A Blazing Wave

I remember the taste of ocean salt, and blood.

I was naked, lashed spread-eagle to the ship’s prow like a figurehead, a false idol protecting foolish men from their own nightmares. The captain was mad to sail through these waters from which few ships returned, madder still to proclaim them mermaid infested and assign me the act of sacrifice for the sake of his time and money. I should have known not to sign anything away to the likes of him. I should have seen my fate in the empty space between his promises and the jewels decorating his fingers. The most successful traders don’t make their riches through restraint. I’d offered him a few years of my life, and he’d taken them all.

Freedom. The power to decide. A new life, on the other side of the horizon. That’s all I’d wanted. Now, as the sun neared that distant edge, setting sky and water aflame, so did the blazing lightness of death enter me, curing me of all cold and pain. I was past the rawness of my back rubbing against wood, past the waves slamming my body and sucking at my limbs, the sting of sea spray and the bone-deep cold. I felt warm. Peaceful, even. But I wasn’t past my desire to live. That truth, a heavy stone at the center of death’s lightness, weighed me down into the need of my body, the will of my mind. Breathe, I commanded, and obeyed. In, as I faced the boundless sky. Out, as the sea engulfed me.

On such an out-breath, deep in the heart of a wave, I heard the sound of a woman’s voice, singing a gentle note, like the pass of a hand to a forehead, checking for fever. It sounded like homecoming. My first thought was of the pearly gates my mother had told me I’d be forever barred from, but then I saw the same sky and took the same ragged breath. As I was plunged into the water, I heard the woman again, her dulcet pitch contorted into something more sinister; slow, low notes reminicent of a funeral dirge. The language was unlike any I’d ever heard. She left off on the last note with a sudden uptick into a high pitched screech.

The sound reawakened the chill in my bones. I remembered pain. I remembered fear. There was a pause, a reverberating silence on which I based all my hopes for survival, and then many voices screeched from the depths below.

Sirens. They were real, and they were coming.

As the prow at my back pierced the surface of the water, the screeches became a harmonious chorus, as if sunlight and open air could melt a a jagged blade to honey. Something splashed to to my left and I jerked my head towards it, forgetting to breathe. The prow dipped downwards, the water rife with large, darting shadows, the chorus of sky-sweetened voices reaching a harmonious crescendo. I screwed my eyes shut, expecting the slam of the ocean, the bite of many teeth in the dark, but the hit never came. The chorus reached a fever pitch, a thousand voices all ringing out, deafening in their beauty, before silencing with equal unity. The ship froze and I jerked forward and swung back, bumping my bruised head and raw back against the wood. Tears sprang to my eyes. Through the blur I saw that the water around the ship was glowing a phosphorescent blue, waves lapping at it’s borders as if it were a shore. But the Sirens- for that was what they were, though I desperately wished to deny it- moved through the glowing island easily, their silhouettes made distinct by contrast. One in particular, taller and more voluptuous than the rest, snaked directly towards me.

A new song began, playful notes trailing down like a finger tracing skin. I shivered, suddenly aware of my spread legs. I could only watch the Siren approach, saw that her movement was powered by the sensuous swing of her hips, her powerful tail undulating with purposeful slowness. A different sort of anticipation bubbled up inside me, despite what I knew. Demons, some called them. Mistresses of death. But if I was to die anyway, I’d rather do it pressed against those curves.

Their murmuring harmony curled upwards, beckoning like a curled finger across the room, or inside my….I shook my head, trying to remember myself. I was a sacrifice, my wrists and ankles in chains, my body aching even as it tingled beneath the music’s sumptuous onslaught. I want to live! Rather than weigh me, the truth buoyed, even as the siren’s vortex sucked me down, down-

She surfaced just in front of me, less than an arms length from my exposed sex. She was stunning, the kind of beautiful that man’s dreams and artistry can only imitate, never touch, for she was nature’s brilliance incarnate; crystals born of the earth’s heated center, glowing lights above winter skies, and of course, the ocean in all its vast mystery.

Turquoise hair tapered into light blue, pink, purple iridescent scales that shimmered from temple to neck to collarbone. She wore pearl necklaces and tarnished turquoise earrings set with blood-red rubies. They framed a blue-tinged face that looked nearly human, if it weren’t for her eyes. Black, pupilless, and yet expressive, the fire of the setting sun reflected there. Her full, pink lips were quirked in an impish smile. She seemed all too pleased to find me in such a vulnerable position.

I could feel myself dripping, down my inner thigh. Dehydrated though I was, my body could not help but offer my wetness to her. She noticed too, came closer. I gasped, expecting contact, but she only stuck out her tongue to catch a falling droplet before licking her lips. Then her mischievous smile melted into a more nebulous expression. Concern? Contempt? Appraising certainly, as she passed her gaze over my whole body. A loud splash, a flick of her tail, and she was eye-level with me. I heard a wet shredding sound as she dug her claws into the ships hull just above my head. She passed her other hand, also decorated by sharp blue claws, over my naked body without touching it. All around us, the siren’s chorus swelled, burst, dripped with temptation. Despite myself, I swelled with it, trembling with want, and a pleasant vertigo. The ocean suddenly seemed more comfortable than any bed I’d ever slept in. I needed to be in it, to feel it all around me, to feel a siren’s touch- a need that cut more deeply than hunger or thirst. I squirmed in my chains, then thrashed against them, tears of frustration springing to my eyes. The Siren in front of me, utterly at ease, seemed to enjoy my torment as she withheld that which I most longed for.

Her breasts, large and taut as ripe fruit, were bare. A drop of water fell from her hand to my nipple and I breathed in sharply. She smelled really, really good. Her impish smile returned, cruel in its playfulness, like a cat with a mouse. She drew close to my neck. I thought she would bite me. Quivering, I moved my head to the side, exposing more of myself to her, hoping she would. Any contact would be ecstasy, with the siren’s chorus throbbing in my body.

Instead, she sang a different melody, low and sweet, into my ear. Dimly, I heard frantic human voices calling out to each other. The splash of sailors jumping ship, entranced to their deaths.

Wake up! I tried to pierce the hypnotized haze, but I felt no urgency, only the burst-fruit sweetness of longing. Her song, sung just for me, layered another sensation over it. I felt warm, then very warm, then a blaze of white-hot pain. I gasped, strained against my chains, scrambling for purchase, for escape, but there was none. Everything, down to my bones burned as if plunged in boiling water. I screamed.

The pain exploded, then faded as fast as it had began. I panted, tears streaming down my face. She cooed, whispered soft words in her language, as if in pity. This angered me. I pushed against the ocean-smoothed wood of the ship with my heels, uselessly tried to punch her, or hit her with my head. She moved just out of reach, laughing, her voice like the ringing of bells. I spat on her. Her smile disappeared, her black eyes narrowed, and she fell deadly still.

As I fell back against the prow, I realized that it didn’t hurt. The chafing there, and around my wrists and ankles, was gone. My head felt more clear, my joints didn’t ache, and my ragged throat was suddenly sated and moist. It slowly dawned on me that she hadn’t torn me apart with her siren magic, but fused me together. This was the pain of remaining alive.

She watched as the realization hit. I felt a riot of emotion- anger, gratitude, fear and shame all twisted together in a hot bubble in my chest. I turned away, wishing to hide, but I could not.

“I’m sorry, thank you, I’m sorry…”

The siren made agitated clicking noises high in her register, reminiscent of the earlier bloodthirsty screeches. She was their leader, I realized with instinctual certainty. It had been her voice calling them to action, calling for blood. She darted closer, chattering angrily into my ear, and I tensed, screwing my eyes shut. This was it. I had displeased her, and she would take her revenge. I could not so much as raise a hand to defend myself. I was wide open and vulnerable.

I smelled smoke. I didn’t hear anyone yelling over the siren’s chorus now, though I did hear frantic splashing. I turned to look, but she grabbed my face by the chin, jerking it so that I faced her. I tried to avoid her gaze, but she made a sharp, harsh sound and my eyes flew open. Her black eyes were furious, but something else was behind it, a thinly veiled hunger. She gripped my face with both hands, forced my mouth open, and spit on my tongue. She remained there, close enough that I could feel her breath, her eyes never leaving mine, her body undulating as she flicked her powerful tail. At first, my mouth hung open in shock. Then, I closed it and swallowed. Taste of seawater, and something else. Her taste.

Her claws trailed down my face, skating across my collarbone before she switched to the other side, brushing my nipple with the back of her hand, her clicks lowering in pitch until they sounded like growls. I swooned at her touch. Her gaze was unwavering, all encompassing, observing my every move. Those eyes gave me vertigo. And those lips- I ached for them. It was insane, perhaps an after-effect of the siren chorus beckoning me to self destruction, but I strained forward, desperate to taste her again. She whispered something then, in her language, a mouthful of soft vowels and hard clicks. She said it directly into my mouth, hovering just out of reach. I tasted her sweet breath. I felt dizzy. She said the same words again, a tone of impatience entering her voice. This time, I noticed that there was a question in those words.

“Yes,” I said, though I didn’t know what to, “yes.” She stared down at me, smiling a little without moving. What was she waiting for? “Please,” I said, writhing in my bonds, “please-”

She interrupted me with a kiss so deep I thought I’d drown. The siren’s tongue filled my mouth, hot and slippery and overwhelmingly delicious. She pressed her body to mine, crushing me against the ship, her cold tail a shock to my sex. I cried out, muffled by the gag of her tongue rolling around my mouth. She clicked, low and loud in her throat like a snake about to strike. Slam! There was the sound of wood tearing by my ear again as she anchored her left hand and wrapped the other around my throat. She held me pinned and retracted her tongue, a great string of saliva stretching between us, her black eyes burning with unveiled, unbridled lust. She turned my head and licked me from collarbone to temple, sharp teeth nibbling on my ear. I cried out, in fear and rapture. I didn’t want to die, but I wanted her to devour me. She only grazed me as she kissed and sucked and licked her way down my neck. Her tail broke away from my sex, and though I couldn’t see it, I know a string of my wetness came away with it. Without the pressure, I immediately ached to be touched again.

She skated her razor sharp claws down my chest and stomach. I resisted the urge to tremble, knowing that one wrong move would draw blood. It became harder and harder to stay still as she stroked my inner thigh and took my nipple into her mouth, swirling her tongue in dizzying circles. I whimpered, opening and closing my hands helplessly on nothing but open air. She switched to the other breast and thigh, humming a melody low in her throat. The vibration of her lips and tongue tickled deliciously. At first I thought that was the song’s sole purpose, but I should’ve known by then that every siren song is a spell.

The overwhelming pleasure she poured into my breast spread across my chest, like a drop of dye in water. This was a new sort of lightness, ecstasy of both body and spirit, unfurling from my solar plexus all the way to the top of my head and tips of my fingers and toes. Another layer of hypnosis? I tried to resist it, but it was as futile as the shoreline resisting the caress of waves.

The Siren kissed, licked, and caressed my skin, sucked my fingers, sank down and did the same to my toes. Every touch was felt everywhere, waves in a roiling sea. I trembled and trembled and trembled. As her tongue cycloned around my toes, I saw the captain’s first mate in the water, swimming fast and frantic back towards the ship, holding a bloody knife. He was a handsome, softspoken man. His quiet softness, which I’d mistaken for kindness, was one of the reasons I’d decided to take the risk of becoming an indentured servant. But when the captain ordered me strung up for dead, he had been just as quiet, and not nearly so soft.

As I watched, he flinched to a stop in the water, looking this way and that at the water until his eyes accidentally found mine. Another emotion bled into his terror; something like fascination. I must be quite the picture; red hair lit up by the setting sun, body spread wide open, my foot plunged in a beautiful Siren’s mouth. He must have seen the ecstasy on my face, something no man had ever witnessed in me. I had thought a man’s interest in me would never please me, but in that moment it did. I moaned, and saw the response it stirred in him, not unlike the siren’s song. His eyes widened slightly, his face going ever so slightly slack. There was no magic in my voice, and yet, for just that second, he was bewitched.

Then a dark figure darted up to him and pulled him into the water. He didn’t even have time to scream. I gasped, then moaned again as the Siren kissed her way up my ankle. I tried to feel bad for my part in the first-mate’s demise, but the only empathy I could feel for him was our shared helplessness, and mine was of a more triumphant sort. This Siren’s seduction was no illusion- I didn’t know what she planned to do with me after, but she made it clear what she wanted from me right now. She kissed my ticklish calf and I nearly kicked her, but she held me firmly in place, her lips continuing their path up the side of my knee, to my inner thigh. My breath came hard and fast. She licked my inner thigh to my panty-line, where she laid a kiss on that tender skin. My knees turned together, an instinct towards self-protection, but I couldn’t close my legs completely. She kept kissing along my panty-line, her hands sliding up the inside of my legs. When I realized she wasn’t holding onto the boat, I opened my eyes so I could watch her hips undulate. Instead, my eyes locked with hers. Her smile was smug, but not arrogant. There was something of a question there, as her hands reached my locked-together thighs. I took a deep breath and relaxed my trembling legs. In one smooth movement, she spread them wide.

Her eyes did not leave mine. She wagged her pink tongue an inch away from me, a teasing offer. I felt her hot breath against my clitoris, and my body urged towards it, but she held me pinned. I moaned in frustration, my cheeks blushing red hot. I begged her with my eyes, widening my legs as far as they would go. Not a sacrifice, but a gift, willingly given.

“Please,” I whispered, and the smugness in her eyes softened into something primal, something true.

I trembled, and trembled, and-

She touched down. I came, with a guttural cry. Her silky tongue traced unhurried arcs, sinking deeper into my folds, drawing out wave after crashing wave. It was as if my whole body was balanced on her tongue, convulsing against it.

My body,

a blazing wave.

Breathe the body commanded,

and as I obeyed,

the biggest wave yet

began to form, and I was so sensitive it was painful,

but rather than shrink from it,

I swelled into it, accepting it, so that it folded

into the pleasure's momentum urging me to the crest

of an orgasm unlike any I'd ever had because this time,

I was hers.

I came, with all the force of a star exploding. I fell, as if from a great height, into my body. Into her mouth.

She held me there, and it was relief.

She held me, softly, careful not to hurt me. Through squinted eyes, I saw myself reflected in the sun as it kissed the horizon, setting the world above and below alight.

My every cell trembled with the heat of fusion.

I crumpled, spent, into a deep, deep sleep.