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“Well, I suppose there is a little punishment involved. God is the judge, but perhaps I am the jury and the executioner.” I lean in closer to her, daring to brush away a strand of wet blonde hair that’s fallen across her eye. “I will treat you fairly, but you must understand that if you were to scream, if you were to escape, you would find no safety in my world. These men would either chop off your tail or sell you to a museum. Can you imagine a real Syren for the world to see? Do you want to spend the rest of your life in an aquarium, having people crowd around you, tapping on the glass?”

She jerks her head out of the way, growling like a rabid dog.

“I am your only ally here,” I inform her, my voice low. “And through me is the only way you’ll reach any kind of salvation. Perhaps I do want to keep you here as punishment. Perhaps I just want to make sure I get the most out of you that I can. You are going to bleed for me, little fish, until you have nothing left to give. Then, and only then, will I even think about letting you go.”

“You’re a monster,” she says, baring her teeth at me.

I drop my hand from her face. “You have no idea.”

I lean in closer, inhaling her scent. I’ve been so entranced by the sweet smell and decadent taste of her blood I’ve barely registered what her natural aroma is. Like her blood, it’s sweet and rich, but there’s something fresh and bracing about it. It brings memories to the front of my mind, ones I thought I’d forgotten. She smells like the time I traveled to a village on the Mediterranean, back in Spain, back when I was human. I had my son with me, and we had traveled through olive and lemon and almond groves until I glimpsed the sea for the first time. The woman at the inn gave us a slice of cake with honeyed lemon rinds…

The memory catches me off guard, disorients me. This creature smells like the last time I remember being happy and whole and?—

With a snap of her head, she leans forward and bites my hand, which I had rested on her shoulder. Pain explodes as her teeth sink in and savagely tear at my fat and sinew, tearing my ligaments to shreds.

I holler and rip my hand out of her jaws, but her bite is tight, and she keeps part of my hand in her mouth, the bloody mess hanging from her teeth.

I look down at my ravaged and bleeding hand. I’m lucky she didn’t take a finger. Tissue and muscle can repair and regrow, but bones rarely can.

She grins at me, a gruesome sight.

To think, this creature made me feel something for a moment.

I let out a roar, and my other hand shoots out, wrapping around her neck. She manages to swallow part of my hand before I squeeze her throat tight until I feel her vertebrae close to snapping.

“What did I just tell you?” I hiss at her. “You bite me, and I’m going to bite you right back.”

I yank her head to the side, exposing the skin of her neck, and sink my teeth into her jugular. She yelps, jaws snapping, but I’m stronger and keep her locked in place while I take my fill of her blood. I wasn’t planning on feeding from her so soon again—if my plan is to work, I have to be strategic when I take blood, give her time to replenish—but I refuse to let her win this little game she’s playing.

In time, she’ll learn that her freedom is an illusion.

And if the monster inside me escapes, he will always win.

Chapter Six

LARIMAR

For a moment, I think I’m elsewhere.

The ocean.

I’m in the cold, bottomless depths, that stretch of blue that goes on and on forever. There is nothing here that can hurt me. No one I’ve lost. No pain, no sorrow, no grief. Just blissful nothingness in which to float forever.

But then, reality sets in.

The pain sets in.

A sharp stabbing in my neck.

The sensation of having my soul, the very essence of myself, ripped out of me while, at the same time, I am filled.

Filled with something I didn’t know I needed, didn’t realize I craved. It strikes hot and quick, like liquid lightning that sinks into my very core, causing an insatiable hunger like I’ve never known.

This man is sucking the blood from my neck, feasting on me, swallowing me down his throat, and there’s almost something pleasurable in the pain, enough that I let out a low moan.

The man stops.

Goes still.