Page 59 of Wicked Tides #1

“I didn’t want you to want her,” I panted. “I wanted you to desire me.”

He thrust his fingers deep, nearly lifting me off the ground.

I whimpered, throwing my head back. He assaulted my neck with his mouth, licking a slow trail along my throat.

And by Lune, I was hungry for it. The feeling of his hot breath against my cool skin silenced all other thoughts.

The way his fingers stretched and ravaged me demanded my nerves pay attention to only him and nothing else.

The way he pinned me to the wall was a demand to give up control and for some reason, I wanted to.

I wanted to relinquish everything to him and set aside all thoughts and doubts and fears.

He pumped himself inside me again and again, his thumb pressing against my sensitive bud.

I had never felt pleasure from a man until that first night beneath his harsh touch.

It was an all-consuming pleasure that left me broken and comforted all at once.

I thirsted for more of it. For more of him . For that unique liberation.

Opening my eyes, I could see the darkness down the tunnel over his shoulder, facing the coast. The firelight around us created shadows across my vision, so it took a breath or two to realize one of the shadows was solid.

The shadow stepped toward the very edge of the firelight’s reach and I saw a tall, pale form with hip-length black hair clinging to her still-wet figure. Her black eyes were sharp with hatred as she lifted her hand. In it was a bone dagger much like my own.

I was instantly ripped from the throes of pleasure when the woman launched the dagger toward Vidar’s back. Without thinking, I spun him around so his back hit the wall and I pushed myself away from him. The dagger hit the rocks with a loud clank that echoed through the hollow passage.

“Traitorous cunt,” the woman hissed.

She looked half starved and her eyes were red and crazed as if she had not slept in many days.

“Ligeia,” I muttered.

“You keep taking and taking,” she said. “And leaving us to clean up the mess.”

“What?”

“The men you killed. They were meant for the sons. They would have left us alone, but now they hunt and you are here, fucking a human. ”

I heard the metal of a blade unsheathing and glanced back to see Vidar shrugging off his coat, his cutlass in one hand. He paced like he was about to fight a pack of wolves for a fresh carcass.

“The father wants you,” Ligeia continued. Her gaze bore into me like two poisoned picks digging right into my soul. “And I can give no more of my sisters to appease his hunger. You’ve angered the sea.”

“So, he calls me and not you, sister,” I said. “It must be torture to know that.”

“You will surely not be spared for what you let that man do to mother. Akareth loved her.”

“Akareth loves no one.”

“You did this!”

“We both know this has little to do with mother and more to do with the fact that you wish it was you who was chosen. Ligeia, the loyal little bitch always striving to be the favorite and yet your name is not the one being whispered on the waves.”

“They’ll tear you apart, bit by bit, your body and mind, because you’re not a believer,” she said through her teeth. “And we’ll kill your hunter. In front of you, as you both deserve.”

“We?” I laughed. I crouched to pick up the bone knife from the ground and snarled. “Have you other sisters, then?”

She cocked her head at me, flashing her fangs when she smiled.

Her eyes darted to the space behind us and both Vidar and I spun around only to see the flash of a pistol firing.

It was blinding in the darkness. The sound ricocheted through the tunnel, but I did not feel a thing.

Instead, I saw Vidar stumbling back into the wall, his hand clutching his shoulder.

When the white spots from the muzzle flash had cleared, I saw Uther standing at the mouth of the tunnel, his pistol smoking. Behind him were four other men looking on while their captain bled.

“Sorry, cap’n,” Uther said. “Nothin’ personal, but since when are we fucking sirens?”

Vidar growled as he stood, blade still in hand.

Shouting rose up from the village as people awoke to the loud gunshot.

The other men pulled out their weapons and began to advance and I quickly ran toward Vidar, lifting the knife in front of me as if it would help against men with pistols.

Vidar pulled his own, aiming it over my shoulder at Uther with a scowl.

“So this is your pathetic little attempt at a mutiny, is it?” he said, unafraid.

My eyes darted toward Ligeia to see her jeering at the whole ordeal.

Why the men were ignoring her was made clear when I glimpsed Uther’s chest to see that he wasn’t wearing a pendant.

None of them were. In a blink, my mind sored back to that black-sand island.

I remembered him being the last man on the boat during our retreat. Had he been wearing his silentium then?

“You’ve been following us all along,” I said. I addressed Vidar. “She’s been in his head since the island.”

“Fucking figures,” he spit.

The men from the village drew nearer and I heard Gus shout at Uther.

The men turned on each other, whipping their pistols around.

Meridan came darting out of the crowd and leaped onto the back of one of the traitorous crewmen, her teeth clamping down on his ear.

He screamed, firing into the ceiling of the tunnel.

Vidar lifted his pistol, swinging it over my head and turning it on Ligeia.

She ducked and the bullet rebounded off the wall with a spark.

Suddenly, one of his men charged at Vidar, swinging his sword as if they’d never been friends.

He fought him, but in four moves, despite his injured shoulder, he had slammed the man’s head so hard against the wall that he wavered and plummeted to the ground.

Uther charged Vidar next and before I could think, I lunged, driving my blade into his gut four times in quick succession.

He didn’t even look like he felt it. He slammed the hilt of his cutlass against the side of my head and I saw spots for a second before I recovered and stepped away, dislodging the blade from his stomach.

Another one of the once loyal crewmen rushed forward and Vidar tugged at my arm, spinning me around to the back of him and blocking the man’s blade with his own .

I looked up at Ligeia. She absorbed the situation and when she realized her poor, enslaved puppets were going to lose, she bolted toward the coast with a hiss.

“Meridan!” I shouted. Immediately, she was at my side, her lips bloodied. “She cannot get away.”

We both took off after her, but my sister was as fast on land as she was in the water. For all we knew, she had others waiting for us, but I didn’t care. She could not leave.

When we exited the cave, Ligeia veered off toward a cliffside. We followed, but before we reached her, I stretched out an arm and halted Meridan. Ligeia spun to face us as two other Kroan emerged from the frosted stone ground, their bodies uncurling from the rocks and shedding their gravelly color.

“All of Theloch will descend on this place,” Ligeia threatened. “And every place you go will fear us as we rise up in your wake.”

Meridan and I wasted no time. We charged toward the intruders without remorse or hesitation.

We had not fought our own in years, but we knew how to do it.

We combined our efforts, tearing into one before even thinking of the others.

Ligeia inched toward the cliffside, staying far from my blade.

Just as I was about to finish one of the strangers off, the third tangled her fingers in my hair, dragging me backward.

I launched my feet up, flipping over her skinny form and driving my knife into her side.

She screamed as I twisted it and then dragged the sharp edge through her stomach.

Blood and organs spilled to the ground in a steaming heap.

Ligeia roared with fury and suddenly reached out toward Meridan. I threw my knife. It whispered past her head, cutting deep into her scalp, but it barely slowed her. The third stranger, though wounded, had enough in her to rush at me, a smaller bone dagger in her hand.

A pistol blast rang through the air and her head snapped back before she crumpled to the ground.

Glancing sideways, I saw Vidar marching toward us, his eyes set on Ligeia and his cutlass clutched tightly in one hand.

My sister wasted no time and grabbed Meridan by the back of the neck, dragging her toward the edge of the cliff.

I watched in horror as the two toppled into the water below.

“Meri!” I shrieked.

I stepped toward the ledge to see the water bubbling up where they’d disappeared beneath the waves. Vidar moved up by my side, sheathing his blade.

“She cannot leave,” I said, tearing off my clothes as fast as I could. “She will tell others where we are.”

“You cannot go alone.”

“I have no choice.”

When I hit the water, it was like hitting a slab of solid ice.

The cold swathed me in a suffocating cage.

My vision was skewed by a flurry of bubbles, but I could see them.

Ligeia’s dark hair mixed with Meridan’s silver locks flitted through the water ahead and as soon as my body was through changing from one form to the next, I darted after them.