Page 48 of Shadows and Flames
“The more we know about what’s going on, the better.” I also wasn’t convinced that the woman was attacked. The way she’d pled with her brother to calm down so that she could reason with him was a curious detail. Maybe she simply did not want to cause a ruckus. Or, maybe not.
Chapter Eighteen
TANA
Turned out, the Vyrkos male was quite easy to find.
“And why, pray tell, should I be concerned?” He drawled from his bed, feet crossed leisurely at the ankle, hands folded beneath his head.
Unlike the humans with weak senses now convened in the dining room and strategizing like we’d feared, our sense of smell quickly led us to the male who was lounging contentedly in his cabin. It was small, like mine, and was even on the same floor as the woman and her brother who started all of this.
“Because,” my cousin put her hands on her hips, standing over him like a bewildered parent, “they are coming to kill you, and then they’ll be coming for us, too.”
The Vyrkos stared blankly at all of us, red eyes deep like wine. “If they come because I gave that woman what she wanted, then they deserve to die.”
A throat cleared. “Sorry, but we have to ask. Did the human truly ask for you to drink from her?”
The exasperated tone of the room evaporated in an instant. The nonchalant response we received as soon as we’d entered the Vyrkos’s space had received all of our attention, but ourfrustration would certainly take on a new color should the Vyrkos allude to forcing himself on the woman.
If that became the case, we’d no longer be competing only in contract but also for who would kill the Vyrkos first.
He sneered but remained reclined. “Would you consider her pulling me into her cabin whilst her brother was away, palming my cock, and asking me to bite while we fucked consent enough? We shared pleasure, and I left.”
I released a breath, and I watched my cousin do the same. Her Shadow male remained at her back, glaring at the Vyrkos, but I’d quickly learned in our flight from Versillia years ago that the expression could mean anything.
“Now, is there anything else you need?”
I gaped while my cousin and the Shadows seemed two moments away from grabbing their weapons. “You would deny our help, even if it could mean endangering your life? Ours?”
He turned a dismissive sweep of his red eyes on me. “I’m failing to understand why I should be any of your concern.” There was a scar cut across his pale face, one that looked old but spoke of some experience in conflict. The bottom half of his brown hair was shaved, the rest held back by a leather band. “And four Lylithans against a fumbling group of humans should be quick work.”
My cousin flicked her gloved hand, already turning away from the male on the bed. “I’m done. This fucker can get thrown overboard.” Elián grunted in agreement, and the three of them headed for the door.
I spared the Vyrkos one last look, but it was met with nothing. Clear apathy.
The corridors were eerily quiet as we went the way we’d come, and when we returned to Meline and Elián’s cabin, I released a weary sigh. “How long do you think it will take them to begin searching?”
And like I’d spoken the footsteps into existence, a tumble of them stomped up onto our deck.
It was automatic, then. All of us drew our weapons as if they’d always been in hand. With their larger blades packed away, the Shadows wielded a variety of knives, and Meline conjured her daggers.
I twirled my small blade in my grip, feeling its familiar weight. That’d been one of the first lessons from my cousin. To conceal and quickly retrieve your weapon could save your life, Meline had taught me. We were powerful, few other beings a direct match in strength and agility, but we could still be bested.
Confidence is best balanced with pragmatism,she’d said with the Ralthan sun beating down on us as she trained me.After a few wins, a nice sum of coin in your pocket, you’ll feel strong and quick. But don’t let that stop you from watching out for a knife to the back.
While helpful for me to keep in mind, it was a bit of a moot point for my cousin when she could release a fraction of her power and snuff out all life on this ship.
The rumblings of voices, mostly male and aggravated, grew nearer. A knock rang across the corridor, on the door to Tomás’s cabin. Of course, there was no answer, so the group turned around, pounded on the barrier that separatedusfromthem.
I breathed calmly, despite my heart galloping. We’d all agreed that, aside from none of us knowing how to captain a ship, arriving to port with a boat full of bodies—or an absence of such if we pushed them all into the sea—was not wise. Our kind was durable, but The Killings and other losses had proved that we were not invincible.
The voice that called on the other side was familiar—the one that greeted us when we boarded. “This is your captain. One of our passengers has been attacked, and we need to speak with everyone.” Just what we’d feared. The tension wound tighter.
Tomás was the one to step forward. He sheathed his dagger at his side, and when he glanced at all of us over his shoulder, he gestured his hand up and down, as if commanding us to calm. The throwing back of his hair and straightening his shoulders alluded to the tactic he was going to employ first.
Our fabricated relaxation, my sitting at the foot of the bed and Meline and Elián leaning against the wall, was the best we could muster. I didn’t bother putting away my dagger but rested it on the mattress beside me.
“Why, hello,” Tomás purred when he revealed the captain’s tense form standing before the threshold. The Shadow leaned against the frame, giving us a view of what we faced.
