Page 37 of High Seas

Escaped? More like he accidently invited her out.

“And him?” She zeroed in on Edward. Terah’s upper lip pulled back, exposing her fangs.

“Terah,” Enoch warned. “Control yourself.”

“Don’t act like you aren’t affected!” she snapped. “I can see it eating away at you. The scent has its claws in you, too, brother. Furthermore, I am not one of your scurvy sailors. I don’t take orders from you.”

“This is my ship,” he growled, blurring from sight and reappearing in front of Terah, his fangs hovering over her face.

I eased away, moving closer to Eve. She caught the motion and moved to stand with me. “If they come to blows, they’ll sink the ship,” I warned her quietly, “and I don’t want to be on it if that happens.”

“It won’t come to that,” Eve tried to reassure me.

Her optimistic response surprised me and I glanced at her. She looked like the Eve I knew, like she felt normal. She had killed her own clone, even though the double’s strength matched hers, at the very least. Truthfully, being a vampire and having just fed, the clone was probably stronger. “You okay?”

She nodded. “I was feeling better and was about to come find you, when I heard the iron give way and then Edward cry for help.”

Enoch growled and marched to the iron cage, easily bending the bars back into place. “Thatch, if you don’t want me to end you now, get inside.”

“He can’t stand,” Eve defended. She rushed to help him, but the pirate jerked his arm away from her and stood up under his own power. Edward limped into the cage, a fire burning in his eyes as Terah clamped the lock down on the hinge.

“I’m not a monster,” he swore.

I slowly urged Eve farther away from Thatch, away from Terah and Enoch, and closer to the stairs that led the hell out of this underbelly where Remmy waited anxiously at the top. Enoch left Terah and Edward below and joined us. “Report, Remmy,” he ordered.

“All is well, Captain. There’s a steady wind. We’re heading north-northwest.”

“Perfect,” Enoch replied tersely. “We’re going to Nassau.”

“Aye, aye,” the man acknowledged with a curt nod. His eyes darted to each of us, resting on Eve a beat longer before looking back at his captain. “I’ll keep the wheel until you’re ready.” The crewman hesitantly turned and climbed the stairs.

Enoch muttered a curse and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked at Eve. “Go to my quarters.”

“Why?” she asked.

I put my hand on her shoulder. Enoch’s eyes tracked the motion, locking onto the place where my skin met her suit. “Come on. You don’t wanna watch this part,” I offered.

Her muscles turned to stone as she watched Enoch descend the steps, realizing he was going to get rid of her clone. The haunted look she often wore back home resurfaced as he carried the clone’s limp, desiccated body up the stairs. Enoch cursed at me. “Take her inside.”

But Eve wasn’t moving. She had planted her feet. She wouldn’t listen to him no matter what he said, no matter how much he wanted to protect her. Eve didn’t want his protection, and for whatever reason, she wanted to watch.

Eve and I followed Enoch as he carried the clone to the boat’s railing. One of her arms flopped down, bobbing lifelessly with each of Enoch’s steps. On the inside of her wrist was a tattoo that read 1716.

When he dropped the woman’s body into the waves, he watched her sink into the water, her arms and legs weightless as the weight of the ocean tugged her under. Eve let out a sob, pressing a hand over her mouth and looking at Enoch like he had every answer to the questions she had. He stared back, a look on his brow that said he wished he did.

“I’m sorry,” he simply said, pulling her into his arms. She melted into him and cried, her fingers fisting the back of his shirt.

Chapter Eleven

Maru

Leaning against the wall, I waited for Victor to emerge from a meeting he was holding with military heads. From the broadcasts, I’d learned it was mayhem outside the Compound. Vampires were attacking any human they could find, and they weren’t just feeding. They turned the humans they fed from while smiling for the cameras they somehow knew were hidden throughout the city. People were terrified. During daylight hours, those living outside the Compound congregated around it seeking refuge, demanding to be let in.

The attacks started the night the Assets jumped and had only escalated since. If Victor didn’t do something to better protect the people of the city or allow them entrance, their anger would eventually reach a boiling point. They would either force their way inside or burn the Compound down from the outside. They were dying, or becoming undead, by the hundreds. Maybe by the thousands, at this point, and the snowball, once it began to roll, wouldn’t slow on its own.

Shouting seeped through the tiny slit at the bottom of the door. Victor’s voice was easy enough to pick out. So was Ticher’s shrill tone, but the others were more difficult to identify. Some I thought I recognized, others were new. The rate of military deaths had drastically risen in the days since Eve and the others left, so people were getting promoted left and right to positions they had no idea how to fill properly.

The steel door swung open and out poured a small army, all clad in black fatigues. By the pinched looks on their faces, these men and women were not happy. General Ticher led the pack, an angry scowl emblazoned on his face. I blended into the shadows as the crowd filed past, unaware of my presence.

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