A Sirens Future

Eyes in the Dark

I swim quickly, my tail slicing through the dark water like a blade. I pass beautiful reefs full of life, schools of fish swimming lazily through in blue water, their bodies flashing with color in the dim light that filters down from the surface above. I pass a couple of Great White sharks, rather large ones, and they turn and hurrily swim away as they sense my presence.

I snort to myself, momentarily distracted from my escape, thinking about the irony of this. Humans believe that it is sharks who are the great predators of the sea. I wonder how they would feel if they knew it was my kind who hid in the dark waters, waiting to rip flesh from bone. Sirens eat an assortment of fish and sea life now, but in the old days it was purely humans we hunted. Our bodies are specifically built to hunt them. Our inhuman beauty draws them as well as the unearthly melody of our Song.

When we call on our Song, each is unique. Our tails, well over seven feet in length and an array of beautiful colors and sleek scales, will glow. The light draws the eyes of a human and traps them there. As we swirl our glowing tails through the water, casting light all around, our Song will come. Each song is different and devastatingly, heartbreakingly beautiful. With each swirl and pass of our tail the Song grows louder, filling up all the space around our prey, like putting them in a room and flooding it with water. It traps them in a delicious crescendo of feeling and bliss. They are drawn to us, a moth to the flame.

Humans feel no pain as our second set of sharp teeth sink into their skin, ripping away at them until they are nothing.

They are to lost in the warmth and light of our Song.

Humans are naive. Easily manipulated.

Humans are food.

I shake my head in disgust, trying to clear my thoughts.

I mated with one of them.

Under the disgust, the waves of the fire are still burning me on the inside. It is an intense, pleasurable, and slightly uncomfortable feeling all at the same time, and it will stay that way until the soul mate bond is sealed.

Sealed?

I shake my head again, hard, as if I can shake this mess out and forget its happening.

How can I seal a bond with a human!?

I stop swimming abruptly, trying to gather my now scattered thoughts. I press my slender webbed fingers to my temples, tangling them in my long snow -white hair, and close my eyes. I let my tail drift slowly through the water as I float in place and take a deep breath.

Mother.

My eyes snap open. Of course. My mother will know what to do. I start swimming again, panic and fire still moving in my body, but my mind is calm, my eyes unseeing to the life around me now.

Nikolas

I watch the sunset slowly sink into the line of the ocean. It turns the horizon an array of oranges, golds, and purples for a moment before disappearing. I look down at Larrissa, asleep in my lap, her strawberry curls splayed out with the ends brushing the white sand. A few curls blow across her pale face softly in the light breeze that comes off the ocean and her full lips pucker adorably. She twitches her upturned nose and I laugh quietly as I lean forward to gently kiss her brow, her nose, and finally her beautiful lips. She opens her clear blue eyes and stares up at me with sleepy amusement.

"Why Nikolas, are you taking advantage of a sleeping woman?", she teases in her heavy southern drawl, her eyes sparkling.

I roll my own eyes at her and kiss her again, grabbing her and pulling her into my lap. She giggles and throws her arms around my neck, pressing her warm body against me. I trail soft kisses slowly down her chin and neck while she tangles her fingers in my dark curls. I feel her shiver lightly and I tilt my head back to look up at her and grin. She huffs out a small breath of annoyance at my teasing and tries to roll off my lap, but my strong arms cage her.

"Don't be mad," I tell her softly, chuckling, "but we are still on the beach." She looks around surprised, as if just remembering where we are. I laugh again at her expression and set her aside before rolling to my feet, pulling her up after me. She laughs with me, blushing lightly, and starts helping me gather our things from the sand.

"We should do this again," she says happily. "It was such a perfect day!"

I nod my head but my back is to her so she doesn't see the expression on my face.

It had been a perfect day. All for that one quick, puzzling moment, and it had left me feeling weird. I think back to the moment, remembering feeling like someone was watching me, my eyes drawn to something in the distance. It looked like a tiny cave poking out of the water, next to a small tied-island. It was connected to the mainland only by a thin, snaking tombolo. It was too far in the distance for me to make out clearly, but I swear for a moment I saw firey blue eyes staring back at me from the dark mouth of the cave. Right then a sharp, burning pain had shot through me, distracting me, and taking my breath away, but it was gone before I could even react. Disappearing as quickly as it had come.

I shake my head, clearing my thoughts. All this sun must have gone to my head, making me crazy. Strange eyes staring at me from the dark? I sound crazy. Which is why I hadn't mentioned anything to Larrissa.

I fold the blanket we brought to sit on and squeeze into the large basket.

"Yeah, we should do this again," I tell her. She smiles up at me and I forget all about my crazy imaginings of eyes in the dark.

We start heading up the beach towards my car, but I can't help throwing one last glance over my shoulder at the small cave out on the dark water. Its night out now, with only the moonlight to light up the tiny island, so its even harder to make out the cave next to it. I turn back towards my car, pulling Larrissa a bit faster.

I may very well be crazy, sun-stroked, or just imagining things, but I could almost swear that there were two softly glowing, green orbs now, watching steadily from the pitch black mouth of the cave.