Siren Song by Stephanie Draven

the one thing sure to startle her awake was the sound of a gun being loaded. She sat up, almost tasting the metal barrel of a rifle as she clutched the sheets. “Alex?” He’d pulled on a pair of pants and now stood in front of the screen door, gripping a pistol in his hand. “Alex, what are you doing?”
    His whole body quaked as if he were a junkie coming off of a high. “ Gods above and below! You don’t hear that?”
    “Hear what?” she asked, listening only to his labored breath.
    “There’s another siren, dammit!” Then he looked at her, with such pain, such contempt. He had the look of a man who believed himself betrayed. He looked utterly destroyed. Crushed. He held her to blame. “I should have remembered that sirens usually come in pairs.”
    “Pairs?” Chloe didn’t know what he was talking about. She tried to hear what he was hearing. She heard the rush of the river as it flowed into the bay. The chirp of crickets. The croak of a frog in the distance…there it was. Just beneath the whisper of the leaves, from the direction of the dock, someone was singing a lullaby. Worse, Chloe recognized the voice. “Alex, wait!”
    But he was already out the screen door, which banged closed behind him. Chloe threw on the nearest item of clothing she could find, which happened to be his shirt, then ran after him. The damp grass against her bare feet sent a chill through her. But more chilling was the sight of Alex crouched, his weapon at the ready.
    “Stop!” she cried after him.
    He may have gone out with the intention of defending himself with his gun, but now he almost dropped his weapon as he clamped both his hands over his ears. His attention was riveted upon the figure of a woman in a white dress who stood on the wood planks over the water. His posture changed with each note. “What’s happening to you?” she cried.
    “You know exactly what’s happening to me, Chloe. I’m falling under the spell!”
    He’d been reckless enough to kiss her and now he was totally defenseless. All at once, she saw his self-control crumble and he swayed with the music. He was being lured! Chloe grabbed at his arm, but his eyes were on the water where the singer’s pale face was illuminated in dawn’s early light. Now there could be no denying that Chloe knew her. “Sophia?”
    “Stay out of this, Chloe,” she said, then picked up her melody again as Alex began to fill his pockets with stones.
    “You’re a siren?”
    Sophia’s song stuttered to a stop. “A siren? I’m powerful, that’s what I am. Now no man will ever make me feel powerless again!”
    “But…but you said that when we were captured, the enemy never got the chance to lay a hand on you. You lied?”
    Sophia started singing again, so Chloe grabbed her by the arms. “What are you doing to him, Sophia?”
    “I’m protecting you, Chloe. I couldn’t help you in Iraq, but now I can. I won’t let anyone treat you like an object ever again.”
    Chloe staggered back. “You killed the midshipmen!”
    “You weren’t crying any tears over those two until he came along.” Sophia motioned to Alex, who stumbled along the shore, his pockets filled to bulging.
    “Those midshipmen never hurt me. I didn’t need to be protected against them. Certainly not against Jay! He was into you, Sophia.”
    “He was a cheating scum. Or at least he would have been, if I’d given him the chance. I saw how he looked at you…”
    Sophia’s voice slid back into the notes of her melancholy song, and Chloe watched as Alex’s face was transformed by desire. It infuriated her to see the way his eyes caressed Sophia’s curves. Chloe only ever wanted him to look at her that way. “Leave Alex alone!”
    That made Sophia sputter to a stop. “I have to protect you from him. He’s going to hurt you like all the rest.”
    Alex looked dazed, half-caught up in the desire, but he managed to lift his gun. “Give it up, Sophia. You can’t drown a triton.”
    Chloe didn’t