“Feed off your own kind, Lorelei,” he snapped.

Lorelei? He knew her?

Lorelei bared sharp, pointy teeth and hissed. “Like you do, Incubus? I can smell her on you. Are you protecting her so you can drain her dry yourself?”

“I will see her to the door safely, just as she has brought these undines here safely. You should thank her for bringing them.”

“Why? She’s only brought them to a barren land where they’ll fade away. They’ll never have the joy of love or bearing children …”

“But there are a few male undines among you,” I interjected. “I saw some.”

Lorelei snickered meanly. “Did you? Well, let’s give you a closer look. Hans!” She snapped her fingers and one of the wan boys lifted his head and tried to melt back into the crowd. But she turned and pinned him with her hard, glittering eyes. Hans skulked forward, head down and shoulders stooped. When he was a few feet away Lorelei caught him by a hank of his hair and pulled him forward.

“Take off your clothes for the nice lady, Hans.”

“Please,” I said, seeing the look of dread in Hans’s eyes. “I think I get your point …”

“My point?” Lorelei laughed, baring a mouth full of tiny sharp teeth. “But do you get Hans’s?” She snapped her fingers and Hans’s clothes disappeared. He clutched his hands to his groin, but unfortunately the motion of his hands drew my eyes there and I saw what Lorelei meant by her cruel joke. His groin was as bare as a Ken doll’s. I looked away, but not before I glimpsed the pain in his eyes.

“All the males born in the last spawning were eunuchs,” Lorelei said.

“Eunuchs?” the juvenile undines echoed. “Does that mean …”

“It means no fun for you and no babies,” Lorelei hissed. “It means that if we can’t go back to the human world and stay for a season there won’t be another spawn. It means we’ll all fade away. Open the door for us, doorkeeper, or sign our death warrant.”

“But the door might close in a few days and then you would have to come back,” I said.

“Who will make me?” she said, baring her teeth.

She had a point. But suddenly I didn’t like the idea of letting Lorelei loose on my world. She was mean and her teeth were scary …

A gust of wind suddenly tore Liam from my side and Lorelei was at my throat, teeth bared. “Mean? Scary? You haven’t seen mean or scary yet, doorkeeper. Let me through or I’ll rip your throat out.” Her teeth grazed my throat and I smelled her rotting fish breath. I could also hear the juvenile undines’ fluttering thoughts.

She helped us, don’t hurt her.

Then I smelled the scent of raspberry and saw my new friend plucking at Lorelei’s arm, “Let go of Callie. She’s my friend.”

Lorelei swatted Raspberry away as if she were a gnat. I heard Raspberry’s cry of pain and felt her anguished surprise that one of her own kind would hurt her. But the years in Faerie had drained Lorelei of any kindness she might have once had. No way was I letting her loose on Fairwick.