Penny felt faint. This guy’s aura was strong too. So much testosterone on this yacht. Where was Sylvia? Now, she really needed her friend.
“I’m sorry?” Penny replied.
“Leaving you alone like that,” he said. “That’s an asshole move. If I’d been that close to you, for that long, that chick would have had to pry me off you with a crowbar. He left way too willingly.”
She felt her face go red. Thane was so much more relaxed in his flirting. This guy was more direct. He was going for it and she was so not prepared to keep up with this guy.
“Thank you,” Penny said.
“For what?” the guy asked.
“Just…that was sweet. Thank you.”
“Axel,” he said, holding his hand out for her to shake.
“Penny,” she replied, taking his.
He held her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles gently.
***
“Hug me and kiss my cheek,” Evelyn said as she wrapped her arms around Thane. “Don’t be rude.”
Thane went through the routine of acting like she was an old friend. He didn’t want to give her anything to use as an excuse to start a scene. She had no qualms with letting everyone on this ship know about her gifts, especially since she would love nothing more than to eat all of them. No leftovers.
“Yes, that would be great wouldn’t it?” she asked, verbally, letting him know that she’d heard his inner voice.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Trying to win you back, baby,” she said.
“Cut the shit, Eve,” he said. “What are you up to?”
“I love it when you call me that,” she replied. “Do you remember what I used to call you?”
He rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. She grabbed his arm and pulled him in close, so she could whisper in his ear.
“Don’t you dare fucking walk away from me,” she hissed. “I could kill everyone on this yacht, have unimaginably wild sex in their slippery blood, and still sleep perfectly well tonight. You know that. I live for the blood and the fuck. That’s all. Don’t give me a reason to do it.”
Thane took a deep breath, wishing once again he had Kino by his side. He would have brought several of his brothers had he thought she would pull a stunt like this. How had she even known about this trip? How much did she know?
“She’s not the one for you,” Evelyn said. “Look at me.”
He looked at her. Their eyes locked and he knew she was trying to tame him the way she did all the other males. He had to admit, the sex with Evelyn had always been insanely great. There was nothing she wasn’t willing to do. The rougher it was, the more she liked it. But any good memory of hers was dashed against the wall when thoughts of the bad came back into view. She was a monster.
“You smell it don’t you?” Evelyn asked. “I know you do. I can. It’s practically making me nauseous.”
Thane knew what she was talking about, but she was exaggerating.
“She’s sick, Thane,” Evelyn said. “She’s actively looking for a shifter, hoping someone will cure her. Humans know all the rumors about our healing abilities. She wants to use you.”
“You’re wrong,” he said.
“Ask her,” she said. “Put her on the spot and ask her outright if that old wolf bitch told her about our abilities.”
“I’m not a bottle of Nyquil,” he argued. “You know it doesn’t work like that.”
“We’ll see,” she said. “I may let this one live for a little bit, but only so I can watch while she breaks your fucking heart like you broke mine.”
Thane tried to dig up a witty comeback, but he couldn’t. She’d always claimed that he’d hurt her, but what she saw as hurting her meant saving so many others. She’d wanted him to join her cause in killing every human that entered the sea. He couldn’t do that, so he turned her away. She would never forget it.
“I’ll let her live,” she repeated. “But…we’ll maim her a little bit. More fun that way.”
“We?” he said, fear filling him inside like ice water poured through his neck.
Fire flashed in her eyes and he knew that look. Drawing him away from Penny had been part of her sinister plan.
He turned to look back at the pure-human girl he’d already fallen for, and saw Axel, that piece of shit, standing next to her. Penny was saying something to him, but the blond weasel’s focus was completely on Thane. His lips crept up in a devious grin.
“No,” Thane said, but before he could take one step forward, Axel turned quickly to the left and slammed his heavy arm against Penny’s chest, tossing her overboard like a ragdoll.
Penny’s scream filled the air as she tumbled out of sight.
Everyone ran toward the railing and as they did, Thane went the opposite direction, knowing if he could get out of view, he might be able to save her. He hit the opposite side of the ship and dove overboard, face first toward the water.
As he soared through the air, his frame exploded like a rocket. An audible boom sounded off inside him and his bones shattered into a million little pieces, reforming supernaturally on the inside into the body of the apex predator he shared his life with. Bones cracked, muscles moved, and organs rearranged. He felt every bit of it, but he’d transformed so many times that it no longer bothered him. It happened so quickly, and he hit the water seamlessly, as if he’d been there all along.
The shortest distance was a straight line, so he took off beneath the boat, racing toward the spot where she’d splashed down. He hadn’t seen Evelyn or Axel hit the water, but he didn’t need to. He knew as soon as the crowd reached the railing, they would have done the same thing he’d done. They were already in the water, and more than likely they’d had others circling the yacht all along, waiting for the moment to strike.
The red foggy blotch of blood was already spreading by the time he got there. A feeling of déjà vu washed over him as he thought of the ship captain he’d been unable to save, and of Bobber, and of all the others he’d failed to protect. He’d only known Penelope for a few minutes, but he knew he had a connection with her and the thought of her being slaughtered or even hurt in any way was too much to handle. He opened his mouth and readied his razor-sharp teeth. This time there would be no warning bite. He would rip Axel’s fucking fins free of his body. He’d leave that bastard plummeting to the sea floor, unable to swim. Evelyn would be next.
***
Penny didn’t know what to think when Thane looked her way. She was instantly worried he might not come back to her once he saw her talking to the blond pretty boy at her side. Her thoughts were on this when the guy turned and slammed into her. Why, she wasn’t sure. Had someone bumped into him?
She desperately reached for the railing, trying to stop her fall, but she had already passed it and was flipping toward the dark water. Her arms flailed but there was nothing she could do. The slick side of the ship gave her nothing to grab hold of. She hit the water hard and was engulfed in its cold embrace so instantly she didn’t know how to react.
It had all happened so quickly.
No, God, no! Please!
She’d never been afraid of the ocean, not the water itself, but as she’d told Thane, it was the mystery that lurked beneath the water’s surface that terrified her. Her mind went there, wondering if sharks might swim upward at her feet the way they did in the movies. She kicked wildly, hoping it might scare anything away.
“Help!” she yelled.
The boat had already passed her but had slowed down. People stood at the side, waving at her, but nobody jumped in. Where was Thane? Where was the blond?
“Help me!” she screamed.
Then she realized she was being silly. The boat had slowed down. Everyone knew she’d fallen overboard. It was only a matter of minutes before she’d be thrown a life saver and then they’d pull her out of the water. It was not like she’d fallen in without anyone knowing about it. She calmed herself and treaded water slowly.
This is a memory. That’s all. It gives you something to laugh about later. You’ll be totally...FUCK!
Her thoughts were interrupted when the searing pain of hot razor wire wrapped around her thigh and pulled down. She went under the water’s surface. Her scream pushed cool water away from her mouth, but then it rushed in, forcing her to drink it. Her breath had gone out in her last cry and she couldn’t breathe. Something was dragging her under and it hurt so fucking bad.
She kicked and with each push, the pain dug in deeper. Her hands reached for the light of the distorted image of the sun she could see shining down. It was so close, but then farther, and even farther.
I’m going to die.
She’d been in so much pain and had been so tired and so worn out for so long that she’d thought often about what it would mean to die. Would she be afraid at the end? Would she be ready to go? Now she could finally answer it. She was fucking terrified. And she was not ready to go.
Penny’s screams came out like a gurgling sucker punch with so little breath behind it. Her body flung from left to right. She was being whipped around and she couldn’t grasp what was happening. What had her in its clutches? Then she saw it, only barely in the dark water, it was a shark. It could pull once and take her entire leg with it, but it didn’t. It seemed to be gnawing on her, playing with her.
I need to breathe. I’m not ready to go yet. I’m so not ready to die!
She swung downward, hammering a punch at its snout, but unlike the tales you hear on the internet, her fist did nothing. Under the water, her downward swing had no steam behind it and it fell flat against the shark’s face. Then she remembered something else she’d heard. Poke it in the eye. She had nails. She had fingernails and she wouldn’t need a lot of strength.
As the shark continued to pull at her, she put her fingers together as if about to pick something up and slammed it downward into the big black circle of the shark’s eye. Her fingernails pushed against the glossy eyeball until they broke through its surface with a snap. Then it was jelly-like. She opened and closed her hand, fighting with all her might to destroy the creature’s eye. Finally, it let go, and she kicked as hard as she could for the surface.
She looked down only once, and saw a different shark coming at her from the side. Another shark had smelled the blood and was coming for her. Then something amazing happened. As she prepared to finally meet death, the new shark came into view, and it slammed into the one that had attacked her. The two giant beasts thrashed around wildly, and Penny turned her attention to the surface.
Her hand broke through first, and then her face, and as the warm air hit her lungs, she nearly passed out. She was still alive.
***
Thane sped around Penny in a circle, warding off any oncoming attack. He couldn’t possibly fight them all. Evelyn had brought six sharks with her. She and Axel might have been part of that group. He couldn’t tell. He was too worried and too angry to try to communicate. He needed to focus all his strength on making sure his mate made it safely to the surface where her own kind could drag her back onto the yacht and get her to the hospital.
She would live. Evelyn hadn’t meant to kill her, but she’d definitely hurt her. Thane doubted if the woman would ever go near the water again. That might make it hard to bring her to Shamrock Island, but he wasn’t giving up yet.
As Thane continued to circle around Penny, keeping her in a protective circle, he said a silent prayer that God would get her out of this in one piece. Blood was in the water, and even though Evelyn hadn’t wanted to kill her, controlling rabid sharks is no easy task. All it would take was one wrong move and one of them could tear into her guts or rip her head off. Even now, if she lost that leg completely, she’d never make it back to the mainland.
“See you later, lover,” Evelyn’s voice pinged off each shark until it reached Thane. “Tell your new main squeeze we’ll see her later too.”
The sharks backed off, and Thane could do nothing but watch from below as a lifesaver was thrown into the water and Penny was pulled back onto the yacht. She would wonder where Thane had gone. She would think he’d abandoned her. And as she left the ocean surface, he could only think of how he’d let her down. He’d fallen for Evelyn’s insidious plan, and Penny had almost lost her life.
Chapter 6
“You gonna eat that soup?” Sylvia asked as she slid the small plastic dish her way.
Penny had eaten enough liquid food to last a lifetime. It seemed to be the hospital’s answer to everything.
“You can have it,” she answered her friend. “Any more and my insides will turn into that shit.”
She’d been in the hospital for two days. Between the constant tests and badgering by her bestie, Penny thought she might go insane. Turns out a shark bite, especially in her condition, was riskier than she thought. The teeth had only broken the skin, gnawed on the meat a little bit, but other than that she should be okay. It was the leukemia that was kicking her ass.
“Sylvia,” Penny said when they were finally alone in the hospital room. “I’m not so sure it’s going to be okay this time.”
“You got a fucking bite on your leg,” Sylvia said, throwing her hand out as if swatting away an invisible fly.
“It wasn’t a mosquito bite,” Penny reminded her. “And the doctors are acting funny.”
“That’s what doctors do,” Sylvia replied.
“Sylvia…”
Sylvia looked at her and Penny knew that she was taking it much more seriously this time. Her friend’s eyes welled up with tears and she used her jacket sleeve to quickly wipe them away.
“You’re gonna be okay,” she said. “This is nothing. We still have two days left. They’ll let you out and you’ll sit on the side of the pool all bandaged up and shit, drawing all the attention of the guys, and then I’ll swoop in and take them up to my room and fuck ‘em while you get some work done on your laptop.”
Her friend’s simple explanation kind of summed up the two of them perfectly.
“Maybe not this time,” Penny said. “I don’t feel so great. I’m tired. And I have bruises in places I’ve never had bruises before. Maybe we should go home.”
“You don’t mean that, babe,” Sylvia said. “You’d regret it if we got on that plane.”
Penny’s head fell back on her pillow. She hurt in so many places. She’d dealt with the aching of her bones and the soreness of her body for so long. She’d suffered the chronic fatigue, the feeling that she might pass out at any given moment, and the results of what happened when she actually did. It came, and it went. All of it. Some days she felt fine. Like that day on the yacht. She had forced herself to stay positive and go on a date. She’d tried.
I tried so hard. But I don’t know how much I want to try anymore. I only want to sleep.
A knock on the door pulled her from her self-pity. She pulled her blanket up higher to make sure it covered the horribly thin robe they’d given her. She had no chance to invite the visitor in. He did so himself. He was incredibly tall and had dirty blond hair. He looked like he hadn’t shaven in days and his hair stood out in all directions. His messy appearance seemed accidental, but it was the look models strove for. He had rolled out of bed looking like a badass, and the long scar that ran across the left side of his face, starting at the spot above his eye socket and ending at his jawline, only intensified his natural meanness.
“Penelope Cross?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Are you a cop?” Sylvia asked. “We’ve spoken to the cops. Unless you’re planning to arrest a shark, I don’t see how…”
“…Not arrest it,” he interrupted. “Kill it.”
The guy stepped closer to her bed and towered over her, looking down at her over the dark sunglasses resting at the tip of his nose. His intensity was unnerving. He didn’t smile. His lips hardly moved at all, only opening enough to let words flow out.
“Not a cop,” he said, his Australian accent thicker than any she’d h
eard so far.
He was almost difficult to understand.
“It’s my duty to patrol the shore, to keep people safe, to put an end to the monsters that attacked you,” he said. “We haven’t had the chance to talk so I thought I would pay you a visit and see if you could shed some light on the sharks that attacked you.”
Sylvia chuckled.
“One of them had a mustache,” she joked.
He whipped his head around and Penny couldn’t see him, but she could see Sylvia. Her smile faded, and she knew the man had warned her with his glance. She seemed spooked.
“It…it all happened so quickly,” Penny said, bringing his attention back to her. “A guy accidentally knocked me overboard.”
“Accidentally?” he asked. “How did he accidentally knock you off the boat?”
She had no answer for that. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the impact of the man’s arm against her chest and shoulders. He’d hit her so hard that it couldn’t have been an accidental stumble, but why would he purposely throw her into the water? That would make no sense.
“I don’t know,” she said, lowering her face to her lap like an ashamed child.
She couldn’t stand meeting the man eye to eye. She felt him judging her, ready to pick apart her words and label her a liar even though she’d said nothing but the truth.
“What happened in the water?” he asked.
“She was fucking attacked,” Sylvia interrupted again.
Penny loved her for it. His questions were stupid and redundant considering she’d already answered these same damn questions twenty fucking times.
“A shark grabbed me, grabbed my leg…”
“Grabbed you?” he asked.
“Pulled me under, and kept yanking me down, until I…until I shoved my hand…”
She held her hand up in an almost duck like form, showing how she’d squished all her fingers together and poked out its eye.
“…into its eye and did this.”
She opened her hand. Sylvia winced. The man finally smirked. He seemed to like hearing about the pain of a shark.
Oh, Bite Me: Paranormal Dating Agency Page 5
