The Voice

Chapter 8

Nora turned her grin on Chloe, and then said, "So what's going on? Matt never lets anyone into his super-secret lair of hidden knowledge."

Matt said quickly, "They just needed some information."

Nora looked behind us and narrowed her eyes, asking, "Why are Gran's journals out?"

She turned her suspicious look on her brother and I cut in, "It's cool. We know about you guys."

Nora's eyes widened at her brother and she blurted, "What? Matt..."

I interrupted again, my stomach fluttering as her chocolate eyes swung back to mine, "It's okay. I'm a siren and Chloe..."

Chloe cut across me, "Chloe is none of your business."

I glared at her. She was looking at the two of them, her lip curled.

Nora asked, "A siren? I thought those had gone extinct."

"Not yet," I replied, "Though we're close. There are about twenty of us left, as far as I know."

"Hm," she said, raising an eyebrow, "Learn something new everyday. So what's the research project about?"

Matt froze, a blush creeping up his neck to darken his face, and I stood for a moment wondering how the hell to explain this to her. Of course, Chloe had no such problem.

She said, "We're trying to find out what happened to Sirena's Voice after your dear brother raped her."

Nora's mouth dropped open and she yelped, "He what?"

"Nice, Chloe," I growled, "Real fucking nice," I turned to Nora, "That isn't what happened. Well, sort of."

Matt sighed and covered his face with his hands, then sank into his chair. Nora's gaze swept over us, her brows drawn, and she walked to a chair next to Matt's and sat.

She said, taking Matt's hand, "Okay, take your time, and tell me what happened, because that doesn't sound like Matt at all."

I shot Chloe one more furious glance, then sat across from Matt and Nora, and began, "Well, it was my mating time. We'd been out on a date once before, and my mom set us up again."

Matt laughed a bit, his head still lowered, and said quietly to Nora, "She's the one whose car I puked in."

I shook my head and went on, "I was running out of time to mate, and The Voice was getting out of control. I was nervous, so someone had the great idea that I should have a few drinks before our date."

Chloe actually looked a bit remorseful. Wonders never cease.

I gave her a rapid, forgiving smile and continued, "I got drunk, so Matt drove me home. I asked him in. We ended up in the bedroom. The Voice clicked on at the wrong moment. I said no, but The Voice already had control of him."

Nora took that in for a moment, and then said, "So, Matt wasn't in control of himself."

I nodded and said, "He wasn't. And he felt like total shit after, until I came clean about what I was. I don't blame him at all."

She nodded and asked, "So what's wrong with your Voice?"

"It's gone," Matt answered, drawing her eyes, "We looked in Gran's journals, because I know she'd written that after the mating The Voice is supposed to go crazy, not disappear."

Nora nodded and said, "I seem to remember her saying that. What did you find out?"

Chloe cut in again and spouted, "Either the Voice is 'lost to her' because she didn't mate with a human, or it's dormant because she's pregnant."