Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2)

by Chris Genovese

  Thane clapped a heavy hand over Rafe’s back and said, “Where’s Kalina?”

  “She’s over there,” he said pointing toward the spot where they’d been a few minutes before.

  They weren’t there any longer. Shattering glass pinpointed their new location at the bar. Rafe was glad the human guy had gotten his daughter away from the area earlier because the two great whites were breaking every bottle and tabletop in the place. Kalina was in there somewhere yelling at them.

  “I need to go help her,” he said.

  Thane nodded. The other members of their group were already in the water, probably going after the hammerheads that had gotten away. Rafe only made it a few steps when a nagging thought came back to him.

  “Hey, Thane,” he said.

  “Yes?” Thane replied.

  “Where was Evelyn in all this?”

  Thane thought about it for a second and said, “I’m sure she was around somewhere, pulling her puppeteer strings from some safe place in the distance.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  Even as he said it, Rafe couldn’t shake the feeling that Thane was wrong. Evelyn hadn’t been on the beach. And if she hadn’t been here, where else would she be?

  Chapter 27 – Kalina

  Sylvia stood next to her now. Both of them were yelling at the guys to stop fighting. Broken bottles had left both men with gashes in their sides. Chair legs had resulted in knots on foreheads and bruises on arms and legs. Kane and Cobalt were both battered, bloodied, and bruised.

  “I didn’t know he was your brother,” Kane swore as he spit blood on the wooden floor. “I didn’t even know you existed.”

  “Does that make it right?” Cobalt hissed through clenched, bloodied teeth. “If he was somebody else’s brother? Or someone’s son? Or someone’s husband?”

  “He was a fucking shark!” Kane yelled.

  “I’m a fucking shark!” Cobalt replied. “You’re a fucking shark.”

  “Baby, please,” Sylvia begged. “Come with me. Finish this some other time. You’re hurt.”

  “He’s hurt,” Cobalt argued.

  “No more than you,” Kane said.

  The pride of both of these bastards would get them killed. Kalina was tired of the bullshit. She was about to walk away and let them kill each other. Were all great whites this fucking stubborn?

  “They’re still going at it?” Rafe asked as he appeared by her side. “Guys, there are cops all over the beach. Paramedics are making their way out too. This…”

  He gestured at the destroyed bar.

  “This is going to catch their attention,” he added. “We need to go. Like now.”

  Kane looked at him and it was clear he agreed. Cobalt huffed and puffed, shaking his head for a second before looking over at Sylvia. Then he threw a hand up to shoo Kane away as if this wasn’t worth his time. He must have known this fight could only go on so long before they both ended up behind bars. Now was the time to flee before the cops started looking into all the damage that wasn’t involved with the bodies on the beach. As they walked toward the water, Kalina was surprised to see that very few deaths had occurred. Any death was bad, of course, but given the circumstances, she would have expected so many more. It seemed the hammerheads were there to hurt the humans, not to kill them.

  “This is strange,” she told Rafe.

  “Tell me about it,” he said. “And I’m the new one, remember? Imagine what it must look like through my eyes.”

  “No,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s strange that all these humans were only hurt? Not killed?”

  “Almost like it was more of a distraction than anything else,” Rafe said.

  “Exactly,” she said.

  “Officer Kane, Officer Kane,” a man’s voice bellowed out from Rafe’s radio.

  Kane stumbled along beside them. Cobalt and Sylvia stopped walking and looked at them. The man on the other end of the radio sounded desperate and worried. Rafe took the radio from his hip and handed it to Kane.

  “Kane here,” he said.

  “We’ve got an issue out here on the water,” the voice said. “You said to let you know if I saw anything strange. I passed a boat a few miles off shore and I thought I saw something. I’m looking at it now through binoculars. Call me crazy but it seems like three men dressed like the ones y’all had there on the beach, in all black from what I heard over the radio. Well, I see three of them guys and a woman. They seem to be holding another woman hostage. She’s blindfolded and gagged.”

  “Blindfolded and gagged?” Kane repeated into the radio.

  “Yessir,” the man said. “And it looks like she’s pregnant.”

  Chapter 28 – Sylvia

  How could we be so stupid? How could I be so stupid?

  Rafe had called it. He’d said something didn’t feel right all along. Evelyn was too smart. Now, as they soared through the water, trying to get Thane’s attention, Sylvia could see the whole plan as if written out on paper in front of her. Evelyn had Penny now. How she’d gotten past Rickshaw, she didn’t know, but two pregnant women and one mean ass shark in human form wouldn’t be hard to beat, not if Evelyn had a few of her thugs with her.

  All that mattered now was getting Penny back. Sylvia knew that Evelyn had hated Penny since the beginning. Whether it was jealousy over Thane or simply hatred for Penny because she had once been a human and was now one of their kind, Evelyn had made it her mission to make Penny miserable. This was what it had all boiled down to? Kidnapping? What good would come of this? What was she hoping to attain from this? That Thane would agree to banish Penny? That Thane would see the error of his ways and rush back into Evelyn’s arms?

  This is one crazy bitch.

  “Thane,” Coby called out through his mental voice. “Where the fuck are you?”

  As if trying to reach someone on a transistor radio from deep in a concrete bunker, the words fell on deaf ears.

  “Thane,” he tried again.

  “He’s probably out chasing the hammerheads,” Rafe said from somewhere behind them.

  He and Kalina had hit the water at the same time they had, but Sylvia and Coby were much faster. They would reach the boat before anyone else if Thane wasn’t already on his way. Then, from the left and the right came friendly voices.

  “Those motherfuckers didn’t stand a chance!” Beanie called out.

  “Did you see the way I bitch slapped him? But like with my fin?” Squid asked.

  “Yeah, brah,” Hightail replied. “I think if he were in human form he would have been like, ‘What? Huh? What the fuck was that?’”

  “You bitch slapped him?” Sylvia asked.

  “Totally, I was keeping up foreign relations. You know, giving him the bird,” Squid said.

  “How did you manage that?” Sylvia asked, not realizing at the time that she’d fallen right into the young sharks’ Top Gun dialogue recitation.

  “I was inverted,” Squid replied.

  “Whatever,” she said.

  “Can we concentrate on finding Penny?” Kalina asked.

  “What do you mean finding Penny?” Beanie asked. “Ain’t that the pregnant chick back at the island?”

  “Yes, Penny, as in your leader’s wife,” Sylvia reminded him.

  “Penny?!” Thane’s voice sounded off louder than all the others. “What about Penny?”

  “There you are!” Kalina said.

  “Evelyn has Penny!” Rafe said. “On a boat.”

  “On a boat?!” Thane cried. “No!”

  This was the first time Sylvia had ever heard anyone in mental anguish before. She’d never been privy to anyone’s thoughts prior to becoming a shark, and now, as she listened to Thane’s frantic panting and desperate cries of worry and fear, she knew more than ever how much the man loved her best friend.

  A tiger shark suddenly shot into view, swimming past them at a speed Sylvia never would have thought possible. It seemed Thane had abilities even she and Coby couldn’t cont
end with. That, or he’d found a rush of adrenaline only the threat of losing a loved one could provide. Like mothers with the sudden strength to lift a Buick off a small child or fathers who could hold onto a falling wife even when his tendons were being ripped apart in the process, fury and desperation had given Thane a boost of rage that propelled him ahead of all the other sharks. Even Coby seemed surprised.

  “Was that Thane?” he asked.

  “Faster!” Thane ordered. “Evelyn has both pieces of my heart on that boat!”

  As Coby passed her, Sylvia saw a trickle of blood coming from a gash near the top of his head. She knew her kind had healing abilities, but the fight with Kane had been too recent.

  “You’re bleeding,” she told him.

  “It’s no big deal,” Coby said. “He’s bleeding too.”

  “Who?” she asked.

  “Me,” Kane said as he too passed her.

  She hadn’t realized he’d been behind them, but sure enough, the internal voice of the Fishery officer rang out as he soared faster than she or Coby. Her man may have been stronger, and bigger, but Kane was a bullet. His speed was astonishing.

  “You really think you’re going to stop me?” Thane’s voice asked and even before Sylvia and the others caught up with him, she knew what she’d find.

  There, circling the water beneath the boat, was a school of about ten sharks. Not only hammerheads but tiger sharks too. At least half of them were the same species as Thane and his friends. None were great whites though and that seemed almost comical to Sylvia. She imagined they must be about to shit their pants, or the water behind them, as they saw three great whites headed their way with a gang of tiger sharks. They could have had fifty of their kind and they would have been no match for the giant beasts of the ocean. Sylvia was an apex predator and she couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into one of those pestering fucking punks.

  Thane attacked. Blood swished through the water violently in a cloud that expanded out, starting at the first hammerhead’s body and rolled through the ocean, shading the others from existence. Sylvia sped through the crimson fog and searched for a victim of her own, wanting to show Thane that she could tear one completely in half, not only nibble on one like he’d done. She would show them all that she could earn her keep. If any of them happened to think she was Coby’s sidekick, they’d soon learn that she was his queen. She was the Elizabeth fucking Bathory of the sea.

  Give me blood!

  A tiger shark came into view first and it soared around her quickly, attacking her from the side, but she dipped down low and led it on a chase into the depths. Its speed was no match for hers and as they dove into the darkness of a trench at the ocean’s floor, she circled around with blinding speed and found herself behind the shark, flipping the scenario and forcing her attacker to become the prey. Its caudal fin at the rear lay before her like a delicious snack. With her mouth open in the widest grin she could physically assume, she chomped down with the ferocity of a metal-toothed bear trap. Its fin came off in her mouth with a spray of tart juice that seeped red out her jaws like smoke rolling out of her mouth. Mentally, she heard the enemy cry, and it was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. The shark slowed down, and she came at it again, snapping her razor teeth over its body, tearing off a gigantic chunk of meat. She swallowed and savored the taste. One more bite, and the shark was lifeless and falling toward the ocean floor.

  Above her, sharks swam in all directions cutting each other off and ramming into each other like Japanese kamikaze pilots on suicidal paths toward allied ships. The dialogue there inside the ocean was a hodgepodge of maniacal voices screaming profanities and psychotic threats.

  “I’ll fucking kill you!”

  “Come and get some, bitch!”

  “Ha! Too slow, fucker!”

  “No! Don’t do that. Please! Not like…”

  On dry land Sylvia knew she might hear a death rattle at the last moment of desperate breath before life dissipated. Under water it was only suffocated cries that trailed off as energy left the body.

  “Sylvia! Where are you?!” Coby called out to her.

  “I’m here, Love!” she replied.

  “These pussies don’t stand a chance!” Kane’s voice called out.

  “You wouldn’t stand a chance if I wasn’t busy with these fucks,” Coby replied.

  “Not again!” Sylvia said.

  “Rafe! Look out!” Kalina yelled.

  Hot on Rafe’s ass was a large tiger shark, much faster than Kalina’s boyfriend. Sylvia was closest and didn’t hesitate to go after him.

  “Go deep, Rafe!” she shouted.

  Rafe dove down, and at that exact moment, Sylvia sank her teeth into the smaller shark’s face, crushing its snout and tearing into its eyeball. From within her mouth, it howled, crying out in mental gibberish. Sylvia was loving the fight. She felt born for this. All that time spent at the DJ booth. All those mornings eating restaurant breakfasts and stopping for quick coffees and evenings spent at movie theaters or dancing at nightclubs. Date nights spent trying to impress some guy she’d probably never hit it off with anyway. This was a real date. She’d much rather be cutting her way through the current and sinking her teeth into the cold flesh of a rival fish than busting moves on a dancefloor.

  Below the boat was a bloody mess. Fins, faces, and flesh floated aimlessly in a pinkish world that reminded Sylvia of the fog in a disco. That amused her at first, until she remembered the barge, and the kids who’d partied like they were in a nightclub. They’d danced, they’d devoured their drinks, and they’d died. On that boat above, Evelyn was enjoying herself with Sylvia’s best friend as her hostage.

  As the other sharks finished the battle, Sylvia swam closer to the surface and noticed that Thane was transforming back into human form as he clutched the ladder and pulled himself onto the boat. Sylvia needed to get up there too, at least to let Penny know she was here for her.

  “Coby, I need to go up there with Thane,” Sylvia said.

  “That’s not a good idea!” he said. “I can’t protect you if you’re up there.”

  “I’ve been holding my own fairly well so far,” she replied.

  “Sylvia, no!” he yelled.

  She didn’t need his permission. Her friend was up there, and she was in danger. She was going up to help Thane neutralize the threat.

  Switching back to her human form was easy, but she hated it every time. Sylvia was starting to prefer being in shark form. She understood why Coby loved the water so much. An ache hit her bones as her arms and legs grew back. Hands gripping the ladder, and feet touching the cool metal steps, Sylvia hoisted her body up and onto the boat. Stark naked and not even the slightest bit worried about it, she stood behind Thane, seeing his nude, muscular form there in front of her. Beyond him, Penny stood blindfolded, her hands zip tied, and with one of Evelyn’s thugs gripping each of her arms. They were completely dressed, totally dry. So was Evelyn, who looked overly confident and pleasantly surprised to see not only Thane, but Sylvia standing over his shoulder.

  Evelyn was only a couple of feet away from Penny with another of her thugs at her side. Thane was already in the midst of trying to talk her down.

  “You’re not this cruel, Evelyn,” Thane said. “I know you. You don’t want to do this.”

  “You know nothing,” Evelyn replied.

  “Penny,” Sylvia said. “What have they done to you?”

  “I’m okay,” Penny answered.

  “Shut up,” one of the thugs said.

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” Thane threatened.

  “Or what?” the thug asked.

  Thane didn’t answer. He must have known anything he said wouldn’t stand a chance at making the situation any better.

  “Please, Evelyn,” Thane said. “This isn’t right. Nothing I’ve ever done to you makes this okay.”

  “Really, Lover?” she said. “Don’t you think I should be the judge of that?”

  “I’m begging you her
e,” he said. “Look. You win. Whatever you want.”

  “Whatever I want?” she said.

  Her lips parted in a smile. Her pink tongue nipped at her full lips and gave her an almost Joker-like grin. It was clear she got off on being a bitch. Holding onto Penny was like sticking a knife into Thane’s gut and slowly turning it around and around. She enjoyed the pain she was causing him.

  “What if what I want is you?” she asked.

  “Fuck you!” Penny yelled. “He doesn’t want you.”

  “Penny,” Thane said. “Don’t.”

  “What is this bitch behind you doing here?” Evelyn asked, turning her attention to Sylvia.

  Evelyn sniffed the air.

  “Great white, huh?” she added. “You should join the winning team. We could use a shark like you.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” Sylvia said. “That’s my best friend right there. If anything happens to her, I’ll rip your goddamn head off your neck.”

  “Oh,” Evelyn said with a wince. “So graphic. So serious. So mean. I love it. Yes, you’d make a great addition to our team.”

  “There are no teams,” Thane said. “Evelyn, you can end this. You’re not a bad person. I knew you before all this. You’re not evil. You’ve got good in you. It’s what I always…”

  He didn’t finish.

  “You always what?” Evelyn asked. “Loved about me?”

  “Evelyn,” Thane said. “Please.”

  Evelyn looked at the thugs and nodded. They squeeze Penny’s arms tighter and dragged her closer to the edge of the boat.

  “Stop!” Sylvia yelled.

  “You move one step closer to the edge and I’ll tear you all in half,” Thane threatened.

  “Really?” one of the thugs asked as he hinted at taking another step but stopped.