly.

Raz knew he would be staring just as intently even if she wasn't his target.

Which meant she was dangerous.

The Defenders of The Way of Honour trusted him to bring her in. The very leader came to give him this mission. He couldn't mess this up. It was his only shot to be accepted into The Defenders.

He wouldn't screw this up.

How hard could it be to take in a siren? Their kind were amongst the weakest of immortals. Weak, slow with no regenerative capabilities. Only the ability to swim like a torpedo. But with their kind of power, if they had strength, they would be unstoppable.

Oh no.

The target was staring into his corner. She took a step closer to his table. Raz put a hand on his blade, hidden with his gun, on this belt. He wouldn't need those to subdue her though.

She stalked closer and every alarm in Raz's head went off. His muscles tensed to the point of pain. What was happening?

She was almost at his table when she swerved and headed for the door.

Raz let out a breath.

Although he didn't have a problem taking her down, he did not want to do it in front of the humans. She was going to exploit that.

How long had she known he was following her?

He felt a begrudging kind of respect. Sack of bones she was but she had the mindset of a predator.

Raz always liked the difficult ones.

He got up and followed her out. He fully expected her to be waiting near the door, ready to pounce. But she was nowhere in sight.

Where did she go so quickly?

Something uncomfortable slithered in his belly. Although sirens were unbeatable up close, from far-range they were like fish in a barrel. Would someone have got to her first? He had a feeling she had more people wanting her gone than just their leader.

Then something strange happened. Raz was no werewolf but he sensed her behind the bar.

An odd sensation demanded he go there.

Raz tracked that feeling, keeping himself out of light, through the alley behind the bar. He got to the end to see another one. Then another.

A never-ending set of brick walls that looked the same along with the smell of rotten fruit and piss growing stronger.

Panic clouded his head, he turned back and ran. Then stopped suddenly.

He felt her again. Close by. He could hear her breathing.

A smile formed on his lips. A trap for him, adorable.

***

Selene ducked quickly into an alley behind the bar. As she walked along, she realised that there were a series of interconnected alleyways.

It was confounding when she was trying to escape someone.

She had every intention of going up to her stalker and demand to know what he was doing. But as she walked to him, the strangest sensation of dread sat in her stomach and she had to leave.

She might be wrong about a lot of things but her instincts had screamed and they weren't wrong.

Walking along this alleyway she realised her instincts sucked.

She was beginning to get angry. Why should she run from him? No matter who he was, if she was confronted by him in this small space, he was as good as dead.

Inspiration struck and Selene bent her body to hide behind a big garbage bin. Urgh, it smelt like sulphur.

Selene hid there until the smell of sulphur was beginning to become intolerable. Every instinct in her body begged to run out of here. But he was here somewhere! She could feel it.

Then she heard him.

Heavy footsteps announced him before she saw a tall, wiry figure walk right in front of her. He kept walking then stopped. A little growl escaped him which made the hair on her neck stand up.

The dread in her belly built. Suddenly, she had no desire to confront him.

He turned and began to run. Then stopped suddenly.

Oh no...

He knew she was here somehow. He took out something metallic. She could hear the clinking sounds.

It was now or never.

Selene jumped up right in front of him. He took two steps back, shocked.

She couldn't see his face in the moonless night with no streetlights here. It made her nervous.

"Go away and forget about me forever," she said with her song.

Why did she not command him to jump into the river with rocks in his pockets? She really was getting soft.

He didn't move.

The dread grew in her belly to an intense feeling.

Selene gave way to her instincts and bolted.

She made it out of the alleyways, into the front entrance of the bar, which was deserted. Not a person in sight. Crap!

Selene eyed the silver car she had parked there and began to run to it, just as a hard body slammed against hers. He had trapped her between a wall and himself.

She craned her head behind. She had to bend her neck painfully to even see his face. A face with hard edges stared back at her. There was no softness there. Just bones in angular shapes.

"I command you to piss off forever!" She screamed.

The man smiled.

"I'm afraid that doesn't work on me."

What? Since when? Her powers worked on everybody! That was their point! How would they not work on him?

How did he know about her power?

True panic made her stomach clench.

She was really screwed.

She felt something cold and metallic on her wrists as he leaned into her, his lips almost touching her neck, to whisper, "You're my captive now."

A snap sound vibrated through the air.

He turned her around, slamming her into the wall again. That was unnecessary at this point. Selene, although she schooled her face to be blank, was screaming inside.

"By the authorisation of The Defenders of The Way of Honour, you are now detained by our forces."

Oh no. Oh absolutely not...

The Defenders were comprised almost entirely of Redeemers. Puritanical immortals with unnatural strength who took the role of policing the immortal population. Usually with wings...

Like demented angels.

Although she couldn't see wings on this one.

Selene made the mistake of staring up into his face. It was twisted into a cold smile which would make her frazzled self nervous enough. But his eyes. She couldn't even see them in this light but she felt an immense force of intensity from them, that made her bones turn to ice.

No one returned from an encounter with The Defenders alive.