“Wait,” Evelyn ordered. “Tell me more about…us.”
“Let her go,” Thane said.
“Toss her,” Evelyn said.
It happened too quickly for Thane or Sylvia to react. The guys rushed toward the side of the boat and pushed Penny. She screamed.
“No!” Thane yelled.
Thane dove at her as if he might be able to catch her in time, but it was too late. Her legs hit the rail on the side of the boat, and she flipped over.
Penny flew through the air, but then something else came up out of the water right in front of her. Coby, in great white form, soared through the air and smacked into her, knocking her back onto the boat as he flew over it. His teeth clamped around the first thug in sight, ripping his torso from his waist. Blood flew all over the other thugs and onto Evelyn who’d ducked in time to miss having her face torn into. She was fast, and as Coby dove through the air and was making his way completely over the boat in a perfect arch, Evelyn picked something up from the boat deck. It was a metal pole of some sort, maybe a radio antennae or spear from a spear gun. Sylvia wasn’t sure what it was, but right before her eyes, she watched as the pointed end of the pole tore into Coby’s underbelly. The gash ripped his skin open and blood spurted everywhere. The weight of the giant shark pushed the metal spike deeper into him.
“Coby!” Sylvia yelled.
Coby went over the edge and splashed into the water, leaving a trail of blood at the surface. Evelyn smiled at her and Sylvia lost it. She ran at her, hell-bent on revenge, not only for what she’d done to her man, but for what she’d done on the barge. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Thane run to Penny, but as he went to grab her, the other thug who’d been holding onto Penny, stepped in his way. Thane grabbed the guy’s head and twisted, snapping his neck. He was occupied, and still too far away, when the third thug ran at Penny and tackled her, pitching them both overboard. Thane jumped to grab her and only got hold of her ankle, holding her in place at the side of the boat, but then, as her body widened in his grip, he realized it was too late. There was no holding a tiger shark by its fin.
As Penny shifted, Sylvia grabbed Evelyn by the hair and yanked her into the water with her. Sylvia landed in the cold ocean, her body instantly changing back into the form of the great white. Evelyn hit the water and morphed into her tiger shark body. Twenty feet away, Penny too was in tiger shark form and Sylvia knew no matter what happened now, her friend had died a little bit already. Evelyn would pay.
Chapter 29 – Rafe
Rafe was barely able to keep swimming. If it weren’t for the magic Kalina’s old sea turtle friend had worked on him, giving him an extra dose of strength and power, Rafe believed he’d already be dead. A chunk of his side was missing, stuffed in some shark’s stomach. He’d been hit from the side, a cheap shot, and then the shark was gone. Or at least he’d thought it was gone. From his left side, it crashed into him, and this time its teeth missed Rafe by a quarter of an inch as Rafe shot forward and left the beast chomping at nothing. He’d been in many scraps before, but nothing like this. For a second, he thought maybe he’d pushed the envelope. Maybe in his pursuit of excitement and adrenaline, or in his quest to woo Kalina, he’d allowed his mind to move toward fiction, believing he was unstoppable and was like the rest of them – them being sharks with so much more experience in battle. He was a man. He was a surfer. He wasn’t a tiger shark and he definitely wasn’t a hammerhead or a great white.
Beanie wasn’t far away when Rafe heard him laughing and making some ridiculous cheese ball joke that ended abruptly in a gasp and grunt that was followed by a sickening silence.
“Yo! These sharks are like newbies on the beach, man. Ain’t we the new—”
Rafe swam in a circle, dodging the attacking tiger shark, more intent on finding his friend, but he knew the way this mental telepathy went. Beanie could be anywhere within a fifty-mile radius or quite possibly even farther.
“Beanie!” he yelled.
The shark behind him bit down again, missing him by an inch or two. Beanie didn’t reply. Suddenly, the thought of his friend being gone sent a new wave of adrenaline shooting through his body. Liquid rage filled him from caudal fin to snout. He could imagine the blackness of his shark eyes where only death lived, and he knew he needed to turn that death on this fucking tiger shark riding his ass.
“You wanna fucking play with me?” he said.
The shark didn’t reply. It dove at him again, but Rafe was fast and was on a mission now. He swam out of the way and circled around. The shark was quick and stayed on his heels, forcing Rafe to lead it on a chase. Rafe dipped and so did the other shark. Rafe rose and swung a hard right, yet so did the tiger shark. Up and down and around they went. The cat chased the mouse and Rafe hated thinking of himself as a mouse. He wasn’t a fucking rodent. It was time to show this shark who was the real master of the sea. Rafe had rode the ocean in human form and would own it as a shark.
So, fuck this shark.
Rafe saw the boat overhead and swam straight at it as hard and as fast as he could. The shark was hot on his fins, snapping at him, trying to get a big enough piece of him that Rafe would be out of commission, but this wouldn’t be his day. Rafe was smarter than this piece of shit. He swung upward, and the shark followed. Rafe barreled straight at the boat’s motor, its metallic propeller just below the surface, waiting for him. The shark behind him must have been about to take his final bite because Rafe could feel him, could tell that his fin was dangerously close to entering its mouth, but then Rafe ducked down at the last second. The shark behind him wasn’t smart enough, nor was it fast enough, to escape the head-on collision with the propeller. It wasn’t moving, but it was waiting. The shark took a giant bite out of the boat motor, its body fighting so hard to keep up with its head that its teeth shattered over the metal, and its brain crushed inside its thick skin.
Take that!
The blood seeping from his body would only draw in more sharks. Rafe’s excitement died as he realized he didn’t have long before he’d become a snack. Up ahead, Cobalt was struggling to swim too. Blood flowed from a massive wound in his body.
What could have possibly done that?
Through the enormous cloud of growing red mist, Rafe saw so much carnage and so much fighting still going on that he couldn’t figure everything out. It wasn’t like a team of shirts vs. skins. They were all skins down here and any of them could be on either side.
“Kalina!” he called out.
“Here!” she replied. “With Penny!”
Penny? What the hell is Penny doing down here? No.
Rafe searched for Kalina and found her, nudging Penny’s near lifeless body. Either Penny was too destroyed inside to move, or she was refusing to, and either way would result in her death. She needed to move to breathe.
“Penny, please,” Thane begged as he bit into a shark that had the balls to get between him and his woman. “Swim, Penny.”
“I can’t,” she said. “It’s over. My baby… my baby is gone.”
Rafe had no idea the amount of pain she must be going through, but he knew she needed to swim. They needed to get out of there. Cobalt was hurt. More sharks would come, non-shifters, once they sensed his blood. They couldn’t beat all the predators in the ocean. They were barely beating the hammerheads. Rafe left them and made his way to Cobalt who was alone and struggling. Around him, Kino, Jagger, and Oliver swam, doing their best to ward off any other threats.
Sylvia and Evelyn zipped past him so quickly he almost missed them. The great white was faster when it came to speed, but the tiger shark was more experienced and was leading Sylvia toward the ocean floor where Rafe knew she’d try the same thing he’d done with the other shark and the boat motor. Evelyn was crafty. She would beat Sylvia. The great white in her had her thinking she was invincible and that could get her hurt badly. Rafe realized, as he watched, that his own blood was blending with Cobalt’s and only making matters worse. Sharks were coming. He coul
d see them. And the swimming bodies approaching stealthily could have been ten or could have been hundreds.
Squid and Hightail swam next to him and both weren’t their usual selves. They were exhausted.
“Damn, brah,” Hightail said. “We weren’t ready for this.”
“But we kicked some ass,” Squid said.
“Where’s Beanie?” Rafe asked. “I heard him earlier and he didn’t sound good. I think he was hurt.”
“What do you mean?” Squid asked.
“Have you guys seen him?” Rafe replied.
“He’s gone,” Faith suddenly said as she swam around them. “I’m sorry. I tried to protect him, but there were too many.”
Rafe couldn’t respond. This was too much. They’d known it would be a war, yet none of them seemed to have taken it seriously before this. So many of the opposition had died. Had the hammerheads felt the same way seeing their friends murdered? Rafe had always imagined them as soulless beings. This was wrong. They were all sharks. Why were they fighting like this? If none of them were beasts, if none of them were monsters, why were they behaving like they were?
“We have to stop this,” Rafe said. “Tiger, hammerhead, great white, mako, bull…we’re all sharks…and we’re obliterating each other.”
“Where is Evelyn?” Penny suddenly growled, seeming to snap out of the trance she’d been in. “She and all her sharks will die. And, Rafe, if you don’t like that, you can join them.”
Chapter 30 – Kalina
In the shadows lurked new sharks, all species, coming in droves to get a piece of the action. This was a war they weren’t a part of, but they craved the spoils anyway. They wanted to clean up the debris, and Kalina had never felt panic in the ocean the way she felt it now. Rafe was hurt badly, Cobalt was barely alive. Beanie was dead. Penny was broken, and now on a warpath. Sylvia…she was down there somewhere going after Evelyn.
“They’re coming,” Kalina warned them all.
“Who’s coming?” Thane asked.
“All of them,” she replied.
Thane turned to look, finally taking his focus off Penny, and he saw what she had. Sharks were moving in from all directions. A 360-degree circle of terror was closing in on them. It was nothing personal. They meant nothing to these sharks. This was a Christmas dinner feast, and for the first time, Kalina wondered if other sharks knew about them. If they were secretly despised for their powers and their skills and their healing abilities. Did these sharks have something against them or did they not even know the difference? She and the others could only communicate with their kind. Other sharks were off-limits. She’d swam by their side many times and had never given it thought before. Yet, right now, they seemed too eager to feast. She imagined they were excited to finally get their chance at finishing off a great tribe of shifters who’d dared desecrate their world with their half-human ways.
“Stay with Cobalt and Rafe,” Thane ordered. “They’ll be coming after them.”
“Holy shit, bra,” Hightail whined. “This is the end, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not,” Rafe said, and Kalina admired his bravery.
He was wrong, but she loved how he always stayed on the positive side, always believing there was a way out. There was, of course, but it would mean leaving him and Cobalt behind. If they tried to make a run for their island, the other sharks would follow. The blood was too thick. If they didn’t bleed out first, they’d be picked off piece by piece as they made their way for dry land.
“You should all go,” Rafe said.
“Yes,” Cobalt agreed, even his mental voice so weak he could barely make out the words. “We will hold them off.”
“Shut up,” Faith ordered. “We’ve already lost one of your friends. We’re not losing you or any of the others.”
“Get them home,” Penny ordered. “I’m going after Evelyn. The sharks won’t bother me. I’m not bleeding.”
“Yet,” Kalina said. “You’re not bleeding yet.”
“With Sylvia by my side, I can beat Evelyn. Don’t worry about me,” Penny replied.
“About us,” Thane said. “Go. Get them back. Everyone involved. All of you need to make sure they make it back to the island. Surround them as you head back. Guard their front, back, sides, top, and below them. Don’t show fear. Don’t flinch. Just go home. The rest of you stay close behind them to ward off any attacks from below or above.”
“We need to get to Horace,” Kalina said. “He can help them.”
“We won’t make it,” Cobalt said. “Please, find Sylvia and make sure she’s okay. That’s more important than me.”
“Shut up,” Faith said again. “Just swim. Let’s go home.”
Cobalt reluctantly turned and slowly made his way to the front of their pack. A shark shot into view from deep below them and bit into Cobalt. He howled, and Faith was on him immediately, taking a much larger chunk out of it than it had from Cobalt. The shark swam away badly injured and Faith pushed them on.
“Like I said, we’re going home,” she said.
Where is Kane? Oh, brother. Tell me you didn’t pussy out and go home.
Kalina scanned everywhere around them and didn’t see any sight of her brother. Having an extra great white by their side would have been helpful. He might have scared off some of the sharks enough that they wouldn’t try to attack. With Sylvia racing after Evelyn somewhere and Penny and Thane now gone, their numbers had dwindled considerably. Only Kalina, Squid, Hightail, Faith, Jagger, Oliver, Kino, Hailey, and Paisley remained to watch over Rafe and Cobalt. Eleven sharks to fight off the entire ocean, and only nine of them were able to put up a serious fight.
Cobalt and Rafe swam side by side, their blood trailing behind them like gasoline leaking from damaged cars. All it would take was a small flame to set their world ablaze. If one shark got through them and showed their vulnerability, hundreds of others would join the feeding frenzy. Kino and Faith led them all with Oliver and Hailey watching their flanks. Jagger was above with Squid and Hightail below. Kalina stayed a few paces back to watch deep down below and all around them. She was their warning bell.
Kalina looked back and saw that most of the sharks had headed toward the boat where all the leftover remains of the battle had coated the water red. It was shark soup up near the surface, and the new sharks were ravenous. An entire school of hammerheads and their tiger shark friends, those that hadn’t fled, had been obliterated.
Good riddance.
Suddenly, it seemed the sharks behind them had finished off the remainder of their meal and wanted dessert. It was as if they’d all suddenly communicated their hunger and had noticed the injured sharks fleeing the scene. Slow at first, and then off like a bullet, the sharks came at them, most from the rear, but plenty from the sides and above and below.
Dear God. Help me get them to Horace. Help me save them. Save us.
She hadn’t prayed to God in a long time. Not like this. Not treating him as if he actually existed. Islanders had so many gods. Horace had taught her about a number of them from so many different tribes and of course, even a belief he’d found amusing about the world beginning on a turtle’s back. It didn’t matter if it were the one Christian God she’d heard about as a child or Allah or the Sumerian Enki, the Egyptian Ra, or even Thor the Thunder God. If any of them could hear her prayers, she would gladly accept their help. Cobalt was too slow. He was hurt too badly to outswim them. They had no choice but to stand their ground and fight.
The shadow came at them, hundreds of sharks, a nightmare in the water. As if they’d swum into a cave, the water blotted completely dark as the oncoming beasts approached. Sharks of all types and even other fish with bloody appetites came at them. Kalina, for the first time, knew how humans felt when they feared the ocean and what might attack from below.
“They’re coming!” she yelled.
“Fight hard and be relentless,” Faith said. “The only chance we have is to scare them too bad to keep coming at us. Give them enough of th
eir own blood, and they’ll give up on ours.”
She had a point. Sharks weren’t vindictive. They were simply hungry. If they shed enough blood, those sharks would attack each other, biting into any bleeding body in the water.
A shark shot up from the bottom, then another and another.
“Below!” Kalina announced.
Hightail and Squid, their nervousness made evident by their nonstop chatter, handled the situation well. They moved around quickly and welcomed the sharks from the side, ripping into them and sending their blood out in waves. Other sharks attacked the bleeding ones.
“It worked,” Kalina said. “Sharks are attacking the injured ones.”
“So, we just need to keep kicking ass,” Squid said.
“I can help,” Rafe insisted.
“If it comes down to it, you might have to,” Faith replied, “but for now, stay put.”
“Let us handle this, babe,” Kalina said.
If he moved from their center, he’d be as vulnerable as the other sharks being eaten behind them now. More sharks shot in from the sides, but Hailey and Oscar were well-versed in war tactics and left the sharks bleeding behind them again. This time, the blood was a disadvantage. All the sharks seemed to shoot in at once, careless as to what they were biting, only ravenous in their desire for more blood. Kalina took a bite to the side and turned to bite back. The shark backed off, but another jumped into its place. She snapped at it, but this shark was faster, and bit her fin, ripping off a small piece.
Fuck!
She fought and fought hard. She killed two smaller sharks, giving those around her the blood they sought, but when she looked back, her friends were ahead of her. She’d accidentally fallen behind. And sharks were all over her. They came at her from all directions, their teeth sinking into her. She snapped left and swam right and dove and rose and twisted and turned, gnashing her teeth into anything she could find.
Through blood-filled vision, she saw the others being attacked too. Blood was everywhere. It seeped in through her nostrils and filled her jaws. She was getting weaker and pain radiated from every part of her body. The bites felt more like nibbles and she feared it was because her life had flowed out from the wounds, leaving her floating dangerously close to death. All she wanted was to survive this and hold Rafe again. To love and be loved. She wanted to marry him. To have his babies. To talk to her brother. To get to know him. To learn about her family. This was what they must have meant when they said life passed before your eyes at the moment of death. She was dying. She knew that. She no longer felt pain. Not even fear. It had become acceptance.
Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2) Page 28