Page 61 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

The darkness grew, spreading along the lines of his face until there was nothing left. Still, I held onto his face, my forehead tipping to his as I stayed here with him. He squeezed his eyes shut, his teeth clenching so hard that I feared he might shatter them as his body trembled beneath my hold.

“Come back to me,” I whispered against his mouth, my lips brushing softly against his as I kept my gaze glued to his closed eyes.

It felt like hours that we sat there, but then seconds later, he blinked open his eyes, and a darkened, muddy brown gaze stared back at me, the darkness held back once more. Every bone in his body relaxed as he sighed. His hands came up to cover mine.

“Next time, I won’t be able to pull it back,” he admitted, and then he kissed me, capturing my lips for all to see.

The moans of pain brought us back to reality, and we helped each other to our feet as we turned to assess the state of his crew together. He’d lost several of his men tonight, and I could feel his pain as he stood at my side. In the same way I’d felt the loss of the sirens who’d perished at my hand, I knew he faced the same pain. He held a sense of responsibility toward his crew, and his grief at these losses was evident in the crease that formed along his brow.

Salty ocean water coated the deck, mingling with the blood that had been spilled. I walked through it, my heart heavy with the weight of everything that had just transpired. My people,once loyal and fierce, now lay as nothing more than frothy water beneath my feet, and I had done that to them.

“Patton!” Kipp gasped at my side, rushing forward and kneeling at his first mate’s side.

I followed him to Patton’s side, slower as the wounds across my chest had stolen much of my strength. I stood at Kipp’s shoulder as the healer desperately stitched up the deep gash that still spilled blood to the deck at Patton’s side.

“I’ll be okay,” Patton said, a weak laugh on his lips as he clasped his captain’s hand. “Don’t you worry for me.”

Kipp looked to the healer. “How many did we lose?”

“At least five.” He nodded to another sailor sitting with his back to the mast. “I placed a tourniquet on his arm, but I’m afraid he’s lost too much blood before I was able to get to him.”

I followed his line of sight to where a man sat looking paler than the moon, his head leaned against the wood at his back as his breath came in jagged rasps. A bandage had been wrapped tightly around his shoulder, trying to staunch the flow of blood from the missing limb. I searched the deck, wondering where his arm had fallen.

Kipp nodded, his face flushed and a mask of indifference in place as he turned his attention back to the healer. “You take good care of him,” he said, indicating Patton, then he stood, crossing the deck with his gaze lowered until he disappeared below deck.

Patton glanced up at me, pain obvious in his expression. “Take care of him,” he said to me.

I couldn’t respond. I could only nod as I turned from him. His words had been the first sign of acceptance I’d received since coming aboard this ship, and I didn’t know how to react to that. So, instead, I made my way across the deck, heading toward the lower decks where I knew I’d find a shattered pirate.

Chapter 36

The Blood-Stained Shirt

The Siren

Ilet the door close behind me as I made my way below deck, though the chaos I’d left still hung heavy everywhere that I looked. The youngest of our crew, even Barlow, ran through the ship with bandages, rags, and whatever medicines they could get their hands on, bringing it above deck to those in need. I knew where I’d find Kipp, and as I approached his private quarters, I could feel his deep anguish and pain over everything that had transpired, the losses we’d both suffered.

The door swung open, revealing his curved back to me as he sat at his desk, his hands splayed through the length of his hair as his elbows pressed into the wooden surface while he held his head. We both knew that his time was coming to an end, that he’d almost lost himself surrounded by the bloodlust of my people. If he lost himself to the darkness again, it would be his undoing. There would be no returning from that ledge a second time.

The feelings within me were new, and I didn’t know what to do as I shut the door behind me with a soft click. I stood therea moment, watching the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders as he just breathed. The beige shirt he wore held splatters of blood, and I couldn’t be sure just whose blood drenched him. Some of it mine? Most of it his? Patton’s? His enemies who were my people?

Letting instinct guide me, I crossed the room until my arms wrapped around him. I leaned over his shoulders, my dark hair falling between us as I brought my cheek close to brush against his. The stubble rough against my skin.

I breathed in deeply as I enjoyed that scent that was uniquely him. Sea salt mixed with a spiced rum. It was intoxicating and having it cling to my clothing for the past several weeks… I’d become addicted to it.

I gave him every piece of me as I placed myself like a shield along his back, and my heart fluttered in my chest as his hands rested over mine while I held him to my chest. In this moment, we were just two broken monsters who needed each other.

He spun his chair from the desk, pulling me around himself until I sat in his lap. I still only wore the lengthy shirt that hung only to my mid thighs, having waged a battle with my fellow, equally bare, sirens half-naked. His hands grazed my skin, and my breath skittered as I turned toward him, my own hands following the lines of his jaw as I held his face. The pain within his dark eyes nearly broke me, so I clashed my lips against his, a desperation igniting between us both as we gave in to the passion. We clung to each other like lifelines, our bodies yearning for the temporary escape from these overwhelming losses we both felt.

Kipp pulled away from the kiss, his hands cupping my face with a gentleness that stilled me. “My beautiful, little monster,” he breathed against my lips.

His pain was bared to me, something I knew he’d never displayed to anyone outside of this room before. Why he letme, his enemy-turned-lover, see the heaviness of his grief still confounded me, but I didn’t turn away from his emotion. We had lost several of his men on this journey, and this was the first sign he shared that those lives weighed on him. So, I stayed with him, letting his rough palms drag a smooth rhythm over my bared skin as he lost himself in my gaze.

“I need you,” he finally said, carefully tucking strands of my hair behind my ear and over my shoulder. “I need to feel something other than this never-ending nothingness. You’re the only one who has ever made me feel anything different in my long, miserable existence.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to protest, but his lips crashed against mine, cutting off my words, my thoughts, with the heat of his passion as his mouth brutally consumed me.

“Pull out those lovely claws,” he murmured against my skin, lifting me into his arms and pressing my back into the smooth wall next to the open window.

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