[SYSTEM WARNING]
[Predatory resonance detected.]
[Host stability compromised.]
[Immediate action required.]
Celeste’s jaw was locked so tight her molars ached. When she tried to speak, her throat didn't produce English. It produced a raspy, multi-tonal echo that mimicked the creature’s frequency so perfectly it made something deep in her chest recoil.
“We’re leaving,” She said, though to a human ear, it sounded like two stones grinding together under a massive weight. The mission is done, so she didn’t think they needed to stay here any longer. Not that they had anywhere to go, or even a place to exist beyond this stretch of hostile water. But this thing scared her to the bone. The chill refused to fade, crawling under her skin and settling there.
Beside her, Rowan flinched so hard he almost lost his balance. He looked at Celeste, his face pale, his eyes wide with a new kind of horror. He hadn’t understood the words, he couldn’t have. All he heard was the monster coming out of her mouth. He looked like he wanted to bolt, but there was nowhere to go. Would he think she’d lied to him all along? That she’d been something else from the start? How else would a human understand the language of a fucking Siren? But she happened to know. Every click and hum from the Siren’s throat translated perfectly in her brain, sinking in like it belonged there.
The Siren didn't even spare Celeste a glance. She was focused entirely on Rowan. She moved closer, her tail sending out a slow, heavy displacement that pushed against their chests. Her eyes tracked the frantic beat of the artery in his neck.
“Leaving?” The Siren’s voice rippled through the water. Though the words were meant for Celeste, her gaze never left Rowan. “Why would you leave? The pulse called you back. This is where you belong. Your home.”
The pulse called you. The memory hit Celeste hard—the water churning, flushing them out into this place like a guiding hand. Like the trench itself had wanted them here, had helped them finish the mission. Why would it do that? Then again, nothing in this cursed water ever made sense.
The creature drifted until she was inches from him. Her silver skin began to ripple, a biological camouflage that soaked up the violet light of the spires and turned it into something oily. Up close, the beauty was a thin mask. She was a jagged, predatory thing with pretty skin, and she was smelling him.
Rowan snapped. He let out a choked, frantic sound and lunged to the side, his limbs flailing as he tried to paddle away. He managed to scramble behind a jagged coral pillar, his hands fumbling blindly for anything to use as a weapon.
“Get the fuck away from me.” He yelled.
“No matter how far you run, you are mine to dine.” The Siren bared her teeth, rows of needle-thin, translucent spikes that looked more like shattered glass than bone. It was an ugly sight that stripped away any lingering illusion of grace.
Celeste’s heart slammed against her ribs hard enough to hurt, she could feel the Siren’s hunger through her gaze, a hollow ache that mirrored the one starting to gnaw at her own stomach. Her vision flickered, the violet light of the trench sharpening until she could see the individual cells shifting on the creature's silver skin.
Celeste moved before she thought about it. Her tail cut through the water in a hard, violent sweep, placing herself between Rowan and the Siren in one brutal motion, the current snapping against her skin from the force of it. “Back off.”
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The Siren’s golden orbs flickered, then her head cocked to the side in a motion that was unmistakably animal, like a bird sizing up a worm. “Such fire…” she murmured, the words dragging slowly through the water. “It feeds me.”
She floated back a little, putting just enough distance between them to let the current pull, giving the illusion of space. Then her eyes raked over Rowan again, tracking the frantic rise and fall of his chest, “The pulse loves you. Or else it would have melted you to bones.” It sang, “Good thing, it’s been a while since I had human flesh. Don’t mind if it’s flecked with golden veins. Taste better with magic.”
“I told you to back the fuck off.” Celeste hissed.
The Siren’s lips pulled back, revealing those needle-teeths again. “You want him for yourself. I smell it on you. You’re shaking with it.”
Horror flooded Celeste’s blood, hot and dizzying, and hunger churned in her stomach as if eager to prove the creature right. Her mouth watered. The realization alone made her sick. Tears burned at the edges of her eyes. Of anger, confusion, and the creeping fear of the thing she was becoming. No. She wouldn’t fold to her body’s whims. “He’s not your food,” she snarled. “Get off already.”
“I won’t let you have him all to yourself.” The thing scoffed, circling around them like the predator it was, “When we catch a prize, we share.”
“I don’t even know you,” Celeste snapped, her voice tight, “Why would I share?”
The Siren laughed, low and bubbling, the sound pressing against Celeste’s skull. “Because this water makes us kin,” she said, drifting closer again, unbothered by the warning in Celeste’s stance. “Because the hunger answers the same call in both of us.” Her eyes gleamed. “You can lie to the fragile thing behind you—but not to me. Come now. Let’s have him. Together.”
Celeste felt Rowan shift, then he had his hand clamped around her bicep, “What the fuck is it saying? Does it want to eat me?” his grip on her tightened. “But I won’t go down without a fight.”
“Just hold still.” The English felt funny on her tongue, the Siren language was like a thick, oily film coating her tongue, making human speech feel clunky and impossible. The chills spiked again on her skin. But this time it was from the realisation that she understood this creature better than she understood the man holding onto her.
“Come on, don’t waste my time.” The Siren raked her tongue slowly over the line of her sharp teeth, “Let me have a taste already.”
“Get the fuck away,” she warned, teeth bared, and this time the sound carried weight, bending the water around her. “Last chance.”
For a heartbeat, the Siren hesitated. Just long enough for Celeste to see the calculation flicker across her face. Then her smile widened, sharp and bright. “Careful,” she said. “Threats taste best when you’re willing to make good on them.”
Then it all happened in a flick of a finger. The Siren launched. Her tail slammed into Celeste’s side with crushing force, pain detonating through her ribs. Before she could recover, the creature’s arms were around Rowan, her tail coiling tight around his legs. He thrashed wildly, panic breaking loose. “Let me go, you motherfucker!” Bubbles tore from his mouth as he screamed.
The Siren’s grip closed around his throat. Her tongue darted out, slow and obscene, dragging a wet stripe from his chin to his temple. “Tastes so good.”
Celeste froze for a heartbeat, horror locking her in place. Then she kicked hard, cutting through the water toward them. But the Siren tilted Rowan’s face upward by then, forcing his gaze to meet hers. Her pupils shifted, colors bleeding and twisting. The blue of Rowan’s eyes drained, darkening as they began to match her own.
His body went slack in her arms.
With a sickeningly bright smile, the Siren’s eyes finally found Celeste, the gold in them burning hotter now, sharper. “One single motion,” she crooned, voice slipping into something almost playful, “then I’ll sink my teeth into him.” She tilted her face back in deliberate exaggeration, her tongue flicking out again, this time dragging along the skin of his neck. Celeste’s stomach heaved. Disgust twisted hard enough to make her chest ache.
Anger blared through her so violently it felt like her blood had ignited, heat surging through her limbs until her muscles trembled with it. Her hands curled into fists, nails biting into her palms, grounding her in pain before the hunger could swallow the rage. “You let go of him now,” she snarled, her voice tearing through the water in vibrating waves, “or you fucking die.”
The Siren turned fully toward her then, delight flashing across her face. She grinned wide, too wide, eyes gleaming with something unhinged. Her grip tightened, just enough to make Rowan’s body twitch, to remind Celeste exactly how fragile he was in her arms.
“I woulde like to see you try.”
Sorry this chapter’s a little short! To those who leaves comments and follows—I love you!