to get to know you, but it would be like dating a human I guess."
"Are you a witch?" Casper asked, his head tilted to the side as he took me in.
"Unclear." I paused, gauging their reactions and my gut instincts. "My mom is a siren, but my dad is a question mark. All I know is I can sense magic."
"A siren, like a mermaid?" Casper frowned and looked at me.
"No, like the old-school, Greek mythology ones. They had wings but were human women. Of course, the stories were exaggerated claiming that they were half human half bird, but they did get their song part right."
"So, if you sing to us, we'll die?" Magnus asked, sounding incredulous that such a power existed. He was a demon, but this surprised him?
"No, but you would become..." I searched for the right word and felt like I failed miserably. "Drones in a sense. I would be able to control you, if I was on a rocky shore and your ship was sailing by, I could call out and ask you to come closer, and you would, without question."
"Fuck, that's crazy," Magnus muttered.
"You're a demon. How is this any crazier?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"It's not, I'm just surprised I've never heard of it before."
"We're not exactly a huge community." I poured a cup of coffee and offered it to each of them. When Magnus took it, I poured another for Casper and one for myself. The hot liquid heated my hands through the ceramic of the mug in a way that soothed my soul, just as the aroma of the coffee seemed to curl around me and promise relaxation and peacefulness once ingested. I know it's not always the case, but it has always felt that way.
"And you have wings?" Casper asked.
"One second..." I pulled on the magic that kept my wings concealed, or in a different dimension, or wherever it was they went, and suddenly their weight was on my back once more. I never used them. What was the point? I lived and worked in the same place, I barely had any friends that lived so far away I needed to fly to them, so I just kept them hidden. The soft, dove-gray feathers were visible in the corners of my vision, and as I watched these two confusing men, they both seemed transfixed by the new limbs I'd just sprouted from my back. "Does that help?"
They both nodded and reached out to touch the feathers as though my words had broken whatever trance they were in and they had remembered they could move. I pushed the magic back over my wings and felt the weight of them disappear, letting me know they were safely concealed once more. The last thing I needed was for one of the guys to touch them and figure out that they were super sensitive. I'd probably orgasm on the spot with how my body was behaving. "What kind of demon are you anyway? And for that matter what kind of shifter are you?" I asked, wanting to distract from my wings as I turned to Casper once more, my mind pulling the awkward response from the parking lot back up.
The two men looked at each other, and for a moment I didn't know if they'd answer. After some sort of silent communication Casper started, "I'm on the edge of being a shifter. I'd always thought of myself as more of just a magical being, or maybe even a spirit, until today when the mate bond kicked in, now I'm not so sure." He took a deep breath and seemed to gather his courage. "I'm a kelpie."
"A water horse?" I asked, trying to dredge up any tiny bit of information I had tucked away in my brain somewhere on them, but that was it.
"Water spirit might be a better way to put it. I can shift into a horse form, but it's not quite what you would expect. There's no fur or wavy mane, and it terrifies most people. It's what I am though, and what I'm hunted for being, so please, don't tell anyone."
"Your secret is safe with me. If you could keep my siren info to yourself that would be good. I don't need people running away from my business because they’re scared I'm going to ensnare them with my voice."
"Done." Casper grinned as he looked at me, and something softened in his gaze, something that warmed my heart.
"And you?" I asked, turning to