Forever Cursed

by Sarah J. Pepper

  He wheezed as I pressed my forearm harder against his throat. “I should have killed her when I first laid eyes on—”

  I shoved him against the tree but stood my ground instead of backing away. My fingers tingled. Instead of grabbing the hilt of my sword and being done with him, I tucked my arms behind my back, clenching the hook with my hand.

  “It would be easier to kill him,” I said, to Bell, but kept my focus on the man plotting my dismemberment.

  “You should have thought about that before coming to terms with his monarch.” Her anger echoed in the night. I would face her fury soon enough, but right now it was all I could do not to shove my sword down this native’s throat.

  “Enculer.” The vines tightened while Deval leaned forward as far as he could. “Given the chance, I would see you on your back, bleeding to death.”

  “It would be preferable for me not to have to worry about them stabbing me in the back.” I clenched my hook more tightly in my hand, like an anchor. “But I’m afraid that history has made me paranoid, and the last time I had to make compromising decisions, I had a mutiny on my hands. So, you can understand the necessity for all the restraints.”

  With that said, I pulled a gag over his mouth, turned away from him and walked out of the tree line before I did something rash and killed the fool. By the time I reached the beach, my fingers no longer vibrated, itching with bloodthirst.

  I stopped, waiting for Bell to catch up, and listened to the waves crash onto the shore. The sound helped clear my head. The sun was setting on Hangman’s Forest. It wouldn’t be long before it completely blocked out the light that cast onto the beach just north of the lagoon I was staring at. It shimmered in the rays like it was filled with oil rather than water. It wouldn’t be long before night engulfed the island.

  The sand shifted beside me. Bell’s shadow melted in with mine.

  “How does one beckon a mermaid?” I asked after she rested her head on my shoulder.

  “One does not beckon them. They come as they so choose, most often unwelcomed.”

  “Pity. That will make this next part of my plan rather difficult.”

  She groaned, pushing away from me. I stole a glance. Her fists were balled up, gripping the knife. I reached for the blade which earned me a glare. I smirked. In the blink of an eye, her gaze was anywhere but locked on mine.

  “You are not charming your way out of this argument,” she snapped like all she had for me was disdain, but I knew better. Her cheeks didn’t turn that shade of red for no good reason.

  I liked being the reason she couldn’t focus. I rather enjoyed it when her body reacted to mine. Oh, bloody hell, I loved it when she bit her bottom lip when she was trying not to let a secret slip from her lips. And it was my every intention of making her slip up.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” she uttered.

  “Never.”

  She could act mad, but her glare wasn’t as deadly. She pretended not to notice that I edged closer and I pretended not to notice she was giving me the cold shoulder. Instead, she scanned the forest, counting silently, like she was taking inventory of the men hanging from the trees. Each one held a different tolerant expression. The more annoyed they were, the more pleased it made me. I did rather enjoy seeing people who’d hunted me tied to trees.

  “Few could survive you,” I said, reaching for her hand.

  She slapped it away and stormed off. Being in her presence was just that—surviving a storm. Dangerous. Thrilling. And, when lucky, wet. Regardless of the destruction, her brand of stormy emotion left, anytime she was dripping wet and smiling I considered myself fortunate.

  Groaning, I followed her down the beach, hustling to keep up. I reached for her again. I caught nothing but air. She’d abruptly changed directions, no longer marching directly toward the sea but alongside it.

  “Do please see it my way, Miss Bell,” I reasoned.

  “Your way?” She stopped, spun on one foot and poked me in the chest. “Your way? Your idiotic plan would leave me with nothing but my own tears for comfort.”

  Her tiny fists were balled up at her sides, clenching the blade like she was fantasizing about making me cry instead. I brought my hand up, trying to appease her. She paused, staring me down like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to test my battle skills or if she wanted to wage a war of words.

  She must have chosen the latter because she shoved the knife alongside her waistband. “I’d rather make something bleed than cry.”

  I tried to suppress a grin. “There’s my girl.”

  Her wild blonde hair fell over that intense glare. Oh, how I wanted to tuck that lock of hair behind her ever-so-unnaturally pointed ears. But I wasn’t about to get slapped again.

  “You’ve been trying to figure out a way to get to the mermaids from the very beginning!” Bell rattled off.

  “Well, you didn’t leave me much of a choice, did you?” I retaliated. “In fact, you didn’t give me any, and we wouldn’t be needing their company so desperately if you hadn’t gone behind my back!”

  “I did it for you,” she quipped.

  “I didn’t want you to!” I shouted. Christ, this woman got under my skin. “I didn’t ask you to. In fact, if I recall correctly, you did the exact opposite of my request.”

  “Fine, you want to talk to those blasted mutant fish, then let’s have a chat. I’m sure it will be productive since the last encounter I had with them nearly left me dead.” Her bottom lip trembled.

  A third time, I reached for her, but the little vixen slipped out of reach. Cursing under my breath, I chased after her. She took refuge in the sea.

  “You want the mermaids so badly?” she screamed. “Fine! Then I’ll be there bait. Me not you!”

  “You are seriously upset at me after everything fell into place so perfectly?” I called out, treading into the water after her.

  “Captain, I certainly don’t claim to follow the delusional thought process you had in making an accord with the man who banished women off this island. And then turned around only to team up with those very women. How in the stars do you think this will end well? You can’t possibly be allies to both.”

  “We need both.”

  “They will not set aside their differences!” she screamed. “How do you not get this? Mermaids hate these men. They’ve made a habit of luring men into the sea simply to watch them drown. Rumors of their mercilessness have spread throughout the Seven Seas. And the men on this island don’t care for the finned creatures either! They fantasize about killing each other, even though they once cared for one another!”

  “Aye, I understand that notion.”

  “Stop making light of the situation! It’s...it’s maddening!”

  “Quite.”

  She stopped so quickly I nearly toppled over her. Yet, she didn’t face me. Instead, she just stood there, huffing. The temperature dropped with each passing second.

  The hair on my neck rose when I inched closer to her. My instincts were to give her some space, but the way her voice rose the more she talked kept me grounded. My chest brushed against the back of her shoulders, yet she stayed still like she was anchored to me.

  A shred of her watery tattoo peeked above the collar. She’d hardly ever let me see her back, but the few times she did, I had burned the sight to memory. Rage washed over me at the pathetic lad who returned my love. My knuckles cracked. I made a conscious effort to relax my fist.

  “Miss Bell, look at me.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “For once, can you please act civilly?”

  “Oh, it’s civility that you want? I thought you were a damn pirate who took what he desired, not giving a damn about others.”

  I wasn’t about to point out the fact that I did exactly what she accused me of doing. But she was wrong about my concerns. I thought a great deal about how my actions affected her.

  I cleared my throat. “I will do what I think is necessary.”

  “You have been patien
tly waiting, gathering seemingly useless information, like all you wanted was an excuse to pass time.” Snow cast into the air as the waves met the beach. “All while you let me babble on and on about love and mermaids and other impossible things.”

  “Did you honestly expect me to do nothing?”

  “What I expect is a vast number of things—”

  “Of which I intend to give you,” I interrupted.

  “But you must trust me.”

  “You didn’t trust me enough to tell me what you were planning,” she snapped.

  When? You just fecking woke up after being unconscious for a blasted month! Though, she did have a point, I hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with my idea because…“Because I knew you’d fight me on it, Miss Bell. And there are only so many wars I can wage at once.”

  She stepped away from me. Again. This time I caught her in a rather unexpected way. My hook slipped through her belt loop. It caught me off guard, but she didn’t even notice it wasn’t my hand that snagged her. Acting fast, I jerked her back to me. She caught herself against my chest. The harder she tried to get away, the closer I brought her in. With my hand, I pressed the small of her back into me.

  “You’ve made an accord with a man who would see my bones ground to dust and then you plan on—what, exactly?” Bell tilted her head toward the sky, searching for a word amongst the clouds. “Seducing a mermaid so she comes to your aide?”

  First off, it was for Bell’s benefit to establish an alliance with the mermaids. And second, why the hell was my sexual appetite suddenly in question? “Are you…jealous?”

  Her shoulders slumped. My stomach twisted into a knot when I tried to cup her face and she flinched. Determined, I hooked my finger under her chin and drew her attention back up. Her eyes were pinched shut. I wanted entirely for her not to feel whatever it was that made her shut me out. So, I waited. I’d spend the rest of my life waiting for her if I had to—even though we were quickly running out of time. Any second her past could meet up with us. Peter would find us. We were trapped on this godforsaken prison, and it was breaking her. This place haunted her. Neverland was in her bones, but she forgot that she was more than just a creature formed of evil, no matter how many times I reminded her otherwise.

  “Why would you think my plans involve seduction?” I asked sincerely, not wanting my question to scare her off.

  “Because you’re charismatic by nature,” she whispered like it was a confession I hadn’t known already from the passing glances women used to give me. But there was one thing that must have slipped her mind from living on this disastrous island: I didn’t care what any other woman thought because I was too busy chasing her down.

  “And you are wild by nature. We’re drawn to each other,” I said.

  Her eyes fluttered open. For a brief instance, she let me see the raw uncertainty in them. “We are rather disastrous together.”

  “Aye.” I pulled her closer so there was no space left between us.

  Christ, she felt so delicate against me. She’d let everyone think otherwise, but she was a fragile beauty who would shatter if pressed too hard.

  “I will not break you either,” I promised, thinking of a conversation we had long ago when she told me no man has ever survived her or her heartbreak. Granted, she’d used her charismatic tendency to lure the vilest of men to Neverland, but I took it as the compliment that it was. No one came close to her heart, except me.

  Me.

  She slipped her hand up alongside mine. We intertwined our fingers and she released a breath she’d been holding in. I wondered if she knew she did that—held her breath.

  Stroking the stubble on my cheek, she hummed a haunting lullaby so absentmindedly that I doubt she even realized it. “You could, you know. Break me. Crush me into a thousand little pieces, then I would hide amongst the sand.”

  “I have a hard-enough time catching you now,” I admitted. “I don’t need the challenge of looking for you in Neverland’s beaches.”

  I lightly traced her cheek. She shivered as I rolled my thumb over her skin. Her lips parted. I knew she wanted a kiss. The moan that slipped from them told me so, but I refused to give her what she wanted. Her fingers ventured up to my jawline, tangling themselves in my hair. She pulled just hard enough to hurt.

  “Don’t tempt me, my love.”

  “I am a tempest, Captain.” She tugged harder, forcing a string of curse words from my mouth.

  She stood on her toes like she was going to kiss me. Fuck, I wanted to drown in her lips. But she refused me, pulling away more as I leaned into her. She slipped her leg up my side, watching me intensely as she inched her way up. I released my hold on her belt loop and slid my hook down her thigh, forgetting it was not my fingertips tracing her skin but rather a curved piece of silver. She trembled under the cool touch of it. I went to move it off her when she grabbed it. Her thin fingers wrapped around the tip, holding it in place. When she was certain I wouldn’t pull away, she walked her fingers up my arm, onto my shoulder, and then grabbed my collar.

  “For so many nights, I’ve wanted you to forget yourself and just be with me,” she whispered, her voice was raspier than usual. “Forget what once was for one night and be with me how you dream.”

  Taking her in the water was appealing. So blasted appealing. I couldn’t wait a second longer. I slipped my hand behind her head and pulled her up. As she slid her legs around me, a moan escaped my throat. It barely left my mouth before her lips were on mine. As our kiss deepened, she rocked against me. Breaking the kiss, a string of curse words fled my lips.

  “There is far too much fabric covering your body to make any dream of mine come true,” I pulled her up so that only her bottom was still in the water. Her clothes clung to her frame.

  She opened her mouth to reply, but someone with a voice of an angel beat her to it.

  “Oh, Bell,” the dame with the angelic voice cooed. “You should know better than to enter our lagoon.”

  Bell slapped her hands over my ears so fast and hard my ears rang. But even then, muffling of the most enthralling voice I’d ever heard in my life echoed through. Frantic to see who it was coming from, I caught sight of a blackened tail and snowy white hair.

  “Alessia,” I strained. My voice did not sound like mine but that of a deranged man.

  The melody she sang to me when I first met her came flooding back. The time we spent together on the beach surfaced in my mind’s eye. I clenched my teeth, forcing myself to focus on the here and now.

  “What brings you to our lagoon?” Alessia prodded and then hummed that song—that enchanting song.

  “You,” I said, just as the fairy yelled in my ear. “Captain, stay with me.”

  Never in all my days had I heard such an enchanting voice. Never. And it was being ruined by the incessant wench, screaming in my ears.

  epilogue

  captain hook

  Imagine being called into a blanket of water by fallen angels whose voices sounded like velvet. Oh, how I wanted to fall asleep in the liquid blanket and drink in the lullaby of my dreams.

  But I couldn’t.

  This horrible creature must have pounced on me, keeping me from the warmth of the angels who beckoned me back to them. Peeling it off, I searched for the angels, but the creature wouldn’t get out of my sight.

  I reached for my sword, but the creature’s foot slammed on top of it as she climbed back on me. Digging her claws into me, she held on tight. The waves threw me off balance. It had been far too long since I’d been on my warship, but I swore that as soon as I disposed of the horrid creature who shrieked at me, I’d find the closest vessel and bring the angels with me.

  Reaching up with my hook, I planned to gut the beast, but she sank her teeth into my earlobe. Pain lingered with pleasure, making a fucking mess of my instincts.

  She unloaded a series of cuss words. That filthy little mouth got my attention. “Mermaids, I swear I will cage you as my pets…” Her raspy voice spilled out so
mething territorial yet equally hostile before continuing in a language I didn’t recognize.

  I pulled the noisy creature with the vocals worthy of a pirate in front of me, catching a glimpse of the silver earrings dangling from her pointed ears.

  Cheeky bint.

  And then I was completely condemned. She was the most beautiful, hostile creature I’d ever laid eyes upon in all the Seven Seas. This vixen, the one with her sharp nails, clung to me possessively.

  Black lashes framed her haunting emerald eyes. Heated anger and something else lingered in her gaze. Passion perhaps? Vengeance? Christ, I didn’t bloody care, not when she wiggled closer to me, molding around my body like we’d been familiar—very familiar with each other. Even so, I couldn’t tear my gaze off her. She was captivating as all hell as she bit her bottom lip. As soon as those pearly white teeth pressed against her pink lips, animalistic impulses exploded inside me.

  I demanded, “Who are you?”

  Her raspy voice dripped with hunger as she looked at me like I was her next victim. “You don’t remember me?”

  That wasn’t a Goddamn answer. I didn’t trust her, not for one godforsaken second.

  “Sod off,” I sneered.

  She slowly shook her head, back and forth, holding my gaze. “No, Captain Hook.”

  The way she said my fucking name ignited a fury buried deep inside my soul. I wrenched her arm, tearing her off me and throwing her into the crashing waves.

  Water dripped down her face, spilling onto her neck when she stood. The water pulled her clothing, encasing it tight to her lithe body. My knuckles cracked as I forced myself to carry the intense weight of her gaze rather than her succulent figure.

  “You are a temptress,” I acknowledged.

  A smile touched her face. “So I’ve been told.” Without batting an eye, she inched closer like I was her prey, not the other way around.

  My finger itched for my sword. I promised myself I could end this creature’s life if she took one more step. “What are you?”