Beautiful Fury

Chapter One

Present Day, 2015

I trailed my hand across the smooth skin of the young stingray. The gray hue of her skin matched perfectly with the clouds above the surface. I sighed when I felt Elena's presence behind me.

"She has taken a peculiar liking to you," Elena laid a hand on my shoulder.

The stingray, frightened by the woman's presence, swam above me, closer to the surface.

"She was released by a group of marine biologists earlier this morning," I said and turned toward Elena.

She looked the same she had seven years ago except her aura has changed. She no longer was the scary thing in the water that was trying to kill me. Elena was a maternal figure to me now, she nurtured me the first couple of months after I turned and taught me what I needed to survive.

The ocean was cruel and unforgiving, nothing like how it's perceived in fairytales.

"My child," Elena spoke with adoration dripping from her lips. "You are so special."

Special. She always said I was special.

I'm the gray space between black and white. I'm the dusk after the sun has set, but night has not fully come. I am nothing, yet I am something.

That night when I was thrown over the boat, Elena changed me. She had the full intent to turn me into a ruthless siren, but something stopped her. Instead of ridding my body of my soul, she kept it and let the tendrils of darkness grasp at it.

She sunk the whole party boat after she found me. She killed every single one of those kids, except Gwen. Whether Elena wanted her to live a life full of guilt or she spared her life because of me, I do not know.

I am not a siren nor am I a mermaid. Thank the Gods I'm not a mermaid. Those things are pathetic, falling stupidly in love with humans and end up killing themselves by trying to live on land.

Although recently, I fear my soul my be weakening and succumbing to the darkness more and more. I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet.

"I need you to do me a favor, Mara," Elena said and I nodded. "Travel to Melinda's ship and ask her for an amber stone from the Black Sea and a human lung."

I nodded again. I started my journey to Melinda's, somewhat reluctant. Melinda is the siren that has slightly fallen off the deep end over the centuries. She'll kill you if you cross her even over the slightest things. A little over two decades ago, Melinda's daughter accidentally knocked over a music box and broke it.

That night, her severed head floated to the surface and caused a great deal of ruckus among the human authorities. It was quite entertaining, Elena had said.

The only reason I'm not the least bit frightened to pay Melinda a visit is because of Elena. Elena is the first of the Siren. She is everyone's maker and destroyer. She grants life to those willing to raise it, but she also takes away just as generously.

As I swim through the dark waters, the young stingray joins next to me. I smile and brush my fingers against her back.

Melinda's home was closer to the the coast of Maine, almost alarmingly so. It's not a problem, though, since the humans are too dumb as to look under them rather than just skim the surface of the water.

As Melinda's sunken ship came into view I gasped. A body length mirror stood leaned up against the bottom. I quickened my speed and stopped right into front of it.

I couldn't process what I saw. It was me. I've only seen my new form twice in the seven years and it still shocks me.

The mirror had a crack down the length of it and in the reflection was a surreal sight. It was a creature with skin as purple as a fresh bruise and hair as white as the clouds in the sky.