Authors: Starla Silver
CHAPTER EIGHT
Charlie, Michael and Eva stood in the cave, their eyes adjusting to the sudden darkness. The voices some distance ahead caught them off guard, echoing ominous warnings back to them.
Eva tripped, clutching Charlie for support. He grasped her, to keep her from falling over fully. “You steady?” he asked in a low voice.
“Fine. Really not normally this clumsy.”
He looked at her incredulously.
“I swear it,” she mouthed.
He could not resist a low chuckle. He might not trust her, but she was attractive, and had a keen mind, regardless of her clumsy missteps. Her hands stayed glued to his shoulders, fingers kneading into the muscles vibrating under her touch.
She gave her head a curt shake, yanking them away. Her hand swiped down his arm, her fingers radiating against his skin like warm satin.
The nagging suspicion returned. A tingle twisting in his gut. What was it about her that sent his wolf senses into overdrive?
He turned and stepped forward cautiously until light drifted in from up ahead. They stopped, listening, trying to decipher if the sounds they heard were friend, or foe.
“Eat. Eat it all,” a cringing cackle reverberated through the cave.
They listened closer and heard odd sounds.
Sucking sounds.
Slurping sounds.
“I am thinking hostile,” Michael muttered, stepping closer to investigate. He motioned for them to hold up and wait. His footing was lighter and quieter than Charlie’s.
“Does this sort of thing happen a lot around here?” Eva asked Charlie. She’d snuck up alongside him.
He leaned down, just an inch from her ear. “Welcome to the real Demon Isle.” His tone taunted, with a mixture of fright and sarcasm. He grinned, at the same moment inhaling. As he did so, an unexpectedly overwhelming aroma filled his nostrils.
Instantly heavenly and captivating, it shattered his guard, making him forget that he was on the job. Or standing in an underwater cave. With his brother ten feet away, and an unknown assailant just around the corner.
None of that mattered. Only her. Only that smell.
He leaned down, wanting more of it. His lips just missed brushing down her neck.
Eva replied with a quick inhale, and lifted her chin, as if to give him access, encouraging his lips to taste her.
Why would she do that?
He wondered. The thought dissolved into not caring about the answer. Words would not formulate. His mouth unable to make the right movements to create speech.
He stumbled over his own feet.
One hand reached out, using the cave wall to keep his balance. The other hand wrapped around Eva’s waist. He towered over her, coming in at six foot three, his frame large enough to hide her petite size from anyone. His hand splayed and tightened against her back. He could not force himself to let go.
“You okay, Charlie?” Her eyes radiated amusement over Charlie’s sudden inability to speak or move correctly. But she didn’t pull away. She didn’t seem surprised by his behavior.
A short gasp escaped his lips. Eva’s hands stroked his bare chest, drawing him in closer. It took every ounce of willpower to stop himself from picking her up, slamming her against the cave wall and taking her. Blood surged to his groin, making him hard as the rock they leaned against. He needed her to feel what she was doing to him, and pulled her into his body, pressing himself into her.
Eva sucked her lip, swallowing the moan threatening to slip out. But the quiver in her body gave her away. A quiver that drew him in, taunting him to claim her, to use her for his own carnal pleasures.
No. Not him. The wolf. The wolf wanted to ravage her. Not him.
Hungry silver eyes peered down at her. Her hazel globes tugged at the wolf. Drawing it dangerously close to the surface.
A tiny voice shouted in the back of his mind, his human voice.
No! This isn’t right.
Control was failing. The hair on his face growing in thick and dark. A snarl built in his throat… a sudden desire to sink his teeth into her porcelain flesh…
Then it vanished.
The sudden intoxication lifted.
Just… gone. Clarity returning to Charlie’s befuddled brain.
He stepped away, although clumsily tripping as he did so.
His human face returned, the wolf receding back into its hiding place.
Michael rejoined them with a grimace.
Seriously? He goes from not noticing scantily clad women bouncing around the ferry to practically jumping a total stranger, just a few feet away from me. Nice… fucking
not
!
“Sorry,” was all Charlie could muster as he turned away from Eva. His mind just repeated
Shit!
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit
… over and over… there was no logical explanation for what just happened. It made no sense whatsoever.
Michael motioned for them to follow. Charlie did so, his memories as hazy mess.
But he did remember his wolf coming out to play. Wanting to devour Eva. Literally. Not just in a sensual way. More like in an, I want to fuck you while I’m biting and tearing into your flesh, kind of way.
Where the hell does such a sadistic idea even come from? Who the hell is this woman?
The desire to bite was one thing. This was much different. This was a need to inflict fear, and pain. For no other reason than he could.
He’d never been so glad to avoid dating humans. They were so fragile. He was dangerous. Possibly deadly if his wolf ever bit someone.
He needed to be done with this job, and get away from this vexing white-haired jezebel. As far away as the island would allow.
Why would he react to her like this? No, not him…
his wolf
. It was his wolf that craved her. Not him.
It was a smell, he recalled. An intoxicating smell had set it off.
So the solution is easy. After we get out of this cave, I never get close to her again. Problem fucking solved.
He stepped up beside his brother, having difficulty focusing. His breathing uneasy.
“What the hell was that all about?” mouthed Michael. He held up his arm. “Rhetorical question. Can feel it, remember?” And he was
super
freaking happy about it.
Charlie wasn’t thrilled either, and wondered just how much of that Michael had picked up on. Sometimes, having an empath for a brother was a pain in the ass. It could come in handy, but at times like these...
“I have no idea what that was.” Charlie shook his head. “Let’s just focus on what’s ahead. Please.”
Michael’s empathy picked up on the fact that Charlie was no longer in turned on mode, but completely freaked out mode. Something about what just happened had him teetering on a precarious edge.
They didn’t have time to deal with it now.
Eva joined them.
Charlie ignored her, focusing on the voices ahead. Overwhelmed by a need to control the situation. The smell was at least gone.
Thank fucking God.
“I think it’s time to crash this party.” Charlie narrowed his gaze.
“Yeah, let’s,” agreed Michael.
The brothers wasted no time, rushing forward, only to freeze in their tracks once out in the open. Horrified disgust washed over their faces.
Eva came up behind them. “What. The Hell. Are. Those?” she choked.
Michael tried to answer. “Those are the sickest… most disgusting…” he was cut off by Charlie.
“Sea Hag!”
“A what?” Eva shouted, her eyes bulging.
The brothers did not reply to her question.
Michael stretched out his right hand, his palm facing the Sea Hag.
The Hag turned to face Charlie and Eva, hissing at them through jagged teeth. Her eyes were a milky white and her skin, scaly, and covered in a thin layer of greenish slime.
Eva stayed hidden behind Charlie. He almost laughed when he saw her face. She may have known about the supernatural, but she had never seen anything like a Sea Hag. The humor of the moment shook off whatever fucked-upness had just happened between them, and helped him refocus. He was Charlie Howard. Not a werewolf. And he was in control of his actions…
“Watch out, Charlie,” Michael warned as the Hag advanced toward his brother.
Michael pushed his arm forward as if shoving something away from his body. Something appeared in his hand: a round, surging energy ball, which he thrust at the Hag. She ducked, it missed, the energy ball smashing into the side of the cave. Slivers of rock fell to the ground.
The Sea Hag skittered closer, her slimy webbed feet easily clinging to any surface. Then, what had only a moment ago looked like stiff quills covering her head, started to shift and wriggle, like snakes swimming in water. Each quill-like strand was much longer than it had initially appeared, and each one took on a life of its own, striking out at Charlie and Eva. Each strand came to a sharp, thorny arrow-like point. Something the brothers knew contained a toxin that could easily incapacitate them in seconds.
“Eva, stay away from those things on her head,” warned Charlie.
“Don’t intend on getting that close.”
Charlie handed her three vials. “These are potions that will blow up just about anything,” he explained. “If something happens and we’re knocked out… throw them at whatever’s coming at you, and get the hell out of here!”
She nodded and glanced at her hand in awe of what she now held.
Charlie egged the Sea Hag, trying to keep her attention, while Michael positioned himself for a straight shot at her.
The Hag bared her teeth, a rattling hiss emanating from her mouth.
“Howards,” they heard her speak, in her hissing tongue.
“She can talk,” Eva said, surprised. “And she knows who you are.”
“Most creatures around here do,” Charlie replied. His concern for their safety, as well as the desire to find out if this Hag knew anything about their parents’ deaths, sent his emotions into overdrive. Charlie let out a primal snarl that seemed to catch the Hag off guard, sending her back a few feet to rethink her approach.
“Why are you in this cave? What are these… things?” Charlie interrogated.
Behind the Hag, wretchedly bloated, charcoal colored creatures that the brothers had never seen before sucked the walls of the cave, as if addicted to whatever substance they were sucking.
The Hag did not answer Charlie. Instead, she turned to the wall-sucking creatures and spoke to them. “You eat enough, pets.”
To the brother’s surprise, the bloated creatures listened to the Hag and stopped sucking, convening around her, as if she were their mother.
Eva stepped back, watching wide-eyed as Charlie’s human face shifted into the wolf-like one she had seen earlier. Her stare lowered to his hands, as jagged nails grew long, extending outward from his fingers. He snapped his head, his fierce silver eyes shooting warnings at her. “Stay back,” he snarled. She pressed her back against the wall.
Charlie leapt closer to the Sea Hag. “What are you doing in this cave?” he asked in an ill-tempered growl. “Answer now or you will die!”
“You killed my kind before,” she rattled, her eyes blazing with anger.
Michael raised his arm to the Sea Hag, his palm pointed toward her, ready to strike if she attacked.
“Come pets,
now you kill!
” the Hag ordered, her voice a loathing purr.
Their bulging bodies, thick with whatever substance they were sucking, moved deceptively easy, skimming over rocks and cave debris as if the surface was smooth, like glass.
“Are those?” started Michael.
Charlie finished. “Leeches… really big ass friggin’ leeches.”
“Never really been a fan of bloodsuckers before, but now…” Michael choked on his words, disgusted.
“How did they get so big?” asked Eva, gagging as she spoke.
There was no time for discussion as one of the leeches approached Charlie. When it was about five feet away, it did something even more surprising. It stopped and stood up, leaning on its backside, as if trying to walk.
Its intention, however, was not to walk. As it stood, the contents of its body shifted, as if everything inside the creature just sank to the bottom. The head of the creature elongated and swung out in a circle, ready to knock over anything that got in its path.
Michael focused on this one, as it was the closest to causing harm and pushed his palm forward, as if forcing energy out of his hand and toward the leech.
A shimmering force field pushed through the cave, knocking the creature over. Michael turned and did the same to two other leeches that were climbing the cave walls, over Charlie and Eva’s heads.
These leeches also slammed down to the cave floor. However, in seconds, had up- righted themselves to attack again.
“Use more, Michael,” urged Charlie.
“If you say so. This could get messy.”
“No choice! Do it!” Charlie shouted.