Neris didn’t want to move to South Korea. There was nothing wrong with the country – when Neris was younger she and her mother lived in New York City’s Koreatown, resulting in Neris’ fluency in the language and appreciation for the culture and food. However, it wasn’t home.

Neris missed Beacon Hills even though she had only been gone a few days. She missed her crazy friends and the wild adventures they found themselves involved in. Of course, the adventures entailed them trying to stop the human citizens of the town from dying and defeat the supernatural enemy causing those deaths.

Neris and her mother, Riga, were now living in a new town where there were more trees than people. Bonghwa Eondeog – their new home – was calm, quiet, and relaxing.

Not that Riga would experience it very often. Her work had her constantly flying to various parts of the world. In fact, not too soon after they had moved into their new home Riga was on a plane to the Czech Republic.

Neris was currently driving back home from her visit to the nearby town to pick up supplies. It was the only allowance in the ‘no supernatural’ rule her mother had initiated. After all, even if Neris didn’t seek out the supernatural, she was still vulnerable to hunters.

The Sangster women were sirens. Their odd looks – silvery-gold hair and muted gray eyes with a purple ring around the iris – caused them to stick out in America. That would be multiplied tenfold now that they were in a monoracial country. If there were hunters in Bonghwa Eondeog they were certain to pose a threat to the two.

The trunk of various herbs, tonics, and salves was stuffed into the backseat of her bribe new car. The trip had taken longer than she expected, and the sun had almost set by the time she was drawing close to home. As she drove down the tree lined road, Neris tapped her steering wheel to the rhythm coming from her speakers – pausing only to reach over to fix the volume.

When she looked back up, she immediately slammed her foot against the brake. Something dark had darted from one side of the forest to the other, going straight across the road in front of her.

The sudden stop caused her wheels to lose traction and she swerved off the road, narrowly missing crashing into a tree. She sat there, eyes wide, as the irony set in. She could very well have died without any involvement of the supernatural (that she knew of).

Yanking off her seatbelt, Neris stumbled out of her car to the road in a fruitless search for the dark blur. Even as she exited her car, she knew it was futile. She had no idea that as her eyes scanned the darkness between the trees, there were eyes staring back at her.

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Once Neris had secured the trunk in their hidden basement, she made her way up to her room to finish unpacking. The furniture had all been set up the way she wanted it to, yet boxes and boxes of clothing and various personal items had yet to be unpacked.

She had school the next morning – though Neris had half a mind to skip it – yet she spend the better part of the night making her room feel more comfortable. She took special care to make sure her hastily put together dinner didn’t touch the framed pictures of her friends before she could hang them above her desk.

As she was hanging her clothes in the closet, she heard a noise from outside – a shrill yelp. Neris peered out the window, seeing only a sharp glint in what little moonlight there was.

As always, her curiosity got the better of her.

Neris crept out of her house to the street that ran in front of it. Sprawled on the ground with an arrow sticking out of its forequarters was a large light grey wolf; there was white fur on his lower jaw, running to the underside just between his forelegs.

It was only a moment that Neris stood there stunned – the coloring of the wolf was beautiful. But that moment soon dissipated and her instinct kicked in.

She ran over to the wolf, making sure to position herself on the side opposite the arrow. As she bent down and scooped her arms under the creature, she paused as it let out a growl of warning.

“Shh,” Neris cooed. “It’s alright. I’m just going to help you get that nasty arrow out of you.”

The creature didn’t struggle against her, but continued to make small growls. She couldn’t help but grin and roll her eyes; if this was a human, it’d no doubt be a petulant child.

Neris kicked her door closed behind her and placed the wolf gently on the table just outside her kitchen. Grabbing the large kit from the laundry room cupboard, Neris set it on the kitchen counter and began pulling out the necessary items.

Back in Beacon Hills, Neris had worked part time with her friend Scott in the local veterinary clinic. Their boss, full-time veterinary and part-time Druid emissary to the pack she had once belonged to, had taught her many things during her time as his employee. And, given her involvement in the supernatural underbelly of the town, Neris had a lot of experience taking care of wolves.

Once her hands were washed and sterilized, Neris pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and stuck a fresh syringe needle into it. Though the wolf began to struggle as she neared its shoulder with the sharp object, it relaxed as the contents were pushed into its bloodstream.

Neris discarded the syringe in the small container she kept for the occasion. She’d find an animal clinic or private surgery somewhere and convince a male employee to let her dispose of it there. She’d only use her manipulation power just that once – what her mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt anyone.

She turned around, ready to clean and bandage the wound on the animal, and was met with the sight of a lanky – and incredibly – young boy.

Her door burst open, ripping off the hinges, and another male stepped inside her house. This one, thankfully, was fully clothed, but his eyes were narrowed and burned with dangerous anger.

“You better pay to fix that!” Neris snapped, her eyes flashing angrily at the intruder, as she paid no mind to his obviously threatening demeanor.

“What the hell did you give him?” The male demanded, stalking his broad shouldered self towards Neris and pulling himself up to his full intimidating height.

“Ketamine!” She shouted, shoving the bottle towards him for proof – a useless act, as the label was all in English. “You don’t think I’d rip the arrow from his shoulder without any kind of anesthetic, do you?”

The male glowered at her, “How did you know what we are?”

“I didn’t until now,” Neris was growing impatient. “But what’s more important: me knowing you guys are shapeshifters, or getting the arrow out of this kid’s shoulder? Because, newsflash, he won’t heal until it’s removed.”

The male’s jaw clenched, but he said nothing. Taking that as a sign to continue, Neris turned back to the boy sprawled on her dining table. Carefully, she removed the arrow from the place it had burrowed. Once she had set the weapon on the counter, she grabbed a piece of cloth from inside the kit and pressed it into the conscious male’s hand.

“Put pressure on it,” she ordered, guiding his hands and pressing it into the younger male’s wound. “And cover him with something, dammit.”

She left his side and made her way into the family room, pulling on one of their bookcases to reveal the door to the Sangster’s hidden basement. Now knowing the wounded boy was a shapeshifter, she now knew how to speed up his healing time.

She kept repeating in her mind that this was a one-time deal. She didn’t consciously get involved in the supernatural, and the only reason she was continuing this was because she couldn’t throw out the young boy while he was still injured. Once Neris had washed her hands of the situation, both literally and figuratively, she wouldn’t get involved any more than she already had. Her mother didn’t need to know.

But there was a thought tugging in the back of her mind – who fired the arrow in the first place?

Neris shook the thoughts away; it wasn’t her problem. As she rummaged around the trunk to collect the glass jars of the various necessary herbs, she heard a shout come from the main floor.

“Junhong! Junhong!”

The cry was panicked and helpless, causing Neris to abandon the jars and rush back up to where she had left the two males. The youngest was still unconscious, but he was now seizing and yellow-tinged foam was bubbling out of his mouth.

“,” Neris hissed.

This had happened before – Neris had been there to experience it, though she hadn’t actually been the one to do the saving. However, she knew exactly what was happening, and exactly what to do.

“Hold him down,” she barked, grabbing a scalpel from the kit and moving towards the younger boy’s torso.

“What are you planning on doing?” The older one demanded, showing a surprising lack of urgency for a person who was panicking only moments before.

“The arrow was laced with yellow monkshood, one of the most dangerous strains.” Neris explained, a bite of annoyance to her tone. “I need to get it out of his system, but if he’s not held still it’ll kill him. Do as I say if you want the Beta to live.”

Another clench of the jaw, but the male acquiesced. He held the younger boy down, stilling his movements just enough for Neris to work. With as much delicacy as she could manage, Neris pushed the scalpel deep into the younger male’s bone and sliced down. The younger boy gasped as a thick, yellow smoke rose out of the wound.

The younger male’s seizures stopped, and the older male heaved a sigh of relief, his hands still on the younger male’s shoulders. Neris, on the other hand, was not so relaxed.

“Goddammit,” she muttered. “I didn’t even make it a day.”

For the bestiary entry regarding information on sirens, please click here.