Page 16 of Enchanting Him
“Can they try to hurt you?” Dane asks her.
“They can try, but it would only kill them as well. A siren can’t kill another siren, without killing all of her blood,” Serenia answers him. “If our mothers tried to kill us, it would destroy them, as well as our entire lineage.”
“Even if they tried to have Celestia’s mother kill me, and mine kill Serenia, and hers kill Celestia, it would still kill them as well,” I add calming Dylan’s racing heart.
“There must be thousands of sirens out there then,” Duncan says and Serenia shake her head no at him.
“Sirens can only have one child each, and sirens only have girls,” she warns.
“A little you that’s part me too sounds perfect, honey,” Duncan returns, making her flush.
“Nothing wrong with having more of perfection in the world, that’s for sure,” Dylan agrees dropping a kiss onto my cheek and I giggle as his arms wrap fully around me.
“I can’t wait to have a little piece of you and me in the world, baby,” Dane states and I grin at the incredibleness that’s come to all of us.
“I wonder what our daughters’ powers might be,” I state aloud, bringing curious looks from all of the men my way.
“What do you mean powers?” Dylan asks and I can’t believe we didn’t tell them that bit.
“Well, sirens have powers to lure men,” I state, and he nods. “We have different ways of achieving that, usually they’re enhanced based on who our father is. Mine was a musician, so my song is more powerful than anyone else’s. There was never anyone I couldn’t enchant if I tried. When sirens are pregnant, they can feel what the powers their child will have, and normally we’re named after them in some way.”
“Hence Melodia,” Dylan says, and I nod.
“My father was an astronomy professor, it left me with an affinity with the sky. Sailors used to track their positions using the night sky. Others with similar gifts would rearrange a star here and there to confuse them, draw them nearer to their deaths. With new machines, their abilities weren’t quite as useful, so when I was born with the ability to disrupt the force of the moon and stars, they realized I could mess with their machines as well,” Celestia adds.
“And men know to watch out for rocks as they bring a ship in, and while some of our kind can mask them, no one else could create an entire vision of land so true that men would leavetheir ship and fall into the vast ocean for the sirens to drag into their depths. My father was a geologist with the Army Corp of Engineers. He managed to escape my mother when she tried to kill him the first time. Found her when she was having me, and stole me, to try and keep me from her, keep me safe. I was four when we moved to a base near the ocean, and she found me. Despite his strength, he was pulled into the depths and drowned when my mother pulled me into the water so I would have my first transformation. At least now it’s not painful,” Serenia says, and the way Duncan wraps his arms around her, I know without a doubt, she’s as loved as I am by Dylan, as Celestia is by Dane, and that, is absolutely perfect.
Epilogue
Dylan
Ipress a kiss to Madeleine’s head as we finish the birthday dessert for Melodia. It’s hard to believe she’s been mine for eight years now. Especially when she hardly looks older than when I first saw her. Our little girl is seven, born nine months after Melodia and her friends came to town. None of our girls had to worry for long about us being in danger.
Shortly after they told us the truth of what they were, they went down to the beach and told their mothers they were never returning to the ocean or to them. That they’d found where they belonged and would never use their powers to harm. It wasn’t easy to stay where our girls told us to, to watch as their mothers screeched and shouted and berated them. Calling them traitors, while trying to put us under their spells to get us into the water.
Just as we felt no pull towards Aphrodite that day at the diner, their attempts did nothing to us except anger us because we couldn’t help our girls, or at least stand directly behind them in support. We wanted to, but their worry that the others might somehow manage to drag us into the water kept us from pushing it. We wouldn’t ever do anything to upset our girls and letthem handle the confrontation themselves since we knew they wouldn’t risk dying themselves by attempting to kill our girls.
It ended with their mothers crowing that they’d come back to them when they learnt the truth of how men behaved. We can gladly say to this day that’s never even begun to be a thought that’s crossed their minds.
Our daughters got their mothers’ beauty but also their ability to transform in natural waters and seeing our girls swimming freely is something we enjoy. Which is why we tend to do events here at Duncan and Serenia’s house so the girls can swim to their hearts’ delight without fear of anyone seeing them.
Today is the girls’ birthday, and of course Madeleine and I made the dessert. Our little girl definitely can cook, unlike her mother, but since I love it and my girl loves to eat, it works out well still.
“I don’t know, I just…it can’t be real, can’t really be happening, right?” I overhear Melodia say to Serenia and Celestia as we come out, the worry in her tone makes my heart tighten. Her hand is wrapped around her necklace—the one with the pearl I found for her. She never takes it off, but she touches it when she’s feeling extremely emotional—happy, sad, or worried.
“What can’t be happening, angel?” I ask surprising them as we set the crepes on the table, and the look of heaven the slips across Melodia’s face makes me smile, even if my heart is still worried about what she meant.
“I…well…” she stops, looking up at me with a little grin. “I’m pregnant.”
“What?” falls from not only me but also Dane and Duncan as well as Madeleine, Hazel, and Jasmine. Although the guys’ tone is shocked and disbelieving while the girls’ are squealing shouts of joy.
“I’m pregnant.” Melodia nods when my eyes bore into her, and she slips into my arms, bringing my hand to her still incredibly flat belly. There’s a warmth there that is different, was only ever there when she was carrying Madeleine, and I lift her into my arms, devouring her lips in a kiss that sends the little girls into more squeals of laughter.
“How?” I ask, holding her to me, her legs wrapped around my waist, my hand fisted in her gorgeous, still pink and white hair.
“I don’t know. I’ve felt it for the last couple of days but swore I was just imaging it because I’ve wanted another baby with you so much for so long. I love seeing you with our girl and wanted to give you more of it. I woke up this morning and it was so much deeper, I couldn’t begin to deny that it was real, but none of us know how,” she says, and I rest my forehead against hers as her friends echo their agreed disbelief over it.
“Are you surprised?” a new voice questions, and I turn with Melodia still in my arms, staring in surprise at the woman surrounded by a glowing brilliance.