“You don't think, do you? “ I ground out as I watched him flip the tire iron in my peripheral vision.
“Pog mo thoin, selkie”.
I sneered at the words. I knew those words, my mother had said them often enough. It was Gaelic and meant kiss my ass.
“Knock it off!” Mr. Romans snapped at me as I took a step to go after the fish. Caleb didn't even react like he was there.
Stupid hallucinations.
“Focus!” Mr. Romans barked as the foam crashed over the railing. “You'll kill all of them. Listen for it.”
“I don't have time for lessons.” I snapped.
“No shit, selkie.”
Caleb thought I was talking to him.
“Got a plan, Ravenwhite?” Caleb asked quietly so not to draw the thing’s attention as he walked up beside me.
“Come on, Sonny, figure it out.” Mr. Romans chastised.
“How?” I barked, drawing everyone's eyes but the loup garou to me. Cy followed my gaze.
“This isn't your fight either.” The scarred man hopped off his perch and walked toward Mr. Romans. “Time to take you home.”
“I’m not drunk enough to go home yet, Greenie. Good luck taking me there. Sometimes the only safe place is the storm.”
They were both gone.
“What the hell just happened?” Caleb eyes wide eyed when Cy disappeared. “That’s it, no more whatever I had for lunch.”
“Let her go.” I yelled. I didn’t have a concrete plan.
“Oh, Dinner, look at you all ragged. I guess I underestimated you. Come and get her. You're not the hero she thinks you are. You're just the flotsam the storm tosses away,” the loup garou taunted. “You’ll be next for dinner, Dinner.”
Koda’s eyes met mine for a brief moment. The look in her eyes was the same as the day on the glacier as we hiked, empty and hollow. The men beside me were waiting for my move. I wasn’t sure I had one as I watched that thing pant in her face. The loup garou barely noticed the rain that was beginning to fall as it dragged a claw across Koda’s neck. I heard that awful whimper from her lips and something inside me snapped.
The rumbles of the storm off shore that had been barely audible reverberated off Broken Tusks clapboard siding. Time slowed as my eyes closed. The wind whispered my name as it raced down the street. The raw power to seed a storm ran over my exposed skin. Every hair stood on end, electrified from the flow of magic.
Voices from the past rode in on the wind, ancient voices speaking languages I could not comprehend. But the magic that washed over me was fueled by their unmistakable emotions. Vengeance. Love. Power. Those voices scratched at the walls I had built up against who I was. Bit by bit they tore down my defenses, seeped into my soul.
I invited the chaos, and it enveloped me. The swirling power wrapped its arms around me, swallowing me like the churning sea when I dive through the foam. This was what I had shut out my entire life and fought against. The chaos of the storm was a demon I had never been willing to go to bed with, but for her, I’d give my life to see her live.
The sea spray burned my lungs, as I breathed deep. The rain caressed my face as I felt the pressure of the thunderheads barreling into the harbor. Somewhere in the chaos that was churning in my brain I heard Koda’s voice yelling for me. But I didn’t have a hold of the power yet. I couldn’t break the instinctual concentration that the ancestors were bestowing upon me with those whispered words and swirls of power.
For a moment I saw flashes of my bloodline through the centuries. In the Selkie court. On the shores of Ireland. Fighting sailors who were trapping seals. Fighting each other for power. Hiding who we were and yet trying not to dilute the bloodline. The images came too fast for me to register and only stopped when a bolt of lightening struck a boat tethered in the harbor. My eyes snapped open, the rain hot on my face just as the loup garou’s blood had been. I’d have her back. And I’d have her back alive.
“That's where you're wrong. I am the storm.” My words weren’t my own as the air thickened around me.
“What the fuck are you doing, Ravenwhite? You’ll kill the humans. That part of your plan too?” Caleb yelled over the crack of thunder. Hot rain poured down on us while the wind whipped around us in circles.
A smirk of satisfaction spread across my lips at the tinge of fear in his voice. A tiny part of me reveled in the fact that the merman couldn't touch the power that swept across me. I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of a quickly filling puddle. Koda had said my eyes had been blue. They had paled to a stormy gray that rivaled the silver sheen of my selkie fur rippling over my body.
“We’ve killed it once. Melusine owes me a favor. I plan on having you call it in for me.”
“You want me to take that zombified thing to my boss?”
“You have a better plan?”
He groaned as he spun the tire iron in his hand.
“Can you shift before you hit the water, fishy?” I didn't care who was watching us, hiding had not kept me safe.
He hesitated for a moment, realizing what I meant to do. My eyes were focused on the crashing waves of the harbor, behind the handrail I had dove off of all those years ago.
“Can you, Pup?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Make it faster,” the blonde shot back. “I’ve got no problem keeping your women warm at night if that thing eats you.”
Lightning struck in the street not far behind us and the ozone filled our noses. The rush of static felt as orgasmic as shifting. Kenai was steadfast, his eyes never moving from his sister. Caleb jumped.
“Better aim, Ravenwhite,” the fish muttered. “Your ancestors brought down ships.”
“Aim is just fine unless you want to be fried fish. Kenai don’t hit me this time when you take your shot. Get your sister out of here as soon as we are in the water.” My words were barely audible over the pounding rain. I saw my best friend’s barely noticeable nod from the corner of my vision. “Ready to go swimming, fishboy?”
“Fair wind and following seas. Aim true, Sesi.”
Kenai only nodded as he brought his other hand up to steady the gun.
The shot rang out, hitting the loup garou in the shoulder. Lightening crashed into the pavement behind the loup garou. It twisted in shock from the nearness of the electricity. Caleb and I bolted toward the wolf. It reared up to slash at us and we each put a shoulder into its exposed rib cage, forcing it backwards. Our momentum sent the three of us tumbling over the handrail. The wolf lashed out as we fell toward the water. Caleb and I shifted as we hit the water, diving below the surface and away from the creature, our clothes floated towards shore.
I grabbed its tail and tried to drag the struggling creature down deeper and further out into the harbor. I heard Caleb calling through the water to the other merfolk. Part way out of the harbor the loup garou slowed its struggle in the frigid water. I couldn’t say drown, it hadn’t been alive when it came back.
Two mermen met us as the edge of the harbor. Both glared at us as we dragged the huge wolf through the cold water.
They nodded to me with a greeting that I hadn’t heard since I swam with my grandfather. I didn’t remember the exact translation, it had been too long, but I knew their intent. The greeting they gave me was a greeting that would be proper for a member of an aristocratic selkie family. I certainly was not what they thought. I could only nod and wish them fair seas and high tides, I didn’t remember the rest of the greeting.
Caleb rolled his eyes as I tried to get the words out in my current form.
Satisfied with my response, they turned to him. Their words came faster than I could hope to comprehend. The agitation they had towards him was apparent. I caught a few words. Traitor. Queen. Guard. Exile. Captain. I was beginning to understand why Caleb chose to stay on the land.
The rough gravelly voice Caleb had on land was replaced with a voice that would make any female swoon. His responses back were so quick I recognized none. His tone was commandin
g and authoritative. One merman cowered. The second crossed his arms as if armor against Caleb’s words.
Caleb motioned for me to hand over the unconscious loup garou. My fur stood on end. I didn’t trust what was happening. I wasn’t sure I could trust the merfolk, not after that conversation.
“You don’t have a choice, selkie. They either take it, or they take you. They are bounty hunters for Mel. I’m sure as Triton’s dick not going back with them.” His words were the closest thing to truth that I had ever heard from him. “You want to get back to your precious princess, give up the doggie.”
I was reluctant, but relinquished my hold on the loup garou, letting the bounty hunters have their new prize.
I circled in place as I debated following them. Caleb swam into my field of vision, his scales flashing silver and green.
“They’ve got it, selkie, back to shore.”
I growled at him as I watched the bounty hunters swim away, getting smaller and smaller as they neared the open ocean.
“What?” he snapped as I got a true look at him for the first time in his merman form.
He had slashing scars running in parallel lines along his arms. There were whip marks on his back that obscured some long faded brand. One of the merman had called him guard, specifically captain. That much I had understood for sure. But merfolk court guards were something to be feared. I'd seen two when I'd met Melusine for the first time. The guards Melusine employed had frilly and ornate fins that doubled as spiny weapons. Her fearsome warriors were as decorated and gorgeous as the little fighting fish people kept in bowls.
Caleb Cayce was as plain as could be when it came to mermaids.
“They called you guard. Captain. You're no warrior, Cayce, you don't bare the marks, let alone have to the right fins. Who are you lying to?“ How that damn fish understood my seal noises, I didn't know.
He sneered at me, his fangs showing as the blue of his iris flooded to white then a pale lavender. I'd never seen a mermaid’s eyes do that before. The color of their eyes matched the color of their tail. Always. His should have remained blue.
“I owe you no explanation for who or what I may or may not be. You can't keep your own life straight, don't worry about mine. Back to shore, I’m not dragging you back because you’re too exhausted.”
I snapped at him again, lunging to try to grab a hold of him in the water. He backhanded me in the snout, keeping his distance.
“You did this for Kodiak, get back to her on your own.”
Those words struck home, I wanted to make sure Koda was ok. I flipped in the water and headed back toward shore, surfacing for air.
Eyes toward the rail, my heart beat was crazy till I saw her peering over the railing. I let out a snort of relief. The merman surfaced beside me and followed my sight line.
“You owe me a drink for all this bullshit, seal. Race you to shore.”
My “screw you” came out as sharp barks that set him into a fit of laughter.
He beat me to the shore and we shifted back in the crashing surf. I felt a wave of exhaustion spread over me and I fought to keep my eyes open.
“Bounty hunters? They called you a traitor, Cayce. You said you worked for Melusine. What aren’t you telling me?”
The soggy Viking crashed on the wet sand, breathing heavy but laughing. “None of your damn business. Be happy I didn’t hand you over. You’re just as valuable to them as I am.”
“Stay the hell away from Koda, you hear me?”
“That a threat?” He couldn’t stop laughing as he sat up in the sand. I didn’t know what was so damn funny. “You’re the last thing I am worried about. I’ll stay away from Kody the day she tells me to walk away.”
“Then we’re gonna have an issue.”
He actually winked at me as I lay panting in the sand. My skin still had bits of silver fur slowly shifting back.
“We’ll figure it out, blue eyes. I’m not opposed to sharing.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I have never in my three and a half centuries, had any thing try to force a shift on me. That’s like a good Saturday night gone bad when you realized someone’s lost the keys to the handcuffs. That thing, gods I never want to see another one. It's good to be fae.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I forget you didn't grow up with the histories. That thing, it couldn't force us to shift because it can't control fae blood. Were creatures are human blood. We are fae blood, human magic doesn’t affect us the way they hope it would. Ever see a were that could control nature to any degree?” He collapsed back into the wet sand. Apparently being forced to shift took a lot out of him too. “And I take it back, selkie, Rhys would have been very impressed and happy to call you kin.”
“What else do you know about Rhys that was left out of the histories Caleb?” Maybe I could come to an understanding with him if he quit chasing Koda. He really wasn’t against me, he just wanted my position in Koda’s life.
“A lot. That’s why its history.” He chuckled as he made himself comfortable in the sand. “Three hundred years makes you forget things. He had a twin brother who could shift without his seal skin. But he disappeared when he was about twenty. Eyes blue as the sea when he shifted.”
“Do you remember his name?” I tried to strain my memory to recall the other selkie twins my father had told me about.
“Roman Corbin. The guy the whole town always called old Mr. Romans.”
Oh, the irony. No one ever knew his first name, but we actually all had known it. And his home was the sea.
“Hey, fin boys!” Koda’s voice rang out from over the top of the railing and we both looked up to see her. “Just because the two of you are naked and comfortable down there, doesn’t mean I’m snuggling with both of you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Rhen
Kenai dropped us off at Koda’s house. He took both dogs back with him so I could rest. I was too exhausted to worry about a dog that didn’t like me, and Koda wasn’t much better.
“Rhen, you can stay at Broken Tusk if you want I don't expect you to stay here.” she said as she tossed her keys on the small table in the hall. Her house was tiny, but she hadn’t needed more than this.
“As long as your dog and I can come to an understanding, we’ll be ok. But I do need to go back to Washington and deal with Willow,” I said as I put my bag down by the door. From what I could see, her style hasn't changed while we’d been apart. It felt like our old place. Except for the dog toys and dog bed.
“I don’t like the sound of that, but right now, I just want my bed. Cash said he had more Others come through yesterday asking about the safe house, but I am too tired, I left it for him to deal with.”
“Bed sounds amazing.” I could understand her exhaustion. And I was proud of her. I needed to tell her that when I could articulate the appropriate words. She had started a good thing with using Broken Tusk as neutral ground for Others, even if her brothers weren’t for it. She knew we all needed to get along.
I followed her past the small kitchen and combined dining room, the living room with more dog toys and a fluffy couch, the small bathroom that was overwhelmed by the large claw foot tub, and her bedroom.
She pushed the door open and my brain went to mush, I just wanted sleep, and that big bed of hers looked amazing. She grabbed some extra blankets from the closet as I sat on the edge of the bed and stripped my shirt off. She stripped out of her top before sliding onto my lap in her jeans. The tattoo on her hip rising over the waistband of her jeans. I brushed my fingers of the initials. CMR. Not knowing who it stood for burned a hole in my chest.
Who would be so precious to her that she had added their initials to the tattoo?
She caught my stare and a sigh wracked her body. Finger under my chin, she directed my gaze to her eyes. “It stands for Corbin Micah Ravenwhite.”
“And that would be who?” I didn’t know anyone in our family by that name. Or why she would know them.
She gave me a sad
smile, hand caressing my cheek before she leaned to grab a framed picture off the nightstand. “This little guy. This picture is a few years old.”
She glanced down at her hands and fiddled with the frame of the photo. “This is our son.”
I was too dumbfounded to say anything. I had to be dreaming.
She turned the picture toward me. My stomach dropped, I was going to be sick.
“I found out I was pregnant after you left, I wasn't about to bring him into my crazy life not with my brothers He’d be six now. I didn't know what to do back then, so I gave him up. The woman that adopted him, Scarlet, sends me pictures from time to time. I stopped opening the mail from her after that one, it hurt too much.”
“Scarlet? Scarlet White?”
She squinted at me. “How did you know?”
I raked a hand down my face.
“I need your phone.”
“But I -”
“I need your phone, Koda.” I gripped the edge of the frame threatening to break the glass.
“Ok.” She barely breathed as she slipped off my lap to retrieve it from the table in the kitchen.
This was why she had flipped out at the cabin. This was why she had wanted to know about how being a selkie happened. She'd been pregnant when I left. I had a son.
“Who are you calling?” She asked as I frantically dialed the phone number. I kissed Koda’s hair again before standing up to pace the floor. She looked up at me heart broken.
“Scarlet White.”
She stumbled on her words as I dialed before finally getting them out. “How do you know her? “
Before I could answer Koda, my sister’s pissed off banshee wail came from the other end of the phone. “How the hell did you get this number, Kodiak? You left my brother for dead when it should have been yours. How dare you call me! You and your brothers were supposed to be the ones dead.”
I took a few deep breaths, trying to process what I had heard. “You should have left my brother alone. Should have left my family alone. Because now he’s gone too. You took him from me.”
Steal the Sun: (Book 1) Page 20
