18. The Pure Hatred

Chapter 18

The Pure Hatred

The Siren

A cold, salty breeze blew across my exposed skin, but warmth enveloped me, and I snuggled deeper into that warmth. I stilled, realizing it wasn't a bed that wrapped me with its warmth. It was hard flesh, a chest that lifted and fell with breath and smelled of salt and spice beneath my cheek.

Groaning, I peeled my eyes opened, my body frozen in place as I took in my surroundings in the dim gray light filtering through the room. At some point through the night, I'd shucked the blankets off myself and tucked myself into Kipp's hold. I'd left my pillow aside to use his bare chest instead. My leg had lifted and lay atop his waist, and his arm lay like a heavy weight across my back, the thin material of his gifted shirt letting his warmth press into my back as if it weren't even there.

The beat of his heart thrummed beneath my ear, a steady beat that invited my hunger. My tongue dragged along the tips of my sharpened teeth, wanting the taste of another heart to coat my mouth. I felt my claws begin to loosen beneath my fingertips, the tips of them pressing lightly into his flesh. Another heart couldn't hurt.

With a frustrated sigh, I forced my claws to retract. I couldn't take this pirate's heart without feeling that pain around my own. His death would be my death.

The boat rocked and I jolted fully awake, pulling myself from Kipp's hold as a violent wind slammed into the side of the ship. The ship shuddered so violently that I slammed into the floor hard enough to wrench my breath from my lungs, and Kipp's rousing form fell from the bed on top of me with a thump as he moaned. His weight crushed me to the floor as our limbs entangled.

Before either of us could even fathom what happened, the entire ship swung the other way as the violent waves slammed through the broken window, drenching us both as frothy sea slipped across the wooden floor. Our bodies slid across the planks toward the opposite wall, and Kipp's arms wrapped around me, tucking my head beneath his chin and hold as his body took the brunt of the hit.

The ship continued rocking as he pulled me to my feet, his arms protectively around me as he helped me maintain my balance on this uneven flooring. I scrambled to hold myself on my own two feet, but my fingers gripped his arm like a lifeboat as he immediately took charge. He wrenched the door to our cabin open and we made our way to the ship deck.

Sailors ran everywhere, adjusting sails and lines as they attempted to keep the storm from ripping them to pieces. The large mast of the ship swayed, and I feared it would snap and buckle under the weight of the raging storm. Pure chaos was everywhere I looked as I clung to the door frame we'd just stepped through.

Kipp turned to me. "Is this your doing?" he demanded.

My eyes widened as I shook my head. The darkened sky loomed ominously above as angry waves lifted high enough to crash into the deck of the ship, sending frothy seawater across the deck making it slick and dangerous. Rain pelted the boat, slamming against my skin in wet slaps. A jolt of lightning cracked through the sky, lighting the sky and boat in a flash of daylight before everything fell dark again. The storm roared around us, deafening.

"No," I yelled, shaking my head again. "This is the gods!"

He just stared at me for a moment, eyeing my grip on the door frame before saying, "Stay here. Don't let go."

One of the sails tore free, the ropes snapping and the material whipping around the deck of the ship aggressively. Kipp turned from me, jumping into action and shouting orders to his men. Kipp marched across the deck, grabbing one of the ropes flinging around the deck with a pained grunt. He tied it down to the railing before leaping onto the rope ladder. His soaked hair had torn free of the cord he'd tied it with, and it clung to his brow and whipped around his face as he climbed. He didn't even hesitate, he made his way to the bottom of the sails and pulled out his dagger to cut through the rope, releasing the tension before the sail tore.

I stared at the furious sky above, then to the enraged sea. Poseidon and Zeus fought, and I wondered what they could be fighting over. Was it possible that Zeus didn't support my father's takeover of the siren kingdom? Perhaps, if I succeeded, I could gain the favor of the gods if that were the case. The favor of the king of gods himself possibly. Poseidon's overstepping had gone on far too long.

My knees almost gave out from beneath me as another wave slammed into the hull of the ship and the men scurrying about the deck screamed, their shouts filled with worry and concern. I followed their attention and watched as Kipp's dagger fell from his grip, the ropes he'd just cut through whipping into his body with such a force that it flung his body like a boneless eel into the raging sea.

I stood in place a moment, contemplating my actions as I watched his crew race across the deck to peer over the railing to the depths below. Something burned within my chest, and I coughed up salty water as I doubled over, my hands wrapping around my waist as I groaned. My feet stomped across the deck as the sea burned within my throat. His crew gave me a wide berth and ruthless glares as my fingers gripped the wooden railing, and then I dove overboard, sighing with relief as the angry waters hugged me.

My lungs continued to burn, and I couldn't finish my transformation because the pants Kipp had given me earlier bound my limbs from fusing into my tail. The ocean rolled my body, disorienting me completely as my fingers worked furiously to untie the pants and dislodge them from my legs. As soon as I kicked them from my legs, my siren form rippled into place, my gills forming along my neck, and the first gasp of breath filling my lungs.

The air provided no relief though. Salty sea water still filled my lungs, threatening to burst while I searched the murky sea for Kipp. If I didn't find him soon, we'd both drown in this storm, and how ironic would that be? My tail thrashed through the waters as I tried to follow the connection between us, that leash I had loathed so much yesterday now our only saving grace.

There! I cut through the sea like a knife as I closed the distance between us. His limp form hung below the surface, not dead but unconscious. Blades tore through my lungs the longer we remained in the sea. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him flush with my body as I used the last of my strength to fling us toward the surface.

Our heads broke the surface, and I squeezed his stomach as I jostled him, trying to awaken him while the waves still worked to pull him from my hold. His men yelled down at us as they finally saw us, and they tossed the platform overboard, lowering it to the sea, even though the storm still raged around us all and the board flung violently in the wind.

Pulling Kipp's limp form toward his ship, toward the board, I flung his body onto the platform and jumped atop him, my fingers wrapping around the ropes as my tail clung to the edge to keep us from slipping back into the ocean as his men worked to hoist our weight back onto the deck of the ship.

His men tipped the platform, and our bodies clattered to the deck, my siren form already transforming back into my legs and smooth skin. The force knocking more water from his lungs until he coughed out the remainder, my hands splayed against the boards of his ship on either side of his head as I straddled him. His black eyes glittered up at me, and for the first time, I noticed a hint of brown peeking from beneath his darkness. A slow smile spread across his face, sending heat down my spine as his crew stood by watching us.

"If drowning is all that I have to do to get you naked on top of me…" he said, his eyes practically twinkling, "…well then I should hope to do that more often."

I realized then that I'd shucked off my clothing in a mad attempt to transform into my siren form so that I could breathe, discovering too late that it was the sea in his lungs stealing my breath. Now, I straddled the pirate beneath me completely naked, and his crew stood watching us both. Heat flushed my skin, burning my neck and cheeks as I froze.

A blanket fell over my shoulders, and I looked over in time to watch one of his crew members scurrying backward, all of them still keeping their distance of me. "Thank you for saving our captain," he said weakly, bowing his head as he pressed his lips tightly together.

Scrambling off their captain, I peered around the ship. His crew, both men and women, had looked at me with nothing but hatred and disgust since I'd been brought aboard. Now, though, some of that dislike had melted away. They still didn't get too close to me, and they still held fear in their postures, but the pure hatred had been dimmed, if only a little.

I wondered if they'd feel the same if they knew I'd only done what I'd done to save my own skin. I wouldn't have even bothered if I hadn't begun spewing the sea from my lungs. I certainly hadn't saved him because of the amusing banter we'd established between us. It hadn't been because of how he looked without a shirt, or how warm his heart had beat beneath my cheek this morning.

There was a strange look behind Kipp's eye, but he blinked it away, standing and lifting his hands into the air as his crew clapped him on the back. As soon as he had cut that rope, he'd saved the sails from the worst of the storm, and his crew had secured everything while we'd been fighting for our lives within the violent clutches of the sea. Kipp's devious smirk returned as his gaze flicked to the freshly tied ropes as the worst of the storm seemed to have passed us by.

"Good to see you back, Captain Black-Eyes!" a man exclaimed as he patted Kipp on the back.

I pulled the corners of the blanket tighter around myself as that name he used wriggled in the back of my mind. The sky lightened around us, and the waters calmed, the disagreement between the gods calming for whatever reason as my mind turned that name over and over until it clicked.

Stories of the oldest, most feared pirate of the seas, claiming the title for centuries. A vile pirate who took what he wanted no matter the cost. Ships sunk at his hand, islands burned on his command, shells of women left in his wake. Captain Black-Eyes. And now he had added a siren princess to his collection.

I bared my teeth, my anger erupting inside of me like a real and physical thing between us as he faced his crew and continued giving orders as the waves died down. My fingers clenched into tight fists, my claws cutting into my palms as the blanket hung over my dripping form loosely. I wanted to sink my teeth into his flesh, but I knew I couldn't, knew I would only be sinking my teeth into my own flesh.

"You're Captain Black-Eyes?" I demanded, the crew falling silent at my words.

He turned toward me, that cocky grin in place as he lifted his chin. "So, you have heard of me after all."

Then he turned from me again, dismissing me without word or thanks for saving his sorry ass. He addressed the man that hadn't been far from his side this entire time, a man with a deep scar along the side of his face. "Take her back to the cabin and send someone to fix the window in there," he ordered, and the man looked at me as Kipp peered over his shoulder at me. "My crew will not be harmed, do you understand me?"

My mouth gaped open, and I closed it before I said anything that I would regret. His gaze darkened, turning deadly and losing all aspects of the playfulness I'd become accustomed to over the past day. Instead, Captain Black-Eyes stood before me, and he was more dangerous than the hydra. I tightened my lips and nodded, turning before his crewmate even stepped my way, and stalked toward the cabin myself.

As soon as I crossed the threshold of the cabin, I slammed the door shut behind me, not even giving Kipp's lackey a chance to enter as I crossed the room. Kipp's muffled laughter reached me as I stood in front of the open window, and I heard him accuse me of being an immature siren as the door clicked back open behind me. I didn't even look behind me as the young man entered at my back. I simply dropped the blanket, baring my naked flesh to the man before leaping through the window to the sea below.

Leashed as I was, I swam beneath the ship for hours. I wanted to murder the captain above me. I wanted to bloody his entire crew for being part of his mission. I'd been chained to him, forced to save him, and he'd looked at me like a damn conquest. I swam until my limbs tired, until day turned to night, and then later still.