Page 25 of Buoy
A tear slipped out, and Soren trapped the pearl. He could sell them. That’s what Vex did when he didn’t need them. Mer tears healed, just not the one that cried them. He shoved it in his pocket.
He blinked, his vision strange. A hazy cast through the room drew his attention. He lifted a hand. The haze came from him. His cheeks flushed. What was this? His heart fluttered too hard in his chest. He tried to work past the strange feeling.
Not long after, the door to the cabin swung open. “Thank fuck. Finally, kid.” Vex strolled in with the biggest smile on his face. He tripped over his own feet as if he was drunk. “Yes, this will do nicely.” He breathed in deep. “I wish I could bottle it. We’d make a killing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve finally grown into your mer magic. Or gotten horny enough to tap into it. I was beginning to think you’d been a waste of time. Bellani said you were. I almost believed her.”
Soren’s cheeks burned. He. Was. Not. Horny. Though he had rethought his position on kissing. But only Rhys.
“Skies, this is powerful.” Vex danced with his eyes closed, no doubt calculating his prize, whatever it was. He shimmied over to Soren.
Soren looked away from the rather large erection leading Vex towards him. The captain lifted Soren’s chin to force him to look up. “Get your fill of your dragon today. Stay out all night if you want. Fuck, for fuck’s sake. Just figure this out, so you’re finally useful.” He waved a hand around, as if Soren knew what he meant. “Dismissed.”
Soren didn’t wait for Vex to say anything else. He scrambled to his feet and out the door, only to find several of the crew paired off. Fucking. This was not the time nor usually allowed when there was so much to do now they were in port. The ship was docked, so he ducked around bucking bodies looking for a path to Rhys.
Rhys waited for him, his clothes a mess, no doubt thrown on haphazardly after he landed and shifted to his human form. His auburn hair went every which way. Skies Rhys was tall. And more muscular than he had been.
Soren made it to the gangplank when some’s hand wrapped around his wrist and yanked him back. Kane.
Bellani laughed in the background somewhere, Vex nuzzling in her neck. “He’s all yours, brother.”
“What? No. Vex said—”
“Vex was drunk off your haze. Otherwise, he’d remember his promise. I got to train you when the haze manifested.” Kane pulled Soren close and breathed him in. “How delectable.” He cupped Soren’s face.
Soren pressed a hand to Kane’s chest, trying to push him away. “Leave me alone.”
“Vex won’t save you now.” Kane’s mouth was so close to Soren’s.
Soren couldn’t get out of his grip. He was mashed against the rail now. Rhys moved from his spot on the deck. Heading up the gangplank.
“Don’t come up here,” Soren called out. Rhys couldn’t get hurt because of him. But Rhys didn’t listen. He continued up the gangplank. Luckily, he was still too far away.
After thumbing Soren’s bottom lip, Kane released his face, and his hand traveled too close for comfort below. Said hand pressed against him.
“Why aren’t you hard?” Kane growled. “Your haze should make you aroused, at the very least.”
Kane rubbed himself along Soren’s thigh, nuzzled his neck. Soren squeezed his eyes shut. He forced himself to concentrate on the water below. His anger rose, the rush of waves filled his ears. He imagined water flowing through Kane’s nose, and mouth, and ears. Imagined the water pooling in Kane’s lungs and him drowning right there on deck.
Kane’s movements stopped, and he gargled. Stepped away. Soren’s eyes opened. Water tunneled into Kane violently, tearing open the corners of his mouth. Churning, choking. Kane gripped his throat. With each gasp, more water filled him.
The raven shifter’s eyes widened in shock, and he stumbled back and back. Water continued to flow into him, it started to drip off his chin and flow from his nose. But still, he reached for Soren. Groped at him as if he’d save him. As if Soren would shed a tear to heal him.
Instead, Soren ran at him. Shifted his left hand, the blue scales reached his elbow before the thin webbing stitched between his fingers and his nails lengthened into deadly claws. He ripped Kane’s throat out. Bloody water surged into Soren’s face from the hole and he sputtered to take a breath of his own.
The world slowed. Pain sliced through his shoulder.
Soren hit the deck hard when his legs gave out. He was covered in blood and seawater. The sea sloshed to the deck, no longer reaching for the raven.
Bellani crowed out an angry scream. Soren shut it out, shaking. He watched the chaos unfold around him, not really taking it in. He’d killed someone. Who was he to take a life? He forced his clawed appendage to its human form.
“Soren.” Rhys writhed on the wooden boards of the deck not twenty steps away, gasping for breath.
Rhys. Soren hadn’t noticed how close Rhys had gotten, not with Kane distracting him. And now Rhys was hurt. But how? He looked around to find Bellani sneering, her fingers held in strange positions, changing slowly, and each time they did, Rhys cried out.
Soren tried to go to him, but couldn’t move. Frozen in place by a spell or his own fear, he didn’t know. No one went to Rhys’ rescue, nor Soren’s. This had to be his punishment for the evil deed of murdering Kane.
