Chapter 7

Joseph Kelley

" I 'm not sure what you want me to tell you," the merman physician, Corvin Kemmer, said, standing above Joseph's sitting form. "There's a hole in your aura, and I don't know how to fix it."

Joseph itched to rip into the infuriating merman's flesh and dash his entrails upon the pale sand of Bryony Beach. The last thing he'd wanted to do was keep any of his prisoners in control of their own minds, but he had little choice when he discovered he was hemorrhaging power. Restitching the merfolk's auras to his should have replenished him, bolstering his already significant power base. Instead, he'd found himself weakening. He'd been forced to bring Kemmer out of his mindless state to investigate.

"What can you do, then?" Joseph forced through gritted teeth, hating that he had to play nice with the fucker.

Kemmer's eyes flashed, barely noticeable unless one was looking for it, belying his true feelings beneath the cool veneer of civility. Joseph knew Kemmer wasn't playing nice because he wanted to. He'd been one of the hardest to put under when Joseph had initially caught him, but he had a weakness, just as everyone beneath him did. In Kemmer's case, it was a deep, unwavering desire to not see harm done to any of his people. He'd caved to Joseph's will after hearing a child or two screaming and begging to be let go.

Despite this, Joseph knew better than to let his guard down even for a moment. Even with his power waning and bleeding out of him, he had enough control over Kemmer's mind to snap the tethers connecting the merman's mind to his body. One tiny tug was all it would take to turn him into a permanent mindless puppet. It would be a stupid move, considering he was the best healer they had, but if he proved to be a danger to Joseph and his cause, well… Joseph wouldn't lose sleep over the loss of his talent. There were others he could snare.

"Without knowing how this happened, there's little I can do. One cannot simply regrow their aura." Joseph tightened his hold on the merman's mind, enough to make him wince. Kemmer cast his eyes back down to the blood-red sphere of Joseph's aura. "At best, I can seal the edges so you don't turn into a husk or drain the other merfolk to death."

"Then do it."

"As you wish."

Once Joseph was sure Kemmer wouldn't do anything drastic, he turned his attention to where the most loyal of his men were standing. The others, he'd sent to find Rose or do a perimeter check of the island. After that stupid bitch had slipped past his men and attempted to kill him, he'd doubled security to ensure it wouldn't happen again. Complacency had nearly cost him everything. Again.

These men, though, milled about, their faces bruised and their pride wounded. Not a single one looked up or made eye contact with their leader and hadn't since Joseph had screamed at them for their laziness They were rattled; that much was clear. Their belief that Joseph was the strongest being among them, that he was the foundation upon which their new world had been built, was shaken. He was supposed to be their leader, yet a little slip of a woman had nearly ruined everything.

Joseph was powerful.

He knew he was.

And with the power he received from the enslaved merfolk—his personal living batteries to use has he saw fit—he was near un-fucking-stoppable. When his people looked at him, it was with fear and respect. He expected nothing less, not when he'd earned his place at the top—where he belonged—through sheer strength and determination. His men had capitulated to him because they knew he could provide a safe haven for them and give them whatever their hearts desired.

And Rose-fucking-Sutton had nearly undone all of it.

The night he'd lost everything—the talisman, his family, his home—he'd never felt such devastation. The way Noemie had looked at him when she found out that not only had he taken one of the girls to find Will but he'd also violated his son's mind … that look had ended him. It had broken something in him he hadn't realized was close to snapping. She wouldn't listen when he explained why he did what he did. That he'd only done it for their safety, for their family. She'd fought him, knocking him out long enough to escape with a magic he didn't know she'd possessed.

His Noemie never fought him.

He'd never trained her to be able to fight him.

He balled his hands into fists, his claws sinking into his palms and making them pour blood into the water lapping around his legs. That stupid little bitch Rose Sutton was the catalyst for all this. She will pay when I find out where she's gone .

"There," said Kemmer, pulling Joseph out of his near spiral. "This is the best I can do. Unless you can find where the rest of your aura went, the hole is permanent."

Joseph yanked his aura back to look at it himself, to ensure no funny business had happened, but it was exactly as Kemmer had described it. The gaping void had solid edges now, rather than jagged tatters, and when he ran his finger over the rim, it was firm, as if it had been encased in some sort of seam binding. It will have to be good enough.

He popped his aura back into his own body, the bright ball of energy melting into his chest. Before Joseph returned Kemmer to his mindless state, he wanted to ensure the bonds would hold. If they popped and he started hemorrhaging power again… he didn't want to think of how much he would lose if he was bested by something as simple as an injury.

He went through a few simple uses of his magic—freezing the water around him, pulling rain from the darkened clouds above, healing the wounds he'd given himself on his hands. When that didn't strain the bonds, he tried something a little more complex. Tugging on each of the auras he'd stitched to himself, he pulled their power into himself until his chest felt full to bursting with the different flavors of their energy, even if he could hold less of it than before. When the binding still held, the nervous tension in his shoulders released, and Joseph let himself revel in the high of near invincibility.

Without another word, without giving thanks, he shoved Kemmer's consciousness to the back of his mind and trapped him there, turning the physician into a mindless doll once more. Joseph stood, smirking in perverse joy at the slack-jawed merman. Kemmer could see and hear and feel everything, but he had no control over what his body did while he was under Joseph's power. It would never get old.

After one last gleeful glance, he ordered Kemmer to go back to Town Hall to be with the others. Then he turned to his men. It was time to batten down the hatches and prepare for the war to come, a war that Joseph refused to lose.

And it would start by bringing Rose Sutton into his fold… permanently.