Come to me, My Darling,
Waken from your rest.
Come to me, My Darling,
Lay your head upon my breast.
Come to me, My Darling,
Heed my loving call.
Come to me, My Darling,
Ere daybreak must fall.
Come to me, My Darling
Make a gift of your heart.
Come to me, My Darling,
Then we shall never part.
I am woken from my dream of the sweet lullaby by the nattering of two Tasmanian devils on the bed. “You bite her hand and I’ll bite her foot. That should wake her up.”
“She’s going to be mad.”
“So, we have to stop them!”
Pushing Taz and Felix from me, I say through a yawn, “Stop who?” Even in my sleep addled state, I know the two of them would never wake me in the middle of the night unless it was really important. Taz likes his beauty sleep too much.
“If you would get your butt out of bed you’d see who,” Taz informs me. Obviously, I’m not the only one unhappy to be awake.
It is Felix’s words which have me jumping out of bed, though. “If you do not stop them, a good portion of the male population will drown.”
Drown? I throw back the covers and stand up. “What are you talking about?” I ask, doing a quick assessment to make sure my pajamas are in place and covering what they are supposed to cover.
“Sirens,” Felix spits out as if trying to get the nasty word off his tongue before it eats through it like acid.
“Sirens? Sirens aren’t real,” I inform the Tasmanian devils. At least, I don’t think they are. Wouldn’t someone have told me if they were? Who am I kidding? My ignorance of the supernatural beings in the universe is grossly negligent. Why not Sirens.
“Shut up and listen then,” Taz snarks, making my foot itch to kick him in his round little belly to see if he bounces like a ball.
I glare down at him, but in the silence, I hear it. The song. The lullaby from my dream. Except, I was not dreaming it. It’s coming from a long ways off, but a beautiful voice is definitely singing it in reality, not in my head. I rush to the balcony to search the night for the body attached to the voice. What I see makes my heart lurch.
There must be at least a hundred of them. Maybe more. “Kallen!” I shout. I don’t wait for him to respond. I teleport down to the beach and position myself between the water and the oncoming Fairies. I call to them. I even know a couple of their names and I try calling out to them personally, but it’s no use. Whatever spell they are under has an iron grip on them. If I can’t push them back with words, I’ll use magic. A lot of magic. In front of me, I build a u-shaped wall of magic. The male Fairies continue walking until they run into it. I sense some of them backing up to go around my magic, so I close it off by turning it into a square. The Fairies are trapped. But this doesn’t stop them from trying. They begin to claw at the magical wall. They throw their own magic at it. The ones in back become impatient and they rip the others away so they can try. Fighting breaks out amongst them and blood begins to color the sand a deep red in the moonlight.
“Stop it!” I cry. They don’t hear me, or they are choosing not to listen. Hard to tell with all the noise they’re making fighting each other.
One Fairy climbs on top of another, seeking the top of my magic. He plans to scale it like a fence. I am forced to put a lid on the square walls. Sensing this, the Fairies begin to dig in the sand, trying to go under it.
“Xandra!” Kallen calls from the terrace.
“Here!” I shout back. He uses my voice to find me in front of the crowd of Fairies willing to kill each other in their attempts to get free.
Leaping from the balcony, Kallen rounds the corner of my magic. He stops suddenly. Now that he’s closer to the water, he can hear it over the pitiful cries of the Fairies. “The call of the Sirens,” he whispers.
“Um, you’re not going to go all crazy on me, too, are you?” I ask nervously. Fighting Kallen on top of these other guys would a bit more than I could handle after being woken at three in the morning, learning Sirens are real and trapping a hundred or so Fairies in a box of magic. Not to mention, I’d be pissed if my husband answered the call of Sirens right in front of me.
Kallen’s face is grim but he doesn’t look like he wants to drown himself. “No, I will not. But, they will not stop while the Sirens sing.” He points to the male Fairies in a box. “You must put them to sleep, Xandra. Knock them out cold.”
Does he mean the Fairies or the Sirens? “Who?” I cry out over the anguished bellowing of the Fairies trapped in my magic.
“The Sirens are impervious to magic once those called go willingly to them.”
“Go to them? These guys were about to walk into the ocean and kill themselves!”
Kallen nods. “I know. The Sirens call them to the sea where they reside. None survive the journey. It is the gesture, the intent, which gives them their power.”
“I don’t think I like Sirens very much,” I mutter mostly to myself. I consider Kallen’s words. He said I must put the Fairies to sleep. But how deep of a sleep and for how long?
Reading my mind, Kallen answers my unasked question. “They must sleep until dawn. The Siren’s hold on them will be lost then.”
Isla’s voice travels over the male Fairies who are now whimpering with need. The need to drown themselves. “What the hell is going on?” she demands, hands on her hips and staring at Kallen and me like we’re out here just trying to annoy her.
“Sirens!” Kallen shouts back. Isla says some pretty nasty things as she leaves the terrace and walks toward us. I can’t hear her, but I can read some of the words on her lips just fine. Even Kallen grimaces at a couple of her suggestions about where and what the Sirens can go and do. I’m almost glad the Fairies are so loud.
Not really. It finally dawns on me that I don’t need to listen to the Fairies. I can shut them up with magic. Being careful not to pull any magic from the walls holding them, I take away their voices. The sudden silence surrounding us serves to make the Siren’s song much, much louder. I study Kallen for any sign that he wants to join the fish in the ocean. So far, he isn’t showing any.
“Xandra, these Fairies must be rendered unconscious or they will claw themselves and each other to death in their vain attempt to get to the sea.”
“Yeah, Kallen already said something to that effect,” I admit. I try to think of a spell which will only put the male Fairies trapped in my magic to sleep. The spell I recently used with the Centaurs and Sasquatch is too much. I’d put the whole village to sleep. After an agonizing minute, the words pop into my head. “Called from your beds by those who would do you harm, no longer heed their evil charms. Lay your head upon the sand, no longer know the Siren’s command. With dawn comes sanity and light, be safe in slumber this dangerous night.” Pulling magic from the cage I’ve made, I push it into the now groveling Fairies. Within seconds, they fall into a heap on the sand.
By this time, we’ve been joined by everyone in the house except Zac. The kid can sleep through anything. Kegan, Alita, Tabitha, Adriel, Raziel and Garren are standing on the terrace. Mom and Dad are floating next to them. Taz and Felix are sniffing the pile of Fairies. Felix is checking to make sure they’re okay. I’m pretty sure Taz is looking for food.
Turning to my family and friends, I ask, “Someone want to fill me in on Sirens?”
