Blood Moon (Blood Rain Book 2)

by Nancy Gray

  Beryl laughed. From the corner of her eye, Mercy caught sight of him jumping overboard as his legs weaving into a fish tail in midair.

  Ailfrius shouted, “A Merman, an honest to god Merman!”

  Captain Morrissey snapped, “Focus, Ail. I don’t need you to jump in after him.”

  “Right, sorry.”

  Mercy shot two more men off of their ladders, but two of the ladders managed to land on the rail of the boat. Lavirin and Pyron managed to shove one hard enough to make it fall into the water, but one of the ladders caved in an entire section of railing and stuck fast. Sailors were starting to rush across it in a long line. Mercy tried to shoot as many as she could but then she realized that the Waterbloods were starting to chant.

  Mercy heard Kylas saying behind her, “There’s something about this shark that isn’t right. There’s darkness wrapped around it like a fishing net.”

  Mercy shouted back, “I think the Waterbloods are controlling it.”

  Mirilee shouted, “Then for the star god’s sake shoot the Waterbloods! Our harpoons aren’t even slowing this thing down.”

  Captain Morrissey growled, “She needs to keep as many sailors off of the ship as she can.”

  “If no one is controlling it, the shark might actually attack their ship instead of ours. It won’t matter how many sailors board if we’re all unconscious or dead from this thing.”

  Captain Morrissey shouted, “Everyone, cover your ears, it’s about to shriek!”

  Mercy took a shot at one of the Waterblood’s chest, but the arrow whizzed just above its head as the ship bobbed up just before she released it. Everyone around her was covering their ears, but she didn’t want to drop her bow. She turned slightly just in time to see the siren shark leap out of the water. Its throat was swollen up like a frog about to release a mating call, and then it made an indescribable sound. Mercy felt both of her eardrums pop at once, and everything went silent. Large fragments from the railing and the ship’s hull pelted her back and opened some deep stinging gashes, as well as embedding finger sized splinters into her side. Still, what concerned her most was her hearing. She reached up and felt blood trickling from her ears.

  Mercy looked behind her. The shark’s head was disappearing back under the water, but the force of the concussive blast was enough to throw both Mirilee and Kylas sprawling onto the deck. Captain Morrissey was shouting something to them, but despite covering their ears they were clearly having trouble understanding what he was saying. She looked around for Erebus. His eyes were still red, so the shadow demon was still in control. He pointed with exasperation at the Water Bloods and then at Mercy’s bow.

  He mouthed, “It’s going to happen again if you don’t shoot them.”

  She nodded.

  Mercy took a deep breath and concentrated. Firing an arrow on a ship bobbing up and down was a new challenge, but she no longer worried about nausea. She watched for a few seconds, and compensated accordingly. The first arrow hit the rightmost Waterblood squarely between the eyes, dropping him. Upon seeing his friend die, the one in the center glared with bloodlust at Mercy and began to say something, pointing at her with an obscenely wide grimace on its face.

  Mercy dropped the arrow she was readying and gripped her chest as a searing pain seized her heart. It was beating too fast, and she began to feel faint. But Erebus put his hand on her shoulder, and she felt the pain starting to subside. She looked at him gratefully, meeting his now entirely blue eyes. He kept his hand on her shoulder, and Mercy readied the bow again, shooting the Waterblood in the nose. It gasped in stunned surprise and faltered. As soon as it did, she felt completely normal. Erebus let go and his eyes turned red again as his form changed into that of the bat-like creature.

  Erebus rushed forward and jumped on the back of one of the islanders that managed to cross the ladder tearing his throat out with his teeth. Mercy flinched away, only to see Pyron run another sailor through with his sword. Blood was everywhere. There were more of Nicomedes’ sailors onboard than she expected. Upon seeing that the others were keeping them off of her, Mercy quickly looked away and shot the third Waterblood in the chest.

  She was surprised at how resilient the Waterbloods were. Even though she managed to drop the first one with one arrow, the others took three more each before they went down, and even then she wasn’t sure that she had killed them. Mercy peered around the deck, trying to see if there was anyone else she could help. Everyone else was fighting with sailors or groups of sailors. But something else caught Mercy’s attention. It took her a moment to register what she was seeing. Nicomedes was rushing towards them, standing on a wall of water. He simply stepped off of the huge wave and let it rush across the surface of the boat.

  “Brace yourselves,” Mercy shouted and grabbed the mast just as the water shoved her like a living thing trying to push her to the ground.

  Several of Nicomedes’ own sailors didn’t grab anything in time, probably not heeding Mercy’s warning because she was an enemy. Three were swept from the boat entirely, while several others were slammed roughly against the railings, knocking the wind out of their lungs. The sailors of The Serpent Queen took advantage of the fact and managed to kill several. But not everyone got through unscathed.

  Mercy saw Ailfrius’ body lying against the railings. His good eye was staring up at the sky, lifeless. Mercy felt as though something snapped inside of her when she realized he was dead. Ailfrius was the one sailor who was always kind to her, with his encouraging words and almost fatherly affection. She remembered him talking to her when she was about to sneak into Crevane, and how she wished she was staying onboard to talk to him longer. Now, she would never have a chance. While she felt he would’ve preferred to die at sea anyway, the thought that some young sailor was simply lucky enough to kill off someone with that much experience seemed incredibly unjust.

  Mercy jumped one of two pirates that were trying to back Mirilee into a corner. She plunged her silver dagger into his back and she heard all of the air rush out of his lung with a pained hiss as he fell down, his face slamming the deck. She turned and then took her aggression out on a sailor that was fighting with Kylas, slicing him in the back of the knee so that he toppled over, unable to stand. The man cried out for mercy, dropping his weapon, but Mercy didn’t give it to him. She slammed the pommel of her silver dagger across the nape of his neck harder than she thought possible, and it made a satisfying cracking sound. Kylas took one look at her and his eyes got wide.

  “What did he do to you?”

  Mercy didn’t waste any time. She looked for another target and found a very muscular sailor closing in on her. He looked like a cross between one of the islanders and someone from the North with his short stocky body and his light skin color. He slashed at Mercy, but everything seemed to be going in slow motion. She felt the blade strike her across the chest, but she barely felt any pain at all. She found herself laughing at him.

  “If you’re attack is that impotent, it makes me wonder what else is.”

  The man regarded her with fury and pulled his arm back for another blow, but Mercy caught it with one of her daggers and slammed her second into his gut. Frothy blood pooled in his mouth for a moment and his eyes rolled upward. He toppled to the floor, holding his stomach and moaning. For a moment, Mercy contemplated twisting the knife and watching his eyes bulge with pain, but instead she grabbed the knife and pulled it out, making him scream in surprise as she scanned the deck for her next target.

  Mercy looked around and saw Erebus’ shadow demon peering at her with those blood-red eyes. A wide grin was on his face, as though he was watching something that had made his entire day. Even though he was fighting a sailor as well, he kept his eyes on her with that satisfied, smug smile on his face. She found herself wanting to fight him and to see that satisfied grin turn into an expression of sick surprise as she stabbed him in the eye.

  Mercy gasped at the realization that she was just contemplating killing Erebus.

 
She thought, “What is wrong with me?”

  Mercy felt her knees buckling beneath her in exhaustion. Somehow, she had harnessed the power, once again without even realizing it. Even though she didn’t have a desire to drink blood, she knew that she was experiencing the bloodlust of a predator, and the most frightening thing about it was the fact that she enjoyed it. She could still feel her heartbeat thudding fast and furiously in her chest, and her mind was swimming with the exhilaration she felt when she killed those sailors.

  Mercy wanted to curl up on the deck and die, or to close her eyes and never open them again. She hadn’t realized it, but she was injured far worse than she thought. The gash in her chest wasn’t a light scratch like it felt at the time, but deep enough to require stitching. She ripped her tunic and balled up a piece of it, stuffing it into the wound and putting as much pressure into it as she could stand. She could almost hear the shadow demon coaxing her to use more of the power in her mind. She could close the wound more quickly. It would take very little effort to focus on the wound and imagine it healing. But the thought made her even more tired and remembering the way Kylas looked at her, she found that she didn’t want to tap into the power. She might not want to tap into it ever again.

  Mercy looked around her. Most of the sailors were engaged one on one with pirates from The Knave. No one seemed to even notice her in the chaos. She looked toward the forecastle and saw Pyron and Nicomedes sword fighting. Nicomedes was even more terrifying now that she saw him up close. Even though he didn’t look like the Waterbloods that she had killed, he did look similar in some ways. His teeth were ground down to sharp points and his eyes were indeed the same black without whites. He also didn’t blink at all. The way he fought was even more impressive and frightening than his appearance. Pyron was moving in a fluid way, his motions as smooth and unpredictable as the wind, but Nicomedes countered him with brute strength and unnatural speed. She could tell that somehow he was using blood magic to fuel his blows.

  Even though Mercy could see minor gashes opening across Nicomedes’ gray skin, which meaning that Pyron was landing plenty of blows, all of them were superficial in comparison to the wounds that Nicomedes left on him. It was as though Nicomedes was toying with him. Mercy could tell that Pyron was having trouble concentrating, and it was costing him dearly. Even though she didn’t want to use the power, she wanted to find out what was going on more. She could see that Nicomedes was taunting him, but she couldn’t hear what was being said. So she concentrated on the shadows around them and once again heard their muffled voices.

  Nicomedes said in a cruel whisper, “You’re pathetic! Fight me like you mean to kill me, or you’re never going to win.”

  He punctuated every word with a slash from his sword.

  Pyron blocked most of the blows easily. “No. We’re taking you alive. You’re going to the prisons of the capital. I’ll see your head in a noose.”

  Nicomedes just laughed and rushed forward, biting Pyron on the arm with his razor-sharp teeth. Mercy saw what he was doing. He was running short on blood and he was using Pyron’s to give him energy. Pyron screamed in pain and slammed his pommel up against the back of Nicomedes’ head, making him bite down harder as he grimaced in pain, but then quickly let go.

  Nicomedes laughed and blocked another blow from Pyron’s sword. “This is just sad. I killed your wife, and you’re still so loyal to Crevane that you can’t take vengeance with your own hands.”

  Mercy grabbed her bow and aimed carefully. She tried not to think about Nicomedes’ terrifying appearance. What she was going to do would enrage him, and all of his anger would be directed at her for a brief moment. She needed her arrow to go directly into his stomach so that he would cough up the blood. It was the only way that the fight would be fair, and putting herself in danger would be the only thing that might make Pyron control his rage long enough to fight more intelligently. Nicomedes’ taunts were getting to him, and she could feel his emotions more than she ever had, even more so than last night when he confessed his feelings for her.

  Mercy shot the arrow and it embedded into Nicomedes’ stomach. With her enhanced senses she could hear the sound of blood sliding from the wound onto the wood below. Mercy smiled savagely and managed to meet Nicomedes’ enraged stare.

  He looked more animal-like than human, and she tried to imagine that she was staring down a render rather than a human being. It helped her control the fear, but not enough that she didn’t flinch slightly. Just that one hint of fear was enough to make her opponent smirk. She could feel a strange sensation in the air between them, and it was somehow getting thicker. Mercy knew he was about to use his power. Even though Pyron had an opening, he paused and looked at Mercy. He glanced at the wound in her chest and she immediately felt his rage dissipate into concern and a calm resolve.

  She nodded at him. “It wasn’t your fault, Pyron. Don’t let him get to you, and don’t let him feed from you. He needs the blood.”

  “You should’ve kept your mouth shut! You’ll regret that, girl.” Nicomedes laughed and pointed in her direction.

  Mercy once again felt the excruciatingly painful pressure in her chest, and her heart racing at a dangerous pace. Then, with another gesture from Nicomedes, a monstrous wave rushed across the deck of the Serpent Queen. Mercy tried to brace herself, but she couldn’t pull her hand away from the burst of pain in her chest long enough to grip the mast. The water carried her directly towards the broken railing where the Siren Shark screech had reduced the wood into splinters. For a moment everything seemed to slow down.

  She saw Mirilee and Kylas steadying themselves and trying to regain their footing enough to reach her, but she knew they wouldn’t get there in time. Pyron called out her name, but Nicomedes attacked him again, forcing him to bring his attention back to the fight. Erebus’ eyes were back to normal, which was a small comfort. He extended his wings, flying above the rushing water faster than she had ever seen him go before, but as he reached out for her, her fingers slipped right through his grip. Then she slid over the side and into the freezing-cold water.

  16

  The moment Mercy hit the water, she felt as though her entire body froze. She couldn’t move her arms or her legs and she accidentally breathed in a large lungful of water in surprise at the frigid temperature of the ocean. Even though she knew that they were in colder waters, knowing it and feeling it physically were two different things. Her entire body stung, especially her face. Her heart was still racing, and she was starting to feel weak. Her eyes were open, and even though she couldn’t see very much, she could tell that the water around her was turning crimson. It was from the gash in her chest. She never did try to close it up and without her putting pressure on the wound, it had reopened.

  Mercy was also conscious of something else. Somewhere in the water, something large was very close by. She managed to somehow stretch out her legs, and she felt her feet bump against something large. Even though she didn’t know what it was, she knew it was a living thing. Mercy could feel its unending hunger for meat, and the feeling was very familiar. It was the feeling from the siren shark as it attacked the ship. Even though the siren shark hadn’t attacked the boat since Mercy killed the three water bloods, there would be no reason for it to leave when so many people were falling overboard making for an easy meal, and now she was one of them.

  The moment that Mercy realized what the creature was, was the moment it acknowledged that she was there. She saw the bluish-white lights beginning to glow one spot at a time, illuminating the water all around her. She wanted to laugh in hysterical horror as she realized what was going on. She had nearly landed directly on the siren shark, and now it was aware of her presence. The lights let her vaguely see its shape in the water. It was right beneath her, close enough that she could touch its dorsal fin. Even though it was insane, she reached out and did exactly that. She flinched in pain. It felt as though a hundred incredibly small needles pricked her fingers. They, too, were beginning to bleed
. Still, she held on tightly.

  Mercy knew that the only hope she had was to make sure that every part of her body was out of the reach of its jaws, and to do that she would have to be in a position that wouldn’t allow it to get its maw around her. It could easily sever a limb with just a nip from those sword-sized teeth, and if she got in front of the mouth, it could swallow her whole. She fought against the mind-numbing fear of her situation and came to one conclusion - she didn’t intend to die. Even though her entire body was in pain from the frigid, icy water, she wasn’t going to let it kill her without a fight.

  Mercy took the silver knives from her belt and stabbed both of them into either side of the fin, and held on as tightly as she could. The moment the creature felt the pain, the white lights on its body turned red. It started to move, wheeling around and trying to bite Mercy, but she was at an angle that it couldn’t quite reach.

  It twisted and turned like a worm wriggling out of the ground, but the shark couldn’t bend its body in such a way that it could reach its own dorsal fin. She could feel its frustration and even though she never thought of any kind of fish as intelligent, the creature was apparently smart enough to feel wounded pride. It wasn’t just ravenous anymore, it was furious, and Mercy was running out of air. She desperately needed to cough the water out of her lungs, but that required letting go of the fin to rise to the surface. That would be the end.

  As the struggle continued, her lungs burned with the need to breath, and she was starting to feel light-headed. She wasn’t sure if it was the darkness of the water around her or if dark spots were creeping over the corners of her vision, but she knew she couldn’t hold out much longer.

  Mercy felt her mouth gape open involuntarily in a silent scream as she felt hands gripping around her waist. The strong arms turned her, and she felt her mouth pressed against familiar, warm lips. Even though his silhouette was hard to see in the murky water, Mercy could tell that Beryl was in front of her and was holding onto her just as tightly as she was to the dorsal fin of the shark. He breathed into her mouth and she coughed water back into his all the while never letting go of the shark’s fin.