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“Oh well. It is a risk I am willing to take.” Ignoring their protests, I dove into the sea.
I would love to say that I felt no fear, but that would be a bold lie. The instant my body hit the water, the large body of a shark slammed into me hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs.
Unable to see much in the dark water, I saw only the fuzzy shadow of the shark’s body as she turned to head back toward me again. I put out my hands to fend off her attack, only to have soft hair run through my fingers.
Without thinking, I grabbed onto the shark as it moved by me. Making my way up her body, I found Zosi under one of the enormous great white’s pectoral fins. Carefully clinging to Sheba’s side, I curved my arm around Zosi’s waist and pulled her free. The suctions on her hands came free, and I pulled her limp body against mine.
I kicked my feet, and we broke the surface.
“Are you okay?” I heard Fynn’s voice first.
“Get out of the water, idiot!” Kye shouted in panic. He eyed Sheba as she circled the boat, his skin turning a sickly shade of green.
“Zosime!” Eason had spotted her first.
There was no way I could answer. I was too busy sucking in lungfuls of balmy night air. Clutching Zosi to my chest, I struggled to even my breathing and to slow my galloping heart.
Resting my fingers on her neck, I felt for a pulse. It was there, slow but steady. She must have either been knocked unconscious, or something had hurt her badly, for her to be unresponsive. What she needed was blood. If I fed her in the water and we spilled blood, we could attract sharks. Heck, for all I knew, Sheba would smell our blood and decide to have me as a midnight snack. As much as I wanted to feed her right that very instant, it was best we get back into the boat. Sheba could eat me for all I cared, but I didn’t want to risk Zosi.
My brothers all rushed to the side of the boat and reached for our Siren. After much grunting and curses each time she was so much as jostled, Zosi finally rested on the floor of the boat. I sat beside her, her thin pale hand resting between my own. Her skin was nearly translucent, showing the purplish-blue lines of her veins. I hated seeing her like this.
“I’m going to feed her first,” I stated in a no-nonsense tone. I lay down beside her, pulling her cool body against my chest. “Eason, your knife?” The man went nowhere without the tiny blade. His boots had a hidden pocket that made the knife nearly impossible to locate unless you knew what you were looking for.
Eason took out the blade and handed it to me. Without hesitation, I made a minor cut on the skin of my neck. I tenderly tucked Zosi’s face against my neck, while in my mind, I begged her to drink me dry if she needed it.
Leaning down, Eason ran the back of his hand across her bruised cheekbone. “It looks like her cheekbone was broken, but she is already healing.” His amber eyes darkened as anger flashed through them.
“We don’t have a clue what she went through or how bad her injuries are. We can’t do anything about that now. What we do know is that she needs to eat,” I spoke with authority, trying to cover my gut-wrenching anxiety.
The boat rocked as Fynn kneeled down near Zosi’s head. With a tenderness born of love, he gently lined her mouth up with the pooling blood and pressed her lips against the open wound.
The look of love on his face was so raw that I almost felt like I should look away and give him privacy. We knew each other as men skilled in our respective fields, yet here we were, struggling with our most private emotions. Those were something that none of us easily shared, except when it concerned Zosi.
Zosi took a deep breath. I swallowed down the lump in my throat as she coughed, and her soft lips pressed to my neck in a weak kiss.
“Drink, Zosime. You need to feed.” If she were stronger, she likely would have balked at the command, but she only stiffened slightly before I felt the slight suction as she began to feed. When her fangs pierced my neck, I felt only relief that she was eating. She was going to make it.
It didn’t take long for the venom to have its effect on me. I’d hoped I would have longer before I needed to fight its effects, but so far, we had made zero progress on building up any type of resistance to her lust-inducing cocktail.
All the blood that wasn’t flowing into Zosi’s mouth rushed south. I ground my teeth together as my desire to be inside of her grew. My need for her was stronger than my need for a next breath. “Guys, I’m not sure she is ready for this, and I don’t want to hurt her. Hold me down if you have to, but don’t let me hurt her.”
“She is tougher than you are giving her credit for, Storm. Stop worrying, and just see how things go,” Kye tried to reassure me.
As he finished speaking, Zosi’s hand brushed up my chest. I grasped her hand in my much larger one, pleased to find she was no longer trembling.
I love you, beautiful. I spoke the words only in my mind, not sure if she could hear me.
“Mmm,” she murmured against my aching neck.
I pulled her body tighter against mine, enjoying the contrast of her soft skin and textured scales against my skin.
The venom was boiling the blood in my veins. I fought the urge to move and give in to its demands for things I didn’t feel she was ready for. She needed time to heal, time to recover from whatever this had been.
I understood about the Lure, and I understood her vows. Dang, we had been soldiers most of our lives, so we knew better than most what it was like to dedicate your life to a cause. Just because I understood didn’t mean I had to like how she was required to put her life in danger every time she answered the call. I wanted to take the burden of the call as my own, so she didn’t have to answer it.
My hand twitched where it rested against her hip. I wanted to stroke the soft skin, to slide it across the curve of her butt, but I knew if I did, I would lose control. Biting down on the inside of my cheek, I only barely resisted the urge. Sweat beaded on my brow, my body temperature was climbing steadily.
“Storm, I know you want to go easy on her, but you can’t resist the venom forever. You’ll have to give in. Better to do it while you’re still maintaining some semblance of control.”
