Part Two
"What?"
"She had foresight."
"How do you know?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense."
Bucky nodded, and Steve shrugged.
"You may be right."
"How else would she have known about the siren?"
"Yeah."
Steve smiled a little, then frowned. "She hasn't left your tent. Are you sure she's alive?"
Bucky shrugged. "Dunno."
"I'm gonna check." He stood. "Dugan made breakfast, so you better hurry before it's all gone."
"Okay." Bucky headed toward the main area of the camp.
In Bucky's tent, the siren was curled up on the floor, awake, but staring blankly at the wall.
"Are you okay?"
Her head snapped up, but when she saw it was him, she calmed…mostly.
"Sorry, how are you feeling?"
She sat up slowly. "My leg and ribs hurt…but they're better than they were."
"That's good."
She nodded a little.
"Do you hurt anywhere else?"
She shook her head.
He nodded. "That's good, you're healing then. I need to check on the wounds though."
The siren nodded. "What do you want me to do?"
"I need to unwrap the bandages."
She nodded again.
Steve kneeled down beside her and started unwrapping one near her wrist. She let him, silent, then closed her eyes, some of her tenseness fading as he poured some clean water over the wound. He continued to tend to her, and slowly she relaxed.
Once her wounds were clean, he wrapped them again tightly, discarding the old bandages. He could feel her eyes tracking his movements, but did not let that distract him. He finished quickly.
"Thank you."
He nodded.
She bit her lip. "Is it possible that there may be somewhere else for me to sleep while I finish healing?"
"Like?"
"I…I don't know…" The siren ran a hand through her hair. "I just don't want to waste all this effort you're putting out to heal me by being shot in the middle of the night because I accidentally started humming or something." Her mouth snapped shut, and she looked up at him.
Steve frowned. "You should stay here. Despite how the captain may seem, he's my closest friend and his heart is in the right place. You'd be safer with him than on the beach alone."
The siren nodded slowly, and he offered a smile. She smiled back.
Footsteps sounded; signalling Bucky's approach, and Steve left the tent.
"How is she?"
"She's healing. But if you want anything like what Becca wrote, you're going to have to turn up the charm; a lot. She's afraid you're going to shoot her in her sleep because she started humming."
Bucky sighed, looking down at the plate in his hands. "I didn't mean to get upset at her." His voice was pitched so only Steve could hear.
Steve put a hand on his shoulder. "I know. But she doesn't know that, and honestly, I don't think she'd believe you if you told her that. It is a reasonable fear, considering the fact that in most cases, she would have been killed when Miles had her."
"Yeah, I know."
Steve nodded, then left.
Bucky went into the tent and sat on his mat. The siren was curled up against the wall.
He looked at her. "You hungry?"
She looked up slowly. Her stunning eyes landed on the food, and her tongue darted out to lick her lower lip before drawing it between her teeth for a moment.
He held the plate out to her. "Here."
She watched him, silent, then warily reached out and took the plate. Their fingers brushed, and his eyes met hers. Her pupils were a tiny bit more dilated than before, making her eyes look deeper. Her teeth captured her lip again.
He let go of the plate. The siren set it on the ground, her eyes a little glazed and still piercing straight into his. Her teeth released her lip; it was a little redder and looked…quite inviting. He had to look away, or he was going to do something that if his father was still alive would never have forgiven him for.
"Look, I'm truly sorry for overreacting on the ship last night, and I'm doing all I can to make it up to you."
The siren picked up the plate. "Why did you let me live when your crewman had me?"
"Because you weren't causing any harm."
"I was one of the ones in the storm." She started to eat…and not at all in any way mannerly.
"But when you were alone, you did nothing to harm us…why?"
She gave him a Look as she swallowed a piece of fish. "I was outnumbered and had a sword in my fin. I'm not an idiot."
"But before that you must have been alone. Otherwise you would have stayed with your family. Why did you take such a chance?"
The siren paused, a piece of food halfway to her open mouth. She set it down. "What do you know about sirens and their mates, captain?"
He looked at her. "I know enough."
She quirked a brow elegantly. "That doesn't give me a very clear picture, captain. What do you know? Or would you rather me tell you the whole of it?"
His hands threaded together tightly. He really didn't want to talk about it. "My father…taught me."
The siren frowned, then continued eating. Bucky relaxed a little.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better than I was."
He nodded. "Good."
She finished what was on the plate.
"What did you think after reading that note?"
"Several things at once, though they were a bit scattered after you came in."
"Like what?"
The siren set down the plate. "At first it was mostly sorrow. Then a measure of surprise."
Bucky nodded again. "Yeah."
Her tongue darted out to lick some sauce from her finger and where it had dripped on to the webbing that stretched between her middle knuckles. Once it was clean, she lowered her hand and looked at him.
Bucky smiled slightly, and his heart skipped a beat when she smiled back.
Suddenly the air seemed to shift, and the siren's eyes almost glowed. "There's a storm coming. A natural one, not siren-made. Do you and your crew have ways to protect against it?"
"No, why?"
"You're going to need it."
"How bad is it?"
The siren closed her eyes and opened her mouth a little, a soft, thrumming note echoing through the air for a few seconds before she stopped. "Your ship will not be harmed, but these flimsy...whatever they are will be blown away."
"The sails?"
"These." She grabbed the side of the tent. "They will blow away in the wind."
"So what should we do?"
"I do not know. You cannot dive beneath the waves as I would were I whole."
"When will it come?"
"Not certain."
Bucky nodded. The siren curled up again.
"Are you still hungry?"
"No." Not for food, anyways. But he probably didn't know of the empty feeling that can only be described as hunger when a siren had found her mate but cannot claim him.
"Okay."
Liron made a vague noise, not quite a hum, and rested her chin on her knees.
Bucky yawned a little, then went out to check on the men. He could see the storm brewing on the horizon. A frown marred his face as he made his way over to Steve.
"Make sure everything is secured."
His friend nodded and rallied up the crew to do so.
"Quickly men! Quickly!"
Rain started to fall. The siren stepped out of his tent, still as naked as she had been the entire time. The wind blew her hair back, baring her further. She did not seem to care.
"You should stay inside!"
She looked at him, the lightning lighting up her eyes. "Isn't it beautiful?!"
"But it's dangerous! You could get killed!"
She laughed, and a thrill shot through him. He wanted to hear her do that again. He wrapped his arms around himself as he started to get cold, but it was more to control himself that anything else.
"Get yourself to safety!"
The siren spread her arms wide and spun, not seeming to hear him.
"I said get to safety!"
She stopped spinning and looked at him. It dawned on him that the storm had done something to her as she simply extended a hand to him. The wind whipped her hair about her body, somehow accentuating the fact that her hair was the only thing covering it.
Bucky stared, unable to move, and then her teeth captured her lip and she smiled. The wind raged about them and slammed into his back, forcing him closer to her or else he'd fall over.
"Stop! I-I can't! I'm sorry!"
Her hand lowered, and something broken flickered in her eyes. She turned toward the waves. Bucky looked down, feeling strangely ashamed. He didn't know what to do. He looked over at his men. Steve made eye contact with him, and then Bucky looked back at the siren.
She was much closer to the water than she had been, and her bandages were gone, all wounds except the one on her calf seemingly healed.
"Please! Just stay in the tent!"
"Why?!"
"Because I want you to be safe!"
Lightning crashed into the sea, lighting up the sky for an instant. Rain fell harder.
Steve's voice sounded distantly. "Bucky! You're gonna have to grab her!"
Bucky took hold of the siren and pulled her to his tent.
She didn't resist, but when they were inside, she backed up against the wall, her eyes wide. Whatever the storm had done to her was fading, and now she just looked scared.
Oh…he didn't look angry. Just serious.
"Now stay here. It isn't safe."
Liron nodded silent, her fear fading.
"I'm sorry I scared you." He left the tent.
"Steve! Come help me!"
The tent started to tighten. Liron sat silently.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome!"
The captain returned, securing the door-flap behind him.
He sat with a sigh, pushing his hair back.
The inside of the tent was dark, and now that the door-flap was shut, it felt very…close. The air seemed tinged with sparks, and not only from the lightning outside.
"You okay?"
"Yes." Her eyes met his, and she was trapped again.
She forced herself to stay still, even though everything inside her was urging her to claim him right now.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and his gaze broke away from hers. Her eyes trailed down what of him she could see, and she shifted to sit on her knees.
"I am sorry."
He looked at her.
Liron avoided looking in his eyes so she could focus. "I am sorry."
"For what?"
"For being something you hate."
His beautiful eyes were wide. "I don't…" He pursed his perfect lips. "It's not your fault you were made to be a siren."
"But that seems to be the only thing keeping you from letting yourself be my mate."
His lips turned down in a frown. "Look, I've had…a dealing with your kind, and it has turned my life around."
Liron listened.
"…one of your kind killed my father."
She bit her lip. He began to talk, telling her how his father had been a siren hunter, and had passed that mantle onto him, teaching him since he could walk.
There came a point where Liron realised he forgot that he was talking to a siren, and she went very, very still as he started describing things that made her heart stop. He said something, but she couldn't hear him for the blood rushing in her ears. She couldn't get breath…
"What?"
Her eyes snapped to his, and her voice was quiet. "I don't want you to be my mate. Not anymore." She started to shake. "Let me go…please, let me go!"
"Hey, stop, I'm not going to hurt you." He moved to put his hands on her arms, and she flinched, staring at them.
"We only kill to eat, did you know that, hunter? Not for...trophies. I don't-I don't want to make your next trophy...please let me go."
Liron's eyes darted to the door-flap of the tent as she calculated the risk of trying to run with her wounded leg through the storm; how far she could get before…
"Would you stop; I don't hunt sirens. I only hurt or kill them if they try hurting me."
The irritation in his voice only made it worse, and suddenly she couldn't breathe. His words faded to just white noise, and she started to move without realising it, scooting slowly toward the door of the tent. A large hand closed about her arm.
Liron froze, then forced herself to relax and close her eyes, resignation written on her face. "Please make it quick."
"I told you I'm not going to hurt you. Don't you listen?"
"I don't believe you. You've killed so many of my sisters, what makes me any different?"
"Because they tried to harm me. I was only trying to protect myself."
"Your father hunted them. And you said he passed that on to you."
"I did hunt them, yes. But when I got my own ship and crew, I stopped. The last time I…I slaughtered them…the wailing…I-I realised what I was doing…taking away their family…just making it worse. That's why I stopped."
She looked at him. He was staring at his hands.
"I have nothing against you or any of your family."
"All sirens are my family, Captain. Especially my pod. They are my sisters. That's how it works. I don't imagine your father cared to learn our culture, and in turn teach it to you."
His beautiful eyes were sorrowful. "Like I said; I don't have anything against any of you…all this time on my ship I've been fighting to stay alive. But there's not really any point. Everyone in my family is dead."
Her eyes met his, but instead of being trapped, she was spurred into motion. She kissed his forehead; not a claim, just a hope. "I can give you a new one…if you want."
The captain leaned back a little. "I…" He looked down. "I thank you, but…I can't."
Liron sat back on her heels. "…I understand."
Well there went her chances. An outright offer refused…
"But…there's no reason we can't be…friends."
She chuckled a little.
"Why are you laughing."
"You know after I'm healed we probably won't meet again, right?"
Bucky's heart sank a little. She was right, but…he shrugged. "Still. If we ever did, I would be glad to know that there is at least one siren not out to kill me."
The siren smiled a little, and it drew him in. "Indeed."
