The smell was getting stronger the more she walked towards her mother's apartment door. She lived in a huge building, very modern, very high up, and a lot of space inside. There wasn't a beach nearby, but she could smell the fresh salt water, not the bad fishy kind, the kind where your parents tell you to breath in the sea air. She would get used to it soon enough.
As number 333 came into view, Lexi furrowed her eyebrows, the door was slightly ajar. She wasn't going to do the stupid thing and call out to her mum or ask if anyone was there, like stupid people do in movies. Whoever was in there, she wanted to catch.
Placing her bags on the grey carpet of the hallway, she opened the door slowly; coats and shoes coming into view first, before the large apartment showed itself. Dark wooden floors ran through the whole apartment, the large area consisted of the modern kitchen. Black and white marble, with black glittery tiles, the kitchen was futuristic. On the other side, the living room; two large black sofas, leather and fabric, surrounding a glass coffee table, which had and some flowers growing, including a small bonsai tree, and a large flat screen TV hanging on the thick glass window. The dining room consisted of a glass table with comfy leather chairs, right next to the kitchen, with several doors, hiding bedrooms, bathrooms and probably more secrets.
Before Lexi could explore and find her mother, she couldn't move. She wasn't frozen, but something was crawling up her leg.
"Please not a giant spider or moth" she whispered, before looking down at the ground, vines were wrapping around her leg, trying to trap her. "What the hell?" She asked looking around trying to see anything. She still couldn't move, now the vines were on her thighs. At this rate, she was going to die of claustrophobia. Sighing in anger and fear, she quickly heated herself up, releasing her power, burning the vines.
"So it is true" A soft warm voice, stood out from behind the wall where the kitchen was. Lexi snapped her head up and saw her beautiful mother, Marzia. She could see why her father was so attracted to her; shiny flowing brunette hair, olive skin, with hazel eyes to match, pouty lips to match Lexi's. And a figure that other mother's would die for after having four kids.
"Mum? What was that?" She asked dusting herself off.
"Your father told me you were coming, told me you found out, everything, so I wanted to put it to the test" She explained "I placed some soil down on the ground, where I could manipulate it to grow vines, I needed to see what elemental siren you are"
"Say what now?" She asked grabbing her bags from outside and dumping them in the hallway, closing the door.
"I guess the reason you are here, is to find out the truth?" She asked
"Can't I see my mother as well? I hardly do. Strict rules of the Clave and the Institute, which has likely changed for me" She sighed.
Marzia sighed and dragged her daughter in for a hug. "I missed you too sweetie, we all did" She placed a soft kiss on her daughters brown hair.
"Where are my sisters? Or are you going to tell the truth about that?" she asked. Marzia raised her eyebrow.
"Elettra is doing her own thing, Clara is doing her own thing and Rosa is at nursery. I will explain everything to you. Go to your bedroom, unpack, and I will tell you everything" She said, stroking her daughter's cheek. Letting out a sigh, Lexi nodded before grabbing her bags and headed to her room.
As she opened the door, she was hit with a makeover. Her New York style bedroom had a touch of beach theme to it. But only something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, a turquoise book. Shoving her bags onto her bed, she grabbed the book. Mermaids; Myth, Legends & Lore, the exact same book she had at the institute. Shaking her head, she opened one of her bags, not seeing the book.
"Okay, I put you in here" she said frowning dumping everything out her case, clawing her way through the amount of clothes she took. Not finding it.
Shaking her head, she managed to unpack quickly, before grabbing the book and heading to the kitchen bar, sitting down on the stool as her mother made tea.
"Is this book the same book from the institute?"
"Yes"
"How is that possible mum?" she asked
"When you started showing signs of your abilities, I made sure you got your hand on the book, I made sure you picked it out from the book shelf in the book store. I had put a spell on it, to manipulate your mind to buy it"
"You did what!"
"Don't get all mad, now you know what you are, mind manipulation doesn't work on you, or anyone that knows what you are"
"Mum. Please. Start from the beginning" She begged. Handing a mug of tea to her daughter, she sat beside her at the bar.
"Okay. Sirens are the enemy of the mermaids, not that I have met one. Mermaids are the gentle creatures who ride with the dolphins and talk to the fish, while we are the violent vicious creatures who drown men and devour them after we sing the song" she explained. "But it's untrue, most of it. Sirens were born to sit on rocks, sing the song of sirens, make the sailors crash their boats, while they drowned and then devoured their bodies to keep young. But some sirens back in the day hated that idea; some sirens followed the story, while others tried to be good. That caused a war; the good sirens won, and changed the history and story of sirens" she explained sipping on her tea. "One day, many, many years later, we had some rogue sirens, they attacked some men, causing Shadowhunter's to investigate the beach, Shadowhunter's killed some innocent sirens, while the real culprits got away. I managed to escape, but one of them caught me, about to slice my throat open"
"Dad" Lexi spoke quietly.
"Yes. I begged him, but I couldn't manipulate him, one I didn't want to, and two, I couldn't. Sirens cannot mind manipulate someone if they know they are a siren or if they were the one"
"Dad was the one"
"Exactly, he saw my innocence and let me go. A few days later, he was on the same beach looking for me. We got talking and that's how the romance started.
"How old were you?" she asked
"29" Lexi frowned at the calculations in her head.
"But you have only been with dad for 20 years. Elettra is older than me and Clara by 3 years"
"That is when another situation comes about" she mumbled.
"I had Elettra already when I met your father, she was 1. He knew this, he didn't care. She didn't have a father. I told him, she didn't need him as a father, it wasn't required"
"Huh?" Lexi asked confused.
"What I am about to tell you, you can't judge, there are worse people out there"
"I won't judge"
"Good. So, when a siren turns 28, an age mundanes and sirens find to be the average age for a woman to get married and start having kids. They have to find a decent man, manipulate him, and sleep with him to conceive a child. If I found your father earlier, he would have fathered Elettra and you and Clara. Sirens have children two ways. Either through mind manipulation at the age of 28, or if they find the one before that, they are free to have children out of pure love. Love is a rare thing for Sirens, since apparently due to our history; we have a cold dark empty heart"
"Okay, fine. It's something you can't control. So that means Elettra and Rosa, Hodge isn't their father"
"Exactly"
"Why isn't Rosa? Why did you break up with dad?"
"What did he tell you?"
"That he wanted to protect you from the Shadow world, if the Clave found out he fathered children with a siren, bad things would happen"
"Which was true, but he obviously didn't tell you the whole truth"
"So you tell me" She asked
"When I informed your father I was pregnant, he freaked out. Lexi, he ended the relationship because he was thinking of himself, he didn't want you. Being a Shadowhunter was more important to him than being a father"
"Son of a bitch! So he has been lying to me all this time!"
"Yes. After he told me he couldn't be in the situation, I left him, then I found out through the pod, I was expecting twins. You and Clara"
"Pod?"
"Werewolves have packs, Sirens have pods"
"Right; wait, two questions. One, wasn't Clara at the institute, and who is the father of Rosa?"
"One, Clara is a natural Siren, meaning she has no angel blood. For some reason during the pregnancy, because I had twins, the angel blood only chose one daughter, and made the Siren side stronger in Clara's case. It's never happened before, but it just happened. Maybe if you and Clara were identical twins, it might have happened, but it didn't. And second, Rosa's father is just a random man I had a crush on. I know it sounds bad-"
"Mum, I am not going to judge you. You have no choice in the matter" she smiled "So when you say the Siren side is stronger in Clara, what's that mean?"
"It means she has a harder time controlling her true siren. Wanting to seduce men, sleep with them, and kill them. But right now she has it under control; it's when the full moon occurs"
"Full moon?"
"Just like werewolves are affected, though we don't turn into fluffy dogs. If the full moon affects us, we go full bad siren mode, until the full moon goes down. And sometimes, if the full moon affects us deeper than we wanted it to go, we become rogue sirens"
"Like the ones who started the attack?"
"Exactly" Lexi nodded in understanding "That is the basic stuff you need to know about sirens. If I have forgotten anything, I will let you know" she grinned. "So I guess you want to know about your powers?"
"Yes. I need to understand them more, control them, without blowing someone up"
"Molecular combustion, that's a good defence power, with one hand gesture you can blow up large things"
"Tell me more" Lexi smiled
"You are a different Siren. An elemental siren, if a siren is born on a full moon, just like you and your sister, you were born on a full moon, which means it granted you an elemental power. You have Pyrokinesis, while Clara has Hydrokinesis"
"Fire and water, both opposite elements"
"Exactly, all your powers are based on your personality, you being a hot head and your sister being emotional. I on the other hand can be hard-working and harsh, since I am a mother, and a elemental siren as well"
"Let me guess, earth?"
"You know your stuff"
"Right, now it all makes sense, anything else?"
"Not right now, not that I can remember, I will let you know, but right now, we should spend time together, then tomorrow, we practice your powers, and go for a swim"
"A swim?"
"Oh right, sirens require to swim in sea water to hydrate us, keep us strong as well as our powers, if not, we can dehydrate and die"
"Now you tell me!"