My Immortal Playlist (The Siren Collection #1) (20 page)

“So…” Lucas said abruptly,” what happens now?”

“That is the question,” I chuckled nervously, feeling the music in my hands. “Do you want to go to the kitchen and sit at the dining table while I
try to translate this?”

“Sure,” he smiled, and he followed me to the dining room table. We were alone, but all I had to do was call and Noah would be right there
so I wasn’t afraid. I sat down at the table and Lucas chose a seat across from me. He folded his arms and watched me as I worked.

I handled the journal carefully.
Most of it were notes and scribbles on the stories that Pamela told me when we conversed in her home. There were a few songs written down, probably what Pamela had recalled from memory, but from what I could see, nothing that would help me in a battle against her. There were a noticeable number of pages missing, and I could only imagine it was some of the weapons I could have used. The ripped out pages did tell me that the journal was basically authentic though. Why create a fake journal for your enemy and then rip out the pages?

I came across the keys at the back of the book, the Siren letters situated right next to languages of all sorts. It took me ten turns of the page
s before I came across the English translations.

I got up from the table and retrieved a pencil from one of the kitchen drawers and went back to my work, doing my best to ignore Lucas’s st
ares. I wasn’t sure if he was interested in my work because he would finally be free, he would be with me, or a combination of both.

I translated the binding song first, the one in which I could enchant Lucas to my side if need be. As I wrote out each letter to get its full meaning, I suddenly realized the genius of
Pamela’s plan.

I should have translated the freeing spell
Pamela handed to me last night, but I was so anxious to give my roommates a sliver of their life back that I recited off the lyrics without a second thought. It was a dumb move, just singing them to without trying to translate, and it could have ended terribly.

But because it worked out, there was the assumption that anything else
Pamela handed me was good to go. I would just recite the words and go along with her flow. But now I saw the horrifying truth, for Lucas, and for my boys.

I realized the downside to freeing my victims.

Unless they were bound to a particular Siren, they were at the mercy of all others.

If I freed Lucas
…if I didn’t bind him to me, how easy would it be for Pamela to just utter the spell on the battlefield, taking him back from me when I needed him most? She had surely bound Henry to her by now. She could take Elliot. If Noah had agreed to be freed last night, she would have had him too.

I would have been defenseless and alone. And she could have turned my ow
n friends against me…it all came together. What need did she have for me anyways? She could get a companion whenever she wanted. I had nothing to teach her. I was just a threat, standing in her way from becoming a Queen of the Sirens or whatever illusion she cooked up in her head.

“Lucas,” I said, breaking the silence. He sat up to attention.

“Is there anything else I should know about tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does Pamela really want me to become her sister?”

“As far as I know. Even before we came to Casper, she often spoke of finding others and bringing back Siren domination.”

“Why do you want to be free?” He was taken aback by the change of direction in the conversation.

“I want to be out of her control,” he said, “but I also want to be with you.”

“You really mean that?”

“I do.”

“You want to be with a Siren? After you’ve been under one’s control for all these years?”

“I don’t hate
Pamela because she’s a Siren. I hate her for being Pamela.”

“I have to tell you something, just so we’re on the same page.”

“Okay.”

“If I free you…because you are an immortal created by a Siren…you are still able to be bound by another Siren.
I just realized it…when you told me Henry was bound to Pamela, I just now realized what that means.”

“What are you saying?”

“Let’s say I free you and you leave this town. If you come across another Siren, she could easily cast a binding spell on you and you will be hers, because you’re not exactly whole anymore. When the ritual was performed on you, your soul was taken. You’re just an immortal shell now. A walking, talking, shadow of what you used to be. I’m not trying to be mean…it’s just that even though you would be free…you kind of wouldn’t.”

“But what are the odds of me coming up against another Siren? Considering your species is dying out?”

“You would have to be a nomad,” I said. “You couldn’t stay in a place for too long because people would notice that you never aged. And you couldn’t let anyone know that you were immortal, not without risking a Siren’s attention.”

“I would be careful.”

“Which brings me up to my last statement,” I said, casting my eyes to the table. “If you were to stay around here, with me…I would have to enchant you. Otherwise, Pamela could take you back tomorrow. Okay, even if we make it past that, I plan on learning more about my people, and my heritage, and that means I’ll also be searching for other Sirens, and while I’m sure there will be good ones, there will also be more like Pamela. To keep you safe, to keep you free…I would
have
to enchant you. You understand?”

“So you’re saying that my two options are to either be bound to you, or be on the run?”

“Those are your choices,” I winced.

“And how do you feel about that?”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel,” I said. “You’re the one that has been a prisoner against your will. You get to decided what’s right for you for once.”

“And what if that means we won’t be together?”

“Lucas…” I cleared my throat and folded my hands. “For once in my godforsaken life, I’m going to be an adult…I…I care about you. I think about you all the time…you’re sexy, you’re charming. You make me short of breath whenever I so much as brush up against your arms or I feel the caress of your fingers…I would love it if you stayed here with me. But you have to decide for yourself. If there’s any part of you that doesn’t want to take this risk, you don’t have to. You have a chance…a rare chance to get out of the lives of Sirens forever, and if you stay, I don’t know where our lives will end up. I can’t even say for sure that our relationship will be everything we thought it would be. But that’s the risk we would take. If there are any doubts…any doubts at all…you should run.”

“I’m confused most of the time,” he said, folding his hands too. “I’ve been bound to
Pamela for so long that I don’t know when I’m in control and when I’m not. Things I’m feeling, saying…I question what I’m doing and why nearly every second of every day,” he reached out and grabbed my hands. “But I’m sure about you. Because when we’re together, I forget that I’m bound to anyone else but you. I don’t think about Pamela or Sirens or enchantments. There’s only your smile, your eyes, your smart remarks and that annoying laugh. How your nose twitches when you’re furious and how determined you get to beat up someone even though you’re so small and petite. But don’t take my word for it. Free me. Right now. If everything I’m saying is true, you’ll have nothing to worry about. And if I’m lying, then I’ll run. Either way, you’ll be free too. Free of the doubt that’s been hanging between us since we’ve met.”

I studied his eyes so meticulously. I could feel the urgent, firm, grip of his hands over mine. I was sure I could see the passion he had for me in those beautiful eyes of his, but…I wasn’t sure. And I had to know. I had to be a big girl now.

I took my hands away from his and grabbed the freeing spell. He sat back in his chair and I began reciting it to him, my voice cracking at the end of each sentence. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. It felt like it was the last words I’d ever get to say to him. I began weeping as I reached the half-way mark and I could hear him breathing heavily. It felt like I was at his bedside and he was dying, and I was reading a poem I had written just for him.

A sweet and melancholy ballad of how wonderful he had been to me and how strong he had made me in such a short time. How in a matter of days he had somehow slowed down time and turned them into long, glorious years. How it was his magic, and his spells, not even spoken, that had bound me to him, and I wanted him to be forever happy, and I loved him so much that I was willing to let him walk out of my life. To love someone else, to hold someone else, to cherish another girl that was not me.

We had barely begun to love, but he had shown me more love than anyone else in my entire life, and for that, I could never repay him. I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was just hopeful.

And when I was done reciting, I could hear a sigh of relief coming off his lips.

I could have chanted the spell of binding immediately, forcing him by my side forever, to do whatever I pleased…but I loved him.

Damn it.
I loved him.

I lifted my head, and I met his eyes, and he stared at me for a moment, examining my lips, my cheeks, my nose, my eyes, my hair…my eyes once more, and then he shot up from his chair.

And my heart skipped a beat.

He looked down upon me, breathing heavily, and I saw his head turn slightly, and I was sure he was heading for the door behind him. I had no will to stop him. But then…he sprinted forward, and he nearly tackled me to the floor. He shoved my chair back up against the wall, and then he took his strong arms and wrapped them around my hips. He lifted me up, to the point that I was
a head taller than him, and he slammed my back up against the wall.

And then he kissed me. And I kissed him back. He pulled his lips away from mine and with his forehead nudged my head to the side. He kissed m
y neck and a wave of euphoria roared down my spine, with such animosity that my fingers dug into his back. I wrapped my legs around his torso tight and then I hit my forehead against his, telling him to bring back his luscious lips to me. I locked with them again, and I refused to let go, and he barely fought back. I could feel my chest swell and my breath becoming short, but I wasn’t about to let him go, and from the grip he had on my hips, I knew he wasn’t going to either.

There were no
more words said, but there sure were plenty of enchantments.

“Tell me again
,” I said to him, wiping the sweat from my brow. We had only been making out, but anyone walking in could have sworn we were summoning tornadoes with how damaged the kitchen was. Overturn chairs with limbs missing, fallen appliances and scattered napkins, it was like we just had to crash into every part of the room without any regard to the consequences. At some point I thought I had seen Noah investigate the noise but he disappeared before I could confirm it.

“I asked you out,” he said
as we sat down against the wall. “Pamela didn’t make me. But I was acting so chipper and happy around the house that she made me tell her everything about you. Once I found out you were a Siren, she got that information too, but she wasn’t involved in the beginning at all.”

He was noticeably happier and more relaxed since he had been freed. His eyes lit up like a child trying
to tell me how his day was. He was talking so excitedly with his hands and laughing so loud that I felt like a little kid all over again too. It was like I had been freed as well, and we were just enjoying each other’s company, without any regard to the outside world and all the troubles it brought in life. All I focused on was him, and all he wanted was for me to hear what he had to say.

“
Pamela found me long ago,” he said, folding his arms, “back when I was still with Reign and Blood Snow. She thought it was fun to have a little gangster under her wing, but once she found out that Reign was taking too many risks, she decided to take us away. She figured that if I was caught and ended up in prison, police might start looking into my life and discover a few strange things about hers.”

“Did you ever see these warriors she was talking about?” I asked him.

“A few,” he said. “But never face to face. It’s not like they visited. She would go outside and they would be standing there in the shadows while they talked. It was never a long conversation either. Looked like she was only giving orders.”

“Does she have an army?”

“Don’t know. I think she has three ‘warriors,’ but it could have all been the same guy too. It was hard to see.” He leaned over and kissed the side of my jawline. I grabbed his face and kissed him hard. He was trembling when I touched him, and I immediately pulled back. He grabbed my shoulders hard and stared deeply into my eyes.

“We need to go,” he whispered to me, but I shook my head.

“This has to stop here,” I said, and he let me go, sighing and dropping his head towards the floor.

“Even
if she doesn’t have one warrior, she wasn’t lying about her spells. She knows a ton, and none of them are good either. She could set you on fire, make you unable to move, throw you, and bind you – all sorts of things that she’s practiced on me. I know your friend Noah is strong, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to get the job done. She also has Henry now too.”

“Henry sacrificed himself for me,” I told him. “So that you could be freed and I could be happy. He became her slave willingly – for me. I’m not going to leave him there.”

“He did it so we would have a fighting chance,” Lucas pleaded with me. “Now that we’re together, we can run, and be happy.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, I’m not leaving him. I created a whole lot of messes because I’ve been selfish. For once, I’m going to do the right thing, even if it hurts. Even if it kills me. I have to do this…but you don’t. You can always wait up for me somewhere. We –“

“– hush,” he said, putting a finger to my lips. “That’s not happening.”

“We could die.”

“Then we better make the most of this evening.”

“You really think it’s that hopeless? There really is no way to stop her?”

“There is a way,” he said, “but you’re not going to like it.”

And he told me the plan…

*
              *              *

“No matter what happens tomorrow,” I said to them. “I want us all to enjoy this night.”

“And what if she strikes tonight?” Elliot asked me. “There is no reason why she has to wait until tomorrow.”

“If she does, then we carry out the plan exactly as intended.”

“How is that going to happen if we’re separated?” he asked, sitting on the foyer steps. Noah and Lucas were sitting beside him, listening attentively.

“I want us all to have some fun tonight,” I said. “I know you like going out, Elliot. But you’re…unable to, so Noah can drive my car for you. Go wherever you like.”

“Uh-huh. I know what this is. You’re trying to get some alone time with Lucas.”

“That’s part of it…” I said, looking up at the ceiling.

“This is not a good idea. Why don’t you wait until tomorrow evening? Then
you can suck face all you want.”

“This might sound strange,” Lucas spoke up. “But I’m almost with Elliot on this one.”

I glared at him and he shrugged his shoulders in reply.

“Then it’s decided,” Elliot said. “Majority wins. We all stay here in the house where we can protect one another.”

“Wait, wait,” I protested. “Noah didn’t vote.”

“Vote?” he scoffed. “Wait, you want me to decide between…me and Elliot leaving the only two mortals by themselves just so they can make out
, or staying together so we all survive tomorrow?”

“Something like that,” I said, fidgeting in place.

“Oh, okay,” he said, looking at the boys. “I’m with Alex.”

“Are you kidding me?” Elliot snapped at him as Lucas cracked up laughing. “Are you that dense?”

“I don’t want to hear Lucas and Alex making out.”

“They don’t have to do it tonight!”

“But they might die tomorrow. This could be their last night together.”

“This is not all about Alexandra.”

“What does it matter? We’re immortal.”

“Being immortal doesn’t mean we can’t be hurt or subdued in other ways. What happens if Alexandra is killed? I’ll tell you what.
Pamela becomes our new master. All three of us. We need her safe at all costs, for her best interests and ours.”

“He makes a good point,” Lucas replied and I gave him another glare. “What? It’s true.”

“Fine,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “We’ll stay here.”

“Thank you,” Elliot said. “I’ll take the car tomorrow night after all of this done.”

“I’m leaning more toward no longer carrying you around and just give you a life alert device.”

“That would be a grave mistake,” he winked at me. “I would spam it all day and night. Unlike some, I don’t need to sleep.”

“Whatever,” I said, reaching out to grab Lucas’s wrist and attempting to pull him upstairs. “By the way, you brought this on yourselves. I’m not responsible for what you hear.”

“Removing my eardrums is
an easy feat,” Elliot stuck his tongue out at me.

“What am I going to do about it?” Noah whined and Elliot scowled at him.

“You’re the one that voted in Alexandra’s favor!”

“I didn’t think it through.”

“You think nothing through!” I heard him yell as we reached the top. Lucas chuckled to himself as I led him down the hall, threw him into my bedroom and closed the door behind me. He plopped backwards onto the bed and put his arms under his head as I slumped down against the door. He lifted his head up to see what I was doing.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m mad.”

“I can see that,” he chuckled. “But what about?”

“I’m not coming over there,” I huffed.

“Why not?” he laughed. “Come on. It’s a little chilly in here. I’ll keep you warm.”

“I keep the house at a comfortable temperature, so that’s a lie.”

“Who keeps this place running anyways?”

“I have money saved up from my inheritance,” I said, looking away from him. “And the boys are going to be paying for some of the utilities…I don’t even want to think about how.”

“Seriously
though, what’s wrong?”

“They’ll hear us,” I whispered to him. “I’m not going to do anything with you tonight.”

“Who says we were doing anything? I just wanted you close to me,” he said, patting the bed. “I don’t even have to kiss you. They won’t hear a thing.”

“You’re trying to cast a spell on me,” I said to him, almost smiling. “I don’t like it.”

“I don’t have to say another word,” he replied, getting off from the bed and reaching out for me. I gave him my hands and he helped me to my feet. Without a single utterance coming off his lips, he led me to the bed and laid me down gently. I lay there feeling awkward when he walked around the other side and laid down next to me. He took one of my hands in his and laid partly on top of me, his chest pressed softly against mine. And then he just looked into my eyes, and stayed there.

I could feel his pulse rise through his fingers and all my senses seemed to be amplified in the silence. I tried not to smile, but as he continued to gaze tenderly into me, I couldn’t help it. I s
mirked and he smiled right back. He parted his lips to say something, but then he stopped. Instead, he took his hand from mine and caressed the back of my neck, brushing the tips of his fingers up against my hair.

“I love you,” he said
suddenly, and immediately, I punched him lightly in the chest.

“You said no more spells,” I whispered to him.

“I said no more words.”

“Those were words.” I said
, and he smiled at me.

“No…it’s just how it is.”

“Now who’s not making any sen-“and he cut me off with a hard kiss.

I didn’t argue with him any further.