“If you weren’t invited then why are you here?” she snapped, reaching down to run her hand through Atlas’s fur.
“Easy, boy,” she told him. “It’s over now.”
If only she could ease her own nerves so quickly; adrenaline still surged through her veins, making her heart race.
“That’s the worst thank you I’ve ever had.”
“That’s because I wasn’t thanking you.”
Why would she thank him?
Maybe because he had helped her.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
He put his hand to his ear. “Pardon? I didn’t hear you?”
“Don’t push your luck,” she told him. “What are you doing here, Nicolas? Are you following me?” He was a pain in her butt. He was her brother Seb’s oldest friend. Possibly his only friend. When she was seventeen, she’d had the biggest crush on him. One night she’d made a stupid mistake and attempted to kiss him. She could still see the look of horror on his face. She’d smarted over that rejection for years.
The last time she’d seen him was eight months ago. She’d just won a huge pot in a game of poker when the sore loser had decided to ambush her. Pete and Jono—two members of Seb’s crew, had been with her. Sheets, the poker loser, and three of his friends cornered them on their way back to the Mazu. When Nicolas arrived, he’d more than evened up the odds. Supposedly, he’d seen her leaving the backroom of the bar where the poker game had been held and followed her. She didn’t know if she believed him. It was kind of suspicious how often he turned up when she was in trouble.
“I wasn’t following you.”
“No? What do you call it then? Stalking?”
He hissed out a breath. “I am no stalker.”
“Then what are you doing here? Are you saying you just happened to be walking past this alley at this particular time and saw me fighting off four men?”
“There wasn’t much fighting going on. It looked like you were lying on the ground about to be gutted like a fish.”
“I had already injured two of them!” she yelled back.
Standing here, arguing over who killed who probably wasn’t the wisest choice of action. Not unless they wanted to explain the four dead thieves to the militia. At least, she thought they were all dead. None of them were moving.
The last thing she wanted was the attention of the militia, not only did Captain Stanton have it in for their family, but if they discovered that Atlas had torn a man’s throat out, they’d shoot him. She tightened her hand in his fur. He turned and licked her arm, as though sensing her fear.
“If I hadn’t come along, you’d be dead. What are you doing out here on your own, Kaley?”
“I’m not a child who needs an escort.”
“No?” There was a note of disbelief in his voice.
Her temper spiked. She might dress like a pre-pubescent boy, but at twenty-four she was no child. She hadn’t been a child for a long time. Not with the things she’d seen and done.
“I don’t know why you keep turning up like a bad smell but stay away from me. I don’t need or want you in my life.”
He stepped towards her, and she resisted the urge to draw back. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how he unsettled her.
“And here I thought you would be happy to see me.”
“Are you seeing someone about those delusions?”
“Surely, you’re not still angry over what happened eight months ago?”
She ground her teeth together at the memory. “You threatened to spank me! In front of Jono and Pete! How do you expect me to feel? Grateful? And then you spent the next hour lecturing me like I was a child.”
“Maybe I should have followed through on my threat to spank you. Perhaps then we wouldn’t find ourselves in this situation again and again.”
By now he was only a few inches away from her. “Have you got a death wish?”
“Maybe next time I won’t bother to come to your aid.”
“Good! Suits me!” It would suit her if she never saw him again.
Liar. Liar.
The wind whipped around them as the skies opened and rain pelted down. Suddenly the ground shook, and she groaned.
Fuck. This night just kept getting better.
A huge creature thundered into the alley, coming to a stop a few feet away. It stared around for a moment, taking in the bodies, Nicolas, Atlas, and herself.
At over eight feet tall and at least three times as wide as she was, most people would have been terrified by the giant creature. He was completely hairless, his skin rough and gray like the rhinoceroses she’d seen on the African continent. His head was too small for his large body, his eyes slits, his nose large and bulbous, and his mouth too wide. One shoulder drooped lower than the other, and despite the fact that his clothes were custom-made, they never seemed to fit him properly.
Most people thought him a freak. Hideous and terrifying.
To her, he was just Ari, the creature her brother had summoned when she was a young child to protect and watch over her. Ari didn’t have much of a mind of his own. He ate, he slept, and he obeyed Seb’s commands.
Seb had special abilities. No one knew where they’d come from. When he’d reached puberty, he’d developed summoning powers. She’d only been a baby at the time, so she couldn’t remember any of this. Everything she knew came from bits and pieces she’d overheard and what she could get out of her other brothers.
Her father found a sorcerer who’d helped Seb control his power. She had no idea where the things he summoned came from, she wasn’t sure even Seb did. But everything he summoned, he could control, including the Mazu. He’d summoned the ship after their other ship was attacked and destroyed.
Seb never left the Mazu. She wasn’t sure if he couldn’t, or he just didn’t want to. So he used Ari to see and hear what he wasn’t able to.
Ari opened his mouth and roared.
“Jesus, Seb, you trying to bring the militia down on us?” she snapped.
Ari brushed out his hand, pointing at the bodies.
“Yeah, yeah, I can see them. Who do you think put them there?” she boasted.
Ari made a snorting sound then crossed his arms over his chest. She ground her teeth together at the obvious disbelief. Did no one think she was capable of fighting a few idiot thieves? Ari turned to Nicolas and let out a low growl. That surprised her. She thought Seb and Nicolas were friends.
“I only arrived a few minutes before you did,” Nicolas snapped at Ari. “You can’t blame me for the trouble she gets into. You’re supposed to be watching her. Where were you?”
She gaped at Nicolas. “No one needs to watch me. Grown woman, remember?”
But neither man paid her any attention. They just glared at each other. Finally, she threw up her hands, exasperated. “I don’t know what is going on with you two, but just quit it, will you? Seb, these men attacked me on my way back to the ship, unprovoked I might add. I didn’t set out looking for trouble. Nicolas arrived just as I was fighting off the last one.”
Nicolas made a noise in the back of his throat, and she scowled at him. But he didn’t say anything to dispute her claim, and she eased up on her glare. Maybe she’d been a bit harsh on him before. He wasn’t a total ass.
“You should have taught her to fight better,” Nicolas told Ari/Seb. She quickly changed her mind about him. He was an ass.
“I fight just fine!” she protested. “I took two of them down before you even got here!”
Ari snarled and, grabbing her by the waist, hoisted her up and over his wide shoulder.
“Hey! Put me down, Seb! I mean it! Put me down!”
Ari just grunted and turned away. He paused briefly to rip both of the chakrams from the thieves’ bodies. Neither moved so either they were dead or on their way. She swallowed, refusing to feel guilty. They’d attacked her. And she bet she wasn’t their first victim. She sighed as Ari turned and set off down the alley, resigned to suffering through this
small punishment for leaving the Mazu without telling Seb.
She just wished Nicolas hadn’t been there to witness it.
Nicolas watched until Ari disappeared, a furious Kaley hanging over his shoulder. He grimaced. At least Seb would be the target of that infamous temper of hers for a while. Although from the look she’d given him before Ari had carried her away, he didn’t think he was her favorite person.
Probably not his best move, insulting his mate.
His mate.
Fury erupted inside him as he looked around at the bodies littering the filthy ground. He was actually surprised at her talent with the chakram. At least Seb had given her some means to defend herself. But the chakram only worked if she was some distance from her attacker. She needed more fighting skills.
He snarled down at bodies on the ground.
They had dared to attack his mate, touch what belonged to him. He erupted into his other form, his clothes splitting from the effort, and roared his displeasure. This form was taller and leaner than his human body. Devoid of any hair, he was lean and leathery. He kept his wings folded in, the alleyway too narrow for his wingspan. His long tail brushed against a building as he turned, fire burst from his mouth, incinerating the bodies, as well as his own clothes, and destroying all evidence. At least nothing would come back on Kaley now.
Nicolas crouched then sprang high into the air, his wings catching a huge gust of air and nearly sending him spinning. It wasn’t exactly safe flying weather, but he needed some way of expending the furious energy still coursing through him.
She’d nearly been hurt.
He’d nearly been too late.
His mate could have died.
He roared again, safer now in the skies where no one could hear him. He knew it was dangerous to change while on the ground. Everyone thought he was a drifter, a merc who took high-risk, high-reward jobs. Because that’s the persona he’d created.
That’s who Kaley thought he was.
Because he didn’t think she could handle the truth.
That he was actually a beast.
A monster.
Chapter Two
Ari placed her down gently on the deck of the Mazu. It was a large sailing ship with three masts. Unlike the other ships around it, the Mazu was completely black. The only piece of color was the golden figurehead at the bow of the ship. The figurehead was a stern woman wearing an elaborate headpiece.
She stepped back with a huff, trying to wring out her soaking wet clothes and hoping like hell that none of the crew was around. The last thing she needed was for one of them to see her being carried around like a sack of potatoes. They were the biggest gossips she’d ever met.
At least the rain had stopped, although the wind still whipped around her, making her shiver. Atlas glanced behind her to where she knew Seb was standing, gave a bark, then set off for their berth.
Traitor.
She turned and saw Seb standing on the upper deck, his arms crossed over his chest in his favorite pose.
“Well? What have you got to say for yourself?” he demanded, his face twisted into a scowl. Seb wasn’t a large guy, but he had a presence that made you stop and listen to him. Since their father’s death, he’d dressed entirely in black. Although she wasn’t certain if it was in mourning or because he just really liked black. His short, dark hair whipped around his stern face.
As her Uncle Jake used to say, the Lyons men had faces only their mamas could love, but they had bodies that made a woman beg. And it was kind of true. None of the men in her family could be called handsome. Their faces were too harsh, too chiselled, their noses a touch too large. With their wide foreheads and firm jaws, they looked strong, powerful, but not handsome.
Yet female companionship wasn’t something any of them lacked. She didn’t really get it. She guessed women saw something in them, something more than their bodies. Maybe it was their strength or loyalty—although that only extended to those close to them. Or maybe they had some charming quality she didn’t see. Because they could also be complete and utter assholes.
She loved them to bits, she’d die for them, but the three of them were arrogant, domineering, and had the tendency to always think they were right.
She mimicked his pose, glaring up at him. “You had no right to do that. I had the situation under control.”
He raised one eyebrow, looking every inch the arrogant pirate even though they were legit now. Well, mostly.
Sometimes lines got a little blurred.
“You didn’t have permission to leave the Mazu.”
“Now I need permission to leave? That’s a bit heavy-handed don’t you think?”
“All crew need permission to leave,” he said in a low, controlled voice.
The fact that he never lost his temper just tended to stir hers. She was the first to admit she didn’t have the greatest control over her anger.
“So you’d send Ari after any of the crew who left without permission, would you?” She was crew only when it suited him.
“Yes. Only he’d be bringing them back in pieces, so count yourself lucky.”
She caught the urge to roll her eyes, knowing it would only make her look like a child. A shiver worked its way over her body again.
“You’re cold. Go get changed and get to bed.”
“Is that an order, Captain?”
His gaze narrowed. “Yes, it is. Believe it or not, I have better things to do than chase your butt around the city. Don’t leave again.”
As he turned and left, she sighed. If only she’d managed to get a lead on Magnus’s location. Then she could have explained her reason for sneaking off. But she couldn’t tell him now, it was just embarrassing. She should never have trusted that idiot, Cassidy. And now she owed Bear a lot of money she couldn’t repay.
She didn’t bother with the whole argument that she was a grown woman who could come and go as she pleased. And he was right, if she was crew, then she couldn’t leave without his permission.
Sometimes being the sister of the captain was a tricky position to be in. She wasn’t crew, but she wasn’t not crew either.
“Captain’s pissed,” said a low voice from behind her.
She turned to look at Cristos, Seb’s second-in-command. Cristos was an egotistical, self-absorbed, smart-mouthed asshole. But for some reason Seb trusted him, and he was loyal to her brother, so she tried not to kill him.
It was a daily battle.
“Wow, really. I would never have known.” She turned away. She was cold and tired and really not in the mood to put up with Cristos.
“You need to stop being a selfish little girl and think about your brother. He has more important things to worry about than you.”
She tensed her shoulders. Don’t react. Don’t react.
“But no, you constantly search out his attention, don’t you? You need to grow up, Kaley.”
She whirled, a small sense of satisfaction filling her as he stumbled back in surprise. He glared at her. “I’m sorry, Cristos, I’m having trouble understanding you. Do you think you’d speak more clearly if your parents had been second cousins instead of first?”
As his face went an unsightly shade of purple, she turned and raced through the doorway and then down the stairs to the lower deck where her berth was. The ship rocked and rolled against the dock.
She slammed her door shut and locked it. She turned to Atlas who lay on his blanket in the middle of the small cabin.
“That probably wasn’t my best move.” Cristos was important to Seb, and she knew she should make an effort to get along with him. “If only he wasn’t such an ass.”
Sighing, she quickly lit a lamp then drew off her wet clothes, setting them in the corner to take care of later. Then she pulled on an old shirt and some soft pants she liked to wear for bed.
She lay back on the bed with a frown. Tonight had been a total fuck-up. She clenched her hands into fists. Where the hell was Magnus? He couldn’t have disappeared.
; Three years ago, her father caught Magnus attempting to steal the map to Miriama’s treasure. They’d fought, and the map had been ripped in two.
Magnus fled with his half. Her father had chased after Magnus, but he’d disappeared.
Chasing Magnus had consumed the last few months of her father’s life—until the day their ship was attacked by pirates. They’d had to abandon ship, before the pirates destroyed it. Her father managed to save his half of the map. But then he fell ill with pneumonia a few days later. He was dead within the week.
And she’d vowed to carry on his quest and find the treasure.
And seek revenge on Magnus for his betrayal.
Chapter Three
“Seb, I need to talk to you.” Kaley followed her brother into his quarters and shut the door behind her. A partition separated off his sleeping area from his study.
“Why?”
She took a deep breath. “I think we need to track down Magnus Black.”
“No.”
“Well, it’s good of you to hear me out. Thank you,” she said sarcastically. He gave her the stink eye. “He stole half the map from Dad. Don’t you care that it belongs to us?”
“No, because that map is a curse and he’s welcome to half of it. It only brings death and destruction.”
She blinked, surprised by his words. Seb was usually the practical, sensible one. She was the one given to dramatics.
“It’s just a map, Seb.”
“No, it’s not. It makes people do stupid things. Things that could get them killed. And for what? The promise of a treasure that doesn’t exist. I’m not going to risk you or the crew chasing after a fool’s dream. You’ll leave this be, Kaley. I mean it. Right now, we have a job to do.”
“But, Seb—” A knock on the door interrupted her.
“Enter,” he called out.
She turned, staring in surprise as Nicolas stepped inside.
Wonderful. What was he doing here? “Still following me around?” she asked, giving him a sweet smile.
Nicolas raised both eyebrows. “Believe it or not, I do have better things to do than saving your butt.”
Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection Page 110