Page 23 of Wicked Tides #1

Dahlia

The depths make mad minds

Mad minds seek out the dark

~Unknown

It was easy to know how long I’d been in the holding cell.

The tide spoke to me through the wood of the ship, swaying and whispering to my thoughts.

It had been little more than two days and the visions of that dream trembled through my mind.

I hadn’t slept since I woke from it. I didn’t dare until I could figure out what to do about it.

What happened was not unheard of, but it was rare.

Most men bitten by a siren didn’t live to have dreams let alone get close enough to the offender to allow us to walk in them.

Most sirens saw to it that they finished their meals.

When I swallowed Vidar’s fingers, I hadn’t intended to eat him.

I intended to kill him. It didn’t occur to me at the time that we’d ever meet again long enough for me to see the tangled thorns of his mind.

I didn’t like it.

It meant we were close. Connected. It disgusted me.

Then again, if I wasn’t going to get another opportunity any time soon to finish what I tried to do as a child, perhaps I could use my new unwanted gift to my advantage. Vidar’s dreams were haunted. I was about to take the twisted vines and tie them in knots, strangle them, and set them ablaze.

The ship was consumed by a familiar chill that carried a particular scent.

It was morning. The sun had just risen which made the salty smell of the ocean breeze more potent.

And rain was coming. I could smell that too.

I could hear it in a distant rumble from the sky.

I sat up on my flattened bedding and leaned against the wall, flexing and stretching my wrists to relieve some stiffness from the cuffs.

It was then that Vidar finally returned to my cell gate.

He had a wooden bowl in his hand containing a slice of stale bread and some kind of brown stew.

He stopped to regard me for a while, eyeing my thigh where my wound was no more than a light pink line. It would barely scar by the end of it. Not that I cared. Every scar was a symbol of how the world had tried to murder me and failed.

When Vidar’s eyes lingered too long on my leg, I cocked my head a little, watching him.

My dress was made of thin, pliable leather and laced down the front.

There was a space between my breasts where it was bound loosely and it extended to my navel.

The uneven, raw hem was slanted, leaving my wounded thigh completely exposed.

Human women were always covered in layers and layers of stifling fabric.

I was in no way the typical sight for a human man.

Vidar, however, had killed so many of my kind I doubted my exposed skin was what he was staring at.

Still, I wanted to gauge his thoughts and slowly extended my long leg out further, giving him a better look.

That made his eyes snap up toward mine and he let out a breathy laugh.

“I assure you, I’m not looking for that, ” he rasped.

“All men are looking for that,” I replied.

“They just don’t always say it out loud.

” I parted my knees, sucking my bottom lip between my teeth and catching it on one of my fangs.

Vidar didn’t look away from my eyes, though.

“It’s a cruel, cruel world. I could give you the most wonderful bliss.

The greatest pleasure. You wouldn’t even know you were dying until it was over.

You’d get what you want. I’d get what I want. ”

“You think I want to die,” he said flatly.

It wasn’t a question.

“I think you didn’t fight very hard when I was going to kill you.”

He swallowed. It was the first tiny reaction I noticed from him. But he recovered quickly and sighed, leaning forward on the bars. He hung his arm through and relaxed against the gate, pushing the meal toward me.

“We don’t have human meat on board. Only beans and bread,” he said.

I let out a deep breath and slowly closed my legs, glaring up at him.

Gradually, I stood and walked over to the bars, expecting him to recoil once I was close, but he didn’t.

He just kept looking me right in the eyes, unafraid and betraying nothing about what he was truly thinking.

But I knew from that brief glimpse into his mind that deep within the thick bones of his skull were echoes of guilt and destruction.

I needed to weave some kind of net that could capture all of it and turn it against him. It wouldn’t take long if I was focused.

I moved closer to him than I needed to to take the bowl.

I cupped my hands around it, intentionally touching him when I did.

His skin was rough and well-worn. He was accustomed to physical labor.

His blood ran hot, scalding my naturally cold flesh.

And when I pulled the bowl from him, I saw the slightest dilation in his eyes.

The lantern above swung as the ship swayed and made shadows dance back and forth across his face.

He’d be terrifying if I hadn’t been eaten, chewed, and regurgitated by a thousand horrors over and over since I was born.

“We don’t have to eat men,” I spoke softly, the corner of my mouth quirking. “We just enjoy it.”

It was the truth… mostly. Sirens could eat anything. We could enjoy it, so long as it had a pulse. But man… man had a particular effect. One that made us stronger. Faster. It made us live longer. Feel deep er. See further. It was exhilarating and potent and nothing compared to the taste.

I hadn’t eaten many men since that bloody island.

I’d been saving myself for Vidar and the thrill of his capture.

I’d fantasized about devouring him since the bones of his fingers cracked between my teeth.

Since his blood dripped down my throat. He would be my prize for finally setting it all right.

But years of hatred had led me down a dark path. One where my teeth had ripped into the flesh of many foul men.

The thought made my eyes roam slowly down the length of his strong and able body.

His pants hugged his muscular thighs tightly.

His loose cotton shirt hung thinly on his broad shoulders.

Ropes of dark blond hair were half pulled back into a leather tie exposing those perfect, high cheekbones.

He looked fucking delicious. If it wasn’t for the gate between us and the cuffs on my wrists, I’d have tackled him to the ground.

His strength and skill would only prolong the game.

“Those things on that island,” Vidar finally said as I sipped from the rim of the bowl. “What were they?”

I shrugged, despite knowing exactly what they were. I continued to sip on the soup and then suffered through the dry bread, knowing I needed to eat something and keep up my strength.

“What did you do to my sisters?” I shot back.

Vidar mimicked my shrug. This was a game I didn’t truly feel like playing.

“Tell me about those creatures.”

“What’s wrong? Did they scare you?”

He glimpsed my scarred leg as if to remind me that they’d almost killed me.

But I hadn’t forgotten. Vidar, however, was in an impatient mood.

He reached out abruptly, grasping the chains on my manacles, and pulled me toward the bars.

The bowl went clattering to the ground, spilling the remaining contents onto the floor of my cell.

I slammed against the gate, jaw clenched, and saw the anger spread in his darkened eyes .

“I’m only keeping you alive because I want to understand, but if you don’t want to help me understand, then I’d rather not keep a siren alive on my ship.”

“Then kill me. I know you want to,” I hissed. “You’ve wanted to since that night, haven’t you? It’s been the only thing on your mind. You made a mistake leaving me alive, so fix your mistake, Vidar.”

Part of me wanted him to do it. At least then the torment would stop. But there was the bigger part of me that thirsted for revenge. It forced me to survive against all odds for this particular moment. The moment we finally saw each other again.

“What were they, Dahlia?” he whispered.

“Why do you want to know? It’s just something else for you to kill. More monsters in the ocean are good for business, right?”

His other hand moved up to clutch my neck. It was so big it nearly collared my throat completely. He pulled me closer until I could feel his breath on my face.

“Your sister freed me so I would help kill them. So she could save you. That’s a lot of faith to put in a man like me. She knew the cost and she thought it was worth it. She was afraid of those things more than she was afraid of me.”

“And then what?”

“And then I threatened to kill you if she didn’t let me go.”

He was already exploiting my weaknesses and I had yet to exploit his. I clenched my jaw, angry that he had the upper hand.

I swallowed against the pressure of his grip and balled my hands into fists. If I was being logical, it would help us both if he knew about the xhoth. They were my enemy as much as they were his. But it was excruciating to think of cooperating with Vidar.

We stared at each other for another grueling moment before I slowly blinked in defeat.

“The xhoth,” I said. “It means ‘sons’.”

His eyes narrowed before he released me. “Why have I never seen them before?”

“Because they’re from the deep. ”

“Like your pale sisters?”

“No. Deeper.”

“Why are they here?”

“Why?” I mocked. “Because your hunting us has called them up.”

“They were killing you and they killed your sister. Don’t tell me they’re here to defend you.”

“Me? No, they aren’t here to defend me,” I laughed. “They’re here because they’re hungry. You’ve been depleting our numbers for generations. But there’s always something bigger.”

“They eat your kind?”

I shrugged. “In a sense.”

“Speak plainly.”

“I can’t speak plainly about something I barely understand myself. Those who have been to the depths return mad and soiled by the darkness, and they do not share their secrets with others.”

“That cannot be all you know. Tell me more.”

“Why? You’ll execute me after I give you what you want. My only value is in the knowledge you don’t yet have. And you don’t have my sisters, so what exactly do you think you can bargain with? My own life means much less to me than you might think.”

He blinked at that. I wasn’t intending to say it out loud, but perhaps it was a good thing. Perhaps if he knew I didn’t care about dying, he wouldn’t use the threat of death against me.

For a long while, he just studied me. His eyes narrowed and wandered and then focused on me countless times before he finally stepped forward and pulled a ring of keys from his belt.

He jammed one into the gate’s lock and turned it.

When the gate swung open, I was stupefied, eyes round with surprise.

And then he had the guts to turn his back on me and pick up a bundle of clothing off a stool behind him. He tucked it under his arm and walked right into my cell, confusing me further.

Vidar grabbed my cuffs and unlocked the irons on my wrists, letting the heavy things fall to the floor.

My heart was pumping at the discarded weight and the feeling of freedom.

I could grab him. Fight him. Break him. He didn’t even have his men with their guns aimed at my face.

I didn’t know what was going through his head.

Stupidity. Carelessness. Whatever it was, it meant I had my chance.

My teeth were sharp and his neck was exposed.

But I refrained. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but if he was clothing me and uncuffing me, perhaps he had more to tell.

Vidar tossed the clothes at me and stepped back, crossing his arms expectantly. Brows furrowed, I stared at him and unfolded a white cotton underdress and a thin, linen coat with wide cuffs.

“Take off the skin,” he demanded.

I pursed my lips and lazily removed my clothes, tossing the old thing at him. He raised a brow when it hit his chest and fell to the floor. Then I replaced my garments with what he’d given me. If he wanted me changed, perhaps it meant he wasn’t going to kill me any time soon.

I slid on the cotton dress, not bothering to tighten the ties between my breasts, and then slipped the coat on. It felt awfully heavy, but not overly uncomfortable.

When my eyes darted briefly to the bronze cutlass on Vidar’s belt, he moved his hands to hang on his waistband.

“It’d be stupid of you to try,” he said.

“Why are you dressing me?” I asked, rubbing the raw flesh around my wrists. “And why is the gate open?”

He turned his back on me for a second time and started walking toward the steps. I was so puzzled, my feet didn’t even move.

“I could kill you and your entire crew in the night,” I called after him. “I will. ”

He stopped midway up the stairs and ducked down to look at me from behind the roof beam.

“Then you’d be stuck in the same predicament you were before.”

“What predicament is that?”

“Not knowing how to sail a ship.”

“I don’t need to sail a ship,” I said bitterly. “The water is my home. ”

He groaned, rolling his eyes. “If you try to kill any of us, we’ll have to kill you.” He continued up the steps. “And I think you want to stay alive long enough to see those girls go home.”