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SYNOPSIS:
While leading the clean up of the worst oil spill in California history, Marine Biologist Elias Courtney stumbles upon the unthinkable. A beautiful young woman, washed up on the desecrated beach, tangled in the black seaweed, is still alive, but barely. What would possess someone to enter these black poisonous waters, the cause of so many innocent creatures’ demise? For that matter, how IS she still alive? How long has she been under the water?
As Courtney soon finds out — her entire life. In fact, this is the young mermaid’s first time on land.
Lorelei — along with companions, Seanne and Millisine — has travelled a long way to walk these scarred shores. Now separated by the horrific oily mess that only humans could have caused, the three sirens must struggle to stay alive as they attempt to navigate this strange new world. They must reunite and begin the “Earthquest” that is their reason for being on land. Their underwater home is sick, dying off at an alarming rate. And whatever is causing the near extinction of the last remaining mermaid colony, clearly originated from exactly where they find themselves.
Edward Titan had waited decades for this moment. All three have arrived, hopeful and innocent, completely unsuspecting. Soon the ocean’s strongest, smartest and most intuitive sirens will find themselves up against years of festering anger and hatred. Titan’s retribution will be swift and brutal. And it will mean the end of an entire civilization. The Sirens’ Song will soon be no more.

Excerpt from CHAPTER 6
 — “GIRL TROUBLED” – from THE SIREN CHRONICLES: BOOK 1

Dr. Elias Courtney guided his forest-green Range Rover from the Pacific Coast Highway onto a Malibu side road in the steel gray dawn. There were few other cars on the road at this hour. Anyone up this early was either rushing to LAX to catch the first flight out, or working on a movie set and late for a 6:00 a.m. make-up call.

Elias had no such excuse. He simply could not stay in the house for more than a few hours at a time without terrible memories and unresolved feelings arising and threatening to suffocate him. He could easily have sold the estate for millions and moved anywhere he liked. He’d had to take control of his family’s assets, a responsibility he did not welcome. With stocks, real estate, commodities, and future music publishing royalties, he controlled north of $500 million dollars. It was simply not Elias’ way to get in there and roll around in the hurly burly of the rich and powerful. As far as the house went, with all the changes he had made to it, he would never sell it. It was his personal heaven in many ways. In other ways, it, along with his family’s fortune, was his private hell.

Whether by design, or the hands of fate, Elias Courtney was stuck. Things could have been worse, of course. After all, he didn’t know of any other Scripps graduates who lived in a 15,000-square-foot castle and never had to worry about the rent or where their next meal would come from. Of course, he would have traded anything for his mother to have lived a few more years, and for the early detection of his father’s hidden psychoses. But at least Elias had his work and could use his considerable resources to help fund it. He was determined to continue his struggle to stop the raping of the world’s oceans. He had started with his own beloved Pacific, which was already being tested. He was unsure whether he could handle seeing so much suffering, so many of the oceans’ wonderful creatures destroyed by man’s carelessness. It was almost too much to bear. But someone had to do it.

The sport utility vehicle came to a stop at the first parking space in the vast, empty lot. Elias exited the car and listened as his blue Vans hit the sand-dusted pavement, making a familiar scratching sound. The tide must be way out, he thought, not hearing the slightest hint of a crashing wave. Elias removed his shoes and crossed the cool sand, allowing the powdery granules to slide between his toes as he navigated his way toward the water.

Ever since childhood, Elias had played a game with himself. He would look down at his feet, refusing to glance upward, and through his senses of smell and sound, judge when he was getting close to the water, until the first hint of foam lapped against his big toe. He loved the sudden surprise of looking up and finding the Pacific stretching out before him. To Elias, it was like seeing a beautiful work of art for the first time. That is what the sea was, a masterpiece, Mother Nature’s finest work.