by A C Warneke
“I’m afraid we’re both lost causes,” Dima sighed regretfully, his brown eyes gleaming with challenge as he negligently leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, his legs spread and his... penis just hanging there.
Straightening her shoulders, ignoring the prickling heat of her burning face, she stood before them, “Well, if you want to see me naked, you’re going to have to do a better job than that. Look at you two; you aren’t at all happy to see me….”
Cole’s arms were around her in an instant and he was hugging her, laughing heartily. “Can we keep her, Dima? Please? She’s simply too precious.”
A large palm brushed over her hair and was gone. When she looked over her shoulder, Dima was putting his boxers back on, a rueful smile on his face, “Yeah; we can keep her.”
“I’m Alexandra.”
“Hi, Lexi,” Cole grinned, purposefully changing her name, giving her a new one. “I’m Cole and this idiot is Dima.”
“Um, do you think you might put me down and get some clothes on?”
After several intense days of getting used to one another, they fell into a routine. She was disappointed to discover she very rarely saw her new roommates and life was pretty much the same as before but now she had her own bathroom and she had to cook her own breakfast. Cole and Dima went to class when they felt like it, if they felt like it, and usually stayed out until late at night. Or early in the morning, depending on when they stumbled home.
There were girls, and often Lexi would run into one in the morning, usually sneaking out of Dima’s room. And occasionally from Cole’s. She wasn’t jealous of the girls that shared their beds because, oddly, she wasn’t sexually attracted to them. But she was jealous of the time they spent with Dima and Cole, selfishly wanting them to spend time with her, to maybe help her out of the box she had built around herself.
Sighing, she looked around the empty kitchen and started singing one of her favorite songs, a depressing ballad about lost love and hopelessness. Her mother was so careful to make sure she never sang around strangers, even though she had a beautiful voice. And while Cole and Dima were no longer strangers she couldn’t call them friends, either.
“What is the heavenly smell?” Cole asked, drifting into the kitchen while rubbing sleep from his red-rimmed eyes. He had barely gotten home and yet he was coming into the kitchen… Lexi could barely contain her smile.
“It’s pancakes,” she beamed. “Would you like some?”
“Absolutely,” he said, sitting down at the table, looking nearly dead with exhaustion.
A moment later, Dima appeared, looking even worse than Cole, though Lexi wasn’t sure how that was possible. He plopped onto the chair and propped his head up with his hand, “I was two seconds away from going to sleep when the most delicious smell wrapped itself around me and dragged me from my bed.”
“Lexi is making pancakes,” Cole answered. With a jaw-popping yawn, he garbled, “She’s making some for me, too.”
“Can I get in on the action?” Dima asked, his eyes so bleary she wondered how he was even awake but she was simply too excited to ask.
“Of course!”
After that, they started eating breakfast with her every day, no matter how exhausted they were. Within a few weeks, the three of them were inseparable. Before the year was over, they flew off to Cancun and changed the course of their stars.
Lexi bolted upright in her bed, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead as she remembered how they become the friends they were today. “No, oh, please no.”
She sang and they became her devoted slaves.
As hot tears burned tracks in her frozen cheeks, as her limbs shook, she blindly reached for her phone, not caring about the things she was knocking down in her desperation to make a phone call. Under her breath, she chanted, “No… no…no….”
After a few rings that seemed an eternity, her mother’s sleep-heavy voice rasped, “Alexandra, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“How do I release them?” her voice shook as her chest ached from the pressure of trying to hold itself together and not shatter. Her entire relationship with the two most important people in her life outside of her family was nothing more than a dream and now….
“What in the world are you talking about?” her mother asked. Lexi heard her shift and murmur something to her father. “Alexandra?”
“Cole and Dima.” It hurt to say their names and she pressed a palm against her sternum as if that could contain the misery. “How do I release them, or whatever it is that Sirens do to let their victims go?”
Her mother took a long, deep breath and then slowly let it out; the delay was killing Lexi and she started to chew on her thumb nail before her mom finally asked, “What makes you think they’ve been… enchanted?”
“I sang, momma,” she cried. “One day when I thought they were asleep I sang and that was the morning they welcomed me into their lives.” She wasn’t sure if her words were very clear since she was crying so hard; she just hoped her mother would understand enough to help her. “I love them too much to… to enslave them. How do I let them go?”
Her mother let out another long breath before she answered, “Kiss them and give them back what you think you’ve taken from them.”
“How do I do that? How does one give back something intangible like acceptance? Friendship?” Lexi sniffed then choked back a sob, “Love?”
“Remember your time together,” her mother explained, her voice soothing and calm, washing over Lexi and easing her pain somewhat. “And when you kiss them, give it all back – all of the memories, all of the laughter, the tears. All of the love.”
Blinded by tears, she squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart was breaking at the thought of losing her two best friends in the universe but what choice did she have? “Will I remember?”
“Yes, sweetheart, it’s the gift and the curse of the Siren.” Her mother’s empathy was nearly her undoing. “But, Lexi, you don’t have to do this; they’re happy, let it be.”
“It’s not real,” she cried softly. “How can they be happy when it’s not even real?”
“Sweetheart….”
Lexi hung up the phone and buried her head in the pillow, knowing everything she was going to be giving up. There were so many memories, so many good times… and bad. And for six years Cole and Dima were her world; how was she going to survive without them? Who was she going to lean on when the thing with Duncan blew up in her face?
The door to her room creaked up and Dima stuck his head in, “What’s wrong, minx? You sound as if your heart is breaking.”
She lifted her head and seeing Dima standing in the doorway, concern etched upon his handsome face, only made her cry harder. He rushed across the room and gathered her into his arms, rocking her and offering comfort without even knowing the reason why. Burying her face against his neck, she felt the bed shift and knew that Cole had joined them.
“Don’t hate me,” she pleaded, tears clogging her throat and making it nearly impossible to breathe. Pushing back, she looked at them with glossy eyes, “Please don’t hate me.”
“How could we ever hate you?” Dima asked softly, brushing his hands over her cheeks to try to stop the tears from falling. He was so tender, making it hurt even more to draw air into her oxygen-deprived lungs. She could only stare at him with red eyes, unable to talk past the lump in her throat.
Letting the memories of the past six years fill her, she framed Dima’s face in her hands and placed her lips over his. Kissing him, she gave him back the memories as she desperately tried to memorize every moment of the present. When she finished, she pulled back and saw that his eyes were still closed, his expression blank.
Turning, she faced Cole, his dyed hair now sporting vibrant red spikes, his green eyes bewildered. “Forgive me.”
“Whate….” He never finished the question before her mouth was over his and she was returning the memories to him.
Sitting back, she watched their blank
expressions as tears continued to silently fall down her cheeks. They were quiet for so long as the spell worked its way backward and altered their memoires, erasing her from all of them. She was inconsolable as she drank in their faces, their familiar scent and missing them already. She would never get to hear them laugh again, never share a half gallon of ice cream with them, never get to try one of Dima’s newest drink mixes for his club or pose for Cole's beautiful photos.
For years, she had assumed that she would end up married to either Cole or Dima; it hadn’t mattered at the time because she knew the three of them would always be together. She would have given up her virginity on her wedding day to whichever unlucky bastard agreed to marry her. And then she probably would have slept with the other one just because the three of them did everything together.
They were the reason she didn’t return to college; it wasn’t what she wanted or needed at the time. Not wanting to live off her generous trust fund, they had encouraged her to try everything and she did, first starting out small with various odd jobs. She tried a bit of everything, from waitressing (very short lived) to dog walking (lost her favorite pair of shoes to a Chihuahua) to selling books (loved the books, hated the hours.) But her favorite job was working for an up and coming designer.
Darnell Wu was half-black, half-Asian and pure genius; he used her as his model, creating her unique look and transforming her completely into Lexi Darling. Even after he ascended to unimaginable heights, he continued to design her wardrobe, from her every day wear to special occasions. She had been able to pay him back by writing him up in 'The Scene,' her current most favorite job.
Which was going to end in flames whichever way she looked at it.
Her misery was almost enough to make her forget about Duncan but when she remembered, her heart broke all over; she couldn’t go through this again. She couldn’t give her heart to another person only to have to take it back and leave nothing in return. But she didn't have to give her heart....
Sitting up a little straighter, she sniffed, wiping the tears from her eyes. She didn’t love him, not like she loved Cole and Dima. If she sang for him, he would be hers for the taking and afterwards she’d be able to give it all back; she could have Duncan and he wouldn’t be breaking any of his rules. Or rather, he wouldn’t remember breaking any of his rules. She wasn’t sure whether or not she would stay on at lavish afterwards but she could have Duncan and not make him compromise his damn rules. If she lost her best friends, nothing else really mattered.
She just wanted to see Cole and Dima one last time, to thank them even though they weren’t going to know what she was thanking them for. Wiping the tears from her face, she climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on her skin. Her reflection showed how many tears she had shed; her eyes were red-lined and puffy and her face was white. After Duncan, the fabulous Lexi Darling was going to fade away and all that was going to remain was Alexandra, a phoenix rising from the ashes of another life she left behind.
She was going to miss Lexi.
Pulling her hair back into a pony tail, she watched her reflection, hating the Siren that was ruining her life more than ever. The bitch took Cole and Dima away; she was going to lead Duncan astray and then cut him off as well. No wonder why Thea was such a biter woman, if she had to give up even half of what Lexi was giving up....
She would just have to try to not become bitter, to roll with the punches or whatever. Grab the balls and squeeze? No, that wasn’t quite right but it seemed to suit her mood at the moment so she was going to go with it. Besides, squeezing balls might not be such a bad thing, as long as they were Duncan’s and she got more than a quick don-t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it fuck out of the deal. She deserved a month, at least.
Dima stumbled into the bathroom, blinking his eyes at the bright light and Lexi grimaced; she hadn’t thought this part through. How was she going to explain her presence in their bathroom when she was now a stranger to them?
A moment later, Cole was there, rubbing his eyes, “What a rush, Lexi; it’s like I just relived every moment I’ve had with you and it was… it was simply incredible.”
Her jaw dropped open like it had that first morning and her eyes flew to Dima. Scrubbing his hands through his hair, he grinned lazily, “Yeah, me too.”
She looked from one tired but happy face to the other, not quite believing it. “You… remember?”
Cole shrugged his shoulders, a little confused by Lexi’s odd behavior. “Of course we remember, at least I remember; I don’t know about shithead over here.”
“I remember,” Dima mumbled through a yawn but Lexi didn’t care how tired they were. She threw her an arm around each of them, hugging them as hard as she could. Their arms went around her waist and they were hugging her back, not understanding her need for the comfort but giving it none-the-less.
She loved them so much.
Chapter 10 (Saturday)
Overwhelming relief still made Lexi giddy nearly two days after believing she had lost her best friends. Instead of going to work on Friday, she had stayed home and the three of them had camped out on her bed eating popcorn and ice cream and drinking way too much as they reminisced about old times. She hadn’t realized that Cole had known almost from the beginning that she had been following him and taking down the flyers almost as quick as he was putting them up. He said he originally planned on putting the flyers up all over campus until he had spied her and saw what she was doing. Then he decided to keep it to a smaller area to see how long he could go. He had gone through the entire stack.
They had laughed and cried and then laughed some more, at some point passing out on the bed, all curled around one another. It was a little awkward when she woke up from a dream involving a naked Duncan, some tanning oil, a mat and some creative poses. She wasn’t sure if she moaned in her sleep or not but she woke up with two hard, male bodies wrapped around her. Luckily, both Cole and Dima were still asleep and she managed to wiggle her way out of the tangle of limbs, finding sanctuary in the bathroom where she took a shower to wash away the tears and emotions that had bled all over her.
She was grateful that her friendship with them was solid; otherwise she would have missed that night’s grand premier of Cole’s beautiful, almost erotic photographs, of which she posed for several. With their lives so entwined, she wasn’t sure how they would have been able to forget her completely. Maybe she would have been a vague image, like a ghost, and while it was an interesting concept to think about she was extremely happy it wasn’t a reality she had to live with. If the spell had worked, it would have been devastating to run into them at a function like this and have them look at her with no recognition in their eyes.
A shudder went through her at the near miss; it wasn’t worth considering so she concentrated on the present. She was at a fantastic party celebrating Cole’s photography and she was wearing Darnell Wu’s latest creation.
Feeling like a character from a manga, Lexi knew her dress was truly a work of art in and of itself, covering her while giving the illusion of wearing hardly anything at all. It was a bunch of belts holding up a few scraps of fabric as leather straps crisscrossed her body, from over one shoulder to her waist, across her breasts, and over her hips, stopping mid-thigh and leaving her back almost bare while completely concealing her breasts. Adding to the post-apocalyptic look, her feet were encased in combat boots and her wig was deep, brown-red, flowing to her shoulders with short, chunky bangs. She wore just a little bit of mascara and brick red lipstick, making her lips look ripe and shiny.
As she sipped her champagne, she looked at the various photographs of men and women, all in their natural state. Each subject had been posed in such a way so that the photos were pure art, celebrating the beauty of the human form. The lighting emphasized certain body parts, keeping the rest in shadow; from a hand against a thigh, to the curve of a breast or the line of a hip. Cole's photos were breathtaking, which was why she had agreed to pose.
; He had informed her that her photographs were going to be showcased, since he was so pleased with how the images turned out. She wasn’t so sure since she had been painted with gold body paint and had felt faintly ridiculous when he was taking the pictures, as the gold kept getting everywhere. It had taken several days to get all of the paint off and for a long time she kept finding gold flecks in the most unexpected places.
As she moved to the next picture, the profile of Cole’s sister when she was nine months pregnant, she started to feel that vaguely familiar heat in her belly. Casually, she looked over her shoulder and saw Duncan standing there, looking amazing in a charcoal gray suit, his black hair just as perfect as always. Ashley was with him looking absolutely stunning in an ankle-length, body hugging, black cocktail dress. Lexi realized that the two of them really made a striking couple, so elemental even in civilized dressing. Ashley caught her eye and gave her a knowing wink, before whispering something to Duncan.
But he was already staring at her, barely paying attention to any of the beautiful photographs lining the wall. Ashley looked at Lexi with a knowing grin and artlessly shrugged her shoulders. With a conspiratorial grin, Lexi discretely pointed across the room where Dima was getting a drink from the bar. Ashley followed the silent gesture and turned back with a brilliant smile before excusing herself from Duncan’s side in pursuit of more carnal pleasures.
With a slight smile, Lexi took a step towards the man of her erotic dreams as he took a step towards her, a rueful grin on his too handsome face. A warm palm wrapped around her arm, stopping her in her tracks. She looked up to see Cole grinning down at her and she couldn’t help but return the smile, despite his appearance preventing her from getting to Duncan.