Lured

Chapter 6- Ghost

Glad for the mask covering my face as you eye the mark left on my neck appreciatively, a flush creeps across my cheeks. Usually I could ignore the flirting, the half-naked women who just wanted to sleep with a Lieutenant. They wanted the glory of saying they'd slept with Ghost, Lieutenant of the 141.

"You're a handful, you  know that?" I say, my voice gruff as I attempt to mask the effect that she's having on me. The way she blinks up at me, demurely from under her lashes, her head tilted just so her eyes reflect the light from overhead giving them a mischievous twinkle. I can feel my stomach flip sideways as she speaks. 

"I think Price frequently calls me a menace. But there's a reason I'm so often sent to deal with male enemy operatives." She sounds downright seductive, the purr of her soft voice luring me closer to her as if desperate to hear her words clearer. "I always get what I want."

Not sure how to process her statement, I swallow hard. I can feel the flush creep down my neck, yet I hold eye contact with her as I think of how to respond. 

"Is that so?" I muse trying to buy time. My voice is more husky than gruff, memories of her teeth sinking into my skin betraying me. "Are you trying to tell me you want me?" I ask, the words slipping between my teeth like the slipperiest of eels between the holes of a fishing net.

Her response doesn't surprise me. 

"I like winning." Her grin is smug an cocky. What she says next catches me off guard. "I also like men on my own terms. You seem like the kind of man who is far too invested in his own work to be following my whims." Despite her proclamation she steps into my space with a fluid grace that took my breath away. "But I doubt you'd trust me for longer than a second if you truly knew what I was," she whispers hooking her fingers into my vest and kissing me hard and fast. I'm left floundering, my thoughts absent and yet seemingly swirling too fast for me to catch them. Her lips pressed against mine only last for a brief second before she's out of the ring and out the door as fast as lightening. I stare out after her, mouth gaping like a fish out of water craving more of her touches. The electricity still tingling my lips from where she'd kissed me. 

My body catches up before my mind does. My mind finally begins to catch up with me by the time I make it to the door. Despite how fast she had seemingly moved to get out of the gym, she hadn't gotten very far. 

"Ceri," I call out. I know she's heard me by the way she freezes momentarily before she continues forwards. Her momentum carrying her towards the shared showers. I hurry my steps to catch up with her, my feet not even hesitating at the threshold of the bathrooms. "Cerianis," I say, not knowing what else to say. Not even entirely sure why I'd followed her in the first place. Yet, now that I find myself here, I don't want to leave. Not sure what to say, yet completely sure I don't want to leave I find myself unsure of what to do.

She takes it out of my hands. "Ghost, forget what just happened," she says, her tone dismissive, expression bland. Her words sting and I freeze up, but I can see the way her polite smile is forced, and how her jaw is clenched and shoulders tensed. Her smile comes out as more of a grimace and I know that she doesn't want to forget, but something is holding her back. I struggle to fight back my own emotional response. The instinct to lash out from being pushed away so suddenly has my own jaw tightening in a mirror image to hers.

"Forget it?" I can hear the shock and the hurt in my voice clear as day and I mentally chastise myself for being so obvious. "Just like that?" I continue to push desiring answers.

"I told you," she says and I can hear the distress in her voice. I frown not entirely sure what she's alluding to, but it comes back clear as day as she continues. "You'll never trust me again when you realise what I am." She turns trying to hide her pain, the hurt she feels from a perceived slight I hadn't even dealt yet. The pain lancing through her is enough that I can put aside my own hurt, my own pain at suddenly being pushed away so I can focus on her. The wounds within run deep, much deeper than my own. Someone previously had hurt her. The thought made me angry, but I push that away for later too. 

"Ceri. Cerianis," I say softly reaching out to grab her hand and turn her towards me. The tears gathering at the corners of her eyes tell me that she doesn't want our interaction to end like this. "What are you afraid I'm going to realise about you?" my voice gentles, trying to coax the truth from her.

Her eyes harden and I start to wish maybe I hadn't pushed for the answers after all. 

"Look at you Ghost. The only man on the team anyone would dare classify as cold as ice and as isolated and barren of lands. Chasing down someone you barely deal with on a day to day basis like we've been lovers for years..." Her words hit home, she was correct more than she realised. After all, I'd been chasing her down all week. "What kind of creature has that effect on men? What kind of creature draws the eyes of men wherever she goes, without even the slightest of effort?" I stiffen, thoughts slowly dawning on me. She wasn't wrong. I'd noticed the way the men on base stared, even the women too. How could I be so affected by a woman I barely knew? She was right, I typically kept the walls drawn high, impenetrable. 

"But what are you?" I ask desperate for her to confirm my suspicions. "Why are you so adamant that I never get to truly know you?" 

Her voice is broken, her eyes downcast as she speaks again. "What am I, Ghost? I see the realisation in your eyes. Your eyes always betray you no matter how you wish them otherwise. What creature of myth draws men to her with effortless grace?"

I stare at her as her words confirm what I had thought. My mind immediately recalling every story I'd ever heard about Sirens. Sirens calling men to their deaths, drawing men in with their voices, their ethereal beauty, enticing them into deep dark waters. Luring them to their watery graves. No wonder everyone found you so irresistible. 

The pain that flashes across her face as she sees the truth settle on my expression breaks my heart, but its the pained sound, almost a wail of despair she releases that breaks me. Yet it is utterly enchanting and captivating, drawing my attention to it completely. The brief sound conveys so much depth of pain and heartbreak and ruin. It captivates me completely and all I want to do is reassure her, my heart aching in ways I could never explain. The irresistible pull I feel drives me to make her mine, drawing me closer and closer.

"No one ever trusts me. How could they? My kind are rumoured to be only harbingers of death and destruction." She sighs heavily closing her eyes and turning away from me. 

"Come on," I say, barely a whisper as I reach out turning her to me once more before she can do more than take a step away. "Let me prove you wrong." I am sure of my words. I am more sure than anything in the world that I want her. I truly do not believe it is because of her nature as a Siren. Or perhaps it is in spite of that that I desire her. My feelings are different to how I felt before this morning before the training. Her presence had always made me feel foggy and thick, only to clear hours later. Now all I felt was a clear headed persistence. Understanding rocked through me that her ethereal beauty was a part of her Siren nature. Her voice clouded the minds of those around her and she had a natural gravitational pull most couldn't ignore. But I was as sure as I could be if I so desired it I could walk away from her. Her voice would no longer work on me. I just had to find a way to prove that to her.