Page 9

Damon

H er scent bothered me. I couldn’t put my finger on why, either. That bothered me even more.

I was tempted to throw her ass overboard, but something about her had my cat wary—and that pissed me off. Maybe that wouldn’t have stopped me.

The look in Kit’s eyes as she’d warned me to back off…yeah, that did it. She’d been able to rein me in almost from the beginning and that wasn’t changing.

Back up on the deck, with the icy wind slapping me in the face, I kept one eye on the navigational equipment. I shifted my focus between the horizon where the faint outline of an island sometimes appeared through a veil of fog and Kit.

She stood a few feet away, wrapped in her new coat, arms crossed over her chest and legs spread wide to accommodate for the movement of the yacht. The water was getting rougher and the seas hadn’t been that smooth to begin with.

“We’re getting close,” she said.

I slanted a look in her direction and eased up on the speed, but my eyes and nose said we were still some distance away. So did the navigational readouts.

“How close?” I asked. “It’s already getting dark and—”

“Do you ever look at anything with more than those pretty eyes, cat?”

The voice had a ghostly echo to it and even though I’d seen the spirit-made-flesh more than a couple of times now, she still creeped me the fuck out.

Now she appeared in front of me, a sardonic smirk curving her lips, and judging by the look in her eyes, she damn well knew she unsettled me.

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me,” I told her, refusing to let her bait me. If she was here, it was because of Kit, so I’d suck it up and deal.

Her lips widened into a smile that lit her face up, reminding me vaguely of Kit and her aunt Rana. I shook that disturbing thought off as Kit approached Lemera. How fucked up was it that I almost preferred it when she wore that zombie-like facade she’d first appeared in?

“How are you here? I don’t have your blade.”

“I’ve explained this so many times, Kitasa,” the undead being said with a patient sigh. “I’m bonded—”

She froze and as a new gale of wind slapped us in the face, the human mask crumbled and disappeared. A monster stood there, skin peeling back from her bones, hair hanging off her skull in patches where in others, the bone showed through. Whipping her head around, she stared at the far end of the boat…toward the stairs that led down to the galley.

She hissed and clicked her teeth, the sound so alien and macabre, it was hard to believe she’d been standing in front of me looking… normal only a heartbeat ago.

It was like watching a real-life horror movie play out in front of us. Damn little unsettled me but there was something eerie about the way she moved forward a couple of feet, almost slithering , if something that had once been humanoid could do so, head jerking to the side as the wind kicked up. Chasing a scent—I knew the tricks, had done the same, but when a shifter did it, we didn’t look so…unnatural.

And I knew what…or who…she’d scented.

Kit stirred next to me, likely already aware of the Lemera’s change in focus. Instinctively, I cupped my hand over the back of her neck and moved closer.

“Lemeraties,” Kit said.

But Lemeraties —whoever the fuck Kit knew that woman to be—was gone. This was just the Lemera—the boogey-man who’d crept out of the shadows to kill without mercy.

Kit reached for the undead. At the same time, I reached for her, dread screeching up my spine and raising the hair on the back of my neck.

“Kit, wait,” I said.

But it was too late. Kit could move with near shifter-speed. Sometimes, I still wasn’t prepared for it. She had her hand curled in the Lemera’s tunic right about the time I had my hand on her. A cold unlike anything I’d ever known slammed into me.

Grabbing Kit in my arms, I tried to pull her away. Everything hurt. The ice came from the inside out, freezing my heart, my lungs, the very blood in my veins. The cat within shoved close to the surface, clawing to be let out and I gripped him, chaining him down pure will alone.

Through the roaring in my ears and the stuttering of my heart, I heard Kit speak through chattering teeth.

“Lem…eraties… stop !”

We could move again and I lunged to the far side of the deck, holding Kit against my chest. She shook, trembling against me but when I tried to pull her in closer, she fumbled and pushed against the cage of my arms.

“You’re freezing,” I told her. I wasn’t much better—at least I didn’t feel much warmer, but I wasn’t shaking the way she was. She felt the cold more than anybody I’d ever known. Fuck this place—fuck that island and fuck her family. If it wasn’t for Doyle—

A low, husky laugh came to my ears over the steadying beat of my heart and I looked up, saw why Kit was trying to tug away.

Lemeraties and Frankie were circling each other.

Death stained the air. I knew the scent too well to mistake it. Kit tried again to wrench away and I hauled her against my chest.

“If they go at it, we need to be out of the way,” I said, speaking the words directly in her ear.

Kit whipped her head around and glared at me. “If they go at it, they’ll probably sink this fucking ship. I don’t want to swim to that damn island and be stranded—do you?”

Swearing, I hauled Kit into my arms and carried her to the bench near the railing, grabbing a blanket stowed nearby and wrapping it around her. She kept trying to get up but her limbs wouldn't work.

“Get warm,” I growled before spinning to face the other two females.

I roared, the sound carrying across the open water before fading into a desolate hollow echo. The sound was out of place here in this isolated, cold bit of nowhere, resonating in the stark, gray day before it died completely.

Lemeraties stilled, her macabre features flickering back to her more human self as she looked in my direction, although her gaze landed not on me, but Kit.

That was fine—Kit was my concern, too.

But that was when Frankie moved, and fuck, did she move.

In a blur that was black fire and wind, she struck at the Lemera—struck through .

The Lemera screamed and whirled away but Frankie struck again and this time, the fire exploded into the deck and tore straight through, blasting out part of the hull.

Through the smoke and falling debris, I glimpsed turbulent water on the open side.

Fuck . She’d torn a hole right through the damned yacht. Lunging for Kit, I yanked her up as another blast rocked the craft. Through the hammering in my ears, Kit’s swearing and hard breaths didn’t quite drown out the curses and furious pants from the other two. I had no idea what Lemeraties was saying but Frankie was taunting her and calling her a coward.

Lemeraties was plenty of things—a coward wasn’t one of them but I didn’t have time to figure out what hole Frankie had her head shoved into.

We needed to get to the emergency life raft before those crazy bitches stranded us in the water with no means of transport.

“Get the grab bag,” I told Kit, pointing at the secured, vivid orange bag the yacht’s owner had pointed out as he gave us a tour of the vessel before turning over the keys. He’d had a grim look in his eyes as he’d done so, warning us about the strange happenings in the waters. That old man had no idea.

By the time Kit had the grab bag and was back at my side, I had the life raft ready—Kit had her duffel strapped to her back, although I hadn’t seen her grab it. Her sword’s hilt reflected black fire at me and her eyes flicked to the right for a fraction of a second. I caught her chin. “Look at me.”

She gave a tight nod.

“Stay with me.” When she nodded again, I hurled the pod holding the life raft into the frigid water, holding onto the rope. Once it hit the water, I gave it a hard yank.

The yacht shuddered under us again and Frankie made a weird sound that was half-scream, half-bellow and all fury.

Lemeraties said in a cold, clear voice, “ Enough !”

“It will be enough when you’re dead, hag.”

The vessel rocked ominously and I grabbed Kit, hauled her against me and checked the life raft. Good enough. A couple of hard pulls had the life raft hurtling back to the yacht and I tied it off with a loose knot, picked Kit up and tossed her over the side.

A booming blast of black fire and wind sent me crashing to the ground and I leaped up, threw myself over the rail and into the life raft, diving into the narrow opening.

The world stopped.

The grab bag was in there.

Kit’s duffel with her gear and weapons was in there.

Kit wasn’t.