by J. E. Taylor
He charged. “I killed her,” he shouted and swiped his clawed hand at me.
I jumped back, but not far enough. His nails dug bloody welts across my abdomen, shredding my shirt.
“I killed her a thousand times,” he roared and swiped again.
This time I threw myself backwards over the edge of the couch, rolling over the cushion until I landed on my feet on the other side. Adrenaline burned through my veins as I set myself for the next attack.
“Stop this shit right now!” I commanded.
A muffled yell from downstairs pulled his attention from me. My heart dropped. The captain was an innocent, just like the crew members that my brother killed, and he didn’t have a headset on.
I scrambled, trying to put myself between this evil version of my brother and the stairwell. Jeremiah’s backhand hit, knocking me clear across the room. I slammed into the wall with such force, I swore my skull cracked.
Dazed, I tried to force my eyes to focus. The siren song mingled with the high-pitched whine in my head. My brother disappeared down the stairs. I used the wall to climb to my feet. Shaking my head just made the world tip worse.
A blurry duo stepped into the room. I covered my ears at the sharp knifing sounds, but even with them covered, I heard his command.
“Kill her,” Jeremiah said and took a seat on one of the captain’s chairs to watch the massacre.
The captain crossed the distance with his wrists free of the bonds I had left him in, but the rope stretched between his tightly clasped fists, taut with the pressure. His angry gaze dropped from my face to my shredded shirt and my bare legs. When his eyes traveled back up my body, he snapped the rope.
I tried to move, to turn and run away, but the rope caught me under the chin, yanking me back. The captain tightened it like a noose, cutting off my ability to breathe. I grabbed at it as he yanked harder, pressing his body against my back, pinning me to the wall.
The suggestive movement of his hips pulled a chuckle from my brother. I clawed at the rope, trying to get a little slack to draw a breath. The rope loosened for a second, long enough for my underwear to be ripped off. The captain’s hands pressed against the wall on either side of my head, pulling the rope in opposite directions, closing down my trachea.
If I didn’t act now, I wasn’t going to survive. The captain rubbed himself against my backside, and just as he pulled away, readying himself to take me, I stomped my heel on the top of his foot with everything I had left.
It was enough to stun him, but his grip on the rope didn’t let up. I tried to twist, but he body slammed me against the wall. My head hit the wood, and I saw stars. He tried to force my legs wide. I kicked my heel upwards. His thighs tightened on my ankle before I reached my goal. My strength was waning, and my lungs burned.
One of his hands dropped away from the wall, and the rope around my throat loosened. I jabbed my elbow back, connecting with a set of ribs. I followed with my other elbow. The captain grabbed my ankle and twisted, knocking me to the ground. I stared up at him holding my foot. His pants were crumpled around his ankles. I realized he no longer held the rope.
I kicked with my free leg, hitting home. His grip on my ankle released, and I rolled away, peeling the rope from my neck. I stood, using the upward movement to jab my palm into his nose. He went flying backwards onto the floor, his body jerking uncontrollably until he stilled. A small stream of yellow, pungent urine escaped.
I closed my eyes for a second. After the reality that I killed the captain settled, I turned a glare at my brother. “You bastard.” My raw throat only produced a hiss.
He stood and crossed the room, cornering me. I had no more strength to fight him and no voice to defend myself. His sharp claws penetrated my shoulder, and I let out a squeak of protest.
If I died now, Alex would surely die. Just the flash of his face in my mind set my blood on fire. I yanked away from my brother just as the horn of another fishing vessel reached my ears.
Jeremiah’s blades retracted. “I’ll be back. Be a good girl and just sit down until I get back. You I want to kill slowly. I want to sap your strength right from your bones.” He smiled and disappeared out the front. A splash followed, along with the lull of his voice.
Chapter 10
With every muscle in my body hurting, I crawled towards the deck, dragging the dead captain with me. Each movement came with the assault of one of my brother’s memories. Somehow, when his nails penetrated my skin, I received some sort of nightmarish transmission. The devil sent our spawn one by one to drag Jeremiah back to hell, but my brother killed every last one of my daughters.
The last one Lucifer sent was a dead ringer for me, right down to the sea-colored eyes. I recognized that child. She had been my first, but she was faithful to the devil, shunning me. She went after Jeremiah with a vengeance, but was not strong enough to resist his song, even with the devil’s blood running through her. The little witch made my brother believe she was me. No wonder he wasn’t buying my story.
I stopped at the control panel and pulled myself up, flipping the switch to lift the anchor. Then I continued towards the deck and the dead crew members. I used the remainder of my energy to push all three of them off the edge into the Mediterranean Sea.
I stumbled to Alex and checked his pulse as the drift of the sea took us south. He was still breathing. I said a small prayer to keep it that way. My head dropped into his lap as exhaustion, pain, and my brother’s memories swirled in my head.
If Alex woke and found a way to kill me, so be it. At least I would be with him until the end. My eyes closed, and blackness sucked me under.
THE CLANG OF METAL against metal pulled me from slumber, and my eyes opened to the morning sky. Alex banged his wrists against the bar, his teeth bared in aggravation. I rolled away out of range and slowly pulled myself up on the railing. My movement caught his attention, and his glare landed on me.
He blinked as his gaze traveled from my head to my toes, and then his eyes closed. A crease appeared between them for a moment.
“Did I...” His eyes opened, and his gaze met mine.
I shook my head. “No.”
“I can’t hear.” Panic filled his voice.
I stepped close enough to pull one of the headphones away from his ear. “I covered your ears. I think we are far enough away to be out of range, but I’m going to leave them where I can cover your ear quickly if I need to, just in case.” I recovered his ear and headed inside. I needed something to wash the sour taste from my mouth and I couldn’t leave him standing out on the deck all day. I grabbed a chair for him to sit in and a bottle of water for both of us.
“Where is the captain?” he asked as he took a seat in the chair I offered.
Instead of answering, I offered him a sip of water, holding the bottle for him while he quenched his thirst. I moved the headphone away from his ear and took a seat a few feet away.
“Unfortunately, no one else survived, and I think the only reason I’m still breathing is another ship came into the area.” I rubbed my sore face and stood to retreat inside. I needed some form of clothing instead of just a torn shirt. I slid on my bathing suit and cover-up because anything else would irritate the cuts across my stomach, and the light fabric would be perfect in the hot Mediterranean sunshine.
I rifled through Alex’s bag and found what I deemed would be a comfortable pair of shorts. I would also have to figure out something in the way of a commode for him because he wasn’t going to be un-cuffed until I figured out how to reverse the effects.
I knew of only one way to do that, but even after the heinous way Jeremiah treated me, I wasn’t mentally or physically ready to run Neptune’s trident through him. I needed a good meal and a little more rest before I took my brother on.
I stepped outside with Alex’s shorts in my hand. “I figured you might like a pair of shorts instead of just your underwear.”
He nodded. “I could use a shower.”
“Not going to happen, hon
.” I placed the shorts on the arm of the chair and pulled the underwear he put on before our flight off him. I smiled up at him as I took the shorts in hand. “I could leave you commando, if you’d like.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’d prefer not to get a sunburn on my dick. But before you put my shorts on...” He turned and leaned into the railings, relieving himself in the ocean. “Now you can help put those on,” he added when he finished.
I pulled his shorts up to his thighs, and as I stood to finish dressing him, I realized my mistake. I had stood between his arms. He slammed me into the railing and smiled down at me.
The intensity in his eyes both thrilled me and sent a shiver of fear to my core. His mouth dipped as if he was going to kiss me, but the gentle graze of his lips slid under my jaw instead. His tongue skimmed my neck, and his teeth clamped down on my earlobe.
The sudden pain of teeth cutting into my flesh pulled a gasp from me.
“Let me out of these cuffs,” he whispered through clenched teeth.
“I can’t,” I said, trying not to whine from the pain gripping my ear.
“I’ll tear your throat out with my teeth if you don’t.”
His grip on my ear increased. I cried out. He pressed harder against me, trapping my hands between us. I let go of the edges of his shorts and grabbed his cock, applying enough pressure to convey that I meant business. The pressure on my ear let up, but he didn’t let go.
“Alejandro, you are hurting me.” I squeezed harder.
“That’s the point, Kylee.” His strained voice whispered in my ear.
I dug my nails in. Alex recoiled with a gasp, giving me a window. I slid out from under his arms and out of reach of his only true defense. He glared at me from over his shoulder, my blood dripping from his lips. I circled behind him and hiked up his shorts before collapsing in the chair a few feet away from him.
“You still want to kill me?” I asked.
He smiled with blood-smeared teeth. The crazy was back. I closed my eyes, burying my face in my hands. The only way to free him of this curse was to kill Jeremiah. I got up to go inside the cabin.
“You can’t leave me here,” he said.
I stopped with my back to him, debating what to say. I turned, crossed to him, and put the headphones back on. I didn’t want him getting to the point where self-harm came into his mind. At least he was still in murder mode, which gave me a bit of hope. Once the disease advanced to the suicidal stage, there was no going back, even if the host who caused it was eliminated.
I left him cursing up a storm and went to find food. Maybe a decent meal would give both of us a small reprieve. I shuffled around the kitchen, finding eggs and bacon, and I whipped them up along with a few slices of toast. I brewed coffee, too.
With a fully-loaded tray, I headed out to the deck, setting the food down on the table in the center. Instead of attending to Alex, I ate my fill and leaned back in the seat, sipping my coffee and assessing his mood. His gaze was glued to the plate piled with eggs and bacon.
“Are you going to behave?” I asked.
When he didn’t respond, I nearly laughed at my stupidity. The man couldn’t hear me, so I finally picked up the plate and a fork and stood. His gaze followed the plate until I stopped a foot away from him, and then he finally met my gaze and licked his lips.
I took a piece of bacon and fed it to him, leaving a large, last piece because I didn’t want my fingers near his teeth. At least he still had some reasoning skills. For that I was thankful. He ate every bite I gave him, and when the plate was empty, I set it on the table and grabbed the coffee I made for him.
I held the cup while he took a sip and closed his eyes. “You certainly know how to treat your prisoners,” he said, opening his eyes again. The glare was there, but it was clouded by gratefulness.
I moved the earphone and said, “Yeah, well, I still care about you.” I replaced it and brought the plates back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes.
The mundane activity seemed to clear my mind. I debated on staying inside or going out on the deck and subjecting myself to his heckling and glares. I needed rest and I needed to formulate a plan, but I also didn’t want to leave him alone. I grabbed a couple waters and went back out into the sunshine.
I put one of the bottles in his hand and sat down with mine. He stared at the plastic and then at me. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”
“Figure it out,” I said, mouthing the words as articulately as I could. It was his problem right now. I wasn’t in a helping mood beyond feeding him. I turned and took the seat that looked out over the sea. No landmasses were visible from any direction. I sipped my water, letting the scenery calm me.
“You really were one of those things?”
I turned, meeting his stare. He had been out cold when my brother was on the boat. Or so I thought.
He chuckled a little. “I played dead. Especially after he snapped Taavi’s neck.”
I looked away. I didn’t want to discuss this with his warped mind. Alex was a smart man, and he knew me well enough to play psychological games with me.
“Well, were you?”
I nodded without making eye contact.
“Will you turn into one of them again?”
Disgust laced his voice and I cringed. I shook my head. The form I had now was forevermore, at least until I was delivered to the gates of hell, then who knows what the devil would do.
“Are you going to look at me?” His voice echoed over the water.
I stood and marched over to where he stood, moving the earphone. “You were not even supposed to be on this trip!” I got right in his face, letting the anger of the situation surface. “You decided you just had to save my ass. Well, you did a bang-up job of that!”
He recoiled and blinked in a way that led me to believe I reached the true man and not this thing driven to violence by my brother.
“I nearly was gang raped because I was so concerned about you.” My skin heated with the fury filling me. I pointed to the rope burns around my neck. “The captain thought it would be fun to choke me to death while he banged me.” The emotions coiling inside wound up to the point where I was now yelling. “And my brother doesn’t believe I am who I am because the devil kept sending my offspring to kill him. He never saw me in this form, and in his mind, he already killed me!”
The color leaked from his face.
“So any chance I had of talking him out of continuing this insane path he has chosen to take is gone. I have to kill him in order to save your ass.” I poked him in the chest and took a few steps back before I did anything more. “The only reason I’m not unlocking you and letting you finish me off is what would come next.”
He cocked his head, and his forehead creased.
“I’ll spend the rest of eternity at the hands of Lucifer. I crossed him once by freeing my brother and escaping from hell. He’s had millenniums to stew over that, and the time I spent at his mercy before will look like a fun trip to Disney Land in comparison.” I took a deep breath. “If I fail, I end up at Lucifer’s mercy. If I use my voice and an innocent dies, I end up in hell. If I free you, you will kill me, and at this point I’m not sure I would stop you. If that happens, I end up being filleted for the rest of eternity.”
Alex slowly sat down.
“May God have mercy on me, because when I take my brother’s life, I know where he is going. I’m sentencing him to an eternity of anguish.”
My vision blurred, and I swiped at my hot face, wiping tears I didn’t realize I was shedding.
“Damn it, why did you have to get on that plane?” I collapsed in the chair facing him.
Silence fell between us.
“You... you had children?”
I met his gaze. “Lucifer’s favorite pastime was taking advantage of me and dropping me back in his fish tank until I birthed his hideous spawn. I had zero choice in the matter, so no. I did not have children. I had abominations.”
Chapter 11
/> The calm of the sea lulled me. I stood on the bow at the farthest point from where Alex was chained. The soft crooning of Bruno Mars filled my head, but it still didn’t take away the burn of Alex’s silent disappointment. I couldn’t deal with the disgust written in his pursed lips, as if I had given him a sour lemon instead of the facts. His judgment, along with Jeremiah’s memories, raked at my nerves.
It was one thing to deny I ever had offspring when I had very few memories of them, but seeing each of their deaths through Jeremiah’s eyes left me unable to cope. Each spawn that he killed took a piece of his sanity, turning him into the lunatic I saw last night.
I wondered if the same would be said of me after I slayed him.
The railing under my hands vibrated as if Alex was intentionally banging it. I tore my earphones off my head and turned towards the back of the boat.
“Kylee!” Alex’s hoarse voice called.
I made my way aft, stepping onto the deck. His gaze was glued to something starboard, and I squinted into the sunlight, shielding my eyes with my hand. Light reflected off the hull of another boat coming in our direction. It was far enough away for the sound not to reach us yet, but I had a sinking feeling they weren’t just heading on a lucky trajectory.
I tapped Alex on the shoulder and he jumped. His head swiveled toward me, and the tension filling his form eased a fraction. I stepped inside and took the helm, firing up the engines. I wasn’t sure where to run, but I knew there was no other option.
It was probably a pirate craft, the Hellenic Coast Guard, or the boat that had saved my ass last night. Either way, an encounter would be no good. I couldn’t explain Alex to a right-minded person, and I certainly couldn’t let him loose, even if I was ordered to. If it was a pirate vessel, I wasn’t sure what would happen.
I glanced starboard, and the single boat in the distance was now three. My heart dropped. There were no flashing lights, so my logical mind ruled out the Coast Guard. While it still could be Jeremiah’s victims, I highly doubted they would be sane enough to launch a multiple craft attack.
