By the Horns

by Rachael Slate

  From within Snake’s cobra-like flared head, a long, forked tongue flicked out, revealing a glimpse of needle-sharp fangs. Fangs that inflicted the deadliest venom on Earth upon its victim. Coppery eyes glinted like its red-gold scales as Snake regarded him.

  He nodded, pointing toward the top of the mast.

  Snake uncoiled, a long, slithering body. Up and up and around and around. The beast must measure at least sixty feet in length. Its width was as thick as a man’s body. The lethal whip of its tail ended in a deadly spiked tip.

  Snake clamped the flag in its mouth, and coiled back down.

  Its image faded as Nat’s refocused. She clutched the fabric in her hand and, once the cloaking vanished altogether, she strolled toward him. Shoving the fabric in his face, she beamed. “I did it. Happy, Kassian? Got any more training for me?”

  “Actually, I do.” He grinned, plucked the flag out of her hands, and tossed it overboard. “Fetch, Snake.”

  “You can’t be serious.” She glared at the undulating water and then back at him.

  “You have to learn to control your spirit in every element. If you’re not up—”

  Nat cloaked Snake and leapt off the side of the ship.

  He bolted to the side railing. Snake’s long body poured into the water. Huh. Impressive. The spirit wove through the waves like a mythological serpent. Most snakes could swim, so he wasn’t concerned.

  Until Snake dove under.

  And didn’t come back up.

  He waited one breath, two. Counted to thirty.

  Still nothing. Fuck. Kassian retreated a few steps, then bolted forward and vaulted over the side of the ship. The water struck him like a thousand stinging needles. Its icy embrace shocked his body. Ox thrashed against its cage in protest. Not one for swimming, the beast demanded to be returned to dry land.

  He kicked as he struggled with the beast’s reins, forcing it to dive under the waves.

  Unlike some of the other spirit animals, Ox’s eyesight wasn’t the best. Hell, the spirit discerned only two colors—yellow and blue—and water was fucking blue. He blinked and twisted about, searching for movement. If anything happened to Nat because of his bloody training, he’d never forgive himself.

  There. He kicked to the surface, sucked a deep gulp of air, and dove back under in the direction of the tiny blur spiraling toward the bottom of the ocean. And he wasn’t alone. From all sides, flashes sparked like lightning, blinding him. His horn was yanked to the side then downward. What the fuck? As he twisted to get free, another invisible tether lashed around his other horn. He tugged, but the bindings only tightened.

  Kassian blinked, furiously attempting to catch sight of his assailants, but he couldn’t see a damn thing. More ropes lashed around him, dragging him deeper. Ox thrashed, panic overpowering the beast.

  Fuck this. He steeled every ounce of Ox’s strength and kicked back. They might succeed in drowning him, but not without one hell of a fight first.

  Nat honed in on the shuǐ guǐ who’d stolen Kassian’s flag. The water spirit dragged the slip of cloth farther and farther beneath the surface, luring Nat to a watery grave. But Nat hosted the Snake and, therefore, the shuǐ guǐ couldn’t claim Nat’s body. Water ghosts were the spirits of people who had drowned. They revived themselves by possessing the bodies of unfortunate sailors—by dragging them under and drowning them. They would then return to the land of the living in their victims’ bodies. The victims’ souls would switch with the water spirits’, becoming the shuǐ guǐ themselves. The cycle would resume as the new shuǐ guǐ searched for a body to inhabit.

  This shuǐ guǐ didn’t seem to realize its fatal error. The spirit beckoned her downward with a wave of its translucent hand. At first, the figure resembled a person but, as she descended, the creature blurred into a blend of hues—blues and grays flowing as fluidly as the water. Only its glowing white eyes separated it from the ocean. Beams shot from them like the signal of a lighthouse, beckoning unsuspecting victims to their watery deaths.

  Nat glared at the strip of cloth it had stolen. The shuǐ guǐ most likely didn’t gather the game it had high-jacked into. Nat would never live down her failure if she didn’t retrieve the flag for Kassian.

  Snake’s ethereal cloaking allowed her lungs to hold oxygen for ten times as long as a human. She dove toward her target and snapped at the water spirit with Snake’s fangs.

  The spirit flicked those high beams onto Nat and shirked backward as though assessing Nat’s supernatural abilities.

  Hell yeah, asswipe. She shot forward, Snake’s fangs clamping around the shuǐ guǐ’s watery neck. It released the cloth and Nat snatched it, releasing the spirit. Technically, there wasn’t any way to kill a shuǐ guǐ. Just an endless cycle of victims and possession.

  Otherwise, this one would have been a puddle.

  Nat glowered at the spirit before wending to the surface. As she neared, an ominous shiver slithered across her spine. Whipping her head to the left, she squinted into the murky, inky black water.

  Kassian. She squeezed her mouth shut to stop from gasping and inhaling water. To her left, Ox sank into the depths of the ocean.

  No, wait. Not sinking. He was being…pulled. Dragged. By a dozen watery tendrils of a slew of water spirits.

  Crap. They had him roped and tied down like a bull at a rodeo. They’d bound his horns too and were hauling him head first. No matter how hard he bucked against his bindings, they tightened and drew him farther below the surface.

  If she didn’t cut him loose, they’d tow him to his death.

  The surface lay too far away for her to take a breath and still make it to him in time, yet her lungs burned.

  C’mon, Snake. We have to save him.

  Snake jerked in protest, clearly sensing the danger its host was in. Yet she was the one in control, right?

  Hell, yeah.

  She snapped her reins on Snake and dove. Wielding Snake’s tail like a whip, she lashed out at the watery cords hooked around Ox’s flank. Her efforts severed some of the bindings, freeing his hind hooves so he could kick and punt a few of the water spirits into the black abyss.

  Nat propelled forward and buzzed by Kassian, seizing the watery ropes in Snake’s jaws. As she zoomed downward, the cords split, freeing Ox’s front legs.

  The bull bucked, enraged as Nat had never witnessed. Its eyes glowed a molten shade of bronze and its nostrils flared with the force of its fury. With its head bowed and horns drawn forward, Ox rushed at the nearest water spirits.

  They blasted outward from the impact like bowling pins. The thwack of thunder crested in her ears in an underwater sonic boom. With the water spirits beaten back, she waved in Ox’s direction before thrashing to the surface.

  Her lungs seared aflame as she uncloaked Snake and gasped in beautiful oxygen. It hurt like a bitch, but she treaded water and sucked up the pain, waiting for the burning in her chest to subside.

  A few seconds later, Kassian sprouted to the surface and, by the pained gasp and wince on his face, he also required a few minutes to recover.

  After her lungs eased, Nat set her sights on the cargo ship and glided toward it. The waves were bigger than she was, but her Chosen status made her stronger than a normal human. Her arms and legs stroked through the waves with ease. A second after she reached the ladder on the port side, a thud banged beside her. She glanced toward the noise.

  Kassian’s gaze was trained on her. He didn’t utter a sound, aside from his labored breathing.

  She swallowed hard and climbed the ladder. The thumping of his ascent followed her.

  Once on the top deck, she paused and wrung out her wet locks. Salt water permeated her skin. Hell, if she were a piece of spaghetti—which her limbs felt like—she’d be thoroughly cooked.

  A loud smack thwacked behind her, making her jump. She spun around. Kassian sprawled across the deck, snow-angel style.

  “Shit. That was insane.” He rasped the words, raised one hand to wipe his face, but dropped
his limb to the side as though it was too heavy to hold up.

  “The worst.” She plopped down beside him. Her clothes were soaked through, her limbs dragged as heavy as cement blocks, and even her vision blurred at the edges. She tugged down her shirt and her hand pressed against something. Oh, yeah.

  Smirking, she dangled the cloth above Kassian’s nose. “Task complete.”

  “Fuck me.” He snatched it from her. “How in the hell did you manage to retrieve this?”

  “Well, first of all, I didn’t advertise myself as a nice meaty meal to a slew of shuǐ guǐ.” She laughed.

  “Okay, okay. You might as well get it in, because we are never, ever, talking about this.” He swatted at the invisible, taboo subject. “Ever.”

  “Oh, no. If you assume I’m not going to report this to Sheng and the others, you are mistaken, buddy. No way in hell will you live down getting your ass kicked by those spirits… and getting it saved by me.”

  He groaned and rolled onto his side. “Oh, really? Who says they’d believe you? More like, I saved your ass by distracting those fuckers.”

  “Oh, that was your master plan? Distraction?”

  Kassian launched onto all fours and hovered above her, pinning her in the cage of his glorious body. “It worked, didn’t it?” He winked. The dimple in his chin popped as his lips curved.

  Nat blinked once, staring at his mouth. She’d fought on auto-pilot. Instinct, habit, training. Without allowing a single emotion to seep into her strict regimen.

  With the heat of Kassian’s body warming away the numbness… She sniffled.

  Oh, hell. She’d come close to losing him. They might trash talk, but that was the truth. She shut her eyes, the image of Kassian roped and being dragged to his death haunting her.

  “Hey…” Kassian stroked her cheek with his finger, the motion hesitant. “What’s wrong?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but how could she tell him what even she couldn’t bear to admit?

  That maybe, just maybe, this ruse of theirs wasn’t a ruse, after all.

  ***

  Kassian’s finger wavered on Nat’s cheek. Did his hand tremble because of the atrophy of his muscles…or because of what Nat wouldn’t let him see in her eyes? He sucked in a hard breath. He’d been in tight situations too many times to count. The world teemed with evil spirits seeking a way to reclaim their mortality, or immortality.

  Always through the slaughter of mortals.

  While he was dead tired, he wasn’t shaken. Even if Nat hadn’t swept in to save his ass, he would have found another solution. Ox was too stubborn to go quietly. He’d been damned lucky Snake had not only saved him, but had kept Nat safe too. What if their positions had been reversed?

  Shit. He shouldn’t have thrown the flag into the middle of the bloody ocean in the first place. He should have known better or at least sensed those motherfuckers.

  Yeah, he’d put up a good talk about distraction, but he was the one distracted.

  By Nat.

  Her small body beneath his beckoned all manner of wicked desires to burn through his veins. “Come on, let’s get washed up. This salt water reeks.” He snagged a slimy piece of seaweed plastered to the side of Nat’s head and flung it aside. Then he leapt off her and grabbed her arm, hauling her to her feet beside him.

  “Wow. Thanks for the awesome compliment.”

  Her dry comment made him chuckle.

  “I meant me, not you.”

  Nat always smelled good. Really good.

  Damn.

  They headed below to their cabin. Nat stripped off her dripping clothes the second she stepped inside. He coughed into his fist and faced the wall. One perk of being Chosen? He bounced back from pretty much anything within a few minutes. Sure as hell felt more like a flaw though. Energy buzzed through his system as though he’d taken a hit of adrenaline.

  The image of Nat, naked and wet and soapy in the shower didn’t help. Neither did her lack of modesty. He counted the seconds as if they were hours until the droning of the creaky pipes stopped.

  “Oh, damn.” Nat yelped.

  He rushed into the tiny bathroom, filling three-quarters of it. “What’s wrong?”

  She winced and prodded her shoulder. “I’m not sure.” She bared her shoulder to him.

  “Ah, fuck. They got you.” A bluish phosphorescence punctured her skin, the half-moon wound resembling a bite mark.

  “Got me?”

  “Yeah, bit you. Those motherfuckers might be made of water, but they have sharp teeth.”

  “I didn’t know that. You’re full of fun facts, aren’t you?” Her attempt at a smile came across as a grimace. The nasty wound on her shoulder was spreading. Festering. Soon, she’d break out in a fever, and if she was close to the water when the curse took hold, the water spirits would call to her and she’d jump off the ship in a trance.

  Yeah, what a bloody fun fact.

  “What do I do?”

  “You do nothing.” He ushered her to the bottom bunk and pressed on her uninjured shoulder until she sank down. Lucky for Nat, she was Chosen and he could heal her.

  He knelt beside the bunk and clasped her hand in his.

  “You’re going to heal me? Hmm. Well isn’t that fortunate? If I weren’t Chosen, this wound would be pretty nasty, right?”

  He clamped a hand over her busy mouth. The nagging tidbit of information didn’t make this easier. “Yes, you’d have suffered but, if you weren’t Chosen, you wouldn’t have been here to get hurt in the first place. Now, be quiet and let me heal you.”

  His frustration over dragging Nat into this situation flared to the surface. Ox had a short fuse and Nat had just blown it. He removed his hand from her mouth; she pursed her lips and glared at him. Not exactly cooperation but, hell, he’d take it.

  He focused on unleashing Ox and let the spirit do its thing. Ox and Snake formed the circle, the haze of the two spirits floating through him and Nat as the spirits joined. Within minutes, the luminescent rash spreading across Nat’s shoulder faded. By the time Kassian uncloaked Ox, the glow had disappeared altogether.

  “All better,” he murmured, his tension easing. He rose and made for the bathroom to rinse the seawater from his body, but the water didn’t crank cold enough and he seriously contemplated hopping back into the frigid ocean.

  He stepped into the cabin, but Nat hadn’t budged. Her small, white-knuckled hands were clasped in her lap. The thin, frayed, off-white towel hugged her torso. Her top teeth were sunk into her bottom lip as she stared at her hands.

  Pale and hunched, her slight form looked so bloody vulnerable perched on his bunk. Even though he’d witnessed the brutal fighter, on the inside, Nat was as exquisite in her compassion as any other woman.

  Too bad he’d sworn off women.

  “It’s going to be like this forever, isn’t it?” Nat whispered as Kassian sank beside her on the bunk. “Constantly battling for our survival.”

  “You’ll get used to it.”

  “Only if I pass your tests though, right?” She let the wryness seep through her tone. As a Lotus, she’d faced death before. Death hadn’t scared her. Not hers, at least.

  “I can’t lose you, Kassian.” Whoa, the words had flown out. She stuttered to cover that verbal vomit. “I work alone. I’ve always worked alone.” She shot to her feet and paced to conceal the conflict inside her heart. “I can’t handle carrying someone else’s fate. What would have happened if I hadn’t saved you? Couldn’t have saved you? If I had needed a breath, it would have been too late for you.”

  The words poured out. Her fears and her dread of failing. Working alone was easier. When she and she alone bore the responsibility for whatever outcome she might have to face. Maybe the problem wasn’t with Snake, but with herself. The idea of really letting the spirit in, of giving in to the bonding, terrified her.

  “I was scared to lose you, too.” He caught her hand, his large one squeezing hers. “I get it. I really do. I also had a hard time ac
cepting the other Chosen.” His thumb rubbed a circle on the inside of her wrist. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not much different from the shuǐ guǐ.”

  “What?”

  “You live like a ghost. Alone. Like you’re trying to amp up enough points to break free. From what, I don’t know and you don’t have to tell me, but neither do you have to live like that.”

  She flinched. How the hell had he hit on her life so well? As if he bored into her soul…but she hoped he couldn’t. He wouldn’t like what he saw.

  “You have a family with the Chosen. People who will have your back no matter what. If you can learn to trust in us.” His mouth curved into a grim smile.

  “I do. I trust you.” The words burned in her throat. How could she bond fully to Snake when she had never written “permanent host” into her plans? Kassian promised her a family, but she wasn’t going to stick around long enough to become one of them. She longed to forget her oaths, her final mission. Just for one moment, to pretend like the future could be anything.

  With Kassian.

  His gaze snapped to hers, those green-brown eyes searching. She met his scrutiny and let her sincerity seep through. Kassian would never hurt her or let her be harmed. There was too much of Ox in him. The protector. He had—and always would—look out for her best interests. They might disagree on what those were, though.

  “So, I’m allowed to keep Snake and stay with you as a Chosen?” She lifted her brows in hope. Had she proven herself enough tonight to change this stubborn male’s mind?

  He answered her by rising and slanting his mouth over hers. She pushed back right away. “No one’s watching.” She shoved at his hands, which sought to be everywhere on her body.

  “I’m watching.” He nibbled along the outside of her mouth.

  “Are you going to answer me?”

  “Yeah. This is my answer.” He pressed his massive body against hers, and their “little” problem had definitely enlarged.