Page 179 of Storm and Sea

What the hell am I thinking?

He had come here with a purpose. And he’d be damned if he didn’t finish what he started.

“I take it you heard the news. We have new neighbors,” Leo said, wiping a drop of blood from his brow and streaking it into his damp curls.

“I did.”

“Not surprised, are you?”

Nephi’s pulse quickened. “No.”

“And why is that Nephi?”

A shiver ran down his spine at the sound of his name, goosebumps making the hairs on his arms stand on end. It was time.

Leo moved, closing the distance between them as he slid across the sand. He was making it too easy, like herring swimming willingly into the hammerhead’s maw.

“Look at me, Nephi,” he breathed, his eyes searching. Lost.

Nephi obeyed.

Leo’s yellow irises were dead. Empty—something vital snuffed out. The unmistakable scent of another man clung to the air around him, stirring something dark in Nephi’s chest.

“You look at me the same way he does,” Leo whispered, “with the same gleam in your eyes.” He reached out, stroking Nephi’s ruined cheek. Nephi didn’t move, didn’t flinch. He allowed the touch. “But for some reason,” Leo continued, his voice unbearably tender, “I’m not afraid of you.”

Nephi took Leo’s hand, cradling it as he slid it from his cheek to his nose and mouth. He inhaled deeply, his eyes closing as he tried to imagine… but it wasn’t there. Ludo’s scent was gone forever. Instead, he caught the earthy aroma of human flesh mixed with a citrusy tang unique to Leo.

“Say it again,” Nephi mumbled, his eyes squeezed shut.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Leo whispered.

Nephi sighed before smacking Leo’s hand away in disgust.

“You should be.”

He rose and, in two strides, dove into the waves. Nephi burst from the water in a spray of foam, his crimson fins flaring wide like jagged banners of war. Green scales shimmered in the fading light, each one catching the setting sun like cracked emeralds. Claws flexed, and he bared his razor-like teeth with the promise of suffering. He looked like something dragged from the blackest depths—a creature born of nightmares and forged in hate.

Before Leo could react, Nephi struck, faster than any human could track. In a blink, he had Leo pinned to the sand, one taloned hand clasped firmly around his throat. Yet the scent Nephi craved, the one that sent his blood boiling and his vision red, wasn’t there.

No fear.

“Why don’t you scream?” he hissed, the sound like a blade dragging against stone.

“Because I’m not afraid,” Leo said, his voice steady, almost defiant.

Nephi’s grip tightened around Leo’s neck, limiting his air. “You have been a sore in my side from the moment I pulled you out of the water.”

“Why did you do it?” Leo choked. A question as much as a challenge. Nephi stared down at him, momentarily stunned.

Why had he done it? The answer clawed its way up his stomach, retching with shame.

“Because you remind me of someone.”

He hated the way his voice trembled at the mere memory of Ludo. At the way, even now, he saw traces of him in Leo’s curly hair and high cheekbones.

End this. End it now.

“Is he dead?” Leo asked. Nephi bared his teeth in answer. Then, so quietly he almost missed it, Leo whispered, “Did you kill him?”