Page 53 of Don't Tempt Me (Nora Jacobs 4)

I growl, losing my patience. My siren is hungry, and she doesn’t want to wait any longer.

“Who was the job for?” Nick demands.

When Sabin doesn’t respond to him, I repeat the question. “I don’t know,” he murmurs. “The job was posted on the darknet. The listing was anonymous.”

Nick leans forward in his chair. “How did you exchange the goods for the cash? Where? When?”

Again I repeat Nick’s questions to Sabin, and my siren purrs with satisfaction when he obeys my call. He rattles off the address of what he claims is an abandoned house. “We dropped off the package yesterday morning. We were left a key to a 24-hour storage unit where the payment would be dropped off by sunset today. We picked it up this evening before we headed back to Lansing.”

“Give us the address to the storage unit,” Nick demands. I can sense his excitement. His energy only feeds mine. I repeat his demand, but I’m starting to lose focus. My siren wants more than answers. My power is growing restless, and I’m going to give in. Every time I use it, it feels better and better. It gets stronger. It takes over even more. I feel like I’m one with the darkness in me, and this insignificant man belongs to me. “Mine,” I murmur.

“Nora?” Nick asks.

I lean forward all the way over the table and place my hand over Sabin’s chest. I reach through him with my power and connect with the steady beat of his heart. With a blissful sigh, I begin to pull his essence into me. His soul will be mine.

Sabin screams, and the sound of his agony invigorates me.

“Nora! What the hell are you doing?”

I hear Nick shouting, can hear the worry in his tone, but I won’t give up my prey. Not until I’ve consumed every last drop of his life force.

“Nora!” Nick shakes me hard, but I don’t snap out of it. “Nora!”

Nick tackles me to the ground, physically breaking my connection to Sabin and finally snapping me from my trance. My power slips back into hibernation, and I blink myself back to the present. Nick is on top of me, pinning me to the ground and gaping at me with wide eyes. “What the hell was that?” he asks.

I feel sick to my stomach. Fear and disgust overwhelm me.

“Nora, you with me now?” Nick asks. He climbs off me and helps me sit up. “Are you okay?”

“I…I…” My voice trails off. No. I am definitely not okay. My eyes find Sabin. He’s hunched over in his chair. “Is he dead?”

Nick checks his pulse and shakes his head. “He’s alive. Mostly.”

I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Nora, what happened?”

I plop into my chair and cover my face with my hands. I can’t bear to look at Sabin. His skin is dried up and wrinkled, as if he’s severely dehydrated, but I know that’s not it. I’ve sucked a lot of his life’s essence from him. I’m a monster.

I don’t want to admit what I did, not even to myself. But I’m dangerous and unstable. I need to be contained. “I’ve been having trouble controlling my siren. It’s like she has a mind of her own—an evil mind. My power was born from a curse. It’s dark. And the more I use it, the more it starts to control me.”

Director West and Parker enter the room, concern written all over them. I get up and fling myself into Parker’s arms. “You should lock me up,” I tell him. “I’m dangerous.”

“There has to be a way to fix this,” Nick says. “A way to control your power.”

I swallow hard. I’ve never loathed myself more than I do right now. “Giselle said there isn’t. She said all sirens eventually go dark.” My eyes fill with tears. “Oliver said he didn’t believe it. He said if a light magic user can turn dark, then a dark magic user can turn light, but he has no idea how. He was going to look into it, but…” I sniffle. We all know why he couldn’t look into it. “And now there’s this contract out on my whole clan, and there’s the missing mythics. There’s too much going on, and no time to worry about how to fix me. You should just lock me up!”

I’m panicking. My heart is pounding and my thoughts are scattered. I’m going to have a complete meltdown. When I start to hyperventilate, Nick takes me from Parker and grasps my cheeks in his hands. “Jacobs,” he says calmly. “Take a deep breath and hold it.”

When I do, he tells me to let it out slowly and take another one. He waits until I’m completely calm before wiping away the tears on my cheeks. His touch is shockingly gentle. “You okay now, partner?”

I hold his gaze, letting his deep brown eyes ground me. I let out a shaky breath and nod. “I’m okay.”

He holds me a moment more, letting us have a moment, making sure I know he’s there for me. “Nobody’s going to lock you up. You hear me, little spitfire?”

“But I can’t control it. I’m dangerous. I could—”

“I’mnotlocking you up.” He gently shakes my shoulders.

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