Storm: Phantom Islanders Part I

by Ednah Walters

  They entered, dwarfing the room with their presence and blocking my escape. Nerissa might look short when standing with the guys, but she was taller than I am.

  “Going on a cruise?” she asked.

  Was that a trick question? Just because Storm had said I couldn’t go didn’t mean I wouldn’t. “Yes. We’re leaving after lunch. You?”

  “Harvesting,” she said, and the others chuckled.

  “You want to do the honors?” Levi asked, glancing at Storm.

  “Try to stop me.” Storm faced me and spread his arms, a broad grin on his face. “Do you want to come willingly, or do I knock you out?”

  I blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “You are coming with us, Lexi.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  He smirked. I hated it when he smirked.

  I calculated the odds of hitting the emergency button and decided against it. I punched 9-1-1 on my phone, but Nerissa whisked my phone away, along with my laptop and the envelope Mr. Sinclair had given me.

  “What the hell? Give me back my things.”

  She passed them to Levi. I glared at her, swept the faces of the others, and realized one thing. These people meant business.

  I leaped forward, barreling into them, hoping to reach the panel and hit the emergency button, but my hand hit something solid. Storm’s stomach. My fingers hurt while he stared down at me with the expression of a man who had reached his limit. The next second I was upside down, my ass in the air, and firm hands wrapped around my thighs.

  “Storm? What are you doing?” And how the hell had he moved so fast?

  “Kidnapping you,” came from somewhere above me.

  “That’s not funny. Put me down!”

  The elevator doors opened, and something heavy landed on top of me, covering my head and legs. I tried to see where we were, but all I saw was a blur. He was moving fast. I screamed, wiggling to break free, but his arms tightened.

  “Help!” A door opened and closed. I screamed again. The next second, he dropped me onto something soft. I bounced on it, my arms flailing before I stopped.

  I pushed hair and whatever he had covered me with from my face. We were in a suite similar to Mr. Sinclair’s, and Storm stood in the middle of the room while his friends watched us through the open doorway. I opened my mouth to scream again, but he shook his head.

  “Don’t do that, she’lahn. Go to sleep,” Storm mumbled.

  Yeah, like that was going to happen. I scooted to the edge of the bed, but it was like someone had sucked all the energy out of me. My eyelids grew heavy, and my body became super relaxed. I tried to stand, but my legs gave way. Storm caught me before I hit the floor.

  “What did you do to me?” I asked, my voice sounding funny.

  “It’s okay. You’ll be fine,” he said, his voice gentle. “I suggested you go to sleep, but it will wear off after several hours. You can’t go on the cruise, Lexi. It’s not safe. You’re coming home with us.”

  Go to hell, I wanted to yell, but my throat closed up and no sound escaped. Darkness licked the corners of my vision. Kicking him was out of the question. My arms and legs were heavy as though weighed down by bricks. He placed me on the bed, and my head lolled to the side.

  “Sorry, lass, but this is the only way.” His voice was distorted as though he was under water. I highly doubted Storm had really apologized or sounded remorseful.

  I widened my eyes, trying to stay awake, but whatever mojo he’d put on me was potent. The fog crept in faster than last night, and those damn silver eyes appeared to move closer. He was leaning over me. I wanted to gouge out his eyes. He was going to be sorry when I woke up.

  “Why?” I mouthed, the word coming out as a rush of air.

  “Because you are mine, and he can’t have you,” was Storm’s crazy answer. Maybe it was because he was close or I was straining, but I heard him clearly. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t find you. Close your eyes and rest now. When you wake up, we’ll be home.”

  CHAPTER 4

  I woke up in a darkened room. The pillow under my cheek was soft, and heavy covers weighed me down. Out of habit, I reached for Sienna, and I came up empty. Panic coursed through me as the memories rushed back.

  Storm and his people had trapped me in the elevator, taken me to their suite, and knocked me out because he believed I was his. Then there was the other part about making sure someone else couldn’t find me. Who? Why?

  A weird rhythmic sound reached my ears, and I sat up, trying to figure out what it was. It sounded like water hitting something. My feet landed on a wooden floor. Earlier, I’d worn flip-flops, but I must have lost them when Storm grabbed me.

  My eyes adjusted to the darkness until I could make out a desk, a table, and chairs at the other end of the room, several boxes with arched tops, and something round on a pedestal. Another thing with arms was on the desk. A jewelry stand? Mrs. Sinclair had owned one of those. Dark coats on pegs, hats, and what looked like swords crisscrossed the wall.

  I made out the outline of the door and decided to head that way. I tested my legs to make sure they could carry me before shuffling toward it. Heavy footsteps came from above me, followed by shouts and laughter.

  I reached the door, yanked it open, and peered outside. My jaw and stomach dropped. It was dark, but I couldn’t miss the men and women in weird clothes scurrying about on what appeared to be a ship’s deck lit by lanterns. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The people were still there. Their clothes made no sense whatsoever.

  Scruffy, large-flapped boots, scarfs around the waist and heads, old-fashioned pants, shirts, and vests. Even the daggers, axes, and swords strapped to their waists and chests were ancient-looking. Some of them disappeared below through a trap door in the middle of the deck. Others were on the upper deck. Sails flapped in the air, and the sound I’d heard was water slapping the hull of the ship. I couldn’t see beyond the deck, but I was sure we were at sea.

  Please, let this be a dream. It was the only explanation.

  “Sails,” a man yelled from the crow’s nest. “Starboard bow.”

  “Second set,” another one called from a lower mast. “Port bow.”

  “How many?” a female asked. I recognized Nerissa’s voice.

  “Two, Quartermaster,” the first guy answered.

  A tall pirate in a black coat, a white shirt, black vest, black pants, and shinier large-flapped boots appeared to my right with another monocular. Unlike the others, he wore a three cornered hat and a long coat. A weapon belt slung low on his hip, a sword hooked on it.

  Storm.

  I’d recognize that body and that walk anywhere. He extended the monocular and pointed it in the same direction as the lookout guy. Then he turned and leveled the spyglass in the other direction. A smile curled his lips.

  “The finest of the crown’s fleet,” he said. “At the speed they’re moving, they’ll catch up with us in thirty minutes.”

  He didn’t sound worried while I was still hovering between shock and disbelief. Pirates. They couldn’t be. Pirates didn’t exist. Somalis raiding cruise ships and demanding ransoms didn’t count.

  Wake up, Lexi. I pinched and slapped my cheeks.

  “They’re trying to ambush us,” Nerissa said, and I stopped the self-abuse. She went to stand beside Storm.

  The first thing I noticed was her spiked hairstyle, short on the sides and back and long on top. At the hotel, she hadn’t styled it. She was dressed in a long-sleeved loose white blouse cinched at the wrists, a red and white striped corset, and skin-tight black pants with matching knee-length boots similar to Storm’s. On her waist hung a black belt with a sword, and two daggers were strapped to her thighs. She looked badass. Like a female pirate. She was a female pirate.

  “Can we outrun them?” Nerissa asked.

  Storm chuckled. “Of course. Our ships are faster, but we’re not running. Lower the white and raise the black. We’re not interested in negotiation or sinking his ships this t
ime. We’re sending his royal highness a message. We don’t need three ships to do that.”

  Nerissa laughed. “What’s the plan?”

  “In one ship, we send him the heads of his officers along with the crew members that survive. The rest, we commandeer.”

  “We have no place to berth them on the island.”

  “Then we’ll use them for parts and a bonfire.” Storm turned and looked straight at where I was hiding.

  I stepped away from the door, my heart pounding. I wasn’t dreaming. I was on a pirate ship. The conversation I’d overheard between Nerissa and Storm zipped through my head. Fear coursed through me.

  “Do you think he’s after our cargo?” I overheard Nerissa ask.

  “Just one. First, he pays her a visit in the dead of the night and doesn’t take her. Now, he pulls this. Why?”

  “Because she’s your mate?”

  “No, there’s more going on here. She broke his nose, and he let her live. That’s not like Tullius.”

  “Maybe he used her as bait. Might explain the disappearing scent.”

  “Maybe. That Tullius actually left Hy’Brasil and crossed the Veil interests me. Usually his minions do his dirty work. Like now. He’s not on any of the ships, or I’d feel him. I think it’s time we found out exactly who my mate is. Tell the men to lower the anchor and get ready.”

  “You heard the cap’n. Lower the anchor!” Nerissa yelled while Storm hurried down the stairs to the main deck.

  “Lower the anchor,” echoed voices.

  I closed the door, my mind racing. They’d been discussing me. I was bait and… his mate? No, this wasn’t real. When he’d tried to charm me by the pool, he’d mentioned my scent and following it. Had he meant it? How could I be his mate? He’d been pining for her. Searching for her.

  No, I needed proof that Storm was only masquerading as a pirate and none of what he’d said was true. We could be on stage and they were merely performers. Yes, that must be it. They did look like actors. Good-looking and arrogant.

  I’d researched all sorts of ships before the cruise, so I knew I was inside the captain’s cabin, which meant the room had windows somewhere near the desk. Once again in the dark, I made my way toward it, tripping over things and cursing.

  My knee hit something, and I peered at it. The box with the arched top was actually a chest. A real wooden chest. Next to it was a globe, not a ball on stilts. I bumped my toe on the foot of a chair and cursed again. Storm was going to pay for every pain shooting up my legs. I wasn’t his mate; therefore, I couldn’t be used as bait.

  I made it to the desk and felt around. My hand closed on heavy curtains. I tugged until I uncovered a window. I peered outside and moaned. We weren’t on a stage, and there was no audience out there except water as far as the eye could see. I closed my eyes, pinched myself, and opened them again.

  Same damn water. Dark. Churning. Endless. My fear turned into a full-blown panic, fueling my imagination. Did we go through a portal to another era?

  Something was moving on the horizon. Ships. Could those be the ships after Storm? The ships interested in their cargo?

  I jumped back when one appeared beside us. I peered at it. Along the side was the word, Yemaya, and in the back was a white flag with the letter V. Standing on the deck like some dark prince from my personal nightmare was Levi in his pirate outfit. Or should I say, Captain Levi? Standing beside him was the bearded pretty guy. Zale. He must be his quartermaster. The ships were now side by side.

  A sailor lowered the white flag on the Yemaya, then raised a black one with a skeleton carrying a sword in one hand and a bottle in the other. These guys were really pirates. I sat in the nearest chair, not caring that it was Storm’s. The captain’s chair. Laughter bubbled to the surface as hysteria kicked in.

  Everything Storm had said and done since we met flashed through my head. I was on a freaking pirate ship, and the captain thought nothing of chopping people’s heads off. What had he said? They were sending heads to some royal guy.

  The door flew open, and Storm stomped into the cabin. I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, but sparks sizzled in the air and the candles on the walls and the desk flickered on. What I’d thought was the jewelry stand was really a five-arm candelabrum. He’d said he could read minds, and control them, considering how he’d knocked me out. Now he lit candles with mini bolts of light.

  My panic mushroomed into a tsunami, and I tried to reel it in. I couldn’t afford to let fear control me now. I had to think, act. Magic and piracy were two things that didn’t exist in our world anymore, which meant we were… where? An alternate universe?

  There were ships out there after their cargo. From their conversation, I wasn’t the only one they’d kidnapped. Since they were pirates and kidnappers, the other guys had to be the good guys. The trick was to make it past Storm and his crew of miscreants, and get to the other ships.

  He walked toward me, and I studied him as though seeing him properly for the first time. Everything he wore—boots, pants with strings, sailor shirt, and the damn sword belt—was authentic. More hung on pegs—black coats, some fancy with gleaming gold buttons. Beside them were cloaks and shirts with frills around the wrists. Tricorn hats and scarfs were on a hat stand beside a full-length mirror with gilded frame.

  There were a lot of gold and red things around the room—the curtains and the bench along it, the carpet on the floor, and the canopy around the bed. The candle sconces lining the wall were gilded like the candelabrum. Even the frame of the globe by the chests was golden.

  My eyes returned to Storm. Candlelight flickered on the sharp angles and planes of his face. He wasn’t smiling. He thought I was his mate. If he touched me, I would knee him in the nuts so hard he’d never walk again.

  “You are a pirate,” I said.

  “A swordsman,” he said.

  He shed his coat and hung it on a peg. I jumped to my feet with unsteady legs and inched around his desk, watching him as he sat and pulled off his boots and socks. The pants he wore only reached his knees and were baggy around the waist. Like the pair from last night, the sides were laced up. No modern man would be caught wearing baggy pants like those, yet on him they looked normal.

  “Where are we? What century? What universe?”

  He chuckled. “Atlantic Ocean, this century, and this universe,” he said in that accent I’d thought was sexy. It wasn’t anymore. “You have an active imagination, she’lahn, but then again, so do most Tuh’rens, until they are presented with our reality.” He took his time removing his vest, while I waited for the right moment.

  Come on. Remove your shirt. There are ships out there, and I’d rather take my chance with them, than you, pal.

  “Still they refuse to accept it,” he said. “They try to rationalize it with their limited knowledge and logic.”

  He reached in the back to pull off his shirt. The second he covered his face, I shot forward and raced for the door. I burst onto the deck to find the pirates undressing. Even the women were removing their clothes. Damn pirates. I sprinted across the deck and searched for an opening. They were everywhere. One sailor was pulling off his boots in my path. I pushed him out of the way and kept going.

  “Where’s the lass going?” someone asked with an accent similar to Storm’s, and more laughter followed.

  Good-for-nothing marauders!

  “Lexi,” Storm bellowed.

  I didn’t dare look back. A female pirate seated on the deck with her back to the rim reached out to grab me. I sidestepped her, grabbed the rope dangling above her head, and swung over the rim of the deck.

  Below was the dark vast ocean filled with the unknown, and behind me, pirates screamed at me not to let go. The force of my jump had propelled me forward, but the rope swung like a pendulum. When it started to swing toward the ship and the hands reaching out for me, I let go and dropped.

  The sting of the cold water sent a shock through me, and for one brief moment, I kept sinking. I lost my t
op. The snug shorts and sports bra offered little protection against the freezing water, but they clung to my body and didn’t hinder my swimming.

  I kicked to the surface and found my bearings. The ships chasing the pirates were still far away, but I didn’t care. I was a strong swimmer. Something splashed behind me, followed by another and another. Damn it. They were in the water, too.

  I took off, heading toward the approaching ships, pushing myself hard like a horde of plunderers were after me. Except they were really after me, and they were led by a man who considered me his mate. Insanity.

  Something wrapped around my ankle and yanked. I went under, almost swallowing the salty water. I kicked hard at the thing, but it held on tight. I glanced back, but it was too dark to see anything, except ribbons of blue light under the water. I reached down to pry it loose.

  It wasn’t a hand around my ankle. It was a tentacle, and the ribbons of blue light were on it. I couldn’t see the owner of the tentacle, but my mind screamed it. The kraken. Others were in the water with us, too, their slimy bodies brushing against me.

  On a normal day, I would have held my breath under water for a long time. I couldn’t do it while panicking. I’d learned that lesson the night Tommy almost drowned.

  Tommy. I had to escape for him. I dug my fingers into the flesh of the thing wrapped around my ankle and freed my foot. Kicking the water, I shot to the surface. I was surrounded. Even in the darkness, I could see them, their bodies rolling through the water like they were one with it. I shot forward, determined to plow through them. My hand hit a body.

  Not just any body. From the heat radiating from it, I knew it was Storm. His arm wrapped around me like a vice, trapping my arms. I had no chance in hell of escaping now, but I wasn’t making things easier for him either. Maybe the kraken or its slimy babies would get us both. I kicked him and clawed at his thighs and sides, anywhere my hands could reach.

  “Stop fighting me, Alexandria,” he warned.

  “Never.” I fought him, kicking and jerking.