Page 36 of The Scent of Salt & Sand

With another flick of her head, Rhapsody’s face shifted back to its human form. She stared at Melody in disgust.

“Return to your human form. Like this you’re too hideous for me to look at,” she commanded.

Melody did as she was told, trying to edge away from Rhapsody, but the Siren followed her, still staring at her ageless skin.

“It’s incredible, really,” Rhapsody said. “I didn’t expect the change in your True Form, though I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. Your blood has been diluted for generations. It had to be to break Hera’s wretched curse.” She shuddered delicately. “It is unfortunate how much of your humanity you retain when you shift. It’s pathetic, really, but as we know all too well, with each gift comes a price.”

“I—I just don’t know if this—” Melody made a gesture that circled her lineless face “—has anything to do with my blood being diluted, or breaking the curse. Something human took over my body, keeps taking over. I know her name. I did research. She drowned the same day we arrived.” Melody paused, the realization of her words momentarily overpowering her. “I think—I think that’s why this is happening.”

“How about you leave the thinking to me.” Rhapsody sauntered to the dead man, reached down, and dipped a finger in the scarlet pool. Licking it contemplatively, she studied Melody. “That’s why you were able to take that human lover. You don’t have to shift when you mate with him.” She spat red foam. “You truly are special.”

“But we haven’t had sex. He’s waiting until I’m ready.”

“Does he know what you really are?”

“No, but he will.”

Rhapsody scoffed. “You tell him, and he’ll leave you. Or worse, if you show him he’ll either go mad or hunt you down and kill you like an animal.”

“You mean like you would?”

Rhapsody’s expression softened. She inhaled deeply and swayed slightly as her scales melted into her skin. “I would never hurt you.” Her bare, blood-streaked breasts pressed against Melody as she enveloped her in a cloying embrace. Rhapsody’s heated touch warmed Melody’s shivering torso. “It’s clear you were sent to me as a gift from the gods. You’re our way out of that Underworld dungeon.” Slowly, she rocked them from side to side.

“Can you imagine our race able to live unrestricted among the humans, feeding and breeding, remaining young and beautiful? So many of you are too young to remember how much power we used to possess. And how free we were. Don’t you want that for your sisters? I do. Desperately. And it will start right here in San Francisco—birthplace of the new Siren.”

Melody’s breath caught in her throat. Rhapsody and the Sirens like her could never be allowed to escape and infect this realm.

“Now, Melody, my savior.” She wiped away the crusted blood on Melody’s wounded cheek. “Let us find you a new human. You’ll have to get rid of your plaything. He is an unacceptable risk.” Rhapsody squeezed her gently. “But I’ll help you with that. I can even end him for you, if you’d like. From this night on, you and I will do everything together. I’ll make sure that soon, very soon, you begin to produce children so that my race, our race, is able to take its rightful place in this delicious world!” Her smile was feral. “But first, we’ll go to the water. Show me how to merge a human life with mine.”

Melody went very still inside. She focused, forcing her ivory skin to tingle and trade places with deep green scales. “Never!”

Without her golden shield and borrowed strength, Rhapsody was no different from the humans she despised. Into her hands, Melody channeled the pain from a lifetime of lies and her fears for the future. She thrust her palms against Rhapsody’s sternum. Her naked body flew backward, crashing into the ground and rolling end over end.

Melody didn’t wait to see if her rag doll body stirred. She tore through the plastic door, releasing her scales as she sprinted down the street. She let her feet carry her toward the one human she’d risk her life to protect—Dean.

Chapter Fifteen

Dean popped open the top of his third bottle of HUB IPA and hurried to the freezer to grab another cold beer stein, singing badly but enthusiastically along with the opening credits of Criminal Minds. “Gotta love a Netflix marathon,” he told the beer as he tilted the glass and poured the amber liquid.

His doorbell buzzed insistently. Dean checked his watch—almost eleven thirty. Maybe it was Mel—“Dean! Let me in! Dean!”

He was off out of the kitchen and at the door in an instant. He wrenched it open and Melody hurled herself into his arms. Her hair and her body were soaked and she was dripping seawater all over him.

“We have to go. We have to leave. Now!” she heaved though uncontrollable sobs.

Visually, he cleared the hall before closing the door and locking it behind them. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, wet hair matted to her face. “We have to leave,” she repeated. “We can run away together. Just the two of us. Wouldn’t you like that?”

He tried to make her sit, but she remained rigid. “Tell me what’s going on. I can protect you, but I need details.”

“I don’t need protection. But you, you do.”

“From what? What are you talking about?”

She brushed back her hair, revealing a red slash dissecting the pale flesh of her cheek.

“Jesus! You’re bleeding. I’m getting my first aid kit.” He turned for the bathroom, but she grabbed his wrist in a vise grip.