Siren's Mark

Chapter 64

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

Ava rests in my lap while Kami walks in circles around the kitchen island and talks on the phone to one of her contacts. She's been bouncing from lead to lead for hours now.

"If I knew a Fury, don't you think I would be contacting them instead of you?" she snaps.

"Kami is still on the phone?" Ava asks, stirring from her nap.

"Yeah," I say. "We expect it to take a while. Fury smoke is relatively hard to come by."

"Because it makes people stronger?" she asks.

"Not exactly. It makes people, well... angry."

"They why did Kami say you needed it for strength?"

"Sirens get their strength from their passion—love, hate, lust—and that intensity is at the core of our powers. That's why I've gotten stronger and faster since I met you. Being in love, especially with your soulmate, is a hell of a power boost."

A few years ago, if I had gone toe-to-toe with a demon, they'd wipe the floor with me. Now, I can overpower Kieran, which he's not very pleased about.

"So why not try to increase the other good emotions instead?" she asks. "Taking something that makes you angry seems like the worst option."

I smile and stroke her hair.

"Because, love," I say. "No one could love anyone more than I already love you."

Her cheeks redden and she gives me a shy smile.

"Okay, shut up and stop being so sweet," she says. "I can't handle it."

"Alright!" Kami says, setting her mobile down on the kitchen counter. "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Oi, just tell us," I say.

"Good news is I have located someone who has Fury smoke," Kami says, joining us on the couch. "The bad news is it's your old friend Dionysus."

Bloody hell.

Dionysus is one of the only Immortals as old as Asmodeus. The Greeks worshipped him and other early Immortals as gods.

"I take it we don't mean an actual friend?" Ava asks, sitting up from my lap.

Not even close.

"Dionysus would consider Zane a friend, but..." Kami says.

"But in reality he just likes to toy with people, and I'm his favorite plaything," I explain. "He has the power to free people of their inhibitions. Kind of like Siren venom mixed with alcohol, at a thousand times the potency. After I got a reputation for being well-controlled, he was desperate to test his powers on me."

"Did they work on you?" Ava asks.

The last time I saw Dionysus I woke up in a phone booth in the middle of East London wearing nothing but one boot.

"Um, yeah," I say. "They worked."

"Dionysus isn't dangerous," Kami says. "He's just the immortal equivalent of too many Jägerbombs."

"Sounds like he and Kieran would get along," Ava says.

"Oh I'm sure they would," Kami replies. "But what Dionysus really loves is the bottled-up, repressed types like Zane."

"I'm not repressed," I grumble.

"Maybe not anymore," she says, "but we both know he has a special fondness for 'liberating the oppressed.'"