Dancing in the Dark - 12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.

I led Viktor up the path of a large suburban house. It was just past three in the morning. My plan was to find somewhere he could crash for the day in safety and then we were going to attack the Compound early the next night. I wasn’t completely sure what the best way to go about attacking it was, but that was okay. All I really wanted to do was charge in, grab Miri, and get out. And kill a bunch of people. Maybe torture them a little bit if they’d hurt my girl. That was as far as my planning went. I rang the doorbell and waited.

“Are they even going to be awake?” Viktor asked curiously.

“Please, I’m not sure that sirens ever sleep,” I answered with a careless wave of my hand.

“Sirens? We’re hiding out with sirens?” he asked incredulously.

“Well sure, I told you about them when we were carving up Emma, remember? Vanessa and Steve, and their son Scott.”

“You didn’t mention they were sirens,” Viktor said reproachfully.

“Oh. Well to be honest, Jeremy and Jake are pretty much the only humans I know.” I turned to the door as it opened. Scott looked out and broke into a grin when he saw me. Then he did a double take when he took in Viktor and the fact that we were both covered in blood.

“Well hey there Mark,” he said, blinking up at Viktor. “Who’s your pretty friend?”

I snorted. “Hands off you little shit, he’s mine. And way too old for you. Mom and Dad in the pool?”

“Mmhmm . . . they’re singing tonight,” he said, a slow smile spreading across his face as he stared at Viktor. I rolled my eyes and pushed past him, dragging Viktor by the hand behind me. I was just going to go straight to see Steve and Vanessa, but at the last second I changed course and headed for the basement apartment that was kept in readiness for people that needed refuge so we could get cleaned up.

***

We stepped out onto the deck of the backyard pool holding hands. We were clean now, dressed in clothes Scott had brought down for us. He had then disappeared back upstairs to do whatever it was that sixteen year old sirens do at four o’clock in the morning.

Vanessa was draped across an artfully created fake rock fixture with a small waterfall behind her. I couldn’t see Steve anywhere, so that probably meant that he was underwater. Their setup here was reminiscent of something you might see at one of the aquatic enclosures at the zoo.

Vanessa raised her head to look at us and her slightly mournful hum became happier. That hum pulled at something very faintly inside me, but there was no real effort behind it. She was just greeting us.

Steve broke the surface of the pool and pulled himself out of it in one lithe movement. Viktor and I both fastened our eyes on him, but again, there was no attempt at seduction from the siren. He was just fucking hot.

Steve stood for a moment, completely naked, and just looked at us. Vanessa slid off her rock and walked over to Steve, her wet, ankle length hair sticking to her body in fascinating whorls against her pale skin. They hummed to each other quietly for a moment, speaking in siren I guess, and then they smiled at us.

“We’ll sing for you,” Vanessa said. She had a low, rich speaking voice, one that was sultry even when she was talking about something as normal as grocery shopping. My heart picked up in my chest as they moved back over to Vanessa’s rock by the waterfall, relaxing across it in unconscious invitation.

They began singing softly at first, voices winding around each other and us they sang without words. I wrapped my arms around Viktor’s neck, and his came around my waist and we swayed together under the full moon.

Everything but the sound of the sirens and Viktor in my arms fell away. My worry for Miri, and my anger at the people who had her disappeared as my world shrank down to the man in my arms and a song of belonging filled the air.

Looking in to Viktor’s eyes, which even in the darkness were slightly different shades, I relaxed. I released the magic inside me that made me immortal – that I repressed always in a bid to be human – and let it fill me. It was like letting myself take a really deep breath after a lifetime of limiting my supply of oxygen. A feeling of well being and lassitude stole through me, followed closely by a hyper awareness of my body.

I could feel small things fixing themselves, slight chemical imbalances caused by food I was eating, or not eating, muscles adjusting and filling out to become perfect. Imperfectly healed breaks in my bones smoothing out and becoming like new again, ligaments and tendons, even veins shifting and adjusting back into the perfect position, rather than simply knitting together however I positioned them when I needed them to heal.

A slight buzz rang in my ears as my brain was adjusted in a way I didn’t like to think about given the amount of head injuries I had sustained. Finally my body settled into a harmonious accord, content that I was correctly put back together again.

Viktor pressed his forehead against mine, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. “What is that?” he asked softly.

“That’s . . . whatever it is, is what I am,” I answered, “I’m not sure exactly. I’ve never been able to find out.”

“It’s amazing,” he whispered, “it feels like how I remember the sun.”

We danced together on the deck, sirens singing us a song, whispering together until the moon set. Steve and Vanessa disappeared then, with barely a splash in the water and I led Viktor back to the basement bedroom where the sunlight wouldn’t hurt him when it put in an appearance and we fell into bed.

It was different this time, with me giving all of myself to Viktor, even the bit that terrified me because deep down I suspected what it was. That golden light inside of me flowed out and wrapped around Viktor as we moved together, and I finally understood what the mating bond was.

I felt Viktor’s dark, insidious vampire magic bury into me, filling me up where I had always felt empty and alone. As it settled in I could feel the same thing happening to Viktor, but with my magic. And as we came down from our climax and the magic started to draw back into our own bodies, I clung to Viktor and willed it to stay. I didn’t want to be alone anymore.