Shipwreck Souls

by Kendra Moreno

"I want to feel you," I murmured.

  I arched my back beneath him, staring into his deep, brown eyes. Kesia had dulled the ache between my thighs and the love we'd shared was wonderful, but my body wanted something different right now. She’d known that, too; she'd even warned Kamil about what I'd want from him. My heart swelled with emotion for her. I pushed that thought aside as my hand slid between myself and the man above me. I rubbed my hand across the hard length, still contained by his breeches.

  "Hell," he hissed in a breath, his hips tilting toward mine.

  Kamil's lips crashed down on mine. The kiss wasn't sweet this time, it wasn't patient. His tongue forced itself between my lips, lashing against mine.

  I squeezed his cock through the pants that separated us before my hand slid to his back, my nails digging into the flesh. Kamil rocked his hips against mine, dragging the fabric across my clit. A moan slipped past my lips from the friction. It was delightful. My free hand slipped down to the strings holding the breeches in place, and I tugged at them, trying to untie the inconvenient things.

  Kamil braced his weight on one arm and joined me in untying the pants. When the knot slipped free, I shoved the fabric down past his hips. My fingers slid over his hips to his round ass cheeks, cupping the flesh there as his cock sprang free between us.

  The head of his cock nestled against my entrance, and he turned his attention back to me. Kamil spread my wet folds with his thumb, rubbing my clit in tight, tantalizing circles. I sucked in a long breath and dug my fingers into his flesh, trying to pull him closer. He was right there. So close.

  Outside, thunder crashed in the sky. We were sailing into a storm; voices from the deck just outside the cabin called out to one another, as they adjusted the sails. Kamil's lips descended on my own again, plucking at my bottom lip. Thunder sounded around us again, and Kamil slammed inside me.

  My eyes flew open and I cried out against his mouth. His forehead wrinkled, the scars forming a new pattern under the strain. My nails dug deeper into his flesh as he moved in and out of me. He stretched my pussy, his thrusts matching the storm raging outside. I kissed my way to his ear, flicking my tongue against the lobe while I watched the sky light up through the window. Wind blew through the cracks in the walls and under the door, moaning as I moaned beneath this human.

  "Gia," he whispered my name like a prayer.

  Shivers raced up my spine to the base of my skull. I hooked my legs around him and rolled my hips up to meet his thrusts. The angle changed with my movements, and we both groaned.

  The song inside me stirred for the second time that day. I bit my lip as pleasure coursed through my body; I didn't want to sing for him, I didn't want to influence him. I sucked the copper taste from my lip.

  A loud bang followed by a gust of wind tore my attention from him to the door. Two shadows stood in the doorway, rain pelting the deck behind them.

  "Kamil!" I pushed at his chest as the men stomped into the room.

  "What do we have here?" His voice was rough, his hair soaked from the rain.

  Kamil rolled off me, placing himself between the men and me. One was taller, I recognized him as one of the men who'd gathered when Johns brought me aboard the ship. The other was none other than Johns himself.

  "What do you want, Johns?" A disgusting pit grew in my stomach as they stepped toward the bed.

  "Grab him, Nox."

  Nox reached for Kamil's arm, but he snatched it away and jumped to his feet. He pushed the soaking wet sailor away from himself—and me—as he maneuvered himself toward the foot of the bed. I pulled the sheet around my body, trying to think through the lust-filled fog in my mind.

  A hand fell across my cheek. Hard. I covered my cheek with my palm and glared up at Johns. His eyes swirled with rage. I'd thought we were past this, but apparently, I was wrong. I reached for his hand to spell him, but Johns was faster than I was. He jerked me to my feet, my back pressed into his chest, his hand clamped down over my mouth. My eyebrows flew up my forehead. Johns was learning.

  "Get your hands off her," Kamil snarled. The other sailor tried to grab him again, and they fell to the floor in a flurry of fists and elbows as the man tried to gain the upper hand.

  "Get the savage, I can't release the slut until we have something to stuff in her mouth," Johns spat.

  "Leave her alone!" Kamil shouted, but it was useless.

  The sailors didn't understand the words he spoke. The two different sets of humans aboard this vessel spoke vastly different languages, and with the exception of Kesia, none of them seemed to understand the other.

  I struggled against Johns, trying to pry myself free from his grasp, but his fingers dug into the flesh of my upper arms, immobilizing them. My mouth opened the slightest bit behind his hand, and I thrashed my head. If his grip slipped, even a little, I'd be able to sink my teeth into his hand. It wouldn't be much, but maybe it would be enough of a distraction to gain the upper hand.

  "Stop it, girl!" Johns growled behind me, readjusting his grip on my face.

  My cheeks hurt from the pressure of his thumb and fingers digging into my skin. My eyes sought out Kamil. Two more sailors barged into the room. They, with the first man, managed to back him into a corner of the room. Kamil's fist flew out, knocking one of the men in the face. He stumbled backward, wiping at the blood pouring from his nose, but it didn't matter. Kamil's attack gave the other two the perfect opportunity to wrangle him to the ground. Nox pinned his chest to the ground with his knee, sneering above him.

  "You prefer savages, eh?" Johns’ mouth was too close to my ear. The spittle flying from his lips as he spewed his hatred left me feeling nauseous.

  I tried to answer, but the words came out a cacophony of noise against his palm. Kamil was being hauled across the room by several sailors. His eyes went wide with fear as his gaze settled on Johns and me. He struggled against the hands holding him, but was shoved out the door by Winston. I narrowed my eyes on Winston. This had something to do with him . . . I just knew it.

  "I'm goin' to let you go now," Johns murmured behind me. "If you so much as open your mouth, I'll slit your throat before a sound comes out. Do you understand?"

  I nodded. Cool rage swirled in my belly, replacing the liquid hot lust that had been there only moments before. How could I go from the cusp of orgasm to being attacked by a deranged human?

  Johns released me, and I spun around to face him. I considered picking up the sheet that had fallen when he tore me from the bed but thought better of it. Nudity distracted these humans, so maybe my body would be an advantage, even if I couldn't use my other talents at the moment.

  "Don't try to touch me either," Johns warned. He pulled a knife from his belt and pointed it toward me while he found a seat on the stool near the bath bowl. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions. Winston had some troublin' thoughts after he left you with your pet."

  I bit my lip to keep my mouth closed. This man was jealous, amongst other things. There was no telling what he’d do, and I had no idea if I could heal a slit throat. I'd never been in the position to need to . . .

  "You can shake your head yes or no, understand?" When I just blinked at him, he demonstrated with the knife, bobbing it up and down, and then waving it side to side. "Yes or no?"

  I narrowed my eyes and nodded my head.

  "Are you really a merchant's daughter?" Johns’ sandy blonde hair fell over his brow, and I nodded.

  "Ah, okay. So, a witch and rich to boot, an interesting combination," he muttered.

  I placed my hands on my hips and chewed the inside of my cheek to subdue my frustration. I hadn't realized Johns took me so seriously. So far, while the men aboard this ship seemed a little hesitant after I used my power on them, they didn't appear to believe their own senses. I'd manipulated Johns twice, and he hadn't confronted me at all until now.

  If Winston had only kept his suspicions to himself . . .

  Johns searched the closet and came back with a shirt which he began cutting into s
trips with his knife. I raised an eyebrow and studied him. He was making a mess.

  "I'm goin' to wrap this around your mouth. Don't do anything we'll both regret."

  "If you come anywhere near me or my mouth, I'm going to feed you limb by limb to the sharks and enjoy it," I hissed.

  Johns’ eyes widened, and he held the knife out toward me again. "I said not to fucking talk!" he hollered. He was coming unhinged, or maybe he'd always been that way. He did have a sickening aura that made my skin crawl.

  "Why were you sent to prison, Johns?" I purred, taking a step away from him.

  "I caught my wife with another man," he spat. His face twisted into something barely human as the words left his mouth. "I'd been away, workin'—like I'm ‘sposed to—and I come home to find her bent over the kitchen table by a fucking baker!" His grip on the knife tightened until his knuckles went white.

  "Mmm," I hummed and grabbed the dress from the bed, pulling it overhead.

  "You really prefer that savage to me? You're a useless slut," he whispered.

  "Just like your wife apparently," I sang the words in a hypnotic melody.

  Johns’ eyes went wide as he jumped back to his feet.

  "I said, don't sing!" he shouted, taking a step toward me.

  But the song had already taken hold. He raised the knife to his throat and held it there as I walked toward him. I pushed on his chest, and he sat back down on the stool, his arm still drawn at a ninety-degree angle to his throat. My hand cupped his face, and I made little shushing sounds as I met his gaze.

  "It's okay, Johns. Now, tell me what all this is really about," I purred as the magic stirred between my fingers and his cheek.

  "We all got to talkin' about what would happen when we made port. The captain disappearing on a trip with a prison crew? They'd never believe it weren't one of us! So, we decided on not goin' back. Just need to drop the slaves off, get our pay, and be on our way."

  "You want to be pirates," I scoffed. A laugh spilled from my lips as the reality hit me. "I suppose all pirates start somewhere, but what does that have to do with me?"

  "You're a loose end," he mumbled with glazed eyes. "What would we do with a merchant's daughter when we got to port? One of us, Winston probably, is going to pretend to be the captain when we make it there. What if you gave us up? And then that kid started going on about mermaids—"

  "I'm not a mermaid." I rolled my eyes.

  "—and sirens and such. And when he started telling stories 'bout what they can do, Winston said you'd convinced him to let you care after one of them from below. It ain't in his nature to give in so easily to a pretty woman. And you settled me like a little pussycat after I accused you of having something to do with the captain . . ."

  I reached for the bottle of wine and took a swig with my free hand. This was interesting. The crew was going to go rogue, turn pirate, now that they'd lost their captain. Johns was probably right that no one would believe that the captain had committed suicide, not when there was an entire crew of prisoners to blame.

  "What are they going to do with Kamil?"

  "Who?"

  "The man you had dragged out of here!" I snapped.

  I was losing patience. Touching Johns for so long was making my skin crawl. I had legitimate contempt for this particular human. He'd been annoying me since we met in the water.

  "Ah, the savage," he mumbled. "They'll probably rough him up a bit before they toss him back in the hold with the rest of 'em. You're so beautiful." Johns leaned toward me.

  I held out a finger and pressed it to his lips. I absolutely would not be kissing that man ever again. John’s free hand slid up my arm, and I shuddered at the contact. I narrowed my eyes on him and plucked his hand from my arm, bringing it to my mouth. My eyes locked with his as I closed my lips around his index finger. My tongue swirled around the end of the digit before I sank my teeth into the flesh below the knuckle. The sickening crunch of breaking bone rang out at the same time as the high-pitched scream.

  I leaned back, holding the digit with my free hand and nibbled on the end while I watched him panic through the lust-filled haze he was caught in. The door to the cabin flew open again and bounced off the wall as men swarmed into the room. A sob from Johns split my attention, and I looked back in his direction. I smiled around my gruesome meal, then a sharp pain rocked my skull.

  "What in the seas . . ." I mumbled as my vision blurred around the edges.

  Male voices called out around me, but they sounded far away. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but the blurriness quickly faded to black. Darkness welcomed me.

  Chapter Six

  I woke up slowly. My temple burned, and my head throbbed in time with the click, click, click of something beside me. I pressed my palm to my temple and blinked my eyes open. A heavy metal chain rattled with the movement. I focused, clearing my vision. My fingers came away wet with blood, and I snarled, searching for my attacker. Instead, I was faced with rows upon rows of dark faces staring back at me. I looked to my right, toward the stairs that led up to the ship and then to my left, where Kamil leaned back against the wooden wall. His arm was wrapped around his stomach.

  "Kamil!" I clambered toward him until resistance pulled on my neck. My hands flew to my throat, pulling at the metal collar in vain. It was locked in place, the chain bolted to the wall.

  "I'm alright, you strange woman," he teased.

  He winced even as he laughed. His laugh broke into a cough, and the rattling, wheezing sound coming from his chest couldn't be a good sign. Kamil held his hand out toward me, and I reached for him, my fingers brushing his.

  "They hurt you, didn't they?" I whispered.

  A dark rage swirled in my chest; I could feel the song stirring inside me. The quiet murmurs around us reminded me that singing these humans into chaos wouldn't do me any good since they were all just as chained as I was.

  "I'll be fine," he lied.

  I could smell the blood even from where I sat. He was going to die if he didn't get some medical attention. Humans were so fragile. My breath stuttered as my mind drifted to Kesia.

  "What happened to Kesia?"

  "Your lover? The kitchen maid?"

  "Yes!" I snapped, searching the rows of captives for her familiar face. I didn't see her among them, and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. She could be faring far worse up there than I was. I tried not to think about the things she'd had to endure over the years. The memory of her barred door sprang to life in the darkness before me.

  "I don't think they know about the two of you. She should be fine, Gia," he murmured.

  I dropped my head and leaned it against the wall as my heart raced. If anything happened to her . . .

  "Your lover is fine, siren," a deep voice boomed from somewhere behind me.

  I twisted to face the rows of captives once again, searching out the man the voice had come from. Several of the captives looked to a young man with the same scars as Kamil. My chest panged for him. This must be Adjo, Zuri's husband. He'd already lost so much.

  "How do you know that for sure?" I glanced hesitantly to Kamil.

  "Adjo has the sight."

  "If he can see the future, then how did you two end up getting caught by slavers?" I hissed. I'd run out of patience.

  "It's not an exact science. I can't control when I have a vision or what about. But I've seen the end of the maid's life, and she doesn't perish at the hands of our captors." Adjo eyed me with a curious expression for a moment before he continued. "Some things aren't meant for me to know." He swallowed visibly—even from where I sat, huddled against the wall.

  "I'm sorry about your wife," I whispered.

  Adjo nodded and then turned to talk to some of the other men clustered near him. They were chained together, no doubt they were close now. I looked to Kamil, sighing when I heard how his chest rattled. I had to take Adjo's word that Kesia was safe. She would be down to feed us sometime tonight, and until then, I had to focus on keeping Kamil alive. />
  "My brother is what you'd call a holy man, I think," Kamil pointed out. I bit back a smile, remembering the conversation we'd had in the cabin before things took a more personal turn.

  "Humans are strange," I teased, offering him a smile.

  "You're not wrong," he mumbled to himself. "What are you going to do, Gia?"

  I yanked on the chains anchoring me to the wall and the floor, the metal biting my skin worse than any eel ever had. I yanked and yanked, the sound of metal crashing against metal filling the cargo hold. I pulled harder, ignoring the blood coating the shackles on my wrist.

  "I'm going to be ready when they come—and they will come, Kamil—and then I'm going to get us out of here."

  Kamil’s eyes lit with hope. "Us? All of us?" His head inclined toward the mass of humans tied and chained into submission.

  "All of us," I assured him. In fact, my plan rested on the cooperation of these so-called savages. I'd been struggling with the idea of sinking this ship. I had been sent here to sink this ship. That was a siren's job after all. I chewed my lip, ignoring the pounding in my head. I didn’t think I could send these innocents to the depths. If I could just get the key from Winston, then my plan would work perfectly and I’d deal with the consequences later. I was certain my father could be reasoned with . . . . All I could do now was wait on Kesia to show up.

  If she hasn't been harmed.

  I pushed that thought out of my mind and tried to focus on what I could control. My eyes drifted back to the people huddled in chains. "Do they all know what I am?"

  "Yes," Kamil answered a little too carefully.

  "They're scared of me." It wasn't a question. I could see it in the whites of their eyes. They feared me as much as—if not more than—their captors. Our captors, I reminded myself as I tugged at the chains connected to my wrists.

  "Yes," he said matter-of-factly, like the connotation it carried was irrelevant, even though it wasn't.

  I didn't like the idea of this mass of humans being frightened by me. They had nothing to fear from me. . . They were safe from me, for the most part. My father would be amused by my sympathetic nature. If there were consequences for skirting the letter of Poseidon's law, I'd have to face them when I returned to the sunken city.