Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2)

by Chris Genovese

  But if she is with someone, that’ll be a dick move.

  He had already talked himself out of approaching the woman he’d been spying, when his eyes landed on the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. It could have been the darkness or the neon lamp blasting its way out of the nightclub doorway, but the woman’s blonde hair was in a ponytail and looked almost blindingly white in the strange glow. Her lipstick was bright pink, and glitter adorned her cheeks. She wore all black, with tight jeans and a top with elastic that was pulled down to show her bare shoulders. She wore glasses that looked more like a fashion accessory than anything meant to improve sight. The crystal-clear lenses and metallic silver frames bounced fire light off and gave her face a majestic quality. She looked like some sort of pop star gracing the party with her presence. She was too cool to be anybody average.

  “Oh my God,” Rafe let escape his lips with a gust of air that felt like it came from a gut punch. “Now, her. I don’t care if she has a man.”

  Not once in his life, not with his first girlfriend, and not with any woman he’d ever been turned down by, had he ever been completely knocked off his feet. He realized the fire behind him posed great danger as his knees weakened and nearly buckled. He’d surfed many shores and had partied with some of the hottest chicks known to man. He’d dated some of them. This girl…this one was different though. It didn’t make sense. He’d never even spoken a word to her. The girl with her was pretty, ridiculously hot if he were being absolutely honest, but he’d dated the bad girl, covered in tattoos type, and that never worked out. As much as he liked to party, he wasn’t all that rambunctious, and it never worked with those kinds of girls. He wished Hightail was here with him. They’d played wingman for each other on many occasions. The tattooed girl would have been perfect for Rafe’s buddy.

  Now, how am I going to approach her? I’ll just walk over to her. And say what?

  A girl like that wouldn’t accept any cheesy pickup lines. She needed to be seriously wowed by his words. The problem was, he couldn’t think up anything that would impress her, let alone wow her.

  Rafe felt helpless as he watched her walk away.

  “Great,” Rafe said. “And she’s gone.”

  He needed to find her again. Even if he never said a word to this girl, he’d leave the party knowing he’d watched an angel from afar, and he might hate himself for letting her fly away. For now, he only wanted to see her again.

  And cue creepy stalker mode.

  Rafe made his way closer to the crowd, making sure she was within eyesight at all times.

  Chapter 6 - Kalina

  Kalina tilted her head back and guzzled the beer in her hand, enjoying the burn that ran down her throat. She wasn’t much of a drinker. She’d steal a beer from Kino or Jagger whenever they were boozing it up on the beach, but for the most part she didn’t enjoy Faith’s party-girl lifestyle. Tonight was different. She wanted to let loose and open herself up to new opportunities. She’d willed Thane from her mind, had decided it was time to find someone new to crush on, and was now scanning the crowd for potential suiters.

  “This party is lame,” Faith said as she leaned against a wooden post outside the nightclub and stared at the bonfire in front of her. “The big festival will be lame too. Family-friendly parties always are.”

  “We just got here,” Kalina said. “And what’s wrong with family-friendly?”

  “I don’t have children,” Faith replied. “Maybe that’s why? And I know I’m going to sound like a total bitch when I say this, but at least when Evelyn was around, there was always some kind of action.”

  “You know what we need?” Kalina said, playing along with her friend’s demented mentality. “We need a super villain.”

  “We’re not super heroes,” Faith said, then laughed and grabbed a beer out of the hand of a good-looking guy to their left.

  The guy scoffed at her.

  “What?” she said. “Buy a lady a beer.”

  “You buy a lady a beer,” he said in a feminine voice as he snatched it back out of her hand. “Better yet, go buy your own damn beer.”

  “Catty,” Faith said.

  “Thanks,” he replied.

  They smiled at each other and just like that, all animosity floated away on the smoke-filled breeze. Kalina watched a few embers drift from the top of the bonfire and thought they looked like lovers escaping their fiery past and waltzing into the night. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Faith laughing along with her new friend. Kalina admired Faith’s ability to be the biggest bitch on the planet and still walk away unscathed from any situation. It was a true and rare talent.

  Kalina returned her attention to the floating embers and caught new ones beginning their midair dance. The music was great, the beat was sensual, and the crowd was in good spirits.

  “We should move closer to the fire,” Kalina suggested. “The guys are so much hotter over there.”

  “Hotter? As in because it’s hot near the fire?” Faith said. “You’re a fucking dork.”

  Kalina held a hand up to her mouth to stifle her laughter, trying not to spit out her beer.

  “And I still don’t get the need to wear glasses,” Faith added. “You don’t need them.”

  “I heard boys like girls with glasses now.”

  “Boys?”

  “Men,” Kalina corrected herself. “I heard men like women with glasses.”

  “Whatever,” Faith said, shooing her away with the flip of a wrist. “Men like a warm mouth and a wet twat. Besides, wouldn’t glasses get in the way of a blowjob?”

  Kalina hadn’t given that any thought. She hadn’t left the island with intentions of giving a blowjob, so it didn’t seem important. She fidgeted with the glasses, tugging softly at the rims and wondering how she would get the job done with them on her face. Surely girls who wore glasses didn’t always remove them.

  Faith’s right. You are a dork. Stop thinking so much.

  “What you need is a man,” Faith said. “Temporary or long-term. Temporary is probably better. Long-term is dull. Lame…like this party.”

  “Enough about the party,” Kalina said. “It’s not so bad. I’ve seen a few cute boys.”

  “Men,” Faith reminded her again.

  “Men,” Kalina repeated.

  Kalina wished there was someone on the island she could couple up with, but they were all either taken already, not her type, or gay. At least she thought Oliver might be gay. He’d never been with a woman, or even spoken about one, as far as she remembered.

  “Know any of our kind who are single?” Kalina asked.

  Sure, she could have fucked a human guy, but then she’d run the risk of him finding out who and what she really was. Hiding her true self seemed like too much work. Of course, humans knew paranormal shifters existed, but humans were still weird about the whole thing. Most of the time it seemed as if they preferred to pretend they didn’t exist. Kalina could understand that in some ways. She could imagine being an older human and finding out her daughter was dating a wolf or a great white. That would be quite frightening.

  “I can’t think of any males of our kind who aren’t already with someone, other than maybe Oliver, but I’m pretty sure he’s not into our kind,” Faith said as she gestured at Kalina and herself with a finger going back and forth between them.

  “Hey, I know that guy!” Faith said. “If we hang out with him and his buddies, this’ll be the wild night you wanted. Be right back.”

  “Wait,” Kalina said.

  Faith leaned into her shoulder and said, “Don’t look now, but it seems like you’ve caught someone’s eye. Over there. He’s pretty hot too. If you don’t claim him, I swear I will.”

  She nodded toward the bonfire and walked away. Before Kalina could protest or follow her, Faith disappeared into the crowd, leaving Kalina standing alone nursing her beer, hesitating to look in the direction in which Faith had gestured. When she did, she felt a force that nearly knocked her out of her shoes. She
knew her shark senses helped her pick up on impulses in the water, slight differences in movements and sounds that helped her seek out food or avoid enemies. She’d heard it could also help find potential mates, but she’d never experienced it. Thane had talked about it a few times and the other sharks had agreed, mostly the male sharks, but Kalina thought she might be feeling it now. Deep in her loins, she ached, and her lips parted over stuttered breath. Her eyes felt heavy. He was beautiful.

  He watched her. Not glaring at her but more like gazing at her, almost dopey eyed, like she’d put him in a trance. Kalina felt her heart ping off the insides of her chest like a racquetball smacked carelessly. She’d never had a boy look at her like this before. She’d spent all her life on the island. Yes, she’d had casual sex a time or two, but never anything serious. Boys told her she was beautiful, but their words had always seemed shallow, like all they wanted was a quick romp. Eyes didn’t lie, and this guy’s eyes told her he wanted her in ways she couldn’t even comprehend. And her body quivered under his stare. She wanted him just as much.

  Is this how it’s supposed to work? Am I supposed to feel it like this?

  He moved closer, and the nearer he got, the better he looked. His hair had been combed back at one point, when still wet or gelled, and some strands were falling loose near his face. Like drapes pulled back from windows looking out onto a dark sky, his eyes were brown pools of mystery. The neon light from the nightclub behind her reflected off his eyes and put two shining white dots at his pupils, giving him a paranormal look himself. His jaw was strong and slightly unshaven, and his skin was so tanned that even in the dark she could tell he was an outdoorsman. Probably a lifeguard. Maybe part of a construction crew. His loose shirt was unbuttoned enough to give her a peek at his muscular chest. Around his neck he wore a leather band with a shark tooth.

  “Hi,” he said.

  Kalina took a deep breath and huffed it out, only because she was trying to figure out how to breathe again, but once the sound escaped her, she knew it must have made her seem like a bitch. As if she’d been hit on so often she had to scoff at this guy’s attempt at a lame greeting. Her loss of words kept her silent, but she nodded with her eyes still on the guy’s necklace. He followed her gaze and shrugged.

  “Shark tooth,” he said.

  “I know,” Kalina replied.

  “I’m Rafe,” he said.

  A nickname? Really? He was a surfer. Had to be. That didn’t matter though. The connection was instant.

  “Is that your real name?” she asked.

  “Yeah, not the coolest but…”

  “I think it’s pretty cool,” she replied. “I’m Kalina.”

  This is ridiculous. I sound like a dummy. Where is Faith?

  The way he looked at her, the attention he gave her, and how he seemed to be in a trance as he smiled dumbly in front of her made her question his agenda. She looked again at the fucking shark tooth necklace he wore, having no idea the woman he was meeting could shift into a shark. It would be like Kalina wearing a human nose around her neck at a time like this.

  “Is this weird to you?” Rafe asked. “Because it’s kind of weird to me.”

  “Definitely,” Kalina said.

  It was weird. It was weird that she was talking to a boy at all. A man. Why did she keep thinking of him as a boy? Her lost childhood was all she could think of to explain it. She’d never had the chance to date boys in high school. She’d never gone to high school at all. Her education had been provided on the island by an old sea turtle shifter friend of Thane’s named Horace. She’d never gone to a school formal, had never been picked up for anything like the American proms she’d seen in movies. All guys were still boys in her eyes. She’d made out with men before but had never truly gotten that first kiss. At least not from someone who might consider her his one and only. Thane had kissed her, and he’d kissed her gently and lovingly, but wrapped up in that bit of warmth was a lot of coldness. She’d always known she wasn’t meant for him, no matter how much she denied it or how much she prayed for God to change it.

  “I so want to dazzle you with witty comments right now,” Rafe said, “but I kind of suck at this type of thing.”

  Kalina looked up into his eyes as he was nearly a foot taller than she was, and she liked what she saw. His smile was genuine. He was nervous too.

  “I wouldn’t mind being dazzled,” she said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

  “Oh, man,” he said. “I don’t…okay…I can do this.”

  “Yes, you can,” she said.

  It had only taken seconds for them to become playful, flirtatious with each other, which again was totally weird. She barely talked to anyone outside of her friends from the island, but conversation flowed smoothly with Rafe. He was easy to talk to, easy to flirt with, and definitely easy to look at.

  “So,” Rafe began. “I think I would have done better if I’d walked over here and said something like, ‘Hey, did you lose something?’”

  “And I’d say, ‘What do you mean,’” Kalina replied.

  “Your heart,” Rafe said. “Your heart just flew away with mine.”

  It was ridiculous. It was stupid and cheesy but also adorable at the same time. If he’d walked up and said that to her, she knew she would have laughed, and he would have had his “in” like he’d wanted.

  “That’s actually pretty good,” Kalina said. “I’m impressed. Did you make that up right now?”

  “No,” he said. “I’ve been polishing that one up for years, waiting for the right time to use it. I’m like a ninja. I build my arsenal and choose my weapons carefully. Certain enemies require the big guns.”

  “And was that one of the big guns?”

  “Oh my God, yes,” he said. “You couldn’t tell? I’m hurt.”

  “There you are,” a stern voice said over Rafe’s shoulder.

  A man Kalina hated came into view. Keelan Kane, the shark hunter, and the one man she refused to accept as an ally, stood behind Rafe with that smug look on his face that he always wore. The scar on his face looked even more menacing than usual with the bonfire light giving it life.

  “Oh,” Kane said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you have going on here.”

  “Whatever he has going on?” Kalina asked, immediately becoming defensive.

  “Was it more than that?” Kane asked. “I’m sorry. Was it something more major? Was he proposing?”

  “That’s not cool, Boss,” Rafe said.

  Boss? This guy works for Keelan fucking Kane?

  Anger led to an instant feeling of heartbreak as Kalina realized there was no fucking way she was going to date the protégé of Keelan Kane.

  “I should go,” Kalina said.

  “You’re one of Thane’s friends, right?” Kane said. “We’re all cool right now aren’t we?”

  She remembered the truce that had been called between them. Thane had promised to help patrol the waters off the Queensland coast and Kane had agreed to stop hunting them. The animosity was still there, and it was strong.

  “We’re cool right now,” Kalina said, putting emphasis on the last two words to make sure he understood that it could change at any moment, and if it did, she would kick his fucking ass.

  “Do you two know each other?” Rafe asked.

  “Not really,” Kane replied. “But we have mutual friends.”

  “Friends,” Kalina said under her breath and laughed.

  “Wait,” Rafe interrupted, scratching his head as he realized something. “Are you a…a…are you…?”

  “He knows?” Kalina asked Kane.

  “He knows about Thane,” Kane said. “He needs to know if he’s going to follow me out there into that fucked up world of yours. So, yeah, I suppose he does know now.”

  Kalina looked into Rafe’s face and saw a change there. He didn’t dislike her, and he wasn’t repulsed by her. It was more of a look of awe. Like this was the moment he’d found out his best friend moonlighted as Batm
an. Rafe smiled and it was adorable. His expression made everything okay again. He not only understood, but he seemed fascinated by her.

  “Well,” Kane said. “I came over here to tell you something, but I guess it makes sense for her to hear it too. Two more shark attacks were reported off the coast today.”

  “Two?” Kalina said. “There was the diver in the submarine. That one I know about. It was a great white. The biggest damn thing I’ve ever seen. What was the other one?”

  Kalina noticed Rafe’s confused expression so she reached out for his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She didn’t know how much Kane had revealed, but it was clearly enough that he knew she was paranormal in some form.

  “A couple on a yacht,” Kane said. “They went for a swim. Neither of them survived.”

  “If neither survived,” Rafe stepped in, “then how do you know it was a shark attack?”

  Kane raised one eyebrow in Rafe’s direction, his nonverbal cue to stop questioning him or stop asking dumb questions, Kalina wasn’t sure which.

  Kane rolled his neck around on his shoulders, loosening himself up, or quite possibly trying to calm his nerves, and said, “The husband reached up to grab the ladder. His arm was found still wrapped around the second rung. The rest of his body had been ripped free from the shoulder down…in a very shark attack kind of way.”

  “Jesus,” Rafe said, seeming to ignore Kane’s sarcasm.

  “Seems you guys aren’t holding up your end of the bargain,” Kane added. “That or maybe some of you decided to have a nice, red-meat snack yourselves.”

  “Fuck you,” Kalina said. “We’ve gone out of our way to help…”

  She stopped herself, realizing she still hadn’t explained everything to Rafe and not wanting this to be how he heard her story. Keeping her cool was difficult in Kane’s presence. She despised the shark hunter and wished she could have a red-meat snack right now.

  “Anyway,” Kane said. “I guess I should probably let you two get back to whatever you were discussing. Rafe, be careful with this one. She’s…dangerous.”