Reyn looked terrified of the entire proceedings, less so of her man and more so of Savannah and Lilith. Having her daughter in her arms seemed to help, distracting the mother slightly.
"I meant for us to come out in the clearing," Savannah explained, scratching her head, "Sorry about that. Misjudged by a couple steps and wounded up in here. Hey Lilith get off!"
“Wait…wait, this is the infant’s mother?” Lilith had moved around to the bed again, picking at the blonde’s hair, then pinching her shirt as Nereyda shied away, “I never took you for enjoying the mousy, shy type. She’s not even that curvy…c’mon Elijah, I thought she’d have some form of bust.”
“F-fuck you,” Reyn snapped, although her voice was tired and crackly, barely able to hold any anger in it, her arms securing her daughter closer to her “W-what’s wrong with m-my breasts?”
“There not even a double D. And what’s with the voice-” Lily continued, before Savannah’s arm curled around her shoulder, dragging her away.
“Stop picking on the siren,” Savannah sighed, “Sorry Reyn. She doesn’t get out much.”
Something passed the blonde’s face and Savannah could feel the depressing thought, surprised at how quick the siren’s resolve faded, “No sweetheart, you are beautiful. Lilith!”
Searrinna really did do a number on her confidence.
Her twin faked shock, then rolled her eyes and caved in, “Sorry siren mommy. You are pretty. Although I’d get that voice checked.”
Savannah furrowed her brow further, glaring at Lilith to shush before looking over at Eli, “She’s right though. Why is her voice still like that? I thought you’d remedy it by now.”
Both of them stared at her like she was speaking another language.
“You know why her voice is like that, right?” Savannah asked, letting Lilith go as she wandered into the kitchenette to snoop.
Eli shook his head, surprising her further. Why hadn’t Reyn told him? She looked at the siren and saw the same look of confusion, as if she too didn’t know. Lilith noticed it too, connecting the dots faster than Savannah could.
“You haven’t been around long siren girl?” Lily asked, wiggling a finger at her, “You don’t know about your bloodline?”
Reyn shook her head, looking more confused than ever, “I g-got amnesia a century ago. W-woke on an island. I only k-know what I’ve l-learnt from m-myself.”
Lily shrugged, rummaging in their mini fridge for something to snack on, “Well sirens are rare. And elusive…I’ve never actually met one before. Plus, they don’t like each other’s company. Explains a lot Annah.”
It was the sanest comment she had made yet, and Savannah watched her with interest, wondering if Hell really was the cause of her madness. Would Earth serve her better? Turning back, she refocused on the discussion at hand. Lilith and Savannah knew all there was to know on Sirens, and for that fact every supernatural creature in existence. They were expected to have this knowledge as Lucifer’s daughters, being as all supernaturals were beings made from Hell. Even the kindest supernatural’s ancestors would trace back to Hell. Where Heaven made the human race and the animal kingdom, Hell had contributed the Supernatural race.
“If I had known, I would have told you,” Savannah found a seat at the end of the bed, watching Reyn.
“You are the mind reader sis, why didn’t you see?”
Her gaze swung to Lily, “Sifting through a century or more worth of memories could take me days, and quite the headache. I already have a good portion of Jay’s lifetime stuck in my head. You know how annoying that is? I don’t need another’s.”
“Who’s Jay?”
“Nevermind Lily,” turning back to the couple Savannah looked at Elijah sitting hip to hip with Reyn, “I’m guessing you don’t know much about them either?”
Settling in, she placed her hands in her lap, reaching into her archive for all she knew on Sirens. There were so many supernaturals to remember, it took Savannah a second to collect her thoughts on everything she could tell Reyn.
“Well for starters, siren’s don’t travel in groups, or like each other’s company,” Savannah smiled, “And they are so elusive, even most of us immortals can go our whole lifetimes without meeting them. You, of course, are the exception.”
“Sirens only like human men,” Lily added, finding her own seat beside Savannah so that the twins were sitting side by side staring at the couple.
“I l-like women t-too.”
Lily shrugged, “Good to know. Never heard about women in the stories though, so let’s stick to with dicks for now. Just like in lore, they would lure them on their boats before killing them. Some of that is true. Most sirens would find an island they liked and would live there, singing ships in when they passed. But they wouldn’t kill them, they would get them on shore and lull them with sex and lust. The men died from starvation, or dehydration, forgetting to care for themselves as they pleased the sirens.”
Savannah watched her sister, surprised at just how sane she was talking. Even Eli looked slightly shocked. Then Lily giggled, falling over backwards so she landed on the floor, feet sticking high in the air.
“And she’s back,” Savannah sighed, ignoring her sister’s crazy giggles to continue the story, “The boats those men left behind the sirens would destroy so other boats would come and not be deterred by the abandoned ships. However eventually the sunken and broken ships would pile up, amounting to the tales of sirens luring and killing the men on their ships. How the tales said there were more than one siren on an island beats me. There would only ever be one. Sirens do not, do not like sharing what they claim as theirs. Including partners.”
Reyn’s cheeks flamed, and Savannah could hear her thinking about the jealously she was hiding from Elijah, the envy in her stomach that had been growing for months and months now. The demoness said nothing about it, just giving a look to Eli and nodding in the blonde’s direction, telling him silently to ask about it later.
That was a conversation they needed to have in private.
“S-so the island I was o-on,” Reyn stuttered, trying to push away from the awkward subject, “W-was mine?”
“Yeppers,” Lily giggled, “You probably lived on it for decades, maybe even centuries. Sirens are sort of immortal.”
“Sort of,” Savannah reillerated, “You can just as easily die as a human can, with one exception. But save for that, you will never grow older, as you have noticed. Sirens have been around since Greek mythology. Not sure if you existed before then. But there were only a handful of you created, and your numbers never really multiplied.”
“You love the sex, but not the children,” Lily laughed, “Children mean responsibility and less sex. Siren’s don’t like that. Therefore, no children.”
Savannah rolled her eyes at her sister’s antics, “There’s been children. Not many, but I’m sure a few. Problem is, the children usually leave with their father’s, the rare time a siren will actually release her human companion. So those children don’t know they are sirens, and if they are lucky learn and survive, but otherwise die early or tragically.”
“How can they have died? I’ve never seen a siren in Hell.”
“Purgatory perhaps?”
“W-what else c-can you tell me,” Reyn asked, sticking to the topic.
“Um…well I’ve explained the origins, your lifespan…”
“Wasn’t this about her voice?” Lily asked, sitting up, “She’s missing her siren voice.”
“Yeah…” Savannah frowned, not sure how to approach the subject and deciding to be blunt, “Reyn, you are kind of, well, dying.”
The girl was in absolute shock, her heart sinking to her stomach as her breath stopped. She hugged her baby tightly to her, as if it would help somehow. How could she be dying?
The weird demon, Lilith rolled over on the floor and jumped up before flopping on the bed on her stomach, looking at Reyn like she was the most entertaining thing in the world, “You’re losing your siren powers, sweet cheeks. Without them you gonna be dead reeeeeal soon.”
“Lily!” Savannah snapped, prompting the demon to clamp her mouth shut, “Don’t panic Reyn.”
How was she not supposed to panic? Her eyes snapped to Eli, the storm returning in her head, feeling like she had just been tossed overboard and told to swim in the harsh waves even as she drowned. Baby blue eyes bore into his, begging him to fix her, to make it better.
“Don’t panic,” Savannah repeated, a silky smoothness to her voice.
A sweeping wave of relief washed through her, pushing the storm down just enough for Nereyda to take a deep breath. Savannah was watching her like a hawk, her ocean colored eyes staring unblinking at her. It took a second for the siren to realize Savannah was causing the relief, that she was keeping the panic at bay.
“You won’t die,” Savannah continued, but her voice sounded disconnected, the demon’s real attention on keeping Reyn from breaking down, “You will become a shell of yourself though. Like a vampire without blood desecrates but remains alive, you will slowly wither until you are just a shell of a person, but you’ll continue walking this earth.”
“B-but all a v-vampire needs is b-blood to fix them,” Reyn replied, “W-what do I need?”
“Sex,” Lily replied curtly, rolling onto her back “It’s kind of obvious you haven’t had any in weeks.”
“Your pale, depressed, and your voice isn’t working,” Savannah elaborated, “Sirens feed off of lust and sex. When was the last time you went on a long dry spell?”
Reyn thought back to when she was pregnant, that couple weeks her and Eli remained abstinent. It had been hell, she’d felt sick and moody every day, barely left her chambers…
And she hadn’t felt the need to sing at all.
“You blamed the pregnancy at the time,” Savannah replied, hearing her memory, “But it was your bloodline. It’s why Sirens can take multiple partners, to feed them. Its why you have that beautiful voice, like a black widow, most sirens lull their prey to them, and fuck them till they are satisfied.”
‘
It’s why you like sex as much as Eli does. Why you could never go more than a few days without it before getting moody’ Savannah’s words ring in her head privately.
“So you two need to fuck, or she’s gonna be a goner,” Lily summarized, grinning, “Put your dick in her Elijah. Like c’mon.”
“It’s not that easy,” Savannah piped up, having already seen all Reyn’s memories of what Searrinna had done, “Searrinna must have known this all too. She stole Reyn’s voice simply by torturing her the way she did. That…that’s probably the fucking cruelest thing she did to her. Elijah, Nereyda is stuck right now. She is tortured by these memories that are keeping her away from you, and yet it tortures her further to stay away because it is slowly killing her soul.”
Dropping her gaze, Savannah released her hold on Reyn, standing up and beckoning Lily to follow, “I’m sorry. We barged in and bombarded you both with all this information. You two have a lot to talk about now. I’m glad I was able to shed a little light, and again, sorry for the intrusion.”
“See you around Ellie,” Lily giggled, kissing his cheek before bouncing out the front door.
Savannah only smiled, loving the nickname, “Good luck you two. Talk to him Reyn. You need to. See you around…Ellie.”
With that she followed her sister out, leaving the couple alone in the house. Nereyda stared at her daughter, emotions rolling in her, stuck on the words on her tongue. Savannah and Ash knew now. How many more had noticed it?
Taking a shaky breath, she slipped a free hand in his, “Before we t-talk about what Searrinna d-did, I have to tell you. I h-have to be honest.”
She caught his stare, waiting for her to continue, “I’m jealous.”
It just came out, and for once her voice didn’t break. It was like the admission strengthened it instead, and the more she admitted everything to herself and stopped lying, the better she’d feel.
“It started a while ago,” she whispered, her voice hoarse but unbreaking, surprising both of them, “I felt it when I saw you fighting with Braxton over Ash. At first it wasn’t much, and I could ignore it. But when…I got pregnant it magnified. You’d…you’d go off and I…”
She gulped, the words painful to admit but once she started they just poured out, “I’d cry myself to sleep, if I could even sleep. I wouldn’t eat, I’d barely drink. I wanted to slice the throats open of every woman you every touched. I felt sick, I barely mustered the energy to speak. When Savannah said sirens never share, that’s what she meant. I can’t…I can’t share you. Or Nya. I’m just as possessive about her.”
But she couldn’t ask him to give up his lifestyle. Not for her jealously. He’d grow to resent her.
Sighing, she closed her eyes, “But I’ll l-learn to. To s-share.”