The wereshark nodded.

  “I can’t promise they’ll never hunt sharks again. But I can get them to stop for a time. I’ll do my best to make sure their leader sits down with you and any other ocean werecreatures to determine how you can safely share the waters. It’s not a promise, but it’s what I can do. Is that enough to get you to release them?” Shasta motioned in the direction of the two sirens.

  “We need justice for Laurel.”

  “I’ll request the sirens try to determine who killed her and work out a just sentence with you.” It was stretching the authority Agatha had given her, but she had to try.

  He considered for a moment, then shook his head. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

  That was always the crux of these negotiations. Trust. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any powers that could manufacture that. “I don’t have collateral to offer. I will do everything I can to ensure the sirens uphold this bargain. In return, I’ll be trusting that for three days you won’t go after the sirens. If you haven’t gotten any communication from me or them in that time, the agreement is void.” Shasta held her breath.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the sharks. Then he looked back at her. “Deal. If you betray us, we’ll eat you.” He shifted back into a shark and swam off.

  “Thank you.” Shasta let out a shaky breath. Hopefully they’d ensure that she had actually broken her word before killing her. Though considering one of their own had been eaten, she wasn’t sure they’d be that careful.

  The sharks slowly retreated from the waters closest to shore. After a few moments they had cleared a path for Roxana and Pelagia to swim back. Unfortunately, the sirens were so focused on the sharks who’d been harassing them during the negotiation that they didn’t see the opening. Finally, one of the sharks lunged forward, its mouth open.

  With a shriek, both of them darted closer to land. When Roxana looked around and realized there weren’t any sharks nearby, she grabbed Pelagia’s arm, dove under the surface of the water, and streaked back to the island. Seconds later they were in shallow water. When they emerged from the ocean, Shasta could see their fingers were elongated and connected by webbing. Their feet were different too. They were broader and flatter, like fins people would strap onto their feet when diving. Both of them jumped out of the water, landing high on the beach. They collapsed on the sand, shaky after their escape.

  Shasta bowed her head to the sharks, though she wasn’t sure if any of them saw it as they swam away. When she turned around to head back to shore, Cord was already kneeling next to the sirens. As she sloshed her way through the surf, she heard snippets of the conversation. The sirens were tired but not hurt. They had been out swimming when several sharks started following them, so they headed back to the island. They didn’t see the sharks between them and the shore until it was too late and they were surrounded.

  Pelagia actually batted her eyes at Cord. Shasta sat down in the sand, her back to them. Her legs were wet and sandy, hardly ideal for pulling on socks and shoes. She gently extended her will to the water, salt, and sand on her legs. I need dry, clean legs.

  The water flow down her legs and dripped into the sand, taking with it the salt and minerals. When her legs were dry, the sand and other particulate matter tumbled to the ground.

  Thank you. She didn’t get a response, but with how little interaction the earth on this island was offering, she hadn’t expected one. She quickly pulled on her socks, then shoved her feet in her shoes and laced them. Then she got up, unrolled her pants, and dusted off her backside.

  “Shasta?” Cord called out. “I think there’s something you need to explain to the sirens. They don’t want to take my word for it.”

  Of course not, she thought uncharitably. It was perfectly fine to flirt with the guy, but it was truly impossible to actually listen to what he had to say. She set her face in a friendly but otherwise blank expression before she turned around.

  Roxana and Pelagia weren’t wearing a stitch of clothing, which by itself wasn’t a problem, but somehow they managed to maneuver Cord between them. Roxana was clinging to his arm, and Pelagia was leaning against his chest. To Cord’s credit, his unclaimed arm and hand were nowhere near either siren. Not that she cared.

  Instead, she smiled politely. “You need to spread the word. For the next three days, no one can hunt sharks. There are very good reasons, and I will discuss them with Agatha, who will proceed as she sees fit, but for now the price of your safety is that no one hunts, follows, pesters, eats, or aggravates sharks for three days.”

  Pelagia, still leaning against Cord’s chest, batted her blue eyes. “What about the shark meat we already have?”

  Shasta’s stomach clenched. It had been long enough that she doubted any of Laurel was still around, but she wasn’t going to eat shark while she was here. “I’d recommend avoiding it, but that was not specifically part of the agreement.”

  Both sirens nodded. Pelagia snaked an arm around Cord’s waist. He tensed and scooted back, looking at Shasta with wide, panicked eyes.

  “I’m glad you understand.” This smile was more feral than friendly. “I will, however, need Cord back. He’s helping me solve these problems for you, and he can’t do that while you’re holding on to him.”

  When neither siren moved, Shasta stomped over and offered him a hand. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to date Cord, but he said he was hers. That meant the sirens needed to keep their hands off him. Cord grabbed her hand. He was on his feet and somewhat behind her as fast as an elf could move.

  Pelagia pouted.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be telling the other sirens to leave the sharks alone?” There was enough growl in her voice to make a werewolf proud.

  Roxana and Pelagia flowed to their feet in a boneless motion. Casting lingering looks back at Cord, they started back to the main part of the island. Hopefully they would remember what she’d said and tell the rest of the sirens to leave the sharks alone.

  As soon as they leaped over the rocks, Cord swooped her up into a tight hug. “Thank you. I felt like a steak being dangled before starving dogs.”

  Shasta wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed him back. It had been too long since she’d been this close to him, felt the warmth of him against her. “I promise I’ll protect you from the sirens.”

  “Thank you. I never would’ve come if—” He stopped midsentence, released her, and stepped back. He very pointedly looked out at the ocean. “So, the negotiation went well?”

  Shasta stared at him. He’d said something like that before. “What do you mean you never would’ve come? Mom told you where I was, right?”

  Spots of color stained cheeks. “Is it really important right now?”

  She knew the answer to that and so did he, but her question didn’t really change. Cord was a lot of things, but he’d never been quite so reckless as to show up at a place where men were unwelcome. He had a good reputation while he was a cop. Her mom had worked with him a few times and had nothing but good things to say about him. So what had made him so careless as to come here but too embarrassed to admit the reason?

  A scream cut through the air, interrupting her thoughts. She whirled around. It had come from down the beach, where the sirens seldom ventured. She scanned the area, her eyes raking down the scrub-covered side of the volcano to the stretch of beach. In the distance, almost where the beach vanished around the curve of the island, a person was crumpled on the ground.

  “Come on.” Shasta tipped her head toward the siren.

  Cord locked eyes with her. “We help her, and then we figure out who’s doing this. We have to get ahead of them.”

  “Agreed.” With that settled, they jogged down the beach. Cord was right. Whoever was behind the majority of these attacks was at least one step ahead of them and could use that advantage to accomplish their ultimate goal while the two of them rushed from one emergency to another. They needed to break the cycle.

  As they closed the distance, Shasta could hear pained whimpers. The siren was curled protectively around one leg, her brown hair gleaming red in the sun as it draped around her. When they were about thirty feet from the siren, Shasta halted, Cord by her side. Shasta gave the area a closer look. This particular section of beach was sandy, gently sloped, and free of rocks. When Melissa was giving her the tour, she’d mentioned this section of beach wasn’t used much because on the other side of the rough cliff was an active lava flow.

  That gave her a healthy dose of caution since there wasn’t a good reason for a siren to be out here at all, never mind one in distress. “Hello, can you hear me? In case you don’t know, my name is Shasta, and I’m here to help you. What’s your name?”

  “Alexis.” The siren tried to pivot toward them, but gasped with pain and turned white. She held still, taking measured breaths. “Be careful. I think the whole beach is booby-trapped.”

  Shasta eyed the siren, but with the way her body was positioned and how her skirt was covering her legs, Shasta couldn’t see the trap itself.

  “Trapped with what?” Cord asked.

  “Metal and teeth,” Alexis hissed.

  Shasta knelt, pressed a hand into the sand, and let her power slide into the ground. As her power moved down, she came across a spot that felt unnatural and metallic. Above it there was a slight indentation in the sand. Another trap. As her power spread across the area, she found eight more metallic spots, each marked by a slight indentation in the sand. She turned her head just enough to see Cord kneeling beside her, both his hands pressed against the earth. “Do you feel it?”

  “Yes. There’s only one between us and the siren.” He frowned. “We’ll have to be careful when we try to move her. There are two close to her.”

  “That’s what I felt too.” Without breaking her link to the beach, Shasta stood up and brushed the sand off her hands as she turned to Alexis. “Did you hear that?”

  She jerked her head in a slight nod.

  “Hold still. We’re coming to you.” Shasta fell in behind Cord. They carefully walked over to Alexis, positioning themselves away from the two traps beside her.

  Alexis tugged up her dress. Peeking through the sand was a metal trap snapped closed around her ankle, teeth digging into her flesh.

  Shasta hissed in sympathy. “Is this exactly where you stepped on it, or did it move some?”

  “I don’t know. I was walking and then… pain.”

  “May I dig around your foot?” Cord asked, one hand already sliding sand away from the trap.

  Alexis nodded, and Cord scooped away the sand. Her leg shifted and Alexis winced, squeezing a tear out of her eyes.

  “Sorry,” Shasta offered. “We need to figure out if it’s staked into the ground.”

  Without opening her eyes, Alexis nodded.

  Cord scooped away more handfuls of sand, reducing the amount covering each end of the trap. When there was only a light layer of sand remaining, he carefully slid his hand next to the metal. He then wiggled his hand all the way around the end of the trap. Shasta took a deep breath and slid her hand into the sand on the opposite end. Closing her eyes, she carefully worked her hand around the trap. Rather than rope, a stake, or any other method of holding the trap in place, she felt nothing but sand.

  “I didn’t find anything,” Cord said.

  Shasta opened her eyes and pulled her hand out of the sand. “Me either.” The good news was they could move Alexis back to town for medical treatment. The bad news was there was nothing they could do to stop it from hurting.

  Over Cord’s shoulder Shasta spotted a seal peeking out from between two shrubs at the very base of the volcano. It was the second time today she’d seen a seal where one didn’t belong. Earlier it seemed odd, but not overly remarkable. Now, having talked to the weresharks, she wondered if it was actually a wereseal.

  Shasta slid her gaze back over to Cord, who was watching her carefully. “Could you carry Alexis back to town? There’s something I need to investigate.”

  He froze. “Are you sure? It’s hard to protect you from across the island.”

  “We’re partners.” As Shasta said the words, she realized she meant them. As frustrated as she was with his sudden arrival, as much as she didn’t know if she could love him—or stop loving him—they were great work partners. “I trust you to take care of her. Trust me to take care of this.”

  A slight smile pulled at Cord’s lips. “All right, partner.”

  Making sure she was clear of the traps, Shasta moved back, giving Cord plenty of room to maneuver. He repositioned so he was kneeling by Alexis’s side. “Are you ready?”

  The siren glanced around. “Where is the pouch of herbs? They only grow on those rocks. I was gathering them for Berenice.”

  Shasta spotted a cloth bag behind Alexis and handed it to the siren.

  “Thank you.” Alexis held it tightly.

  “Ready?” Cord asked.

  “Do it.” She squeezed her eyes closed.

  Cord slid one arm under her knees and the other around her back. He stood up with Alexis in his arms. Sand tumbled off her trap-laden foot. Alexis screamed, then leaned into Cord, sobbing quietly. With one last look at Shasta, Cord turned and carefully navigated around the traps, carrying Alexis back to town.

  Shasta waited for them to leave this section of the beach before she turned back to the bushes. She pushed her power out a little farther until it crept up the side of the volcano. There was definitely a creature over there, and since she couldn’t feel it clearly, it was probably another shifter.

  Moving carefully to avoid the traps, Shasta worked her way across the beach and over to the shrubs. While she couldn’t see the seal, she could hear something breathing. As she took a step to the side, she summoned her sword. Its familiar and comforting weight settled into her hand.

  She heard a light scuff as she stepped around the side of the bushes. Six feet away, on the far side of the clump of bushes, was the tail of a seal who was making its escape. Shasta pivoted and charged around the front of the bushes, coming face-to-face with the seal.

  It scrambled back.

  “Hello, there. We need to talk.” Shasta kept the sword down by her side, not wanting to look too threatening, but she stayed alert and ready to move if the wereseal offered violence.

  The seal barked at her.

  “I don’t speak seal. Shift and we can talk.” Shasta stared at the creature. When it didn’t shift, she changed her tactic. “I can always take you up to the sirens, tell them all the things you’ve done. They’re very unhappy that someone killed one of them and threatened their eggs.”

  One moment a seal was looking up at her, and the next Carmen was kneeling there, naked, with her hair loose across her shoulders. She looked up at Shasta. “I didn’t kill one of them, no matter how much they deserve it, and I certainly didn’t go after their eggs.”

  Shasta raised an eyebrow. “Well, someone did, and I’ve seen you at two different emergencies today. Care to explain?”

  Carmen shook her head.

  “I know you did something. Now I can hand you over to the sirens and you can hope they’re feeling merciful and generous, which after today I rather doubt, or you can talk to me. Right now they don’t know about you.” Shasta left off the “but that could change” part of the threat.

  Carmen held her ground and glared up at Shasta. “You should be ashamed to be helping them.”

  Shasta held back a sigh. It would be nice if for once someone on this island told her the complete truth. No lies, no half-truths, no deception. “And why is that?”

  “You’re on their payroll. You’re going to hand me over to them no matter what I say.” Carmen looked down at the ground.

  “I don’t know what gave you that idea. I was hired to find the truth, even if that truth isn’t one they want to hear.” The sooner she got the truth, the sooner she could get off this island and get Cord away from the sirens.

  “Do you mean that?” Carmen looked at her with big eyes.

  “Yes.”

  Carmen stared at her for a moment before nodding. “I told the sharks today would be a good day to go after the sirens. I set the tripwires and the traps on the beach. I put the net, fishhooks, and underwater speakers in the cove. I set flares among the rocks. But I didn’t kill anyone, and I didn’t try to harm their eggs.”

  That accounted for about half the incidents, and all the ones near the shore—well, if Shasta assumed the waters hadn’t been chummed as much as the sharks had simply decided to harass the sirens. “Give me one good reason to believe you.”

  “I can’t prove I didn’t do the other things.” Carmen tucked her hair behind her ears. “But I know who did and I know why.”

  Shasta vanished her sword and knelt down, eye to eye with Carmen. “Who?”

  “Why, the sirens, of course.” Carmen smiled sadly. “All the things that really bother them, they did to themselves.”

  Shasta stilled. “Why? Carmen, why would the sirens do this?”

  “Oh, it isn’t all the sirens. It’s a small group of them.” A single tear slid down her cheek. “They did it because they want to return to the old ways. They killed my husband.”

  Shasta couldn’t hear the waves crashing against the shore behind her or the wind sweeping across the island over the pounding of her heart. The sirens had knowingly and intentionally killed men. Cord had delivered himself to the island, the perfect prey, unwelcome and ripe for the killing. And she’d sent him up to town alone.

  Chapter Nine

  The sound came back with almost audible pop. “You said it isn’t all of them. Is Agatha one of the killers?”

  Carmen shook her head. “Not Agatha. Since you’re here, I’m guessing she doesn’t even know.”

  Shasta took one deep breath and then another. As long as Agatha continued to favor him, Cord was probably safe enough in town “How many of the sirens are involved with the murders?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been spending a lot of time around the island as a seal, trying to hear them talk.” She sighed. “At first I hoped to hear who had killed my husband, and I wanted the sirens to suffer. So far all I’ve learned is that not all of them like living this way.”