Except the minute she looked back at him, the look was gone. Holy hell, that was impressive. I hoped this chick knew how intense these guys were about her. I mean, not that I had literally any room to talk. My guys were chill about some things, except for me, but they had a lot of power to back them up. I didn’t think that these mages were exceptionally powerful alone, but with her feeding them excess energy, their strength rose to impressive levels. They were scary, like all crazy people were. Unpredictable.
No, seriously. One of them was playing with a knife.
I looked at Adriel. "Is it possible she's immune?"
"Demi-gods shouldn't be..." He frowned and sighed, "Besides angels and full gods, that shouldn’t be possible. Even with some full gods, unless they are extremely powerful, they can be affected. I’ve heard of top tier gods being able to...”
"Oh my god," Nova groaned. “Woman. What are you?”
Dean let out a snarl at her tone as I touched his chest gently and answered, “I’m a siren, and why you nine are not affected is beyond me.”
“I know nothing about sirens,” Nova looked at her confused men, who seemed just as clueless as she was and not affected by me at all, thank god. That would be awkward.
Ramsey spoke, shrugging. “I just thought they were extinct.”
“We were supposed to be,” I sighed. “Alright, I am going to try this once because I can’t get a read on any of your desires.”
“Oh, this is fun!” Nova clapped with enthusiasm.
My magic expanded out, trying to push past her own as I hoped like hell it wouldn't work. "Go back outside and get in the car."
Nova looked around as her men just continued to stare at her and then look around the room, seemingly expecting something. My magic wasn't getting through that shit, though.
"Well I'll be damned," Desmond chuckled. “That’s insane. I wonder why the others are included in that though?”
“My magic is possessive as hell,” Nova sighed dramatically. “Now Lorcan, while they talk about demonic soil and magic draining, let’s go outside and talk about fun stuff.”
“Lorcan,” Dean muttered. I could see him eyeing the woman hesitantly.
"I'm fine," I murmured, kissing him lightly as Nova skipped past, landing herself next to me as we walked towards the backyard. We were apparently on the same page about where to talk. Thank god, because I’d forgotten how much I hated the fucking air-conditioning in there. I hadn’t even realized it until this moment, but our other house was set on a warmer temperature, and we always had windows open despite the heat. I knew it was wasteful, but it seemed the temperature mix was exactly what I needed to feel comfortable.
Nova looked around as she threw herself down on a large pool chair, the sky rumbling above us as I arched a brow. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that we looked like we were about to have a storm. Noticing the look, she grinned and explained.
“I’m a descendant of Set, god of Chaos, hence the stormy weather and stuff. Don’t worry, if it starts raining I’ll make sure we keep dry.”
Fascinating.
It goes without saying I’d never had really close female friendships, for several reasons, but none of them applied here. In fact, I almost felt like I’d known Nova far longer than I actually had. I didn’t know if it was common, but it felt like we were meant to meet. Wasn’t that odd? I felt like I couldn’t just ignore that concept, so I made it my mission to get to know her a bit more to see if there was something I was missing here.
“I didn’t expect any of this when Desmond mentioned he had to meet with a Red Masques team,” I noted lightly. Hell, I hadn’t even known what the goddamn Red Masques were until coffee this morning.
“It was a bit last minute,” Nova granted. “We only received our contact information to reach out to Desmond a few days ago. Plus, I’ve got to be honest, I am only half sure why we are here. Well, that and the donuts. Totally here for the donuts.”
I examined her intelligent gaze and almost smiled. Bullshit. She knew exactly what was going on. I wasn’t positive who was in charge of this team officially, but unofficially it was her. One hundred percent.
Her outlook on life was funny as fuck though. Maker, when was the last time I’d had a donut? I mused, “I don’t even remember the last time I had a donut.”
“Lorcan!” Nova reared back with a horrified look. “You have to. We could even go right now. Honestly, I should have brought the half box from the jet. This place near our house where we get them from? Pure heaven, I swear to the gods.”
Thunder crashed to emphasize her point as my eyes searched the unusually stormy sky. I tilted my head before asking my question. “What is the need for the meeting? We’ve been a bit busy today… so I didn’t get to ask.”
You know… between the attempted rape after meeting another siren, being in a star travel coma for four fucking days, and then practicing my magic I hadn’t realized was so goddamn badass until today. I think I’d always used my magic as little as possible because I felt like it had brought so much bad, like Toris, that I was scared to accept the good. Turns out the good made me feel like a goddamn badass.
Maybe I needed to take a lesson from this girl.
Rhett
“My church offers no absolutes
She tells me, ‘Worship in the bedroom’
The only Heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you
I was born sick, but I love it
Command me to be well.”
-Take Me To Church by Hozier
“You found this after the attack?” Desmond asked, looking at the small jar of soil with curiosity. “Are you positive that she doesn’t have any demonic origins? Because it could be from that, since you said she’d been using her powers beforehand.”
I could see them going tight-lipped about her heritage. They weren’t much for talking, besides River and Fox. The man who I knew was in charge of their team, Everett, was sitting and staring out the window, keeping their girl Nova in his sight.
“Anyone want a drink?” I asked. I stood up, knowing that Everett would follow since the fridge was closer to the girls. Frankly, the only reason I was offering to get drinks was so that I could get a better view of Lorcan. The fact that it was hospitable was just a bonus. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Nova, I just didn’t know her… okay, so I didn’t really trust her.
“Sure,” Everett muttered and followed. I opened up the fridge and pushed him a beer across the counter. He popped it open while keeping his eyes out the window.
I could hear the others talking about the power drain and demonic soil, but I really had nothing to contribute. Instead, I looked over to Lorcan, who was laughing and smiling. It made my chest relax just a bit. I was worried about her. The past few days had been a lot, and I wanted to protect that small amount of lightness in her gaze that had started to appear. It had always been like that, though. From the time we were little, her joy had fed me. It had pushed me to do whatever I could to protect her and keep her happy.
When my mom left after abandoning Maggie, my world had been turned upside down. I’d been young at the time, but it had been enough of an issue that I’d noticed the change. Suddenly, Dean was more upset all the time, my father was yelling at us, and I could never find her. They kept telling me she would be back, but she never came. I think I realized around seven, at Christmas, that she really would never be back.