CHAPTER 18

T he parking lot to The Cove was packed. I swallowed hard as I neared the line outside the building. Anticipation. Need. List. Frustration. The list of emotions droned on and on. My stomach rolled with nausea, but I swallowed it. I had to fucking do this.

I focused on slow, deep breaths while I took my place at the back of the line.

Inhale. Think happy thoughts. Exhale.

Wash, rinse, repeat. I knew the drill. I may have hated being around large crowds, but I knew how to survive if I had to—I wasn’t great at it but still. I just had to get in there, find the siren, find out where Gray was, and kill it.

Sounded simple enough.

Some guy tried to talk to me, but I tugged Gray’s hat lower over my face and hoped to hell he caught a fucking clue. He didn’t. He kept on chatting up a storm about some chick inside or some shit. I barely registered a word he said.

At the door, I showed my license to the security guard. He barely gave me the time of day as he glanced at it. I expected something like annoyance or frustration from him, but the man had no emotions. None at all. Odd but I couldn’t focus on that.

In the blue light lobby, I checked in my phone and keys just like Gray had said he had to. There were four of us in the room, each in a different corner with a security guard helping us. The same question about weapons echoed around the room.

I squinted at the guy as I answered. He felt… cold. Just hollow and cold. But that deadpan expression on his face didn’t match. It was off-putting. It didn’t feel… human. He didn’t feel human.

I shook that thought off. I didn’t have the time to entertain that. I was looking for a siren. That was it. I didn’t have the time to focus on anything else. Not with Gray’s life in danger.

“Turn it around or take it off,” the guy said gruffly and gestured to my hat.

“Right,” I muttered as I flipped it around. “Sorry about that.”

“It stays that way the whole time or it’ll be confiscated, got it?” he continued. Like hell was anyone taking Gray’s hat from me.

I was last to leave the room. As I passed under the first archway, it began beeping at me. All four guards converged on me. Shit, they took security seriously.

“Backup.” One gestured for me to move toward them. “Slow steps.”

“Sorry about that,” I said loudly, digging deep and plastering on the charm. Playing it off, I put my hands up. “I’m going to reach into my shirt. Don’t come at me now, guys. Promise it’s all good. I didn’t take off my tags. I didn’t even think about them.”

Not a single damn emotional inclination from any of them. They weren’t human, but they weren’t sirens either. They weren’t complex enough. I’d deal with them later—maybe.

“See?” Sticking to the casual attitude, I dipped a hand in my shirt and pulled out my tags. “I’m harmless, promise.”

“I doubt that,” one of them grunted.

“Tonight I’m harmless,” I corrected with a forced grin and hoped to hell I looked it to them. I waited patiently as they gave me a thorough once-over with a metal detector. The three knives on me went completely undetected— thank you magic. It only sounded off when the metal detector came close to my tags. I smiled wider. “See? Harmless.”

“All right,” he replied and handed the metal detector off. “We have to be careful. You understand.”

“Of course,” I said, tucking away my tags. “No harm, no foul, man. You’re just doing your job.”

“You’d be surprised with some of the guys we get in here.” He motioned me through the door, following closely. Oh, small talk. I fucking hated small talk. “We just want the best for our girls.”

The transition to sudden darkness was unnerving—short but unnerving. When the club door opened, the blast of music was damn near enough to take me out by the knees. That combined with the intense emotions made me want to turn around and high-tail it out of there. These kinds of places were my worst nightmare.

For Gray. I was doing this to find Gray. I just had to keep that at the forefront of my mind.

“Ladies,” the security guard began as he ushered several strippers toward us, “make sure Private—”

“Sergeant,” I corrected.

“Make sure the Sergeant here is well taken care of,” he continued before leaving me to be surrounded by three women. Fuck.

One said something, but I didn’t hear her. Instead, I focused on that feeling as her hand drifted down my arm. Something warm trickled down my skin. I glanced to the other side as another put her hand on my shoulder.

My skin prickled uncomfortably at the energy that rolled over me. I clamped down harder on my personal defenses, letting it wash across my skin rather than take me over as it tried.

I recognized that feeling.

Holy fuck. There wasn’t one siren. My gaze drifted over the open room.

It was a den of sirens.

Every goddamn stripper in the room was a siren.

Gray never stood a chance .

No one did.