Page 17 of Stalking Wendy Darling

“Oh, you’re dead,” I seethed, slapping a hand over the bleeding slice on my ribs. He’d replicated my cut on him almost perfectly. I blew hair from my eyes and set the bastard captain in my sights, pain making my nostrils flare. “I’m going to carve you up and feed you to your own fucking crew.”

“I thought they were dead,” he retorted, his eyes… dancing. Like he was enjoying this. Enjoying my pain. I bared my teeth.

When he took a step closer, fluid and fast, I retreated, scrambling for a weakness to exploit, a way to take him down—but my back slammed into a solid mast, and I swore at the jolt of pain it sent through my injuries. The smile that hooked into his cheek was pure, arrogant victory.

“Nowhere to go, Wendy,” he taunted, caging me against the mast with both arms. “Still think you can kill me?”

“Still think I can’t?” I glared up at him,hatingthat he was so much taller than me,hatingthat he could loom and intimidate and make my heart quicken. A shiver moved across my skin, sharpening all my senses as he stepped even closer, pinning me to the mast. Nowhere to go. And all I had was a sword that was useless at this close range unless I could manage to get the second dagger from my boot.

Why couldn’t anyone have passed out against the mast, leaving their weapons within my reach? It was so inconsiderate of them.

“Scared, darling?” Hook asked, smirking down at me, not seeming to care that he was bleeding and injured. The name made my heart jump but he didn’t know who I was unless he’d psychically conjured my name.

“You wish,” I laughed and surged against him, managing to dislodge one arm from around me. Pain tried to kill me as I spun out of his hold and jumped over the sprawled unconscious body of Ramone. Spinning was a bad idea. Motherfucker. Blackness flashed again, my breath coming fast because Hook was right behind me. It should have been fear making my heart race, but it was exhilaration. Excitement.

“I’m not sure I do,” Hook said, so close it sent a shiver up my spine. “But I enjoy the challenge of scaring you. You strike me as a woman who doesn’t scare easily.”

“Correct,” I agreed, whipping around so fast I hoped he didn’t predict it, driving my borrowed sword at his chest. It was a perfect strike, aimed right for his stomach. It would make a nasty mess. The least he deserved for kidnapping my sister. And shooting me.

If he’d been mortal, he wouldn’t have escaped the blow, but there was something else to this monstrous captain, and he used a blur of speed to leap aside, my sword cutting nothing but air. He might have evaded a killing blow but he hadn’t been payingattention to his surroundings. The horrid screech of a crate dragging against the deck was like music to my ears when his foot caught against it, sending him tumbling.

I leapt upon him the second he fell, snatching a wickedly serrated knife from Anton’s waist and holding it to Hook’s throat.

“You lose,” I taunted, grinning, my breathing fast and blood pumping in my ears. I felt good. Damn good. This was fun. “Shouldn’t have kidnapped my sister,” I told him, shaking my head. “Big mistake. Fatal, really.”

A knife buried itself in my thigh. I screamed as hot, blinding pain made my whole body bow over him, but the sound became a wild, frantic laugh.

“That won’t help you,” I told Hook. I had him pinned, and none of his writhing and bucking was unseating me.

“You don’t have to kill me,” he said, black eyes sharp on my face, sweat beading on his brow. “I could be good to you, Wendy.”

I let my smile grow, leaning closer, closer, until we shared breath. “I don’t doubt that, Hook. But I’m afraid I do have to kill you. You hurt my sister, and no one is allowed to fuck with the Darlings and survive.”

I drove the knife under his ribs and added my weight to the blow until it pierced his heart.

“It’s a shame you made an enemy of me,” I sighed, patting his face, watching his eyes go from sharp to dull. “I like the way you fight. We would have been explosive in bed. Life-changing maybe. Oh, well.”

I twisted the knife, blood pumping over the back of my hand, slicking my fingers, hot and alluring.

“Fine,” he rasped, his eyelids drooping, his breaths weakening. “You win.”

The smile that filled my face was uncontrollable. Glee hit my system, mixing with adrenaline. I did win, didn’t I? I killed the infamous, terrifying Captain Hook. I drugged his crew of blackhearts and thieves.

“Night, night, Hooky,” I laughed, kissing his bloody lips in a fit of madness before I got to my feet to watch him bleed out. Ooh, that was a nasty wound in his middle. Blood pooled across the deck, wider with every minute.

When he finally stopped breathing, I hauled the captain into my arms, dragged him to the railing with slow, staggering steps, and heaved him into the sea.

I waved with my good hand, wiggling my fingers as he slipped beneath the waves. “I’m the captain now,” I told the corpse of Captain Hook. “But don’t worry, I’ll take good care of the Banshee.”

I ran my hand along the mahogany railing, possession a wild animal in my chest. She was mine now. Everything aboard this ship wasmine.

Chapter Ten

HOOK

The first time I died was in a damp, mouldy room on a godforsaken island. I succumbed to injuries that had been killing me for weeks. I’d been thirteen. I lost count of how many times I’d died since. I should have been dragged down to Hell’s fires years ago, but the curse wouldn’t allow that. It wouldn’t give me a moment’s damn peace.

I’d felt dead for thirty years. Even if my heart still beat, my lungs expanded with breath, and my brain clamoured with thoughts, I was practically a corpse. Bored, empty, unfeeling. I wasusedto being unfeeling, which was why this sudden explosion of rage and surprise and thrill was a little disconcerting. More disconcerting was the way my heart pumped faster, adrenaline coursed through me, and even as I was sucked into the ocean, bleeding from a mortal wound, a smile tugged at my lips.

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