“What were you expecting?” he asked.
“I don’t know…maybe riding a motorcycle or bungee jumping or…I don’t know, but I didn’t expect to find someone like you. This is beyond wild.”
He leaned down and touched his forehead to hers. She wanted so badly for him to kiss her, but that was silly. They’d only know each other for thirty minutes maybe, not even that long. Yet, she craved him in so many more ways than one. With his forehead against hers, she felt herself throb down below. She hadn’t wanted a man the way she wanted this one in so long.
“Kalina,” Thane said. “You coming with us?”
“No,” she replied.
Silence. She didn’t want to leave.
I can’t go. What if I never see this boy again? Or what if I leave and he has some drinks and some other girl at the party steals him away?
Her fears were irrational, but they were real. She didn’t want to let him go. Then Faith was at her side, convincing her they should leave.
“I’m sorry, baby girl,” Faith said, “but you really should come with us. Those guys were bad news. You wouldn’t be able to take them on your own if they decide to show up and start shit again. And Rafe? That’s your name, right?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“You should get out of here too,” Faith said. “I’m sure you can take care of yourself, but you were right, there were too many of them. It would be a lot safer if we get out of here and you do the same. You two kids can catch up tomorrow or some other time.”
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Rafe said. “She’s right. But how will I find you again?”
“Kane knows where to find me,” Kalina said, suddenly remembering the man she despised knew her address. “Shamrock Island in case he decides to be his usual asshole self, but he knows where it is.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead and then she reluctantly followed her friends toward the beach.
Chapter 7 - Sylvia
She couldn’t anymore. She simply couldn’t. It wasn’t her scene. The bonfire at the center of the party and the dancing youth cheering and spilling their drinks all over the beach reminded her too much of the barge. It was the exact same situation, only this time it was on dry land. She’d tried to hang in there. She’d done her best to unwind, to be normal like all the others, but then the one guy she’d only somewhat had her sights set on had walked away to go chat with some bleached blonde Barbie and she was reminded that things were different.
It wasn’t jealousy, of that she was sure. Well, she was pretty sure. At first, she did feel a twinge of frustration when it seemed the guy was into someone else. He’d been ridiculously obvious in his constant staring at the woman. Sylvia could have probably thrown herself into the fire and wouldn’t have gotten a reaction from him once the other woman had strolled into the party.
That was her life…now. Back in the day, and back in the day meant not all that long ago, she’d been one of the most desired women at any party. She wasn’t conceited. It was true. Everywhere she went, some guy would approach her. Getting laid had been easy. Men had been like toys, playthings she could discard whenever she grew bored of them. She hadn’t been mean or nasty, but she hadn’t been willing to open up and truly fall in love. She’d relished in the knowledge that men wanted her, and women wanted to be her.
I was fucking conceited, wasn’t I?
Not anymore. Sylvia’s mindset had changed so much. Sometimes she missed her old confidence, and sometimes she hated it. She’d missed out on so much by staying out until dawn and sleeping until early evening. She now saw how fragile life was and how innocent and naïve people could be. She’d always thought life was some big damn party where she could hoot and holler her way through all the tough times. So often she’d told Penny to get over it. Now, she needed to get over it. She needed to practice what she’d preached for so many years. If this was the new Sylvia, she needed to give this new her a chance. The first step was leaving this fucking party.
She’d been on her way back to the hotel when she saw the gang of tattooed biker guys heading toward the bonfire. They’d walked down the beach together, side by side, looking so cool. A couple of them were quite attractive and Sylvia wondered what it would be like to date a tough guy like one of those. She’d dated a basketball player, fellow DJs, lawyers, doctors, bodyguards, and had even accidentally dated a drug dealer once, but she’d never been with an honest to goodness bad boy. Watching these guys drift coolly toward the party made her think of Kiefer Sutherland and his gang of vampires in the movie The Lost Boys. She’d had a crush on the dark-haired vampire, whatever his name was, and one of the guys walking down the beach slightly resembled him.
Over breakfast the next morning at the hotel, she overheard people talking about the bonfire party the night before and how this gang of hoodlums had shown up and started roughing everyone up. They talked about the shouting and the cursing and the fighting. It sounded pretty bad, and Sylvia was glad she’d left early. She couldn’t handle any violence or bloodshed right now. She wondered how Queensland had turned into a mecca of mayhem.
“Think they’ll know I’m not a guest here if I sashay up to the buffet and fix myself a plate?” Penny asked as she leaned over the table and kissed Sylvia on the forehead.
Glowing. That was the best word to describe her friend. Her baby bump was big, precious, and she looked fantastically happy. She was so different from the friend she’d brought with her to Australia on their original trip out here. The dark rings around her eyes had disappeared and she stood strong, back straight, poised in her movements where before she had always seemed to be slightly slumped over. Not like a hunchback or anything, but it was obvious she was lacking self-confidence. This new Penny was ready to take on the day. She stood next to Sylvia with her hands on her hips.
“Well? You gonna get up and give me a hug, or what?” she asked.
Sylvia dropped her fork and stood to embrace her best friend. Her arms radiated love and warmth, and Sylvia could have stayed there forever if it wouldn’t have been awkward with so many other hotel guests around. Finally, she let go and then quickly hugged her friend once more.
“God, I’ve missed you,” Sylvia said. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you when you came home. I was in a bad place…still am…but it was different then. I wasn’t right in the head.”
“No apology needed,” Penny said. “And seriously, do you think they’ll notice if I get some food? I’m hungry, man.”
“Haven’t eaten enough seabass or whatever the hell you sharks eat under water?” Sylvia whispered.
“I wish I could swim,” Penny replied. “I’m pregnant. We can’t, you know, change when we’re pregnant. It would kill the baby.”
“Well you need to feed that kid,” Sylvia said. “Go get some food. If they say anything, they can charge it to my room.”
“Syl…Syl…Sylvia Fa…fa…Foxx!” Penny called out, doing her best DJ announcer voice to fuck with Sylvia.
Not anymore, babe. Not anymore.
These were the things she loved about her best friend and she decided right then that no matter where Penny went or what was to come from this trip, Sylvia wasn’t going to leave her side. She would go to this island and live in a fucking hut if she had to, but she needed to be around the one person who actually gave a shit about her. The only person she had left in the whole world. Her best friend. Sylvia would be single if she had to, but she’d be near Penny.
I mean, hopefully I’m not single. Who knows. Maybe Penny will hook me up with someone…eventually.
As Penny sat down with a plate that looked more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with pancakes piled on top of waffles that were held in place by toast, sausages, eggs, and bacon, the girls chatted. They caught up on all the things that happened to each of them recently. Sylvia told her about her radio gig and how it had stopped satisfying her the way it always had in the past. She used to get off on the fact that so many male listeners loved her and cons
tantly called in to comment on the sound of her sexy voice. She enjoyed the music and being in charge of caressing her listeners’ eardrums as they drove through the night or made love with her show tuned in. It was power. But then it seemed pointless.
Penny told her about life on the island. She’d spent most of her time hanging out with the kids and talking with her new friends. Ruby sounded like a riot and Sylvia was sure they’d get along. It was weird listening to her friend describe so many other people who’d taken her place in Penny’s life. She only hoped there was still enough room there for her to move in and fill that that void she’d left in Penny’s life when she’d pushed her away.
“Are there a lot of men on the island?” Sylvia asked.
“Plenty,” she said, “but unfortunately I don’t know if any of them are chomping at the bit to get a piece of some fresh, hot ass. Most of them are taken already, or at least loosely spoken for.”
“If I were to go back there with you,” Sylvia said. “I feel like I’d be the newcomer on one of those reality shows. Like I’d be that one who shows up and everyone thinks is trying to steal their man. I don’t want anyone to hate me, Penny. I don’t think I could handle that.”
“First of all,” Penny said, “Are you seriously thinking of moving out to the island with us?”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Sylvia said. “I don’t think there’s a place for me anymore back home. I’m like a zombie there. Seeing how you’ve changed and witnessing how happy you are now, I think it’s making me realize that I want some of that.”
“Well I hope some of that doesn’t mean Thane,” Penny said with a laugh, “Because he’s really the main reason I’m happy.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Sylvia said. “Of course not. You called dibs.”
Both girls laughed. It seemed like so long ago that they’d used that one single word to mark their rights to go after a guy.
Dibs.
“Besides,” Sylvia said. “Don’t give him so much credit. Yes, he healed you, but you made the decision to abandon your old life and move here. Even when I told you it was a bad idea and tried to talk you out of it, you took control of your life. I admire you for that. You could have taken what most would have seen as the easy route and went home. But you didn’t. You risked it and moved to some island in the middle of nowhere to live with a bunch of shark people.”
“I love how you make my life sound like some kind of bad TV show,” Penny said.
“Actually, it sounds like a cool TV show,” Sylvia argued. “I’d watch it.”
“So would I,” Penny agreed. “So, what now? You want to pack your bags and come with me to the island?”
Sylvia took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. This was when she decided to give it a try, if she could even force herself to go near the water. She’d stayed far away from the ocean ever since the massacre on the barge. Now, here she was, contemplating taking a trip across the ocean to live on an island completely surrounded by water. If there was a better test of strength, a better proof of willpower, she couldn’t think of one.
“Maybe I should visit first,” Sylvia said. “Baby steps, you know?”
“If you visit,” Penny said. “You won’t want to leave. At least I didn’t.”
“Show me,” Sylvia replied.
So, she did. Twenty minutes later, Sylvia had a small carry-on suitcase packed with clothes and was following Penny down to the docks. The wooden planks that led to a more solid, concrete structure, showed the water beneath, and immediately Sylvia’s head began to spin.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.
To both sides of her, boats danced lazily and the gentle sound of water sloshing around made her stomach flip inside out. She remembered that feeling on the barge. The wooden planks that became coated in blood. Like a layer of red paint tossed at her feet, she’d done her best to stand and move toward the middle of the flat structure, but she’d slipped in all that blood and had fallen to the planks hard, smashing her knee against the wood. Standing there at the docks, she could practically feel the instant bruising and swelling of her knee.
“Sylvia,” Penny said, reaching out for her hand. “We can go back to the hotel if you want to, but the boat is right up here. I know you can do this.”
“I’m scared,” Sylvia admitted.
Here she was, holding the hand of a shark, when it was sharks she was most afraid of.
She could see the girl with the braids. She remembered her because she had one of those electronic vape cigarette things and Sylvia kept thinking how beautiful she was and how she wished she could convince her that the cloud of smoke she kept exhaling was tainting her angelic image. When the sharks hit the barge, and the area where they were standing began to tilt, the girl had slid, grasping frantically for something to hold onto. Then, out of the water came the lifeless eyes of the beast. The shark had leapt and caught her free arm. For a second, Sylvia had stared into its face, and the beady black eyes had seemed so distant, as if they weren’t even looking at anything. It was driven by its teeth, which kept gnashing and mashing up anything in its way, including the girl’s hand. When she reached out for Sylvia, the hand she held out to her had been torn from her body, and blood had squirted from the wrist. There was nothing for Sylvia to grab onto.
Penny squeezed her hand, reassuring her that everything was okay, but Sylvia’s mind was elsewhere, and when she finally came to, she started crying and shaking her head.
“I can’t,” Sylvia said.
“Oh, baby,” Penny said as she wrapped her arms around her.
“It was so bad, Penny,” she cried. “I haven’t talked to anyone about it, but it was so bad. So much blood. The faces of those kids haunt me. Every single one of them. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t even have sex without seeing them. Arms, legs, eyeballs…I saw so many body parts severed, and the sharks kept on coming. You know how they say piranhas eat and eat…the sharks were worse than any piranha I could ever imagine. They kept biting and eating. I thought I was going to die. I don’t know how I lived, but sometimes I wish I could trade places with one of those kids. With any one of them. They were only trying to have a good time. Stupid, innocent kids. And they’re gone now.”
“But you’re not,” Penny said. “And can I tell you something? Those sharks that attacked you? They’re gone. We killed some of them and the rest left. They ran away. Thane and the others have made it their mission to hunt down any shark responsible for any attack on a human. Once I have this baby, I’ll be right there in the water next to him. That shit that happened on the barge will never happen again. Now, you can go back to your hotel and head home. I won’t respect you any less. I’ll completely understand. But I know you won’t be happy about your decision. You wouldn’t have come here at all if you were content with life back home. You’re here for a reason. Man up and get on that boat. We’ll go to the island, you’ll decide if you like it there, and who knows…maybe you can become a fucking shark and help hunt down those bastards who’ve fucked your life up.”
Sylvia smiled and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
“Your nose is running like a crybaby little kid,” Penny told her. “We need to find you a tissue.”
“Fuck you,” Sylvia said.
“There’s the Syl…Syl…Sylvia Fa Foxx I know!”
Sylvia was grateful that Penny pulled her by the hand and dragged her to the boat. She did her best not to look too long at the water and instead focus on getting to her destination. Once she was below deck, she knew she’d be able to pretend she wasn’t in the ocean. If she couldn’t see it, it wouldn’t exist.
When they were a couple of feet from the boat, Juan Diego stepped out to greet them. He reached for Sylvia’s suitcase.
“Sylvia, I believe you’ve met Juan Diego,” she said. “He’s the greatest. He’ll get us safely back to the island. I’d swim and drag you along by my fin, but again, the baby.”
“Thank you,
Juan Diego,” Sylvia said, sniffling and hating Penny for pointing out that her nose was running.
“Tissue?” Juan Diego asked.
“If you have one, that’d be great,” she replied.
With her tissue in hand, Sylvia sat down on the bed below deck and did her best to relax while Penny sat next to her and stroked her hair the way she had so many times in the past. As teenagers, they’d had many sleepovers where they sat in this position and watched scary movies. Only now, the horror movie was real. Penny put on some music, an old record on vinyl, Madonna’s Immaculate Collection, and Sylvia closed her eyes, trying to let herself sink into the lyrics of ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ while she ignored the swaying of the vessel rolling gently over the waves.
Penny sang along to the tune and continued to stroke her hair.
“Do you remember that guy you were seeing? The one we met at the music store?” Penny asked.
“Oh my God, what was his name?” Sylvia said. “Benny, I think, right? What a loser.”
“But you had to have him,” Penny reminded her.
“I called dibs,” Sylvia said and they both laughed.
“Do you remember how he used to speak in musical terms? When he was hungry he’d belt out a part of Jimmy Buffet’s ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise.’ Or if you said something mean he’d sing Def Leppard’s ‘Love Hurts.’”
They both laughed again.
“It used to get on my fucking nerves,” Sylvia said. “I remember going to his apartment after work and I was so frustrated and tired and just wanted to bitch and complain about my day and he started in with The Beatles ‘Hard Day’s Night.’ He thought it was cute, but I wanted to punch him in his fucking face. Man…he was good in bed though. Not selfish at all. What made you think of him?”
“Madonna,” Penny said. “I don’t know why Thane has this album on the boat. I think Juan Diego is a fan.”
Sylvia lost it, laughing into the blanket while imagining this older guy, alone on his boat, dancing to ‘La Isla Bonita.’ Her friend was definitely doing a good job of cheering her up.
Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2) Page 7
