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“I’ve to go into town with Sandy to sort out this mess. Don’t go anywhere, and if you behave, I’ll bring you another blood bag.”
“I’m not your pet.”
“We’ll see about that. Now, be a good boy and stay.” Aerin chuckled, shoving Sandy out the door.
“He’s really handsome, in a Nordic sort of way. He’s even paler than you,” Sandy whispered, making Gideon smile.
Aerin hushed her and closed the door behind them before he could find out any more about his captor and the town.
Chapter Five
Aerin
Stepping inside the sea cave, Aerin was surrounded by the choir of sirens. Candles sat in stone hollows, lighting the cave as they conducted business. The wet sand squished between her toes as the water rolled in and out of the cave. Her fellow sirens lay on the rock beds sticking out from the cave walls, watching. From their dark stares, she thought she was facing a tribunal. Instead, their leader, Lochana, perched on the highest rock and discussed the upcoming Autumn Festival. Aerin chose to remain in human form; they thought her an imposter, and she didn’t want to piss them off.
“A lovely evening we’re having. I’m sorry to have missed dinner,” Aerin interrupted.
With each wash of water, a mess of fishbones was left behind. Clearly, they’d eaten without her. Lochana paused as Aerin stood before her, and Sandy quickly tucked her tail and hurried to sit beside her sister, having completed her task.
Traitor.
“You’ve never taken an interest in hunting with us before,” Calipsa, the twins’ mother, hissed as she stroked Sandy’s hair. A reward for bringing her to the cave. Sirens were notoriously protective of their young, though they raised them with little kindness.
“You’re here now, that’s what matters,” the leader of their choir said. “Before we conclude tonight’s meeting, there is a small yet troubling matter to address. It is my duty to ensure we maintain peace with the humans and other supernatural communities in town. We are granted the privilege of coming and going as we please, and I want to ensure the Witches’ Council continues to support our small choir. Why am I bringing this up? Because an accusation of a siren abusing her song has reached me that I fear I must confront,” Lochana addressed the choir, who sneered at Aerin.
Aerin resisted the urge to roll her eyes; she didn’t realize her minor infraction was worthy of a choir gathering. Sirens rarely gathered; they preferred their independence. It was a slight overreaction to using her song.
“Would you mind standing and coming out of the shadows to address this? To make sure we have the right person?” Lochana said, and the goblin woman from Crescent Coffee stood up from her place beside Calipsa.
“That’s her. She used her siren song to trick me into giving her my money. She is nothing more than a common thief,” the woman from the coffee shop accused her.
“Don’t you think this is a little bit of an overreaction? Calling a gathering over a small song? What proof does she even have that I sang at all?” Aerin smiled, letting all eyes fall on her. The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could get home to her vampire, tied up in her kitchen. “I didn’t steal a thing, and just because you decided to leave a generous tip at the shop doesn’t mean that I forced you to do so,” Aerin said calmly. She would take their reprimand on the chin, then slip back into obscurity—guarding the coast and caring for Kennie, the Kraken, as she had for the last seventy years. It wasn’t the first time she’d received a slap on the wrist, and it wouldn’t be the last.
“You really think we’d believe that? I have the security footage to prove it. The owner was kind enough to give me back my money.” The woman scoffed, looking to Lochana to intervene as she handed their leader her phone.
“I wasn’t the only siren there, nor the only supernatural creature,” Aerin said, and a rumble of agreement rose in her favour. “I can vouch for Sandy and Shelby behind the counter; they were simply doing their jobs and didn’t use their song. If they saw me use mine, I hope they will come forward and tell everyone here the truth of the matter,” Aerin said, looking between the two girls. Sirens were fiercely loyal, and even if she was an outsider, she knew the girls wanted her help and would happily take her side.
“Girls,” Sandy and Shelby’s mum prompted, looking at her twins. “Do you have anything to say?”
“I didn’t hear a thing. The customer was angry about being kept waiting, and we apologized. We were too busy serving to notice anything else,” Sandy said, and Shelby nodded along.
“Maybe you made a mistake and left more than you intended in the tip jar,” Lochana said. “Blaming a siren is highly prejudiced.”
“You can see on the video that she tells me something, and then I empty my purse into the jar,” the customer argued. “Why would I do such a thing?”
“I don’t know why you tipped what you did. Maybe you were feeling generous after behaving so rudely to the girls just trying to do their job.” Aerin shrugged casually. “There’s no audio and no way to confirm what was or wasn’t said.”
“Are you going to stand by and let her lie like this?” the goblin asked the choir, who looked firmly trapped between a rock and a hard place. “If you let this slide, this will set a dangerous precedent.”
“Be that as it may, I’m afraid without the audio, I can’t confirm that Aerin or any other supernatural creature influenced you,” Lochana concluded, handing the customer her phone.
Aerin stifled a triumphant smile by chewing her lip.
“This is all a misunderstanding,” Lochana sang, and the goblin’s rage started to dissipate as she sang. “I don’t think the young girls would lie, and since the owner has refunded the money from the tip jar, I don’t believe we need to pursue this matter any further.” Lochana’s song had an eerie pitch that made it hard for even a fellow siren not to lean in closer.
“I agree,” the goblin said with a hazy smile. “I’ve got your money back, and this was a misunderstanding.”
“Let us dismiss for the evening, now that everything has been resolved,” Lochana said, and the goblin nodded slowly as she walked out of the cave in a trance.
