Sirens, p.31
Sirens, page 31
like quicklightning, travelling her limbs and torso like a hobo hugging
the rails. Yet all the while her mind kept screaming in a frenzy, the
organism attempting to protect itself. Pleasure shot through her like
intermittent thunder, deafening her, but still her fingers trimbled as
if she were an old woman. Perhaps Baba saw this or, just as likely,
sensed in her the duelling forces tearing her apart. In any case, he
carefully carried her to the bed and slowly undressed her, his lips
never far from her flesh, working on the parts of her newly uncovered.
He felt her shudder when his lips closed over her nipples and, tonguing
them, he found them erect and quivering, found further that when he
moved his mouth to the undersides of her breasts and gently twisted her
nipples with his fingers, she arched her buttocks off the sheets and
cried out. When she was naked, he slid down until he was kneeling on the
floor at the foot of the bed. He lifted her legs until they draped over
his shoulders and plunged his head forward between her thighs. She was
already so wet he was astounded and he groancd as he peeled back the
petals of her lips, exposing her sensitive core. 270 at are you re ...
doing?' she had time to breathe before th descended again and his tongue
slashed upward stem to stem. Her pleasure was so intense, so utterly
ected, that her legs jerked outward and up and, moaning, began a
circular grinding of her hips up against the ening incursion into her
secret heart. he pleasure was now a constant; everything flew from her d
like pigeons scattered before a high wind. Her centre dissolved into
liquid and nothing seemed to work. She d nothing but for the feeling to
go on and on. The cords inside of her thighs stood out with the mounting
feeling muscles began to twitch in involuntary concert to the ing of her
heart. She thought of being high, of being part the music and now she
knew the end of that feeling, for she the music - her own music that
only she could hear, feel, e, and smell. F'She knew she was going to
come by the taste in her mouth the flush she felt engulfing her jerking
hips, radiating ard like shocks from an epicentre, and when she felt his
gertips on her aching nipples just as she, as she ... She cried out and
almost doubled up, unaware of the move- t of her driving hips but only
of the fiery path his tongue 0lips took over and over as if burning a
path in her scorched h. Drenched in sweat, her legs bent at the knees
and curled up, whispered, ' come here,' and felt his muscular rheated
body over her, felt even then in the glow of the rmath, a twinge of fear
at his enormous size. hen she was being Ripped in the air so that she
was atop astride him as if he were a stallion she were about to ride. he
leaned over and down, kissing his chest, his nipples, hands coming
around to caress his torso while he lifted her -,,ortlessly up and at
last she felt him hard at her dripping trance. She gasped, certain he
was far too large for her to ommodate but he sank up her with such ease
that she rely closed her eyes and sighed from deep inside her. They
spent over an hour languidly rubbing at each other, spin- and groaning,
pausing just before the frenzy overtook Nn as if, having taken so long
to get here, they could not w get enow gh of each other, the agony of
prolongation much 271 preferable to completion. But there came a time
when the excitement was too strong to control any longer and, by mutual
consent, they allowed it to bum out of control. Daina slipped her hands
down Baba's sweating back to his clenching buttocks, felt them hard as
rocks, felt him swelled inside her and this, along with the friction,
was enough to tip her over. Still she was not fully content.
She wanted to explore every part of his body with her lips and she did.
She could not get enough of him and refused to take her mouth away from
him as he came in a series of hot tangy blasts that caused her hips to
grind down on to the bedding until she, too, came. Afterwards, she would
not let him go, tonguing him until Baba gently drew her away,
whispering, '. Enough fo' now.' Then she lay within his arms, feeling
his heart, inhaling his musk and hers, the pleasant odours of the
aftermath of sex. ',' he said softly, ' gots t'go soon. I gots me a buy
t'pick up.' She opened her mouth, closed it almost immediately. She
wanted to spend the night with him just as they were but she knew from
past experience that he never allowed her to stay on nights he had a
buy. ' dang'rous,' he would say and when once she had asked why, he had
merely looked at her. ' bastard Smiler come up here yesterday while you
was up in Kingsbridge,' Baba said, stroking her shoulder. ' tol' him
never tdo that. Work's work and my private life's got nuthin t'do with
it. But he says he's never seen the place and it was ony this once so
whut the fuck.' She had thought many times about asking him to give it
up but she knew better than to actually say anything. This was how he
made his living. He had chosen it and it was his. Perhaps it was the
only thing in the world that was. She could no more think of devriving
him of it than she could of walking out on him.
"Yo tell me sumthin, mama ...' She snuggled closer to his warmth. '?"
she whispered sleepily. ' really don't make no dif'rence t'you do it?"
"What does?' 272 t I'se a nigga.' put a hand on his chest, spread her
fingers into the of a starfish. Beneath she could feel the pulse of him,
steady tide of his breathing. He seemed immense and rable. ' here," she
whispered, ''re what I want. n.' She kissed the hairless skin over his
heart. said nothing, staring up at the distorted patchwork of light
coming in through the slats of the blinds. It pulsed s the ceiling with
the passage of every car or truck. Pall sounds drifted up to them from
the street below: a strident hom, the soft whoosh of the traffic along
the e, a dog barking, some laughter, then words in Spanish. t screeched.
inn looked clandestinely over at his dark profile, saw the of a tear at
the comer of one eye. She pressed her lips .,his neck and never told him
what she had seen. awoke in the dead of night in the midst of a kind of
go. Immediately she reached out in bed for Rubens but was alone. Why
wasn't he home? Had Maria told her -he'd be late tonight?
She couldn't remember. he taste of rubber was in her mouth. She tried to
swallow y, thought, It's going to come back. All of it. began to sweat
and abruptly she felt as if she were through the bed, the floor, through
the very earth Down to the core. he stared at the ceiling. It seemed a
million miles away. whirling, whirling so fast it made her head ache.
She ed her eyes shut but that only made the vertigo worse. eyes flew
open. What had awakened her? She could feel beating of her heart, a
violent harnmer in the steel-mill of chest, heard the rustle of her
unquiet breathing. The sound, and oddly magnified in the stillness,
caused her to breathe faster until she was panting. he wondered if the
noise of her own breathing could have ed her. But deep down in her being
she knew that ing outside herself had caused her to come awake. right
ballooned from her belly up into her throat, lodged like a stone. She
fought it and at that moment heard the d again. She stiffened, her ears
straining in order to 273 identify it. It came again and she tried to
still her breathing, A thin., itching line of sweat crawled down her
temple. The sound came from inside the house. The sounds moved closer,
seeming clandestine and tiny and at last she understood that someone was
in the house with her. She clutched at the sheets but she could not
move. The taste of the rubber was heavy in her mouth. She wanted to gag.
And now she thought she heard a low growling in a foreign language.
Spanish. It was Spanish. Her mind whirled, still half clogged from her
dream of Baba and New York. Part of her was still three thousand miles
away. She was a girl again, helpless and afraid, suspended, paralysed,
in a world full of dark shadows and evil intentions. Someone was drawing
closer to her with each breath she took. She felt herself stretched out
on the bed, as spreadeagled as a starfish. She tried to move her head,
even her eyes so that she could see who or what would come through the
open doorway to the bedroom. A sharp click almost caused her to stop
breathing. Trembling, bathed in sweat, she thought of a switchblade
yawning wide, as light silvered down its long lethal blade. And now fear
banged like a brass gong inside her, clanging its hysterical alarm in
sonorous vibrations like ripples in a pool, spreading outward. Death
hung on the air, as palpable as a beaded curtain fluttering just above
her head, descending with sadistic slowness, intent on suffocating her.
Her chest heaved and she fought for breath. A shadow fell across the
bed, across her body, black and enormous and ominous, and she cried out,
though no sound came from her lips. Her mind was a cyclone of images -.
death and destruction; messages carved into the flesh of her body; vile
sexual violations; great thorned sticks bludgeoning her until bones
splintered through rent flesh. Blood fountained obscenely, nerves
screamed with pain and she was utterly helpless. She gasped. And,
arching up, screamed. ' the hell -@ Crying out, not seeming to be able
to catch her breath, she began to choke. felt powerful arms pinioning
her, the high heat of body pressed against hers. A masculine scent,
somehow r. Her eyes flew open and she flinched away from the Still he
held on. But this only increased her terror..,found her face buried in
the hollow of his shoulder. She pped her head back, her lips drew away
from her teeth reverted, whirled away down the long centuries.
Her snapped, opened again and she was not fully aware Ishe growled deep
in her throat. She was mad to tear f free of the grip of death but his
strength was over- 9. he lunged her head forward, her mouth opening, the
teeth ing to clamp down and bite when she heard him say: ? Daina, it's
all right.' bit anyway, her mind still roiling, believing even now she
had been awake all the time. Heard the rip of fabric, d salty wetness,
heard his surprised pain-filled cry. But it not ing compared to the pain
that filled her now. aina ... Daina ... Daina ...' he recognized the
tenderness in the touch; knew it was not "th come for her. Only her mind
at work like a steel trap, 9 this awful, grisly surprise, an apparition
at midnight. mg ens,' she whispered hoarsely. ' help me.' And fell rd
into his lap, shuddering and sobbing with anguish the release from
terror, he nightg1ow of LA came into focus. From somewhere @1eard Baba's
voice saying, Mama, yo either in o' yo out thds the end a' it. Now, with
her involvement in Bonesteel's der investigation, she knew she was in at
last. She felt a desire to tell Rubens everything but she knew that
would il it in some way she could not understand. She could not him - or
anyone - about Baba and this was the same thing, ension of that feeling.
I may have someone for you to meet,' he said. ho?' ' Spengler. He's a
good friend of Beryl's.' He turned on his back. ''s an agent." Rubens,
for the last time, I'm not going to fire Monty.' Did I say something
about that? I want you to meet Dory. re's a good reason.' 274 275 'I'll
bet.' ' you do it?' ' right! ' I should postpone my trip to New York,'
he said. ' thing with Ashley's too important!
"It can wait a week.' ' want you to go, Rubens.' She put a hand along
his naked flank. ''m all right! She smiled into the darkness. ', Chris
has invited me to San Francisco for the weekend to see the band
perform.' '. You'll be out of here for a couple of days.' She leaned
over his face. ''s just what Chris said. I don't believe you." "Beryl's
very high on the connection between you two. I've told you that. When I
tell her, she'll be ecstatic. The tripp'll be worth its weight in
publicity for you, and can meet Dory when you get back." "Always
thinking, aren't you?' ' to sleep,' he whispered. His breathing slowed
as he drifted off. But sleep would not come for her.
Dawn was just around the comer; yesterday was only a sour taste in her
mouth. She turned away from the window and the gently moving curtain.
She knelt on the bed, pulling the coven down until she had exposed
Rubens' naked body. She stared at him for a long time. She felt an
overpowering need to touch him, feel him next to her, crush his body to
hers, to feel his weight straining her rib cage, his muscled arms
encircling her. She reached out for him. At last she sat up and with a
long drawn-out sigh, swung her legs over the side of the bed, leaving
Baba. She gathered up her clothes and her shoulder bag, padded silently
the length of the apartment to the dark bathroom. The plumbing clanked
constantly and the door, warped wood covered with who knew how many
coats of cheap white paint, would not close fully. Inside, with her hand
halfway to the light switch, she paused, changed her mind. She set her
clothes down on the rim of the bathtub, knelt atop the closed toilet
seat, lifted the translucent glass window and let in all the combined
light of ttan. The sky was white, the illumination diffuse as if ere
living inside one of those shell-like Easter eggs. watched the city
winking and trembling in the chill. Akbind her, she could hear, now and
again, Baba moving quietly around the apartment, getting ready to go
out. re@ Her head whipped around at the sharp sound. Someone Vas at the
door. She heard Baba's voice then the sharp metallic ape of the police
lock being lifted out of the way. Friends e often dropping by without
notice. Baba had no phone preferring to make all his calls from a
variety of booths Around the area. ',' he always said, 'belongs on the
et.' Still this was one night she would have wished for no rniptions,
even so close to its end. She still felt the tingles ide her like grass
rushes and her flesh was sore in many ces, her lips bruised, slightly
swollen: delicious. She turned from the eastern scene at the window,
went tly to the slightly open door to take a peek. She heard the two
loud reports just as she got there and she ped, her heart hammering so
hard she thought it must rst. She heard boots like a staccato rhythm on
the bare floor, n nothing as a figure moved on to the thin carpet
between couch and the. chairs. She heard a voice, low and menacsay, '
where you are. You've done your night's work.' en there was silence for
what seemed an eternity. She stood quite still, her fingers whitely
gripping the edge the door. Terror clutched at her heart and she felt as
if her od had turned to icicles, painting her with every breath took.
Her mind was numb. She tried to think coherently, ld not, just felt her
lips moving, This can't be happening. Abruptly she heard a gasp, so
sharp and clear it might have en the report of another pistol.
She tried to peer into the in, to see who the intruder was. She strained
forward, ought she heard one whispered word: '11ate!' Then ng. e rushed
headlong out of the bathroom, across the long in. Pale light splashed in
an oblique oblong across the or from the partially opened front door.
She ran to it, shed it shut with all her might, slammed the police lock
o place. She turned, almost stumbled over him. He was lying 276 277
sprawled on the floor, his head and shoulders half propped against the
wreckage of the overturned coffee table. Blood, dark and glistening like
a shower of diamonds, covered his chest, drooled out of his open mouth.
All the lamps had been extinguished. She knelt beside him, saw the blood
pumping out of him, exquisite and deadly, life and life only, real and
tangible to her for the first time. '!' she cried. ', God, Babap Her
hands went to his heaving chest as if, with her fingers alone, she could
heal him with faith. It was some time before she realized that he was
trying to speak to her; there was so much blood coming out of his mouth
he was choking on it. She lifted his head away from the hard unforgiving
edges of the table, cradling the great weight against her naked breasts.
Blood spilled across her stomach, a dark warm river, pooling in the V
between her thighs. The sharp stench of the cordite mingled with another
