“What happened to them?” Rafe asked, wincing through the last word and wondering if he should have kept his trap shut.
Stupid…stupid…stupid. Nothing good can come from that question, dummy.
He hadn’t meant to pry, but if he’d remained quiet, he thought maybe Kane would have thought he didn’t care enough to ask, and he did care. He looked up to Keelan Kane in many ways. Rafe’s own father had been a son of a bitch. He’d left his mom for the road. Technically they’d remained married until his mother had called it quits, but his dad had been a truck driver and had opted for every job that had come his way. In retaliation, his mom had taken to the road too, and had dragged Rafe along with her.
“Sharks,” Kane said. “Sharks ate ‘em.”
He lifted his head up as he finished the statement, his chin raised nearly to the roof, and his bottom lip curled over his top in a pout that bothered Rafe more than it should have. Probably because it gave the impression that Kane was fighting back tears, and that didn’t seem right. Kane had never shown an ounce of sadness since he’d met him.
“We were on a schooner,” Kane said. “A small fishing vessel. My mom hadn’t wanted to go, but my dad insisted. We would all go as a family this time. I’d asked how Dad spent his days, so in reality it was my fault. If I hadn’t asked, he wouldn’t have dragged us all out there to show me.”
He stopped talking long enough to take a swig from his beer.
“My sister didn’t know any better. God, she was so little. The cutest damn thing you ever seen. Something in the water caught her eye I guess. ‘Cause she leaned over and…and…she fell overboard. I saw her first and I screamed. I jumped in after her, but I was only ten. I couldn’t swim all that well and she went under so fast. And the fin.”
A glossy look came over Kane’s eyes and he lifted his eyelids as if holding tears in place, pinning them up there in his head so they wouldn’t run down and wreck his manliness.
“The fin. I was scared, man. I was so scared. I was a fucking coward. I swam away when I should have kept looking for her. But I did look back as I kicked my feet and tried to reach my dad who’d jumped in after me. She never came back up to the surface. She didn’t make it. The shark took care of that. Only took her. I was in the water and so was my dad, but it only took her.”
He swigged from his beer, tilted his head back, and kept going until he drained the rest of it. Then he stood. Rafe touched his hand.
“You survived,” Rafe said. “You weren’t a coward, man. You were just a kid. You can’t hold onto that grief. It took your sister, but you made it out. So did your mom and your dad. That’s something.”
“None of us made it out of that water, Rafe,” he said. “That’s the point, you dumb shit. The shark took my sister, but she had it easy. I had to hang around and take the beatings and deal with all the talk about how I should have watched her better. My dad was driving the boat and my mom was with him. I should have watched her better. My mom and dad lived, in theory, but they died out there on that water too. And so did I.”
Rafe wanted to offer him better words of support, to finish talking it over, but Kane smacked his beer bottle and sent it flying to the floor where it broke and shattered into pieces. He stormed out of the bar cursing under his breath. So there Rafe sat, trying to see things through his boss’s eyes. His hatred of sharks and his need to hunt down every one of them made so much sense now. So did his refusal to let peace lie between himself and Kalina’s people. In his mind, every shark was the one that ate his sister. Rafe buried his face in his hands and massaged his temples. The night had taken a much darker turn than he’d expected. He needed Kalina to show up soon and wash away this cloud.
Chapter 12 - Kalina
By six o’clock, Kalina was revving to go. At half past, she’d left her friends partying on the beach and had packed the sexiest clothes she could find into a plastic bag and had sealed it tight. She’d stripped completely naked and waved goodbye to all her friends as she stood in the moonlight and placed the plastic bag between her teeth. As soon as her feet touched the water, her body began to change. She had made the transformation so many times that it now felt good. Her body exploded, and energy tore her bones into a million pieces, sucking them back together in the form of a shark. She opened her mouth and scooped the plastic bag into it, clamping her jaws shut and doing her best to keep the bag away from her razor-sharp teeth. She’d done this a hundred times. They all had. It was how they carried clothes, wallets, and other smaller essentials to the mainland without having to ask Juan Diego to transport it for them.
She zipped through the water, loving how the schools of fish scattered as she soared toward them. She was the queen of the ocean, the scariest thing around, and whereas only yesterday she’d loathed her monstrous form, she now felt great. She was wanted. A boy was waiting for her in a bar, and she couldn’t wait to walk in and turn his head. Water shot through her gills and filled her body with so much oxygen she thought she could scream with delight. The only thing that would be better right now would be a gulp of blood, or a mouthful of fish, but now wasn’t the time for a quick snack. If she tried, she’d only drop the baggy, and she’d be forced to walk into the bar naked.
And that would totally make a bad impression.
Technically, this was their first date. It was her chance to be with Rafe without anyone else getting in the way. Faith wouldn’t be there to call her corny and Thane wouldn’t be there to tell her it was time to go home. Hopefully Kane wouldn’t be there to piss her off. She only wanted to be alone with her boy. One boy and one girl.
After climbing out of the water at a dark and deserted area, Kalina stepped naked onto the sand and spread her arms free, feeling the cool breeze against her tits. Lifting them to dry her under boob, she smiled and thought of how warm she’d feel once she reached Rafe’s arms. Magic filled the air, unseen wizardry, as if a whimsical spell had been whipped up only for her. She felt light on her feet, like the giddiness in her chest and stomach might cause her to lift off and fly. She closed her eyes and imagined God tossing a fistful of pixie dust all over her.
“I can fly,” she said to herself.
She felt silly talking to herself out loud like that, but it made the moment better. It made it more real. Not an ounce of negativity flowed through her as she dressed herself, slipped her feet into the flat sandals she’d brought along, the only sexy footwear she could find that would easily flatten down to the size of a baggy full of clothes and fit in her mouth, and shook her hair to release any leftover sea water. She smiled and pulled her hair into a ponytail. When she finally made her way toward Tilly’s, she didn’t walk, and she didn’t jog. Her feet seemed to dance along to an invisible beat.
Back on the island, the others would be busy welcoming Sylvia, Penny’s friend. Kalina was bummed that she wasn’t going to be there for that but spending time with Rafe was a lot more important. This wasn’t something she could easily pass up. Sure, she could have offered for him to stay on the island too, but that would have meant sharing his attention when she hadn’t even had any of it herself.
Okay, calm yourself, Kalina. You’re on a date with a boy. Chill. Act like you’ve done this a million times.
Faith’s parting advice had been to fuck him and get it over with, that way the nerves would dissipate, and they’d be like all the other couples out there navigating the dating scene. “Nobody holds back on the sex anymore,” Faith had said. “Not in the day of Tinder and all these other dating apps. You go to church to find a girl to marry. You go to a bar to find one to fuck. Tilly’s is a bar.”
Her words had nagged at her all night. Technically, she hadn’t met Rafe in a bar. They’d met outside a bar at a bonfire party. And Tilly’s was not only a bar, but a pretty good restaurant too. And she would gladly take Rafe to church if she could find one that would cater to her people, meaning people with fins, ones like her who were constantly hunted. Underwater was a lot like the post-apocalyptic worlds she’
d seen in movies over the past few years. It was a free for all. The wild west where only one side had guns: the human side. She wasn’t sure if the human God accepted her kind. Some said they were descendants of demons. Too much love and happiness flowed through her veins for that to be true. That much she was sure of.
When she walked into Tilly’s, she felt like all eyes were on her, like she’d walked late into a party and the DJ had scratched the record as she’d passed. Yet, only one set of eyes settled on her and those eyes belonged to a beach bum who spent his nights drinking at Tilly’s and his days offering to wash people’s cars down by the water. His name was Roy and Kalina had turned the man down so many times that he no longer tried. She gave him a wave to be courteous, which he returned, and then she moved through the bar until she found Rafe. He sat with his face buried in his hands. He looked sad.
No. No sadness tonight. None of that.
For a moment, she studied him, loving the way his dirty blond hair was tidier than that of most of the surfers she’d met. Many of them on the Queensland beaches seemed like they never bothered to shower at all. Rafe wasn’t like that. He was rough, he was boyish, but he still knew how to take care of himself. Maybe it had something to do with working his day job alongside Kane. She didn’t imagine the older man would care much for a dirty employee. As she watched him, her eyes settled on a few strands of hair that had fallen down over the fingers he had pressed against his temples. She wanted to smooth them back for him, so his face wouldn’t be covered at all.
“Okay,” Kalina said as she sat down, causing Rafe to flinch. “I need to hurry because I know your girlfriend must have just gone into the bathroom. I’ve been checking you out from across the bar, and I think you’re totally sexy and couldn’t leave with my friends without letting you now.”
“Huh?” he said with a smile. “Oh…are we role playing now?”
“You’re ruining it,” she said.
“Uh…yeah, she’ll be back any minute,” he said.
He leaned closer, grabbed her hands on top of the table and whispered, “To be honest, I was checking you out too.”
“Were you now?” she asked, letting her face inch closer to his.
He moved a few inches himself until they were within easy kissing distance. Kalina crept closer still, making sure he could feel her breath on his lips.
“Your friends might be watching,” Rafe said, and each syllable tickled her bottom lip.
“Your girlfriend might be watching,” she said.
“In that case,” he said, leaning all the way forward, going in for the kiss.
She pulled away from him, leaving his lips floating in mid-air. He was going to have to work harder for that kiss. He wouldn’t think much of her at all if she gave in that easily. He grinned and lightly slapped the table. He’d almost had her, but not quite.
“You don’t even have a girlfriend, do you?” she asked. “You were only trying to get in my pants.”
He laughed and threw his hands up in the air.
“You caught me, busted me red handed,” he said. “I have a boyfriend.”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “So, you’re telling me I have zero chance?”
“Zero,” he said.
“We’ll have to see about that,” she teased as she reached under the table and gave his thigh a squeeze.
“You’re certainly in a good mood tonight,” he said.
“I am,” she said. “It’s nice to go out on a proper date.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Improper ones suck. All that drunken foreplay and strange morning sex. Who wants any of that shit?”
“Exactly!”
She felt so comfortable with Rafe. She’d never had a boy she could talk to like this. Conversation flowed so freely with him. None of her other dates had been anything like this, and this one had just started. Once, when she’d complained to Faith about her shitty love life, Faith told her it was because men were intimidated by her beauty, but Kalina didn’t see it that way. She didn’t think she was all that pretty. She was okay. She’d always thought that maybe it was her personality. Maybe they didn’t like her playful, goofy, and kind of childish demeanor. Men always wanted sex kittens with spread-open legs. Or serious professionals with sharp intellect.
I can totally be that woman. I have a freaky side. I’m capable of behaving and being serious if need be.
But she didn’t want to do that. She wanted a flirtatious relationship, one she looked forward to continuing for a long time. With Rafe, she couldn’t imagine dreading seeing him at the end of a long day. He was the type of guy she could run to, jump in his arms, and wrap her legs around his waist as she kissed his lips. The thought gave her butterflies and she hoped that would always happen.
Most people at restaurants like Tilly’s looked unhappy, like they were forced to sit across the table from their date, and their only escape was the Smart Phone they clung to with dear life. They would rather get an Instagram “like” than a real life one from the person they were spending time with. Kalina loved that Rafe didn’t even seem to have a phone. Surely, he did, but he never pulled it out when in her presence.
“We should get out of here,” Rafe said. “I’ve planned something for us.”
“You have?” she asked, feeling her face redden.
She’d never had anyone plan anything for her. Not even a present. They didn’t really do gift exchanges on the island, so birthdays and holidays were always barbecues and drinking. This boy had planned something for her and that alone was enough to make her want to lean over the table and plant a kiss on his lips, but she wanted it to be special when she did it. Rafe was getting there, the boy was definitely earning points, but it still wasn’t the right moment. She could practically hear Faith in her ear laughing and saying, “This isn’t an 80s romantic comedy, Kalina. What are you waiting for? That ass-grabbing kiss at the end of Weird Science?”
That wasn’t what she was waiting for at all, but she could totally settle for the one at the end of Dirty Dancing. She giggled to herself as she thought of running toward Rafe out in the parking lot of Tilly’s and having him lift her up into the air, completing the move they’d practiced so many times in the water. Only in her case, he would have been lifting a big, heavy ass tiger shark. This thought made her laugh even harder.
“What are you laughing about?” Rafe asked. “You don’t think I can plan a romantic night?”
She bit her lip and shook her head teasingly.
“Seriously? You don’t?” he asked. “Surfer guys can be romantic too, man. You know, I once brought a girl a stuffed unicorn because she said her dad wouldn’t let her have a pony growing up.”
“What does a stuffed unicorn have to do with a pony?” Kalina asked.
“It’s a horse…but with wings…” he said.
“That’s a Pegasus,” she said. “I think you bought her a Pegasus. Unicorns are the ones with the horn at the front of the head.”
“That’s a rhinoceros,” he argued.
She laughed out loud and drank from his beer.
“Still a cute gesture though,” she said.
“Oh shit,” he said. “I’m sorry. Do you want something to drink? I thought we were getting out of here.”
“We are,” she said. “Come on, show me your surprise romantic evening.”
Twenty minutes later, they hopped out of a taxi and stood in the parking lot of a beach she hadn’t visited in a long time. She’d known it had become quite the tourist attraction, with pop-up shops and snack carts opening up late in the afternoon. Food trucks rolled in to the area after sundown and locals brought kegs and coolers to keep the party going into the late-night hours. The spot was called LampaVille after the artist, Carlos Lampa, who’d dragged himself into town a few years earlier and, having little to no money to start up his own art studio, came out to this area and set up shop in an old shipping crate that had been filled with rust and local wildlife until he came along. With one generator, he’d cleaned it o
ut and transformed the ugly rectangular box into a full-fledged art studio. Once word spread of his new business, other local artists and traveling troubadours shuffled out to LampaVille to set up similar shops. Vintage clothing stores, memorabilia markets, artisan bodegas, and failed chefs cooking anything that could be made by charcoal or small propane tanks flooded the scene. LampaVille’s new slogan: Where Art Transforms Reality, could be found on the windshields of parked cars at shopping malls in every major Australian city. Word was spreading.
“This is your idea for a romantic scene?” Kalina asked.
“Have you been out here?” Rafe replied.
“Not in a long time, not since Lampa first started this place. My God, it’s changed a lot. I’d heard, but to see it is something else entirely. Amazing.”
“But not romantic?” he asked.
“Could be,” she said. “Let’s see what you can do with the tools you’ve been given.”
He laughed.
“I love a challenge,” he said.
At first, the date was like any other. He bought them both bruschetta, not the Italian bread topped with tomatoes, but the chicken and meat on a stick commonly referred to as kabobs. She had a hard time eating with him watching, until she got the chance to see him suck at it too, sauce spilling onto his lip and chin. They washed down the food with craft beer from red plastic cups filled from a local brew master’s keg.
They walked through the festive area and danced beneath the multicolored Christmas tree lights strung from one food truck across to a large artisan tent and back. The music was loud, a cover band version of The Beach Boys’ greatest hits. They slow danced to a rather morose sounding version of ‘Be True to Your School.’ Rafe sang to her and she relaxed into his shoulder, resting her head there and listening to the sound of his heart thrumming much faster than the beat of the band’s drums. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.
“Can I ask you a stupid question?” she asked.
Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2) Page 12