Page 23 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

My skin vibrated with need. My power hummed through my blood, and it threatened to burst if I didn’t find a way to control it. I needed to get back to the ocean. Now.

Without warning, I jolted to my feet, shoving his chair backward until he clattered to the floor in a clump and a grunt as I raced toward the closed door of this small cabin. Before my fingers even closed around the handle, his fingers gripped my shoulder, and he spun me around, slamming my back into the wall. He held me into place, the length of his body pressing into mine as he caged me in. Our breaths mingled as he said, “I wasn’t done talking.”

The heat of his words sent warmth pooling through my body. My nipples pebbled at the feel of his chest through my thin chemise that didn’t protect me at all from feeling the strength hidden beneath his defined chest. I wanted to hate him, and I did, but my traitorous body and the raging lust of having just awakened my siren-given powers left me pliable beneath his touch, his hold.

“I need your help,” he said, bringing his lips closer to my ear as he spoke in a husky tone that sent a chill running down my spine. He pulled his face from mine, still holding me firmly in place against the wall, his hands roughly against my shoulders and his hips pressing against my own. “If you help me, I promise to let you go.”

I tilted my head, watching him closely. There was a slight plea in the words that he spoke, and as I studied his face, his muscles strained and stiffened at the same time his jaw ticked. He closed his eyes, the darkness like ink within their gaze hidden as he sighed.

“I give you my word,” he said quietly.

“I don’t need your word!” A wicked growl tore through me as I let my anger take control. I slammed my fist into his chest, my claws digging into his flesh several inches, and then I curled over in pain as the feeling of being punched stole my breath away. I caught my breath and stared at him. “What have you done?”

“I did what I had to do,” he admitted, his fingers rubbing at the spot I had punched as he straightened.

I’d jammed my claws into his flesh with a blow that should have killed him, but he stood in front of me as if I hadn’t even touched him. He was something… other.

His eyes deepened in darkness, turning pitch black as he just watched me. He didn’t fear me. I stood in front of him, one of the greatest predators in the sea, and he didn’t seem bothered in the least. I took a step backward, realizing for the first time that the creature in front of me might just be a bigger monster than even me.

My back pressed into the wall as I watched a war play out behind his eyes. A monster stared through those midnight irises, a cruel lift of his lips before he blinked and became the man again. It couldn’t just be a curse, this man before me wasn’t entirely human.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, crossing my arms over my thin chemise. My attention flicked from him to the rounded window over the desk, wondering if I’d be able to fit through that.

He chuckled. “As I was saying, I will let you go. I just need your help first?—”

I made another dash around him, my shoulder knocking into his and rocking through my own as my fingers gripped the windowsill. My arm went through the glass and blood sliced across my flesh as shards cut my skin. I needed to get to the ocean, needed to get away from him. I dove through the gap and hurtled toward the sea, sighing as its cool embrace caught my body.

My legs kicked viciously through the water, pulling myself deeper and deeper into the sea until my fins and gills developed, then with the full strength of my tail behind me, I thrashed forward at top speed. I needed to put distance between thatmonstrous human with dark secrets and me, and I needed that distance now.

Suddenly, I could swim no more as I reached a limit and an invisible force yanked me backward, pulling me back the way I’d come as if some kind of rope—gods, no, a leash—had been fastened around my neck. It didn’t matter how much I shoved myself forward, I couldn’t push myself further than a hundred meters from the ship above. Even beneath the sea, I had been trapped.

I followed the ship only because something invisible forced me to, but I refused to leave the sea. I swam beneath the ship as I plotted my revenge. Lost within my swirling thoughts, I almost didn’t see the shadow circling below me in time. My gaze flicked to the white imprints marring the shimmering scales of my tail, the imprints that matched the jaw of a shark.

With my full powers awakened within me, I knew I could battle this mindless beast that would consume anything that moved within his waters, even if my last encounter with one had nearly ended with my death. It wasn’t fear that had me glancing upward toward the ship sailing slowly above me. It was the realization that if this shark had found me from the depths of the sea, it wouldn’t be long before other creatures of the ocean found me.

How long would it take for rumors to spread through the sea that the princess of Atlantis had been tricked, out-smarted, by a mortal. I’d already messed up with every turn I had taken, if it got out that I’d been captured by a human then I would lose what dignity I had left. I would never see my mother’s crown again, except on the head of an underserving half-breed.

The ocean stole the tear that slipped from me. What would my mother think if she could see me now? My teeth clenched and I growled as I flicked my tail and spun in the waters, changing direction until I headed back toward the surface. Myhead broke through the rippling surface, and as I peered up at the railing of the ship, the dark eyes of my captor stared down at me, a cocky half-grin lifting his lip as he waved for his crew to lower a platform for me.

I flopped onto the board, my hardened gaze pinned to his triumphant dark eyes in a battle of wills as my tail dripped fresh water. The board tipped, dumping me and my fins to the deck of the ship where I sprawled out onto the deck at his feet.

“As I was saying,” he said as he looked down upon me, his crew already tying ropes off to secure the platform along the ship wall before heading in different directions to busy themselves with work. I didn’t miss the strange looks they shot my way, or the gasps they couldn’t conceal. “I will let you go once you help me.”

The silver and purple scales faded away into bare legs, and I pulled the chemise down to cover my hips. My legs curled beneath me, and I remained seated on the damp boards of the ship as I tried to figure the human out in front of me.

“Captain, sir, do you think it is wise to promise her freedom? She…” a young man spoke from behind me, trailing off as if he were about to say something more but had thought better of it.

I tore my gaze from the triumphant gaze of this captain and turned my attention to the boy behind me. He was young, a non-threat, clearly just a subordinate of some kind and not worth my time at all. I twisted back and faced their captain instead, the man who held me by this magical leash.

“So talk,” I growled, climbing to my feet with deliberate movements as I barely concealed the rage flowing through my veins.

We stood on the deck of a large ship made of wood with a black flag rippling in the wind atop the mast. Pirates then. There seemed to be a fair-sized crew aboard, and many of them looked at me with a hatred burning behind their gazes. I was theirenemy; my kind had been responsible for the deaths of many pirates over the centuries. If given the chance, I’d rip out their throats in an instant. They had good cause to fear me, to fear my kind.

With my jaw set into a hard line, I looked at them all with a confidence I had no right to feel in this moment. My hatred burning with every blink. I would make them pay for this captivity. There was so much more on the line than any of them knew, and they put that all at stake by keeping me here. Yes, I vowed to return their cruelty in kind.

“Come back to the cabin with me and we will discuss this,” the captain said, a hand outstretched toward me as if he invited me along for a simple meet and greet, as if I had any choice in the matter. I didn’t move, but I could see a flicker of fear within the depths of darkness in his eye. He knew how dangerous a creature he had captured.

I hissed, making sure he saw every sharpened tooth concealed within my mouth as I marched past him, my body shoving his offered hand out of my way. Seconds later, I heard his footsteps as they followed me back to the cabin I’d only just escaped. Twice, I practically growled at having to be told which way to turn, having become lost in the labyrinth of the bowels of his ship.

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