Page 5 of Between Salt and Serenades
She nodded and shoved her pointer fingers into her ears, blocking out what was to come. She didn’t need to be asked twice; the selkie was smart enough to listen the first time.
A piercing song escaped my lips, slithering through the crack in the door. As soon as the high-pitched frequency flowed out of me, the fishermen all stopped dead in their tracks. Their stillness turned to desperate curiosity. We were meant for this, luring in the humans, leading them to a certain death. I just never had the honor of this kind of hunt, not until this very moment.
The man I was targeting, the small one closest to me, wouldn’t die by my hand today, not if I could help it. I didn’t need a mess to clean up; I simply needed what he wore on his back.
Upon hearing my song, he dropped the fish in his hand and began shuffling toward me. His dark eyes were glazed yet eager—eager for me and my ability to allow him curious pleasure in every cell in his body. I would instill a need in him that wouldn’t be quenched even after the end of my song.
I grabbed the bat they used to brutally kill the fish they caught and waited for him with it gripped in my hand. Once he was close enough, my lips fell shut, my song ended, and I pulled him through the crack in the door. Whacking him over the head with the wooden bat, his limp but still-living body hit the floor with a thud. His hat tumbled off his head, spilling auburn hair across the floor.
The fallen cap halted right at the bare feet of the woman, so she unplugged her ears and scooped it up. After analyzing me, she mimicked my look, twisting her curls into a bun and shoving the cap upon her head.
I slipped off his shoes and tossed them at her, socks and all. His feet thumped against the wooden floor of the ship one at a time. No part of me wanted to undress the man. I took one look at the selkie as she sat upon the trunk, expressing no discomfortin the way she exposed her chest to me. I knew she needed the clothes far more than he did. Our survival,and my sanity, depended on it.
CHAPTER THREE
HAVOC ON THE HULL
The woman donned the fisherman’s damp white shirt and slacks, her hair tied-back, dripping down her spine. I rubbed my temple as my gaze dropped to her chest. It didn’t matter if she dressed like a fisherman when her hardened nipples screamed that she didn’t belong.
I glanced down at the opaque, navy-blue jacket I wore, and within the same breath, stripped out of it and tossed it at her. She missed the catch, and the jacket plopped onto the face of the sleeping man.
“Put that on,” I demanded, straightening the wrinkled shirt that remained on my body. The fabric was thicker than hers and deep red, hiding what hid underneath.
“It’s too hot to wear a jacket.” She held the piece of clothing out distastefully.
“Well, apparently, it’s too cold to wear white,” I muttered. She peered down at her shirt, rolled her eyes, then plucked the jacket off the man’s face.
“I’m sorry my bodyoffendsyou. I didn’t realize sirens were so…proper.” She said “proper” with such utter distaste, as if there was a word she would have preferred, a more honest one.
“Your body did nothing of the sort. But if you look right now through the crack in that door, there is not a single soul like us on this vessel,” I said, nodding toward the door. Her eyes followed my gaze as she let my words sink in.
“You mean they’re all human?” she asked, clearly not understanding.
“I mean they’re allmen. Men presumably without the perfect pair of boobs,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Perfect?” She cocked her head with a tiny smirk crossing her face. Her eyes trailed down my face, taking in every facial twitch.
“They’re fine. Now, hide your pelt and let’s go. We’ve got a ship to take over.” I decided for her that she would be helping me on this journey. I had enough magic to sink this entire ship, but that wasn’t what I was after. We already took their precious Ever Wanderer; we didn’t need another sunken vessel.
“How do you know about my pelt?” she asked, slipping the navy jacket over her head. The baggy garment shielded her curves from suspicious eyes. All she needed to do now was keep her face down. There was no hiding her feminine features, the unmistakable beauty of a selkie. Her round eyes, colored cheeks, and plump lips all gave her the pretty, approachable look they all seemed to have.
Sirens were known for our captivating voices and the illusion of beauty, but we were creatures of the deep. We thrived in the darkness where light didn’t touch our pale, scaled skin and gills.
“How do I know you need to hide your pelt?” I pulled my gaze off her lips and focussed. She nodded her head, pulling a sigh of boredom from me.
“I’m from the deep, but that doesn’t mean I’m oblivious to the world. I know the way of the selkie-folk. So hide your skin and let’s go!”
“I also know of the siren.” She pursed her lips, as if I should have been embarrassed by this fact. “And fine, but I have to find a good spot.”
Her eyes darted around the tiny storage area jammed packed with chests and wall hangings.
“Put your pelt over there, in the bottom of that chest. There’s just a bunch of old rags, so there’s little reason for them to look inside,” I directed, motioning to the trunk. My fingers separated more than I was ever used to seeing. There was so much space between them now that the webs were gone. Staring down at them, I flipped my hands over to take them all in as she scoped out the trunk.
“Why don’t you just go back to the water instead of going through all this trouble to disguise yourself?” she asked as she dug through the chest I’d pointed out. Pushing all the rags aside to make room for her pelt at the bottom, she hid her seal skin. A human man finding the skin of a selkie woman was the worst nightmare of the selkie-folk, and with good reason.
“I can’t go back.” My teeth ground against each other. “Can you transition again so soon?”
“Yes.” She nodded her head, pointing down at her seal skin before burying it under the scraps of fabric. “As long as I have my pelt.”
