Page 54 of Sweet Nightmare

“Did you hear what Mozart was humming?” Eva whispers once my uncle walks away.

“If it’s any consolation, it’s not the first time someone has serenaded him with that song,” Ember comments from where she’s lounging against the wall, arms crossed and legs kicked out in front of her. “And probably not the last.”

“I loved it,” Simon adds with another smile so sexy it gets my own heart pounding even though I have absolutely no interest in the guy.

He moves closer, and I go back to breathing through my mouth as Luis makes a little choking sound deep in his throat. “Sirens really don’t play fair,” he growls.

Eva, in the meantime, looks like she’s about one second from breaking into song again. Her lower lip quivers, and she turns desperate eyes to me.

“Help,” she whispers. “I’m begging you.”

Jude interrupts with a growl. “Knock it off, Simon.”

“I’m just having a conversation,” Simon answers, all innocence—as long as you don’t pay attention to the wicked gleam in his eyes or the twin spots of color on his own dark-brown cheeks. The guy really is diabolical.

“And this damn hurricane is just a rainstorm.” Luis snorts.

“Look, can we get on with it? The sooner we get started with this assignment, the sooner we’ll be done,” Ember comments as she pushes off the wall.

“I already told you guys I can handle it,” Jude tells her, fiddling with the large key ring that will open every pen in the menagerie. “Stay outside like your assignments say, and I’ll run down and take care of the menagerie. It won’t take me that long.”

As if. The guy really is a piece of work.

“To get eaten, maybe,” I scoff. “No way are you going into some of those cages alone.”

“What cages are these exactly?” Izzy asks as she and Remy walk up to us. Like almost everybody else, he’s dressed in fresh, non-uniform clothes—not that I’m jealous over here in my wet, clingy shirt or anything—while her miles of red hair are somehow tucked up into a purple New Orleans Saints cap.

“In the menagerie.” Mozart shoots them both a mischievous grin. “Are you guys on admin building duty, too?”

“We are.” Remy’s dark brows hit his hairline. “But I thought we were just boarding up some windows. We’re on petting zoo duty, too?”

“I guess you can call it a zoo, but petting is highly discouraged,” Luis tells him.

“Oh, I don’t know. You can pet whatever you want down there,” Ember tells him as she heads for the nearest door. “As long as you don’t mind losing a few fingers.”

“More like an entire arm.” The smile Simon sends Remy and Izzy is so warm that I get residual tingles, and I’m nowhere near the line of fire.

“For fuck’s sake,” Jude mutters with an annoyed shake of his head. But he steps between Simon and me, blocking out the siren’s glowing smile with his very broad shoulders.

I’d thank him for the rescue, but I’m still too annoyed over what happened between us in the forest. So I just make a face at him before following Ember toward the door.

Besides, Izzy looks more than capable of handling one little siren. Since I’m not so sure about Remy, I hook my arm through his as I pass and tug him along with me. After talking to him in the hallway today, I can’t help thinking that I probably shouldn’t be heinous to the only other person on the planet who misses Carolina as much as I do.

“I appreciate it,” he murmurs in his thick New Orleans accent. “Sirens are trippy as hell.”

“I think you mean tricky as hell,” I answer as we walk down the hall. A glance over my shoulder—not to mention the heavy weight of his stare burning into the back of my head—tells me Jude is following close behind us, a sour look on his face.

I have no idea what he’s got to be sour about, but considering I’m feeling pretty sour myself right now—at least when it comes to him, thanks to his latest kiss and run—I’m more than fine with it.

Eva is walking several feet away, earbuds in and sunglasses on, clearly a ploy to block out Simon. I start to call her over, but before I can, Mozart falls into step on my other side. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to him.”

“Before or after I serenade him with a Disney love song?” Remy asks dryly.

Mozart shrugs, her sleek black ponytail bouncing with each step. “I’d say the odds are fifty-fifty.”

“I feel like I could do a pretty good rendition of ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me.’” He clears his throat like he’s getting ready to practice.

“Hey, I thought Eva’s ‘Kiss the Girl’ was brilliant,” Mozart says with a grin that only adds to the wildness in her black ice eyes.

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