Page 25 of Song of Lorelei
Despite the summer heat, the hair on Killian’s arms raised in prickled gooseflesh.
Chapter Twelve
LORELEI
“Lorelei, what in God’s name was all that?”
Wringing seawater out her hair, Lorelei noted Walt’s trembling hands. Marci seemed shaken, as well, but Lila was murmuring something in her ear that she was paying close attention to.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Lorelei’s cheeks burned. “Are you okay? Did Carrie hurt anyone?”
“She didn’t get past yelling and pointing, thankfully,” Will answered, swiping a shaky palm over his face. Aside from Killian, who’d run inside to get towels, he was the only one meeting her eyes right now.
The Walshes had never seen her in full predator mode, and if she could have had it her way, they never would have seen that side of her. She didn’t even have a chance to warn them. There hadn’t been time. While Carrie was gesturing angrily, her blazer lifted just enough for Lorelei to see the concealed gun she carried at her hip.
And the way she kept touching that gun through her blazer while yelling her suspicions that Lorelei was the flesh-eating mermaid who bit her, and had let loose another, screaming that she and Nireed were a danger to them all, and doing so much too close to family…
It ignited all Lorelei’s protective instincts.
The siren blood coursing through her veins demanded that she rip apart the enemy that had trespassed into her home and threatened her family and kin. But she tempered that desire, choosing intimidation instead. The downfall was it wasn’t just Carrie she’d frightened.
Killian strode out of the cottage with two fluffy bath towels.
Though his eyes were kind, there was a rigid set to his jaw that highlighted the tension in the group. If anyone had a read on how bad she messed up, it was him.
With shaking hands, Lorelei took a towel and used it to pat down her clothes. She’d found them with Nireed’s in the woods when they climbed out of the water. Someone had chucked them in. Judging by the floral scent left on the fabric, Lorelei guessed it was Marci.
Killian offered the other towel to Nireed, but she declined.
Glancing between the group and Lorelei, the siren asked, “Two-Leggers do not defend territory?” Species differences aside, she knew how to read a room.
“Was that what was happening?” Walt crossed his arms in front of himself, wary. “Just some animal instinct kicking into overdrive?”
Animal instinct.
That stung. Walt was the closest she’d ever had to a father, and now he could barely look at her. It would be easy to blame her behavior on “animal” instinct, something he could understand and explain away as beyond her control. But Lorelei wasn’t an animal. None of the sirens were. And she hadn’t lost control.
Losing control was allowing compounding guilt and work stress eat her from the inside out, eroding her physical and mental health to a breaking point.
Lorelei stalked and attacked Carrie with a clear head, and she did not feel an ounce of remorse for the act itself. Rather, she thrilled at the power her siren song gave her—stopping that dreadful woman in her tracks and feeling every hapless struggle and twitch within her grasp. Eliciting that sweet, intoxicating fear was a delight.
All Lorelei regretted was that it had affected the Walshes, too.
“I had to distract her,” Lorelei answered, wrapping herself in the bath towel. “She had a gun. And she kept reaching for it, which means she was thinking about using it.”
Marci’s gaze zeroed in on her with laser focus, making her squirm under the scrutiny. “Why did you lick her?”
Because I liked scaring her. Because the part of me that isn’t human is fierce and vicious, and the part of me that is human loves the power rush.
“I dunno,” Branson shrugged, a little less shaky now with his thumbs tucked through his belt loops. “I thought it was all kinda badass, you know, once I knew we weren’t gonna be eaten.”
Hands flying to her hips, Marci wheeled on him. “William Thomas Branson, that was your cousin!”
“Oh, right. I forgot. Lorelei, next time eat her, so I don’t have to put up with her anymore at family reunions.”
“William!”
“What?”