The Siren's Call

IIII

"Are you sirens?" Henri asked in a polite tone to a group of gorgeous people. It sounded forced. The man Henri asked smiled and Karis noticed the fangs. Wow, he was right, they were at the palace podium, she thought. Henri said that's where the king made the biggest announcements. It was a large stage and podium on the outside of the castle, next to a few small streets. Someone had gathered a group of people there as the sirens went throughout the crowd, taking people's hands, smiling, telling them about the beautiful kingdom the sirens lived in. Henri called it "a boatload of lies." But his acting was horrible and they would never be convinced to let them inside the room where all the people who would be officially converted were taken.
"OH MY GOSH IT IS!" Karis started jumping up and down, frantically slapping Henri's shoulder. His expression was a look of shock and amusement. "Gosh I admire you guys so much! My mother told me all the legends of the greatest sirens! It's always been my dream to be one! Say, is the your kingdom REALLY made of gold? Do you actually get to lure sailors into the ocean?" She said this all in one breath, the way she'd seen the highschool girls at her school talk about guys on the football team. The male siren smiled, genuinely pleased.
"Why of course. It is a beautiful place, and luring men and woman into the sea is an easy job! Becoming a siren increases your looks and charms, of course," he had a strange accent, sounding almost French as he smiled flirtatiously at Karis, "but I don't think you'd need that. I bet you could become one of the best sirens, since you already have the natural beauty." Karis fluttered her eyelashes, raising a hand to her face as if to hide a blush.
"That would be so amazing," she said dreamily. "How do we start?" The smile faded from the man's face. He was older than her, maybe twenty four, too old for her in her opinion. Yeah, and red hair was not her thing at all...but, she was a good actress, so why had he stopped smiling?
"We? The boy too?" He spat the word out with a certain insulting quality. Karis tried to think.
"My brother and I? Yes! He can be a bit quiet sometimes but girls love that mysterious look he always has. And with the hair too! I'm sure he'd make a great siren...!" she fake giggled, but the blush was genuine. This seemed to satisfy the guy and he smiled again, shaking hands with Henri. The corners of Henri's lips were turned up in amusement.
"Wait," Karis let the color drain from her face and horror fill her voice, "we will get to become sirens, right? I was so excited when I heard there were some here, in this old city..."
The handsome boy put a gentle arm around her shoulder, leading her forward and Henri followed, his smile looking forced now as he glared at the man's arm. "Of course love, of course. Just follow me." It worked, Karis thought with a sigh of relief, as he lead them into the palace lobby where some twenty or so young men and woman waited with excited expressions. Henri had told her that most of them wouldn't know what actually being a siren meant. You had to get bitten first, and a siren's bite was supposedly the most painful thing that someone could experience. Not to mention the want to drown unsuspecting humans and drink their blood. Karis could only picture them as vampires now.
"Wait here, and you will soon become one of us!" The redhead smiled at Karis and walked out of the room, the door shutting with a click of a lock.
Crap, she thought.
She leaned in closer to Henri to whisper in his ear.
"What do we do now?"
"I suppose we do both have back hair," he mumbled under his breath. Karis frowned.
"What?"
"You said I was your brother."
"Um yeah, because he would've never let us in otherwise. But what do we do now that we are in?"
"Well, first thing's first. There's gotta be somewhere they're keeping my guards, the ones who haven't been fooled."
"Why don't we ask one of the sirens?"
Henri stared at her with a blank expression. "Are you crazy? That would not go well for us."
"Then you can stay here and watch." Karis walked up to one of the female sirens lining the walls of the room, watching.
"Hey, I'm Karis! Pretty awesome so many other people wanted to be sirens... I always have." Karis smiled and held out her hand. The gorgeous blonde smiled back, shaking her hand.
"I'm Melody, and yeah, it is pretty awesome. It's always nice to have some company." There was something menacing about her smile but Karis ignored the feeling deep down in her gut. This woman was a murderer, but that Karis needed to focus.
"Bet the stupid King here didn't like that," Karis said with a light laugh. "It must've taken a lot of convincing."
"Well you know, that's what I wanted to do, but the other guys just wanted to capture the guards. They're still trying to find the King, too much pride. You know guys." She said with a smirk and Karis nodded with another light laugh.
"How would you capture the guards? And where would you even put them? See you were probably the smartest, convincing the King would've be much easier. But you know, the plan worked."
"Surprisingly," she said with rolled eyes. "They had to stick all the guards who weren't entranced by our...ways in the King's ballroom. Kind of lame, but it worked. Not that there were many guards who could put up a good fight." Karis laughed.
"Sounds about right. Oh, I see my brother! Good luck Melody, I can't wait to join you guys," she said with a wink. She casually walked away, trying to keep her steps slow so she wouldn't seem to be rushing.
"Hey bro," Karis said, giving Henri a uncomfortable slap on the back. She could almost feel the girl's icy stare on her back. "Pretend to say something funny now and then laugh."
He mumbled something Karis couldn't hear and smirked as she laughed. She leaned in close to him.
"They're in the Ballroom. You guys have a ballroom?"
His eyes widened. "Of course that's where they'd put them, how did I not see it before?" He seemed thoughtful. "If that's the case then we have to get out of here without being noticed."
There were enough people that it shouldn't be hard. Henri nodded toward a separate door and they slipped through quietly, the sirens barely glancing at them. Well then, Karis thought, this shouldn't be that hard then.

"One of us needs to make a distraction," Henri pointed out, peeking at the ten sirens guarding the....guards. Guarding the guards.
"And?" Karis asked, taking in a deep breath.
"And you're a much better actor than me. You'll cause a distraction, most of the sirens will leave the room, then I'll go in and free the guards. You'll have to distract them until my men and I can come. When that happens just stand to the side and avoid dying..." he winked. "You might want to keep a vase with you just in case."
She nodded, feeling a little sick to her stomach.
"Just make something up, but it has to be good."
"Okay okay, when?"
"Now." She watched as he dodged his way through the small crowd of people, until Karis could no longer see him.
"Help!" Karis got a few concerned glances but the sirens paid no attention to her. She collapsed to the floor and let out her loudest scream. Then every head turned towards her and she put on her most pained look.
"Someone please help!" Two sirens rushed toward her, but it's not good enough, she thought. "That man attacked me! The Captain of the guards!" People flooded toward her, mostly sirens trying to quiet her so as not to scare away potential sirens. People started asking her questions.
"Who did you say attacked you?!" A man with a dark green tunic and a large sword.
"Are you okay?" A woman holding a small child–not a siren.
"Where did he go?!" Many people all at once.
Karis tried to lift herself up using only her arms, doing her best to make it seem much more than the average lazy-teenager-who-doesn't-want-to-get-up struggle. "I think he went that way!" She pointed to a dark street thirty yards away. "He took someone with him. I think it was a siren." The other sirens' faces seemed to have a shadow on their flawless skin. Karis imagined that they were wearing masks, and underneath was the deadly fangs and hypnotizing eyes she had seen before.
"She's right, May is missing." A dark eyed man pointed out, a hand on his sword, as if he wasn't sure whether to pull it out or not.
"Isn't she with the guards?"
Karis let out a moan of pain at the other siren's answer.
"The guards? The guards! You idiots, the guards!" The dark eyed man drew his sword now, the other sirens doing the same. "It's a trap!"

They turned to Karis and she screamed.

"There!" She heard Henri's now familiar voice yell as forty armed men ran through two large doors, the sirens turning away from her and toward them.
"Kill them!" The man yelled, and she could almost feel the menace in his voice.
Unfortunately for the sirens, the guards outnumbered them by almost double. Karis jumped to her feet and ran to the side as fast as she could, urging confused citizens to get out of the way.
Karis was surprised to see the sirens drop their swords and lunge at the men with their fangs. The air was filled with the sound of ear piercing yells as the two sides collided. She turned away, feeling sick at the sight. Most of the sirens would be kept alive, but still. She didn't like it. Fortunately, they eventually gave in, Henri and the guards started tying them up and making sure no one was injured.

One thing was odd though.

There was a man not more than ten yards away from her who stood still, staring at the scene in horror. The corners of his lips were turned down in a scowl as he shook his head and turned toward her. He's the man from the gate earlier, Maurice? He was walking her way, staring straight at her in a way that gave Karis chills. Somehow she wasn't able to move, as if her feet were rooted to the ground. He was less than a foot away from her now. He gave her a menacing smile, revealing a pair of fangs.
"Hello child."