Chapter 3

Joseph Kelley

A raucous din broke through the veil of darkness miring Joseph Kelley. Every single part of him felt scoured over and raw, like someone had taken steel wool to his very soul and left it in tatters. His head pounded in time with his heart, pain radiating from there and from his groin, but the floor beneath his cheek was cool, soothing the throbbing ache.

At least until the sounds around him fully registered.

An insistent hand shook his shoulder, his name being called out. When he forced his eyes open, the overhead lights pierced them like daggers, and he groaned as he pressed his hand over his face to save himself further pain. Someone repeated his name over and over, begging for attention he didn't have to give. When he'd had enough, he barked out a command, putting every ounce of his power into it. "Stop!"

Silence, blessed silence, fell around him once more. His dominion over his people was absolute, something he'd worked tirelessly to ensure since his return to Nora. Now, he had never been more grateful for his forethought to plant a seed of influence in even his most loyal followers. Not that they were aware of this, of course.

On his own time, he opened his eyes to the chaos that had erupted after Rose had done… something… to him, knocking him out cold. He cast his eyes around the room, trying to find the author of his irritation, but instead of finding the new siren anywhere, he was met with several of his men unconscious and bleeding on the floor. Their noses were bloody and broken, bruises already forming on their faces. Most, if not all, of the merfolk whose minds he'd taken were awake and aware but huddled in a corner, kept there only by the extra measures he'd put into place in case he was incapacitated. At least the magical barrier had held even when he was no longer conscious to power it.

Finally, Joseph turned to the merman at his side, Lucas, the one who'd woken him in the first place. It took all his already dwindled, non-existent patience not to rake his claws across the man's throat. "Explain," he snarled.

The merman stammered, averting his eyes as if that would save him from his leader's wrath. "I don't know what happened. It doesn't make sense."

"Then do your best with what little intellect you have," Joseph sneered in return. He pushed himself up onto his haunches, trying not to show how the world tilted and spun around him as he sat upright.

Beneath a blossoming bruise of his own, Lucas's cheeks reddened in humiliation at the barb. "I don't know what the woman did to you to knock you out, but whatever it was, it freed all the prisoners from your control over them. Jason and Urso did what they could to bolster the barrier, but that nearly fell, too, after they collectively tried to bring it down."

"And were they the ones that knocked out the rest of my men?" He arched an eyebrow in Lucas's direction.

"No, sir. I…" The color in his cheeks burned brighter, as if he was preparing to be insulted again. "I don't know how they were knocked out. After you bashed her head into the floor, the guys just started droppin' like flies. But there was nothin' or no one there. They just… I don't know."

Joseph let out a long-suffering sigh. Seemed he would have to take a look for himself.

When he gathered his power to him, Joseph felt the gaping lack of it, even as he pushed into Lucas's mind to root through it for what had happened after that bitch took him down. The merfolk aren't attached to me anymore, he rationalized to himself. Once I have them firmly under my power again, I will be whole once more. Yes. That must be it.

Joseph plucked a memory from the merman's head with practiced ease, viewing it as if it were from his point of view rather than as a spectator. The scene played before him but left more questions than answers. And it only added fuel to the rage simmering in his stomach.

A sick sense of glee suffused Lucas's being. Such a powerful siren would be an invaluable asset to Joseph's plan to make the Golden Isles their personal sanctuary. Her power flowed from her, as strong and wild as the storm that raged outside. It stole the very breath from his lungs.

"That's it, Rose. Don't fight me. Don't fight this," Joseph crooned, his eyes locked with the siren's.

Lucas could see she was losing. Hell, even she knew she was no match for someone like Joseph, if the panic on her face was anything to go off of. Soon, she'd be the most powerful puppet in his leader's arsenal.

A commotion tore his attention away from the spectacular vision before him. His buddy James was simply standing on the far side of the room, watching this all go down as well, when he grunted. His whole body jerked as if he'd sustained a blow before he fell to the floor, unconscious. The same happened to the guys standing next to James. One after the other, without warning, his people dropped like flies. A few of them tried to fight, taking swings at the empty air, but what use was fighting a ghost?

Joseph bellowed, bringing Lucas's attention back to the main spectacle. He didn't know where to focus, though, his eyes swinging from the phantom knocking his friends out to his leader. He stepped toward his boss's doubled-over form, but before he could reach them, something hard slammed into the side of his face, too. All went dark…

The fury within Joseph exploded as he withdrew from Lucas's mind, and he roared, claws lengthening. Spit flew from his mouth as he snarled, "Wake them up and start searching for Rose McKenzie. Now."

Lucas, as stupid as he was, knew better than to argue. He jumped to his feet immediately and rushed over to where his comrades lay. It was only moments before the groans and snarls of Joseph's men filled the space between the sobs of the prisoners.

He was not going to let Rose out of his grasp so easily. Not when she was the key to winning the war he intended to start.