Page 14 of The Arbiter

As we both hit the point of no return, he bit my earlobe and hissed into my ear, “Come with me, darling.”

Those few words were all that I needed to hear before I fell apart.

“That’s it, love. Let go,” he purred as we finished.

When the waves of ecstasy passed, I tilted my face toward the sky and laughed.

“Never have I ever done anything like that before,” I told him. “Your soul was better than the finest wine in Paris.”

He gave me a conceited grin and lowered me to my feet before we both righted our clothes. “Definitely more than I was expecting to receive when I came up here for sure, love. The name is Enoch, in case you were wondering.”

I laugh again, humored by the fact that I hadn’t even asked his name before jumping his bones like a starving woman at the buffet.

“I’m Nocturna,” I told him. I opened my mouth to say something else, but a groaning behind him cut me off. We both looked down to see the crew member becoming conscious again. I had completely forgotten about the fact that this man was needed for a very important job, and Enoch had distracted me from chastising him for it.

My attention focused on the open ocean ahead of us, and my heart almost stopped at what appeared in the distance.

“Shit!” I shouted as I pushed past Enoch to lean over the side of the crow’s nest, trying to make sure what I was seeing was actually there.

There it sat, plain as day. An iceberg a mere hundred yards away as the ship powered on. The only source of alerting the captain laid prone at our feet. Enoch finally seemed to notice that I wasn’t paying any attention to him and stepped up to my side.

“Iceberg!” I shouted before turning to him. “I’m not really sentimental about the humans on this ship, but I know for a fact that I cannot survive swimming in that water down there.”

His brows pinched together as the sex haze lifted and he saw just how dire our situation had become.

“Fuck,” he muttered, “it’s too damn cold for me to fly off this damned machine, either.”

Fly? My bewilderment must have shown on my face because he smirked when he looked at me. “I’m a bit different from your usual Damned, love.”

That explained absolutely nothing, but now wasn’t the time to get into it. He turned and walked over to a bell hanging from a hook before beginning to ring it in fervor.

“Iceberg! Iceberg ahead!” he shouted.

The crew members down on the deck below us heard him and immediately began hollering orders back and forth.

Without saying another word to him, I started my descent down the ladder before the humans caught me up there, Enoch following right after.

When we were back on the deck, I ran to the side of the ship to watch as the iceberg came closer and closer. We were turning, but just not quick enough. Suddenly, there was a huge lurch that shook the entire ship as it collided with the iceberg. Chunks smashed onto the deck, missing me by inches.

I turned to face Enoch, who had the audacity to look amused. “Look what you’ve done!” I chastised him. “This is all your fault!”

“The blame does not lie with me alone, love,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “I clearly remember you jumping me.”

I rolled my eyes as I started to rush away, hoping I could gather as much of my things as possible before shit hit the fan. There was no doubt in my mind that this boat was sinking. Enoch followed me to my cabin and smiled to himself as I threw my stuff into my luggage. I deduced that he had nothing of importance on the ship when he made no move toward his own cabin.

We stayed in silence for the next hour as crew members began leading everyone from first-class calmly outside. We were standing and waiting for the lifeboats to be ready when Enoch chuckled softly.

“What’s so funny?” I whispered as his chuckling gained some disapproving looks from the surrounding humans.

He moved in close with his mouth just an inch away from my ear and whispered back, “I think we just sank the unsinkable ship.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn’t a human lover, but I didn’t hate them enough to wish them to drown in these icy waters, especially the young ones. I could only hope the Rites didn’t find out about this mishap. I’d probably be killed just by association for this asshole’s mistake.

I had to let him have his laugh as crew members started asking for women and children only, using my Succubus pheromones to entice the closest crew member to allow him onto the boat with me. There had been protests from the humans, but the crew member berated them to keep quiet about it as he helped us on.

When the boat was lowered into the water and began to push forward, I glanced over at Enoch and was gifted a wide grin that stole my breath away with his beauty. We both turned our attention back to the ship that was, without a doubt, sinking.

For the next hour, we had watched as it tilted, split right down the middle, and began to pull the back half upright. I had a part in this disaster, and I dared not turn away. I may not have caused this, but I certainly did nothing that could’ve helped save all the lives that would surely be lost this night. My heart grew numb with guilt the longer I watched. There was nothing but pure horror and insanity as the ship was lost beneath the black abyss. The screams from the ship echoed through the dark, icy night, carrying to those of us that sat safely aboard the lifeboats. I promised myself that night that I would never stand by and allow another tragedy like this happen if there was something I could do to stop it.

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