June 6, 1841

"I don't suppose you'll provide any consideration about this would you?" A young man's voice shouted as his small boat floated across the glassy sheen of the Aegean Sea.

"You supposed right young man," the older gentleman replied over the swaying docks. "I have better things to do than associate my business with a child. Find someone more foolish than I to take you on, and maybe you'll earn enough money to buy a himation."

The long, boisterous laugh followed the sea captain's words as he strolled towards his ship, leaving the young man to grumble under his breath as he pushed his anchor over the side.

"Moron," he barked in Greek, making his way to the head of the boat.

Boats rocked back and forth in the surging waves as clusters of wind pushed them further towards the docks, but not Damari. As he raced to the sails to set them on their proper course, he tossed his tattered fishing net into the waters, securing it tightly against a notch in the side of his boat.

Pulling out a small bronze coin, Damari held it in front of his body and stared out across the waters, the moon's hazy glow reflecting against his sun burned face as his thoughts drifted.

"Tyche," he whispered, his thumb rubbing over the coin's filmy surface, "please grant me the fortune of bringing home sustenance for my family. We need this desperately and I need to prove myself to them...that I can take care of them."

An uneven sigh left him as he tossed the coin into the glittering masses, watching it slip and slide to the bottom of the sea.

"It was worth the try," he grumbled, dusting off his hands as he moved to the front of the vessel. "Maybe she'll decide to hear me this time."

He propped himself against the railing of his boat and tipped the chair he was sitting in back, dropping a thick cloth over his stinging eyes.

A short time later, a small ringing like that of a child's laughter wafted across the breeze. Damari jerked out of the chair to see the net's small tin bell shaking on its cord as darting

"Perhaps the Goddess really is looking out for me," he laughed, hauling in the net furiously with his leaden weights, eyes widening at the fish that flopped on his deck in hopeless attempts to reach the water.

Mirth danced in his vivid electric blue eyes as he began counting the fish that he would keep for his family and sell to the merchants in the port near Athens. A splash alerted him to movement at the from of the big, but he continued hauling in the net, for he was too involved with the number of fish on his deck to care if a small turtle or shark had managed to swim by.

However, it was none of these creatures, but the distinct flash of gold and silver beneath the surface of the water couldn't have been anything else than the servants bound to Demeter's burning curse...

Sirens.

~~~~~~

Alena had found her way into the populated coves of the port in search of food as another siren skirted just at the edge of her tail. Jesenia was her name, but that was all the siren had been willing to say a few months before when Alena had discovered her caught in the clutches of a barbed net.

Ever since then, the young siren had made it her mission to follow Alena's every move, and Alena knew that she'd be lying if she said that Jesenia hadn't grown on her.

Unaware of Alena's thoughts, Jesenia floated next to her as she scoped out the nearest shoal, finding baby blue crabs crawling through the shifting sand along with dozens of clams and broken shells.

"Why are we still searching these shoals if you favor hunting men?" The young siren questioned lightly as she twisted freely in the water, her scales reflecting against the thin barrier from the surface.

"Because we need food," Alena replied, shifting silently in the water as her eyes narrowed on a piece of wreckage that the tide had brought in against the rocks.

"Men are food aren't they?" Jesenia's fingertips skimmed over a pair of slick, moss covered rocks lazily. "Or at least that's what you've said before if I recall correctly."

Alena pinched the bridge of her nose before shaking her head and readying her spear directly above one crab's hard exoskeleton.

"Yes I've said that," she muttered, "but only under the influence of the full moon."

Jesenia went silent, but started up again with more curiosity. "What difference does the full moon make?"

Alena froze in her pursuit of the crab, annoyance racing through her as it scuttled into a small cave and out of her sight.

She muttered under her breath and turned around with the sharp spear still in her hands. "It changes me, changes who we are."

"How can it change who we are?"

Alena took a deep breath. "It's like a tonic of sorts, it lures out the worst of us, the beasts inside of us that seek nothing but blood."

"Sounds a bit out there if you ask me," Jesenia scoffed.

"Well you haven't lived as long as I have," Alena snapped, "and one day you'll feel it, the pull, and when you do you won't be able to stop it; the deterioration of your humanity to the thing inside of you."

She swam towards the coves that were hidden on the outskirts of the port, refusing to banter with Jesenia any longer.

She didn't understand how someone who had been exposed to such killings for the longest time could still be so guileless. Although that was how Jesenia was wired she supposed.

Alena knew she was broken, and nothing could fix that.

"Alena!" Jesenia suddenly called out. "Wait for me! You may be older but you swim a whole lot faster, so slow that tail down!"

Ignoring the young siren, Alena swam faster, trying to escape not only Jesenia, but the curling darkness that stirred inside her.

Her instinct went into overdrive, all the ravishing kills, screams that were cut short, blood stained lips and the faded look in a man's eyes when he knew the end was nye. She could remember all of them. Every man she had dragged down into the harsh seas, their pleas for mercy, for some kind of redemption, when none were given.

She sailed past corroded decks of what used to be a magnificent ship, Death's warm, soothing hand emanating from the cool depths as glided to a stop. The sea stopped, stretching far into its dark expanses while echoing down into one of the deepest trenches known to man.

Yet as she thought back through her millennium of killing, one sailor stood out to her from all the others. Beyond the cold, lifeless stares, there was one that she could remember far better than the rest. His eyes had held hers captive, but unlike the ton, she had allowed them to live on, to whatever end they might have reached.

It was the way he had stared.... yes, that was it. He had sung. No begging, no mercy, just a song, one that had permanently imprinted itself in her mind. Not because he had tried to put feeling into it, but because that emotion was already there.

Her sigh slipped quietly across the cavern and in that moment, despite being followed by Jesenia, Alena knew that for her sake and that of anyone she could ever trust...

She would have to leave. Disconnect herself from anyone that she could possibly bring harm to.

She had to leave.

But that would mean abandoning Jesenia and avoiding all contact with anyone else, and her stomach twisted at the mere thought of never speaking with anyone ever again.

"Then I'll really go crazy," she thought aloud.

"What'd you say?"

Alena gasped, teetering on the end edge of the cliff and spinning around to smack Jesenia in the arm.

"Warn someone before you sneak up on them from behind!" she exhaled, inhaling deeply as she studied the flickers of the living shadows beneath.

"I wasn't sneaking though, I was right behind you the entire time trying to warn you." Jesenia complained.

Alena chanced a glance at Jesenia, her brows drawn together. "Warn me about what?"

Jesenia lifted her arm and pointed to a small vessel that settled close to the rocks above. "The net."

In inspecting the floating mass further, Alena could see that a small net was hanging off the boat, the flash of silver fins signaling that many fish had begun to swim into its silky clutches.

Sighing, Alena flicked her tail, preparing to drift further inland when she was thrown backwards, spiraling into the dark.

A frustrated scream left her throat as Jesenia screeched and swam out, reaching for her hand and struggling to pull her back in as Alena's eyes focused on the back of the creature that had struck her.

She had never seen a creature larger or faster than the monstrous beast that launched itself from the depths. The sharp edge of the shark's dorsal fin could have killed her, let alone the rows of razored teeth as it increased its speed, breaking the surface and splitting the measly ship into two with one bite.

Alena grabbed Jesenia as she screamed in horror, the boat's broken pieces strewing across the top of the water. Fish that were closest to the wreck scurried away as fast as their fins could take them.

"Alena!" Jesenia screamed.

Alena spun around to find a man floating face down in the water, his clothes ripped and a cut bleeding from his forehead, spilling his blood into the water and drawing the shark closer to his body. An easy catch and what could have been seen as a gift from the gods.

"Alena! You need to save him!" Jesenia yelled even louder into her ear, her eyes wide with shock and fear.

"I can't Jesenia, it's better off this way." Alena murmured, latching onto her wrist to pull her away from the bloody incident.

Jesenia's face flared with anger as she pushed Alena away. "If you don't try to save him then I will."

Jesenia's determination got her a few tail lengths away from Alena before she saw her speed past her with a grim expression on her face.

"You stay there! Is that understood Jesenia?!" Alena yelled, eyes focused on the fellow predator's prey.

"Yes! Just save him already!" Jesenia shrieked, covering her eyes when the shark began to swim faster towards the drowning man.

"What is it with me and saving endangered men," Alena huffed as she shot towards her target. "You'd think I'd be the one doing the killing, but no."

She was only a few feet ahead of the monster when she fastened her arms around the man's shoulders, pulling him out of the way just as the shark's awaiting jaw of knives slammed shut.

"Alena! Behind you!" Jesenia screamed yet again, the shark gaining its momentum towards the unconscious man in her arms.

Disregarding any and all safety for herself, Jesenia swam after the two, hooking her arm under the man's arm and swimming as fast as she could.

There wasn't an opportunity for Alena to reprimand Jesenia, she was too distracted in saving the man's life before he drowned or was torn to pieces in her arms.

The shark's dark, beady eyes bore into them as it snapped at their tails, its desire and hunt only for warm meaty flesh in the pit of its belly.

Alena found herself flying towards the shores of the coast, not caring who saw them as long as they were able to escape the man eating shark.

With one last thrust of her tail, she threw herself, Jesenia and the man onto the sandy beach that lay just in front of a series of dark and jagged looking rocks.

Alena could hear a distinct snap before a loud thud and splash had her gradually looking behind her back.

The shark was gone, leaving behind marks from its pectoral fins in the sand while the only evidence that a boat had been floating a few minutes before was a blue and white tattered flag, floating gently in the waves

Blood dripped from the man's temple as the two sirens struggled to revive him, his chest barely rising and falling with his labored breathing.

Alena pressed her ear against his chest, listening for a heart beat and thanking the gods that she found a faint sound like the flutter of butterflies wings.

She collapsed on top of his chest in exhaustion, the shock of the air in her gills causing her body to shake.

"Alena," Jesenia whispered, staring at the light haired stranger, "do you think he'll be alright?"

"He should be, he's with his own kind now, they'll keep him safe." She said, sliding herself back towards the water.

"How do you know he'll stay safe until someone finds him?"

The question gave Alena pause in her trek back to the sea, the grit of the sand burying itself beneath her fingernails.

"I don't."

"Well you can't just leave him here!" Jesenia protested, yanking Alena back by her hair.

She rubbed her now sensitive skin at the base of her scalp. "What do you suggest I do? Call up some men from the shore and tell them that we saved him and he needs tending to? I don't think that'd work out in our favor, much to your disbelief."

Jesenia glared at her and pulled the man up farther to the nearest rock, placing plants underneath his head and onto the flat surface of the rock.

"Sometimes I wonder why I stick around you." Alena growled, staring at the young man slumbering with peaked curiosity.

"You haven't." Jesenia stated firmly, "but hey, fifth times the charm right?"

~*~*~*~*~