My Immortal Playlist (The Siren Collection #1) (16 page)

He whipped a pen out of his pocket, pulled up a sleeve and began writing on his
forearm in scribbles.

“Um,” I said as I watched him. “So…you’ve been stalking me.”

“Nah,” he said, still scribbling. “But I’ve seen you grab dudes and bring them back to your place. That’s when I followed you. That’s when I stalked you. But not before. There’s a difference.”

“And then what? What did you see?”

“Stuff that made me think about quitting smoking. I thought it was the hash.”

“M
aybe you were having a hallucination.”

“It wasn’t the hash,” he said firmly, finishing his scrib
bles and pie charts. He put the pen back in his pocket and lifted his head to stare back at me with his blood shot eyes.

“So why haven’t you told anyone?”

“Because we’re sisters.”

“Okay,” I tried to stifle a laugh. “But don’t you think what I’m doing is wrong?”

“Not exactly in a place to judge right now,” he chuckled. “Though…you’ll definitely get in a lot more trouble for murder. If they catch you.”

“I don’t understand why you’re being so casual about this. I kill people.”

“Yeah, but it’s because you’re a Siren. People understand when they know that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know all those movies out there? Vampires? Werewolves? Ghosts? Angels?”

“Yeah. They’re very popular.”

“People dig that stuff. They think it’s boring being human. They want to fly and transform and be pitied because they can’t control their urges and stuff. Humans can stop our stuff if we want to, but those creatures in the movies? It’s natural.”

“So my killing is justified?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a Siren. Is it?”

“I have no clue.”

“Then why are you asking me?” he turned back around and I let him be. I had been playing human so long…maybe it was time for me to consider embracing my Siren heritage. I might even learn more about the rituals.

“Hey, so Lucas knows what you are?” he asked me, his back still facing me.

“Um, yes,” I said, unsure if I should tell him. He already figured out a ton on his own. Might as well be truthful.

“Oh cool. Then you know all about him too. Glad you guys worked it out.”

“I know he had a sketchy past, but we’ve moved past that.”

“Man, Casper’s just becoming the meeting place for mythological creatures.”

“I know. When I – wait, what do you mean?” He turned to face me.

“Wait. What are we talking about?”

“With Lucas, you were referring to his gang, right?”

“No…” he trailed off. “Oh man, I messed up again. I shouldn’t be
talking when I’m hungry. My brain gets fuzzy.”

“Justin,” I said, grabbing his shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong with Lucas.”

“I shouldn’t.”

“Is he human?”

“Far as I know.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s his aunt.”

“What about her?”

“You should ask him yourself.”

“If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to eat all of your chicken nuggets!” I shouted in his face. He looked at me in horror, but I think it was over the possible loss of his food and not so much my tone.

“She’s a Siren too,” he said. “I thought maybe that’s why you two got together. Kind of like an arranged marriage thing.”

I let him go, and I refused to look at him. Another Siren? Here in Casper? What were the odds? That two Sirens, a dying species, could be living in the same meaningless town? Unless…

This Siren was here to examine me. Seeing if I was safe to approach.

No, that couldn’t
be it. Lucas had been living in Casper for a few years. Surely, his aunt would have come to me by now, unless it truly was a coincidence, and she didn’t know of my existence.

Is that why Lucas stuck with me? To get more information? Learn how many transformed prisoners I had under me and how powerful I was? Was that w
hy he came back even after Noah dumped him outside of Angelo’s?

I looked over at Lucas
. He was bored, leaning his elbows onto the table and trying not to fall asleep while Margaret and Theresa argued about something. I couldn’t believe he was just using me…but then again, he had been a good liar with the other airheaded girls. Maybe it just took a little longer for me to fall under his charms.

I didn’t want to think about it.
I didn’t…

Justin caught me as I fell forward, and that was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.

“Are you okay?” Lucas asked
as my eyes fluttered open. My head was lying in his lap and we were in
my
car. I shot up to attention and scurried over to the passenger seat.

“How did you get in my car?” I demanded. He laughed.
“And why is the heat on?!”

“Your car doesn’t lock, and you
r keys were in your back pocket. I figured it was good for us not sit in the cold.”

“What were you doing feeling around in my back pocket?!”

“I just grabbed the keys. It’s not like I did anything else,” he chuckled. “What’s wrong? You seem uptight.”

“Do I look different?”

“No,” he replied, and I pulled down the passenger side mirror and examined my face. Nothing changed. Not that it should have. I had fed so recently, there was no reason for my body to be getting ready for another hunt. The only other explanation was that I had fainted out of anxiety. A little bit of stress perhaps.

“What happened?” I asked, rubbing my forehead.

“I was hoping to ask you. You were talking to Justin, then you yelled at him, and then you passed out. Justin wouldn’t explain why, but he was dodging my questions like he was afraid of me. What were you two talking about?”

Now that I had gained my composure, I studied his face carefully. It was full of concern and worry, but I wasn’t sure if I could have believed it. He seemed so foreign to me now, and in my mind, we were right back to the first day we met. He was still gorgeous, but just as dangerous.

“What do you think got me so upset?” I asked him. It was his last chance. To come clean. To tell me the truth. I had already revealed so much about myself, and if he was really planning on taking what he learned to turn it against me, it didn’t matter how I felt about him. I would have to perform the ritual on him as soon as possible.

I didn’t have anything to knock him out in the car, but I
promised myself to change that from that day forward.

“I have no idea
why you’re upset,” he said, attempting to take my hand. I snatched it away. That should have been a good clue for him.

“You h
ave no idea why I’m mad?”

“It seems like you’re upset with me.”

“Am I?”

“I don’t know. Are you?” he asked in exasperation. He was getting frustrated.

“Yeah,” I said. “Tell me why.”

“Did Justin tell you something about my past?”

“Perhaps.”

“Listen, I’m sorry that I was with those girls. They really didn’t mean anything to me. I wish I could take that back now that I’ve met you, but I can’t.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Then why don’t you tell me, so we can move on.”

“There might not be any moving on with what I’ve just found out.”

He studied my face meticulously, my eyes, my pursed lips, and my clenched fists, and realization came upon his face. But he was
n’t ready to surrender just yet. He had no way of knowing for sure what I was talking about, and he was preparing to keep it a secret until the bitter end. I shook my head as I felt my cheeks flush with disappointment. My eyes were already beginning to water as I grit my teeth.

“I trusted you,” I said slowly. “With everything. I showed you who I was.”

“And I did the same,” he said softly.

“No. No you didn’t. You’re still hiding, and I don’t know if I can trust you
ever again after this.”

“That’s not fair. We’re still getting to know each other. It’s not like we’re a couple of days away from our wedding. We’ve barely met.”

“Still,” I said, punching him in the arm. “Knowing what I am. Knowing what I do…you could have at least told me your aunt was a Siren!”

It was like I had hit him in the chest with a shotgun. His entire body reeled back and his face changed instantly, from one of innocence, to that of dark sorro
w. Without a word, he adjusted himself in the driver’s seat so that he was facing forward. I was breathing so hard that I couldn’t even ask what he was doing at first.

“I’m taking you to see her now,” he said
like a zombie, putting the car into drive.

“Who says I want to?” I snapped at him, taking my cell phone out of my pocket and beginning to text Elliot. “But if we are headed there, I’m calling for back-up.”

“No!” he said, trying to slap the phone out my hand, but I dodged the attempt. “Don’t do that! That’s the last thing you want to do!”

“Why? What’s she going to think?
That’s I’m a threat? She’s the one who made the first move by making me fall for her spy!”

“It’s not like that,”
he said quietly, driving out the parking lot. “But I promise that I’ll tell you everything from now on.”

“It’s too late.”

“If you’re going to ask for back-up, can you at least have them wait outside the house? If they walk in with us, I guarantee that things will end bad for this entire town.”

“What is she? Some super Siren?”

“She has more power than you can imagine,” he said, turning to me for a second.

“I’m not afraid of her.”

“You will be,” he said ominously. I texted Elliot the details, but I made sure to tell him and the boys to stay outside the house. I shut off my phone once I was done and drilled a hole through Lucas’ skull with my eyes.

“You know we’re done,” I said to him, and I could see him grip the steering wheel harder.

“I hope not,” he replied.

“How are we supposed to come back from this?”

“We came back from Reign and his gang attacking us. We’ll survive this too. Listen, I may not have been completely honest with you, and yes, I was sent to you to retrieve information, but…the feelings are real. What I said about not being able to get you out of my head. That weekend without you…that’s where everything changed. I wanted to get to know you for me, and not my aunt. I care about you more than you could know. Can you blame me for waiting to tell you about this? You were thinking of doing the same.”

“It’s different,” I said, calming down a bit. “You were purposely sent to spy on me. You could have at least told me that much. Even if it was something like
, your aunt suspected I was a monster and she needed some evidence. As crazy as it sounds, I could forgive that way more than this. But no, she’s a straight up Siren getting ready to do who knows what to me.”

“I’m sorry,”
was all he could say, and we didn’t speak again until we arrived at the ranch house.

I caught a glimpse of Henry ducking behind the back. I’m sure Noah was there too, and hopefully not Elliot. Knowing him, he would insist on being part of the action and probably get us all killed in the process.

“She’ll know we’re here,” he said, pulling the car up next to the mailbox. The atmosphere surrounding the house was as dead as it had been the night before.

“Is it okay that I’m here now? Without being summoned?”

“I’m not that good of a liar,” he smiled at me weakly. “If I went home tonight, she would know that you know, just by looking at my face.”

“Then I must be terribly gul
lible, because I fell for all your crap,” I said, slamming open the car door and getting out. He sighed heavily and followed as I headed up the walk-way.

“I should go first,” he said, but I ignored him. As I was a foot away from the door, it suddenly slammed open, and there she stood, waiting
for our arrival as if we had made an appointment.

“
Pamela,” I heard Lucas mutter under his breath. I stared down the woman boldly, and as expected, she didn’t back down one bit.

She was certainly older than me, but she had maintained much of her youthful features. She looked like someone out of the
Great Gatsby
. Her silky, dyed black hair was permed and kept short, though none of it had been cut to give off the look. She wore a gold and glittery long dress that accented her slender curves. From the heavily caked lipstick on her lips hung a cigarette. Her eyes were heavily caked in eye-shadow, and she wore a necklace made of fake gold that wrapped around her like a snake.

In spite of all this,
it was her glare that made me forget about rushing boldly into her house. She stared at me like I was a spider that had just asked for permission to stay at her home. She would accept my proposal, and I would enter. She had already decided she was going to kill me. I just had to get close to her heel.

“Alexandra,” she said in a tone that sounded like I was bei
ng summoned from the depths of Hell. “Welcome to my humble abode. Come in. But make sure your reinforcements remain outside.”

“Nothing will happen unless you draw first blood,” I said.

“If I draw blood,” she said, leaning her head in closer to mine, “you won’t get any of it back.”

“Oh, she’s scary,” I said turning back to Lucas. “I like her.”

Lucas didn’t respond. His head was down, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. What happened to the tough guy that had been with me all along? The one that had wrestled a vampire and was willing to take on six gang members?

“Lucas, make us some tea,”
Pamela demanded, opening the door further so that he could squeeze past us. “Alexandra and I will need it for our discussion.”

She nodded towards me, and I proceeded inside. It was dark, and a little damp. Once I entered, I saw the kitchen to my left. A small crawlspace with a tiny refrigerator, stove, and a few
cabinets. The living room was next to it, with barely a partition to separate the two rooms. Two loveseats were in the middle of the living room, with a miniature nightstand at the side of one of them. A dirty lamp sat on top. To the immediate right was a hallway about three yards in length, leading to two openings that I assumed were a bedroom and a bathroom respectively. Since those were the only two things missing in the place.

If she was so powerful, it certainly didn’t show
in her home, and if she was a Siren, where was her Prep Room? Where was the space to perform her deed? And where were her victims? Maybe I was the only one who lived with the people whose lives I ruined. She probably had all of hers in the backyard, six feet under.

“Sit,” she ordered
me, and I fought back the urge to make a snide remark about how I wasn’t a dog. I chose the left loveseat next to the lampshade, and she promptly sat down in the right, folding one leg over the other. Lucas rummaged around in the kitchen, preparing our refreshments.

“So,” she began. “How did you find out about me?”

“Doesn’t matter. I found you,” I snapped.

“It’s best if you are honest with me,” she said, folding her arms over her folded legs. “I would like to establish a precedent. One that I hope says ‘hea
lthy friendship,’ and not ‘enemies.’”

“Ask your spy. He’ll tell you how I found out.”

“If that is how you want to play this,” she said. She lifted her head. “Lucas! Tell me how this girl found out I was a Siren.”

“There is a boy at our school named Justin,” Lucas called back. “He must have told h
er. I’m not sure how he got the information though.”

“It’s because he is a fly on the wall,”
Pamela said to me. “I’ve noticed his wandering. It might be time to clip the wings, before this little birdy says too much to the wrong people.”

“Do you like talking like that?” I scoffed. “Or did it take a lot of practice?”

“I’ve learned that fear is the best weapon against those who oppose me.”

“Fear is unhealthy.”

“You have no right telling me what is unhealthy, young lady,” she said, taking a drag on her cigarette. “You are vulnerable every night in your own home. You sleep and live with the men that you have destroyed and you don’t expect vengeance? How naïve are you?”

“They love me.”

“Men can’t love,” she said, leaning forward. “All they’re good for is procreation, and even then, they’re subpar at best when it comes to that department. Many leave their offspring in the woman’s hands while they go further out into the world and impregnate more. Why do you think we exist, Alexandra? We balance out the scales in a cruel and sexist world.”

“You’re wrong. Men can love. There might be a lot o
f bad ones, but the good ones…they are out there.”

“I hope you’re not referring to my Lucas,” she scoffed. “Because if you still believe that he brought us here out of your best interests, then you truly are lost. You are here for me. He serves me, and me alone.”

“But those I live with,” I said, trying not to think about Lucas. “They love me.”

“They are enchanted by you. That’s not the same thing.”

“They choose to live there.”

“They have no choice,” she scoffed again.
“It’s either live with the woman that murdered them, or go out into the world and be subjected to experimentation, ridicule, and death on a daily basis. You are the lesser of two evils. Nothing more.”

“That’s not true,” I said, though I could feel myself questioning my own beliefs.