Page 108 of Siren in the Rain

That’s our cue to speed the fuck up.

We round the corner to find half a dozen armed security guards opening up a fortified room.

Harper is a deadly blur as he takes down the entire group before I can even lift my Super Soaker.

Dallas quickly moves to each person, takes away their weapons, and tosses them in a storage closet that he locks behind him once he’s done. “They’re out cold, but best to be safe in case they wake up and decide to do anything stupid.”

We follow Harper into the room the men had been guarding and come to a standstill, staring around in horror.

The bare walls are lined with enormous prison-like cages all too similar to the one I was contained in at my father’s house. Each and every one contains a person wearing the same type of collar I had been forced to endure—for seven long agonizing years.

My breathing gets weird and my hands start to tingle before I realize I’m hyperventilating.

Griffin takes me in his arms and cradles my head against his chest. “I’ve got you, babe. If you can’t be in here, we can leave and wait outside. The others can handle this without us if they have to.”

I focus on his soothing scent—sunshine and coconut—and the comforting warmth of his touch as I willfully calm my breathing, then pull back. I’m still shaky, but I’m not going to let this beat me. “I have to help them,” I manage to choke out. “I need this.”

He nods in understanding. “Okay. I’m here with you the whole way.”

Once again, Cal works his magic and is able to short-circuit the access panel for the cages, automatically unlocking them all. We quickly manage to get everyone out, but they’re all in need of medical aid. We count three young vampires, two dryads, a gnome, a satyr, a basilisk, and two kobolds.

Dallas pulls out his phone and dials someone. “We need you, Ruby. We’ve got a number of captives who require medical aid.”

I hear her voice through the speaker. “On our way, Captain. We’re just about done here. I’ve got you on my GPS locator. Be there in two minutes.”

Anemone and I look around the room, our worry mounting because we don’t see my mother anywhere.

I hasten to approach the poor people we’ve rescued. “I’m sorry. I know this is all a lot right now, but have any of you seen a siren being held here?”

Most of them shake their heads, but a frail-looking dryad wordlessly points an emaciated finger toward another door at the back of the room.

My aunt and I look at each other before racing toward it. The heavy door’s locked with a keypad like the one on the back entrance of the building, and I yank on it, unable to get it to move.

“Dammit!”

Harper’s at my side in an instant. He tries the code from earlier, but it doesn’t work. Then he attempts another with no success.

“Never fear, my blade can handle this.” Harper stands with his parasol sword at the ready and with a graceful swing, he cuts through the thick metal door in one smooth slice as if it were a soft stick of butter.

The broken door falls inward and we hurry across the threshold and into a smaller room containing a large, aboveground, glass-sided pool. The water inside is murky, and it doesn’t look as if the pool’s been cleaned in a long time.

“Oh god,” I whisper.

“Tempest,” my aunt says.

As if in a trance, we both move closer, gasping when a hand presses against the inside of the glass.

We scamper up a ladder along the edge and discover that the top of the pool is covered with a secure panel. Fortunately, it has a simple open-and-close lever and we flip it, then retract the cover inch by slow inch.

Once it’s fully open, we hover frozen for a moment, watching and waiting. The water is too opaque for us to see much of anything, but just when I think my aunt’s about ready to dive in, something comes shooting to the surface.

That’s when I realize it’s a person—or, to be more precise, a siren.

She looks weak and far too thin. Her hair is matted and an indiscernible dull color while the scales on her tail are fraying and a worrying gray. To be honest, she looks quite ill.

But when she turns her gaunt face toward me, I gasp.

All these years later, I still recognize her.

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