Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus) (2 page)

“Well warned, thank you.” Serena gave a weak smile, grabbed her key from Myron, and walked down the path to the beach. She heard the ferry approaching but couldn’t be bothered to watch the humans disembark. She couldn’t imagine any human having anything that would interest her anyway. She had hours before dinner. Maybe if she was lucky, when all the humans were drugged into sleep while the portal opened to let the other Paras into the Wiccan Haus, she could fit in a swim. Maybe she could find the peace that Dana had pointed out had so far eluded her.

Time, after all, was not on her side. She was hiding. Even Myron’s cards would have read that, had she bothered to flip them.

Kaleb looked out over the distance between the ferry and the dock just now coming into sight. Having just come through what had to be the thickest wall of fog he had ever seen—and in his career he had seen a lot of fog—his highly alert senses knew something wasn’t quite right about this place. Glancing at his watch, he tapped it once before bringing it to his ear to make sure it was still ticking. He could have sworn he had set the time correctly when he landed in Bangor the night before, but the sun’s position in the sky didn’t make sense. But then again, maybe he was just as crazy as all his Coast Guard buddies thought he was. Even if they
were
calling it “post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Maybe they were right and that’s all it was. The stress of watching his best friend die before his eyes and not being able to rescue him had made him a bit nuts for a while. Kaleb had been right there, inches from his best friend as Jim had been dragged under. Not by a wave or a shark—no that would be par for the course—but by
something
Kaleb wasn’t willing to say ever again, not even to himself. He’d said it in his shock to those on the helicopter when he had been pulled up, and then to the shrink when his buddies reported it to the Master Chief.

And look where it had landed him.

Kaleb grabbed his duffle bag, threw it over his shoulder, and waited while the couples disembarked. He offered to carry the bag of a woman with a bad limp, but was quickly pushed to the side by members of the staff who assured him they had it. Looking up the walkway, he focused on the swinging sign that said in big bold gold letters:

Unbelievable
, he thought,
you tell a shrink you see a mermaid pulling your best friend to his death and they send you to a spa of spiritual healing run by witches. And they called
me
crazy.
Realizing he was talking to himself, Kaleb shook his head.

Walking into the large, airy lobby, he waited patiently in line. There were security men in the distance, looking over everyone as they entered, and Kaleb wondered why a spa needed so much muscle. These guys could have rivaled the Secret Service.

“Good afternoon, and welcome to the Wiccan Haus. You must be Kaleb Theldon.” The woman behind the desk smiled at him, flipped a few cards in her solitaire game, and then handed him a key. “You’re in room three, third floor, third elevator. Hmm that’s a lot of threes,” she murmured to herself, shrugged, and then handed him a folder “Here is a list of required classes for you. Hopefully they can assist in your healing.”

“Sage…”

“Actually, it’s Myron. I can’t find my name tag.” She smiled. “
Again
.”

“Myron, unless you can heal crazy, I doubt any of these classes will be of any help.”

“Oh, you’re not crazy, Petty Officer Theldon.” Myron flipped a last card and turned it crossways above the center card. Staring at the three of hearts, she looked at him through slightly raised eyelashes. “Hmm another three. No, not crazy in the least. Enjoy your stay…Hello, welcome back to the Wiccan Haus, Ms. Shanis.”

Having been dismissed by the rather flaky Myron, Kaleb took a deep breath and headed past the giant who was standing guard over the second elevator as if it held national secrets and made his way to the third elevator. The security guards here made
him
look small. Kaleb waited next to three others for the lift doors to open. His fellow guests chatted lightly, and he smiled when they looked at him. It seemed as if everyone else was here of their own free will, while he, on the other hand, was here by force. He would do as he had been ordered: take his classes and vow never to mention what he had seen. Anything to get approved for active duty again, back to the job he loved and the team he thought of as family.

Arriving at his room, he was amazed at the sense of calm that came over him as he walked in. Though small, the room didn’t feel claustrophobic, and with the dark-wood king-sized bed in the center of the white-walled room, it had a homey feel. Dropping his duffle bag on the leather armchair in the corner, Kaleb walked to the far end of the room to a little alcove of natural wood and opened the window wide. The view of the ocean was breathtaking, and although he hadn’t requested a beachside room, he was thankful nonetheless for the ability to listen to the cadence of the waves as they lapped the shore.

Exhaustion overtook him. Perhaps it was the stress of the last few weeks finally catching up with him, but for the first time since that dreadful storm, Kaleb let himself stop thinking. Determined to just rest his eyes, he toed off his shoes and lay down on the large bed. He listened to the ocean, breathed in the deep clean air that surrounded him. Exhaustion turned to relief as sleep overcame him, and he had no desire to fight it off.

He awoke to a loud knocking on his door. Glancing at his watch, he was shocked to see he had slept several hours. Yawning, he shook the edges of sleep off and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He sat there for a moment, gathering his bearings. Only as the knock became more persistent and louder, did he get to his feet and head to the door.

“What?” he demanded, throwing open the door.

Standing before him was one of the security men he had observed earlier. But there was an air about this one that told Kaleb he was the head honcho.

“Dinner is served. It’s required that everyone on the island attend.”

“Right. Give me a second to get my shoes and I’ll head down.”

The man grunted before marching to the door across the hall and pounding again. This was not a job the man seemed to enjoy. “Damn it, Sage,” the man muttered as he walked past. It appeared everyone on the floor had decided to take a nap.

“Don’t mind Rekkus,” a blond bohemian woman said with a grin. “He’s always surly.”

“I heard that,” Rekkus said, pounding on yet another door.

“You were supposed to,” the woman said, laughing. “I’m Sage, and you must be…Kaleb?”

“I am. And you’re one of the owners?”

“I am. I hope you found the room comfortable. We try to customize the rooms to the guests to help in healing.”

“Of course he damned well liked the room. The whole damned floor liked their rooms so much not one of them came down to dinner,” Rekkus said from behind them.

“Surly.”

Actually, had Kaleb been in the same position, he would be just as pissed. He imagined the last thing on the security guard’s job description was babysitting a horde of guests and making sure they got to dinner.

“I’m not
surly,
Sage, I am
pissed
off
and merely stating you overdid it this time.”

“Rekkus, meet Petty Officer Second Class Theldon. Kaleb is a member of Search and Rescue with the Coast Guard.”

Rekkus seemed to measure Kaleb before asking, “Why are you here?”

“My superiors think I’m nuts.”

Rekkus walked with them into the elevator and waited for it to fill before jabbing the one button. “Well, you’re in good company. They’re all fucking nuts here.”

“Rekkus.”

“Don’t you dare ‘Rekkus’ me. If you hadn’t pulled this I would be…”

“Dana isn’t going anywhere, you nutty tiger. Good lord, she even married you.”

“Sage, one day you will…”

Kaleb left them arguing in the elevator, certain Sage would win out over the large man. Honestly, as his stomached growled, Kaleb couldn’t care less about the squabbling of hotel employees.

Walking into the dining room, he found a heck of a lot more people than he had expected; only twelve had arrived on the boat with him, and he had been told the boat only came once a week. The number in the dining room was nearly double. The group he had arrived with all seemed to have gravitated to the area of the dining room painted light green; he was sure there was some new age name for the color, but “light green” worked for him. The rest of people all were in the darker green. He must have missed the memo that said which green he was supposed to eat in.

That was when he saw
her
, sitting alone in the corner, sipping her soup. She had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her long blond hair lay over bare shoulders, caressing barely-covered breasts. His mouth watered as his eyes soaked in the sight of her. Kaleb took a few steps in her direction, but a strange uneasiness came over him as he crossed over into the darker green area. Odd, that he should feel almost sick the further he moved into the dining room. Taking a few paces back, the feeling subsided with each step. This place was getting weirder and weirder. Kaleb would have to be content to just go back to the light green side and eat his dinner in peace. All he had to do was get through his week, and then maybe, just maybe, if he kept what he had seen to himself, he would get back to his crew and team and back to what he was good at—rescuing people at sea. But even knowing what was good for him, his gaze still stayed on the blonde in the corner.

“She’s not for you, Mr. Theldon. Trust me; her beauty is only skin deep.”

Kaleb turned to see a tall goth woman standing beside him. If she actually cared either way about his wellbeing, it didn’t show in her eyes. “And why would you care?”

“I don’t. Just telling it like it is. She is not someone, no matter how good a swimmer you are, you should get into deep water with.”

“Never mind Sarka,” Sage said, pulling him into the lighter green section of the dining room. “I would say my sister’s bark is worse than her bite, but that would be a lie.”

“So I shouldn’t stay away from the blonde?”

“Everyone comes to the Wiccan Haus for their own private reasons, Mr. Theldon. That is all I can really say about Serena.”

Though Sage’s words seemed to have a world of things lying below the surface, she had placed him with a direct and unhindered view of the blond woman. Her beauty reminded him of a sunset over the ocean’s horizon. He, a man who had never waxed poetic in his life, saw this woman in sappy terms all related to the ocean. Perhaps he was getting crazier by the minute.

He sat down, and Sage handed him a sheet of paper. “Your schedule for tonight. We had to readjust due to your nap.”

Massage with Lakshmi.

Now that’s more like it
, he thought. Maybe he would get through this week after all.

Chapter Two

S
ERENA
S
ANK
I
NTO
T
HE
P
OND
as it sprang to life around her. Dropping deep into the water, she looked around before letting her legs merge into one large fin. She leaned back and let her head float, face just above the water, looking up at the dusk sky. The sky had turned the beautiful color of coral in the Mediterranean, shades of orange and pink blended together in breathtaking splendor. This was her favorite time of day here on the island, when the guests were getting ready for dinner and she had the lake to herself.