Captivate: A Siren's Lullaby Novel by Jody Morse and Jayme Morse Excerpt

Captivate: A Siren's Lullaby Novel by Jody Morse and Jayme Morse - Coming Soon!

Chapter 1

The ocean didn’t have to whisper my name in its soft, soothing voice for me to know that it was calling me, reeling me in like a fish on a hook. I could feel my body slowly gravitating towards it on its own.

Luring men (and sometimes women, too) wasn’t something I had any control of. I tried to remind myself of that as my feet took the familiar steps across the cool sand to the water that awaited me.

My eyes focused on the moonlight that streamed across the water, casting its beautiful reflection upon it. I could feel the vibrations come from deep within me, beginning with a low, guttural sound and releasing from my lips in a soft, bittersweet melody. I didn’t know what lyrics I was singing, but I knew them by heart, as though the song was engraved in my mind.

The waves broke against my legs as I entered the ocean, but they felt more like soft blankets brushing up against my skin than saltwater hitting against me.

I wanted to stop myself from singing my song, but I knew that there was nothing I could do. So instead of trying to free myself from it, I gave in to the music that came from within me, the music that my soul knew. I continued with my melody, knowing that I couldn’t stop it if I tried.

Once I was further out into the sea, I could feel that the waves had been interrupted; something was slicing through them, slowing them down. I knew that someone else had entered the ocean—someone who was trying to reach me.

A smile crossed my face, even though it didn’t feel like I was doing it intentionally; the muscles that controlled my lips moved all on their own, twisting into a grin that I knew was supposed to seem alluring to whoever crossed my path.

As the person swam closer to me, trying frantically to reach me, I tried to get a look at their face, but I couldn’t. My vision was clouded over with haziness, and all I could see was a dark silhouette. I was unaware if the person was male or female, but the closer they swam towards me, the more the realization hit me: whoever it was felt drawn to my song . . . and it was going to kill them.

*

I woke up and ran a hand through my hair; sand clung to it in sweaty clumps. I wasn’t lying on the soft mattress in my bedroom; I was curled up in a ball on the damp sand beneath me.

I cocked one eye open and remembered what had happened. Startled, I bolted upright and scanned the beach. The moonlight casted over the sand well enough for me to see that no one else was there. I was all alone.

Standing up, I brushed the sand off of my bare legs. I was wearing the mint green silky camisole and matching shorts that I had fallen asleep in.

Glancing up at the night sky, I realized right away that part of the reason I had lured was because it was a full moon. The rest probably had something to do with my mood. Everything had been kind of crazy lately. In fact, it was beginning to feel like my world around me was falling apart.

Angelica was mad at me because she still thought I had lured and killed her husband, George, on the night of their wedding, even though I knew I wasn’t the one who had done it. I’d been at the beach when he died, not in the saltwater pool that he’d been lured into. Tyler, my sort-of-ex-boyfriend was in the hospital because I actually had lured him, but, for reasons unknown to me, he hadn’t died . . . even though he should have.

And then there was Jackson. Ugh. After the scare I’d had on the night of Angelica’s wedding, I knew that I had to stay away from him for his own safety. That meant I’d been ignoring all of his phone calls and text messages for the past two days.

It wasn’t the way I wanted things. I wanted, more than anything, to be with him. But I knew that being with him would put his life in too much danger, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. It was my own personal sacrifice to keep him alive . . . even if it broke my own heart during the process.

Sighing, I turned to walk away when I spotted it out of the corner of my eye—a mess of long brown hair splayed out on the surface of the water, being tossed around by the gently rolling waves. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me.

The woman in the water wasn’t just floating. She was dead.

I had killed her.