Chapter Four

As predicted, only one of three women chose the option of life laid out before them. The blonde labeled me as a malevolent force from hell, dead set on absorbing the souls of innocents. She convinced herself I only wanted to see humans burn. She was rather combative when her death approached, so I used a blade carved from dragon bone to sever her spinal cord quick and easy. She hardly felt a thing and was dead within seconds. The brunette simply said she'd rather die than be owned by another person again. I tried reasoning with her, explaining that what I'm offering isn't a parasitic union, but rather a harmonious fellowship allowing free reign of the island. Unfortunately, she was set in her beliefs and preferred death, which I can understand. I gave her a drop of toxic Morekfish oil on the tongue and she fell into a peaceful slumber on the beach. Out of respect, I set both their bodies afloat on a burning pyre at sea.

I never really enjoy killing anyone, I'm just desensitized to it at this point. I've been a weapon as long as I can remember.

The redhead named Rayne chose life. She didn't take much convincing. She bowed her head, dropped to her knees and pledged fealty to me before the first two girls even died. I knew what her choice would be before I even offered, though. Certain women are cut from a particularly resilient piece of cloth. They're built for this type of lifestyle; the type that requires sacrifice for the greater good. Rayne happens to be one of them, and I knew that from the second I observed her on the beach. The way she surveilled the raft of floating corpses with acceptance and a hint of justice said it all. She's seen death before, she's stared it in the face and somehow came back from the edge. She knows true pain, and acquaintanceship with suffering makes for the perfect Siren.

Now, about half of us lie on the sandy shoreline or work on dismantling the humans' camp as the sun peeks over the horizon. The other half are offshore pillaging their ship for anything valuable, then burning it down to a pile of ash so it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. By this point, the forty or so dead bodies have drifted far off into the ocean and they're no longer visible to the naked eye. They'll be providing sustenance to countless organisms in the days or weeks to come as they decompose, thus continuing the endless circle of life to which most of us are bound. I wiggle my toes in the sand and sigh, watching as daylight creeps through the thick black smoke of a smoldering ship sinking in the distance.

Once the first beam of sunlight touches the peak of Freyja's mountain top, I rise from my seated position and extend my palm outward to Rayne. Genesis and a few others have been chatting with her about life here on the island and the process to become one of us. She's nervous, but I know it will be a good fit.

"It's time." I smile at her. She swallows hard and takes my hand as I lead her to the water's edge. "Take off your clothes. You don't need them anymore," I instruct. She does as I say and strips down to nothing, revealing patches of purple bruising on her torso and thighs, and long, self-inflicted vertical scars up and down her forearms. She self-consciously tries to hide the damage from my vision, but I flip her arms over with a soft sigh.

"There's no need to hide who you are and where you've been. Don't be ashamed. We don't demand perfection on Freyja." Rayne nods her head and chokes back a sob as tears pool up in her eyes. Dense, warm waves crash against our thighs as we turn and wade into the seafoam colored water. I elect to keep my human legs during Rayne's initiation just as I've done for everyone else. Unlike the other women here, shifting into my Siren form is a conscious decision. I don't automatically turn once I'm in the water. I can exist in either state of being whenever I choose. It might seem like a gift, but it wasn't intended to be one. It was a methodical gesture given by Calypso solely because the assets on this island need constant protection. I'm nothing more than a weapon and I need access to land at any given moment.

I push back the long, scarlet curls from Rayne's shoulders and cup her cheeks in my palms. I lean forward and plant my soft, full lips against hers. Initially, she tenses up and her eyes widen. She's caught off guard by my actions, but my toxic saliva quickly calms her into a state of tranquil sensuality. Human women don't respond to my voice, but they sink right into my kiss. My lips on theirs is a potent narcotic straight to the bloodstream. It brings them as close to nirvana as they'll ever get. The effect does wear off after a few hours, though, so her heightened, submissive state of mind won't last long.

When I pull back from our kiss, she dreamily stares at me. I turn her around so she's facing the shoreline and beautiful speck of land she'll call home. We watch as the girls enter the water one by one and the sun trickles further and further down the mountainside. I hover my lips just below her earlobe, lifting the hair off her neck.

"Upon this kiss, you'll be reborn," I whisper. "You will breathe the ocean, and the ocean will breathe you. Eternal life, you will find, and to the sea, you'll be bound." I slowly sink her down into the surf until the water is just below her chin. "To me, you will be loyal, and Freyja, you will protect."

I submerge her head completely under water and close my eyes as my fingers lace through her thick hair. The horde of newly formed Sirens begin swirling around us in a gentle whirlpool. Rayne starts to struggle from the lack of oxygen and she fights to surface for breath, but I hold her down. A couple of girls break from the circle around us and latch onto her feet and wrists, forever binding her to the sand and sea like the rest of us. When her floundering finally lulls into twitching, I place my hands on either side of her dying face. Drawing in a deep breath, I channel the energy of the ocean into my fingertips.

I am the conduit for aquatic life. It's my blessing and curse to carry until my job is complete.

The tidal ebb and flow guided by the moons of Saros pulsates underneath my skin with fervent power. Every silent voice of the creatures in the sea sing to me in an echoing vibration that rattles me to my core. The black, hollow stillness in the depths of the trenches swallows up my eyes, filling my vision with a swirling galaxy of life. Everything that is the sea seeps into my pores on a molecular level until we are one. Rippling lime filaments climb up my legs and stomach, tattooing every inch of my skin. The cool sand beneath my feet lifts as it whirls into thin spiral bands all around us. I flood the potent concoction of the sea from my body and into Rayne's mind. Capillaries bust in my nostrils and blood trickles over my lips. Tears of raw emotion spring from the corners of my eyes and stream down my cheeks. The solution of blood and tears drips off my chin and into the water. Each droplet of diluted crimson liquid wiggles through the brine and finds its way into Rayne's nose, mouth, eyes and ears.

"From my blood, you're born again…from my pain, you'll find life…from darkness, comes light…from death, comes eternal life."

A sharp, electric pulsar rockets through my nerves and into Rayne's lifeless heart. I tremble and grit my teeth as her body lurches upwards under water and she draws in her first salty breath. Her heart vigorously pumps with newfound life and her canary eyes shoot open. Her legs rapidly coalesce into a vivid magenta tail as fuchsia fins on her forearms and back split her skin in defensive mode. The razor sharp spines pop up in place, ready to shred any threat that comes her way.

She's panicking and terrified right now, I can feel her fear as if it were my own. But what she's experiencing isn't unique. She confronted death and birth as a fully conscious being, and that in itself is something very few have the sweet displeasure of encountering.

I surge a steady flow of soothing energy waves into Rayne's mind as I maintain my grip on her face. I work to placate her nerves and ease her into this transition in a less traumatic way. With each deep breath in and out, her fins depress against her skin and she settles down. Her eyes flutter for a moment until she falls into a peaceful slumber. Once she's asleep, two girls take her by the arms and swim her away towards the river where she can recover. She'll be asleep in the shallow freshwater for a few hours or so, and when she wakes up, she'll be much more level.